Wood County History

By LOU MALLORY — Chairperson, Wood County Historical Commission

Owen Pinkney Pyle (1867-1919)   4-1-06

Owen P. (Pink) Pyle, newspaper editor and farmers’ spokesman, was born near Ozark, Arkansas on December 13th, 1867, the son of Jesse W. and Gabrilia Permelia (Keller) Pyle.

The family moved to Fannin County, Texas, in 1874 and took up tenant farming near Ladonia. Three years later they rented land near Caddo Mills in Hunt County, and in 1878, they purchased their own farm west of Greenville.

Young Pyle began picking cotton at the age of four and plowing at seven. He continued to farm until 1894. He received a common school education and began teaching in 1885.

He moved to Salem in 1888 and married Mildred Suzanne (Susie) Gibson on December 21st, 1890. They had eight children.

Pyle was a member of the Disciples of Christ and a Mason. He joined the Farmer’s Alliance in 1888 and began lecturing for the organization in 1891. He ran for Wood County judge in 1892 on the People’s Party, or Populist, ticket, but lost. Pyle was an exceptional speaker and, at six feet, two inches, and 250 pounds, he had a commanding presence on the speaker’s stand.

Many believed him to be an even better writer, and the local alliance made him editor of its newspaper, the Mineola Alliance Courier, in the fall of 1894. He subsequently purchased the paper.

Pyle became acquainted with Issac Newton Gresham at an editor’s convention in 1900 and quickly became a strong supporter of Gresham’s idea to start a new farm organization – the Order of the Farmer’s Alliance.

He did not, however, participate in the founding of the Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union of America (now the National Farmer’s Union) in September 1902, for fear that it might look like a Populist plot and scare away farmers who were members of the Democratic Party.

Pyle joined the farmers’ union in December, 1902 and served as lecturer, organizer, and official printer for the union. He chaired the union’s state convention in February, 1904 and was named chairman of the executive committee. He founded the National Cooperator, which received the union’s printing business, in December, 1904.

In August, 1905, all non-farmer officers of the farmers’ union, including Pyle, were purged from their leadership positions.

Pyle presided over the founding conventions of the Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Georgia branches of the farmers’ union. When the first national meeting was held in December, 1905, he was elected president. However, he resigned in March, 1906, in a compromise move to reconcile the Texas and national organizations.

Pyle then moved the National Cooperator to Dallas, combined it with the Texas Farm Journal in September, 1906, and absorbed the Southern Mercury and Farmer’s Union Password in March, 1907. He organized the National Cooperative Congress in Topeka, Kansas, in October, 1906, and brought several plains-state organizations into the farmers’ union. Pyle was also influential in the fight in 1907 to get the Texas Legislature to outlaw “bucket shops” which dealt in commodity speculation.

He became entangled in a power struggle over control of the Texas branch of the farmers’ union with state president David J. Neill. In a confrontation in the latter’s office Pyle apparently struck his adversary. He was arrested for assault, and the charges were later dropped.

News of the attack discredited him and he was forced to sell the National Cooperator in April 1908. He suffered a nervous breakdown and ceased to be active in the farmers’ union. Membership in the Texas branch of the union also declined rapidly at this time.

During Pyle’s illness, his wife was forced to sell the Mineola Courier and most of his other property for living expenses. After a year in the Arlington Heights Sanitarium, Pyle returned to Mineola and engaged in trading. He founded the Progressive Farmer in 1910. The next year, he moved to Belton, Texas, and combined several papers to form the Belton Journal. Governor Oscar B. Colquitt appointed him to the newly formed Texas Industrial Accident Board in 1913.

Pyle fell down a flight of stairs at his home in Mineral Wells in March, 1919. He died from injuries suffered in the fall on November 9th, 1919.