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Editor’s
Note:
Will and Karla Beauchamp of Tuleta,
Texas both descend from ancestors who planted cotton.
Will’s father also taught Texas history in nearby Pettus, Texas.
The apple doesn’t fall from the tree and Will discovered early on
that he had inherited the history gene.
In Mr.
Beauchamp’s own words: “I started out collecting antique bottles
in my youth in the Tuleta
/ Beeville
area of South Texas.
My father teaching history just fueled my desire to collect historical
items, especially from South
Texas. I then started collecting cotton gin postcards. Almost
every town in Texas
had at least one cotton gin and many had several. Before and after
the Civil War many Southerners migrated to Texas.
The families were so big that most farms were self-sufficient. Many
cotton farmers who knew nothing else found that cotton didn't grow
very well in some regions.
About five
years ago I caught the bridge craze. The story of the old Texas
bridges is similar to the fate of the gins. Almost all of them
are gone now and it's a history that some of us want to save. I
thought that by sharing my collection with Texas
Escapes’ readers, it would reach a much larger audience than
it would stuck away and only seen by a few.”
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Forgotten
Texas Bridges - Series One:
Ballinger, Corpus Christi, Junction, Marble Falls, Marlin, Mineral
Wells, Concho River Bridge, Tandy’s Station, Tuleta and Gatesville
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| Ballinger,
Texas, Colorado River, The G.C. & S.F. Railroad Bridge (still
standing) |
Concho River
Bridge – No information on status or location.
Postcard circa 1906 |
| Corpus
Christi, The old Bascule Bridge opening for the USS Constitution
(“Old Ironsides”) Dismantled and replaced by the current bridge in
the early 1960s. |
| Bridge at Junction,
Texas - postcard dated Jan 3, 1926 (No information available) |
| Brazos River
Bridge, Marlin, Texas - postmarked
1907 (supports still visible in 2007) |
Bridge at Tandy's
Station (on Texas-Mexico border), burned.
No information available on the bridge or the community. |
New Medio Creek
Bridge at Tuleta, Texas.
"Writing on the back of the postcard is a message from one of
the men pictured on the bridge to his sister. He states this is the
new bridge they just built. Postcard dated May 1909." - Will
Beauchamp |
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