The Wood-Garcia House

In 1907, John W. Groves and wife conveyed this oversized lot to B.C. McCarty who in 1908 conveyed the lot to J.F. Ellis and wife Anna.

The Ellises in 1913 pledged the lot on a loan from the Loving State Bank and defaulted on the loan resulting in a sheriff ’s sale. Henry S. Groves (John W.’s brother) acquired the lot in the foreclosure sale in 1914 and immediately sold it to J.H. Wood whose heirs conveyed the lot to Wood’s widow, Katie in 1927.

In 1931, Katie Wood sold the lot to D.B. Wood (1885-1952) and wife Mabel (Wood) (1895-1979) who in that same year entered into a Mechanic’s Lien with Morrison Smith Lumber company to build the house in this story. Mabel and D.B. married in Olney in 1916 and they had two sons, D.B. Jr., and Kenneth who was in the 1945 OHS graduating class with the writer. D.B. worked for the Postal Service and be came the postmaster in 1939 and held that until his death. (An interesting side note is that Mabel’s brother-in-law was Tom Boddie who was the champion croquet player at the Continental Court on North Ave C in the 1930s.

In 1945, the Woods sold the house to Jesse Bradley who sold the house to Claude Oliver (1900-1987) and Rhundell (Choat) (1907- 1989) Ferguson in 1948. The Fergusons married in Ardmore, OK in 1925 and had one son, Floyd, but they did raise a cousin of Mrs. Ferguson, Jerry King, of Woolworth from the time he was 12. He was an OHS athlete and grad. Ferguson worked for Sinclair Pipeline Company for 40 years. They came to Olney in 1941 and he retired in 1954.

In 1954, the Fergusons sold the house to Mrs. Eunice (Moore) (1891-1974) Mercer, the widow of Isaac Ernest (1886-1954) Mercer. The Mercers married in 1911 at Godley, TX and came to Olney in 1918, and Mercer engaged in stock farming just North of Olney on Highway 79 and Hall Road. The Mercers had four boys and three girls with the oldest and the youngest girls best known in Olney—Mildred (1911-1999) and Bertie Doris (1926-2003). Mildred married Clarence Stowe and they lived on Shearer Road and their house was the first I did in this series. (Brenda Boydston is the daughter of Mildred.) Bertie Doris married a Ballard who worked in the oil patch and build the house that Charles Scobee lives in on South Ave. M today by Lunn’s Funeral Home.

In 1974, Don and Betty Mathews became the owners.

In 1988, William and Norma Myers became the owners as Bill used the house for his law office.

In 2007, Bill conveyed the property to Yolanda Garcia, and she leases it to Kenneth Schroeder, CPA.