The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 45, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 30, 1992 Page: 2 of 24
This newspaper is part of the collection entitled: The Aransas Pass Progress and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.
- Highlighting
- Highlighting On/Off
- Color:
- Adjust Image
- Rotate Left
- Rotate Right
- Brightness, Contrast, etc. (Experimental)
- Cropping Tool
- Download Sizes
- Preview all sizes/dimensions or...
- Download Thumbnail
- Download Small
- Download Medium
- Download Large
- High Resolution Files
- IIIF Image JSON
- IIIF Image URL
- Accessibility
- View Extracted Text
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THB ARANSAS PASS PftOttMSS
Tony Harden has gone a long way
Dairy hand to county judge
Today, hor
Is that
By Juliet K. Wenger
Feature Editor
Agnes Anton Adamson as an
[] Ingieside High School student
worked in a dairy before and after
school. From there to the bench
of Aransas County Judge, Tony
Harden, has followed a path
paved with experiences of a varie-
ty of sizes, shapes and textures.
The unpredictable path began
when a brother 11-years-older
than she, Elton Adamson, took
her to Ingieside from Taft to live
with him. Her father wi
in Washington State, her mother
was working long hours, and her
brother, as she puts it, took her
“under his wing ”
Her father’s name was Anton.
That was her middle name. She
was called Agnes Anton, but that
was hard to say. “Tony de-
veloped,” die remembers. “Tony
with a V because I oould write V
prettier than ‘I.”*
Harden went through high
school in Ingieside, although she
till
At- * V s**~
ARANSAS COUNTY JUDGE TONY HARDEN
That was the;
from 11 to 12 sohool yearn, skip-
port. Mia already had many
friends there as she spent
Wartime closed in. Her brother
went to the Navy. Before that, her
parents had moved to Inglaside,
so she was living with them again.
They made another move, this
time to Rookport. Harden wanted
to stay in Ingieside where she was
on the basketball and volleyball
teams, in tennis competition, a
majorette and involved in every-
thing. Rookport High Sohool, at
that time, had no gym and no
tennis courts.
Agreement was reached for her
to stay in Ingieside and live with
Mr. and Mrs. Dave Kirkland, the
family ofhercloee friend, Bobbie.
The Kirkland family owned and
operated a dairy. Harden was
soon involved in that too. She and
Bobbie got up early, before band
praotioe. They operated the
separator to take the cream from
the milk, and bottled and capped
the milk. Bobbie, driving a com-
pany pickup, delivered milk to
stores in Ingieside and Aransas
Pass.
In the afternoon, they dashed
back to make home deliveries.
They knew how many bottles to
leave at each door. Customers left
the empties for them to pick up.
“Some people never washed
out their bottles,” the judge
laughed. “That’s a thing with me.
I even wash out my cardboard
cartons now.”
She graduated in 1944. Brown
and Root had opened an office in
Ingieside as a contractor to Hum-
ble. Harden worked in that offioe
for the summer. Her graduation
night, she had “cried a bucket of
tears.” She knew a happy time of
lift was ending, among people she
had found open and loving.
She had reoeived a scholarship
to Mary Harden Baylor in Belton
and attended for one semester.
The girls in her dormitory were
When Humble closed, their <
munity building was bargsd to
Rookport. Today, it Is the
Woman’s Club, south of the
Chamber of Commerce building.
Harden paid her way through
Draughan’s Busineea Sohool in
San Antonio, working at Vogue
Drees Shop.
She put her new business skills
to work in the Red and White
Grooery Store owned by Fred
Brecht. She was die bookkeeper
but when needed filled in as
oashier or checker.
She also worked in a res-
taurant. She was reaching up
pouring water into a ooffee urn
when J. W. Harden, an oil Add
roughneck first saw her. He
thought she waa standing on a
ooke box. The Judge Is tall, im-
pressive in her Judicial robe.
Her husband moved from drill-
ing to production and went to
work for Humble Oil. She saw a
story in the newspaper that a
vacancy had oocurred on the city
oounoil because die person on
the oounoil had moved outside
the city limits. It occurred to her
that she would like to learn more
about government, and she had
some ideas she would like to ex-
plore. In her campaign, she wont
door to door to every house in
men for the vacant i
tt.Her<
t and won
Delmer Hiller wi
Harden spent six years on the
oounoil. That administration ex-
panded the sewer plant. The city
was dependent on well water.
Through formation of die Aran-
sas County Reclamation District,
distribution lines were laid,
enabling the San Patricio Muni-
cipal Water District to provide
Nueoes River water.
In 1970,
served by one clerk for oounty
and district courts. Vie oounty
reached 9,000 population, at
which point the constitution re-
quired a clerk for each oourt sys-
tem. Judgs John H. Miller of the
36th Judicial District and Judge
Joe Wade of the 156th Judicial
District appointed Harden to the
position of district dark.
When she went into that posi-
tion, Aransas County did not
have a probation department.
Probationers reported to the
sheriff. One of the major develop-
ments of the middle 70s was seta-
bishment of adult and juvenile
probation departments.
As district clerk, she was custo-
dian of oourt records. She also
spent a great deal of time in the
oourtroom, responsible for evi-
dence, swearing in the witnesses
and other oourt administration.
The oourtroom was her law
sohool. Today, as oounty Judge,
she presides in oounty oourt.
John D. Wendell, who had been
Judge of Aransas County for 40
years, retired at the end of 1990.
Harden, with her experience in
policy making on the city oounoil
and familiarity with the oourt-
bouse and the courts, went baok
to the voters. This time, she
sought and won the offioe of coun-
ty Judge. • >
i'f: ;/ Tf'il.
