Harlingen History by Norman Rozeff

(Norman also has a page of articles on "Valley History" which can be opened by Clicking and a page listing the "Chronological History of Harlingen" which also can be opened by Clicking )

Click on a title to jump to a particular essay (or, just keep scrolling). (Photos are thumbnails, Click to enlarge, use browser's back button to restore.)

A Brief History of Harlingen by Betty Murray
A Postcard Exploration
A Chronological History of Education in Harlingen
A Harlingen Cemetery Chronology
Adams Gardens Connections – Ballí to Berly
Biographical Information on Hugh Ramsey
Of Buildings and Business Schools
F. Z. Bishop, Harlingen Developer
Faded History Comes to Life
Flames Fostered Town of Palm Valley
Where the Name of Harlingen, Texas Likely Derives
Good Cheer at the Harlingen Cemetery
Harlingen's First Hospital
Historic Harlingen
The Location of the Providencia Ranch and Harlingen's Early Water Supply
James Henry Dishman
More Cool Stuff
Picture Worth a Thousand Words
Lozano Building Holds Many Memories and Stories
Sad End to Railroad Depot
Silk Stocking Row
Soldiers Stationed in Harlingen, 1915-1916, and Some of Their Actions
Summary History of the Harlingen Army Airfield and Harlingen Air Force Base
The Art of Naming Streets
The Broadway Theatre League of Harlingen and Its Successors
The Butt House on East Taylor Street
The City Parks of Harlingen, Texas
History of the Harlingen Army Airfield and Harlingen Air Force Base
The Harlingen Connection
The Railroad Bridges of Harlingen
Southern Hospitality in Harlingen -- The Verser House
Thomas F. Lee and Leeland
Unusual Photograph Explained
Valley Morning Star and Print Media Chronology
When Giants Roared in Hanger 38
Biographical Information on Wimbberly McLeod
Famed Sculptor, Lincoln Borglum, Farmed in Area
Dedication of the Texas Historical Commission Events Marker Commemorating the Harlingen Army Air Field and Harlingen Air Force Base
Characterizing Harlingen Eccentricities
The Harlingen Cemetery by Betty Murray
Memories of Harlingen's Five and Ten Cent Stores
Sorrento to Lone Star, a History of Good Eating
Harlingen 1910 Poll Tax Payers
Liberty's Belle Lived in Harlingen
Matz Family History
The Old Valley Baptist Hospital on F Street and Its Doctors
The Letzerich Building, Likely Harlingen's Oldest Existing Commercial Structure
The Weller family in Harlingen
Two Famous Architects of Harlingen
A 1930s Harlingen Teenager Coming of Age
Reese-Wil-Mond Hotel and Heritage Manor History
Ross-Bobo House History
Some African American History in Harlingen and the Valley
Identification of Robert Runyon's Harlingen Photographs
Harlingen and Harlingen Area Road History from the Beginning
The Weed Kindergarten School and the Valley Ice Cream Company
Cinema in Harlingen
Harlingen Auditorium and Harlingen Concert Association
Lozano Plaza Plaque Dedication
Harlingen Museum Chronology
Hand-Adams House History
Stuart Place History
 

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A Brief History of Harlingen as Presented to the Tourist Club, Harlingen by Betty (Mrs. Menton J.) Murray on November 17, 1970

It is a real privilege for me to be here today to extend our thanks to God for our being in our Magic Valley. Being the daughter of two who came from the North as land seekers, stayed here to make their home, and reared their children to love this place on earth, I am grateful that I can share some thoughts with you about Harlingen's beginning.

On May 31, 1909, in an appeal to a group of Seminary Graduates in Richmond, Virginia, in describing the potential of Harlingen, Dr. S.L. Morris said, " Now this rich country is a crude frontier where people who are pouring into the country are laying the foundation for great wealth; but there is little opportunity for organized religious worship—Here is the greatest opportunity for Christian service to be found anywhere."

It was Samuel McPheeters Glascow who arrived to take charge in answer to the above appeal. He described Harlingen in 1909 as a mud town, no paved streets, or roads, or sidewalks—coal oil lamps, not a plumber in the entire Valley—burros, or horses, or mules were the chief means of transportation, and he estimated the population to be about 200.

On the site of (today's) Heritage Manor (the former Reese-Wil-Mond hotel), seventeen charter members, led by Rev. Glascow, gathering in a gospel tent on a vacant lot, organized the First Presbyterian Church of Harlingen, second only to the First Baptist church, which had been organized a few months before. These churches have continued to grow to the present time. A Catholic Church was built in 1910 on "C" Street, and the First Methodist Church was established in 1911. The first church building in Harlingen was a little Seventh Day Adventist Church on 4th and Jackson. It was constructed in1909. A tropical storm [perhaps that of August 27,1909 which came ashore just south of Brownsville] that year partially collapsed the incomplete church building, causing the death of their pastor. For this reason the Adventists never completed their building. By public conscription, the building was later completed so people in Harlingen might have another place to worship. It was shared by several denominations.

Dr. Edgar Graham Gammon followed Reverend Glascow and said, recalling his first impressions of Harlingen, "Everything looked strange—flat land, small trees, the birds, the very atmosphere; the coyotes running and screaming through my yard at night was music. I decided in my mind that I'd stick it out for three months—then six months—I stayed five years and then hated to leave." A full report of progress in 1913 by Edgar Gammon lists Mr. and Mrs. H.H. Burchard as members that year. It is their only child, Dorothy, who is to be one of the hostesses in the Tour of Homes. She is now Mrs. Charles A. Washmon.

Dr. Gammon believed in physical fitness for the young boy. During his stay here he took the boys swimming in the Arroyo under [what is now] the Hiway 83 Bridge [This was where the Arroyo was forded by people going to San Benito or Brownsville.]. He organized a boy's club, inspiring the young men and boys to a worthwhile life. A tiny clubhouse was built to hold their meetings.

Reverend Gammon built a small house, which stood at the corner of Van Buren and 6th, for his bride. At that time he was favored with a Ford Runabout. Prior to the Ford, he had walked or borrowed a horse.

After graduating law school, Lon C. Hill practiced law in Beeville—his law practice often brought him to Brownsville in the Valley. Mr. Hill bought the tract on which Harlingen was located from Mrs. Henrietta King, of King Ranch fame, for $2.50 an acre [the correct figure is $2.00 an acre]. Starting without capital in 1900, with 41,000 acres, with his Arroyo Camp his approximate center (200 feet north of where Heritage Manor is today) Lon C. Hill sketched his plans in the dirt for Colonel Sam Robertson. With a stick in the dust he sketched where he would build his canals, and where he would begin his city, its heart to be where they sat. Mr. Hill began getting options on enormous tracts of land all fronting the river [Not necessarily the case, for he had purchased parcels of land to the north also]. Many owners were descendents of original Spanish grantees [also not necessarily the case, since by this time much of the land had already passed into possession of Anglos]. Land went from one dollar to two dollars an acre. Although hard up for cash, Hill never for a moment had any doubt about the outcome of his plans. He envisioned a railroad, the initial development of an irrigation system, a deep water port for Harlingen on the Arroyo. All of these he helped to bring about. In the charter, the town was designated 25 miles north of Brownsville on the Arroyo Colorado. Since Holland was crisscrossed with canals, Mr. Hill studied the map of Holland and chose Harlingen as the name for his new settlement [The actual story of the name's origin is a bit more complicated]. His first attempt of putting water on Valley soil was carried out with the aid of a wood burning boiler and pump.

In 1903, Lon C. Hill moved his family from Beeville to the new country, taking them first to Point Isabel, then to Brownsville. Twelve [ fourteen in Kate Hill's account] wagons brought possessions and a family of a wife and nine children [along with several other families as well]. Four [three actually] sons herded the livestock. A chuck wagon was part of the wagon train.

On July 4, 1904, the first train came to Brownsville—just a month before Mr. Hill had bought the season's first two bales of cotton. He sent one to the World's Fair and the other to Houston, thus inaugurating the tradition of shipping to Houston for auction. The coming of the railroad boosted prices of the raw land from $2.00 to $75.00 to $125.00 an acre.

Tragedy stuck the Hill family when Mrs. Hill and a son died in November of 1904 of Typhoid Fever. So about three months later, Mr. Hill took his children to the partly completed ranch house at Harlingen. Only the three South rooms were roofed at the time. It was called the "hill" because it was six feet higher than the adjacent land. [Mrs. McKenna's account puts the move-in date as January 1905.] They lived there until 1919. This is the home the Junior Service League has restored and was the first home in Harlingen and is now located in the Museum complex. During the bandit attacks, the Hill home became an arsenal. One room (locked) downstairs held a sizeable stock of ammunition. Mr. Hill had a brick plant along the bluff on the Arroyo in present Finwood Heights [the area south-southwest of the Coakley School]. Original bricks from this plant are still about, but numbered. Dr. Shepard's home is noted as having some. A sugar mill was located on the site of the present baseball diamond at Fair Park. Mr. Hill is a said to have laid a foundation which is an inspiration for future generations to build upon. Lon C. Hill was honored on his seventy-sixth birthday in 1932 as Father of Harlingen. On May 5,1935, his powerful heart stopped.

History tells us that occasional brick buildings crowed between wooden shacks formed the business district, but life in the frontier town was still hard in the Valley between 1904 and 1914. The Valley was often described as "Heaven for men and mules, but Hell for women and horses." [A quote from Harbert Davenport] One of the earliest merchants was Santos Lozano, who moved here from Alice in 1903 [the correct date is 1905]. [In 1915]At the corner of Jackson and "A" Streets the Lozano Building [or brick Pioneer building] was erected to house the Lozano and Son General Merchandise Store.[It replaced a wooden structure built by the Lozanos in 1906.] At 323 West Van Buren, F.H. Pena owned a Variety store. A candle lantern was hung on a post to light the front of the store in 1910. This lantern was hung on a post, was bought for 2.50 Mexican Money in Brownsville and is still a keepsake. The earliest pictures show the Moore Hotel as the first. Harlingen's second hotel was built in 1908, called the Ogan Hotel. Nearby was the first Real Estate office. Mrs. A.H. Weller organized the first cemetery in 1906—the Harlingen Cemetery Association. In 1912, at the corner of Jackson and Commerce, a building was constructed by Dr. C.W. Letzerich, which house his office, the office of a dentist, and the Harlingen Pharmacy. In 1909, Harlingen had a telephone exchange with twenty subscribers. In 1910, Harlingen had a population of 350. The first electric light and water systems were built in 1911 and 1912.

Fifty civic minded citizens bought a steel lamppost each, primarily to light the city streets, however, they used them to shackle bad actors before taking them to the County Jail in Brownsville, if the need arose. Around 1907 the Taylor Lumber Company was opened.

From 1914 to 1917 the virgin lands of this Valley were unbelievably rich and many crops could be grown, but the irrigation systems, marketing systems and citrus industry were all in their infancy and were not yet functioning consistently and efficiently, so Harlingen and the Valley were tied to a one crop economy – cotton, which could not be marketed because of German boats, thus cutting off European markets. Also locally in 1915 was the problem of bandits. Skirmishes along the border and the killing of people of both countries brought militia and regular Army troops to the frontier. In Palm Gardens, just west of Harlingen, on August 10, 1913 the cavalry patrol was fired upon by the bandits, and a Private L.C. Waterfield was killed.

