John William "Will" Hayes

Hayes & Harris Clothing

Wootton & Hayes Clothing

Oliver W. Hayes

Bess Bagby Baker Hayes

Clothing stores, including those specializing in menswear, formed an important part of downtown Denison in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century. Two of the most important of these stores had their roots in Hopkinsville in Christian County, Kentucky.

According to Wikipedia, "Christian County was the birthplace of Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America.... Hopkinsville changed hands at least half a dozen times, being occupied in turn by Confederate and Union forces." In the process, "The Civil War generated major social and economic divisions among the people in Hopkinsville and Christian County.... Union Camp Joe Anderson, located northwest of Hopkinsville, was established in 1862 after the Confederate forces had retreated to Tennessee." In December 1864, Confederate troops burned the Christian County courthouse, which the Union forces were using as a barracks.

This was the background of the town where three young men came together around 1880. That year the U.S. Census found John William "Will" Hayes (1861–1919) and James "Jim" Boyd (1861–1927) working as "clerk in store." The third, an allopathic doctor's son named Rufus Sinclair Wootton (1861–1920), was a druggist. All three had been born in Christian County in 1861, just after the war began. Rufus and Will were first cousins.

Seven years later, in 1887, the trio had arrived in Denison, Texas, and were partners in a clothing store called Wootton & Company. Selling "clothing, boots, shoes, hats," it was located at 200 West Main Street, at the southwest corner of Austin Avenue. Rufus and Jim lived at the store. Will lived at 308 North Houston Avenue with his widowed mother, Eliza A. Wootton Hayes (1832–1906). Eliza was Rufus's aunt, sister to his father, Dr. Powell C. Wootton (1830–1900), who remained in Kentucky.

After 1890, the partnership dissolved. The cousins, Rufus and Will, stayed together, while Jim Boyd opened a new store in partnership with Levi Lingo. Jim's brothers, Richard and Edward, arrived from Kentucky and started working at the new store. Billing itself as "clothiers, hatters and gents furnishers," Boyd & Lingo was located at 230 West Main Street, the other end of the 200 block. In 1896, the store advertised itself as "James Boyd Clothing, Man and Boy."

In 1891, according to the City Directory, Will Hayes had become a partner with Overton Harris (1857–1938) in Hayes & Harris, purveyors of clothing and gents' furnishing goods, at 105 West Main Street. Both Hayes and Harris were rooming at 600 West Woodard Street and taking their meals at the McDougall Hotel.

"Hayes & Harris, Denison, Tex."
Metal button found in antique mall.
  Actual size 11/16 inch. This scan is much enlarged.

Wooten & Hayes, Clothing and Men's Furnishings
200 W. Main St

By 1896, the old Wootton & Co. store at 200 West Main Street had become Wootton & Hayes. Will had taken a house at 412 West Gandy, and his mother Eliza had moved in with him.

We don't know whether the separation of the Wootton and Boyd enterprises was amicable or contentious, but the two must have been competitors during the time after 1900, when Denison experienced an economic boom. Jim Boyd became known as an energetic, inspired promoter of quality, trendy clothing for men. Perhaps Wootton and Hayes were less "snazzy" in merchandise and personal style.

"Wooton & Hayes, Clothing and Men's Furnishings
200 W. Main Street."
Robinson, Frank M., comp. Industrial Denison. [N.p.] : Means-Moore Co., [ca. 1909]. Page 80

In 1900, the Census identified Will as a widower with a seven-year-old daughter, Lucy C. Hayes (1893–?). Along with Eliza, they still lived 412 West Gandy. That would have meant that Will had married at least by 1893. There was some indication that Lucy's mother was named Lulu. No wife was mentioned in the Denison City Directory from 1896 to 1909. The 1910 Census listed Will as divorced. Then, in 1910, Will married Luella "Lula" Fike Elkins (1879–1925).

Eliza passed away in 1906, and the next year the City Directory listed Will rooming at the same address as Wootton & Hayes, 200 West Main. Three years later, the 1910 Census recorded the daughter, Lucy, age 17, working as a servant and living at St. Xavier's Academy, 230 West Sears Street.

In 1900, Rufus Wootton married a younger woman, Esther, and his father died in Kentucky on April 23. Rufus went back to Christian County to help his mother. Then he returned to Denison. In 1901 he was rooming at 213 West Gandy Street. The next Census, in 1910, listed him as a widowed drygoods merchant rooming upstairs at 202-1/2 West Main.

