Theodore Merchant Lawrence (January 16, 1861-August 10, 1941)

The vegetables Lawrence shipped belonged to a farm economy with a hard edge. The Handbook of Texas counts 1,010 bales of Nueces County cotton in 1889, 8,566 in 1910 and 148,442 in 1930, with cabbage, onions, spinach and cucumbers beside it. Tenants worked 35 percent of the county's farms in 1910 and 76 percent by 1925. Most tenants were Anglo, while much of the field labor came from Mexican Americans who were poorly paid and often lived in poverty. The boll weevil and the Depression then pushed many farmers into the cities.

What the plaque says

Theodore Merchant Lawrence (January 16, 1861-August 10, 1941) A grandson of one of the city's first physicians, Dr. David Henry Lawrence, Theodore Merchant "Buddy" Lawrence was born in Corpus Christi. He left home at an early age and found employment on the King Ranch, where he participated in cattle drives. He later worked as a professional hunter. In 1880 Lawrence married Cora Eugenia Garrett. They became the parents of six children. Lawrence began farming in the 1880s and in the following decade became interested in vegetable truck farming. This was the site of his home and vegetable farm. He is credited with being the first to ship vegetables from Corpus Christi in 1894. As a partner in the Roark Produce Company, he helped build the truck farming industry in the area. In 1902 Lawrence was appointed County Commissioner for Precinct One, which included Corpus Christi. He served until 1908 and was elected to the position in 1910, serving continuously until 1932. During his years as a Commissioner, county road systems were modernized and the first causeway over Nueces Bay was constructed. In tribute for his contributions, the County Commissioners Court changed the name of Chemical Plant Road to Buddy Lawrence Drive in 1933. (1989)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Art Museum of South Texas — 0.4 mi
  Philip Johnson's 1972 museum on the Corpus Christi bayfront, joined in 2006 by Ricardo Legorreta's Miller Wing, holding more than 2,000 works mostly from Texas and the Americas.
• Texas State Aquarium — 0.6 mi
  A nonprofit aquarium on the tip of Corpus Christi Beach built around the Gulf and the Caribbean, with the largest coastal wildlife rescue center in Texas behind the exhibits.
• Mirador de la Flor — 0.7 mi
  Corpus Christi's bayfront memorial to Selena Quintanilla-Pérez, the Tejano singer from this city, killed in 1995 at twenty-three, visited by about thirty thousand people a year.
• USS Lexington Museum on the Bay — 0.8 mi
  An Essex-class carrier of 1943 moored off North Beach, the Blue Ghost that Tokyo Rose kept reporting sunk, and the Navy's training carrier for nearly three decades after.

More markers nearby

• Jalufka-Govatos House — steps away
• McCampell House — steps away
• Irishtown — steps away
• Sidbury-Savage House — steps away