Name: Cameron, Texas
Address: Cameron, TX

Making Aluminum from Brown Coal RoadyGoat

For fifty years, the road you're on, US-77, was a commuter route for thousands of people from Cameron heading to one of the biggest industrial sites in Texas: the Alcoa aluminum smelter and its dedicated power plant at Rockdale. This was a massive STEM undertaking. The entire operation was fueled by lignite, a soft, brown coal strip-mined from the surrounding land. That coal was fed into the Sandow Power Plant, which burned it to generate over 1,000 megawatts of electricity—enough to power a small city. But all that power wasn't for a city; it was for the smelter. Making aluminum is incredibly energy-intensive. The plant used that electricity to run a high-amperage current through alumina powder, breaking the chemical bonds to 'smelt' pure, liquid aluminum. It was a marvel of 20th-century engineering, energy production, and metallurgy, turning soft local dirt into strong, lightweight metal that went into airplanes and cars around the world.

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The Case of the Burning Courthouse RoadyGoat

You're looking at the fourth Milam County courthouse to serve from Cameron, and the county's records still carry the scar of the one that didn't make it. On April 9th, 1874, the courthouse here burned to the ground, and nearly every archive the county owned went with it - everything but a few case papers and a single volume of surveyor's records. In a young county, that's a catastrophe: land titles, indictments, tax rolls, gone in a night. A replacement went up in 1876, and the courthouse standing today, stone and Renaissance Revival, was accepted in April of 1892. Just off the square is the other survivor of that era, the 1895 county jail, built by the Pauly Jail Building Company of St. Louis. Three stories of red brick bristling with little turrets, and topped by a hanging tower which, for the record, was never used. Today it's the county museum.

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Cameron, TX RoadyGoat

Cameron was founded in 1846 when a seven-member commission authorized by the Texas Legislature purchased a 60-acre tract of Daniel Monroe's headright on the Little River. The new community was named after Ewen Cameron, a Scottish highlander who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution and the Mier Expedition during the war with Mexico. The courthouse was completed later that year, and county records were transferred from Nashville, which had served as the Milam County seat during Texas' period as an independent republic.

Trigg, Edna Westbrook

1911

Edna Westbrook Trigg, teacher and home demonstration agent, the daughter of Ervin and Rachel (Walker) Westbrook, was born on December 30, 1868, between Milano and Cameron in Milam County, Texas. She attended a community school in Liberty, Milam County, and earned her teaching certificate by attending summer normal schools in Cameron. She married Charles Letman Trigg in 1892; they had a son and a daughter. Late in 1911 the United States Department of Agriculture asked her to help introduce home demonstration work in Milam County by serving as county collaborator for girls' tomato clubs. She reluctantly agreed, after receiving assurance that the work would not interfere with her duties as principal and teacher at a rural school in Liberty. During the summer of 1912 she organized community girls between the ages of ten and eighteen into tomato clubs; each member was responsible for cultivating one-tenth of an acre of tomatoes, selling part of the harvest, and saving the rest for canning. The joint exhibit that the tomato clubs held with the boys' corn clubs at Milano that August marked the first exhibition of girls' agricultural products in the state. The girls exhibited at the Rockdale fair in 1913 and at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas the following year. The exhibits were sent on to the Waco Cotton Palace from the Dallas fair and won over $100 in prize money. Trigg encouraged the club members to establish college funds and compete for scholarships, while she herself learned more about canning methods through trial and error. Lack of county funding for her salary forced her to discontinue the work with young people in 1915, but she continued to work for the rural community. She organized community councils for farm women and responded to invitations to conduct canning demonstrations; in the summer of 1915 she went as far as Childress to conduct a two-month canning clinic. Though she was largely self-taught in home demonstration methods, she gradually became so absorbed in the work that it supplanted her long-standing career in the public schools. When she was offered the position of home demonstration agent for Denton County in February 1916, she resigned immediately as principal of the Liberty school and moved to Denton, where her daughter was a scholarship student in home economics at the College of Industrial Arts (now Texas Woman's University). Edna Trigg was the first home demonstration agent appointed in the state. In Denton she faced the double disadvantage of being a stranger and a "government woman." Traveling around the county in a horse and buggy and staying overnight with farm families, she gradually overcame prejudices with unpretentious friendliness and energetic demonstrations of her expertise. She converted the City Federation of Denton to the home demonstration cause by getting permission for her girls' clubs to show their products at the federation's fall exhibit; the girls' entries were so superior to those of the town women that a purse was made up for prize money. Trigg borrowed $350 to buy steam canners, placed them in twenty communities to encourage canning, and after a number of successful demonstrations sold the cookers to community members. During World War I the national campaign to grow and conserve food led her to launch a drive to make Denton County self-sufficient in foodstuffs. She persuaded farm families to plant less cotton and more vegetables and induced landlords to grant tenant farmers garden plots and cow pastures. At the same time, she held regular canning schools and served on the staff of the College of Industrial Arts. In the postwar years Denton County remained one of the top Texas counties in the amount of vegetables, fruit, and beef canned annually. Driving over a thousand miles a month, Trigg gave demonstrations to rural women and introduced the protective diet card, a food and nutrient consumption schedule that each woman drew up for her own family to guard against pellagra, rick

