Matagorda County, Texas

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]
Surnames/tags: matagorda_county us_history Texas

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Welcome to Matagorda County, Texas Project!

• Texas Space Page

• The leader of this project is: Mary Richolardson.

Contents 1 Adjacent Counties 1.1 Historical Port of Entry 2 Matagorda County, Texas 3 History/ Time Line 3.1 Government Offices 4 Geography 4.1 Demographics 4.2 Census 4.2.1 Communities 4.2.2 Schools 5 Things to do/see 5.1 Texas Historical Markers 5.2 National Register of Historic Places listings 6 Military 6.1 Fallen 6.1.1 World War II 6.2 Korea 6.3 Vietnam 6.4 Veterans 6.4.1 Peacetime Deaths 7 Resources 7.1 Cemeteries 8 Sources

Adjacent Counties

Northwest Wharton County		North	Northeast Brazoria County
West Jackson County		Matagorda County, Texas		East
Southwest Calhoun County		South	Southeast Gulf of Mexico

Historical Port of Entry

From 1840 to 1865, Matagorda was a seaport and a port of entry for some Texas immigrants.

Matagorda County, Texas

Matagorda beach

• Matagorda County was an original county, created 1836 from a Spanish municipality, and organized in 1837. It is named for canebrake and settled by Austin colonists.^[1]

Prior to the Texas Revolution against Mexico, there were no counties. In 1835, Texas was divided into departments and municipalities. Bexar department, Brazos department and Nacogdoches department were established, along with 23 municipalities.

• Established in March 17, 1836, Matagorda County, Texas is one of the original 23 municipalities and counties of The Republic of Texas.
• Matagorda is Spanish for "fat bush" and refers to the canebrakes which once grew along the coast.https://matagordabaytexas.com/matagorda-history/
• A part of Stephen F. Austin's Colony ("Old 300").
• The center of the county lies at 28°54' north latitude and 95°59' west longitude

Bay City is the county seat and was founded in 1894, and because of its location near the center of the county it replaced Matagorda (the 3rd oldest town in Texas) as the county seat.

History/ Time Line

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3lrXzCjfEs&feature=youtu.be

(10,000-6,000 BC) There were Paleo-Indians living on the upper Texas coastal region, particularly near inland water sources.

1500's European explorers began in the central section of the Texas coast, including Matagorda County. The Karankawa Native Americans lived here. ^[2]

1700's-1800's Tribes shifted further north forced the Tonkawa Indians of Central Texas toward the Karankawa territory. As Europeans explored, the Indians contracted some of the European diseases, which the Indians did not have immunity against. ^[3]

^[2]

post 1528 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca - the first recorded European expedition into the Texas interior passed through what later became Matagorda County. Guido de Lavazares landed at Matagorda Bay in 1558, surveyed the northern Gulf Coast, and claimed the area for King Charles V. In 1690. Manuel José de Cárdenas y Magaña mapped Matagorda Bay as part of the Llanos-Cárdenas expedition, and the Alarcón expedition passed through what is now Matagorda County between 1718 and 1719. ^[3][2][4]

As early as 1820 plans were made to establish a port at the site of the future town of Matagorda, but none developed, since silt deposited in the bay by the Colorado River made a port impractical at that time. ^[3][4]

Settlement by Anglo-Americans began in 1822, when the schooner Only Son landed immigrants for Stephen F. Austin's colony at the mouth of the Colorado. Some of the first white residents of what is now Matagorda were soldiers sent to protect the new settlers from the Karankawa. ^[2][4]

The town of Matagorda, at the mouth of the Colorado River, was founded in 1829 after Austin had convinced the Mexican government that a military post was needed to protect incoming settlers. The town quickly flourished, and settlement proceeded inward from the coast, initially along Caney Creek. A Custom House established at Matagorda in 1831 was maintained until the Texas Revolution. ^[3][2][4]

Steamers and sailing vessels approached within six miles of Matagorda on Matagorda Bay; other county transportation was also largely by water. ^[3][2]

In events leading up to the Texas Revolution, according to some sources, members of the district of Mina at the Convention of 1832 were actually people from the Matagorda area rather than Mina. The District of Matagorda was represented at the Convention of 1833, and Matagordans took an active part in both the councils and subsequent fighting. A local Committee of Public Safety drew up a formal pledge to protect the citizens of Goliad, and troops were sent to aid James W. Fannin. ^[3][2][4]

The municipality of Matagorda, which comprised the southeast corner of the original Austin grants, was established in 1834 while the area remained under Mexican control. ^{[3] [4]}

1829-1849 Baptist education began at Matagorda around 1829, an Episcopal congregation was established in the area in 1838, and the area's first Methodist congregation was established in 1839. The county's first newspaper, the Tribune, appeared in 1837. A keel boat was reported on the Colorado in 1838, and a ferry known as Cayce's (later called Elliotts) was established in 1849 west of Bay City. ^[3][2][4]

