Bee County Historical Commission - 195 Matching Results

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Celebrating the First Oil Well in Bee County - Maggie Ray McKinney #1 Celebration Barbecue

Description: Photograph of people that attended a barbecue held by the McKinney Family in celebration of the new oil well Bee County. More than 500 people attended the event. On December 29, 1929 as the Houston Oil Company drilled for gas, the first oil well in Bee County was brought in on the JJ McKinney land east of Pettus. Humble Oil and Refining Company completed McKinney No. 1 Oil Well, Bee County, January 31, 1930.
Date: unknown

Chambliss Home

Description: Photograph of the Chambliss home located on 403 South Tyler. The house was built by F.G. and Louanna Chambliss in the 1890’s, on property once owned by the first medical physician in Beeville, Dr. Leander Hayden. Dr Hayden came to Beeville from San Antonio in the 1850’s. The house was later occupied by Miss Sara Chambliss. Fred G. Chambliss was judge of the Thirty-sixth Judicial District from 1912-1919. Judge Chambliss was active in the formation of the Citizen’s Party, a political party forme… more
Date: unknown

Chase Field Swimming Pool

Description: Postcard of the "Swimming Pool, Chase Field, Beeville, Texas" as printed at the bottom of the card. On June 1, 1943, Chase Field was commissioned as a Naval Air Auxiliary Station to train naval aviators during World War II. The base was named for Lt. Cmdr. Nathan Brown Chase, who went down in the Pacific on a training flight in 1925. After the war, Chase Field was closed until 1953, when it was reopened during the Korean War to help with the over-crowding at NAS Corpus Christi. In July 1968, Ch… more
Date: unknown

Cleo Ray Home

Description: Photograph of Cleo Ray's home located on 312 South Kathleen. Robert Nutt, Sr. built the house, and then sold it to John Timon who added the porches. The John Wilson family was the next owners. They removed the kitchen and dining wing from the main building to make servant quarters at the rear of the lot. Mrs. Ray was Clara Elizabeth Wilson. The home is now owned by Mark and Debbie Parsons.
Date: unknown

Commercial Hotel in Skidmore 1912

Description: Postcard showing people sitting on the porch of the "Commercial Hotel" in Skidmore. The picture was taken on December 4, 1912. The names of the individuals sitting on the porch are on the back of the postcard going from left to right. The Commercial Hotel was destroyed by fire.
Date: unknown

Commercial National Bank

Description: Photograph of the Commercial National Bank in Beeville Texas. Beeville’s second oldest bank, Commercial National Bank was organized on January 11, 1893. It was during this meeting that officers and directors were elected and the capital stock was set at $50,000, or 500 shares at $100 each. The bank opened for business on May 15, 1893. Dr. L.B. Creath, a retired doctor who had moved to Beeville from the Austin area some years before; and D.C. Stone were listed as the Commercial’s organizers… more
Date: unknown

Confederate Veterans Reunion

Description: Photograph of Confederate Veterans at a reunion in Beeville in the late 1890's. Texas furnished about 75,000 soldiers to the Confederate cause. Even though Bee County was only three years old in 1861, many men from the county served the Confederacy. Some died for it. When the war started there were seventy slaves in Bee County. There were many hardships for the citizens of Bee County during the War. A severe drought in 1863 and 1864 made it hard for the people of the county. There was not enou… more
Date: unknown

The Cook Home

Description: Photograph of the Cook home located on 1001 West Cook Road, built by John Cook himself. Born in 1846, in a Texas-bound wagon train, cattleman John Cook fought in the Civil War at age 17. He married Frances Miller in 1866. The cooks lived in a rock house nearby until their tarried Victorian mansion was wired for electricity and completed in 1897. In 1918, the U.S. Cavalry established a camp here..
Date: unknown

Cook Home

Description: Photograph of John Cook's Victorian style home. Built by John Cook, who was born in 1846 in a Texas-bound wagon train; at 17 he was in the Civil War; in 1866 he married Frances Miller. They first lived in rock house near this site. With his son, R.J., John Cook contributed much to area cattle industry, he raised fine registered Herefords. The house was erected 1897 of select long-leaf pine placed to catch Gulf breezes. Each room opens on a porch. It has 4 fireplaces, with mantels of mahogany, m… more
Date: unknown

Cotton Gin and Stock Pens in Skidmore

Description: Two photographs taken in Skidmore, Texas. These two pictures of a cotton gin and stock pens represent two important economical activities in early Skidmore. In the early part of the 1900’s, Charles Blaschke and Joe Beyer built a cotton gin near the old overpass. The cotton was carried by hand in baskets from the ginstand up to the press to be made into bales. This gin was sold and later burned. T.C. Buerger built a gin on the Blaschke property in the residential section of Skidmore. Charles … more
Date: unknown
Creator: Skidmore Historical Society

