Grayson County TXGenWeb

Van Alstyne Leader
April 6, 1939

"Trades Day Brings New Business"
Every second Monday of each month in Van Alstyne is Trades Day when farmers from Grayson County and surrounding counties take possession of the town and make a little spending money trading everything from vegetables to mules.
As early as Friday before each second Monday it is not uncommon to see covered wagons pulling into town with farm families preparing for the trades. Children of all ages jump out of the wagons as soon as a place is found in the city to camp and start hunting firewood to do the cooking. The traders pitch their tents or sleep under wagons.
The traders are called jockeys, many of whom have known no other life but this. Some drifted into trading after making a failure on the farm. Others are dispossessed tenants, and a few follow it as a profession just because they like the great out-of-doors.
W.W. Blasingame, Mayor; Bob Moore; Tom Arnspiger, deceased; Frank Douglas and Walter Barron have gone down in Van Alstyne history as the originators of Trades Day. These men raised money to rent a lot in the city where the farmers could meet and trade their livestock and other items.
The trading has stimulated business in this community. Merchants have put on special bargains for the traders and the theatre runs a special show.
The Trades Day, businessmen say, has a beneficial influence on that it is teaching farmers who own their own farms to diversify - raise their own living at home and then come to town to sell the surplus for cash.