Pioneer Woman Recalls How Town of Edith Was Named, Coke Co, TX ***************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ Submitted by Mary Love Berryman - marylove@tyler.net ***************************************************************** The Ballinger Ledger - Date Unknown Editor's Note - The following article written by Mrs. Ethel Pearce Hayley of Norton, tells some of the early day history of Runnels county and the naming of a Coke county town. A few years ago, I read a description of Coke county towns and the origin of their names, in which the writer stated that he did not know where Edith got its name. Instantly channels of memory opened and I knew that I could never forget where Edith got its name. When I was about 10 years of age, our early pioneer friend Judge G. W. Perryman, county judge of Coke county, visited the Pearce family in Ballinger and told me at this time that he had named a town. He called it Edith after Miss Edith Bonsall. "One of the finest young ladies in Ballinger, or anywhere." This might not have impressed me so, if he had not further said, "Ethel, if you will pattern after Miss Edith and grow up into a fine young lady like her, I will sometime name a postoffice Ethel." This all impressed me as a very great honor, so I set about at once to earn this honor for myself. I hunted out Miss Edith Bonsall on the school grounds, at church and on the picnic grounds. I watched her every movement. I tried to stand, walk, talk and mimic her in every way. I enjoyed watching her dignified looking snowy haired parents, Captain and Mrs. Bonsall. I thought they must be proud of a daughter with a postoffice named in her honor. I never told anyone of this ambition of mine. I didn't talk much anyway, for I was just at that time recovering from complete deafness, caused from too much quinine during a long siege of slow fever. No doubt but that my shadowing of Miss Edith would have become very noticeable but that Judge Perryman died within the year and this exalted ambition of mine was blasted, which was a genuine grief to me. Judge George Washington Perryman was an old bachelor, never married. He came back from the War between the States to find that his betrothed sweetheart had married, so he came to West Texas from Washington, D. C., to forget her in this new wild country. He became greatly interested in young people and inspired them to a greater education. His law office was the first house built in the town of Runnels, which was just big enough for his bed, desk a few chairs and the shelves for the books of his beloved library. He generously threw open his doors and invited the pioneer youths to read freely his books, taking much of his time to supervise their reading. He helped many boys and girls in Runnels and Coke counties to a better education. My husband, as a pioneer boy of Coke county, spent many hours in his law office reading his books. Recently, I was told that he noticed some school children, fifty years ago, making fun of a little motherless girl, because of the way she was dressed. He gave her $5 and told her to get some woman to make her some clothes like the other little girls. Now, fifty years later, the sister of this child told me this story and other good deeds of his. So it is that this shaggy headed, gruff speaking pioneer of Runnels and Coke counties, while leaving behind no family of his own, by his glorious deeds his influence will live on and on. It will be well for us all to remember that we, too, are making history to leave behind us as life goes on.