Join me in rediscovering the early days of La Porte, Texas, the oldest incorporated city in East Harris County. Founded in 1892, La Porte, quietly with no pomp or circumstance, turned 132 years old on August 10th, 2024. These are the stories of its beginnings, early pioneers, and events of its early history.
First Historian
Many of the stories presented here of La Porte and its people are from, or are based upon, the archives and personal writings of Mary Gertrude Ackerly. Gertrude visited La Porte with her husband and children on Memorial Day weekend in 1914. After just a short visit, Gertrude fell in love with the beauty of the Bay and the warm hospitality of its people, and by October, they called La Porte, Texas, their home.
Throughout the years, she held the role of wife, mother, prolific amateur photographer, businesswoman, and newspaper reporter. Because of her foresight and undying dedication to keeping La Porte’s history, Gertrude Ackerly undoubtedly deserves the title of La Porte’s first historian.
La Porte historian Gertrude Ackerly passed away on March 24, 1962, leaving behind a manuscript of the first 50 years of La Porte, Texas, early history as told to her first and secondhand by those who lived it.
Her Quest
Not long after World War II, Sylvan Beach Park sat barren, no more than a cow pasture along the Bay. Its glory days were only a memory. The trees and pier were destroyed by a “maverick” hurricane in 1941, followed by a second, devastating “surprise” hurricane in 1943. The world was at war, and men’s attentions were turned elsewhere. But Gertrude? It was then that she realized much of La Porte’s original historical documents, newspapers, and the like had also been destroyed over the years by storms or fires– the 1915 fire and storm being the worst loss. So, somebody had to preserve what remained. Plus, by the 1940s, fewer and fewer original La Porte pioneers were still around to tell their stories, and that clock was ticking.
Fortunately, Gertrude had collected newsworthy mementos and photographs since moving to La Porte in 1914. So one day, in early April 1947, Mary Gertrude Ackerly vowed to dedicate all of her time to preserving the accounts of the early days of La Porte history before they were lost forever in people’s minds.
Assisted by many citizens and their ancestors in her quest, writing letter upon letter, she personally interviewed those she could. Most notable was Mr. A. O. Blackwell, attorney for the original town developers, the Nebraska Syndicate. Among the many roles he played in La Porte’s development, he was La Porte’s postmaster and alderman, and he was also La Porte’s first attorney.
Gertrude spent many hours talking with Mr. Blackwell and obtained valuable dates and first-hand details. Through him, she could peruse his copies of the first issues of The La Porte Chronicle, La Porte’s first newspaper. In addition, she obtained numerous photographs from his collection.
Gertrude’s O.P.U.S.
It took Gertrude over five years to complete the writing of the manuscript she called her O.P.U.S. of La Porte as of Yesteryear and Today. Sadly, the manuscript, completed in 1953, never made it to press. Instead, her writings and photograph albums have been cherry-picked over the years, appearing reworked (occasionally, with misidentified photographs and other inaccuracies) as various articles in La Porte newspapers, such as The La Porte Chronicle, The La Porte Reporter, The La Porte Press, and The La Porte Leader, to name a few. It also served as the basis of her grandson and historian Gordon Black’s newspaper column, “The Way It Was” featured in the La Porte-Bayshore Sun during the 1980s until his death in 1991.
What Remains
My quest to reconstruct Gertrude’s La Porte O.P.U.S. began in 2018 when boxes of archives filled with her personal writings, old newspapers, and photograph albums came out of storage. A true treasure trove, neglected and packed away for decades, the ravages of time and the elements took their toll on much of the material. But what remains is a valuable first-hand testament to the past.
I look forward to sharing Gertrude’s stories of La Porte, Texas’ early history — reconstructed and enriched with discoveries.
