Sarrazin Store

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Two brothers rolled into Fayette County with ambitions and a plan. German brothers, Edward and Leopold Sarrazin, and in 1875 they opened a mercantile store.

Now, that alone is a story. But the chapter that really counts begins in 1890, when they moved the whole operation into the building that stands here. Front of the store, you'd find groceries, dry goods, hardware.

The kind of place where a farmer could walk in needing flour and walk out needing everything else, too. Out back, they kept an office. And further back than that, in the rear warehouse, feed, farm equipment, buggies, wagons.

Basically, if it had wheels or fed something with wheels, the Sarrazins had it covered. Now here's the detail that tends to stop people mid-sentence when they hear it. Chickens.

The brothers raised chickens in coops right there in the yard, and then shipped them by rail to Houston. In Fayette County, that counts as forward thinking. Leopold eventually passed, and Edward bought the store outright.

When Edward himself died in 1925, his son, Edward Jr., inherited it. The Sarrazin name stayed on that door, and the business kept right on humming, employing as many as eighteen clerks at its peak. Eighteen people earning a living under one roof in a small Texas county.

That store ran until 1967. Not a bad run for two brothers who showed up with a plan back in 1875.

What the marker says

German brothers Edward and Leopold Sarrazin, who opened a mercantile store in 1875, moved their business to this building in 1890. They sold groceries, dry goods, and hardware in the front part of the building and had an office in the back. Feed, farm equipment, buggies, and wagons were kept in the rear warehouse. Chickens, raised in coops in the yard, were shipped by rail to Houston. After Leopold died, Edward bought the store, which Edward, Jr. inherited upon his father's death in 1925. It continued as a thriving business, employing as many as 18 clerks, until 1967.