March 12, 1935
The 49th annual membership drive of the El
Paso Y.M.C.A. will be launched March 18. The four divisions, headed by
A.B. Poe and Maurice Schwartz, will mobilize at the “Y” at 6:15 p.m.
for an afternoon luncheon. Six hundred memberships is the goal set for
the 112 workers taking part in the campaign. On January 31, 1886 – 49
years ago – a little group of El Paso’s young men met in the First
Baptist Church “to consider the subject of organizing in this city a
Young Men’s Christian Association.” In an old cloth-back ledger with
its pages yellowed by the years, is written in the prim, Spencerian
penmanship of that day the minutes of that first meeting. Nineteen
members were enrolled. The organization of the Y.M.C.A. was, in
effect, a young men’s crusade against the lawlessness and vice that
existed in El Paso. It may be seen, therefore, that an organization
such as the Y.M.C.A. did not spread its influence without encountering
plenty of opposition. Recalls Hostility “Open hostility was
shown the ‘Y’ from a good many quarters,” declared E.A. Shelton, the
only living charter member. “On one occasion a committee from the ‘Y’
called on an El Paso wholesale house for a subscription. In reply to
the committee’s request, the president said that his company would not
give a _ cent to the _ _ organization because it was closing up the
saloons and gambling houses, thereby causing heavy losses to the
company in decreased business.” Grows Steadily But despite
the opposition by the lawless element and its interest, the “Y” forged
steady ahead. The “Y” was first “quartered” in the Hills Building on
San Antonio street, a landmark since torn down. The building was
flanked on either side by a saloon. From the Hills Building it was
moved to the Mundy Building on South El Paso Street. From the front
windows of its one and only recreation room, the members commanded a
perfect view of the town’s largest gambling hall, located just across
the street. Two more shifts were made – the last in 1908 to the present
location on Oregon and Missouri. You will search the city
directory in vain for the names of the 19 original members of the
Y.M.C.A. But if you go to the quaint little cloth-back ledger you will
see them, the names of these men who cherished an ideal – and had the
courage to attain it no matter what the odds. “I hope,” said A.L.
(Doc) Holm, secretary of the Y, “that we’ll keep this thought in our
minds when we start our drive. If we will, the goal will be won even
before we take the field.”
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