Soon after she took offioe, she
appointed an airport advisory
board. With the leadershipof that
board, the oounty held an air
show, lari Burke made it finan-
cially possible. There was so
much community cooperation
that by die seoond year the Rook-
port-Pukon Chamber of Com-
merce and other oommunity
organisations established the
Her first year, 1991, she looks
baok on as uneventful. But 1992
has been anything but. Jt had be-
gun raining at the end Of ftie old
1141.000 for the oounty itself,
112.000 for the schools, and
06.000 for the dty of Fulton.
Today, Judgs Harden is looking
at ways to oombine servioes,
work with other governments
and aohieve objectives post effoo-
ttvsiy. With 8an Patricio County
officials, she reoendy went to Au-
stin to interest die Department of
Transportation in Improving FM
881.
The cities and oounty, under
interlocal agreements have set up
a transfer station station to dis-
pose of brush. With looal govern-
ments of the region, the best sohi-
tion to disposal of solid waste is
being studied through the Coun-
cil of Governments.
Aransas, 8an Patrioio,
Calhoun, and Refugio Counties
are entering into dirtnitfiiTnt of
any possibilities for a sub-
regional faoility to relieve Jail
overcrowding in each oounty
seat, where oocrvioted felons oan-
not be transferred to
penitentiaries for leak of space.
Aransas County is operating a
juvenile shelter which serves
many of the counties south of San
Antonio. San Patricio County is
in the prooess of building a shelter
to served the 36th Judicial Dis-
trict, at which time, Aransas
County oan dose down its shel-
ter, which is not oost effective.
Aransas County is competing
for Community Development
block grant money to put a sewer
system in what is referred to as
“no-man’s land,”urakineith-
er Rookport or Fulton, in,the
vicinity of Traylor and Broadway.
County government, over
which Judge Harden preeides, is
as different today as were the
communities of Ingieside and
Rookport in the days Agnes
Anton Adamson grew up in the
Bay Area.
Viewpoint
Competitors unite to make stronger business effort
By Juliet K. Wenger
Coastal Bend Council
of Governments
Competition can be a positive
or a negative.
Improving our abilities or pro-
ducts to better compete is the
positive that has always been SOP
for the United States. Competi-
tion can be exhilirating when you
are pitting your innovativeness
against that of someone you re-
spect.
Competition can beoome a
negative when it is an outgrowth
of fear that you are inadequate
pushing you into denigrating
your competitor in a way that
profits you nothing. This kind of
competition can lower standards
of education, government or
business.
The COG is built on a philoso-
phy that, working together, gov-
ernments and businesses oan
make the Coastal Bend a more
attractive place to live and a bet-
ter plaoe ot make a living. Within
the structure of cooperation, gov-
ernments still oompete for grants
and for industry but car iz 30 in a
positive way.
Probably the most obvious ex-
amples of the need to work
together are in the competition
for tourism and industry. Each
part of the region benefits to some
degree when any one oity or
oounty creates a new tourist
attraction or wins a new industry.
This oan be broken down into
segments.
A man named Jerry Mickey,
who had been a John Deere dealer
and former for yean in another
part of Texas, came into the Coas-
tal Bend about a year-and-a-half
ago and bought a 100-spaoe RV
park in Aransas County.
He saw as a negative the atti-
tude of every park for Itself. He
organised an association of
campgrounds which a majority of
owners and operators in his ooun-
ty have Joined. They are reaching
out to other oounties urging own-
ers and operators to Join with
them.
Together, Mickey thinks the
region oan offer more of what
Winter Texans want, stopping
their RVs in the Coastal Bend that
were headed for the Rio Grande
Valley.
One thing he wants to see hap-
pen is the building of many more
publio golf oourses in the Coastal
Bend. Many winter visitors from
cold climates will spend months
where there are a number of pub-
lio oourses within reasonable
don’t agree with him and do not
away a potential customer. Word
of mouth as well as advertising, he
behaves, will bring so many mors
potential customers for every
park.
In reoentyears, the word heard
most often referring to govern-
ment in the nation’s oapital is
“gridlock.” Political parties are
by definition partisan. They will
always be competitors. But there
oould be more times when k is
possible to reach consensus for
the interest of the nation to be-
nefit the people who make up
both parties.
That is idealistic. But then, his-
tory tells us this nation has been
the envy of the world because it is
something incredible, a nation
founded on ideals.
Letters to the editor
County views ADA
as an opportunity
serving people. The Americans ties Act will effect aU of us.
With Disabilities Act is viewed as Patrioio County Government
an opportunity to provide hotter welcomes the opportunity to
highlights of
ADA Coordinator
Where is spirit
of Christmas?
What do you think at Christ-
mas? Do you think that k Is a time
friends and neighbors. You oan
imagine die disappointment and
the hollow feeling I felt when I
woks up the day after Christmas
and found that my bicycle (my
only form of transportation) had
bean stolen. Since this Is die
seoood bicycle I have had stolen
tide year and the fifth time my
house has been burglarized, I am
beginning to believe that Christ-
mas may be
time of year.
Randy Riddle
Happy holidays
from the USS Kidd
y holiday.
Virgil Neill,
note tains wfll be replaced (
sum Handrails will,be instil
trodden of us should have a Joey and all my friends too many
and oaring for your family, David Neill
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Matching Search Results
View eight places within this issue that match your search.Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Newspaper.
Cole, Mary. The Aransas Pass Progress (Aransas Pass, Tex.), Vol. 84, No. 45, Ed. 1 Wednesday, December 30, 1992, newspaper, December 30, 1992; Aransas Pass, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1135805/m1/2/?q=WAR+DEPARTMENT: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Ed & Hazel Richmond Public Library.