In 1906 my grand uncle Swain Ayers, a brother to my grandfather William Burton Ayers, started the first ice cream company in Amarillo, Texas. In 1910 he built the Ayers Ice Cream Company building located at 405 Pierce Street, which is now the parking lot for the Globe News Center for the Performing Arts. My family understands that this ice cream factory was the first one built west of the Mississippi River. I am attaching a photo of the Ayers Ice Cream Company building. The man standing and dressed in the suit is my Uncle Swain. You can view a 1914 entry about Uncle Swain and his ice cream company in the book "A History of Texas and Texans" by Frank W. Johnson, Eugene C. Barker, and Ernest William Winkler at http://books.google.com/books?id=vVoUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1861&lpg=PA1861&dq=%22ayers+ice+cream%22&source=bl&ots=Bjunx0BkZR&sig=5hYBiOng9m6hrc9ilOhTWIgWvD8&hl=en&ei=HLtbSorRDIuoMZqW8UI&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2 . Since this week honors ice cream, I thought you might like to have this information for your excellent weather program.
Best regards,
Marilyn Ayers Swindle
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