Lemuel Emery Loffer

  General Notes:

Lemuel was born in the town of Bruno, in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. He was the first grandchild of Henry Sylvester Loffer. He spent the early years of his life on his father's 80 acre homestead, next to the homestead of his grandparents' Henry and Sarah, where he had aunts and uncles to spoil him.

In 1899, when Lemuel was five, his father Charles made a brave decision. Pondering better opportunity, he loaded his family's meager possessions into just one wagon. With wife Mahala and young Lem by his side, Charles headed for Texas. They settled in Cass County, where Lemuel's brothers Albert and Edgar were born. Charles Loffer ran a grist mill, and opened a blacksmith shop. In addition to shoeing horses, he made and repaired farm plows and tools. Lemuel grew up there, working with his father, around the mill and the blacksmith shop.

In 1911, at the young age of 17, Lemuel fell in love with Miss Sallie Eva Wommack. It seems that young Eva, just 15, and Lem decided to get married. They were on their way to see the preacher, Lem at the reins of their horse-drawn buggy, when they met up with him along the road. Since it appeared that everything was in order, it was decided that the preacher could perform the ceremony then and there, as the couple sat in the buggy. The wedding of those two young people that day was the beginning of a marriage that would span 59 years. And for all those years, Lem respectfully referred to his wife as "Miss Eva".

The first year of their marriage, Lemuel tried farming, but didn't care for it. For the next few years, he worked for the Jefferson & Northwestern Railroad. He then set up a saw mill on some timberland in Elmira, about 10 miles east of Marietta. With 3 or 4 helpers he milled the timber, sharing the proceeds with the land owner. For a while, he lived there through the week, coming home only on the weekend to Sallie and his young daughter, Irene. Years later, Irene said her father sent for them to come to Elmira after he built a house. She was very young but remembered that they traveled the 10 miles in a wagon, to the humble house that Lemuel had built. After shutting down the saw mill one afternoon, he and the hands started and completed building the house, before dark that day!

During the mid 1920's, Lemuel moved his saw mill to larger quarters on the east side of Marietta. He eventually started another mill on the west side of Marietta, about a quarter of a mile from his home. By the end of the decade he had started the "Marietta Telephone Company". It consisted of Lem, as the maintenance man, with a switchboard in the Loffer home, operated by Sallie and their daughters, Irene, Lillian and Eva. His Company started out with a few subscribers in Marietta, and then expanded to the outer towns of Bryan's Mill, Union Chapel and Douglasville. About 1948, Lemuel opened the L.E. Loffer Lumber Company. The lumber company sold southern pine lumber to several outlets, including a large customer, Casa Linda Lumber Company of Dallas. Through the late '50's and early '60's, Casa Linda sent an eighteen wheeler once a month to pick up lumber from Lemuel. At the same time, Lemuel still devoted much of his time to his first love, the saw mills, while his girls actually handled the day-to-day operations of the phone company. Besides teaching them responsibility, his daughters shared in the profits.
Lem owned and operated the phone company until about 1960, then sold it to daughter Lillian's husband, James Stevens. He continued to run the saw mills until retiring, about 1963.

Living such a busy life, Lemuel and Eva almost never left their hometown. They traveled once, in the late 1920's to Oklahoma. They boarded a train in Naples, Texas and went to Miami, Oklahoma to visit some of Lemuel's relatives there. Lemuel got to visit with his Loffer aunts and uncles that he had not seen since leaving Arkansas, as a five year-old boy; Uncle Tom Uncle William, Aunt Sylvia and Aunt Lindie. He met numerous cousins, for the first time.
While they were visiting in Oklahoma, close friends stayed at their home in Texas with the children, and operated the switchboard. Many years later, Lemuel and Eva took another meaningful trip, to attend the Baptist World Alliance in Cleveland, Ohio, from July 22-27 in 1950.

In 1929, Lemuel was ordained as a deacon in the Oakridge Baptist Church in Marietta, and served faithfully in that church until his death in 1970. He was a good citizen and a patriotic American, who was well liked and extremely respected throughout the community. In 1936 he was elected to the School board in Marietta. Though he ran for office only that one time, he served on the board until 1969. It seemed that every time an election was held, Lemuel was a favorite "write-in". He was re-elected time after time, by citizens of the community. He served for the most part as secretary of the school board for 30 years, then as president, for the last 3 years. He joked that it only took him 30 years, to make president!

Lemuel married Sally Eva Wommack, daughter of John Abner Wommack and Mary Francis Wilbanks, on 24 Dec 1911. (Sally Eva Wommack was born on 26 Feb 1896 in Marietta, Texas and died in Oct 1982 in Morris, Texas.)