Ennis
By Laurie J. Wilson, Peggy Holland Rankin, Ellis County Czech Heritage Society and Ennis Heritage Society
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About this ebook
Laurie J. Wilson
The images for this book were gathered from the archives of the City of Ennis, the Ennis Heritage Society, the Ennis Public Library, members of the Czech Heritage Society, and many Ennis families who opened their personal photo albums. Laurie Wilson is active in the Ennis Public Library Historic Archive Project, and both she and Peggy Rankin are members of the Ennis Heritage Society.
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Ennis - Laurie J. Wilson
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INTRODUCTION
The story of Ennis and her people has often been one of overcoming obstacles. In April 1875, much of the small business area of Main Street was either severely damaged or completely destroyed by fire. They rebuilt. Over the years, some of the brick buildings began to crumble because of the weakness of the bricks, which they believed was due to the soil from which they had been made. Again they rebuilt. The city battled several obstacles in obtaining the Houston Texas and Central Railroad roundhouse, machine shops, and district headquarters, yet they persevered and found success. All along the way, generations of Ennis residents have shown resilience and determination and passed those qualities on to their children. In the late 1920s and into the 1930s, the Ennis High School yearbook was not published for many reasons, including a strained economy from lower cotton prices and the continued effects of the Great Depression. In 1939, the senior class decided to change that. They took on the task themselves, publishing the first yearbook since 1926.
Ennis was established in 1872. The Houston and Texas Central Railroad came through and made its mark and, in the minds of many, made Ennis. It was named for Cornelius Ennis, an early Houston and Texas Central Railroad official and mayor of Houston.
There had been a scattered population in the Ennis area prior to the railroad, but many more settlers began to arrive with the rail. Between 1874 and the mid-1880s, the population grew from around 300 to 3,000. Many of these new settlers came from the war-torn states of the Southern United States. Others came from war-ravaged countries, including the area that would one day become Czechoslovakia. All came to build something more and better than what they had left behind.
The 1870s and 1880s were difficult times for Ennis pioneers. The city began with just a handful of buildings, and what is now the downtown area was then all of Ennis. Homes, small and few, were built where stores would be found just a decade later. The large Rowe Cotton Gin and Grist Mill took up much of the block where the U.S. post office has now stood for almost a century. McKinney Street, south of Ennis Avenue, was a great spot for fishing, as streams from McEnnis Pond crept up almost to the avenue. Churches were built within blocks of each other, and with most less than four blocks from the railroad, people often walked to services. Porches were not just for decoration; they were often the center of neighborhood gatherings and frequently cooler than being inside during hot summer months. Land near what was the first Ennis High School on North Gaines Street was still mostly considered a rural area.
Business lots could be purchased for $50 to $800, depending on whether there was a building on it. Early accounts of life illustrate the fortitude required of those who set up business here. One account tells of a young man’s desire to help build Ennis, how he came into town in 1878 selling fruit trees, heard a band playing at the train depot, and decided this would become his home. He made a trade to obtain inventory and set up shop in a small wooden building, where the Jolesch Store would later be established at the southwest corner of Ennis Avenue and Main Street. The new store owner then found 34 bullet holes, in a building that couldn’t have been more than a couple of years old, from what he referred to as recent trouble. But this man, W. G. Giddings, stayed, as did many others despite the hardships.
Although lots for residential homes could be purchased for as little as $50, there was no running water, no sewer service, and only a handful of stores from which to get needed goods. For the first decade, the majority of residents lived in boarding homes, where privacy was often provided only by hanging a piece of cloth. Safety was a prime concern. Fire caused tremendous damage, and several newspaper reports detail numerous shoot-outs and times when residents had to take to their homes for safety because of the danger of going outside.
In 1891, the Houston and Texas Central Railroad contracted to make Ennis its Northern Division Headquarters. This provided numerous jobs at the newly built roundhouse, machine shops, and division headquarters. This prosperity continued through the 1890s as the business sector of the town grew steadily, the schools were considered among the best in the state academically, and the residential areas continued to expand.
The first decades of the new century were ruled by cotton. Thousands would fill the streets on trade days
to buy and sell this commodity. By 1930, Where Railroads and Cotton Fields Meet
became the official chamber of commerce slogan. Cotton prices had plunged in the years after World War I, yet by 1930 the community had established nearly 205 businesses. Among these businesses were a cottonseed oil company, a creamery, two ice companies, and two printing companies. Despite some hard economic times, the businesses in Ennis, many of them family owned and run, persevered.
And the community began new traditions. In 1951, the Ennis Garden Club established its first Bluebonnet Trails, which has grown to over 40 miles of trails that highlight the spectacular beauty of the state flower—bountiful in the official Bluebonnet City of Texas, as designated in 1997. The National Polka Festival, now a yearly