 Welcome to us. This is session one, I guess as it should be, of the 2024 West Texas Historical Association's annual meeting. This is the centennial anniversary of WTHA's first annual meeting. So I think it's appropriate that this session, even if it is at 8.30 in the morning, from 24 to today, 100 years of the West Texas Historical Association takes place as the kickoff event. WTHA enjoys a long and prestigious tradition of scholarship, innovation, and most of all communal fellowship. It is the second oldest historical association in the state of Texas by a long way and only the Texas State Historical Association has been around longer. It is also older than a list of any other such state organizations. I'm humbled to been asked to be a part of this session. I joined WTHA in 1997 when I was a graduate school at Texas Tech and utilizing my memory, which is faulty. I think I've only missed one meeting since then. It was a gathering in Odessa and I'm from Midland and Midlanders don't go to Odessa unless absolutely necessary. So the three esteemed gentlemen presenting at this session have all been members of WTHA much longer than me. But I want to begin before we do anything else by dispelling a very vicious rumor that's been circulating around. I think Leland Turner started it. Doctors Murray and Carlson were not present at the first WTHA meeting. They were at least it was the fourth or fifth meeting before they ever showed up. So don't listen to Leland. What I'll do is I'll introduce each presenter here at the initiation of the session and they will rise to present in the order you see in the program. Please hold your questions for each presenter to all have made their presentation. David J. Murray is a Texas historian who lives in Rockport. He's the past president of the Aransas County Historical Society and is currently that organization's longest serving trustee. Most significantly, at least in my view, because he in many ways is the person responsible for the modern iteration of this institution. He was first an archivist and then the director of the Southwest Collection for 25 years. After he left that job, he became a general project manager and vice president of Southwest Museum Services in Houston. He seemingly retired. His retirement seems to be going really well. He's staying busy all the time in twenty two thousand two. In addition to such work, Dr. Murray's written or edited 11 books related to Texas history as well as more than 40 other publications. His most recent work, which I hope all of you have read is the rise and fall of the lazy ass ranch, which in 2022 received WDHA's Rupert Richardson Award for best book on West Texas history. That's only appropriate because Dr. Murray got his introduction to West Texas history from the same Dr. Rupert Richardson in the fall of 1960. When Dr. Richardson took him to a WTHA meeting at Fort Belnau. He also took every course that Dr. Richardson taught at Hardin Simmons, both at the undergrad and grad level. He gave his very first paper at WTHA in 1971. His presentation day will be from birth to 40 the initial years of WTHA in 1924-1964. Paul Carlson specifically asked me to keep his intro brief primarily because he's humble, but also because he wanted to make sure there was plenty of time available for Dr. Monroe's intro. His self-written intro is that he is a professor emeritus at history of history at Texas Tech University. He's a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, a fellow of WTHA and the former interim director of WTHA when he first moved from Abilene to Lava. He also publishes some stuff and likes history. That's brief. I'll give him that, right? But I'm not gonna let him off like that, so I'm gonna add to you that all of us in this room will be hard-pressed to find anyone at this meeting that has not been influenced by Dr. Carlson in a class. During papers he present this meeting or reading one of his books. And speaking of the Rupert Richardson award, he has and this is so far because he might win another one. Been the recipient of that award five times, five times. The next closest to him are two people who've won it twice. Think about that. That's a lot of good production. His presentation title is Looking West but Staying Put, the WTHA 1964 to 1994. Dr. Monnie Monroe, what can I say about Dr. Monnie Monroe that he hasn't already said himself? Like our other two presenters, he is a WTHA staple, one who seems to have always been here. He of course serves as the served as the editor of the West Texas Historical Association yearbook, which became the West Texas Historical Review with into his tenure. He is currently an archivist at the Southwest Collection and on faculty at Texas Tech. He has served on numerous statewide historic organizational boards, including the WTHA and the ETHA. And he's received civic and professional awards for service, history and preservation. And he was elected to membership in the Philosophical Society of Texas. Also, in case you didn't know in a previous slide, he was a Taekwondo six degree black belt and was an international referee in that sport. In fact, he remains the only American to have officiated in two Olympic games in the sport of Taekwondo. But above all that, he is currently the governor, avid appointed official state historian of Texas, an office that he is holding for his third term. His presentation will be titled into the 21st century, the WTHA 1995 2023. Dr. Murr will lead us off. Well, thank you, Scott. And thanks to my PowerPoint runner over here, H. Allen Anderson. On April 19 of this year, two weeks from today, we will celebrate the 100th birthday of the creation of the West Texas Historical Association. In early April of 1924, Judge R. C. Crane of Sweetwater wrote and placed an announcement in several West Texas papers, which called in a quote for all persons interested in the history of West Texas to meet at the courthouse at Abilene on three p.m. Saturday, April 19, 1924 for the purpose of organizing a West Texas Historical Association. It was signed by Judge Crane and two young history props, Rupert Norval Richardson at Simmons College and William Curry Holden of McMurray and four other Abilene residents, Businessman J. M. Radford, prominent socialite Mrs. Dallas Scarborough, Abilene High School's B. E. McGlamoury and L. B. Kinnimer of Abilene Christian