DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Amis House in Rains County. Now settle in, because this one's about a man who apparently looked at the word 'enough' and just kept on walking past it. Between 1910 and 1912, James Alexander Amis built his family a home — and not just any home.
He poured and cured every single cast-concrete block himself. That's right, the man made his own building material. Cast-concrete block construction was unusual then, and it's unusual now, and Amis did it block by hand-poured block.
The house still stands, which tells you something about how the job got done. Now, if you figured a man who builds his own house from scratch might be content to sit on the porch and admire his work, well — you did not know James Alexander Amis. Born in 1872, this man ran a sawmill.
And a lumberyard. And a truck farm. And a cattle and hog farm.
And a pickle factory. And — I want you to hear this one clearly — an undertaking business. Whether he saw some kind of poetic continuity in that last venture, the marker does not say, and neither will I.
But we're still not done with James Amis, because in 1914, he sponsored the successful flight of a hot air balloon over Emory. Over the city. A hot air balloon.
He then turned around and led efforts to build Highway 19 right through that same city. The man fed people, housed people, moved lumber, raised hogs, pickled things, saw folks off into the great hereafter, and put a balloon in the sky above Emory, Texas. James Alexander Amis died in 1939.
The house he built with his own concrete blocks is still there — which is exactly the kind of thing a man like that would have insisted on.
What the marker says
Built n 1910-1912, this residence features unusual cast-concrete block construction. James Alexander Amis (1872-1939) poured and cured the blocks for his family's home. A versatile businessman, Amis operated a sawmill, lumberyard, truck farm, cattle and hog farm, pickle factory, and an undertaking business. He also sponsored the successful flight of a hot air balloon over Emory in 1914 and later led efforts to build Highway 19 through the city. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1985