The Great Lakes whaleback fleet was the revolutionary result of Capt. Alexander McDougall's attempts to improve conventional ship design. Between 1888 and 1898, 43 whalebacks were launched and became forerunners of the bulk fleet on the Great Lakes today. Thirty-nine whalebacks were built in Superior-Duluth, and most of them were launched from a site about one mile west of here, now the Fraser Shipyards.

The S.S. Meteor was launched at Superior in 1896 as the Frank Roclifeller to carry iron ore. Later, as the South Park, she carried such diversified cargoes as grain and automobiles. In 1943 she was converted to an oil tanker and renamed Meteor. She has been preserved as a memorial to her builder and a tribute to Superior.

As a boy, Franklin D. Roosevelt came to Superior with his father to watch the launching of a whaleback. In his enthusiasm to get a good view, he was swept into the slip by waves. A member of the Superior Fire Department rescued him before he reached deep water.

At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt called upon America to rearm. Increasing the number of submarines became a goal. Because existing shipbuilders could not meet production schedules, the U.S. Navy approached Charles C. West, president of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, and requested that his firm build submarines.

Government contracts led to the expansion and modernization of the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company facilities. Workers and engineers rapidly developed innovative construction methods, including side-launching of submarines. Ultimately, the Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company employed some 7,000 workers in three shifts, seven days a week.

U.S.S. Peto, launched in 1942, became the first of twenty eight fleet submarines built at Manitowoc. The submarines were towed to New Orleans via the Illinois-Mississippi Waterway using a special floating dry dock. U.S.S. Rasher, a Manitowoc submarine, sank 99,901 tons of Japanese shipping, the second highest total for an American submarine. Four Manitowoc submarines, Golet, Kete, Lagato, and Robalo, along with 336 officers and enlisted men, were lost during the war.

When the northwest extension of the Burkburnett oil field opened in 1919, prospectors thronged this area. Bridgetown sprang up at the Texas end of a mile-long Red River toll bridge built for oil field traffic. It became the largest and wealthiest of 12 communities that mushroomed in this area during rivalry among major oil companies and independent producers. Lease values rose from $10 to $20,000 an acre. A city of tents, shanties and a few substantial structures, Bridgetown had a long main street with a Mission church at one end and a saloon at the other. Its post office opened July 15, 1920. The population in the early 1920s was estimated at 3,500 to 10,000. Litigation over riverbed oil rights caused the U.S. Supreme Court to station a receiver in the town. He was Frederick A. Delano, uncle of future president Franklin D. Roosevelt. With aid from Texas Rangers, Delano and other leaders invoked law and order. In a few years oil yields diminished, and the jail, theaters, dance halls, and gambling houses vanished. By 1929 only 100 inhabitants remained. By 1931 the bridge was down, the post office closed in 1935. Afterward the site of the makeshift oil "capital" reverted to range and agricultural uses.

Born in Galveston in 1887, Carmelo Bertolino was the son of Salvatore Bertolino (d.1891) and Rosalia Trapani Bertolino (d.1942), who immigrated to Texas from Palermo, Italy in the early 1880s. Salvatore Bertolino drowned in Galveston Bay when Carmelo was three years old.

Carmelo married Mabel Cousins (1894-1937) in 1911 and became the head of a large family. He worked as a fisherman and as a baker at Graugnard's Bakery. He was an athletic man who swam in the Gulf every day until he was past 70 years of age. A volunteer lifesaver, he is credited with saving more than 500 people from drowning during his lifetime. The tragedy of that type of death had touched his own family; in addition to his father, he lost a brother and a son to accidental drownings in Galveston waters.

Carmelo Bertolino was in Italy during the disastrous 1900 storm, but during the 1915 hurricane he was able to save many lives. His heroic efforts later were noted in official citations from the Texas Legislature and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. A monument in his honor was erected shortly after his death, and the Galveston City Council named 10th Street at its intersection with the seawall "Bertolino's View."

As part of the New Deal's efforts to offer unemployed workers jobs on public projects, President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United States Congress created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in March 1933. Three months later, Company 1814 was organized in Fort Logan, Colorado, to serve in reforestation and other conservation efforts. After transfers to Groveton and Austin, Texas, the company was transferred to Linden on June 4, 1937. The CCC enrollees in Linden established their camp here on the nearby hillside. Working closely with the U.S. Forest Service, they built 35 miles of roads with 25 bridges, ran 147 miles of telephone line, and spent many hours fighting and suppressing forest fires in the area. While living here, the men also landscaped their campground with flowers and grass. In April 1939, they held an open house for the community during which hundreds of residents came out to learn of the accomplishments of the local CCC camp. On October 4, 1939, company 1814 was transferred to Arizona, and the camp in Linden was abandoned. Some physical evidence of their headquarters, including rock walls, cabin foundations and equipment, remains at the site. Their legacy stands as an important part of the heritage of Cass County and the East Texas forest industry.

