DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, this stretch of Live Oak County goes by a couple of names — some folks called it Mount Echo, some just called it The Point. Either way, it carries a story big enough to fill both of them.
The land itself once belonged to empresario James McGloin. His daughter Elizabeth and her husband Patrick Murphy ran a general store right here at Echo. So right from the start, this place was a crossroads — of family, of commerce, of people passing through.
Then along came another Murphy, and here's where you want to pay attention, because the marker takes care to tell you plainly: John Bernard Murphy, born around 1822, and his wife Margaret Mary — née Healy — born in 1833, both of them out of Ireland, settled here in the 1850s and built themselves a two-story ranch house. J.B. Murphy was not related to Patrick Murphy.
Two Murphys, same small place on the map, no connection. Texas has always had a flair for that kind of coincidence. J.B.
Murphy would go on to become mayor of Corpus Christi. But that's getting ahead of things. Right next to that ranch house stood a one-story building, modest as a whisper, and it punched well above its weight.
It was a station on the stagecoach lines running from San Antonio down to Corpus Christi and on through south Texas. And from 1858 until 1879, it housed the Echo Post Office — the lifeline, the letter-carrier, the thread connecting these river-bottom ranches to the rest of the world. Now the road through Echo was what they called a dry weather route, running along the east bank of the Nueces River.
When the rains came and the ground turned to something you didn't want your wheels in, there was a higher caliche road on the west side of the river that could handle the wet seasons — different road, different stops, same destination. Until the railroad arrived in this area, the Echo depot and post office were, as the marker puts it, a vital link with the outside world. That's not embellishment.
That's just the plain weight of what it meant to be out here waiting on a letter or a supply wagon. Now. Margaret Mary Murphy — born 1833, died 1907.
Her husband John Bernard passed in 1884. And what she did after that is the part of this story that takes a turn nobody saw coming. In the 1880s, Margaret Mary moved to San Antonio and founded the Sisters of the Holy Ghost.
And she didn't leave Echo behind — she brought it with her in spirit. She used the old ranch as a retreat for nuns. And that one-story building, the stagecoach depot, the post office that had handed off letters and parcels for two decades — she converted it into a chapel.
From waystation to sanctuary. The building had carried travelers through. Now it would carry something else.
Then in 1906, a man named R.F. Sellers bought the property and used the building for storage. Whatever grandeur or grace it still held, it was boxes and barrels by then.
And on the subject of what finally ended it — the marker doesn't mince words. Hurricane Celia. 1970. It demolished the building.
A structure that had been a depot, a post office, a chapel, a storage room — gone, in the way that only a Gulf storm can erase a thing. Mount Echo. The Point.
Whatever you called it, it had been here since before Texas was Texas, carrying people and mail and prayers across the Nueces country. Some places earn their names. Some places earn their silence.
What the marker says
Known as "Mount Echo" or "The Point", this site once belonged to empresario James McGloin. His daughter and son-in-law, Elizabeth and Patrick Murphy, ran a general store at Echo. John Bernard Murphy (1822?-1884) and his wife Margaret Mary (Healy) (1833-1907), both born in Ireland, settled here in the 1850's and built a two story ranch house. J.B. Murphy, who was not related to Patrick Murphy, was later mayor of Corpus Christi. A one-story building near the J.B. Murphy ranch house served as a station for stagecoach lines from San Antonio to Corpus Christi and south Texas. It housed the Echo Post Office from 1858 until 1879. The stage road through echo was a dry weather route along the East Bank of the Nueces River. A higher caliche road that was passable in wet seasons served stage stops on the west side of the river. Until the arrival of the railroad in this area, the echo depot and post office provided a vital link with the outside world. In the 1880's, Margaret Mary Murphy moved to San Antonio and founded the Sisters of the Holy Ghost. She used the ranch as a retreat for nuns and converted the Echo depot into a chapel. R.F. Sellers bought the property in 1906 and used the building for storage. It was demolished by hurricane Celia in 1970. (1979)