Coleman's oldest firm, J. E. McCord & Sons, was started in 1876 by its founder, J. E. McCord, who first came to Coleman County in 1856 as a surveyor.  The earliest entries of the firm, started as McCord & Lindsey for the purpose of dealing in land, are in April and May 1876.  The firm was then at Trickham and it is presumed that the business began there.  When Coleman City was laid out in August 1876, the firm moved to the new town.

     There is no evidence as to where the firm first officed: possibly in a tent or one of the rawhide lumber buildings first put up in the new town.  During a surveying trip to Coleman in 1856, J. E. McCord applied for a land certificate to take up a 320 acre tract of land known as Pecan Springs.  When Mr. McCord returned to the county in Captain Ed Burleson's Texas Ranger Company as a Lieutenant, he was stationed at the company base on Home Creek, near the Mukewater settlement. At the start of the Civil War, the company was incorporated into the Confederate Army, (See Camp Colorado) and Mr. McCord rose to command the regiment and was promoted to full colonel.

     Following the war, Col. McCord operated a general store at San Marcos, but in 1876, he was back in Coleman County to start the land company with a friend by the name of Lindsey.  The company bought and sold land, primarily in Coleman and Runnels counties.  Upon the death of Mr. Lindsey in 1899, the name was changed to J. E. McCord & Sons.

     Col. McCord died in 1914 and his son, J. P. McCord, took over the business. J . B. McCord joined his father's firm after attending Schreiner Institute in Kerrville and the University of Texas.  In 1967, J. P. McCord died and J. B. McCord continued the firm.  In an interview with J. B. McCord (Coleman Democrat-Voice, 1976), Mr. McCord said the company represents owners of land in Runnels, Brown and Coleman counties who live elsewhere.  It is still representing some of the same families it originally did, some third and fourth generations.  J. B. McCord died in March 1983, and business is conducted by his wife, Billie McCord.

     107 years old, J. E. McCord & Sons has a special role our heritage...a company of dedicated service in banking, ranching and property management.