Centennial Cleanup Campaign launched

It’s been 100 years since Gonzales could boast a singular designation any city in Texas would covet.

And The Gonzales Inquirer thinks that’s far too long.

In a campaign to help Gonzales regain the title it held for two years in 1912 and 1913 – Cleanest Town in Texas – the Inquirer is spearheading a recognition program for residences and businesses to Come and Clean It Up.

The Centennial Cleanup Campaign is not a municipality-sponsored emphasis, but rather a program sponsored by the Inquirer, a corporate underwriter, and numerous civic and historic organizations. Noble Royalties has stepped forward as a corporate sponsor for the citywide campaign, and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), Pilot Club of Gonzales and Gonzales Historic Homes Association have signed on as groups pledging their support for the program.

In 1912 and 1913, Holland’s Magazine, a publication designed for women in the Southwest, sponsored a “cleanest town” contest, offering a $300 prize and employing Dr. Manton M. Carrick to oversee the competition.

In both years, Gonzales won the statewide designation. And in both years, the Inquirer was the driving force behind the local campaign to vie for the recognition.

Stories in 1912 published by the Inquirer, said the Civic Club provided recommendations for the cleanup, including “drain all standing water to discourage mosquitoes, clean horse and cow lots to eliminate flies, get all garbage away from residences and into garbage dumps, cut weeds and grass, and poison any flies or mosquitoes found.” The 1912 stories said the Inquirer will collect and the Civic Club will pay 25 cents for every pint of flies brought in.

A subsequent article in the Inquirer listed the benefits of cleanup efforts, saying “we have won health, cleanliness, beauty and the admiration of all who pass through our town. We have taught our children valuable lessons in civic pride and we have shown what unity of effort can achieve.”

“In 2013, The Gonzales Inquirer is proud to be the standard bearer for this program that, 100 years after winning the “cleanest town” in Texas recognition, Gonzales will again regain such a title,” says Brenda Adams, Inquirer publisher.

The cleanup program will recognize residences as well as businesses for the monthly honor, and citizens are encouraged to nominate fellow citizens or local businesses on the Inquirer’s Facebook. Nominations will be reviewed by the image committee, which is comprised of representatives from all groups and entities involved, which will then select that month’s winners.

The Inquirer will take photos and feature the winners monthly in the newspaper. Also, the Inquirer and Noble Royalties will purchase portable signs which will be placed at the winning home and business for the month, recognizing their cleanup efforts.

Each month’s business and residential winners will be entered in a drawing for grand prizes totalling $1,000.

To be considered for the monthly award, residents, community groups and businesses should work to beautify their properties through cleanup, renovation and/or landscaping projects and improvements.

“For 160 years, The Gonzales Inquirer has been the driving force for news, and helped motivate the city 100 years ago to cleanup. History can repeat itself,” Adams says.

It was Franklin Pierce Holland, an agricultural editor and publisher, who established Holland’s Magazine in 1905, a publication that grew to have the largest circulation of any such magazine in the South. Holland used his periodical as a vehicle to encourage improving living conditions, especially in the countryside and small towns. He promoted efforts to improve both agriculture and the lives of farmers and their families, and the programs he supported emphasized cooperation and self-help, as well as balanced farming and efficient farming techniques.