Monday, July 8, 2013

Place Names: Westland Place

Exploring in Westland Place, I became curious about some of the street names in the neighborhood.
While researching another topic, I came across a story in the Kerrville Mountain Sun July 24, 1940, which recounted the origins of some street names in Kerrville.  According to the story, Elm Street was named for the elms in the area, Lois Street is for Lois Fawcett Moore, Florence for Miss Florence Galbraith, and Lewis for Danforth Lewis, former owner of the development.
Since the newspaper said "The names of Circle Drive, Woodlawn, and Center are obvious", I will leave you, dear reader, to determine their meaning.
Left unmentioned are the following streets which according to the county tax records are also in Westland Place: Stephen Street, Milton Street, Rees Street, Stonewall Street, Josephine Street, Lucille Street, Ruth Street, Pershing Street, Lee Street, Patton Street.  These were named for people--but who?

The property was purchased from D. R. Lewis, and the original developers were Edward Galbraith, W. A. Fawcett and J. L. Pampell, E. H. Prescott and Hal Peterson being added later. I assumed that these were mostly the names of their family members, so I turned to census and cemetery records.

So here is what I have learned:
Florence Galbraith was the sister of Edward Galbraith, Lois Fawcett was the daughter of W. A. Fawcett,  Danforth Lewis, a native of New York, sold his farm for development just three years before he died.
Josephine Street was named for another daughter of W. A. Fawcett, Lucille Street for the wife of Milton Pampell. Both Eugene H. Prescott and D. L. Lewis had daughters named Ruth.  Ruth Street could have been named for either, but most likely for Ruth Prescott.  Just to buck the trend, Milton Street was named for the son of J. L. Pampell.  I do not know how Patton Street got its name.
Rees is an old Kerr County family. I have not been able to determine precisely why this name was chosen.  Pershing may have been chosen to memorialize the World War I hero who had recently died.
Stonewall and Lee MAY memorialize Civil War generals.  Of course they could also identify a road laid along a stone wall and someone named Lee.

UPDATE:  An article in the Oct 30, 1947 Kerrville Mountain Sun says Lee Street was named for Judge Lee Wallace and Jackson Street was named for Dr. J. D. Jackson.  Lee Wallace was County Judge at the time Westland first developed.

Can anyone add to this?

To learn about other subdivision in Kerrville go here.


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