1900 - Population of Texarkana reaches 10,000. 1900 - Towns first hospital, Texarkana Sanitarium, is opened. It is housed in the Mann Home on Pine Street and incorporated by Dr. Spencer A. Collom, Dr. Geo. C. Abell, and Dr. Thomas F. Kittrell. It was enlarged in 1908 and 1917 and a nurse's home was built. 1901 - Tennison Brother Metal fabrication founded. 1902 - Spencer and Crouch become the first operators of electric street railway service in the city. The mule car system had by now been abandoned. 1902 - U. S. mail gets redistributed from a railroad car in the cities bustling rail yard. In 40 years, it would become one of the largest distribution terminals in the nation. 1902 - June: two and a half miles of electric railways had now been built on Texas side streets. 1902 - June 15: Texarkana loses to the Corsicana Oilers 51 - 3 in a game that set many Texas League records. C. D. DeWitt gave up 37 hits, including 16 home runs. 1902 - Both sides of the town dispense with all-volunteer fire departments, hire fire chiefs and drivers. 1902 - Rialto Building, now known as the Medical Arts Building, was erected. It is still standing at 317 State Line Ave. It was one of the first buildings to have electricity. In 1943 Dr. E. L. Beck converted it into a medical building. 1902 - International Creosoting and Construction, later Moss-American, founded. 1902 - Wilbur Smith, who in the 1970's, 80's, and 90's would become the towns greatest ambassador and historian is born. 1902 - Oak Street Baptist Church is established. 1902 - March 12: Texarkana Telephone Co., an independent competitor, constructs a modern common battery exchange. Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Co.. is called the "old phone" by locals. TTC is the "new phone". Southwestern had long distance service, TCC had local only service. 1903 - Dec. 13: First Church of Christ Scientist holds initial meeting. After several moves, in 1957 it moves to location at 2724 County Avenue. In 1999, Seventh Day Baptist Church established a church at this location. 1903 - J. K. Wadley brings six "Merry Oldsmobile's" to Texarkana from Detroit. These were not the first automobiles here, but certainly some of the earliest. 1903 - Oct. 9: New Long Distance Telephone is organized to augment Texarkana Telephone Company. 1904 - April 10 - Beech Street Baptist Church is organized with 83 charter members. The meeting was held at 3 p.m. at Miller County Courthouse. 1904 - Board of Trade organized. This would later become the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. 1904 - Aug. 12: Cotton Belt passenger train derails south of Texarkana near International Creosote Plants. 1904 - November: Cotton Belt Hospital opens with 150 beds on a 35 acre site on one of the highest spots in Texarkana. 1904 - Texarkana Independent and Texarkana Democrat are sold, merged and become "Daily" Texarkanian. 1905 - April 29: A wood framed Beech Street Baptist Church burns down. It is rebuilt immediately with a $50,000 structure of classic Grecian style completed in October 1906. Three other fires would damage church structures during the next 25 years. 1905 - May: Holiness Church of Christ is founded here. It would later become First Church of the Nazarene. In 1972 a new church was built at Richmond and Robinson Roads. 1905 - Timberlake Hardware on Main Street in downtown Texarkana opens. It closed early in the 1990's. 1905 - W. S. Dickey Clay Manufacturing Co. founded. 1907 - The Daily Texarkanian reports: "Broad Street will soon be a regular blaze of light with the electric signs that have already been erected and that are soon to be lit up. They are all large, handmade affairs and give Broad Street a decided city appearance. 1907 - Oct 12: J. Q. Mahaffey, long time editor of the Texarkana Gazette is born. 1907 - Dr. Garland Uriah Jamison Sr. arrives in Texarkana. He and partners would establish a medical clinic, a sanitarium, a nurses training facility and a drug store. 1908 - Texarkana Gas and Electric Co. brings first natural gas to town by installing a pipeline to the Caddo Field in Northeast Louisiana and East Texas. TG&EC had earlier absorbed Texarkana GasLight Co., and early franchise holder. 