Thalian Club
8 March 1907: In 1901 three hundred Houstonian men ”noted for their entrepreneurial and social prowess” founded The Thalian Club dedicated to promote the fine arts and literature. They intended to form a members’ library and sponsor readings and art exhibitions, but the membership was generous and they were able to build this hall in 1907 at the southeast corner of Rusk and San Jacinto. The building included meeting rooms, a basement bowling alley, billiard hall, wine and ice rooms, and a barbershop. Members included: included: brothers Will and Mike Hogg, sons of the former governor; Marcellus Foster, publisher of the Houston Chronicle; Raymond Dickson, owner of the Dickson Iron Works; Jesse Jones, Houston’s foremost entrepreneur; James L. Autry; John K. Foley; William Thomas Carter; Henry Frederick MacGregor, and many other of Houston’s leaders.
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18 June 2004: The entire downtown block bounded by Rusk, San Jacinto, Walker and Caroline has lain fallow since the 16-story 1926 neo-gothic Medical Arts Building at its southeastern corner was demolished in 1987. In the 32-year interval its only use has been as a surface level parking lot, but plans are underway to build a 29-story 6 Houston Center high-rise to make a more appropriate use of the real estate. 1. 811 Caroline: Houston Center Garage 1, 7 floors; 1a. A covered aerial walkway connects the parking lot with Houston Center Buildings, and from there into the labyrinthine underground tunnels allowing air-conditioned access to most downtown buildings [see Map]; 2. McKinney 1401: 5 Houston Center, 27 floors, 200/2002; 3. 1301 McKinney; Fullbright Tower (3 Houston Center), 52 floors, 1982; 4. 1221 McKinney: LyondellBassell Tower (1 Houston Center), 48 floors, 1978.
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To: Walter W. Futer
Gap. Pa. Postmarked: 8 March 1907 Houston, Tex. Stamp: 1c Blue Green Ben Franklin #300 From: Vincent E. Pix 1712 Chenevert St., Houston, Texas, Message: Many thanks for card, come again. Vincent E. Pix. 1712 Chenevert St., Texas. |
Vincent E. Pix, like many people in 1907, was a collector of postcards. “Many thanks,” he tells Walter W. Futer “for the card,” but from the terse message it seems clear that they were only superficially acquainted. Walter was about five years younger, a funeral director in a family business in Eastern Pennsylvania. In 1907 America was gripped with a frenzy of postcard exchange. It was rather like the Facebook of today, a way to reach out to like-minded individuals and exchange images of mutual interest. Most collectors wanted to imagine exotic or interesting places, and often joined clubs where address of vetted and secure fellow collectors were shared. Since Vincent urges Walter to “come again,” they may actually have been personally acquainted, but their connection does not seem especially warm.
The Houston City Directory of 1907 lists most of Pix family at 1712 Chenevert between Pease and Jefferson (a neighborhood now within the orbit of Toyota Center, largely full of vacant lots and abandoned buildings): his brother Frank and sister Marguerite and his mother, Susan “Mrs. Vincent,” as well as our Vincent E., but conspicuously absent is Vincent’s father, Vincent, Sr. Vincent E. (Jr.) is listed as a Pressman at Standard Printing Company, detailed as a company of “printers, stationers, lithographers, bookbinders, and blank book manufacturers” at 301 Main Street at Congress on the southeast corner (a building known to contemporary Houstonians as the Sweeney, Coombs & Fredericks Building at Main and Congress, famous for its corner cupola four stories in height). The family are all still there in the 1910 census: Susan Pix (50), head of household, listed as married for 35 years, but without her husband in residence; Vincent E. (27) [Pressman]; F. S. (22) [collector]; Margaret (6). Like many middle class families of the day, the household included a live-in black servant girl, Jeanette Jones (12). Between 1907 and 1910 Vincent had traveled to New Orleans and married Gertrude Edna Lawler on 21 September 1908, daughter of John Lawler and Julia L. M. Kurten of #908 Second Street in New Orleans. How this marriage came to an end is not known, but Gertrude (as Mrs. Vincent Ellis Pix) married 2) Jan 1920 J. Frederick Lewis in New Orleans. We know from Texas marriage records that Vincent married Selina Selma Simmons on 6 April 1911 in Harris County, but the story of marriages, separations, divorces, and re-marriages may never be fully known. Vincent continued to work in the printing industry, an occupation he may have been introduced to by association with his mother’s sister, Aunt Helen Bremond Stackpole, who married Asa Potter “Acie” DeLano, Sr. of the printing firm, Hatch, Delano & Co., listed in the 1898 City Directory of Galveston, as printers, engravers, and binders. Over the years he worked as a pressman who fed the presses for various companies: Standard Printing and Lithography at the time he wrote the postcard, later for The Cargill Company. Vincent and Salina lived at the Pix Family home at 1712 Chenevert for many years through 1940 and had only two children: Vincent F. (born about 1913) and Vivian L. (born about 1922). Salina died in 1951, and Vincent Ellis Pix died in 1965. They are buried in South Park Cemetery in Pearland. |
The story of the Pix family begins in London in the 19th century. Vincent Ellis’s grandfather, Christopher Hodgson Pix (a “gentleman” in London’s very class-conscious records of the day) was a merchant who brought his family to Galveston in the early 1840’s. He had married Matilda Gould on 16 November 1836 in London and started his family there. In Galveston Christopher Pix operated his shipbroker’s business out of the Pix Building at 2128 Postoffice Street, one of the oldest edifices still remaining from Galveston’s early years [http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8CV3_Pix_Building_Galveston_Texas]Vincent Ellis Pix’s father, also named Vincent, was the first of the family to be born in America, on 12 April 1843 in Galveston. The family was censused there in 1850 with C. H. and Matilda and their children: C. Sisson Pix (15), Clara (13), Fanny (9) and Vincent (5). A decade later the family was split between Texas and Massachutsetts. Matilda, Clara, Fanny and Vincent were in Springfield, Hampden County, MA while Charles Sisson and his father remained in the Galveston area.