CIVIL WAR Although the county's voters supported John Bell (the relatively moderate candidate of the Constitutional Union Party) in the presidential election of 1860, the county overwhelmingly supported secession from the union (136 to 8) in a special election held in February 1861. Several Confederate camps, posts, and garrisons were established in the area, and the county shared others with nearby Brazoria County. Capt. E. S. Rugeley's C.S.A. Company was garrisoned at Fort Matagorda, and in 1862 twenty-two soldiers died crossing the bay to skirmish with Union gunboats offshore. In 1863 Confederate soldiers stationed at Matagorda drove cattle off the peninsula, a popular winter pasture, to keep them from being captured by Union troops. DeCrow's Battery was on the southwestern tip of Matagorda Peninsula to guard the east channel to Matagorda Bay. Major General John B. Magruder's orders for fortifications at the mouth of Caney Creek to stop invasion by federal forces resulted in 1864 in the construction of an earthen fort called Fort Caney. The fort was made up of four east bank garrisons-forts Ashbel Smith, Hawkins, Rugeley, and Sandcliff-which were later bombarded. Union troops preparing to build a fort in 1864 were repelled by fifty-seven local volunteers. The Confederate gunboat, the John H. Carr, was anchored at Matagorda, along with the Lizzie Lake, a stern wheeler, and a transport called the Luck Guinn. No Union troops entered the county during the war, but the Union's blockade of the Texas coast restricted foreign cotton trade, crippled the commerce of the port at Matagorda, and severely damaged the local economy. ^[3][2][4]

• As the profitable plantation economy encouraged planters to bring more black slaves into the area, the county's minority white population took various steps to ensure their control. Citizens established a curfew for slaves and free persons of color as early as 1850, and in 1852 Elder Noah Hill was employed to serve as a missionary to slaves in the county. The need to protect their control over their slaves was also used by white citizens in 1856 to justify expelling the county's entire Mexican population. As one newspaper item contended, the Mexicans in the county were known to "hang around the plantations, taking the likeliest negro girls for wives....they often steal horses, and these girls, too, and endeavor to run them to Mexico. We should rather have anticipated an appeal to Lynch law, than the mild course which has been adopted." ^{[3] [4]}
• By 1860 there were 3,454 people, including 2,107 slaves
• In 1870, there were 3,377 people living in the area that year, a population slightly smaller than before the Civil War began. Almost two-thirds (2,120) of the county's residents were black; twelve Mexicans and three American Indians were also reported in the area. ^{[3] [4]}

Land Grants

Austin gave grants in the area to fifty-two families, principally from New York, and in 1827 received permission to settle 300 more within thirty leagues of the coast in areas where settlement had previously been forbidden by the Mexican government. ^[3][4]

• Immigration into the area during the early twentieth century fundamentally altered the county's racial composition. More than two-thirds of the county's residents had been black, but by 1930 blacks constituted under 26 percent of the area's residents. A significant increase in the Hispanic population had also occurred by 1930; that year 1,993 residents of Mexican descent were reported in the county.^[4]
• In spite of the depression, the county's population continued to grow during the 1930s, and by 1940 there were 20,066 people living in the area
• The area's population grew, rising to 21,559 by 1950, to 25,744 by 1960, to 27,913 by 1970, and to 37,828 by 1980. Much of this growth can be attributed to the area's petroleum resources and to new industries, which began to move to the area in the 1960s.^[4]
• The demographic profile of the community continued to evolve. By 1982 the population was 20 percent Hispanic, 14 percent black, 20 percent of English descent, and 16 percent of German or Irish descent. Many people still engaged in farming, but 10 percent were employed in the construction industry, and more than half the population resided in either Bay City or Palacios.^[4]
• In 1990 there were 36,928 people living in Matagorda County, slightly fewer than in 1980. In 2014, the U.S. Census counted 36,519 people in the county; about 46.2 percent were Anglo, 40 percent Hispanic, and 11.4 percent African American. Of residents twenty-five and older, 70 percent had graduated from high school and 13 percent had college degrees.^[4]
• Almost half of the county's residents live in Bay City (population, 17,342), the county seat and a center of petrochemical production in the area. Other communities include Palacios (4,574), Markham (1,082), and Van Vleck (1,912). ^[4]

Government Offices

Matagorda County has had 4 courthouses: 1849, 1895, 1928, 1965

1st courthouse, 1849

2nd courthouse, 1895. Bay City,

3 story building

1895 courthouse, Bay City.

1895 courthouse mural.

3rd Courthouse, 1928, Bay City, 3 story.

1928 Courthouse

4th Courthouse, 1965

1965 courthouse.

Geography

Size -1,612 square miles of mostly open prairie.

With the exception of a slight undulation in the north, most of the county is level

Elevations ranging from sea level to seventy feet.

Part of Matagorda Peninsula, a narrow barrier island formed less than 5,000 years ago, runs northeast and southwest for sixty-five miles from the mouth of Caney Creek in the eastern part of the county to Pass Cavallo on the west. The peninsula protects Matagorda Bay and is cut in half by the Colorado River channel twenty-four miles from the pass.

River -1936 the Colorado River had built a delta across Matagorda Bay to Matagorda Peninsula, cutting the bay into its present eastern and western sections. That same year a channel was dredged through the new delta from the Gulf of Mexico to the town of Matagorda; thereafter, Matagorda was no longer on the coast.

Major watercourses in the county include Caney, Peach, Peyton's, Turtle, Cash's, and Big and Little Boggy creeks, the Trespalacios and Colorado rivers, Live Oak and Linville bayous, and Little Robbins Slough.

