Cleburne Councilman Warren to talk local history at commissioners court
Longtime Cleburne Councilman John Warren will discuss the history of East Cleburne during Monday's meeting of the Johnson County Commissioners Court. The court meets at 9 a.m. in Room 201 of the Johnson County Courthouse, 2 N. Main St. in Cleburne.
A Cleburne native, Warren grew up and still lives in East Cleburne.
A book penned by Warren, "The Legacy of East Cleburne," led to Warren's invitation to speak during Monday's meeting.
Warren recently donated the first two volumes of the book to the county with plans to donate additional volumes as he finishes them.
The first two volumes are housed in the Johnson County Courthouse Museum and available for public view. The museum preserves the history of the county and its cities within.
"These will be kept in the Cleburne section of our museum, of course," Johnson County Historical Commission Chairwoman Sandra Neeley said. "These volumes are an important addition to the museum because we don't have a lot of history on East Cleburne."
Warren and Rev. Johnie Dollarhide, president of the East Cleburne Ministerial Alliance along with others presented a series of panel discussions titled "The Legacy of East Cleburne" in 2019 and 2020.
"Our main purpose is to show that East Cleburne is not a separate country of city by itself but rather that its a part of Cleburne," Dollarhide said of the presentations at the time. "Those from here who excelled, excelled not only for East Cleburne, but for all of Cleburne."
The black population of Cleburne, which once made up about 17% of East Cleburne now makes up 3.8% now.
"What we wanted to do with that series from a few years ago and what I want to do now with this book is to preserve and bring forth the history of East Cleburne and the accomplishments of many of the people who came from there," Warren said.
The 2019 series focused on East Cleburne residents who went on to excel in the arenas of business, athletics, entertainment, academics and science and the military. Warren's book includes those stories as well as the history of East Cleburne churches, businesses and even bootleggers.
"The Legacy panel discussions helped inform the book," Warren said. "But much of this is history and ideas I've written down from the time I was a kid right up to now."
Warren, during Monday's commissioners court meeting, plans to discuss the book and several notable former East Cleburne residents.
"I'll do an excerpt on Aaron Alexander, for example," Warren said. "He entered the military and ended up in the federal health department where he went on to serve under presidents, Ford, Carter and Reagan. and he was born right here, on Brazos Avenue."
Others include Luther Prince who earned a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and went on to become vice president and part owner of Honeywell, noted jazz musician Frank Jackson and Dr. James Cash who became the first black player on Texas Christian University's basketball team and later a Harvard University professor.
"People from East Cleburne who went on to serve the nation in a lot of different capacities," Warren said of his book. "Just a whole cadre of the history of what happened here."
