COUNTY JUDGE: My father Clyde S. McKinney bought the newspaper in El Dorado, Texas in the early 1930s. He owned the newspaper in Sabinal, Texas also. It was the named The Sabinal Sentinal and his brother R. Kay McKinney ran the paper while Clyde ran the newspaper in El Dorado. Pearl Davenport worked at the Sabinal Sentinel and had some of the papers in her posession in the 1950's. Don't know what happened to them though. His friend Aaron Edgar worked at the El Dorado newspaper. My younger brother Aaron Edgar was named after him. My dad told me he had trouble with the county judge there about running the legals in the newspaper, which was required by law. So Daddy decided to run against him. He defeated him and remained County Judge of Schleicher County for eight years. Aaron Edgar ran the newspaper for him while Clyde served as Judge.

One story Dad told was about the County Commissioner cutting up railroad tracks, Clyde had acquired some old steel railroad tracks from the Railroad. He told me the Commissioner came in all hot and red-faced. He was very mad: "If you want those tracks cut up you'll have to do it youself. We wore out a dozen hacksaw blades already and haven't cut even one". Dad.told him to get some ice. Dad then scored the track with a chisel, applied the ice on one side then had the men put pressure on the rail while he struck it with a sledge hammer. The rail snapped off clean. The commissioner turned his head and spat out a stream of tobacco juice. "Well I'll be dammed" he exclaimed. They installed the chopped up rails as cattle guards on the county roads. Dad said they also did terracing to keep the roads from washing out. Clyde worked on the county roads as a young man  back in Cleveland Co. NC. They had no commissioners there and it was required duty for all males to put in their time on the roads. Dad did have experience and he had also worked on the railroad and knew how to cut up tracks.

Another story he told was about a prisoner they had incarcerated for a minor crime in the Schleicher County jail. He was eating them out of house and home. Dad and the Sheriff conspired to reduce the budget. The Sheriff took the prisoner outside to clean the Courthouse yard. He told the prisoner to keep on working while he was stepping inside for a little bit. He came inside and the Sheriff and Dad peeked out the window and watched the prisoner. He kept easing further and further away and glancing toward the court house. He finally dropped his rake and took off. The Sheriff and Daddy burst out laughing. Their budget problem was solved and they did not pursue the escapee.-Robert McKinney