Thomas Henry Mathis Ranch

The plaque begins with the ranch in 1879; Thomas Henry Mathis was in his mid-forties by then and had lived several lives. Born in Stewart County, Tennessee, in 1834, he taught school in Arkansas and Kentucky before moving to Texas in 1859. When the Union blockade closed his Victoria business, he ran tobacco through it and forwarded supplies to Confederate troops before enlisting in 1862. In 1867 he and his cousin J. M. Mathis built Rockport's first wharf, and their firm chartered the Prince Albert, the first commercial steamboat into Aransas Bay. He died in Rockport in 1899.

What the plaque says

Thomas Henry Mathis Ranch In 1879, following the dissolution of the Coleman, Mathis, Fulton Cattle Company, Thomas Henry Mathis (1834-1899) established a ranch he called the Henry Bend Ranch, named for a combination of his middle name and its location on a bend in the Nueces River. The ranch covered some 24,000 acres of land in southwestern San Patricio County. In 1880 Mathis fenced 17,000 acres along the Nueces River with wooden planks. In a 3,000-acre enclosure were his registered cattle and horses, as well as his prized polo ponies, which were trained on the ranch and sold to buyers in England. Near this site was the ranch headquarters, built in 1880 and razed in 1953. Realizing the advantage of a nearby rail line, Mathis donated land for a right-of-way to the San Antonio & Aransas Pass Railroad in 1887. A 100-acre townsite, named for Mathis, was platted and dedicated in 1889. The entire town was fenced in order to keep the roaming cattle out, and there were two wooden gates guarding the entrances to the city. An important part of San Patricio County history, the Mathis Ranch was sold and divided in subsequent years. (1988)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Lake Corpus Christi State Park — 4.0 mi
  A lake park in the South Texas brush country above Mathis, on a reservoir of the Nueces, with a Civilian Conservation Corps refectory and more than 200 bird species.
• Lipantitlán State Historic Site — 10 mi
  Five undeveloped acres on the Nueces named for the Lipan Apaches who camped here, where Mexico built an earth-and-rail fort that Texans took early in the Revolution.
• Duval County Courthouse — 34 mi
  A red-brick Classical Revival courthouse of 1916 in San Diego, the seat of a county governed for decades by the Parr family machine.
• Texas State Aquarium — 34 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.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Mathis — 1.7 mi
• Echo Stagecoach Depot and Post Office — 4.8 mi
• Lagarto Cemetery — 7.0 mi
• Site of the Home of James McGloin — 10 mi