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History of the Clementine Freight Delivery Service


Mr. Jackson Daniel Clementine, Jr. runs a freight and delivery service located at the east end of Elm Street. Mr. Clementine and his team of Mammoth Jack Stock donkeys provide a valuable service to the town. Many of the items received via the train are delivered to the homes and businesses by Mr. Clementine's freight service.

Nip and Tuck are Mr. Clementine's matched team of Mammoth Jack Stock Donkeys. To learn more about this rare breed of donkey, visit Nip and Tuck's Page.

Jackson Daniel Clementine, Jr.


At the age of 30, after wondering in the cattle regions of the west, Jackson has returned to Dallas to support his parents and sisters by operating the family business. He is a native of Dallas who has been out seeing the world. He is sure to have some interesting observations about what has been going on in the town.

Jackson Jr. was born in 1880 in Dallas. In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Jackson Sr. came to Dallas instead of going home to Georgia but never said why. He also never spoke to his son about his years in the war. He started his freight service, and soon prospered. He was able to marry a local girl within a year, and they had seven children over the next 14 years, six girls and, last but not least, Jackson Jr. Dad’s favorite part of his business was the long overland trips, where he used large teams of mules or donkeys to bring needed goods from Galveston or ports in Louisiana along the Mississippi. The people of Dallas depended on him to bring them manufactured and imported goods like furniture, machinery, coffee and tobacco. Dad enjoyed the time away from his growing family of girls, but not his occasional run-ins with Indians.

Those days were over by the time Jackson Jr. was born. Two railroad lines arrived in Dallas in 1872 and 1873, and goods arrived faster and cheaper by rail. Clementine freight earned a reduced income on local deliveries. Jackson Jr. worked with his father throughout childhood. By the time he started school at the age of 8, he was already experienced at cleaning pens, donkeys and tack, though he had to stand on the fence to groom the donkeys. He helped his father before and after school and all through the summer. Like most of the farm boys around town, he did not go all the way through the Renner School’s eight grades. By the time he was 13, he knew enough math, or “ciphering,” to figure the cost of feed and what he should charge for a delivery, and he had learned his letters well enough to read the news of the day.

He worked with his father full time, and soon grew discouraged with the lack of success and freedom. He spent too much of his time delivering heavy furniture and big crates to whining housewives who complained that he was scratching the pump organ or breaking their new dishes. In 1895, when he was 15, he left in the night, sending his mother a letter that he was going west to make his fortune in cattle ranching. Some in town said he was fed up with working for his father, some said the girl he loved chose another man.

Unfortunately for Jackson Jr., the romantic and somewhat profitable life of being a cowboy on cattle drives was already long over. Now, cattle rode on trains. He spent years working on ranches throughout the west, never earning much but seeing many interesting places, like California and the Rocky Mountains. In 1909 he received a letter from his father. He was too old to continue to run the freight service. Who would support him in his old age? And who would take care of Jackson Jr.’s mother, and the two of his sisters who never married, one of whom was quite unpleasant and unattractive?

The cowboy came home. He is ready to work hard and make the family business profitable again. He has learned a few things about animals, and about people. He finds that Dallas has become a modern city, rivaling the finest cities he has seen. Much has changed. More people work in business, fewer people making their living from farms. There are more Yankees, and a growing Jewish community, as well as the first population of Tejanos in the region. The saloons are fine, but local ladies are agitating to make alcohol illegal. The Miller family and other prominent planters have less influence than they used to, while businessmen and politicians, like Daniel Sullivan, have more. Young Mr. Clementine has stories to tell about cowboy life, and a few observations to make about his fellow townspeople.