Barbara Breedlove Rollins' Family Files

THE ANDERSON FAMILY

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D.)   Joe Holt ANDERSON, Sr., and his wife Lena Lorice KERLEY.

Joe Holt ANDERSON, Sr., known to his employees and many members of the community as "Mr. Joe", was born at Old English, Red River County, Texas, November 29, 1887. He married Lena Lorice KERLEY, the daughter of T. T. KERLEY and wife Willia Celestia MEEKS, February 2, 1910, at her parents' home in Chillicothe, Hardeman County, Texas. Lena Lorice KERLEY was born December 24, 1887, at Mexia in Limestone County, Texas, becoming a resident of Hardeman County by the time she was a year old when her family moved to Chillicothe by covered wagon, becoming come of the first residents of the county. She died in Quanah, Hardeman County, Texas December 9, 1966. A biographical sketch in the Hardeman County history book describes the family as follows:

Joe H. ANDERSON was born at Old English, Texas in Red River Co. November 29, 1887. His mother died leaving four young children (three sisters and Joe). Each child lived with different relatives for some time. In 1906, Mr. Thomas Wilson ANDERSON and son, Joe, moved to Chillicothe from Rhome, Texas, to run a grain elevator for William Cameron Co. A married sister and her husband (Mrs. J. J. CHAMBERS who still resides in Chillicothe) followed about a year later. Still later a younger sister, Flossie, joined the family here and later married O. H. NAYLOR. Mrs. NAYLOR now resides at 900 Shaw, Quanah.

On February 2, 1910, Joe married Lena Lorice KERLEY, daughter of one of Chillicothe's earliest citizens, Thomas T. KERLEY. At that time, Mr. ANDERSON worked for G. R. JONES' Tin Shop. In 1912, he worked for a tin shop belonging to T. Sanford GIBBS in the old Chillicothe bank building which now houses the West Texas Utility Co. office. There followed a succession of employers in tin shops in various locations, including Quanah, San Antonio, and Beeville. During World War I, he was employed at Navy Yards in Norfolk, Va. When he returned to Chillicothe, he went into business for himself, and continued to run a shop there until 1936. With the growth of the cotton industry, Mr. ANDERSON began to specialize in equipment and fittings for cotton gins.

He bought a shop and moved to Quanah in 1936; he also owned a shop in Lubbock. He retains part interest in both shops today, although he has been retired from active business for several years.

Mr. ANDERSON has always taken an active interest in community affairs and has perhaps served longer on school boards in Hardeman County than any other individual. He has been a member of I.O.O.F. lodge for over fifty years, has served as President of Quanah Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, Salvation Army, United Fund and other Civic projects. He was a member of the Board of Directors of Security National Bank. For many years Mr. ANDERSON has been one of the most active laymen in the Methodist Church.

Mr. ANDERSON's children are: Mrs. J. L. BARNES (Emma Lorice), Quanah, Texas, Mrs. Sam R. BREEDLOVE, (Alma Ellen), Quanah, Joe Holt ANDERSON, Jr., Washington, D.C.

I think perhaps Joe Holt ANDERSON's name originally was Joseph Holt ANDERSON. This is based on correspondence addressed to him as Joseph ANDERSON in 1910 from the drafting correspondence school. However, if his name was originally Joseph he virtually never used it after that point in time, even filing out the application for employment with the federal government in 1917 as Joe. The name "Holt" is not a family name in either family before the birth of Joe Holt ANDERSON on November 29, 1887. Joe Holt ANDERSON, Jr., reports that it is his understanding the name was in honor of Joseph HOLT, an evangelist of the time. I have found among the family pictures one labeled as "A. J. HOLT", the photographer being Hillyer & Son, 701 Elm Street, Dallas, Texas. On the back of the photograph are the initials "E. A." which may mean the picture was given to Emma ANDERSON. Her death May 5, 1896, would indicate the picture was made before then. The picture is of a handsome, robust gentleman, perhaps in his late thirties, with receding hair. Tales of A. J. HOLT who was, in the Baptist wars of the time, an ally of Rev. Samuel Joseph ANDERSON are reported in the following section.

