Cass County Genealogical Society has published 48 years of its journal. Recently, that bulletin was named second best in the state by the Texas State Genealogical Society.
"We were up against a journal from another society with its color and magazine style and which usually wins year after year," said Evan Evans, editor and producer of the local Cass County bulletin.
"Ours has always been in black and white with a paperback cover and stapled, but it's usually 40 to 45 pages long, and we work to make it readable," Evans said.
Since 2017, the bulletin has been a quarterly with spring, summer, winter and fall editions. Some 75 are printed and are available for $5 each with society members getting two free as part of their $20 membership dues. The bulletin can also be mailed to out-of-town people.
Evans credits the help he gets from genealogical society members George Frost and Dan Wimberly for both writing and production. The bulletin's contents are of genealogical research, families, larger stories and unforgettable happenings.
"This was our first time to enter the contest since I've been involved, and I think the judges noticed we make our presentations interesting and as big as possible since we are serving people who are usually older."
Evans said he is a member of the Texas State Historical Society which often finds Cass County Bulletin articles interesting as well.
As an example of the bulletin's content, Evans and Frost were pictured recently with a copy of the bulletin and a story concerning the late Mabel Bryan Morriss of Douglassville. The article was written by Evans. In summary form, that article is as follows:
Mabel Bryan Morriss
... driving force
Mabel Bryan Morriss was a driving force in the creation of the Bowie-Cass Electric Cooperative. She served as secretary-treasurer for 40 years and was also mayor of Douglassville.
She was the widow of J.S. "Po Boy" Morriss, who will be remembered as a Douglasssville merchant and owner of a horse and mule auction.
Mabel was a slight, pleasant East Texas lady with limitless hope for the future, and one who braved "economically unfeasible" arguments about the cooperative.
"Ask employees about securing the cooperative, and they'll say, 'Mabel Morriss. She did it,'" Evans wrote.
It all started in May of 1935 when Morriss read of the newborn Rural Electrification Administration (REA) and its offer to finance electricity for anybody who could qualify.
It would be an unblazed trail ... with heartaches and rebuffs.
Mabel traveled the backroads of two counties for miles to talk electrification. She wrote her first letter Oct. 25, 1935, to the Works Projects Administration office in Marshall, Texas. They referred her to the REA in Washington, D.C.
Thus began 10 years of dealing. The project was turned down repeatedly by REA administrators. The reason? The area was "submarginal," the people had no reliable year-round income and would be too poor to pay for electricity. Even the Cass County agent was opposed to the project, or at least not in favor.
Mabel's first break came when REA sent an agent to visit the area and firmly said, "You haven't done enough. If you don't get some information to us within a week, your project is dead."
Until that time, Mrs. Morris had sent in primarily descriptive material, having been given no instructions otherwise. Now she had something to go on. Within the week, she had statements from every banker that the farmers of the county had bank accounts, year-round income from milk and other farm products and could pay for electricity.
She signed up the required three people per mile. All within the week.
On this basis, John Carmody approved the project in August, 1937.
After the first loan was approved, the incorporators cut out 12 miles of unsettled Cass County and joined small but more densely populated Morris County with more people and which had requested to join. The three counties gave the co-op its first name: M-B-C Electric Cooperative. Upon filing papers, a full name had to be given instead of initials and thus Bowie-Cass was substituted since the two had been project originators.
At the first annual meeting, it was decided that the head office be in Douglassville in honor of Mrs. Morris. The first office was set up in a tiny frame building right in front of Mrs. Morriss' home.
Then, there was a move to transfer the office to Naples since there was no phone available in Douglassville. Mrs. Morriss seemed about to lose the office. She donated two acres of her own homesite for a permanent office. She went home and told her husband Po Boy, "I gave away the orchard."
In February, 1929, the first lines were energized. The first billing went out to 24 members for more than 5,000 kilowatt-hours carried over 124 miles of line. The total billing was $553.01. Mrs. Morriss lived to see the co-op size double many times until her retirement in 1978.
She recalled that when the life of Bowie-Cass hung in the balance, one of the first applications went out to W.T. Hammock, and he pledged to use six lights, an iron and a radio. How grateful Mrs. Morriss said she was.
Evans concludes his article by noting it was the early 1950s before electricity reached all parts of Cass County.
Bowie-Cass Co-Op currently serves 35,152 meters with 6,073 miles of line. Its territory includes portions of Bowie, Cass, Franklin, Morris, Red River and Titus counties.
George Frost, left, and Evan Evans hold a copy of the Cass County Genealogical Society bulletin which has won second place in statewide judging. The page is turned to a story about Mabel Bryan Morris and her role in establishing the Bowie-Cass County Co-op. (photo by Neil Abeles)
Cass County’s genealogical society is proudly that of the Atlanta Public Library as well. (photo by Neil Abeles)
Genealogical volunteers Carolyn Addinton, left, and Cathi Braley take part in a work day for the Cass County Genealogical Society. (photo by Neil Abeles)