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Headlines, high-water marks from
Carrollton's past
By Jack Dicoskey
Metrocrest News - Nov 12, 1999 A child born at Trinity
Medical Center this week will be almost 14 years old when Carrollton
celebrates its 100th anniversary.
There is no way of telling whether or not the child will be in town on the
day the city celebrates its milestone event. No way to tell if any of us
will be present for what should be a lively celebration.
But we know that people gathered around the square to celebrate Carrollton's
50th anniversary. A section of the Carrollton Chronicle from June 6, 1963
proves it. The section chronicles a variety of events that occurred in
Carrollton from the town's earliest days to its founding in 1913, and on
into "the present" in 1963. The 36-year-old edition was laminated by local realtor Beck James not too
many days after it first appeared on her doorstep. The curiosity happens to
contain a late 1930's era picture of her in a cowgirl rodeo outfit and
holding a horse. She rode her "pony express between Carrollton and Farmers
Branch during a special celebration," according to the photo caption.
James occasionally pulls the laminated history lesson from its mailing tube
so interested people can have a glance at the past.
Looking back into Carrollton's history from "present day" to its earliest
days through a variety of articles and stories, the paper gives readers a
long-term perspective on town goings on. And how they were reported.
"I love in Bird's Point, in Peters Colony," said a resident named John
Ratten in the days of John Neely Bryan, the founder of Dallas. And the
"Bird's Point" he alluded to was a wide spot along the dusty trail that
eventually became the City of Carrollton. Ratten spoke of carving a cottonwood into a canoe and paddling down the
Trinity River to meet with Bryan and others. The men were planning the
formation of Dallas County. His account was written before Dallas County was
officially founded on March 30, 1846. Ratten's story first appeared in The Dallas Morning News in 1912. The
Carrollton 50th anniversary edition of the Chronicle then re-told Ratten's
tale of the city's earliest days. Other early Bird's Point families include the Marshes, Webbs, Keenans,
Myers, Nixes, Perrys, Witts, Wests, Simpsons, Jacksons and Hildreths.
Members of these families gave their names to a number of area roads.
"These men with their ax in one hand blazed out the way for those that came
later on," said George Jackson in
Sixty Years in Texas.
"And with their trusty rifle, they protected their wives and little ones."
Some stories in the old paper gives strong portraits of the times. Others
illustrate the truth of the saying about the how the more things change the
more they stay the same. These un-chronological snipples of the long-ago stories show how newspaper
writing progressed from making phone calls through "Number Please" operators
to dial telephones, 207 customers were serviced by SST. By 1951, the number
of phones in the city had more than doubled to an astonounding 461.
Shortly after the city was founded in 1914, the Chronicle was encouraging
people to build in "Downtown" (without the "Old") Carrollton.
Woodrow Wilson was President and J. T. Rhoton after whom a city park is
named, was serving as newly formed city's first mayor. His Honor came out as
highly in favor of the building plan. ALong with the paper, he touted
placing a row of modern buildings on the north side of the town square.
That same year, businesses on the square began receiving electricity from a
plant owned by Mr. George F. Warner. Later that year, Rhoton defeated
Warner, 48 to 30, to win his second term as mayor. B 1924, Texas Power and Light (Now TXU), bought the Carrollton Light and
Power Company from Mrs. Sallie P. Davis. Davis served 124 customers over 3
1/2 miles of power line then, according to a Chronicle story. In 1963, TP&L
had strung 50 miles of cable and was serving about 2,500 accounts.