Between l918 and 1923 Harlingen began bursting out at the seams. A brochure published in 1923 said, "Harlingen points with pride to her commercial and industrial activities and advantages. Our diversified agricultural interests naturally require ample marketing and transportation facilities. These facilities are unsurpassed anywhere in the Valley." The oldest known copy of the Harlingen Star, forerunner of the Valley Morning Star was December 14, 1923 . Harlingen had her first fire pumper on March 6, 1922 when it accepted delivery. The first police chief was E.[Elmer] W. Anglin. Business boomed in the 20's. The Harlingen Canning Company was opened. The Harlingen Chamber of Commerce was organized in 1919. A.A. Kimmell was the Chamber's first president and J.B. Challes was its first Secretary-Manager. In the 20's a Valley Mid-Winter Fair was held in December of each year. A queen was crowned and local clubs gave dances to entertain her court. Parades were held and ribbons were prizes for the best of products. As early as 1923 one anchor wrote, "Harlingen is the principal icing station for carload vegetable lots from other Valley points and is the point from which the railroad distributes carload freight to other Valley towns on local consignment. On account of her advantages location as well as other reasons, Harlingen has played an important part in development and shared most generously in the prosperity experienced in the Valley in recent years." The First National Bank came into existence in 1922. It was first located on Jackson Street. Later, it occupied a new home at the corner of Jackson and "A" and in 1951 moved to its present location and is now Nations Bank [by the late 1990s it became Bank of America]. In 1945, the Harlingen State Bank was chartered with Elmer G. Johnson as President and D. B. Dunkin as Vice-President. The Harlingen State Bank became the Harlingen National in 1956. Two more banks were added just in the last two years, the Plaza National and the Harlingen State Bank. In 1927, Hygeia Milk Products Company came into existence with a 60 gallon per day milk capacity in their first home, 215 North "A".

In the entertainment field, the Rex Theater was built and existed from 1910-1915. Movies soon arrived, Lyceum tours and Chatauqua series were a part of the excitement. In 1920, the Rialto was built and opened in 1921. In the 20's, the Municipal Auditorium was built and Valleyites heard such greats as John Phillip Sousa, Madame Schumann Heinck, Galla Curchi, "George White Scandals", "Rio Rita". Baseball was from Harlingen's beginning. Football's first team was in 1913. Golf came to Harlingen in 1928. Always there was horseracing on Valley ranches, but horseracing came to Harlingen in 1935, when a race track was built at Fair Park; betting was legal at that time.

After one race, betting was ruled illegal again. Flying began early in Harlingen. The first plane was owned and flown by Leman Nelson and Clay Rader in 1923. Later, Bill Williams and Leman Nelson opened a flying school in Harlingen.

The Harlingen Study Club was organized in 1920 with a group of women who were largely responsible for founding the library and provided for its support for six years.

The Music Lovers Club was organized in 1925 and federated later that year. Our own Junior Service League was organized in 1947. These are only a few of the worthwhile organizations in this city.

In March, 1941, the Harlingen Gunnery School was opened with Colonel John Morgan in command. Miss Angela Murray was the first civil service employee.

In the interest of agriculture, an article in 1908 in the Gulf Coast Magazine reported that Lon C. Hill met with such success raising mid-winter tomatoes on his Harlingen farm that next year he will plant thirty acres in this vegetable alone. John Closner about that time wrote that the cost of clearing land is about $6.00 an acre. "Our field labor is Mexican. Good farm hands are plentiful at fifty cents per diem the year round. At present, there are fourteen pumping plants in operation and under construction. One of these under construction will have such vast pumping capacity as to all but stagger the human mind – 270,000 gallons per minute – a veritable river itself, bodily lifted from the channel of the Rio Grande and made to run wheresoever the mind of man wills, to make fruitful, to blossom and bloom as the roses of my fair lady's garden, thousands upon thousands of acres of what has been for centuries a desert waste."

Certainly I would be remiss if I did not mention our Medical Center in Harlingen. The Valley Baptist Medical Center began in June of 1925 as a twenty-five bed hospital on "F" Street. Dr. C.M. Cash of San Benito headed this effort. It was enlarged several times and then a new Valley Baptist Hospital was built in 1956 on 77 Bypass. Presently there is a large building project in the process of being built. Also the Harlingen State Tuberculosis Hospital, now Harlingen Chest Hospital of South Texas was built and the keys of the newly completed hospital were turned over in January 1956. On this same day, the new Valley Baptist Hospital, now Valley Baptist Medical Center, was used for the first time though it was not formally dedicated until May 18th. Soon Ed Carey Road became a medical center with many doctors building their offices along the strip. In November 1955 the Base Hospital at the Harlingen Air Force Base was completed. This is now the Center of the Rio Grande Valley Mental Health Clinic. Finally in July 1959 the Valley Baptist Hospital Nursing School was opened and the first class of future nurses was enrolled.

Enthusiasm for the Valley isn't anything new. Here's a sample from the January 1909 issue of the Gulf Coast Magazine. "There is a charm about the Valley of the Lower Rio Grande which all may feel but none can well define. The majestic flow of the river as it winds like a great serpent in the course to the sea—the blue skies; the never ceasing song of the birds; the flowers blooming at all seasons of the year—the matchless groves of lofty palms—all combine to fill the heart with rapture and inspire poetry and song."

"If thou would wander in enchanted land. Go linger by the winding Rio Grande. It is the land of plenty and of peace, where flowers ever grow and songbirds never cease."

On December the 8th, three outstanding homes of Harlingen will be shown.

First to be shown tonight complete in their Christmas finery will be the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Washmon on Riverside Drive. The house is Southern Colonial architecture situated on two and a half acres on the Arroyo Colorado and is within the city limits. Furnishings are in Early Victorian, French, English and American. The Christmas tree is an accumulation of jeweled velvet balls which have been made by Mrs. Washmon herself through the years.

The Joe McGill home, 909 Little Creek Drive, was built only two years ago. It is of contemporary design with choice pieces from Mexico placed artistically in a chaparral setting. Tijinas tile and a screen done by the Mexican artist Lugo give this home an old world look. From each west window throughout the length of the home one can look upon the patio and the garden which overlook the Arroyo.

The gardens of the Dial Dunkin home [at 1009 East Parkwood]are tantalizingly delightful.

Old gold and antique green in a traditional setting best describes the home of Dr. and Mrs. Frank Shepard at 1102 Ferguson. Three wood burning fireplaces lend such warmth [while] the old stained glass doors take your breath away as you enter the dining room. The majestic grandfather's clock in the entrance hall and the chopping block in the kitchen would make a person green with envy except that these things couldn't be owned by nicer people. And don't forget to see the bricks from the early brick factory.

The newly completed country club is an answer to our dreams. Its beauty both inside and out shows much planning to the minutest detail.

Proceeds from the home tour will go to the Hill Home Restoration Fund. The Junior Service League has as one of its projects the restoration of the frame building to its original appearance. The League has purchased some o0f the original furniture and the Hill family has given other pieces of furniture and objects to be used to make it authentic.

Transcribed and annotated by Norman Rozeff, Harlingen Historical Preservation Society, September 2003.

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A Postcard Exploration

Norman Rozeff

Most of the Harlingen-topic postcards from the 1910s through the 1960s are promotional in nature. They picture public buildings such as the post office, municipal auditorium, schools, and the Casa del Sol among others. Additional cards show churches, hotels and motels. Then there are the numerous cards exploiting the merchant sections of Jackson Street.

When an acquaintance e-mailed me a postcard photograph which I had not previously encountered, I was excited at what I perceived to be a structure not visually documented elsewhere. Nearly in the center of the photo is seen a dark one story building sandwiched between the beginning of North B Street and Commerce. The darkest spot is actually a shaded overhang while the building is painted black or dark brown with its window frames in white. I immediately thought that this was the town's first city hall.

The building which served as Harlingen's first city hall was small and rustic. It erection was started in March 1910 by the Harlingen Commercial Club, which was similar to a chamber of commerce, and pretty much completed by the start of June. This organization expended $290 for the lumber, fixtures and other items used in its construction. The club's first unpaid secretary was H.D. Seago, who would later go on to serve many years as Cameron County clerk. In the second half of 1910 the City Commission began to rent the facility in order to conduct business meeting there. In 1926 the city moved into a new combination city hall/fire station facility at 202-204 East Van Buren Street, a city block almost empty even at this date. The old city hall was torn down. The small triangular lot was cleaned and planted. On 9/1/26 its site was dedicated as a small park to honor Gordon Hill, son of founder Lon C. Hill. Gordon, who had died of influenza in the pandemic of 1918, was a promoter of the city, served it in several capacities, and pushed for city park development. Few know it as such, since it appears today little more than a medial strip.

When, in December 2004, an individual donated 20 old Harlingen subject post cards to the archive room of the library, the "A Bird's Eye View of Harlingen" postcard was among them. The Kodak AZO print was considerably clearer than the e-mail reproduction. Sitting clearly atop what I had taken as city hall was a sign reading "Battery and Oil Station." Having been established in 1920 this was Harlingen's first drive-in automobile service station. It was operated by William Witt, son-in-law of G.P. Brandt, who ran the blacksmith shop at 202 N. Commerce. Brandt's occupation would later evolve into an automobile repair firm, the Harlingen Body Works, at 208 N. Commerce.

The photograph appears to have been taken in 1923 from atop the newly-constructed 3-story structure of the A Street Wittenbach Building put up by C.H. Wittenbach and A.J., his grocer son. It would later have an attached five story wing. To the immediate southeast of the service station is seen the 2-story cream-colored brick, over 5,500 square foot structure built in 1921 for Edwin R. Templeton. An outside staircase is to be seen rising to the second floor. That area played a significant part in Harlingen history for here met such organizations as the fraternal Woodmen of the World, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Masons, and also DeMolay, Rainbow Girls, Labor Temple for union members, and dance groups. The building currently housing Grimsell's has yet to be built but to the east of its lot, a sign on the building advertises the Hall Bro's (sic) Garage. No signs identify the occupants of the new-looking one story building north across the street from Templeton, but later it will house the Valley Drugs and Sundries Co.

Along Commerce we see the Rio Grande Hardware and Machine Co., successors to Ewing-Phillips Hardware, in a store later to be occupied by Harlingen Hardware and now Broadway Hardware. Next to it is the still one-story feed store of James W. Rhone. In January 1925 it will be purchased by F.G. Jackson. North of it is the Lockridge Millinery shop and Edelstein's with the very same logo the present-day company retains, followed by the warehouse built in 1920 for the Fulton Jones Moving and Storage Co. and adjacent to it is A.L. Brooks' early strip mall housing various commercial enterprises. In the distance up Commerce are the Taylor Lumber Co. (opened 1907), the cotton compress, and the Farmers Gin Co.

Along Jackson Street heading east is the Letzerich Building occupied upstairs by the brothers Drs. Casper W. and Alfred M. Letzerich. It was constructed in 1909, possibly by Charles H. Waterwall. It is likely Harlingen's oldest existing brick building. For a time Hugo J. Letzerich runs the Harlingen Pharmacy on the ground floor. He had arrived as mail clerk on the first train here in 1904. The triangular one-story addition to the Letzerich Building appears to have been added before 1930 for in this year The New York Store is listed as its occupant.

Next to Letzerich Building is the spacious premise of A.A. Kimmel and Company Hardware and Implements at 212 W. Jackson. It got its start in 1918. Kimmel, in 1919, would have the honor of becoming the first president of the newly organized Harlingen Chamber of Commerce, the one that presently exists as the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce. Johnson's Cafe and the E. B. Thompson News Stand abut Kimmel's. Next to them is the New Manhattan Cafe run first by the Daiments brothers and then sold to G.J. Corris and B.P. Nakes. Sandwiched between the Manhattan Cafe and E. Manautou, a branch of a Brownsville dry goods store which would leave Harlingen before 1930, is a small Photo Studio. The Famous Store would later occupy Manautou's old site.

Across the street is the former Planters State Bank which purchased the lot in 1917. Mack Crenshaw's little wooden barber shop had stood on the site at the southeast corner of Commerce and Jackson. The handsome bank building will be, in 1924-27, home to the Valley State Bank then hold the offices for the Cameron County Irrigation District No.1 from 1927 to 1965. In 1986 the building was awarded a bronze plaque as a Recognized Texas Historic Landmark. Around 1910 two false front wooden buildings, straight out of the old west, once sat next to the barber shop. The first was James Lockhart's general merchandise store which he ran with his oldest sons James Jr. and Brad. In November 1903 the Lockhart family came to the Valley. After managing Lon C. Hill's rice plantation near Brownsville for a short time, Lockhart moved his family to what would become Harlingen. For a time the family lived in tents along the north bank of the Arroyo Colorado. Lockhart commenced the clearing operations for the community-to-be. Upon the arrival of the railroad Lockhart was the community's first postmaster in its city hall location and acted as the unofficial law enforcement officer before the town was incorporated in 1910. The Lockhart store would be taken over by C. H. Ritter. For a time Ritter had to contend with August M. Weller's bustling saloon next door. Weller was the first to purchase lots offered by the Town and Improvement Co. of Lon C. Hill. Weller, after making good money operating other saloons around town, would gain respectability when he purchases the Harlingen State Bank and moves its office to A and Jackson Streets. The building seen in the photo next to the bank building will shortly house Morris Edelsteins's Edelstein's Furniture Store at 217 W. Jackson. It will here from an earlier location next to Jones' Transfer on Commerce. To its east will be the City Barber Shop, then an empty lot likely owned by Weller.

