Martinez Brothers, Eagle Ford — 1939

by Paula Bosse

Eladio, Henry, and Feliberto

by Paula Bosse

There are pictures I come across sometimes that affect me in a way I can’t really explain. Like this one. This shows three brothers posing for a photo in West Dallas in 1939. The boys are, left to right, Eladio Martinez, Henry Martinez, and Feliberto Martinez. Their father worked for the nearby Trinity Portland Cement Company. During the Depression, the boys helped support the family by cleaning railroad boxcars for a nickel each.

Eladio was killed in action during World War II — the Eladio R. Martinez Learning Center in West Dallas is named after him. His brothers Henry (Enrique) and Feliberto were active in the community and in preserving the history of Ledbetter/Eagle Ford.

Sources & Notes

Photo — “Eladio Martinez, Henry Martinez on a bicycle, and Feliberto Martinez” — is from the Dallas Neighborhood Stories Grant Collection, Dallas History and Archives, Dallas Public Library; the accession number of this photograph is MA19.4/BDW-Martinez-H.6. More info on this is on the DPL Digital Collections page, here.

Flashback : Dallas