Texas Historical Marker #04225
Reef Road. Early settlers in the eastern and central areas of San Patricio county faced difficulty traveling across Corpus Christi Bay to Corpus Christi, the main center for trade. The Reef Road, which according to local tradition was discovered by indians, was the shortest and most favored route. Consisting of oyster shell reefs close to the water's surface, the road was passable only at low tide. Construction of the railroad (1887) and first causeway (1915) across the bay signalled a decline in usage of the road, but it remains an important part of the county's history. #4225
US 181, Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #12184
Site of West Portland. The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railroad was built through this area in the late 1880s. In 1908 the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company decided to encourage settlement in the area by giving 14,000 acres in its Picatche pasture to the George H. Paul Company of Iowa to sell. Paul already had established a record of bringing settlers to Texas from other parts of the United States and Canada. The company mounted a gigantic advertising campaign in the midwest, bringing in trainloads of prospective land buyers, most from Kansas, almost weekly. Some bought and leased land to tenant farmers; about twenty families moved into the area. Within a year, Mexican migrant workers had cleared the land of mesquite brush and farmers began to work the rich black soil. By 1914, a school building served the West Portland School District and the community. In addition to housing academic classes, the schoolhouse served as a community center for meetings, programs, parties, socials, receptions and suppers. Sunday School classes and worship services were held there, as well. Larger buildings were erected as needed, and one old school building was moved across the street to serve as a teacherage. In 1922, local farmers banded together to form the West Portland Gin Cooperative, which became the heart of the business district. The school was consolidated with the Taft Independent School District in 1939. Farmers sold the gin cooperative in 1970. At the end of the 20th century, the cooperative was still in operation and most of the area land was owned by descendants of the original settlers. (2000) #12184
?, Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #00826
Chat Work Club. Formed by a group of thirty three women of Valentine's Day, 1921, the Chat Work Club derived its name from the members practice of working on sewing projects while conversing with each other. In 1925, they began raising funds for a portland public library, and by 1933 a building was completed. Beginning with 291 books, the library grew over the years and has occupied a number of structures. The original library building was moved to this site in 1983. The members of the Chat Work Club remain active in community affairs. #826
2400 Memorial Dr., Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #12181
Site of Indian Point Mass Grave of 1919 Hurricane Victims. In the early morning hours of Sunday, September 14, 1919, a hurricane made landfall in Corpus Christi after gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks. Crowds packed the North Beach area for their last weekend of the summer season, most continuing to ignore the last-minute evacuation warnings of police officers, firefighters and soldiers from Fort Brown. The rapidly rising water blocked vacationers from escaping to higher ground. As the water rose, people climbed to their rooftops and tied ropes to themselves and their children so that they might not be lost. A giant wave of water carrying oil from ruptured tanks on Harbor Island, timber from Port Aransas and cotton bales from a dock in Corpus Christi crashed down on North Beach, sweeping its victims into the black waters of Nueces Bay. On Monday morning the sun rose on a scene of terrible destruction. Though the official death toll was 284, estimates place the actual number, including those lost at sea, at one thousand. In the ensuing days, the survivors worked together to rebuild their homes, rescue the injured and bury the dead in mass graves, some containing more than fifty bodies, using farm implements as undertaking tools. A month later the bodies were removed to Rose Hill Cemetery in Corpus Christi and other sites as requested by friends and family members. Property damage and crop losses were estimated at twenty million dollars. The great storm of 1919 was the worst disaster to hit Corpus Christi in the twentieth Century. The mass graves at Indian Point were about one hundred yards east of this site. (2000) #12181
?, Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #12186
Site of White Point Mass Graves of 1919 Hurricane Victims. On Saturday, September 13, 1919, the last swarms of vacationers who packed the Corpus Christi beaches were warned that a massive hurricane, which had gathered strength in the Gulf for two weeks, was approaching the shore. Most ignored the warnings in favor of the last weekend of the summer season. By Sunday afternoon the buildings on North Beach, battered by winds up to 110 miles per hour and storm tides up to 16 feet, began to break up. By Monday morning, bodies and debris had begun to wash up on the shore at White Point. Black oil from the storage tanks near Port Aransas covered everything. Over the next few days, more than 200 people worked to rescue survivors and retrieve the dead. Bodies were taken to the West Portland schoolhouse on this site. Identifying the remains proved difficult; the bodies were broken, covered in oil, and in some cases whole families had perished, leaving no one to identify them. The remains were weighed on a cotton scale and taken almost a mile back toward the beach where they were found. They were laid to rest in a mass grave dug with a slip scraper. More than 30 separate graves were dug from Indian Point near Portland to a spot about 20 miles up Nueces Bay. Some of the larger graves measured 1400 feet wide and 3200 feet long. Evidence indicates that all the bodies were moved to Rose Hill Cemetery in Corpus Christi and to other sites about a month later. The official death toll was 284; estimates place the actual number, including those lost at sea, at about 1,000. Property damage from the 1919 storm was estimated at about 20 million dollars. This gravesite and the others serve as a reminder of the power of the elements. (2000) #12186
?, Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #08918
Portland. The earliest known settler in the Portland community was Jesse Green London (1843-1875). A native of Missouri and a Confederate veteran who brought his family here in 1873. Other early settlers included members of the Tefteller, Cline, Bell, Henderson, Goin, and Biggerstaff families. The small farming community boasted several business establishments, including a blacksmith shop and a wood shop by the late 1880s.The six-grade Portland School opened in 1879 and met in a one-room log building until the school district was consolidated with two other area schools in 1898. The grocery store served as a residence and post office as well. Founded at the end of the 19th century, the Portland Congregational Methodist Church worshiped in the old log schoolhouse until 1909 when a sanctuary was built at this site. The opportunity for Portland to grow and prosper was denied when the rail line was laid south of the settlement. Although a few homes and this church building are all that remain of the community, the settlers left a rich heritage for their descendants, many of whom still live in the area. #8918
?, Portland, TX, United States
Texas Historical Marker #06340
Site of Bay View College. An important school of the coastal region, founded for scattered South Texas ranch children, by Thomas M. (1856-1943) and Alice Yantis Clark (1857-1913), of the family that founded Texas Christian University. The Clarks utilized 2-story "Hotel Portland", opened 1891 but soon idled by national business recession. With Mrs. Mollie Allen Turner as associate, they opened Bay View College in Sept. 1894, teaching primary through junior college subjects. Mrs. Clark, who also managed "The Home" for boarders, taught painting; Clark, music and literary subjects. Recreation included riding (on student-owned horses), house parties at patron George Fulton's Rincon Ranch (12 miles northeast), and an annual San Jacinto Day sail on Corpus Christi Bay. The first Bachelor of Letters degrees were awarded to a class of three: Wallace Clark, Lucille Long, Ed Rachal. In time, a 2-story boys' dormitory, a gymnasium, and a 2-story chapel stood on campus. Students came from 70 Texas counties, 12 other states, and Mexico. Some Bay View graduates went on to senior colleges and entered professions, many remained in ranching. In 1916 , a hurricane destroyed most of the buildings. A day school session was held the next winter in the chapel, but the college formally closed in 1917. (1973) #6340
154 Elm Street and 1st Avenue, Violet Andrews Park, Portland, TX, United States