PHS Newsletter Vol20 Ed2 0415 - Google Drive
PEARLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Volume 20, Edition 2 April, 2015 Editor: John D. "Mickey" Mark E-mail: mark325@prodigy.net Pearland Historical Society P. O. Box 1333 Pearland, Texas 77588 Dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of "Old Pearland" President's Message Our Wednesday work nights are always interesting and a lot of fun. We get a little bit of work done most nights; but what is really fun is looking through all the memorabilia which has been given to our Society. Of particular interest are the big scrap books which Josie Frankenberger Heflin put together during her life in Pearland. Josie was born in 1898 and was 100 years old before going into a nursing home in McKinney, Texas where she died at the age of 102. What Josie's scrapbooks really illustrate to us is that what is happening today will be of great interest to the next generation and thereafter. Several of our members have recorded stories of growing up in Pearland and also a lot of family histories. I would encourage each of our members to think back to your earlier days in Pearland and to write about those memories. One thing most everyone who writes about old time Pearland mentions is the old corner drugstore run by Louella and Albert "Smitty" Smith. Some reminisce about the great 10 cent hamburgers and malts they had for lunch there. Others like to talk about just hanging out there on the corner and watching the cars passing through what was then the center of Pearland. We have been writing the Newsletter for over 20 years and have every copy on file. There are some great historical stories which have been submitted by various members. They will all eventually be in our Historical Museum. As we lose more and more of our "old timers" I urge each of you to think back to your earlier days and write a story. Your children and grandchildren will enjoy them. Mickey Mark ***************************************** What's Happening? As most of you are aware, the Pearland City Recreation Center is no longer available for our annual Reunion Luncheons. Thanks to the Pearland Independent School District and to Keith Ordeneaux, Facility and Energy Rental Manager for the school district, our luncheon this October will be at the PISD Administration Building on North Main St. (This is the old WalMart building). We will be in the "Board Room" which has the capacity to handle over 300 persons for a luncheon. Peggy Long, Luther Cunningham and I were given a tour of the facility by Keith; and we were quite impressed with the room and with all the amenities (restrooms, speakers, video, etc.). Also parking will be more than adequate on a Saturday. The Wednesday night group continues to meet and work on a weekly basis. Progress is slow but steady. The two display cases which the Lion's Club is donating to us are still a go. Also a little further in the Newsletter you will see a uniform from the Pearland ladies softball team of the 40's 1 on a mannequin which was donated to us from Dillards (thanks to Karen Corron). At our last meeting we voted to return to an every three months schedule for our meetings. Our next meeting will be April 16th at our site on Galveston Ave. A project still ongoing is the creation of a Pearland history DVD disc to present to all of the Pearland schools. We are working with the City of Pearland to create a pictorial history of Pearland; and also a young man by the name of Rahul Popat is working with us also to create another Pearland history disc. This is Rahul's project to become an Eagle Scout. A third possibility is the updating of the video "The Heart of Pearland" which Susan Smith Lenamon put together a number of years ago. This is about a 33 minute video featuring interviews with Pearland old timers along with history information. At the time this video was made we hadn't found the real story about "Mark Belt" nor about Witold von Zychlinski. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * AMONG OUR MEMBERS As we all age, it seems that with each Newsletter we have more and more sad news. This one is no exception. Pearland Historical Society member Herbert Jamison passed away March 6th at Windsong Nursing Home in Pearland where he had been for the last 18 months or so. Herbert was 94 years old. He was the 10th of 12 Jamison children of Bert and Martha Jamison who came to Pearland around 1901. Of the 12 children surviving are older brother Allen and younger sister Society Member Florence Jamison Gum (youngest Jamison). Our sympathies go out to members of Herbert's family and to all the Jamisons. The Jamison family contributed greatly to the history of Pearland. He will certainly be missed. Herbert enjoyed our Reunion Luncheons. Herbert Jamison at a Reunion Luncheon Society Member David Smith, fell March 5th and broke his ankle and tibia and also sustained a cut on his arm which required 18 stitches. David was taken to Southeast Memorial Hospital where he had surgery to repair the damages. After two weeks in Southeast, David was transferred to Kindred Care in Clear Lake where he is at this time. Throughout the years, David has worked to improve life in our City. In the early years of the Pearland EMS, David and wife Frankie were on just about every run made by the EMS. Please keep David and family in your prayers. David Smith leading prayer at Luncheon Luther Cunningham next to David Society member Barbara Christofferson Maynor, fell March 24th and broke 3 ribs. After a couple of days in Southeast Memorial Hospital, Barbara was transferred to Windsong Nursing 2 Home in Pearland. Please keep Barbara and family in your