Born in Tennessee on Jan. 6, 1882, Samuel Taliaferro Rayburn came to north Texas with his parents in 1887. His political career began in 1906 with his election to the Texas House of Representatives, where he was Speaker of the 1911-13 Session.

Rayburn was elected to the U.S. Congress from the 4th District in 1912, the first of his 25 consecutive terms there. Rising quickly to a leadership position, he was chairman of the Democratic Party caucus in 1921. As head of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee (1931-37) and then Majority Leader (1937-40), Rayburn sponsored much of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal legislation.

On Sept. 16, 1940 Rayburn was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives. Except for the 80th (1947-49) and 83rd (1953-55) Congresses, when he was Minority Leader, Rayburn held the speakership until 1961, longer than anyone in the nation's history. A party leader as well, he was chairman of the Democratic National Conventions of 1948, 1952, and 1956.

Rayburn died on Nov. 16, 1961, and Presidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, and John F. Kennedy, along with Lyndon B. Johnson, were among national figures at his funeral. He is buried in Willow Wild Cemetery.

A native of Walker County, Minnie Fisher earned a pharmacy degree at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1901. She worked in a Huntsville drugstore and married attorney B.J. Cunningham in 1902. They moved to Galveston in 1907, and she later lived in Austin and Washington, D.C. A leader in woman suffrage organizations, she was president of the Texas Equal Suffrage Association and helped found the National League of Women Voters. In 1928 she became the first Texas woman to run for the U.S. Senate. Her campaign was unsuccessful, and the year also was marred by the death of her husband. Her career turned toward public relations for government agencies, including the Texas Agricultural Extension Service and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. An activist in the National Democratic Party, she counted President Franklin D. Roosevelt among the many friends who fondly called her by her nickname, "Minnie Fish". In 1944 she ran for Governor of Texas against Coke Stevenson, placing second among nine candidates in the primary. She built a home near this site in 1946 and continued to work in Democratic Party politics until her death at age 82.

The community of Dorchester was founded on the railroad during the early years of the twentieth century. Two one-room country schools were established to provide for the education of the children of the families who moved to the area. The Dorchester School came into being about 1907 with the consolidation of these schools.

Between 1913 and 1915, a two-story brick schoolhouse was constructed at this site. Its auditorium also served as a location for community gatherings. Under U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt's WPA program, a new school building was constructed in 1940. Its gymnasium served as athletic facility, auditorium, and social center, with the Halloween carnival as an annual highlight. The high school was closed in 1949, but the Dorchester School continued to provide classes for elementary grade students until consolidation with the Howe School District in 1959.

For more than 50 years, the Dorchester School played a central and vital role in the town. Some of its graduates returned to the school to become educators, and many have remained in Dorchester to become community leaders.

Thomas J. Rogers (1832-1918), a native of Mississippi, came to Jefferson in 1856. After serving in the Civil War, where he attained the rank of captain, he returned here and in 1868 established a mercantile business in this block. In partnership with his son Ben F. Rogers, he opened private banking facilities in the store in 1896. Eight years later the private bank received a Federal charter, as the Rogers National Bank.

Following the death of his father, Ben opened the Rogers State Bank and Trust at another site in this block. It closed in 1928 and was succeeded by the Jefferson Bank and Trust. Later incorporated as the Jefferson State Bank, it remained in operation until 1932. The Commercial National Bank, started in 1907, was also located here until 1920.

During the economic depression of the 1930s, the Rogers National Bank remained sound. It was one of the first institutions to reopen without a special examination after President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1933 closing of the nation's banks.

A reorganization in 1950 resulted in the formation of the First National Bank of Jefferson. The present facility, constructed on the site of the original bank, is modeled after T.J. Rogers' building.

Acknowledged world leader in petroleum conservation. A third generation Texan. Left college for World War I, earning battlefield promotion to Lieutenant Colonel -- youngest in the U.S. Army. In 1930 gained national recognition as crusading Amarillo Mayor. Appointed in 1932 to Railroad Commission of Texas, won successive elective terms, chairman many years. Began Commission duty by enforcing proration in East Texas during world's greatest oil boom. Backed by Texas Rangers, closed off non-complying wells. His previous experience was in law practice, hotel ownership; quickly learned oil and gas engineering principles, along with regulation and conservation. In 1934, under advice of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, led in founding Interstate Oil Compact Commission. Represented the U.S. at World Petroleum Congress in Paris in 1937. Went into Army in World War II, but returned to Texas on presidential order to insure oil supplies for Allied military forces. In 1951 was awarded American Petroleum Institute Gold Medal for Distinguished Achievement. An international authority on oil -- key to world trade -- he had great economic influence.