A story from Joe ANDERSON's childhood reveals he, too, was fallible:

Uncle Tom ANDERSON was another of Grandmother's brothers whose wife, Emma, was a sister of Mr. WILLIAMS making her children Verna's cousins as well as ours. They were Alma, Estelle, Flossie, and Joe. Bub, Joe and some other boys were riding horses once when they were visiting us, when they saw a covered wagon approaching from the opposite direction. They judged that they would arrive at one end of a long bridge at the same time the wagon would reach the other end. I guess an imp whispered to them (or maybe Uncle Bob's 'Old Devil') so they called loudly, 'Mister, will you please wait and let this blind boy across the bridge?' They had taken Joe's bridle reins and were leading his horse, one in front and the other following. The family in the wagon were almost in tears with sympathy when they reached them and just as they said, 'Thank you,' Joe opened his eyes and said, 'Nice team you have there, Mister', and the boys galloped away.

As Joe Holt ANDERSON, Jr., points out, "Incidentally the story about Joe ANDERSON's blindness prank, which she recounts, is enriched a bit if you recall that he had darn' near blinded himself three years earlier by sticking a knife in his eye while whittling on a bed slat..." Joe's childhood was spent in Rhome and Justin, Texas. He went to high school in Justin, Denton County, Texas.

Joe and Lena ANDERSON lived in Chillicothe, Quanah, San Antonio, Beeville, back to Chillicothe, and then Quanah. While living in San Antonio, an incident occurred which his son reported many years later, on July 29, 1966, at the Thirty-third annual convention of the American Newspaper Guild (AFL-CIO, CLC) in Washington, D.C.:

BROTHER ANDERSON: We admire the Guild's birth place, Cleveland, and would enjoy a visit there. But we like San Antonio, not only because that lovely city is usually and properly ranked in the same class with San Francisco and New Orleans with regard to its glamour and uniqueness, but also because of some real trade union considerations.

Most of us can remember a day when there were four locals in Texas. Well, we lost Sabine-Neches, original local of my Washington Post colleague and Guild brother, Alan BARTH, to a decertification election. We lost Houston to litigation on the Chronicle and a merger on the Press. And the old soldiers of El Paso just faded away.

We have one local left down there, but it's a tough, determined, and dedicated small local. I do not delude myself that a visit from this convention is going to automatically turn San Antonio into a better union town than it already is. But is it going to help the good trade unionists of that city - the heart and the lungs and often the voice of the labor movement in Texas - to consolidate their gains and help spread unionism in what happens to be my native state.

Brother President, knowing as I do that no offense was intended and assuring you now that no offense was taken, I would like to remind you that on at least one occasion in this convention you have had occasion to refer to me as "junior."

So perhaps it would be of passing interest to this convention to know who "senior" is. My 78-year-old father has been a private businessman - management - for 45 years. But about 50 years ago he was the president of the Sheet Metals Workers Local in San Antone. And when he took office, his members' wages were several years behind what had been accomplished in other Texas cities.

Well, with strike authorization in their pockets he and his committee woke up one morning to the noise of a terrific hailstorm - a rarity in San Antonio, and you shouldn't expect it during the 1968 convention. But they had their hailstorm, and they reasoned rightly that it had knocked out just about every tin roof in town, so they took their members out on the bricks that day. It took them nine weeks on the bricks, but they won.

San Antonio at that time shared with Chicago the reputation of being a great town for saloon-keeping alderman. And one of these aldermen - later a major of San Antone - approached my dad one day during the strike and said, "Joe, your members must be getting hungry."

And of course dad said, "They sure are."

And the alderman said, "Well, you know all you have to do to get the best free lunch in town is to buy a nickel beer in my saloon."

Dad said, "Well, alderman, some of my guys don't have a nickel."

And the saloonkeeper said:

"That's what I'm trying to tell you, Joe, Starting tomorrow I'm going to have a man standing just inside the door of my saloon, and anybody who shows him a Sheet Metal Workers' card, my man's going to give him a nickel."

San Antonio hasn't promised that kind of hospitality. But anyone who has ever bought a taco from a street vender or strolled along the banks of the San Antonio River knows what a town it is to know and to return to.

