Copyright © 2009-2010 Bishop Centennial Celebration, Inc. All rights reserved. Updated July 11, 2009
May 14 - 16, 2010
[The following is from the Bishop News of 1960 in a series written by Mrs. Gail Tubbs for Bishop's
then upcoming Golden Jubilee celebration.]
~~John A. Michalk Family~~
John A. Michalk knew that to bring up a family in town was much more difficult than to let them
grow to manhood and womanhood in the wide-open spaces, so when he heard of F. Z. Bishop
opening a vast mesquite prairie for farming he decided to leave his comfortable home in
Thorndale and move to a South Texas farm. He hadn't been farming in Thorndale. First he had
been with the Thorndale State Bank and later became a partner in the Moerbe and Michalk
Grocery of Thorndale.
He and his brother, Charlie Michalk, first came to see F. Z. Bishop's development in October,
1910. Downtown there was one tin building. The Bishop Hotel was under construction. The hotel
dining room was completed first to take care of homeseekers arriving by special trains. Mr.
Bishop went "first class" in all he did. The tables were attended by colored waiters in spotless
white. Sugar bowls, creamers, salt and pepper shakers were cut glass brought from New York.
To entertain his prospects, Mr. Bishop laid out a 4-acre City Park, planted with all types of trees
and stocked with deer. A dam was constructed across Carreta Creek and a gushing artesian well
kept the lake brim full. For the bathers a huge chute-the-chute was built. Sleds were pulled to the
top. Amid hilarious laughter and screams the swimmers would plunge into the water below.
The family moved to the Concordia Community, east of town, in the fall of 1912. With Mr. and
Mrs. Michalk were 10 children: Olga (Mrs. J. T. Dube of La Pryor), Rev. Adolph F. Michalk now
pastor of the Lutheran Church in Smithville, Lydia (Mrs. W. O. Moerbe), Minnie (Mrs. Otto
Moerbe), Martin (of McCook), John G., Reinhard, Rubinan (Mrs. Agg Noack of Walburg), Simeon
and Florina.
Mr. Michalk loved his church, and
before his first home was completed he
insisted a House of Worship be built.
He bought five acres of land and
donated it for the site of the St. Paul
Lutheran Church.
"The Michalk home, a mile east of the
church, was always open to anyone
who wished to see the Black Land
Country," John G. Michalk writes. "Far
into the night my father would relate
the wonderful possibilities that existed
here. He kept well posted on the latest developments in various types of grain and cotton. He ran
soil tests and planted grain and cotton test plots and kept a well stocked library of Department of
Agriculture bulletins.
"Mr. F. Z. Bishop was a frequent visitor in our home, since dirt roads became impassable quite
often. Mr. Bishop knew where his bed was located. He would bring groups of landseekers out to
see first hand just how well and how easily all types of vegetables and fruit would grow.
"A large steel tank was installed on the place to furnish water for irrigation--and also to give the
young Michalk boys and others in the neighborhood a
chance to learn to swim.
"Things weren't always rosy for the newcomers. In 1916
our first hurricane came without warning. We had a full
crew of cotton pickers ready to start picking a bumper
crop the next week. When Monday morning came the
fields were in shambles, here and there small strands of
cotton could be seen, stalks were beaten and leaves
ground to pulp. The land looked shiny, water stood knee
deep in places.
"Over 80 per cent of the farm houses were off the blocks.
Neighborhood farmers organized into groups and the
long job of reconstruction took months. Many weird
stories were told. Some of the houses had living chickens
that looked like skeletons under them when raised to put
back on blocks.
"In 1917 the northers came in dry early in the fall, no rain that winter, none the following spring.
Feed had to be bought for the mules and cattle--tough going."
Two years later, in 1919, another hurricane devastated all crops again. This time our neighbor city
of Corpus Christi bore the brunt of the disaster and the dead there were counted in the hundreds.
Many farmers had borrowed money to carry them after the 1916 storm, and the 1917 drought had
exhausted their credit. Loan companies foreclosed and many beaten farmers had to seek
livelihood in some other place. Still Bishop land increased in value, bumper crops followed and
the farmers prospered. With thousands of acres of new land going into cultivation, cotton became
so plentiful that the market began to drop.
