Water Rails & Oil - Historic Mid & South Jefferson County

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As a tribute to the heritage of
Nederland settled by immigrants from
Holland in 1898, citizens of the city
erected a replica of a Dutch windmill
in 1970. The site was dedicated to
actor and singer Tex Ritter, who lived
in Nederland, in 1977. The windmill
houses a museum which pays tribute
to the city’s beginning and displays
artifacts dating back over 100 years.
COURTESY OF THE NEDERLAND
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
A significant portion of Stilwell’s financial
support came from investors in the Netherlands,
so he decided to build a community near the
Gulf of Mexico specifically to receive
immigrants from that north European and
maritime nation. The Port Arthur Township
Company laid out street patterns at a site seven
miles south of Beaumont that they named
Nederland. George Rienstra arrived from the
Netherlands first in November 1897, and before
the month ended forty more Netherlanders had
joined him. They established truck and dairy
farms and eventually many turned to the
cultivation of rice, which became the leading
non-animal agricultural crop in Jefferson
County during the next century.
In addition to such international diversity, the
first African Americans took up residence in Port
Arthur in July 1898, with Lawrence Alexander, an
employee of the city water works, among the first.
By the end of that year the city’s population had
risen to approximately 1,800, and a volunteer fire
department with 35 willing firefighters stood
ready to assist Chief George Stearns suppress
destructive fires. First Bank of Port Arthur, later
known as First National Bank, offered financial
services from its location on the corner of Procter
Street and Austin Avenue; the Port Arthur School
Board, with D.G. Parker as president, took over
administration of schools in the south county
area; and before the year ended, founders Charles
Ashley, E. L. Rothrock, W. E. Hall, E. F. Vilkmer, J.
W. Carter, and W. M. Smith organized the Board
of Trade—later the Greater Port Arthur Chamber
of Commerce—and named George M. Craig its
first president.
In the last five years of the nineteenth
century, south Jefferson County experienced
more change and economic development than
had occurred during all previous millenniums.
Out of the ruins of old Aurora, visionary Arthur
Stilwell followed his hunch, his intuition, his
Brownies, from the heartland to the sea. He built
an inland port and connected it to the world via
Sabine Pass. Industry, especially if connected to
exporting, retail development, public and
private utilities, and other services—including
city water, electricity, and telephone, a new
communication device—were in place. New
towns and increasing population evidenced a
bright future for Stilwell’s dream. Even Stilwell
and his Brownies did not foresee changes just
over the horizon in the new century that would
be wrought by oil and steel.
20 ✦ WATER, RAILS & OIL