Turtle Bayou, Texas

Last updated
Turtle Bayou, Texas
USA Texas location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Turtle Bayou
Usa edcp location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Turtle Bayou
Coordinates: 29°49′38″N94°40′03″W / 29.82722°N 94.66750°W / 29.82722; -94.66750
Country United States
State Texas
County Chambers
Elevation
30 ft (9 m)
Time zone UTC-6 (Central (CST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-5 (CDT)
Area code 409
GNIS feature ID2034881 [1]

Turtle Bayou is an unincorporated community in Chambers County, Texas, United States. [1] According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 42 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metro area.

Contents

History

In 1827, James Taylor White made his home in Turtle Bayou's lower reaches. Several farms were situated along the stream by the 1840s, and five years later, the Turtle Bayou Resolutions were signed in the vicinity. From 1847 until 1859, a post office in the region was called John's Post Office. Thomas B. Chubb promoted a settlement called New Boston in 1848, describing it as "handsomely situated at the mouth of Turtle Bayou," but it appears to have failed immediately. The size of the Turtle Bayou precinct may have been comparable to that of Anahuac in the 1850s. The majority of the traffic to Anahuac was carried by the first Turtle Bayou ferry, and several shipwrecks found close to its location suggest that shipping was important in the past. After the establishment of the Turtle Bayou post office in 1879, the town's population rose steadily, from 29 in 1880 to 127 in 1900, but the expansion slowed, and in 1914 the post office was shut down. A modest oil company camp was established after oil was discovered in the Turtle Bay field in 1935, rekindling interest in the region. Turtle Bayou, a tiny oilfield, was discovered in 1952. About 100 people lived in Turtle Bayou when the J. F. Simon sawmill opened its doors in 1939. The population had dropped to 42 by 1970. In 1974, the location was identified by a group of buildings near the intersection of Farm Road 563 and the Turtle Bayou stream. Most of the old Turtle Bayou townsite is now part of White's Park, a well-liked park, pavilion, and arena maintained by the county. The population was 42 in 2000. [2]

During the Battle of Velasco, Texas troops withdrew from fighting in Turtle Bayou after the Anahuac Disturbances. Mexican officers agreed to release their prisoners into civilian custody in exchange for the cavalry officers and the withdrawal of the Anglos. They had awaited a cannon from Brazoria. Frank W. Johnson and Juan Davis Bradburn were among them. [3]

Geography

Turtle Bayou is located on Farm to Market Road 563 on a stream of the same name, 40 mi (64 km) southwest of Beaumont in northern Chambers County. [2]

Education

Anahuac Independent School District operates schools in the area.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chambers County, Texas</span> County in Texas, United States

Chambers County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, its population was 46,571. The county seat is Anahuac.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anahuac, Texas</span> Town in Texas, United States

Anahuac is a city in the U.S. state of Texas on the coast of Trinity Bay. The population of the city was 1,980 at the 2020 census. Anahuac is the seat of Chambers County and is situated in Southeast Texas. The Texas Legislature designated the city as the "Alligator Capital of Texas" in 1989. Anahuac hosts an annual alligator festival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pasadena, Texas</span> City in Texas, United States

Pasadena is a city in the U.S. state of Texas, located in Harris County. It is part of the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the city's population was 151,950, making it the twentieth most populous city in Texas and the second most populous in Harris County. The area was founded in 1893 by John H. Burnett of Galveston, who named the area after Pasadena, California, because of the perceived lush vegetation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William B. Travis</span> American lawyer and soldier (1809–1836)

William Barret "Buck" Travis was a 19th-century American lawyer and soldier. He is known for helping set the Texas Revolution in motion during the Anahuac disturbances and commanding the Misión San Antonio de Valero as a lieutenant colonel in the Texian Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Velasco</span>

The Battle of Velasco, fought June 25-26, 1832, was the first true military conflict between Mexico and Texians in the Texas Revolution, colloquially referred to as the "Boston Harbor of Texas" It began when Texian Militia attacked Fort Velasco, located in what was then Velasco and what is now the city of Surfside Beach. The Mexican commander during the conflict, Domingo de Ugartechea, tried to stop the Texians, under John Austin, from transporting a cannon down the Brazos River to attack the city of Anahuac. The Texian Militia eventually prevailed over the Mexicans. Ugartechea surrendered after a two-day battle, once he realized he would not be receiving reinforcements, and his soldiers had almost run out of ammunition..

