Wednesday Coastal Bend Open Comments

Photo by Super Dave’s friend, Les at Markham, Texas, October 2022

Because all Texans should know about their small towns. From the Texas State Historical Association Handbook:

MARKHAM, TX.Markham is at the junction of Farm roads 1468 and 2431, six miles northwest of Bay City in northwestern Matagorda County. The settlement was first called Cortes and from 1901 to 1903 had its own post office under that name. In 1903 the Moore-Cortes Canal Company boosted community development. That same year residents altered the name of the town to Markham, after C. H. Markham, an engineer for the Southern Pacific lines. The post office was established under the new name in 1903 and was still in operation in the early 1990s. By 1914 Markham had become a stop on the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and had a population of 500. In 1925 its population was estimated at 400. Markham in 1936 had numerous dwellings and two schools, two churches, a factory, and about ten other businesses. By the 1930s Markham residents had established an independent school district. During the school year 1937–38, eight teachers instructed 278 White students through grade eleven, and two teachers instructed thirty-six Black students through grade seven.* The population of Markham was reported at 700 in 1943. By 1949 its schools had been consolidated with the Tidehaven Independent School District. Markham constructed a public school complex in 1952. In 1950 the community population had been reported as 300, and in 1965 it was 750, with seven businesses. In 1970 the population was 603, which remained the reported estimate through the 1980s. In 1990 Markham reported a population of 1,206 and ten businesses. The population was 1,138 with twenty-five businesses in 2000.

*There was a reason for Brown vs Board of Education in 1954, but I thought it was interesting the 36 black children had class sizes of 1 teacher/18 students and the white kids had a ratio of 1 teacher/34.75 students. I’m sure there were many black kids who wanted to continue school after 12 years old and black children who probably never got a chance to go to school at all. We’ve come a long, long way from those days less than a hundred years ago.