Matagorda County History & Genealogy page
Well Point, situated in southwest Matagorda County on Turtle Bay, received its name from the fresh water spring situated in this area.
Due to the erosion of the coastline, the spring is now in the bay.
This area was a favorite camping ground of the Karankawa (Carancahua) Indians.
Judge Silas Dinsmore, an early settler in the area, was friendly with the Karankawa Indians and did a lot of trading with them and one day, puzzled as to where these Indians were getting their water, he offered to trade a rifle to one of the Karankawas if they would disclose their source of fresh water.
That was supposedly the first rifle they had ever received.
Pleased with the trade they immediately took Mr. Dinsmore to a place in the Trespalacios bottoms.
On three sides were salt water and into the middle of that he waded out to where the Indian pointed, stooped down among the weeds and found the sweet water.
That place became known as Well Point.
Well Point is situated in the Isaac Van Dorn and James Hughson Surveys of Calhoun and Matagorda counties. James and his wife, Elizabeth (Baxter) Hughson, may have lived on their land at Well Point.
When Hughson died in 1848, he had 900 head of cattle in the area.
His widow,Elizabeth, married Aaron Pybus May 2, 1849.
There is a lake called Pybus Lake (sometimes called Piper Lake) at Well Point.
Before 1841 Van Dorn had sold his land to Silas Dinsmore.
On March 10, 1841, Judge Silas Dinsmore of eastern Matagorda County received his headright labor (177 acres) from the Republic of Texas.
Dinsmore built a home on his headright and lived there until his death in 1846.
He was buried near the home he loved. His home and grave were long ago lost to the bay waters.
On November 30, 1841, in a letter to his brother, James, in New Hampshire, Dinsmore wrote that he owned 3,700 acres of land which included all of the Isaac Van Dorn Survey in Matagorda and Jackson counties.
Captain John Duncan, a brother-in-law, owned a labor of land in the same area.
Duncan had tried to start a town called Palacios across the bay to the north and east, but the titles became so entangled that the project was abandoned.
Now Duncan and Dinsmore were planning a town at Well Point.
The town would be called “Canmore,” a combination of the last syllables of their surnames.
Dinsmore described the Well Pont site as having superior advantages for a town.
There was an elevated dry bluff ten feet above tide. There were not any marshes to cause chills or fever.
A trade route to the interior would be over prairie country.
Ships would be able to dock at Well Point, pick up a load of cotton, and travel directly to Liverpool.
The wonderful plan for a town died with Dinsmore.
Helen Milne Dinsmore Sartwelle, daughter of Silas Dinsmore and Amanda Fowler Coan, and wife of William Lovell Sartwell, inherited the Well Point land.
For many years the land was leased to the Ward Cattle Company for the grazing of cattle at five cents per acre.
This company bought part of the Dinsmore land plus many acres of adjoining land.
In 1917 the five Sartwelle brothers, George Tucker, Henry Francis, Paschal Tucker, William Lovell Dinsmore, and James Williams, great-grandsons of Silas
Dinsmore, started the “Canmore” ranch on their land at Well Point.
The ranch was in operation until 1978 when it was sold to the Trull family.
Other families who lived at Well Point besides the Sartwelle family were the Norris and Gillispie families.
With the onset of World War II, the government leased land at Well Point for an anti-aircraft firing range to train Camp Hulen troops.
Guns were set up on the land to fire at targets pulled by boats in the bay.
Some of the targets were on top of concrete rooms on land and were controlled by men stationed in the rooms below.
The ammunition was stored in these rooms to keep it dry.
Traffic was restricted on the waters of Matagorda, Lavaca, Cox, Keller, and Turtle bays, Coon Island, and Oyster Lake during target practice.
Channels for through traffic were provided.
Boats were not allowed to enter the restricted area between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on week days without clearance from Anti-Aircraft Training Center Headquarters at Camp Hulen.
At one time during the war a lifeboat like those used on German submarines was found on the beach at Well Point.
They thought that German spies might have landed here caused some unrest among the residents in the area.
Well Point is one of the better places for hunting of geese and ducks.
On the shores of Matagorda Bay at Well Point in Calhoun County is situated the Texas Parks and Wildlife Research Station.
Here water is pumped from the bay into holding tanks for research on the breeding of saltwater fish.
A few hybrids have been produced.
Submitted by Gale French