San Leon

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about San Leon, out there on the Galveston County coast. Now settle in, because this little peninsula has lived about nine different lives, and every single one of them has a story worth hearing. Strategically located — that's the marker's own word, and it earns it — surrounded on all sides by Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, and Dickinson Bay, San Leon sits like it was placed there on purpose.

And in a way, it was. The Mexican government opened the Texas tidelands to Anglo colonization in 1828, and a man named Amos Edwards packed up his family and became the first settler on that peninsula. First in.

You've got to respect the nerve of that. Then in 1837, William Gaines and Edwards' son Monroe — Monroe Edwards — platted out a proper townsite, gave it the name San Leon, and went looking for investors to build the thing up. What happened next?

Well. Little is known of that Republic of Texas-era San Leon. Little is known.

By the 1880s it had quietly reverted to open range, as if the town just shrugged and walked itself back into the grass. Now here's where it gets interesting — or interesting again, depending on how you're counting. By 1892, Galveston businessmen had linked up with Minnesota investors, all of them dead set on keeping Galveston the premier port of Texas and turning the peninsula into a major rail shipping point.

They developed the town of North Galveston right there on the same land, founded the North Galveston, Houston and Kansas City Railroad, and laid out the streets in a pattern modeled after the city of Galveston itself. They ran excursion trains bringing folks all the way from the Midwest to settle in what was described as a burgeoning industrial town. That is ambition.

That is genuine, full-throated ambition. And then came 1900. The storm of 1900 wiped out North Galveston.

Just wiped it out. And with it went the dreams of Galveston's future as a major seaport. The peninsula had now risen and fallen twice, and it wasn't done yet.

In 1910, a Houston lawyer named Joe Eagle purchased the townsite. He brought the San Leon name back, advertised the place as a bayside resort, and started trying to build something that would stick. The 1915 storm did additional damage — this peninsula did not get easy weather, not ever — but Eagle kept working to rebuild.

He kept at it until 1921, when the San Leon Hotel burned. After that, in the decades between the two world wars, San Leon found a quieter identity: fig and citrus orchards, the kind of place that doesn't make headlines but keeps its roots in the ground. And by the dawn of the twenty-first century, it had settled into the commercial seafood and sports fishing industry, drawing its living from those same bays that had surrounded it from the very beginning.

Galveston Bay, Trinity Bay, Dickinson Bay — they took a lot from this place over the years. Turns out San Leon decided to make a living off them instead.

What the marker says

Strategically located on a peninsula surrounded by Galveston, Trinity and Dickinson bays, San Leon has a rich and varied history. Amos Edwards and his family were the first to settle on the peninsula after the Mexican government opened the Texas tidelands to Anglo colonization in 1828. In 1837, William Gaines and Amos Edwards' son, Monroe, platted a townsite they named San Leon and invited investors to build and develop the town. Little is known of this Republic of Texas-era San Leon, which by the 1880s had reverted to open range. As part of their strategy to retain Galveston's status as Texas' major port and develop it as a major rail shipping point, Galveston businessmen joined with Minnesota investors to develop the town of North Galveston on the peninsula in 1892. They founded the North Galveston, Houston & Kansas City Railroad and laid out streets in a pattern much like the city of Galveston's. Excursion trains brought residents from the Midwest to settle in the burgeoning industrial town until the devastating 1900 storm wiped out North Galveston and ended dreams of Galveston's longevity as a major seaport. In 1910 Houston lawyer Joe Eagle purchased the townsite and returned the San Leon name to the community, advertising it as a bayside resort. Although the 1915 storm did additional damage to the town, Eagle worked to rebuild until the San Leon Hotel burned in 1921. In the decades between the two world wars, the San Leon area was known primarily for its fig and citrus orchards, and at the dawn of the 21st century its economy was based on the commercial seafood and sports fishing industry. (2001)