HIGGINBOTHAMS

    Although the adjacent sign was placed in the windows of Higginbothams during De Leon’s centennial, the first store opened in De Leon in January 1882 in a 25x90 foot building  with a shingle roof located where the Wall of Recall is today.(1)  The store was opened by Boliver Higginbotham who had been an itinerant merchant in the territory before the coming of the Texas Central Railroad. 

    The John James and Lucy Higginbotham family first arrived in the Dublin area in December 1880 coming from Water Valley, Mississippi.  They were the parents of twelve children including Boliver, Joseph Martin, and Rufus Wilson.

    About four years after the store opened, Boliver’s health began to fail and his wife held the store together until it was taken over by his brothers Joe and Rufus who had opened a store in Dublin in 1885 and a store in Stephenville in 1886. Boliver retired to the family farm to regain his health and Joe took over management of the De Leon store while Rufus remained in Dublin.   Boliver is said to have returned to the De Leon store after regaining his health and was listed as manager in a Nov. 25, 1892 Free Press ad.  He later lived 29 years in Alvin, Texas.

      De Leon’s Higginbotham store was incorporated on September 9, 1897 as Higginbotham & Co. with a capital stock of $75,000.  The incorporators included Boliver T., R.W. and Joe M. Higginbotham; and Jeff D. and Charles Bartlett.

       The Dublin store was started as a partnership between Joe and R.W. in 1885 and was incorporated as Higginbotham Bros. in October 1891 with $50,000 in capital stock.  That charter was dissolved in 1895 and a new charter for Higginbotham Bros. was issued on May 11, 1896 with capital stock of $100,000.  The incorporators included R.W., J.M. and Thomas L. Higginbotham; W.J. Clay, T.J. Williams, and H.B. Sones.

     Over the years Higginbothams expanded to many of the towns in north central Texas.  Some of the stores were individually owned and some were partnerships.  The stores were organized in this order:  De Leon, Dublin, Stephenville, Comanche, Gorman, Ballinger, Rising Star, Cross Plains, Gustine, and Winters.  A store was organized in Blanket in 1903 but was closed in 1917.

      A chain of lumber yards developed in west Texas operating under the name Higginbotham-Bartlett and in Dallas Higginbotham-Bailey-Logan operated a wholesale division.  Another division operated under Higginbotham Millinery. 

     The various stores  required an enormous amount of operating capital since each effectively financed the farmers in its area, extending credit primarily from the time crops were planted until harvested.  Higginbothams would actually purchase the cotton from the farmer but like any business dependent on the farmer, everything depended on the success of the crops.  When crops were short the company sometimes was pinched for cash but the  Higginbotham companies had been able to pay their bills on a timely basis except in 1907.

      The nation had one of its numerous financial panics in 1907.  These panics were much more severe than a recession and in the case of 1907, the branch railroad planned from De Leon to Abilene was postponed due to the inability of the Texas Central Railroad to raise capital.  Higginbothams, and probably all the De Leon merchants took a double hit.  Not only were they hurt with the panic but it also happened to be a drought year.  Crops were very short and the company had to delay payment of some of its notes.

       R.W. Higginbotham, had become involved with at least two banks, the F&M National Bank in De Leon and the Dublin National Bank, serving as President of both.  The companies were dependent on borrowings not only from these banks but banks throughout the area and in Dallas.  R.W. would borrow the money and apportion it out to the various stores.  In 1914 R.W.  arranged with George H. Burr & Co. of New York to sell Higginbotham paper on the open market.  The debt was to be paid at the Bank of America, New York. (This bank was located at 46 Wall Street and was founded in 1812,  It is not the Bank of America initially founded in San Francisco that operates throughout Texas and the nation today.)   A line of credit was maintained by Higginbothams at the bank to assure that notes would be honored.

    The complexities of such an operation resulted in the complete reorganization of the various interest into one institution in 1917 chartered as Higginbotham Bros. & Co.  Only the Comanche store was excluded from this reorganization.  Rufus and and Joe moved to Dallas to oversee the company.

    The timing of the reorganization was fortuitous.   In September 1918, oil was discovered in Desdemona.  Merchandise in virtually all the De Leon stores was quickly depleted and replacement merchandise was not easily obtained as World War I was still in progress.  Lumber became a scarce commodity and Higginbothams with several lumber stores began ordering in vast amounts.  A whole city had to be constructed in Desdemona adequate to house and serve as many as 15,000 people plus De Leon grew from around 1,000 to as many as 5,000 while Dublin, Gorman and Stephenville all saw similar growth.

