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Rosenwald School Student Left Legacy of Love
By Tracy Gupton There was not a single seat left vacant at this past Saturday's funeral service at Blue Run Baptist...
Where Were You When JFK Was Assassinated?
By Tracy Gupton Where were you? What were you doing when you first heard? My father told me he was watching a movie in...
Stafford Among Quintet of Doctors Featured at Saturday Night Annual Columbia Cemetery ‘Meet Your Ancestors’ Event
By Tracy Gupton Two-time Oscar winning screenwriter Horton Foote writes about his childhood in his 1999 autobiography...
Black Cowboys Made Their Marks in History
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum This past Wednesday, February 15, 2023, was declared Bailey’s Prairie Kid Day countywide by the Brazoria County Commissioners Court. Taylor Hall Jr., the “Bailey’s Prairie Kid” himself, was in attendance in Angleton to pose...
Roughnecks played in NFL championship games
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum The year 1957 marked this writer’s birth in January, the West Columbia Roughnecks’ deepest appearance in the high school football playoffs in history at that time, and a native son playing in the NFL championship game in late...
Viola Funeral Home in business for over 87 years
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...
Juneteenth Now a National Holiday
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Juneteenth is celebrated annually across the great state of Texas and beyond, but many are unaware of the event’s origins. With February being “Black History Month” in America, now is a good time to look closer at what...
WCVFD organized after 1940 fire
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Although the City of West Columbia’s Volunteer Fire Department has been around for going on 83 years, it’s difficult to believe our community relied on the assistance of neighboring towns for so long. It wasn’t until 1940...
Early area publisher invented condensed milk
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Newspaper publisher, inventor, surveyor, businessman, cattleman, schoolteacher and early Texas historical figure. Gail Borden Jr. checks all the boxes for accurate descriptions of his memorable life. Though his 72 years...
Watery deaths claimed many local residents’ lives
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Fear preceded panic when I suddenly found the soles of my feet no longer touching the sandy bottom of the Gulf. I was just a little kid in the early 1960s, splashing around in the surf at either Bryan or Surfside beaches near...
Karankawa roamed Texas coastal area before Anglos
By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Discussions of the “early days” of the history of the West Columbia and East Columbia area of Brazoria County far too often begin with the introduction of Anglo settlers first stepping foot on the fertile grounds between the...
Stephen F. Austin died near West Columbia in 1836
https://youtu.be/NDhLb635EMc By Tracy Gupton Columbia Historical Museum Secretary As children growing up in West Columbia, my cousin Steve Weems and I would often ride horses and mini-bikes in the big pasture of Phil Gupton’s that included cattle-grazing land...
Bowl games featured many former Roughnecks
The Daily Evergreen Photo by Cole QuinnWSU's Cameron Ward of West Columbia (#1) completed 22 of 32 pass attempts in the December 17th Los Angeles Bowl at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The Jerry Rice Award winner transferred from Incarnate Word. By Tracy...
Black bean survivors topic of recent Texas columns
Columbia Historical Museum Photo by Tracy Gupton Houston Chronicle columnist Joe Holley, left, spoke at Saturday's meeting of the Texas Sons of the American Revolution Cradle of Texas Chapter in El Campo. Chapter President Carl Wiggins presented Holley with a...
President Johnson’s brother buried in WC cemetery
William was 61 when he drew his last breath on October 24, 1865. While stepping out of a boat on the banks of the Brazos River at Velasco (present day Freeport) on October 9, 1865, the shotgun Johnson was using caught on a gunnel of the boat and discharged its full load of pellets into his arm.