Good afternoon everyone,
Summertime
and the living is easy. No, no it’s not. Not really. We’ve been
inundated with small visitors from area daycares and it’s an incredibly
busy time for us at the WaterWorks Education Center. I am not
complaining at all; it’s great! But I could use a little break to get
together with my museum friends, talk to adults, visit a new place and
learn a few things that I didn’t know. My exceedingly clever segue way
leads me to invite one and all to the summer SETMA meeting at the Sam Houston Memorial Museum in Huntsville on Monday, July 25th at 10:00 am.
Meeting Agenda:
10:00 for sign-in and meet and greet
10:30 short business meeting and program
Stay for a tour of the site.
Join your friends for a Dutch-treat lunch
(unless you can get someone else to pay).
Mikey Sproat
Our
host for the day, Mikey Sproat, will welcome us to Sam Houston’s last
home. The man for whom the City of Houston was named died in the
Steamboat House of pneumonia on July 26, 1863 almost exactly 152 years
ago. I’m sure that Mikey will share many more facts with us than this
one about the life of the-larger-than-life Sam Houston. (I’m talking
about the real person, not the very large David Adickes statue.)
ADDRESS:
1402 19th St
Huntsville, TX 77340
(936) 294-1832
Huntsville, TX 77340
(936) 294-1832
I’m so pleased to tell you that Michael Bailey has arranged for our guest speaker to be the noted firearms expert, Flem Rogers.
Flem will be presenting a talk on early firearms used in Texas and will
have period weapons from the early days of Texas History, on loan, for
this presentation. Please, bring any questions about items in your
collections.
According to a 2014 Chronicle article, It didn't last long, but West Columbia was the first capital of Texas - Houston Chronicle, Mr. and Mrs. Rogers own the only area B&B, in East Columbia—the Aycock Crews House.
It's
a magnificent two-story Victorian-style house built in the late 1800s
by ship captain Richard Aycock as a gift for his new bride. The Rogers
have furnished it with period antiques.
Flem,
an antique weapons collector and professional photographer, almost felt
like fate was luring him to East Columbia. The house he and his wife
bought, built in 1841, was owned from 1848 to 1908 by the Dance brothers
and is across the road from the ruins of the historic Dance Gun Shop.
Three brothers who emigrated from North Carolina, the Dances were the
only successful pistol manufacturers west of the Mississippi during the
Civil War.
The Steamboat House, on the Sam Houston Memorial Museum grounds,
was built in 1858 by Rufus Bailey as a wedding present for his son.
After his son refused to live there, the Houstons moved into the house in 1862.
—Photo by Brian Blalock
See you soon,
Susan, SETMA President
Susan Smyer
City of Houston
Department of Public Works & Engineering
Public Utilities Division/Business Support Branch
WaterWorks Education Center
12121 N. Sam Houston Parkway E.
Humble, Texas 77396
Office: 832-395-3783