As many delegates said at Long Beach, there's something to be said for holding an ANG convention in the south. And if by so doing we can do anything to help start rebuilding the Guild in Texas, San Antonio is a magnificent city in which to do it.

PRESIDENT ROSENSTOCK: Beautiful Chauvinism.

Joe H. ANDERSON worked in the navy ship yards in Norfolk, Virginia, during World War I. His application for the work, dated December, 1917, is interesting in several respects. In stating his work history, the following information is given:

In answer to the question, "What schools have you attended, and for what periods? (Show grade of school completed.)", the answer given was "The free schools of this state for nine years. Ninth." Perhaps the most intriguing answer given was in the following exchange: State in each case whether or not you use any of the following, and, if so, to what extent:

• Whisky none
• Beer none
• Wine none
• Other intoxicating liquor none
• Tobacco one or two cigars a day
• Opium, morphine, or other narcotic drug none.

Returning to Hardeman County after living in San Antonio and Beeville, Joe ANDERSON set up his own business. "After some shaky years, the young business took a unique direction. Joe ANDERSON mounted tools on a small truck and took this traveling shop from one cotton gin to another to fill on-the-spot needs for gin pipes and fittings. The precision service thus provided was something his competitors could not match, and the business grew." He was self educated, having learned the sheet metal business by correspondence courses ordered out of Pennsylvania. While he was self-educated, that does not mean he wasn't on top of things as they involved sheet metal work:

An anecdote I like still better is the one about the time he and a young college-trained engineer were working together to estimate a gin job and the engineer was showing signs of impatience with this uneducated old country tinner. They were calculating the new diameters required to carry the air and its load each time a smaller pipe teed into a main lane, thus requiring it become larger. (I suspect this was the collector line from a row of gin stands.) The engineer was using his slide rule to run 2pr2 on each, adding the two areas, and then solving for diameter from that Sarea. Dad was coming up with the correct answer within a quarter of an inch tolerance a couple of seconds faster every time. The engineer finally asked, "How are you doing that?" Dad had been using a carpenter's square and a folding rule simply to measure across the hypotenuse of the two pipe sizes on his square to find the diameter that would yield the correct combined volume. The engineer scratched his head. Dad started, "You know, of course, the area is a function of the square, and..." The engineer grinned, looked embarrassed, mumbled, "OK, I see," then apologized for his earlier behavior.

Joe ANDERSON was not without a feisty temper and a willingness to fight. Even though Alma Ellen ANDERSON BREEDLOVE remembers times when the temper flared, she only remembers one out and out fist fight. That resulted in a black eye, and when it was time to go to church on Sunday, the family chose instead to go to Wichita Falls and see Estelle and Joe CHAMBERS. On the way home that evening, there was a driving rain and extremely poor visibility. Since his headlights were weak, Joe drove close behind another vehicle. When that vehicle suddenly stopped, he hit it and then was hit from behind. The family spent the night in Vernon Flossie and Homer NAYLOR. Despite the temper, or perhaps because of it, when he and Lena married they agreed never again to quarrel as they had done in the past. After her death fifty six years later, he told his daughter Alma Ellen of the agreement and said, "And we never did."

Joe could make anything with metal, and not just the things that he did for a livelihood. He made metal umbrellas for a group of people for a parade, a model telescope and a model cottonhouse valve system, perfect in every detail, and a life size man.

An article in the November 25, 1938, Quanah Tribune Chief reports on the life of Joe H. ANDERSON under the headline "Prominent Quanah Citizen":

Born in Red River County, Texas, in 1887, Joe H. ANDERSON spent his boyhood in Rhome and Justin, Tex., attending high school in the latter city. It was in October, 1906, that he decided to come to Hardeman County. This he did the same month, locating in Chillicothe.

It was a year or two after coming to this county before ANDERSON found the type of work that appealed to him. During the fall of 1908 he worked for the firm of LEWIS & SANDERS in a sheet metal shop, little dreaming that 30 years later he would have a larger shop of his own and almost in the same location.

