About Columbia Historical Museum
Public Invited to Local Museum’s Annual Meeting
The annual meeting of the Columbia Historical Museum’s Board of Directors will be held Monday, January 13, 2025, at the museum located at 247 East Brazos Avenue in downtown West Columbia. The annual meeting, which will begin at 5:30 p.m. Monday, is open to the public and everyone is invited to take part.
Featured in the annual meeting will be a look back at the happenings and highlights of the year 2024 at the museum, a discussion of the projected budget for the museum in 2025, and installation of the new slate of officers and induction of five new board members.
Christina Matthews and Misty Congdon will be taking over as the museum board’s president and vice president in 2025, replacing longtime museum board members Naomi Smith and Barbara Stubbs in those positions of leadership. While recording secretary Tracy Gupton and corresponding secretary Pat Weeks will return in those positions from 2023 and 2024, Jo Frances Chastain will be assuming the role of board treasurer from Betty Blackmon in 2025.
Betty, who celebrated her 90th birthday last year, will remain a museum board member in 2025 and plans to continue serving at the West Columbia museum as an assistant to the museum’s curator Michael Bailey. A retired Brazoria County Museum curator, Bailey is beginning his third year of association with West Columbia’s museum, which is located in the former home of First Capitol Bank on the corner of East Brazos Avenue and Broad Street.
The five new board members who will be added to the board at Monday night’s annual meeting include Dianne Holleman, Scott Leopold, Alma Spears, Charley Tindol and Callie Venable. Leopold was involved with the Columbia Historical Museum in the early days of its formation, Tindol is a former West Columbia City Councilman, Spears a former Columbia-Brazoria school board trustee, and both Venable and Holleman were formerly involved with the West Columbia Chamber of Commerce.
Returning in 2025 as Columbia Historical Museum directors will be Betty Blackmon, Adrian Copeland, Korey Langford, Freddie Matthews, Jana Ogilvie, Dietrich von Biedenfeld, Smith and Stubbs.
Light refreshments will be served and everyone is invited to attend Monday’s annual meeting of the museum board at 5:30 p.m. For more information, contact the Columbia Historical Museum at (979) 345-6125.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Officers of the Board
President: Christina Matthews
Vice President: Misty Congdon
Secretary: Tracy Gupton
Treasurer: Jo Frances Chastain
Corresponding Secretary: Pat Weeks
Members of the Board
Betty Blackmon Flem Rogers
Adrian Copeland Naomi Smith
Dianne Holleman Alma Hobbs Spears
Korey Langford Barbara Stubbs
Scott Leopold Charley Tindol
Freddie Matthews Callie Venable
Jana Ogilvie Dietrich von Biedenfeld
Columbia Historical Museum
The Columbia Historical Museum is located in the heart of the First Capital of the Republic of Texas. The treasured artifacts of the state’s most historic city are housed, fittingly, in a former bank – the vault of Texas history.
The museum opened its doors in the former bank in 1992 with a mission to collect, preserve and interpret the history of the area. From arrowheads to oilfields, the museum catalogs the development of Texas’ birthplace and the site of its first government.
Learn about Josiah H. Bell, Stephen F. Austin’s most trusted friend and partner. Austin left Bell in charge of his new colony when he traveled to Mexico City in 1822 to confirm his empresario grant with the new Mexican government.
In the 1820s, Bell founded the community on the Brazos River that eventually became the most important shipping port in the area – variously called Marion, Bell’s Landing or East Columbia. Bell built docks and sheds for the storage of goods delivered from steamboats. He also platted out the town of West Columbia. The museum also houses a collection of steamboat bells from those early grand modes of travel that plied the waters of the area’s rivers.
Other displays include a replica of the Dance pistol, manufactured in East Columbia during the Confederacy and described by soldiers as more accurate than the Colt.
Another exhibit tells the story of Charlie Brown, founder of Juneteenth who was declared “the wealthiest Negro in Texas” upon his death.
Explore the Vault of Texas History at the crossroads of State Highways 35 and 36, where history and progress Texas two-step.
Tours & Rentals
The Columbia Historical Museum is available for school and organization tours and events.