1908 - May 31: Local newspaper reports the birth of a double headed calf that had two nostrils, two mouths, two tongues, and two sets of teeth, and was joined together about where the eyes ought to be. 1909 - July 27: Arkansas-side City Council refuses to ratify the selection of J. J. Hussey as joint fire Chief, saying they did not think the Texas side was acting fair in the matter and that appeared they "wanted everything their own way". Hussey was eventually appointed and served until the two departments were separated. But from 1909 until 1934, one fire department protected both sides of town. 1909 - Texarkana gets its first fire truck, kept at the old Texas Central Fire Station. A car for the fire chief, also a first, was purchased a year earlier. 1909 - Salvation Army Church holds first services. 1909 - The National Humane Alliance gives Texarkana the Herman Lee Ensign Fountain as a gift. It now sits at Seventh Street and State Line Avenue. It initially was placed in front of the downtown post office as a watering trough for horses and dogs and to improve scenery. It was moved after towns people objected to it because it collected refuse and attracted flies. In 1926 it was moved because automobiles had mostly replaced horse drawn vehicles. 1909 - Texarkana Courier was started by J. W. Stuart. He was the first editor to erect a modern newspaper building. 1909 - Texarkana Telephone Co. is placed in receivership. After 2 and one half years, obligations were liquidated and in 1912 it was reorganized under new leadership. During this period, New Long Distance Co. was purchased by TTC. Both were at Third and State Line in the Offenhauser building, now the Texarkana Museum. 1910 - 1919 1909 (or 1910) - President William Taft makes a stop in Texarkana during a train tour. He makes a short address from the observation platform of the presidential car. 1910 - Population of Texarkana reaches 18,000, nearly doubling during the prior decade. 1910 - C. E. Palmer establishes the Four States Press, after buying the Texarkana Courier an absorbing it into this publication. 1910 - Construction completed on the Texas Viaduct. 1911 - Construction gets under way on a new high school on the Texas side. This is currently the site of the Pine Street Middle School Campus. 1912 - Texas High - Arkansas High play first football game. THS wins, 46 - 0. 1912 - Texarkana Gas & Electric Co., the Shreveport Gas & Electric, and Caddo Gas & Oil Co. merge to form Southwestern Gas & Electric Co., and provided services to Texarkana, Shreveport, and Bossier, La. 1912 - Texarkana, Texas Fire Department purchases the city's first motor driven fire fighting apparatus. 1913 - May: Because the public was generally dissatisfied with the operation of two telephone companies in Texarkana, the Texarkana Texas City Council passed an ordinance allowing the Texarkana Telephone Company to take over the exchange owned by Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Company. In March 1914, the Arkansas side council did the same thing. The sale and merger was finally completed in 1915. 1913 - Morris Sheppard is elected to the U. S. Senate. He would serve 28 years, until his death. He had spent the previous 13 years on Congress. 1913 - Trigg Street train station is torn down. This early depot was located where Seventh Street underpass now is located. 1914 - George Strong poses for famous photograph taken in front of downtown post office. He is standing on one side of the State Line, holding a donkey standing on the other side of the State Line. The caption reads: The man in Texas and his ass in Arkansas. Millions of post cards were sold, peaking when troop trains passed through during WWI. 1914 - Texarkana Negro Business League was formed. It lasted 30 years. 1914 - Sept. 22: Group from Hooks, Texas, begin exploratory mission work in Texarkana. Services for what would later become First Lutheran Church are held with in a month. There were 15 members. 1914 - Conor Hotel, for Blacks, closes down. 1915 - April 30 - Texarkana Telephone Co. buys Southwestern Telegraph Co. and merges the two interests, keeping the former name. The system is now headquartered at Third and Wood Streets and has one common battery system. 1916 - Sept. 14: Mecheal Meagher Hospital opens in Texakrana, under-written by an $80,000 bequest from the estate of its namesake, who was killed in a violent mugging in San Antonio. It would later become St. Micheal Hospital and in 1999 it was renamed Christus Saint Micheal Health care System. 1917 - February. Texarkana Lions Club is chartered. 1916 - Doddridge, Arkansas, in Miller County burns down. Much of what is known about the town's history is lost in the blaze. 1917 - April Texarkana Rotary Club is organized. 1917 - May: Young Men's Business League merges with Board of Trade to become the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. 