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Eli
T. Merriman
CAMPAIGN TO BRING TOURISTS HERE THIS WINTER
IS URGED
E. T. MERRIMAN POINTS OUT NEED OF
ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN TO INDUCE NORTHERN PEOPLE TO SPEND THEIR WINTERS HERE
-- ALSO PLEADS FOR MORE FACTORIES
Eli T. Merriman, a director of the Commercial
club, pioneer newspaper man of the Gulf Coast country and a representative
business man, yesterday pointed out to The Caller that two paramount matters
of importance that should now engage the people of this city is first a
campaign to bring winter visitors her and second renewed efforts to secure
factories and more payrolls.
Mr. Merriman in discussing these matters said:
“As to the winter visitors, or tourists, it is
certain that the hundreds and thousands that have been going to Europe
annually from the northern states to spend their winters and millions of
dollars are not going there this year, nor are they likely to go there in
great numbers for a long time to come. Most of them are going somewhere.
They have the ______ They are going to travel southward to Florida, some
are coming to Texas while not a few are going to California. Florida and
California which have been getting winter visitors for years on special
trains, are already planning to secure the tourists in greater numbers than
ever before. Florida relying mainly on the New England and North Atlantic
states for her tourists realizing that Texas and California are favored more
by people from Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Colorado
and other northern and western states.
“One advantage Texas has over California is
that of the short distance from most of the states just named, being
hundreds of miles nearer to them but in order to get the greatest number of
tourists some good missionary work must be done. We must advertise and go
after them. The climate down here in south Texas, along the coast
especially, is as fine if not finer than that of California. Corpus Christi
is prepared now as never before to take care of thousands of winter
visitors, having fine hotels and rooming houses, two of the hotels being of
the most modern class. No finer or more comfortable can be found in the
South.
“Our city now has miles of paved street, good
street car system, etc. The managers of our tourist hotels, The Nueces and
Corpus Beach hotels, should get busy now or during the month of August, and
with the assistance of our citizens, put an agent or agents in the field, or
establish an agency in St. Louis, Chicago or some of the leading cities. The
tourists need to be shown, shown pictures and plenty of them: pictures of
the hotels, causeway, the bluff beautification, street scenes, hunting
scenes, pictures of the bay and gulf, showing the fishing, bathing, boating,
etc. as well as told of them. Also of the wonderful health record.
George H. Paul showed up the advantages of
this coast county to the people of the northwest and soon brought into
Corpus Christi and the country south of us train loads of home seekers. Why
can not the same thing be done with the winter tourists? It can be if the
proper steps are taken and the right inducements are offered.
“It would be a grand advertisement for the
hotels and our [colorful?] city if the Nueces or Corpus Beach should have a
special train of northern tourists sleepers come rolling into Corpus Christi
some fine morning, the tourists coming here to make this their winter
headquarters. What railroad company wouldn’t be glad to have the hauling of
such a train into the city and gladly help advertise and bring us more
visitors here this coming winter for there is no nicer place in which to
spend the winter.
As to home industries, Corpus Christi
[really?] needs more of them. To make a pay roll, our city needs factories,
large and small. We want a brick factory. On the corner of Water and
Peoples street is a two story brick building that has stood there over half
a century, the red brick made here before the Civil War. There are others.
What was done here then can be done again.
“Corpus Christi should have a creamery, also a
cannery and pickling plant. Tomatoes are going to waste in the fields
around Corpus Christi, they may be bad now for hauling them in almost. This
city should have a large storage plant.
“It was reported on the street this week that
a box of cucumbers raised here this spring has just been shipped back to
this city by express to supply the demand. No doubt there may be some Corpus
Christi cabbage or lettuce coming back here shortly by express for sale at a
good price, which our farmers ought to receive. They would be glad to get
half such a price and [?] will be charged. And Corpus Christi will soon
have an abundance of good water which has been a long felt want.
“Cheap water and clear water and with natural
gas close at hand, a movement, well organized, should be started here for
getting factories. In the town of Houston, _________ not much larger than
Corpus Christi, there are factories on every hand, one employing twelve
hundred persons. The town has tree clock factories, a box factory, a bell
factory, glass factory, typewriter machine factory, iron foundry, silverware
factory, fishing rod and tackle factory, men’s underwear factory, overall
factory, etc. All the raw material is shipped there, the cotton coming form
the South. Factories mean pay rolls and we should work to get them. With a
good number of factories Corpus Christi with the natural advantage she
already has would soon become a much larger and more productive city.”
