Shelby County Today

September 22, 2023 - The intersection of US 59 and Texas 87 is the busiest place in Timpson, in no small part because that is where the Quick Stop is! With a convenience store, gasoline, car wash, truck stop, laundromat, and Whataburger on premises, there are a lot of reasons to visit! “I grew up on dairy farm outside of Logansport, Louisiana”, began Quick Stop owner Robin Gibson Connell in her talk before the monthly meeting of the Timpson Area Genealogical and Heritage Society last Wednesday. “But in the 70s my father sold our farm to a strip mining company. Timpson didn't have a modern convenience store at the time so he decided to build one and let my sister and me run it”.

“We came to Timpson and opened our store in 1979,” Connell continued. At first we had mostly gas and groceries, but we soon realized that people wanted something to eat, so we began offering barbecue and home-made pies. That went over pretty well. In fact, one local lady would bring her own pie plate to us to make a pie in. She explained that if she took a pie in a disposable tin plate to a church or social function people would know that she had bought it from us. So we did it for her. One day she came into the store and said she noticed that I had put a Texas flag up outside. She said 'Hon, I know you are not from Texas so I need to tell you that your flag is upside down! Always remember that the bandage goes over the blood'! Later we spent $4000 on commercial frying equipment and started offering fried chicken. That was a big hit”!

“In those days, we had a speaker with a microphone out at the gas pumps so we could talk to the customers. The microphone was always on but most people didn't know it, so we sometimes heard some very interesting conversations!” Connell remembered. “One lady thought the pump itself could hear and understand her, so she would pull up, get out of her car, pat the top of the pump and say 'You need to turn on and give me five dollars worth of gasoline, please.” So we would turn on the pump and give her five dollars worth.

“Our father and mother were Edwin “Bink” and Barbara Gibson. We always thought that Daddy was sort of a hermit because he didn't go into Logansport but about once a month and stayed out at the farm the rest of the time. Once he sold the farm we realized that the reason he never went anywhere was that he had so much work to do at the farm,” Connell revealed. “Once we got to Timpson and there were people coming in and out of the store for him to talk to, he was in his element. He loved greeting customers and drinking coffee and philosophizing with the regulars. He loved Timpson and its citizens and always wanted to know what was going on in the city”.

“Timpson was very different in 1979 from today. It was pretty wild and there were a lot of people here who had absolutely no respect for the law. Daddy paid close attention to what was going on,” Connell shared. One night after we had closed, my mother was totaling up the day's receipts while Daddy sat drinking a cup of coffee and looked out the front window. Whiteside Chevrolet was across the street where the clinic is now and Daddy saw somebody messing around one of the cars on Whiteside's lot. The only phone we had was a pay phone out front so he told my mother to call the Sheriff's Department and report what was going on. He then left her alone and went across the street with his shotgun! Sure enough two boys from Center were trying to steal the wheels off a pickup. Daddy fired his shotgun at the back of their truck and they jumped in and took off ! When the Sheriff's Department arrived they found out what had happened and told Daddy 'Mr. Bink, if Jim Whiteside fires at someone stealing something from his dealership that is okay, but you cannot fire at someone who is stealing from someone else!'” 

“When the father of the boy who owned the pickup which had been shot saw the damage to the vehicle, his son told him that someone in a ski mask had shot at them the night before. So, the father and the boys reported the incident to the Sheriff's Department Monday morning. The Sheriff, knowing the situation called my dad and said 'Mr. Bink we need you to come over here.' It was decided that since the boys had been in the wrong for trying to steal the wheels from Whiteside and my dad had been wrong for shooting the boy's pickup, they would just drop the matter,” Connell continued. “Daddy said he was offended that they said he was wearing a ski mask. 'I'm ugly but not THAT ugly,' he said.” 

Connell displayed a large aerial photo of the original Quick Stop, which was destroyed by fire. “Some guy came through saying he would take an aerial photo of your business. I thought it was a scam but Daddy did it and was so proud of this picture”. She then pointed out details and old automobiles known to long-time Timpson residents.

“You know, some people say that Timpson is in decline, but I have been here since 1979 and I can tell you it's not true!”, Connell stated. She then read a long list of the businesses that she recalled operating in Timpson in 1979 followed by a list of the businesses in Timpson today. “As you can see, there's not much difference. We have about the same number of businesses now as we did then. The big difference is in sales. For example, Nix Forest Industries, the former Tyer Lumber Company, has about 50 employees, not much different from 1979, but they have constantly improved their operation. They now have state-of-the art equipment and are more efficient. They utilize every part of the logs that they buy. There are no piles of burning sawdust anymore. I would be afraid to even guess what their sales are but it is huge”!

“Texan Credit was started in Timpson and their home office remains here. They occupy two of the buildings downtown which they have improved and modernized. They employ 13 people here in town and they have 300 employees in their locations across Texas and Oklahoma. Any city would love to have them locate there but they are right here in Timpson,” Connell emphasized.

“Paul and Debra Smith's Smith Saw Service didn't even exist until 1990 but its sales are in the tens of millions of dollars now. They employ 80 people and Paul Smith holds dozens of patents. Smith Saw was sold to BID Industries out of Canada last year but continues to operate here.” Connell said.

“M&M Services has crews all over the United States and they are located here. They employ about 25 people locally,” Connell continued. “The City and Chamber worked hard to get the Cobb poultry operation here 30 years ago and had to spend a significant amount of money to provide the necessary utilities to them. But they employ about 50 people at the hatchery and about 30 out at the farm.”

“The largest employer in Timpson is the school system. For a long time they were far and away the largest, but that is no longer true, since other businesses have grown so much. The voters of Timpson ISD approved a big bond issue about 10 years ago for the Collegiate Center, among other things. I wasn't in favor of it but I grudgingly voted for it,” Connell revealed, “but what they have done is amazing. Through the STEM Program a student can graduate from Timpson High School with a two-year college Associates Degree at no cost to the student's family,” Connell revealed. “Our school facilities have been upgraded, our football team is #1 in the state, and who hasn't heard of Mr. Texas Football, Terry Bussey?”

“What's going on in Timpson is incredible! There is no rental property available here. People want to live here. You can say you're from Timpson with pride!” Connell concluded.

The Timpson Area Genealogical Society meets at 2PM on the third Wednesday of each month in the meeting room of the Timpson Public Library on the corner of Austin and Bremond Streets in downtown Timpson. The TAGHS library is located within the Timpson Public Library and is open and staffed from 9AM until 5PM weekdays. Telephone 936-254-2966 and ask for the Genealogical Library.