ustxtxb_obs_1959_10_09_50_00006-00000_000.pdf

Table 1 OF THE THREE MAJOR INDUSTRIAL PLANTS IN GALVESTON COUNTY, 1955-1959 Company 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 Union Carbide & Carbon $18:7 $19.2 $20.0 $19.9 $31.5 American Oil Co. 12.9 14.0 15.5 16.4 22.5 Monsanto Chemical Co. 8.1 9.6 12.0 11.7 15.7 Totals $39.7 $42.8 $47.5 $48.0 $69.7 *Pritchard & Abbott’s new values were placed on the tax rolls by the county commissioners this year. County, Texas, and being a part of the property described in a deed of conveyance dated Dec. 12, 1945, recorded in Vol. 824, Pages 209-210 of the Deed Records of Travis County, Texas; Plaintiff alleges If this citation is not served within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved. WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN; JR., Clerk of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and the seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 18th day. of September, 1959. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas. By Geo. W. Bickler, Deputy. CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Harold Wright Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: You are hereby commanded to appear before the 126th District Court of Travis ‘County, Texas. to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A. M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A. M. of Monday the 9th day of November, 1959, and answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 115,516, in which Linda Kay Wright is Plaintiff and Harold Wright is defendant, filed in said Court on the 23rd day of September, 195Q, and the nature of which said suit is Aas follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant for decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between ‘ said parties; plaintiff alleges that defendant left her shortly after their marriage; that defendant is a transient person and after her marriage to defendant. he told her that he did not love her and that he was not going to live with her; plaintiff alleges that one child. Cynthia Gayle Wright, age Three months, was born of said marriages and plaintiff prays for custody of said child, Cynthia Gayle Wright, and that defendant be ordered to pay such sum torward the minor’s support as this Court deems reasonable until the minor reaches the age of eighteen years; plaintiff further alleges that there was no community property acquired during the marriage of plaintiff and defendant; plaintiff alleges that Travis County Grand jury has indicted defendant for Wife and Child Desertion; plaintiff further prays for relief, general and special; All of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s Original Petition on file in this office, and which reference is here made for all intents and purposes; If this citation is not served within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved: WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN, JR., Clerk of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and the seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 23rd day of September, 1959. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas. By A. E. Jones, Deputy. TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Notice is hereby given that R. J. Sechrist and J. J. Hall, Jr., partners, composing the firm of Sechrist-Hall Company, intend to incorporate such firm without a change of the firm name after the from this date, the 1st day of September, 1959. SECHRIST-HALL By: R. J. Sechrist J. J. Hall, Jr. Partners CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Alex Garza Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: You are hereby commanded to appear before the 126th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A. M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance in addition to Judge Robin son, are Irwin P. Dantin, Jimmie Vacek, R. W. Palmer, Judge Robinson and Jack Lawrence. They sit as a board of equalization on tax matters. Lyndon. Introduces Truman at Rally VALUES JUGGLED BY EQUALIZATION million; Superior, from half a million to more than $1 million. Texas City Refining Co., an independent refinery with about 600 employees, sustained an increase in assessed valuation from $2.1 million in 1958 to $3.4 million in 1959. Mineral Oil Refining Co., Dickinson, found its assessed valuation tripled between 1958 and 1959, from $12,000 to $34.000. Three National Hotels, Seahorse, Hotel Galvez, and the Buccaneer, were given a total increase in their assessed valuations of about $200,000, but in other cases hotels The banks fared better than any other financially important group. Valuations were lowered on six-including twD of Walter Hall’s country banks-and raised on three, costing the county, in net, assessed, valuations of about $700,000 \(related story and Table The 1958 assessed valuation on the Falstaff Brewing Corp.’s Galveston plant-the old Southern Select plant which Falstaff bought -was $404,000. In 1959 this was increased by $98,000. Galveston is well known as a cotton port. Cotton Concentration Co., a compress on the island, moved from $894,000 in 1958 to $967,000 this year in its assessed valuation, while Moody Compress & Warehouse increased from $284,000 to $355,000. These relatively modest increases allow for the economic difficulties cotton compresses are now experiencing. 