Old Wells' Store

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna pass it along to you. Somewhere out on the Old Nacogdoches-Lynchburg Trail, one of those 19th century thoroughfares that kept this part of Texas stitched together, there stands a building with a lot of lives lived inside it. We're talkin' about Old Wells' Store, out in Liberty County, in a community that went by the name of Tarkington's Prairie.

Now the center section of what you see today was built about 1875, put up by D. W. Proctor and Company.

That's where the story starts, but it is nowhere close to where it ends. See, before that structure even went up, there was an earlier building on the very same site doing the same kind of work. Two buildings, same ground, same purpose: a general mercantile store serving the people of Tarkington's Prairie.

The place later came to be operated by L. L. Wells, and that name stuck, which is why we still call it what we do.

Now think about what a general store meant to a community like this. It wasn't just a place to buy goods. This building pulled every hat in the neighborhood under one roof.

It was a post office. It was a wagon stop, a place to rest the horses and the driver both. It was a credit house, meaning folks trusted it with their word and their debt.

And come election time, it was a voting place. Whatever Tarkington's Prairie needed to feel like a real going community, this old building stepped up and provided it. People came here to swap stories, catch up on local news, lean on the counter and just be neighbors for a while.

That's the kind of center that can't be built on purpose. It just grows, year by year, transaction by transaction. And it all happened right here, on the Old Nacogdoches-Lynchburg Trail, where travelers were passing through and a community was quietly putting down roots.

Two buildings, one spot, and more history than most places four times its size. That's Tarkington's Prairie for you.

What the marker says

Center section built about 1875 by D. W. Proctor & Company; later operated by L. L. Wells. This structure and earlier one on same site each served as general mercantile store. this building was center for visits and exchange of local news at "Tarkington's Prairie" community. Building has been used as post office, wagon stop, credit house, and voting place. Was located on Old Nacogdoches-Lynchburg Trail, a 19th century thoroughfare. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1968