The War Boom That Woke a Crossroads RoadyGoat

For more than a century Clute was nothing but plantation ground and a handful of houses. What changed it was a war and a metal. In the early 1940s the Dow Chemical Company built next door at Freeport, and on January 21, 1941, Dow poured the first ingot of magnesium made from Gulf seawater, the first time anyone had mined the ocean for metal. Magnesium was a strategic, lightweight metal for aircraft, and the Freeport works became the Allies' major source. When the United States entered the war that December, the plant was treated as a national-defense asset: a local paper reported soldiers with fixed bayonets guarding the approaches and the Brazos River bridge, giving the area the feel of being under martial law. Thousands of workers and construction crews poured into southern Brazoria County, and tiny Clute exploded. Population went from ten in 1933 to 700 by 1950 and 3,200 by 1954, and the town billed itself as the Hub of Brazosport. Clute incorporated as Clute City in May 1952. (Source: Handbook of Texas; Dow Chemical company history.)

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Willie Man-Chew and the Great Texas Mosquito Festival RoadyGoat

Clute decided long ago that if you can't beat the mosquitoes, you throw them a party. The Great Texas Mosquito Festival has run since 1981, every year on the last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday of July at Clute Municipal Park, drawing roughly 18,000 people over three days. Its mascot is Willie Man-Chew, an inflatable mosquito that towers about 26 feet tall, decked out in a cowboy hat, boots, and an oversized proboscis. The festival's tall tale says Willie drifted into Clute in the summer of 1981, perched on a moss-hung oak, admired the lush green yards of southern Brazoria County, and decided he'd found the land of his dreams, then recruited a crew of humans he jokingly calls his Swat Team to run the show. The real event is pure Gulf Coast: carnival rides, a mosquito-calling contest, cook-offs, a 5K, live music, and contests built around the bug everyone here loves to hate. The whole thing turns the coast's most famous nuisance into the reason to come to town. (Source: Great Texas Mosquito Festival; Texas Highways.)

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Selena's Brother Learned Music in a Clute Classroom RoadyGoat

Before he produced and co-wrote the hits that made his sister Selena a legend, A.B. Quintanilla was a kid in the band hall at Brazoswood High School in Clute. The Quintanilla family settled in next-door Lake Jackson, and the kids went to school here. A Brazoswood teacher later remembered Abraham as a quiet, gifted student with an obvious feel for music and art, playing guitar in the school's jazz ensemble. He graduated in 1983, the same era he was already working out the bass lines and arrangements that would shape Tejano music. He went on to produce and write much of Selena's catalog, then founded the chart-topping Kumbia Kings and Kumbia All Starz, becoming one of the most influential producers in Latin music. It's easy to drive through Clute and see only refineries and a high school, but the polished, danceable sound that carried Tejano onto pop charts was partly worked out by a teenager in this town's music program. (Source: Wikipedia; Texas Monthly.)

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Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena]

