Copyright © 2009-2010 Bishop Centennial Celebration, Inc. All rights reserved. Updated April 17, 2010.
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.]
~~Herman Moerbe Family~~
Herman Moerbe bought 320 acres of land seven miles east of Bishop from F. Z. Bishop in 1910.
In December of that year he built a barn and fenced some of the land to hold stock from
wandering over the prairie.
In January 1911 the family moved here in two box cars, with cows, feed and some of the
household goods in one car and horses, wagons, buggy and the rest of the household things in
the other car. These were called immigrant cars and the railroad made a special rate on them. Mr.
Moerbe went with one car and hired a hand to take care of the other car.
The rest of the family--Mrs. Moerbe, Ella (Mrs. Fred Felder), Walter, Adolph, Otto, Willie Mae
(Mrs. John Dube), Edwin (Chico) came by passenger train and got here two days before cars with
livestock and household goods arrived. They stayed with a family named Edmondson that had
moved to Bishop a month or two before.
"There were only a few homes near the Bishop townsite, the rest was all prairie and running
mesquite," a member of the Moerbe family says. "When our cars arrived we first unloaded the
livestock, next the wagons, buggy, saddles, etc. These had been placed near the door so they
could be the first things out and could be loaded with the household goods.
"When we started out to our new home we drove the cows ahead of us and traveled by wagon.
We moved into the barn, which had one room with a floor, the rest was a sort of shed with dirt
floor. We lived in this barn for some time before the house was built.
The Butts and Goodwin (now Booth) tracts had steam tractors plowing the land next to ours. In
March two of the tractors plowed 50 acres of our land, but it was so late and dry we did not raise
much of a crop that year.
"There were plenty of coyotes and rattlesnakes, also some deer
and plenty of open country for them to roam. Bishop had one little
grocery store, owned by a man named O'Brien, who also had a
store in Kingsville.
"The family had to bring most of their food along, and lots of it.
The first meal Mother prepared she couldn't find the coffee that
had been brought along. Dad said he had some green bean
coffee, and she had to roast that before she could cook the
breakfast.
"In 1916 we experienced our first hurricane--and what a storm!
The house swayed and rocked until it rolled off the blocks, and
down on the ground we sat. Dad looked about, then said 'Now Mother, go make us some coffee
and something to eat, for our chimney is still standing and we can start a fire in the wood stove.'
"Before we could eat we heard the barking and groaning of our dog. He was under the house,
and the house had fallen on him. We had to saw out some floor boards to get the poor thing out.
"During the floods in the early 20s, many low lying areas became lakes. As a result there were
huge flocks of ducks. At sunup hundreds of ducks would take to the air, forming a solid black
cloud. Once Otto stepped on his front porch, pointed his gun straight up, fired five times and
brought down 25 ducks."
Members of the Moerbe family were among the Charter Members of the St. Paul Lutheran
Church in the Concordia community, and all of the children, grandchildren and great
grandchildren now living in the Bishop area are members of this church. There are 70
descendants in this area and 44 living elsewhere.
~~E. W. Lindsey Family~~
Mr. and Mrs. E. W. Lindsey moved their family from Coleman County to Bishop the latter part
of 1911. They made the trip covered wagon style, with double decker beds and chuck-wagon set-
up and had a nice trip, camping at such pretty places as Fredericksburg and others.
With five children in the family fresh milk was a necessity, so the family milk cow, "Old Jersey"
was trailed behind the wagon, providing fresh milk morning and night.
Members of the family still living here are Emory, Jewel (Mrs. Erwin Spiegelhauer) and Chester.
Both of the latter are natives of Bishop. Others are Nona and Louise (Mrs. Norman Stallings),
both of Houston and Bennie (Mrs. Harmon Platzer) of Kemah, and Leland of Robstown.
Mr. Lindsey first operated a dray service and worked at the Bishop Lumber yard, then started
back to farming the year the worst drought in history hit.
"Poor crops and doctor bills had papa down to very little money," his daughter writes, "and I'll bet
mama could fix the best things in the world to eat out of almost nothing."
~~Emil Manngen Family~~
Mr. and Mrs. Emil Manngen and five daughters, Elizabeth, Martha, Littie, Freda and Lela,
arrived in Bishop Aug. 11, 1911, from Falls County, and were the first permanent settlers in the
West Bishop farming area.
The Manngens bought the farm four miles west of town where four of the daughters still make
their home, and the Manngen girls have demonstrated that women can handle a farm just as well
as men.
Most interesting happenings for the West Bishop farm area through the years? "The REA line and
the hard-surfaced roads," write the operators of the Manngen farm.
Bishop, Nueces County, Texas 1910 - 2010 One Hundred Years of South Texas Heritage!
)
Moving to Bishop by covered
wagon 1912...(click for larger photo)
Courtesy of The South Texas Archives
)
Herman Moerbe Family
Click photo for larger view.