Canal The Colorado Barge Canal, completed in 1959, extends fifteen miles along the Colorado River from the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway to a turning basin below Bay City and links the county to deep water at Freeport and Galveston.

Soil -Along the rivers the soils are brownish to reddish, cracking and clayey to loamy, and along the coast soils are sandy. In the rest of the county light-colored, shallow loam covers clayey subsoils; some areas, particularly in the coastal marshes, have gray to black, cracking, clayey soils.

Vegetation Live oak, post oak, pin oak, pecan, ash cottonwood, elm, red cedar, and mulberry grow in the county's forests; mesquite and prickly pear

Wildlife -bobcats, coyotes, otters, white-tailed deer, and oysters, shrimp, fish, snakes, and waterfowl.

Refuges Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge, the Mad Island Wildlife Management Area, the Runnels Family Mad Island Marsh, and the Nature Conservance, are located in the county.

Minerals -Oil and sulphur in the county also helped to diversify the local economy during this period. Oilmen struck gas at Big Hill in 1901, and by 1913 there were producing oilfields at Markham, Clemville, and Big Hill. The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company began mining sulphur in 1919 and founded a company town at Gulf. Meanwhile, manufacturing played only a limited role in the area's economy; in 1920, for example, the twenty-seven manufacturing establishments

• Oil
• Sulphur in the county also helped to diversify the local economy during this period.
• Oilmen struck gas at Big Hill in 1901, and by 1913 there were producing oilfields at Markham, Clemville, and Big Hill.
• Texas Gulf Sulphur Company began mining sulphur in 1919 and founded a company town at Gulf. Meanwhile, manufacturing played only a limited role in the area's economy
• twenty-seven manufacturing establishments

Climate -Temperatures in the county vary from an average low of 44° F in January to an average high of 92° F in July.

Growing season- 295 days per year.

Weather - Hurricanes Matagorda County, Texas, Hurricanes

National protected areas

• Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge
• San Bernard National Wildlife Refuge (part)

Demographics

• As of the census of 2000, there were 37,957 people, with a population density of 34 people/sq.mi. The racial makeup of the county was 67.83% White, 12.72% Black or African American, 0.67% Native American, 2.38% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 13.98% from other races, and 2.38% from two or more races. 31.35% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 10.3% were of German, 8.2% American, 5.4% English and 5.2% Irish ancestry according to Census 2000. 73.9% spoke English, 24.0% Spanish and 1.6% Vietnamese as their first language.^[5]

The median income for a household in the county was $32,174, and the median income for a family was $40,586. Males had a median income of $37,733 versus $21,871 for females. The per capita income for the county was $15,709. About 14.90% of families and 18.50% of the population were below the poverty line, including 23.00% of those under age 18 and 13.60% of those age 65 or over.^[6]

• By 1850 there were 2,124 people living in the county, including 913 whites, 1,208 slaves, and 3 free blacks.

• 1890 - there were 3,985 people living in the county, including 2,524 blacks
• 1900 - the population had increased to 6,097
• Between 1900 and 1920 the population of Matagorda County more than doubled, as land speculators helped to attract immigrants to the area. There were 13,589 people living in the area by 1910 and 16,589 by 1920. The area's population continued to grow during the 1920s, and by 1930, 17,678 people lived in the county.

State protected areas

• Runnels Family Mad Island Marsh
• Mad Island Wildlife Management Area
• Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge, the, the Runnels Family Mad Island Marsh
• Nature Conservance,

Notables

• Alonso
• Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca
• Guido de Lavazares
• Manuel José de Cárdenas y Magaña
• José Félix Trespalacios (died August 4, 1835), the first governor of Coahuila y Texas as part of the United Mexican States.
• Abel Head "Shanghai" Pierce, (June 29, 1834 – December 26, 1900) was a Texas, USA, rancher
• Bailey Hardeman, one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence
• George Thomas Sargent (1791-1875). Sargent and his family relocated to Texas from England in 1834 and became a major landowner. He drowned in the 1875 Hurricane along with his daughter-in-law, Sara
• Ms. Hortense Sparks Ward, (July 21, 1872 - December 5, 1944) was a pioneering Texas lawyer and women's rights activist.
• William L. Jungers, anthropologist, best known for his work on the biomechanics of bipedal locomotion in hominids such as the 3.4 million-year-old Lucy

Census

Historical population

• Year, Pop., %±
• 1850, 2,124, —
• 1860, 3,454, 62.6%
• 1870, 3,377, −2.2%
• 1880, 3,940, 16.7%
• 1890, 3,985, 1.1%
• 1900, 6,097, 53.0%
• 1910, 13,597, 123.0%
• 1920, 16,589, 22.0%
• 1930, 17,678, 6.6%
• 1940, 20,066, 13.5%
• 1950, 21,559, 7.4%
• 1960, 25,744, 19.4%
• 1970, 27,913, 8.4%
• 1980, 37,828, 35.5%
• 1990, 36,928, −2.4%
• 2000, 37,957, 2.8%
• 2010, 36,702, −3.3%
• Est. 2014, 36,519, −0.5%

Economics

• Matagorda rapidly developed transportation and industry. The town had a gristmill in 1859, and the largest sugar mill in the state was built there sometime before 1860.

