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Songs written about the waterways and highways that run near Beeville.
In 1886, the first railroad was constructed through Beeville, significantly stimulating the growth of the economy and population. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated these railroads until the early 1970s. Additionally, Beeville was served by Trans-Texas Airways during the 1950s, operating scheduled passenger flights with Douglas DC-3 propeller airliners from Chase Field to various destinations in Texas.
Here is the honest story behind the name, and it will surprise you. Beeville is not named for the honeybee. The town, and the whole county around it, were named for a man whose last name happened to be Bee. Barnard Elliott Bee Senior was a South Carolina lawyer who came to Texas right after the battle of San Jacinto and threw himself into the young Republic. He served as secretary of the treasury, then secretary of war, and later secretary of state, holding three of the most important jobs in the new nation of Texas. When the Texas Legislature carved out a new county in eighteen fifty-seven, they honored him by calling it Bee County, and the county seat took the name Beeville. So every time you see a cartoon honeybee on a sign around here, remember it is really a nod to a statesman, not the stinger. That said, the town has fully embraced its buzzing mascot, and honestly, who could blame them. It is one of the friendliest name mix-ups in all of South Texas.
The man Beeville honors had a son who put four words into the history books that almost every American has heard. Barnard Elliott Bee Junior, son of the Barnard Bee this county is named for, grew up in a prominent Charleston family and became a soldier. On a July morning in eighteen sixty-one, in the very first major battle of the Civil War near a Virginia creek called Bull Run, Bee Junior looked across the smoke at a fellow general holding his ground and shouted to rally his own wavering men. He said, there is Jackson standing like a stone wall. That is the moment Thomas Jackson became Stonewall Jackson, a nickname that stuck for the rest of American memory. Historians still argue over whether Bee meant it as pure praise or as frustration that Jackson would not advance, and we may never fully know, because Bee was mortally wounded that same day and died soon after. So the family name stamped on this South Texas town is tied, by blood, to one of the most famous nicknames in the country. A small-town name with a very long reach.
Long before Mexico granted land (1834) on Poesta Creek to the first settlers, Anne Burke and James Heffernan, savage Indians roamed this valley at will. Their colony, although successful at first, soon met disaster. In 1836 James Heffernan, his brother John, and John Ryan, who had planned to join Texas patriots at Goliad, were planting a crop in a field at this site when they were massacred by Comanches. Also killed was James' family, in his picket house upcreek. Bee County was organized in 1858 and named for Col. Barnard E. Bee, a Republic of Texas statesman. Soon after, choice of a county seat came into hot dispute. A site seven miles east, on Medio Creek, was chosen for "Beeville". But ten months later, voters made the 150-acre donation of Anne Burke "O'Carroll permanent county seat, on the banks on the Poesta. The new town, first called "Maryville" for Mary Heffernan (relative of those killed in 1836) was soon renamed Beeville. In its first decade, it had two stores, one saloon, and a blacksmith shop. First courthouse was built for $750 on west side of present square, 1860. First railroad came through, 1866, and a larger courthouse was soon built. After it burned, the present one was erected in 1913. (1967)
Statesman, soldier and ambassador, Barnard Elliot Bee, Sr., was a significant figure during Texas’ years as a republic (1836-45). He was born in South Carolina to federal judge, Thomas Bee, and Susannah (Bulline) Bee. In 1809, he married Ann Wragg Fayssoux, with whom he had five daughters and two sons. Bee studied law, but never practiced, instead serving as a Colonel on the staff of South Carolina Governor James Hamilton. Bee moved his family to Texas in 1836, joining the Republic of Texas Army, which he served for several months until ordered to examine the coast to ascertain proper sites for the erection of forts. He left the army to become the Republic of Texas’ first Secretary of the Treasury. The next year, Bee became the Republic’s Secretary of War and in 1839, he was appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Mexico. As a diplomat, he sought Mexico’s recognition of Texas Independence, though the proposal was rejected. Later that year, Bee became Minister Plenipotentiary to the United States; in that role, he negotiated with Daniel Webster and settled the 1843 treaty by which the U.S. recognized Texas. Bee also entered into talks with Spain, negotiating free trade between Texas and Cuba. Barnard Bee retired from public life to Brazoria. Because of his expansionist view of Texas, he returned to South Carolina after the 1845 annexation, where he lived in Pendleton until his death. One of Col. Bee’s sons, Hamilton P. Bee, was instrumental in the naming of Bee County (est. 1857) after his father. Today, Barnard E. Bee, Sr.’s legacy continues to impact Texas through his diplomatic and military contributions. Both Bee County and Beeville, Texas honor him with their names.
