HISTORY OF COLLEGEPORT

By Dorothy Franzen Merck

Presented to: Wednesday Club, Sadie Ellen Room ,

First Presbyterian Church of Collegeport , November 15, 1978

Greetings,

When Hazel asked me to give Highlights of Collegeport for your meeting this afternoon I told her I would be happy to do so. When I started collecting pictures, maps, news items, etc., I found so many Collegeport News items in the Beacon columns, I sighed, "Oh, No-those women have read all those items I sent to the Beacon"...and then I recalled the time I was asked to give a Christmas story years ago... Every time I would pause, an elderly lady, Ma Brown, who was sitting next to me filled in on all the details every time I paused for a second. She had read the story, too. Well, if you want to fill in any information, that's okay with me.

When I was in school I just hated history. As I grew older I became interested in the history of our community. Every time I found some information that I wanted, I would make a copy of it. I have heard people say, "Don't tell Dorothy, she might put the news in the Church bulletin or in the paper."

Before I start talking...I want you to see the display of pictures, directory, map, Gulf Coast University Yearbook, The First Church-Federated (14 denominations), newspapers, etc.

Some years ago, Burton D. Hurd's niece and her husband, Kay and Roy Sjoquist came to our home to ask about the Collegeport cemetery where Mr. and Mrs. Hurd are buried. When we came back from the cemetery we asked the Sjoquists to come in. She wanted to know something about Collegeport where she was born. I brought out the Club pictures and some copies of The History of the Woman's Club, M. A. Travis' Autobiography and Mrs. Hurd's History of Collegeport. Mrs. Sjoquist looked up at me and asked, "Would you trust these copies in my hands?" I guess I looked puzzled so she said, "We own a printing shop in Houston and I would love to print these in memory of Uncle Burton." So if you want some of these copies - you may have them. They are over here.

Now I am going to ramble...

We are going to Palacios Point further on so I want to digress just for a moment - Abel Pierce of Prairie Center told me that when the story of 1886 destroyed Palacios Point (Population of 1700) Jonathan or J. E. Pierce had the Burkhart home and lumber salvaged from damaged buildings barged to the bay on Slough Ranch (1889) and then hauled on oxen carts to build his summer place, which we know as the Slough Ranch home. Jimmie Murry, who lives here, is the son of Bob Murry, who was foreman on this ranch.

In August and September of 1907, Abel B. Pierce had 320 acres, the Townsite of Collegeport, surveyed by J. C. Carrington, known as the Hurd subdivision of the A. B. Pierce Ranch.

On Monday, January 8, 1908 , the Burton D. Hurd Land Company entered into a contract with the J. E. Pierce family, with Mr. A. B. Pierce as manager of the estate, for 1,000 acres comprising the two ranches, the Ace of Clubs Ranch owned by Mr. Abel Pierce and the J. E. Pierce Slough Ranch of 2,200. Purchase was made from Mr. Fred S. Robbins and Mrs. Fred S. Robbins for their 9,000 acres east of the Ace of Clubs Ranch, comprising all land between the Colorado and Tres Palacios Rivers at this point and for 12 miles southward to Old Point Palacios, at this time, took new name of Portsmouth .

Collegeport was founded by Burton D. Hurd Land Company, May 25, 1908 , at which time a tract of land was deeded to W. H. Travis for the building of a college of industrial, domestic and agricultural arts and sciences, and for the opening and development of our waterways. The Gulf Coast College of Industrial Arts was founded June 1909. The survey made by the government at that time reported the site of Collegeport and Portsmouth as feasible and practical ports of entry. The Grand Opening of Collegeport was held May 25, 1909 at Hotel Collegeport.

The year 1912 found a town of 496, a Business Men's League of 90 members, a Federated Church of 14 denominations, an Episcopal Church, a Woman's Club of 86 members, the present brick school house under construction and the first free public library in the county.

Collegeport had flourished for a spell. Professor Will Travis opened the Gulf Coast University of Industrial Arts, and made deals with the pioneer orange growers from the north to plant their orchards with student labor.

I'll say one thing about Mr. Hurd, "He was a salesman." He convinced the people in the north that it never got cold down here and that they could make a living on 10 acres of citrus trees. Freeze after freeze killed the orange trees. They tried watermelons and cantaloupes, which flourished, but the crops were fed to the cattle for want of a market. I can remember when the men shipped melons, didn't get a cent from them and had to pay the freight. Farmers started farming cotton.

The Collegeport boom fizzled about 1915. The college closed and Prof. Travis moved to Arkansas . The Weborgs moved their hotel to Houston and the D. H. Morris family tore down their store and home which they moved to Houston . The Hotel Collegeport was sold to Mrs. Doman in the early 20's and a few years later she built the home off of Highway 35 in which Mignon Doman now resides. (Papa bought bathroom fixtures that were in the hotel.) Even Burton D. Hurd moved away. But the more rugged settlers survived, acquired property left by their disillusioned neighbors and finally learned that the land was better than Burton D. Hurd had told them but not for oranges.

We, Gust, Ellen, Dorothy and Arnold Franzen, arrived in Collegeport Christmas Eve 1909 and spent our first night in the Hotel Collegeport. Mama believed Mr. Hurd when he said that it never got cold down here. She left warm clothing, etc. in Iowa . We nearly froze to death when the first blue norther blew in.

