Frandolig Island
Rockport, Aransas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Dubbed "Nine Mile Point" by early settlers, this island was first used commercially by the Cushman Meat Packing Company in the late 1860s. Austrian Franz Joseph Frandolig, a horseman who had delivered cattle to Cushman & Co., homesteaded property at this site when the company vacated the land in 1878. Frandolig and his family established a large fig orchard. They sold the fruits and vegetables in Rockport and Fulton. Frandolig also kept a vineyard, where he produced and sold wine by the barrel, and built a salt works. The Frandolig family sold the property between 1901 and 1903. The severe hurricane of 1919 returned the island to its natural and uninhabited state. In 1958 the local navigation district began to offer it for development. (1999)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Early settlers called this low coastal island "Nine Mile Point," and a meatpacking company first worked it commercially in the late 1860s. When the company left in 1878, Austrian immigrant Franz Joseph Frandolig, a horseman who had driven cattle to its plant, homesteaded the land and built a livelihood there—a large fig orchard, a vineyard that yielded wine sold by the barrel, and a salt works, with produce sold in Rockport and Fulton. The family sold the property early in the 1900s, and the devastating hurricane of 1919 returned the island to a wild, uninhabited state.
Why it matters
The island's brief bloom of packing, farming, and winemaking shows how immigrant homesteaders wrung a diverse living from the Texas coast before storms reclaimed the land.
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Related people
- · Franz Joseph Frandolig
Related events
- · Hurricane of 1919
Themes & tags
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