Vincent Ellis Pix’s uncle, Charles Sisson Pix became entangled with Texas and American history through his marriage to Sarah Ridge when quite a young man. The ceremony was performed in about 1856/7 at the Galveston house of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar (1798-1859), second president of the Republic of Texas. About this time Lamar had been appointed ambassador to Nicaragua by president James Buchanan, and was either in Managua or having become ill, returned to his plantation at Richmond, TX.
Charles Sisson, born 16 November 1836 in London, so he was was 22 years younger than Sarah, born 1814 in Georgia. She was the daughter of Major Ridge, a Cherokee Indian widely held to have been a tribal sell-out behind the Trail of Tears, the brutal relocation of the tribes to Oklahoma after a disastrous trip from the Appalachian region. Sarah had married George Washington Paschal, a lawyer and young lieutenant in charge of guarding the Cherokees. After her father was ritually assassinated At the terminus of the Trail of Tears, Sarah and her family came from Oklahoma to Galveston where George practiced law and Sarah became renowned for her traditional Cherokee medicinal remedies to treat the ill during the era’s many yellow fever epidemics. The had six children together when they divorced, her husband feeling that being married to a Cherokee woman diminished his chances for advancement. Though divorced, they continued to live together until he moved to Austin, then to Washington, DC to pursue his career options, which ended in a professorship at Georgetown University.
Soon after her marriage to Charles Sisson Pix, Sarah traded her Galveston property for a 500 acre ranch across Galveston Bay in Smith Point, Chambers County. Sarah Ridge Pix had intended to establish a sugar cane plantation with the use of slave labor, but after the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, she was forced to turn to ranching for her livelihood. Her marriage did not last through this transition, largely due to the marital wanderings of Charles Sisson Pix, and the couple separated in 1872 when Charles Sisson Pix returned to Galveston. Their son, Charles Forest Pix, about fifteen years old, remained on the ranch to help his mother. When he died in 1874 as a teenager, there was a dispute as to who controlled the Smith Point Ranch. The case went to court, and in a much publicized divorce trial in the county seat at Wallisville, the property was equally divided. Sarah’s daughter, Emily Agnes Paschal McNeir, wrote an impassioned appeal, and Judge Edwin Hobby reversed the decision. Charles Sisson Pix came away empty-handed in the first Texas case in which the wife prevailed over the husband in property rights.
This outcome did not drive Charles Sisson Pix from Chambers County, however. A few years later in 1881, he married Emma Dick, daughter of John Monroe Dick, head of an Irish immigrant family who in 1869 had settled in Chambers County near the the ranch of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix. On these large Gulf Coast ranches insubstantial fences often failed to keep herds separated, and sometimes branding was applied to cattle not properly owned. Rumors of deliberate cattle rustling created feuds between quarrelsome neighbors, and disputes could turn violent. Accusations of brand altering and cattle theft bounced back and forth between Sarah Ridge, Charles Pix, John Monroe Dick and a ranch headed by Charles Wilborn. On August 5, 1884 a posse rode up to the Dick Family compound, and in a shoot-out, Charles Wilborn killed one of the Dick Family members, Benajah Dick. The Texas Rangers arrived on August 19th, and the matter was taken up in local courts. After a change of venue to Liberty County, the Dick Family was cleared of all charges, but Charles Wilborn went completely unpunished. The Dick Family, disgusted with the course of events, sold their holdings and drove their 400 head of cattle across the shallow headwaters of Galveston Bay to League City in Galveston County.
[http://members.tripod.com/j_richard/18th_john_m_dick.html]
After this long digression placed here to establish the complicated history of the Pix Family in the local history of Galveston and Southeast Texas, we turn back to the story of Vincent Pix, brother of Charles Sisson Pix. Vincent Pix, Sr. married Susie Wood Stackpole at Trinity Episcopal Church in 1873, Susie was born in 1852 in Palestine, TX, daugher of Ellis Merrill Stackpole from Maine.
