Waco State Home TX5693

In 1919, the 36th Texas Legislature established a "state home for dependent and neglected children" in Waco to provide these children with care, training, and education. The Waco State Home, as it later was renamed, officially opened in 1922. Located on a hill that then overlooked the city of Waco, the campus was situated on land that had been part of Camp MacArthur, an early 20th Century Army training camp. Two brick dormitories were constructed to house the children, although additional facilities were built as needed. During the late 1930s, enrollment reached nearly 400 children. Houseparents provided supervision for those who lived on campus. Until the mid-1950s, the Waco State Home operated as an Independent School District to provide an education for dependent and neglected children. The home also managed a farm on the property, producing much of the food consumed by the residents. Its yields included dairy products, vegetables, and livestock feed. Until 1979, when the facility was closed, the Waco State Home provided care, training, and education to hundreds of needy children during their formative years, many of its former students have become active citizens of communities throughout the state.

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Civilian Public Service PA310
During World War II, some 12,000 men who were classified as conscientious objectors to war -- about fifteen percent of them from Pennsylvania -- served in non-military occupations across the United States. Under the leadership of Mennonite, Quaker, and Church of the Brethren agencies, they were engaged in mental health care and medical experiments, in forestry and on dairy farms, and in other important civic projects.

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East Birmingham AL276
1991 Founded in 1886 on 600 acres of land, East Birmingham was an agricultural area consisting primarily of dairy farms extending to the present Birmingham airport. The East Birmingham Land Company that developed the area was formed by local industrialists who proposed sites for manufacturing plants, employee housing, and a streetcar line linking them to Birmingham. East Birmingham was annexed to the City of Birmingham in 1910. In the decades after 1886, industrial enterprises and working-class housing sprang up on terrain crisscrossed by railroad lines and intersected by Village Creek. Plants made patterns, stove, lumber, brick, steam engines, and foundry and machined products. Early companies still in existence include Hardie-Tynes (1895), Stockham (1903), McWane (1922), Steward Machine (1905), and O'Neal (1923). Residents and industries drank from Village Creek and used its waters to grow crops and cool machinery. Early housing subdivisions included Klondyke (1902), Lincoln City (1903), and Greenwood (1903), where many of the homes were owner occupied. An influx of rural Southerners bringing their hopes for a better life to the great industrial city of Birmingham generated housing homes in 1913-15 and 1924-28. East Birmingham became a working-class neighborhood whose streets were graced with a diversity of housing types seldom seen in other industrial communities. Through the years, the East Birmingham community has been challenged by noise from the Birmingham airport, construction of an interstate highway, and the seasonal flooding of Village Creek, all of which led to the demolition of a great number of early houses. Yet, the East Birmingham neighborhood remains. This marker is erected in the longtime commercial district along 10th Avenue North, to commemorate the working men and women who founded East Birmingham.

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Diamond Valley NV82
The first known explorer of Diamond Valley was Colonel John C. Frémont, who mapped the area to aid western migration in 1845. Before Frémont, tribes of Shoshone and Paiute Indians long had gathered nature's bounty here. Colonel J.H. Simpson mapped a route through the valley in 1859. The Simpson route, through the north end of the valley, immediately became the Pony Express route from 1860-1861. The Overland telegraph replaced the Pony Express and also crossed the valley. Early freight toll roads were operated across the valley as lead and silver mining camps boomed in the 1860's. Needs of the mining camps gave rise to a limited livestock an dairy industry. In 1957, a large underground lake was tapped to supply water for irrigation.

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The Winters' Ranch (Rancho Del Sierra) NV94
(Rancho Del Sierra) This large carpenter-Gothic style structure, completed about 1864, was the ranch home of Theodore and Maggie Winters and their seven children. Originally this area was settled by Mormons, and the ranch was purchased from Mormons by Winters and his brother, from the proceeds of the Comstock. Theodore Winters immediately set out to enlarge his property and built the mansion you see. The ranch, at one time, consisted of around 6,000 acres. Winters raised outstanding race horses and raced them here. He also had a large dairy operation, raised beef cattle, work horses and sheep. Theodore Winters was active in politics, being elected territorial representative in 1862.

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Arthurdale WV40
Established 1933-34 under Federal Homestead Act, one of several model planned-communities nationwide, and a pet project of Eleanor Roosevelt, to assist unemployed through self-sufficient farming and handicrafts. Town built on 2,400 acres, included 165 homes on 4-acre plots; schools; chicken and dairy farms; furniture, pottery, metal and textile shops; a store, community hall and an inn.

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