Magnolia

Duane's take

Here's how the marker tells it, and I'm taking it from there. There's a house in Montgomery County, and if you know where to look, you can still find it standing. Built in 1854, put up for a man named Peter J.

Willis and his wife, Caroline Womack. Now that right there is already a story worth slowing down for, but we're just getting started. They named the place Magnolia, and they named it for their daughter, the first child born inside those walls.

That little girl would grow up to become Mrs. Geo. Sealy of Galveston.

And here's the part that'll make you sit up straighter in the saddle: Magnolia Petroleum Company was also named for her. One child, one house, one name, and somewhere downstream, one of the biggest names in Texas oil. The marker lays it right out, plain as morning.

Then in 1868, a man named Ilai Davis and his wife Melissa bought that house, and they bought it furnished. Every stick of it. Now that furniture had made a journey, hauled by boat and by wagon all the way from New York, and it had found a home in those rooms, and in those rooms it stayed.

Ilai and Melissa's descendants kept the place going, kept it occupied, and kept much of that original furniture right where it had always been. Continuously. Generation after generation, holding onto what came before.

Only one other child was ever born in that house: Anna D. Weisinger, who became the owner. Two children born in all those years, in all that life lived under that roof.

Some houses collect history. This one kept it.

What the marker says

Built 1854 for Peter J. Willis and wife, Caroline Womack; named for their daughter, first child born here (later Mrs. Geo. Sealy, Galveston; Magnolia Petroleum Company was also named for her). Ilai and Melissa Davis bought house furnished in 1868. Occupied continuously by their descendants who have preserved much of the original furniture brought here by boat and wagon from New York. Anna D. Weisinger, present owner, was only other child born here. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1966