1971

Singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, known simply as Selena, the daughter of Abraham and Marcella (Perez) Quintanilla, Jr., was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. She married Christopher Perez, guitarist and member of the band Selena y Los Dinos (slang for "the Boys") on April 2, 1992. They had no children. Selena attended Oran M. Roberts Elementary School in Lake Jackson and West Oso Junior High in Corpus Christi, where she completed the eighth grade. In 1989 she finished high school through the American School, a correspondence school for artists, and enrolled at Pacific Western University in business administration correspondence courses. Her career began when she was eight. From 1957 to 1971 her father played with Los Dinos, a Tejano band. He taught his children to sing and play in the family band and taught Selena to sing in Spanish. They performed at the family restaurant, Pappagallo, and at weddings in Lake Jackson. After 1981 the band became a professional act. In 1982 the group moved to Corpus Christi and played in rural dance halls and urban nightclubs, where Tejano music flourishes. In her late teens Selena adopted fashions sported by Madonna. Preceded by Lydia Mendoza and Chelo Silva , Mexican-American star vocalists of the 1930s, and by pioneer orchestra singer Laura Canales in the 1970s, Selena became a star in Tejano music. She won the Tejano Music Award for Female Entertainer of the Year in 1987, and eight other Tejano awards followed. By the late 1980s Selena was known as "la Reina de la Onda Tejana" ("the Queen of Tejano music") and "una mujer del pueblo." Her popularity soared with annual awards from the Tejano Music Awards and a contract with EMI Latin Records in 1989. At the 1995 Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, the band attracted 61,041 people, more than Clint Black, George Strait, Vince Gill, or Reba McEntire. Selena y Los Dinos recorded with Tejano labels GP, Cara, Manny, and Freddie before 1989. Their albums include Alpha (1986), Dulce Amor (1988), Preciosa (1988), Selena y Los Dinos (1990), Ven Conmigo (1991), Entre a Mi Mundo (1992), Selena Live (1993), Amor Prohibido (1994), and Dreaming of You (1995). The band's popularity surged with Ven Conmigo . Entre a Mi Mundo made Selena the first Tejana to sell more than 300,000 albums. In 1993 she signed with SBK Records to produce an all-English album, but it was eventually replaced with the bilingual Dreaming of You . Despite her success in the Spanish-language market, mainstream society largely ignored Selena until around 1993. In 1994 Texas Monthly named her one of twenty influential Texans and the Los Angeles Times interviewed her. That same year, Selena Live won a Grammy for Best Mexican-American Album. Also in 1993 and 1995, Lo Nuestro Billboard gave the band awards in four categories. Selena y Los Dinos was a cross-over act in Tejano, romance, cumbia, tropical, pop, rap, and salsa in Spanish and English; Selena was not only bilingual but biethnic. Before her death, the band sold more than 1.5 million records. By the mid-1980s Selena had crossed into the national Latino and Latin-American market. A recording with the Puerto Rican band Barrio Boyzz furthered inroads into this area. Selena y Los Dinos began to acquire a following in Mexico (Matamoros) as early as 1986. Along with Emilio Navaira, Selena y Los Dinos attracted 98,000 fans in Monterrey, and thus popularized Tejano music in Mexico. In 1994 the band played in New York to a Mexican and Central American audience. The band was the first Tejano group to make Billboard's Latin Top 200 list of all-time best-selling records. Selena was also known to Latin-American television audiences. At the age of twelve or thirteen she was introduced on the Johnny Canales Show . She appeared on Sábado Gigante , Siempre en Domingo , El Show de Cristina , and the soap opera Dos Mujeres, Un Camino . She also made a cameo appearance in the 1995 film Don Juan DeMarco . Advertisements also made Selena popula

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Mammoth Lake

1822

Mammoth Lake, formerly a cavernous sand pit, has had a vital influence on the development of clute and the surrounding area. In prehistoric times, nomadic Native American tribes lived in this region, hunting abundant game that thrived near the area’s rivers. Anglo settlers came here in the early 1800s. A number of significant individuals once owned this land. Jared E. Groce, an Alabama plantation owner, purchased this property from the Mexican government in 1822. He gave the land to his daughter Sarah as a present when she married William H. Wharton, a lawyer who worked to establish the Republic of Texas and served as president of the convention of 1833. A number of other residents and businesses have also owned this property. Following the Civil War, this former cavern was valued for its deposits of sand. By the 1940s and 1950s, the community of clute experienced significant growth when industrial and chemical plants developed nearby. The sand, sandy clay and clay excavated from the pit were used to build foundations and roads, and to fill up low-lying lands. Vernor material and equipment (VME), which purchased the property in 1986, excavated approximately four million cubic yards of material between 1979 and 2006. In 2003, bones were uncovered during excavation of the site. VME invited a team of archeologists to conduct a dig; they found a partial skeleton from a mammoth which was approximately 14 feet high to its shoulders and up to 17 feet long. Also uncovered were pottery shards and a wooden bowl. In 2006, VME began work to convert the sand pit into a lake to be used for scuba diving.

