SH Archive Columbus Texas Tower and Confederate Monument

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Stumbled on some pretty juicy stuff in another small Texas town (that just also happens to be a county seat) named Columbus.

Columbus has the distinction of being "the oldest surveyed and platted Anglo-American town in Texas."

Of course my spidey senses went off immediately and it took no time at all to discover this puzzling tower.

The story of it's creation is so twisted it is pretty hard to believe they got away with it!

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Above is the earliest picture of the tower, standing alone surrounded by mature trees.

So, here's a taste of the official version of how it got there:

A round, white tower on the Colorado County courthouse square looks like an architectural survivor of the days of yore in England. No matter how European it looks, however, the tower is the product of Yankee – well, Southern – ingenuity.

So, the story goes on to quote letters from a local boy and Texan Confederate soldier named John Shropshire (letters on display in the tower) who describes his journey to New Mexico via El Paso in 1861-62, from which he never returned (why were Civil War soldiers going West?)

The letters contain this interesting comment:

By late January 1862, the Texans had reached New Mexico. “In this long wearisome march my fancy has been idle and allowed to roam at will,” he penned. “Many are the fancy castles I have built for you and I and our little ones and I believe that some of them will be realized…”

So, the story goes on, attempting to somehow tie in the Shropshire story with the tower.

In the spring of 1883, two decades after the war that claimed Shropshire, a fire gutted a livery stable and adjoining hotel in Columbus. Volunteer fire fighters managed to contain the blaze before it leveled downtown, but getting enough water on the fire had been a problem.

To provide the city a water system, the county commissioner’s court authorized construction of a brick water tower. Built by R.J. Jones, the tower took shape from 400,000 locally made bricks. The walls lack only four inches being three feet thick. A metal water tank went atop the two-story brick tower. Beneath it, the city’s volunteer fire department had its office and equipment.

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Despite the fact that the tower stood alone in the first picture just 20 years before, we can see that it now sits next to a fancy opera house and has a metal water tank on top.

Let's see what happens to it next!

A hurricane damaged the top of the tower in 1909. The county had the structure repaired, but three years later decided the city needed a better water system. With completion of that system, the tower stood abandoned. Eventually, the county hired someone to tear it down, but dynamite did not phase it.

Say what? They couldn't bring down a brick tower with dynamite? Really? Didn't even put a dent in it?

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Okay, whatever.

Anyway, it just sat around being indestructible until...

In 1926, it finally occurred to someone that the tower had other than utilitarian value. The officers of the John Shropshire and John C. Upton chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy got county officials to agree to let them use the tower as their meeting place.

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Just wow. Do you see ANYTHING on that tower that suggests it has ANYTHING to do with the Confederacy?

Not a flag or statue...really?

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Oh, here's the explanation for that anomaly, I guess:

FROM WATER TOWER TO WAR MEMORIAL

The Confederate Memorial Museum, located in Columbus, commemorates far more than the soldiers of Colorado County who fought in the Civil War. According to the Shropshire-Upton Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (the memorial’s stewards), this Recorded Texas Historic Landmark is dedicated to the Colorado County veterans of all wars. In its service as a museum, the memorial houses a collection of artifacts and objects of Civil War soldiers and their families associated with Columbus and surrounding Colorado County.

So they bought it in 1926 and just held meetings there until 1962 when this guy fixes it up for them. Guess they still didn't want anything added that might indicate it was a war memorial? Okay...

Local architect Milton Wirtz and contractor A.N. Evans Sr. refurbished the old tower, adding a small, rounded room on the east side of its base and a circular staircase leading to a second floor. Since 1962, the tower has been the home of Columbus’ Confederate Memorial Museum and Veterans Hall.

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Oh, gotta be careful not getting this place confused with the National Civil War Navel Museum in Columbus, Georgia! Any idea how many places in America are named Columbus? According to this chart, 54, but I suspect there are more. Ran across a reference in one of the articles about an annual meeting of cities named Columbus...

Interesting to note that across the street from this tower was the opera house and behind it was the courthouse, both supposedly built after the tower.

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The Colorado County Courthouse was built in 1890, the fourth such structure in the city. It was designed in the Classical Revival and Italianate styles of architecture by noted Houston architect Eugene T. Heiner. He designed at least nine other Texas courthouses. The bell tower was damaged in a 1909 storm. The dome was added before 1939. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In 2013–2014, the courthouse was being renovated and upgraded for current uses; the project included restoration of historic exterior colors.[citation needed]

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Pretty wild story about the guys who built the Opera House, too.