Perhaps Rufus then returned to Kentucky. He did not appear in the 1915 Denison City Directory. He passed away in 1920 and was buried in Lafayette, Christian County, Kentucky.

The Denison City Directory for 1915 records a major change in store ownership. Hayes, Gault & May Clothing now was located at 222 West Main. Will's new partners were Henry L. Gault (former conductor on the MK&T Railway) and James T. May (who had been a clerk at the store for several years). In 1917, the store was called Hayes & May.

Advertisement for Hayes, Gault & May
222 W. Main Street
Source: DHS Yellow Jacket 1916 (yearbook), page 76-A

When Will married Lula in 1910, they first lived at 806 West Gandy. By 1913 they had moved to 521 East Main Street, the home of Lula's recently widowed mother. Two years earlier, Lula's father and her former husband had run a grocery store, Fike & Elkins, at 431 East Main. In 1913, her brother, Nelson Fike, who boarded with Will and Lula, was a foreman on the Missouri, Oklahoma & Gulf Railway. In 1915, the Hayeses had moved to 501 East Main; but in 1917 they were back at 521 East Main.

 M. K. & T. Employees' Magazine
March 1917 issue

 

Will passed away on December 14, 1919. Months later, Will's widow, her mother, and her brother Nelson were living at 501 East Main. Lula moved to 913 West Bond by 1921 and died in 1925. She was buried with Will in Fairview Cemetery.

Beginning about 1911, a relative, Oliver W. Hayes (1895–1951), lived with Will and clerked at the store. By 1920, he had married Bess Bagby Baker (1893–1977). By 1921, they had moved to 1015 West Morton Street. Four years later, they had moved again, to 314 West Gandy, where they remained for many years. Both Oliver and his wife became prominent players in the retail clothing business on Main Street.

After Will died in 1919, Oliver acquired his interest in Hayes & May Clothing. In 1925, Bess was a department manager at Charles A. Jones, a store selling furniture and household goods.

In 1927, the City Directory listed Hayes Clothier & Furnisher, owned by O. W. Hayes alone, at 323 West Main. This was across the street from the location of the prior Hayes & May. By that year, Bess had become a department manager at J. W. Madden's Department Store at 301 West Main Street.

Signs at 100 W. Main St.
"Hayes Clothing, Smart Clothes for Men."

By 1934, seven years later, Oliver W. Hayes had given up his own store and become vice-president and manager at Madden's, with Bess remaining a department manager there.

Founded in 1896, Madden's Department Store was an anchor of downtown at its location on the northwest corner of Main Street and Rusk Avenue. A fire damaged the store on Christmas Eve of 1944. By October of 1945, a new and more modern store had been completed.

Madden's Department Store
301 West Main Street

According to the Denison City Directories, Oliver worked at Madden's through 1949, and Bess almost that long. He died on January 18, 1951.

By 1945, Oliver and Bess had moved from Gandy Street to 1113 West Walker. Bess lived here at least through the 1950s.

By 1953, the widowed Bess was managing Edna Freels Ready-to-Wear Company, an elegant women's clothing store at 413 West Main. The Freels store had been the enterprise of another widow, Frances Edna Saunders Freels (1885–1949), who had been married to a local doctor, Dr. Arthur M. Freels (1883–1922). Edna Freels had died in 1949.

Now her son, Jesse Saunders Freels Sr. (1912–1963), owned the store. A prominent attorney in the Sherman law firm of Freels, Elliott, and Nall, he was also vice president of R. C. Goodman Company and lived at 622  W. Gandy with his wife Margaret Jane Stout Freels (1918–1993).

By 1955, Bess had retired from Freels. Mrs. Ethel Smalley had succeeded her as manager at Freels. In 1957, Mrs. Edith Reynolds was manager; J. Saunders Freels was an attorney with the MK&T Railway. Though Bess lived until 1977, her listings in the City Directories show no further employment information.

413 West Gandy Street
Art Deco grill was installed when this location was the site of Freels Ready-to-Wear.
Now the home of Artplace Gallery, the grill and black/white color scheme has been joined by a complementary painting.
Photo by Brian Christopher Hander and Rachel Willis, July 2010.
Used by permission.