Mat Wyrick was born in North Carolina in 1850. His family later moved to Bradley County, Tennessee where he married Melinda Jan Capp in 1870. They had two boys, Sim A. Wyrick and John S. Wyrick. Mat Wyrick followed his brother-in-law, James Capp, to Texas in about 1875. Mat Wyrick first stopped off at Fate, Texas in 1879 and made purchase of a farm, putting up a forfeit to close in the fall. At closing time, the seller’s wife would not sign the deed; so Mat Wyrick came to Garland. After several years of share-cropping he purchased a farm on what is now known as Jupiter Road in Garland, Texas at $30.00 per acre. This farm is still in the family ownership today.
John S. Wyrick graduated from Garland High School and later attended Texas University at Austin for several years. His first job was with Frank Shanks, County Clerk of Dallas County. After several years with Dallas County he came back to Garland and opened a rural general mercantile business on Jupiter Road on a farm he purchased before he married. This business prospered and he later had stores in Reinhardt, Texas, and in Dallas at the corner of College and Worth Streets near the residence of the famed Col. C. C. Slaughter. In addition to his business he had several hundred acres of farm operations going with teams of mules. This rural community business center at Garland had in addition to the mercantile business a black smith shop and a Model T. Ford garage. It was at the time called Wyricksville on the pike, which was the main road from Garland to Dallas.
Mr. Wyrick’s favorite success story was telling of buying a cotton crop when he was 23 years old from a farmer going to West Texas. The crop was at the corner of Jupiter Road and Northwest Highway, the site of the old Garland Airport property. The cotton stalks were bare, stripped of leaves, squares and bolls by insects; the crop was purchased for just a few dollars with an old mare, which had never brought a colt, thrown in for good measure. This transaction was made in the Fall of 1900 before the great storm that blew Galveston, Texas, away. This storm blew on up to Dallas and it rained 3 days and nights on the Wyrick barren cotton crop, which immediately started blooming. The end result was that he made nearly a bale to the acre on the cotton crop, and the old mare brought her first colt that winter.
Business in those days was operated on credit, especially to farmers who generally paid up in the fall after their crops were harvested. Mr. Wyrick quoted many times that people were honest in those days and paid their just accounts, and their word was their bond. He was known to carry many farmers a second year after they encountered crop failures and they later paid up. He sensed a radical change in the attitude of people after the automobile replaced the horse and buggy as a mode of transportation. After everyone got cars they drove into town and did their shopping. Mr. Wyrick in these busy times managed to teach a men’s Sunday School Class at the First Methodist Church in Garland for many years.
John S. Wyrick married Ellen Beatrice Merriman January 21, 1906, at which time the heaviest snow ever to fall in Dallas County was on the ground. Ellen B. Wyrick was the daughter of the late J. B. Merriman, who came to Dallas County from Virginia in the Fall of 1880. Mr. Merriman’s homestead was on Abrams Road at White Rock Creek, which is now Merriman Park Addition. Ellen and John S. Wyrick had four boys: James, Roy, Gale and Clint. Roy and Clint are the survivors of the four boys.
Clint Wyrick married Maydell C. Pickett in 1948, and they have two daughters: Marilyn Wyrick Ingram of Dallas and Phyllis Wyrick Patterson of San Antonio. Both girls are graduates of Baylor University. The two daughters have four children who are called interest on the principal by their grandfather. They are also grand because you can play with them and when you get tired of them, you can send them home.
By Clint Wyrick, grandson, Garland
From Proud Heritage, Volume I by DCPA, currently out of print.
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