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Milam, Ben

1812

Benjamin Rush Milam, born in Kentucky 1788. Soldier in the War of 1812. Trader with the Texas Comanche Indians, 1818. Colonel in the Long Expedition in 1820. Empresario from 1826 to 1835. Benjamin Rush Milam participated in the capture of Goliad, October 9, 1835; was killed in San Antonio December 7, 1835 while commanding the Texas forces which later captured the town. Who will follow Old Ben Milam into San Antonio? Erected by the State of Texas 1936 with funds appropriated by the Federal government to commemorate one hundred years of Texas Independence.

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Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Mission

1749

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria, the third of three San Xavier missions , which also included San Ildefonso and San Francisco Xavier de Horcasitas , was founded by the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro under the leadership of Father Mariano Francisco de los Dolores y Viana . It was on the south bank of the San Gabriel River (then known as the San Xavier River) about five miles from the site of present Rockdale in Milam County. This mission, originally designed to serve the Tonkawa Indians, was founded in July 1749 to congregate Coco Indians and their allies, including the Tops and Karankawas. The Cocos had been waiting at Mission San Ildefonso for the establishment of Mission Candelaria, but they fled in March 1749 because of harassment from soldiers stationed in the area. The missionaries succeeded in recongregating the Cocos at the mission. By the time of Capt. José Joaquín de Ecay Múzquiz 's inspection tour to select a presidio site in the summer of 1750, the mission had ninety residents and had recorded fifty baptisms. Although there was constant squabbling between the San Xavier missions and the military force sent to protect them, Mission Candelaria had a particularly unfortunate association with the soldiers. When San Francisco Xavier de Gigedo Presidio was established near the mission in 1751, Father Miguel de Pinilla of Mission Candelaria became the chaplain for the garrison of fifty men. The commander of the presidio, Capt. Felipe de Rábago y Terán , decided upon his arrival that the missions should be moved, and he constantly undermined their work. He also became involved with the wife of one of his soldiers. In the ensuing scandal, the aggrieved husband, Juan José Ceballos, fled to Mission Candelaria. Rábago y Terán violated the sanctuary of the mission to return Ceballos to the presidio and released him to the mission only after strong protests from Father Pinilla. Relations between the captain and the chaplain continued to deteriorate as reports of lewd behavior among the Spanish troops spread to the mission community. Finally, after consulting with other missionaries, Pinilla excommunicated the garrison. The order was lifted after each soldier requested penance. A new crisis emerged when the garrison severely beat a Coco Indian when he entered the presidio with his weapons. As a result of the beating, the Cocos fled Mission Candelaria. Several days after they left, Father Juan José de Ganzabal and Ceballos were dining with Father Pinilla at the mission when they were attacked by unknown assailants. Ceballos died from a gunshot wound, while Father Ganzabal took an arrow through the heart. Rábago y Terán blamed the murders on the missing Coco Indians, but subsequent events suggested that the captain himself was behind the murders. The entire incident raised questions about moving the missions closer to San Antonio. During the next four years, Mission Candelaria was occupied intermittently by Bidais, Orocoquisas, and Cocos. The San Gabriel River location was finally abandoned without official sanction in 1755 after a severe drought and epidemic. In 1756 all mission property was transferred to the new Santa Cruz de San Sabá Mission , which was established to serve the Lipan Apaches. The Coco Indian neophytes from Mission Candelaria were moved to San Antonio de Valero Mission in San Antonio. A historical marker in Milam County commemorates Candelaria Mission.

