Before It Was Mom & Dad's Icehouse

R.M. Dickson built a general store in 1860 that lasted into the 1930s. A building he built in 1892 was still in use as a grocery store in 1989.

In 1937 James Shaw rode horseback into the Lee County area in 1837 seeking a favorable grant of land as a reward for his military service to the Republic of Texas. At the time, a few families were living east of his claim at that time. Among the other early settlers in the area were Titus Mundine, Gabriel Smith, and Thomas Suppington.

In 1848 a post office named String Prairie opened with Shaw as the postmaster; he was also the schoolteacher, a surveyor, and a legislator. In 1850 the community changed its name to Lexington, after the town in Massachusetts. The economy was based on farming and open-range ranching. Settlers on the prairie east of the settlement raised cotton. In 1869 twenty-one families moved by wagontrain from Mississippi, and most settled in this area. As the population increased so did the need for services: general stores, gristmills, blacksmith and wood-working shops, and saloons opened.

Robert Dickson was a merchant in Alexandria, Calhoun, Alabama until he moved to Texas in April 1860. He was in the mercantile business until his death in 1893. The store's sign "R. M. Dickson-General Merchandise-1860" was painted on the front of the red brick building in Lexington for nearly one hundred years.

Source: Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas; A History of Lee County Texas

You Are Here