The Doctor Who Let Gravity Pull the Bullets Out RoadyGoat

In the 1890s a Vienna-born physician named Dr. Sofie Herzog set up practice in Brazoria and quickly became the doctor outlaws and lawmen alike came to when they'd been shot. Bullet wounds were her specialty, and she worked out a method that broke from the painful probing standard of her day. Instead of digging blindly after a slug, she used a sterilized finger to limit infection and, for deep abdominal wounds, suspended the patient slightly off the bed so that gravity drew the bullet along the path of least resistance toward the surface, where she reported it would "come to her" within about a day. Her results were striking for the era -- she removed her first 15 bullets without losing a patient -- and she was invited to present the technique to the South Texas Medical Society, which made her its first woman member in 1897. She strung two dozen recovered slugs into a gold-linked necklace she wore as a charm. In 1907 she became chief surgeon of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway, the first woman to head surgery for a major American railroad.

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John Austin's Port on the Brazos RoadyGoat

You're rolling into one of the oldest Anglo towns in Texas. In 1828, John Austin laid out Brazoria here on the west bank of the Brazos River, on land granted through his kinsman, the empresario Stephen F. Austin, whose Old Three Hundred families were the first legal Anglo colonists in Mexican Texas. The name came straight from Stephen F. Austin, who reportedly chose it "for the single reason that I know of none like it in the world" — splicing the river's name onto a Latin-sounding ending. The location was no accident: this was a working river port, the farthest practical point upriver where seagoing cargo could be handed off, so cotton, sugar, and supplies moved through Brazoria between the Gulf and the inland colony. When Brazoria County was organized on December 20, 1836, the town became its first county seat, and it held that title until 1897, when the courthouse moved to Angleton. Today it's a quiet town of a few thousand, but it sat at the very center of where Texas became Texas. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Texas Almanac.)

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The Cannon That Floated Out to Start a War RoadyGoat

In June 1832, the trouble with Mexico turned into gunfire, and it shipped out from right here. After Brazoria residents voted for armed resistance on June 20, Captain John Austin split roughly a hundred militiamen into two columns: about sixty marched overland, while forty boarded the schooner Brazoria under William J. Russell and floated down the Brazos toward the Gulf. Their artillery had a strange backstory — the cannonades aboard the Brazoria had been stripped from the wreck of the Ariel, the first steamboat ever to work Texas waters, which had reached Brazoria in 1830 before being left to rot in the San Jacinto River. On June 26, 1832, Russell opened a bombardment of the Mexican fort at Velasco near the river's mouth, and the garrison surrendered days later. The Battle of Velasco is often called the first true armed clash of the Texas Revolution, and some accounts credit Russell with firing its first shot. The men, the boat, and even the guns all came out of this one small river port. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Texas State Library and Archives.)

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Herzog, Sofie Dalia

1900

Sofie Dalia Herzog, pioneer physician and first woman to serve as head surgeon for a major American railroad, was born in Vienna, Austria, on February 4, 1846. Her father was a physician. At the age of fourteen she married another prominent Vienna physician, Dr. August Herzog. They had fifteen children, including three sets of twins. Eight of their children died in infancy. In 1886, August Herzog accepted a position at the United States Naval Hospital in New York City, and the family moved to the United States. Sofie Herzog began to study medicine in New York. She returned to Vienna for further study and earned a medical degree from the University of Graz. She opened an office in Hoboken, New Jersey, and had a successful practice there for nine years. Her husband died around 1895. The Herzogs' youngest daughter, Elfriede Marie, met Randolph Prell, a merchant from Brazoria, Texas, in Philadelphia, where she was teaching school and he was visiting relatives. They were married in Hoboken on January 22, 1894. After visiting the couple in Brazoria, Sofie Herzog decided to move there to practice medicine. At first the natives were shocked at the idea of a woman doctor and by her unconventional behavior. Her hair was cut short and she wore a man's hat, and for ease in mobility she rode horseback astride, wearing a split skirt. Her medical skill and obvious dedication to her patients overcame the prejudice, however, and she became affectionately known to the people of Brazoria and of the county as "Dr. Sofie." In the early 1900s, when railroads were proliferating in Texas, the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway began laying track in South Texas. The job was hazardous, and workers suffered frequent accidents and illnesses. Dr. Sofie was often called to construction sites to tend injured or ill men. She was willing to use any transportation available-train engines, boxcars, handcars-to outlying areas at any time of night or day. She became well known to officials of the railroad, and when the job of chief surgeon opened up, they readily endorsed her application. But when eastern officials of the railroad realized a woman had been appointed to the post, they asked her to resign. She refused, telling them that if she failed to give satisfaction, they could fire her, adding that she asked "no odds" because of her sex. She remained a highly valued employee of the railroad until her resignation a few months before her death. Dr. Herzog operated a drugstore in connection with her medical practice and made many of her own medicines. She also built a hotel, the Southern, across the street from her office. It housed many prominent visitors to the area, such as Bernard Baruch, who came to South Texas looking for business opportunities. The hotel became the local center for social activities and remained in use for many years after Sofie's death. In addition, she invested heavily in choice real estate in the Brazoria area and became a wealthy woman. She was as famed for her forceful personality and eccentricities as she was for her skill as a physician and surgeon. Gunfights were common in the area, and she prided herself on her skill in removing bullets. Eventually she took twenty-four bullets she had extracted to a Houston jeweler to be strung between gold links for a necklace. She wore this necklace as a good luck charm for the rest of her life, and at her request it was placed in her coffin. The drugstore that fronted her office and the office itself became a museum filled with her collection. She had walking sticks, carved and painted in many shapes and colors, from all over the world. The walls and floors were filled with skins and numerous stuffed birds, animals, and reptiles. Especially noticeable were the many rattlesnake skins that she herself had skinned, dried, and mounted on wide, red-satin ribbons. Also eye-catching was her collection of medical specimens preserved over the years. Most of this collection was given to John Seal