prayers. Society Member Bill Cook, long time Pearlander who retired from Pearland Lumber Ace Hardware, had gall bladder surgery Feb. 16. Good to report Bill has recuperated rapidly and is doing very good. Way to go, Bill. Society Member and Pearland's oldest native born citizen, David Scott, is currently in the hospital at Southeast Memorial. David is going through a very rough time and has been diagnosed with pneumonia. David, who is a very active 95 year old, is known by many as "Mr. Pearland". He is in our history as the person who scored the first touchdown ever for the Pearland Oilers in the Oilers initial season of 1937 in their game against LaMarque. Keep David in your prayers. David Scott Historical Society member Sidney Kliesing is also currently in Southeast Memorial Hospital after having an accident on his motorcycle on April 4th. Sid suffered a fractured hip and a broken collar bone in the wreck. Last report from the family was Sid was resting comfortably. Those of us who have known Sidney for a very long time know he will be doing his best to be out and around just as quickly as possible. He, Reba, and family will be in our prayers. Sidney & Reba Kliesing Sadly we have also lost several long time Pearlanders over the last 3 months. Long time Pearlander Bill Crocker passed away Jan. 26th. Bill, who was one of the regulars for morning coffee at the What-a-burger holds a place in the history of Pearland. Bill was the last Pearland railroad station agent before the station was closed. 1955 PHS graduate, Bob Mack Furnace, passed away in his sleep Feb. 10th. Bob Mack was a 1955 PHS graduate. Bob Mack and brothers were regular attendees at our annual Historical Society Reunion Darlene Griffin Woods passed away Feb. 13th after a very long and very courageous battle with cancer. Darlene was the daughter of Pete and Audrey Griffin. The Griffin family is one of the long time Pearland families. I believe the Griffin family came to Pearland in the 20's. Our deepest symapthies go out to Darlene's family. Another long time Pearlander who passed away around Feb. 13th was Judy Swensen. Judy was the widow of 1939 PHS graduate, Richard Swensen. Sara Jane Parker Osbon passed away March 8th. Although Sarah Jane and husband Jerry lived in Alvin, most everyone considered Sarah Jane a Pearlander. Many of you will remember that Sara Jane was a 1957 P.H.S. graduate, with sisters Florence Ann, class of 1955 and Linda Sue, class of 1962. Please keep Jerry and family in your prayers 3 Margaret "Maggie" Gonzales Coffey passed away Easter Sunday morning. She will be remembered by many old time Pearlanders as the gracious hostess at local restaurants including the one she owned and ran for a period of time called "Maggie's Wok." As a hostess she always met customers at the door with a very warm smiling welcome. Sympathies go out to all the Gonzales family, one of the long time Pearland families. Long time Pearlander, Joe Dalmolin, is now in Windsong Nursing Home after suffering a heart attack on Feb. 7th. His daughter, Carol, said he went into Windsong on Feb. 16th and has had pneumonia and has been in rehab there. Carol says Joe is allowed visitors; but said the best time to visit is in the mornings. Joe is 91 years old. Some of you who remember the Pearland men's softball team after WWII will also remember Joe was a member of that team. Please keep Joe and his family in your prayers. Former Pearlander Joe David Saffle, had quadruple bi-pass March 12th at St Joseph Hospital in Bryan, TX. He had already had numerous stints placed previously. Joe David graduated from Pearland High in the early '60's. He is married to Gail Rainey Saffle, who is the youngest of the Pearland Raney family. Unfortunately Gail also fell and cracked her pelvis. Joe David is a retired Baptist Pastor and helped form the Shadycrest Baptist Church among many other things. They are now living near Huntsville. Society Member Pat Smjastrla reports that husband, Anton, better known to most of us as "Coach Tony" has been going through a rough time. Tony spent about a week in the hospital with pneumonia and other problems. Many of our members have some great memories of Tony's coaching when they were in Jr. High. Keep Tony, Pat and family in your prayers CLASS OF 1965 Thanks to 1965 class member Michalyn Miller Ordeneaux for providing names, addresses and in many instances e-mail addresses for class of 65 members. We will be mailing out luncheon invitations to class members in early June. We also will be sending stamped, self addressed envelopes for the return of the invitations. We still need quite a few addresses. Following is a list of names for which Michalyn did not have addresses. If you know the address for anyone on this list, please email it to mark325@prodigy.net Vivian Armstrong; Billy Basket; Beth Benedict; Cheryl Black; Travis Black; Cynthia Bryan; Frank Cannon; Talmage Colson; Fay Frolick, Vera Guice; Presley Hood; Martin Matocha; Donald McDaniel; Arleen Miller; Mike Morgan; Quida Parker; Estella Ramirez; Billy Sanders; Lynda Shannon; and James Smith. Deceased members of the class of 65 are as follows: Larry Fisher; Dean Haskins; Sharon McBride Honeycutt; Bill Kliesing; William Payne; Hughie Raney; Kenneth Schmidth; Gerald Thompson; Harry Thompson; and Marilyn Bowers. We will be lighting one large candle at our memorial candle lighting ceremony for the deceased members. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A FEW INTERESTING QUESTIONS Recently a Cub Scout troop along with some parents met at our Historical Society home to hear a presentation of Pearland history. We gave about a 15 minute historical presentation and then discussed the historical timeline poster by poster, decade by decade. 