     No railroad served Desdemona, and while Gorman was the closest point, the heavier steel rails needed for much of the bigger loads stopped just west of De Leon.  Thus, nearly everything had to be hauled by horse teams from De Leon and Dublin to Desdemona over the sandy but usually muddy roads.  Adequate help was not available and all the merchants were overwhelmed. 

      Only 18 months later, the field began to play out and Higginbothams was stuck with an oversupply of lumber, much of which was heavy timbers used for derrick construction.  It took some time to dispose of all the lumber.

  In De Leon, the first manager outside of the Higginbotham brothers was Jeff Bartlett.  He was followed by his nephew Charles Bartlett who married De Leon’s Mabel Ross.  Charles eventually moved to Dallas to mange the Higginbotham-Bartlett Lumber chain and operated a lumber chain of his own in Oklahoma and New Mexico. 

   Will Williams replaced Bartlett serving from 1901 to 1931.  He was followed by C. Vance Singleton (1931-1934), T.H. Williams (1935-1958), Kermit Neel  (1958-1964) and Deloyn Singleton (1964 until the De Leon store closed in the late 1980s).

    By 1929 there were 15 stores located in De Leon, Dublin, Gustine, Stephenville, Hamilton, Comanche, Brownwood, Gorman, Brady, Rising Star, Coleman, San Angelo, Cross Plains, Ballinger, and Winters. 

    Higginbothams was always said to be “a cradle to the grave operation.”  The De Leon store at various times had a men’s department, women’s department, hat department, furniture department, hardware department, hair salon, groceries [The grocery department closed in January 1929.  Alf Sloan was grocery manager at the time.], lumber yard, funeral home, sold buggies, wagons, and later automobiles, International Harvester and then Case farm implements.   Higginbothams provided the venture capital for the De Leon Peanut Company and the Farmers and Merchants Bank. 

       Will Williams who managed the store for 33 years worked for the firm for five before taking over.  C.V. Singleton was the accountant before taking over.  John V. White (father of Pulitzer Prize winner William S. White and his brothers John Arch and Goen) ran the men’s department for more than 25 years.  Alice Carter and Maud Kinchens ran the women’s department for years.  Undertaker, C.H. Sharp handled the funeral home and was followed by Lee Holdridge. The hardware department was headed by Harold Williams and later J.W. Shook and Deloyn Singleton.

   For those not old enough to remember such things, Higginbothams had a bank style cashier’s window in the rear of the store.  The clerk would place a receipt and money in an overhead carrier, pull a cord and send it to the rear.  Any change would be returned via the carrier.

    Higginbothams had the first elevator in De Leon.  It was a large freight elevator located in the rear of the main store.

(1) The July 28, 1950 issue of the Free Press ran a correction. The correction stated that Higginbothams opened in 1883.  In a separate article it was noted that J.M Higginbotham had died and that the store opened in 1882.

Above:  Higginbothams sometime before 1916. 

Below:  The hardware store at the same time.  The small sign on the awning on the left end says J.I. Case  and Moon Bros. Buggies.  The kiosk looking structure on the sidewalk to the left is a gasoline station.

The hardware store in 1916.  Notice the table on the awning and the furniture in the truck.  The furniture store was originally on the upper floor of the building on the right.   The Case and Moon Buggies signs and the gasoline station have already been removed.

Above:  Higginbothams about 1900. 

Men’s shoe department above and the women’s hat department below ca: 1949.

A receipt from Higginbothams for two bales of cotton in September 1898.

Above:W.H. Smith Sr. in middle selling buggies at Higginbothams.  Left:  The hardware and lumber yard about 1930.  The first vehicle at the hardware was identified in an issue of  De Leon’s Monitor as the ambulance.  It is actually a pickup with another vehicle parked along side.

Left:  A photo from the Higginbotham website.  While it is dated 1906, it was actually taken much earlier.  Notice the sloped awning.  On the opening page of De Leon Handbook is a photo which shows Higginbothams in November 1906 with the flat awning.  The date of that photo is recorded in a gift album given to the Pittman family by the Dales when they returned to De Leon for a visit.  Also notice the BT Higginbotham Hardware & General Store sign to the right of F.L. Terrill.  By 1906 that was the location of L L Thomas Drug.   By 1900 a wooden water tank had been constructed very close to the street area immediately above the 1906 date.  The building on the left was constructed partly of De Leon bricks.  Brick production began in De Leon in 1890.  Since the name is still B.T. Higginbotham, the photo probably was taken between 1890 and 1897.


    For photos of other Higginbotham stores and more recent history of the firm go to www.Higginbothams.com or click here