Civic & Local
Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church
Our Lady of the Gulf Catholic Church The Rev. Augustine Gardet offered the first mass for Roman Catholics in Port Lavaca in 1857 at the R. D. Blossom home. The first church building, constructed in 1865 and destroyed in an 1886 storm, was rebuilt in 1894 and dedicated as Our Lady of the Gulf. The congregation received its first resident pastor, the Rev. Francis Pallanche, in 1913.
History
Port Lavaca Cemetery
Burial in this historic cemetery began in the 1840s, with several mass graves dating from an 1849 cholera epidemic. Pioneer families and their descendants, as well as prominent state, county, and city officials, are also interred in the community graveyard. At least one participant in the Battle of San Jacinto is buried here.
History
Ranger Cemetery
The oldest known grave here is that of Major H. Oram Watts, the customs collector at Linnville and casualty of a Comanche raid on that nearby settlement, Aug. 8, 1840. The site was called Ranger Cemetery after the burial in 1850 of Margaret Peyton Lytle, wife of James T. Lytle (d. 1854), the "poet" of the Texas Rangers.
History
Rene Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle
Born in Rouen, France, November 22, 1643. Came to Canada in 1666. Founded a first settlement near Montreal. Led several expeditions on the Great Lakes and the Ohio exploration of the Mississippi, 1682. On July 24, 1684 La Salle sailed from France to establish a colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. Landed at Matagorda Bay, February 15, 1685. There established Fort St. Louis.
History
Salem Lutheran Church
Early membership in Salem Lutheran church reflected the German Lutheran population that immigrated to Texas through the nearby port of Indianola and the port of Galveston in the 19th century. Members of the Kemper, Knipling, Rosenbaum and Wehmeyer families gathered to organize the congregation in 1902, and the Rev. R. F. Grueber served as first pastor.
Transport
San Antonio and Mexican Gulf Railroad
Chartered in 1850, the San Antonio & Mexican Gulf Railroad was one of the first railroads in Texas. San Antonio investors hoped it would open trade from the Gulf. As the line was built westward from Port Lavaca, wagons loaded with goods met the train on the open prairie. In 1863 Confederates destroyed the track to keep it out of Union hands.
History
Seadrift Cemetery
Seadrift Cemetery An epidemic, thought to be measles, took the lives of a number of infants in this area in 1912-1913. Some of their graves remain unmarked, but they were among the first to be interred at this site. This cemetery was established in 1912, when A.D. Powers, a land promoter, deeded five acres to J.L. Knight (1862-1927), trustee for the town of Seadrift, for a community burial ground.
History
Site of Cox's Point
An early landing place of supplies for the interior. Captain Jack Shackelford's "Red Rovers" of Alabama disembarked at this point. A town established here in 1836 was burned by Indians in 1840. Erected by State of Texas 1936
History
Site of the Town of Indianola
(1844-1886) First called by German immigrants Karlshaven, an important port of Texas. Cargoes of ships were hauled to and from points in Texas and Mexico by carts until 1860 when the San Antonio and Mexico Gulf Railroad and the Indianola Railroad were completed to Victoria. The town was partly destroyed with great loss of life by a hurricane, September 17, 1875.
History
Site of the Town of Linnville
An early Texas port named for John Joseph Linn 1798-1885 A pioneer merchant of Victoria who located his warehouse here in 1831 Around this a settlement grew up which was destroyed by Comanche Indians on August 8, 1840 Erected by the State of Texas 1936
History
Zimmerman Cemetery
The earliest marked grave in the Zimmerman Cemetery, that of Georchim Wedig, is dated 1852. In 1863, Wedig's daughter Katherine married John Gonzales (1838-1918), who had come to Indianola in 1858 with Joseph Mendez (d. 1904) as a caretaker for a shipload of camels imported by the U.S. Army as part of an experiment in frontier transportation.
Elsewhere in Texas
Hear it from the road
Whistlestop tells you this story automatically when you drive past. No searching, no tapping, nothing to ask.
