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White Deer Land Museum

116 S. Cuyler

Pampa, TX 79065

Dodd Grain and Produce supplied farmers and ranchers

Charles Wesley Dodd came from Kansas to Pampa in 1908 and went into business with his son, Chester Charles Dodd. The Dodd Grain and Produce at 403 W. Atchison supplied farmers and ranchers between Amarillo and Canadian.

In 1913, at Wichita, Kansas, C.C. Dodd was married to Myo McSkimming by her father, the Rev. D.D. McSkimming. Since their house in Pampa was not ready for occupancy, they stayed in the Liberty Hotel (owned by M.E. Fletcher), 121 E. Atchison, until their house was completed.

The two-story house at 211 N. Frost (now at 2300 W. Kentucky) was a Sears home built from a kit hauled by train and wagon and erected on the site. It was west of the block where there were hitching posts, a large tank for horses to drink and a place for wagons and carriages to park. The hitching posts were located where the Gray County Courthouse now stands.

Dorothy Dodd Peacock Brown, mother of Ivan Owen, Bob Wesley and Charles D. Peacock, was born in the Dodd home at 211 N. Frost. About 1917-18 the Dodds exchanged property with A.H. Doucette, whose farm was one and one-half miles southeast of Pampa.

In 1926 C.C. Dodd started Dodd's Produce and Hatchery at 115 S. Ballard and became known as poultry judge for county fairs. During the Depression of the 1930s, he closed his business in town and managed it from his farm.

A few years later his family moved to 504 E. Browning and Dodd worked for Pampa Office Supply until the U.S. Army hired him to have control of Army supplies during WW II at the Army Air Base east of Pampa.

In 1953 the Dodds sold the property on Browning Street to the Central Baptist Church and moved to 1418 N. Russell. Dodd was then in charge of supplies for the City of Pampa and helped establish the Pampa City Credit Union. He wrote the "Clearing House" articles for the Pampa News.

Dodd died in 1972 while visiting his daughter, Dorothy, in Burbank, California.

Myo Dodd was a member of many civic clubs and participated in many musical activities. The Dodds were members of the Methodist Church and bought the first piano for the Methodist Church at Starkweather and Foster.

In 1933 Myo worked at Mitchell's, a dress shop at 121-125 W. Foster. It was owned by W.C. and Pearl Mitchell, parents of Ruth Ann Holland whose bequest provided a substantial sum for the Holland Wing of the White Deer Land Museum.

Myo also worked for J.E. Murfee & Co. at 117-119 N.  Cuyler, which became Dunlap's and later moved to 1201 N. Hobart. She remained with Dunlap's until she retired in 1955.  She died in 1967.

About 1925, the Rev. David Dee McSkimming, a Congregational minister for 42 years in several states, came to Pampa to be near his daughter. Since there was no Congregational church in Pampa, he served as Presbyterian minister until he retired. He founded the Presbyterian Church in White Deer, Texas, and preached in Pampa at the Presbyterian Church that became the Duenkel-Carmichael Funeral Home at 301 W. Browning.

During a severe illness he saw a vision and, as soon as he was able to sit up, he called for brushes and canvas and painted his impression of "The Garden Tomb."

The left side of the painting shows shepherds tending their sheep and three crosses in an arid region where olive trees grow --- the olives are still there.

The empty tomb is shown in the center. Above the tomb is the new Jerusalem over which a light streams down from above and a few stars shine in the sky.

To the right of the tomb steps lead upward to a beautiful garden where flowers bloom with cedar and cypress trees in the background.

Some think the sudden contrast of vegetation and terrain in such a short distance is confusing, but those who have been to the Holy Land report that it looks just that way and that even the temperature in the garden side of the city is different from the temperature on the arid side of the city.

The painting hung over the choir loft of the Methodist Church for many years before the First United Methodist Church placed it in the chapel of the White Deer Land Museum in honor of all Methodist pioneers.