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ORAL HISTORY
Ernest Bracewell, Sr., Ernest Bracewell, Jr., and Bryan Bracewell
Ernest, Sr. and Adrene Bracewell purchased Southside Market from Jerry and Edwin Stach in September of 1968. Before they purchased Southside, Ernest was working for Armor and Company in Austin, Texas. For many years Southside focused mostly on its butcher shop business with barbecue sausage being a side business. In the 1970s, this changed and barbecue brisket was added to the menu. In 1992 the family relocated Southside Market from downtown Elgin to a site closer to the highway. Ernest, Sr. and Adrene’s son Ernest Bracewell, Jr. (known as Billy) has been Vice President of Southside Market and BBQ Inc. since 1968. He and wife Jeanne Lynn and have a daughter, Brittney, and two sons, Bradley and Bryan. Bryan Bracewell has worked at Southside Market since he was twelve, taking a break to attend Texas A&M University, where he studied meat science, from 1994 until 1998. He and wife Rachel have twin boys, Chase and Nathan. For three generations of the Bracewell family, working at “The Market” has just come naturally.