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Looking into
Barker Reservoir
TE photo, March 2009 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
Also known as Bear Creek, Bear Hill and Letitia.
Named in 1884 after Henry Addicks, the town's first postmaster,
the community had actually been established years earlier by German
immigrants. In 1891 the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad came through
the area, although there had been a previous railroad that extended
to Alleyton around
the time of the Civil War. In 1879 the Bear Creek German Methodist
Church was established.
Addicks and the tiny communities around it were destroyed in the 1900
hurricane that destroyed Galveston.
After rebuilding, the population was still just a mere 25 people in
the mid 1920s. In 1940, when construction began on the Addicks
Reservoir, the town had a population of 200. Most homes were moved
or demolished and the residents resettled nearby. The town was absorbed
into the general population of Houston.
The original settlers are interred in the Addicks Bear Creek Cemetery
(Highway 6 and Patterson Road). |
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Bear Creek Methodist
Church
TE photo, March 2009 |
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Historical
Marker Text
Bear Creek
Methodist Church and Cemetery
German immigrants
settled in the area surrounding the junction of Langham and Bear Creeks
in the 1840s. Settlers traveled to nearby churches for Sunday services
until about 1879 when seven charter members established the Bear Creek
German Methodist Church. The congregation initially met in members'
homes. The church was subsequently made a mission of the Rose Hill
Methodist Church near Tomball.
In 1890 a small church building was erected near the Hillendahl Family
Cemetery. The site proved to be poorly drained and often inaccessible,
and in 1902 the congregation moved the sanctuary here on three acres
donated by Fred and Katherine Brandt. A part of the acreage was laid
out as a cemetery. Christine Backen's burial in 1904 was the first
recorded here. The cemetery is still active and is maintained by the
Addicks Bear Creek Cemetery Association.
A summer storm destroyed the sanctuary in 1915 but by the end of that
year a new church building had been erected. Area flooding in 1935
resulted in the construction of the nearby Addicks Reservoir in 1940
and the subsequent removal of the church to another site about 1.7
miles south of here. The congregation changed its name to Addicks
United Methodist Church in 1968. |
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Bike path around
Barker Reservoir.
TE photo, March 2009 |
Bike path.
TE photo, March 2009 |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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