(Special Thanks to Mr. James G. Hopkins)
Provident City
A city that lived only four years is
Provident City, located on the Wharton-Colorado County line on property
belonging to the late R.H. (Bruce) Hancock known as the Goldenrod Ranch.
The Provident Land Company of Kansas City, Missouri, was responsible for promoting
land sales in 1910 and eventually 500 families from the Middle
West arrived to claim the five and ten-acre tracts they had bought
sight-unseen.
The settlers were promised a railroad, but
it never got beyond the roadbed stage. A bank was built, a two-story
school house, an elegant hotel and a general store. Five-room houses
were advertised for $365 in The Homefinder, a newspaper about Provident City
published in Kansas City, but they were never built because there was no
railroad on which to ship them.
The school house was used for many years,
and Mr. Hancock turned the hotel into ranch headquarters and his hunting
lodge.
(From an article by Barbara Attwell in The Houston Chronicle magazine,
April 6, 1958)
The History of Wharton County, 1946-1961
Annie Lee Williams
Provident City
Provident City, located 18 miles southwest
of Nada in Colorado County, cannot be found on the map. Established
in 1909, this ghost town was founded on the exaggerated claims of the
Provident Land Company of Kansas City, Missouri, which promised a wealth
of farming opportunities in the new town.
Using slick advertising techniques and
false documents, the Provident Land Company passed off the barren land,
oftentimes site unseen, on unsuspecting buyers. The Provident Land
Company drew in clients by using photographs taken from rich farmland nowhere
near Provident City. The company loaded its Homefinders
magazine with false testimonials. Although more than 500 families
settled there, the town never really took root because the boastful claims
that the land would grow figs, sweet potatoes, oranges, peanuts, tomatoes,
and other crops in abundance were totally false.
When the landowners tried to discourage
buyers from wasting their money, the Provident Land Company came back with
the reply that the land was so valuable that locals did not want any more
settlers to share in its riches. The company also built a hotel in
Ganado for prospective buyers to stay in while touring the town.
Most people who bought the land soon were faced with the sobering
realization that they had been taken.
Within four years of its founding,
Provident City became a ghost town. The tracts were on the worst of
farming land. Even larger tracts of 20 or more acres could not
support a family. People moved out as soon as they could, but a few
of them remained.
During its short four-year life, Provident
City had 21 businesses, two churches, a two room schoolhouse, a post
office, and a baseball team.
Today, all that remains is the hotel, now
used as headquarters of the Goldenrod Ranch (owned by the Hancock family
of El Campo), as well as a few tenant houses.
The Medallion
News of Historic Preservation in Texas
February 1988
One Woman's World
by Ruby Ethel Tardiff
"Brigadoon", the play recently
put on by our high school, was about a town that disappeared and only
reappeared every one hundred years. Not too many miles from us is a
town that was born and grew to maturity, only to disappear within a few
short years. I don't think it will physically reappear in a hundred
years, but in the hearts and minds of many people of this vicinity it
ofttimes reappears in memories.
Out on the prairie north of Sandies Creek
once lay the thriving city of Provident City. It boasted a bank, a
jewelry store, a saloon, a feed store, a lumber yard, a Baptist Church , a
Methodist Church (which met upstairs over the grocery store), the grocery
store, a hotel, a canning factory, a broom factory, a doctor, a
contractor, a blacksmith shop, a post office. There were caskets for
sale also. These were stored in the feed store. And because
where there's life, there's death, a cemetery sprang up. It's still
there, lonely and perhaps forgotten, back in the woods.
The town was born around 1900 when the
Provident City Land Company bought up from fifteen to twenty thousand
acres of land. Two sections of land were laid out in lots for the
city, with five to ten acre plots surrounding the city area for fruit and
vegetable farming.
The land company built a hotel in Ganado to
house their clients who came to buy, mostly from the Northern
States. They took them in surreys out to see this prospective new
city and showed them a railroad grade which had no beginning or no end but
which promised to eventually bring the railroad from Glen Flora to
Provident City. Traces of it can still be found. Eventually a
large two story hotel was built in Provident City.
