G. C. and Clara Mick Home, 1909

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'm gonna give it to you straight with a little Wharton County wind at our backs. This is the story of the G. C. and Clara Mick Home, built in 1909, and it is the oldest house in a town that itself only got started in 1900.

The town is Iago, sitting right on the new Wharton-Palacios rail line, and that detail matters, because the rail line is part of how the Mick family got here in the first place. G. C.

Mick came out of Missouri, a wheat grower and stock farmer, a man who knew land and knew work. In 1903, he entered Texas on something called a Rice Special. Now that is a train with a name that tells you something about where the ambitions of this region were pointed, even if the marker doesn't spell it out.

He came in on that train, and he came to stay. The first home he put on his land, though, well, a hurricane got to it before much else could. The Gulf Coast has a way of reminding newcomers that it has the final say.

So G. C. and Clara Mick built again. The house that went up in 1909, the one that's still standing, was designed by their eldest son, A.

C. Mick. And A.

C. wasn't just the architect of the family home. He was also the man who laid out the town of Iago itself. The house he designed is something to behold, featuring a mansard roof, which is not exactly what you'd expect to find planted in the coastal prairie of Wharton County.

The carpenters who built it were Cuban. There's a cistern right on the porch, because on the Texas coast you learn to hold onto fresh water when you have it. And then there's the electric plant.

The Mick home had the first electric plant in the area. With that came a bell, and here is where the story gets a particular kind of weight: that bell was rung only in emergencies. Not for supper, not for Sunday morning, not for celebration.

Only when something had gone wrong. And given what the Gulf Coast can deliver, that bell had reason to ring. The house itself became a shelter during hurricanes, more than once.

A house that survived the storm that took its predecessor, built to last, designed by a son for his family, and sturdy enough that the neighbors came to it when the sky turned mean. That is a home that earned its place on the ground it stands on.

What the marker says

Oldest in town founded 1900, on new Wharton-Palacios rail line. Mick, Missouri wheat grower and stock farmer, entered Texas on a "Rice Special," 1903. First home on land was a hurricane victim. Eldest son, A. C. Mick, laid out Iago, was architect this house. Used Cuban carpenters. Mansard roof. Cistern on porch. First electric plant in area. Bell rung only in emergencies. Often a shelter in hurricanes. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1965