The De Leon Saloon

    Gosh!  If we only knew the story behind this picture.  Who are the young boys?  Who is the man facing down the bull?  Who are the men at the saloon entrance?  And where was this saloon?

   For years I have attempted to locate the business by trying to pinpoint its location either by the shape of the building or the sign behind the boys on the left, but have not been able to place it.  My best guess as to its location is immediately north of the old Jones Cafe site (now a vacant lot across from Frank’s Home Center).  Dr. R.W. Hall was 10 years old when he lived in De Leon in 1883.  He indicated in an article that there were two saloons at the time, one was located immediately south of the Star Hotel and the other almost on the opposite side of the street north of Dr. Redden’s Drug Store (Reddens preceded the cafe).   The east saloon belonged to the Carnes brothers and is usually referred to as the Carnes Brothers Saloon.

   R.L. Scott once wrote in the Free Press “The Walker Garage building housed not one, but many saloons, back in the days.  An old tin building on the corner now occupied by the Dependable Store (now De Leon Auto) housed E.P. West’s Saloon....”  John T. Day wrote to R. L. Scott in 1929 indicating that the building which most recently housed Dr. Pino’s Clinic initially was Alex Booth’s store and later a saloon run by J.M. Faggard and then by Blasingame and Jim Heath.  He also said that there were three saloons in the 1880s, with J.S. Lacy running one and the Carnes Brothers and Jim Heath the other two.  The Counts Brothers also operated a saloon located in the second building south of Reynosa on the east side of Texas.

   Notice the horse’s head to the right of the boys standing in the other wagon and the wheel of a second wagon behind the seated young child.