I tell you, we had a rough time. The first year Papa didn't get any water for his rice crop as they hadn't completed the Pumping Station, the second year he got salt water - he lost two crops in a row. We were too poor to move. We stuck it out and always had enough to eat and wear. I can remember when we had no roads. We drove through the Pierce pastures and forded Pilkington Slough on our way to town for groceries and mail. When the tide was high the water was so deep that it was kinda scary to cross the slough. We'd have to put our feet up on the seat. One time when Papa was delivering some live ducks to the hotel, the water was so deep that the ducks swam out of the buggy.

The town that boasted of three hotels, a City State Bank, a telephone exchange, two hardware stores, drugstore, 2 grocery stores, barber shop, planning mill, carpenters, blacksmiths, boat building shop, doctors, dentist, veterinarian, lawyer, college, high school, ice house, pavilion with boat service twice daily, Missouri Pacific Railroad and station is now strictly a rural area. And we can't blame it all on Mr. Hurd. In 1914 charbon killed hundreds of animals. Then Carla (1961) was the final blow when a number of our homes just disappeared and we lost our grocery store, the drugstore and the beer joint.

I am sure as you drove down 1095, formerly Central Street you wondered what we have left in Collegeport.

We are proud of our two churches, The First Baptist and The First Presbyterian (replaced First Church , Federated). Our Community Center, the Mopac House, was built from lumber from the Missouri Pacific depot and attached to the Library building of 1923 during the depression in 1935. It is used extensively. It is here where the Woman's Club of Collegeport sponsors the annual homecoming, Collegeport Day, the last Saturday in May. We used to celebrate May 25, but it was more convenient for former residents to come down on Saturdays so the date was changed. We also have a VFD and thank goodness a Post Office.

Oh, we have many interesting experiences, and you might enjoy hearing about them, but I don't want to keep you too long as you will want to see the display of pictures, papers and other mementoes and the fellowship hour that is to follow.

The Federated Church of 14 denominations was organized on November 30, 1909 in the college chapel, which stood one block north of the Mopac. During the warm weather the congregation met at the Pavilion. Papa wouldn't let us go there because that was where they danced on Saturday nights.

The college had a Chinaman who did the laundry, etc. for the students. He had a rough time as every time he got near a door some student would put his long queue inside a door and then pull the door shut and there he was until rescued.

When the rice canals were built after 1910, they were used not only for irrigation but waterways. The bridges were built high so that barges could travel under them. I asked Dick Corporon if they ever used the canals for transportation. He said that he could remember when oil would be shipped to the Citrus railroad station and then piped onto a barge in the canal. Then George Braden would hook two gray mules, one in front of the other, and pull the barge down the canal to the Collegeport Pumping Plant on the Colorado River . These bridges were very hard to cross with mules when it was wet and also too steep for the steam engines used to thresh rice. (A number of farmers owned the steam engine and hired an engineer to run it - that is the way they did with the one Papa had an interest in.) The navigation system didn't last long as they hadn't thought of the need for checks in the canal for irrigation. When they were put in, the canals were no longer navigable.

Abel Pierce of Prairie Center told me Shanghai Pierce, who was president of a bank in Galveston , had to sell some 17,500 acres in the Palacios area to raise money to cover the loss the bank sustained when the vice president and a cashier got away with over $1,000,000.00. He said the culprits fled to South America .

We often wondered why the train was late. Dean Merck said that when our train got to Bay City it was used to switch cars. If it got so late that our train might meet the train coming from the west, our passengers had to sit and wait.

Among the residents in Collegeport in 1978 are the sons of two rival cowboys, J. R. "Jimmy" Murry, the son of Robert "Bob" Murry, the foreman on J. E. Pierce's Slough Ranch and Fred King, the son of F. A. King, foreman on Shanghai Pierce's Mad Island Slough Ranch. Other descendants of pioneers are Dean Merck, who arrived here in September 1909 with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. B. V. Merck, Dorothy Franzen Merck who arrived with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Gus Franzen on Christmas Eve 1909 and spent the first night in the Collegeport Hotel. Other members of the Franzen family living here are: Mrs. Gerald (Mamie) Wells, Gus and Alex Franzen. Mrs. W. L. (Rosalie) Ellis, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Roy Nelson and Mason Holsworth, son of M. S. (Jack) Holsworth and grandson of Mr. and Mrs. E. A. Holsworth also reside here. Mrs. Earl (Zelphia) Hill, whose husband had a meat market here in the early days when they lived at the Savoy Hotel here, owns a home here but due to advanced years she spends most of her time with one of her children.

The Sadie Ellen Room , in which we are meeting today, was named after Dean and Dorothy Merck's pioneering mothers, Sadie Merck and Ellen Franzen. The kitchen is called "Carrie's Kitchen" in memory of Mrs. Roy Nelson, who was social chairman for many, many years.

Another gift in memory of pioneering grandparents and father is the Mopac Barbeque Building and Pit given in 1978 by John Maurice Merck in loving memory of Mr. and Mrs. B. V. Merck and his father, John Merck.

The Freight Wharf was located west of Mrs. John Merck's home.

The Collegeport Chronicle was published by M. A. Travis. His home was located in the southwest corner of Mrs. John Merck's pasture. Five copies are available. The Collegeport New Era was published by John Rodebaugh.

The Collegeport State Bank was located on the north side of Central Street , now Highway 1095, half way between the old Mowery Store and the Ledwig Dryer. Its capital was $10,000.00 with Abel B. Pierce as president and J. B. McCain as cashier.

Copyright 2005 - Present by Carol Sue Gibbs   All rights reserved

HOME