Titus County, Texas History - The Broadstreet-Mullins Farm House

The Broadstreet farm house provides an excellent example of early Titus County homes. Paris and Mary (Harris) Broadstreet built the home about five miles southeast of Mt. Pleasant soon after they came to Titus County from Mississippi in 1861.

In 1864 their son Samuel was born (photo in insert above). He later attended the Louisville, Kentucky medical school and graduated in 1888. He returned to Titus County to practice medicine and set up his first practice in the farm house. In about 1890, he opened a larger office in Mt. Pleasant and practiced here for almost 50 years.

After successfully retiring from his Dallas business, John Henry and Margaret Broadstreet Mullins moved to Mt. Pleasant in 1970. In 1971 the Mullins moved the Broadstreet farm house from its rural location onto the back of their property which faced the 806 North Van Buren. They repaired and refurbished the house to preserve it, furnished it with period furnishings, and opened it to the public as a historical museum. The Broadstreet Farm House was awarded a Texas Historical Medallion in 1972, which is mounted on the front wall of the house.

Mt. Pleasant Daily Times, Mt. Pleasant, Texas

Friday, October 19, 1934

Dr. Broadstreet Passes Away at Paris Hospital

Dr. Samuel C. Broadstreet, widely loved physician of this city passed away at a hospital in Paris at 10:40 o'clock Friday night following a lengthy illness. He had spent three months in the hospital, suffering from the effects of a kidney trouble, and had been unconscious for practically a month.

Dr. Broadstreet was a native of Titus County, and had lived in Mt. Pleasant for the past forty years. He had practiced medicine here longer than any other physician. He never failed the call of suffering humanity, even though he knew that many times he would receive nothing for ministering to the suffering. He was a devout Christian, a member of the Church of Christ, but contributed to other denominations also. The entire county is touched with grief at his passing.

The body was conveyed from Paris in an E. L. Riddle funeral car Friday morning to await funeral services at the residence on North Jefferson Avenue on Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock, under the direction of Rev. J. H. Malone, assisted by Rev. W. R. Yowell and Rev. J. N. Vandiver. Burial takes place at the Masonic Cemetery.

Deceased was 70 years of age, and is survived by a widow and two daughters, Mrs. I. N. Williams of this city and Mrs. J. H. Mullins of Houston. He also leaves four grandchildren and a host of friends all over this section.

John Henry Mullins

John Henry Mullins was born September 4, 1900 in Colbert, Oklahoma the son of a Methodist minister. He lived in Houston as a young man where he was sales manager for Tennison Manufacturing Company and later formed his own manufacturer's representative company. Later he moved his business to Dallas where he had an office and showroom in the Dallas Trade-Mart. Mr. Mullins sold his business in 1970 and moved to Mount Pleasant.

Mr. Mullins was very active in civic and church affairs everywhere he lived. In Houston, he was a member of the Board of Stewards at St. Luke's Methodist Church, a member of the Houston Club, and an honorary member of the Houston Chamber of Commerce for his civic work. In Dallas, he was on the Board of Stewards at Highland Park Methodist Church, was a member of the Downtown Rotary Club and the Dallas Country-Club.

After moving to Mount Pleasant, Mr. Mullins was interested in beautification and restoration of the city. He was responsible for obtaining historic medallions for the Broadstreet Farmhouse, the C.O. Lide House, the Marker in Dellwood Park, and having the Titus County Historic Marker moved from the outskirts of town to the courthouse grounds. During this time, planters, trash receptacles, trees, lights around the courthouse, birdhouses, flowers and benches were put in place on city property.

He was a member of the Mount Pleasant Rotary club, where he served as President and was the first Paul Harris Fellow in Mount Pleasant. He was a member of Tennison Memorial United Methodist Church and was at one time on the Administrative Board. The Mullins were very active in the church and Tennison Memorial United Methodist Church's Broadstreet-Mullins Chapel is named in honor of them. Mr. and Mrs. Mullins were elected as Titus County Citizen of the Year in 1975 for their work in the community.

John Henry Mullins passed away November 6, 1995 and is buried in Masonic Cemetery.