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South Texas</span> Region of the U.S. state of Texas

South Texas is a region of the U.S. state of Texas that lies roughly south of—and includes—San Antonio. The southern and western boundary is the Rio Grande, and to the east it is the Gulf of Mexico. The population of this region is about 4.96 million according to the 2017 census estimates. The southern portion of this region is often referred to as the Rio Grande Valley. The eastern portion along the Gulf of Mexico is also referred to as the Coastal Bend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anahuac disturbances</span> Uprisings of settlers in Texas in 1832 and 1835

The Anahuac disturbances were uprisings of settlers in and around Anahuac, Texas, in 1832 and 1835 which helped to precipitate the Texas Revolution. This eventually led to the territory's secession from Mexico and the founding of the Republic of Texas. Anahuac was located on the east side of the Trinity River near the north shore of Galveston Bay, which placed it astride the trade route between Texas and Louisiana and from there to the rest of the United States. In new attempts to curtail smuggling and enforce customs tariffs from the coastal settlements, Mexico placed a garrison there after 1830. American settlers came into conflict with Mexican military officers, rose up against them, and increased political activity and residents of numerous communities declared support for the federalists, who were revolting against the Mexican Government.

In 1832, the Anglo-American settlers were involved in a conflict with Mexican commander John Davis Bradburn near the northern extent of Trinity Bay at Anahuac, Texas. The settlers were opposed to control of their daily affairs by the centralist government. They were primarily at odds with the administration over the subject of tariffs on imports and exports and over the presence of conscripted criminals in the Mexican garrison at Anahuac located at the confluence of the Trinity river and bay four miles south of the Turtle Bayou crossing, whom the colonists blamed for a number of local crimes. The simmering conflict reached a head when Bradburn took in two escaped enslaved people from Louisiana. Though slavery was officially illegal in Mexico, the Mexican authorities wanted to encourage Anglo-American colonization of the frontier and tolerated indentured servants for ten years, among the colonists. Among that population included three previously enslaved people who escaped from Louisiana and were given asylum by Bradburn. Two local lawyers, William B. Travis and Patrick C. Jack, attempted to return the freed people to the American who claimed to own them but were arrested and held in the Anahuac garrison after they had forged a letter to Bradburn threatening armed intervention from Louisiana militia.

The Convention of 1832 was the first political gathering of colonists in Mexican Texas. Delegates sought reforms from the Mexican government and hoped to quell the widespread belief that settlers in Texas wished to secede from Mexico. The convention was the first in a series of unsuccessful attempts at political negotiation that eventually led to the Texas Revolution.

Wallisville is an unincorporated town in northern Chambers County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 460 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

Hankamer is an unincorporated populated place in northern Chambers County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 525 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metro area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galveston Bay Area</span> Region in Texas, United States of America

The Galveston Bay Area, also known as Bay Area Houston or simply the Bay Area, is a region that surrounds the Galveston Bay estuary of Southeast Texas in the United States, within Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan area. Normally the term refers to the mainland communities around the bay and excludes Galveston as well as most of Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smith Point, Texas</span> Unincorporated community in Texas, United States

Smith Point is an unincorporated community in Chambers County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 150 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metro area.

Monroe City is an unincorporated community in Chambers County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 90 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metro area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double Bayou, Texas</span> Unincorporated community in Texas, United States

Double Bayou is an unincorporated community in Chambers County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 400 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

Danciger is an unincorporated community in Brazoria County, Texas, United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 357 in 2000. It is located within the Greater Houston metropolitan area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank W. Johnson</span>

Francis White "Frank" Johnson was a leader of the Texian Army from December 1835 through February 1836, during the Texas Revolution. Johnson arrived in Texas in 1826 and worked as a surveyor for several empresarios, including Stephen F. Austin. One of his first activities was to plot the new town of Harrisburg. Johnson unsuccessfully tried to prevent the Fredonian Rebellion and served as a delegate to the Convention of 1832.

Juan Davis Bradburn was a brigadier general in the Mexican Army. His actions as commandant of the garrison at Anahuac in Mexican Texas in 1831 and 1832 led to the events known as the Anahuac Disturbances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Galveston Bay Area</span>

For a period of over 7000 years, humans have inhabited the Galveston Bay Area in what is now the United States. Through their history the communities in the region have been influenced by the once competing sister cities of Houston and Galveston, but still have their own distinct history. Though never truly a single, unified community, the histories of the Bay Area communities have had many common threads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Bay (Texas)</span>

East Bay also known as East Galveston Bay, is the eastern extension of Galveston Bay found in Chambers County, Texas. The bay is oriented northeast to southwest, and is approximately five miles wide and twenty miles in length. It covers the area north of the entire Bolivar Peninsula, and south of mainland Texas, including the small community of Smith Point at the western extreme. The bay's one extension is Rollover Bay, which is found to the extreme east near the town of Gilchrist.

References

  1. 1 2 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Turtle Bayou, Texas
  2. 1 2 Turtle Bayou, TX from the Handbook of Texas Online
  3. Henson, Margaret Swett (1982), Juan Davis Bradburn: A Reappraisal of the Mexican Commander of Anahuac , College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press, ISBN   978-0-89096-135-3