Anita Holt Eisenhauer was born in Amarillo, Potter County, the daughter and grand- daughter of farmers and ranchers. Her grandfather gave the land for the 1903 Holt School in Hutchinson County, a two-room school that was in service until 1935, and the Holt Cemetery. Her father served as a Hutchinson County Commissioner.
After graduating from Spearman High School in Hansford County, Eisenhauer went to the University of Texas, majoring in geography. It was there that she met her husband, Gene Eisenhauer. Gene and his brother, who were general contractors specializing in school construction mostly in Corpus Christi, also had interests in farming and ranching in Jim Wells, Duval and McMullen Counties. Anita earned a master’s degree in history from Texas A & I University in Kingsville and taught history in Corpus Christi.
Eisenhauer’s guiding principles — steward- ship and the biblical admonition to honor one’s father and mother — shepherd her passion and the breadth of her activities. Along with a continuous involvement in her family’s various ranching interests, she went into the antique business, gradually building a career as an antique appraiser, ultimately achieving senior designation by the American Society of Appraisers.
She tirelessly gathers, records and retells her family’s stories fleshed out by thorough stewardship of correspondence handed down through the family and meticulous research from public data repositories. She’s researched historical markers for both Hutchinson and Nueces Counties. Her diverse interests and activities include memberships in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy and the American Association of University Women. And she’s been active and served in leadership posts in these and other heritage organizations.
She’s a member and past president of the Nueces County Historical Society and chair of the Historical Commission (1986–1996 and 2005– present) and was given the John Ben Shepperd Award for Outstanding Historical Commission Chairman by the Texas Historical Commission. Her leadership in historic preservation efforts in Nueces County is characterized by calm and steady perseverance in the face of the vacillating interest of elected leaders and public indifference.
RESTORATION STATION Eisenhauer (right photo) is determined to see the Nueces County courthouse (shown in 1914 in left photo) renovated. Recently, a developer has expressed interest in preserving the structure.
To achieve historic preservation goals, she seizes opportunities to recruit people with unique skills and interests and matches them with fulfillment opportunities. A reflection of her accomplishments is the large number of historical markers installed on her watch that recognize diverse places, people and events important to the community. The Nueces County Historical Commission ranks 21st out of Texas’ 254 counties in the number of historical markers and enjoys an admirable record for obtaining recognition by the Texas Historical Commission through receipt of annual Distinguished Service Awards.
Her unique skills and abilities can be seen in her involvement with the prolonged effort to preserve the 1914 courthouse, last used by the county in 1974. Although the obvious derelict condition of the courthouse has long defined Nueces County’s apparent indifference to historic preservation, the persistence of the County Historical Commission and the Texas Historical Commission in insisting on its preservation has recently paid off with a hopeful plan for adaptive reuse by a developer.
A similar extended effort working through the City of Corpus Christi on the preservation of and public programming for Old Bayview Cemetery is also apparently paying off: the city has recently expressed interest in taking steps to better protect the last resting place of esteemed early residents and soldiers who died in an 1845 Mexican War steamship disaster.