The exploration of this seemingly non-descript post card turns out to reveal unexpected history. Sometimes it's there for the looking.

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A Chronological History of Education in Harlingen
Compiled by Norman Rozeff, Harlingen Historical Preservation Society, 7/07

1903 The children of La Providencia Ranch hands are taught by Miss Margarita Villareal (later she becomes Mrs. G.M. Lozano. Their son G.M. Lozano, Jr. will marry another early arrival to the Harlingen scene. This is Ida Priestly, who arrived here in 1922, as her father with ancestors from Clarksville, TX takes up tenant farming in the Rangerville area. In 2002 she is to celebrate her 86th birthday.) Having been graduated after eleven years of schooling in Brownsville Margarita is qualified to teach. Instruction is in English. Later the school moves into the second floor of the Pioneer Building. This serves some of the Hispanic children until the school district builds a facility.

9/05 Lon C. Hill, the founder of Harlingen, builds a small frame schoolhouse near his new home. It opens with the seven Hill children as pupils; three children (Frank, John and Elizabeth) of Hill's sister and brother-in-law –Mr. and Mrs. J.C. McBee; the children (Lynn and Etta) of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas L. Jones, who had accompanied Hill from Beeville; Henry Bell; and later Katherine Weller, daughter A.H. Weller. This is 14 students in all to be taught by W.A. Francis (1905-07). He will someday head the English Department at Texas A&I College in Kingville. He is to be followed by Miss Johnnie Phipps in the 1907-08 school year and Lillian Weems, later Baldridge, in1908-09. According to Mrs.Baldridge her students were: Kathryne Weller (Mrs. H. D. Seago), Mary Jones (Mrs. H. E. Bennett), Lynn Jones, Henry Bell, Ida Hill (Mrs. H. K. Morrow), Lon (Mose) C. Hill, Jr., John and Frank McBee, Gordon Hill, John Hill, Annie Rooney Hill, Hickman Hill, Sunshine Hill (Mrs. M.L. Caul), and Elizabeth McBee (Mrs. W.L. Darnell).

1907-09 Miss Jesusa Garcia, later Mrs. Cirilo Rodriguez, teaches 12 to15 Hispanic students in a small house outfitted to be a school room. It is on the property her father, Pancho Garcia, has bought from Hill in the 300 block of West Harrison. Mrs. Rodriguez is to die at age 94 on 11/1/84 leaving four surviving daughters.

10/5/09 The Harlingen Independent School District Board of Trustees holds its organizational meeting in the office of the Morrow Brothers Lumber Company. The board consists of John E. Snavely (chairman), C.F. Perry, H.N. Morrow, J.A. Card, R.S. Chambers, W.E. Hollingsworth, and W.H. Kilgore. The first school site purchased was the Alamo School site, just west of the railroad tracks. Lon C. Hill donated half the site and the District purchased the other half, according to Warren W. Ballard, later business manager of the schools. Miss Anna Dixon, later Mrs. Clark of Austin, teaches at the school for Hispanics.

1908-09 The number of school children is still small enough to list. They are: Allie Hathaway (Mrs. Harold Looney), Auro Hathaway (later Buster), Rhubena Hathaway (Mrs. Dallas Ingle), Peter Hathaway, J.D. Dorough, Bunny Dorough, Moody Dorough (Mrs. Flagg), LeRoy Hoffman, Roland Ogan, Lois Ogan, Grady Ferguson, Lucie Mary Weems, Vivian Barbee, Archie Barbee, Lucille Barbee, Luella Barbee, Quinton Barbee, Emmett Anglin, Wyatt Clark, Earl Waterwall, Laura Lockhart, Basil Watwood, and Jesus ?.

1909 Mrs. George Pletcher, mother of George Pletcher, Jr., who would enter the nursery business and become mayor of Harlingen, along with Mrs. Wiles' sister Eula were school teachers in the Adventist Church building. Her brother H.C. Ware and his wife owned a home next door to the old Adventist Church building, which was later to become a community building.

One student, I.E. (Renus) Snavely, of this period recalls that before the first brick schoolhouse was built classes were held in a succession of places. These were the Adventist Church building, which the Adventists never got to utilize, the Baptist Tabernacle, a red brick building on Harrison Street, and two buildings on the downtown blocks of Jackson. One of these was upstairs over a saloon with a pool hall next door.

5/14/10 The School Board of Trustees considers a bond election. On 7/8/10 the issue is set for $40,000, payable in 40 years at 4% interest in order to construct, equip, and purchase the sites for two brick schools. Forty-six voters (51 in another account) out of the population of 1,126 participate on 11/9/10. All vote in favor. L.S. Green of Green and Briscoe, Architects, Houston is selected for the "Main School" to serve grades 1 through 11. A.W. Cunningham is instrumental in purchasing a whole city block between 5th and 6th Street along Main Street for the site of the school. It is purchased from Lon C. Hill for $3,500. The Anglo students are attending school in the former Seventh Day Adventist building while the Hispanic students are in the brick one-story two-classroom school on what will be South E Street.

4/15/11 Contract for $5,649 let to R. H. Tadlock to construct the second story addition to the existing two classroom brick schoolhouse for Mexican ethnics. To some this school was called the Benito Juarez School after the president of Mexico. Juarez was called the Lincoln of Mexico for expulsion of the French and his many reforms during his service as president 1861-1872. The School Board Trustees accept this addition on 3/12/12. At this time J.S. Ford is president of the Board and Prof. William L. Sturgeon is school superintendent and secretary to the board. He is also a staunch First Christian Church member. Later when the board is reorganized, John E. Snavely will handle security. Lucie Weems is principal of the school from 1915 to 1917. This is the first of three schools to carry the name Alamo. By 1930 it was no longer being used as a school. Its second story was removed in 1949 and the rest demolished in 1975. Its location was likely on W. Van Buren not far from the railroad tracks.

4/25/11 Andrew Goldammer is awarded a $25,000 contract to build a three story brick schoolhouse on the northwest corner of Jackson and 6th Streets. J.P. McDonald is to supervise its construction. Another source puts the low-bid contract at $22,800. Now called a $40,000 school, it is nearing completion by 10/26/11. The building is accepted 3/25/12. First called the Central Ward School, it is, in1936, renamed the Sam Houston School.

4/1/12 The Central Ward School is occupied. It serves as a school from 1912 to 1950 then several years as a community center. In 1952 it is purchased and renovated into an office complex named the E.O. Matz Building.

E.W. Anglin, a school board member in 1911-12, recalls, "We gathered up all the classes scattered about town on April 1, 1912 and moved them all to the new brick building on Jackson Street. The next year was a rainy one and we had to build a board walk all the way from downtown to the school."

1913 Enough boys are enrolled in the high school, so a 14 man football team organizes.

1913-18 Lyceum Courses for adults are held in the Central Ward School in these years.

5/14 The first graduating class (then 11 grades) of the Harlingen High School is compose of Roberta Chaudoin (later Mrs. I.E (Renus) Snavely), Murl and Gladys Snavely, and Fred Osborn.

1915 The Wilson School at Primera to the west of J.F. Rodgers' place is built. Rodgers and J.T. Avery are its prime movers. Lilian Weems Baldridge is to be its first teacher.

The Sacred Heart of Mary opens a three room school. Three years later a fourth class room is added. It is located just south of the church on Winchell (now C) Street.

4/7/16 W.F. Jourdan is superintendent of schools and Pearl Botts is principal of the high school. Domestic science classes will be added next term. Miss Pearl Cleary is principal of the Wilson rural high school.

1918 This is the year Paul E. Phipps comes to the Valley where he later becomes Superintendent of McAllen schools for two years. He comes to Harlingen in 1922 and takes the same position here until 1933, the year of his death. He is a native of New Boston, MO having been born there 4/30/88. He was educated at Kirksville Teachers College in Missouri and Columbia University where he received an M.S. degree. He also has a Superintendent School Diploma from Columbia. This Methodist and Mason married Susan Case on 6/28/11. He was president of the Valley Mid-Winter Fair Association its first two years in Harlingen. Paul Earl Phipps was superintendent of schools in Princeton, Missouri in 1918 when, due to his father's health condition, he brought his family including his father, wife Susan Case, and daughter Jean to McAllen in the summer of 1918. Two years later he was selected to be Harlingen Superintendent of Schools, a position he filled until 1932. His daughter, Jean Phipps Clore, will provide a valuable service by documenting the history of the First Methodist Church in Harlingen.

Jennie Case comes to the Valley from Missouri. She is a graduate of the George Peabody College of Nashville. She and her sister, Mrs. Mattie Case (d.5/51), begin teaching in Harlingen in 1920. This First Methodist Church member dies 7/19/59 leaving a niece Jean Phipps Clore (here in1920). Her brother-in-law, the late Paul Phipps, was an early Harlingen school superintendent.

1919 Some time before 1920, the population of rural Leeland to the west of Harlingen had grown enough that a school was warranted. A frame building consisting of two large rooms to serve all grades was erected at the corner of what is now Business 83 and Altas Palmas Roads. Before 1923 this facility was being outgrown, so a one room frame building was added to hold the first and second grades.

1920 The school enrollment at Central Ward and West Ward Schools is 284 pupils as the school year starts. The children of new arrivals will soon push it to 410. In the 1920s Harlingen segregates its Mexican surnamed school children through the 4-5th grades.

In this decade before the year 1925 the West Ward School is built in the east side of the 400 block of South F Street at 415. It is an attractive two-story brick structure. Its attendees are wholly Hispanic. By 1937 a larger facility is built at 501-2 South F and named the Alamo School. In 1970 or 1971 the school is closed. In the 1987 -88 school year Alamo Jr. High School is to open at the present site of the Harlingen High School –South.

1921 Luz Ramirez, later to be Mrs. Bennie Leal of San Benito, is the first student of Mexican origin to be graduated from Harlingen High School. In 1922 Alfred Lozano, later to be Doctor Lozano, is the first Hispanic boy to be graduated.

6/19/21 A $50,000 bond issue is voted by Stuart Place residents to construct a schoolhouse. Bob and O.E. Stuart donate 10 acres of land for its site. It is scheduled to be completed by January 1, 1922. Mrs. Hugh Fitzgerald is president of the board and Mrs. R. D. Corn secretary. The former is one of the few women in the state to hold such a position. B.A. Elwing and Roy Mulhausen, architects of San Benito and Harlingen, have submitted plans for a modern building to serve the 185 scholars presently enrolled in the district. The same architects have designed the $50,000 new Harlingen High School. The 216' x 145' structure will have two wings each holding eight classrooms and be constructed by W.T.Liston and Son.

1921-23 In this school year 534 students are enrolled.

12/12/22 The School Board of Trustees appropriates $60,000 for construction of a new senior high school. Its ornate twin-towered building is erected on the west side of the double block extending from 6th to 8th Street and between Polk and Tyler. It costs $45,452.50. Four years later on the east side of the two block strip the main building is constructed for use as a junior high school. In the Hurricane of 1933 the first building sustains such serious structural damage that it has to be torn down. A gymnasium-auditorium is then built in the middle of the block. By 1937, the surviving structure called the Travis Junior High School operates at this place until 1949 when a new junior high school is constructed on 13th and Madison on land donated by the Minnie Gay family. The former junior high school, now turned into the Travis Elementary School, will be demolished along with the gymnasium when a new Travis Elementary School is build on the site but nearer 6th Street in the late 1970s.