Margaret Broadstreet Mullins

Margaret Broadstreet Mullins was born in 1903, a descendant of two pioneer Titus County Families. She was the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. S. C. Broadstreet, the granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Tennison and Mr. and Mrs. Paris Broadstreet, and great granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Tabb.

Margaret was educated at St. Mary's Boarding School in Dallas, Kidd Key College in Sherman and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She lived many years in Houston and then Dallas. In Dallas she was a member of Highland Park Methodist Church, the Dallas Woman's Club, the Dallas Garden Club, Pi Beta Phi Alumnus Club, the James Campbell Chapter of D.A.R., the Standard Club, the Dallas Glass Club and the Dallas Country Club.

After returning to Mt. Pleasant in 1970, she was a member of Tennison Methodist Church, The Tuesday Study Circle of the church, D.A.R., and the Rotary Club of which she was a Paul Harris Fellow. In 1975 Margaret and her husband, John Henry, received the Chamber of Commerce Distinguished Citizen Award for their work and interest in Mt. Pleasant.

In 2000 she moved back to the Dallas area to be nearer family. Margaret Broadstreet Mullins passed away May 20, 2003 and is also buried in Masonic Cemetery.

After a prolonged disagreement with City officials over the intersection that connects North Madison and North Jefferson that eventually took much of their front yard, the Mullins donated the farm house's contents to a Dallas museum and sold the house in about 1981. David McNeil bought the Broadstreet Farm house and moved it to its present location at what is now 2357 Highway 67 East, approximately 4 miles east of Mt. Pleasant. The house is located on the north side of U.S. Highway 67, just east of Texas Farm Road 1001 and Titus County Road 4015.

The Broadstreet farm house illustrates typical home construction for its time period. Roofs were usually covered with wooden shingles, and were steeply sloped to provide good drainage. Later, many houses built in this era were re-roofed with more durable galvanized corrugated sheet steel, commonly called "tin roofs," as it became available.

Attics were not insulated as they are today to keep heat absorbed by the roof from entering the living area. When the house was built there was no rural electricity, and therefore no air conditioning or electric lights. Most people worked from shortly after daylight until dark in the 1800s and early 1900s. Kerosene lamps or candles lighted the house after dark.

The only summer cooling available was provided by whatever breezes might blow (if any). To provide airflow inside the house, each room had at least one (usually more) good sized exterior windows that were raised to let breezes to blow through the house. Ceilings were commonly ten feet or higher so that hot air that collected near the ceiling was still above the occupant's heads, leaving cooler air in the lower part of the rooms. The only fans were hand-held paddle fans. Most houses had a full-length front porch where the family and friends could sit and visit at night to stay cool. Many houses also had full-length back porches.

Houses were usually built in two sections, with rooms on each end separated by a "dog run" or "dog trot." A "dog trot" is an open porch that runs from front to back through the center of the house and is covered by the house's roof. The photos don't show the "dog trot" because the doors were closed over it when we photographed the house.

In winter, fireplaces built of natural stone from nearby fields heated rooms on each end of the house. Logs chopped or sawed by hand from surrounding woods and split with a hammer and wedge were used as fuel. Cooking was done either on the fireplace or on a wood burning stove.

There was no running water or indoor plumbing, and most people kept large water pitchers in the house for cooking and cleaning purposes. Water was drawn by lowering a bucket tied to a rope into a well in the yard. Bathing was done on the porch in large tin bathtubs that were hand-filled by buckets of well water. The "restroom" was an outhouse out in the yard. The outhouse was simply a crudely constructed shed to provide privacy. The outhouse was constructed over a pit used to catch waste and contained only a wooden seat with holes cut in it to sit on positioned over the pit. The outhouse was not heated or cooled, so it was hot in the summer and cold in the winter.

Daily life when the Broadstreet farm house was built was very different than today's. While some might consider the living conditions harsh, we prefer to think of them as simply different because everyone pretty much lived the same way and the modern conveniences that we take for granted today would not be invented or in common use until years in the future. While modern conveniences weren't know of then, people's lives were slower and they had the luxury of spending quality time with their family and not having to rush through the day with the many distractions and demands on their time as are common today.