College. And a quote, our section has a glorious past. Crane noted an announcement, he said, the history of its settlement, the problems and hardships of its pioneers, their struggles with the Indians, their victorious five for law and order, all these are history as interesting as can be found in any annals of any people. And yet, few of our own people know anything, even the fundamentals of that history. Children are growing to manhood and womanhood along with some of along some of our historic roads and trails without even knowing their historic names or the part these routes have played in the development of an empire. And Crane also pointed out that source materials are daily going to waste or are being destroyed because people do not know their value and the men and women who help make and develop the West are fast dying, taking valuable historic facts to the graves. And he concluded surely, we ought not to lose any time in engaging in a concerted effort to preserve what still remains of the records of an interesting and thrilling past. But before we look at the actual birth of the WTA on that April 19. Let's examine the conception. All evidence suggests that R. C. Crane was the father of WTA. Born in Independence, Texas in 1864, Royston Campbell Crane grew up under the tutelage of his father, William Kerry Crane, who was a prominent Baptist minister and moved to Texas from Louisiana in 1863, intending to become pastor of the first Baptist Church of Houston. However, he was persuaded by Baylor College of Independence to become its president in 1864. And he served in that capacity until his death in 1885. An ardent historian, he was a co founder of the Mississippi State Historical Society and author to biography of Sam Houston. Crane County is named in his honor. And I assume the town of Crane would be too. Well, a year after his father's death and with a law degree in hand, 22 year old young R. C. Crane set out for West Texas and began his law practice in the new town of Robey in the newly organized Fisher County. To supplement his income, Crane also established the first newspaper for the county and hired a teenager, young man named George Anderson as his printer. By 1899, both had relocated to Abilene, where Anderson soon became president of Abilene Printing Company, the firm that would print the West Texas yearbook for more than 50 years. Crane then moved to Sweetwater in 1902 and soon became its mayor. Well, as a promoter of Sweetwater, then Crane became an ardent champion of the West Texas A&M College Movement. An idea that had been proposed as early as 1896, and took root in 1910 when law books AJ Dillard advocated for it in his run for the state legislature. Crane participated in the call for the first regional meeting in 1916 in Sweetwater, which led to the creation of the West Texas A&M Campaign Association, which succeeded in getting a bill through the Texas Legislature in 1917. As you probably know, though, the dream vanished momentarily when the illustrious Governor Paul Ferguson cheated on his locating committee's choice of location. He had falsely proclaimed Abilene at its selection and subsequently was removed for office and that along with some other issues. The new Governor, William P. Hobby, then repealed the bill. Well, in 1918, then Crane and others created the West Texas Chamber of Commerce to carry on the fight for the West Texas A&M and were finally successful in 1923 when the legislature created the Texas Technological College. According to Curry Holden, one of who was one of the founders of WTHA, Texas Tech was quote a living monument to the existence of a West Texas self consciousness. Well, WTHA grew out of that same self consciousness and RC Crane contributed heavily to developing it. By the early 1920s, according to Larry Bates, excellent thesis on Crane, the 60 year old attorney spent more of his time gathering and publishing history than practicing law. He continued to promote the western part of the state by demonstrating its rich history and the need to preserve it. Moreover, Crane was an active participant in not only the Texas State Historical Association, but also the other societies in Kansas, Oklahoma and Mississippi. For TSHA, he served as vice president for several years and wrote articles and book reviews. According to Larry Bates, I quote, he became involved with many prominent historians of the day. These acquaintances often sent him copies of their work to receive his opinion and criticism. With some of these men, Crane started a historical journal for West Texas. Well, let me play up on that statement that Bates made. Who were some of these men? Well, in 1923, nearby Abilene was blessed to have in residence three young men, all who had grown up in West Texas, taught in rural West Texas schools. And by 1923 were college history profs, as well as PhD candidates. All three were destined to make a major impact on Texas and Southwestern history. The first of these was 32 year old Rupert Richardson. In essence, as Ernest Wallace has noted, the mother of WTHA. He grew up near Cato, East of Breckenridge and there in 1907 and enrolled in Simmons College in Abilene. And then graduated in 1912 planning to teach a hall and then study law. Well, over the next five years, he did teach at Ivan, at Cato, at Cisco and Sweetwater, and also squeezed in a year at the University of Chicago, earning a second bachelor's degree. In the spring of 1917, he joined the faculty of Simmons College, continuing an association that would last until his death in 1988, a few days before his 97th birthday. The second of these men was 34 year old Carl Cope Reister. He grew up in Macaulay, west of Anson and enrolled in Simmons College in 1912, graduating three years later in 1915. Then he returned to his hometown to serve as school superintendent. But in 1916 moved to Washington DC to work for the Treasury Department. He used night classes to earn his MA at George Washington University in 1920 when he returned to Abilene to join the faculty at Simmons College. The third of these men at Abilene at that time was the youngest 27 year old William Curry Holden. Curry grew up in Mitchell County near Colorado City and later at Rotan, only 10 miles from where Reister grew up. Holden graduated from Rotan High School in 1914. And after obtaining his teaching certificate from Stanford