The Dayton Rotary Club had the opportunity to learn the history of the Tarver Abstract Company last week at the weekly meeting. Rotary Secretary Margie Poole introduced Charlotte Mercer, the guest speaker and program for the day.
“Tarver Abstract has been well known around Liberty County for many years. Believe it or not, the company has been in business for over 100 years. It was originally established in 1903 by Thomas Carey Tarver and his nephew Higdon Oscar Compton,” stated Mercer.
T.C. Tarver was born in 1846 in Tennessee and died on Sept. 21, 1925. He and his wife Fannie had two sons. Fannie sadly died six years after having her second son. T.C. moved in with his sister Mary E. Compton along with his two sons in 1903 to Liberty, Texas.
After T.C.’s first son died from tuberculosis during his service in World War I, he only had one heir left W. F. Tarver to leave his share of the company when he passed away in 1925. W.F. Tarver then sold his half interest to H.O. Compton’s nephew, Compton H. Smith, who became the full owner after the death of his uncle in 1957.
Compton Smith’s two daughters Patricia Dismukes and Carolyn Kuhn took over after Smith’s death and were the sole owners until 1984 when they sold to Charles Wiggins, E.R. Norwood, and Charles McGuire.
The Liberty County Title company was also purchased at the same time and merged with Tarver Abstract. The company sold in 2017 to Jeff Chance and Hall Henderson from Lufkin and they opened the Dayton office in 2019.
Mercer discussed with the Rotarians about various ways that title companies can help all citizens. She talked about undiscovered encumbrances, missing heirs, unknown easements along with boundary/survey disputes.
The 10 common title problems were also discussed which included: errors in public records, unknown liens, illegal deeds, undiscovered wills and false impersonation of previous owner. The Dayton Rotary Club asked Mercer lots of questions and thanked her for the wonderful program.