JAMES W. AYNES
JAMES W. AYNES. The commercial spirit of Jacksboro is largely in the
ascendancy and is exemplified in the establishment of a few mercantile
enterprises which dominate the town and surrounding country and bring to the
city's urban limits a patronage ample to maintain it easily as the metropolis
of the county. The Aynes Dry Goods Company is conspicuous among these dominant
enterprises, and of its guiding and leading spirit, James W. Aynes, it is our
purpose herein to speak. Reared in an atmosphere of domestic commerce and
schooled in the marts of trade by teachers who were past-master in the art,
these influences have brought to him an endowment and an equipment for the
sphere that he fills unusual in a rural community like this.
A glace at the history of the Aynes family reveals its Kentucky origin and
shows Samuel Aynes, our subject's grandfather, to have been one of its early
founders. His birth occurred in the state of Virginia in 1795 and he lived in
Denton and Jack counties, Texas, from 1857, dying in the latter county in
1867. His forefathers are said to have been Scotch-Irish and Welsh and his
wife was Miss Elsie Malare, who passed away in Jack county in 1867, being the
mother of James, who died in Kentucky; John, whose life closed in the same
state; Elton became the wife of Squire Penn and died in Henry county,
Kentucky; Fannie married Frank Robinson and died in Fort Worth; David S.; and
Elizabeth, who died in El Paso as Mrs. Mark Harper.
David S. Aynes, father of our subject, was born in Henry county, Kentucky,
December 18, 1832, passed to maturity there, was liberally educated and his
introduction to the serious affairs of life was in the capacity of a teacher
of a country school. He came to Texas in 1857, stopped in Denton county,
married and taught a few terms of school. He came to Jacksboro in 1860, began
raising cattle and conducted a general store, and also filled various county
offices, being assessor, collector, treasurer and sheriff of the county. In
1864 he returned to Wise county and while there held the office of sheriff.
Returning west, he was for some years a resident and merchant at Belknap and
later on in life opened a store in Gainesville and sold good till 1895, when
he disposed of his interests there, came to Jacksboro, the scenes of his early
and vigorous life, and retired. In politics he has never been a Democrat and
in fraternal matters a prominent local Odd Fellow, and a consistent member of
the Christian church.
For his first wife, Mr. Aynes married Emily, a daughter of Dr. George Harper,
formerly from Naples, Illinois. His wife died in Jacksboro in 1875 and he then
chose Helen Scott for his companion, who bore him a son, Daniel, and a
daughter, Roxie, wife of John Montgomery, of Amarillo, Texas. By his first
marriage he was the father of James W., of this notice; Eliza, who married E.
W. Nicholson, of Jacksboro; David N., of Jacksboro; John S., who passed away
at fourteen years of age; Elsie, who married T. N. Brown, a leading merchant
of Jack county, at the county seat, and Hattie, wife of W. R. Sikes, of the
metropolis of Jack county.
April 21, 1860, James W. Aynes was born in Denton county, Texas. The first
four years of his life was passed in Jacksboro and his fifth and sixth years
in Wise and Denton counties. From 1866 to 1876 he was again among the boys of
Jacksboro, but the latter year entered the public schools at Denison for a
year, then farmed as a hand till 1878, when he went to work on the Denison
Herald as a typo for a year. In 1879 he returned to Jacksboro and took a
clerkship with D. C. Brown, remaining ten years, and succeeded that gentleman
in business with a partner, J. F. Marshall, which firm stood until 1894, when
Mr. Aynes conducted the business alone until 1897. The Aynes Dry Goods Company
was organized in 1900 and he was chose president and manager of the concern
and its business affairs.
Mr. Aynes helped organize the Jacksboro Mill and Elevator Company and has been
its secretary ever since. He hold stock in the concern and also in the First
National Bank of Jacksboro, which was organized fifteen years ago, and Mr.
Aynes was elected one of its directors and has served in that capacity
continually to the present time. Other enterprises looking toward the good of
the town have received substantial encouragement at his hands and his material
support of the Presbyterian church of Jacksboro is a factor toward its
permanency in this church and also in the Pythian Knights of the city.
March 23, 1888, Mrs. Aynes married Miss Kate Wolffarth, a daughter of Edward
Wolffarth, for many years a military guide at Fort Richardson, later county
clerk of the county, and who died here in 1898 at seventy three years of age.
He was a New York man and a veteran of the Mexican war and served in the
Federal army many years. Mr. Wolffarth married at Fort Belknap Miss Chattie
Sanders and the eleven children resulting all grew up. Mr. and Mrs. Aynes'
children are: Hattie, Annel, David Edward, Marie and Edna.
B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago:
Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 571-572.
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