History
Albert Clinton Horton
(1798-1865) Georgia native Albert Clinton Horton came to Texas in 1834 from Alabama, where he had served in the state legislature. He established a plantation along Caney Creek in present Wharton County. In 1835, he returned to Alabama to recruit volunteers for the Texas army, and he served as colonel of a cavalry unit during the Texas revolution.
History
Ansgar Evangelical Lutheran Church and Cemetery
The Danish Folk Society obtained a land option from the Texas Land and Cattle Company and helped 93 Danish families from the midwest establish the Danevang Cooperative Settlement here in the early 1890s. The settlers, strong adherents of the Lutheran religion, organized an evangelical Lutheran congregation in 1895 with the help of the Rev. F. L. Grundtvig.
History
Boling
This area was called Floyd's Lane prior to the advent of the New York, Texas & Mexican Railway in 1900. Named for the Bolling family of Virginia, the town name was misspelled when citizens applied for a U. S. Post Office. The economy was based on farming and the railroad until sulphur, oil, and gas were discovered on the Boling dome in 1925.
History
Chesterville Cemetery
Land promoter John Linderholm, manager of the Southern Texas Colonization Company of Chicago, purchased more than 60,000 acres for development in Wharton and Colorado counties beginning in 1894. The Chesterville community was an outgrowth of this effort. It is named after the Nelson Chester family who, along with the Lafayette Kellison family, moved here from Illinois about 1895.
History
City of Wharton
The town of Wharton was founded as the seat of Wharton County in April 1846. Land for a courthouse, named Monterey Square, was given from the land grant of William Kincheloe, one of Stephen F. Austin's "Old Three Hundred" colonists who settled in this area in 1822. The townsite was surveyed by Virgel Stewart and William J. E. Heard, and the rich farmland attracted many settlers.
History
Community of Egypt
One of most historic towns in county. Named following the drouth of 1827, when pioneers of Stephen F. Austin's colony came to this fertile region to obtain corn. They called it "Goin down into Egypt for corn", after biblical passage. Noted patriots were among earliest settlers: Eli Mercer, one of first sugar producers in Texas; and W. J. E. Heard, leader of citizen soldiers.
History
Danevang
The first successful Danish community in Texas. Established in 1894 on a portion of 25,000 acres secured through option by Danish Folk Society from Texas Land and Cattle Company. Most immigrants came first to the northern United States, where other Danes had settled, and then to Texas, desiring to preserve their national culture, language, and religion. A Lutheran church was erected in 1895.
History
Danevang Community Hall (Danevang Forsamlingshus)
Danevang Community Hall (Danevang Forsamlingshus) The Danish community of Danevang (Danish Field) was founded in 1894, at the height of Danish emigration to the United States. The Dansk Folkesamfund (Danish Folk Society), organized in the Midwest in 1887 to preserve Danish culture, language and religion, arranged for land for a settlement here and contacted Danes living in the northern and…
History
Egypt Plantation Cemetery
Egypt Plantation Cemetery In 1838, William Jones Elliot Heard purchased more than 2,000 acres of land from John C. Clark and established the Egypt Plantation in what is now Wharton County. He set aside three acres for a cemetery. Early graves were covered with brick crypts, and the oldest marked grave is that of George S. Heard, the youngest of Heard's four children, who died on January 8, 1854.
History
El Campo Independent School District
El Campo's first permanent school building was a simple wooden structure built near this site about 1891. El Campo Independent School District was organized in 1895. Early schools were financed through local taxes, individual subscriptions, tuition, class fees, and bank loans.
Architecture
El Campo Library Building
The El Campo Library Association began the city's first library in 1902. A public library opened at the downtown fire station in 1927. After a branch of the Wharton County Library was established in El Campo in 1939, this facility was completed in 1940. The building exhibits characteristic elements of moderne architecture, especially in its entryway, light fixtures, and signage.
History
First National Bank of El Campo
The First National Bank of El Campo traces its history to the Koch and Poole Mercantile Company. In 1890 El Campo was an exciting new railroad town. Customers left their money in the Koch and Poole safe for protection, and soon the store assumed the duties of a banking institution.
History
Frazarville
Near this site once stood the community of Frazarville, founded in 1857 by Dr. Isaac James Frazar and his father, Col. James Watson Frazar. A locust infestation and Comanche raids force them to move from Cibolo Creek in Bexar County to this site, just over the Wharton County line. Dr. Isaac James Frazar practiced medicine in Eagle Lake.
