The
little Grocery Store that became
a Super Market
McClain’s celebrates 99 years as Shepherd business
by Jim McClain
To tell the story of the store, we must first know the story of John C. Kelly and Mary Kirby Kelly.
John C. Kelly came to San Jacinto County as an infant about 1873. He came from Alabama with his father Jake Kelly (a confederate veteran) and his mother Susanna York Kelly who was an immigrant from England. At that time in our history many people were settling San Jacinto/Polk County from Alabama. The Kelly family settled near (Old) Waverly. Jake Kelly later ran a small store and U.S. Post Office in Evergreen.
Jake Kelly and his son John moved to Shepherd in 1907. Jake ran a hotel that was built next to the railroad track, and John ran a general store where the Shepherd Library is now. Just as in “Music Man,” salesmen (called drummers) would ride the train into Shepherd and visit the store to sell their wares.
John Kelly bought a house that had been built in the 1880s (where the Shepherd Seniors meet now). He bought the house in the early 1900s. Having a house and a business, he traveled to Hill County where he married Mary Kirby, a school teacher educated at Sam Houston Normal Institute which later became Sam Houston State College. She had been reared in Huntsville. Her father, Edward Kirby, was born in Bangor, Maine, but fought as a confederate in the Civil War. John and his wife Mary had two children: Kirby Kelly who became a lawyer and served in the Texas legislature, and Katie Sue Kelly who married Bob McClain. (Katie Sue was born in the old house in 1915.)
John Kelly not only sold groceries in his store, but also dispensed drug powders and fixed clocks, watches, and guns. Life went on until 1928, the year of the big Shepherd fire. John’s store burned to the ground and he didn’t have any insurance. He suffered a heart attack the night of the fire and was bedridden for some time. He entered a partnership with Ruge Elmore and built the brick store that is presently the Shepherd Public Library in 1930.
Mary Kelly died in 1944 and John Kelly died in 1947. His grandson, Jim McClain was born in February and John Kelly died in May. When Jim was crying in another room, John Kelly said, “There’s life starting and here’s life ending.”
Bob & Sue McClain took over the store in 1947. McClain’s store has continued to grow under the leadership of Bob McClain and now Jim McClain. It is one of many stories about Shepherd’s history and community.