|
Texas
| Vintage Photos
Vintage Photos
of
Wharton County
Published in the
Arcadia Images of America Series:
WHARTON
by Paul N. Spellman
Photos 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. |
| Ku Klux Klan
– 1908 picture of the Ku
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 |
| 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, stories,
landmarks and vintage/historic photos, please contact
us. |
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