Junior College, he began his teaching career that would continue for the next 52 years. While teaching public schools, Holden first attended summer school at West Texas Normal at Canyon, but decided to go to the University of Texas to complete his BA. To get there, economically, he decided to run for a seat in the Texas Legislature in the spring of 1920. His competition for that seat was Charles C. Thompson of Colorado City and R.M. Chipwood of Sweetwater. Very unlike today's politicians, during the campaign three shared gasoline and meals and toured the district together in Holden's Model T Ford. Holden strongly advocated in his campaign for the establishment of an agricultural mechanical college for West Texas. But Chipwood won the race by slim margin. But ironically, all three would in the future play critical roles in the establishment and development of Texas Tech. At one time, there were three buildings on the campus at Tech named for Thompson, Chipwood and Holden. Thompson Hall sadly was raised in 2008. But Holden Hall and Thompson Hall are still Chipwood Hall are there. In spite of losing the race, Curry went ahead with his plans to the 10 UT and moved to Austin in the fall of 1920, where he completed a four year program in just three years. In 1923 became head of the history department of the new college at Abilene, McMurray. So by 1923, Richardson, Reister and Holden were all based in Abilene and the campaign to get the West Texas A&M, aka Texas Tech was over. So it was time to do something else to satisfy West Texas new self consciousness by completing the conception of the WTHA. In 1923, Crane had sold his vast collection of West Texas research materials and his library to Simmons College. And both Reister and Richardson delved into that collection. As Richardson recall the collection, quote, provided a core of material that inspired me to begin research in the field. Well, as you know, research leads to writing and publishing and it became quite obvious that the region needed its own historical voice. According to Dr. Richardson, Judge Crane, quote, for several years had talked to such an organization, stating he was ready to go ahead whenever I gave the word Richardson had to give consent for the conception. Apparently Richardson was ready and for the conception to begin in late 23 or early 24. And he and Curry Holden one day drove the sweet water and met with Judge Crane in his home to quote, discuss with Crane the plans for the first meeting. And there they completed the conception, planned the announcement for the newspapers and awaited the birth at the courthouse on April 19, 1924. Well, how many attended the birth? According to Dr. Richardson, a goodly number. He once said another time he said a score or more. A week after the meeting, he told a reporter for the Simmons College newspaper that we had 30 members to begin with. But there is enough assured cooperation to raise the membership to 50. Well, the April 1924 meeting was well planned and organized. The group elected five officers, including Crane, his president and Richardson's secretary and approved an already drafted constitution. Richardson also told the student reporter that WTHA's objection was to launch a historical publication which can render service to West Texas and making available material and could also be used as a medium to publish historical material. Well, the WTHA founders then planned for their first meeting to be in the spring of 1925 on April 18 in Cisco. They're the principal founders. And by the way, I never could identify where it was. But I'm assuming it might have been at the Hilton Hotel. I think it was there at the time. Crane, Holden, Reister and Richardson at that session read each red paper. And there were only four on the program. To this session, I think there are 89 papers being given. The association also elected new officers retaining Crane, his president, Reister, secretary replacing Richardson in that role. The first West Texas Historical Association yearbook today, the journal appeared to three months after the 1925 Cisco meeting and included the four papers read at the annual meeting. Apparently in the early years, responsibility for producing a journal lay with the secretary. And although Reister was a designated secretary, it was primarily Richardson, who edited the first volume as Reister was only the George Washington University and Washington DC completing his doctorate. In formatting content, the yearbook was modeled after other scholarly journals. The introduction of that first yearbook noted quote, as soon as circumstances will start to justify, we expect to publish a quarterly. I don't know if ties in here and all, but I'm so glad. I imagine people are glad they didn't. That was an ambitious goal. But apparently the circumstances which probably were lack of time and money prevented that from happening. And in hindsight was probably for the best. And certainly with the Great Depression approaching, it would have intervened. Even though annual dues were only $3, the association was able to publish a yearbook without incurring debt, thanks in part to the generosity of Crane's longtime friend and former employee, George S. Anderson of Abilene printing company. The $3 membership remain in effect for 26 years. The second annual meeting in 1926 convened in Abilene and a heavy rain that day prevented many from rural areas from attending. Still nearly there were nearly 100 there, primarily locals and those who came by train. Many may have come to hear Judge Crane's sharp criticism of Dorothy Scarborough's bestselling 1925 novel, The Wind. Scarborough, a former resident of Sweetwater, who became a professor at Columbia University, used Sweetwater as her setting in which, I quote, the heroin is driven insane by the incessant wind and drought plague frontier environment. Other presentations were by tech history professor John Greenberry, Judge Fred Cockrell of Abilene and Curry Holden of McMurray. The audience also heard and I quote, several musical numbers provided by two ladies and the Abilene Christian College Quartet. So I ask our program committee, where's our music today? That's by the time of the second yearbook, the association's tradition of encouraging the publication of articles by both professional and amateur historians, along with publishing original source