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The Indian name for the Nueces was Chotilapacquen? (Don't ask me how to pronounce it.) One early Spanish explorer named it San Norbeto. But Rio de las Nueces (river of nuts) stuck because of the pecan trees on its banks. Corpus Christi could have been 100 years older, with a different name, if a planned Spanish settlement had succeeded? The settlement on the Nueces, west of the present city, was called Villa de Vedoya. The mission next to it was to be the Nuestra Senora del Soto. The 50 families and two priests recruited for the settlement in 1749, after several setbacks along the way, returned to Tamaulipas. Half of the city's population in the 1850 census was born in Mexico? That census listed 550 white citizens, one free Negro, 47 slaves, and 112 soldiers. And, remarkable for its time, it listed a woman, Laura Baskin, as captain of a schooner. The city's drinking water in the early years was carted in barrels from the Nueces? Water carriers were called " barrileros. " Decades later, in the 1890s, the barrileros still operated. They filled barrels at a standpipe downtown and delivered it to the outskirts for 15 cents a barrel. People sprinkled ashes on the water to keep wiggle-tails out. A common street sight, beside the barrileros, was the charcoal wagon? Housewives bought charcoal to heat their irons. One of the city's first schools was operated by the son of the attorney general for the King of Denmark? His name was Baron Charles T. de Lovenskiold. He would make the boys line up to inspect their fingernails and shoes. He made them leave their guns at home. Two of his sons became mayors of Corpus Christi. The city's first source of mineral wealth was not oil, but salt? Blocks of salt were carted from the banks of the Laguna Madre to a mill on Water Street, powered by a Dutch windmill, where they were ground for table salt. Salt was in demand in the heyday of the meat-packing plants. This was once sheep country? Great flocks of sheep grazed from Corpus Christi to Laredo, making this one of the country's major wool-producing areas. Huge two-wheeled carts pulled by oxen and piled high with bundled wool rumbled along the roads to Corpus Christi for shipment on sailing vessels to New England mills. The Weekly Democrat Statesman, in Austin, noted on May 24, 1877, that -- "Corpus Christi is controlling a large wool trade. It is thought that four to five million pounds will be handled this year." But a parasite that caused sheep scab thrived in the humid climate and decimated the flocks. Then Grover Cleveland was elected and tariffs were lowered on Australian wool. The day before he was elected, wool was 26 cents a pound; the day after, it was seven. Wealthy sheep ranchers in South Texas went broke and sheep raising virtually disappeared. In 1890, the city's population was 4,328? Listed were 38 insurance agents, 14 beer saloons, 11 attorneys, three "washee-washees," two piano teachers, and one lightning rod dealer. The city's first Natatorium (circa 1906) was on a pier on the bayfront? It was famous for its artesian baths. The city undertook a desalinization project in 1913? An engineer from New York, Alexander Potter, recommended using bay water for all the city's needs. Potter wrote that, " . . . a chemically pure water, a soft water, from a supply wholly inexhaustible, are arguments so convincing that they must at once appeal to all." The project was dropped in 1914 because of "prohibitive costs." Last year's dam problems were not the city's first? La Fruta, an earthen dam, was built to harness the Nueces and impound water for Lake Lovenskiold. The north end of the dam gave way on Nov. 23, 1930. Fortunately, there was nothing in the floodplain when the wall of water came crashing down the Nueces. Faulty engineering was blamed. The dam was rebuilt, and renamed Mathis Dam, and the reservoir renamed Lake Corpus Christi. Central Power and Light was the last owner of the city's streetcar line? It shut it down, stored the trolleys in barns near the old courthouse, and operated a bus system until 1933. The electric trolley system lasted from 1910 to 1931. During World War II, the city tried to donate 33,000 linear feet of steel rails to the war effort. But the cost of the digging the rails out of the streets made it impractical. (Murphy Givens can be reached by e-mail at murphyg@caller.com or by phone, 886-4315.) Front Page || Main Index || News || Business || Texas || South Texas Outdoors || Birdwatching || Sports || Entertainment || Selena || Education || South Texas Attractions || World Wide Web |