• According to the agricultural census, almost 59,000 acres were in farms in the county that year, including 8,500 acres considered "improved." More than 103,000 bushes of corn, 1,394 thousand-pound hogsheads of sugar, 1,613 bales of cotton, and 60 pounds of rice were produced in the county that year. While cash crops already constituted an important part of the local economy, livestock also played a significant role: almost 32,000 cattle, and more than 2,100 sheep, were also reported in the county that year. The production of cotton rapidly expanded in the county during the 1850s.

The region between Matagorda and Brazoria, forty miles away, came to be known as "Old Caney" and was noted for its production of cotton and sugar.

By 1858 roughly 30 percent of the improved acreage in the county was used to raise cotton, 6 percent was devoted to sugar, and 20 percent to corn; sea-island cotton was grown on Matagorda Peninsula during this period.

Almost 159,000 acres in the county was in farms, and 21,000 acres were reported to be improved. In 1858, the county's plantations and farms produced 8,454 bales of cotton, 507 hogsheads of cane sugar, and 144,000 bushels of corn. one of the county's many wealthy planters, owned real property valued at $150,000 and personal property valued at $128,000, as well as seventy-five slaves and 3,000 cattle. Another planter, James B. Hawkins, had real property valued at $100,000 and personal property valued at $60,750, along with his 101 slaves. While cash crops, especially cotton, had helped to provide this prosperity, cattle remained an important part of the economy in 1860. Almost 38,000 cattle were reported in the county that year, and a cattle company formed in 1849 continued to engage in a lively commerce that had grown between Matagorda Bay, New Orleans, Mobile, and other Gulf points; this trade lasted until the Civil War.

Land values and the county's tax base declined after the Civil War and the subsequent emancipation of the slaves. Taxable wealth in the county declined from $2,727,256 (of which $1,095,400 represented the value of slaves) in 1860, to only $1,028,815 by 1866. Farm acreage in the county declined by 30 percent between 1860 and 1870, and the area's cotton-growers, undercut during the war by the Union blockade, never really recovered during this period; in 1870 only 1,590 bales were produced.

The agricultural census reported over 93,000 cattle in the county in 1870, along with about 8,500 sheep. The Stabler Patent Beef Packing Plant, which began canning beef in 1866, and a hide and tallow factory established near the coast before 1870 are evidence of the importance of the county's beef industry during this period.

Cotton production in the area began to revive after 1870.

About 3,400 acres in the county were planted in cotton in 1880, and 4,307 acres were devoted to the fiber by 1890. Meanwhile, the number of cattle in the area declined significantly: fewer than 20,000 cattle were reported in the county in 1880 and 27,000 in 1890. One-fourth of the county's 378 farms were operated by tenants.

The county's agricultural economy developed more rapidly during the 1890s, as people from the north-central and central western states moved into the area to take up farming.

The influx of new immigrants increased land values but discouraged ranching, though the county's herds were improved with Hereford and Durham cattle strains. Cotton acreage in the county almost tripled during the 1890s, and by 1900 12,000 acres in the county were planted in the fiber. That year there were 448 farms and ranches in the county.

In the late nineteenth century the county's economy had been based on corn, cattle, and cotton, but after 1899, when the Matagorda County Rice and Irrigation Company was founded, canal building and the production of rice helped to diversify and invigorate the local economy. Rice plantations grew up along the railroad for fifteen miles above Bay City, which by 1912 was one of the leading rice markets in the state. At first, water dammed up by a raft of debris blocking the mouth of the Colorado River was used to irrigate the rice fields. By 1916 there were eleven irrigation plants, capable of irrigating 286,000 acres in the county, and 235 miles of canals had been built. Farmers turned increasingly to rice production after the boll weevil attacked the central Gulf Coast area in the early 1900s; in 1910, 34 percent of the county's improved acreage was in rice, while less 1 percent was planted in cotton and corn. Sorghum, sudan grass, sugar cane, sweet and Irish potatoes, peanuts, and feed crops were also grown in the area that year, and 27,400 cattle and 46,236 poultry were reported. Though cotton cultivation rebounded in the county during the 1910s, rice acreage continued to expand. By 1920, 38,000 acres in the county were planted in rice, and more than 46,000 acres were planted in cotton. By 1925, 60,000 acres in the county were planted in rice. Much of the agricultural growth of the previous two decades was reversed during the late 1920s, however. In 1930 only 7,452 acres in the county were planted in rice and only 24,000 acres were planted in cotton, a drop of almost 50 percent since 1920. The number of farms and ranches in the county grew to 1,116 by 1910, to 1,616 by 1920, and to 1,673 by 1930. Increasing numbers of the area's farmers did not own their own land, however. Tenants operated 37 percent of the farms in Matagorda County in 1910, 40 percent by 1920, and 60 percent by 1930.

The discovery of oil and sulphur in the county also helped to diversify the local economy during this period. Oilmen struck gas at Big Hill in 1901, and by 1913 there were producing oilfields at Markham, Clemville, and Big Hill. The Texas Gulf Sulphur Company began mining sulphur in 1919 and founded a company town at Gulf. Meanwhile, manufacturing played only a limited role in the area's economy; in 1920, for example, the twenty-seven manufacturing establishments in Matagorda County employed fewer than 1,000 workers.

