Summer 2010
Heritage Brazos A&M Cadets, 1949
B R AZ O S
Celebrate
INDEPENDENCE DAY With the Heritage Society Saturday July 3, 2009 9:30-12:00
Heritage Park South Hutchins Street (Between 30th and 31st Streets) Bryan Music by
Proud Country Children’s Bicycle Parade (10:00) Tours of the 1902 Clary House Antique Car Show Free Hot Dogs
H E R I T A G E
S O C I E T Y
President’s Column The Heritage Society held its annual meeting on March 21 at the Bryan Public Library. I gave an illustrated lecture entitled “The Anatomy of Bryan-College Station,” describing the development of the Brazos County landscape over nearly two centuries, as influenced by technological development. I showed members visible relics of the Brazos County landscape laid down before the arrival of the railroad in 1871, explained the enduring impact of the railroad and highway system, and predicted the future course of changes now occurring due to air travel and digital communication. We then discussed possible historic preservation projects, particularly the old Coulter House on 24th Street. This is the oldest house in Bryan, and presently the property of the City, but increasingly in need of repair. Due to a lack of nominations, we were not able to hold the annual election of officers. I have agreed to a second extension of my term as President, awaiting identification of a suitable replacement. We also need replacements for two members of the Board. If you would like to get involved in the Heritage Society as an officer, please contact me at jmsmith@tamu.edu.
Echoes from the Carnegie Columns
Books Published by the Brazos Valley Heritage Society The Life and Death of Boonville costs $15.00; Historic Brazos County, $25.00. Orders many be placed with <ulrikesmith @msn.com>, or Brazos Heritage Society, P.O. Box 1776, Bryan, Texas 77806. Please add $2.50 for shipping. Wendy Patzewitsch, Ph.D., is writing a new book about Bryan for the Images of America Series. BHS Executive Director, Ulrike Smith arranged this deal. The book will be out next year
This winter we saw the first appreciable snow on the ground since the Carnegie reopened! Precipitation has not always been a rare, or welcome, visitor to this area . . . consider the following report from the Bryan Eagle (Feb. 12, 1898) The magnificent rain which fell Wednesday night and yesterday has put a splendid season in the ground and will be of vast advantage to the farming interests of this section. The electric storm during the early hours yesterday morning was very heavy. At one a. m., lightning struck Mr. R. H. Kirk’s barn and the building with fifteen bushels of corn was burned. Mr. Kirk drove his cow from the building and saved his saddles and harness. His loss was $30 with no insurance. A fire alarm was sounded and the confusion was general for some time. The lights were cut off on account of the storm.
Or this report of a second deluge only one year later unprecedented rain fall of Tuesday night, Wednesday, and especially of Wednesday night, continuing in torrents until late in the morning yesterday has produced a varietable [sic] flood in this section . For hours the precipitation was something terrific and the face of the whole earth was covered, the water courses being flooded beyond their capacity and inadequate to carry off the water as fast as it fell. North bound passenger train No. 3, due here at 2:07 yesterday morning, reached the city about 3 o’clock after great difficulty on account of damage to the track from the flood between here and Wellborn. Very slow and careful running over dangerous places was all that enabled the engineer to get this far, and train was laid out here all day yesterday and last night.
Or this report of an extraordinary lightening strike that occurred in 1913, and was so remarkable that the Eagle published a memorial in 1938 During the rainstorm this morning the courthouse was heavily charged with electricity and the whole force was shocked. Electricity crackled and popped throughout the entire building and played over all metal work. County Judge J. T. Maloney, County Clerk Will Higgs and T. C. Nunn were in one of the vaults and the electricity was blinding. I hope bad weather wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t keep you from coming to visit us behind the Carnegie History Center's columns! Nancy McCraw Ross Carnegie Librarian
Independence Day 2009
Bryan, Texas, feeling the need of a library, the Mutual Improvement Club, composed of twenty enthusiastic women, in 1902 made an earnest appeal to Mr. Andrew Carnegie who donated ten thousand dollars to be used in erecting a Free Public library . . . It is the best investment Bryan ever made . . . . The number of volumes is now about 2000. Handbook of Texas Libraries, 1902.
Bryan and College Interurban 1910-1920 If you drive down Cavett Street, you are following the bed of the old trolley car line that ran from A&M to Bryan, and then on to Allen Academy, “The city council has granted a franchise to Judge V. B. Hudson for an electric railway within the city of Bryan and extending to the Agricultural and Mechanical College.” Electric Traction Weekly, July 3, 1909 “A movement has been started by a number of suburban citizens to settle up the land between Bryan and the Agricultural and Mechanical College along the interurban in small farm homes devoted to poultry, truck, and dairying.” Galveston Daily News (Jan 17, 1920)
Brazos Heritage Society P.O. Box 1776 Bryan, Texas 77806