BY NORMAN ROZEFF
To invite community interest the society initiated a series of programs open at no cost to the public. In September 2003 Jack Nelson, President and General Manager of the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers, Inc., presented a talk on “Our Valley Sugar Industry.” This was followed in November with the “History of Harlingen Churches.” In January 2004 Edna Tamayo presented “Family Learning Centers and More.”
In March Luis Nieves-Ruiz, City Planner, told of “Visionaries of Preservation”. Although Harlingen, together with considerable input from the society, put together a detailed preservation package for the state program, it was not one of the communities selected into “Visionaries in Preservation”. Then in May Timothy Reynolds, resource librarian, spoke of “Harlingen Images”. The series continued in July with Lionel Betancourt’s “The Beginnings of Tejano Music.”
November saw a salute to the area’s veterans in a program titled “The Changing Face of War” with Ed Sweeney relating his combat experiences in World War II, Herman Wise in Korea and also the occupation of Japan, and Jerry Stapleton on Vietnam and the Army Tank Corps. Over the following months and years diverse programs on numerous subjects were offered.
These included Rogelio Agrasanchez “The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema 1936-1956; Edwin & Connie Sweeney “Marching in Cadence”, the history of the Marine Military Academy; Lee Tanberg “History of the City of Primera”; Butch Palmer “The Arroyo Colorado Navigation District and Port of Harlingen”; Cheryl Laberge “Revitalization of Downtown Harlingen”; Carlos Rubenstein “Challenges Facing the Rio Grande River and Its Users”; James Matz “the Matz Family and the Valley”; Manuel Hinijosa “The Architectural Heritage of the Valley”; Norman Rozeff “History of Early Medical Care in Harlingen, Texas”; Marlene Pegg “History of the Garden Clubs in Harlingen”; John Norman “The Rio Grande Valley Cotton Industry”; Lonnie Davis “The Integration of Black Students in Harlingen”; Juan Lerma “The Valley’s Short Line Railroad, the Rio Valley Switching Company “; Wayne Halbert, manager Cameron County Water District #1, “Harlingen’s Water —-Past, Present and Future”; Harry Shimotsu “The Saga of the Shimotsu Family”; Frances McMillan “The History and Growth of Dance Instruction in Harlingen”; Robert Guzman, descendant of pioneer Canary Island settlers of San Antonio, “Sleuthing Ancestor Cemeteries”; June Davis “Harlingen Theatre from Country Playhouse to Performing Arts Theatre”; Javier Garcia “The Snake King of Brownsville”; Joseph Tucker, retired IBWC project manager “The International Boundary and Water Commission’s Role in Taming the River”; Gabriel Gonzalez “Harlingen, Where It Stands and Where It Is Going”; Gene Balch, Brownsville machine shop owner, “Reconstruction of Steam Locomotive No. 1”; and Elizandro Muniz, Jr. “The Valley’s Role in the Mexican American War”.
It was at the end of 2003 that Mary Torres took over the reigns as president of the organization. She would be succeeded in September 2007 by Harlingen Library Reference Librarian, Tim Reynolds.
It was also in 2003 that the Valley Morning Star commenced its Our Heritage page in its Sunday edition. These well-researched articles on Valley history and especially families generated considerable interest. Norman Rozeff’s research for the Chronology History of Harlingen opened numerous avenues worthy of publicizing.
As a result, in July 2005, he began to donate articles for the page and eventually became nearly the sole writer of the column that ran in the VMS Rio Living Section as of June 2004.
It was the previous month that the “Our Heritage” page, which commenced in May 2003, last ran in the newspaper. It was on July 4, 2003 that the society participated in the Independence Day Parade with a Trolley bus filled with costumed descendants of Harlingen’s first settlers.
The society sought to publicize its work and did so in the April 2004 Rio Fest where it had an exhibit. This same year it participated in the Railroad Centennial Exhibition at the museum. The following year at Rio Fest the society exhibited a number of photos that showed Harlingen in its earliest stages. Mem- ber Annelle Clausen played a major role in noting the society’s activities in her weekly Valley Morning Star column “ Granny’s Ramblings”.
In recent years valuable information concerning current civic activities has carried on in Mary Torres’ column “Harlingen Happenings”.
In November 2004 more than 350 people showed up at the Harlingen Cemetery for the HHPS’s Day of the Dead program. Miranda Key, executive coordinator of Harlingen Proud put together a crew that helped to clean the cemetery prior to the event.
Participants were from the City Parks & Recreation Dept., the boys and girls Club, scout troops, church groups, New horizon and New Direction students, parental Involvement parents and other leaders and their families.
After becoming involved with the Downtown Mural project, the society was asked to delve into the history of various downtown structures. Eventually, following the retirement of Julie Ulhorn, Norman Rozeff would compile the occupancy histories on at least 28 downtown buildings.
Another art-related project that involved the society was the creation of a student history art contest for both high and middle school students. Results were exhibited at Rio Fest and the winners received cash prizes. Criteria in the judging included creativity, composition, craftsmanship, historical research/aspect, and overall appearance. Eventually the society merged this contest with that of the Cameron County Historical Commission.
In 2004 the society adopted a six-year strategic plan. One of its major goals was to help the city organize a Centennial Celebration for 2010. After Norman Rozeff drew up a document with fifty possible activities for the city to consider, he presented it to Mayor Boswell and City Commissioner Larry Galbreath.
There was then established a large working committee to bring to fruition numerous Centennial Celebration plans. One of the highlights of the committee’s efforts was the bringing of a historic steam locomotive and passenger cars belonging to the Union Pacific Railroad. Concurrent with the Centennial activities, the society became active with the City Archives, both in collecting and organizing documents. Eventually a number of historic city subdivision plats and maps together with detailed real estate abstracts were placed in the Archive Room of the library.
The society had been working closely with the museum and received considerable support from its interim director Tom Wilson, who was also director of the city’s parks and recreation division. It came as a considerable shock when Wilson died suddenly in mid January 2005. In April 2005 the society again participated in Rio Fest. Working with the city the society was able to obtain a Texas Historical Commission marker for the former Harlingen Army Air Field and Harlingen Air Force Base. It was erected in front of the Harlingen Arts and Heritage Museum.
It also worked with this museum to host Fourth of July Celebrations and special Harlingen Heritage festivities. The theme of the July 2005 get-to-gether was a County Fair atmosphere coupled with patriotic themes. A large band of professional musicians,organized under the name Celebration Brass, provided a wonderful concert.
Early on the society recognized some of its weaknesses and worked to ameliorate them. These included low attendance at times, lack of community interest, enthusiasm, and knowledge of its history, too long meetings, lack of organization, and need to place speakers before conducting the business portion of the meetings. It reached out to the Tip O’ Texas Genealogy Society in June 2005 when it conducted a workshop titled “An Introduction to the Harlingen Historical Archives”.
The previous month George Gause, librarian of Pan Am’s Special Collection Room, gave the society a special program on “Basic Paper Preservation”.
