In the year 1901, William McKinley had just been elected to his second term as president, the first trans-Atlantic radio signal was successfully sent, and the Victorian Era in England was coming to an end. It was also the year that the John E. Quarles Lumber company opened its doors at its first location on Commerce Street in Downtown Fort Worth, and 125 years later, it is still going strong. President Lonnie Goolsby hired in with the Quarles Company in 1968 and said the keys to its longevity ultimately boil down to a couple of important factors.
“In my mind, it’s hiring the right employees, trying to hire the people who are going to be lifers, and putting the right team together,” Goolsby said. “Not everybody wants to be in the lumber business, so it’s really about having the right team.” To put it in its proper historical perspective, the Quarles Lumber Company opened seven years before the advent of the Model T Ford, survived two world wars, a Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression, the entirety of the Cold War and two Global Pandemics.
At one point, the company had expanded to 12 locations across the state of Texas. Though hit hard by the Great Depression, the Quarles brand survived with one remaining store, which moved to its current location on Park Place Ave in 1930, where it stands to this day. Goolsby said that while various challenges have presented themselves over the years, including a fire that burned the company to the ground in the 1970s, overwhelmingly, the issues that present the biggest potential hardships always revolve around personnel. “The first challenge is finding the right employees,” Goolsby said. “Number two right now is finding CDL drivers. If you made a sub-list, it would be that we only want lifers, but that doesn’t always happen.” In the case of the Quarles Lumber Company, however, it often does. Goolsby said that most of the employees have been with the company for at least 10 years, and many of them even longer than that.
Following the fire of 1972, Quarles decided to rebuild as a contractor-focused yard, and 16 years later, in 1988, the company started selling windows. It was shortly after this time that Goolsby welcomed one of the company’s biggest customers, and what would eventually become the country’s largest home-building company, D.R. Horton.
“I sold Donnie (Donald R. Horton) his first piece of lumber when he moved down here from Arkansas,” Goolsby said. “We sold to him until around 2009 or 2010. We knew it was going to happen one day. He moved down here in the late 80s or early 90s, and he called one day and said, ‘Hey Lonnie, I think we’ve outgrown you guys, and we need to make some other changes…they were having to buy in volume to get the rebates and so forth.” But the lumber company kept trucking right along.
On its 100th anniversary, the City of Fort Worth declared May 5, 2001, Quarles Lumber Company Day. Twelve years later, the last remaining family member, Nancy Quarles Stuck, passed away, and she and Goolsby had a buy-sell agreement for whoever passed first. Goolsby owns the stock for the company along with two other employees.
In the early 2020s, while many companies struggled during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Goolsby said Quarles held its own. “We actually had good years during COVID in 2022 and 2023,” Goolsby said. “I think a lot of that was panic. That’s just my opinion. And people just had time. A lot of people were either remodeling or drawing up plans for new homes, so we stayed busy right on through that whole time.” Goolsby said he attributes much of the company’s continued success to a loyal customer base, which has allowed the Quarles company to thrive despite some recent challenges.
“It’s gotten more difficult in the last 10-15 years in that the ‘big boys’ keep squeezing out the independents,” Goolsby said. “But I’ve always enjoyed being here, because being independent, you don’t usually have to worry about the big boys. You can do what you want to do. For us, there are three things: quality, price and service. I’d rather take the price out of the equation and go for quality and service. If we’ve got somebody that needs something late in the day and we can load it up and get it to them, we’re going to get it to them.”
Goolsby said he takes pride in being a good steward of the lumber company and said he would love it, if in 125 years, the then president of the Quarles Lumber Company was talking about his efforts to keep the business thriving during his tenure. According to its mission statement, the John E. Quarles Company is dedicated to the principle of higher quality, better service and the commitment to the “betterment of our customer and company relationship.”
Goolsby said if he had any advice to give to a young entrepreneur who is looking to hang out his shingle for the first time and aspires to have the kind of staying power the Quarles Company has enjoyed, he would tell him a couple of things. “Use common sense,” Goolsby said. “Relationships and common sense are the most important things. Get the right banker, get the right vendors and do what you say you’re going to do. Keep the people you need and get the right people in the right positions, and most of all, take care of the customer.”
