Wadel-Connally Hardware Company
By Sam Ferguson, Production Manager, East Texas Journal
Burnet Wadel, born in 1863 at Summit, Miss., lived in Mt. Pleasant when he first came to Texas and was an employee of Joseph Moses Badt who had the Badt Brothers General Store on the East side of the Mt. Pleasant square and gave him his start in the mercantile business. He afterward moved to Tyler and was one of the founders of the Wadel-Connally Hardware Company.
He built Wadel-Connally Hardware Company building in Mt. Pleasant was built in the early 1950’s at the Southwest corner of Washington and East 5th Street, where one of VeraBank’s drive thru is now.
The hardware store was turn down in 1973 for the construction of the First National bank’s drive thru teller station.
The Wadel-Connally Hardware Company, with their headquarters in Tyler, was originally established in 1910 with a charter filed with the State Department, under the name of Wadel-Dickie Hardware with the incorporators being Burnet Wadel, J. F. Dickie and Walter Connally. They issued capital stock of $150,000. In 1916 an amendment was filed of changing their name to Wadel-Connally Hardware Company, said the August, 1910 and the February 1916, Austin American Statesman.
The hardware company had stores located in Tyler, Kilgore, Longview, Texarkana, Dennison, Greenville, San Antonio, Corsicana, Palestine, Lufkin and Mt. Pleasant.
“They carried standard hardware of every description, including shelf hardware, tools, cutlery, guns, ammunition, and such other lines as were carried by progressive hardware dealers. In addition to their complete department store for automobiles — every conceivable piece of equipment part for all makes of cars,” said the May 1931, Tyler Journal.
In 1958, Raymond Hedges was the manager of the local Mt. Pleasant’s Wadel-Connally Hardware Company.
Mr. Waldel’s daughter was an uncommon beauty. “Helen Wadel of Tyler goes the honor of being the first Princess for the Queen’s Court at the Gilmer Yamboree. She was a member of one of the Smith County capital’s best families, her father being president of the Wadel-Connally Hardware Company,” said the September 1935,” Gilmer Daily Mirror.