Cotton cultivation in Matagorda County continued to decline during the Great Depression of the 1930s. By 1940 only 17,000 acres in the area were devoted to the fiber. Rice cultivation in the area revived somewhat, however, so that by 1940, 16,000 areas were planted in that crop. Cropland harvested in the county increased 20 percent during the 1930s, rising from 50,000 acres in 1929 to 62,000 acres in 1940. Meanwhile, the area's petroleum industry continued to grow; Edgar B. Davis, for example, developed oil resources at Buckeye. Almost 1,929,000 barrels of crude were produced in the county in 1938.

Oil production in the county began to increase significantly during World War II, and as it generally continued to grow for more than twenty years after, the industry became a mainstay of the local economy. Almost 4,563,000 barrels of crude were produced in the county in 1944, more than 6,912,000 barrels in 1948, almost 5,701,000 barrels in 1956, and more than 7,013,000 barrels in 1965. Though oil remained an important component of the local economy during the 1970s and 1980s, production fell off significantly. About 4,780,000 barrels were produced in the county in 1974, 3,323,000 barrels in 1978, and 2,903,000 barrels in 1982; fewer than 1,605,000 barrels were produced in the county in 1990.

Partly because of farm consolidations and mechanization the number of farms in the county steadily declined in the decades after World War II, dropping to 1,329 by 1960, to 902 by 1970, and to 703 by 1980.

In 1956 the Colorado River Industrial Development Association was organized to encourage economic development of counties along the Colorado. In the 1960s a Celanese Corporation plant was established at Bay City for access to raw materials and the Intracoastal Waterway. Plants owned by Conoco and E. I. DePont de Nemours Company (Occidental Chemical after 1987) followed, along with a Marathon Oil Company gasoline refinery and several plants producing natural gas and other gases. Meanwhile, the area's agricultural sector remained important to the local economy. By the 1970s the county was a leading cattle-producing area, and significant amounts of cotton, grain sorghums, soy beans, and corn were grown there; the area was the third largest rice producer in the state after Wharton and Jefferson counties.

A total of 782 businesses operated in the county in 1982, and 12 percent of the labor force was employed in manufacturing. The fishing industry and fine recreational facilities for hunting also helped to diversify the economy.

In the early twenty-first century agriculture, petrochemicals and the nuclear power plant were important elements of the local economy. In 2002 the county had 991 farms and ranches covering 619,142 acres, 54 percent of which were devoted to pasture and 41 percent to crops. That year farmers and ranchers in the area earned $115,730,000; crop sales accounted for $87,346,000 of the total. Cattle, cotton, rice, sorghum, and soybeans were the chief agricultural products.

Communities

In the late 1850s major towns in the county included Matagorda, with 1,200 residents, and Tres Palacios (also known simply as Palacios), which was located west of the Colorado on a high point of land between Matagorda and Tres Palacios bays.

Cities

• Bay City (county seat)
• Palacios

• Matagorda

Census-designated place(s)

• Blessing,
• Markham,
• Matagorda,
• Van Vleck

Unincorporated communities

1. Category: Allenhurst, Texas
2. Category: Buckeye, Texas
3. Category:Caney, Texas
4. Category:Cedar Lake, Texas
5. Category:Cedar Lane, Texas
6. Category:Collegeport, Texas
7. Category:El Maton, Texas
8. Category:Hawkinsville, Texas
9. Category:Midfield, Texas
10. Category:Pledger, Texas
11. Category:Sargent, Texas
12. Category:Wadsworth, Texas

Schools

Things to do/see

http://www.visitmatagordacounty.com/

• Major tourist attractions include fishing and water sports, birding, and an October Rice Festival.
• The Texas Independence Trail runs through Matagorda County, and an annual cattle drive across the Colorado River to summer pastures on Matagorda Peninsula, which began in 1919 still drew tourists in 1994.
• Palacios celebrates the Texas Fishermen’s Seafood Festival in November.
• Bay City hosts the Matagorda County Fair, in March, and Market Days on the Square on the third Saturday of every month.
• Bay City is home to the Matagorda County Birding Nature Center, a 35-acre (140,000 m sq) expanse of gardens and wildlife along the Colorado River of Texas
• Matagorda is known as one of the best kayaking and kayak fishing destinations on the Texas coast due to miles of shallow marsh area only accessible by kayak. There are miles of designated paddling trails in the Matagorda area
• Matagorda County has been #1 in the nation since 1997 in the North American Audubon Christmas Bird Count with 234 different species spotted. Among the more impressive species which have been reported are the Prairie warbler, Common poorwill, Broad-winged hawk, MacGillivray's warbler Swainson's warbler.

Texas Historical Markers

• There are 24 historical markers in the Township of Matagorda.

