DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'm gonna tell it my way. Out in Callahan County, there's a small frame building with a bigger story than its square footage might suggest. W.
F. Griffin opened a bank there about 1911 — and when I say small operation, I mean that Paul Ramsey, who served as the first president with Griffin as a director, didn't exactly have a sprawling staff to manage. Ramsey was the teller.
He was the cashier. He was the loan officer. And when the floors needed sweepin', well, that was Paul Ramsey too.
One man, every hat in the building. Now that's a community bank. But here's where the wind shifts.
The railroad came through the region, and it did not come through Cottonwood. It bypassed the town entirely. And in those days, wherever the railroad didn't go, the people eventually didn't stay.
Merchants packed up. Residents moved on. The little town began to hollow out.
In January of 1915, the bank closed its doors. Most stories end there. This one doesn't.
Three years later, in 1918, a woman named Hazel Respess opened a post office in that very same building. And she didn't just run it for a season or a spell — Hazel Respess ran that post office for the next fifty years. Fifty years.
The bank lasted about four. Hazel outlasted it more than ten times over. Then in 1975, postal service here was stopped, and the building went quiet in an official capacity for the first time in a long while.
But the marker makes a point of telling us something that no balance sheet or postal route can quite capture — this spot has been a gathering place for the community. The railroad skipped it. The bank couldn't hold on.
But the people kept coming back. There's something stubborn and Texas about that.
What the marker says
W. F. Griffin opened a bank about 1911 in this small frame building. With Griffin as a director, Paul Ramsey served as the first president. His duties included teller, cashier, loan officer and custodian. When the railroad bypassed Cottonwood, merchants and residents moved away. In January 1915, the bank closed. In 1918 Hazel Respess opened a post office in the building and ran it for the next 50 years. In 1975, postal service here was stopped. This spot has been a gathering place for the community. (1978)