Palacios museum features seawall exhibit

Palacios, Texas    The City by the Sea Museum’s new temporary exhibit, “Shifting Shorelines: The Construction and Impact of the Palacios Seawall” is on view beginning July 20th and will run through September 9th.     Seawalls are tools that coastal communities use to combat flooding and erosion.

Markham Methodists active since town’s early days

   Methodism came to Matagorda County as early as 1851. At that time a church was built in the town of Matagorda, on the gulf coast. This building was destroyed by a tornado in 1854.     No doubt that this church planted the seeds of early Methodism in Matagorda County.

Jones-Jackson Cemetery a Historic Texas Cemetery

Jones-Jackson Cemetery    Matagorda County, like most counties of the southern part of the United States was agrarian from its inception.     During the antebellum period, the county was dotted with plantations, especially along Caney Creek which ran through Wharton and Matagorda Counties.

Rice farming led to Markham’s development as a town

   Markham, an unincorporated community, is located about five miles south of the Colorado River off Highway 35 on the junction of FM 1468 and FM 2431.

Japanese Farmers in Matagorda County

   Commercial rice production moved into southeast Texas in the late 1880s.     The first rice cultivation in Texas was similar to the labor-intensive traditional rice production throughout the world.     The rice seed was primarily obtained from Honduras and the Carolinas.

"The Lost Santa Rosa treasure ship in West Matagorda Bay" by: Ray Theiss

 Matagorda Bay is a large body of water located in-between Galveston and Victoria.     The bay itself is divided into two separate entities, East and West Matagorda, and both empty directly into the Gulf of Mexico.

Collinsworth lead victory at 1st battle at Goliad

   George Morse Collinsworth (Collingsworth), soldier, planter, and civil servant, was born in Mississippi in 1810.     He was living in Brazoria, in 1832, when he participated in the battle of Velasco.      In July of that year he was serving as secretary of the Brazoria Committee of Vigilance.

Collinsworth-lead attack surprised Mexican garrison at Goliad

   EDITOR’S NOTE: The following article about George Morse Collinsworth victory at the first battle of Goliad in October 1835, was from a website recognizing the role of Irish, or Celt, Texians in the Texas Revolution.

"Buckeye had lots going for potential residents" By Shirley L. Brown

   Dr. Ambrose A. Plotner and John W. Stoddard purchased the land known as “Kuykendall Pasture” from Wylie M. Kuykendall (1839-1920) and wife, Susan E. Kuykendall (1841-1920) and from R.G. Kuykendall (1870-1906) and wife, Maggie M. Kuykendall (1871-1950) on July 5, 1902.