Texas Now Magazine March 2015 | Page 18

Ingleside Hearth Of The Coastal Bend Photos by Back in 1854 a fellow by the name of George C. Hatch purchased land on both sides of a bayou which was situated on a bay. He later acquired over 3,800 acres of land, which he then sold to Walter Ingalls, Henry Nold, James Aware, John Pollard, John W. Vineyard and a few others. A community began to form and it was the beginning of something big! Legend has it that the town was named by Vineyard, who christened the site after his ancestral home in Scotland. He dubbed it Ingleside, which means “fireside”. ing, that is until the 1880s, when George Hatch and his son John introduced grape culture to the area. The grape culture was soon developed into a flourishing business which lasted over 50 years - until the vines were killed by blight! Situated on Corpus Christi Bay, the City of Ingleside played host to the many steamships plying the waters of the bay between Corpus Christi and Ingleside, carrying trade goods from far away parts. Back in the day the early communities of Ingleside were known as Old Ingleside, Inwood, Ingleside Cove, Ingleside-on-the-Bay, Palomas, Cove City and Cove, and the folks that lived there built homes on the bayou and at Ingleside Cove. George and Marcellus Turner settled in the area in 1855 and two years later Marcellus obtained a grant for the first post office. A local general store was opened by George Hatch and Youngs L. Coeman with Henry Nold II who operated the Ingleside Male and Female Academy, often referred to as “Nold Academy”. Mr. Nold operated the boarding school from 1857 until it was destroyed by Union soldiers in 1862. During this period of development, Ingleside’s primary industries were farming and ranch- 18 In 1990, The Naval Station At Ingleside, Began Operations Get Your History On At TexasNOWmag.com