INTRO: Meet Georgetown Changemakers and Explore our Hidden MoreStories
Who are the people who made our community strong and vibrant over the years? Who built the crucial cornerstones of any healthy community: educating children, starting hospitals, running businesses, and fighting for measures that made Georgetown residents—all of us—happier, healthier, and more empowered to make our community better? Who helps make our community rise?
So many who made Georgetown and Williamson County rise higher are hidden from our public history—passed over and forgotten as were many who were women or people of color. Out of 200-plus historical markers in Georgetown, only ONE commemorates a woman and tells her story, and only a few commemorate people of color. Williamson County markers echo that pattern. Doesn’t it seem like we need MORE stories to share with all?
Let’s bring them into our public history! Let’s shine a grateful and well-deserved spotlight on their transformational and indelible contributions!
We’ll look at individuals, but we’ll also applaud the many, many, many people who do some of the most important jobs of our lives: Taking care of us when we need help or just doing the stuff that too often we take for granted: who cooks when we feel hungry; who keeps businesses and parks clean; who takes away our trash and keeps the power going.
Thanks to all who did and do our most important jobs!
Here’s just one example: A 1976 page from the Williamson County Sun showing all the people who made sure all the elderly people at the Wesleyan Retirement Home were taken care of as we wish all older people were. That large retirement home on University and Church Street closed after 50-some years and the Wesleyan network of elder facilities has blossomed to care for thousands of Georgetown older people. A big hats-off to all who continue to care for them daily!
Jessie Daniel Ames
Jessie Daniel Ames is one whose story is still low profile. She was instrumental in organizing Williamson women to win the right to vote and she led women statewide for the League of Women Voters. Jessie also worked for racial justice in her anti-lynching campaign, and she was key to gaining many needed reforms in criminal justice, education, healthcare, and more.
Mary Bailey
We’ll also learn about many other awesome people who made Georgetown excel over the years, such as Mary Bailey, an African-American educator who started a thriving daycare for children of color. And of Othelia Giron, who headed and educated our Latino children at the “Mexican School.”
Angelica Alejandro Garcia
And we’ll meet Angelica Alejandro Garcia, who midwived babies when moms couldn’t come to the whites-only hospital. And you can see where a group of dedicated Georgetown women started Georgetown’s first hospital, and where others started churches and enriching cultural assets.
Bill Pickett
We’ll celebrate Black cowboy Bill Pickett, who gained fame around the world. And we’ll look at the spot where prominent Georgetownian Elias Talbot built a secret Underground Railroad stop under his house.
You can check out all the places where brave people stood up against injustice and prejudice in our community. And take a moment to just look at our amazing downtown square, and marvel how a group led mostly by women spearheaded the effort to save this beautiful historic and economic resource when it was dying. Thanks, y’all!
You can check out our hidden MoreStories on this site anytime. AND you can explore our fascinating neighborhoods where history actually happened, taking a stroll or bike-ride or cruise-by in your car. Look for the See Our History tour guidance in various MoreStories.
And we invite you to join in with cool community projects and neighborhood organizations in less-traveled neighborhoods. You’ll find links to get involved in the Join Us! box.
Before we get going, I’d like to do a very thankful shout-out to all who wrote books and online resources and gathered and preserved historical photos that give us great info on Georgetown and Georgetown’s changemakers. Check them out under the Resources blog to learn lots more cool stuff about Georgetown and Williamson County.
And I want to thank each of you visiting the Hidden HerStories and MoreStories site! Thank you for learning together how we ALL can tell a more complete story of how we ALL rise.