1923 The Stuart Place School is dedicated. On the stone monument commemorating it are inscribed the names of the school board. They are: O.E. Stuart, president, J.J. Garrett, vice-president, Mrs. Hugh Fitzgerald, Secretary, W.H. Maupin, I.B. Corns, and H.C. West. A year later with the first graduated class comes the school's first edition of its annual, "Hoja de Palma". The school building will become the gathering place for the rural residents of the area and even be used for church activities. By 1928 the school will be fully accredited. The school building will become the gathering place for the rural residents of the area and even be used for church activities. By 1928 the school will be fully accredited.

June 1923 Seven boys and 13 girls are the first to be graduated from the Central Ward School after 11 years of instruction. Teacher Frank Brunneman has taught Richard Stout, Kenneth Macy, Raymond Rodgers, Frank Houghton, Margaret Thomason, Lucille Bobo, Roe Davenport, Velda Goldammer, Essie McLeod, Vera Letzerich, Maureen Elmore, Velma Baize, Mayme Anglin, Mary Jennings, and Gladys Word among others.

3/5/25 On this date it is announced that a bond issue for $100,000 for new school construction will be voted on 4/4. At month end, Supt. Phipps, who has been here four years, is retained. The bond issue passes. Plans are to add an auditorium to the high school (blk. 45), additions to the Mexican School (blk.109), and repair the grade school (blk.50). Total expenditures will range from $60,000 to $65,000. By July a $43,000 contract was let to H. J. Hanson and Son, Brownsville for new junior high school building to be erected next to the senior high school on 6th. The cost of a 900 seat high school auditorium is put at $21,000 with R. E. Ewing its contractor. W.T. Liston received the $10,000 contract to add four classrooms, two on each side of the front of the Mexican School i.e. West Ward School on E Street. This would double its student capacity to accommodate its wholly Hispanic student body. After the renovation the school is called Ward West Junior High School. By 1937 a larger facility is built at adjacent 501-2 S. F Street and named the Alamo School. In 1970 or 1971 the school is closed but not demolished until 1975. In the 1987-88 school year Alamo Junior High School is to open at the present site of the Harlingen High School-South campus.

In 1925, newly elected to the school board of trustees are John Sanders and A.E. McLendon taking the places of John James and C.A. Bobo who do not choose to run again. Holdovers are president, B.H. Brindley, A.A. Kimmel, Paul Hill, L.M. Chaudoin, R. B. Nunally, with R. B. Hamilton, secretary. Residing in a large bungalow at 313 E. Monroe, John F. Sander's family includes John Jr., Joe G., and Bennie Ray. Joe G., a band member in 1931-32 along with brother Bennie, will distinguish himself at H.H.S. by being named All-District guard in 1935 and being elected president of the "Hy-Y" Club (1936).

5/10/25 The largest graduating high school class ever consists of 34 students.

9/25 G.W. Moothart, president, of Harlingen Business College, opens the school after obtaining a three year lease for space in the A.J. Wittenbach Building. He has operated a similar school in Brownsville.

1926 This is the year Lucy A. Phillips Gough started teaching in the Harlingen School District and which she would continue to do so for 26 years. Her specialty was 7th and 8th grade language arts. A native of Sealy, Texas from which school she was graduated in 1903, she then attended the Texas Normal School in the first year it was open. She taught eight years elsewhere before coming to Harlingen. This First Baptist Church member was an originator of the Fine Arts Club in Harlingen where she continued to live for 31 years after retirement. She was also a supporter of the Valley Baptist Academy and the library. In the 1980s she moved to Sealy where on 9/6/92 she celebrated her 107th birthday.

10/8/26 At a PTA meeting Supt. Butler of the Stuart Place School notes that the addition of four more credits this school year will bring the total to 17 ½ or 18.

9/23/27 The Briggs-Coleman School , on what is later to be north FM 507, opens its school year in a new building. Prof. C.O. Slaughter is principal, Miss Jewel Hudson teacher of the elementary grades and Miss Mildred Hudson, the primary grades. In the 1970s after the school has closed the Country Playhouse will use the building to host amateur theatrical productions.

1928 The Lozano Building's upper floor is remodeled by Dr. Alfredo Lozano to convert it into Harlingen's first business college.

The city brags that six schools have been completed with a $500,000 investment, and $400,000 of bonds voted for a new high school and two others. School attendance is 2,564.

This same year the South Ward School at 306 W. Lincoln is erected. It is later renamed the James Bowie Elementary School. Its unique colorful cast-concrete frieze by Luiz Lopez Sanchez provides it the nickname, La Escuela de la Vibores (the school of snakes.) The façade blends Mexican and native-American motifs. At this time at 700 E. Austin the North Ward School, later to be called Austin Elementary, is built with designs by the Meriwether and Sauers Company. The combined cost for both is $93, 258.50. Also started this year are portions of the Dishman School.

7/24/28 Several weeks earlier the school district boundaries were extended 900 acres to include Combes and a few other areas. R. B. Hamilton, board secretary, indicates the new Combes School will cost $20,000 to construct. For the token amount of $1 James Henry Dishman sells five acres of land to the HISD trustees in order for a school to be built in Combes. The trustees are O. N. Joyner, Miller Harwood, J. R. Grimes, H. J. Gostzke, A. E. McClendon, William Watterman and Frank Brunneman.

9/11/28 Schools are to open this date with an enrollment of 2,200 expected and this to rise to 2,600 later. Teachers in the system number 70. [This averages to 31.4 students per teacher.]

1/2/29 2,100 children are in school as of this mid-school year date. From 1920-21 when the school population was 816, the system gained only 305 to 1924-25 then 238 were added in 1925-26 bringing the 1926-27 start total to 1,475. This grew to 1,697 by January and 1,983 by April. The escalating growth indicates the dynamic development of the city in this period.

1/8/29 Dewitt and Washburn, Dallas are to be the architects for the new $270,000 high school expected to be completed by January 1930.

2/14/29 W.L. Lehman, proprietor of the Valley Business College, dies at age 41. He leaves his wife and three small children.

4/29 Carl S. Chilton is the principal of the Central Ward Grammar School.

6/17/29 Large ads are carried urging residents to approve a supplemental bond issue of $100,000 in order to finance the $52,000 shortfall for the construction of the new high school but also $20,000 for additions to the West Ward School, the same amount to pay off Comb School notes, and retire other indebtedness. The issue is to carry 278 to 217.

6/30 Student enrollment is put at 2,383.

9/4/30 Called "the showplace of the Valley", the new $350,000 senior high school at 125 S. 13th Street at Harrison is dedicated. It is designed by architects Dewitt and Washburn of Dallas. The former designed the east wing of the White House. At this time the superintendent of schools is Paul E. Phipps. On the board of Trustees are Mrs. J.I. Coursey, O.N. Joyner, Ira E. Eells, S.D. Grant, A.E. McClendon, and Dr. John Crockett. The last senior class to use the facility is that of 1959 which started there but finished in the new high school on Marshall Street. The Spanish Revival style facility in 1958 becomes Vernon Junior High School named in honor of Julia Vernon, a popular English teacher and librarian for years at the high school.

The West Ward School is at 415 South F Street. Its principal is Mrs. Bertha J. Traylor. The South Ward School is at 309 W. Lincoln and Mrs. Lucy A. Gough is its principal. It will later be re-named the James Bowie Elementary School.

In 1930 the Harlingen Valley Business College was located at 215 ½ W. Monroe. By 1937 the college was operating on the third floor of the Embee Building addition at 119 S. Street. When between 1938 and 1941 the Durham Business Institute took over the site, Mrs. Harman Straub moved her school to the Commerce Building at 121 W. Van Buren. She would close altogether by 1944. By 1942 the Embee school location had become the Durham Business College and was under the management of Carl A. Scott. It stayed in this location until 1958 then, after a year at 106 ½ N 1st, moved to 5621 S. F Street. In the 70s it changed its name to Durham College of the Valley. Durham was to go out of business after 1973, possibly when it experienced difficulties with defaulted government student loans.

1933 The eighth grade class is moved to the high school building on 13th Street.

9/5/33 The Labor Day Hurricane of 1933 delays the start of school initially 9/18 to 9/25 and then to 10/2. The high school on 6th Street is damaged beyond repair as is the school for Negroes in the West side of town. The North and South Ward Schools suffer only minor damage. The number of students is put at 3,430, down 147 from the previous year.

1934 The Booker T. Washington School to serve Harlingen's Negro children is erected in the 800 block of W. Filmore at H Street. As the number of blacks diminishes over the years it will be integrated. Although an addition to it will later be made, it is to be superceded. It ceases to be used as a school in 1959. It currently is being used by the school district as a Parental Involvement Center.

In the Fall of this year the Cardinal Football Field is constructed at the cost of $4,500. It is adjacent to the high school.

1936 The school system has 80 teachers.

1937 The new Alamo Elementary School is operating at 501-21 South F Street. By 1970 it ceases to function.

In this period E.C. Deering is superintendent of schools. He holds a BA from Baylor University and an MA from the University of Texas. D.M. Denton, who is the high school principal, holds an AB degree from Baylor University.

1940 Durham's Business College opens to train people in stenographic, secretarial, and office skills.

1940-41 It is thought that it is this school year that the Harlingen public school system added the twelfth grade . Previously only eleven grades were taught. The end of the 1941-42 school year sees the conclusion of 11 years of matriculation for grade school students to receive their high school diploma. Across Texas the school years offered are now extended through grade twelve. Some transitional scheduling for 11-12 graders is offered the next two years.

1941 The Bryne Select School of Business is at 117 ½ W. Jackson. It exists only this one year. Mrs. Harry (Ethel) Eggleston is superintendent. Her husband is the owner of the Merchants Credit Bureau.

12/31/42 The school enrollment is 3,125 with a faculty of 97. As 1943 commences the public schools are: Harlingen Senior High School (13th St.), Travis Junior High (Polk), Sam Houston, James C. Bowie, Stephen F. Austin, Alamo, Booker T. Washington, and James F. Dishman. The total investment in the physical plants was $800,000. The 75 member uniformed high school band was a proud achievement.

7/25/46 A school to be associated with St. Anthony's Catholic Church, about to be dedicated, is itself dedicated. Its first classes are held 9/1/46.

9/47 The Valley Baptist Academy gets its start in Harlingen under the sponsorship of the Rio Grande Baptist Association. Its mission is to teach grade school children primarily from Latin America areas. Its first home is an old store building on E. Madison. Here 28 are enrolled. In its second year it moves to Brownsville and remains there until 1956 when the old Valley Baptist Hospital, 613 South F Street in Harlingen becomes available. By 1962 it has 107 students, 88 of whom live in its dormitories. This same year it becomes an institution of the Valley Baptist Convention of Texas and by 1972 is a primary project of Texas Baptist Men. In 1964, 44 acres of land for a new campus, 5700 E. Harrison, are donated. When the 1972 school season starts and the Academy celebrates its 25th Anniversary it has 165 students, grades 8 to 12, from the U.S. and 11 other countries, mostly Mexico and Central America. The campus has five dormitories, classroom and administrative buildings, the president's house and four faculty houses. There is a staff of 20 teachers, administrative and maintenance personnel. At this time Dr. H.E. Gray has served as the Academy's president since 1952.

Some years after the F Street Valley Baptist structure is demolished, the multi-unit, two-story Robin Hood Apartments are constructed on the site.

1948 St. Alban's Episcopal Day School is established. Its first year sees 28 three to five year olds for the half day sessions. By 2003 this accredited school serves pre-school (age 2 through 6th grade.) The intervening years had seen numerous transitions, especially after the air base closed. By 1956-57 there were 85 students through the newly added third grade. A fourth grade was added the following school year only to see a retrenchment of both grades in 1958-59.

In this year the West Ward Elementary School is in the 600 block of South J. By 1950 it has been renamed the Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.

The St. Paul Lutheran School is established at Third and Tyler. Its goal is to educate elementary students together with Christian overtones. The school will later expand to handle kindergarten through 8th grade.

