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 grand-
father 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 long-time
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 ountry 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 27 August, 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.