The Stafford Opera House

was built in 1886 and his future looked pretty darn good. John and Bob Stafford were shot dead in 1890 by Columbus Deputies who confronted them in front of a saloon.
This opened the lid on a whole bunch of smoldering feuds which, when fully in flame, continued well into the 20th Century. They even resulted in Columbus being unincorporated from 1907 to 1927.

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And get a load of the famous Columbus tree!

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It's still there too, but the buildings around it have certainly downsized!

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Oh, and this investigation led me to the Runaway Scrape, which probably deserves a thread of its own -- it was news to me since I don't actually remember this episode from my history classes!

Anyway, since it affected Columbus specifically and involved the destruction of nearby towns (some by Sam Houston's troops), I thought I'd throw it in for further investigation.

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This is a better map of Runaway Scrape from Wiki, but it's png.

The Blurb:

Residents on the Gulf Coast and at San Antonio de Béxar began evacuating in January upon learning of the Mexican army's troop movements into their area, an event that was ultimately replayed across Texas. During early skirmishes, some Texian soldiers surrendered, believing that they would become prisoners of war — but Santa Anna demanded their executions. The news of the Battle of the Alamo and the Goliad massacre instilled fear in the population and resulted in the mass exodus of the civilian population of Gonzales, where the opening battle of the Texian revolution had begun and where, only days before the fall of the Alamo, they had sent a militia to reinforce the defenders at the mission. The civilian refugees were accompanied by the newly forming provisional army, as Houston bought time to train soldiers and create a military structure that could oppose Santa Anna's greater forces. Houston's actions were viewed as cowardice by the ad interim government, as well as by some of his own troops. As he and the refugees from Gonzales escaped first to the Colorado River and then to the Brazos, evacuees from other areas trickled in and new militia groups arrived to join with Houston's force.

The towns of Gonzales and San Felipe de Austin were burned to keep them out of the hands of the Mexican army. Santa Anna was intent on executing members of the Republic's interim government, who fled from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Groce's Landing to Harrisburg and New Washington. The government officials eventually escaped to Galveston Island, and Santa Anna burned the towns of Harrisburg and New Washington when he failed to find them. Approximately 5,000 terrified residents of New Washington fled from the Mexican army. After a little over a month of training the troops, Houston reached a crossroads where he ordered some of them to escort the fleeing refugees farther east while he took the main army southeast to engage the Mexican army. The subsequent Battle of San Jacinto resulted in the surrender of Santa Anna and the signing of the Treaties of Velasco.

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Username: RTP now
Date: 2020-07-25 18:45:01
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Stumbled on some pretty juicy stuff in another small Texas town (that just also happens to be a county seat) named Columbus.



Of course my spidey senses went off immediately and it took no time at all to discover this puzzling tower.

The story of it's creation is so twisted it is pretty hard to believe they got away with it!

View attachment 50326
source

Above is the earliest picture of the tower, standing alone surrounded by mature trees.

So, here's a taste of the official version of how it got there:



So, the story goes on to quote letters from a local boy and Texan Confederate soldier named John Shropshire (letters on display in the tower) who describes his journey to New Mexico via El Paso in 1861-62, from which he never returned (why were Civil War soldiers going West?)

The letters contain this interesting comment:



So, the story goes on, attempting to somehow tie in the Shropshire story with the tower.

View attachment 50327
source

Despite the fact that the tower stood alone in the first picture just 20 years before, we can see that it now sits next to a fancy opera house and has a metal water tank on top.

Let's see what happens to it next!



Say what? They couldn't bring down a brick tower with dynamite? Really? Didn't even put a dent in it?

View attachment 50328
source

Okay, whatever.

Anyway, it just sat around being indestructible until...

View attachment 50329
source

Just wow. Do you see ANYTHING on that tower that suggests it has ANYTHING to do with the Confederacy?

Not a flag or statue...really?

View attachment 50331
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Oh, here's the explanation for that anomaly, I guess:



So they bought it in 1926 and just held meetings there until 1962 when this guy fixes it up for them. Guess they still didn't want anything added that might indicate it was a war memorial? Okay...

View attachment 50330
source

Oh, gotta be careful not getting this place confused with the National Civil War Navel Museum in Columbus, Georgia! Any idea how many places in America are named Columbus? According to this chart, 54, but I suspect there are more. Ran across a reference in one of the articles about an annual meeting of cities named Columbus...

