D.H. McGowen influences Frankell

I hope you all enjoyed the ‘Christmas Cowboy Ballad’ last week courtesy of Anson, Texas. Before I finish with the small community of Frankell, there is a more detailed story to be told about the McGowen Grocery Store.

In 1922, D.H. McGowen and his wife Ella were living in Necessity and ran a grocery store and a blacksmith shop there. He decided to sell out to his brother, J.L. ‘Jack’ McGowen.

Mr. Copeland owned and operated a grocery store at Frankell, four and a half miles away. Copeland and McGowen reached an agreement for the store to be turned over to McGowen in Nov. 1922. Henceforth, the store would be known as the McGowen Grocery and General Merchandise Store. Regular groceries were sold as well as men’s work clothes, pants, shirts and shoes. A large icebox kept some fresh meats and fruits available for customers.

In 1922, the population of Frankell was estimated at 200 to 250 people, due to the Oil Boom in Stephens County at that time. Trade was brisk and the Hammond-Fell Railroad branch came through Frankell every day. One day the RR ran north to Wichita Falls and the next day it reversed and ran south to Dublin. Due to the train running regularly, McGowen could purchase fresh goods at Ranger, Cisco, Eastland and Breckenridge to re-supply his shelves with fresh merchandise on a daily basis and get in almost any special orders within a day.

The McGowen family continued to live in Necessity and travel the four and a half miles twice a day in a 1922 Model T Touring car. The store hours were maintained from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. six days a week.

McGowen ran the grocery store from 1922 to 1924 and then he and his family moved to Lamb County for 12 years to try farming, where they had invested in a farm. However, he was soon running a grocery store there.

The McGowen family returned to Necessity in 1936 and re-opened the grocery store at Frankell, which was now re-named McGowen & Son Grocery. They served Frankell and the surrounding community until it was closed in 1942, in the middle of WWII. At that time, their son and family moved to Fort Worth to work on a Defense Plant assembly-line making military hardware for planes, tanks and trucks. McGowen and his wife moved with them to keep the children while the parents worked.

McGowen and his wife returned to Necessity in 1945 and re-opened the store on V-J Day, Sept. 2, 1945, when we celebrated Victory over Japan, and they ran the store until 1949 when it was closed for good.

According to a record maintained at the store, “Red” Newham, was the first customer when the McGowens returned in 1945. He purchased a package of gum at the McGowen & Son Grocery Store.

McGowen had a Delco Plant that furnished electricity for the store, since this was before rural electricity was installed. As a result of the superior lighting, his store was well lit inside and around the outside as well and the community often gathered there in the evenings, especially the young people. Periodically, McGowen would sponsor a musical, which included Uncle John Thurmond’s Mash Ware, and himself on the fiddle.

Frankell did not get rural electricity until 1947. One of the newer problems in running the Grocery store in Frankell was the train didn’t run regularly and McGowen would have to go to the warehouses to purchase items for his store personally at Ranger, Eastland and Breckenridge.

The McGowen family had a real impact on the community of Frankell from the early days of 1922- 24 and then later from 1936 through 1949, when the McGowens sold the store and moved away.

Helen Haddock also said her grandparents, Jack T. and Mary Frances Speer, were early settlers in the Frankell community. He was instrumental in establishing the Stephens County Singing Convention.

There also are stories of Sam Bass and his gang camping out on Little Creek, down behind the Speer house and the Speer children were admonished to not go down to the creek or bother the men who were camped there. The stories of buried treasure from the Bass gang also was talked about at Caddo and Frankell, but nothing was ever found.

Remember to share your stories of ancestors with children and grandchildren so they can appreciate their heritage and what their ancestors sacrificed to make the journey west and south to Texas.