Adkins, R.V.

R.V. Adkins was born in Frog Pond, Texas in 1861 and died in 1941 at the age of eighty. Frog Pond was a settlement close to the Lawson Community, a few miles south of Mesquite. Once a week Granddaddy would go over to Haught’s Grocery Store at Lawson to shop and get his mail. The store was a “hang-out” for the notorious James boys, who were considered very dangerous.

R.V. married Laura Lee Davis. They lived there for a long time because he worked sixteen years to save $250 for a down payment on a seventy-five acre farm. We call this the “Home Place.” It is located three miles north of Seagoville on Simonds Road.

Five generations have lived on this property. Today my younger sister, Billie (Adkins) Ogletree, still lives there with her daughter, Barbara, and Barbara’s husband Rodney Yarborough; their sons Rocky and his wife, Terry, and Rusty with his wife, Kim, and their son, Cade “Adkins.” Cade is R.V.’s great-great-grandson and carries on the family name of “Adkins.”

In March, 1906, Grand-daddy Ad-kins started carrying the U.S. mail in his horse-drawn buggy. His son, (my Dad), Frank, would sub for him when he was needed. Later Frank’s brother, Porter, took over the route, which was south of Seagoville in an area called Bois d’ Arc Switch and another community now called Combine.

Porter carried the mail for twenty-eight years, then I, Frank’s daughter, followed in the Adkins footsteps and carried it in Seagoville for fourteen years.

After R.V. left the post office, he purchased land in downtown Seagoville. He was always very civic-minded, working to improve the community. Some time around 1910-1912 he built four brick buildings—three on Elm Street and one adjoining, facing North Kaufman Street.

Later Frank rented the building on the corner and named it “Adkins Confectionery.” It was open all day every day of the week except on Sundays, when he opened from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Friends from Dallas would drive out for ice cream, milk shakes and fountain drinks. They would pull up in front of the store and blow their horns; my oldest sister, Cozette, would go out, take the order, then take it back to them. Later she would tell people she was Seagoville’s first carhop. When Cozette was sixteen years old, she was chosen “Sweetheart of Seagoville” and awarded one dollar by the town’s merchants.

Granddaddy’s second building was a grocery store, managed by my Uncle Jim Fisher. Next door, in the third building, was Cliff Kellum’s Meat Market. The fourth building was a garage, which later was made into Mr. Brice’s Shoe Store, where he sold and repaired shoes.

In later years Adkins Street was named for my grand-daddy, R.V. Adkins. He owned the house on the corner of Adkins and North Kaufman. The house is owned now by Rodney Story.