Cleburne Fire Inspector Terry Broumley said he noticed the book, more an oversized magazine actually, on the bookshelf of an abandoned Rio Vista house.

“It’s a lot our church [First Baptist Church of Rio Vista] bought recently,” Broumley said. “The house there has been abandoned about 15 years, I think.”

Closer inspection revealed the magazine to be a special edition of the Times-Review titled “Johnson County Men In Service” published in September 1943.

Sold for 35 cents, the 80-page magazine contains 835 pictures of Johnson County service men and women.

“The staff of the Times-Review has made every effort to secure the name of each and everyone in uniform, but many have been omitted,” the introduction reads. “In many cases, ratings, ranks and addresses have changed since the information was turned in and while we have endeavored to place family groups together this was not always possible because pictures were turned in at different times.

“The Times-Review wishes to thank the Johnson County Selective Service Board No. 1 at Cleburne, the Johnson County Selective Service Board No. 2 at Alvarado, Johnson County Chapter American Red Cross and various individuals who have assisted in compiling the information.”

The discovery marks the second such edition found in the last two years. Former Times-Review reporter Steve Knight in November 2010 wrote of Grandview resident James Muldoon, who discovered a copy among the possessions of his late father, James Ardie Muldoon.

The copy found by Broumley appears quite a bit worse for the wear than Muldoon’s copy, unfortunately. Tattered and dog-eared with a chunk missing mid spine, Broumley’s copy is yellowed and brittle with age. Thanks to years of sitting in an abandoned house, the magazine requires handling with great care.

All the same, Broumley and his fellow firefighters at CFD said they were thrilled by the discovery.

“The history of it,” Broumley said. “Just looking through it I ran across a lot of people I knew, and just seeing all the people that grew up here on Buffalo, Wardville, Huron, all the old streets of Cleburne. There’s Marvin Schmidt. His son and I were best friends in high school and went to A&M together.”

Looking through the magazine, Broumley recognized others including Dr. Charles Pitts, who served as a Baptist pastor in Cleburne before moving to Dallas where he later served as president of Dallas Baptist College.

Broumley spots a picture of his uncle and another of Dr. Tolbert Yater and Dr. O.T. Smith, both of whom set up practice on South Anglin Street after the war in what is now the Salvation Army of Johnson County building. Broumley chuckles when he mentions that Yater is the doctor who delivered him.

“Don’t put that in the paper though,” Broumley said.

Former Cleburne Firefighter Roger Trussell points out his father, J.H. Trussell, who served in the Air Force.

“Looking through here I know or know of probably 30 or 40 percent of the people in here,” Trussell said.

Trussell name checks Pete Smith, longtime Times-Review sports editor; Manning Coward, a former Johnson County Precinct 1 commissioner; and Jack Leonard, owner of Leonard’s Florist in Cleburne, among others.

“It’s amazing,” Cleburne Assistant Fire Chief Keith Scarbrough said. “All these people that just came back after the war and did their jobs and then see this and realize what they did.”

Scarbrough spotted his wife’s, Lisa Scarbrough’s, grandfather Clint Brand, and Dr. Joe Peters, who maintained a long time practice in Cleburne after the war. Scarbrough’s grandmother, Alice Scarbrough, a nurse, worked with Peters for years, Scarbrough said.

“I made a copy [of Peters’ entry] and showed it to Granny the other day and she just lit up,” Scarbrough said.

Reading one of the entries, Broumley laughs again.

“‘Another good farmer gone overseas,’ it says,” Broumley said.

All three got a kick looking through the ads of local businesses long gone such as Cleburne National Bank, Schlieper’s Bakery and the Yale and Palace movie theaters although some, like the Cleburne Lions Club and Modern Monument are still around.

One ad posts a letter to Schickelgruber [surname of Hitler’s paternal grandmother], a friendly reminder that he will soon be crushed by the weight of “Our men in service.”

Politically incorrect perhaps, but certainly prescient.

“Well, it was in a house owned by the church so they own it and they’ll be the ones to decide what to do with it,” Broumley said when asked what he plans to do with the magazine. “I just wonder if there’s anything to do to help preserve this?”