W. D. and Essie Gafford House

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm drawing straight from the official marker on the W. D. and Essie Gafford House in Hood County, so let's honor what's written there. Now, out in the Lipan community of Hood County, there stands a farmhouse that has seen a whole lot of Texas life come and go.

It was constructed about 1916, built for the family of William Doyle and Essie Gafford. Essie came from the Vandergriff family, and together she and William Doyle put down roots in a way that folks in those parts would remember for generations. The house itself is a Craftsman bungalow, and that's worth pausing on for a moment.

That style was popular in American architecture in the early 1900s, and it carries a particular kind of character, a sturdy, honest design that suits a family with its hands in the soil and its eyes on the horizon. Which, as it happens, described the Gaffords just about perfectly. Because William Doyle and Essie weren't just building a house.

They were building a life with multiple moving parts. They owned the general store right there in the Lipan community, from 1911 until about 1929. Nearly two decades of neighbors coming through that door, needing flour, needing feed, needing a word with somebody who knew how things worked.

And on top of running that store, they were farming and ranching across their Hood County property at the same time. That is not a light load to carry. Now, W.

D. Gafford was born in 1894, and he lived until 1961, and somewhere along the way he took his ambitions beyond Lipan. He went to Mineral Wells and operated city produce there.

And then, as if that weren't enough, he went and established the local livestock auction. The man had a gift for commerce, plain and simple. But here's what lingers longest about that house on the property.

Through all of it, through the store years and the ranching years and the Mineral Wells years, that Craftsman bungalow constructed about 1916 stayed in the Gafford family throughout the entire twentieth century. Buildings change hands. Families scatter.

But that farmhouse held on, and the family held on to it. Some things are built to last, and some families are built the same way. The Gaffords, it seems, were both.

What the marker says

Constructed about 1916 for the family of William Doyle and Essie (Vandergriff) Gafford, this house is a good example of Craftsman bungalow design, popular in American architecture in the early 1900s. The Gaffords owned the general store in the Lipan community from 1911 until about 1929, in addition to farming and ranching enterprises on their Hood County property. W. D. Gafford (1894-1961) later operated city produce in Mineral Wells and established the local livestock auction. This historic farmhouse remained in the Gafford family throughout the 20th century. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2001