National Register of Historic Places listings

1. Bay City Post Office, May 12, 2009, (#09000307), 2100 Ave. F, Bay City, 28°58′59″N 95°58′12″W
2. Bay City USO Building, June 14, 2006, (#06000512), 2105 Ave. M, 28°59′04″N 95°57′44″W
3. Blessing Masonic Lodge No. 411, February 4, 2011, (#10001222), 619 Ave B, FM 616, 28°52′34″N 96°13′08″W
4. Christ Episcopal Church, April 10, 2012, (#12000196), 206 Cypress Street, 28°41′33″N 95°58′03″W
5. Hensley-Gusman House, October 4, 2006, (#06000927), 2120 Sixth St., 28°58′56″N 95°57′52″W
6. R.J. Hill Building, October 14, 2009, (#09000840), 401 Commerce St., 28°42′01″N 96°12′54″W, Palacios
7. Judge William Shields Holman House, February 4, 2011, (#10001223), 2504 Avenue K, 28°58′43″N 95°57′51″W, Bay City
8. Hotel Blessing, February 1, 1979, (#79002993), Ave. B, 28°52′17″N 96°13′19″W
9. Luther Hotel, May 10, 2010, (#10000251), 408 S Bay Blvd., 28°41′58″N 96°12′57″W, Palacios
10. Matagorda Cemetery, June 15, 2006, (#06000511), Jct. of TX 60 at Matagorda County Roads 259 and 260, 28°42′10″N 95°57′20″W, Matagorda
11. Price-Farwell House, October 14, 2009, (#09000841), 308 S. Bay Blvd., 28°41′55″N 96°12′50″W, Palacios
12. South Side Residential Historic District, May 30, 2007, (#07000496), Roughly bounded by Ave. F, 2nd St., Ave. G, Ave. K, 4th St., Ave J, 5th St., 4th St., 28°48′57″N 95°57′59″W, Bay City

Military

• All of the names below have links on the Matagorda County Texas Gen Web Page (link below)

Matagorda County Casualties of War

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/casualties.htm

Fallen

• Corporal David Phillip McCormick, (April 10, 1982 - April 28, 2008), Iraq
• Sergeant Joshua Allen Ward, (October 23, 1978 - February 9, 2009), Iraq

World War I

• Texans in the Great War
• Joe Warren Barlow - France, WWI
• Lenard Ernest Blackburn - Hawley
• William Richard Cherry - Eagle Lake
• William Ernest Downer - Hawley
• John Ervin Fisher - Cedarvale
• Cyrille Marion Foisy - Palacios
• Clarence L. Greenwood - San Antonio
• George W. Hawk - Hawley
• Leo Francis Kelly - France
• Ernest C. Marshall - San Antonio
• Jackson E. Page - Shiloh
• Timothy Parks - Unknown
• Abner Burns Partain - Cuero
• Johnnie Powell - Unknown
• Fred B. Rabe - Unknown
• Mashack Roberson - Dol Tol
• Malcom Murphy Stagg - France
• Eusebio Villareal - Unknown
• Roy Braus Walker - France
• Eugene Warren - Unknown
• Frank Weaver, Jr. - Cedarvale
• [William] Dewey White - Hawley
• Marvin Arthur Wickham - Palacios
• John May Williams - Matagorda
• Ward Woodard - Unknown
• Joe Yeamans - Matagorda

World War II

• Allen A. Adamcik - France
• Garland Akers - Belgium
• Mack L. Allen - Kosse
• Ruffus Edgar Alston - Cedarvale (Memorial)
• John F. Barnett, Jr. - Palacios
• Clarence Arvin Blaylock - Cedarvale (Memorial)
• William Glenn Bock - Hawaii
• George Bopp, Jr. - Anchorage, Texas
• Edward P. Botsford - Hawley
• Clarence Caldwell - Rochester, Texas
• Daniel E. Cameron - Mobile, Alabama
• Ralph G. Chavez - Cedarvale
• Ira B. Clements - San Antonio
• William E. Copeland - Oakhurst, Texas
• William J. Cox - Cedarvale
• Lawrence J. Culver - Matagorda
• George M. Curtis - Philippines
• John Harold Dacke - Hawaii (Memorial)
• Fernley H. Damstrom - Olivia, Calhoun County, Texas
• James B. Dillard - Palacios (Memorial)
• Boyd S. Dunbar - Matagorda
• Joseph B. Eastman - England (Memorial)
• Jake J. Fields - Palacios
• Walter Fink * - Belgium
• George M. Fondon - Cedarvale (Memorial)
• William N. Foster - Cedarvale
• Porter F. Fuqua - Belgium
• John Garcia - Netherlands
• Jack H. Glenn - Belgium
• Roy M. Griffith, Jr. - Cedarvale
• Phillip A. Grubbs - Unknown
• Manuel Gusman - Cedarvale
• Luke M. Haines - France
• John Jasper Hardy - Ashby (Memorial)
• John L. Hebert - Palacios
• Abner L. Hobbins - Wharton
• Lee J. Holub - Wallis
• Garrett Gordon Hope, Jr. - Hawaii
• Clifford C. Hutchison - Itasca, Texas
• Richard A. Killgore - Palacios
• Simmen Albert Killgore - Palacios
• Donald A. Kilpatrick - Belgium
• Frank E. Knebel - France
• Joseph P. Lamb - North Carolina
• Joseph B. Lawhon - Matagorda (Memorial)
• Cecil L. Lee - Hawaii
• Richard B. Legg - France
• Jack Lipscomb - Lockhart, Texas
• William Frank Long - Cedarvale
• Lloyd Byron Maples * - France
• Henry L. McCullough - France
• Lawrence Howell McGinnes - Cedarvale
• James W. McKelvy - Hawaii
• William Miranda - Palacios
• John A. Miska, Sr. - Blessing, St. Peter's
• Edward J. Morris - Missouri
• Vicente C. Nieto - Baytown, Texas
• Philip H. Parker - Cedarvale
• Kenneth M. Parten - Sweeny
• Terril Pierce - Cedarvale
• William Lloyd Queen - Palacios
• Richard Ray, Jr. - Nashville
• Holeis R. Reed - Cedarvale (Memorial)
• James H. Ressler - Not Recovered
• Frank Robles - Cedarvale
• Rafael Rodriguez - Cedarvale
• Carl Rush - Nashville
• Eliseo G. Sanchez - Philippines
• Houston Savage - Palacios
• Frederick Schmidt, Jr. - Not Recovered
• Joseph M. Schwartz - El Paso, Texas
• Ignac D. Senkyrik - Not Recovered
• Charles E. Stell - San Antonio
• Carl Allen Thompson - Cedarvale
• Henry Thompson, Jr. - Palacios
• Luther M. Thompson - Hawaii
• Merlin C. Vogelsang - Cedarvale
• Robert W. Walker - Cedarvale
• Douglas O. White - Wharton
• Jack W. White - Cedarvale
• Oscar S. Wofford - Cedarvale

