Texas, Brazoria County, East Columbia
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A structure erected in noted old river port town of Marion in Republic of Texas era. First portion, of hand-hewn cedar, was built about 1835 by colonist Thomas W. Nibbs. Merchant-civic leader-soldier Ammon Underwood (1810-87) bought and enlarged house in 1838-39. In 1839 he married Rachel Jane, daughter of William and Catherine Carson, of Austin's original colony. President Anson Jones and other famous Texans often visited the Underwoods.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1970
(addition)
Entered in the National Register of Historic Places 1976
(War, Texas Independence) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
A structure erected in noted old river port town of Marion in Republic of Texas era. First portion, of hand-hewn cedar, was built about 1835 by colonist Thomas W. Nibbs. Merchant-civic leader-soldier Ammon Underwood (1810-87) bought and enlarged house in 1838-39. In 1839 he married Rachel Jane, daughter of William and Catherine Carson, of Austin's original colony. President Anson Jones and other famous Texans often visited the Underwoods.Recorded Texas Historic Landmark-1970
(addition)
Entered in the National Register of Historic Places 1976
(War, Texas Independence) Includes location, directions, 2 photos, GPS coordinates, map.
John Sweeny, Sr. (d. 1855) moved his family from Tennessee to Brazoria county, Texas, about 1833. With the help of slaves, he cleared his land and established a large plantation. This log cabin, originally located about 9 miles southwest of this site, was built soon after Sweeny's arrival and housed the slave family that included Mark and Larkin Waddy. The Waddys continued to live in the cabin after they were freed at the end of the Civil War.
Near site of Dance Gun Shop. Started on Brazos River in 1850 by brothers J.H., George, and David Dance. Shop produced guns which helped arm the Confederacy during Civil War, 1861-65. The firearms were noted for precision. Shop also made machinery for grist mills, cotton gins, sugar refineries, and sawmills.
After cleaned mercury is collected, it was placed in iron flasks for transportation to market. A flask of mercury weighs about 76 pounds when filled and a flask needs to be strong because of the density of the liquid metal.
This Greek revival house was built about 1847 by Dr. Mason Locke Weems II, the first of a succession of Weems family physicians to live here. The house features a center passage plan and raised cottage form. Details on the six-bay inset porch include square posts with molded caps and turned-wood balusters. To avoid Brazos River floods, the house was moved to its present location about 1869 and later enlarged and remodeled.
Ariadne O. Gautier (1834-1910) came from Florida to this part of Texas in 1841 with her parents. Her father, Dr. Peter Gautier, Jr., joined other Texans in turning back an invading Mexican army in 1842. In 1855, Ariadne married Clinton Lucretius Terry, with whom she had four children. Terry, serving with Terry's Texas Rangers, died in the Civil War at Shiloh in 1862. Six years later, Ariadne wed William Tyler. Again widowed, she purchased property at this site in 1871. Records indicate she built the original part of this house within the next two years. She married a third time, to Henry H. Swymmer, in 1875.
This local landmark was built between 1837 and 1841 for William Aldridge, a farmer and large landholder. After a 10-year ownership by merchant, Henry Hansen, the house was sold to J.H. Dance and Co., a construction firm that supplied arms to the Confederacy. Businessman Thomas Masterson Smith (1882-1965) and his wife Mary (1881-1964) leased the house from 1908 until they purchased it in 1917. The home has been in the Smith family for more than 60 years.
The shaker-concentrator, also known as a shaker table, was used in gravity beneficiation (the concentration of ore) for sorting fine-grained materials, such as heavy cinnabar, from ordinary rock and dust particles. The beneficiation process was carried out on the surface of the shaker bed, which has a slight tilt. The particles to be separated were fed into the shaker from a trough above the bed. At the same time water was applied to the bed from a tank (or simply a garden hose). Due to combination of gravity, inertia, friction and horizontal flow of water, the particles were stratified according to weight and size; heavier material (in the case of cinnabar) moved slower that lighter material, and thus the material were separated.
The D retort, line the rotary furnace, was used to recover mercury from cinnabar ore. Whereas the rotary furnace was a continuously-operating system, the D retort was loaded with ore, fired for a period of time (usually 8 to 24 hours), then allowed to cool before emptying the burnt ore (calcines) and recharging with more ore. Burning fuel in a fire box under the retort heated [the] ore to dissociation temperature (1095 degrees F). Vapors driven from the ore by heat, including mercury, sulphur [sic], and water vapor, were condensed in external air-cooled or water-cooled metal pipes attached to the top of the retort.
This propeller, one of four, was installed on a B-29 Super Fortress. The B-29 was the largest and deadliest American heavy bomber of WWII. It is the aircraft that effectively ended WWII by delivering atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. Interestingly, two of the four blades of this particular propeller were installed on "FIFI", the commemorative Air Force's air worthy B-29. The only super fortress in the world still flying.
Nicknamed for the numerous rattlesnake dens that were uncovered during its construction, Pyote Army Air Base was established in 1942 to train replacement crews for bombers during World War II. Located on 2,700 acres of University of Texas land, the base consisted of two 8,400-foot runways, five large hangars, and hundreds of buildings used to house 3,000 to 4,000 soldiers an 2,000 civilians.
Camp Huntsville, completed here in 1942, was one of the first prisoner of war (POW) camps built in the U.S. during World War II. Designed to house 3,000 POWs, it had more than 400 buildings, as well as eight branch camps. The first POWs, part of Germany's Afrika Korps, arrived in Spring 1943, and by fall the population peaked at 4840. Late in the war the camp became a branch of Camp Hearne (Robertson Co.). In Sept. 1945, Camp Huntsville sent its German POWs to Camp Hearne in preparation for the arrival of Japanese POWs at this site. The camp closed on Jan. 5, 1946, and the government transferred more than 800 acres, including buildings, to Sam Houston State Teachers College for use as a country campus.
Home of the Townsends, Hills and McH. Windurn, veterans of San Jacinto; Joel W. Robison, one of Santa Anna's captors; John Rice Jones, first postmaster general, Republic of Texas; and John C.C. Hill, boy captive of Mier Expedition and adopted by General Santa Anna.
The Taylor Highway leads through some of the earliest and richest gold mining country in Alaska to the City of Eagle on the Yukon River. Gold was discovered by Franklin in 1886 and the old town of Forty Mile was located on the Yukon River at the mouth of the Forty Mile River. A river boat trip from Eagle will take you to this historic town. The Chicken Creek area was also a rich gold mining area at about the same time. Wade Creek was another rich area and the remains of an old dredge still stand along the road. The old horse and wagon trail used by the early day miners and freighters is still visible in many places and the present highway often parallels this trail. The largest herd of caribou in Alaska crosses the Taylor Highway each fall on it annual migration. This is truly a sportsmans paradise with an abundance of fish and game.
On June 12th, 1982, this plaque was unveiled to commemorate the years 1941 to 1945 when Falcon Field was established as No. 4 British Flying Training School.
Site of the summer cottage of Dorothy Parker. Short story writer, critic and poet. Member of the Algonquin Round Table. Champion for social justice. Born here in West End, New Jersey. August 22, 1893 is designated a Literary Landmark by Friends of Libraries U.S.A.