A Woman Who Moved Amarillo

In 1890 a slender, strikingly beautiful woman named Melissa Dora Callaway Oliver (Joshua Sanford, Joshua, Edward, John, Peter Callaway), accepted the invitation of her merchant brothers, John and James Callaway, to visit Amarillo for the first time.

The wife of industrialist Capt. William Oliver, principal stockholder of Mississippi Mills, the South's largest textile manufacturer, Mrs. Oliver returned to the Texas plains on several occasions and, in 1891, purchased land in Potter and Randall counties. After her husband's death in 1895, she relocated permanently in the Panhandle.

Mrs. Oliver's arrival with her fine horses, carriage and household help, said to be the first blacks to come to live in Amarillo, created quite a stir.

Dressed in a black English riding habit with a small derby perched atop her head, she and her spirited chestnut mount soon became a familiar sight on the city streets. Her elegant attire and somewhat aloof public manner were such that townspeople began to refer to her as "the Duchess." To her family and close friends, however, Mrs. Oliver was known for her gentleness, warmth and great generosity.

Amarillo in 1895 was a town of about 500 people, and like the rest of the nation, was in the throes of economic depression. With a personal fortune which exceeded the combined capital of all the area banks, Mrs. Oliver began to inject funds into the town at a time when money was sorely needed for growth.

As the entrance of a woman into the financial world was virtually unknown, most of her early transactions reflected the name M. D. Oliver. Thus, those to whom the banks loaned money in her behalf were rarely aware that the actual lender was a woman.

At age 38 and after being widowed for 11 years, Dora Oliver remarried in 1902 to O. M. Eakle, an organizer and director of Amarillo National Bank and first president of the Amarillo Board of Trade (predecessor of the Chamber of Commerce). The marriage was destined to be rocky, as Dora was independent and acustomed to making her own decisions. The couple was often estranged until Eakle's death in 1914. One child, Oliver Rea Eakle (pictured above with her mother), was born to the union.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Oliver-Eakle, as she was known after her second marriage, continued to vigorously pursue her business affairs.

In 1903 she filed with the city a residential plat which comprised part of the land she had purchased in 1891. The initial development of the Mrs. W. D. Oliver-Eakle Sub-Division extended from 15th Avenue to 34th Avenue and from the Santa Fe Railroad tracks to Washington Street. The land on which Amarillo College and Memorial Park are located are part of the original holdings. She gave the city Oliver-Eakle Park with its colored fountains.

Operating in a more traditional woman's role for the period, Mrs. Oliver-Eakle, herself an 1879 graduate of Georgia Female College, worked constantly to bring culture to Amarillo.

During the fall of 1900, for example, she encouraged her niece, Pearl Bethune Lawrence, to organize a girl's club to collect books for the town library. Seven years later she helped to finance the Amarillo Opera House, where there appeared such famous artists as Amelia Galli-Curci. When, following the Galli-Curci concert, the Amarillo chorus performed an original compostion to commemorate the occasion, Dora remarked, "Tonight, Amarillo enjoyed cornbread after the cake."

Besides her business and cultural interest, Mrs. Oliver-Eakle was also active in the temperance movement. The success of the campaign in Amarillo culminating in the prohibition of intoxicants was due in no small measure to her support and influence.

Dora's buiness affairs also continued to prosper. In 1927, at age 63, she completed Amarillo's first office skyscraper, the 10-story Oliver-Eakle Building (later renamed the Barfield Building). It was also during the "Roaring 20s" that Chicago mobsters made several kidnapping and extortion attempts on Mrs. Oliver-Eakle, prompting her to carry a pearl-handled revolver in her purse for protection.

Mrs. Oliver-Eakle's death on Nov. 17, 1931, was headlined and reported in area newspapers for four days. Long identified with the growth and development of Amarillo, and one fo the city's largest taxpayers at the time of her passing, Mrs. Oliver-Eakle's many contributions did not go unnoticed.

In 1938, the Amarillo Globe-News noted that, "When and if the Panhandle ever has a Hall of Fame of its own, the name of Mrs. M. D. Oliver-Eakle, pioneer builder of Amarillo, will be among the first to be honored.

More recently she was among the distinguished Panhandle women to be featured in an exhibit at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum. A collection of Mrs. Oliver-Eakle's papers, furniture and personal effects have been donated to the museum by her grandson, Bourdon R. Barfield. In addition Mrs. M. D. Oliver-Eakle is the subject of a forthcoming biography.

The above article was submitted to CFA by Bryon Price, Director, Panhandle Plains Historical Museum, and originally published in the 1983 CFA Journal.

Oliver-Eakle Honored in Texas
Melissa Dora Oliver-Eakle was recently honored by the state of Texas with an historical marker located in Amarillo. A descendant of two prominent 17th century families, she was the daughter of Joshua Sanford Callaway (1824-1899) and Melissa Ann Jordan (1829-1916). Her brothers were John and James Callaway.

Oliver-Eakle Park had been dedicated in her honor and it was there that the state marker was placed in 1985 to commemorate her 125th birthday. The mayor, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, William P. Hobby, and other local and state dignitaries were present. Her grandsons, Oliver Eakle Barfield and Bourden Rea Barfield, were on the speakers' platform. Her six great-grandchildren were present at the unveiling of the marker. The 5,000 invited guests were served birthday cake made from one of Melissa Dora's recipes. It was topped with sparklers. Guests were encouraged to dress in early period costumes.

The Amarillo Public Library planned an exhibit of early newspaper accounts, artifacts, and memorabilia relating to Melissa Dora Oliver-Eakle's involvement with the early development of Amarillo.

Excerpts from an article originally published in the 1986 CFA Journal.

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