Wichita Daily Times 5/15/1949
(C. Avis Catalog entry #118)
Too Young and Doesn't Look It But He's Real Old-Timer
By HARRY PARKS
Appearances are oftimes deceiving. Take F. Piner Avis for instance.
Not even a dude from the East would say Piner Avis looks like an old-timer. In the first place, he's too young, and in the second place, he just doesn't look like an old-timer.
That should conclude matters, except that he has been in Wichita Falls going on 64 years and probably knows as much or more about the city than any man living.
Several times in the past few years, attorneys have sought Avis, asking to clear up property disputes. And usually the amiable pioneer has been willing and able to oblige. He has been offered new suits, whisky, and other attractive items for such information. But he has maintained a strict amateur standing.
Piner Avis was born Dec. 17, 1885, in Wichita Falls.
First White Boy
His father, J. P. (Jim) Avis, was the first white boy born in Montague County. ("My father's picture hangs in the district courtroom at Montague.")
Jim Avis came to Wichita County for a "look see" in the latter part of 1878 or the first part of 1879, said his son. Here he met "Barefoot" Bryant, one of the biggest cattle kings in the United States.
Barefoot's 45,000 acre ranch ran right up to town and the north end covered part of the townsite. Young Jim Avis thought the county had great possibilities, so he recommended to C. C. White, Piner's maternal grandfather, that he lend Barefoot $45,000 - a dollar for each acre to refinance his ranch.
The deal was put through, but the price of beef being what it was, dry weather caused Bryant to fall into further financial declines.
Moved to County
The end result was that Jim Avis and his pretty young wife moved to Wichita County in March, 1884, to take over this 45,000-acre ranch. the ranch headquarters was moved to Sixteenth and Austin a couple or three months before Piner Avis came into the world.
Mrs. Avis, Piner's mother, has now attained the age of 84 and lives at 1318 Tenth. As a youngster, Piner saw Wichita Falls spring up from a few shacks and tents into a thriving city. As he grew up, the 45,000-acre ranch shrank as Jim Avis liquidated it, piece by piece, into cash and other assets.
The ranch has never been completely sold. Avis runs a 4,100-acre spread which begins about four miles from Wichita Falls and lies in three counties - Wichita, Archer and Clay.
Grandfather White also helped organize the Panhandle National Bank (now the First National) and Piner worked in the institution for several years.
Quit Banking
"I finally got high enough there would have to be two or three deaths before I could go any higher, so I ended my baking career," he recalled.
Piner punched cattle most of his early life, not because he had to, but because he wanted to. He was recognized as a top cowhand and bronc buster. ("I could ride anything with hair on it.")
In the latter part of 1908 he bought something new to ride. It was an Abbott-Detroit, one of the first, if not the first, automobiles owned in Wichita Falls.
Later that year it was stolen, and became the first automobile theft recorded in the state of Texas. The thief had his troubles however. The car high-centered frequently and was recovered.
Avis' second car was an Overland, purchased in Dallas March 21, 1910, for $1,780. The Wichitan determined to drive it home and did so, but not without difficulties.
Stopped With Jar
Most of the roads had been made and maintained for wagon and buggy travel. They were high in the center and deeply rutted. In Wise County Avis hit a high center; the machine stopped with a jar.
"There was no hope of getting it off," he averred, 40 years later. "The only person on the whole horizon was a farmer plowing a flop-eared mule.
"'Well,' he told me, 'this mule ain't never seen a automobile, and I ain't never had nothing to do with one, but I reckon we can try.'
"Forthwith we blindfolded the mule, hitched him to the car with some barb wire, and took off the blindfold. He got the car off the high center."
Avis offered to pay his benefactor, who staunchly refused.
No Visible Effect
"Maybe," parried Avis, "you'd like a drink?" Breaking out a quart, he watched half of it gurgle down the man's throat, without cough or visible effect.
At that point, he decided to stick around a while longer. The farmer took another healthy drag, and Avis blinked in astonishment. Fifteen minutes later the farmer was still upright and steady. So Avis gave him the rest of the quart and drove off, sure that he had met a might good man, or one with a might strong stomach.
Piner Avis also gave $2.50 toward starting this city's first chamber of commerce, and J. A. Kemp gave $5. But that is another story.
"The trouble with a lot of old-timers," Avis reported, "is that they talk too much."