Collegeport
Collegeport, Matagorda County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Jonathan Edward Pierce and Abel Brown Pierce hired land developer Burton D. Hurd to sell off 9,000 acres of their ranch lands in 1908. The agreement with Hurd called for the development of a town that would include a college and a port on Trespalacios Bay. Advertising the venture in newspapers of northern states, Hurd promoted the area's mild climate and promising farming opportunities. A number of families relocated to Collegeport to purchase land, establish farms, and build new homes. The Gulf Coast University of Industrial arts, the college promised by the town's developer, opened in 1909. Served by the Missouri Pacific (MoPac) Railroad, Collegeport grew quickly and by 1912 included a bank, post office, school, two churches, retail stores, and other commercial businesses. It boasted the county's first free public library, its first Boy Scout troop, and the Women's Club, founded in 1910. In 1914 a heavy freeze killed most of the farmers' crops. The following year the area experienced a drought and a disease which devastated the livestock herds, causing many families to move away. The railroad depot, known as Mopac House, was dismantled and rebuilt as part of the public library in 1935. (1990)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In 1908 the Pierce brothers hired developer Burton D. Hurd to carve a town from 9,000 acres of ranch land, promising a college and a port on Trespalacios Bay. Advertised in northern newspapers for its mild climate and rich farmland, Collegeport drew settlers, and by 1912 it boasted a bank, churches, the county's first free public library, its first Boy Scout troop, and a women's club. But a hard freeze in 1914, then drought and livestock disease, drove families away, and the venture faded—its old rail depot later rebuilt as the town library.
Why it matters
Collegeport is a classic tale of a promoter's paper paradise, showing how boosterism and railroads lured settlers to towns that the weather could dissolve in a season.
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Related people
- · Burton D. Hurd
- · Jonathan Edward Pierce
- · Abel Brown Pierce
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Ira Ingram
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First Presbyterian Church of Collegeport
Collegeport, TX
Collegeport was a planned townsite promoted by the Burton D. Hurd Land Company to sell Pierce family lands, complete with ground for a would-be Gulf Coast University of Industrial Arts. In 1909 leaders of fourteen denominations founded a federated church at the university chapel, calling as pastor Murray A. Travis, who also served as college dean and ran an early local newspaper. The congregation built a five-room sanctuary in 1910 that long doubled as schoolhouse and community center, and in 1922 formally joined the Presbyterian Church to become First Presbyterian of Collegeport.
Collegeport Cemetery
Collegeport, TX
Founded alongside the town of Collegeport in 1908, this cemetery served area residents from its earliest days, with some graves marked simply by Roman numerals set in shell concrete. The King's Daughters, a women's charitable organization, tended it from 1921 until a cemetery association formed in 1958. Hurricane Carla destroyed most of the records in 1961, but the community has always cared for the grounds.