Roses bloomed at Kearney's
November 12, 2003
On Chaparral Street in the 19th Century, there was always something interesting in the windows of DeRyee's Drug Store. Once, there was a stuffed duck, its bill clamped in an oyster shell. DeRyee's (which originally was DeRyee and Westervelt) was on the corner of Peoples, on the left side looking north. The two-story building was built by Dr. William DeRyee himself. He made the shellcrete blocks for the building, and he collected mahogany driftwood on the island which he used to frame the doors and windows. Candles made in Civil War Dr. DeRyee, a chemist from Alsace-Lorraine, came here in 1848 with John M. Moore. He was a chemist who first made a living by making and selling soap and candles. His candles were in great demand during the Civil War, when the Union blockade limited outside supplies. DeRyee's drug store was torn down to clear the way for the four-story City National Bank Building, built in 1908. (That building is still there, though it has been remodeled and stripped of its original facade.) Down the street from DeRyee's was Hall's tin shop, decorated with a stove mounted on a pole. Johnny Hall sold stoves and heating equipment. One story told was that Hall was hired by the rancher Mifflin Kenedy to install the gutterwork on his mansion on the bluff. Kenedy was such a demanding taskmaster that he made Johnny Hall redo the work three times before he'd pay him. Past Hall's was William Funk's soft-drink stand, and two boarding houses run by Eli Merriman's mother. Across from DeRyee's, on the east side of Chaparral, at the corner of Peoples, was Lichtenstein's department store. Morris Lichtenstein was a Confederate veteran who fought with Sibley's Brigade in New Mexio. After the war, he opened a store in Indianola. He moved his operation to Corpus Christi in 1874, the year before the great hurricane virtually wiped out Indianola. Lichtenstein sold calico and fancy dress goods which he brought from New York on annual buying expeditions. He also sold guns and ammo. A year after he opened his store on Chaparral, a company of Texas Rangers led by Capt. Leander McNelly stopped at Lichtenstein's. This was after the Nuecestown raid and the Rangers were on their way to clean up the border. Lichtenstein, the story goes, provided the Rangers with Sharps carbines and told them not to worry about paying him, that he would rather give them away than have bandits steal them. That story is told in "Taming the Nueces Strip." Lichtenstein's establishment, which began in a rented frame building, would become the city's dominant department store for almost a century. The store's operations were moved three times, always on Chaparral. Past Lichtenstein's was J.B. (John Belden) Mitchell's hardware and furniture store. (This would later be occupied by E.L. Caldwell's hardware store.) Mitchell sold fencing material, plows, Studebaker wagons, harrows and Buckeye mowers. His store was followed by George French's grocery store (later Evans & Hickey). This was followed by the Kearney cottage, which was used as the U.S. Customs Office. Pale pink cabbage roses Dr. Thomas Kearney was brought to Corpus Christi during the yellow fever epidemic of 1867. He came from Havana and later sent back to Havana for four rose bushes, which he planted in the front yard, two on each side. They were described as cabbage roses, with pale pink petals. They were Corpus Christi's most famous roses, and always in demand by young men for their sweethearts. Anxious eyes kept a watch on Kearney's cottage for the first blooms of spring. There's a hotel parking lot at that site today, with no rose bushes to mar the view. At the end of the block, at the intersection with Starr Street, were John Woessner's buildings. At the corner was the Woessner Bank and general merchandise store. Next to this building was the Woessner wool warehouse, with a public hall upstairs where dances were held. Judge Walter Timon once said the best dances in the world were held at Woessner Hall, where the floor was "springy and fine." In the next block, at the corner of Taylor, was the old Ranahan home, built of shellcrete in 1853. During the federal bombardment of Corpus Christi in 1862, a shell smashed through the front wall, leaving a three-foot hole. When the old building was torn down in 1938, to clear the site for a parking lot for the Ritz Theater, the house-mover, Ed Brennan, was killed when a wall fell on him. The 'Ironclad Oath' house Across Taylor, on the east side on the corner, and east of the Church of the Good Shepherd, was the home of Royal Givens, the town's fish and oyster dealer. Before Givens bought it, it was known as the old Russell Home. After the Civil War, Union officers in command of occupation forces used the Russell home as their headquarters. It was here that citizens were required to take the "Ironclad Oath" of loyalty before they could vote. Despite the bitterness left from the war, there was a will for peace._One old Confederate veteran said he'd seen enough fighting, that he would walk three miles to go around a blue coat hanging on a stump. This is the last of four columns on Chaparral. A series on Mesquite Street will begin next week. Murphy Givens can be reached at 886-4315 or by e-mail at givensm@caller.com. His radio commentary can be heard at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and at 6:30 p.m. Friday on KEDT (90.3 FM) and KVRT-Victoria (90.7 FM).
Part IV of IV
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