Wilson Mercantile Company

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Wilson Mercantile Company, right here in Lynn County. Now, some buildings just hold goods. And some buildings hold history so thick you can practically feel it pressing against the walls.

This one does both. It starts with a family. William Green came from deep roots in South Texas, a family that had been planting themselves in that soil for more than a century before Green ever turned his eyes north toward Lynn County.

But William Green was a man with a plan, and the plan was land. In 1906, Green and his associates purchased four leagues of Wilson County school lands. That is a serious piece of ground, and Green was serious about it.

He bought out his associates, because when you have a vision that size, partners can slow you down. Then he and a man named Lonnie Lumsden went and acquired over fifty sections of the old Dixie Ranch, up in the north part of Lynn County. Their ranching headquarters sat a mile east of where you're standing right now.

But Green wasn't just a rancher. He saw what that school land could become if you put a plow to it. He introduced farming, and he brought in settlers to work it.

Many of them came from his home county, Lavaca. Some came as purchasers, some as tenants. Either way, they came, and the land started filling up with people.

The community took the name Wilson, for the original tract, and indirectly for Reverend J. C. Wilson, the State Senator for whom Wilson County itself had been named.

So the name carried some weight, as names in Texas tend to do. Now, a community needs a town, and a town needs a railroad. Green understood that perfectly well.

In 1911, after Green influenced the Panhandle and Santa Fe Railway to run its line right through here, the town of Wilson was founded. You get a railroad, you get a town. That's the way it worked.

And at the center of it all, Green put up a frame mercantile store. That store was the nucleus, the first heartbeat of Wilson. It stood and served until 1917, when it was replaced by this very building, the one the marker is standing in front of right now.

The store went on. The years went on. And then came 1963, when Mrs.

William Dickson Green, daughter-in-law of the founder, rolled up her sleeves and restored the whole place. She didn't just preserve a building. She turned it into a repository, a gathering place for items authentic to the period when the Greens first came to Texas, and to the era when the town of Wilson was established and the store first opened its doors.

One woman's work, honoring one man's vision, in a building that has stood as proof of both. That's Wilson, Texas. Started with land, grew around a store, and somebody in the family made sure it wouldn't be forgotten.

What the marker says

Founded 1910 by William Green, son of a family who settled in South Texas more than a century ago. The townsite was part of four leagues of Wilson County school lands bought 1906 by Green and Associates. Green later bought out his associates, and shortly thereafter he and Lonnie Lumsden acquired over 50 sections of the old Dixie Ranch in the north part of Lynn County. Their ranching headquarters were a mile east of here. Green introduced farming on the school lands, bringing in settlers (many from his home county, Lavaca)-- some as purchasers, some as tenants. The community was called Wilson, for the original tract, and indirectly for Rev. J. C. Wilson, State Senator for whom Wilson County was named. The town was founded 1911, after Green influenced Panhandle & Santa Fe Railway to put its line here. Green's original frame mercantile store, nucleus for the town, was replaced in 1917 by this building. In 1963 Wilson Mercantile was restored by Mrs. William Dickson Green, daughter-in-law of founder; her work has made the building a repository for items authentic to the period when the Greens came to Texas as well as to the era when town of Wilson was established and the store was founded. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967