Melissa Dora Oliver-Eakle

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker in Potter County has to say, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now settle in, because this story belongs to a woman who arrived on the frontier and proceeded to build the place from the ground up. Melissa Dora Callaway came into the world in 1860, a descendant of two prominent seventeenth-century families in Virginia and Georgia, and she was educated at Georgia Female College, which tells you right there that she was not raised to sit quietly in a parlor.

In 1884 she married industrialist Captain William Oliver. Then Captain Oliver died, and here is where the story takes its turn. She came west to visit her brothers in Amarillo in 1889.

A lot of people visit a place. Melissa Oliver bought land in Potter and Randall Counties in 1890. That is a different kind of visit entirely.

By 1895 she had moved to the frontier town of Amarillo for good, bringing with her a personal fortune and what you might call an appetite for investment at exactly the moment the town was hungry for it. She developed part of her landholdings into a subdivision, and that subdivision is where Amarillo College and Memorial Park stand today. In 1902 she married O.M.

Eakle, and from that point forward she was known as Mrs. M.D. Oliver-Eakle.

O.M. Eakle died in 1914, and she kept right on building. She helped establish the first library.

She helped finance the Amarillo Opera House. She sponsored the local temperance movement. She loved opera and classical literature, and she had the money and the will to bring both to a town that was still findin' its footing.

Then in 1927, she completed Amarillo's first skyscraper, a ten-story office building. Think about that. A woman investing, developing, constructing, and delivering a skyscraper, at a time when the marker itself notes that women experienced difficulty with involvement in the financial world.

She was one of the city's largest taxpayers. She did not experience that difficulty quietly. Melissa Dora Oliver-Eakle was born in 1860 and died in 1931, and she is buried in Amarillo's Llano Cemetery.

The library, the opera house, the subdivision where the college sits, the first skyscraper on the skyline. She did not just pass through this part of Texas. She raised it up.

What the marker says

A descendant of two prominent 17th-century families in Virginia and Georgia, Melissa Dora Callaway (1860-1931) was a graduate of Georgia Female College. In 1884, she married industrialist Capt. William Oliver. Following his death, she visited her brothers in Amarillo in 1889, purchased land in Potter and Randall Counties in 1890, and in 1895 moved to the frontier town of Amarillo. Mrs. Oliver's personal fortune allowed her to invest in the town at a time when money was sorely needed for its growth. She developed part of her landholdings into the subdivision in which Amarillo College and Memorial Park are located. In 1902, she married O.M. Eakle (d. 1914) and was known thereafter as Mrs. M.D. Oliver-Eakle. A lover of opera and classical literature, Mrs. Oliver-Eakle assisted in establishing the first library, helped finance the Amarillo Opera House and sponsored the local temperance movement. In 1927, she completed Amarillo's first skyscraper, a ten-story office building. Remembered for her significant cultural contributions, business achievements, and as one of the city's largest taxpayers during a time when women experienced difficulty with involvement in the financial world. Mrs. Oliver-Eakle is buried in Amarillo's Llano Cemetery.