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Velasco

1821

Landing place of the "Lively" first vessel bringing immigrants to Austin's colony in 1821. There the Battle of Velasco, between Texas colonists and Mexican troops, was fought June 26, 1832. A treaty of peace between Texas and Mexico was signed there May 14, 1836, by Presidents David G. Burnet and Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna but was never ratified by Mexico.

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Colonel Robert M. Coleman

1836

Erected by the State of Texas In Memory of Colonel Robert M. Coleman Signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence Aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at San Jacinto Colonel of the first regiment of Texas Rangers Born in Kentucky in 1799 Drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in July 1837

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Muzzy, Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove

1967

Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove Muzzy, Texas state legislator, daughter of John E. Blair and Mable Sue (Gibbs) Blair, was born in Argyle, Texas, on October 1, 1922. The youngest of four children, she grew up on her family's farm near Justin, Texas. After graduating from Justin High School in 1940, Mary Sue Blair moved to Dallas to attend Draughan's Business College where she met her first husband James Albert "Jim" Hairgrove. The couple married in Rockwall, Texas, on October 7, 1941. Jim Hairgrove served in the U. S. Navy during World War II , and, after his return, the couple lived in Muskogee, Oklahoma, before moving to Rosenberg, Texas, where they managed the radio station KFRD. The couple had two children, Anita Hairgrove Schofe and Robert Dale Hairgrove; they raised their children in Lake Jackson where the family owned and operated two local radio stations, KBRZ and KLJT-FM. In January 1966 Jim Hairgrove, known for his civic engagement, announced his candidacy for a seat in the Texas House of Representative from the newly-created District 20F, which encompassed both Brazoria and Fort Bend counties. He defeated Sam Plummer of Angleton in the Democratic primary by a margin of 8,881 to 4,928, and faced no opponent in the general election. Jim Hairgrove's time in the legislature was cut short, however, when he died of a heart attack in his hotel room in Austin on April 12, 1967, just three months into the regular session of the Sixtieth Texas Legislature. Despite her lack of experience in state politics, Sue Hairgrove filed with the local Democratic party as a candidate for her husband's vacant seat on April 20, 1967. Hairgrove told the Brazosport Facts that she agreed with her husband's legislative objectives, and she believed this election was her chance to fulfill them, though she said her campaign would not be "political" in nature. Four other candidates ran in the election, but Hairgrove won decisively with more than 61 percent of the total vote. After a special election called by Governor John Connally , Hairgrove was elected and sworn in by the speaker of the House on June 2. She was the only female member of the House. During her brief service she supported a bill to increase the state sales tax in some cases from 2 to 3 percent and a bill to prohibit the carrying of weapons in any premises selling alcoholic beverages, both of which were signed into law. She did not introduce any legislation during the session, but she was appointed to the Committee to Notify the Senate that the House was Ready to Adjourn. With gratitude for her service, the House honored her in a resolution which expressed the members' "appreciation to the Honorable Sue Hairgrove for her outstanding service during the session and for the wit, charm, and courtesy with which she has conducted herself as the only woman member of the House." On February 6, 1968, the Brazosport Facts announced that Hairgrove would not seek a seat in the Sixty-first Texas Legislature. Hairgrove told the paper that continuing a career in politics would require a significant amount of learning, something that she could not currently take on in addition to taking care of her family and owning and operating two radio stations. She went on to serve as the director of hospital development at the Community Hospital of Brazosport, and she served on the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce board of directors where she was the only female member and vice president of public affairs. In recognition of her service and achievements, the Brazosport Chamber of Commerce selected Hairgrove as woman of the year for 1969. Hairgrove also worked as a consultant to organizations that include: the Texas Gulf Coast Parks and Historical Restoration, the Family Service Center, and the Dow and Lake Jackson Beautification committees. She was a member of the Bay Area Heart Association, even taking on the role of county chairman for their "1969" event, and she served on the Tuberculosis Advisory Board for Brazoria

