Bellville Historical Society

06/18/2026

Many thanks to Dawn Hodges for her hospitality on our visit to her place, and for this wonderful cake and watermelon lemonade and mint infused water. So refreshing!

06/10/2026

We had two local presentation field trips today! We met at the Austin County Jail Museum at 10:00, and our member Bruce Noviskie gave us the history of the building, stories of some of the prisoners, as well as personal history of his family’s time living there. For instance, his mother worked at Rexall Drug store all day, fed the prisoners, and cooked for her own family in the evenings. We made a donation to the museum. This afternoon,nine of us got a wonderful tour of Hodges Farm by Dawn Hodges herself. The first one room cabin dates to 1850, and the larger rectangular home dates to 1865. She can tell you the history not only of the furnishings, but the wood used for the beams and floors. Dawn cooks, cans, gardens, and has pages and a YouTube channel and Tik Tok! We snapped up some of her cookbooks after devouring delicious cake, cookies, and watermelon lemonade she made for us. She does all this without staff, and we appreciate her time.

06/09/2026

Hooray for the red, white, and blue!

05/18/2026

We had a great crowd of 36 at our meeting at Concordia Hall yesterday afternoon! Thank you so much to Dr. Sarah Chesney, the archeologist at San Felipe de Austin SHS for coming out to tell us about the excavations at the old town site and the exciting developments regarding progress on the archeology lab construction— San Felipe site. Dr. Chesney brought in some visitors from nearby who are naturalists or in archeology groups like Sharon Menegaz. Our meetings are free, open to the public, and delicious. Our next one is on September 13. Come hear about the nearly 100 year history of the Austin County Fair. It’s a big deal here! Thank you for your support and for following us.

04/29/2026

04/26/2026

When the victorious Texian army came back to Goliad from the Battle of San Jacinto, they were escorting Mexican soldiers back to Mexico. After seeing the unburied bodies of the Texians who had been executed near the Presidio La Bahia in Goliad, they stopped the march to gather the remains and bury them. This mound is their final resting place, and the state erected this memorial as a group headstone.

04/26/2026

Our Lady of Loreto Chapel is beautifully refurbished. The Vatican approved it becoming a part of the State Historical Site system with the provision that the state allowed it to remain an official, active church. It is rather small, but all 400 men were held here as prisoners for days with little to eat or drink before they were massacred.

04/26/2026

The second part of the field trip took place 27 miles away in Goliad at the presidio La Bahia. We had a fabulous tour guide who made the scenes come alive. This is a very important site in Texas history due to the large number of Texian men executed there—about 400. Since it is tucked away in a small south Texas town, it doesn’t get near the public notice as the Alamo. The Mexican army under Gen. Santa Anna captured men from two battles and marched them to this presidio to wait for what they were told was deportation. They were executed on Palm Sunday by orders of Santa Anna.

04/26/2026

Cannon barrels from the Belle, spear heads from an ancient era, a group of us at the entrance to the new ranching history exhibit, and watching what work is done after excavation. Very nice museum!(Victoria’s Museum of the Coastal Bend).

04/26/2026

Atl-atl throwers from the group discovered how hard it is to throw these things! They are wonders of ancient engineering. Mr. Garza also showed us lots of examples of spear heads and arrow heads recovered from their dig at the McNeill ranch.