Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Wednesday, January 5, 2000

Short takes

I spent a lot of time at the end of the millennium (if last week was the end) on the microfilm machine, squinting at films of old newspapers. While doing research on other things, I copied several items that interested or amused me for one reason or another, which I share with you. If you look for a theme behind these pieces, well, you won't find it.
   Visit to Agua Dulce Creek
   From the Corpus Christi Star, Dec. 16, 1848: "The editor of the Star visited Agua Dulce country this week. Midway across we encamped at a water hole for the night and, having killed a buck, had a good supper. The mustangs came around us during the evening, but did not frighten our horses. The next morning we started early, and after two miles' travel came to a prairie which had been long enough burnt for the grass to spring up about two inches. It was litterly [sic] covered with mustangs, deer, and antelope, and so gentle were the deer that we were frequently in range of whole droves. They would stare and frisk around us as though unaccustomed to the sight of man. . . . At 9 o'clock we reached the Agua Dulce. We had always supposed the bed of the Agua Dulce was but a succession of water holes, with more or less distance between them, but where we struck it, it had all the appearance of a lagoon. We followed it down for four miles without being able to cross it, the width being from forty to fifty yards, and very deep. On either side of it for the distance we traveled, the prairie was covered with fine mesquite grass . . . From the Agua Dulce we struck across for the road of General Taylor, and next day reached home well pleased with our trip.''
   The editor, John H. Peoples, for whom Peoples Street is named, would die a few months later when he joined a party of forty-niners and was drowned while crossing the Gulf of California.
   Laguna Madre monster
   The Nueces Valley reported on June 19, 1858, that a "party which left here last Sabbath for Laguna Madre, with the avowed determination not to return without capturing, if possible, the great serpent reported inhabiting that body of water, and which has been reported to have killed and eaten several full-grown cattle, were prevented from reaching their point of destination by grounding on Flour Bluff bar, resulting in the loss of a rudder and boom, and compelling the return to town of the disappointed party."
   I didn't know we had our own Loch Ness monster.
   New saloon
   The Ranchero reported on March 17, 1860, that a new saloon named La Retama opened across from the Sierra Madre Hotel on Chaparral. The paper said it had "two fine billiard tables, a choice in liquors and cigars - in fact, everything pertaining to a first-class house.''
   Perhaps as a counter-influence, the paper announced the formation of The Church of the Good Shepherd. A building on Chaparral was rented and fitted out for services. The paper said the new church had been given a "beautiful chandelier'' and a "splendid melodeon.''
   County finances
   Last time I checked (which was Tuesday morning), Nueces County Commissioners were getting a salary of $53,477 a year for what is essentially a part-time job. In the 1870s, the county commissioners met every three months and were paid two dollars a day only for the days they met. At the same time, city aldermen were paid nothing, the honor of the thing being considered reward enough.
   In the 1875 budget, the salary of the sheriff was set at $250 a year. Jail expenses, including food, were $1,800; pay for guards was $800 for the year. The cost of firewood and oil for lamps for the courthouse was $250. A total of $8,710 was budgeted for running county government that year.
   G.A.R. cannon explodes
   After the Civil War, only Union supporters celebrated the Fourth of July; former Confederates avoided the festivities. It was the custom in Corpus Christi to fire a G.A.R. cannon in celebration. On July 4th, 1883, James Stewart McPherson, the city engineer, was killed when the cannon exploded. (The G.A.R. puzzled me for a bit, until I realized it stands for Grand Army of the Republic, the Union army during the Civil War.)
   An order from the mayor
   The Corpus Christi Caller, May 25, 1894, reported that, "Mayor O.C. Lovenskiold issues an order to City Marshal Busch to arrest all persons found committing depredations on Artesian square and to stop the gathering of certain tough characters in the habit of meeting on the square every evening and filling the air with vulgar language. The well is reported thoroughly cleaned out by Mr. G. F. Havers and Alderman Allen, causing the water to run out of the fountain with its old-time flow. The mayor says the square was made for a resort for the public generally and not for tough characters who have no respect for the presence of ladies.''
  

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