Published: September 26, 2009 06:54 pm      

Historical commission helps preserve sites around county

By CHERIL VERNON

Community Editor



The Anderson County Historical Commission’s mission is to preserve and protect materials, sites and other historical artifacts associated with Anderson County, and to promote its history.

The Historical Commission’s office is now open from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

“If anyone is doing research on an old building, old house or doing genealogy work, that’s what we are here for,” ACHC Vice Chair Rudy Ramirez said. “We will try to help them the best we can and try to lead them in the right direction. We have a lot of historical information available in our office.”

The ACHC works closely with the Texas Historical Commission, a state agency for historic preservation, and is an arm of the local county government and the state of Texas. The Commissioners Court appoints ACHC members, who are required to be county residents.

On Friday and Saturday, the ACHC held an open house in order to bring awareness to the organization.

In addition, the ACHS is holding meetings on the third Thursday of each month at 5:30 p.m. at the ACHS office. These meetings are not only open to members but to the general public as well, who may be interested in local history. Each month a speaker will talk about a historical subject of interest. At the Oct. 15 meeting, the guest speaker will be local insurance agent Tony Rohne, author of “GPS Maps — Anderson County Roads and Private Roads.” He also will discuss past communities that no longer exist. September’s speaker was local historian Bonnie Woolverton.

“Our county is so rich in history it is unbelievable,” Ramirez said. “There is so much historical information to take in.”

The ACHC currently is in the progress of putting up three new Texas Historical Markers — Coach Bob Knight, N.A. Banks Elementary School and Frederick Douglas Elementary School. The markers are still in the paperwork stage in Austin. The ACHC tries to do a few markers each year as their budget allows.

The ACHC also is working on a new project — compiling a pictorial history of Anderson County. The commission is assembling historic images of schools, churches, industries, families, communities and the stories that go with them. These pictures and stories will be included in an upcoming book to be published by Arcadia Publishing, the nation’s leading publisher of local and regional history.

ACHC Secretary Beverly Odom is looking for old photographs that might be used for the book.

“The importance of family collections cannot be overemphasized. Vintage photos become increasingly fragile and by scanning and reproducing them in a book, they become available for all to see,” Odom said.

Anyone having photographs and stories to be consider for the book may contact Beverly Odom at 903-723-0576, Karla Lang, special collection librarian at the Palestine Public Library or ACHC Vice Chairman Rudy Ramirez at 903-729-5800.

“If they will bring photos in we will scan their pictures and give it back to them,” Odom said. “If we need to, we will go pick up the photos or go to them to get their stories.”

According to Odom, the historical book has been done in Cherokee County and Tyler and was very successful, and she is hoping it will be the same here in Anderson County.

The ACHS office is located at 101 E. Oak St.. inside the Federal Building in downtown Palestine.

For more information, call the ACHC office at 903-723-3065, e-mail achccommission@yahoo.com or visit the ACHS Web site by using one of these addresses: www.achc.info or www.andersoncountyhistoricalcommission.info