The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 25, 1948 Page: 1 of 14
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1
VOL. 12, NO. 38
*
Kermit Gets
BY BOB MOORE
j
modern hotel and office
Meek Motor Co.
2
1
pound linotypes and
!
enceni the nation’s larger paint
con-
Frank Griggs Sr., operator of
days recommended by the Retail
Woods and Bill Smith.
1
se-
been
Weather
A
NAME----
ADDRESS__
HE MAKES PRE-CHRISTMAS VISIT
TO KERMIT SATURDAY, DECEMRER 4
Attorneys Petition For Change
Of Venue in City’s Civil Suit
Against Former Officials
Going Forward
With Kermit
To Open New
Paint, Body Works
which
scales
Court appoint an auditor to
cure the desired information.
Nov. 18
Nov. 19
Nov. 20
Nov. 21
Nov. 22
Nov. 23
POLICE RECOVER
THREE BICYCLES
Max.
74.0
59.0
69.0
60.0
51.0
59.0
PERMIT GRANTED
FOR RADIO STATION
Min.
31.0
19.0
28.0
32.0
32.0
29.0
25.0
A construction permit was grant-
ed the Kermit Broadcasting Com-
pany Friday by the Federal Com-
munications Commission at Wash-
ington, according to G. H Cook,
president.
Cook stated construction would
start soon as the FCC approves site
for the tower, which is expected
within the next 30 days.
Call letters of KMIT have been
asked for the proposed local sta-
tion.
announced the opening Monday,
Nov. 29, of his new body and paint
department, equipped with the lat-
est equipment and fixtures.
J. T. Mackey, recently of Young
Motor Company at Hobbs, will be
manager of the department. Mac-
key has had eleven years experi-
and were broken from the
cussion.
examining trial before Justice of
the Peace B. H. Jolly Saturday
afternoon, and had bond set at
$1,000 on a felony complaint of
permitting his premises to be used
for gambling purposes.
Griggs posted bond and was re-
leased from custody of the Sher-
that an investigation of the case
was being continued by his office.
Sheriff Eddins stated Tuesday
morning that the Petroleum Club
was closed, and Jack Spruill, man-
ager, had mailed his beer licenses
to Austin for cancellation.
Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Bush are
spending a few days in McAlister,
Okla., with relatives.
is making his home in Kermit.
The new mechanical department
will also be in operation Monday,
Meek stated.
With extensive remodeling
and additions to the sales and parts
department to be opened in about
four weeks, the Meek Motor Com-
pany, when completed, will be one
of the most modern and elaborate
sales and service plants in West
Texas,
Meek, stated he was enlarging
the size and service of his plant to
not only serve better his friends
and customers, but as part of his
belief in the future growth of the
community.
Building Corporation To Erect
Hotel and Office Building Here
1
,2
Nov. 24 (10:30 a.m.) .. 56.0
/
Following Raid
A twenty-man temporary organizing committee was elected
at a mass meeting of Kermit citizens Monday night in the Distinct
Courtroom of the Winkler County Courthouse for the purpose of
"A
The Winkler County News
An Institution Promoting the Interests of Winkler County
, (Member Associated Press)
__t____.______________________________________________________
Kermit, Winkler County, Texas
tended by fifty persons, the committee convened and elected
Ben Meek chairman.
The committee selected three of its members to visit neigh-
boring communities and.secure infromation and procedure used
to secure hotel and office buildings. A report will be made at
the next meeting of the committee Monday night, Nov. 29, at
7:30 o’clock in the County Courtroom.
Thursday, Nov. 25, 1948
Group Elects Twenty-Man Organizing
Committee To Lay Groundwork Looking
To Permanent Corporation; Start Work
investigating possibilities of financing a
building here.
Immediately following the mass
I
Date-------
I hereby enter my (store) or (home) in the Kermit
Christmas decorations contest, under supervision of the Business
and Professional Women’s Club, as part of the community-wide
observance of the opening of the Christmas season. I will have
my entry ready for judging by Saturday, Dec. 4. 1948.
Improved Mail
Pick-Up Service
Beginning Wednesday Nov. 23,
outgoing mail could be deposited
at the Kermit Post Office as late
as 6 p.m. for daily pick up by
truck, Mrs. Tom Marion, post-
master,. has announced.
While Mrs. Marion has not been
officially notified, Charlie Green,
manager of the Kermit Chamber
of Commerce, was advised Monday
in a letter from O. E. Bellemy,
superintendent of motor transport
for the Texas and Pacific Railway
Company, of a change in truck
up here.
