The Olney Enterprise (Olney, Tex.), Vol. 104, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 24, 2013 Page: 4 of 12
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Opinion
4 - THE OLNEY ENTERPRISE
THURSDAY, JANUARY 24, 2013
Mindi’s Message
ByMindi Kimbro
Banquet time!
It’s Chamber of Commerce banquet and
auction time again! If you’ve never been to
one of these events, you’re missing out. It’s a
time for everyone in the community to come
together, enjoy good company, good food
and go to war over a ton of silent auction
items - all for a good cause. Proceeds from
the silent auction go toward helping OHS
seniors in the form of the David H. Penn
M emo rial Scho larship.
I came to Olney after Mr. Penn passed
away, so I never got to meet him. However,
I have heard a lot about him. The one, com-
mon thread in every story I’ve heard about
David Penn is that he loved this co mm unity.
He was involved in everything he could
get involved in, all the while putting out a
newspaper every single week.
The Chamber of Commerce scholarships
could not be named for a better person.
Come out on Saturday and throw your sup-
port behind this cause in ho no r o f a man who
would probably be there himself, if he could.
Well, it happened. Little Laney has moved
onto new syllables. We’ve heard some “Y”
sounds and some “ Ba” and “ Pa” sounds and,
finally, “ Ma ma.”
It happened Monday while I was cooking
in the kitchen. Laney, who still cannot crawl,
was rolling around in the floor and stopped
to look at the vent to the heating unit, then
hollered “Ma ma!”
I heard it and hollered for my husband,
who confirmed I wasn’t hallucinating. She
said it a couple more times that night, much
to my own personal joy and happiness.
Now that “Da da” and “Ma ma” are out
of the way, who knows what sounds will
come out next?
North Texas Tales
By Gay Schlittler Storms
McCleskey discovery aids WWI victory
William Knox Gordon was an unlikely
person to help the Allies win World War I.
He never left American shores, but his
discovery of the McCleskey No. I well
indirectly aided war efforts during a pre-
carious time.
“The discovery brought fame because it
wiped out a critical oil shortage - allow-
ing the Allies to float to victory on a wave
of oil,” said Jeane Pruett of the Ranger
Historical Preservation Society.
Not only did the McCleskey’s discovery
help the Allies win World War I in 1917, it
saved farmers and ranchers from a slump
brought on by years of severe drought
and boll weevils.
On Oct. 17,1917, at a depth of 3,432 feet,
McCleskey Well No. 1 hit pay dirt and
roared in with an estimated daily flow of
1,600 barrels of oil.
The McCleskey No. 1 touched off one of
the greatest booms in petroleum history.
First, the oil well put Ranger at the top of
oil boom towns.
The quiet rural community of 1,000
erupted with every kind of activity and
exploded to 30,000 people. Small farmers
became millionaires. Four railroads raced
to complete lines.
If Gordon had taken the advice of
trained geologists and followed conven-
tional drilling practices, the oil reserve
would not have been discovered when it
Gordon was a self-taught geologist and
mine explorer whose real job was run-
ning the coal company town of Thurber.
He knew that Thurber’s days as a coal
town were limited.
Production couldn’t compete with that
in the Eastern coal fields. He started look-
ing for more coal and patented several
technical improvements for the mines.
His explorations led him to believe that
oil and gas deposits existed west of
Thurber.
The Texas and Pacific Coal Company
did uncover oil and gas deposits west of
Thurber.
After some failures, Gordon discovered
oil a few miles northwest of Thurber near
Straw n in 1915.
This event raised the hopes of area
ranchers, farmers and businessmen strug-
gling to survive.
The company allowed him to continue
oil exploration despite the protests of ge-
ologists. Oil expectations rose then fell
when more test drillings turned up dry
holes.
Desperate local leaders sought out Gor-
don to help them continue the search for
oil. Contrary to popular opinion, Gordon
believed oil lay much deeper within the
earth than the previous drillings.
Gordon agreed to drill to a depth of
3,500 feet, and on July 2, 1917, contrac-
tor Warren Wagner began drilling on J.H.
McCleskey’s farm. The well was plugged
on May 18, 1920.
JH. McCleskey Well No. 1 gained Rang-
erworldwide fame as the town whose oil
wiped out dangerous oil shortages, al-
lowing the Allies to “float to victory on a
wave of oil.”
Gordon retired from T&P in the early
1920s and became a highly successful in-
dependent oil and gas producer.
