The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945 Page: 419
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Collection
Texas which had failed to develop, because of litigation over its site. During
steamboat days on the Trinity, before 1861, Thomas Jefferson Chambers
asserted title to the site of Anahuac, renamed the place Chambersia, and,
as an incident to his possession, built a fine home. After losing the result-
ing lawsuit, he refused to yield possession, and his opponents ended the
argument in a more effective way. Chambers' career was terminated on
the receiving end of a charge of buckshot fired through a window of his
fine new home. Whether as Anahuac, or Chambersia, this town at the
mouth of the Trinity was merely a "ghost city" for the next thirty-five
years. As the century turned, it was renewed by rice irrigation and Yankee
money. "The hogs rooted the courthouse out of Wallisville," and the county
government floated down to Anahuac about 1908.
Cameron County has "ghost towns" on every hand. Most colorful to me
is Santa Rita, which was located on a banco (a tract of land cut off the
south bank of the Rio Grande because of evulsive changes in the course of the
stream) about six miles west of modern Brownsville. An American settle-
ment, as an adjunct to Matamoros, grew up there, about 1834. I am in-
trigued as to what happened to these American settlers during the earlier
periods of the Mexican War. When that unpleasantness ended, July 4, 1848,
the "old settlers" were back at Santa Rita; and an act of the Legislature
of January, 1848, creating Cameron County, named Santa Rita as the
county seat. I still do not know the legal legerdemain by which the county
government was later removed to Brownsville. No election was held for
that purpose; the county government seems to have picked up and removed
to Brownsville without legal niceties when the Brownsville "boom" began
in 1849. Litigation was started in behalf of Santa Rita but was never
prosecuted to a decision; and Brownsville has ever since continued to be
the county seat.
Brownsville, at this time, had other competition nearer home. American
volunteers stationed at Matamoros from 1846 to 1848 were convinced that
an important city must arise near Matamoros; and in that belief, founded
four cities in embryo within the limits of Brownsville of today. Mansfield,
Freeport, and Shannondale vied with early Brownsville in importance,
but in neither of these incipient cities did the promoters have title to the
site. Brownsville, backed by Stillman capital which bought up conflicting
titles and with distinct advantages as to site, gradually absorbed the
others and Santa Rita as well.
Two coastal towns of Cameron County noted in that period, have become
"ghost cities" since. Brazos Santiago had existed as a landing under the
Mexicans and, while the war continued, handled all the American north
Mexican supplies and several thousand American troops. It ended its im-
portance with the cessation of hostilities-there was no occasion for living
on sandy Brazos Island after Point Isabel had been established across
the bay. Boca del Rio, which the Americans of that day called, in literal
translation, "Mouth of the River," continued in importance after 1848,
primarily for convenience in lightering cargoes across the Rio Grande
bar. Richard King solved the lightering problem by building a side-wheel
steamboat strong enough to navigate in open Gulf but of draft to cross
the Rio Grande bar. After 1852 under this system ocean cargoes were un-
loaded at Brazos Santiago and lightered on King's steamboat to a deep419
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 48, July 1944 - April, 1945, periodical, 1945; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146055/m1/463/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.