Draft:El Paso County Historical Society

The El Paso County Historical Society (EPCHS, "the Society") is a historical society located in and serving the city of El Paso and  El Paso County in the state of Texas, as well as the broader  Paso del Norte region comprising portions of Texas, New Mexico, and the Mexican state of  Chihuahua. The EPCHS "strives to foster research into the history of the El Paso area; share that history with the public; publish and encourage historical writing pertaining to the area; and develop public consciousness of [El Paso's] rich heritage." The Society maintains "an extensive collection of Southwest archives in the Jane Burges-Perrenot Research Center, including over 20,000 photos, thousands of historical documents, and scores of three-dimensional items."

History
The Society originated as the 1954 annual project of the Women’s Department of the El Paso Chamber of Commerce, first adopted by Department Chairman-Director Louise Schuessler on the evening of January 19, 1954. The inaugural meeting of the Society was held on April 26 of that year. Schuessler served as founding president until the general meeting on July 26, with the adoption of a constitution and by-laws, and election of Paul A. Reisig, Jr. as president.

By 1956, the society had "more than a hundred charter members and 750 members".

In his President’s message of January 1958, Jack C. Vowell, Jr. enumerated the three fields expressed in the Society’s original charter: "(1) historical research and promotion; (2) publication of important findings; and (3) the preservation of monuments and other items of historical value." He further expressed the desirability of collecting information that had been gathered to "avoid useless duplication of effort," and to apply oral history methods to record "remembrances of our pioneer citizens." The products of these efforts are the EPCHS’s current repository of documents, artifacts, recordings, and transcripts.

The society founded the El Paso Hall of Honor in 1962.

Password
Password is the quarterly journal of the El Paso County Historical Society, published since spring 1956. Its first editor was Eugene O. Porter.

Headquarters
The society was originally headquartered at El Paso Museum of History. The EPCHS currently operates from the Burges House in the Sunset Heights Historic District, 603 West Yandell, El Paso, Texas 79902. The Burges House was bequeathed to the Society by Jane Burges Perrenot, daughter of El Paso attorney and Texas State Representative Richard F. Burges, upon her death in 1986. The home was built by Richard Burges in 1914.