Interesting to note that across the street from this tower was the opera house and behind it was the courthouse, both supposedly built after the tower.

View attachment 50333
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View attachment 50335
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Pretty wild story about the guys who built the Opera House, too.

View attachment 50336
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And get a load of the famous Columbus tree!

View attachment 50332
source

It's still there too, but the buildings around it have certainly downsized!

View attachment 50337
source

Oh, and this investigation led me to the Runaway Scrape, which probably deserves a thread of its own -- it was news to me since I don't actually remember this episode from my history classes!

Anyway, since it affected Columbus specifically and involved the destruction of nearby towns (some by Sam Houston's troops), I thought I'd throw it in for further investigation.

View attachment 50338
source

This is a better map of Runaway Scrape from Wiki, but it's png.

The Blurb:

Pretty crazy how they fill our mind with pure cowboy fiction and a state barely populated and there for the taking by rugged frontiersmen, yet Texas has as much or more Greco-Roman, gothic and “revisionist revival” architecture as any other state. They also give us the nonsense of the various wars fought against Mexico when in fact, the wars were simply a continuation of the parasites take-over of the old world.

Like everything else in Texas, the architecture there is on a grand massive scale.

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-07-25 18:53:47
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The op picture is deceiving as the other pictures on the page clearly show it's stood in the corner of a park of some description. The camera position in relation to the doorway is the clue, to me anyways. In the op picture it is complete with tank but it looks smaller than the next image and the tower seems to have a viewing balcony in the op picture so it wouldn't be a surprise to find a picture of the town taken from that vantage point knocking about online somewhere.

Dynamites power seems to be a bit hit and miss when it comes to demolition of things no longer required. Seems it aquired its crenallation after the tank was dismantled. Perhaps whoever dreamt up the war memorial idea felt it gave it some sort of gravitas.

 

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-25 19:17:42
Reaction Score: 0

Pretty crazy how they fill our mind with pure cowboy fiction and a state barely populated and there for the taking by rugged frontiersmen, yet Texas has as much or more Greco-Roman, gothic and “revisionist revival” architecture as any other state. They also give us the nonsense of the various wars fought against Mexico when in fact, the wars were simply a continuation of the parasites take-over of the old world.

Like everything else in Texas, the architecture there is on a grand massive scale.

It is astounding how much BS we have swallowed about the "winning of the West."

I did run into an interesting account in an old book about Santa Anna the other day that made him out to be more of a bandit than a general. I'll see if I can dig it up.

It actually stated that much of what he did in Texas was not sanctioned by the Mexican government because they did not want all out war with the US. Didn't work, though, Polk unleashed holy hell on Mexico to get their lands before the gold rush hit.

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-07-25 19:22:19
Reaction Score: 1

Polk unleashed holy hell on Mexico to get their lands before the gold rush hit.

He also stalled the Mormons at Salt Lake!

 

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-25 20:01:24
Reaction Score: 1

The op picture is deceiving as the other pictures on the page clearly show it's stood in the corner of a park of some description. The camera position in relation to the doorway is the clue, to me anyways. In the op picture it is complete with tank but it looks smaller than the next image and the tower seems to have a viewing balcony in the op picture so it wouldn't be a surprise to find a picture of the town taken from that vantage point knocking about online somewhere.

Dynamites power seems to be a bit hit and miss when it comes to demolition of things no longer required. Seems it aquired its crenallation after the tank was dismantled. Perhaps whoever dreamt up the war memorial idea felt it gave it some sort of gravitas.

I agree, the OP pic does seem fishy, there should have been lots of buildings around there when it was constructed. So we have to wonder if the picture was doctored, if it is from another similar tower or if they really did whip out all those buildings around it in 20 years.

I'm afraid I don't understand this statement:

Seems it aquired its crenallation after the tank was dismantled

The official story says a hurricane took out the water tower in 1909. Is that what you are referencing?

And I certainly have a hard time believing they couldn't destroy this structure with dynamite. I understand sometime old dynamite has lost its bang, but still, we're talking about a brick tower here, just a few well-placed charges should at least have knocked out some bricks, but there's no proof in these pics that indicate the bricks suffered any damage.

And who makes a water tower with walls almost 3 feet thick? Just look at the tin cans we use to hold our water these days!

Also can't see any connections for the water hoses that they mention in the narrative.

Interesting that they eventually put a stairway in the tower, makes me wonder if their wasn't one there all along.

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-07-25 20:26:45
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The official story says a hurricane took out the water tower in 1909. Is that what you are referencing?

