Shelby County Today

March 3, 2020 - Focused Care of Center hosted a chili cook-off on February 28, 2020, and it was a tight competition between the participants.

As the chili was being judged and sampled, bowls were handed out to residents for them to enjoy.

After the judges tabulated their results Tina Hutto, Activity Director, announced the winners. They are as follows: 1st Place - Johnnie Perry; 2nd Place - Pattie Harkness; and Third Place - Cassandra McDaniel.

Guest judges included Bobby McCauley, Joey Hudnall and Marcus Hafford.

Holding the check (from left) are TVAS representatives Annette Alva, Secretary, and Tracy Lee, Administrator, and they are surrounded by members of the 50 Women of Impact who were present at the awards meeting.

February 28, 2020 Update - The total collected by 50 Women of Impact for the Timpson Ambulance Service was $10,300 which brings the total amount of monies the group has donated to $98,900!

February 20, 2020 - During their first meeting and award night of 2020 the 50 Women of Impact raised their total donated monies to nearly $100,000 when they voted to give the money collected in the first quarter of the year to the Timpson Volunteer Ambulance Service. A check for $9,000 plus was presented to the ambulance service and was accepted by Tracy Lee, Administrator, and Annette Alva, Secretary.

Lee presented the program describing the organization to the group of ladies. The Timpson Volunteer Ambulance Service (TVAS) is a non-profit and was started in 1977. It is the only free standing 100% volunteer EMS organization left operating in the state of Texas. It is not funded by any outside entities, such as cities, counties, or hospitals. TVAS operates solely on donations and monies collected from insurance on patients that they carry to the hospitals.

According to their application, TVAS is presently working on obtaining another ambulance to replace a 2004 ambulance that has 126,000 miles on it and to replace the tin siding on the ambulance building due to deterioration. TVAS houses its one ambulance and operates out of the same building which is 31 years old.

Even though the TVAS is a volunteer organization it has the same capabilities and obligations to its patients as any paid ambulance service. This includes the ability to serve patients with medical help and state required paperwork. TVAS also sponsors the Timpson Community EMS Training Program. This is a licensed school to teach EMRs and EMTs. This turns out state certified staff to go out and serve the surrounding cities and counties in Texas.

At the beginning of the meeting, a founding member of the 50 Women of Impact welcomed new members letting them know how the program works. Due to a smaller crowd she encouraged new members saying, "(We are) for busy women who want to make a difference in their community but have so many obligations that sometimes this meeting works with their schedule and sometimes it does not. So, we have members who will be here and then the next time we meet they will email their vote in because they have something else they need to do. We are glad you are all here and we are excited about what this year is. And if you've seen the things we've sent out, y'all, I am just blown away that this year we are going to hit 100,000 dollars! That is just crazy!" She finished by explaining the 50 Women of Impact stepped out on faith two years ago and boom - it worked.

The 50 Women of Impact group organized and held their first meeting in November of 2017 with the hopes of getting 50 women to give $100 each quarter for a combined contribution to an elected organization. The first meeting surpassed the 50 women with 94 inaugural members. The group has continued to grow and meet once a quarter to donate funds. Past recipients are the Shelby County Welfare Board; AgriLife Extension, Shelby Family Consumer Science program; Fannie Brown Booth Memorial Library; Boo's Battle Cancer Fund; Shelby County Outreach Ministries; Jon, Macy and Misty Bush Foundation; HOPE Community Medical to establish a Fund to Help with Medical Needs for Working People; Timpson Food for Thought Pantry; and Community Christian Services of Joaquin.

Including the $9,000 from this meeting, the total money donated by the 50 Women of Impact is $97,600 with more coming in!!!

February 27, 2020 - Gene Hutto, VFW 8904 Post Commander, presented Center High School teacher Nicholas Wheeler with his First Place framed certificate and check for $100. Wheeler was selected as the post Teacher of the Year for 2019-2020.

