History

Matagorda County TXGenWeb

Matagorda County History Website
www.usgenwebsites.org/TXMatagorda/

     Students in Crystal Taska’s Tidehaven/Wharton County Junior College 1301 & 1302 History classes at Tidehaven High School in Tidehaven ISD participated in a Matagorda County History Field Trip on Nov. 21,which was sponsored by the Matagorda County Historical Commission. 
   Students toured sites in Blessing, Matagorda and Bay City. 
   Taska wanted her students to learn more about history in their own backyards, especially since Matagorda County played such an important role in the early history of Texas. 

Matagorda County History Website
www.usgenwebsites.org/TXMatagorda/

Matagorda County History Website
www.usgenwebsites.org/TXMatagorda/

  From the Matagorda County History & Genealogy page, Handbook of Texas Online

 James Fisher Martin, doctor, sheriff, and rancher, was born at Newcastle-on-Tyne, England, in 1808. 
   He was educated at Edinburgh, Scotland, and then practiced medicine in Liverpool, England.  
   He immigrated to Anderson County, South Carolina, in 1830, moved to Texas during the Texas Revolution, and attended the wounded after the battle of San Jacinto. 
   Subsequently, he opened a drugstore and doctor’s office in Matagorda. 

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From Handbook of Texas Online   

Matagorda County History Website
www.usgenwebsites.org/TXMatagorda/

  By Virginia Peden
Matagorda County History Website
www.usgenwebsites.org/TXMatagorda/

   The now-extinct Karankawa Indians played an important role in the early history of Texas. 
   The name Karankawa became the accepted designation for several groups or bands of coastal people who shared a common language and culture. 
   Those bands, identified in early historic times, included the Capoques (Coaques, Cocos), Kohanis, Kopanes (Copanes), and Karankawa proper (Carancaquacas). 
   They inhabited the Gulf Coast of Texas from Galveston Bay southwestward to Corpus Christi Bay. 
   All spoke a little-known language called Karankawa, and only about 100 words of that language have been preserved. 
   The significance of the name Karankawa has not been definitely established, although it is generally believed to mean “dog-lovers” or “dog-raisers.” 
   That translation seems plausible, since the Karankawas reportedly kept dogs that were described as a fox-like or coyote-like breed.