12/21/48 A site is given by R.E. Smith of Houston in memory of his mother Minnie B. Gay of Brownsville. Smith is an oil operator in Conroe. The deed is given to J. Lewis Boggus, president of the school board. Smith is cited as trustee for his daughter, Bobbie Sue Smith, 1 year old, for whom the tract had been given. Mrs. Gay came to Brownsville from Jefferson, TX in 1908. Her husband, Portes Gay, was chief of the Border Patrol at Brownsville. The 40 acre tract was acquired by Mrs. Gay in 1918 and remained in tact until the railroad cut through leaving 37 acres. Of this, 6.8 acres has been given for the school site next to Cardinal Field. Brownsville attorney Robin Pate, a family friend, is credited with generating the gift. On hand are board members Arthur Purdy, F. Earl Davis, T.D. King, J.R. Fitzgerald, Guy Leggett, and W.W. Ballard business manager.

1949 The Minnie Gay Junior High School comes into existence on 13th at Madison. In the 1990s its name is changed to Memorial Middle School as a bone to "political correctness" since the word "gay" has become synonymous with homosexual.

1950 The school system has 5,662 students.

The Fair Park Elementary at 1406 W. Jefferson will become the David Crockett Elementary School in 1952. The new Travis Elementary will open at 700 E. Taylor.

The short-lived Colonial Acres Elementary is at 500 Elm, which is near the airport.

1/23/50 Gay Junior High School to accommodate 630 students is set to open. It features a $365,000 ultra-modern auditorium seating 548. It was designed by Cocke, Bowman and York.

1952 The city has one high school, one junior high school, and eleven elementary schools. There are 5,762 students enrolled under a faculty of 240. The high school now has a 100 member uniformed marching band. Supplementing the public school system are two Catholic parochial schools, one Episcopalian and one Lutheran school each. There are three vocational schools and Durham's Business College with its capacity of 125 students. The Dishman and Wilson School systems have been integrated into the new Harlingen Consolidated Independent School District (HCISD).

1954 The Zavala Elementary School, 1111 North B comes into being as does Bonham at 2400 E. Jefferson..

3/56 The city has one high school, one junior high school, and thirteen elementary schools. The physical plant is valued at $4,170,000. A faculty of 320 serves 10,390 children.

Lamar Elementary School comes online at 1100 McLarry road.

2/14/59 Joel Hendrix Murray of 1307 E. Filmore dies. He came to the Valley from Stephenville in 1921 and until seven years ago was building superintendent of Harlingen schools.

12/19/58 Is the date of the first occupation of the new Harlingen High School on E. Marshall. It costs $1,485,000 including the grounds according to Warren W. Ballard, school business manager. H. Callihan is serving his first year as superintendent of schools. On 1/26/59 it is officially dedicated. Speakers are Dr. Ernest H. Poteet, president of Texas College of Arts and Industry. He was superintendent of schools here for 7 ½ years. J. Gordon Nix is to be principal of the school constructed by W. B. Uhlhorn.

9/23/59 The HISD is to put forth a $450,000 bond issue.

1960 The new Sam Houston School, an elementary one, opens at 301 E. Taft bringing the city's total to 14. The HISD this year has 10,463 students and 402 teachers.

3/1/60 The school board approves new $911,654 second junior high school to be built at Coakley Village and the submission of a bond issue to cover its cost. Last week it approved three elementary schools – one at Coakley Village, one Rangerville Road and one at 1st Street and Davis. Coakley Village is on the C.R. Jullian Coakley Estates. The school will eventually be named for Mary E. Coakley. By 6/7/60 plans are drawn for this school.

The Ben Milam Elementary School is being built at 1215 Rangerville Road.

8/23/60 The school budget of $4,715, 299 is approved. It necessitates raising the district tax rate from $1.50 to $1.70. When the schools open in September there are 8,931 registered students with the breakdown: 5,689 elementary, 2,175 Gay Jr. High, and 1,067 Harlingen High School according to Supt. C.M. Callihan.

3/22/61 Adams Bothers General Construction Co. of Brownsville is awarded the contract for the $602,187 cost of the Coakley Jr. High School. In 1/62 when it comes in at $700,000 the city lacks money for paving 6th Street and the Taft crossing. The school district then says it will not open Coakley this school year.

4/6/61 In view of the announced HAFB closing the school board holds in abeyance the construction of 10 new classrooms.

6/1/61 High school graduates number 257.

8/13/61 The $810/yr teacher pay raise will cost the district, which pays about 13% of the teacher's salaries, $50,000. The base minimum is presently $4,014 annually. The 400 plus teachers here received a raise of $120 last year. In 1960-61 the district received $2,215,863 from the state. About 11,500 students are expected to register for the 1961-62 school year up from 10,976 of 60-61. When a count is made in November, the number of 10,314 is actually down.

9/3/61 A shop and a 12-classroom wing have been added to the Harlingen High School.

11/2/61 The school enrollment is down for the 1961-62 school year to 10,314 from its level of 10,564 in 1960-61.

2/8/62 Twelve additional classrooms are approved for the high school.

4/20/62 Warren W. Ballard, for 30 years business manager of the Harlingen School System, resigns. He started work here in12/1/30. The dual system of management since 1920 will be abandoned and the Supt. of Schools will control all aspects.

5/18/62 John H. Morgan superintendent of the Taft School System is named superintendent of Harlingen schools. His three year contract called for a salary of $16,000 per annum and a car allowance of $100 per month.

5/27/62 The completion of the Mary E. Coakley Junior High School is one year late. Its total cost is $750,000 for the building, paving, and equipment. In September 1,000 students are expected to attend it.

5/30/62 There are 251 graduates of Harlingen High School.

8/62 The La Motte School (T.M.R.) at 216 N. 21st is opened to handle special students.

6/63 By this date the Alamo School on S. E Street had grown to have in addition to its main building to the north and two annex building to its south. Total classroom and administration area was 11,724 sq. ft. An auditorium to the northwest was an additional 4,500 sq. ft.

10/25/63 The old high school, now a junior high school is renamed in honor of Julia Vernon. Julia Shawson, the third child of Andrew Jackson and Elizabeth Ann (Ray) Shawson, was born 10/24/93 in Youngsport, Bell County, TX. She came to Harlingen in the 1920s and married Thomas Spillar Vernon of West Virginia in Brownsville on 12/22/26. They made their home at 1218 E. Harrison but had no children. She obtained a 1923 teaching degree from Southwest Texas State Teacher's College, and later added a B.A. from Texas A&I, an M.A. from her first college in 1949, and a B.A. in library science from Texas State College for Women in 1951. In Harlingen she taught elementary school children, then middle school English, and finally high school students before becoming the high school librarian. She organized the chapter of Future Teachers of America at the high school and the chapter was named after her. Her husband died of diabetes complications in 1947. This much–loved educator passed away in Waco at age 88 on 6/29/82.

1965 It is this year that Harlingen College, a business school, establishes itself at 513 E. Jackson in the Matz Building. It is started by key personnel of the San Antonio Business College in that city. O.N. Bard, who worked for them in 1964-65, moves back here and becomes its first manager in 1965.

9/65 The first classes, with 59 students, of the Marine Military Academy take place at old wartime facilities of the Air Force Navigation School at the deactivated Harlingen Air Force Base. The academy for high school students follows elements traditional to the U.S. Marine Corps. Prior to 1965 the founders of MMA planned to locate in Prescott, AZ. A Marine recruiter in Harlingen, Gunnery Sgt. John S. Allerton, read about the proposed academy in Leatherneck. He showed the article to Sam Searles, then a major in the Army Reserve and an official of the Harlingen National Bank. Searles was a former Marine Corps sergeant-major. He spoke to city officials about the academy. The organizers visited here and liked what they saw. Funding came from many sources. One major one was J.D. Stetson Coleman, a WWII Marine Corps Veteran. He bought 26 buildings and about 83 acres from the city for $55,000. He also secured a half million dollar loan and paid the interest on it for the first three years. By 1985 the academy had nearly 400 cadets, 37 teachers, and an annual budget of $3 million for its now 139 acre campus. Its 1981 class had 20 going on to the U.S. Naval Academy, and one the Air Force Academy. Sixteen others received full ROTC scholarships to attend college, with 41 others accepted at major colleges and universities.

In this year the Alamo School at 512 South E is noted as (migrant).

This year the St. Paul Lutheran School is located near the church sanctuary. Nearby is built a facility to house five classrooms, a parish hall, and a staff workroom. The educational program is to grow. In 1973 a Day Care program is initiated as part of the Early Childhood Education Center. The first year 19 children are under the care of Barbara McCaslin. In 1977 this program is integrated into developmental programs for two-year old through eighth grade. In 1981 the construction of a 4-room building allows all classes to be in separate rooms. A school library is added in 1986.

1967 O. N. Bard of Harlingen College leaves the school and together with local businessmen forms the Valley Central College (VCC). By 1968 it was located at 119 W. Van Buren where its competitor, Harlingen College (HC), had moved to in 1966. HC advertises that it offers courses in shorthand, accounting, office machines, bookkeeping, drafting, electronics, air conditioning, refrigeration, and heating. While offering similar studies VCC has both a two year plan and short course. VCC will establish satellite facilities in Brownsville by 1970 and also in McAllen. In a dispute with directors over the profitability of VCC, Bard leaves and Ray Martin becomes general manager by 1971. In 1975 VCC ceases to function while HC had closed in 1973.

1967 Texas State Technical Institute (later to be renamed College) –Harlingen, also known as the Rio Grande Campus begins operation as an extension of the Waco Campus of the Texas State Technical Institute (also called the James Connally Technical Institute). Located at the former HAFB, it starts with two instructors and 40 students. In 1967 it is separated from the Texas A&M system. By 9/69 it is offering classes for credit; 78 students are taking classes.

4/70 Students number 11,000 in Harlingen schools. The school budget is $5.6 million, $712.893 from federal sources. The monthly HCISD budget is $345,776.

9/70 TSTI has four new buildings nearly completed. They will add 83,000 square feet to the existing 114,493.

7/18/73 The School Board votes to close all elementary school campuses at the start of the school year. This means children must stay on the campus rather than going home for lunch or elsewhere.

1974 TSTI has 1,262 students.

2/75 TSTI has recently spent $2 million in constructing six buildings, a cafeteria, student center, swimming pool, and dormitories. It is about to make use of two hangers adjacent to the runway.

1975 (fall) The A.O.C. Dent Building is added to help hold the increased enrollment of students at St. Alban's. Surplus military barracks purchased in the 1960s are removed. In 1983 this will be followed by the Marian Cocke Building with its eight class rooms and the main office building. Leon Daniell and Dr. Clark are to provide an activities center and paved play area in 1985. This latter year is to see the first graduation of sixth graders from the school and four years later the school will receive accreditation. The Cocke building will receive an addition in 1993. By 1999, 8,000 pupils will have gone though the school.

At this same time Calvary Baptist Church on 7th Street institutes its Cavalry Christian School. It commences with a school for the youngest children then incrementally adds grades annually until it serves 2 year olds through the eighth grade. Shirley Ashley is the school's first director. By the school year 2004-05 there are over 25 classrooms. Plans are to add 9th and 10th grade levels in 2005-06. These will be housed in two portable buildings having six rooms total. The brick classroom wing on the north side was constructed in 1984. The two story $750,000 gymnasium and six classroom structure was completed in 2003. School tuition is relatively nominal and payments are spread over an eleven month period.

10/20/75 The new $759,627 Travis Elementary School built to accommodate 720 students is dedicated. SHWC, Inc. is its architect while the Eddleblute Constuction Co. erected it. In attendance are Dr. Norma Schultz, president of the school board, J. Gordon Nix, principal, and former superintendent of schools, James I. Thigpen.

This year Allan Brumley becomes head band director at Harlingen High School and will occupy that position until 1981 when he resigns to go into the insurance business. In 1980 the high school band will be named one of the Top Ten High School Bands in the country. In 1981 the band with over 300 members marches in the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Years Day in California. In its first appearance it is the largest marching unit in the parade.

1976 Jo Ellen Paschall, wife of Dr. Charles Paschall, founds the University Preparatory School, a four year accredited facility. By 1985 it has 47 students and 5 certified teachers. In 5/77 it bought its 6 acre campus on Breedlove Street.

The HCISD initiates the first HOSTS (Help One Student To Succeed) Program in the state. Volunteers mentor students needing extra reading and math skills. By 2003, 975 mentors coach students in each and every school.

