Rotary Club gets a taste of history at Wednesday's luncheon

The museum is located inside the Poston's Building/County Courthouse Annex in downtown Mineral Wells.

Garrett is shown holding a pick that was used to mine coal in Thurber. He noted the pick itself is short because the miners often worked in tight, narrow spaces and had to chip at the coal to loosen and extract it.

At left, Rotary President Jimmy Walker holds a 1920s Mineral Wells phone book. Phone numbers then were three and four digits, and Garrett noted the phonebooks at that carried more information than modern phone books, such as the person's occupation and family information.

At right, this week's program chair Eddie McClendon holds a sword, stored in a leather sheath, that belonged to DC Harris and was used in World War I.

Garrett brought with him to the meeting several other items, including a map of Palo Pinto County before its incorporation in 1855. He explained the reason for the notch in the northwest corner of the county, where it meets Young County, is because of Indian-held land at the time. He also said the county was larger to the south, including present-day Erath County. He said original deed records show a courthouse square in Mingus, because at one time there was discussion of dividing and creating another county.

As always, Garrett's historic presentations are both fascinating, and humorous.

Rotary Club meets every Wednesday at noon at Holiday Hills Country Club for lunch, updates on club projects and a program of interest. Please join us.