The Faith and Freedom Club of Medina met on January 10 to hear three speakers.

First up was Mrs. Ople Boyle and Mrs. Sandra Vannatter, descendants of the Stokes family of Medina. They reminisced about growing up in Medina, Medina history and the River Oaks Motor Courts which their father/grandfather opened in 1936.

Mrs. Boyle related the history of the Courts as well as her experiences working in the Stokes grocery store, explaining most of the people who stayed at the River Oaks Tourist Courts came from Houston and would stay all week. The chief occupation of these visitors was to walk to the Medina River and swim.

Mrs. Boyle said her father, as a school trustee, built the first cottage for newly hired Medina ISD Ag teacher Robert Tippit because housing was very limited in Medina.

She related that the stonework on the site was done by Hough LeStourgeon using stone from the Moffett Ranch. Brown Stokes, Jr. built a second cottage for the first home economics teacher hired by Medina ISD in the 1930s. Ten cottages in all were built by the time the motor court opened.

The gardens at the motor court were created and cared for by Mrs. Boyle’s mother, Maud. She and her children would oversee the tourist cabins’ cleaning and laundry as well as operate the grocery store and ice plant begun by Stokes that predated the tourist court lodging. After Brown Stokes died in a car accident in 1940, Maud continued operating the lodgings for three years and ultimately sold it in 1943.

In 2017, The River Oaks Courts was purchased by the current owners, who have worked to restore the facility to its original state. It listed in the National Register of Historic Places and is a Texas Historical Landmark.

The newly restored River Oaks Courts has facilities for family reunions and other large social events. Restaurant service will be available at the “Social Club,” the former Cabin 7.

The second speaker of the meeting was Sandra Schott, Bandera County Community Liaison on Animal Control Issues. She is also in charge of the rescue, “Saving Shelter Strays.”

She encouraged people to participate in the Betty White Challenge, an initiative that seeks to encourage patrons to donate to their own local animal shelters or rescues in Betty White’s name. Donations can be as little as $5.

The final speaker was Richard Bohnert from Comfort, Texas, who is the District Captain in the 24th Legislative District of Texas for the Convention of States. The organization is dedicated to calling a “convention of states” as guaranteed by the Fifth Article of the Constitution to “propose amendments … which would limit the power and jurisdiction of the federal government, impose fiscal restraints, and place term limits on federal officials.”

Bohnert spoke about how bills become law and the process of how a Constitutional Convention could be called to debate current partisan topics. The focus of the organization is to return power to state governments.