The first post office was established in Beeville in 1859, the year after the town's founding. The 1918 building was the first Beeville post office constructed on Federal property - previous locations were county- or privately-owned. The building is a significant example of small town post office designs produced by the U.S. Treasury Department in the early twentieth century. Soon after construction began, a tragic incident occurred with great legal implications. J.P. Hermes and Robert B. Brown, both contracted to remove excavated dirt from the foundation, were hostile towards each other, and Brown began carrying a gun to the worksite for protection. On May 7, 1917, before a crowd of witnesses, Hermes threatened Brown with a knife, and Brown pulled out his pistol and shot and killed Hermes then walked to the courthouse and turned himself in. Brown was found guilty of homicide, but the case was later appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In an opinion delivered by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, the court ruled that Brown had acted in self defense, thus establishing the right to use lethal force when facing a lethal attack. The 1918 post office is a one-story brick and limestone building with a raised basement. The design features Classical Revival style architecture and symmetrical facades. The primary entrance includes a pedimented portico on four Doric columns and a recessed doorway topped by a semicircular fanlight. The flat roof includes a cast stone stringcourse and brick parapet with regularly-spaced wooden balustrades. In 1961 a compatible wing was added to the north and west sides of the original floor plan. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2009
Postponing death, relieving pain, and making money are the principal motives undergirding medical quackery. Most human beings will do almost anything to prolong their existence or to relieve the suffering of disease. Some will do almost anything to exploit these desires by selling what they claim are pain-killing remedies or life-prolonging nostrums. During the days of the Republic of Texas , Texas newspapers regularly advertised Burnham's Drops, Lin's Balm of China, Connel's Pain Extractor, Christie's Galvanic Belt, and many other alleged panaceas. "Thousands are daily quacked , out of comfort, out of temper, out of health, out of money, out of liberty, out of their senses, and finally into their graves," declared one Texan. Humbuggery abounded. The vast territory of Texas made it impossible for trained doctors to serve all families, and there was no convincing evidence that trained doctors provided remedies that were any better than the cheaper nostrums offered by entrepreneurial quacks. Saddlebags easily held pills, or bottles of tonics that often contained large amounts of alcohol and, in some cases, morphine. By the time of the Civil War , ads in the Galveston Weekly News touted Hostetter's Stomach Bitters; or Dr. Leroy's French Specific for All Affections of the Urinary Organs, and those Affections Only; or Daly's Aromatic Valley Whiskey for Medicinal Purposes; or Brown's Bronchial Troches; or Sanford's Family Blood Purifying Pills; or Old Sachem Bitters and Wigwam Tonic. Texans imbibed gallons of the tonics and ate tons of the pills, as ads for these and other nostrums appeared again and again in newspapers throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Indian Medicine shows were popular throughout the South for more than a generation, and during the 1880s Charlie Bigelow, a Bee County farmer, staged one of the greatest of all of these. He sold vast quantities of Kickapoo Indian Sagwa as a tonic for indigestion, constipation, rheumatism, and almost any other symptom or disease. His traveling show included Indian dances, trapeze artists, trained dogs, fancy shooting, and a mock Indian marriage ceremony. Those enjoying the free show usually thanked Bigelow's troupe by purchasing a one-dollar bottle of the tonic. William Radam, an Austin gardener, was another popular medical huckster in Texas. His solution, first offered in 1887, exploited a popular belief that germs caused all diseases; his mixture supposedly exterminated these germs. Exclaimed Radam, "I treated all my patients with the same medicine, just as in my garden I would treat all weeds alike." Radam made so much money that he left his Austin gardens for a New York City mansion overlooking Central Park. During the twentieth century, Texans spent thousands of dollars in support of three of America's most prominent quacks: John R. Brinkley , Norman Baker, and Harry M. Hoxsey. In 1919, Brinkley acquired a license to practice medicine in Texas. He eventually became famous as the "goat-gland doctor," a self-labeled specialist in sexual rejuvenation. Hundreds of patients flocked to Del Rio to receive "goat-gland" transplants and thereby sustain Brinkley's millionaire manner of living. In Laredo, Norman Baker lured patients to his hospital with boasts of cancer sure-cures and, in Dallas, Harry Hoxsey for twenty-five years offered similar cures to desperate patients. Fears about the practices and fees of professional doctors; hopes for miracle cures, everlasting life, and cosmetic perfection; and the appeals of fanciful showmen and advertising tycoons who know how to exploit these fears and hopes all sustain medical quackery. Today's television ads focus especially on the elderly and those with chronic diseases, daily urging them to waste their money for nutritional supplements, wrinkle creams, and other scientifically unproven substances. In the 1980s Americans probably wasted more than $10 billion annually on such quack nostrums.