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Washington, Lewis Miles Hobbs

1835

Lewis M. H. Washington, writer and participant in the Texas Revolution , was born on December 3, 1813, in Wilkes County, Georgia, the son of Robert and Elizabeth (Hammond) Washington. He moved to Texas in the mid-1830s and soon became active in local affairs. He participated in the siege of Bexar in December 1835, as a member of James W. Fannin 's staff. In 1838 he delivered the eulogy on Charles Edward Hawkins , late commander of the Independence in the Texas Navy . Before April 1840 Washington and Edwin Ward Moore purchased the vessel Merchant for the Texas Navy. Washington married Rebecca Landis Davidson, a widow with five children, in Milam County in 1839, and they had four more children. While his family lived in Nashville, Texas, part of Robertson's Colony , on the Brazos River, Washington spent most of his time in Austin writing sentimental, political, and philosophical articles for several newspapers and taking part in various skirmishes with Mexico. He was awarded bounty land for his war services. He moved his family to Austin about 1846. Washington went to Costa Rica, probably in 1856, as a correspondent of the New Orleans Picayune , and from there went to Nicaragua on the William Walker filibustering expedition. He was wounded in the foot at Castillo Viego on February 19, 1857, and was left on the battlefield. He was captured by Costa Rican forces and later shot under the orders of General Moro. His body was not recovered for burial in the United States.

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Green-Batte House

1847

Now enclosed, original cabin on site was built of logs and bricks both made nearby, 1847. Owner was George Green (1813-1885), prominent early surveyor and soldier in Battle of San Jacinto. Home was among Cameron's first. Boards were added in 1850s. About 1900, R. L. Batte, Sr., an oil mill owner, law officer, and capitalist, purchased home. Over years, both owners added rooms. Batte reared his children and many orphans in this house. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969

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First Home in Cameron

1841

Boyhood home of L. S. "Sul" Ross (1838-1898), Texas Governor from 1887 to 1891. His father Shapley P. Ross, Indian agent and Ranger, built house after moving here about 1841; he chose this site because it had a good spring. L. S. Ross, who was a Confederate general, served as president of Texas A & M College after holding office as governor. In 1890 this pavilion was erected to accommodate band concerts, meetings and rallies. It was the scene in 1892 of a landmark debate between two gubernatorial candidates: Gov. James S. Hogg and George Clark.

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Cameron, Texas

Music in Cameron

Songs About Cameron

Artists From Cameron

Rivers & Roads in Song near Cameron

History of Cameron

Making Aluminum from Brown Coal RoadyGoat

The Case of the Burning Courthouse RoadyGoat

Cameron, TX RoadyGoat

Trigg, Edna Westbrook

Milam, Ben

Nuestra Señora de la Candelaria Mission

Washington, Lewis Miles Hobbs

Green-Batte House

First Home in Cameron

Things to Do in Cameron

Everything Near Cameron