Feb 18, 2025 | From The Vault of Texas History
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Snow’s Cleaners opened for business in West Columbia in 1920, a few years before Chesney’s began selling jewelry on main street in 1924 in the Brazoria County town that was once the first capitol of the Republic of Texas in...
Feb 16, 2025 | From The Vault of Texas History
By Tracy Gupton Robert Dixon would have celebrated his 78th birthday last month. The former longtime West Columbia city councilman passed away at the age of 62 September 29, 2009, at Cornerstone Hospital in Houston surrounded by his loving family. But what a unique...
Feb 11, 2025 | From The Vault of Texas History
By Tracy Gupton When author Ben Vinson III was making routine visits to Brooks Manor Apartments in 1999, it is a good bet most West Columbians had no idea a celebrity was living among them. But the man Vinson, an associate professor of Latin American History at Penn...
Feb 4, 2025 | From The Vault of Texas History
FEBRUARY IS BLACK HISTORY MONTH By Tracy Gupton Nathan H. Haller was living in Brazoria not too far from West Columbia when he won a seat in the Texas House of Representatives to represent Brazoria and Matagorda counties, thus becoming one of the few Black Texans to...
Dec 24, 2024 | From The Vault of Texas History
By Tracy Gupton There was not a single seat left vacant at this past Saturday’s funeral service at Blue Run Baptist Church in West Columbia. Some mourners stood along the walls to experience the memorial for lifetime East Columbia resident Essie Mae Diggs...
Nov 22, 2024 | From The Vault of Texas History
By Tracy Gupton Where were you? What were you doing when you first heard? My father told me he was watching a movie in a theater in California when the projectionist stopped the film, the lights came up in the movie house, and someone notified everyone there that the...
