Lallie P. Carlisle
Lallie Carlisle was the first woman in Texas to hold an elective public office. Upon the death of her first husband, E.W. Briscoe, who had been elected to the office of Hunt County Clerk, the commissioners’ court was petitioned to appoint Mrs. Briscoe to fill out his unexpired term.
The idea of a woman serving in office was too modern in that era. Many said that a woman was not eligible to hold office. At that time, women could not vote in Texas. After being granted special permission by the Attorney General, she was appointed on April 17, 1902, to complete his term as Hunt County Clerk. After completing the unexpired term, Mrs. Briscoe ran for a full term as County Clerk. Although records show she was very efficient and an active worker, she was defeated by a man. Mrs. Briscoe, mother of five, later married C.C. Carlisle.
Dr. Edward Taylor
Dr. Edward Taylor was a Greenville dentist who helped discover the beneficial effects of fluoride in preventing tooth decay. In 1921 Dr. Taylor came to Greenville to practice dental surgery after graduating from Baylor College of Dentistry. He quickly became a popular and respected dentist but a serious car accident hurt his arm so badly that he could no longer practice dental surgery. He was later appointed Director of Dental Health for Texas, a job which required a lot of travel throughout the state. In 1938, on a trip to West Texas, he talked to a dentist in Hereford, Deaf Smith County, who was going broke for lack of patients.
The people of Deaf Smith had no cavities which was extremely rare. Dr. Taylor discovered that the water in Deaf Smith had a high fluoride content which he believed was the main reason for the lack of tooth decay. He also discovered that those who only drank the well water had almost perfect teeth while those who drank from the local city water system had mottled enamel teeth (discoloration of the teeth, small pits and erosions). He believed that the mottled enamel was the result of too much fluoride in the local water supply. This discovery led Dr. Taylor on a research quest to figure out the right proportion of fluoride to water that would prevent cavities without the unwanted side effects. In 1941, Time and the Saturday Evening Post both published feature length articles on Hereford, “The Town Without a Tooth Ache” and the work of Dr. Taylor. He received world-wide fame for his work and the American Medical Association and the American Dental Association overwhelmingly endorsed Dr. Taylor’s research. For his efforts he was elected president of the State Board of Examiners, Texas Dental Association and American Association of Public Health Dentistry and his highest honor, Fellow of the American College of Dentistry.
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