1917 - Jamison Sanitarium is founded. 1918 - October: Otis Henry, a local man who fought in World War I with many other local men, is gassed at Vincey. His mother erects a magnificent Italian marble monument at Rose Hill cemetery. 1918 - Nov. 18: Shrieking whistles about 2 a.m. signal the end of World War I, and the "war to end all wars". The streets soon became crowded with residents, bearing fireworks and firearms to celebrate the signing of the Armistice. By evening, every resident, it seemed, had jammed onto Broad Street for a peace demonstration. 1919 - Jan. 16: Eighteenth Amendment of the Constitution, written by Sen. Morris Sheppard, is ratified. This the Prohibition Amendment that outlawed the manufacturer, sale or transportation of liqueur. It would be repealed in 1933 when the 21st amendment was ratified. * Sheppard was reared in Texarkana and at the time of his death was the dean of the U. S. Senate. He was also an author of the Sheppard-Towner Act, the principles of which have been incorporated into what is now Social Security. He is also credited with helping get Red River Army Ammunition Plant to the area. 1919 - Jamison Sanitarium opens. It served as a hospital for blacks until 1963 when it closed. 1919 - Texarkana tries to wrestle the county seat from Boston and fails. 1920 - April 1: Walsh Lumpkin Drug Company founded. The Company was the first to supply insulin to the Four States Area. 1920 - May 11: Texarkana Telephone Co. expands, changes, its name to two states Telephone Company. In 1950, the company is acquired by General Telephone Co. of the southwest. 1920 - A barber shop is used as the first Church of Christ meeting place. In 1922 it moved to a hall on East Broad Street and in 1929 it moved to a Pine Street location. In 1968 it moved to its current location at 12th and Walnut Streets. 1921 - First radio broadcast was heard in Texarkana. 1921 - Sept. 2: Article appears in the Daily Texarkana: C. E. De Witt, Chief Special Agent, Automobile theft situation existed here. Mr. DeWitt stated that thee are twice as many cars stolen each month in Texarkana, Texas, than in any other city of its size in the state. 1922 - Bryce's Cafeteria opens downtown. After a long and famous run, it moves toa location along Interstate 30 in the early 1990's. 1923 - October 23: Texarkana celebrates the 50th, or Golden Anniversary. Governors from both states meet at Third Street and State Line Avenue to shake hands during the celebration. 1923 - Martin Patterson opens The Art Shop, a photographic and framing business. The business is still family owned, but has evolved into Patterson's Camera Shop, Studio, & Imaging Center. 1924 - March 11: City breaks ground for the Hotel Grim. Construction was complete in 1926 at a cost of $600,000. The hotel has been vacant all of the 1990's, in spite of continuing efforts to revive it. 1924 - Lillie Barber becomes one of the first female sheriffs in the county when she replaces her husband, Lish Barber, after he died in a grocery store shootout on College Hill. Convicted of Barbers murder was a former Texarkana, Arkansas police chief. 1924 - Nov. 10: Mass meeting held to discuss establishing a public library. 1924 - Arkansas high beats Texas High School for the first time in football, 3-0 1924 - Saenger - Paramount Theater is built. 1924 - City gets Spring Lake Park, which until then was private property. 1925 - The Hotel Grim is completed. It had 188 rooms and was elegant. 1925 - Election to move Bowie County seat back to Texarkana fails. 1925 - Howard Carver has the first Coca - Cola Co. car in Texarkana. 1925 - KFYA, Texarkana's first radio station, starts broadcasting. The first words broadcast locally over radio airwaves were accidental. While setting up the equipment, the voice of one of the other workers was transmitted out asking other workers, "Where the hell have you been?" 1925 - December. Texarkana's first public library opens with 1,400 books on corner of Seventh Street and State Line Avenue. 1925 - C. E. Palmer starts the Texarkana Journal to supplement his morning newspaper, The Four States Press. He is later bought out and his papers merged with other papers to become the Texarkana Gazette. 1925 - William Buchanan dies. At the time of his death he owned seven sawmills and had almost 5,000 employees. 1926 - Union Station is torn down. It will be replaced on the same location by the building that is now standing. 