Bellemy advised that he had
talked with El Paso and Hobbs
officials and all had agreed that
the truck now departing from
Hobbs at 9 p.m. (Central Time)
can leave their point at 6:30 p.m.,
which will improve their service
as well as Kermit’s.
Starting Tuesday, Nov. 22, Bel-
lemy stated, the truck was sched-
uled to leave Hobbs at 6:30 p.m.,
arriving at the Kermit Post Of-
fice at 8:45 p.m., and in Mona-
hans in time to catch the 10:09
Defendant Wins
Damage Suit
A decision was made in favor
of the defendant by County Judge
J. B. Salmon in trial Tuesday aft-
ernoon of a civil suit styled L.
Stephenson Booker against Sid
Bledsoe.
Damages in the amount of $850
had been asked by the plaintiff.
A jury panel had been sum-
moned, but parties involved in the
case waived jury trial.
Judge Salmon made his decision
after three and one-half hours of
testimony and arguments had been
presented.
meeting, which was at-
dent the
thousand-
newspaper
A long, long time ago, in a land way across the Atlantic
Ocean, there were some people called the Pilgrims.
These people lived under a wicked king who wouldn’t let
them do what they wanted to do. They wanted to worship
God in their own way, and he wouldn’t let them.
So they got together in each other’s houses, and they
locked the doors, and they talked—so that no one outside would
hear them—about what they ought to do. And they decided to
sail in a ship to the other side of the world.
They decided to sail to America.
After many weeks on the ocean, they arrived on strange
shores. The woods were all about them and not even the promise
of food. Yet they got down on their knees and thanked God
that they were safe.
The men went into the woods and cut down trees and built
homes. Some of them were killed by the Indians. So they sat
up guards to protect them from the Indians while they planted
seeds for food for their wives and their children and themselves
to eat.
Then the winter came, and it got cold, and many of them
got sick and died. But the others carried on. And in the spring
they planted again. All the time they had to fight off the Indians
to protect themselves.
That year, when the harvest was in, they all got together and
knelt on their knees and thanked God for bringing good to them.
They had their troubles, but at least they had their freedom—
and that was why they thanked God. For they felt that nothing
wouldn’t even
to the several
Minimum temperature during
the past week was 19.0 degrees
Friday, Nov. 19, and the maximum
was 74.4 degrees Thursday, Nov.
18, according to the Wink CCA
office. No precipitation was re-
corded.
the Petroleum Club, located on(°+ WVI
the Monahans Highway, waived. ommuualy " IC
Services Highlight
Burglars Get
Lash and Cookies
Burglars entered Moore’s Bak-
ery, located on West Austin
Street, Monday night, ate their
fill of cakes and cookies and took
$70.08 in cash, according to Sher-
iff L. B. (Bill) Eddins.
The burglary was discovered
Tuesday morning at 6:30 o’clock
when Hugh Moore, owner, start-
ed to open his place of business.
Sheriff Eddins stated that en-
trance was gained by breaking a
glass panel in the back door. The
currency was removed from the
cash register. Scattered cake and
cookie crumbs showed evidence of
a feast.
Spears, Dan English and Jack
Olsen.
Persons attending the meeting
had been invited by postcards. An
effort was made to mail invitations
to every local business firm and
person interested in the growth
and development of the community.
The session opened with Meek
presiding. Meek stated that an
out-of-town promoter was inter-
ested in building a modern hotel
here, providing citizens would put -
up at least $75,000 worth of stock,
and the site. Balance would then be
financed by the promoter through
a loan, or personal money.
An alternate plan was presented
by Meek as follows:
Local citizens group together,
form a building corporation and
elect own officers, sell stock for
the equity and borrow the balance.
In this way, Meek stated, citizens
would own their hotel and have a
voice in the operation. He express-
ed his favor of this plan, but
cautioned that it would take “lots
of hard work and unity of effort
to put it over”. . -
Following presentation of the
two plans, Meek discussed the need
of a modern hotel and office
building here. {Growth of the city
present, crowded conditions in
hotels and tourist courts, were out-
lined.
In the general discussion that
followed, all of the speakers en-
dorsed the plan of financing and
promoting the structure locally.
Among those speaking briefly
were: Watson, Jenkins, Moore, Hal-
ley, Cook, Tracy, Hester, Maples,
Lipham, Alberts and Charley Green.
While the temporary organizing
committee will decide the approxi-
mate type of building to be erected, ,
it was the general opinion at the
mass meeting that it should be a .
seven-story affair. The first floor,
would be leased for businesses, the,
next three floors for office space,
and three of four floors for hotel
rooms.
Motion that temporary organiz-
ing committee be named was made
by Williams and seconded by
Maples. Nominations for the com-
mittee were made from the floor.