James Robert Dougherty, attorney, oilman, and philanthropist, the son of Robert and Rachel (Sullivan) Dougherty, was born in San Patricio, Texas, on August 27, 1871. He was certified to teach at the age of sixteen and took a position in Webb County. Two years later he enrolled at Saint Louis University, after which he attended the University of Texas in Austin. He studied law in the offices of Lon C. Hill and James B. Wells and was admitted to the bar on March 4, 1895. He went to Beeville to practice law, and later his brother, J. Chris Dougherty, joined him to form the law firm of Dougherty and Dougherty. James Dougherty helped to establish the legal precedent of private ownership of minerals in the beds of nonnavigable rivers. He dealt in livestock all his life. He developed a silver mine in Durango, Mexico, in 1916. He was instrumental in discovering a number of South Texas oilfields, including the Tom O'Conner, Greta, Pettus, Flour Bluff, Refugio, Dougherty, and several others. With Dr. W. E. Hewit, he formed the oil company of Hewit and Dougherty, which operated over a wide area of South and West Texas. Dougherty spoke Spanish fluently and was a student of Latin, Greek, and French. He furnished capital to a publishing company in New York for translations from Latin and Greek. He was elected first lieutenant by a company of volunteers during the Spanish-American War. He married Genevieve Tarlton on April 24, 1911, and they had four children. He was a member of the board of regents of Texas A&I University at Kingsville for ten years and a member of the boards of regents of Incarnate Word and Our Lady of the Lake colleges in San Antonio. A decade before his death, he and his wife established the Dougherty Foundation as an aid to youths for obtaining an education. Dougherty was a Catholic and a fourth-degree Knight of Columbus. He was made a knight of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (1947) and of the Order of Malta (1948), as well as of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre (1948). In 1937 the Doughertys donated $12,000 to finance the construction of a new St. Joseph's School in Beeville. Later they built the James R. Dougherty, Jr., Recreation Center in memory of their son, who was killed in action during World War II . Dougherty died on July 8, 1950, in Corpus Christi and was buried in Beeville.
96 stories, landmarks & places within ~20 miles — the same local lore RoadyGoat plays as you drive through.
