Wedding of Junius & Lilly Farrar

50th Wedding anniversary

Greetings, Earl and Jim,
I recently saw the old photo of the first gasoline station in
Melrose on the Find-A-Grave site for the Farrars. Not knowing whether you have the identities of those in the photo, I thought I'd try to name them while at the same time making some remarks about the photo. We knew these people many years ago and are certain of who most of them are, and are fairly certain of the others. Here's my best try, starting from the left: Loy Stockard, Woodrow Rogers, Sidney Pace, Earnest Cooper, Bundy Stockard, Johnny Miller, J. D. Farrar, Opal Farrar, "X" person , Pete Pierce. Ernest Hunsaker isn't in the photo as they had earlier moved to Fort Stockton, TX, to establish a new Phillips-66 station. I believe the "X" individual's surname was 'Latham'
or something similar; one of his legs was shorter than the other due to polio; his truck rolled over and burned up somewhere out near McAlester, NM, around 1940; he escaped injury. If I happen to recall his name, I'll send it later. Perhaps you already have the identities and can confirm who each is.
Looking carefully in the background directly behind Loy's truck, you can barely see a full acre of broomcorn bales. Melrose was the broomcorn capital of the world at this time. Don Rogers was among the school kids who pulled broomcorn each September during the years of 1940 through about 1946. We were in classes during August, and school was out of session during September in order to harvest the crops.
I don't know what year the Farrar family moved to Melrose from around Wellington, TX, but I'd guess it was during the early or mid-1920's. Mr. Farrar was an excellent businessman. He added gas stations as horses and buggies transitioned to automobiles, including those at Weber City, Ragland and St. Vrain. My father and Woodrow drove the long-haul tank trucks to refineries in Borger, Pampa or occasionally Sweetwater, TX. We had the awesome adventure of living at Ragland for a year (1935) during which Daddy operated the station/store there. Mr.
(1935) during which Daddy operated the station/store there. Mr.
Farrar took over the Melrose City Garage after it fell into hard times, so we returned to Melrose and Daddy managed the garage for a time before going back to driving the gas
truck. Daddy transferred to manager/operator of the downtown Melrose gas station in 1941. Mr. Farrar sold his business to Ed Comer sometime during the war. One of Ed's first actions was to 'change the manner in which the gas stations would operate.' My dad always avoided confrontations, but he told Comer that the Farrar business was built on a firm footing and that any change in the manner of operation would be a recipe for failure. Comer reconsidered and decided against changing everything. Comer was a good man but didn't have the business acumen of J. D. Farrar.
A word about the Farrars: Never lived a better, more honorable man than J. D. Farrar. Mrs. Farrar was the closest to being an angel of anyone I've ever known. They were the very best. A photo of the five Farrar girls sat atop a corner table in the family home directly across the street west of our little house in Melrose. Whenever I went over to play with Don and Buddy
or Sonny and Joan, Faye would sometimes be there. She'd ask me to point at the prettiest of the Farrar girls. ALL of them were more gorgeous than any movie star who ever existed! However, I always pointed at 'Faye', daring not point at any of the others.
Sorry to be so wordy. I really appreciated looking at the Farrar page in Find-A-Grave. Thanks a million,
Leon Cooper