They were elected by acclamation.
Tracy served as acting secretary.
train to Fort Worth and. Dallas.
The other afternook. pickup
service here at 3:30 p.m. will, be e ae
continued, Mrs. Marion said. Mail and body shops. He is married and
press, out of the old location on
the westside of the courthouse
square over to the east side in our
new, modern brick home. What
with moving putting ■ - about two
days behind and trying to get out
a day earlier to observe a holiday
Thanksgiving, this has been a
pretty rough week. Our friends’
and customers’ indulgence until
we get back on an even keel is
greatly appreciated.
***
Harry Jackson has started con-
struction of a brick and tile garage
on South Sycamore Street. A new
community grocery store opened
this week on T. M. Moore’s lot on
South Underwood Street. The
building for the latter firm is a
government surplus building.
* * *
One of the outstanding things
about the mass meeting held in the
Courthouse Monday night to con-
sider securing a hotel and office
building for Kermit was the com-
plete harmony of opinions. Not one
dissenting voice was raised and no
one threw any “cold water—al-
most unbelievable when one con-
siders there were half a hundred
“hardboiled” businessmen present.
With this kind of unity and team-
work among its leaders, it seems
to us that Kermit can get a hotel
and office building—even a half
a dozen of them—if desired and
wanted. This kind of attitude, co-
(Continued on Last Page).
on this schedule arrives at Fort
Worth at 7:30 a.m. and Dallas at
8:30 a.m.
Incoming mail service here ar-
rives at 6 a.m., in time to be dis-
tributed by 9 a.m.
Mrs. Marion stated that during
the Christmas holiday season, a
later time than 6 p.m. will be
scheduled for outgoing mail.
The new mail pickup and de-
livery service schedule is the best
Kermit has ever had, Green stat-
ed. The Chamber of Commerce
had been in consultation with of-
ficials for the past several weeks
endeavoring to secure better mail
service.
ENTRY BLANK
LETTERS TO
SANTA CLAUS
The News has received sev-
eral letters addressed to Santa
Claus. As in the past, The News
will see to it that Santa gets
these letters.
Due to the fact that Santa
is making a personal pre-
Christmas visit to Kermit Sat-
urday, Dec. 4, for the purpose
of meeting all the youngsters
and receiving their letters, the
management suggests all kid-
dies hold their letters for that
occasion. After Santa’s visit
The News will print as many
of the letters as space will
permit.
was better than freedom—and nothing is.
It’s been a long time since the Pilgrims first came here.
But every fall we still have Thanksgiving. For no matter what
happens—whether we have war, or sickness, or trouble of any 1 schedule to permit late mail pick-
kind—just like the Pilgrims, we can still do what we want to do
here in America. We still have freedom.
iff’s office. He will be bound
over to the next term of grand
jury for action.
The night club operator’s ar-
rest was made about midnight
Friday, following a raid made at
11:30 p.m. of a house located
south of the club. Participating
in the raid were: Sheriff L. B.
(Bill) Eddins and his deputy force;
State Highway Patrolmen John
Following a joint agreement of
plaintiffs and defendants, the 109th
District Court was petitioned in
an instrument filed in the District
Clerk’s office Monday, Nov. 22,
for a change of venue from Wink-
ler to Reeves County in a civil
suit styled City of Kermit and
others against W. H. Wilson and
others.
No action in the petition for
the change of venue had been
made by District Judge G. C. Ol-
sen up to Tuesday noon.
The original petition, filed July
1, asked a judgment of $114,603.07
and was styled City of Kermit,
acting through Mayor Fred Pear-
son and Commissioners Cecil At-
wood and H. A. Coulter, against
W. H. Wilson, Jack Shirley, W. M.
Walker, Levi Kruse, Joseph M.
Johnson, Hugh C. Dickson, John
W. Ray, Glenn Rhea, J. S. Simp-
son, Central Surety and Insur-
ance Corporation of Kansas City,
and Glen Falls Indemnity Com-
pany of Glen Falls, N. Y.
On October 5, the plaintiffs filed
an amended petition asking only
$59,761.31 judgment and omitting
Rhea and Simpson from the list
of defendants. Also the Court
was petitioned to have defendants
file an audit of their expenditures
during terms of holding city of-
fices. A provision was made that
if such an audit was unobtainable
from the defendants, that the
Santa Claus’ bag will be packed
with 3,000 gifts for youngsters
of Winkler County and neigh-
boring communities when he makes
his appearance in Kermit Saturday
afternoon, Dec. 4, at 4:30 o’clock,
according to a radiogram from the
North Pole to The Winkler County
News.