Mr. ANDERSON and Miss Lena KERLEY of Chillicothe were married in 1910. He operated a shop for the JONES Hardware of Chillicothe until 1913; then worked at his trade in San Antonio and Beeville until the World War. He was stationed at the Norfork, Va., Navy Yards during the war, and after the Armistice he came to Chillicothe and operated a Sheet metal shop.

Within a short time, demands for his services became too great for them to be filled from one shop, so he opened another in this city in June, 1933. Still, his quality of work could not be duplicated and calls from larger sections literally swamped him. Thus, in January of 1936 he moved his Chillicothe shop to Lubbock, and made his home in Quanah, being able to take care of the Hardeman county and Southern Oklahoma business personally, while a competent group of employees serve the Lubbock territory.

ANDERSON's two shops, Quanah and Lubbock, now employ twelve persons who receive top wages and most favorable working conditions. Their loyalty has helped ANDERSON to succeed in his work.

The ANDERSONs have continually been active in the church and civic organizations of the community. Their three children are Emma Lorice, Alma Ellen, and Joe Holt.

Mr. ANDERSON has been a member of the Odd Fellows for the past 30 years, and is past presiding officer in the four branches of same. He received decoration of Chivalry from Childress Canton No. 11 for meritorious service in this district. He is a member of the Methodist church and has been one of the Board of Stewards for more than 20 years, and is at present Chairman of the Quanah Board.

He was director of the Chillicothe Chamber of Commerce for six years and acted in the same capacity after moving to Quanah, having been elected to fill a vacancy and he has served since. He is a charter member of the Chillicothe Lions Club and past president. Member of Quanah Rotary since May, 1936.

When asked about his hobbies, Mr. ANDERSON said the main one was witnessing football games.

Little can be added as to his value to the community as you will have noted from his record in the preceding paragraphs, but we might say that Quanah is very fortunate to have such valuable citizens as the ANDERSONS.

On October 1, 1937, Joe ANDERSON was a driver in a two-car fatal collision. He was sued for $930.00 in damages and settled by paying $400.00. The other driver described the accident as follows:

My name is Aubry KEY. My mother lives at Unity, Lamar County, Texas, and I suppose that is what I would call my home. I am twenty six (26) years of age. I am single, and have never been married.

On Friday, October 1st, A.D. 1937, I was going to Brownfield, Texas, to pick cotton. I was driving a 1925 Model "T" Ford Pick-Up Truck in a western direction on the highway that leads west from Post, Texas. I have been told that the highway leads from Post, Texas, to Tahoka, Texas. I was traveling with a Mr. FISHER, his wife and three children in the car with me. I owned the car myself. It cost me $38.50 in all to buy it and fix it up. The people I was hauling with me had agreed to pay their way, which meant that they agreed to share their part of the expenses. I do not know how much they had paid on the expenses up to that time.

At about five o'clock in the evening when I got about six miles west of Post, Texas, I had a collision with a Mr. Joe H. ANDERSON, who was driving a Ford V-8 Pick Up Truck. I was traveling west in the middle of the highway at about 15 miles per hour, and Mr. ANDERSON was coming from the north on a side road that intersects the highway I was traveling on west. I do not know how fast he was traveling.

We met at the intersection of the roads, and I saw that Mr. ANDERSON was not going to stop, because he could not stop. I tried to stop but could not stop. I had waited a little too long to apply my brakes to stop before hitting him. If I had known that Mr. ANDERSON was not going to stop, I could have applied my brakes a little quicker and stopped; but I did not think that he was going to drive on out into the highway. When I saw that he was going to hit me, I swung over to the left side of the road, but Mr. ANDERSON's truck kept coming toward me and his left front wheel collided with about the middle of the right side of my truck. It did a lot of damage to both cars. I did not get hurt at all, except that I did have a little skin knocked off my ankle. No other damage was done to me personally in this wreck.

I would say that both Mr. ANDERSON and myself were about equally to blame. It was just about as much his fault as it was mine; and it was just about as much mine as it was his.

I am just a common laborer by trade. I never have been into any trouble in my life. Mr. ANDERSON has been very nice to me about the whole thing. I have also been nice to him. We both just want to do the best we can about this accident.

