Opinion

The surname or last name “Parten” has been a common one in Madison County history, though it seems there aren’t near as many Partens here lately as a hundred years ago. Across the county, there are 68 tombstones inscribed with it as either a family name or maiden name. It doesn’t appear that they are all blood-kin, but a good portion are.

I write these pieces on behalf of Madison County Museum and Madison County Historical Commission. With the latter currently working towards publishing Volume 3 of local history, I’m hoping to inspire you to start writing your part! Last week I wrote about some unforgettable neighbors from when I lived within Madisonville’s city limits, but todays are from the Laceola community, where I’ve lived the biggest part of my life.

The Madisonville FFA have been competing in multiple Area IX CDE (Career Development Events) contests since March 30th. Several teams will be advancing to the State competitions in the coming weeks which will be held in multiple cities across Texas.

I write these essays on behalf of Madison County Historical Commission and Madison County Museum, to keep both in your thoughts. The historical commission is currently urging folks to write essays for an upcoming Volume 3 of local history.

We often complain about things we don’t have in Madison County, but we’ve always had plenty of weather to discuss! On December 2, 1921, the home of Mr. and Mrs.

Recently Barbara Tibbett’s Wilson called to add to my information on women firsts. She confided, “When I was a girl, 4-H Club here was for boys only.

March, Women’s History Month, continues. The women below were not first doing anything like last week’s subjects, but these did more than their share. I chose alphabetical order to avoid playing favorites starting and ending.

March is Women’s History Month, and I apologize. I’m late, but this is important to me. When I was in school, history books probably had 10- or 20-men’s names for every one woman’s name. In my opinion and for way too long, women were not considered to be capable of important jobs or recognition. However, it seems to me that we have almost always performed the most important work possible, that of raising the next generations! We’ve done that and much more!