material was well set. Reister edited to the 1926 yearbook and continued to service editor for the next two volumes before departing for the University of Oklahoma. By then, Richardson had earned his PhD at the University of Texas and he assumed the editorship of the yearbook in 29 and performed that work for the next 59 years until his death in 1988. And meanwhile, Judge Crane continued as his president until 1949. During this 25 year tenure, WTHA members heard papers from such distinguished historians and writers such as Walter Prescott Webb, H. Bailey Carroll, J. Evans Haley, Edward Everett Dale, S. S. McKay, L. F. Sheffey, T. R. Havens, Ernest Wallace, Ralph Smith, J. Marvin Hunter, O. W. Williams, J. W. Evans, Lorena Friend, Don H. Biggers, the famous Bison Hunter, J. Wright Moore, and in later years it was Charles Ramsdale, Joe Frans, J. Frank Dovey, John Graves, goodbye to River John Graves, A. C. Green and Elmer Kelton. Well, a quick sidebar. R. C. Crane's son, R. C. Jr., known as Roy Crane, became a famous daily comic strip artist in the 1920s and pioneered the adventure comic strip Wash Tubbs and in later years Captain Easy and Buzz Sawyer. Well, although World War II prevented the association from meeting in 1943 to 45, it did not disrupt the publication of the yearbook as it has been produced annually for the past 99 years. Through 25 years of Crane's presidency, the yearbook published 194 articles, 25% of them were written by either Crane, Richardson, Holden, or Reister. Crane wrote the most with 19 representing nearly 10% of the yearbook's content through 1949. Through its first 40 years WTHA held its meeting throughout Greater West Texas, as far east as Wetherford, as far west as Monahans, as far south as Brady, as far north as Lubbock, and 15 places in between. Ten meetings were in Abilene, four in Lubbock, three in Albany, and these boundaries would expand in later years. Today we should continue to honor these founders for their insight, leadership, intellect, and creating an entity that in large part contributed to the fulfillment of all the goals they outlined in the introduction to the first volume of the very first yearbook. And those goals were, one, to promote the study of the history of West Texas. Two, to collect and preserve its traditions. And three, to mark the noted historic spots left within its borders. Obviously they began the fulfillment of the first goal with the establishment of the annual meeting and yearbook. The fulfillment of the second and third goals to collect and to mark was accomplished more by their individual action in ways that they themselves probably could not have even envisioned in 1924. These actions led to vast collecting of West Texas historical records and prolific identification and marking of historic sites. And here's how that took place. First, after Curry Holden moved to Texas Tech in 1929, he rekindled efforts to establish the West Texas Museum and began collecting records such as those of the Matador Ranch. Years later, of course, he would play key roles in the founding of both the Southwest Collection and the National Ranching Heritage Center. Meanwhile, in 1934-1935, Judge Crane, as president of the WTHA, spent considerable time preparing for and presenting to the Texas Centennial Historical Advisory Board to provide funds for historical markers and monuments in West Texas. The effort led to the legislature's approval of $217,000, including markers for trails and forts, as well as startup funds to build Holden's West Texas Museum on the Tech campus. And one of the major text writers for those many Centennial markers placed throughout West Texas was Rupert Richardson. And several told the story of traveling with him as I did and would pass a marker and he'd say, what's on it? And I would say, well, how do you know that? And he said, I wrote it, so. Also in 1951, Texas Tech sought to strengthen its history department with the hiring of Carl Koch Reister as distinguished professor of history. Reister had indeed become a distinguished, had become distinguished at the University of Oklahoma in these 22 years there. Unfortunately, Reister died suddenly in April of 1955. Fortunately, however, with Curry Holden's leadership, Texas Tech bought Reister's voluminous library from his widow Maddie and used it to formally establish the Southwest Collection, which, of course, now houses thousands of books, maps and photographs, and more than 20 million documents, much of which, of course, pertain to West Texas history. Moreover, both Reister and Richardson are a part of the original Texas Historical Survey Committee, name of Governor Alan Shevers, which formalized procedures for historical markers. Richardson served on the committee for 14 years and was president in 1962 when the created the official Texas Historical Marker Program. The committee, of course, later became the Texas Historical Commission in 1973. And so, because we meet here today, a hundred years later, with more than 80 papers to be presented at this conference, it's obvious that the vision of the founders worked. All of West Texas, perhaps even the entire nation, should celebrate their vision to promote and to study, to collect and preserve, and to identify the historic places. Hopefully you, the members of the WTHA, will continue to do the same for the next hundred years. Thank you very much. Holy moly, the West Texas Historical Association yearbook in 1993, near the end of the period under study in this presentation, well it reads like a who's who in Texas history. The Board of Directors that year included such historical luminaries as Arnoldo de Leon, Harwood Hinton, Diana Ollian, Gary Nall, William Curry Holden, Janelle Pate, Elmer Kelton, Fred Rathgen, and Kenneth Davis. Although granted, the witty story telling Davis was more folklorist than historian. But there's more. The tough appearing, glove-wearing, horse-raising, Kenneth Death neighbors who for over 50 years sang in his Methodist Church Choir each week, authored an article, The Unparalleled Book Collector, Al Lohman of Springtown, Texas, penned an article. Roger M. Ollian, the foremost oil oil historian of the time, was our book review editor. Lawrence Clayton, the talented and prolific ranch historian of Abilene and Albany, served as president, and the highly efficient B. W. Aston was our executive director. That