AYERS FAMILY IN DALLAS

In the middle of the nineteenth century, Simpson G. Ayers was a cotton farmer in Tippah County, Mississippi. Little is known about Simpson Ayers, other than he was the father of twenty or more children by two wives.

Among Simpson’s children was William R., who became the blacksmith and gunsmith in the town of Faulkner, in Tippah County. William and his wife, Matilda Jane reared ten children. At the turn of the century, most of the Ayers children were looking at the lands of promise, Texas and California, to find a better life.

At the end of World War I, one of these children, Joe D., arrived in Dallas after practicing the barbering trade in towns where his brothers and sisters had settled, which were Corsicana, Rice, Santa Anna and Terrell. He also enjoyed working in some of the popular resorts such as Flagstaff, Arizona, and Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Dallas was Joe Ayers’ land of promise in 1920. He married a lovely Dallas lady by the name of Vera G. Morehart in December. They purchased a home at 2712 Hickory Street and four years later they had a son, Paul J.

While settling into life in Dallas, Joe became the owner of a large barbershop located on Stone Street in downtown. The beautiful black and white tile shop was in the heart of the financial, insurance and theater district. This shop offered all of the usual barbering services, plus manicures, shoeshines, and baths. Even wart removal was a common personal service offered. The elite professional / businessman of downtown Dallas parked his personal shaving mug and brush at the Stone Street Barbershop.

The financial damage of the crash on Wall Street in 1929 lingered on into the 1930s. The Stone Street Barbershop became bankrupt, along with a smaller barbershop, also owned by Joe, on South Ervay Street. At this point the barbershops were closed and the Joe Ayers family left Dallas (1936) to live on the family farm in Hunt County near Greenville. The decade of the 1930s was depression time, and life in the city was difficult.

Joe D. Ayers died of heart failure at the Hunt County farm on September 11, 1942.

Paul, son of Joe and Vera, returned to Dallas in 1982 with his wife Lou (McCollam) , also a native of Dallas. At the time they were finishing the last few years of their careers. Lou was a nurse at Grapevine High School and Paul was regional vice-president of a textbook publishing company. Both were retired by 1990, and Paul joined the adjunct faculty of Incarnate Word University in San Antonio.

During the 1920s sons and daughters of brothers of Joe D. Ayers made their way to Dallas to build careers. They were Oliver P., engineering at the Dallas Transit Company and a building contractor; Clayton V., owner of several auto service stations; Leona, a registered nurse; Mack Oliver, a registered nurse; and Hugh, owner of several auto service stations and a sheep rancher. Another Ayers family member in Dallas at the time was William E. Reed, son of Martha Loutisha Ayers (Reed). William E. and Joe were cousins.

As this piece is written in 2001, some members of the Ayers family remain at home in Dallas. Known to the writer are his cousins: Oliver C., son of Oliver P.; Joy (Ayers) Boone, daughter of Oliver P. Ayers and Nona (Reed) Williams, daughter of William E. Reed.