4/76 There is a school bond issue election. Sought is approval to replace the old Travis School, create a new cafeteria at Bowie, build a new Primera School and a gym at Gay-Vernon, all for $1.98 million; air condition all schools at a cost of $2.2 million; build a Central Media Center for $150,000.

1978 Basketball coach Carl Owens comes to HHS. With the Cardinals until his resignation in February 2003, he amasses 570 wins over the 25 year span. His overall career coaching record is 809 wins and 387 losses. In his tenure the Cards win 11 district titles and make 19 playoff appearances. In 1973 he led tiny Kennard High School to a 2A State Championship.

Dr. J. Gilbert Leal becomes Texas State Technical Institute president after being on the faculty nine years. At this time the school's 44 acres have nine instructional buildings, a staff of 184, and an enrollment of 992 students.

6/78 By a large margin the $14 million school bond issue is defeated.

1980-81 School district enrollment reaches 12,502 students.

6/20/84 City permit is granted for the HCISD to build the Jane Long Elementary School at 2601 North 7th Street.

1985 TSTI has 2,359 students, 138 full time faculty, 153 non-faculty employees and an annual budget of $7,619,836.

1986 Jack Hatfield, executive with the Valley Morning Star, and others establish The Literacy Center of Harlingen. It will eventually become a Council Member of Laubach Literacy Action, one of the largest literacy providers in the U.S. By 2005 the local center provides instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Basic Instruction for English Speakers who need to learn how to read and write, General Equivalency Diploma (GED) training, Pre GED training, Basic Math instruction, and Citizenship Preparation.

5/3/87 The Alamo School, 1701 Dixieland Road, designed by Lubunski Associates Architects is dedicated. The new junior high school opens in September in an undeveloped area west of the Municipal Golf Course. J. Glen Cleckner is its principal. Initially it serves only 9th graders, but plans are for it to accommodate 10th graders in the 1988-89 school year. This will later be the site of Harlingen High School-South.

Major General Harold Glascow, USMC (ret.) assumes the position of superintendent of the Marine Military Academy. By 1989 the enrollment is up to 375, who are offered college preparatory course, grades 8 through 12.

1990 A group of concerned business people in the community form the Harlingen Area Education Foundation. Over a twelve year period it will grow to encompass New Directions, a leadership, tutoring, and mentoring program for high school students; New Directions, a similar program for middle school students; Texas Scholars, a curriculum improvement program that requires 24 graduation credits in college entry subjects; and Technology Academies dealing with computer literacy. The Foundation is financially supported by Harlingen businesses and individuals.

9/91 By an act of the 72nd legislature the Texas State Institute-Harlingen becomes the Texas State Technical College-Harlingen. Its Harlingen campus library holds 16,000 books. It has a faculty of 141 for 2,623 enrolled students.

8/91 The HCISD opens the KEYS Academy on North 7th Street near Loop 499. It is a non-traditional school for at-risk students. In 1994 Yolanda Gutierrez becomes its principal.

1993 The first "Bird Bowl" football game is played as the new Harlingen High School

South Hawks play the Harlingen High School Cardinals.

9/98 The Valley High School, a private charter school, opens at 2701 Breedlove Street. It crafts its mission at "high risk" students with histories of low academic scores. In November 2002 the State threatens its closure due to its poor performance and higher than allowed dropout rate for its 300 elementary, 30 middle school, and 150 high school students.

1993 The Harlingen CISD initiates the New Pathways Center. Its motto is "Guiding One Child at a Time." At its 208 South F Street campus, it offers services to elementary students who may struggle with disciplinary problems at their regular campus. Dr. Mary Brower will be its principal and director for at least its first ten years.

11/96 Texas Monthly in its cover article "Our Best Schools"(elementary) names Harlingen Long, Wilson, Treasure Hills and Stuart Place as four-star, the highest ranking.

4/26/98 At the Vernon Middle School a $1.36 million gym is going up to replace the 1939 "the Barn" gymnasium. At Zavala, Dishman, Bonham, and Milam Elementary Schools older classrooms are being renovated as part of a $5.415 million upgrading project. The district has invested $58 million in expansion and improvement projects since 1989 in order to serve the now 16,000 students coming from Harlingen and Combes, Primera, Palm Valley, and Stuart Place as well.

1999 The HCISD tax goes up 10 cents as voters pass an $80 million bond issue for the HCISD, but use of the monies is not implemented until 2002-03. Projects include athletic field houses, performing arts building and expansion of current and existing classrooms. Each of the two high schools will have new soccer dimension stadiums with bleachers on each side, press box, restroom facilities, and concession stands. Harlingen HS South's field will be constructed on Dixieland Road and Harlingen HS on an open field located south of Keys Academy. The new athletic field houses at each school will occupy 16,000 square feet. Approximately 42,000 square feet will be added to each school at the cost of $21 million. Boggus Stadium will also be improved.

In this year St. Paul Lutheran School has obtained the former Army Reserve Center at 1920 E. Washington. It is given the property by the Federal government as it has been declared surplus but with the stipulation that it has to be used for educational purposes for a period of 30 years. It is completely renovated and 40% new construction added along with a full-size gymnasium. It opened for school on 10/9/99. The facility has modern classrooms, fully equipped science laboratory, art room, and music room. It has been part of the educational system operated by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

5/12/00 Cesar Morales, a Zapata native, retires after being Lamar Elementary School principal for 30 years. He attended Texas A & I College and began his teaching career in 1962 at Gay Junior High School.

5/20/00 Verna Young retires after 46 years of service in the HCISD. She began teaching math in 1953 at Gay, served as principal at Bonham Elementary 1975-1984 when she became Harlingen High School principal until this date. She was later elected to the school board.

2/25/01 Jefferson Elementary School and Memorial Middle School are having extensive work done. The jobs are worth $1.8 million and $4.5 million respectively.

4/18/01 Travis Elementary School soon will undergo a $1.8 million upgrade for its 535 students. Treasure Hill Elementary School will get $3.25 million for renovations for its 658 students. Other expenditures are $11.5million for Harlingen High School South and $9.95 million for Harlingen High School.

2002 After 55 years of existence the Rio Grande Valley Baptist Academy ceases its operation.

9/02 TSTC enrollment continues to climb year to year. On 9/00 it was 3,228, 3,841 in 9/01 and 4,217 this date.

2002 (summer) Memorial Middle School is extensively updated.

10/3/02 As the Texas State Technical College-Harlingen celebrates Pres. J. Gilbert Leal's 24 years in office, it has grown on its current 124.5 acre campus to 69 buildings, more than 500 employees, and more than 4,000 credit students. Since 1978 projects added have included 14 instructional buildings, the Student Center, the Fieldhouse, a child-care center, a service support center, and a work force center. These have been valued at more than $30 million. The property inventory has grown to almost $35 million and the annual budget exceeds $38 million. The fall 2001 enrollment was 3,842 and in 2002 was 4,618. Earlier this year TSTC Chancellor, Dr. Bill Segura, named Leal Vice-Chancellor for Border Opportunity Development.

5/03 The Valley Baptist Academy closes permanently at the end of the school year. It is then utilized as the Valley Baptist Mission Education Center.

5/25/03 Construction begins at TSTC for a new Learning Resource Center. Scheduled for completion in October, the two story facility with 35,000 sq. ft. will house the library media center, a library instructional classroom, a spacious lobby, circulation area, study rooms, as well as reference and general collection areas. It is dedicated on 1/22/04.

7/12/03 St. Anthony's Catholic Church opens a middle school for 7th and 8th graders after having closed one in the 1960s when the HAFB ceased operating. The physical plant is at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Church on C Street.

2004 A partnership involving the auto industry and others contributes to the school sports infrastructure. Knapp Chevrolet and Valley Baptist Medical Center donate $250,000 each for the project while Hino Gas and Electric adds $200,000. High tech scoreboards are constructed at the Boggus Stadium and also some middle school fields.

5/12/04 Diana Walker, a third grade teacher at Calvary Christian School for eleven years, is selected as teacher of the year '04 from 18 school districts. The honor comes from Freedom Communication Newspapers in Education.

4/05/04 Clearing begins at the site of the new elementary school on FM 2994 (Wilson Road) on its north side about ¾ mile west of its intersection with Stuart Place Road. It had been a sugarcane field farmed by Frank Burns. Construction of the school designed by FRO International, architectural engineers, and erected by the Sam Corp, general contractor, and both of McAllen is two-thirds along by early August. The school will have 85,324 sq. ft. The Rodriguez Elementary School, named after the Harlingen doctor, will not be ready for a September school year opening, so the 500 students who will occupy the school are diverted to temporary quarters behind the Wilson Elementary School according to school principal, Traci Gonzalez. The greatly growing school population has put the district under a strain. Construction projects under way include: Austin and Bowie Elementary Schools, classroom renovations by 1/05; Stuart Place and Wilson Elementary schools, classroom renovations by 5/05; a new middle school, total construction by 7/05; and Harlingen High School, campus renovations and extra-curricular facilities by 11/05.

8/04 The HCISD has a teaching staff of 1,250.

9/7/04 While construction continues on some parts of the school, 27 rooms of the Rodriguez Elementary School welcome new students.

11/04 Edwin and Corinne Swaney publish their 364-page book, "Marching in Cadence: The History of MMA." Sale proceeds will go to the Marine Military Academy. Mr. Swaney volunteers at the MMA Iwo Jima Museum which he helped establish.

12/15/04 After the 15-member nomination committee recommends it, the school board votes for the name Moises V. Vela Middle School, in honor of the city judge and former county commissioner. The school, costing $13.5 million, is located off Palm Blvd., .3 mile south of Business 83. When opened in August 2005 it will serve about 684 students.

TSTC see a 19.3 % enrollment increase from its spring 2004 numbers. 4,461 are currently enrolled with 845 as new students. The percentage over 35 years in age is increasing steadily. Currently 50% are in the 18 to 24 age group; 20% between 25 to 35; and 30% 36 years or older.

3/11/05 The Dr. Hesiquio Rodriguez Elementary School is officially dedicated. This gentleman graduated as valedictorian of the Harlingen High School class of 1935, when he was 15.By the time he was 22 he was a practicing doctor, having received his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Center in 1942. While serving in the U.S. Army 1942-45 he interned in St. Louis where he met and married psychiatric nurse Annabel Alberts. He served on the Rio Hondo School Board 1948-51 before moving back to Harlingen in 1954. He died in 1977 at age 58. Among 60 Rodriguez relatives present at the ribbon cutting ceremony were the doctor's widow Ann Rodriguez Guerrero, daughter Suzanne Rodriguez Jones, and his son Charles Rodriguez.

4/8/05 The school district is considering the expenditure of $1.068 million to renovate and upgrade a deteriorating Boggus Stadium.

5/1/05 Calvary Baptist School announces that it will commence high school classes for grades 9 and 10 for the school year 2005-06. Two portable buildings have been set up to accommodate the new classes. The next phase in the school's plans is the construction of a library, expansion of the early childhood center, and making all handicapped accessible. Later a permanent high school structure will be erected and 11th and 12th grade classes added. A fundraising goal is $778,000, of which $260,000 is earmarked for the high school.

6/11/05 Nora "Coach Z" Zamarripa is inducted into the RGV Sports Hall of Fame. At this time the high school girl's basketball coach has a record of 528 wins and 223 losses in a career at Edinburg and Harlingen High Schools. This Lyford native has come a long way since hoeing cotton field on her parent's farm. She played basketball herself at Lyford going on to play at Texas A & I University in Kingsville where she changed her major from business to physical education. She then started her ongoing 25 year coaching career characterized by "an intensity that can be fierce."

2006 The Moises Vela Middle School is constructed on Palm Blvd, just south of Business 83. It required $13 million.

12/8/06 It is announced that over the next seven months the last of the $80 million 1999 school bond issue money will go toward renovations of school district-owned Boggus Stadium. The 9,000-seat facility will get enclosures under the bleachers, more restrooms, and slimmed-down light towers for an estimated $2 million.

2/2/06 A survey reveals that the HCISD salaries are in line with the state average. Serving 17,660 students Harlingen teachers start at $34,000 with the average salary for all teachers being $41,790. The latter is $76 less than the state average of $41,866. The district also pays additional supplemental stipends for attendance, and programs such as band, sports, theater.