In 1886, the first railroad was constructed through Beeville, significantly stimulating the growth of the economy and population. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated these railroads until the early…
You're driving past the Rialto Theater, a Beeville landmark that was once the star of a 22-theater chain across South Texas. Brothers Henry and Sydney Hall poured $25,000 into this place, opening its doors in August…
You're driving past the Rountree Rock House, built in 1881. Joseph Rountree bought the land in 1875 but died before he could build. His widow, Elizabeth, finished the house with help from her father, using Florida pine…
Here is the honest story behind the name, and it will surprise you. Beeville is not named for the honeybee. The town, and the whole county around it, were named for a man whose last name happened to be Bee. Barnard…
The man Beeville honors had a son who put four words into the history books that almost every American has heard. Barnard Elliott Bee Junior, son of the Barnard Bee this county is named for, grew up in a prominent…
Since the name of this town keeps pointing us at bees, here is a genuinely amazing bit of science about the real honeybee, offered purely as a fun tangent and not as the origin of the name. A honeybee that finds a great…
You're driving past the site of Beeville, a town born from tragedy and resilience. Back in 1834, this valley on Poesta Creek was settled by Anne Burke and James Heffernan. But just two years later, in 1836, disaster…
Before it was Beeville, this town went by another name entirely. When settlers laid out the new townsite along the creek, they called it Maryville, sometimes spelled Marysville, in honor of Mary Heffernan. She came from…
One more honeybee marvel for a town that carries the name, and again, this is a fun science tangent rather than the source of the name. Scientists describe a beehive as a superorganism. That means the tens of thousands…
A town called Beeville earns the right to bust one of the biggest bee myths going, and this is just a playful nature tangent, not the reason for the name. We all learned that a honeybee dies whenever it stings. The…
Beeville's history is marked by pivotal moments that shaped its destiny. In the 1830s, the Burke, Carroll, and Heffernan families first settled the area around the Poesta River. The city, initially named 'Maryville' for…
Statesman, soldier and ambassador, Barnard Elliot Bee, Sr., was a significant figure during Texas’ years as a republic (1836-45). He was born in South Carolina to federal judge, Thomas Bee, and Susannah (Bulline)…
The first post office was established in Beeville in 1859, the year after the town's founding. The 1918 building was the first Beeville post office constructed on Federal property - previous locations were county- or…
If the name Beeville has you picturing the whole town buzzing, here is where it actually happens, and it is not around a hive. It is around a rodeo arena. For close to a century, Bee County has thrown a celebration…
You're driving past the Praeger Building in Beeville, a landmark on the courthouse square for over a century. San Antonio businessman Albert Praeger arrived in the 1890s, opening a hardware store and tin shop. By 1906,…
You're driving through Beeville, and right here is the Bee County Courthouse, a grand example of Classical Revival architecture. Designed by W. C. Stephenson, who also helped with President McKinley's death mask, this…
You're driving through Beeville, and right here is the site of the Commercial National Bank. It opened its doors way back in May of 1893 with $50,000 in capital stock. From its very first quarter, this bank was turning…
You're driving past what remains of Beeville's oldest business structure, built around 1867. It started as a general store, lodging house, and even the post office, all thanks to G.W. McClanahan. McClanahan wasn't just…
You're driving through Beeville, a town that owes its boom to the railroad. On June 14, 1886, the first San Antonio and Aransas Pass train rolled in, transforming this village into a vital shipping point for cattle and…
You're driving past the Beeville home of James Lincoln de la Mothe Borglum, a man with a legacy as grand as his father's. Born in 1912, he helped sculpt Mount Rushmore and later oversaw its completion. Though granite…
James Robert Dougherty, attorney, oilman, and philanthropist, the son of Robert and Rachel (Sullivan) Dougherty, was born in San Patricio, Texas, on August 27, 1871. He was certified to teach at the age of sixteen and…
You're driving through Beeville, Texas, the birthplace of Balde González. Born blind in 1928, González learned to play multiple instruments at the Texas School for the Blind. By 1948, he returned here to form his own…
You're driving through South Texas, maybe near Beeville, and you're passing through history tied to a man named Caiaphas Kennard Ham. He arrived in Texas in 1830, a neighbor of the legendary James Bowie. Just a year…
You're driving through the vast Big Bend region, and right here, in Lajitas, was the stomping ground for Thomas Verner Skaggs. After his brother's death brought him back to Texas, Skaggs settled in Lajitas in 1916. He…
