East Columbia, Texas, Brazoria County. (original) (raw)
History in a Pecan Shell
Josiah Hughes Bell is credited with founding the town in 1823. His plantation, known as Bell's Landing supplied other settlements along the river. In 1824 Bell platted a town and called it Marion. Lots were sold in 1829, but were unsuccessful. In 1831 the town had a mere handful of cabins, a store and Bell's home. Wharves and warehouses were built and ships shuttled between East Columbia and New Orleans.
Bell sold the growing town to Walter C. White in 1827, but the town was still called "Bell's Landing" through 1840. Two years later it was known as West Columbia, and finally was renamed East Columbia.
When Houston became the capital of Texas, East Columbia prospered. It received another boost with the arrival of the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railroad in 1859. The onset of the Civil War stopped East Columbia's prosperity. The town had a population of 800 in the mid 1880s and a few years later it hit 1,500. Another period of decline set in and by 1914 it was down to 150.
The local post office once known as Columbia, was renamed East Columbia in 1927. The population declined to a low of 89 in the early 70s.
Bell's Landing Historical Marker
Photo courtesy Barclay Gibson, May 2012
Historical Marker: Brazos and Front St., East Columbia
Bell's Landing
Founded 1823 as Brazos River landing for Josiah H. Bell's plantation. Townsite of Marion laid out in 1824. Later named East Columbia. Army enlistment point and ferrying dock during Texas Revolution. Key river port and trade center during Republic of Texas days.
(1965)
Photographer's Note:
"The Belle's Landing site, on the east shore of the Brazos, is actually totally different from where the Bell's Landing site was, down stream on the western shore of the Brazos." - Barclay Gibson
Historical Marker Text
Site of Carry Nation's Hotel
During a brief and troubled time in her life, Carry Amelia Moore Nation (1846-1911) operated the "Old Columbia Hotel" on this site about 1880. She later achieved fame as a hatchet-wielding crusader against the use of alcoholic drink and tobacco.
Born in Kentucky to slave-owning parents, Carry Moore and her family moved to Grayson County, Texas, soon after the outbreak of the Civil War. After an unhappy first marriage in Missouri to an alcoholic, she married David Nation in 1877. They acquired 1,700 acres of farmland on the San Bernard River west of here. Unsuccessful at farming and marriage, David moved to Brazoria to practice law, and about 1880 Carry moved here to Columbia to operate the hotel owned by A. R. and Jesse W. Park. Her name is on the Columbia Methodist Church roll. She lived at the hotel with her daughter Charlien Gloyd, "Mother Gloyd" (Carry's first mother-in-law), and David's daughter Lola. David Nation also operated a saddle shop just southwest of this site.
The family soon moved to Richmond, Texas, to operate a hotel, then moved to Kansas in 1889. The Nations were divorced in 1901 after Carry began her crusade against saloons. She lectured at the University of Texas in Austin in 1902 and 1904.
Texas Sesquicentennial 1836 - 1986
1907 Brazoria County postal map showing Columbia
Courtesy Texas General Land Office
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