​Roach Feed & Seed Company

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Marker Text: In 1920, Garland businessman W. H. Roach and his son Haskell, who had recently graduated from Baylor University, acquired the retail grocery operation of M. D. Williams’ mercantile store and began business on the south side of the town’s square as Roach Grocery Co.Later, they sold the retail grocery business and opened a feed, seed and wholesale grocery company supplying small grocery stores in the area. A few years later, leasing land on the Santa Fe Railroad right-of-way, the Roaches erected a tin-covered building to house their Roach Feed & Grocer Co. The new store opened on June 16, 1933. It eventually became known as “A Texas Legend.”
     After his father’s death during World War II, Haskell “Hack” Roach eliminated the grocery inventory, and the business became Roach Feed & Seed Co. During this period, he also joined Earl McDaniel Sr. in purchasing a local grain operation and formed Roach & McDaniel Grain Co. One of its early customers was a young business, the Frito Company of Dallas, which grew to become an iconic American food corporation known worldwide.  
    McDaniel’s son Earl “Jack” McDaniel Jr. joined Roach Feed & Seed as a store employee in 1949. The two companies continued to operate separately until 1952, when Jack McDaniel purchased his father’s interest in the grain company and became Roach’s partner in that enterprise. After the grain operation was sold in the late 1950s, the younger McDaniel continued as Roach’s partner in the feed store.
​      Garland’s rapid growth in the decades after World War II brought demand for lawn, gardening and pet supplies, so the company evolved further. “Hack” Roach continued working at the store until the age of 91. He died Dec. 5, 1991, at the age of 93.

Marker No: 20087

Aluminum 27 x 42 Subject Marker

Geographic: 

Location: ​409 Main Street, Garland