In the late 19th century, Italian immigrants came to the United States to escape poor economic conditions, and Juliano DeCorte and his family emigrated from Sicily in 1877 and settled in Bryan. In 1917, his son-in-law Frank Cangelosi purchased several hundred acres in Stafford that included a cotton gin and a small store, and in 1919 Charles Vincent (C.V.) DeCorte, Juliano's son, who later Americanized his name to Court, moved to Stafford to operate the store. He was soon joined by his brother Joseph Court and brother-in-law T.F. Noto, and together they opened Court Bros. and Noto General Store, with all three families living above the store for a few years. In 1929, Noto and Joseph Court sold their shares to C.V. Court. The hardware store also served as a meeting place, with the community's only telephone in the store and post office boxes in the back. After disastrous fires in 1932 and 1953, the family built a new shopping center around the corner that included a drug store, food market, post office, and the Court Hardware Company. C.V. Court served on the first Stafford City Council in 1956 and helped organize the town's first bank. When he retired in 1960, he sold the store to his sons, Julius Charles (J.C.) Court and Charles Vincent Court Jr., and the brothers moved it to its present location in 1968. Since its beginnings in the early 1900s, the business has served as an essential part of the Stafford economy, supported local organizations and community projects, functioned as a gathering place where locals often talked politics, and remained in the Court family.