Yes. When the tank was taken away or the remains of it they repaired it if I'm reading the tale correctly. Then the 'city' decided they needed a 'better water supply and they replacemtnwas removed. I get the feeling the crenallation wasn't added until the thing was turned into a 'memorial. In other words it wasn't there when it was a water tank tower.

You don't see the pictures in the op because the photographer has positioned his camera to keep them out of shot. Possibly for artistic reasons but that is pure speculation. As the photo is not attributed, online at least, we don't know his name or where his studio was sadly. Another case for boots on the ground to go to the museum and do some detective work. If only Star Treks transporter actually worked!

Seems to me it was only three feet thick at ground level as it tapers towards the top. The stairs were in it from the get go I would suggest as how else would they get up to the viewing balcony or up to the tank to repair it. It is very reminiscent of stone built lighthouses over here. They too have thick walls and internal stairs and also rooms inside. Is there any evidence that tower had a room inside as well?
If so perhaps the builder or designer R. J Jones? or whoever commissioned the thing was British or had been here and seen them. Back to the museum again most likely.

Now I have some understanding of this structure up against the tower. Just some mind still not certain what it is but it seems to me to be something to do with the fire department connection.

Found another photo, a bit clearer, dated early 1900's

Now it gets interesting.
Soutce
Columbus, Built 1891, Arch- Eugene T. Heiner, Contr- Martin, Byrne & Johnston

 

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-25 20:54:57
Reaction Score: 1

Yes. When the tank was taken away or the remains of it they repaired it if I'm reading the tale correctly. Then the 'city' decided they needed a 'better water supply and they replacemtnwas removed. I get the feeling the crenallation wasn't added until the thing was turned into a 'memorial. In other words it wasn't there when it was a water tank tower.

You don't see the pictures in the op because the photographer has positioned his camera to keep them out of shot. Possibly for artistic reasons but that is pure speculation. As the photo is not attributed, online at least, we don't know his name or where his studio was sadly. Another case for boots on the ground to go to the museum and do some detective work. If only Star Treks transporter actually worked!

Seems to me it was only three feet thick at ground level as it tapers towards the top. The stairs were in it from the get go I would suggest as how else would they get up to the viewing balcony or up to the tank to repair it. It is very reminiscent of stone built lighthouses over here. They too have thick walls and internal stairs and also rooms inside. Is there any evidence that tower had a room inside as well?
If so perhaps the builder or designer R. J Jones? or whoever commissioned the thing was British or had been here and seen them. Back to the museum again most likely.

Now I have some understanding of this structure up against the tower. Just some mind still not certain what it is but it seems to me to be something to do with the fire department connection.

View attachment 50351

Ah, I see your point now...they added the crenallation once they were done using it as a water tank! I missed that.

It is very reminiscent of stone built lighthouses over here. They too have thick walls and internal stairs and also rooms inside. Is there any evidence that tower had a room inside as well?

Well I would have no problem considering this was a lighthouse, it certainly has all the earmarks as you said. But is that how they built water towers in that era?

Let's ask DuckDuckGo!

Pretty wild assortment on there. Here's an interesting one in Fort Thomas Kentucky. It seems they used the same MO of "water tower converted to war memorial"

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One of the early structures built on the new post was a 102 foot Kentucky limestone water tower. Within the tower is a 100,000-gallon standpipe that stores water and supplies water pressure for the post. The tower was a fortress-like structure built in 1890 at a cost of $10,995. The tower has been embellished over the years with plaques and a set of cannons commemorating various war heroes, battles and wars.

At least the put some canons outside


I wonder what kind of standpipe the Columbus version had? They never mention it specifically like these other descriptions. Curious.

So, the original narrative says they had a fire station at the bottom of the Columbus tower.

Then the story on the remodel mentions a stairway to the second floor, so I wonder was there a second floor there already or did they add it?

All good fodder for contemplation of how and why our history is warped.

I'm all about getting my own transporter, portal, time machine or even a magic carpet into operation so I can skip conventional travel and check this shit out myself!

Thanks for adding to the discussion!