Cotton Hauled by Mules in Oakville

Description: Photograph of James and Lee Crawford Brother's Freight Co. located in Oakville, Texas. In the foreground, loads of cotton are piled onto mule-drawn wagons. F. H. Church stands in front of the mules in the foreground. Three wagons are visible in front of wooden building. The driver of the first wagon is James Crawford. The photograph was taken at or near where Monroe Fink's office is now. If cotton was hauled to the coast for shipment, it came through Beeville.
Date: 1907

Dedication of Marker for Saint Rose Cemetery in Beeville, Texas

Description: Saint Rose Cemetery was designated a Texas Historical Cemetery during a dedication ceremony in August 2008. Dr. Barbara Welder, chair of the Bee County Historical Commission, spoke at the dedication which was attended by Lawrence Oaks, Executive Director of the Texas Historical Commission. This historical African American burial ground was formally deeded in 1921. However, some burials took place prior to that; with the earliest known burial being that of a former slave, Nancy Williams, datin… more
Date: August 2008

Dick Scott Home

Description: Photograph of Dick Scott's home located on 710 South Saint Mary's. At the end of the first decade of the twenty century, W.C. and Zella Buerger built the large two-story house. In 1915, the Buergers sold the house to a nephew of Captain A.C. Jones, John R. “Dick” Scott and his wife, Sudie. Later owned by O.D. and Sylvia Rudeloff and then by Mrs. Lois Mueller, the grand old mansion was purchased by Mr. and Mrs. Cruz Alaniz, Sr. in 1958. In the late 1990’s, their daughter-in-law and son, Olga an… more
Date: unknown

Downtown Skidmore 1904

Description: Photograph of early Skidmore in 1904. The Elite Hotel on the corner was where Dr. I.N. Thompson had his office. A devastating fire in 1919 took its toll of Skidmore. A large block of business houses burned to the ground at the time, and it is thought to have started in an empty saloon. Businesses burned in this fire were the Elite Hotel, W.R. Miller’s Dry Goods Store, Andy Tedford’s Saloon, Gus Staples’ Garage, Howard Faupel’s Barber Shop, M.M. White’s Store, Mrs. Murray’s Café, Midway Saloo… more
Date: unknown

Early Picture of the McClanahan House

Description: This picture is of G.W. McClanahan’s first house in Beeville. George W. McClanahan was born in Craig County, Virginia in 1824. He graduated from Emory and Henry College in 1853, and came to Texas where he became the principal of Paine Female Institute in Goliad. In 1858 he resigned that position and moved his family to Beeville in 1859. He established a mercantile business on two blocks of land in the vicinity of present Klipstein Park. His son, William, born in January 1861, was the firs… more
Date: unknown

Early Skidmore Hotel

Description: In 1890 Thomas R. Atkins started a hotel in Skidmore and for eleven months published the first newspaper, the Skidmore Pioneer. In 1894, Atkins traded his Skidmore hotel to J.K. Street for the Beeville newspaper, the Picayune. Other Skidmore hotels were the Commercial Hotel, owned by Mr. and Mrs. R.S. Summerville; the Elite, where Dr. I.N. Thompson had his office; and the Benham Hotel. As with most of the early businesses in Skidmore, they were all destroyed in one of the several fires of the … more
Date: unknown

Early Theatre Production

Description: Photograph of three cast members in costume from the play "Kentucky Mountaineers" which was given in C.P. Eidson's Opera House. In the late 1800's the opera house was located on Washington St. across from the courthouse, and had a store, Eidson and Miles Gent's Clothiers, located on the first floor.
Date: unknown

Educational Day at Bee County Fair, 1912.

Description: Photograph of educational day at the Bee County Fair in Bee County, Texas in 1912. The photograph was taken from a high vantage point overlooking the large crowd of school children and teachers holding up banners. Beeville Superintendent W. E. Madderra is visible in the central foreground standing in front of the large crowd. The Fair was a speculator event in Beeville until its demise in 1933.
Date: unknown

Ellen O'Toole Corrigan

Description: Photograph of Ellen O'Toole Corrigan widow of John Corrigan. In 1826, Ellen's father, Jeremiah O’Toole, rode horseback from New York to the Aransas Creek after he heard that Irishmen could get land grants from the Mexican government. By 1831 he had 12,000 acres on the Aransas Creek six miles east of present Skidmore. Mr. O’Toole’s brother and his family later joined him. In 1848 Ellen married John Corrigan, and the settlement was name in his honor. Several times the settler had to flee because… more
Date: unknown
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