The Brown-McCandless House

James Hoyt Brown (1885-1962) came to Texas from Missouri in 1876 and settled at Bunger, Young County with his parents James (1839-1900) and Mary (Boughton) (1842-1929) Brown. On his becoming an adult he saw that there was a greater opportunity in the prairie area to the north out of the post oaks around Olney. In 1894, he became Olney’s third postmaster after having become a merchant in the Spring Creek Road area.

His store housed the post office and had the first telephone in Olney with a wire that ran along fence posts that led to Graham. His store also housed Dr. J.B. Johnson in the rear of the building. He married Carrie Gibbs (1881-1970) in 1900 at Orth, and they had eight children. The Browns were ardent members of the First Christian Church, and he was probably in charge of the construction of their building at Elm and Ave. D in 1912. He was a barber at one time and the organizer of the Woodmen of the World, a fraternal organization that was popular once. In addition, he was an Olney Constable, and after 1908, was involved in construction and house painting. I assume his residence was in old Olney and was hit by the 1928 tornado, Olney’s first tornado. His construction experience enabled him to repair his home.

In 1933, Brown bought the land to build this house on from another early-day builder in Olney, J.A. Norton, whose home still stands at the southwest corner of Grove and S. Ave. F with the purchase including 53 acres out of the Dieter Subdivision. This property goes all the way to Spring Creek Road and the Pioneer Cemetery, which I believe the Dieter Family donated. The Brown heirs retained 3.36 acres for the homestead, and they sold the 3.36 acres in the southwest corner that Justice of the Peace Stan Mahler had purchased for his home. In the 1971 deed to Dwight Hamilton, the Brown Heirs retained the 3.36 acres for the house. The heirs signing the deeds were Ouida Yates, J.H. Jr. Andre Alexander, Mell Danielson. Winifred Britton, Thedford Brown, and Talmadge Brown and the Guardian of Gibbs Brown. (Gibbs Brown was the son-in-law of John A. Young, Sr. of Megargel and brother-in-law to L.C. Young of Graham.)

In 1993, the deeds to the homestead were to Ann B. McCandless and her husband Aubrey, one from Mary Sue Lunn (the daughter of J.H. Brown, Jr. who grew up in my neighborhood on Farmer Ave. The J.H. Brown, Jr. family were members of the Olney Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and her father was a house painter of George Alexander, Jr., Cecelia B. Daniel, Talmadge Brown, and Judy Britton and the others from the guardian of Gibbs Brown.

Mrs. McCandless is the current owner of the property. (Mary Lunn is the daughter of J.H. Brown, Jr., whose husband was a Dept. of Public Safety employee. He was from Montague County but was not of the immediate W.N. Lunn Family of Olney who are in the funeral business.