Mr. Michalk began to make other plans. In 1924 he loaded three immigrant cars, cranked up his
two new shiny Model T's, and his truck and headed west, landing at La Pryor, "The Winter
Garden" of Texas. Eight years of drought in that otherwise rich country spelled disaster and in
1932 he returned to Bishop. Now 89, he has been an invalid since the death of Mrs. Michalk in
1950.
* * *
~~Charles F. Michalk Family~~
"On Oct. 3, 1911 Sam Michalk, John Weiss and I moved down to Bishop to build houses, then
went back to Thorndale after our families, arriving here Jan 7, 1912," Charles F. Michalk writes.
"We had organized the St. Paul Lutheran Church in 1911, and of the six Charter members I am
the only continuing member of this congregation," Mr. Michalk
tells.
Members of his family include sons Alvin, Edwin, Albert and
Carl and daughters Evelyn (Mrs. Theo Boernhoeft), Frieda
(deceased) and Gloria (Mrs. Bohot).
"After leaving town there were only three other houses, the
Felder, Moerbe and Schlisky places," Mr. Michalk tells. "We
traveled over some rough country and carried our guns along
to shoot coyotes, rattlesnakes and jack rabbits. At times we
had to use only the front cart of the wagon to get things from
town. I remember one Christmas when it took four mules to a
light wagon to get the trees and groceries from town. We had
to stop several times to clean mud off the wheels.
Editor's Note: By special request, Mr. Michalk gave us this
"blow by blow" account of the 1916 hurricane:
"My neighbor and I were helping my brother John put in some
new ground for feed (now the Harrell West farm). Early in the
morning the wind was blowing a little from the north. Brother
John commented that the weather looked like a gulf storm as he
started for home. It started raining so my neighbor, Mr. Woelfel, and I put our mules back in the
lot and went to our shack, thinking it might quit, but it started to blow stronger.
"Mr. Herman Moerbe was in town and there found out that a gulf storm was coming. He was on
horseback and as he noticed us in the shack he waved to us to go home. But we took along
enough supplies to last all week and we waved for him to go on. By noon the storm was so strong
that we decided it would be best to go home.
"We took our horses and started out. When we got to the pasture gate and turned east the horses
wouldn't face the wind and rain, so we turned them back in the pasture and started walking.
When we got to the place where Leon Bertram now lives we turned in and stayed a few minutes.
The house was already blown off the blocks, and the people were ready to go somewhere else if
we didn't stay, so we started off again.
"There was a large Sons of Herman Hall on the corner of the Felder place, across from where
Ray Barkley now lives. That hall was pumping like an accordion, so we decided to keep moving.
When we got to the corner of the Butts farm several of his labor houses had slid down to the west
corner next to the road.
"We crawled under the fence of Mr. August Theiss' pasture, cutting across the corner. We heard a
rumbling noise pass us--it was a big tin cistern, and it wrapped itself around a corner fence post.
As we got to Theiss' house here came Mr. J. B. Butts and his family. His house had been torn up.
We had some hot coffee then started on. Mr. Theiss gave us a wire cutter so we could cut
through the fences as we went along.
"When we finally got to my house I found that my wife and the children had gone to town with the
old grey mule and surrey. We then went on to the Woelfel home. Mrs. Woelfel was alone so my
wife had left our oldest son, Alvin, to stay with her, and was that boy glad to see us get there!
"I took my boy and started back to our house. Soon the Woelfels followed us. As we reached my
house and climbed onto the west porch, the windmill wheel blew off. It hit the shop and buggy
shed, went through it and headed for the Woefel house we'd just left. By now his house was off
the blocks and completely turned around.
"By this time we'd decided houses weren't the safest places. We had a large brush of chaparral in
front of my house, so I got an old sled and a wagon sheet and we all got behind it. About 5 o'clock
the next morning the wind had blown itself out. My house was O. K., and we went in and fixed
some coffee.
"The storms and droughts scared some of the people off, but I figure it like this: If you will stick to
the country when it's dry, it will stick to you when it's wet."
Bishop, Nueces County, Texas 1910 - 2010 One Hundred Years of South Texas Heritage!
