DON CONNER & HTW LUMBER COMPANY
HUMPHRIES-TOMLINSON-WILKERSON LUMBER COMPANY
Across
the Fence
From
The Hamilton Herald-News
By
Arvord
Abernethy
I had
heard that the Don Conner had bought a good interest in the HTW Lumber
Co., but had never met them until last Saturday when I had a chance to
meet the better half Margaret. I went back a few days later and got to
meet and talk with Don.
Don
is one of the Conners of the Bee House community, where he grew up.
After graduation from high school, he attended college, taking his last
degree from Tarleton at Stephenville. His college work was interrupted
by two years service with Uncle Sam’s Marines. Thirteen months of that
time was spent in
Vietnam
.
During
some of those Tarleton days, Don met a fair young maiden by the name of
Margaret Bourland from McGregor. As such meetings often do, this one led
to their marriage. They built them a home at Evant, where they reared
their two children, Mike and Jennifer. Mike is in the 7th
grade and Jennifer is in the 3rd.
They
are both active in the community life and in the
First
Methodist
Church
there in Evant. Don is one of the church trustees and Margaret is
coordinator of the children’s Sunday school work and also teaches one
of the children’s classes.
Incidentally,
I met Margaret’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Bourland of McGregor. They
impressed me as being fine, sturdy stock American citizens. They were up
here to see their grandson, Mike, play football for Evant.
Right
now the Conners head in different directions each morning. The children
head for the
Evant
School
, Don, heads north to his work here, and Margaret goes south to Lampasas
where she is an English teacher in the middle school there.
Don
was with the Texas Youth Council at the
State
School
in Gatesville for seven years before he began working for the Texas
Department of Human Resources here in
Hamilton
. Don is eagerly looking forward to becoming a lumberman where he will
deal with the construction of buildings rather than lives.
Don
says he has no plans to change the name from HTW as the name is well
known for its friendly, home-owned type of business. He wants people to
see their service as one spelled with a capital S. The Wilkersons and
Humphries still have some interest in the corporation, so Dan and Curtis
will be directors. Maurine will continue as bookkeeper and would
probably take time to sell you a gallon of paint, or some nails. Don’t
you know this will make a great team: a Baptist deacon, a Presbyterian
elder and a Methodist trustee?
If
Don continues in the lumber business as long as Dan did, he will be
getting some gray hairs. Dan began working for Higginbothams soon after
his college days at SMU. He and Maurine Register were married in 1935 so
his lumber yard days probably started before that. That means that he
will soon have 50 years of service behind him.
After
sometime with Higginbothams here, the Wilkersons moved to Comanche,
Dan’s old home town, for a few years. They returned to
Hamilton
when he was offered the management of the Clawson Lumber Co.
If my
memory serves me right, A. G. Thompson put in the first lumber yard at
that location and then sold it to the Clawsons who had other yards
around. The Clawsons knew Curtis Humphries from his school teaching days
at Flat, so they hired him to manage the yard here. The Humphries wanted
to get back into the teaching profession, so they got Dan to come back
and manage the
Hamilton
yard.
Herman
Tomlinson was in the construction business and was using a lot of
material, so needed a good source of supplies. The three families formed
a company and bought out the Clawsons: thus we have the HTW Lumber Co.
The Humphries went to
Eldorado
,
Texas
where Curtis served as superintendent of the schools for several years
and Estelle was an elementary teacher.
Don
would like to meet each of you, so why not drop by some day and get
acquainted with
Hamilton
’s new merchant. You may even see Dan or Curtis hanging around. You
see, old lumbermen never die, they just keep hammering away.
Shared by Roy
Ables
ACROSS THE
FENCE
