Name: Bayside, Texas
Address: Bayside, TX

The Ghost Town of St. Mary's RoadyGoat

Two miles northeast of modern Bayside lies the ghost of a different town. Founded around 1850 by Joseph F. Smith, St. Mary's of Aransas was a busy Copano Bay port shipping lumber, hides, tallow, cattle and cotton inland by wagon. The Civil War touched it lightly and strangely: Union sailors found the place undefended, burned two big warehouses and a wharf, and sailed off. The town shook that off. Morgan Line steamers began calling in 1868 — until the submerged reefs out there wrecked ship after ship, and after an 1875 storm the company gave up and moved its business to Rockport. What actually killed St. Mary's came from the Gulf: back-to-back hurricanes in 1886 and 1887 tore out the wharves and the schoolhouse. The store and post office hung on until 1907. Today it's the old cemetery, weathered headstones overlooking the bay, and the birthplace of Clara Driscoll, the woman who saved the Alamo.

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When the Bay Came to Town RoadyGoat

In August 2017, the people of Bayside lived their town's worst nightmare. Hurricane Harvey came out of the Gulf as a Category 4 with 130-mile-an-hour winds and came ashore on San Jose Island and at Rockport and Fulton, just down the coast, around ten o'clock on the night of August 25th. Then it turned toward Copano Bay, and Bayside sat right on the inside edge of that turn. The winds were devastating, but the real enemy was the water. Storm tide pushed Copano Bay up out of its banks, ran across the island roads and over FM 136 along the south edge of town, and got into homes, garages and vehicles. For residents who rode it out, it was a terrifying night. In the aftermath the landscape was scarred and the damage immense. The story of Bayside since 2017 has been one of slow, painful, determined recovery, as the community rebuilds what the bay took away.

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Bayside, TX RoadyGoat

Bayside, Texas, wears its name like a badge of honor, a simple declaration of its very essence. Established in the early 20th century, the town didn't need to search far for inspiration. It sits nestled right on the edge of Copano Bay, a shimmering expanse of water that connects it to the Gulf of Mexico and defines its way of life. So, "Bayside" it was, a name that speaks to its geography and its destiny. For generations, this location has shaped everything – from the fishing boats bobbing in the harbor to the salty breeze that whispers through the palm trees. Of course, being so intimately tied to the bay has its challenges. Bayside sits low, just a few feet above sea level, which means the ever-present threat of flooding is always on the minds of the people who call it home. Hurricane Harvey's devastation is still a fresh memory, a stark reminder of the bay's power. But the bay is also what sustains the town. It's the heart of the local economy, drawing tourists eager to cast a line or simply soak in the serene views. And who knows, maybe there's even a pirate's treasure buried somewhere along its shores, a local legend that adds a little extra sparkle to the already captivating Bayside.

Birthplace of Clara Driscoll

1881

The settlement of St. Mary’s was founded in 1857 by Joseph F. Smith, nephew of Texas provisional Gov. Henry Smith. The town flourished from 1850 to 1886 as a viable port city, and was once the county seat of Refugio County. The bustling town attracted entrepreneurs and businessmen, including wealthy rancher, banker and developer Robert Driscoll. On April 2, 1881, Clara Driscoll was born to Robert and Julia Fox Driscoll in St. Mary’s. Clara descended from Irish pioneers who settled in the Power and Hewetson land grants, and both of her grandfathers fought in the Texas revolution. Because her father was a successful businessman in the Corpus Christi area, Clara was sent to private schools in Texas, New York City and France. After almost a decade of study abroad, Clara returned to Texas. Imbued with an appreciation for historic preservation, she joined the Daughters of the Republic of Texas and immediately began work to save the Alamo which had fallen into disrepair. In 1903, Clara purchased the Alamo with her own money, earning her the title of “Savior of the Alamo.” In addition to her preservation efforts, Clara also was a successful writer of short stories and musicals. Though not all her philanthropy was advertised, her presentation of Laguna Gloria to the Texas fine arts association garnered attention. Clara served as a democratic national committee-woman for Texas for 16 years and was an office holder for many organizations. Before her death, she set up the Driscoll foundation to provide medical care for indigent children. Clara died on July 17, 1945, in Corpus Christi and is buried in San Antonio’s Alamo Masonic Cemetery next to her family.