is an impressive list. But 30 years earlier in 1963, at the beginning of our period, one can find a similarly impressive list. Consider this. William Curry Holden, among the first of the professional historians to write about West Texas, served on the executive committee, as the board of directors was then called. Seymour B. Connor, who authored highly readable books, that took, let's say, unusual approaches to history. He also served on the executive committee. Long-time member, association leader, Texas Tech Historian and my mentor, Ernest Wallace, authored two of the year book's annual offerings, History in West Texas and Affairs of the Association. Rob Smith, the wonderful and resourceful historian who produced pieces on unusual topics and who received several Mrs. Percy Jones Best Article Awards, also published in the 63 year book. Likewise, the unassuming Robert Kotner from the University of Texas was the book review editor and the incomparable Rupert Norval Richardson, the Dean of Texas Historians, ran the organization. Such name dropping aside, it is clear that during the 30 years between 1964 and 1994, our history society attracted many of the most talented historians in Texas and they weren't all, as B. W. Aston said, cow-chip historians. Many other leading scholars and academics wrote book reviews. In 1964, this group included Texas Librarian Lorena B Friend, National Environmental Scholar, William Getzman, University of Memphis President, Billy Mack Jones and Texas A&M University Historian, Joseph Milton Lance. Plus, Lawrence L. Graves, a brilliant social historian and one time interim president of Texas Tech University, published a review. Enough. You get the picture. Indeed, you have met many of the people I've just mentioned, or you know them as colleagues, friends, and associates. Obviously, the W. T. H. A. attracted many eminent scholars. Of course, our association has always encouraged participation of lay historians and others interested in West Texas history. The association encourages them through membership and office holding. It likewise, urges lay scholars to make presentations at annual meetings and it has supported their publication in the yearbook. Indeed, looking back through the yearbook, 1964 to 1994, it is interesting and informative to see the names of such major historians as Daniel Flores, David J. Weber, and Ron Tyler writing in the same books review section of the 1982 yearbook as such lay historians as Mrs. John Berry, J. Conrad Dunnigan, and Pat Garrett. B. W. Aston called attention to this phenomenon. It's not unique to our organization, of course, but this phenomenon of university-based historians and lay historians writing and working side by side. He wrote in a 2000 yearbook that in our organization it does not matter if you are professor of eminence or a homemaker, all are on an even playing field. Everyone is on the first name basis, he said, and everyone is welcome. Moreover, during the 1964 to 94 period, fully half of our 26 association presidents were lay historians, including Jack Lawton, Conrad Dunnigan, Elmer Kelton, and Leona Bruce. Plenty of others served on the board of directors or published in the yearbook or presented at our annual meetings. But the major themes of this presentation are two others. The growing influence on our association of Texas Tech University and the slow westward shift in our outlook and orientation. A careful review of the WHA yearbook for the period 64 to 94 shows how both the influence developed and the outlook shifted. These were important trends and they were real if unhurried phenomena. Phenomena. In looking west the Texas Tech connection is important but it is something of a conundrum. Consider BW Aston of Hardin Simmons University in Abilene. He became in 1975 our secretary-treasurer, thus replacing Rupert Richardson as the WHA's chief operating officer. BW was a Texas Tech PhD. Three years later in 1978 BW, although still the secretary-treasurer began serving as co-editor of the yearbook with Richardson. And a year after that in 1979 BW and Kenneth R. Jacobs also of Hardin Simmons but also a Tech-trained PhD in history became associate editors of the yearbook under Richardson. There's more. About 1986 or 87, Jacobs assumed the position of yearbook editor taking over from Richardson. Meanwhile at McMurray University in Abilene, Fane Downs who for several years handled the book review section of the yearbook and in 1985 became our president received her PhD from Texas Tech. The association newsletter The Cyclone founded in 1991 also has a strong Tech connection. Jody Kite who was at Hardin Simmons for about a year and a graduate of the school played a key role in the Cyclone. She provided the name and assisted in its establishment. She was a Texas Tech trained historian. A couple of more points. During the first 18 years of our period or in other words from 1964 to 82 only four presidents of the WHA came from the farther western sections of our region. During the last 12 years of our period from 83 to 94, 9 of the 12 came from farther western sections of our region. The three exceptions of those three exceptions one was Dr. Fane Downs a PhD trained historian. The idea of looking west is also evident in our annual conference meeting sites during the first 13 years of our period only four cities in the farther western sections of our region hosted the association's annual meeting. San Angelo in 1967 and 71 Odessa in 69 and Lubbock in 1974 but during the last 16 years from say 79 through 94 some eight cities of the far western sections hosted the annual meeting they included San Angelo three times Lubbock twice Midland twice and Alpine in 1992. Nonetheless and despite all that during this long period 1964 to 1994 the association's center and home remained in Abilene. It stayed there with Hardin-Sivins, Abilene Christian and McMurray universities. While the association may have begun looking west Abilene and its universities faculty members kept it at its original site kept it in Abilene. Faculty members at these three Abilene universities led several noteworthy developments during our 30-year period during it in 1974 to be exact a significant change came to the annual meeting. Many of you remember the national gasoline crisis in 1973 and 74. Well as B.W. wrote for 35 years the association had conducted