Cochran, Blair and Potts Department Store
Belton, Bell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Henry Mansfield Cook opened his first store in Centerville, Texas, in 1869, and in 1874 established the firm of H.M. Cook & Company with his son-in-law, Thomas W. Cochran. The firm moved to Buffalo, Texas, in 1876. Their mercantile business stocked dry goods, hardware, drugs, coffins, and included a lumberyard. The firm relocated to Belton in 1883 and opened a store at this site in 1884. Cook's son, Thomas A., joined the firm in 1896 and the business became known as Cook, Cochran, & Company. In 1904, three years after the death of H.M. Cook, Cochran's son, Harry T., and his son-in-law, Jesse S. Blair, purchased Thomas Cook's interest in the firm and the business became known as T.W. Cochran and Company. T.W. Cochran died in 1910 and his son-in-law, Arthur H. Potts, became a partner in the company. In 1917 the firm became known as Cochran, Blair, & Potts. Though the firm's inventory was destroyed by fire in 1928 the business reopened in 1929 under the management of J.S. Blair, H.T. Cochran, A.H. Potts, H.E. Blair, and Roy Campbell Potts. The corporation was dissolved in 1938 and the business became a partnership owned by members of the Cochran, Blair, and Potts families. The firm, which became solely owned by descendants of Roy Campbell Potts in 1970, was incorporated in 1977. Sesquicentennial of Texas Statehood 1845-1995
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
The store that became Cochran, Blair and Potts began in 1869 when Henry Mansfield Cook opened a business in Centerville, later partnering with son-in-law Thomas W. Cochran. After moves to Buffalo and, in 1883, to Belton, the firm settled at this site and passed through generations of the Cook, Cochran, Blair, and Potts families. Surviving a devastating 1928 fire, the business carried on under family ownership for well over a century.
Why it matters
One of Texas's longest-running family mercantile firms, it illustrates the endurance of the family-owned general store at the heart of small-town commercial life.
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Related people
- · Henry Mansfield Cook
- · Thomas W. Cochran
Themes & tags
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