Special Collections Division the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries Vol. XV I* No. 1 * Spring  2002

Seek and Ye Shall Find
by Shirley Rodnitzky

The William J. Bardin Family Papers were recently processed and UTA graduate history student, Nigel R. Parker, created the finding aid. Information about the collection came from a variety of sources, and a summary of the content and organizational structure is in the collection’s guide. Completing our collections’ processing makes them easier to use and provides the staff with a valuable resource to assist users. Unprocessed collections, however, are almost always available for research. Exceptions include materials restricted by the donor, materials that require repair or preservation treatment, or extremely large collections for which there is no comprehensive inventory.

If the following collection would aid your current research, please request the finding aid by name and collection number when you visit the library. The collection finding aid described here and in all future articles are available on the Internet, linked to the Web version of The Compass Rose from the Special Collections homepage at: http://libraries.uta.edu/SpecColl/comprose.html

For those without internet access, a photocopy of any finding aid in Special Collections may be requested by mail or telephone for a small photocopy and mailing fee. Please contact:

Shirley Rodnitzky, Manuscript Archivist
University Libraries, Special Collections
University of Texas at Arlington
Box 19497
Arlington, TX 76019-0497
Metro: 817-272-3393; Fax 817-272-7512
E-mail: rodnitzky@uta.edu

William J. Bardin Family Papers
(AR433), 2 boxes plus oversize folders (.75 linear ft.)

William J. Bardin, 1905-2002, longtime resident of Arlington, Texas, donated his papers in 1994 to Special Collections. His father, James P. Bardin, moved with his parents to Johnson Station, Texas, from Tupelo, Mississippi, in 1878. James and his wife Beatrice Putman grew up in Johnson Station, a settlement established by Middleton Tate Johnson in the 1840s at Marrow Bone Springs (also called Mary Le Bone Springs) located about three miles south of the present Arlington City Hall. Johnson Station was one of three towns established in the county before 1876. The businesses and many of the residents later moved to Arlington after the railroad survey created a more direct route between Dallas and Fort Worth and missed it by three miles.

The Bardins were married in 1903. In 1910, they purchased a 133-acre farm where they lived and raised their children. Their farm was located at what is now the corner of Cooper Street and Bardin Road, a quarter mile south of Interstate Highway 20.

Students at Sublett School, 1912. Bill Bardin is seated on the first row, far left.

William J. Bardin, born in 1905 at Johnson Station, was the first of five children. He attended Johnson Station and Arlington schools and graduated from Arlington High School in 1924. His graduating class is credited with choosing the high school’s colors (green & white) and mascot (Colts). After graduating from North Texas Agricultural College, Bardin took a surveying job with the Tarrant County Engineering Department, which began a fifty-year career in construction as a surveyor, field engineer, and superintendent. Among the landmarks he helped create were the Houston International Airport, Texarkana Federal Prison, Casa Manana, the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, Arlington Downs Racetrack, and countless highways and roads for the Texas State Highway Department.

Arlington Downs Rqacetrack, 1935.

The family papers focus primarily on William J. Bardin, Beatrice Putman Bardin, Arlington Downs Race Track, and the Bardin family farm. They include correspondence, legal documents, photographs, maps, newspaper clippings, newsletters, programs, an oral history transcript, land abstracts, and memorabilia, 1893-1995. Correspondence, photographs, and newspaper clippings document the life of Bardin’s mother, Beatrice Putman Bardin, an early Tarrant County teacher. Mrs. Bardin attended Tarrant County schools and was one of the first students enrolled at Arlington College. She taught at Pantego, Rendon, Keller, and Johnson Station schools. She was a longtime PTA member and served for ten years as school board trustee and secretary for the school board.

Arlington's famed mineral well, formerly located at the intersection of Main and Center Streets, ca.1940s.

The photographs depict the Bardin family and schools in Tarrant County communities, ca. 1880s-1920s, namely Arlington, Fish Creek, Johnson Station, Keller, Rendon, and Sublett. Arlington High School 1920s class reunion materials and early photographs of classes and football teams are included. Other items of interest are a Southern Arlington Land Use planning map, which shows Bardin family land holdings; newspaper clippings concerning Arlington, Johnson Station, and Fort Worth history; an unpublished history of the Witness Tree, a Tarrant County landmark; a transcribed oral history with William J. Bardin; and photographs and newspaper clippings about Arlington Downs Racetrack as well as a 1936 blueprint of the track.

Documents that reveal and record Arlington history are valuable and difficult for Special Collections to find and acquire. William Bardin’s commitment to preserving the family’s history also preserved a part of Arlington’s history.

[A Finding Aid for the William J. Bardin Family Papers is now available online.--webmaster]

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This page last update on Wednesday, June 25, 2003