Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas) Page: 84
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Fe. A terrible cyclone destroyed the village on
the night of February 27, last, which wrecked
almost every house in the place, but fortuna-
tely no lives were lost. The town has since
been rebuilt, but there are still striking
evidences of the storm to be seen. The ground
is strewn with the debris of torn up houses,
smashed furniture, broken glass, fallen light-
ning rods, etc. There are now some half dozen
business houses in Valley Mills, which are all
doing a fairly good trade. A good deal of
lumber is sold here, and several new houses
are in process of construction. The school
house was destroyed in the cyclone, but a new
one will probably be built this summer. A
two-story business house, the upper story to
be used for a Masonic hall, will be erected
shortly. A good hotel building is also spoken
of, and is now badly needed. All the houses
in Valley Mills at this time are of wood,
though there is an abundance of building
stone near by, which will probably be utilized
ere long."
J.C. Jarrett came to Bosque County from
Georgia in 1882 and settled near Valley Mills.
He began the study of medicine under the
direction of his brother, Dr. E.V. Jarrett,
where he learned the fundamentals in the
office of a typical country doctor. He entered
Vanderbilt University and in 1884, graduated
from the medical school at Tulane Univer-
sity, and practiced medicine in southern
Bosque County for almost half a century. He
was the local surgeon for the Santa Fe
Railroad and for Humble Oil Pipe Line
Company employees.
By the year 1888 three hundred people
resided in Valley Mills. The business district
of this small town included eight general
merchandise establishments, two drugstores,
a saddle shop, a hotel, two blacksmith shops,
two cotton gins, a livery stable, and a new
flour mill. Residents of the community
during the 1890's remember that James W.
Mclnturff owned "a steam threshing ma-
chine and a cotton gin." A second cotton gin,
"a large plant operated by a forty-horsepower
engine capable of handling thirty bales daily,
belonged to Edgar A. Wilson.
R.E. McCorkle of Valley Mills described
conditions in Bosque County in the 1890's in
an article entitled, "R.E. McCorkle Can
Remember When," published in the Valley
Mills Centennial edition of the Valley Mills
Tribune. "Bosque County was coming in as
a cattle country. In 1880 it had 26,113 head
of cattle. By 1890 it had increased this to
49,327. Much of this change was brought
about by the invention of barbed wire
fencing, invented in 1874, . . . by the 1880's
it had found wide acceptance in Bosque
County. Although it brought fighting and
trouble between those who fenced the ranges
and those who didn't . . . most of these
troubles were settled in the county by the
1890's. It was in 1890 that Tom M. Pool, a
well-known stockman of Bosque County,
brought the first Galloway cattle in. They
were the first registered cattle to come into
the county, and people came from a wide area
to look them over. They were such a curiosity
that some of them were driven through the
streets of Waco in a big Cotton Palace Parade
about 1894. Some of the cowboys who were
hired to drive the black Galloways in Waco
were: R.E. McCorkle, Charlie Smith, Sam
Lewis, Jim Shaw, J.B. Sherwood, and Guy
McNamara."
The McNeill family played a leading role
84in the business history of Valley Mills during
the 1890's and early 1900's. A.A. McNeill
owned and operated the McNeill Mercantile
which sold hardware, implements, groceries
and dry goods. Alex, a son of A.D. McNeill,
worked first with his father at the carpenter
trade, and later as a bookkeeper for A.A.
McNeill. In 1896, Alex bought the drug store
from his brother, Dr. W.T. McNeill, and
studied pharmacy to be able to run the store.
John McNeill, son of Alex, began working in
the store at the age of nine, operating a
peanut parching machine. In a few years John
was helping with the bookkeeping and lear-
ning to fill prescriptions. When Alex McNeill
died in 1912, John took over the store. A well-
known and highly respected druggist and
pharmacist, Johnny McNeill owned the drug
store until his death in 1966.
Claude Goodall, who had worked in the
McNeill Drug Store, became interested in
medicine. He attended and graduated from
Tulane University. Returning to Valley
Mills, he first had an office in the back of the
McNeill drug store. After the Crow Hotel was
built, Dr. Will McNeill and Dr. Claude
Goodall had a small hospital in a part of the
hotel. A Miss Gordon was head nurse and
Edna Hayman worked as assistant nurse.
The First National Bank of Valley Mills,
actually organized in 1896, received its
national charter in 1908. Presidents of the
bank have been: Dr. W.T. McNeill,
A.S.Tweedy, and Roy Pool. John Phil Gilliam
is now the owner and chief executive officer
of the bank. It has been in the same location
on Main Street since 1908.
Bosque County's oldest insurance com-
pany, the R.G. Nowlin Insurance Agency, was
owned and operated by the Nowlin family
from 1897 until 1973. The succession of
family ownership was as follows: P.A. Nowlin
from 1897-1904; R.M. Nowlin from 1904-
1908; R.G. Nowlin from 1908-1926; and
Gordon Nowlin from 1926-1973. The agency
is still operated under a different ownership.
Valley Mills' first charter is dated 1895.
The following men served as mayor up to the
year 1968: P.A. Nowlin, R.A. Tibbs, R.G.
Nowlin, J.C. Tubbs, H.J. Gibbs, A.M. Jones,
Roy S. Pool, L.E. Walker, B.H. Ekrut, J.G.
Simms, and C.P. Hardwick.
The First Baptist Church had its beginning
in 1888 when thirty-six members of the
Searsville Church asked for letters of dis-
missal for the purpose of forming a Baptist
Church in Valley Mills. After it was orga-
nized, the congregation met on the second
floor of the school building which was a two-
story, white frame building. The church was
named the Baptist Church of Christ of Valley
Mills, and in July, 1889, A.W. Sears, E.A.
Tweedy, Sr., J.M. Prewitt, Washington Hick-
erson, and O.J. Knowles were appointed as a
committee to select a site and construct a
church building. There were sixty-two mem-
bers at the end of 1890, and two years later
the name of the church was changed to the
First Baptist Church of Valley Mills.
Methodism in Valley Mills dates back to
the early day circuit riders, and later to a
church known as Center Hill, located on land
given by Mr. Sim Everett, Mrs. Ed Raley and
Mrs. Johnnie Robertson. It was located a few
miles from the old town of Valley Mills. Here
was first a brush arbor, then a tabernacle, and
later a building which served as a church and
school for all services. In 1888, three lots were
brought from the Santa Fe Railroad on whicha i
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Visit of Gov. O'Daniel to A.M. Jones home in Valley
Mills. L-R: Mrs. O'Daniel, Albert M. Jones, Martha
.Jones, Gov. W. Lee O'Daniel.McNeill Drug Store; Johnny McNeill in 1950's.
Main Street, Valley Mills, 1984.
Skyline of present Valley Mills, 1985, is dominated
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Bosque County History Book Committee. Bosque County: Land and People (A History of Bosque County, Texas), book, 1985; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth91038/m1/100/?q=campbell&rotate=270: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Denton Public Library.