its meetings on Saturday with morning and afternoon sessions sandwiched around an important noon luncheon. In 1974 however due to the fuel crisis the meeting ended after the noon luncheon so that participants could return home before the gasoline stations closed. With the big gas crunch WTA leaders determined that in the future the association would begin its annual meetings on Friday and finish with the business luncheon on Saturday and even after the fuel shortage ended the new meeting pattern continued allowing as B.W. suggested the opportunity for more people to be involved both as presenters and as audience participants. A different kind of change seems even more important. Beginning in the mid-70s B.W. wrote new topics began to appear in the yearbook. They reflected the ever-evolving interests and changes in the larger national history profession. For our association some of the new topics included folk architecture, bands and music, sports especially football of course, desegregation and worker strikes. A lot of social history began to appear and as did topics related to women and other minorities. Also in the 70s the association launched the mrs. Percy Jones award. It began in 1972 when mrs. Jones at the time anonymously gifted the association $4,000 for an annual prize for the best article in the yearbook. Charles Marler received the first award in well 1972 but before the decade closed that really exceptional historian Ralph Smith as I said a Aveline Christian had received the Jones award three times. Three years later in 75 an important chain of events began. It led to our modern endowment. As explained by B.W. at the annual meeting in Brownwood that year he as the new secretary of secretary treasurer gave a deficit report on the organization's finances. Quickly J.W. Williams of Wichita falls a rose and walked to the head table and put a $20 bill in B.W.'s hand saying he did not like deficits. Before the meeting ended B.W. had collected nearly $700 the deficit had ended. A year later at the 1976 meeting in Aveline B.W. with Rupert Richardson's concurrence called for an endowment campaign of $100,000. Wow we thought the association at the time held less than $8,000 in its savings. Well a few years past then in 1980 Clayton Williams senior Fort Stockton provided $15,000 toward the endowment and in late 1981 according to B.W. Conrad Dunnigan of Monaghan sent a check for $25,000. Now we were on our way. High interest rates helped at the time as did many smaller donations. We reached the endowment goal in 1992. One more development and I'm done. In the early part of our period that is from 64 to 74 presidents served two-year terms with maybe a couple of exceptions. As David Murrod noted our founding president R.C. Crane served until about 1948 or about 24 25 years but after that with those two exceptions presidential terms were two years until 75. Since then since 75 with one exception I guess one-year terms have been the standard. That's enough. I'll conclude. I feel conflicted about being a statistician and giving you little more than facts and encyclopedia style. I also feel squeamish about producing just a borish W.T.H.A booster piece but let's be clear I hold great affection for the West Texas Historical Association and I've been a small part of it for a good while. Not as long as Murrod but but for a good while. I could not take awards in all approach. Does that excuse me? Perhaps not but like all of you I am proud of the W.T.H.A. as for the period 1964 to 1994 I am proud of the smooth way it connected amateur and professional historians how it navigated through difficult times and responded to state and national crises. I am proud Scott I'm proud of how it easily and without acrimony adapted to scholarly and generational changes that occurred in our disciplines interests and topics. I feel good about the way it managed its financials awarded good scholarship and promoted the history of our very large section of the state. In reflection it is instructive how during this period 1964 to 1994 our West Texas Historical Association evolved and changed. Clearly it looked West during the period but just as clearly it stayed put in Aveline. Holy Moly. On the world do I surpass my mentors. Can you all hear me? Okay crucial to any understanding of the transformational era between 1995 and 2023 is the fact that the W.T.H.A relocated its 75 year base of operations from Hardin Simmons University in Aveline to a new home at Texas Tech University's Southwest Collection Special Collections Library. The officers and board of the Association set the stage earlier between 1995 and 1997 for the move to the new Southwest Collection building. On April 11th and 12th 1997 the West Texas Historical Association meeting convened at its new Lubbock home. Conference activities took place at the Holiday Inn, the National Ranching Heritage Center, and at the beautiful new Southwest Collection building. Ty Kreiler chaired the program committee. Four sessions with 12 presentations each occurred on Friday and Saturday. Participants enjoyed additional events. Lubbock musician Lanny Fowle played ranch dance fiddle tunes and members viewed at the Omnimax Theater Titanica at the Science Spectrum. I said the Omnimax Theater in the Science Spectrum. The board established a long range planning committee to increase W.T.H.A membership. Former editor Kenneth Jacobs became a life director. Paul Carlson editor B.W. Aston executive director and William Tideman the new director of the Southwest Collection dedicated the new W.T.H.A editor's office. President Fred Rathjen presided over the Friday evening reception and Banquet and Alwyn Barr introduced former interim president of Texas Tech University Lawrence Graves who gave the keynote address George Mahon West Texas and American history. Following the Saturday business meeting Fred Rathjen treated members to a thought-provoking presentation entitled wither regional regional history organizations and it was quite an in-depth presentation. Incoming president Mildred Centell of Post City announced Abilene would host the next meeting continuity abounded between Abilene and Lubbock. Further transitions came or followed the move from Abilene to Lubbock. B.W. Aston retired as executive director on April 18th 1998 during the Abilene meeting and Paul Carlson replaced him as