Tarleton State University

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, November 26, 2012

STEPHENVILLE, Texas—A collection of barbed wire has been donated to the university and is on display on the first floor of the Agriculture Building.

The 270-piece collection was given to Tarleton by Judy James Morrow, Class of 1958, and Bela M. James, Class of 1961 and 1963, children of Bela L. James.

The wire collection was started by Bela L. James, a rancher in Graford, in Palo Pinto County. James attended Tarleton in 1927 before enrolling at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in geology.

Most of the wire was collected by Bela L. James from about 1950 to 1990. Additional wires were obtained in 2010 to 2012 by Bela M. James who identified and cataloged the individual wires in the collection. Identifications and wire names follow the “Barbed Wire Identification Encyclopedia, 5th Edition, 2010” and the “5th Edition Supplement, 2012” by Harold L. Hagemeier.

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Tarleton State University
A member of The Texas A&M University System

Contact: Joe Michael Feist
254-968-9076
jfeist@tarleton.edu