Early settlers in Ranger were the Anthony Lewis and the W.L.
Jackson families. ANTHONY LEWIS, born on March 19, 1869,
was the father of W.A. Lewis, and two daughters, Exa Lewis who
married Dr. Walter Lee Jackson and, Mae Lewis, who lived in
Houston, and he was the grandfather of the Jackson boys: Andy
(RHS-1946), Albert (RHS-1943) and Walter (RHS-1941) and W.A.
"B-Tony" Lewis, III (RHS-1949) and also the C.L. Jackson
daughters who moved from Ranger before high school graduation,
Marilyn and Joanne Jackson.
Anthony Lewis, and with his grandson Andy who liked for
his grandpa to give him a "shave".
Tony the barber and his wife, Lenola, with son
B-Tony. B-Tony and his sister, Joanne, as
children (below). Nilda Joan Lewis died May 28,
1926, when she was a young child.
Marilyn and Joanne, Dr. C.L. Jackson & wife, Nietta
WILLIAM ANTHONY LEWIS, was the son of a barber and became
a longtime barber himself in Ranger. His father, Anthony Lewis,
at one time, also lived part of the year in Ranger. As a young
man he had hunted buffalo with the Indians and once was paid with
the pistol of a famous folk hero.
Anthony’s daughter, Exa, had met WALTER L. JACKSON at Baylor
where he studied to be a doctor and she a nurse. Walter had heard
of a new town springing up in Eastland County but he was sidetracked
by having to serve his country in WWI. He opened Bethesda Medical
Center in Maryland. The hospital was new and did not have patients
yet so the staff served at the whim of the Commanders there and, for
instance, they had to make a patriotic silent movie with Charley
Chaplin where the doctors had to dress up like soldiers and act out
the military scenes since all the "real" soldiers were overseas
fighting the "real" war.
Dr. W.L. Jackson, Dr. C.L. Jackson & wife, Exa Marilyn &
Joanne Jackson
Soon, however, Dr. Jackson found himself in the American hospitals
located in France where the doctors in charge of hospitals were also
the "jailers" and "judges" of their domains. He wrote to Exa about
the new boom town of Ranger that he had read of and wanted to explore
after the war. When he returned from France, the first thing he did
was to go to Ranger to find it just as he had imagined snd where he
wanted to make their new home. So, in 1919 off they went, Walter
and nurse Exa Merle Lewis Jackson, newly married, to start their
life in Ranger, where he would live until he died in 1946. Dr.
Jackson was not in Ranger long before he convinced his brother,
also a doctor, ClAUDE LEONARD JACKSON, serving his country
in India, and his wife, Nietta, also a nurse, to come to Ranger.
Walter wrote to Leonard that, "There are roughnecks and plenty of
babies to keep us both busy......the streets are made of mud and
there is always an accident somewhere. Thus, the Ranger Clinic
was born. Dr. Claude Leonard Jackson, born Aug. 27, 1902, and
his family would later move to Dallas where he added Psychiatry
to his medical specialties and was instrumental in the establishment
of the Timberlawn Mental Hospital. Joanne Jackson did attend Ranger
High School two years with the Class of 1949. After her husband's
death, Exa later nursed in Dallas at Baylor Hospital.
Anthony Lewis, died June, 1963 at Arlington, Texas, and is buried
at Teague, TX.
Lenola Lewis died March 10, 1988.
W.A. Lewis, died January 30, 1995, in Houston, and is buried beside
his wife, Lenola, in Ranger.
Dr. Walter L. Jackson died in Ranger on March 13, 1946
Exa Lewis Jackson died June 28, 1990.
Dr. C.L. Jackson died September 4, 1988, in Dallas.
Nietta Jackson died in Dallas.
Richard Arlen Lisk, born on December 27, 1931, former pastor of
First Church of England, Arkansas, died January 2, 2003. A native
of North Carolina, he also pastored churches in Oklahoma and Louisiana.
At the time of his death, he was assistant to the pastor of the First
Church of Lafayette, LA. He retired from the army reserve chaplaincy
as a lieutenant colonel after 30 years of service. He is survived by
his wife, Joanne; two sons; and five grandchildren; all of North
Little Rock. Joanne's family moved from Ranger before she could
graduate with the RHS Class of 1949.
Joanne's sister, Marilyn Jackson Marcontel, lives in Dallas.
Her husband, James Robert Marcontel, born in 1933, died on
December 30, 1995, at Dallas, TX.