I have been studying my family history and have discovered some very interesting information about my 2nd great grandfather JL Oldham and his family.  JL "Lane" was a merchant that migrated to Texas from Tennessee in the 1850s.  His father, Nicholas Oldham, was a pioneer merchant in downtown Waxahachie. Lane had early ties to the Brazos County community of Millican around 1866 where he was in business with his older brother Leigh, who was one of the first merchants in Ft Worth before the Civil War. 
   I next trace Lane to Weatherford in 1867 where he was a merchant with Leigh and later, after Leigh's death, in 1869 in Fort Richardson where he was a post trader.  His ad ran in a publication called The Flea.
   Lastly, before his untimely death in 1880 (which ran on the front page of the Dallas and Houston papers) he was a wholesale liquor dealer in Ft Worth in 1877. I have in my possession a really cool old photo of a mercantile with the Oldham name across the front of the building. Please find photo and advertisements attached.  

   Here's hoping that you or one of your colleagues can determine the location of the Oldham mercantile photo as it could have been in Ft Worth, Millican, Waxahachie, Ft Richardson or Weatherford.   

   Also, in 1880, after the deaths of both parents, Lane and Bettie Oldham, the five children were raised by George B Loving and his wife Helen, who was a sister to Bettie.  George was a son of Oliver Loving and was a newspaperman in Fort Worth.  Because of this, we are fortunate to have much press about the family from those times.  Obviously, I am interested in the history of the Loving family as well.

Many thanks,
Gary 

  Gary Davis
408 N. Jackson Ave.
Livingston, Tx. 77351