Joe ANDERSON's attorney, Joe S. MOSS, wrote a letter in closing his file which reads in part as follows:

The receipt for the payment of the funeral bill is also enclosed, so you have the whole thing now. Just file all this away somewhere so that you will know where it is if ever you they try to give you anymore trouble about the matter....

Mr. ANDERSON, I am of course a young lawyer with lots of things to learn about this law business. But even at that I have been in the business about five years of my young life, and I do not hesitate to say that you are undoubtedly the very finest man it has ever been my pleasure to represent. Never before in all my life have I found a client who had so much respect for the sufferings and misfortunes of other people. Frankly I don't think you would ever have been held liable to the widow and children of Mr. [A. R.] FISHER; but your fine appreciation of their predicament was such that you felt better over paying them a little. If as many as five per cent of my future clients have as much spirit of honesty, fair dealing and charity about them as you have displayed in this matter I am sure in the eyes of my clients I will be a good lawyer. Clients, and nothing else, make the lawyer.

In the future as your business might bring you down this way I will feel offended if you do not pay me a visit. And if there is ever anything that I can do down here in the way of giving you any assistance or information concerning anybody or anything, just write me and I'll attend the matter at once. And it won't cost you a penny.

The business in Lubbock was changed to a partnership on May 1, 1939, when Joe ANDERSON sold one third each to F. N. POGUE and Verlon BIGHAM and the new partnership of Pogue & Bigham Sheet Metal Works was formed. F. N. POGUE dropped out of the partnership, and it continued to operated as ANDERSON-BIGHAM for many years.

Joe ANDERSON invented the cottonhouse valve system and held patent number 1995464 on it, the patent being issued "this twenty-sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and thirty-five, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and fifty-ninth." The patent description states:

This invention relates to distributing devices designed for the proper distribution of cotton after the same has been taken from wagons or trucks, and particularly to means whereby the cotton may be conveyed to the stalls of the warehouse by air.

The general object of my invention is to provide means connected to the conveyor pipe of this system whereby a plurality of stalls may be served from one branch elbow and a further object is to provide an elbow so constructed that it may be readily rotated through a complete circle to thus serve a plurality of stalls and so constructed that the extremity of the elbow may be shifted outward and downward so that the cotton may be discharged over the wall of said stall without the likelihood of the cotton being blown into the next adjacent stall.

A further object is to provide a swivel connection between the branch pipe and the main pipe which will not gather lint and thus required to be taken apart every now and then for cleaning, and which is further so constructed that the operator by moving the swivel connection may discharge any lint or other foreign matter that has gathered thereon....

Joe ANDERSON also invented the traveling telescope, which uses a vacuum action to suck cotton bolls from trailers into cotton gins, but he did not hold the patent on this invention.

I'm not sure whether Mr. Joe held the patent on the traveling telescope, as you say, or the cottonhouse valve system (though heavens knows I watched the patent number being stenciled on enough pieces I should know). If your father says it was the telescope, he's undoubtedly right. I know that the patent my Dad held was regularly infringed by one or more big gin companies that took the attitude, when he called them to task, that "We have our lawyers; do you have yours?" Meaning, of course, that they figured they could outspend him if it came to litigation. On the other product, toward which he felt as paternal as if he held the patent on that too, he regularly paid royalties, even though the patent was held by the same people who were infringing his and he sincerely believed he made both products first.

In a letter dated June 11, 1944, Joe ANDERSON explained the history to Croft BIGHAM of Continental Gin Company. I originally typed this cleaning up the spelling and run-on sentences, but they add such character, I edited them back in:

Answering your letter of the 4th refer to cut No. 1 attached this is the first telescope of its kind that I know any thing about and was designed by Joe FINDER who was at that time (about 1934) with BIGGS-WEAVER he had originally designed and patented the Ball and socket type or what is known as the Universal, and had sold the same to Elk City Mfg Co of Elk City Okla, (They have sence sold to Murry Co) Joe after he had sold the telescope he had patented made one as of this cut and erected same at McNEILS Gin in Seymour (That is I am sure where Lummus got same) I had sold and installed three of thes that I had got from BRIGGS-WEAVER when Fred RENNELS who had financed his cousin Jess L. RENNELS in securing the patent on the traveling telescope ask me to try and sell some of then as they were not able to get any one interested in same, and as you can see as he designed it was not practical as if you did not have at least 26' from the ground did not have room to install and at that time I contacted Mr. FINDER and ask him why he did not redesign and give more room in the throat as he had it it was to short he told me to go ahead and change same as I saw fit and make what I needed as at that time Hardwich ETTER as well as Lummus was makeing them and he did not think he was goeing to be able to get same Patened.

