Category: Bodiford’s Brown County Histories

Heroes are harder to find than you might think. It’s my opinion that they typically don’t want to be noticed. They will burrow deep into the minutia of historical events in hopes of escaping our notice. But on occasion we find them anyway.

The vast majority of Texas school districts postponed the inevitable in the summer of 1955. Some of these communities would face years of turmoil. In contrast, resolute, prompt and wise action by Superintendent King and the School Board allowed for a peaceful beginning to the integration of Brownwood schools.

My study of Brown County history over the last year has supported an overall opinion about heroism: that heroism usually originates from the most ordinary beginnings.

A basic tendency of history is that greatness often begins in obscurity. One example is Jack Tarelton Bradley, born in Brownwood on June 6, 1918.

By 1900, the Brown County boasted twenty-five gins (four in Brownwood), two cotton compresses and a cotton seed oil mill with storage facilities for the oil.

Herman F. Westig was the barnstormer who first brought aviation to Brownwood. On February 5, 1912, Herman and his mechanic brother Ernest gave a large crowd of 2,000 persons their first view of the miracle of flight. This was quite a turn out considering that the total population of Brownwood at that time was slightly less than 7,000 persons.

From 1750 until 1840 Comanche warriors maintained unquestioned ownership within boundaries that stretched from San Antonio in the south to present day Kansas City in the north and from modern Oklahoma City to Albuquerque, New Mexico.