Details are sketchy about the Old West outlaws believed to have plied their trade in Ennis’ early days but the family of one famous gunslinger was among this city’s pioneer residents.
John Wesley Hardin, the legendary gunfighter, never set his spurs –– or waved his .44-caliber –– in Ennis but an uncle and aunt lived in the burgeoning railroad town, and in 1885 his mother died here while visiting relatives.
Few Ennis residents are left who remember Katie Daffan, once a famous literary figure in Texas who lived her final years in Ennis. “Miss Katie,” as she was affectionately known, was born in Brenham but grew up in Ennis. She later moved to Austin and Houston where she spent the bulk of her most successful years. But from time to time she returned to her family home in Ennis and sometimes taught courses in the schools here. The late Tina Beth Mulkey recalled Daffan as eccentric in her personality and in her dress.
The John Rowe Building, 101 S. Dallas, now home to a number of shops and a restaurant, was built by Hix McCanless, who had been commissioned by Rowe, an early commercial leader, to construct his dry goods store, one of several Ennis firms he
One of the Ennis Post Office’s earliest known mail carriers was Ambrose (“A.B.”) Ross. Born in Tennessee in 1864 he moved to Ennis in 1891. According to the Ennis Weekly Local, Ross served as a teacher in Alma and Palmer before accepting employment by the U.S. Mail Service at Ennis in 1906 as one of the facility’s very first carriers. Ross remained with the Ennis Post Office for 27 years, retiring in 1933. He died in 1941 at age 77, survived by his wife of 46 years, the former Pattie Bomer of Kaufman, and their nine children.
This year marks the 93rd anniversary of a Texas tragedy in which a favored son of Ennis lost his life. Jack Castellaw, 21, son of a local pharmacist, was among 10 Baylor Bears players, coaches and fans killed when their school bus stalled on a train track at Round Rock and was struck by the Sunshine Special. En route to Austin to defend their standing in the Southwest Conference, the Baylor basketball team instead became victims of lax railroad safety laws.
Although Katie Daffan would become famous for her literary and political accomplishments, her father was well known before her. Col. Lawrence A. Daffan, superintendent of the Houston and Texas Central Railway for 19 years, died in 1907. He was “stricken,” as the papers reported, possibly with a heart attack, while at his office and he was taken home where he passed away.
A decade before the Depression we have heard so much about, there was a brief economic slump. It happened in 1921, and Ennis, like many cities, was hit. The Ennis National Bank didn’t open its doors on Nov. 14 and “according to a statement issued by the directors, will remain closed for about 10 days while reorganization is in progress.”
In 1950 fire damaged the Ennis Municipal Hospital, a three-story brick building on Lampases St., designed by Hix McCanless, Ennis’ foremost architect and at one point city engineer. The fire began in an electric motor on the roof of the hospital. A report in the Dallas Morning News stated that most of the damage was caused by water from firehoses used to extinguish the blaze.
Culled from the archives of the Ennis Daily News and from the online database Newspapers.com, here’s a smattering of items covering a variety of people and events that figured in the history of the Bluebonnet City.
