Harry W. Meredith

The Handbook of Texas says the Mineola Memorial Library, largely financed by H. W. Meredith, was finished in 1960, and that the Meredith Foundation has given large sums for educational and cultural purposes since 1962. Meredith Hall Civic Center followed in 1977. Texas Escapes reports that in 2005 the foundation was also funding the recreation of the Bernard Zakheim post office mural, which Mineola's development director put at $49,000, with the work to be done by Zakheim's son Nathan and finished that May. The old post office had been turned over to the city for a museum.

What the plaque says

Harry W. Meredith Kentucky native Harry Meredith (1871-1962) attended business college in Illinois and was owner-operator of a brick plant in his hometown of Leitchfield before moving to Mineola, Texas, with his wife, Mary Henri Hunter, by 1907. Meredith entered the banking business in 1908, when he became associated with Mineola State Bank. He served as its president until the financial institution merged with First National Bank in 1932, at which time he became a director and served as chairman of the board for the remainder of his life. During the early 1920s, the Merediths built a home at this site and Harry served as the city's mayor (1920-1922). After his first wife's death in 1932, Meredith married Daisy Warren Nelson (d. 1954) in 1943. Harry Meredith's legacy of philanthropy began in the 1940s, when he gave money to build two dormitories at the Methodist Children's Home in Waco. After his third wife, Jennie Burge Hurdle, died in 1958, Harry organized the Meredith Foundation to fund a variety of civic projects in Mineola for the use and enjoyment of its citizens. Over the years, the Meredith Foundation has helped to build and operate the public library and the civic center. Funds have also been used for the benefit of Mineola's youth, the arts and churches, among other charitable causes. Harry Meredith died in 1962 and is buried in the city cemetery. His significant impact on the city's life, however, continues through the work of the foundation. (2001)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Governor Hogg Shrine — 8.9 mi
  Quitman's 27-acre city park, once a state historical park, where two houses tied to James Stephen Hogg's marriage stand beside an arboretum, a nature walk and the grounds of the Old Settlers Reunion.
• Tyler State Park — 17 mi
  A 985-acre park eight miles north of Tyler, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1935 to 1941 around a 64-acre spring-fed lake, with more than 13 miles of trails.
• Camp Ford Historic Park — 23 mi
  A free county park north of Tyler on the site of the largest Confederate prison camp west of the Mississippi, with a kiosk, an interpretive trail and a historical society museum downtown.
• Goodman-LeGrand House and Museum — 24 mi
  A Tyler house begun in 1859 as four rooms, enlarged by the Goodman family over 73 years, and left to the city in 1939 with its furnishings, in a garden that fills a city block.

More markers nearby

• Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan — steps away
• Birthplace of Miss Ima Hogg — steps away
• O. P. Pyle — steps away
• Select Theater — steps away