Mothers Park

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and here's how I'm gonna tell it to you. There's a little park in Deaf Smith County, in Hereford, with a quiet kind of story behind it. Not the loud kind.

The kind that builds slow and holds. It starts in 1909, when a group of women came together and founded the Mothers' Club. No fanfare in the record, just a founding.

But that founding set something in motion. By 1910, Mr. and Mrs. E.

O. Thomas had given the site as a gift, and the Mothers' Club got to work, improvin' it with walks and shade trees. You plant a shade tree, you're makin' a promise to the future.

Those women knew that. They kept their end of the bargain. Then came 1934, and the sponsor group changed its name.

From the Mothers' Club to something with a little more history in it: The Pioneer Study Club. The name changed. The commitment didn't.

With the help of the City of Hereford, the park has been continuously maintained, right on through to 1970 when this marker was set down, and you can bet the work didn't stop there either. Some places get built once and left to time. This one had people who kept showing up.

That's the whole story, and somehow, it's enough.

What the marker says

Established by the Mothers' Club, founded in 1909. Site, a 1910 gift of Mr. and Mrs. E. O. Thomas, was improved with walks and shade trees. In 1934 the sponsor group changed its name to "The Pioneer Study Club." With the help of the City of Hereford, it continuously maintains the park. (1970)