M. Kangerga House

Duane's take

The way I tell it, this one comes straight from the official marker for the M. Kangerga House in Rusk County. Let me spin it out for you.

Now, Henderson, Texas has seen its share of characters roll through the years, but few arrived quite the way Michael Kangerga did. Born in Croatia, then part of Austria-Hungary, in 1873, he came to Henderson in 1887. Think on that for a moment.

A young man from the far side of the Atlantic, setting down roots in East Texas before the century had even turned. He didn't come alone for long. Together with his brother Rade, Michael founded M.

Kangerga and Bro., a mercantile and financial institution, in 1895. The name says it plainly: brothers, and business, and they meant to be taken seriously. Then in 1896, Michael married Lillian, born in 1875, the daughter of Joseph S. and Ronda Tatum Gladney.

And in 1901, he built the house we're talking about right now. He hired real architects for the job, George F. Barber and Company, out of Knoxville, Tennessee.

What went up was an excellent example of turn-of-the-century design, and here's the thing that'll get you: it is virtually unaltered. What Barber and Company drew up is still standing, still recognizable, still itself. But the house is only part of Michael Kangerga's story.

For fifty years, he served as a volunteer United States weather observer. Fifty years, watching the sky over Henderson, recording what he saw, reporting it faithfully. The people who keep track of such things noticed.

He won the John Campanius Holm Award for it. Lillian passed in 1951. Michael kept on.

He died in Henderson, at the age of eighty-nine, in 1962. A man from Croatia who arrived in a Texas town in 1887, built something lasting in 1901, and spent half a century looking up at the same sky the rest of us take for granted. Some people leave a mark on a place.

Michael Kangerga left a house, a business, a record of the weather, and an award with a name most folks in Henderson probably couldn't pronounce. Not bad for a young man who came a very long way to get here.

What the marker says

Built 1901 by Michael Kangerga (1873-1962), a native of Croatia, Austria-Hungary, who settled in Henderson in 1887 and with his brother Rade Kangerga founded M. Kangerga & Bro., a mercantile and financial institution, 1895. In 1896 he married Lillian (1875-1951), daughter of Joseph S. and Ronda Tatum Gladney. He was a volunteer U. S. weather observer for 50 years (winning the John Campanius Holm Award) before he died in Henderson at age 89. House is an excellent example of turn-of-the-century design, virtually unaltered. George F. Barber & Co., Knoxville, Tennessee, architects. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1969