George E. Darsey Sr. came to Texas from Sunnyside, Georgia in the fall of 1873 with his aunt, Mrs. Hariet Cash, and worked on the Shivers farm on the Trinity River. When Mr. and Mrs. Cash returned to Georgia, George E. Darsey moved to Crockett where he clerked in a general store. He also carried the mail horseback from Crockett to Centerville during this time. He was then a traveling salesman for a year or so, and after quitting the road in 1882 returned to his old home in Georgia for a visit. After returning to Texas, he went into business in Grapeland with John R. Foster. The business was originally a partnership between Downes and Foster before becoming John R. Foster & Co.

An important element in the career of George Darsey was the habit and rule he had always adhered to – that he save a part of his earnings regardless of the amount he was making. In this way, he saved the small capital necessary to go into business with Mr. John R. Foster. According to Mr. Foster “George had $465 and I had $765… We had a pretty hard time getting started off, but we soon began to make money. ” Mr. Darsey bought out Mr. Foster’s share in 1886 and continued the business under his own name, George E. Darsey.

The original store was a frame building and housed a wide variety of merchandise. Mr. Darsey sold dry goods, furniture groceries, and all types of farm equipment. As the business grew, he replaced the original building with a large brick building, 27′ by 125′ in 1898. According to the Crockett Courier, it was the first brick building in Grapeland.

While visiting in Georgia, George encouraged his first cousin, William Grey Darsey, to move to Texas to help him in his business. William Grey Darsey moved to Grapeland in 1900. On his arrival in Grapeland, he went to work for George and slept in Darsey’s Store at night. In the early days, the town was wild and wooly and it was a common occurance for the bullies to go up and down the street at night and shoot the lights out in the stores.

Mr. W.G. Darsey was a skilled book-keeper. He set up a double entry system of books similar to those commonly used in banks. This system of bookkeeping is still being used by Darsey’s Store now. 

The business grew from 1900 until by 1907 another brick building had been added on the adjoining lot north of the original building. At this time, the store was departmentalized with the dry goods department moved across the street into a building next door to the new Farmers and Merchants State Bank. The other two buildings housed the stocks of groceries, hardware, farm supplies and furniture.

The Darsey buildings were destroyed by the town fire of 1913. Mr. Darsey lost six buildings in the fire, but some of the merchandise from his store was saved and he was in business the next morning on the railroad siding in box cars rented from the railroad. Immediately, after the fire, a corrugated iron warehouse building was erected on the block directly behind the store block. This structure then housed the business until the new store building was ready for occupancy. 

The new store building built in 1913 was 75′ by 125′ and occupied the two lots his main store building had occupied plus the adjoining lot. It had no interior walls, but was divided into three main sections – hardware and grocery, furniture and housewares, and drygoods. This building opened onto Front Street and the alley behind the store through two doors and also onto the side street through one door. The office was at the rear of the store on a platform surrounded by a railing. There were four sets of stairs leading up to the platform. The backstairs led into the office and the frontstairs joined a walkway for the customers to use in front of the railing to come up to pay accounts or borrow money to lay in their crops. The office contained a large brick vault to keep records and deeds safe in case of fire. They also had a large safe for money. Many of the customers left their deeds and other valuable papers at Darsey’s for safekeeping. They also had used Darsey’s Store as a depository for their money before the bank was established. This large vault had been a part of the original brick building before the town burned and had many valuable papers of the people of the community in it. George Darsey did not allow the vault to be opened for a week after the town fire. He was afraid that the heat from the bricks of the vault might cause the papers inside to ignite when it was opened. After it cooled, the vault was opened and everything inside was found to be intact. 

The business was operated as  a proprietorship until 1917 when a family partnership was formed, including W.G. Darsey Sr. and S.N. Boykin Sr. as members of the firm. This partnership continued until 1930, when the death of George E. Darsey Sr. brought his wife, Mrs. Lorena Murchison Darsey, and their children, George E. Darsey Jr., Mrs. Leon Anderson, M.E. Darsey Sr., and Mrs. Frank Granberry into the partnership. In 19553, George E. Darsey Jr. and his son, Charley C. Darsey, bought out the interest of the other members of the family. An interior wall had been built to separate the drygoods section of the store from the rest and was rented to Wallace Pate. George E. and Charley continued to operate the grocery, appliance, and hardware sections. 

The partnership between George E. Jr. and Charley continued until the death of George E. Darsey Jr. Charley Darsey now owns and operates the business. 

This business was operated as a country store and was a family type business. Various members of the family worked in the many varied departments of the store. Joe Darsey and J.S. Darsey worked hardware, W.G. Darsey and George E. Darsey Jr. were office managers and cotton and produce buyers. M.E. Darsey Sr. managed the drygoods section aided by Miss Loye Darsey, Miss Mable Boykin, Starley Boykin Sr, and Mrs. maggie Darsey. As the children and grandchildren grew they were taken into the business as egg counters, sackers, and delivery boys until they were trained to handle more responsible positions. Darsey’s Store employed not only family members, but offered many young people their first job and furnished jobs for many families down through the years. During the depression years of the 1930s as the young men who were sons of the employees and owners graduated from college jobs were very short. They were given jobs by Darsey’s Store to drive cotton trucks to Galveston. Mr. Will Darsey jokeningly stated that only boys with college degrees could drive trucks for Darsey’s. 

The early day business of Darsey’s Store included everything from selling mules to buying cotton; from selling whiskey by the barrel to yarn for knitting. They sold feed, crocks, churns, well dippers, horse collars, nails, furniture, vegetables, high button shoes, clothes, Madam Alexander dolls, sporting goods, lumber, steamer trunks, coffins, and Huffmobiles. They bought many products from the local farmer and paid him with Darsey tokens ranging from 5.00 dollar to a 5 cent piece. In the Augusta news section of the Grapeland Messenger of 1907, their local reporter stated that ‘if you cannot find what you need in the Augusta stores then you should go to Grapeland because George Darsey sells everything from toothpicks to ocean liners.’ 

Darsey’s Store also served the function of an early day bank. Farmers would borrow money by the year to make a crop and pay in the fall when  the crop was gathered. Some people simply deposited their receipts with Mr. Darsey and wrote orders against the money. In 1907, George E. Darsey Sr. was one of the organizers of the first bank in Grapeland, the Farmers and Merchants State Bank. 

Today Darsey’s Store is operated as a grocery, hardware, and appliance store and is still operating under the original purpose of trying to meet community needs. The year 1986 marks its 100th year anniversary as a business house in Grapeland.