You're driving past the site of the West Side School, a place that served Beeville's Mexican American students starting in 1911. While the district built A.C. Jones High School for white students at the same time, this…
You're driving through Beeville, a town with a name change and a move in its past. Settled in the 1830s, the original county seat was inconveniently located seven miles away. In 1859, Ann Burke Carroll and Patrick Burke…
You're driving through Bee County, a place that's been home to Texans for thousands of years. But its story as a settled community really kicks off in the 1820s. In 1826, Jeremiah O'Tool and a few others sailed all the…
You're driving through Bee County, and right here is Beeville, a town shaped by a man named William Robert Hayes. Hayes didn't start here. He chased gold in California and even prospected in British Columbia before…
You're driving through Bee County, Texas, and right here is where Dr. Joseph Harrison Taylor made his home in Beeville before the Civil War. When the conflict broke out, he didn't hesitate, enlisting in the Confederate…
You're driving through Beeville, and right here is Coastal Bend College, which started life in 1965 as Bee County College. The community rallied, approving taxes and bonds to get it built. The first students walked…
You're driving past the site of Saint Philip's Episcopal Church in Beeville. The first part of this church, the transept, was built right here in 1893, on land purchased just three years earlier. Later, in 1910, the…
You're driving past the site of Beeville's first Methodist church. Established in 1861, it was served by circuit riders for years, with early services held in the original courthouse. The congregation built its first…
You're driving past the William E. Madderra Home in Beeville. Madderra was the superintendent of the Beeville school system for 34 years, overseeing much of the town's early educational development. He purchased this…
You're driving past Jones Chapel United Methodist Church, a cornerstone of Beeville's African American community for over a century. Organized in 1888 as Jones Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church, it began with ministers…
You're driving past the site of the First Baptist Church of Beeville. Organized in 1869 as the Beeville Baptist Church, its first sanctuary was built near Poesta Creek in 1871. The congregation grew quickly and by 1876…
You're driving past the site of Saint Joseph's Catholic Church in Beeville. Catholic services were first held in the homes of Irish settlers along the coast in the late 1840s. The oldest record for this church dates to…
You're driving past Lott Canada School. With few formal schools available, education for many African Americans in the 19th century came through church instruction. In 1876, the first African American school in Bee…
You're driving past Evergreen Cemetery in Beeville. The original townsite land was donated back in 1859, and the county bought it for a public burying ground in 1862. Later, in 1872, more land was added, and the county…
Presbyterians started meeting in Beeville around 1885. The congregation was officially organized in 1890-91 by the Rev. Henry Ruffner Laird, with twenty-six charter members. A sanctuary was built in 1892, and in 1968,…
You're driving past the site of the American Legion Post 818 in Beeville. This post is named for Charles H. Lytle, the first African American serviceman from Beeville killed in World War II, who died in 1945 when his…
You're driving past the George Home, built in 1890 by Will and Julia George. They used materials from an earlier house on land Julia inherited from her father, Major J.H. Wood, a New York transplant who joined the Texas…
You're driving past the Thompson Building, Beeville's first brick building on the square, constructed in 1892. It started as grocer J.C. Thompson's store, but upstairs housed the law office of Lon C. Hill, who would…
You're cruising through Beeville, and to your right, you might catch a glimpse of the A.C. Jones home. Built in 1906 by Jane Field Jones, a philanthropist who also funded a local school and teacherage, this house was…
You're driving past the site of the Camp-Ezell House, a unique home built right here in <say-as interpret-as="date" format="y">1892</say-as>. Robert Ezell, a stonemason, constructed this house using Florida longleaf…
You're driving past St. Joseph Cemetery, which has served Beeville's Catholic population since the late 1800s. Bishop Peter Verdaguer purchased this land in 1891, and the first burial took place just two years later.…
You're driving through Beeville, and you're passing the site where banking got serious. Before 1890, folks here kept their cash in a general store, sometimes under a loose floorboard! But with the railroads booming in…
You're driving past Glenwood Cemetery in Beeville. It was established in 1901 by undertaker Christopher Rotzien when Evergreen Cemetery ran out of space. Margaret Ann Eeds was the first person buried here, in April of…
Postponing death, relieving pain, and making money are the principal motives undergirding medical quackery. Most human beings will do almost anything to prolong their existence or to relieve the suffering of disease.…