Gene Hutto, VFW 8904 Post Commander, presents Teacher of the Year awards
to Nicholas Wheeler (left)

Wheeler is a graduate of Panola College and Stephen F. Austin State University.  For the past five years, he has taught Business and Finance at Center high School. His role encompasses leading and developing future business leaders in America. Wheeler is married and has three children.

The Annexation of Texas to the Union, painting by Donald M. Yena.

February 19, 2020 - When Texans rose in armed revolt against Mexico, they did so with the sympathy and support of the people, if not the government of the United States. Texans were kinfolk; and the people of the nation east of the Sabine River sent them men, money and munitions. The Twin Sisters which constituted Sam Houston’s artillery at the battle of San Jacinto were a gift of the ladies of Cincinnati; the New Orleans Grays mingled their blood with that of the colonists in the slaughters of San Jacinto and Goliad. The government itself was not unfriendly on the unofficial side.

Had not John Quincy Adams done his best to buy Texas? Wasn’t the one move nearest and dearest to the heart of Andrew Jackson the acquisition of Texas?

As a consequence of these things, Texans naturally supposed that they would be welcomed into the Union of States, and the Constitutional Convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos adopted a resolution, to be later submitted too the people calling for annexation. This resolution was submitted to the people in November 1836 and it carried by a large margin.

In the meantime, the cause of Texas suffered. When the victory at San Jacinto was announced in the United States, there was a great cry for immediate recognition of the new republic. Congress was inundated by the appeals. Finally, to still the popular clamor, Henry Clay brought to the Senate from the Foreign Relations Committee a namby-pamby resolution to recognize Texas when and if it was determined that Texas had achieved a de facto government; in other words, if Texas could maintain herself independent, the United States would, at its’ leisure, investigate this status and if Texas was found to be independent, then recognition would be granted.

The South was hot for recognition and annexation; the North and East opposed. Recognition, when it came, was a political trick. In the final session of Congress, during a late night session, with many absent, the Senate passed a resolution for recognition; and in the House an amendment was offered to an appropriation bill to cover the expenses of a representative to the Republic of Texas. In the face of such an attitude, there is small wonder that Texas withdrew its offer.

In 1842, Sam Houston was inaugurated for his second term as president of the Republic. In his inaugural address, he extolled England and warned Texans not to expect help from the United States. He was however, beginning a series of diplomatic negotiations based on a foreign policy which was to be, as he wrote to his Secretary of State, Anson Jones, “as sharp-sighted as lynxes and as wary as foxes.” It was. Houston played both ends against the middle. Either Texas was to become a part of the United States, or it would have sufficient support from abroad to stand alone. He was not even frank with his old friend and patron, Andrew Jackson. Indeed, he played Jackson’s known hatred for England to the utmost. This roused Andrew Jackson and the South to the danger of an English foothold in the Southwest.

Meanwhile, John Tyler had become president. He was, for all practical purposes, a president without a party – he had angered his own party and was without support of the other. With nothing to lose, he came out strong for the annexation of Texas; apparently it was a personal desire to accomplish something brilliant for his country and win himself a place in history. This encouraged the Texans. Tyler continued to negotiate, and in 1844, a treaty of annexation was secretly signed. Texas was to come into the Union as a territory. As soon as the existence of the treaty was suspected, the United States was in an uproar. Being an election year, the smart politicians of the Senate smelled danger. The country was doing well, and in the long run, it gained by the rejection. But rejection threw Texas squarely in the middle of the presidential campaign. Texas was the burning question of the campaign and at the Democratic Convention the party split over the issue. In the end, Jackson’s influence carried the day. He devoted all his energies to writing letters in support of Polk and Texas.

Polk was elected by a narrow margin, and before he was inaugurated, Congress passed a resolution for the annexation of Texas. It was signed, as was fitting, by John Tyler on February 27, 1845. The Republic entered the United States as a full-fledged state; it retained title to its public lands; it retained the right to divide itself into five states if it wished. On December 29, 1845, the Congress formally voted to admit Texas into the Union and on February 19, 1846, President Anson Jones lowered the lone star flag at the capitol in Austin and muttered these words, “The Republic of Texas is no more.”