TCHC: Year End Activity Report for 2009

abilenet February 17th, 2010

2008 was a good year and we had lots of interesting projects working namely two that we carried over to 2009:

First Exploratory Oil Well In Taylor County – David Morris & Jay Moore

Research early Abilene History of Will Stith and sister Mrs. Frances Curtis.

Our Report was submitted to the State and we received a letter stating we had 2009 Certified Local Government award.

We do not meet as a group in January, except at the Archives. 2009 was a bit different in that one of our Commission Members, Jay Moore, was Guest Columnist for the Abilene Reporter News, on January 25th, 2009. The headline read:

“HISTORIC TROLLEY TRACKS TORN UP” and the story began

“Over the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday weekend, a small part of Abilene history was bulldozed up loaded on a dump truck and hauled away”. Out of this grew Jay Moore’s “HISTORY IN PLAIN SIGHT SERIES”. Three DVDs “Bankhead Highway”, “Streets of Abilene”. and “Fair Park of Abilene” were researched and created with the assistance of David Gibson, Abilene Preservation League and Dian Graves Owen Foundation. All the Historical Commission members have been involved and look forward to the two DVDs that will be made in 2010.

We had 8 group meetings and each week in the year several members were at the Archives doing research. Our thanks go to Steve Slaton for organizing our old Abilene Reporter News and other materials. We logged 1717 hours at the Archives and 1012 hours was spent on the DVDs for “History in Plain Sight” which gives us a total of 2729 for the year.

Our first meeting of the year was held at the Beehive in February and the Maxine Perini Award was presented to Andrew Penns.

Andrew Penns wears many hats and it was difficult to keep this as a surprise to him. Anita almost had to bribe him to get him to attend the meeting. Our thanks go to Steve Butman for the pictures and collage; Steve and Nita Slaton for the decorations; John Stowe for our speaker (K.O.Long); Vernon Williams for the information on our honoree. Janis Test presented a number of DVDs to the Historical Commission entitled “Talking History of Abilene” from Friends of the Library. The DVDs are taped interviews of early citizens for the city’s 85th birthday.

Hosted, planned and advertised a Seminar for Texas Historical Commission for RIP Cemetery Workshop with a grant from the Dian Graves Owen Foundation. The THC requested we limit it to 30 participants and we delivered 27 packets to interested persons. It was a very successful meeting at the Abilene Public Library.

Plans were made for the Abilene State Park’s 75th Anniversary on May 16 but due to weather conditions it was postponed until October 24th. Anita Lane, our Chairman, helped plan and hold this Celebration. She gave a history of the park area from the Indians to present day.

The Archive Committee helped Steve Butman research material for the Airport Lobby and he was able to make some very impressive pictures of Lindbergh, Earhart and Wrong Way Carrigan from our Collection.

Members of TCHC were involved with the West Texas Fair in various ways: John Stowe worked with the committee to organize all volunteers (donated _________ hours); Anita Lane was in charge of the Youth Fine Arts section ( donated 32 hours); Cherry Gleason worked to register art work ( donated 16 hours).

Anita Lane, TCHC Chair, met with the company who proposed electrical linesthat will go across south Taylor County for collecting power from the Wind Turbine. No historical sites will be affected.

Planned for meetings with:

Runnels County and trip to Content, TX

Field trip to Sweetwater

Area Historical Museum in Merkel in May

Judge Newman and Commissioners for Budget hearing in July

Markers researched and requested:

Valley Creek (restored)

Hotel Wooten

Swenson House

First Exploratory Oil Well, Taylor County

Shootout Marker – Gun Battle at Pine & First, Abilene, TX

Childers Classical Institute first site (ACU)

2010 Plans for Historical Commission:

Research list of County Judges and Commissioners for Judge Newman

Trent Marker

Assist Andrew Penns on research for markers he plans to request.

We lost two long time members in 2009 and they will be missed:

Denny McFarland

Mildred Cornelius

Submitted by Anita Lane, Chair, Taylor County Historical Commission

Compiled by Cherry Gleason, TCHC secretary

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