Artesian Park and Sulphur Well
Corpus Christi, Nueces County, Texas
Marker Inscription
After a convention of Republic of Texas citizens accepted terms on July 4, 1845, for annexation to the United States, General Zachary Taylor brought 4,000 men of the U.S. 3rd infantry to Corpus Christi to defend the embryonic state from indians or foreign powers. He remained eight months; more than two months after Texas became a state he marched to the Rio Grande. Among his troops in Corpus Christi were three future United States presidents (Taylor, Pierce, and Grant), and many other future celebrities. A landmark of Taylor's sojourn was a sulphur-rich artesian well he had drilled adjacent to the camp. In 1854, out of regard for the significant well and campsite, and to give the city he had founded (1839) a public park, H.L. Kinney deeded and dedicated the well site and an acre of surrounding land to the municipality. This park is one of the earliest in Texas to have been given by an individual to the public. By 1900--when a bandstand, drinking fountain and walks had been installed by civic or private means--the park was regarded as an historic, greatly cherished city facility. More land was added in 1907--08 through efforts of the Woman's Monday Club. Use and improvements have continued over 120 years.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
After Texans accepted annexation on July 4, 1845, General Zachary Taylor massed some 4,000 U.S. troops at Corpus Christi, holding the new state's coast for eight months before marching to the Rio Grande and the opening of the Mexican-American War. Among the men encamped here were three future presidents—Taylor, Pierce, and Grant. A sulphur-rich artesian well drilled beside the camp later became the heart of Artesian Park, deeded to the city in 1854 as one of Texas's earliest public parks and cherished for generations after.
Why it matters
This quiet park witnessed the buildup to a war that would redraw the map of North America, its soldiers' ranks a roll call of the nation's future leadership.
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Related people
- · Zachary Taylor
- · Franklin Pierce
- · Ulysses S. Grant
- · H. L. Kinney
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
John Bernard Murphy
Corpus Christi, TX
Born in County Cork, Ireland, in 1821, John Bernard Murphy immigrated to America in 1845 and joined the U.S. Army as a staff reporter under General Zachary Taylor at the outset of the war with Mexico, rising to captain. He later studied law, settled in the Irish community of San Patricio, and served as judge and district attorney before winning election as mayor of Corpus Christi in 1880. Inheriting a debt-ridden treasury, he restored the city's credit and oversaw streetlights, drainage, and relief for the poor before his death in 1884.
Nueces County
Corpus Christi, TX
Nueces County takes its name from the 'River of Nuts' that forms its northern border, a country touched early by Spanish explorers and marked by the frontier post of Lipantitlan. The area passed into Anglo-American hands during the Texas Revolution, and in 1845 U.S. Army forces camped here on their way to the fighting of the Mexican-American War. The county itself was created in 1846 and organized the next year with Corpus Christi as its seat.
Explosion of the Steamship Dayton
Corpus Christi, TX
In June 1845 Texans voted to join the United States, and President Polk ordered General Zachary Taylor to mass troops near the Rio Grande as a boundary dispute with Mexico simmered. Corpus Christi became the army's staging headquarters, and on September 12, 1845, the steamer Dayton was ferrying soldiers to St. Joseph's Island when its boilers burst and the burning vessel sank near McGloin's Bluff. Eight soldiers died and were laid to rest here in a same-day military funeral chosen by General Hitchcock. Their gravestones name men born from Poland, England, Canada and across the young republic.
Thomas S. Parker
Corpus Christi, TX
Philadelphia-born Thomas S. Parker came to Texas at twenty, and in 1839 he and his parents received large land grants near present-day Corpus Christi, where they raised cattle. He allied with trader Henry L. Kinney, and when Zachary Taylor's army camped near Kinney's post in 1845 — the staging ground for the war with Mexico — Parker won the contract to supply the soldiers' beef. "Col. Tom" went on to become the first sheriff of Nueces County, later a Texas Ranger and Confederate soldier, and finally Corpus Christi's city marshal, shaping the young city's commerce and law until his death in 1886.