Maggie (Mrs. Elbert) Goff was one of the
residents of Provident City who remembers it as a thriving town.
When she was three years old her father traded their home and store in
Missouri for a blackland farm near Cordele sight unseen. It had been
misrepresented to them and when her father died shortly after their
arrival they lost the farm. She and her mother and brothers and
sisters moved to Provident City.
They bought their groceries at the
Coleman-Newman Store, later owned entirely by Mr. T.B. Coleman. He
was the father of Ralph, George, and Howard Coleman, residents of El
Campo. She remembers him as a kind, generous person who gave her
candy when she was a child and who never knew how to say no to his broke
customers.
Other residents she remembers were the H.P.
Fischers, Mr. Fischer owned the broom factory and was the father of Edity
(Mrs. Ralph) Coleman. Others she mentioned were the Upchurches,
Hazelys, Withams, Guinns, Spencers (he was the doctor), Stimsons, Jim
Price (the mailcarrier), two families of Clinkscales (Frost and Ollie)
with Frost Clinkscale having the first automobile in the community that
she remembers, Knights, Whitleys, Finlays, Tenners, (two families, Dick
and A.T.), Giffords, (he was the notary public), Crosses, Terrells, (they
ran the hotel), Neumans, Nolans, Shacklets (he was the blacksmith and his
wife ran the post office), Fuller, Menos (they ran the restaurant),
Browns, McClains, Burns, Hopkins, Crabbs, Arnolds, Spores, Wilbanks,
Kings, Hunts (he was the well-digger), Lapphans, Spoldings, Andersons,
McGees, Carpenters, Rees, Townsends, Roger, and Maritzkes.
The town started breaking up between the
years of 1915 and 1920; with the families drifting away, mostly back to
the North from which they came. When I saw the town for the first
time in the late 1920's all that remained of the business district was the
stately old hotel, a grocery store, a schoolhouse, and a deserted
bank. Today the hotel is the headquarters of the Hancock
ranch. The school house which was once a two story building with two
rooms upstairs and two down has been torn down and made into a little one
room red school house. That is all that remains of the once booming
city out on the prairie.
Over the years, heirs of those early
residents have come down from the North to see the land which their
relatives left behind. Most all of it has been consumed by larger
acreages but most of the present owners pay off the heirs at current
market prices for their small acreages.
El Campo Citizen
November 15, 1966
El Campo, Texas
Provident City
Golden Rod Prairie is enjoying quite a boom at present, despite the fact
that it is 18 miles from any railway. A new town called Providence
is started and RAP. Gould, we understand, has a large contract in hauling
lumber from Rock Island.
Colorado Citizen
April 2, 1909
Columbus, Texas
Carey Shaw's Road Surveyors Are Out
Winfrey, Schafli and Porter, civil
engineers of Houston have started a full corps of surveyors to lay out the
preliminary survey for the new line of road that is to be built through
Wharton, Colorado and Lavaca counties by Carey Shaw of Houston and
prominent capitalists of Kansas City. The surveying corps with 16
men, under charge of Chief Engineer A. Schafli, left El Campo Tuesday
morning and will survey the line by way of Glen Flora, Provident City and
Hallettsville. The preliminary survey will require about six weeks
time after which the construction work will be commenced immediately.
The organization of the company to acquire
the right of way was noted in The Chronicle. Mr. Shaw and his
associates will, in the near future, change this to a railroad
construction company with adequate capital already subscribed and will
begin to build the road which touches and drains one of the richest
agricultural sections of the state.
Eagle Lake Headlight
August 21, 1909
Eagle Lake, Texas
Carey Shaw's Railroad
Hon. Carey Shaw left on Monday night for a
trip to Oklahoma in connection with his proposed new railroad through
several counties in South Texas. Mr. Shaw was seen by a Chronicle
representative prior to his departure and said that the active work of
surveying the line was now in full progress with a complete corps of
surveyors in the field. As soon as they have outlined the route the
actual construction work will commence. He thought that grading
would begin about October 1. The road as it is being surveyed will
run through Wharton, Lavaca, and Colorado counties and will open up new
and rich shipping territories.