Notably, two things in Carrollton have not changed much between 1914 and
1999. Voter turnout is still low and school taxes are still increasing. In
1914, by a vote of 55 to 35, voters passed a special tax for the Carrollton
Independent School District. They increased the school tax from 35 to 50
cents per $100 valuation. This was a first step "toward securing a modern and permanent school
building." the Chronicle story states. By 1939, the town high school needed a gym, and voters approved a $10,000
bond issue to build it. The federal government's WPA kicked in three-fourths
of the $40,000 structure cost. The following year, another $4,000 bond issue was floated to finish gym
construction. Carrollton won the gym's first basketball game in November
1940. The Lions creamed Pleasant Grove, 35-11. Gravel mining was big business in Carrollton in 1940. According to an early
Chronicle article, the pits started Carrollton "on its way up, and toward a
real live little town." Present day mayor Milburn Gravley remembered that some of the town's gravel
pits were located west of town, between Sandy Lake and Belt Line Roads on
land that is now vacant. Some of that same land will become Segment IV of
the President George Bush Turnpike. If the 1940 gravel workers wanted to borrow a book, the went to the town
library, located upstairs of the Rainbow Pharmacy, (now the Rainbow Grill in
Old Downtown). The library was moved to the pharmacy's back room after
Dr. Thomas took over the upstairs space. If those workers wanted to buy a 1940 Ford in April of that year, they could
wait for Homer E. Clayton's Ford agency to open "in a brand new building
contiguous to the Gulf station" on the southeast corner of the square.
Mr. Clayton's building was "being rushed to completion so as to accommodate
cars that will be here on display when the building is ready for their
reception," said the Chronicle. Chevys were already available in Carrollton
from Vandergriff's Chevrolet. Brick making occupied many Carrollton wage earners in the century's early
years. A deal for the city's third brick plant was struck in 1907,
with construction to start the following year. The plant, according to
the paper, would be located on 40 acres of land "in the vicinity of the
Union Church." A rivalry between Carrollton and Lewisville existed even early in the
century. The brick company was asking Carrollton citizens to subscribe
$5,000 in stock purchases in order to build the plant.
The paper stated that Lewisville citizens were "bidding on the enterprise
and have offered to subscribe $10,000 worth of stock if located at that
town." There was no mention of which set of investors won out.
In addition to local news, the Chronicle carried news from other places
through the years. A 1907 article, headlined "Automobile Causes Accidents"
described a pair of accidents caused by "a speeding auto" in Dallas.
The machine occupied "by a man and two women," approached tow separate
mule-drawn wagons "at a rapid pace." The man-made beast caused the mules to
bolt, injuring the wagon passengers. Big news from Sherman in 1908 was the audacity of the laboring class. It
seems that painters demanded $3.75 a day (the article does not say from
whom), and "on being refused, have one on strike."
Wholesale turkey prices in Waxahachie in 1908 were 8 cents a pound.
Train service between Dallas and Denton that year took anywhere from three
to 20 hours, according to an article in the Chronicle. The train "must mend
its ways," the article stated "or the railroad company will be liable to
penalties." Area residents formed the Missionary Baptist Church in 1909. The minister
was paid $200 per year for preaching one Sunday a month.
As the city's population grew through open land to the north and east in the
late 1940s, the area between Broadway and Josey filled with homes. At that
time the school district was serving over 5,000 students.
In the 1930s, when Carrollton mostly surrounded "downtown," the Josey Rancho
occupied much of the area around Josey and Keller Springs.
The Josey family hosted over 200 people at a 1939 barbecue. Pictures from
the anniversary issue show Josey family members entertaining their guests.
Featured in the photo layout is "Chief Cook John Hughes," who had been
turned and basting bear meat "since 4 p.m. of the preceding day."
Almost as interesting as the articles in the anniversary edition are the
advertisements contained in the section. The Dallas County State Bank was the largest advertiser, buying a two-page
"Double truck" ad in the section. The bank was at 1101 S. Josey.
Other spenders, include Vandergriff Chevrolet, whose ad proclaimed it to be
"This Area's Oldest Business." Pictured in the ad were "Legs" Garrison, Cy
Lane and J. T. Vandergriff around a smithy's forge circa 1902. J. T.
Vandergriff owned a blacksmith shop in Carrollton then.
Vandergriff's Chevy dealership, which later became John Boswell Chevrolet,
the evolved into Van Chevrolet, bough a full page. The Otis Engineering Company, makers of pressure control devices also popped
for a full page. The company was located at Belt Line and Webb Chapel.
The Carrollton Chamber of Commerce also congratulated the city on its 50th
anniversary with a full page ad.