Korea

• Orville Thomas Cooper - Not Recovered
• Glenn Ladele Gray - Cedarvale
• Raymond Krenek - Nada, Texas
• Mike Castaneda Pena - Cedarvale
• Ruben Cuellar Rodriguez - Cedarvale
• Therlo G. L. Smith - Unknown
• George C. Woods, Jr. - Eastview

Vietnam

• Robert Franklin Balsley - Roselawn
• Luis B. Campos - Cedarvale
• Ernest W. Gajdosik - Roselawn
• W. L. "Dub" Hamlin - Palacios
• Rockne Lamar Hardwick - Roselawn
• Joseph R. Hilliard - Eastview
• William D. Jinks - Fort Leavenworth, Kansas
• Larry K. Kaiser - Victoria, Texas
• Paul R. Lozano - Cedarvale
• Cecil A. Meares - Lumberton, North Carolina
• Curtis Daniel Miller - Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery
• Joe Parks - Not Recovered
• Ray Lee Penland, Jr. - Hawley
• Michael Abel Pierce - Hawley
• Edward Doyle Powers - Palacios
• Allan E. Stahlstrom - Aransas Pass, Texas
• Frank Levi Swinford III - Cedarvale
• Esteban A. Trevino - Brownsville, Texas
• Kevin E. Tweedle - Roselawn
• Johnnie P. Winfrey - Roselawn

Veterans

Peacetime Deaths

• Armando Aguilar, Jr. - St. Peter's, Blessing, Died in Texas during during Iraq War
• Calvin L. Arnold - Roselawn, Died in France during the Vietnam War
• Caldwell Brown, Jr. - Liveoak
• Dennis Jerry Crain - Cedarvale, Died during the Vietnam Era
• Kerry Duane Dale - Hawley
• Matthew Arlon Eklund - Roselawn
• Elmer Allen Henton, Jr. - Roselawn
• Norman Thomas Holstein - Houston, Texas
• Ronald John Johnson - Roselawn
• E. Carter Jones - Cedarvale
• Franklin Travis O'Rear - Cedarvale
• Kenneth M. Parten - Sweeny
• Roger Lewis Serafine, Sr. - Not Recovered

Resources

Matagorda County on WikiTree

• Schools
• Religious Congregation

Resources

• Matagorda County, Texas on Wikipedia
• County Website

Cemeteries

City of The Dead'

• See Matagorda County Texas Gen Web Page Obituary and Cemetery Index - There is an index of surnames.
• Matagorda County Cemeteries