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-07-26 20:56:45
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A bit more.
Source
Today, it houses the Confederate Memorial Museum. There is a collection of documents and old photos and a firearm or two. Columbus has a rich history; this is the town where the Cotton Road began.
During the Civil War, the Union Army’s blockades of Southern ports, halted cotton shipments to Europe. Cotton was moved by rail to Houston, and from Houston to Columbus, where the rail line ended. It was then loaded onto wagons to begin the long journey southward to the Rio Grande River.
In the 1860s, speculators, traders, and foreign agents crowded the Mexican village of Matamoros. It is said, that as many as three hundred ships would sit near the mouth of the Rio Grande awaiting the precious cargo. The Cotton Road transformed Matamoros into a bustling city, known as the world’s largest cotton market.
And it all began just outside of Columbus.

Source
HEINER, EUGENE T. (1852–1901). Eugene T. Heiner, architect, was born in New York City on August 20, 1852. He was apprenticed to an architect in Chicago at the age of thirteen and moved to Dallas in 1877 from Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1878 he moved to Houston, where he practiced for the rest of his life. He achieved special prominence as a designer of county courthouses and jails during the 1880s and 1890s.
His buildings of the 1870s and 1880s often employed the manneristic renditions of detail typical of American High Victorian architecture. In the late 1880s he occasionally employed the Richardsonian Romanesque style, without abandoning, however, certain strong High Victorian inclinations. Heiner was a founding member of the Texas State Association of Architects, organized in 1886. He was married to Viola Isenhour in Dallas in 1878, and they had four daughters. Heiner died in Houston on April 26, 1901.

Source
He designed the courthouse in Columbus in 1891 The same year attributed to the water tower.

 

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Username: WeeWarrior
Date: 2020-07-28 18:21:57
Reaction Score: 0

A bit more.
Source
Today, it houses the Confederate Memorial Museum. There is a collection of documents and old photos and a firearm or two. Columbus has a rich history; this is the town where the Cotton Road began.
During the Civil War, the Union Army’s blockades of Southern ports, halted cotton shipments to Europe. Cotton was moved by rail to Houston, and from Houston to Columbus, where the rail line ended. It was then loaded onto wagons to begin the long journey southward to the Rio Grande River.
In the 1860s, speculators, traders, and foreign agents crowded the Mexican village of Matamoros. It is said, that as many as three hundred ships would sit near the mouth of the Rio Grande awaiting the precious cargo. The Cotton Road transformed Matamoros into a bustling city, known as the world’s largest cotton market.
And it all began just outside of Columbus.

Source
HEINER, EUGENE T. (1852–1901). Eugene T. Heiner, architect, was born in New York City on August 20, 1852. He was apprenticed to an architect in Chicago at the age of thirteen and moved to Dallas in 1877 from Terre Haute, Indiana. In 1878 he moved to Houston, where he practiced for the rest of his life. He achieved special prominence as a designer of county courthouses and jails during the 1880s and 1890s.
His buildings of the 1870s and 1880s often employed the manneristic renditions of detail typical of American High Victorian architecture. In the late 1880s he occasionally employed the Richardsonian Romanesque style, without abandoning, however, certain strong High Victorian inclinations. Heiner was a founding member of the Texas State Association of Architects, organized in 1886. He was married to Viola Isenhour in Dallas in 1878, and they had four daughters. Heiner died in Houston on April 26, 1901.

Source
He designed the courthouse in Columbus in 1891 The same year attributed to the water tower.

Good ole Eugene has same suspicious backstory like most of the genius architects, he began apprenticeship at an early age, in his case 13., while living in Chicago...

Hmmm...

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Then he moves to Terre Haute, IN with all kinds of suspicious architecture and strange backstories to justify their existence (and destruction)

My favorite was this Catholic Church:

Only nine months after the initial meeting of about a dozen founders — in October 1864 — a cornerstone was laid for the church. In 1865, the original building, a frame structure facing Ohio Street was blessed and dedicated as St. Benedict Church, according to church files.

On Oct. 4, 1896, the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, the cornerstone was laid for a larger building — a cruciform structure 130 feet in length, with a nave 60 feet wide and a 120 foot transept — erected on the same site, but this time, it was facing Ninth Street. Finally, the church was completed and dedicated on June 18, 1899.

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But disaster struck on July 30, 1930, when a fire broke out in the church’s great dome. The bronze statue of St. Michael was destroyed, and only the walls were left standing. But “phoenix-like,” the church rose from the ashes to rebuild.

So another old building put to the torch...or was it? Not much scorching on that structure and the Rose Window hung in there.

Hmmm...

 

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Username: jd755
Date: 2020-07-28 18:40:37
Reaction Score: 0

How does the church connect to Heiner?
He was long dead when it caught fire and as far as I recall he specialised in courthouses and prisons.
Is it that he lived in the same town as the church according to the bio?