Frank Bell, Jr.

La Marque began as Highlands, and the name changed in the 1890s when residents learned another mainland community already used it. The postmistress, Madam St. Ambrose, chose a French name meaning the mark. During the Civil War, soldiers traveling between Galveston and Houston bought buttermilk at the stop, so it was called Buttermilk Station. In 1867 the settlement had six families, two of them Black. A school stood before 1895, when Amos Stewart gave land for a larger one. By 1914 four railroads served the town, among them the Galveston, Houston and Henderson and the Interurban.

What the plaque says

Frank Bell, Jr. (1893-1963) was the son of early La Marque settlers Flavery and Frank Bell, Sr. Although he received little formal education, he was able to achieve business success and became a respected civic leader in La Marque's African American community. Bell served in the U. S. Army during World War I and later was stationed in this area. He retired from the army and began working in the oil industry in Texas City. In 1938 he began a real estate career with the purchase of land in La Marque which he and partner Will Mentor subdivided into residential lots. As a partner in the B A & P Realty Company Bell helped develop a number of residential subdivisions in La Marque's African American communities in the 1940s. Bell gained a reputation for fairness in his real estate dealings and as owner of a neighborhood store and gas station. A behind-the-scenes force in local affairs, he served on Galveston County's Negro Chamber of Commerce and was often referred to as La Marque's unofficial African American mayor. Bell played a vital role in the creation of Carver Park and in obtaining needed funds to enhance the religious, educational, and recreational opportunities for the city's African American community. Sesquicentennial of texas Statehood 1845 - 1995

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas Seaport Museum and the Elissa — 11 mi
  An iron barque launched in Aberdeen in 1877 that called at Galveston twice, ended up smuggling in the Adriatic, and was bought back from a Greek scrapyard to sail again from Pier 22.
• Galveston Island State Park — 12 mi
  A cattle ranch willed to the state that now runs the full width of Galveston Island, from two miles of Gulf beach across dunes and prairie to the marshes of West Galveston Bay.
• Galveston Seawall and the 1900 Storm — 12 mi
  The concrete wall along the Gulf that Galveston built after the hurricane of September 8, 1900, which killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people in a city of 38,000.
• The Strand — 12 mi
  Five blocks of iron-front brick buildings near the harbor that were once called the Wall Street of the Southwest, emptied after 1900 and brought back by preservationists from the 1960s.

More markers nearby

• Settlement Community — 1.0 mi
• Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church — 1.1 mi
• Texas City Memorial Cemetery — 3.4 mi
• Texas City — 3.5 mi