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Rock Island Downtown
1918 or earlier
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01392 |
History in
a Pecan Shell
The town had been
named Crasco after the nearby creek in the early 1890s but
was renamed Rock Island in 1897 after the former home of a newly arrived
settler. The name is said to have been the brainchild of Charles Petersen,
an area landowner who became the town's first postmaster under the
new name.
Dueling realtors intent on outselling each other recruited land-buyers
from Illinois, Iowa and Missouri and promised a "tropical paradise"
near the Gulf of Mexico. Between their recruitment trips and newspaper
ads a substantial number of investors sold their northern farms to
buy the cheaper Texas acreage. A good many of the new settlers felt
duped when they arrived, but they stuck it out and within a few years
they were making a go of it. |
Hezekiah
S. Lundy's Store Interior in Rock Island
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01395 |
Hezekiah
S. Lundy's Store Interior
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01395 |
The town was
prosperous enough to have its first bank robbery in 1902 when robbers
blew the door off the safe of Mr. Lundy's bank. Lundy, who had his
finger in many pies - including the store above - sold the bank to
the "new" Rock Island Bank in 1908.
The influx of northerners (and their out-of-state money) helped Rock
Island prosper and gave it the nickname "The Northern City on the
Gulf Coast." Sixteen northern families moved here by 1904 and together
with a few local residents they made up a population of 367. The Hallettsville
Herald saw fit to mention the town's prosperity in one of their
issues. |
Bank
Interior
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01760 |
Crops
Rice production was just getting started and 160 acres were sold to
Japanese investors.
Besides the somewhat exotic figs, more familiar crops of potatoes
and cabbage were planted and Rock Island had between 150-200 acres
of land devoted exclusively to strawberries. This agricultural success
had two effects - first, it brought in new settlers and secondly,
it raised land prices. In 1906 one 160-acre farm was sold for the
then unheard-of price of $37 an acre. A creamery opened that same
year and was soon producing 300-400 pounds of butter per day.
One Mr. Sherman was hired by partners Frazee and Green to make candied
figs, marmalade and fig mincemeat around 1915 and in 1917 plans were
made for a 10,000 bushel potato curing house. |
Dr. Bell's 70
Acre Cabbage Farm Raised by J. G. Adams
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01394 |
Dr. Bell's 70
Acre Cabbage Farm Raised by J. G. Adams
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01393 |
The Peanut Patch
of Frank Vachon
1911 postcard courtesy Betty L Case |
Portrait of J.
Hashimoto and Ben Fields, Colorado County rice farmers c.1905.
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01396 |
These were Rock
Island's golden years and the prosperity lasted up until the U.S.
entrance into World War I.
After the war, mechanized farming methods and larger single-crop (rice)
operations caused the population to move away. With the decreased
population the stores lost their customer base and started closing.
Rock Island reached a high-water mark in 1925 with a population of
500. |
Rock Island High
School Graduates Class of 1925.
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #00704 |
Rock Island School
Picnic
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library #01408 |
A Rock Island
locomotive (no relation to the town) hurtles across Colorado County
(near Columbus) in the 1950s.
Photo courtesy Nesbitt Memorial Library # |
In
the 1960s Rock Island suffered several fires that left large gaps
in the former downtown. At first glance Rock Island doesn't look all
that different from neighboring Sheridan,
Texas, but Rock Island has been designated a ghost town and is
included in T. Lindsay Baker's More Ghost Towns of Texas.
By the mid-1980s the population of Rock Island had declined to
160 - the same estimate used on the 2004 highway map. The town's only
cemetery is the Myrtle Cemetery which sits just south of town
on FM 1693. |
|
Former Odd Fellows
Building
Photo
by John Troesser, February 2006
More Texas Lodges |
"West Dry
Good"
Photo by John Troesser, February 2006 |
The old water
tower
TE photo, February 2006 |
The new Rock
Island water tower
Photo
by John Troesser, February 2006
More Texas Water
Towers |
©
John Troesser
June 14,
2006
Sources:
Colorado County Chronicles, Volume One,
The Colorado County Historical Commission,
The Handbook of Texas Online,
The Nesbitt Memorial Library Photo Collection |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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