The Story of Friona Hardware

Almost from the very beginning Friona has had a hardware store. When Warren Hardware Company built the Friona Hardware store in 1909 on Main, who could have known that it would become a fixture for the next ninety years at the same location there in the 600 block. The livery stable was its nearest neighbor to the south back then and both businesses were very necessary here on the prairie.

First manager
Will G. Harris was the first manager of the Friona Hardware Store. Will came to the area in 1906 at the age of 23. He was hired as a wagon driver to take people back and forth from Farwell out to their land claims. He was one of the first students to attend the West Texas State College at Canyon and later taught at the Frio School in Deaf Smith County. As he told Carol Ellis in 1963 when he was 80, he invested $500 of his own money in the hardware store and was also hired on as manager in 1909. By October 1909 he was ready to be married to Ruth Loflin. He and his bride were given a chivaree which was quite an event—dynamite was set off as part of the ‘fun’ and Will was ‘instructed’ to climb the water tower at Andy Wentworth’s place as well. ‘Victims’ of a chivaree can attest to some of the ruthless ingenuity of their ‘hosts’. The hardware store sold mostly windmill repair parts in addition to general hardware. Mr. Harris, an educated man and also a writer, wrote and published many pieces. Will was also known as the ‘mayor’ or ‘sage’ of ‘Goathead Prairie’, a nickname he jokingly called his farm home at Summerfield.
Kinsley Era
It was in February 1909 that Ruben H. Kinsley accompanied his father-in-law G. Stuckey on an excursion train from Ohio to visit the new settlement of Friona, Texas. Evidently they were favorably impressed because the following April, he brought his new bride, Pearl, to the Panhandle to live. It was here in Friona that they made their home for the rest of their lives. The lure to ‘pioneer’ was evidently very strong for these early settlers. The Kinsley’s started right out in a business similar to the one they had operated in Ohio—a water well drilling enterprise, but a first for Friona. Kinsley & Company on Main included a Chevrolet dealership. They purchased the Friona Hardware Store in addition to their farming and rental properties. The Kinsley’s also added furniture, which was a high demand item, on the West Texas prairie. At one time they had gasoline pumps out front and were in the filling station business also. Many settlers would bring their entire farms, including their animals, with them on the train from their former homes; but many were new families like the Kinsley’s just starting out with many needs.
Blackwell Hardware
Jerry Aquilla Blackwell was born in 1897 in Tonganoxie, Kansas. Jerry came to the Texico area in 1907 after visiting the area with his dad, Jeremiah. It is not clear whether they came on one of the excursion trains or on their own. Jerry and his wife Myrtle purchased the Friona Hardware Store in 1925 from the Kinsley’s. They moved into Friona and built the first brick home in Friona at 10th and Washington. The store became Blackwell Hardware and Furniture and again handled many items in addition to the traditional hardware. Before the crash in 1929, the Blackwell’s had a Chevrolet dealership and later they held the Case and later John Deere franchises. But perhaps the most unusual enterprise was the storage and display of caskets. Friona had no mortuary of its own back then and the E.B. Black Funeral Home of Hereford also served our area. The Blacks also owned a furniture store in Hereford.
Jerry Blackwell was a practical joker and at the time two young men were working for him: ‘Monk’ Ezel and Wilbur Brookfield. Well, neither one of the men enjoyed working around the caskets; but with the Dust Bowl Days in full swing, the room had to be cleaned and dusted from time to time as well as having to uncrate new caskets. Mr. Blackwell arranged for a friend to hide inside one of the caskets with the lid propped open a bit for air. The young men were to move the ‘occupied’ casket in order to uncrate the casket underneath. By the time they had lifted the heavy casket, they said they might have been better off to ‘nail this one shut and put it back on the truck’ so they wouldn’t have to lift it again. Upon hearing this remark, the occupant flipped back the lid and all three men immediately vacated the premises—all vowing to get Jerry, but Jerry who had watched the whole incident from behind a door was forewarned. Another local boy who worked at the store and became very close to the Blackwell’s was John Blackburn. John worked there from 1937 to June 1941 when he went into the service. Jerry Blackwell served as president of the Panhandle Hardware Association and was mayor of Friona in the 1930s. For health reasons, Jerry and Myrtle sold the store and moved from Friona.
Plains Hardware & Furniture
In 1944 Elroy Wilson and Granville McFarland purchased the hardware store and renamed it Plains Hardware and Furniture. Continuing the tradition of selling furniture, they also sold Maytag washing machines also ammunition and fishing and hunting licenses. Elroy became an excellent Jackrabbit hunter as a boy when he moved to the area with his family James Perry and Carrie Allen Wilson and his sister Marie. They came from Dallas County Texas to Parmer County and purchased land from the Capitol Freehold and Land Company which they farmed.
Granville came with his family from Killeen in Bell County in 1925. His family shipped their household goods and livestock, which included horses, mules and Jersey cows on the immigrant train. The McFarland’s and eight of their 10 children came to Parmer County in two Model T Ford cars. They drilled a well, built an adobe house, a chicken house and sheds for the stock and began farming.
Bavousetts begin business
In 1965 Elroy became the sole owner of Plains Hardware and Furniture and continued to operate it until his retirement in 1978. They continued to sell furniture in fact, my parents bought my son’s first rocking chair there in 1971; it is still in excellent condition. Small appliances and housewares began to appear and they also once sold Lane cedar chests. Upon his retirement, Elroy and Faye Singleterry Wilson sold the store to Steve and Mary Bavousett. Steve and Mary continued in the tradition of the old hardware store with its comfortably squeaking wooden floors, its familiar aisles and welcoming hometown atmosphere including a parching peanuts tradition for their some twenty-year tenure. They kept the name Plains Hardware and Furniture. One of the display cases from the hardware store was donated to the library in 1982 and housed many an interesting display for us. That display case continues to serve the community by gracing the Parmer County Historical Museum.
The old store is gone now—nothing remains except the back storage shed next to the migrant center and an old garage building nearby. No livery stable, no gas pumps—times have changed and our hardware stores don’t sell furniture anymore. ‘Seedfolks’ remain however, from Friona’s hardware tradition as Hometown Hardware is owned and operated by Elroy and Faye’s daughter Terri Lynn and her husband Leroy Cox. Blackburn Hardware is owned and operated by Mike Blackburn, a nephew of the late John Blackburn. From stocking everything from the tiniest gold screws to PVC pipe and fluorescent light bulbs to large items such as stock tanks, our hardware stores continue to serve us today.
Note: I want to express my thanks to Mildred Agee for the loan of her archived Friona history materials and to Carol Ellis for the Star interview of Will G. Harris Sept.27, 1963. DB