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Mills, David Graham

1832

David Graham Mills, early Brazoria County planter and merchant, was born around 1814 to Adam and Janet (Graham) Mills in Todd County, Kentucky. He moved to Brazoria, Texas, in 1832 to join his older brothers, Robert and Andrew, in running a merchandising business. He fought in the battle of Velasco . After Andrew's death in 1836, David and Robert Mills continued the firm as R. Mills and Company and later as R. and D. G. Mills. While Robert moved to Galveston and ran the commission, private banking, and mercantile businesses, David remained in Brazoria County and ran their plantations. He resided at Low Wood, a sugar and cotton plantation on the Brazos River, and also ran the Bynum, Palo Alto on Oyster Creek, Big Run Place, and Warren plantations. In 1850 the Mills brothers were the largest sugar producers in the state. In 1855 Low Wood alone produced 820 hogsheads or more than 900,000 pounds of sugar. By 1860 the Mills brothers owned over 200,000 acres of Texas land and had 3,300 in cultivation. David himself had more than $600,000 in real and personal property. He and Robert had 800 slaves and were thus the largest slaveholders in the state. The brothers were reputed to have been worth between $3 million and $5 million. David continued to run the plantations after the Civil War by "working hands for wages," but the value of his real and personal property had dropped to $50,000 by 1870, and three years later he and Robert were bankrupt. Low Wood Plantation became a part of Clemens State Prison Farm, and Palo Alto a part of Ramsey State Prison Farm. David Mills never married. He died in Galveston on February 27, 1885. His funeral was held at Trinity Episcopal Church.

