By Jay Moore

My office window offers a terrific view of the old red-bricked, red-roofed T&P depot that is a reminder of our railroad beginnings. This time of year, the old girl (now 114 years old) is gussied up, adorned with festive Christmas wreaths, Christmas lights and a Christmas tree twinkling just inside the door. The whole scene reminds me that this made-up town — beginning simply as a stop for steam locomotives to get a drink of water — is an ol’ prairie town that has been wonderfully blessed by a steady stream of givers and dreamers and doers; people who helped turn this grassy plain, in the middle of nowhere, into our hometown. 

T&P Depot

As I drive down South 1st and see the progress at Abilene Heritage Square, I’m reminded of the role that historic block played in the lives of so many and I am grateful for the generosity of hundreds who have donated, chief among them, Dian Stai and the family of Judy Matthews. Those two have blessed Abilene more than any of us will ever know. They have made it possible to reawaken that beautiful, 100-year-old former high school, creating a new library with a renovated and repurposed historic treasure to boot. It is a gift that we will soon enjoy. I look forward to walking those halls knowing that our children’s children and even their children will do the same. Indeed, our lives have been blessed by givers. 

This year marks the centennial of Hendrick Health. The old West Texas Baptist Sanitarium took on the Hendrick name following the 1935 gift by Tom and Ida Hendrick and it has been a mainstay throughout our lives. You may have spent the night in one of the beds there, or you may have sat next to one and heard wonderful news, held a new child or grandchild. Or you may have sat by a Hendrick bed and received difficult news, maybe held the hand of a loved one for the last time. For 100 years, through a variety of emotions, Hendrick has been a faithful partner in our lives. The original building (that is still there, though somewhat covered up) was purposefully oriented to face downtown, towards the people the hospital hoped to serve. I am grateful for those who, so long ago, followed their dream and set the whole thing in motion: Rev. Millard Jenkens of First Baptist, George and Minne Anderson, C.M. and Cora Caldwell, George and Mattie Paxton, and Dr. J.D. Sandefer of HSU among others. Indeed, our lives have been blessed by dreamers. 

At the age of 101, McMurry University is the baby of local colleges. The oldest of the three siblings is HSU, now 133, while ACU is the middle child having been born in 1906 and perking along at 118. Those three schools are central to our identity and help define who we are. There is no telling how many former students of those schools are now full-time Abilenians because they came here for college. Dr. James W. Hunt was the catalyst behind the creation of McMurry just as Rev. George Smith and Rev. A.B. Barrett were for HSU and ACU. Among others, Harold Cooke, Gordon Bennett, Tom Kim and Sandra Harper moved McM forward. Leaders such as J.D. Sandefer, Rupert Richardson, Elwin Skiles, Jesse Fletcher and Lanny Hall did likewise for HSU. And ACU benefited from men such as Jesse 

McMurry Uiversity campus

Sewell, Don Morris, John Stevens, Bill Teague and Royce Money. Indeed, our lives have been blessed by doers. 

Looking at the Christmas trappings out my office window, I am reminded just how fortunate we are to live in this old railroad town set on a grassy plain in the middle of nowhere. Blessed, indeed.

Merry Christmas.