Dr. and Mrs. Wm. A. Warner

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker in Armstrong County tells it, and I'm gonna give it its due. Two people. One county.

And between them, more lives touched than most towns ever see. Dr. William A.

Warner, born in 1864, and his wife Phebe, born in 1866, both came out of Illinois. They were natives of that state, the both of them, and they made their way to the Texas Panhandle and got married right there in Claude in 1898. Armstrong County got something real that day.

Over the next thirty-five years, Dr. Warner worked as a country physician in this land, and friend, that is not a gentle kind of work. He made his calls by buggy.

Out across that wide open Panhandle country, in every season it could throw at him, by buggy. And in the course of that thirty-five year practice, he delivered over two thousand babies. Many of them born in dug-outs.

Not hospitals, not clinics. Dug-outs. You sit with that a moment.

Two thousand souls who first drew breath because a man hitched up his buggy and came. Now Phebe, she was something else entirely, and I mean that as the highest praise. The marker calls her an ardent humanitarian, and the people of the Panhandle gave her a name that has stuck ever since: The Little Brown Wren.

Called that for her busy, cheerful manner. She originated women's clubs in the Panhandle and continually worked to improve rural life. Not occasionally.

Continually. Dr. Warner lived until 1934, Phebe until 1935.

Two of the most admired and beloved pioneer citizens of Armstrong County, says the marker, and after everything I just told you, I don't think that's an argument anybody's going to pick a fight with.

What the marker says

Two of the most admired and beloved pioneer citizens of Armstrong County, Dr. Warner (1864-1934) was a country physician and his wife Phebe (Kerrick) (1866-1935) was an ardent humanitarian. Natives of Illinois, they were married in Claude in 1898. During his 35-year practice here, Dr. Warner made numerous calls by buggy and delivered over 2,000 babies, many in dug-outs. Affectionately called "The Little Brown Wren" for her busy, cheerful manner, Mrs. Warner originated women's clubs in the Panhandle and continually worked to improve rural life. (1969)