1926 - Texarkana Municipal Airport opens at its current location. It averages two private flights a week. Later, it was named Webb Field for most of its existence, after Howard Webb, its longtime manager. It was proceeded by an airstrip at Spring Lake Park that was operational during the early to mid 1920's. 1926 - Texarkana tries to wrestle the county seat from Boston and fails. 1927 - First classes held at Texarkana College, located at 16th and Pine streets. 109 students enrolled. It was part of the Texas side public school system until 1957. H. W. Stilwell was both superintendent of schools and president of the college. 1928 - Sept. 27 - Vitaphone brings the first talking movies to Texarkana at the Saenger Theater. 1929 - Dec. 10 - Dan Blocker is born in Bowie County, son of Shack and Mary Blocker. He weighs in at 14 pounds, the largest baby, at that time, ever born in the county. The would grow to be 6 feet 3 inches tall and weigh 300 pounds. He turned down a chance to play pro football to pursue a career in acting. He went on to star in the television series, "Banaza", playing Hoss Cartwright. He died in 1972 of complications from gall bladder surgery. He was 43 years old. Ratings slipped for Bananza, and the series was cancelled in 1973. 1929 - Jamison Building is constructed on corner of Third and Oak streets. It opened in 1930 and for many years served as a center for black social life. 1929 - Union Station is built by four railroads at a cost of $1 million. 1929 - Wright Patman is elected to he U. s. House of Representatives. He would stay 47 years until his death. His influence, along with that ofU. S. Sen. Morris Sheppard, would secure Red River Army Depot and Lone Star Ammunition Plant to the area in 1941. 1930 - 1939 1930's - Texarkana is often called Little Chicago during this period because crime was so prevalent and uncontrolled. 1930 - May 12: Opening of new Union Station, called one of the first terminals in the southwest, is a gala affair. 1930 - May 12: H. Ross Perot was born, son of Gabriel Ross Perot a Texarkana Cotton buyer. He becomes one of the richest Texans, initially on his development and ownership of Electronic Data Processing Systems. He becomes a political player in the 1990's, mounting one of the most successful third party presidential campaigns in history and establishing the Reform Party. 1930 - July 27: Oil flows from a well 13 miles east of Texarkana in Miller County. Buyers and speculators have been in town for a week in anticipation. Well's depth is about 3,000 feet. 1930 - W. A. McCartney Sr. erects the modern - era McCartney Hotel (which now stands vacant downtown). It was the first with air-conditioning. McCartney arrived in 1874 and started a more modest McCartney Hotel. 1930 - Boston's status as county seat becomes secure, because Texas aw prohibits elections to move centrally located county seats that have been established for 40 or more years. This knocked Texarkana out of the picture for good. However, the law did not prevent a courthouse from being built in New Boston in 1986, after the 1891 courthouse burned down. The law allowed for a courthouse to be re-established with-in a four mile radius. 1931 - U. S. Congress designates a Confederate burial plot at Rondo Cemetery a national shrine. Eighty - five soldiers camped nearby during the Civil war were lost to an outbreak of measles. Their remains were moved to the cemetery after the war. 1932 - June 26: Tri-motored Ford aircraft landed at Texarkana Airport for the first air mail flight to the city. 1932 - Cowley School, the first built in north central Bowie county, burns down in a suspicious fire. Suspect was arrested and jailed but never brought to trial. From here on, students are bused to New Boston. 1932 - Southwestern Electric Power Co. is providing 6,345 customers in Texarkana with 11.3 million kilowatt hours of power. By 1972 those t5hose figures had grown to 24,000 customers and 429 million kilowatt hours. In 1998 there were 1.3 billion-kilowatt hours and 33,846 customers in Texarkana proper, Nash, and Wake Village. 1933 - C. E. Palmer and several associates buy the Texarkana Gazette and Texarkana Daily News. He continues as publisher until his death in July 1957. 1933 - Sept. 30: Federal building that now straddles State Line Avenue in downtown Texarkana is first occupied. 1933 - Dec. 5: The 18th Amendment written by Sen. Morris Sheppard who was reared and maintained a home in Texarkana, is repealed. Even in defeat, Sheppard continued to defend the amendment, remaining true to his convictions. 