2/4/06 TSTC Regents OK transfer of up to 48 hours credit from the school's curricular to a student moving on to a four-year university. The board also approved a $1.275 million purchase of a 42 acre tract south of Rio Hondo Road and between Loop 499 and 25th Street. This will allow for future expansion.

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A Harlingen Cemetery Chronology

12/10/09 Seventeen year old Robert Keen Weems is to die in an industrial accident. Town founder, Lon C. Hill, in a telegram from St. Louis designates a site along the San Benito Highway, now South F Street, for the burial.

2/1/12 Initially the Harlingen Cemetery Association, an offshoot of the Harlingen Civic Club ( a women's organization), handles burial arrangements, but upon the club's recommendation the Harlingen Land and Water Company sells 7.6 acres for one dollar to the Trustees for the Harlingen Cemetery. These were B.F. Surface, C.W. Clift, and E.W. Anglin.

2/1/21 –7/45 Sexton E.H. Pinkerton signs all burial permits under the aegis of the Harlingen Cemetery Association.

5/9/47 The Trustees deed the cemetery property to the City of Harlingen. Prior to this date the cemetery includes two major sections. F Street to E Street is the "American Section, and E Street to D Street is the "Mexican Section". Other areas were designated for blacks and for babies. After this month, grave sites may be selected regardless of ethnic or racial origin.

1962 The Tip-O-Texas Genealogical Society surveys and records graves in the cemetery.

1974 The City Commission authorizes a hurricane fence topped with barbed wire to surround the cemetery and two lockable gates. These are erected around the site to stop vandalism. Although the cemetery had a sexton or caretaker, it became neglected in appearance over time.

1981 The Harlingen Cemetery is included in the Harlingen Register of Historic Places.

1982 The Tip-O-Texas Genealogical Society updates, corrects, and alphabetizes the Harlingen Cemetery grave list.

1984 Thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Menton (Betty) Murray, who compiles a history of the cemetery among other lobbying work, a Texas Historical Commission Marker is obtained for the Harlingen Cemetery.

2000s Harlingen Proud, the city, and other organizations take a renewed interest in the cemetery, its heritage, and its maintenance.

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Adams Gardens Connections – Ballí to Berly

Revised July, 2006

Norman Rozeff

Some years back, PBS ran a weekly series called "Connections." In it an Englishman would commence his narration about some distant and obscure event. He would then proceed to evolve a chain of events which eventually tied into the present and some significant occurrence that few viewers could conceive having any relationship with the initial event. The VMS caption on a 1927 photograph noted a large, New York City-type sign atop the Wittenbach Building with the name of realtor Sid Berly. This name sets off an exposition of far-reaching connections.

Our story begins no less distant than the early colonization of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. In 1752 Rosa María Hinojosa de Ballí is born the sixth of nine children to Capt. Juan José de Hinojosa and María Antonia Inés Ballí de Benevides. Her parents are Spanish aristocrats who, because of their status of "Primitive Settlers", are given, among other things, the rights to extensive land grants. The family is to begin residence in Reynosa in 1767. Rosa will marry José María Ballí, a captain of the militia.

When both her father and husband die before the grants are finalized in 1790, Rosa María becomes heir to 55,000 acres. As a knowledgeable business woman she was able to obtain thirty –five leagues of the Las Mesteñas Grant for her brother Vicente. He repaid her by transferring to her 12 leagues of it, an area north of Harlingen to be known as the Ojo del Agua. The astute Doña Rosa managed her ranchlands well. She became known as La Patrona and the first "cattle queen" of Texas. This devout Catholic endowed churches in Reynosa, Camargo, and Matamoros. When she died in Reynosa in 1803, it was said that she had amassed over one million acres in what is now five South Texas counties.

Her La Feria Grant, which extended approximately 16 miles north of the river and was about five miles wide, was over time divided among family descendents, including the Trevinos. Don Anastacio Treviño took possession of parts of the La Feria Grant in 1843. Josiah Turner, who was born 8/10/1826, was one of the Valley's early Anglo pioneers. From Maryland, both he and his brother William had come to Texas as clerks in the commissary department of Gen. Taylor's army. In 1851 Josiah Turner married one of Treviño's daughters. She died in 1854, and he married the remaining daughter, Tomasa Treviño. In 1867 he took charge of the ranch and "controlled it as my own." This was the Rancho Galveston, later to be called the Galveston Ranch. The ranch abutted the east boundary of the La Feria Grant and from the river ran north its full length. When Don Anastacio died in 1874 he left the property to his daughter, who later deeded a half-interest to her husband. Turner then possessed for 39 years what was to be the Adams Gardens tract. In its August 18, 1911 issue the Brownsville Herald ran an article noting Turner's 85th birthday. In November 1913 the paper proclaimed Turner its oldest Cameron County subscriber still alive. In 1906 he sold the Adams Gardens portion of the property to three St .Louis men—Thomas W. Carter, Lemuel Carter, and Peyton T. Carr. After four years they sold it to W.T. Adams of Corinth, MI. He was a wealthy sawmill machinery manufacturer. In the year 1910, it was 14 miles long and had 9,561 acres mostly in brush. In 1930 Adams decided to sell. Seventy-six miles of roads were built after a survey. Land was cleared and citrus orchards planted, however the depression in the 1930s hurt land sales.

The remainder of Galveston Ranch was of interest to other developers. With the fortunes of sugarcane in the Valley ebbing and flowing, Donna Sugar Mill entrepreneur, Jesse C. McDowell of Pittsburgh will purchase the property in late 1919. In a bullish frame of mind he plants a 100 acre seed bed on the tract. Intentions are to expand this to 1,000 acres the next season. South Texas is no longer able to compete with world sugar producers, and the Donna mill is to close forever after the winter processing season of 1921-22.

Ironically sugarcane will once again return to Galveston Ranch. In 1980 Sam Sparks of Santa Rosa will purchase 1,800 acres of the property from the heirs of the Anderson brothers (they were the northern contractors who built Falcon Dam). South of the Military Highway, Sparks will improve the undulating terrain with considerable land leveling before putting it into cane cultivation.

It is the year 1921 that Charles F.C. Ladd comes to the Valley to work for A. J. McColl as general land agent. In the irrigated area north of Laredo he had been colonization agent for the Winter Garden Farms, Inc. He sells much McAllen and mid-Valley property. In 1931 he becomes connected with Adams Gardens, Inc., the outfit which is to subdivide the former Turner Tract. This firm is successor to the Bass Lake Company which in 1929 had offices on Bass Boulevard before losing the company in the stock market crash of October 1929. The Pendletons of Harlingen may also have had a financial interest. It then fell into the hands of the Farm and Home Saving and Loan of Nevada Missouri which hired Ladd to manage the property. The Harlingen firm, of which he is president, is called the Ladd Farm Mortgage Co. For a time Lon C. Hill, Jr. works for Ladd. Ladd also utilizes V. Stambaugh, a Florida horticulturalist, to experiment with semi-tropical trees in order to find something suitable for economic development in the area. Ladd was born 8/28/83 in Miles City, Montana. He was educated at Hutchinson, KS and Kansas City, MO. This Mason married Regna D. Welch of Kansas City on 2/28/18. By 1931 they have a son, Charles, Jr.

The main north-south road of the about one-mile wide and ten mile long Adams Gardens tract is to become Bass Boulevard, the north-south section of FM 800. The parcels were laid out by surveyor Alfred Tamm of Harlingen. Every mile, and sometimes closer, along the boulevard where the cross roads are installed, the developers erect light colored stone pillars to give the appearance of a high class country estate. These were designed by a local artist. The cross street were named for lawyers and architects connected with the project. Today some of the markers still exist (from the north side running south) at Spankler Road, Johnston Lane, Hughes Road, West Business 83 with the most impressive gates at each corner of the intersection, Sherwood Road, Levin Way, Ewing Road, and finally McLelland Road. At the latter is a capricious 20' tall castle having some petrified wood stones embedded in it. Some of the other columns also have petrified wood (probably from Starr County) in them, but most of the stones in their construction appear to be sandstone. Some had semblances of faces on them. Ladd went on to beautify and civilize the tract by planting palms, bougainvillea and exotic shrubs and trees such as kapok.

A stone-veneered house for Ladd is also constructed but has since apparently disappeared. A stone-gated cottage similar to it still stands on the south side of West Business 83 just east of its intersection with Bass Blvd. It was likely the sales office which housed 10 to 12 full-time employees to handle referrals from the offices Ladd also had in Philadelphia, Chicago, Kansas City, and other locations. After the Labor Day Hurricane of 1933 which devastated the citrus plantings on the tract, Ladd went to live in the St. Anthony Hotel in San Antonio. He died in that city in 1937. After his departure Keith McKanse was named manager of the Adams Garden Land Company until Sid Berly took over.

The first home built on the tract was constructed north of the railroad tracks around 1931 by a family named Spencer. Two other longtime residents of the area were Tom and Ophelia Ashworth at ¼ S. Bass Blvd. Tom had come with his parents to La Feria on 8/20/20 from Stephenville which is near Fort Worth. Their neighbors were Frank and Mary Branson. She lived to 101, dying in late 2001. Just south of where FM 800 turns east the developers constructed about a 360 acre reservoir. A pumping plant was erected on the river on the west edge of the tract. Adams Gardens Irrigation District 19 was formed. Bass Lake just south of Business 83 and named after the first owner's wife, Reba Bass, was in the 1950s to be the venue for boat races, motor and sail, though it only averaged four feet depth. In the period 1929-1933 several tomato canning plants and a broom corn factory existed along the railroad tracks through the area.

Sid Berly was attracted to the Valley in 1920. He is a native of Mansfield, LA having been born there 8/23/96 to a father, C.J., who was a stockraiser. Berly was to marry Marion Elizabeth Walker of Lake Charles on 3/18/17. They had one daughter who was given the same name as her mother. Although he studied law for two years he never completed his studies. Instead he became a representative for the Willys-Knight Motor Co. As president and general manager of Valley Properties, Inc. located in the Reese-Wil-Mond Hotel he becomes a potent factor in the development of both agricultural and city land in the Valley, especially around Harlingen. He served as Chamber of Commerce president in 1946-47 and was a Rotary Club member. In 1952 he was president of Adams Gardens and continued to press for the exploitation of the area.

We have then come full circle in our story. What started out as a modest but progressive ranch enterprise by Doña Rosa María is, 162 years later, now experiencing a spurt of agricultural development, propelled by an entrepreneur with a vastly different makeup and goal. Berly's promotions could not have come to pass without the chain of connections that were laid over time.

By the 1990s residential housing and businesses were moving west from the Stuart Place Tract into the next large tract, that of Adams Gardens. As the area greeted the 21st Century, numerous large, expensive homes on sizeable lots were being constructed along South Bass Blvd. and somewhat less so on N. Bass Blvd. where many subdivisions featuring middle priced homes were being developed. Harlingen then annexed some of the area under its extra-jurisdictional rights. The Texas Department of Transportation was to widen Bass Boulevard in 2002 in order to handle the increase residential traffic along with that of sugarcane haul trucks.

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Biographical Information on Hugh Ramsey

Having moved to Harlingen, Texas in 1925, Hugh Ramsey is elected Mayor of the city for the first time in 1936, then re-elected for four consecutive terms, and again to serve 1948 to 1946. This native of Milford, TX was born in 1894. He joined the army in 1913 and was stationed in the Valley in 1916. He served overseas in the Great War (WWI) with the 36th before being discharged in 1919. He is a member of the First Baptist Church and the Rotary Club for over 24 years. In the late 30s he is owner of a furniture store bearing his name and is also a general contractor.

As early as 1938, air-minded city officials launch a program designed to stimulate interest in making Harlingen a commercial airport center. The European events of 9/40 awaken popular enthusiasm for defense of the U.S. Mayor Hugh Ramsey makes a definitive proposal to the War Department. City officials, along with Senators Tom Connally and Morris Sheppard, point to a number of factors which make Harlingen attractive for military training. This sets the stage for the start of a military air field here in late 1941. It will become the Harlingen Army Air Field with a mission to train aircraft gunners. Over 48,000 gunners will have been trained before the WWII ends in 1945 and the field closes. In 1952 the field reopens as the Harlingen Air Force Base. In a period of just over a decade before it is ordered closed, it will train over 13,000 officers in air navigation. The economic implications (positive, later negative, then positive again) of what Mayor Ramsey initiated and wrought were immense for the city of Harlingen.

