December 11, 2003

When I was six years old, the times in Aubrey and the entire nation were not in its best of conditions. The Great Depression was in full stage and the Democratic party had just won the election by about seven million votes, after hearing the many promises of the Republican President Hoover that did not materialize.

The Democrats had been in office for about four years, and times were beginning to slowly become better during the mid to late thirties. Into the forties, we found ourselves in a war against several dictatorial powers.

It was during these hard times, that as a six-year-old, I recall my first experiences in retail. My older brothers and my Daddy harvested fresh vegetables that were watered from a flowing water well that was located about ½ mile to the north of Cagle Hill, in the bottom land that went on over to the creek just a little further west. The flowing well was originally dug in a search for oil. Oil was not found, but water was, and it produced an 8-inch stream of fresh water that flowed down the small creeks until it reached the Trinity River Elm Fork, without any pumping.

The gushing flow of water was later guided into the rows that produced fresh vegetables. The enormously large patches of all kinds of fresh vegetables were gathered, washed and packed for shipment to Fort Worth.

It was during this time, that my Dad secured the vacant building that is now where the hardware store is located. This small building was where we sold the fresh vegetables. It was in this same location that my retail experience was beginning to develop. I followed my Dad’s instructions about carefully arranging the fresh produce so that it was appealing to the customers as they came in with their baskets to purchase the vegetables.

Even at that age, the then old timers would talk about the business in town and the history as they began to tell about things that they had experienced in their lifetimes. Our customers were the more wealthy people of the town, since everyone else had their own gardens and cows.

The customers’ stories of those days were the same as today. Some of the things I heard, I learned to pass on and dismiss, while others I kept in my mind so that I could pass them on with pride.

Every now and then, I hear someone say that they didn’t know about things I have shared, and haven’t seen this information documented, but they will admit that they have lived around Aubrey all of their life, but they hardly ever came into town.

When I was six years old, the Mullins Hotel had been closed about 15 years earlier, but I have heard many stores that came out of the old hotel. The residence to the north of the Mullins Hotel was that of Dip and Ruth Connelly. Dip was a son-in-law of Tom Mullins. The hotel was operated by Uncle Jap and Aunt Tennie Mullins.

Some of our customers, recalled that the hotel had more than twenty rooms, while some said that it had thirty rooms. It had two floors with two long porches running the entire east length of the large building. For the comfort and entertainment of the guests, the porches faced the railroad tracks.

There were high columns and bannisters running the entire length of the double-decker porch. The columns, bannisters, cornices and trim were all in white, while the building itself was painted light blue. The building was made completely of wood.

The first floor had a dining room which is described by some senior Aubrey citizens with reliable memories for being "as long as the old Madden Building" which was located at 202 S. Main St. This building is seventeen feet wide and eighty-seven feet long. It was furnished with a single long table running down the full length of the center of the room, which may have posed a problem for the unfortunate diner who found the salt and pepper shaker to be at the other end of the table.

A large office and parlor area adjoined the dining room at the south end. Carbide lamps, each one laboriously lighted by hand, provided illumination for the dining room.

An interesting feature, and unique for its day, was the large "Drummer Room" There were twelve additional rooms on each side of the hall that ran from the Drummer Room, down the center of the long second floor. This may have been one of the first trade marts in north Texas.

Businessmen from the Aubrey area would buy much of the merchandise displayed by wholesaler’s and salespeople (referred to as Drummers) in the Drummer Room. These Drummers scheduled use of the Drummer Room. Some people who remember these early wholesale business transactions recall that many buyers who visited the salesmen and their displays were unknown, which leads us to believe that the Aubrey Mullins Hotel drew merchants from miles around to visit the Drummer Room.

Stops at the hotel became regular for the train crews who passed through Aubrey daily. Some old-timers remember that the train crew would stop in Aubrey at 9:00 a.m. on a northbound train from Denton en route to the round-house in Denison. They would turn-around at Denison and return to the Aubrey Mullins Hotel for their noon meal.

The rapidly diminishing former employees of the hotel report that the hotel had a wash-house on its extreme south wing, where the laborers on the railroad would clean and refresh themselves before entering the hotel.

Across the street on the west side of the hotel were several livery stables where travelers would leave their buggies and horses for feed and necessary repair work.

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