1934 - Cities decide to ditch joint fire chief. Each city would now have their own. 1934 - March 24: Texas side passes a law making "walkashows, walkathons, marathon dances, long distance dances" unlawful whether an admission price is charged or not. 1934 - East Texas Motor Freight begins operations with pickup trucks. Interstate operations began the following year and by 1939, they were transporting goods to five states. 1934 - Electric street cars see their last days. 1934 - KCMC radio is established in studio inside the Hotel Grim. 1935 - Joe Eldridge and C. E. Mitchell secured a franchise to run buses I the city, serving all routes formerly served by electric street cars. They started Texarkana Bus Co. with seven buses. 1936 - Texarkana Jaycees charter with 21 members. 1936 - The summer streetcar to Spring Lake Park and the popular Spring Lake Park Theater cease operation. 1937 - A group of women led by Geneva M. Russell from a Civic Art and Social Club with the goal of building a public library for Negroes in Texarkana. As more money was raised, a Public Library for Negroes in Texarkana was established at 317 Oak St. and was later accepted as a Community Chest agency. This library was later merged with the Public Library on State Line Avenue. 1937 - Texarkana dedicates World War 1 memorial at Morris Sheppard Park, adjacent to the federal building downtown. On April 14, a time capsule was buried at the site to be opened in 50 years. 1938 - Bowie County Courthouse is renovated. It would be destroyed by fire in the 1980's. 1939 - The Noon Optimist Club was founded in Texarkana. 1939 - Jan. 1: Fifteen buses are now operating in the city, covering 29 miles of routes. In 1938 the fare was a nickel. 1940 - 1949 1940 - Popluation of Texarkana was at 29,000, but it would soon increase dramatically. By the middle of World War II, only a few years later, it was estimated as high as 55,000. 1940 - June: Texarkana Stockyards, which opened earlier in the year, is sold to the Jarboe family. 1940 - First Baptist Church is demolished at Fourth and Pine Streets. The new building is finished two years later. The church moved to Moores Lane in the 1980's. Downtown First Baptist Church now worships at the Pine Street address. 1941 - July 30: Work order issued for the creation of red River Ordnance Depot, 18 miles west of Texarkana. It was activated Nov. 19 of the same year. Ammunition arrived exactly one week later. On aril 17, 1942, the last of 702 ammunition Igloos was completed. It grew into the nations largest ordnance establishment, with more than 6,200 personnel during World War II. During the Korean War, more than 11,573 civilians were employed there. 1941 - August: Lone Star Army Plant, adjacent to Red River Ordnance Depot, was established. Before the conclusion of World War II as many as 10,430 people were employed there. Initial cost of construction and equipment in $33.3 million. The first line went into operation May 26, 1942. 1943 - Jehovah's Witnesses move to their first Kingdom Hall. The congregation was first organized in the 1930's. 1944 - June 12: Texarkana hosts the national opening of the Fifth War Loan drive for financing World War II. KCMC Radio broadcast two programs that carried over half of the United States. Hollywood producer Orsen Welles wrote and directed a radio program broadcast from the Paramount Theater. Dignitaries from both states and the nation were on hand, along with a bevy of Hollywood stars and U, S, Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morganthau Jr. The event was also dubbed "Civilian D-Day". 1945 - Retail sales in the city hit $28.5 million. Sales dropped to $6 million by the end of the Korean War. 1945 - Aug. 15 - The day after President Harry Truman announces the surrender of Japan, merrymakers throng the downtown area from 6 p.m. well into the night. Businesses were closed the next day in celebration. 1945 - Four States Fair was held next to Spring Lake Park. 1945 - Nov. 5: Lone Star Army Plant and red River Ordnance Depot consolidate into Red River Arsenal: However, Lone Star keeps its separate identity. 1946 - Phantom Killer lays siege on Texarkana, and during a six week spree he shoots six people, five to death, and batters two others, turning the community into "The Town That Dreaded Sundown", and drawing national attention. He was never captured. 1946 - Feb, 22 - 23: Jimmy Hollis, 24and Mary Jean Larey,. 