It was then this was early in 35 worked out the design that we are useing not and installed the first one in Thalia Texas at Farmers Cooperative Gin and then inclosed print No. 3 was copyed from the original instilation by draftman that Mr. RENNELS had go ther and make this drawing. and at the same time I went to makeing them and useing as stationary type my contract with Mr. RENNELS was to make five with out any Royalty and then we made contract that gave me the exclusive rite to them, but to be frank I was not sold on them at the time and did not push them very hard so RENNELS became dissatisfied and for the rite to make 10 additional I canceled the contract I had with them and it was at that time that he entered into contract with North Texas Hardware Co to handle them and they made up about 12 and sold only two so they so I am told canceled ther contract. It was under the arangement to make the additional 10 that I made the ones that got started out there among some of them was for LOCKET at Lockitsville (Had made them for him at his three gins in Wilbarger County earler) the one for WITT at Brownfield and others.

Think the above covers the Traveling part as to the stationary telescope you perhaps remember that in 36 when I came to Lubbock and was with your Father we made several of these and I in good faith said that same was not Patented and was not likly to be my statement was based on what Mr. FINDER had told me but after I had sold over a hundred and Your Father WALKUP, ERVIN, and others had sold some I was thretened woth suit by Lummus and after several trips to Dallas and lots of corrospondance settled with them on payment of $250.00 and ther releasing all others as they were sueing all that they could find that had made any of them and at that time we entered into Royalty contract with them.

As to STACEY, Lummus has told me several times that he was paying them $10.00 for each telescope he made as to that I do not know but he has not or at least did not even investigate the Patent on the traveling telescope as at one time I had same at Dallas at the Convention and North Texas Hardware allso showed same one Year and they did that as they did with my House Valve,

I do not know what effect goeing into this matter will have with Verlon and I as we have long sence made more of thes telescopes than I had contract to build in fact the boys were building them before I realy knew that they were goeing over so well I have my doubts that they are infringing on Mr. RENNELS but I did not at that time have copy of their Claims they were to furnish same to me but never did so guess the best thing to do would be to get copy from Washington.

Trust that how ever this comes out that we do not wind up haveing to "hold the sack" as that is the way I usely wind up when I get tangled up with Patents as I have my Valve covered and Both STACEY and H. E. makes and sells them and makes no bones of it but says in substiance when I take up with them " We got our lawer you get yours" and as you know a Court house is good place for little folks like Verlon and I to stay away from. and at the telescope that we are paying royalty on I am sure that we were selling them before any one else but you will note that the papers for this was dated June 8 1935 and the earlest sale that I can establish is June 26 same year there is no doubt in my mine that we are makeing better telescope than Lummus and have payed them many times what they were out on same.

Croft I am also sending copy of Lummus Patent will you please return the last four of these to me as they are the last of each I have and sure want to keep them.

Very truly yours.

He tithed for about 57 years, as reported by the following account, written in 1961:

"Once in 47 years, I was tempted to quit tithing," admits Joe ANDERSON, who is "Mr. Methodist" in Quanah, "but after I won that battle I have never been tempted again." The devil got his lick in when "Brother Joe" came out of the Navy after World War I and had a break down. He was without work for a while and finally was able to take a little job that provided enough to keep soul and body together. One day he made sales enough to clear $156.50. The youngsters were without shoes, and the family needed to spend the money on clothes. "For two weeks" the veteran tither recalls, "I held the Lord's money back playing with the idea of using it for ourselves, but finally I put it in my tithe box, and I have never been tempted since."

