The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 43

THE BAYTOWiS SUN Thursday. January 30, School days here go back to 1800s BA 1 TOWN ELEMENTAR IN THE 1930s RECOGNIZE ANY of these pupils? In the 1930s they were attending at Baytown Elementary School. First row. from left: Gertrude Moskowitz, Aileen Fay, Geraldine Ogden, Mary Eva Morgan, Aileen Dunn, Barbara Lirette, Jennie Margaret Bielstein, Jo Anne Monroe Kathryn Browder, Earline Stewart. Second row: Kenneth Moak.

Audley Rhodes, Jack Reber, Leonard Hlanak, Cecil Sutphin, T.T. Peck, Edward Sawberger, Travis McKinney. Jeff Royder. J.C. Weisinger, Rodney Reilly.

James Bristley. Back row: Artie L. Stnith. Barbara Pace, Margaret Liccioni. Ruth Webber, Gordon Cragg.

Billy Hicks. Orville Baker and the fourth-grade teacher Mrs Hiii. Mrs. Anson Jones lived in Baytown Husband served as Republic of Texas' last president Mary Smith McC'rory one of Baytown's illustrious early citizens, led an eventful life, riddled with hard times and tragedy. Twice she came here after her last husband, the former Texas President Anson Jones, committed suicide Dr.

Ashbe) Smith, a colleague of Dr. Jones's in the medical field and in Texas government, counseled Mary Jones in that traumatic time after her husband's death, suggesting she start a new life here. Tragedy strikes many people, many times, but the way people react the way they cope spells the difference between mere endurance and courage, Mary Jones had courage. She became the manager of a farm in Goose Creek and successfully reared and educated four fine children. One of her sons.

Cromwell Anson Jones, served several terms as Harris County Judge. Her keen interest in education was evident in deeding land here for a free public school. In the fall of 1836. following Texas independence from Mexico. Mary Smith moved with her family from their farm near Brazoria.

to Houston. It was in Houston that she met Hugh McCrory. a dashing Kentuckian who had come to Texas to help win the war. The first marriage license in Houston was issued to Mary Smith and Hugh McCrory. The day before her 19th birthday, they were married by a visiting Methodist minister.

Less than two months later, however, on Sept. 13. 1837. McCrory died. Xot long after McCrory's death.

Congressman Anson Jones came to town. He and Mary had known each other only casually in Brazoria when she was an adolescent and he was a practicing physician. The couple soon fell in love, but respectful of the young widow's mourning period, delayed marriage. Eventually, on May 16. 1840.

the Travis County clerk issued a marriage license to Anson Jones and Mary McCrory. and they were wed the following day. Political strife took its toll on Dr. Jones. After serving as the last president of the Republic prior to Texas' statehood, he made a poignant speech surrendering "the power and authority which we have some time held" to the government of the United States." An unsuccessful attempt to make a political comeback no doubt prompted his suicide.

Anson Jones shot himself to death in a room of the Old Capitol Hotel in Houston on Jan. 9. 1858. Mary Jones sold the plantation, lived in Galveston for a while, then made the move to Goose Creek. In her later years Mary Jones devoted much attention to the heritage of Texas, serving as the first president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, and working diligently to preserve the San Jacinto Battleground.

The earliest known school in the Baytown area was begun in 1876 in the Masonic lodge hall. Classes were held there from 1876 to 1911. Two other schools date from that period. One was the Bayland school, a private orphanage that operated from 1866 to 1877 at the mouth of Goose Creek. The other school was established by farmers in the 1880s near Gaillard's landing, in the same area as Bayland.

The school by Gaillard's landing was a wooden-frame, one- room building with one teacher. All three schools served the community, but each had faded out of existence by the time of the Goose Creek oil boom. Two other one-room schools survived into or were begun during the oil boom days. One was built in the Wooster area in 1895 at the site of David G. Burnet Elementary on Bayway Drive.

The other was a small one-room frame building in the Peliy area. Local education took a giant step forward in 1917 when the Cedar Bayou School District was created. The Goose Creek Independent School District was carved out of the Cedar Bayou District in 1919. The Goose Creek district received its official state charter on Aug. 21.

1921. After the creation of the district things really began moving. A six-room building in Goose Creek, which resembled a dairy barn in construction, was expanded to 12 rooms. The public also began clamoring for a new high school. At that time classes were being conducted in a VMCA building on West Pearce But the building Cove residents cherish independence That government that governs best, governs least.

Those words have been attributed to several authors among them Thomas Jefferson and Henry David Thoreau. The words are also the motto of the West Chambers community of Cove. Independence has always been the guiding principle of Cove residents. Hidden among marshes behind Trinity Bay. Cove is a town one goes to only if headed there.