1939 St. Alban's parish builds a more sizeable sanctuary at the corner of 11th and Van Buren. Contractor Hugh Ramsey builds the brick edifice for $8,500 and at no profit to himself. It will be enlarged and remodeled in 1946. The old church, now to be used as a parish hall, will be move behind the new one. The church's first rectory, at 718 E. Van Buren, will be purchased in 5/42.

Hugh Ramsey Nature Park is at the 1000 block of South Loop 499, a northern extension of Ed Carey Drive, where the bridge crosses the Arroyo Colorado. It is named after the former mayor of Harlingen who served from 1936 to 1946 and again 1948-1950. It was designated as a park by the city commissioners in February 1953. Amenities in this 54 acre wooded park include nature trails, an observation blind overlooking the arroyo and restrooms. At some future time it will become the home of the Harlingen Birding Center.

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Of Buildings and Business Schools

Norman Rozeff

The headline of the weekly Harlingen Star of 7/30/26 read "Harlingen Will Have 7-Story Office Building." The accompanying story went on to relate that R.W. Baxter of Dermott, AK had purchased the site (the southwest corner of A and Jackson Streets) for $17,000 cash from its owner, Domingo R. Rotge, Jr. The corner had once housed a saloon in a building which had burned down the year before. Work on the $125,000 structure was said to begin November 1. Baxter had also purchased several lots near the Central Ward School on Jackson. The architects for the building were Elwing and Mulhausen while R.P.Blythe was the contractor. By 2/15/27 it was decided to make the building nine stories. Its projected cost had risen to $160,000. Construction on what most Harlingenites were to call the Baxter Building (now Blaschka Towers) took place mainly in 1927. Mr. Baxter's Rio Grande Valley Life Insurance Building was actually Harlingen's second high-rise building. Decades later it will be purchased by entrepreneur John McKelvey and renamed the McKelvey building.

In 1923 the Wittenbachs, father C.H. and son A.J., the grocer at 115 S. A, construct a three story building on A Street to the south of the Lozano building. When a hamburger stand on a lot to the south burns down they then build the large 5-story Wittenbach Building at 119 South A Street. At first the upper floors could only be accessed by an outside stair. Later the building had Harlingen's first elevator. After several years it will take on the name the Embee Building when purchased by R.N. Jones and the Embee Corporation. In 1930 the building would house, among other occupants, Key Confectionery in its lobby, Lee Printing and Rubber Stamp, Real Silk Hosiery Mills, Inc., the American Legion office, the office of contractor Andrew Goldammer, the National Collection Agency, Burroughs Adding Machine Co., American National Insurance Company, and the office of Dr. Georgia A. Howell, a chiropractor.

In the following years numerous prominent Harlingen doctors, lawyers, and insurance agents would work in the building. The Embee Pharmacy, which was later to become (Kenneth W.) MacPherson's, was in the building. Jones himself would operate his insurance agency in the building along with another entity of his, the Farm and Home Savings and Loan Association. Dr. T.J. La Motte, the noted eye specialist, also had offices in the building.

Marvin Payton, Sr., C.H. Wittenbach's oldest living grandchild in August 2004, says the elevator operated on direct current with crude little buttons for controls. Bob Jones, son of R. N., recalls operating the building's cage elevator. For the younger readers, a cage elevator was one that had accordion-like gates rather than solid doors. It would be serviced manually by an operator who would open the inside gate for passengers then the outside gate which otherwise would be locked to keep people from opening it and falling into the elevator shaft. A lever would control the elevators movements. Floor numbers were painted in the shaft between floors to remind operators where they were. In early models the operator would require some proficiency to stop the lift exactly even with the exit floor, otherwise those exiting and entering the elevator compartment could trip. A common comment by the operator was "Watch your step." Later elevators came with buttons for each floor and were able to stop with precise alignment. Still, elevator operators were retained for many years simply to press the requested floor buttons.

By 1956 the structure took on the name the Commonwealth Building likely because of the Commonwealth Credit Corp. now owning and in it. This company may have been part of the Bentsen family investments cloaked in Lincoln Financial, a holding company operating in Houston. In the early 60s the condition of the building was such that only a few occupants were in it. One was Story's Rod and Gun Shop and a second, Hart Claims Service. By May 1984 after years of vacancy, it is scheduled for demolition as termites have devastated much of its wooden interior. The Wittenbach family, now widely dispersed, gathers in Harlingen for a reunion and to say goodbye to the building.

A 1921 business survey listed one business college in the city. In August 1927, the Valley Business College (School) was advertising itself at 1st and Jackson across from the Rialto Theater. By December of that year the Draughns Practical Business College was in operation on the 9th floor of the newly erected Baxter Building

In 1930 the Harlingen Valley Business College was located at 215 ½ W. Monroe, a location now filled by the Valley Transit Company terminal. Business schools at the time taught English grammar, short hand, typing, filing, and clerical skills. The school was owned by B.A. Griswald and his wife Lelia Jane, who also instructed in it. After being here 5-6 years, Mrs. Griswald died at age 60 on 5/6/35. When the International Business Machine Company started with its office computers, learning to punch IBM cards was another skill taught. By 1937 the college, now dropping the word Valley, was operating on the third floor of the Embee Building addition at 119 S. A Street. When in 1940 the Durham Business Institute took over the site, Mrs. Harman Straub, by then owner of the college, moved her school to the Commerce Building at 121 W. Van Buren. She would close it altogether by 1944.

And what of any school operating in the Lozano Building? Well, in 1941 for one year only, the Bryne Select School of Business did operate at 117 ½ W. Jackson. Mrs. Harry (Ethel) Eggleston was superintendent. Her husband was owner of the Merchants Credit Bureau.

By 1942 the Embee school location had altered its name to the Durham Business College and was under the management of Carl A. Scott. This educational school would remain in the building until 1958 after which it relocated to 106 ½ N 1st Street. By 1966 the school has moved to improved facilities at 5621 S. F Street. It had changed its name once again, this time to Durham College of the Valley.

Durham faced competition when in 1965 Harlingen College (HC), a business school, establishes itself at 513 E. Jackson in the Matz Building. It is started by key personnel of the San Antonio Business College in that city. O. N. Bard, who worked for them in 1964-65, moves back here and becomes its first manager in 1965. In 1967 O. N. Bard of Harlingen College leaves this school and together with local businessmen forms the Valley Central College (VCC). By 1968 it was located at 119 W. Van Buren where its competitor, Harlingen College (HC), had moved to in 1966. HC advertises that it offers courses in shorthand, accounting, office machines, bookkeeping, drafting, electronics, air conditioning, refrigeration, and heating. While offering similar studies VCC has both a two year plan and short course. VCC will establish satellite facilities in Brownsville by 1970 and also in McAllen. In a dispute with directors over the profitability of VCC, Bard leaves and Ray Martin becomes general manager by 1971. In 1975 VCC ceases to function while HC had closed in 1973. With a generous federal government loan program they had advertised "Student loans available; no payments while you are in school." They likely went out of business having accepted some poorly qualified students with sustained poor attendance. The finishing blow was difficulties experienced with defaulted government student loans.

It is in September of 1967 that the Texas State Technical Institute (later to be renamed College) –Harlingen, also known as the Rio Grande Valley Campus begins operation as an extension of the Waco Campus of the Texas State Technical Institute (also called the James Connally Technical Institute). Located at the former HAFB, it starts with two instructors and 40 students. Vice President Hubert H. Humphey is guest of honor at the official dedication ceremonies held in a former aircraft hangar on 10/23/68. In the summer of 1969 it, and the campuses at Waco and Amarillo, is separated from the Texas A&M system. Milton Schiller became the vice president of the TSTI Rio Grande Valley Campus and Archie Rosales the school's first general manager. By 9/69 it is offering classes for credit; 78 students are taking classes. No doubt this institution attracted potential students from and also put pressure on the three private business schools in Harlingen and hastened their demise.

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F. Z. Bishop, Harlingen Developer

When, how and why F. Z. Bishop became interested in Harlingen perhaps will never be known. We can surmise that Bishop found a kindred spirit in Lon C. Hill. Both were ambitious men of vision and both would be founders of communities.

Bishop had, in 1910, established the town of Bishop between Corpus Christi and Kingsville along the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railroad route. The area in 1904 was called Julia or Julia Siding when it was a cattle-loading siding on the Driscoll Ranch. Julia was the name of Robert Driscoll Sr.’s wife. Bishop had purchased over 80,000 acres of the ranchland.

He laid out a model town with all the necessary infrastructure before commencing to sell lots in the townsite at the end of May 1910. He then sold the surrounding land for farming. By 1912 more than 40,000 acres had been sold and in the next two years an amount equal to this had been marketed.

This insurance agent turned real estate developer had a sense of adventure as attested in Corpus Christi Caller articles of 8/3 and 8/4/11.

The Wright Brothers Company had come to town to conduct a public exhibition on North Beach and entice people to purchase airplanes. This was but a short eight years after the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

At the Corpus Christi demonstration, pioneer aviator, Oscar Brindley, asked for a volunteer from the audience. The volunteer who stepped forward was real estate agent F. Z. Bishop. The pilot wanted another volunteer because Bishop weighted about 230 lbs., but he finally agreed to let him fly. Bishop climbed into one of the dual cockpits of the bi-plane and said, "Real estate is going up."

The following day the Caller headlined: F. Z. Bishop Heaviest Passenger Ever Handled in Flying Machine." It noted that Brindley set a world record for taking a man of that weight up to a dizzying altitude of 2,500 feet.

Bishop was asked if he had been afraid. His reply was quoted as: "Danger?", he said, "There wasn’t any. The trip was as easy as sleeping on a feathered bed."

Real estate prices apparently did not go up fast enough nor did sales. Bishop declared bankruptcy in 1916. Somehow he had hidden reserves or was able to attract or borrow new funding.

Perhaps looking for new worlds to conquer, he saw the potential for growth in Harlingen. He purchased parcels of land within the townsite and elsewhere in the next few years. One source notes that he acquired 1100 town lots. At the time most lots had 50 feet of frontage and 160 feet depth. If service alleys are also factored in, and they were platted in the subdivisions, then Bishop bought around 240 acres. To enhance his investment in the townsite, he approached the city fathers and offered one-half the costs of grading streets and installing galvanized drains and would even furnish the engineer to lay out the work. The city agreed to take him up on his offer as reported in the Brownsville Herald of 8/23/19. After rains, quagmire conditions in the streets of Harlingen, and elsewhere in other Valley towns too, was one of the least fond memories of pioneer settlers.

On 1/17/20 the paper noted that Bishop was having constructed a $25,000 three-storied hotel. This Knight of Pythias and Elk would spend several months of each year in Chicago.

Bishop had also acquired land presently west of Hand Road and north of Roosevelt road between Harlingen and Combes. His most ambitious plans, however, were for his large parcel south of Harlingen and south of what is now FM800 and between FM1479 and FM509. He planned to establish on this 1,900 acres or nearly three square miles tract one of the world’s largest citrus groves. This did not come to pass for any number of reasons.

Bishop is still around in 1926, this time with a Harlingen office as general agent for the Amarillo Townsite and Land Company. He advertises "The safest investment in the face of the earth—they are increasing in Values DAILY. We have City Property, Irrigated and Unirrigated Lands."

Bishop moved on to other ventures. He soon was established in San Antonio as the F. Z. Bishop Land Company of San Antonio. One major promotion of this company was the establishment in 1923 of Los Angeles in La Salle County in central Texas. This town 13 miles east of Cotulla never became a sizeable entity although many of its early settlers were hardworking German transmigrants from Williamson County.

F. Z. Bishop came to Texas from Tennessee. He was born there in Mulberry Gap in June 1880 and received his education there. He was buried in his namesake city of Bishop in 1950.

Compiled by Norman Rozeff, Historical Resources Survey