Memories of Ennis

The Ellis County Illustrated Yearbook for 1881, contents of which have been shared on this page before, contained not only a great many advertisements for pioneering businesses in Ennis, Waxahachie and other cities but several pages of historical highlights on these towns.

The entry for Ennis has been shared already, and in today’s edition of the “Memories” page are included excerpts of fascinating material on the beginnings of Ferris, Palmer and other cities that first sprang up around the Houston & Texas Central Railway in the 1870s:

Ferris

Who was Lt. Jack Lummus, the man whose name has been embraced by the city of Ennis for his bravery? The following biography of Lummus was written as a monologue for a tour of Myrtle Cemetery in 2016 in which the lives of famous citizens were profiled as visitors stopped at their gravesites. Monologues, which included a number of other well-known Ennis residents, were read by local actors under the direction of the the Ennis Public Theatre and the Ennis Historical Society.

One of the most tragic events in Ennis history took place in the late spring of 1911 when a man facing a divorce suit shot and killed his neighbor and alleged rival in a downtown hardware store.

It’s more than a story to local businessman Glen Wilson. The murdered man was his great grandfather. For Glen it’s a sad part of his family’s past but one he wants people to know about.

“It was a pretty dramatic thing,” Wilson says. “And it happened right on the streets of Ennis, in a store on S.E. Main St., somewhere around where the Ennis Business Forms plant building is now.”

Ennisites revere their history, especially of the grand old homes that lend the Templeton McCanless District its air of nostalgia. No doubt because the wrecking ball destroyed so many significant structures before preservation entered public consciousness, residents take pride in the few fine mansions that have been spared. Among these, even fewer remain in the possession of the pioneering families who built them. An exception is the gem of a residence lovingly maintained by Ray C. Telfair II, Ph.D. A retired wildlife biologist, Ray’s grandparents commissioned a leading architect to construct the asymmetrical Victorian-style frame house that’s graced one of the city’s prime thoroughfares since 1902.