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John Howland Wood and Nancy Clark Wood House

1875

John Howland Wood (1816-1904) was born in Dutchess County, New York. Trained in the mercantile trade and apprenticed to a painter, Wood enlisted in the New York Battalion to aid the Texas revolution. He arrived in Texas in 1836 in time to participate in the Battle of San Jacinto and several other major events at the close of the war. Wood settled at Victoria as quartermaster of the Texas Army, marrying Nancy Anna Clark in 1842. They became civic and political leaders and the parents of twelve children. The woods moved to St. Mary's, later called Bayside, where they opened a mercantile business and began to acquire vast land holdings throughout the state while John established himself as a cattleman. In 1849 they purchased this property, establishing a ranch which Nancy Wood dubbed "Bonnie View." Lightning damage to the original house led to the construction of this magnificent edifice on its foundations in 1875. Erected by contractors Viggo Kohler and Hugo Heldenfels, the structure combines a typical Greek revival plan with exuberant high Victorian Italianate detailing. The two-tiered, full-height projecting portico supported by Italianate columns establishes the house's imposing character. The house also features pedimented window surrounds, bracketed eaves and a "widow's walk" or "captain's walk," reflecting the architecture of John Wood's native New York. The house's presence on the rural Texas Coast, where few mansions were built, surely impressed visitors and area residents alike during the post-Civil War era. An outstanding example of the Italianate style, it remains one of the area's most substantial and least-altered country mansions of the period. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1983. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1998

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Old St. Mary's Cemetery

1857

Joseph F. Smith, Nephew of Texas' provisional governor Henry Smith, founded the town of St. Mary's in 1857. Ten acres were set aside for this burial ground, in which the earliest marked grave is dated 1860. The cemetery served the thriving community until an 1886 storm destroyed business and homes, causing residents to move away. In 1909, with the return of land development to the area, the cemetery was again used. The burial site of war veterans and pioneer area settlers, the cemetery serves as a reminder of the important early coastal town of St. Mary's. (1983)

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Hagar, Conger Neblett

1935

Conger (Connie) Neblett Hagar, the "Texas bird lady," daughter of Robert S. and Mattie (Yeager) Neblett, was born in Corsicana, Texas, on June 14, 1886. She graduated from Corsicana High School in 1903, studied voice and piano at Forest Park College in Saint Louis, and took postgraduate music training at the University of Chicago and the American Conservatory. Although offered employment as a professional singer, she declined, believing such a pursuit improper. After World War I she became a bird bander for the United States Biological Survey. She was married briefly to a naval officer, but the marriage was dissolved in 1921. In April 1926 she married Jack Hagar, a Bostonian who had come to Texas because of his interests in oil and real estate. The couple had no children. In 1935 the Hagars moved to Rockport. Connie Hagar spent the rest of her life as an amateur bird-watcher in Rockport and gained the respect of professional ornithologists in Europe and the United States. She added over twenty new species to the avifauna list of the state and was the first to report numerous species of migratory birds, including several that were thought to be extinct. In addition to the snowy plover, buff-breasted sandpiper, ash-throated flycatcher, and mountain plover, she identified nine different species of hummingbird; the annual movement of these birds down the Texas coast had been unobserved until she discovered it. She reported more than 500 bird species in the Aransas Bay area, nearly three-fourths of all the bird species known between Canada and Mexico. Throughout her life Mrs. Hagar was a conservationist, teacher, and tireless bird-watcher. She spoke to numerous schoolchildren, garden clubs, and other groups and kept detailed notebooks. Her observations were published in several ornithological journals, and her work brought amateur and professional birders to the Gulf Coast from throughout the world. Perhaps because of her diminutive size-she was under five feet tall-and the fact that she regularly wore starched linen to go birding, photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt complained that she did not look like a bird-watcher when he photographed her for Life magazine in 1956. Mrs. Hagar played the organ regularly for the Aransas Pass Christian Science Church, but she was not a member of that or any other church; she claimed to prefer nature's sermons to man's. She was a member of the Rockport Women's Club, the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs , the Texas Ornithological Society , and the American Ornithologists' Union. She received a special citation in 1962 from the National Audubon Society, which convened in Corpus Christi that year largely to be near Rockport's flyways and to allow the seventy-six-year-old "bird lady" to attend. Connie Hagar died on November 24, 1973, in Corpus Christi, after two years of hospitalization and blindness. She was buried at Rockport Cemetery, in a spot overlooking the bayfront named Conger Hagar Wildlife Sanctuary.