You're driving through what is now Bee County, Texas, but over 250 years ago, this was home to the Chayopin people. They appear in Spanish records around 1720, sometimes living in missions near San Antonio, but often…
You're driving through Bee County, not far from where a man named William Means met his end. Means fought in the Texas Revolution, serving as a baggage guard at the Battle of San Jacinto in <say-as interpret-as="date"…
You're driving through what was once Bee County, or maybe Goliad County, where John Freeman Pettus died in 1878. But Pettus wasn't just any settler. He fought at the Battle of San Jacinto, the fight that won Texas its…
Mineral is at the intersection of Farm roads 623 and 673, fifteen miles northwest of Beeville in north central Bee County. The first settler in the community was Ross (or Rust) Morris, from Montgomery County, Tennessee,…
You're driving through Texas, and right here, you're passing through the legacy of a major railroad builder. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway, or SA&AP, was chartered in 1884 with a goal to connect San Antonio…
You're driving past St. Rose Cemetery, a historic African American burial ground near Beeville. It's associated with two congregations organized in the 1880s, with the earliest known burial dating back to 1901. Among…
Blanconia is on State Highway 202 twenty-two miles southeast of Beeville in southeastern Bee County. The town was established in 1834 when John and Michael Keeting acquired a half league of land from the state of…
Papalote, one of the oldest communities in Bee County, is on State Highway 181 and a Southern Pacific line eighteen miles south of Beeville and three miles north of the San Patricio county line. It was settled on…
Central is a predominantly Czech farming community on a road between Farm roads 1349 and 888 some four miles south of Beeville in southwestern Bee County. The settlement is named for its location midway between Beeville…
Clareville, located off Highway 59 and Farm Road 796 ten miles west of Beeville in southwestern Bee County, was established in 1874 and 1875 by Henry T. Clare and his sons. The community was first called Lomita, then…
For half a century, the identity of Beeville was tied to the sky. The Navy came here in 1943 to train pilots, walked away in 1946, then bought the field back in 1952 and never looked back. This was Naval Air Station…
Northeast of Beeville, out toward Goliad, is a Texas legend frozen in time: the Berclair Mansion. A ranching widow named Etta Wilkinson Terrell built it in 1936, and she was seventy-five years old when she did it. The…
Naval Air Station Chase Field wasn't just a base; it was a massive engineering project. To train pilots for carrier landings, its runways had to be incredibly robust — heavily reinforced concrete, engineered to take the…
If you find yourself near Beeville's courthouse square, look for the vertical sign of the Rialto on North Washington Street. Henry and Sydney Hall built it as the flagship of their theater chain, and it opened on August…
Blueberry Hill is located in Bee County, Texas, just outside the city of Beeville. It is situated southwest of Beeville at coordinates 28°23′21″N 97°46′54″W. The community is surrounded by U.S. Route 59 to the south,…
You're driving through Beeville, home of Captain A.C. Jones, a true builder of the Southwest. Born to early settlers, Jones first served as sheriff of Goliad County in the late 1850s. Then, he rode with Colonel John S.…
You're driving through Bee County, where history isn't just on the ground, it's in the very paths that shaped Texas! For at least 300 years, this land was crisscrossed by trails – first, the ancient routes of Native…
You're driving past the site of the Cook Home, a beautiful Victorian house built in 1897. John Cook, born in 1846 on a wagon train heading to Texas, fought in the Civil War and married Frances Miller in 1866. He and his…
You're driving along Medio Creek, a waterway named by Spaniards way back around 1800. They called it 'Medio' – meaning 'middle' – because it sat right between the San Antonio and Nueces Rivers. This creek was a vital…
You're driving through Normanna, a town with roots stretching back to around 1850. The first settlement, called San Domingo, was located two miles west, near the San Domingo and dry Medio Creeks. When the railroad…
You're driving past Colony Cemetery, a final resting place for some of the earliest Norwegian settlers in Bee County. These farmers began arriving in the area in 1894, forming a settlement known as Norwegian Colony. By…
You're driving through Bee County, heading north of Beeville, and you're passing through Normanna. This place has a name with a story: "far north, or one from the far north," a Norwegian meaning that stuck. Originally,…
You're driving past the Medio Creek Bridge, a survivor of nearly a century of Texas floods. Built way back in 1897 by the New Jersey Iron and Steel Company, this Pratt through truss bridge was a vital link on the road…
You're driving through South Texas, maybe near Skidmore, where Santiago Almeida, Sr. was born. He's a giant in conjunto music, but you might not know his name. Back in the 1930s, he teamed up with accordionist Narciso…