Joe ANDERSON began tithing when he joined the Methodist Church. He had been a Baptist of sorts, but in 1914 under the preaching of Bob SHULER, who was holding a revival at Beeville where the young ANDERSON had a blacksmith shop, Brother Joe joined The Methodist Church with his wife and became an after (sic) churchman. He credits Bob SHULER's preaching and the stream of pamphlets put out by The Methodist Church with making and keeping him a tither.

Material reward has never been the basis of his tithing, Joe ANDERSON explains. He admits that there are plenty of times to which he could point when he believes it has actually paid to tithe, but he objects to anyone practicing tithing on such a materialistic basis. "I tithe", he says, "because it makes giving such a joy."

A prosperous business and sense of stewardship has made it possible for Joe ANDERSON to give to the Methodist Church and worthy causes. Approximately 80% of his giving goes through the church and the other 20% is given to Red Cross, Community chest, other churches and civic enterprises. For example, he personally paid to have an old church building off the Acme Circuit moved into Quanah to serve as the first unit of St. Luke's Methodist Church. In his own church, First Church, Quanah, Brother Joe is depended upon for advice, inspiration, and generous financial support.

Although none of his children attended McMurry College in Abilene, Mr. ANDERSON has been a substantial contributor to that frontier institution of the Northwest Texas Conference. He is a member of its Board of Trustees, and received a service award plaque in 1960 for outstanding service. The Ministerial alliance of his home town, Quanah, has cited him as the most generous contributor to community and religious causes in his city.

The ANDERSONS moved recently to a modest brick home. Instead of renting their home to secure additional income, or selling it to apply on the new house, they gave it - a $10,000 structure - to the Board of Pensions of the Northwest Texas Conference. It will be used for Retired Ministers.

Mrs. ANDERSON, moved to Quanah by the time she was a year old and has lived all her life in Quanah except for a few years when she and her husband lived in Beeville. They have three children, two of them still living in Quanah. The two daughters, Mrs. J. L. BARNES and Mrs. Sam BREEDLOVE are graduates of Texas Wesleyan College where they attended when Dr. Tom BRABHAM was its president. Joe, Jr., a Red Raider from Texas Tech, is assistant editor on the World desk of the Washington Post. He graduated with honors from Texas Tech.

The source of Joe ANDERSON's income is a sheet metal shop that specializes in making parts for the Moss Lint Cleaner which he has shipped as far away as Sudan, Africa.

Cited by community leaders, educators, and Northwest Conference leaders for his generosity, he is no less appreciated by his own pastors. Rev. Walter G. WHITE, First Church, Quanah, pastor reports that the Quanah philanthropist sets the pace for loyalty and generosity, service and forward looking spirit in his own local church.

Joe H. ANDERSON served on the draft board during World War II. He was the Outstanding Citizen of 1957 for Quanah, Texas. Both he and Lena were active in Odd Fellows and Rebekahs for many years, including serving as President for the Panhandle Odd Fellows in 1921-22.

My grandmother, Lena Lorice KERLEY ANDERSON, was a lady in every respect of the word. She was prim and proper (i.e., reserved and dignified), never boisterous, and basically elegant. In her youth she had a lot of friends and relatives with whom she corresponded by post cards (which cost a penny then for both the card and the stamp). She saved the cards, and your grandmother still has them. She attended Roberts Business College in Bowie for at least one year and probably two. Of her wedding day at her parent's home in Chillicothe, she said, "There was a norther then, a real hard wind. It was so cold and blowing so hard that some of the guests just downtown couldn't come." There was an old tale of a contest between her and Granddaddy when they were young having a disagreement about who had the biggest mouth. The system devised for proving it was to take two large cookies and for each to take the largest possible bite out of the cookie. The results were inconclusive because of the basic difference in the shape of the mouth. This story always seemed incongruous because it just wasn't the type of thing they would do, in my estimation. She was a homemaker and a seamstress and had studied bookkeeping. She was a good cook, and her house was always spotless. Because of Granddaddy's handiness with the products he made in the shop, she used to say that before she ever asked for anything or suggested they might get anything, she first imagined what it would look like made of metal. The motto of his business was, "If it's made of sheet metal we make it" and Grandmother knew the truth of this from experience. She and Granddaddy always went to church. She went to a women's Sunday School class, and he went to a men's class. She had a mink stole (Carol says it was rabbit. Maybe, but it sure was neat) that Granddaddy gave her for Christmas one year, and it was great fun to sit beside her in church and stroke that stole. She was active in the community, in civic clubs such as the 1904 club. Even when she was old, she had dark hair with very little gray in it.

