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Moving Destinations in Texas
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Moving - Rockport, Texas
Are you planning a move into or out of
Rockport, TX, any time soon? Continental Relocation, a
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Have you read the history of Rockport,
TX? Well, here is a brief summary for your pleasure.
A Brief History of Rockport, Texas
Rockport, the county seat of
Aransas County, is on State Highway 35 on Live Oak
Peninsula between Copano and Aransas bays, thirty miles
northeast of Corpus Christi in the southern part of the
county. It was named for the rock ledge underlying its
shore and was founded just after the Civil Warqv as a
cattle slaughtering, packing, and shipping port. William
S. Hallqv built the first packeries in 1865, and in 1866
James M. Doughty and Richard Wood built cattle pens to
keep the stock until slaughtering. In 1867 John M. and
Thomas H. Mathisqv joined Doughty, and the partners
platted the southern half of town. In 1868 Joseph F. Smith
and John H. Woodqv built a shipping wharf and platted the
north half of town. John Mathis was the first mayor of
Rockport; he was appointed by the governor. In 1867 Col.
George Ware Fulton,qv son-in-law of former governor Henry
Smith,qv returned to the Rockport area from Baltimore,
where he had lived with his family since 1846. Rockport
was incorporated as a town in 1870 and as a city in 1871,
the year Aransas County was demarked from Refugio County.
In 1871 Youngs Coleman and his son, Thomas Matthew
Coleman,qv joined the Fulton and Mathis families in cattle
raising. The partnership owned 115,000 acres at this time
and was a vital part of the boom that began in Rockport in
1873. In 1879 Mathis sold his interest in the
company, which was thereafter known as the Coleman-Fulton
Pasture Company.qv This
company brought in the San Antonio and Aransas Pass
Railway in 1886, but at the same time the Morgan Linesqv
withdrew service from the port so that the cattle raisers
had no way to ship their beef products. In 1885 Charles P.
Taft became director of Coleman-Fulton, and David Sinton
of Cincinnati took control by buying a majority of the
stock. In December 1886, after the shipping line pulled
out, the company sold its wharf, cattle pens, and
warehouses. George Fulton died in 1893, but the company
continued to be a major force in development of the area
and was in existence until 1930.
During the 1880s boatbuilding and
fishing began to develop as important industries in
Rockport. Tourism and the resort trade also blossomed,
particularly after the railroad came into town. Residents
also began to investigate the possibility of a deep-water
harbor, which would require a channel through the sand bar
at Aransas Pass.qv In 1889 the courthouse, designed by James
Riely Gordon,qv renowned Texas architect, was completed. In
1890 the First National Bank of Aransas Pass was
established, and electric lights were installed in town.
However, real estate speculation spurred investments that
the population could not support, and the town soon went
into an economic slump. Interest in constructing a
deep-water port at Rockport continued, and projects were
begun in 1884, 1905, 1910, and 1921, the year that Robert J.
Kleberg of the King Ranchqv called a meeting at Kingsville
to take action. Those in attendance appointed Roy Miller to
go to Washington, D.C., to lobby for the "Corpus
Christi plan." In 1922 President Harding signed a bill for a
port at Corpus Christi, which was finished in 1926..
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