Hicks & Cobb General Merchandise Store
Medicine Mound, Hardeman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
The townsite of Medicine Mound had long been a thriving village when brothers-in-law Lon L. Cobb and Ira Lee Hicks arrived in the area with their families in 1927 and opened a general merchandise store. The store sold such items as work clothes and clothing material, shoes, cotton sacks, groceries and horse feed. Regular customers warmed themselves by the fire in winter, indulging in conversation and checkers. In 1933 a fire all but destroyed the townsite, but Hicks and Cobb rebuilt that year with round granite cobblestones from Oklahoma. Lon L. Cobb died in 1942. Hicks carried on and the store was among the last businesses to serve area residents and migrant agricultural workers. Ira Lee Hicks died in 1966; the structure became a community gathering place and a Medicine Mound museum. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Brothers-in-law Lon L. Cobb and Ira Lee Hicks arrived in the already-thriving village of Medicine Mound in 1927 and opened a general merchandise store stocking everything from work clothes and cotton sacks to groceries and horse feed. In winter, regular customers gathered by the fire to talk and play checkers. When a 1933 fire nearly leveled the town, Hicks and Cobb rebuilt that same year using round granite cobblestones hauled from Oklahoma, and the store outlasted nearly every other local business before becoming a community gathering place and museum.
Why it matters
The Hicks & Cobb store captures the social heart of a small Texas farming town—the general store as gathering place—and its distinctive cobblestone rebuild stands as testament to a community's determination to endure disaster.
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Related people
- · Lon L. Cobb
- · Ira Lee Hicks
Related events
- · Medicine Mound fire (1933)
Themes & tags
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