©Imxy ^Enterprise
A MediaNews Group Newspaper USPS 408-020
TU
TEXAS PRESS
ASSOCIATION
Press
Association
Mindi Kimbro Tommye Leemann
Editor General Manager
Karen Harris William Dean Singleton
Advertising Mgr. President
Robert L. Krecklow
Publisher/Vice-President
a \mMediaNews Group newspaper
The Olney Enterprisi
Thursday, by Lake Country Newsf
Street, P. O. Box 577, Olney,Texa:
5558, or Fax (940) 564-3992. Periodicals post
Olney, Texas. Subscription rates:InYoung and Adjoining
Counties, $23.99per year; elsewhere in Texas, $27.99 per
year; outside Texas, $33.99 per year.
e-mail: editor @ olney enterprise.com
website: www.olneyenterprise.com
, 213 E. Main
mntry Newspapers
, Olney,Texas 76374, (940) 564-
2. Period
Display ad deadline: Monday, 3 p.m.
Classified ad deadline: Tuesday, noon
changes to The Olnei
POSTMASTER:
’ Enterprise, P. O.
Box 577, Olney. Texas 76374-0577
’exas Pres
n of Amei
Police Beat
By OPD Chief Barry Roberts
Plan ahead for safety at home
As the weather begins to warm up you
will notice more people moving about
our community.
Most will be wonderful citizens who are
law abiding people, but the criminal ele-
ment will also be stirring around. I would
like to share some safety tips to guard
against thieves.
Visibility is a key factor for thieves. If
they believe they can get into and out of
your property without being seen, your
property is at high risk. Make plans to
light up the dark areas around your place.
Trim your hedges below your windows.
Consider surveillance cameras inside and
directly around your house and garage
and other buildings.
Opportunity and accessibility are other
key considerations for thieves. Make it
difficult for thieves to access your prop-
erty to discourage them. Have solid core
doors with strong dead bolt locks in-
stalled at all entrances of your home. Use
good quality chains and padlocks to se-
cure gates.
A gate is only secure if it is closed and
locked. The key words here are “heavy
duty chains” and “locks.”
I hear folks talking in stores and restau-
rants to friends and they say, “The lock
is just hanging in the chain. Open it and
come on in.”
If I hear it, so will other people. Close it
and lock it.
Another good tip is have movement-
sens ore d spotlights installed at your en-
trance ways. If you are planning an ex-
tended trip have the post office hold your
mail and stop delivery of your newspa-
pers.
Finally, call your Olney Police Depart-
ment and let us know when you will be
away and we will place your property on
close patrol. Be cautious and plan ahead.
Life Support System
By Steve Goodier
How to be happy for a lifetime
Someone said this about happiness:
To be happy for an hour — take a nap.
To be happy for a day — go shopping.
To be happy for a week — take a vacation.
To be happy for a month — get married.
To be happy for a year — inherit a fo rtune.
To be happy for a lifetime — help others.
All right -1 don’t agree with everything
on that list.
But I believe the author is exactly right
about how to be happy for the rest of your
life. Lasting contentment, the most satisfy-
ing kind of happiness, can always be found
in helping others.
And it’s a secret that many people have
never discovered.
Marion Preminger stumbled upon it and
wrote about where lasting happiness is to
be found in her autobiography All I Want
Is Everything.
Born in Hungary in 1913, Marion was
raised in a castle, surrounded by wealth,
servants and the notoriety of an aristo-
cratic upbringing.
At a Viennese ball, she met a handsome
young man, the son of an Italian doctor.
They rushed into a marriage that lasted
only a year.
She returned to Vienna to embark on a
career of acting.
There she fell in love with the German
director Otto Preminger. They married
and she followed him to America where he
began a promising career as a Hollywood
movie director.
But her new Hollywood lifestyle could
not sustain her marriage and Preminger
eventually divorced her.
Marion returned to Europe to live the
life of a Parisian socialite until 1948. Then
everything changed when she read that
Dr. Albert Schw eitz er w as visiting Euro pe
from his home in Africa.
She determined to meet with the notable
missionary doctor.
She first encountered Schweitzer doing
one of the things he loved to do best while
visiting Europe — playing a church organ
for his own enjoyment. He invited her to
dine with him.
After the meal, Marion knew she had
finally found what she'd been looking for.
She accompanied Schweitzer every day
during the remainder o f his Euro pean visit.
He invited Marion to come back to Africa
with him and work as an untrained staff
member in the Lamberene hospital.
She left her life of status and ease and
moved to Africa. Once there, the girl
who was raised like a princess became a
servant.
She changed bandages, bathed bodies
and fed lepers. She gave her life away to
the poor and, in the midst of it, found the
happiness she'd craved for so long.
It was Albert Schweitzer who asserted,
"One thing I know: the only ones among
you who will be really happy are those
who will have sought and found how to
serve."
However, wherever and whomever we
choose to help is unimportant. There are
those in need everywhere. But when we
figure out how to sincerely help other
people, we'll have also learned how to be
happy for a lifetime.
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Kimbro, Mindi. The Olney Enterprise (Olney, Tex.), Vol. 104, No. 47, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 24, 2013, newspaper, January 24, 2013; Olney, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth837060/m1/4/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Olney Community Library.