Alma Ward Hamrick

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Alma Ward Hamrick, out there in San Saba County. Now, some people leave a mark on a place. And then there are people who make sure the place itself doesn't get forgotten.

Alma Ward Hamrick was the second kind. Born in 1896 in Pearl, over in Coryell County, she graduated in Goldthwaite and made her way up to Denton for college, earning a teaching certificate around 1916. That right there tells you something.

A woman from a small Central Texas town, credentialed and ready, at a time when that path wasn't exactly worn smooth. In 1919 she married James L. Hamrick, and together they had two daughters.

And Alma, she taught. Eastland County, McCulloch County, San Saba County, fifteen years of classrooms, fifteen years of shaping young minds across the Hill Country and beyond. But teaching was only the first chapter.

She was also a writer, and not a modest one. Her articles ran in newspapers and in international publications. The woman had range.

Then came 1936, and Alma helped found the San Saba Garden Club. That might sound like a quiet accomplishment until you hear the next part: she was instrumental in saving San Saba's historic mill. Saving it.

That mill was heading somewhere it couldn't come back from, and Alma Ward Hamrick was one of the reasons it didn't. She chaired the county's Centennial Committee in 1956, then the Historical Survey Committee in 1962, and along the way she researched nineteen state historical markers. Nineteen.

She was out there doing the digging, the writing, the preserving, so that stories wouldn't just dissolve into the dry Texas air. And in 1940, she published The Call of the San Saba, a book the marker calls a seminal work in local history. That's not small praise.

That's the kind of thing that still sits on shelves, still gets cited, still does its work long after the author is gone. Alma Ward Hamrick died in 1974. But the mill still stands.

The markers still tell their stories. And her book is still out there calling.

What the marker says

ALMA WARD HAMRICK (1896-1974) BORN IN PEARL (CORYELL CO.), ALMA WARD GRADUATED IN GOLDTHWAITE AND ATTENDED COLLEGE IN DENTON, EARNING A TEACHING CERTIFICATE c. 1916. SHE MARRIED JAMES L. HAMRICK IN 1919; THE COUPLE HAD TWO DAUGHTERS. ALMA TAUGHT IN EASTLAND, McCULLOCH AND SAN SABA COUNTIES FOR 15 YEARS AND HAD A LONG CAREER AS A WRITER. HER ARTICLES WERE PUBLISHED IN NEWSPAPERS AND INTERNATIONAL PUBLICATIONS. IN 1936 SHE HELPED FOUND THE SAN SABA GARDEN CLUB, AND WAS INSTRUMENTAL IN SAVING SAN SABA'S HISTORIC MILL. SHE CHAIRED THE COUNTY'S CENTENNIAL COMMITTEE (1956) AND HISTORICAL SURVEY COMMITTEE (1962) AND RESEARCHED 19 STATE HISTORICAL MARKERS. HER BOOK THE CALL OF THE SAN SABA (1940) REMAINS A SEMINAL WORK IN LOCAL HISTORY. 175 YEARS OF TEXAS INDEPENDENCE * 1836-2011