History
G. C. and Clara Mick Home, 1909
Oldest in town founded 1900, on new Wharton-Palacios rail line. Mick, Missouri wheat grower and stock farmer, entered Texas on a "Rice Special," 1903. First home on land was a hurricane victim. Eldest son, A. C. Mick, laid out Iago, was architect this house. Used Cuban carpenters. Mansard roof. Cistern on porch. First electric plant in area. Bell rung only in emergencies.
History
Glen Flora
Located on the east bank of the Colorado River northwest of Wharton, Glen Flora was first settled on one of two land grants awarded to Robert H. Kuykendall, Sr., member of Stephen F. Austin's old three hundred. Around 1890, C.H. Waterhouse moved to Wharton County and purchased large tracts of land on the west bank of the river.
History
Glen Flora Plantation
Home built by a Mr. Sanford, 1860-1866. Occupied 1881 by W. H. Hood, who founded town of Glen Flora in 1890's. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1967
History
Hudgins Family Cemetery
Beginning in 1851, family members of Joel and Rachel Hudgins used this site as a burial ground. Property including the site was granted to Alexander Jackson in 1824 and inherited by his daughter Mary. Upon her death in 1836, it transferred to her husband, James McKenzie, who wed Rachel Ann Northington three years later. He died in 1845, leaving Rachel with three children.
Architecture
Joseph A. Hamilton House
A native of Ohio, Joseph Andrew Hamilton served in the Union army during the Civil War. About 1866 he settled in Wharton, where he held a variety of local political offices. Hamilton purchased this property in 1885 and moved his family into the existing one-story frame house. In 1907 the home was enlarged by raising the original structure and building a new addition underneath.
History
Joseph and Rachel Rabb Newman
Joseph and Rachel Rabb Newman Joseph (c. 1787-1831) and Rachel Rabb (1790-1872) Newman were married in 1806 in Ohio. Following Joseph's service in the War of 1812 in Illinois, they lived in Arkansas Territory on the Red River before moving into Texas in 1820. In 1823, they left the Red River area to join Rachel's parents, William and Mary Smalley Rabb, as members of Stephen F.
History
Josiah Dawson Hudgins
Josiah Dawson 'J.D.' Hudgins, born in 1852, was one of four sons of Joel and Rachel Northington McKenzie Hudgins to survive to adulthood. Hudgins' ancestors had come from Wales to Virginia in 1742; his father, Joel (d. 1873), came to this area of Texas in 1839 and served as Wharton County Commissioner.
Architecture
Judge Edwin Hawes House
Rosa F. McCamly had this home built in 1896. In 1897 she sold it to Edwin Hawes (b. 1852), Wharton County judge in the 1870s and 1880s. Hawes had returned to this area after temporarily residing in Kerrville, where he was mayor. Here he was a large landowner and a political leader.
History
Judge George E. Quinan
A native of Dublin, Ireland, George E. Quinan came to Texas in the 1830s. By the mid-1840s he had moved to Wharton and set up a law office near this site. He was elected district attorney in 1845. Quinan and his wife Mary Anne established a home on Peach Creek in Wharton County. He served two terms in the Texas Senate from 1857 to 1861.
History
K.J.T. St. Wenceslaus Society No. 40
Beginning in the 1880s, Czech settlers came to this area, contributing to the development of East Bernard. To supprt Texas Czechs of the Catholic faith, residents of Bluff (Hostyn) established the Katolická Jednota Texassk', or Czech Catholic Union of Texas, in 1889. Known as the K.J.T., the group provided insurance and other member benefits.
History
Marion Wesley (Baldy) Crowell
Born in DeSoto. In World War I, served with distinction in Co. C, 111th Rngineers, A. E. F. Moved to Louise, 1933. Married Jessie Thomas, 1936. Was twice commander, Craig-Harriss Post, American Legion. First president Louise Chamber of Commerce. A leader in religious, civic and political affairs. "Leave it to Baldy," (a tribute by Senator culp Krueger): Leave it to Baldy, oft heard refrain.
History
New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad and The Community of Hungerford
Attracted by the State of Texas' offer of free land to railroad developers, a charter for the New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad was secured in 1880. Its major investor, John W. Mackay, made his fortune in the Nevada silver mines. His brother-in-law, count Joseph Telfener of Lombardy, Italy, arranged for the construction.
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.
