Cost, Texas; First Shot of the Texas Revolution Monument. (original) (raw)
History in a Pecan Shell
First known as Oso (Spanish for Bear), the town had its name changed in 1897 when the post office was granted to Samuel C. Hindman's store.
Cost has the distinction of being the town closest to where the first shot of the Texas Revolution was fired in October of 1835.
The First Shot Monument by Waldine Tauch
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
In 1935, Governor James Allred dedicated a monument commemorating this event. The sculptor was Waldine Tauch of Ballinger (via Flatonia). Sent to study under Pompeo Coppini in San Antonio, Tauch was "adopted" into the Coppini family even though she was already an adult. Her other works can be found in Brownwood, Waco, Canton, San Antonio and numerous other Texas cities.
The first business in Cost was a general store opened for employees of a 10,000-acre ranch to the west. A saloon soon followed, but both were closed by 1890. German Cotton farmers coaxed their countryman William Muenzler to move his gin from Fayette County to Oso in 1892. It remained in operation (under only two owners) until 1950.
In 1896 Adolph Tolle opened a blacksmith shop, which was sold in 1902. It too, continued in operation (as a garage) until the 1960s.
A public school was open from 1897 until it was merged with the Gonzales ISD in 1959.
Click on photo for large image
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
Figure of woman on the left side of the monument
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
Figure of woman on the right side of the monument
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
Detail of the bas-relief monument.
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
Signature of sculptress Waldine Tauch
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
First Shot of Texas Revolution marker
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, August 2011
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