by Arvord M. Abernethy

There was double rejoicing at the home of Ephriam and Gertrude Oliver Etherton when twin daughters, Pauline and Maurine arrived that winter day, January 18, 1914. This happened at Alexander, over there in Erath County.

Mr. Etherton arrived in Alexander with his parents in 1878 from Ft. Bend County.  His first schooling was in a log cabin, but he went on to become a pharmacist and to operate a drug store there in Alexander for 45 years. All this time he served as postmaster as the post office was there in his store.

Thus Pauline we mentioned earlier is the one we know as Mrs. Cecil McPherson. Pauline did her public school work at Dublin and after finishing high school there she attended Tarleton College which was just a two year college then. Then she attended Howard Payne College where she received a B.S. Degree in elementary education in 1939. She began teaching then but continued her educational work and received a Masters from Baylor in 1945.

Pauline=s first teaching was at Green=s Creek which is a fine community south of Stephenville. When she said Green=s Creek, it rang a bell with me. When we lived at Allison up in the Panhandle there was a fine family there by the name of Kiker and he mentioned several times that he had come from Green=s Creek down in Erath County. I asked Pauline if she met any of the Kikers when teaching there and she said that they were a highly respected family. She also said that her twin sister=s mother-in-law was a Kiker.

After teaching at Green=s Creek, Pauline came and taught a year at Warren=s Creek for a year a year before going to Energy where she taught the first grade for some three years. Here she met and married Cecil McPherson, a son of one of the pioneer families in that section.

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, America found itself involved in a world wide conflict and this was placed Cecil in the Military Police Department. His duties called for his involvement at various places, but the main place was at Richland, Washington.

His stories of his duties at Richland could make an interesting story itself. Here the Manhattan Project was being carried out which meant the assembling of the atomic bomb. The secrecy of the project was almost beyond imagination. Probably not much over a half dozen people knew exactly what they were building, only knowing that it was part of the war effort.

Cecil and Pauline=s lives had to be checked, so the persons around Energy that they gave for reference were visited and carefully questioned.

Richland was a mushroon city, growing into the thousands almost overnight. It was a self-contained city with its stores, schools, hospital, community church, and even a cemetery. If a person had to leave the compound for business, they had to tell where they were going, etc. and when they returned the car was thoroughly checked even down to the glove compartment.

Pauline worked for about a year there at Richland for the Hanford Engineering Works, then there came an opening in the school for an elementary teacher, so she taught there. She had high praise for the Washington School system, and since most of the pupils were from the homes of the select group, they were well mannered.

After the war the McPhersons returned to Energy and Pauline resumed her teaching. After some teaching there at Energy and at Lamkin and five years at Pottsville she came to Hamilton and taught Junior English for 27 years.

During all these years at Hamilton she was also sponsor for the high school annual, the Pioneer, a book many Hamilton High graduates will always treasure.

Another project that she sponsored in school was AReady Writing.@ In this, students are encouraged to be as knowledgeable as possible on all subjects such as current events, etc. so when they were given a subject to write so many words in a certain amount of time they could. Some state winners resulted from her leadership.

Pauline broke her hip in 1978 and that ended a long career of teaching. Some of her time now is taken up with civic organizations such as the Retired Teacher=s Association and the 20th Century Study Club. She is a member of Delta Kappa Gamma, an honorary teacher=s organization.

With time on her hands she makes all the gifts that have to be given on different occasions. She also has time to keep up on her reading.

Pauline and Cecil have celebrated their 50th Anniversary and still find time to worship at the Pettit Baptist Church.

ACROSS THE FENCE