Douglass & Sons Mercantile

The Douglass & Sons general mercantile store (pictured, right) was established in Payson by William Douglass (1819-1892) and his eldest son William John Douglass (1848-1905) in the early 1880s.

The building has turned up in several photos posted by The Payson Chronicle in recent months. It stood a short stretch west of the old Huish Furniture and Casket Co. and, later, Dixon’s Market building at 51 East First North, roughly where Walgreen’s southside parking lot exists today.

William Douglass, whose parents were of Scots-Irish descent, was born in Ballybentragh, Templepatrick, County Antrim, Ireland. He married Agnes McGowan Cross in 1842 in Belfast, County Antrim, Ireland, the same year he was baptized as a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The young family emigrated from Scotland to the United States in 1844. William was ordained a Seventy for the church on October 27, 1845, in the Nauvoo Temple.

“He and Agnes McCowan Cross had these children: Margaret Sarah, Agnes, William John, Samuel, Matilda, Eliza Roxey, Joseph and Elizabeth,” a historical record notes. “They came to Utah as pioneers in Brigham Young's 1848 Company with his wife, Agness, daughter Margaret Sarah Douglass (age 4) and infant son, William John Douglass.”

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