(Houston Chronicle)
Eagle Lake Headlight
August 21, 1909
Eagle Lake, Texas
Provident City to the Front
On October first, at eight o'clock a.m.
about 500 people from Provident City and vicinity, gathered at the depot
sight, to see the commencement of actual grading operations on the P.C.
& G.C. Railroads which will connect this place with Glen Flora on the
Santa Fe, and Pierce on the Southern Pacific
After the people had all gathered Col. J.D.
McManus, the president of the railroad delivered a few remarks and then
introduced the Hon. Carey M. Shaw of Houston, the vice-president of the
road, and one of the greatest railroad builders of the South.
Mr. Shaw spoke of the past, present, and
the great future now assured for this country, and was received with much
enthusiasm by the people present.
After a few remarks by some of the old
settlers present about their past experience in this section, the
vice-president of the road descended from the speakers platform, and after
a few more appropriate remarks placed the first shovelful of dirt on the
grade at 10:10 a.m. and at the same time assured the future of Provident
City as one of the bests in the gulf coast country, for the only thing
needed to develop this section is the railroad, and now after many months
of waiting the people of Provident City and vicinity can truthfully say to
all the doubters and knockers, that he who laughs last laughs best.
(Colorado Citizen)
Weimar Mercury
October 14, 1910
Weimar, Texas
No Rails on Provident City Railroad Put Down Yet
Mr. Cole Hopkins who lives near Provident
City, was a visitor in the city Monday. He says work is still
progressing on the Provident City railroad, though very slowly. He
says the dup has now been thrown up from Provident City as far as the
Sandies creek, but that no rails have yet been laid. Several months
ago this paper published that that rails on this road had been laid as far
as the Sandies. A man, claiming to be from Provident City, called at
our office at the time and volunteered the item of news. We had
never seen the man before, but believing of course the item of news having
been given us in good faith we printed it.
Eagle Lake Headlight
April 29, 1911
Eagle Lake, Texas
Railroad
Another railroad begun but never finished
was one connected with what was known as the "Provident Trac."
A section about thirteen miles northwest of Louise was purchased by
Northern land promoters for development, and in 1908 the Santa Fe Railway
Company surveyed a route from Glen Flora to Cuero and San Antonio, having
already spanned the Colorado with a $60,000 bridge and extended their
track to a distance of six miles in this direction. The grade was
built up between Provident City, on the borderline of Wharton and Colorado
counties, and Glen Flora, but the road was never built. (Louise News, Oct.
10, 1908)
The History of Wharton County 1846-1961
Annie Lee Williams
Provident City
R.M. Rowse, one of our popular retail
merchants is having an addition built to his store this week. Mr.
Rowse has one of the best equipped medium size stores in Southwest Texas,
but his ever increasing business demands more room.
The settlers were promised a railroad, but
The Provident Commercial Club met at its
regular meeting May 7-11 and adopted by-laws and elected officers.
The new concrete store building of the
Provident City Lumber Company is nearing completion and will be ready for
occupancy soon. This is one of the nicest store buildings yet
erected at Provident City and is a credit to any town much larger than
Provident City.
Colorado Citizen
May 12, 1911
Columbus, Texas
Provident City
The Provident City Commercial Club met at
its regular session Friday night and among other business ordered a five
hundred dollar stock issue to start a canning factory. The stock was
subscribed for almost at once and work began on the building Tuesday
morning. It is expected to have the factory in operation by June 15.
The buildings under construction are almost
all completed but several more are just starting, so the rapid growth of
the community is still progressing.
Jas. F. Rice, our furniture man is very
busy these days unpacking the large stock of new goods he has received
lately.
Mr. Light Townsend will have his meat
market open for business in a few more days.
D.Dale, our real estate man, returned from
a quick trip to El Campo Tuesday.
