R.D. Beirne, Part 1 of 2

There were Beirne's in Texas long before yours truly

and there will be many more long after I am gone...

 A few weeks after moving back to Texas in 2009, I was in casual conversation with our neighbor Stanley.  I was giving him the high-level ancestry and I mentioned a great-great grand-uncle who lived in Denison and whose claim to fame was the above-mentioned clock on the high school.  Lo and behold, Stanley's mother went to Dension High and was a history buff and she was one of the contributors to a book about the school.  He produced a copy of the book and sure enough, there was a page given over to R.D. and his generous donation - see the excerpt copy above. 

 

Note that $2500 in 1913 is about $58,000 in todays money.

 

Thousands of graduates later, the high school and clock came down in 2007.  It was an impressive old structure and would have been 100 years old this year.

 

 

The clock was still around in 2009 and I suppose if I had acted faster, I could have laid claim to at least a piece of it...  I am unsure where it ended up but might make a few calls to the Denison City Council.