Local plans for his reception
were reported Tuesday by offi-
, Hals to be progressing satisfactor-
ily-
Santa’s pre-Christmas visit is be-
nng sponsored by the Chamber of
? cmmerce to open the holiday
shopping season.
The Lions and 20-30 Clubs have
charge of bringing Santa Claus to
town, while the Business and Pro-
fessional Women’s Club is direct-
ing the decoration contest in which
the sponsoring organization is of-
fering $50 in cash prizes.
A total of 16 entries had been
received by the C. of C. up to Tues-
day afternoon. Prizes of $25 each
are being offered for the best de-
corated residence and business
house. An entry blank appears else-
where in this issue of The News for
use in entering the contest.
Fire Chief Pearson has asked all
members of the Fire Department
to meet at the Fire Hall Sunday
morning, Nov. 28, at 9 o’clock, to
help string overhead colored lights.
The lights will not come on until
the evening of Santa’s visit.
SANTA TO BRING 3,000 GIFTS WHEN i y (An nAm • Citizens Mold Framework For
Members of the committee are:
Hugh Moore, Ben Meek, Nev. H.
Williams, John Read, Nolan Wat-
son, H. L. (Button) Roberson,
Webb Jenkins, S. M. Halley, Dr.
John Graves, Oscar Maples, M. H.
Alberts, Don Tracy, Wm. E. (Bill)
Pool, George Cook, Hal Hester, J.
JOINS NEWS STAFF
Mrs. W. F. Shipley this week
was added to The News personnel
and will be in charge of the of-
fice supply department. Mrs.
Shipley is married and has two
small sons, Bill and Jim. Mr.
Shipley is employed by Shell Gas-
oline at Notrees.
Night Club Operator Arrested
B i Offi "" '
And that’s why we have Thanksgiving here in America.
Nobody anywhere else in the world has Thanksgiving. For no-
body anywhere else in the world has quite what we have here in
America.
Some day maybe everywhere in the world they’ll have
Thanksgiving. Because maybe some day, everywhere else in the
world, they’ll have what we have here in America.
' So let’s all of us, right now, not only thank God for what we
have, but pray to Him that everybody, everywhere else in the
world, can some day be just as lucky as we are.
Don’t you think we ought to?
The judgment of $59,761.31 was
asked as follows: “$40,312.11
against Wilson, Walker, Shirley,
Ray and Kruse, paid said Ray
upon said illegal construction con-
tract and have judgment against
defendants Wilson, Shirley, Kruse
and- Johnson for $8,748.20 under
guise of travel expense and fur-
ther have judgment against Wil-
son, Shirley, Kruse and Johnson
for $1,701 for excess Corporation
Court salaries, also Wilson, Shir-
ley, Kruse, Johnson and Dickson
for alleged engineering service by
sai Dickson, and against Central
Surety and Insurance Corporation
of Kansas City for $6,000 and Glen
Falls Indemnity Company of Glen
Falls, N. Y., $3,000."
W. T. Hair and Henry Russell,
attorneys for the plaintiffs, peti-
tioned Judge G. C. Olsen on Nov.
1 to “dismiss this case against W.
M. Walker, Joseph M. Johnson
and Glen Falls Indemnity Com-
pany, all court costs at plain-
tiffs expense.” Judge Olsen
granted the request.
As the case now stands, a peti-
tion by both parties for a change
of venue is pending before Judge
Olsen. A judgment of $59,761.31
is being asked of the following de-
fendants: Wilson, Shirley, Kruse,
Dickson, Ray, and the Central
Surety and Insurance Corpora-
tion.
Thompson to Head
Interscholastic
Meet April 7 - 9
Tommy Thompson, superintend-
ent of Kermit Public Schools, was
elected director of the 1949 Dis-
trict 5-A Interscholastic meet to
be held April 7-9, at a meeting of
district school executives in Odessa
Monday.
Superintendents and coaches
from all district schools were repre-
sented except McCamey.
During the executive session su-
perintendents mapped schedule for
literary and athletic events to be
next spring.
Thompson was named director
general and Kermit was selected as
host city for district track, field,
tennis and volleyball events.
Literary events will be held at
Andrews, Thursday, April 7.
The volleyball and tennis
matches will be played here Friday,
April 8, with track and field events
the following day.
A detailed schedule will be an-
nounced later by the director gen-
eral.
lai Man Seriously
Injured When
Boiler Explodes
One person was injured in the
explosion of a boiler at Master
Cleaners at Jal, N. M., Monday
morning at 9 o’clock, that rocked
the community, and sent a piece of
steel flying several hundred feet
in the air which fell through the
roof of a nearby cafe.
