History

   I was sitting at a lunch counter of a café one night refreshing myself with some—ah, iced tea, when an old-timer came in and sat down on the stool next to mine.
   “Yo’re the feller who’se gittin’ out this hyar special edition, aitcha?” It was more a statement than a question. I pleaded guilty.
   “Didja ever hear of the ‘Horse Marines”?” was the next query as the waitress brought him some of the “iced tea.”“Sure,” I said, “and I’ve heard of the ‘Mounted Balloon Corps,’ too.” 
   I had, too, but I thought it was a gag. I found out differently.“No foolin’ son. 
   There was some ‘Horse Marines’ and they got their name right in these parts.” I smelled a story and decided to hang around. 

   The Gulf Intracoastal Waterway is a coastal canal from Brownsville, Texas, to the Okeechobee waterway at Fort Myers, Florida 
   The Texas portion of the canal system extends 426 miles, from Sabine Pass to the mouth of the Brownsville Ship Channel at Port Isabel 
   The grand concept of a canal system that would eventually connect Boston harbor with Brownsville harbor was introduced by Albert Gallatin, United States secretary of the treasury, in a report on Public Roads and Canals submitted to the United States Senate in 1808 
   By 1819 Secretary of War John C 
   Calhoun had published his Report on Roads and Canals, which posits an urgent need for an improved internal transportation system including waterways 
   In that report Calhoun proposed that the Army Corps of Engineers be used to develop and, if necessary, supervise construction of the internal improvements 

rranging for Celebration Of Completion of Intercoastal Canal―Will Be a Great Event―Commodores Meet

   EDITOR’S NOTE: While Hortense Sparks Ward’s main link with Matagorda County is her birth here, we wanted to profile someone with a remarkable career who left an indelible mark on Texas.
   Hortense Ward, champion of women’s rights, suffrage leader, admitted to the Texas bar, the daughter of Frederick and Marie Louise (LaBauve) Sparks, was born in Matagorda County on July 21, 1872. 
   Ward lived in Edna as a child, and later attended Nazareth Academy, a Catholic convent school in Victoria. 
   She returned to Edna in 1890 to teach school, and on January 5, 1891, married Albert Malsch, with whom she had three daughters.  
   Ward moved to Houston in 1903, and, while working as a stenographer and court reporter, became interested in studying law.  
   She and Malsch were divorced in 1906, and on August 12, 1909, she married Houston attorney William Henry Ward, later a county judge. 

Matagorda County TXGenWeb

By Mrs. E.T. Pabst
Historic Matagorda County, Volume I, pp. 398-399, 1986
Matagorda County TXGenWeb 

   Most people have heard of circuit riding preachers who rode their horses along a circuit preaching the gospel. Circuit riders were often thought of in relation to the Methodist church, but many denominations used circuit riders to minister to small churches who could not afford a full-time minister.  
   The Tres Palacios Baptist Church at Deming’s Bridge was part of a circuit and in 1853 was a quarter-time church with a visit from the preacher once a month. 
   Lesser known would be a circuit riding preacher who rode the railroad in the early 1900s. 
   The Lutherans found circuit riders an effective way to reach small pockets of their members in the Matagorda-Jackson County area who were primarily German. 
   P. Klenk, a missionary for the German Lutheran Church had as his area the stops along the Brownsville railroad. In May of 1911, he was visiting the area hoping to establish a church as soon as a few more Germans arrived.  

   The two cannon volleys at Matagorda County Courthouse Saturday provided an appropriate touch to the Sons of the Republic of Texas gathering here and the group’s mission to stress the importance of telling the state’s history.
   The main focus was recognizing the 25th anniversary of SRT’s headquarters in Bay City.
   The 19th century-period replica Rolling Thunder and Big Foot Wallace cannons fired throughout Saturday afternoon, June 9, from the courthouse terrace.
   Each firing was accompanied by cannon crews attired in the respective era of each cannon and the ritual the 1800s’ crews followed.
   In each firing, the commander of both crews raised his sabre and ordered the mock bombardment to begin. 
   Several Matagorda County men belong to SRT, with membership requiring documented proof of ancestors who lived in Texas before Feb. 19, 1846.

  EDITOR’S NOTE: Collegeport’s 110th year was marked by its homecoming May 26, and it was a record turnout!
   We wanted to share the following article was written by Dorothy Franzen Merck and is included in Historic Matagorda County, published in 1986.  
   Mrs. Merck and her husband, Dean E. Merck both came to Collegeport with their families as young children in 1909; they married in 1932 and remained active in the community the rest of their lives, experiencing much of this history first-hand, or learning it from those who did.  
   Current information and/or wording for clarity is noted within [brackets].
    Collegeport is located in southwest Matagorda County on Tres Palacios Bay. 
   The townsite was planned by the Burton D. Hurd Land Company as a promotion scheme in selling the J.E. and A.B. Pierce lands. 
   The company also established the Gulf Coast University of Industrial Arts. 

   Where does a man in Belgium look to find information on a WWII soldier from Bay City, Texas?  
   The answer this day and time is, of course, the internet. Who does the man contact next if everything he needs isn’t on the internet?  
   The Bay City Public Library is the logical place to begin.  
   In January 2018, Samantha Denbow, director of the Bay City Public Library, received such a request from Arthur Coppée. 
   Arthur is the grandson of Evence Coppée who was once the owner of the Château de Roumont near the Belgian town of Libin. 
    Arthur was researching the role the château played in World War II as it was occupied by several U.S. hospitals during 1944-1945. 
   On July 10, 2016, Arthur and a friend, Olivier Gillard, who owns a museum in the Belgium town of Saint-Hubert, were excavating a pit on the château property.  
   They found a damaged dog tag which had been in a fire. It was the fourth of five dog tags found.