Joe Holt ANDERSON, Sr., and his wife Lena Lorice KERLEY had three children:

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E.)   A. Joseph HOLT and the fighting Texas Baptists.

I sit writing this in September of 1993 when within an incredibly short time unthinkable events have occurred. The Berlin Wall has fallen, the Soviet Union is no more, and Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization are moving toward peace. It would appear that to make generalizations about the movement of history at this point in time is to invite humiliation. However, without trepidation, I would urge that Texas Baptists have been fighting for virtually all of their one hundred fifty year history, and they are apt to continue in conflict for generations to come.

Certainly in the 1880's Texas Baptists were set opposed to each other in support of two competing universities, in loyalty to two rival newspapers, and in membership of two dominant general bodies. Three facts tie our family history closely to the conflict. First, Joe Holt ANDERSON, Jr., indicates that the source of the Holt in his name was a Baptist evangelist, Joseph HOLT. Second, Alma Ellen ANDERSON BREEDLOVE has in her possession a picture showing on the front of the picture in script, "A. J. HOLT" and on the back "E. A." which may indicate the photograph was given to Emma WILLIAMS ANDERSON whose son Joe Holt ANDERSON was born November 29, 1887. Third, the Baptist records of the period often show A. J. HOLT and S. J. ANDERSON acting in accord with each other in signing instruments and in expounding a controversial position at Baptist functions. That S. J. ANDERSON was the Reverend Samuel Joseph ANDERSON, an uncle of the infant Joe Holt ANDERSON.

J. C. CARROLL's A History of Texas Baptists Comprising a Detailed Account of Their Activities, Their Program and Their Achievements, which was published in 1923, presents a view of the years of conflict in the 1880's and 1890's from the standpoint of those in the opposing faction of the denomination. His work, however, is presented in an even-handed manner and incorporates many early records.

This ten-year period - 1876-1885 - marked the beginning of much larger things in all Texas Baptist mission work. Ideals were vastly enlarged, and as a result, larger plans and larger deeds closely followed the enlarging ideals.

For five or six years we continued along the same traditional level, but suddenly there came the change to larger things. Two men stand out pre-eminently prominent in this enlargement - O. C. POPE, of the Baptist State Convention, long since gone to his eternal home, and A. J. HOLT, of the General Association, now living in Florida.

CARROLL reports that A. J. HOLT was sent in 1877 as a missionary to the "wild Indian tribes of the Indian Territory." In 1878 he also served. The General Association promised these missionaries no fixed salaries but simply said they "Will pay what we can." The records state that "the missionaries suffered." The situation was not much better in 1879 when A. J. HOLT was one of two missionaries but had to leave the field for lack of support before the end of the year. A part of his report to the Association that year follows:

If our past experience in Indian missions has proven anything it has demonstrated that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. While arts and arms, money, men and measures have been called into requisition, yet with our government the Indian problem remains unsolved. The lavish expenditure of millions of money and the strong arm of military power at last threw the shackles of bondage around the feet of John Jumper, but he stood erect in his self-conscious manhood, unconquered and unconquerable. But when the gospel of Christ, proclaimed by one of our humble missionaries, was heard by this savage, it transformed him and seated him at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, an advocate of religion, a propagator of civilization, a friend to our government. The Modoc War, still fresh in our memory, cost our government millions of money and hundreds of lives. It chained, but could not tame the savage, but now under the influence of Christianity, with little money, and no lives lost, the Modoc is civilized.

The testimony of agent A. C. WILLIAMS, whom you thanked last year for his friendship to your missionary in his official report to the Commissioner of Indian affairs, says: 'One faithful missionary is worth more than a regiment of soldiers in civilizing the wild Indian.'