By Tracy Gupton
Columbia Historical Museum Secretaries Pat Weeks and Tracy Gupton were honored to give a group of descendants of the founding family of East and West Columbia a tour of the museum at 247 East Brazos Avenue Saturday afternoon. Josiah Hughes Bell and his wife Mary, important members of Stephen F. Austin’s Old 300 group of early Texas Anglo settlers, founded East Columbia in 1823 as a Brazos River landing for themselves and other local settlers who came to Texas with Austin, “The Father of Texas.” The Bell family descendants, who were in town Saturday to participate in the City of West Columbia’s 200th Anniversary celebration at Heritage Hall, told the museum guides they were heading to East Columbia when they left the museum to tour the historic Brazos River community.
The writing on the state historical marker in East Columbia reads: “Bell’s Landing founded in 1823 as Brazos River landing for Josiah H. Bell’s plantation. Townsite of Marion laid out in 1824. Later named East Columbia. Army enlistment point and ferrying dock during Texas Revolution. Key river port and trade center during Republic of Texas days.” The Bell’s Landing historical marker was dedicated in 1965 by the Texas State Historical Survey Committee.
The Bell descendants enjoyed the West Columbia museum tour that features many early East Columbia and West Columbia artifacts and displays pertaining to the earliest days of these local communities’ existence as Anglo communities in the 1820s. West Columbia, this year celebrating its 200th year as a town, began in 1826 when Josiah Hughes Bell platted the new community two miles westward from his Brazos River town of Marion. Bell gave his new town venture the name of Columbia 200 years ago.
Pat Weeks, corresponding secretary, and Tracy Gupton, recording secretary of the Columbia Historical Museum Board of Directors, showed a few of the Bell family descendants–Mickey Bonesio, Shell Bonesio, Kelli Barton, Calleigh Simpson, Kristin Bonesio Simpson and Sadie Simpson–around the museum, highlighting displays focusing on Mary and Josiah Bell. Of primary interest is a drawing by West Columbia area artist George Shackelford of the layout of the Bell plantation homes and out buildings that adorns one wall of the West Columbia museum. The late artist, who also painted the large historical mural in the front room of the museum in 1950 when the building housed First Capitol Bank, did the Bell Plantation drawing in 1983.
Prior to their visit to the museum Saturday afternoon, Gupton gave the Bell family descendants a brief tour of Columbia Cemetery where Mary and Josiah Bell are buried. Gupton, who is president of the Columbia Cemetery Association, told those Bell family members gathered at the cemetery Saturday that he is a fifth generation West Columbian whose mother grew up in East Columbia while his Dad grew up in West Columbia, the two towns founded by their ancestor, Josiah Bell. Kelli Barton, who joined the group after they had gathered around the state historical markers honoring their famous ancestors, posed for Gupton in front of another historical marker for Thaddeus Bell, the son of Mary and Josiah Bell who is believed to be the first Anglo male child born in Texas. Kelli Barton is a direct descendant of Thaddeus Bell.
Bell descendant Bob Arnold, author of the 2011 book “First In Texas” about his famous ancestors, writes of Josiah Bell’s founding of the town of Marion, “Josiah Bell was a good friend of Stephen Austin, the son of Moses Austin, both men having met earlier in the Missouri territory near St. Louis. The Bells were bankrupt and penniless squatters on Texas land near the Sabine River, a day’s journey to the old Spanish settlement of Nacogdoches, where other American families who had also crossed into Texas from Louisiana were living.
“Soon after Moses Austin was given permission by the Spanish authorities to bring American settlers into Texas, he became ill and died, leaving his son Stephen to complete his historic mission. Stephen Austin made his way to the Spanish authorities in San Antonio to formalize the colonial grant that had been given to his father earlier that same year. Austin was given time to select a suitable site for his colony, and he chose land that lay south of the El Camino Real road and between the Colorado and Brazos rivers. This was a perfect location for families who wanted to settle on the rich, fertile Texas land–including the family of his good friend Josiah Bell.”
Arnold, who was among the Bell descendants who blew out the candles of West Columbia’s 200th birthday cake at Saturday’s Heritage Hall event, went on to write in First In Texas: “With an eye for business opportunity, Bell selected his land in a prominent location along the Brazos River and developed a port for riverboat traffic. The port became known as Bell’s Landing, a major stopping place for colonists going into the interior of Texas from Galveston as well as transporting goods from the Texas interior to states along the Atlantic seaboard and Europe. After developing the river landing, Bell moved his family a few miles to the west and founded the town of Columbia (now known as West Columbia), which was briefly the capitol of Texas following its War for Independence with Mexico.
Deeds to the property across East Brazos Avenue in West Columbia from the Columbia Historical Museum were presented to representatives of the Texas Historical Commission at Saturday’s 200th Anniversary celebration at Heritage Hall by Wes Griggs, West Columbia attorney and historian who is the president of the First Capitol-Columbia 1836 organization that formed a couple years ago to raise the necessary funds to purchase property and buildings on the downtown block in West Columbia where Republic BBQ used to be to give to THC for the purpose of a new state historic site to be created for the Republic of Texas’s first capitol. Columbia is where Sam Houston was sworn in as president in late 1836 of the newly formed republic, and is where Stephen Fuller Austin, “The Father of Texas,” died December 27, 1836, of pneumonia.
Bob Arnold, who lives in Friendswood, told a Brazosport Facts reporter at Saturday’s event, that the large gathering at Heritage Hall showed that West Columbia residents take pride in their community and want others across Texas to understand its history. The Facts story said that the State of Texas has appropriated about $3.5 million for the new state historic site project in 2025.
Griggs told those in attendance at Saturday’s event that the fundraising efforts of the First Capitol-Columbia 1836 group has surpassed $2.4 million, “reflecting support from individuals, businesses and the broader community,” according to The Facts story. The Texas Historical Commission can now begin preparing to alter the downtown block in West Columbia across the street from the Columbia Historical Museum, Madeline’s Boutique and Chesney’s Jewelry as progress will move slowly following Saturday’s transfer of deeds.