| |
Texas
| Vintage
Photos Vintage
Photos of Wharton CountyPublished
in the Arcadia Images of America Series:
WHARTON
by
Paul N. SpellmanPhotos
courtesy Wharton County Historical Museum
Wharton,
Texas |
| Railroads –
The cottonseed train arrives at the Wharton depot. Mule wagons unload their wares
in the late summer days following the cotton
harvest and ginning. Millions of dollars came to Wharton
for cotton in the latter part of the 1800’s. |
| Older St. Scenes
– View of the old Wharton
courthouse in the late 1800’s. The town site was surveyed by Virgil Stewart.
Stewart was a planter from Brazoria
who married Lucinda Flowers, a widow who came to the Bay Prairie with slaves and
built a home near the area that the downtown square was to soon be built. |
| Onishi Family
– In 1885 another railway depot was established in Mackay
by the New York, Texas and Mexico Railroad and was named after the son-in-law
of Colonel Hungerford. The Onishi family worked the rice fields in the Mackay
area. |
| Klu Klux Klan
– 1908 picture of the Klu
Klux Klan shown standing to the Wharton
Courthouse steps. The Klan was named in memory of Sheriff H. B. Dickson, who
was killed in the line of duty |
Hangman’s Day
– In 1910 a crowd gathered around the scaffolding adjacent to the Wharton Jail
for a hanging.
See Texas
Hangings |
T. W. Lang
– Sheriff Lang talks with students in the jail. Sheriff Lang also was elected
to the statehouse in 1954.
See Texas
Jails |
| School People
– Children pictured from the Pierce School in 1910. The school was built by A.
H. “Shanghai” Pierce. Pierce Ranch imported the first Brahman herd in the
United States around 1900. |
| Walter Hudgins
– Walter Hudgins shows off his new automobile and a Brahman bull. The Hudgins
estate near Hungerford
helped define the cattle and ranching
industry on the Bay Prairie. Known internationally in the cattle industry, the
Hudgins name stands into the present as a leader in Southeast Texas ranching. |
| Asa Dawdy Saloon
– The Dawdy Saloon, owned and operated by Asa Dawdy, boasted the longest and most
extravagant bar in the county, replete with statues, detailed woodwork, and an
enormous mirror. Dawdy’s establishment was said to have more expensive paintings
and statues than any of the finest homes in Wharton County. |
| Baron Morimura
– Baron Ichizaemon Morimura IV was a banker who invested in the Japanese farms
near Mackay. Baron Morimua IV,
was the founder of Noritake Inc. |
| Houseworth Daughter
– Bathing beauties strike a pose in the Roaring Twenties. Aline Houseworth (right)
daughter of W. L. Houseworth, Wharton’s county treasurer from 1932 to 1956, and
her friend would have been considered daring to be seen in public dressed in the
“modern” garb of the day. |
| Mrs. Lula Huston
– Lula Huston made friends as one of the earliest hotel managers in Wharton.
We respected across the community for her social graces, Lula often dressed as
a bellhop to greet guests and unload baggage. |
| Wharton County
Officials – Officials in the 1950’s included County Judge Dorman Nickels,
Attorney Lloyd Rust, Sheriff H. R. Flournoy, and County Commissioners Pete Nelson,
Claude B. Dill, Paul Sablatura and J.G. McDaniel. |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history and vintage/historic
photos of their town, please contact
us. | |
|