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Mathis, Thomas Henry

1859

Thomas Henry Mathis, tobacco merchant, founder of Rockport, and rancher, was born in Stewart County, Tennessee, on July 14, 1834, the son of James and Isabella (Boyd) Mathis. During his boyhood and adolescence he worked on a farm. At the age of twenty he left home to attend a school conducted by his cousin, Joshua Thompson Mathis, in southern Arkansas, where he subsequently stayed for fifteen months as a teacher. In 1856 he organized a school of his own at Warren, Arkansas. The following year he attended Bethel College, and in 1858 he taught school in Murray, Kentucky. In January 1859 he moved to Southwest Texas. In the following months he and his cousin J. M. Mathis and two other men made a successful trading trip into Mexico. In 1861 Mathis moved from Gonzales to Victoria and enlarged his business. As a result of the blockade of Gulf ports by the Union Army at the beginning of the Civil War , he was forced to close his business, but began to run tobacco and managed to elude the blockade successfully. Also, in the spring and summer of 1862, he had great success in forwarding supplies from Texas to the soldiers of the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. Mathis joined the Confederate Army in the fall of 1862. He was a member of Company E, Duff's Regiment. After the war he resumed his tobacco trade between Tennessee and Texas. In February 1867 Thomas and J. M. Mathis built the first wharf in Rockport. The firm of J. M. and T. H. Mathis chartered the Prince Albert , the first steamboat ever to enter Aransas Bay for commercial purposes. After the loss of the Prince Albert at sea, the firm persuaded the Morgan Lines to run its ships into Rockport and became the agent for that company. In 1869 J. M. and T. H. Mathis gave $5,500 for the improvement of the pass into Aransas Bay between St. Joseph and Mustang islands to provide access to the deep water of the Gulf of Mexico. They built the Orleans Hotel and a number of other prominent buildings, constructed bridges, made county roads, and were active in securing other public improvements. The Mathis cousins joined with three other ranchers in 1871 to form the Coleman, Mathis, Fulton Cattle Company ( see COLEMAN-FULTON PASTURE COMPANY ). It was one of the first cattle firms in the state to fence a large pasture. In 1879 the cattle company was dissolved, but J. M. and T. H. Mathis continued in business together for another year. Thomas Mathis contributed to bringing the Western Union telegraph, the first telephone line, and the first meat-refrigerating plant in Texas to Rockport. He was also one of the leaders in introducing blooded cattle and horses into Southwest Texas. His own ranching operations were extensive. In later years he owned 24,000 acres of fine land on the Nueces River in San Patricio County, all well fenced and well stocked with thoroughbred and graded cattle and horses. His total investment in real estate and personal property at this time was about $240,000. Mathis was married first to Mrs. Cora Linda Lampkin Caldwell, who died of typhoid shortly after the marriage. On August 26, 1875, he married Mary Jane Nold in Murray, Kentucky. They made their home in Rockport and had eight children. Mathis was a Democrat. He died in Rockport on March 19, 1899, and is buried there.

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Bayside, Texas

Music in Bayside

Songs About Bayside

Artists From Bayside

Rivers & Roads in Song near Bayside

History of Bayside

The Ghost Town of St. Mary's RoadyGoat

When the Bay Came to Town RoadyGoat

Bayside, TX RoadyGoat

Birthplace of Clara Driscoll

John Howland Wood and Nancy Clark Wood House

Old St. Mary's Cemetery

Hagar, Conger Neblett

Mathis, Thomas Henry

Things to Do in Bayside

Everything Near Bayside