1905 GENERAL STORE INTERIOR — JACKSON McFARLAND CO., LADONIA, TEXAS

Every clerk identified by name. Finck's "Detroit Special" Overalls poster in frame.

Sold with two documents that establish provenance.

An original mounted photograph, dated 1905, showing the interior of the Jackson McFarland Co. general and department store in Ladonia, Fannin County, Texas. Eight employees are posed along the dry goods counter, with stacked bolt goods on the shelving behind, a glass display case, a bolt of wrapping paper on the cutting counter, and a large Finck's "Detroit Special" Overalls advertising poster hung above the balcony at right.

The verso is inscribed in period red ink with the firm's name, the year, and every person in the frame, left to right:

Miss Trula Shelton

Miss Eugenia Samuell

Mrs. [given name struck through] Melton

Cyrus S. "Bose" McFarland

S. E. Bartley

Luther P. Kean — a later hand has added an arrow and the name "Tom Pickens" in blue ink

Jim Hardy

Arthur Cooper

"1905"

The mount carries a blind-stamped photographer's imprint at lower centre: House Bros. Studio, Ladonia, Texas.

THE STORE

Jackson McFarland Co. was established in 1877 on the southeast corner of the Ladonia town square and operated by the McFarland family until 1925. The firm was substantial enough to issue its own trade tokens. The "Jackson" in the name was not a partner but a given name — Andrew Jackson McFarland (1817-1883), eldest son of James M. McFarland, who with Daniel Davis is credited with founding Ladonia around 1840.

The man at the centre of this photograph is the proprietor. Cyrus Sylvester "Bose" McFarland (1865-1925) was principal owner from 1902 until his death; the store's account books close the same year. He is buried in Ladonia Cemetery. Several of the clerks are likewise documented Ladonia residents: Eugenia E. Samuel (1868-1912), Samuel Edward Bartley (1880-1948), and Luther P. Kean (1886-1938), who at nineteen would have been the youngest man behind the counter.

THE TOWN

Ladonia was at its high-water mark when this was taken. The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway arrived in 1887 and turned the town into a marketing centre for cotton, corn, oats and wheat. By 1897 it counted roughly 2,000 residents and about 100 businesses, six of them dry goods stores. The population never returned to that level.

THE FINCK'S POSTER

The advertising poster at upper right is for the "Detroit Special" Overall, made by W. M. Finck and Co. of Detroit, founded 1902, famous for the slogan "They Wear Like a Pig's Nose" and its pig trademark, and bought and retired by Carhartt in 1960. Because the firm did not exist before 1902, the poster independently corroborates the inked 1905 date.

Original Finck's paper advertising is far scarcer than the surviving tin, porcelain and door-push signs. A photograph documenting a Finck's poster in place, in the store that hung it, is an unusual piece of advertising evidence in its own right.

PROVENANCE — TWO DOCUMENTS INCLUDED

This lot comes from the estate of Jacqueline Diane McFarland (1943-2025) of Birmingham, Alabama. Two further items are included, and together they document how the photograph travelled from Texas to Alabama:

1. A mounted photograph of her father, JACK McFARLAND, as a small child. It is inscribed with his name on the verso and blind-stamped by House Bros. Studio of Ladonia, Texas — the same studio that made the store photograph.

2. A 1963 airmail envelope from CHOICE MOORE, COUNTY JUDGE, BONHAM, TEXAS. Postmarked Windom, Texas, 16 March 1963, addressed to Mr. Jack McFarland at 831 North 22nd Street, Birmingham, Alabama, and marked "VERY PERSONAL" and underlined. Franked with six 5-cent stamps: a heavy packet.

The public record fills in the rest. The 1910 United States Census records Jack McFarland, aged 5, born in Texas, living in Fannin County, Texas as the stepson of Oscar and Nodie Moore. The 1950 census records him at Homewood, Jefferson County, Alabama, aged 45, born in Texas, occupation Beer Distributor, industry Wholesale Beer Distributor, working in his own business. His daughter Jacqueline, aged 6, appears on the line below his.

So: photographed as a child in Ladonia by the store's own photographer; established in Birmingham by 1948 with his own beer distributorship at 831 North 22nd Street; still corresponding with the Fannin County judge in 1963. The photograph remained in his family until his daughter's death in 2025.

Sold as found, from a recent estate purchase. Please see all photographs, which form part of the description: the mount imprint, the full inscribed verso, and both provenance items are pictured.

Other photos and documents from the same estate are for sale and listed separately.