Injured was John H. Foley, oper-
ator of the boiler at the time
of the explosion. He was rushed to
Winkler County Memorial Hospital
in an El Paso Natural Gas Com-
pany ambulance. Attendants stated
Tuesday night that he was suffer-
ing from a compound fracture of
the left leg, shock, mutliple abra-
sions and minor burns. His condi-
tion was reported Ao be “fairly
good.”
Foley told attendants Monday
morning he believed the meter fail-
ed to register properly and that too
much steam had been built up in
the boiler—causing the explosion.
Witnesses, in?a statement to hos-
pital attendants, stated the back
end of the cleaning establishment
was “blown out.” A piece of the
boiler went several hundred feet
in the air and came down through
the roof into the kitchen of a
near-by cafe. No one was injured
in the eating establishment.
Bottles in a Jal drugs • re rattled
cycles. No arrests have
made.
Thanksgiving
Members of churches of all
faiths will join in a community-
wide Thanksgiving religious serv-
ice Thursday morning at 10 a.m.
at the Berean Baptist Church,
which will highlight the holiday
observance in Kermit.
_ The Rev. Strauss Atkinson, pas-
tor of the First Baptist Church,
will deliver the message, and spe-
cial music will be provided by the
host church.
Local business firms will ob-
serve a general closure, as Thanks-
giving is one of the regular holi-
City police recovered three stol-
en bicycles during the past week,
according to Mayor Fred Pearson.
Two of the bikes were found
at the Kermit Cemetery and the
other at a residence in Valton
Place, where they had been aban-
doned.
Mayor Pearson said he believed
young boys were taking the bi-
TYPE OF ENTRY_______
(Store or Home)
Store will be judged on exterior fronts, including window
decorations, lighting and general all-around fronts.
Home decorations will be judged on lights and other decor-
ations as they appear from the street.
A cash prize of $25 will be given for first place winners in
each contest.
(Maix^r bring entries to Kermit Chamber of C mmerce)
Affairs Committee of the Cham-
ber of Commerce.
Kermit Public Schools will have
a two-day holiday Thursday and
Friday, Supt. Tommy Thompson
has announced.
The Winkler County News is
publishing one day earlier,
Wednesday, to enable its employes
to observe the holiday.
- One-day holidays will also be
observed by Kermit State Bank,
Winkler County Courthouse, Ker-
mit City Hall and Kermit Post
Office.
Ben Meek, local Ford dealer, hasjM. Lipham, Harold Diller, Wayne
Sheriff Eddins stated the five-
room house was unoccupied with
exception of one man, J. W.
(Peaches) Green. He was taken
into custody and fined $38.15 by
Justice of the Peace Jolly Satur-
day afternoon on a charge of vag-
rancy.
The house is leased by Griggs,
Sheriff Eddins stated. Officers
confiscated the following: two
dice tables, twenty-one sets of dice,
a paper sack full of chips, several
packs of playing cards, table and
chairs, several cases of beer, blan-
kets and assorted coverings used
over the windows of the house.
A local photographer was sum-
moned to photograph the interior
before any of the furnishings
were removed.
Griggs was arrested in the Pet-
roleum Club following the raid.
The complaint alleges: "Griggs
did knowingly and unlawfully per-
mit property which he has under
his control to be used as a place
to bet or wager, to gamble with
cards, dice or other methods of
gaming, or to be used as a place
where people resort to gambling.
The premises being: the five room
house located on the south 50 feet
of lot No. 49, in block B of the
Brown and Altman addition, an
addition to the town of Kermit.
That the said Frank Griggs did
permit said premises to be used
for gaming.”
Acting on a "tip,” Sheriff Ed-
dins secured a search warrant
and made the raid. He stated
An unsigned post card was re-
ceived in the mail this week as fol-
lows: “You have not said any-
thing lately about this eyesore, the
filling station that burned last De-
cember. It will look nice (?) with
the Christmas decoration and to
holiday visitors.” It was our under-
standing several weeks ago that
the eyesore was in the process of
being torn down, but it seems that
this is not the case. It’s a dirty
shame and a downright disgrace
that burned building has been al-
lowed to stand for almost a year—
marring what little beauty we have
around tHe courthouse square. For
your information, the owner is Ci-
cero Sitton, Magnolia Oil Company
Agent, Monahans. How about all
of us dropping him a card and let-
ting him know how we feel about
the matter?
* * *
The Winkler County News
moved over the week end,
from the smallest scrap of paper
«6F2m<5a
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Williams, Nev H. The Winkler County News (Kermit, Tex.), Vol. 12, No. 38, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 25, 1948, newspaper, November 25, 1948; Kermit, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1466756/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Winkler County Library.