interim executive director until the next annual meeting held in Lubbock on March the 26th and 27th 1999. At that meeting Ty Kreidler Southwest Collection Archivist at the time replaced Carlson as the executive director opposed he still holds in 2024. The change allowed Carlson to relieve Kenneth Jacobs of Abilene as editor of the Association. Between 1999 and 2003 gradually more than a decade of consistency in leadership settled over the Association. In fact in 2001 or 2001 marked the participation in the WTHA organization and at the annual meetings by the Southwest Collection personnel and Texas Tech University history graduates. For example later that year your humble presenter served as the unrecognized assistant editor to Dr. Carlson for the 2001 year book. As a matter of fact I edited the whole dadgum thing. The ensuing decade saw my complete immersion into the West Texas Historical Association as associate editor, editor, board member, editorial review board member, as chair or member of innumerable committees or as session moderator and presenter. During the bulk of my tenure as editor the format of the yearbook remained the same with just a few cosmetic changes. There were interesting questions about whether Texas Tech Library or some other electronic publishers such as JSTOR should place the yearbook online with the potential for OCR and keyword searchability but because hundreds of back issues of the journal languished in the Southwest Collection stacks the executive director editor and boards rejected such plans. Also in 2012 Dr. Carlson suggested that the yearbook required a change to a more scholarly approach and name. By the way he told me that he did not really push that that hard but I'm telling you every week he handed me like a banshee. I resisted until 2014 by then Chapman and Sun's printers of Abilene who had provided wonderful leather-like bound editions of the yearbook for years stated that they were selling out. Action printing of Lubbock became the new printer and capitulating to Carlson's demands in 2014 the first edition of the West Texas Historical Review appeared with a new paper cover and interior content refinements. By 2015 Robert Weaver took over as editor and made additional changes. Through the often grueling, though often grueling, the period between 2001 and 2023 provided, proved to be a stimulating and satisfying, proved to be stimulating and satisfying working shoulder to shoulder with Ty Cridler and many fellow staff and faculty colleagues within the Southwest Collection, including Fredonia Pascal, the longtime editor of the history in West Texas, segment of the yearbook along with Julia Sample and Marlita Childs, cataloger Albert Camp served as the final reviewer after the editor's customary 10 reviews and Dr. Carlson's review and index compilations and the young eyes of the graduate research assistants. The Southwest Collection became ground zero for the daily operations of the organization and the annual production of the venerable yearbook now reviewed with subscribers as varied and just listen to this and there's a whole litany of these I could share but I'm not Harvard and the London School of Economics subscribe to the yearbook and review. While the promise of Texas Tech's support for a full-time WTHA secretary never materialized between 1997 and 2023, the Tech History Department provided support for a graduate research assistant. The chain-smoking, gravelly-voiced Andy Young served first and then came the Inespol Robert Hall who relentlessly tormented the editor and director. Maggie Elmore, the granddaughter of past WTHA president Mildred Centale came next, then museum science major student Laura Horner. Both women kept the editor and Dr. Carlson in line while chuckling at the friendly but often unforgiving office banner between the old guys. The next refugee from the history department was Robert Garland Weaver. He employed his significant IT and mature editorial talents at the office ultimately replacing the editor. Historian Caitlin Dixon served under editors Monroe and Weaver followed by English literature and history major Zach Hernandez who supported Ty Robert and Alyssa Strowman. Dr. Strowman served as associate editor for Robert and in 2020 took over as the editor following Weaver. Alyssa placed greater significance on the contributions of women in West Texas history and Deidre Howard assisted her and Ty. Also during the era, Hall and Weaver worked on creating a comprehensive index for all the additions of the yearbook and review. The complexity of the task and the limited time to devote to it undermined the efforts. Importantly editor Weaver standardized and codified the WTHA's journal editorial review board process. Between 1999 and 2023 changes came to the operations of the organization although many long-term outstanding traditions endured under the cridler regime. For example his administration's fastidiously encouraged the establishment or encouraged the established WTHA culture of balancing the interest participation and collegiality of lay and professional historians. Between 2007 and 2008 however the tradition to forgive me for God's sakes the traditional fall board meetings went the way of the dodo. Changes came to the annual meetings as well. Cridler made sure that the prominent history that prominent historians and authors edified members at the Friday evening banquet keynote addresses. Ty, Hall and by 2017 Southwest Collection faculty member Austin Allison also rotated annual meetings between different cities within the vast West Texas region. Increasingly however during the 2000s the sheer geographic breath of West Texas became more costly for students and members to attend. Also by 2010 after prominent historians such as Aston, Murrah, Carlson, Barr, Rathjen, Don Walker, Gary Nall, Dan Flores, Keith neighbors or Kenneth neighbors, Ken Hendrickson, Arnoldo De Leon and others retired a distinct downturn in college student participation occurred. Ultimately Cridler and his staff for cost efficiency reasons and accommodation reasons began to partner with the MCM hotel chain in the various cities because of the nice conference facilities. What really happened is is there was an uprising of women in the office. Fredonia, Lynn, several others that were constantly working on things got tired of staying in seedy little hotels