For the 11th year in a row, the Liberty County Historical Commission has been honored with a Texas Historical Commission Distinguished Service Award. This award recognizes county historical commissions that demonstrate exceptional service to preserve the heritage of Texas.
Of the 254 Texas counties, only 83 received a Distinguished Service Award this year.
During recognition of the achievement by Liberty County Commissioners Court on Tuesday, June 13, LCHC Commission Chair Linda Jamison explained all of the work that the small group accomplished over the last year, including the unveiling ceremonies for two new historical markers, surveying cemeteries, and hosting a walking tour of historic sites in downtown Liberty.
In order to qualify for the DSA award, the Commission had to create three new projects. This year, those projects included a youth history project and pop-up exhibits that showed some aspect of Liberty County history. The pop-up panels were displayed at schools, community centers, libraries and other public facilities.
“Some of the subject matter included the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps), the Mexican prisoner of war camp and the World War II German prisoner of war camp. Another exhibit, which was actually last year’s but we kept it going this year, was early agriculture in Liberty County,” said Jamison.
LCHC inventories National Register properties and recorded Texas landmark designations.
“We monitor physical conditions of cemeteries in our County, as well as survey and inventory those cemeteries. We participated this year with the THC on a special project to photograph and submit other information on recorded Texas Historic Landmark designations and will go up on their website on the atlas,” said Jamison.
LCHC also helps when new infrastructure projects are going in, such as a new water tower or pipeline, to ensure that these are not being built on old cemeteries.
“We send volunteers out to make sure that there are no old cemeteries there, that it’s not listed as a historic site and there’s not an old historic building. Most recently, I attended a meeting with TxDOT (Texas Department of Transportation) and other interested parties because of the widening of Highway 90. So, there’s a lot of work to be done in that regard. But those are things probably that you don’t know,” she said.
The LCHC holds quarterly meetings at the Hartel Building in Liberty. These meetings are open to the public and are always of interest to local historians. Information on upcoming meetings is posted on local news websites and the LCHC Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/libertycountyhistoricalcommission