“Memorial and Biographical History of Dallas County,” published:  
Chicago;  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1892.

GEORGE MELLERSH has led a somewhat adventurous life and has 
experienced the ups and downs of an active business career.  He was born in 
Surrey county, England, in 1836, to Francis and Margaret (Brooker) Mellersh, the 
former of whom was a carriage maker by trade.  He came to America in 1850 
and settled in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was called from life three years 
later.  The mother also died in Memphis, her demise taking place in 1863.  They 
were the parents of two children.  Francis who is engaged in stock raising near 
Memphis, and George.

The literary education of the latter was obtained in the land of his birth, and 
although he was anxious to secure a collegiate education, he was prevented 
from so doing by the immigration of his parents to America.  Upon the death of 
the father the family was left in poor circumstances and George at once began to 
make his own way in the world as a farmer on his mother’s property, which 
calling he followed until 1853, when he went to steamboating on the Mississippi 
and White rivers, continuing until 1855, when he volunteered in the Ninth 
Tennessee Infantry to go to Washington Territory to fight the Indians, and in time 
became Orderly Sergeant of Company K.  In 1859 he was offered a commission 
if he would stay in the service, but he declined and came back to Memphis via 
the Isthmus of Panama, reaching his old home in the month of August of the 
same year.  The following November he was married to Miss Elizabeth D. 
James, a sister of Thomas James, the coal merchant of Memphis, soon after 
which event he began merchandising, but his business operations were greatly 
interrupted by the stirring scenes of the great Civil war.  After hostilities had 
ceased he dealt in coal at Memphis until 1873, when he came to Dallas via 
Fulton and Texarkana by stages, and first embarked in the tannery business on 
Ross avenue, near the present business site of Jules Schneider.  Succeeding 
this he traveled for a grocery house of St. Louis, his territory being in the 
Southern States, and during this time he introduced the first Texas-made flour, 
manufactured by Scott’s Mills.  One year later he took charge of Tompkins’ coal 
interests, following which he sold agricultural implements for Tompkins 
Implement Company, making overland trips into the interior of the States.  For a 
short time he was with Schneider & Davis but when Ullman & Co. moved to 
Houston and then to Galveston he re-entered their employ.  Succeeding this he 
was with the clothing firm of Hochstadarch Bros., of New York, and three years 
later entered the service of C. Schepflin & Co., in New Jersey, his territory being 
the “Lone Star State.”  Such, in brief, is the business experience of one of the 
most stirring and successful men of Texas.  He is an ideal drummer, for besides 
being shrewd and alive to the interests of those he serves, he is genial, whole-
souled and generous, and possesses a heart that has not become hardened by 
contact with the world.  He is well acquainted with many of the most prominent 
business men of the State, by whome he is admired and respected for his many 
commendable qualities of heart and head.  He is a Master Mason, a member of 
the I.O.O.F., and in the former organization has become a Knight Templar.  He is 
Past Grand Commander of Tennessee.  He was Grand Patriarch of the I.O.O.F. 
in 1871, and is Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee.  He 
was, in April, 1891, made a member of the Grand Lodge of Texas.  He has 
always been a staunch Democrat, and for a number of years was an active 
member of the Central Baptist Church, of Memphis.  In 1889 he built him a 
beautiful home in Dallas, which has become well known for its generous 
hospitality and for the elegance and good taste of its appointments.  Mr. and Mrs. 
Mellersh became the parents of eleven children, but only four are living: Fannie 
(Mrs. E. K. Martyn); Georgie, Cyrene, and Bessie.

Submitted by: L. Pingel