Colorado Citizen
May 19, 1911
Columbus, Texas
Provident City
Population 150. In Colorado county,
20 miles north of Louise, the nearest shipping point and 35 miles south of
Columbus, the county seat. Has a bank. Mail daily.
| Beaudry, P.M. | Hotel |
| Berry, J.M. & Co. | Harness |
| Clark, R.J. | Furniture & Undertaker |
| Coleman & Neuman | Dry Goods |
| Meno, Paul | Confectioner |
| Merecka, Paul | Blacksmith |
| Peoples, Frank | Feed |
| Provident City Supply Co. | General Store |
| Provident State Bank (Capital $10,000), T.B. Coleman, Pres., J.H. Fenner, Cashier. | |
| Rouse, R.M. | General Store |
| Schacklett, W.A. | Blacksmith |
| Spencer, F.C. | Drugs |
R.L. Polk & Co.
Texas State Gazetteer and Business Directory 1914-1915
Detroit, Michigan
Provident State Bank
In December of 1909, charter number 567 was
issued for the Provident State Bank with a capital of $10,000.00 and the
following men as directors: T.B. Coleman of Golden Rod, Texas, as
president, Chas. O. Fenner of Cordale, Texas, as cashier, R.J. Clark of
Seclusion, Texas., Emil Reinhold of Kansas City, Missouri, A.D. Peoples of
Ganado, Texas, and A.R. Knight and Daniel Willett of Golden Road.
The bank's post office address was also Golden Road, Texas.
A statement of condition on February 4,
1913, showed deposits of $13,230.00, loans and discounts of $7,600.00, and
total assets of $23,612.00. As Provident City failed to grow, so did
the financial institution, and in July of 1914, the bank was forced into
liquidation with N.M. Craft in charge of disposing of the assets.
History of Banking in Colorado County,
Texas
Compiled by W.H. Harrison, President, The First National Bank, Eagle
Lake, Texas. 1976
| U.S. Postmasters | Provident City (Late Goldenrod) |
| GoldenRod (late in Wharton County) | |
| Anderson R. Knight | 6 Dec. 1900 |
| Move to Provident City | 1 Feb. 1910 |
| Provident City (late Goldenrod) | |
| Anderson R. Knight | 1 Feb. 1910 |
| Lysle R. Clinkscales | 22 Jan. 1915 |
| Mrs. E.W. Shacklette | 22 June 1918 |
| Thos. B. Coleman | 8 Apr. 1930 |
| Discontinued | 8 Jan. 1935 |
| Order Rescinded | 15 Jan. 1935 |
| Howard W. Coleman | 29 July 1947 |
| Discontinued | 30 July 1953 |
| Mail to Louise | 31 Aug. 1953 |
| Jim Price | Mail Carrier |
Source: U.S. Postmasters Colorado County, Texas. National Archives and Records Service, General Services Administration, Washington D.C.
Mrs. L. Brownson
News was received here Saturday afternoon
of the death of Mrs. Bronson, which occurred at 11 a.m., at her home on
the Sandies after a two weeks' illness. At the time of her death Mrs.
Bronson was 68 years of age. She was before her marriage Miss Sidney
Ann Harris. In 1869 she was married to Mr. L. Bronson, their home at
that time being Missouri. In 1869 she was married to Mr. L. Bronson,
their home at that time being Missouri. In 1872 they came to Texas
and have been residents of Colorado county for 31 years. Mrs.
Bronson is survived by her husband, one son Mr. Bates Bronson, five
daughters, Mrs. Gus Weisler of Eagle Lake, Mrs. Mose Townsend of Rock
Island, Mesdames W.S. Griffitts, W.H. Pinchback and Albert Loughridge of
Garwood and a number of grandchildren. Mrs. Bronson had been a
member of the Methodist church since she was a little girl and lived an
exemplary Christian life, Internment took place at the family cemetery,
near their home at 2 p.m. Sunday. Rev. Mr. Baine conducted the
funeral ceremonies. The Garwood Red Cross, the Missionary Society
and the W.C.T.U. sent beautiful floral offerings. The bereaved ones
have the sympathy of every one in the community.
Eagle Lake Headlight
January 26, 1918
Eagle Lake, Texas
Complaint Against Saloon
A petition asking the revocation of the
license of a saloonkeeper at Provident Cit, Colorado County, has been
received by Comptroller Terrell from Citizens of that place, who allege
that the saloon was kept open during the recent county school trustee
election. This is the first complaint against a saloon for keeping
open on that election day received by the Comptroller. An
investigation will be made.