1. Basil Allen Family Memorial Site in Live Oak community
2. Category:Allenhurst Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
3. Category:Andrews Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
4. Category:Ashby Cemetery, Ashby, Texas
5. Category:Burial Association Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
6. Berean Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
7. Category:Bowie Cemetery, Cedar Lane, Texas
8. Category:Bethlehem Cemetery, Cedar Lake, Texas
9. Category:Bundick Family Cemetery, Markham, Texas
10. Category:Chastun-Hanson Cemetery, Ashwood, Texas
11. Category:Caney Matthews Cemetery, Caney, Texas
12. Category:Collegeport Cemetery, Collegeport, Texas
13. Category:Cornelius Cemetery, Midfield, Texas
14. Category:Cedarvale Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
15. Category:Deadrick Cemetery, Wilson Creek, Texas
16. Category:Duffy Cemetery, Blessing, Texas
17. Downer Grave, Tin Top, Texas
18. Duncan, John, Cemetery, Ashwood, Texas (unknown slave burials)
19. Category:Edison Cemetery, Vann, Texas
20. Category:Edison Cemetery No. 3, Vann, Texas
21. Elliotte, Thomas W., Grave, Bay City, Texas
22. Category:Eastview Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
23. Category:Gatson Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
24. Category:Green Family Cemetery, Vann, Texas
25. Category:Grove Hill Cemetery, Pledger, Texas
26. Category:Gainesmore Cemetery, Cedar Lane, Texas
27. Category:Grimes-Poole Cemetery, Trespalacios, Texas
28. Category:Hardeman Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
29. Category:Hudson Family Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
30. Category:Hardeman Graves, Van Vleck, Texas
31. Category:Hawkins Cemetery, Hawkinsville, Texas
32. Category:Hudgins Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
33. Category:Harris Family Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
34. Category: Hawley Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
35. Category: Antwine Jefferson Cemetery, Wilson Creek, Texas
36. Category: Johnson Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
37. Category:Jones-Jackson Cemetery, Pledger, Texas
38. Category:Kuykendall Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
39. Category:Kehrer-Huebner Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
40. Category:Kelley Cemetery, Wadsworth, Texas
41. Category:Kenner Cemetery, Sargent, Texas
42. King Vann Cemetery, Vann, Texas
43. Category:Lacy Cemetery, El Maton, Texas
44. Category:Lee Family Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
45. Liveoak Church Cemetery in Live Oak community
46. Category:LeTulle Cemetery, Markham, Texas
47. Matagorda Cemetery, Matagorda, Texas
48. Category:Mathews Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
49. Category:Midfield Cemetery, Midfield, Texas
50. Category:Markham Cemetery, Markham, Texas
51. Category:Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Ashwood, Texas
52. Category:Mt. Pilgrim Cemetery, Caney, Texas
53. Norman Family Cemetery in Live Oak community
54. Nolte, Frank, Grave, Matagorda County, Texas
55. Category: Palacios Cemetery, Palacios, Texas
56. Category:Pleasant Green Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
57. Category:Phillips Graves, Matagorda County, Texas
58. Category:Powell Cemetery, Berean, Texas
59. Category:Partain Cemetery, Blessing, Texas
60. Category:Rainey Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
61. Category:Red Bluff Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
62. Richardson Cemetery, Vann, Texas
63. Category:Rugeley-Hawkins Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
64. John Rugeley Cemetery, Sugar Valley, Texas
65. Category:Roselawn Memorial Park, Van Vleck, Texas
66. Robbins Family Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas
67. Category:Reinke-Tobeck Cemetery, Bucks Bayou, Texas
68. Category:Sargent Cemetery, Sargent, Texas
69. Category:St. Francis Cemetery, Wadsworth, Texas
70. Category:Scholten Grave, Citrus Grove, Texas
71. Category:Shiloh Cemetery, Cedar Lane, Texas
72. Category:St. John's Cemetery, Van Vleck, Texas
73. Category:St. Mark Cemetery, Cedar Lane, Texas
74. Category: St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery, Blessing, Texas
75. Category:Savage Family Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
76. Sexton Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas (burials unknown)
77. Category:Thompson Family Cemetery, Bay City, Texas
78. Union Baptist, Ashwood, Texas (formerly Rockwest Baptist), Ashwood
79. Category:Union Baptist Church Cemetery, Pledger, Texas
80. Vine Grove Cemetery in Live Oak community
81. Wilson Creek Cemetery, Wilson Creek, Texas (or Moore) Cemetery (Hadden Family)
82. Williams Family Cemetery in Live Oak community
83. Category:Daniel Wheeler Cemetery, Blessing, Texas
84. Category: John Aaron Williams Cemetery, Matagorda County, Texas(on Peninsula)
85. Category: Kit Williams Cemetery, Cedar Lane, Texas
86. Category:Warren Cemetery, Caney, Texas
87. Williams Grave, Grisham Road, Matagorda County, Texas
88. Category:Thomas Jefferson Williams Cemetery, Wilson Creek, Texas
89. Yeamans Grave, Cash's Creek, Texas
90. Category:Yeamans Cemetery, Cash's Creek, Texas

Matagorda County Cemeteries Matagorda County

Sources

1. ↑ https://texasalmanac.com/index.php?q=topics/government/matagorda-county
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} https://matagordabaytexas.com/matagorda-history/
3. ↑ ^{3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11} "The Handy Texas Answer Book" by James L Haley
4. ↑ ^{4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 4.13 4.14 4.15} https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hcm05
5. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagorda_County,_Texas
6. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matagorda_County,_Texas

• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/

http://www.visitmatagordacounty.com/

http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/

http://texasalmanac.com/topics/government/matagorda-county

1. D. E. E Braman, Braman's Information about Texas (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1858). #Comer Clay, "The Colorado River Raft," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 52 (April 1949).
2. Keith Guthrie, Texas' Forgotten Ports (Austin: Eakin Press, 1988).
3. Lorraine Bruce Jeter, Matagorda: Early History (Baltimore: Gateway, 1974).
4. Paul D. Lack, "Slavery and Vigilantism in Austin, Texas, 1840–1860," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 85 (July 1981).
5. John Columbus Marr, History of Matagorda County (M.A. thesis, University of Texas, 1928).
6. Matagorda County Historical Commission, Historic Matagorda County (3 vols., 1986–88).
7. Reba W. Palm, Slavery in Microcosm: Matagorda County, Texas (M.A. thesis, Texas A&I University, 1971).
8. James L. Rock and W. I. Smith, Southern and Western Texas Guide for 1878 (St. Louis: Granger, 1878).
9. Junann J. Stieghorst, Bay City and Matagorda County (Austin: Pemberton, 1965).

• http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txmatago/obit_cem_index.htm