HISTORIC BROWNSVILLE
One of the best sources for finding the facts about the city's august buildings is Betty Bay's Historic Brownsville: Original Townsite Guide. Written in 1980 and published by the Brownsville Historical Association, it is available at local museums.
Bay recognized A.A. Champion for his contributions to her project. He was an amateur historian whose insistence on the facts was only transcended by the love for his calling. The 200-page, loose-leaf book is a walk through Brownsville's most historical streets: Levee, St. Charles, Elizabeth, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Van Buren.
After a short but captivating history of Brownsville, she describes more than 60 different buildings and places in the downtown area. They range from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral to the city cemetery as well as lesser known structures like the Casimero Tamayo Store on Monroe to the Tijerina House on Adams.
"It is an essential book in any collection," says Dr. Tony Zavaleta, a descendant of the fearless and fascinating Juan Cortina, Brownsville's own Pancho Villa. "Not only is it both informational and entertaining, it is one of those reference sources that grows with you as your knowledge of Brownsville grows. It is full of anecdotes and short biographies depicting Brownsville and its early citizens. The architectural sketches are excellent also."
One of the many intriguing tidbits includes General Zachery Taylor's official message reporting on the initial confrontations in the Mexican-American War and the death of Major Jacob Brown.
To his superiors in Washington, Taylor, who rode his feats in the war to the presidency, pens: "It affords me peculiar pleasure to report that the field work opposite Matamoros has sustained itself handsomely during a cannonade of 160 hours. But the pleasure is alloyed with profound regret at the loss of its heroic and indomitable commander, Major Jacob Brown, who died today from the effects of a shell. His loss would be a severe one to the service at any time, but to the army under my orders, it is indeed irreparable."
"The next day, May 10, 1846, with solemn, precise military ceremony, Mayor Brown was buried--miles from his native Massachusetts--at the foot of the flagpole in the recent cotton field now a little earth fort on the banks of the Rio Grande."
Adds Bay to Taylor's words. "Many years later a cannon, with barrel pointing skyward in military tradition, was set to mark his grave.
"On May 17, eight days later after Mayor Brown's death, Order No. 62, headquarters, Army of Occupation, went to the War Department in Washington D.C. officially naming the fort as Fort Brown 'in memory of the gallant commander who nobly fell in its defense.' Signed by General Zachery Taylor, all military maps were duly marked. Fort Brown was the first permanent U.S. fort in Texas although Fort Polk at Point Isabel antedated Fort Brown in its establishment and in meaning."
Bay recognized A.A. Champion for his contributions to her project. He was an amateur historian whose insistence on the facts was only transcended by the love for his calling. The 200-page, loose-leaf book is a walk through Brownsville's most historical streets: Levee, St. Charles, Elizabeth, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and Van Buren.
After a short but captivating history of Brownsville, she describes more than 60 different buildings and places in the downtown area. They range from the Immaculate Conception Cathedral to the city cemetery as well as lesser known structures like the Casimero Tamayo Store on Monroe to the Tijerina House on Adams.
"It is an essential book in any collection," says Dr. Tony Zavaleta, a descendant of the fearless and fascinating Juan Cortina, Brownsville's own Pancho Villa. "Not only is it both informational and entertaining, it is one of those reference sources that grows with you as your knowledge of Brownsville grows. It is full of anecdotes and short biographies depicting Brownsville and its early citizens. The architectural sketches are excellent also."
One of the many intriguing tidbits includes General Zachery Taylor's official message reporting on the initial confrontations in the Mexican-American War and the death of Major Jacob Brown.
To his superiors in Washington, Taylor, who rode his feats in the war to the presidency, pens: "It affords me peculiar pleasure to report that the field work opposite Matamoros has sustained itself handsomely during a cannonade of 160 hours. But the pleasure is alloyed with profound regret at the loss of its heroic and indomitable commander, Major Jacob Brown, who died today from the effects of a shell. His loss would be a severe one to the service at any time, but to the army under my orders, it is indeed irreparable."
"The next day, May 10, 1846, with solemn, precise military ceremony, Mayor Brown was buried--miles from his native Massachusetts--at the foot of the flagpole in the recent cotton field now a little earth fort on the banks of the Rio Grande."
Adds Bay to Taylor's words. "Many years later a cannon, with barrel pointing skyward in military tradition, was set to mark his grave.
"On May 17, eight days later after Mayor Brown's death, Order No. 62, headquarters, Army of Occupation, went to the War Department in Washington D.C. officially naming the fort as Fort Brown 'in memory of the gallant commander who nobly fell in its defense.' Signed by General Zachery Taylor, all military maps were duly marked. Fort Brown was the first permanent U.S. fort in Texas although Fort Polk at Point Isabel antedated Fort Brown in its establishment and in meaning."
posted by brownsville literary review @ 6:29 AM
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