196 of 200 Lowered Pritchard & Abbott’s .Pay Wilson, head appraiser on real estate, prepared for the Observer’s inquiry a tabulation of valuations on 200 homes on adjacent Jots in LEGALS CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Margaret Daniel, if living, and if dead, the legal representa-, tives of said named defendant, and the unknown heirs of said named defendant; the legal representatives of the unknownheirs of said named defendant; the legal representatives of the unknown heirs of said named defendant, if the unknown heirs of said named defendant are dead; the unknown heirs of the unknown heirs of said named defendant, if the unknown heirs of \(the unknown heirs of said named defendant are dead; and the unknown owner or owners of the property hereinafter described or any interest therein; and any and all other persons, including adverse claimants, owning or having or claiming any legal or equitable interest in or lien upon said property Defendants, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: by commanded to appear before the 126th District Court of Travis County, Texas, to be held at the courthouse of said county in the City of Austin, Travis County, Texas, at or before 10 o’clock A.M. of the first Monday after the expiration of 42 days from the date of issuance hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A.M. of Monday the 2nd day of November1959, and answer the Petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 115,470, in which Mary J. Preston McNeil, a widow, is Plaintiff and each of the above named defehdants are defendants, filed in said Court on the 18th day of September, 1959, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendants, and each of them, for title to and possession of the following described lot, tract or parcel of land lying and situated in Travis County, Texas, towit: the W. C. Belcher’s Subdivision being part. of Outlot 35, Division “B” in the City of Austin, Travis Clairmont, a typical G.I. subdivision. These properties had been assessed in 1958 on the basis of 27.5 percent of the revenue stamps on the deeds. In 1959. the county reduced the valuations on 196 of the 200 homes and lots to bring them into line with valuations on other county property. The reductions in the assessed valuations ranged as high as $1,225. The largest of the four increases was $90. The Observer all 200 lots and houses: it was an average decrease of $398. Most of the properties in this subdi vision had been on the tax rolls for $2,500 to $3,000; in other words, they were worth around $10,000 or $12,000. Wilson also tabulated valuation changes on 40 houses and lotsframe and brick veneer houses, worth about $12,000 or $13,000for Westview, a typical G.I.F.H.A. subdivision of standard construction, developed in 1956. Of the 40 assessed valuations, 34 were decreased, and six were increased. The largest decrease was $1,455; the largest increase \(evidently a house had not been added age decrease in the assessed valuation for these 40 homes: $402. On an overall basis, hoWever, real estate revaluations resulted in increases and decreases”about a 50-50 proposition,” Wilson said. Inequities had been concentrated in post-war GI and FHA housing developments. A 1955 audit of the county’s valuations had revealed, readers will recall from last week, that urban properties were being assessed at 22 percent and rural properties at six percent. An excomputed the average change for ample of what happened when Pritchard & Abbott moved in: The J. M. West estate held 5,275 acres of principally agricultural land in the county which was rendered in 1958 for $92,000, an average per acre of $17.36. In 1959 the county court placed this same land on the rolls for $230,000-an average per acre, to be exact, of $43.68. On the other hand, F. Kohfeldt & Sons of Denison owns several thousand acres in Galveston County, most of it north and northwest of Texas City and La Marque. In 1958, before Pritchard & Abbott, 118 acres of Kohfeldt’s land along the edges of Texas City and La Marque was on the tax rolls for an average per acre of $24.47, although it had considerable residential and commercial value. In 1959, after Pritchard & Abbott, the average per acre was $200.81. The assessed valuation on the 118 acres went from $2,895 to $23,760. F. Kohfeldt appeared before the county commissioners and cornmended Pritchard & Abbott for doing a good job. In short, the county’s musty property tax system was jettisoned for the mess it was and a completely new system of valuations and records was painstakingly created and installed. Every piece of property in Galveston County is now neatly Recorded on a standardized card and locked up in a modern, fullyequipped new tax office’ in the county courthouse. Secretaries work busily under the fluorescent lights in the ceiling; complex machines ,growl and rap; company spokesmen come in to joke-and talk-with the assessor-collector. Said Judge E. S. Pritchard of the firm which did the work: “It sounds like a fairy tale.” R.D. hereof; that is to say, at or before, 10 o’clock A. M. of Monday the 26th day of October, 1959, and answer the petition of plaintiff in Cause Number 115,370, in which Esperanza Garza is Plaintiff and Alex Garza is defendant, filed in said Court on the 9th day of September, 1959, and the nature of which said suit is as follows: Being an action and prayer for judgment in favor of Plaintiff and against Defendant for decree of divorce dissolving the bonds of matrimony heretofore and now existing between said parties; plaintiff alleges that on divers occasions, while plaintiff lived with defendant. defendant was guilty of excesses, cruel treatment and outrages toward plaintiff, of such a nature as to render their living together insupportable; plaintiff further alleges that there was one child born of her marriage to defendant, Robert Garza, age eight years. Plaintiff is able to rear and educate said child properly, and prays for custody and the right of educating said minor, Robert Garza; plaintiff alleges further that there was no community property accumulated during this marriage; plaintiff further prays for relief general and special; All of which more fully appears from Plaintiff’s Original Petition on file in this office, and which reference is here made for all intents and purposes; If this citation is not served within 90 days after date of its issuance, it shall be returned unserved. WITNESS, 0. T. MARTIN. JR.. Clerk of the District Courts of Travis County, Texas. Issued and given under my hand and the seal of said Court at office in the City of Austin, this the 9th day of September, 1959. 0. T. MARTIN, JR. Clerk of the District Courts, Travis County, Texas. By A. E. .JONES, Deputy. CITATION BY PUBLICATION THE STATE OF TEXAS TO Thomas Melvin Ricketson Defendant, in the hereinafter styled and numbered cause: You are hereby commanded to appear before the 126th District DALLAS Oct. 17, Mayor Thornton has declared. will be Harry S. Truman Day in Dallas. The former president, who. is to speak at a rally at Dallas Memorial Auditorium that evening, will meet