Source: Corpus Christi Caller & Daily
Herald, July 14, 1915, p. 8, c. 3 and 4
Research by: Monsignor Michael A. Howell
Transcribed by: Kathryn H. Martin, member
Coastal Bend Genealogical Society
OLD-TIME EDITORS TO BE INVITED TO CORPUS
E. T. Merriman to Ask Texas Editorial
Association to Hold Their 1915 Convention Here
That it is practically assured that the Texas
Editorial Association will meet here in November was the statement made
yesterday by E. T. Merriman, one of the pioneer editors of Texas. The Texas
Editorial Association is composed of editors who have been in the profession
for twenty-five years or longer. The conventions of the Association are
usually attended by thirty or forty members, and have heretofore been held
at Rockport, at the Oakshore Club, or at Houston.
Mr. Merriman has extended the Association an
invitation to meet in Corpus Christi, and he stated that it is practically
assured that the invitation will be accepted. In entertaining the visiting
editors, should they come to Corpus Christi, Mr. Merriman will be assisted
by the local press and the Commercial Club. The convention will last three
days, one of which will be devoted to a trip by boat to Port Aransas. Other
diversions will include an automobile drive over the city and across the
causeway which will have been completed at that time.
Many of the editors are usually accompanied by
their wives, and will probably spend several weeks in the city. Prominent
among the members of Colonel Frank Holland, publisher of Holland’s Magazine
and Farm and Ranch Magazine at Dallas, and one of the best known publishers
in the South.
Source: Corpus Christi Caller & Daily
Herald, July 31, 1915, p. 3, c. 4
Research by: Monsignor Michael A. Howell
Transcribed by: Kathryn H. Martin, member
Coastal Bend Genealogical Society
COMMERCIAL CLUB WORKING TO BRING U.S.
TROOPS HERE
DIRECTORS MONDAY TO TAKE FORMAL ACTION IN
THE MATTER
Eli T. Merriman, a Member of the Board Points
Out advantages of This City for Military Camp
The Commercial Club directors at their
semi-monthly meeting to be held tomorrow night will complete plans for
presenting an invitation to the War Department asking that the Second
Division of the United States Army now at Texas City be transferred to
Corpus Christi, should it be decided to remove the camp, as now seems
probable.
Congressman Garner who represents the Corpus
Christi district will be asked to assist Corpus Christi in securing the
division which consists of 8,000 men. There are so many reasons why Corpus
Christi would prove an admirable location for a military camp that the
Commercial Club believes that the War Department will at least give the
local claims very earnest consideration.
Eli T. Merriman, a pioneer resident and a
director of the club in discussing the matter yesterday said:
“Taylor’s army was stationed at Corpus Christi
before our last war with Mexico, because of its advantageous location.
After that war for a long time and after the Civil War, Uncle Sam kept
several regiments of troops here. Corpus Christi is a hundred and fifty
miles nearer to the lower Rio Grande than San Antonio and about the same
distance to Laredo.
“We have direct rail communication over the
St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railroad with both Brownsville and Sam [Fardveg?],
two most important points on the lower Rio Grande, direct rail communication
via the Texas Mexican with Laredo, a very important point on the Rio Grande,
also direct rail communication over the Link road, with Uvalde, Carrizo
Springs, and the western border, also direct communication by rail including
“The Sap,” over three rail roads with points north. Corpus Christi is within
eighteen miles of Port Aransas and the gulf where United States transports
can get soldiers, if stationed at Corpus Christi, by rail or water in less
than one hour time. Corpus Christi with its forty foot bluff is the safest
place from the storms of the gulf of any place of importance on the entire
Texas coast, being least subject to storms of any city on the Texas coast.
Another advantage Corpus Christi has is its health. Few places in the
south can compare with it. We have the records to show no malaria here, but
plenty of pure air fresh from the sea. Bring the troops here.”
Source: Corpus Christi Caller & Daily
Herald, August 22, 1915, p. 5, c. 3
Research by: Monsignor Michael A. Howell
Transcribed by: Kathryn H. Martin, member
Coastal Bend Genealogical Society
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