EMTEX, a division of missile Systems Corporation, (the U.S. was involved in
a "cold war" in 1963), went for a two-thirds page ad. The company was
keeping the world safe from its 1000 Crosby Road plant.
Texas Power and Light went its best to the city with a two-thirds page ad.
W.E. Manske was the local TP&L manager. Farmers Branch library is named
after him. Texas Bank and Trust of Dallas had an ad immediately below the letter
congratulating Carrollton on its 50th from Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Other major politicians sending warm wishes include Texas Senators Ralph
Yarborough and John Tower. The A&P Food Store congratulated the city with a half-page ad. According to
a 1963 Southwestern States Telephone book supplied by Peggy Perry Oliver, an
emeritus member of the city's Historic Preservation Advisory Board, the A&P
was in Carrollton Highlands. Mayor Gravley indicated that the new, modern
shopping center was at the southeast corner of Belt Line and Josey in 1963.
Inca Metal Products Corp.. took out a half page ad to send best wishes to
the city. The company also extended everybody "a hearty invitation to visit
Us and see Us manufacture" products in the "Home Furnishing, Steel Equipment
and Rack" divisions. According to the phone book, the company was on Highway
77 S," which James and Gravley said roughly followed the route of present
day I-35. The 1963 phone book also give an insightful look at Carrollton before Dallas
gained its November notoriety. Southwestern States Telephone Company's book had listing for Carrollton,
Yellow Pages, (most of the 36-year old pages are now yellow), and "Farmers
Branch Listing in Back of Book." Street addresses include College, Random, Cottonwood, Alan, Walnut, Tartan
and others. Strangely, there are no mentions of streets such as Dove Creek
and Spring Run Drive. Telephone exchanges were COngress 9 and
CHapel 2 for Carrollton and CHapel 7
for Farmers Branch. Handling "party lines" was a topic of information in the
book's front pages, as were telephone tips such as "Answering Promptly: and
Wait Ten Rings." According to a map in the book, a settlement called "Renner" was east of
Carrollton and north of Addison in 1963.
Long distance rates on a call from Carrollton to Pittsburgh, Penn. were
$1.60 station-to-station, ($1.25 nights and Sundays, with late night calls
priced at 50 cents.) For the big spenders, a person to person call cost
$2.50 during the day and $2.15 at night.
Area codes existed, and Texas had six, the same number as New York.
California had seven. Telephones had rotary dials. Carrollton listings took
14 pages; Farmers Branch listing covered 50. Dallas County was slowly
growing northward even in those days. A unique listing in the Yellow Pages is for "Fire Departments." The only one
listed is Carrollton's fire department, which was at 1000 S. Broadway. One
reported a fire by calling CHapel 2 5111. (Hard to imagine that someone
looking to turn in a fire would have to look up the number in pre-911 yellow
pages!)
In 1963, people still brought radios in for repair. Harold York Radio and TV
Service performed such a function at 1824 Josey Lane. The yellow pages listed restaurants in town as the Coffee Pot on S.
Broadway, Frontier Steak House on Elm, the Highland Restaurant in the
Highland Shopping Center and Melvin's Cafe on South Elm.
Melvin served Breakfast at all hou8rs, according to his ad. He also featured
Mexican dinners, chicken dinners, short orders and lunches.
While peeping at the 1963 paper and telephone book brings up some nostalgia,
the phone book especially brings up musty and moldy smells that active long
forgotten allergies and fresh sneezes. A brief look at a town's history from before the last time a year e3nded in
two zeroes to 1963 is fascinating. The jump from 1963 to a year that ends in
three zeroes is a fast and exciting one that many of us share.
As we look 13 years beyond the upcoming one, we can only wonder what the
child born at Trinity Medical Center will see in 2013, when Carrollton
reaches its 100ths birthday. Surely some things will be changed. Just as
surely, some things will be the same.
The Metrocrest News
Submitted by
Betty Lou
(Stanley) Dennis | 
Carrollton-Farmers
Branch TXGenWeb