in small little towns and they told Ty they had to change that's what happened that's a true. To stabilize and increase membership and participation especially at annual meetings director Cridler adopted new approaches to operations and membership. Most important in 2013 the board approved the creation of assistant ultimately associate director position to help the director. Texas Tech University archivist Lynn Whitfield who previously served as the WTHA served the WTHA board as webmaster later web editor assume the new position bringing her smart and tireless energy and it is tireless energy to bear. When members could not reach Ty Lynn became the stalwart or they couldn't get me because they called me when they couldn't get Ty and then when Lynn came along they called her became the stalwart cut stone for the organization managing the website assisting membership and providing invaluable assistance to Cridler and the organization on all fronts. Also the board reviewed the membership structure increased dues made life memberships more expensive to bolster and increase regular memberships and that allowed them to make a slight decrease in the cost of student memberships to try and encourage students to come back to the organization. Two other milestones must be noted first on his own recognizance member West Sheffield started a Facebook page leading the WTHA into the social media dominated 21st century. Also Ty and Lynn contracted with the wild apricot platform which I had learned being on the board of the east Texas historical association from Scott they contracted with that platform which is now allows WTHA members to pay membership dues and make conference registrations online by credit card. Imagine that! In the early 2000s Cridler Monroe attended a downstate meeting where newspaper man Ross McSwain remarked to Ty that B.W. Aston should have gotten out of his office more and ablain more often. That comments spurred Cridler began actively collaborating with and drawing into the WTHA orbit other history related entities in the west Texas region. Joint sessions had long been regularly occurring between the WTHA and the East Texas Historical Association once Dr.Sosby moved from Texas Tech over and took over from Archie McDonnell at the East Texas Historical Association. Collaboration with others expanded or followed including with the Panhandle Plains Historical Association, Center for Big Bend Studies, the Center for the Study of American West, the Edwards Plateau and Southeastern New Mexico Historical Associations, the Historical Society of New Mexico, the Texas Plains, Forts, Pecos, and Mountain Trails Associations, the Kiwana Parker Trail Group, representatives from the Comanche Nation, and others. Various awards and grants sponsored by the Association also got re-evaluated during this period. In 2008 the board established a Fellows Award, first granted to Paul Carlson, Arnaldo de Leon, and Lou Rodenberger, to recognize scholarship or exceptional sustained service to the organization. The Mrs. Percy Jones Award for Best Article remained untouched, thank God, but in 1995 the Rupert N. Richardson Best Book Award emerged and you've heard about that. In 2017 the outstanding student paper award became the Paul H. Carlson Best Student Essay Award. Then the former R.C. Crane Award for Best Creative or Fiction Work transformed into the 2014 and 2014 becoming the Elmer Kelton Award for Creative Work or Fiction. Around the same time the Heritage Service Award became the R.C. Crane Award which was rebranded as the Elmer Kelton Award for Outstanding Contribution and Preserving West Texas History if you can follow all of that stuff. Awards or scholarships were intended to bolster publication of scholarly articles in the WTHA Journal or Cyclone Newsletter as well as to strengthen the quality of session presentations. You know a lot of things changed when people started doing PowerPoints and not all PowerPoints are equal. One that Dr. Murr did earlier today was fantastic but not everybody needs to work on their PowerPoint presentations and they need to start writing articles that can be published in the review. That's a problem for editors. Well anyway in 2017 emphatic announcements at the annual meetings on the website and by outreach to various history departments in Texas encouraged students and scholars to apply for the Ernest Wallace Grant, the William Curry Holden Grant and the Student Scholarship Award. The scholarships had always been there in some form or some name or another for years but they were always dependent on submitted applications and many times those applications went unfulfilled or there were no applications I'm sorry. The WTHA silent auction which Fredonia ran for many years in Marlita and Julia generated funds for those endeavors. As Dr. Carlson mentioned previously two accounts originated in the 1970s managed initially by Merrill Lynch. Following the move to Lubbock, Director Kreidler moved the funds to the Texas Tech Credit Union. According to him beginning around 2015 Jay Tillipaw's administration transferred 50% of the endowed monies to the Permian Basin Fund in Odessa. Thus by 2024 according to Ty and this is a quote the endowments had fleshed out to where all the WTHA awards and scholarships including the Carlson Award have pretty much become self-sustaining. In 1995, pay attention here now, the two accounts totaled $112,268 presently as of today their balances are roughly $283,309 and change the miracle of compound interest. Thus between 1995 and 2023 the WTHA honored its founding mission to collect, present, publish about the history of West Texas. The Association thrived despite canceling five years of annual meetings because of World War II and the COVID pandemic committed to the institutional and individual efforts at hardens or commitment by the institutional and individual efforts at Hardin Simmons and Texas Tech University Southwest Collection personnel as well as by some five generations of historians and authors sustained and grew Judge Crane's dream for a century. Think about that y'all we should be proud of ourselves. Give yourselves a hand all of it and lastly if mentors like Paul Carlson and David Murrow and many in this room that I can point to continue and inspire younger generations of West Texas historians the WTH's future looks bright. Thank you.