James Edmund McGlaun was "Mr Mac" to his friends and "Jimmy" to his wife and kin. He was born on 19 September 1862 in Sparta, Louisiana, to Edmond McGlaun Jr and Martha Evans Tullis. He received his education in Robertson County. James married Laura Emma Thweatt, 1 June 1882, in Robertson County, where they resided for the first years of their married life. Their children were Velma, Della, Cora, Lila, and Carl McGlaun. For a short while, Jimmy was employed by a railroad in San Antonio, Texas. He then farmed and operated a gin in Lavaca County, Texas, for several years. The Storm of 1900 played havoc with Jimmy's financial condition as all crops were a total loss with the exception of watermelons. The next two years the weather was not conducive to a good crop yield and he barely broke even, so it was decided that he would seek gainful employment at the boomtown Guffey, Texas (later known as Spindletop). James arrived in Guffey in June 1903 and first worked as a roustabout and then as a roughneck. Laura and the children didn't join him until January of the next year. He became a fireman for the Yount-Lee Oil Company. He not only fired boilers at the derrick, but also fired six or eight at the boiler house to supply energy for the pump house. He worked twelve-hour shifts, seven days a week. Laura operated a small boarding house, renting the upstairs of their home to men who came to work in the oilfield. The teenage daughters assisted their mother in the preparation and serving of meals when they were not attending school. The boarding house was operated until 1909. Their daughters each met and married their husbands at Guffey, but they and their families had all moved away by 1911. James and Laura continued to live in Guffey until 1916 when they bought their home on the corner of Brandon and Essex in Beaumont Driving Park Addition (now South Park). James McGlaun died, 20 February 1934, aged 71, and was buried with his wife at Magnolia Cemetery in Beaumont.