The idea for this book began the night the El Paso City Council declared 1954 to be the official centennial year. That action was necessary because no buildings were erected until 1856 except by the railroads, while the stakes which marked off blocks, lots and streets had been driven into the Wathen and Gibson land by April 20, 1854, the date they placed at the top of their original plat.

Soon after that council action, the El Paso Public Library Board voted to sponsor the book, specifying that it must carry no advertising and be self supporting. A committee of five agreed to attempt the work, and at various meetings of this group, each member was assigned certain chapters and subjects. The members were:

GLENNA BONAR BAKER, a member of the Library Board, whose grandfather settled in Greene Township in 1857, and whose father-in-law heard the Lincoln-Douglas debate in Ottawa. She studied music at Illinois Wesleyan University and attended the University of Illinois. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Illinois State Historical Society.

MILDRED GARBER BURSTER is Librarian, a former high school history teacher, and the wife of a member of one of El Paso’s oldest business families. She was graduated from Knox College with the degree of Bachelor of Arts. She has written and directed a number of home talent plays and musicals. She is a member of the El Paso Women’s Club and the Pi Beta Phi and Theta Sigma Phi sororities.

ETHEL MOORE EFT is local correspondent with the Daily Pantagraph, and she has kept a record book of news and happenings in the El Paso community for many years. She is active in church and civic affairs, and is assistant secretary of the general committee in charge of centennial events. The Reed family, her maternal grandparents, settled in Greene Township eighty years ago.

CASSELL C. KINGDON is a member of the Library Board, and acted as chairman and business agent for the group. His grandfather settled a Panola Township farm in 1859. He is the cashier of a local bank, a colonel in the United States Army Reserves with service in both World Wars, and is a member of the Illinois State Historical Society.

GLENN YERK WILLIAMSON is a life-long El Pasoan whose great grandfather settled near Gabetown in 1857. Since he was graduated from El Paso Township High School in 1921, he has had dozens of magazine articles published on varied subjects, the only member of the committee with such writing experience.

The book is not intended as a complete history of our community. It is a spare time work of busy people who hope the somewhat unrelated chapters may provide something that is new and different to much you have read previously. Since each committee member worked independently, the need for editing and coordination was apparent, but minor differences have been allowed to stand.

Margaret Caroline Stookey of the English department of the El Paso Unit District High School did much of the editing, for which the committee is grateful. She was graduated from James Milliken University, and in 1950 Dwight D. Eisenhower signed her diploma at Columbia University awarding her Masters degree.

The map of the city of El Paso, and the early trail map of the area were drawn by Helen Brown Gordon, a member of the El Paso Women’s Club.

This book is a part of the general centennial year observance which is directed by all the El Paso civic organizations under the guidance of a general committee elected by them. Col. Virgil C. Gordon, a graduate of Northwestern University with service in both World Wars, is the general chairman. The other members of this board of directors are John G. Parr and Robert Mayne, Sr., both lifelong farmers in this community, Ott Panther, former president of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, and E. J. Israel, retired railroad official, who is the board secretary. Mayor George W. Graack, first temporary chairman, is an honorary member of the general committee.

THE EL PASO PUBLIC LIBRARY BOARD.

Ralph A. Burster, President

April 20, 1954. Katharine E. Jenkins, Secretary

Go to previous page

Go to next page

Go to El Paso Story gateway page