Helen Cordes and Hidden HerStories (and MoreStories)
Telling the story of a woman committed to telling other people’s stories.
Helen Cordes is the author and creative force behind the website Hidden HerStories and MoreStories, a blog-style website that she created because of her desire to share the full histories of Georgetown and Williamson County as well as Southwestern University.
There are stories at Southwestern, in Georgetown, and the greater Williamson County area, that nearly everyone knows. These are the names that are on buildings, and the founders whose legacy is still strong--the familiar photographs of white settlers, faded tintypes of Native Peoples and historical sites.
Then, there are the hidden stories--the ones that have been left in the dark, which are necessary to know to understand the full, complete stories of these places, people and events. These stories are the ones that Helen Cordes strives to tell in their fullness, without the censorship of centuries governed by the oppression of those who held positions of power who have taught us whose stories and lives matter and whose do not.
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Cordes grew up on a farm in northeastern Colorado, the child of a farmer and a school teacher. She was shy as a child, and it was her older brother who pushed her to speak more. She could read and write before she began school at age 5, and has always felt at home in the written word.
Helen came to journalism at the end of its golden age, when the tide was just beginning to turn away from newspapers and magazines toward blogs, online sources, and websites.
Cordes recalls that, back then, “If you wanted to get something out there, it was in print. And at first I was skeptical about online stuff, it was like, that’s not real- it’s not in print! And now I think, thank God for online. There is a website, [and] anybody who finds out about it can visit it whenever they want. So, I’m happy to have the website. I just want to make sure people know the whole history.”
Because of Cordes’ passion for history and background in journalism, she has been successful in making these complete histories, which she calls HerStories and MoreStories, come to life. Her blog is a reflection of dedicated research and continued commitment to telling the whole story of the place she calls home. Indeed, many Placing Memory researchers have found inspiration for their projects in Cordes’s work–not only in her content, but her ethic.
At the website, Cordes shares pieces on Georgetown’s First Peoples, civil rights activist Juanita Craft, female business owners and entrepreneurs in Georgetown, the women of Southwestern University, and several additional MoreStories. Cordes describes herself as an “aggregator of information,” expressing that her work to gather and piece together information helps to make these impactful stories accessible to the public. Not only is Cordes an accomplished journalist and aggregator, but she also has direct connection to Southwestern University through her husband, Dr. Eric Selbin, Professor Emeritus of Political Science.
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In addition to sharing articles on her website, Cordes leads free guided HerStory and MoreStory walks around Georgetown. In May 2025, she met a group of interested people on the SU campus, where she led a guided tour highlighting the women who helped make Southwestern the place it is today. The tour ended with cinnamon rolls and popcorn for all on an outside patio, two treats that were Cordes’ favorite indulgences during her own college years.
As part of this project, Cordes also led me on a “Native Walk” on the San Gabriel River that culminated on a bluff above Georgetown, from which the tower of Southwestern’s Roy and Lillie Cullen building could be glimpsed on the horizon. This bluff is believed to be the site of the buffalo jump that the Tonkawa people used in order to drive the herd off the great height and harvest the essential hides, meat, and bones of the great animals.
On the walk, Cordes included details about the Tonkawa tribe that had lived there for centuries before Anglos arrived to colonize this land, talked about plants that would have been used for food and medicine, and talked about the springs near the San Gabriel River that flow today--the same way they would have flowed centuries before, connecting past and present in a tangible way.
Cordes made special note of simple ways that the city of Georgetown and Southwestern University could acknowledge and honor the Tonkawa People; including placing markers at specific sites and naming picnic pavilions after our ancestors.
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There is not a paycheck for the work that Cordes undertakes. Her motivation for telling hidden HerStories and MoreStories is born of a desire to create a world that is more aware, more informed, and more compassionate. When she discovers a story that is not being told, or is only being told in a truncated way, she begins her work to reveal the full truth.
“You don’t tell a partial story and say, ‘this is the truth.’ You tell the whole story,” says Cordes. “So, I feel that what I’m doing is just augmenting what exists, because we’re--all of us--in this world. Not just some of us. A full story gives you the best opportunity to get as close to the truth as you can.”
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