4 As most are aware, the last poster shows the population of Pearland exploding with new subdivision names scattered amongst a picture of an atomic bomb explosion. Below are pictures of the poster with a close up of the exploding bomb. After the presentation, we started a question/answer period. The Cub Scouts had a few relevant questions. The fathers present had questions about Mark Belt and Zychlinski. The mothers mostly had questions about Josie's hand sewn blouse she did at the age of 17. Then one little cub had this very interesting question, which was: "How many people got killed in that big explosion?" At another presentation made to a group of 2nd graders at one of the grammar schools on the west side of Pearland we discussed how Pearland got the name "Pear Land". We talked about how when Witold von Zychlinski was platting the land he instructed one of his sidekicks to plant the beautiful flowering pear trees everywhere to attract buyers and then named the town "Pear Land". (And the original plat did say "Pear Land" two words). Once again after the presentation we had a question/answer session with some very good questions. One little boy had this interesting question. "Where did that man get all the seeds he needed to plant the trees?" My favorite question from all the presentations came from a young man at C. J. Harris Elementary School several years ago before C. J. Harris moved to Barry Rose Road. At the presentation the students were shown a slide show of the old 35mm slides depicting life in the very early days of Pearland. In the question answer series, we had some very good questions indicating the students had a sincere interest in Pearland history. When the students had run out of questions, one young man raised his hand and said "I have a question." When asked what his question was, he replied, "how old are you anyway.?" So now before any presentations to groups such as Cub Scouts and elementary age students, I always present a disclaimer before starting the presentation saying "I did not personally take these pictures." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * As mentioned previously, one of the items in our memorabilia is a a softball uniform worn by Ida Nichols on the Pearland ladies softball team back in the 40's. Also as mentioned, thanks to Karen Corron, Dillards donated a mannequin to put the uniform on; so we can now see what the ladies of the 40's looked like on the softball diamond. The park where both men and women played softball was almost exactly where our Historical Society home is now. Back in the 40's softball was a big deal in Pearland both men and women's. A large number of Pearlanders would turn out for the 5 . Ladies Softball Uniform worn by Ida Nichols As best I can remember the Pearland ladies were not in a league; but the competition was fierce. Some of the teams played were Alvin, Seabrook, South Houston and I believe Hastings also had a team. Two of our Historical Society members, Barbara Christofferson Maynor and Delores Long Stevenson, played on the team and can possibly give us more information. Ernie Long managed the team. Most of the balls and strikes umpiring was done by Robert Palmer whose wife, Jessie Palmer and daughter Wanda Palmer played on the team. In spite of having a wife and daughter playing for Pearland, Mr. Palmer, who had played minor league baseball, called them just like he saw them; and I suspect Mrs. Palmer and Wanda may have given Robert more than a little grief at home about some of the calls. I do know that those of us who played with the men's softball team never umpired more than once. As mentioned before the ladies were fierce competitors. We may have missed some names of the ladies who played. Let us know if there were others we left out. joint on South Main street. I believe it is the same building now used by Tires to Go Pearland. Pictured below is a group of ladies who had at one time played for the Pearland softball team. This picture was taken at a reunion. The date is unknown. Lto R: Ida Nichols (Shortstop); Bessie Collins (Pitcher); Bea Theriot (Center Field) Hatti Wood (Catcher); Virgil Hawk (Right Field); Jessie Palmer (1st Base); Wanda Palmer Nichols (2nd Base); Delores Long Stevenson (Left Field) and Betty Jane Cook Beauchamp (3rd Base) As you can see in the picture Ida Nichols and Jessie Palmer are wearing the Pearland uniforms. Ida was very proud that she could still wear the uniform (the one in our Museum). Each uniform had the name of a different Pearland business on the back. As you can see Ida's uniform says "Skipper's Inn Dancing" Skippers Inn was a dance hall/beer Refreshment stand at softball field. Front row L.R. is Fay Beck, Maureen Mahanay, Nelda Bristow and Leo Parker. Behind the counter from L.to R. are Allie Mae Cook, Gladys Garner, Mrs. J.D. Gray, Gladys Beck, man with hat unknown, Ernest Martin. 