City of Edna

Edna, Did You Know?

Phone lines arrived in Edna in 1901 with Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone, but things were a bit different 125 years ago.

Phone numbers were very short – at first only one to three digits, later adding letters and more numbers as more homes and businesses got phones. Each town had a switchboard operator who received the incoming call and then patched it through to the number by plugging wires into corresponding places on the switchboard.

Charlie Hasdorff was the town’s first telephone operator. Mrs. Grace Hodges later served as the operator around the 1920s, as evidenced by a photograph of her at work. In addition to handling calls, switchboard operators were also responsible in the early years for alerting the town’s firefighters to respond to a fire.

The phone office was in a small frame house on S. Wells Street, just past City Motors. It later moved to a brick building by HEB, across the street from the old jail, now home to the Jackson County Chamber of Commerce.

By the 1940s, enough businesses and residents had telephones that small local phone books were printed. Included here are pictures of the eight-page 1942 Edna telephone book. By 1949-50, the book also contained street addresses.
- “The Cavalcade of Jackson County, Third Edition,” by I.T. Taylor, page 120.
- Photos courtesy of Mr. Roy Ortolon, Spunky Gerjes, and Jean Sky Sloan.

Edna, Did You Know?

In April 1939, city residents voted to make R.A. Drake the Mayor of Edna.
Drake, who had served two terms as a city commissioner, succeeded Fred Meador in office, after three two-year terms by Meador.

O.B. Fenner was elected to fill Drake’s commissioner position, and W.S. McCormick was elected to his fourth straight two-year term as the other city commissioner.

Drake, Fenner, and McCormick would win re-election to their positions in the April 1941 and April 1943 elections, as well. In doing so, McCormick served the City of Edna as a city commissioner for six consecutive terms, from 1933-1945.

- City of Edna Minutes, Feb. 1939-Dec. 1945
- Photo courtesy of the City of Edna

Are cars your thing?
Well, get your motor running, head out on the highway, and look for the antique car show on Main Street, part of the First Annual Flag City Celebration in downtown Edna from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Sat., June 13.
While you're talking restoration and admiring the cars and trucks on display, your family and friends can enjoy the domino tournament, cornhole tournament, live music, kiddie carnival and bounce houses, reptile display, historical display and trivia, free hotdogs and popcorn, and more. In addition, food trucks will be offering food and beverages for purchase.
Please note that Ed Linn Street from Twin Rivers Real Estate to the HEB Pharmacy will be closed to traffic beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday in order for the carnival rides to be unloaded and assembled, and that Main Street from the light at Wells to the light at Allen Street will be closed from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, contact City Hall at 361-782-3122.

Edna, Did You Know?

Community events and city meetings used to be held at the Civic Auditorium, built in 1909 by J.C. Traylor, Jr. a few blocks west of the courthouse square.

The large wooden building hosted dances and events for many years, including Teenville for local teens, the Lions Club, and City Council (then called the City Commission). The City Commission approved the auditorium to be used as a U.S.O. facility during World War II. Hurricane Carla badly damaged the auditorium in September 1961 and had to be demolished.

While the building no longer exists, its location is easy to find. In the late 1940s the city built a one-story brick building to house the fire department, police department, and city hall next to it on the southwest corner of Allen Street and Main Street. Now, where the Civic Auditorium used to be, the Edna Fire Department is located (next to the old city building) and the Edna Police Department is next door in the brick building that the Chamber of Commerce once occupied.
- “Edna History, Book No. 1,” page 11, by M.C. Shelby
- “The Cavalcade of Jackson County, Second Edition,” page 118, by I.T. Taylor
- Photos courtesy of Mr. Roy Ortolon, Johnny Dugger, L.K. Miller, and Janet Schade Mitchell

Edna, Did You Know?

Edna Ice and Light Co., Inc., was granted the rights in 1909 to erect electric light poles and wires throughout Edna, according to information from local historians M.C. Shelby in his “Edna History, Book No. 1” and I.T. Taylor in his “The Cavalcade of Jackson County,” both available in the Texana Museum.

The first electric lights had been brought to town the year prior, in 1908.

Telephones had arrived a decade earlier. Southwestern Telegraph and Telephone Co. was given permission to put in a line between Wharton and Edna in 1899. In 1901, the Southwestern Co. was permitted to “erect telephone poles and wires on the streets, alleys and public ways” in Edna, and Charlie Hasdorff was hired as Edna’s first telephone operator.

- “Edna History, Book No. 1,” page 10, by M.C. Shelby
- “The Cavalcade of Jackson County, Second Edition,” page 118, by I.T. Taylor
- Photos courtesy of Mr. Roy Ortolon and Brenda Novosad

Edna, Did You Know?

One of the earliest church buildings in the county still stands, not very far from where it was originally built.

The Texana Presbyterian Church was built in 1859 in the Greek Revival style, dedicated on March 30, 1860, and then moved to Edna in 1884 when most of the Texana residents moved to Edna to take advantage of the newly built railroad. The church was moved the seven miles into Edna by pulling it with a team of oxen over log rollers and was re-dedicated on Dec. 16, 1884, becoming the first congregation to organize in Edna.

The church thrived, adding Sunday school classes, a full-time minister and a parsonage, and eventually grew to the point of needing a larger space, leading to the construction of the J.W. Allen Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1909. The congregation named the new facility for Mr. J.W. Allen, who donated the money necessary to construct the new brick building, which still stands at the corner of W. Church Street and Hanover Street. The wooden building was used for other purposes.

The 1859 wooden church was later moved to Apollo Drive when the Presbyterian congregation moved a new facility on Apollo Drive in 1965 and changed its name to Edna Presbyterian Church. In 1984, the 1859 building was restored and re-dedicated by the Texana Heritage Society.

It was relocated again in 2001 to Brackenridge Park and Recreation Center, about a mile from where it had originally been built in Texana. The Brackenridge family, namesakes of the BRC, had helped to organize the original church in 1855.

The old wooden church underwent more restoration and a re-dedication on May 17, 2002, through the teamwork of the Jackson County Historical Commission and the Lavaca-Navidad River Authority. It is a recorded Texas Historic Landmark and is entered on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Old Texana Church is available to rent from the BRC for weddings and other events.

- “History of the Edna Presbyterian Church 150th Anniversary, Sept. 2005,” Edna Presbyterian Church and Mr. Roy Ortolon
- “Historic Texana Church” flyer, https://cdn.saffire.com/files.ashx?t=fg&rid=BrackenridgeEvents&f=Historic_Texana_Church(4).pdf&cb=7E623958
- Historic Texana Church, Brackenridge Recreation Center website, https://www.brackenridgepark.com/p/facilities/historic-texana-church
- Photos courtesy of Mr. Roy Ortolon and the Texana Museum

Looking for something to do now that the kids are out of school?
Mark your calendars for Sat., June 13. The First Annual Flag City Celebration will be held from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. in downtown Edna.
This free event will feature an antique car show, kiddie rides, cornhole, dominoes, historical trivia contest, live entertainment, historical displays, food, and more. Hotdogs and popcorn will be free, with food trucks on hand to sell other items.
Main Street will be closed from the light at Wells Street to the light at Allen Street, and Ed Linn Street will be closed from W. Houston Street by Twin Rivers Real Estate to Elm Street by the HEB Pharmacy.
Questions? Call City Hall at 361-782-3122.