One of Cove's founding fathers. Joseph Lawrence, may have been heading there when his boat landed at the mouth of the Trinity River in 1824. Born in New York in 1790. Lawrence was the son of a farmer and had six brothers. Lawrence left home as a teenager and joined the American Army against the British in the War of 1812.

After the war. he joined Jean Laffite's band of pirates, remaining a member until 1820. Lawrence was on his own at the age of 34 when he traversed the shallow marsh that would become Cove. He stopped at a high section of land that would eventually become the first permanent white settlement. Later called Lawrence's Island, it was previously inhabited by Indians.

The highest part of the land was used as an Indian burial ground, and archaeologists have unearthed skeletons, pottery and flint there. In 1824 Lawrence was reunited with James Haney. believed to be an alumnus of pirate Jean Laffite's group. Haney was born in Pennsylvania in 1780 and was a veteran of the Mexican Army. Like Lawrence, he traveled the Trinity before settling near present day Cove.

Cove's founding families were begun shortly afterwards. Haney traveled to Opelousas, and married Mary Ann Roper, a widow and the mother of Henrietta Fisher. Lawrence married Henrietta three years later, and the couple had" five children. Henrietta Lawrence died in 1846 and was buried in the family cemetery on the island. Joseph married Nancy Merritt.

a widow and a native of France. The couple had a son, Albert "Bald." with whom she lived after her husband's death. The Lawrences were an intri- quing family. Nancy was reported to have passed her time by fortune- telling. Albert owned a store and once tried to shoot himself.

Instead, the bullet grazed his scalp, making him bald and earning him his nickname. One of the Lawrence's five children. Martha, married a landowner of French descent, Baptiste Dugat. Cove citizens still relish the story about the time Dugat rounded up his neighbors and their oxen to help him move his house. Storms take heavy toll on Joseph Lawrence's island One of Joseph Lawrence's grandsons, Charles, married Kmily Stuhhs and built a magnificent Victorian home on the island.

In 1K15 a severe hurricane destroyed the home. Charles and his family, believed to have been the last one living on the island, moved away shortly afterwards. Storms had always rendered the island vulnerable. Grave markers in the Lawrence family were repeatedly swept away by storms and tides. One thing that the hostile environment could not erase was the large network of growing families in the Cove Community.

Other familiar names were introduced into the area Stubbs, Dtigat, Wilburn, Mackey. Barrow, Tilton and Winfree. Cattle raising sustained the earliest Cove families. Settlers later found the land good for trapping and farming. Joseph Lawrence operated a ferry that became an important means of transport.

As the community grew, its citizens discovered more ways to provide for their needs. Capt. William Icet ran a shipyard, and operated a sawmill and a cotton gin as well. Postal duties were handled by the community by switching unofficial postal stations from house to house. Nicholas Wilburn opened the first official U.S.

Post Office in 1885 after successfully petitioning the government. Cove was part of Liberty County until 1858 when Chambers County was created. Cove became an incorporated town in 1973. Today the town has about 650 citizens. Most town services fire department, ambulance and security watch are provided by volunteers.

In 1983 the city received a state historical marker commemorating its heritage. We've been dressing you right 10 years with the latest style, fashions, and colors. Woodcreek Shopping Ctr. 1709 Garth Rd. 422-6440 did not fulfill the needs of the community.

A bond issue election was held in late 1922. The bond passed and allowed the construction of two new elementary schools and a high school. Anson Jones Elementary, Baytown Elementary- and Goose Creek High school were built with this bond money. The new school district grew rapidly. Two more bond elections were held and passed in 1927 and 1929.

The 1927 election provided for the construction of Ashbel Smith Elementary. Baytown Junior High and Robert E. Lee High School. The 1929 election financed additional rooms at REL and Horace Mann, and construction of David G. Burnet.

San Jacinto. Lamar and Alamo Elementary- schools. In 1934 Lee Junior College was created with night classes being held at REL. Lee College got its own campus and buildings in 1951. The school district has grown over the years, adding elementary and junior schools and a second high school.

Bay town's second high school was not Ross Sterling, as most might think. Actually it was Carver High School, a high school for blacks, established in pre-integration days. Here's a bit of trivia: What does the "consolidated" mean in the district's name? Voters finally approved consolidation of the Goose Creek and Cedar Bayou districts in 1954. That action followed two previous unsuccessful elections. Cedar Bayou High School graduated its last class in 1954.

THE MAYOR WILLIAM E. BUSSEY, Goose Creek's first mayor, served in 1919. During his term as mayor he helped to pay for many city improvements out of his own pocket. In an interview several years ago, his daughter, Willie Mae Strangmeier, said, "He helped everybody and befriended people we didn't even know about until after his death." Bussey died of pneumonia in 1929 at the age of 56. 5th Year in Baytown and Growing Stronger Let Us Help With Your Financial Needs Checking Accounts I.R.A.

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