History of Hutchinson County, Texas: 104 Years, 1876-1980 Page: 100 of 526

advance. The next morning he had the utilities
connected and that afternoon moved. His furniture
did not arrive until three weeks later, so
during that time he slept in a bedroll, lived out
of a coleman icebox, and cooked in the back
yard on a camp grill with charcoal.
Raoul was born in Enid, Oklahoma, August
24, 1931, the youngest of three children born
to William Raoul Brown, (1895-1978), and
Frances Meyer Brown (1902-1962). Raoul's
dad was born in Mexico City, Mexico and was
the oldest son of E.N. Brown, founder and
President of the Mexican International Railroad.
Granddad Brown created the CD Ranch
in the States of Coahuila and Durango and
worked closely with the King Ranch in their
days of infancy. He also was instrumental in
getting President Diaz out of the country during
the revolution in 1911.
Raoul's Mother was born in Springfield,
Missouri, and was the third of four children
born to Mr. and Mrs. H.A. Meyer. PaPa Meyer
ran the Meyer Milling Company in Springfield
and made "albatross" flour famous. Raoul's
sister Frances Baldwin lives in Oklahoma City,
and his brother Edward N. Brown II, lives in
Jackson, Mississippi.
Raoul grew up in Enid and lived there until,
January, 1943, when the family moved to
Springfield, when his father was transferred
by Frisco Lines. Raoul graduated from St.
Agnes High School in Springfield, 1949 and
attended University of Oklahoma, earning a
Bachelor of Science Degree in Petroleum
Engineering, 1954, and Bachelor of Science
Degree in Geological Engineering, 1957. He
spent two years in the Army Corps of Engineers
and served at Fort Hood, Texas, and
Camp Polk, Louisiana, on Operations "Blue
Bolt", and "Sage Brush".
Two sons were born of Raoul's previous
marriage; William Raoul III, October 27, 1955,
and Christopher Patrick, April 14, 1958. Raoul
III, currently lives and works in Midland,
Texas, and Chris is a senior at Texas Tech,
Lubbock, Texas, and is taking Pre-Med. Both
sons are Eagle Scouts.
Raoul is active in Boy Scout Work and has
served as District Chairman of the Adobe District
1978-1979-1980, as well as working in
other capacities on the local and District
Level.
We both are members of Borger First
United Methodist Church. Maxine having
been active in offices of the youth group, and
sponsored different youth activities and choir
member. Raoul serves as usher, and both of
us are on the Administrative Board of the
Church.
We belong to the Boots and Calico Square
Dance Club, Happy Calico Shuffler Round
Dance Club and participate in many activities
in the Community.
Borger has been good to us, and we enjoy
having the privilege of being part of this community.
Submitted by Maxine Goins Brown
Eleanor Miller Browning

My father, Louis (Shorty Miller) was a gas
engine repairman for Prairie Oil and Gas
Company. They arrived in the Panhandle by
train from Kansas City, Missouri. They traveled
to Borger by car in February, 1927. (Dad
had come earlier.) They lived on Maple Road
for awhile, near Ralph Rhinesmith's grocery
store. The Company later moved us to the
Prairie Corys. They lived there until Sinclair
and Prairie merged and Dad was transferred
to Pampa in 1935.
I received my elementary education in the
Weatherly School. My favorite teachers were:
De Ray Bryan and Ruby Stephens. In Mrs.
Stephens room, my brother George and I
were in the same room but in different grades.