Weimar Mercury
April 16, 1915
Weimar, Texas
Provident
City Man is Under Federal Arrest
(Dr. F.C. Spencer Arrested On Charge of Making Inflammatory Remarks against
the Government)
Sheriff T.J. Blhorn last Saturday placed Dr.
F.C. Spencer, a practicing physician of Provident City, this county, under
arrest on a charge of having made inflammatory remarks against the
government. Dr. Spencer is a man of about fifty-five years of age.
Sheriff Balhorn went to Provident City in his car and brought the man with
him back to Columbus where they boarded the train and the prisoner was
taken to Houston and there turned over to the federal authorities.
The man arrested is said to have made remarks against the government,
against the United States flag and against registration for army service.
Sheriff Balhorn states hat he was told that the man even went so far as to
sent to Hallettsville in an attempt to get a German flag. Mr.
Balhorn was called by telephone from Provident City and told of the event.
He placed the man under arrest and notified the district attorneys office
at Houston and asked what to do with him. He was instructed to bring
him right on to Houston. When Sheriff Balhorn approached Dr. Spencer
in Provident City and introduced himself and told him that he had come for
him, Dr. Spencer said: "Well, I reckon I have talked to
much." "I reckon so," said Sheriff Balhorn,
"let's go from here." And they got in the Sheriff's big
Chandler car and hit the trail across the prairies for Columbus.
Eagle Lake Headlight
June 9, 1917
Eagle Lake, Texas
Billy Hopkins
While riding after cattle in a pasture near
Provident City on Monday morning Master Billy Hopkins had the misfortune
of having his horse fall with him, caused by the horse's feet becoming
entangled in some net wire. He was thrown to the ground and
apparently lifeless when his father, Mr. Jim Hopkins got to him.
Physicians were at once summoned and pronounced the injuries as concussion
of the brain. On Monday afternoon he was brought to Garwood to his
grandmother's, Mrs. J.D. Hopkins, the family Dr. Hutson and Mrs. Terrell a
trained nurse from Provident City being with him. Up to the present
writing he has not regained consciousness but other conditions are
favorable and all hope he will soon be well again.
Eagle Lake Headlight
August 31, 1918
Eagle Lake, Texas
Halletsville New Era Tells of Land Sharks at Provident City
The following is copied from the last issue
of the Halletsville New Era:
Mr. R.J. Clark, Sr., of Seclusion, one of the old time ranchmen of he
lower part of the county, was in town on business yesterday. He was
looking well and says he feels the same.
He says that the Kansas City land sharks
are still "bumping suckers" in Provident City. Lately a
man came down all the way from Wichita, Kansas to inspect a tract of 40
acres adjoining Provident City that he had bought from the company at the
rate of $40 per acre, and what was more, he had paid for it all. On
arriving at this wonderful "city" he found that his tract was
part of a large block of land that had been sold under sheriff's sale by
the Provident Company at the rate of $4 per acre some months back.
The land company thereupon agreed to give him any 40 acre tract he wished
to take.
Mr. Clark happened to talk to the man about
this time, and at once advised him in this wise: "Don't take any of
their land. Ask for your money back, instead. Be satisfied if
you et just half your money back, but don't take any of their land, as it
is worth but a small part of what you paid for it. You can't
possibly make your living on forty acres of it."
The land grafters have pretty thoroughly
prejudiced their dupes against accepting the advice of the native Texans
living near Provident City tract, but this Kansas man did accept Mr.
Clark's suggestion and is now trying to get his money back. Of
course there are hundreds of others that are not even as fortunate, but
have sunk their all in this "crawfish" land and have no hope of
getting a cent in return.
Speaking of prejudicing the newcomers that
is done to this wise: The land sharks know that our people know that
the land is almost worthless and are the kind of folks that would not
hesitate to tell the poor Northerners the truth about it. So the
land sharks craftily fill their victims full of tales about how the
cattlemen and ranchmen of that part of the county are opposed to
settlement, how they will try all they can to keep settlers out even to
the point of cutting fences, etc., stories that of course sound ridiculous
to any Lavacite. However, the poor fellows believe what is told them
at least long enough for them to be tied up hard and fast with nearly
valueless land on their hands.