19, are parked on a dirt road off Richmond Road, (then a county road), about 1.5 miles northwest of the Beverly neighborhood. An unidentified man with a pistol walks up and orders the couple out of the car. He beats and robs Hollis and attempts to rape the woman, using the firearm to sexually assault her. Miss Larey escapes. Hollis is left unconscious but later recovers. 1946 - March 24: Richard Griffin, 29, and Polly Ann Moore, 17, are found shot to death with a .32 Caliber Colt pistol in their 1941 Oldsmobile sedan parked on a dirt road off South Robinson Road, near where it intersects with U. S. Highway 67. Official reports would later say Miss Moores was raped. 1946 - April 14: Paul Martin, 16, and Betty Jo Booker, 15, are found shot to death, about a mile and a half apart, in a wooded area north of Spring Lake Park. Both were shot with a .32 caliber Colt pistol. The victims car was found about 400 yards north of the main park entrance, and about 1.5 miles from Martin's body. Official reports would later say Miss Booker was raped. Texas ranger "Lone Wolf" Gonzaulles is dispatched to town to head up the "Phantom Killer" investigation, one of the most notorious unsolved crimes of all times. He arrested 400 people while in town, but the Phantom Killer was never brought to justice. Gonzaullas had a reputation as a maverick lawman. Five more Rangers are sent here. One is already on the scene. 1946 - April 16: For the first time, The Texarkana daily News uses phrase "Phantom Killer" to label the at-large and unidentified man the town linked tot he four murders. 1946 - May 4: Virgil Starks, 36, a Miller County farmer living near the Homan community about 10 miles northeast of Texarkana on U. S. Highway 67, is sitting in his living room reading a newspaper near the window when he is shot through the back of the head with a .22 caliber pistol. His wife, Kate Starks, attempts to call police but is shot twice in the face. When the gunman attempts to enter her home, she manages to flee across the highway to a neighbors house. Her husband dies. She survives but cannot identify the gunman. 1946 - June 10: Life magazine published a two-page photo spread titled: "Texarkana Terror", illustrating how the town was tight in the grip of mass terror. The cause was "a Phantom murderer" who killed men and women in pairs at three-week intervals. Article said wives refused to go out after dark and "the movie house, featuring " Mid-night Manhunt, The Haunted Mine, and The Phantom Speaks" were largely empty. 1946 - June 28: police arrest a 21 year old woman who they believe was the companion of the prime suspect, after linking her to a car stolen the night of the Griffin-Moore murders, which they recovered on this date. She would later marry the suspect and could not be compelled to testily against him. 1946 - October: Betty Joe Booker's saxophone is found by two men repairing a fence on Morris Lane, about 140 yards from where her body was found, thus ending months of searching for the missing instrument, once thought to have been removed by the murderer. 1946 - Following war's end, Red River Ordnance Depot stores more than 58,000 military vehicles, possibly the largest number ever assembled at one installation. 1946 - Texarkana Bears formed and play the following year in the Big States (baseball) League. Texarkana's last professional sports team folds in 1949. 1947 - Dr. George W. Thompson begins practicing medicine here this year. He was the only black physician in practice at the time of his death in 1982. He was also the first black to serve on the Texas-side city council. 1948 - KCMC Radio constructs one of the tallest transmission towers in the nation. 1948 - A bond issue is approved by Texas-side voters authorizing the purchase of land for a new campus for Texarkana College and the construction of new buildings. The college moved from 16th and Pine Streets to its current location on Robinson Road three years later. 1949 - First Pentecostal Church moves from a tent ministry to a building on Lumpkin Street. In 1960, land was purchased for a church at 812 W. 29th St. ************************************************************************ USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, material may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material, AND permission is obtained from the contributor of the file. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizat ions. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-comm ercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. Submitted by Vicki Richardson mailto:GVRICHARDS@aol.com ************************************************************************