Published April 14, 2004
Dear Editor:
My wife Merle and I, and our very dear friend Martha Lyles
Wilson, of Jackson, were privileged to attend a Board meeting of the
Oxford-Lafayette County Heritage Society that was held in the old
College Hill Store on March 18th of this year. The meeting was also
attended by U.S. Senator Thad Cochran and the Mayor of Oxford. It was
an honor to visit with the Senator again as we had met him last
August when we shared the Chancellor's Box at the first football game
of the season. I had been invited to Ole Miss to give several talks
to the Engineering School at that time. My reason to be
invited to the meeting at the store was the fact that this store had
been in my family for over 65 years, until my sister, the last owner,
had been forced to sell the building in the late 1980's because of
health and age problems.
I had been given a copy of the Sept. 22, 2000 issue of the
Eagle that had a very nice article about the store and it's
restoration. I spent the first 21 years of my life at this store,
until I had graduated from Ole Miss during WWII and been inducted
into the Navy Seabees. Very few of the current residents remember the
earlier years when my father, George Washington Galloway, owned and
ran the store.
Judge, as my father was known, was the local Justice of the
Peace for many years and he held court in the back of the store each
Saturday morning. He was so respected that the Dean of the Law School
at Ole Miss would bring his law students out on numerous occasions to
observe his activities. There are many stories that I could relate
about these trials, for I observed all of the trials until I became
12 years of age and assumed the Saturday responsibility of running
the grist mill that was adjacent to the store.
The Durham ladies and the Heritage Society have done an
outstanding job of restoration to the store and I reflected on many
fond memories during the wonderful luncheon and meeting.
David E. Galloway
Georgetown, Texas