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Brannen, Bess Courtney

1945

Bess Courtney Brannen, educator and community leader, was born on February 18, 1905, at Trevat in Trinity County, Texas. Her father, Joseph Patrick Courtney, was born in Galveston to Miles Courtney, an Irish immigrant, and Martha Wood on January 26, 1877. The immigrant's son married into one of the oldest families in Texas. His bride and Bess's mother, Jennie Moren, was the great granddaughter of Martin Parmer (also spelled Palmer), a contemporary of Stephen F. Austin and a friend of Sam Houston . Parmer served as one of the authors and signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence . Bess's father worked for lumber companies in East Texas and went from stacking lumber to managing some of the largest stores in the area, then to purchasing agent for those stores in such cities as St. Louis and Chicago. Some of the companies were Lynch Davidson Lumber Company, William Cameron and Company at Carmona and Saron, Trinity County Lumber Company at Groveton, and Texas Long Leaf Lumber Company at New Willard. Bess, the youngest, and her siblings, Maurice Miles and Aileen, attended Alexander Collegiate Institute and College (later Lon Morris Academy and Lon Morris College ), a Methodist preparatory school and junior college in Jacksonville, Texas. She took courses in art, music, and drama, in addition to the core subjects, and finished her schooling there in the spring of 1924. Bess Courtney married Carl Andrew Brannen , a World War I veteran of Saron, Texas, on September 7, 1924. The couple had their first son, Carl Andrew "Andy" Brannen, Jr., on August 26, 1925, at Saron. Their second son, Joseph Patrick Brannen, was born on December 27, 1927, at New Willard, Texas. Bess and Andrew returned to Saron to help with aging family members and began their teaching careers at nearby Saglen, where Bess taught four years. They also continued their education . At Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College (later Stephen F. Austin State University ) Bess took courses in news writing, public speaking, and education, and Andrew received his B.S. in history in 1932. Their daughter, Willie Frances, was born on August 14, 1935, in Trinity, Texas. In 1934 Andrew became the county school superintendent of Trinity County, and Bess taught at Pennington for four years while continuing her education. Wherever she taught she produced programs in which the students performed. Bess finished her bachelor of science degree in education with a minor in fine arts, English, and social studies from Sam Houston State Teachers College (later Sam Houston State University ) on August 19, 1940. Soon after the United States declared war in December 1941, Andrew resigned as county superintendent and joined the U. S. Marine Corps in 1942. He finished his master's degree in history at Sam Houston State Teachers College in August 1942 before he left for USMC Officer Candidates School in Quantico, Virginia. Upon completion, he was assigned to the Marine Corps Air Station Eagle Mountain Lake, which was located northwest of Fort Worth. Bess moved with the two youngest children to Decatur, where she taught school and attended Decatur Baptist College (later Dallas Baptist University ). The oldest child, Andy, at the age of fourteen, had entered Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (later Texas A&M University ) in the summer of 1940. In 1943 Bess and the family moved to Laguna Beach, California, where her husband, then a captain, was transferred to Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Bess worked as a clerk at the local dry goods store as she did not have California teaching certification. Following in her father's footsteps, she soon became a buyer for the store. She also indulged in her love of art. During the family's brief stay in California, the Brannens' second oldest son, Joseph Patrick, finished high school, and their oldest son joined the U. S. Navy V-12 aviation cadet program and attended flight school and college at St. Mary's College in Moraga, California. In 1944 Bess

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Clute, Texas

Music in Clute

Songs About Clute

Artists From Clute

Rivers & Roads in Song near Clute

History of Clute

The War Boom That Woke a Crossroads RoadyGoat

Willie Man-Chew and the Great Texas Mosquito Festival RoadyGoat

Selena's Brother Learned Music in a Clute Classroom RoadyGoat

Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena]

Mammoth Lake

Velasco

Colonel Robert M. Coleman

Muzzy, Mary Sue Blair Hairgrove

Brannen, Bess Courtney

Things to Do in Clute

Everything Near Clute