under the guidance and encouragement of the late Jack Collard, prominent Fort
Worth Title Company executive.
In 1991, Guardian Title Company acquired the assets of Eastland County
Abstract Company which was formed in the early to mid 1900's by the Earl
Bender & Company, who had acquired Luckel & Darnell Abstract Company, and
the Eastland Abstract Company.
In 1996 Guardian Title Company acquired the assets of Eastland Title & Transfer,
Inc., including the abstract plant formerly operated by Lone Star Title & Abstract
Company, along with an abstract plant established and operated by Elliott &
Waldron Company in the early 1950's.
Eastland County Abstract Company
Earl Bender was county clerk of Eastland County when he married Willie Arnold
Bender in 1922. She was manager of Texas Bonded Abstract Company at that
time. In 1923 the pair formed Earl Bender & Company and that same year acquired
Texas Bonded Abstract Company. Texas Bonded Abstract Company was the first
abstract plant owned by Maco Stewart of Galveston, Texas and founder of Stewart
Title Guaranty Company, a major Texas Title Insurance Underwriter.
Between 1923 and 1944, Earl Bender & Company acquired Luckel & Darnell
Abstract Company and Eastland Abstract Company, the successor to L. A.
Hightower & Company. The newly formed combined was named Eastland County
Abstract Company.
Eastland County Abstract Company was owned and operated by the Benders
until his death in 1967. Mrs. bender sold the company to Pat & Annelle Miller in
1968, who continued to run the company until 1988 when the plant and
accompanying records were sold to a group of attorneys from the Dallas area.