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Mills, Robert

1830

Robert Mills, early Texas merchant, cotton commission agent, and banker, son of Adam and Janet (Graham) Mills, was born in Todd County, Kentucky, on March 9, 1809. He attended Cumberland College (later Peabody College) in 1826-27. He opened a plantation in Madison Parish, Louisiana, but abandoned it when it was devastated by a flood. In 1830 he moved to Brazoria, Texas, where he joined an older brother, Andrew G. Mills, who had begun trading supplies for cotton and pelts in 1827. As the business expanded, the brothers' burro trains and ships took goods into other parts of Mexico. Bars of Mexican silver were stacked like cordwood in their counting room, and Robert became known as the "duke of Brazoria" because of his possessions. Robert and Andrew both fought in the battle of Velasco in 1832, and Robert was in the Brazoria County delegation to the Convention of 1833 in San Felipe. He provided use of a schooner to the Republic of Texas in 1836, helped finance the Texas Navy , and supplied blankets, clothing, lead, and other essentials for troops on credit. He married Elizabeth McNeel, daughter of John McNeel , on January 26, 1836, in a bond ceremony. Their $50,000 marriage bonds were indicative of Mills's wealth. Elizabeth died in childbirth in 1837, along with the baby. After Andrew Mills's death in 1836, the mercantile firm was operated by Robert and his younger brother, David G. Mills . Robert was also associated in merchandising with Samuel B. Brigham in Matagorda County, Theodore Bennett in Brazoria, and John Sutherland Menefee in Jackson County. Robert and David Mills were among the principals of the first insurance company in Texas, incorporated by the legislature in 1837 with a capital stock of $200,000. In 1839 Robert acquired property and built the first cotton compress in Texas at San Luis, west of Galveston island. In 1849 the firm moved to Galveston, and John William Jockusch, Prussian consul at Galveston, was a third partner until 1863. Robert became a partner in Mills, McDowell, and Company of New York and McDowell, Mills, and Company of New Orleans in 1850. His ships transported Texas sugar and cotton to all parts of the world. Mills was reputed to be one of the wealthiest men in Texas and possibly in the entire South. His large, plantation-style home in Galveston stood on ten acres, later the site of Kempner Park. He was president and director of the Galveston and Brazos Navigation Company , and was associated with the Galveston Wharves . In the absence of banks, between $25,000 and $500,000 in notes of the Northern Bank of Mississippi, countersigned by R. and D. G. Mills, circulated as gold in Texas and New Orleans. Suspension of affiliated firms in New York and New Orleans in 1852 sent "Mills money" below par in Galveston for only one day. While Robert built up the commission and banking business, David operated the plantations, which produced nearly 600 bales of cotton in 1844, probably the largest crop in the republic. In 1852 two of the Millses' plantations produced more sugar than any other in Texas. By 1860 the brothers cultivated approximately 3,300 acres on their four Brazoria County sugar and cotton plantations (Low Wood, Bynum, Palo Alto, and Warren), which also included 100,000 acres of unimproved land. They owned another 100,000 acres scattered over Texas. At least two of the Millses' steamboats were acquired by the Confederacy for use in the Civil War , and Robert used other vessels for blockade running. He spent most of the war in Europe and Havana. Reputed to have been worth between $3 and $5 million before the war, he was the largest slaveholder in Texas; he freed about 800 slaves- Philles Wilson among them-in 1865. His firm lost heavily when customers were unable to pay their debts, and suffered additional postwar losses when the cotton market collapsed. In 1873 he declared bankruptcy, but declined to claim homestead law protection. He surrendered his mansion, carriages, and other possessions t

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Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog

1878

Austrian-born Sofie Deligath (1846-1925) wed Dr. Moriz Herzog at the age of 14 and in 1878 emigrated with her family to the U.S., where she attended the eclectic Medical College of the city of New York in May 1895. After the death of her husband, she moved to Brazoria with the family of her youngest daughter, Elfriede Marie Herzog Prell. one of the most colorful of a new class of professional women to emerge in Texas in the early twentieth century, at a time of limited opportunities, she became a successful local surgeon and civic leader. An eccentric individual with an independent spirit, Herzog pushed the boundaries of proper societal behavior for women at that time. As a skilled surgeon, though, she gained acceptance into several professional organizations, including the Texas Medical Association, the South Texas Medical Society – in which she was the first female member and later a Vice President – and the local Brazoria County Medical Association. Herzog further gained the respect of local citizens and colleagues in 1907 when she was hired as surgeon of the local line of the St. Louis, Brownsville and Mexico Railway. In the course of her earlier work, she utilized handcars, locomotives, and other forms of speedy transportation to answer medical emergencies, and also introduced innovative techniques for bullet extraction. In 1909, she served as the only female railroad surgeon in the world. Railway officials once attempted to dismiss her on the premises of gender, but undaunted, Herzog replied they might do so only if they found her performance unsatisfactory, and so she remained. She had a prosperous 18-year career with the company and resigned at the age of 79. She died in 1925 after suffering a stroke. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011

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Brazoria Townsite

1819

Established 1828 by John Austin, friend of Stephen F. Austin, "Father of Texas". Site of tavern of Jane Long, widow of Dr. John Long, who had tried in 1819 to free Texas from Spain. Port, social center, market for colony. Burned by enemy during Texas Revolution, was rebuilt. County seat, business center till 1897. (1964)

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Austin, John

1819

Member of Long's Expedition in 1819. Pioneer settler in Austin's colony. Alcalde of Brazoria, 1832. Commander at the Battle of Velasco. Signer of the Turtle Bayou Resolutions; died in 1833

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Brazoria, Texas

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The Doctor Who Let Gravity Pull the Bullets Out RoadyGoat

John Austin's Port on the Brazos RoadyGoat

The Cannon That Floated Out to Start a War RoadyGoat

Herzog, Sofie Dalia

Mills, David Graham

Mills, Robert

Dr. Sofie Deligath Herzog

Brazoria Townsite

Austin, John

Things to Do in Brazoria

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