6 A Little More About Early Pearland Ball Games Looking back at interviews with old time Pearlanders such as Lois Hunter Bundy and Emma Coppinger whenever they were asked what the folks in Pearland did for entertainment back in those early days, one of their answers was they looked forward to the town team baseball games at what is now Zychlinski Park. So some type of baseball or softball has been going on in Pearland since the very early days of our history. Among our memorabilia at our Historical Society home is the following picture of one of the early Pearland town teams all decked out in their "Suburban Gardens" uniforms. The picture is date 1910. Zychlinski Park. The first year was 1957 when most of the boys were probably 10 years old. We had 44 boys playing with 4 teams of 11 boys each ages 9 through 12. We started playing as soon as school was out for the summer and played through most of the summer. The Lions Club gave us $100 to buy equipment and jerseys and local merchants also donated to help with expenses. Umpires were voluntary. Before the days of I-Pads, Apps and actually not that much TV, baseball was the big attraction of the summer. Today the baseball complex out on Fite Road has ball fields in every direction and hundreds of players. Times have certainly changed. ****************************************** Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film. Looking Ahead Top Row L/R: Bill McKee, Lester Livesay, Dutch Mallard, Clinton Cunningham, Otis Bales, Walter Keehn, Ernest Pemberton. Bottom Row: L/R: Bob Schmitz. Johnny Nightengale, Luther Cunningham, Lucron Cormant. The Luther Cunningham pictured in the bottom row is the father of Luther Cunningham, 1st V.P. of the Historical Society. Baseball quite probably will be in the discussions of the class of 65 at the Historical Society Luncheon. Several members of that class were on the first teams to play Little League baseball in Pearland; and the games were played at what is now In the opening message of this Newsletter, we discussed the importance of putting our memories in writing (or in this day and age on CD's or something similar). Wouldn't it be interesting to see our time capsule being opened in 2057. Among the memorabilia in the capsule are predictions for the future which some of us put in the capsule. When we now look back to 1965, we have to wonder what would have been the predictions for a time capsule to be opened in 2015. As the class members of 65 reminisce about their early years in Pearland you wonder how many would have predicted the way Pearland is today. When the class of 65 graduated, they had about 73 graduates from the only high school in Pearland. Today we have three high schools and probably 1700 or 1800 graduates. Do you think anyone back in 1965 would have made that prediction for the time capsule to be opened in 2015? 7 enjoy at the old corner drugstore back in the 40's and early 50's. What do you think the prediction would have been at that time as for the price of a hamburger in 2057? Just a few thoughts about why we need to put some of our thoughts and memories in writing. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * "He who laughs last thinks slowest." This picture is of Marguerite Massey Smith with General William Willoughby at the dedication of the Texas Historical Marker at Zychlinsky Park in 2007. Marguerite is a great example of someone who recorded Pearland history which will be appreciated through time. If we opened our time capsule today we would probably find that a lot of the predictions for 2057 have already made big changes since 2007 when the capsule was closed. The first question on the prediction sheet read as follows: The current population of Pearland is approx. 80,000 persons. What do you predict the population in 2057 will be? In just 7-1/2 years the population has grown to around 107,000 inside the city limits. Another question on the list is "What will be the biggest problem facing Pearland citizens in 2057 A. Crime B. Environment C. Rapid Growth D. Drainage" This is a question about a problem which hasn't changed much over the years. Either Mrs. Coppinger or "Grandma Hunter" wrote about the first town meeting ever held in Pearland ending in a fist fight over drainage issues. So we could suspect drainage may not be the biggest problem in 2057 but probably will still be a problem. Also a question on the list is "What will be the price of a hamburger at McDonald's in 2057?" This is a subject we often hear about from our members - - the ten cent hamburgers we used to " A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory." "When everything is coming your way, you're in the wrong lane." * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Just a reminder. Historical Society yearly membership dues became due on January 1st. Please see the membership form at the end of the Newsletter. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Don't forget our quarterly Historical Society Meeting Thursday night, April 16th at 7:00 P.M. at our Historical Society home on Galveston Ave. As usual homemade cookies, coffee and cold drinks and visitation follow the meeting. See you there. 8 MEMBERSHIP FORM - - - - PEARLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY Date___________________________________ Enclosed is my check in the amount of $_____________covering membership dues of $15 per person for the following persons for the year 2015. Is this a gift membership? Yes_____________ No______________ Cash Payment $_______________ Name______________________________________Name____________________________________ Mailing address______________________________ ____________________________________ ___________________________________________ ____________________________________ e-mail address_______________________________ _____________________________________ Note: Dues paid in the last quarter of the year cover the following year: Mail to: Pearland Historical Society, P.O. Box 1333, Pearland, Texas 77588 Please note: If you are paying for a gift membership, please give the name and address of the person who presenting the gift so we can notify the recipient. Name_______________________________________ Address______________________________________ _____________________________________________ 9 10Microsoft Office Word 2007 Microsoft Office Word 2007