Union Mercantile
Fort Davis, Jeff Davis County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Founded 1873 by O. M. Keesey and Geo. Gaither in adobe building on this site. Later owned by W. Keesey, an army baker, who sold clothing, groceries, cradles, guns, whiskey, coffins, tobacco, spittoons, wagonwheels, and harness, and did private banking. First telephone in county operated out of store via barbed wire line to ranches. In 1906 he replaced the adobe with this stone structure that was bought by T. T. Kelly, 1964. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Founded in 1873 in an adobe building at Fort Davis, the Union Mercantile grew under army baker turned merchant W. Keesey into a frontier emporium selling everything from groceries and guns to cradles, coffins, and wagonwheels, while also doing private banking. The county's first telephone ran out of the store over a barbed-wire line to surrounding ranches. In 1906 Keesey replaced the adobe with the stone building that still stands.
Why it matters
The frontier general store was the economic and social heart of remote West Texas, and this one—part bank, part telephone exchange, part supplier of all things—shows how a single business stitched an isolated ranching country together.
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Related people
- · W. Keesey
Themes & tags
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