This information was found in the vertical files of the Genealogy Department of the Longview Public Library.

THE AVINGER CITIZEN
Special Historical Edition
Jun 18, 1954

One of Avinger's present residents who has played a major part in the building and development of the town is D.R. Coulter.

He was raised in Wolf City, Texas, his father and mother, having moved there from Arkansas. The Coulter family has a published history of their ancestry; a large volume with coat of arms on flyleaf, containing much interesting information about all branches of the family.

D.R. Coulter came to Avinger as a young man of 27. The year was 1896 and his first venture was a general store partnership with his brother-in-law, A.M. Shelton. Mr. Shelton had arrived in town about a year earlier and opened the business in an old wooden building built by W.B. Duncan and located where the drug store is now. The same building earlier housed Lassater's general store for which it was built. In later years, it was used as a warehouse by Mr. Coulter until he tore it down in 1928 to build the large red iron clad cotton warehouse now used for a woodworking shop by H.A. Bridge.

In 1900, now having gotten a thriving mercantile business well underway, D.R. Coulter moved his family into Avinger, to the new house just completed for them which, after various alterations and improvements down through the years has become the large, attractive white house on the hill still occupied by him today.

The Coulter-Shelton partnership was dissolved in 1905 and the business having outgrown its first location was moved to a large, new two section building built by Mr. Coulter during that time. This spacious building was torn down by degrees during the 30's and two garage buildings, one now occupied by Early's garage and the other an East Texas Sawmills warehouse were built out of it on the same site.

It was during the occupancy of this building that Mr. Coulter became widely known as a cotton buyer. The town became known as a cotton buying center and during 1913 and 1914 bought and shipped more cotton than either Jefferson or Hughes Springs. D.R. Coulter and Co. had begun to play its large role in the town's function as a big trade center, drawing customers in from miles around.

By 1913 Mr. Coulter's mercantile enterprises had again outgrown their facilities and construction was begun on a large, brick block, three sections of which were to house the rapidly expanding business. Tucker-Coulter-Mitchell Co. opened its doors for business in 1913. A more modern, diversified mercantile establishment was not to be found at the time anywhere this side of Dallas. This partnership did an extensive business from 1913 on through until 1924 when it was discontinued and the stock and fixtures were sold to E. C. Henderson & Co. Mr. Coulter retained ownership of the building until it was destroyed by fire in 1949.

During the early twenties, while still a partner in T.C. Mitchell Co., Mr Coulter had also become very active in the lumber business. The first D.R. Coulter lumber Co. office was located in a small wooden building where the REA office is now. When Mr. Coulter built the present drug store building in 1929, he moved the wooden building at the rear and built the present brick office section for his lumber company office.

As a lumber broker, Mr. Coulter was among the largest in East Texas who did much toward putting Avinger on the map as a lumber center. There were times when he had thirty and forty carloads enroute at once. On one occasion he offered Whitworth Brothers Lumber Company a new Dort Automobile each to ship a million feet of lumber in a given period of time. In the process of getting the automobiles, they had as many as twenty box cars loading out at a time on their J&NW siding.

During the twenties Tucker-Coulter & Mitchell Company held many trades days, during which various contests were held such as climbing the greased pole, guinea chases and chasing a greasy pig, for which various prizes were awarded. Each year Mr. Coulter gave prizes for the cleanest bale of cotton, the most bales raised on five acres and the first bale of the season. These actions on his part did much to encourage 4-H club youth through the area. One year the prize for the cleanest bale went to the Wimberly family whose father, an invalid, meticously picked every piece of foreign matter out of each pound of cotton brought in to him by his children.

Similar prizes were awarded from time to time for the best specimens of other types of farm produce. One year a certain local farmer attended the Pittsburg Fair and bought the watermelon that won first prize there for being the largest. He brought it back to Avinger and walked off with the first prize in Mr. Coulter's biggest watermelon of the year contest.

Other members of the present day Coulter family are two daughters; Mrs. J.D. Pinkson, of Avinger; Mrs. C.B. Templeton of Mineola; and a grandson, Coulter Templeton of Mineola. Mrs. D.R. Coulter died in 1936. She was Fannie Thompson, sister of the late Arthur Thompson, a former merchant of Avinger, and more recently of Bryans Mill; and Mrs. Cora Mitchell, formerly of Avinger but now residing in Galveston.

During the depression of the early thirties, when a great number of banks were closing throughout the country, Mr. Coulter wired the state banking authority and told them he would personally guarantee all deposits in the Avinger Bank. As a result of this prompt, decisive action on his part, the local bank weathered the storm during a crucial time when many other banks in the country went under.

Mr. Coulter has served Avinger in many other capacities; civic and religious as well as commercial.