"Why," said Mr. Clark, "one
good lady on whom was unloaded some of this land, was made to believe that
on a certain large tree near the colony the ranchmen had hung eight
settlers in past years. She believed it so strong that just before
returning to her northern home she took a Kodak picture of the tree as a
souvenir of Texas toughness to show her people. Of course, we all
took it as a joke, but it was darned serious when you think of it."
(Marked copies of this article will be sent
to various leading newspapers in Kansas Missouri and other states from
where the poor fellows come from that are cheated in this respect. We
are going to do what we can to stop this infernal robbery.
Eagle Lake Headlight
May 29, 1915
Eagle Lake, Texas
Prairie Fire Menaced Small Town in County
(Citizens of Provident City fight prairie
fire which threatened that town one day last week)
Provident City, a small town in the extreme
southwestern end of this county, just within the Colorado county line at a
point where Colorado, Lavaca, and Wharton Counties come together, was near
destruction by a prairie fire the early part of last week. The
surrounding country is a prairie and overgrown with grass, nearly all
being grazing lands and pastures. The fire originated two days
before it reached Provident City and would have missed the town had it not
been for a change of the wind which twisted the flames directly toward the
town. Every available person in the community began hasty
preparations for the "fire fight." The flames reached the
town about 1 o'clock in the afternoon and it took heroic work on the part
of the inhabitants to save their homes and the hotel, a large two-story
frame building, church, and other buildings. Prof. C.K. Kuykendall,
principal of the school, with the pupils old enough to "fightfire,"
especially distinguished themselves in the work.
The fight continued until five o'clock p.m.
Wet sacks, sand, mud, etc. were used and when it came to a
"show-down" wet sacks were used as weapons and the fire was
actually beaten out like one killing snakes.
Eagle Lake Headlight
January 20, 1917
Eagle Lake, Texas
Accidentally Shot and Killed
Mr. Lewis Edwin Brownson, a prominent and
popular young man, living with his parents about twelve miles from
Garwood, accidentally shot and killed himself Sunday morning about 6:30
o'clock. He had just gotten out of bed and was dressing when his
mother informed him that a number of cows and hawks were near the house,
and after finishing dressing, went into another room to get his shotgun.
In reaching for the gun, a 12-guage L.C. Smith hammerless, he caught hold
of it by the barrel when in some unaccountable manner it was discharged,
the whole load of No. 7 1/2 shot taking effect just below the heart,
ranging downward. He was evidently in a stooping position when shot.
Medical aid was summoned immediately but he expired before the arrival of
the doctors. Mr. Brownson regained consciousness shortly after being
shot and spoke a few words, but life was extinct about one hour later from
the time of the fatal and deplorable accident occurred.
Mr. Brownson was a young man of high
standing, an excellent gentleman and well liked by all who knew him, and
the news of the sad accident that befell him was received with regret here.
(Garwood Express)
Weimar Mercury
February 21, 1913
Weimar, Texas
Provident City "Boom"
H.M. Crabb one f the leading citizens of
the Seclusion section, was in the city yesterday. A reporter asked
him of the status of Provident City and he says that this boom city is now
practically a dream city. Everybody that was financially able to
leave has shook its dust from his or her feet, while the few that still
remain are there only because they are as yet not able to get away.
Tar and feathers would be too good for the real estate sharks that were
responsible for this wholesale robbery of poor fellows from Kansas, Missouri
and Oklahoma and other states who bought this land "sight
unseen" on the flattering representations of the sharks aforesaid.
One victim told the writer only a few weeks ago that he had been
"roped in" by the land agents, after seeing some moving pictures
of the wonderful Provident City country at a moving picture show in a
Kansas town, the smooth agents having of course "doctored" these
pictures and arranged with the proprietor to show them to the suckers.
In these pictures, by the way, there were great orange trees and groves,
the building of the Provident City "Railway", etc.
(Hallettsville New Era)
Weimar Mercury
July 18, 1913
Weimar, Texas