Charles Champion

Charles Champion bought a store and ended up owning a town's land. After the Hess store came to him in 1894 he rebuilt it in brick in 1899 as The Key of the Gulf, and the family lived upstairs. Judge James B. Wells had owned half the Santa Isabel grant since 1886, and in 1904 Champion bought the other half for $17,500 from E. K. Butler of International Harvester. Though the Champions led the county's Republican opposition, he joined Democrat Wells in developing the town. His will gave the city cemetery to the Catholic Church.

What the plaque says

Charles Champion The son of Joseph Champion, an Italian immigrant who settled in Texas in 1855, Charles Champion was born on February 2, 1870, in Old Point Isabel. He served as district clerk in Hidalgo County before purchasing the Hess General Store in Old Point Isabel in 1894. He renamed it "The Champion Store," and continued to operate the business in the small frame structure. In 1899, Champion erected this two-story brick building and named it "The Key of the Gulf." The first floor housed the general merchandise store, the U.S. Customs House, and the post office. Champion served as the second postmaster of Point Isabel. In the early 1900s, Champion provided the impetus for the fishing industry that employed many local citizens and became an integral part of the local economy. By 1908 Champion and Judge J.B. Wells owned the Santa Isabela land grant, which included Point Isabel. Long a proponent of a deep water port in Point Isabel, Champion died in 1926 before its completion in 1933. Champion was buried next to his wife Margaret Orive and other family members in the Point Isabel Cemetery. (1996)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Port Isabel Lighthouse State Historic Site — steps away
  A 72-foot brick tower finished in 1852 for the Brazos Santiago shipping lane, dark from 1905 until a reproduction lens was lit in 2022, and the only Texas lighthouse open to the public.
• Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge — 14 mi
  A coastal refuge set up in 1946 for wintering redhead ducks, with 417 bird species recorded and, by the Fish and Wildlife Service's account, the largest ocelot population in the United States.
• Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park — 18 mi
  A flat coastal prairie north of Brownsville where Taylor's army and Arista's Army of the North fought the first major battle of the Mexican War on May 8, 1846, now interpreted from both sides.
• Stillman House Museum — 22 mi
  The 1850 Greek Revival house of Charles Stillman, who laid out Brownsville in 1848 beside the army's Fort Brown, and for a century the home of the Treviño family.

More markers nearby

• Point Isabel, C.S.A. — steps away
• Port Isabel (Old Point Isabel) — steps away
• Queen Isabel Inn — steps away
• Port of Matamoros — steps away