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History in
a Pecan Shell
The
Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company and the San Antonio and Aransas Pass
Railway partnered to build the town - which was named after U.S. attorney
general Thomas Watt Gregory. The location was to be the point on the
railroad where the rails split to go to Corpus
Christi.
1887: A post office was granted
1890: First settler - J. S. M. McKamey, bought a two-mile-square block
of land north of Gregory
1891: Coleman-Fulton gave land and built the first schoolhouse
1892: Population reaches 250
1898: Coleman-Fulton moves headquarters to Gregory
1900: McKamey opened a bank.
1909: Hotel Green is built - one of the finest hotels on the coast.
President Taft visits the Coleman Fulton Ranch.
1920s: Gregory declined when company offices move to Taft. The hotel
moved to Taft in 1922. |
Historical Marker:
Gregory
The town of Gregory
traces its beginnings to 1886, the year the San Antonio and Aransas
Pass railroad built a line through San Patricio County. The railroad
and the local Coleman-Fulton pasture company joined forces to build
a station here at a site known as Corpus
Christi junction, a switch where the rail line turned toward Corpus
Christi and branched off to Aransas
Pass. By 1887 the junction was known as Gregory, named for Thomas
W. Gregory, a friend of the Fulton Family and later U.S. attorney
general.
A U.S. Post Office opened on March 8, 1887, and the new community
grew quickly, soon boasting stores, hotels, banks, and other businesses,
as well as a school and several churches. As many as seven trains
passed through the junction on daily round-trip schedules.
By 1900 the town's population had reached 400, and the community received
another boost when the Coleman-Fulton Pasture Company relocated its
main office here from Rockport. The
company built the 3-story green hotel in 1909, and many train travelers
relied on Gregory as a stopover point. Although the company headquarters
and the Green Hotel both relocated to taft in the 1920's, the town
survived and remains a viable residential community.
1993 |
Gregory Scenes
& Historical Marker
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An old Texaco
station
TE photo, 1999 |
Gregory historical
marker
Photo courtesy Ken
Rudine, May 2007 |
Native Son
Don Williams
Gregory high school
(now part of Portland-Gregory ISD) is where country music legend Don
Williams went to school. Williams was raised here and sings about
his childhood there in the song Good ol' Boys Like Me."The
smell of cape jasmine through the window screen. I can still hear
the soft southern winds in the live oak trees."
Gregory is located near the Live Oak Peninsula, an area of the Texas
Gulf Coast with an abundance of Live Oak trees. - Ken
Rudine |
| Texas
Escapes, in its purpose to preserve historic, endangered and vanishing
Texas, asks that anyone wishing to share their local history, stories,
landmarks and recent or vintage photos, please contact
us. |
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