Mr. Lister, our principal, threatened us to the
inch of our lives if we ever played in the sand
pit at the back of the school. After school we
had a ball running all over it.
Every weekend seemed like we would go to
Adobe Walls on a picnic. Before the pool at
Huber Park was built, we would go swimming
at the Panhandle Power and Light Company's
power plant at Electric City; or, the Riverside
pool down by the Canadian River Bridge. We
hiked and went fishing at Cottonwood Inn
(Weatherly Lake).
My father was player-manager on the Prairie
Oilers ball team in the Industrial League. I
was one of the first kids to run up and down
the bleachers at Huber Ball Park. I remember
the team played the House of David on a ball
field east of the Playhouse.
More fun was bouncing across the sand
hills, the thirty-three miles to Pampa, in the
back of Dad's Model A pickup. Then the jokes
about the terrible smell when we approached
Borger on the trip back. Dad got stuck in
quick-sand crossing the river before the
bridge was built. It was exciting to hear how
the trucks had to come and pull him out and
nearly lost the pick-up to the quick-sand.
Mother was caught out in the garage the
Sunday afternoon the black duster rolled in.
She had to feel her way back to the house. We
all slept with a wet cloth over our face that
night in order to breathe.
Jerry went to work for B.F. Goodrich Rubber
Plant and we moved back to Borger with
our daughters, Margie, (Mrs. Alvin Paulsell)
and Brenda, (Mrs. Vernon Lewis). Our sons,
Johnny and Richard were born in the Casa
Serena Hospital in Bunavista where we have
lived for thirty-five years. It has really been
good to watch Borger change and grow to the
wonderful place it is today. Mrs. Jerry Browning
DeRay Bryan
A few days before the beginning of school
in 1927, I DeRay Bryan met my future roommate,
Louise (Hiner) Rogers in Amarillo to
come to Borger as teachers. I had left the
serenity of my youth in Seymour and college
to see the "bright new world." Little did I know
that it was the clean, unwashed world.
We were in Amarillo there was a train to
Borger but arriving at the station learned it
was only a one passenger car at the rear of a
freight train. Since there was no bus service to
Borger we had no choice. This was just the
beginning of the soot and black I was to know
for the next 30 years. Needless to say, we
weren't the neatest of people when we arrived
at the Santa Fe Station near the South Y in
Isom, we found no taxis and no phones available!
So with suitcases in hand we walkedwhat
was to become the Longest Main street
in the world-to Carpenter Dry Goods in the
500 Block of Main Street where we had a
friend working. We knew then we should have
notified her of our arrival and she could have
met us. I had so many first thoughts of Borger
they would be hard to transcribe-"Booming
Chaos"-few conveniences (such as phones
and taxis), and I only hoped to find beds and
bathtubs hot, muddy streets just to mention a

tew.
The next day we found an apartment such
as it was, and prepared to start our first year
as teachers in Borger. I taught the first grade
here, first at Weatherly and later at West
Ward. Many of my former students are still
here. Some are teachers, bank officials, attorneys,
and businessmen. I'm sure some
"Never" do wells that pass through all our
lives occasionally.
For two years there were more students
than classrooms, so the first grades were on
half day schedules with the same teacher for

each session. We had an average daily
attendance of about 40 students in each session.
I wonder how they learned anything or
how, we the teachers survived.
Late in the fall of 1927 my sister, Willa Mae
Bryan Dudley came to live with me. Then the
next year, after the death of my father our sister
Marie and nine year old brother Whit came
to make their home with us. Whit, of course,
was in school until he joined the navy in 1941.
Marie took care of the house and Willa Mae
and I were working.
During my teaching years the school ran
out of money so we received script instead of
cash. In order to have any we had to discount
our checks to merchants.
Some of the merchants would let us have
script made to them for merchandise, so often
times we might have four or five checks
(script) instead of one each pay day. So
believe me, paydays were few and far
between. During this time I worked extra at
theaters and other businesses to supplement
my income.
During the summers I usually went to summer
school (West Texas State or Texas Tech)
or often got a job in town.
Marie and I became members of the First
Baptist church while they were building their
first building.
In 1941 I quit teaching because the salary
was so low and worked for a local bank for
several years.
The last years of my working days I worked
as a receptionist and bookkeeper for a number
of Doctors-including Dr. Bagwell, Massad,
Hamra and Powell-retiring in 1969.
Marie, Willa Mae and I are still living
together at the same address since 1932. Our
brother Whit is a Navy Chief pharmacist Mate
(RTD). He and his family live in Norfolk, VA
where he works in a hospital.
Willa Mae's daughter, Jackie (Dudley) Skinner
has been living in Denver since she
moved there in 1954. She has two children, a
son John (Chip) who attends Colorado Mountain
College at Glenwood Springs and a
daughter, Kelli, who attends the University of
Utah in Salt Lake City.
My hobby has been mostly bridge and I'm
still addicted to it. Submitted by DeRay Bryan
Vernon L. Bryan Family
Vernon Bryan came to Hutchinson County
when he was eighteen months old after his
mother had died in Rolla, British Colombia,
Canada. His father, Burt Bryan, brought him
to Plemons to live with his brother, Sam Bryan
and his wife, Maude. Vernon had two young
cousins, Milton and Emma Eva, at Uncle
Sam's house to play with.
In 1924 Burt Bryan married Ona
McCormick, daughter of Isaac McCormick,
one of Hutchinson's County's earliest settlers,
and Vernon went to live with them at Moore's
Creek on Turkey Track Ranch where his dad
worked for Tom Coble.
A qualified school teacher, Ona taught Vernon
at home until they moved to Plemons and

Vernon started to school in the third grade.
Ona was the county and district clerk when
the records at the courthouse were moved to
Stinnett, so the Bryan family moved with them.
Burt worked for awhile in the new oil fields
which later became Phillips, and quit to
become jailer in Stinnett as the oil boom
started.
Vernon started to school in Stinnett in the
fifth grade, the school being a one-room
building at that time. By the time he graduated
from high school when he was sixteen, the