Page 35 - Senior Link Magazine Summer 2026 - Online Magazine

The Watson Family’s

Impact on Levelland

by Pat Grappe and Jeannine Watson

n 1926, Ray and Georgia Watson
Iwere living comfortably in southeast
Oklahoma when they came across
an advertisement for a weekend
happening promoting the development
of Levelland and Hockley County. They
had an adventurous spirit, so they
packed up their Model A and drove to
Texas. It took two days to make the trip
with an overnight stop in a tent.
They arrived in time for the big event
and the celebration of a new town
in an area just beginning to open for
farming. The courthouse square was a
huge black-eyed pea patch for the use
of the whole community. They liked
the countryside, the people, and the
possibility of growth, so they returned
to Oklahoma to pack up and move to
West Texas.
The Watsons had both grown up
in families with histories of store
ownership, so they opened Watson
Dry Goods in a partially completed
building on the west side of the square.
For the first few years, they lived in the
back of the store.
Since they could not immediately
establish a line of credit to purchase
merchandise, they operated for a few
years as a branch of O L Watson and
Sons, a store that sold groceries, flour,
and feed in Boswell, OK and used Ray’s
father’s credit. In 1929, Raymond Able
joined their staff as assistant manager.
The operation continued until the
late 1940s when Ray retired. He sold
the business, but not the building, to
Raymond Able and Hubert Rutherford

Lubbock Senior Link 35