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| Photo
courtesy Ken Rudine, May 2007 |
History
in a Pecan Shell
The town became a flag stop on the railroad shortly
after the tracks were laid in the mid 1880s. The land had originally been part
of the vast holdings of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company.
A windmill owned by the company stood nearby and supplied water for the railroad
and the people who had gathered around the company stock pens. The town became
known as Mesquital. The name was changed in 1900 when plans were made to turn
Mesquital into a proper town.
Joseph F. Green, manager of the C-F Pasure
Company named the new town Taft in 1904 - the year the post office opened. The
naming was not after President Howard Taft, but his half-brother Chas. P. Taft.
In 1909, the company had over 2,500 acres planted in cotton and when failed land
booms provided a surplus of buildings in Portland,
Aransas Pass, and Rockport,
several were moved overland to create the new town. The Coleman-Fulton Pasture
Company also subdivided partions of their holdings to sell to farmers.
A
dependable sourse of fresh water was discovered in 1909 which allowed the company
to expand operations to include a packing-house, electric generating plant and
an ice factory. Farmers who bought land were guaranteed a market for their livestock
and produce.
President Taft himself came to the town to give a speech
at the newly-constructed school in 1909. Nine years later the Board of Directors
divested the entire operation and sold the entire ranch and it's infrastructure
to the private sector. In the spring of 1921 ads for the upcoming auction were
placed in major newspapers and 5,000 people attended the sale. The independent
city of Taft was born. |
| Photo
courtesy Ken Rudine, May 2007 | |
Oil was discovered
north of town in 1935 which helped the town weather the Depression. Those not
involved in the oil industry simply continued growing vegetables and shipped them
out of the packing sheds that were built alongside the tracks. The last shed was
torn down in the 1950s when the town was experiencing a post-war boom. A population
decline set in in the 60s but with expansion of the port in nearby Corpus
Christi, other residents moved in to form permanent households.
Former
offices of the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company have been converted into the present-day
Taft Blackland Museum. |
Taft
Churches & Historical Markers |
| Photo
courtesy Ken Rudine, May 2007 |
| Photo
courtesy Ken Rudine, May 2007 |
| Photo
courtesy Ken Rudine, May 2007 | |
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