You're driving through Bee County, right past the town of Skidmore. It all started back in 1857 when Samuel Cyle Skidmore, a cousin of Stonewall Jackson, settled here. The town itself got its real start in 1886, when…
Skidmore is nestled in the southern part of Bee County, Texas, with a total area of 10.5 square miles, all of which is land. The community is strategically located at the coordinates 28°15′19″N 97°40′55″W. U.S. Route…
You're driving through the Aransas Creek area, a place that's seen a lot of Texas history unfold. Long before settlers arrived, Karankawa Indians called this creek home. Then, in 1805, Don Martin de Leon, who would…
You're driving past the site of the Cadiz Baptist Church, a congregation with roots stretching back to 1877. Originally organized as Lapara Baptist Church with 32 charter members, services were first held under a brush…
You're driving through Tuleta, a town founded not by ranchers, but by a preacher from Illinois. In 1906, Rev. Peter Unzicker led his followers here, buying land and naming the town for J. M. Chittim's daughter. They…
You're driving through Tuleta, and right here is the old Park Hotel, built in 1910. Its owner, Reinhart Nelson, came from Minnesota in 1905, drawn by land developers' promises. He built this hotel in what he called a…
You're driving north of Beeville, and right here is Tuleta. This community owes its existence to Peter Unzicker, a Mennonite minister who, in 1906, brought a colony of his followers from Illinois. He bought land and…
You're driving past the birthplace of Gentry Dugat, a man who wore many hats in Texas. Born in 1989 on a ranch near here, Dugat earned a law degree but found his passion in journalism and history. He worked for seven…
Hey road-trippers, keep an eye out for the Reed-McCampbell-Wiess Ranch Complex. It all started back in 1869 when James D. Reed founded this spread. Later, it was owned by the Peninsula Company, and then Laura Wiess…
You're driving through Bee County, created in 1857 and organized the following year. It’s named for General Barnard E. Bee, who served the Republic of Texas as Secretary of War and Minister to the United States. By…
U.S. Route 181 passes through Pettus, leading southward 16 miles to Beeville, the county seat, and northward 14 miles to Kenedy.
You're driving past the site of Pettus's first Protestant church. Built in 1905, it was called a Christian Church at the donor's request and received contributions from all denominations. The First Christian Church was…
You're driving through Tynan, Bee County, a community that owes its existence to a land sale in 1903. That's when Sarah Wade sold tracts of her land to German settlers looking for a new home. They established what was…
U.S. Highway Fifty Nine, from Interstate Forty Five to Interstate Thirty Five, is the Senator Lloyd Bentsen Highway, named by the Legislature in nineteen ninety five. Bentsen was born in Mission in nineteen twenty one…
You're driving past the site of Pettus, Bee County's former oil capital! Originally settled in the 1850s by John Freeman Pettus, a descendant of Stephen F. Austin's original colonists, this area was once known as "Dry…
You're driving past Dinero, a town with a name that means money! It started in 1838 as Barlow, named for a ferryman. These folks helped organize Live Oak County and opened a school by 1858. But by 1872, whispers of…
You're driving past the site of Fort Merrill, established back in 1850 by Captain S.M. Plummer. This fort was built to protect settlers from Native American raids. It was named for Captain Hamilton W. Merrill, a hero of…
You're driving past the San Marcos home of General Edward Burleson, a true Texas hero. He fought in the Texas War for Independence, served as Vice President of the Republic of Texas, and was a key leader in defending…
You're driving past the site of Blanco Chapel, built in 1865 by Ezekiel Nance. He used local limestone and cypress he split himself. This building wasn't just for worship; it also served as the community's schoolhouse…
You're driving through Live Oak County, past the site of the Echo Stagecoach Depot and Post Office. Imagine this dusty spot in the late 1800s: a vital link to the outside world! Irish immigrants John Bernard and…
You're driving through Gussettville, a town founded by Irish Catholics in the 1830s as part of the McMullen and McGloin Colony. It was first called 'Fox Nation' because of the local Fox family, but by the 1850s, it was…
You're driving past Papalote Creek, named by the fierce Karankawa Indians who found kite-shaped pebbles here. Imagine this: along these banks came early Texas colonists in the <say-as interpret-as="date"…
You're driving past the Elijah Ray House, a home built during the Civil War. Ray, a native of Alabama, first arrived in Texas in 1847. He bought this land and constructed this house for his family sometime between 1861…
You're driving through George West, right where Live Oak County organized back in 1856. This very spot was the heart of early county life, hosting everything from picnics and horse races to school programs. Imagine this…
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