Brautigam family

Personal customer service, complete with G.W.'s frequent story telling, and quality meat from their butcher made the store an area icon. Because Victor cut the meat to order and according to customer specifications, his work drew a heavy stream of out-of-town patrons.

G.W. and Lilly had four children including Victor and his brothers Lonnie and Vernie who have all died. Two of G.W.'s grandchildren still live in Tomball and have a hard time describing what it is like to watch modern businesses replace their family history.

"It was fun growing up here," said Teri Nichols, G.W. Brautigam's granddaughter. "I like how [the new owners] have kept the old look and feel [of the family store]."

The store sold everything from toilet paper to saddle stirrups, Nichols said, and she remembers Lilly, her grandmother, had her own side of the store with a long glass case filled with sewing materials, yarn, paper and other supplies.

When she was younger, Nichols said, she and her cousin, Joan, were sent to the store every day during the summers to help write customer tickets and perform other chores. G.W. and Lilly had a policy allowing customers to pay at the end of the week instead of each shopping trip, so handwritten tickets were given with the balance in good faith that customers would return to pay.

The family also owned a slaughterhouse near the railroad tracks, less than one mile from the store—which is now a sports field—and allowed customers to rent lockers within their meat freezers if they did not have one at home.

While the store was completely demolished and its adjacent buildings have been repurposed, a plaque remains outside Main Street Crossing to educate residents and visitors of the family's iconic store.

Source: "Allied Families" by Margie Walter