As mentioned above, Vincent Pix, Sr. was in Massachusetts with his mother Matilda and sisters Clara and Fanny in 1860, but has not been found in 1870. He is in Dallas in 1880 working as a clerk in a drugstore. The City Directory of Galveston in 1882 finds him back in Galveston working as a bookkeeper for the Galveston Wharf Company. Also in town was his father Christopher Hodgson Pix and brother Charles Sisson Pix as real estate developers in the Pix Building at the corner of Postoffice and 22nd. The Pix Family founder, Christopher Hodgson Pix, may have traveled between England and Texas for business reasons in the final years of the 19th century, and he died in London on 13 June 1896.
The Galveston census of 1900 was taken in June, and by September 8th the city is devastated by the hurricane. June finds Vincent Sr. (55) renting at 2715 Avenue P., working as a drugstore bookkeeper; with them is Susie (Stackpole) Pix (42), Vincent C [sic: Vincent Ellis, actually] (17) and Frank S. (13). Also in Galveston is Charles Sisson Pix (63) a real estate agent who owned his own home at 1528 Avenue M; his wife Emma [Dick] (42), Herbert (18), Charles L. (16), Clara A. (14) and Miner C. (4). The Stackpole Family is there as well, and Asa Potter “Acie” DeLano and his wife Helen Stackpole DeLano and their family.
The storm would wreak havoc among the linked families. The Stackpole family was devastated by the 1900 storm. Casualties of the storm included: William Henry Stackpole and his wife Lily; her mother Eliza Lockhart Crozier; Ellis Merrill Stackpole; Viola (5); Alfred (2), Angela (6 months); Helen Stackpole DeLano and her husband Asa Potter DeLano; their four children: Elmer (10); Ruth (10); Asa (8) and Helen (1). Another casualty of the 1900 storm was Charles Sisson Pix, although the rest of his family survived.
Vincent Ellis Pix's father Vincent did not seem to have lived with his family afterwards, but the details are obscure. Perhaps he stayed in Galveston to continue his livelihood there while the Mrs and family moved to safer ground inland in Houston, as so many Galvestonians did do. He is found on the Galveston City Directory of 1908, bookkeeper and accountant for J. J. Schott & Co., living at 1902 Post Office. Whether he commuted frequently to Houston to be with his family is not known, but records do not suggest this. His death certificate of April 12, 1918 at age 74 shows his place of death as Harris “County Jail” and cause of death is “Dementia Sclerosis.” The informant is F. S.. Pix, namely his son Frank, brother to Vincent Ellis Pix. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery east of downtown south of Harrisburg.
Obituaries for Vincent Pix, Sr. in Houston newspapers seem to obscure rather than inform the facts. The Houston Chronicle says he died at his home at 1712 Chenevert; The Houston Post says he died at a local hospital. His widow Susan returned to Galveston late in life. She died in 1930 and is buried in Old City Cemetery in Galveston.
Vincent Ellis Pix’s uncle, Charles Sisson Pix became entangled with Texas and American history through his marriage to Sarah Ridge when quite a young man. The ceremony was performed in about 1856/7 at the Galveston house of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar (1798-1859), second president of the Republic of Texas. About this time Lamar had been appointed ambassador to Nicaragua by president James Buchanan, and was either in Managua or having become ill, returned to his plantation at Richmond, TX.
Charles Sisson, born 16 November 1836 in London, so he was was 22 years younger than Sarah, born 1814 in Georgia. She was the daughter of Major Ridge, a Cherokee Indian widely held to have been a tribal sell-out behind the Trail of Tears, the brutal relocation of the tribes to Oklahoma after a disastrous trip from the Appalachian region. Sarah had married George Washington Paschal, a lawyer and young lieutenant in charge of guarding the Cherokees. After her father was ritually assassinated At the terminus of the Trail of Tears, Sarah and her family came from Oklahoma to Galveston where George practiced law and Sarah became renowned for her traditional Cherokee medicinal remedies to treat the ill during the era’s many yellow fever epidemics. The had six children together when they divorced, her husband feeling that being married to a Cherokee woman diminished his chances for advancement. Though divorced, they continued to live together until he moved to Austin, then to Washington, DC to pursue his career options, which ended in a professorship at Georgetown University.
Soon after her marriage to Charles Sisson Pix, Sarah traded her Galveston property for a 500 acre ranch across Galveston Bay in Smith Point, Chambers County. Sarah Ridge Pix had intended to establish a sugar cane plantation with the use of slave labor, but after the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, she was forced to turn to ranching for her livelihood. Her marriage did not last through this transition, largely due to the marital wanderings of Charles Sisson Pix, and the couple separated in 1872 when Charles Sisson Pix returned to Galveston. Their son, Charles Forest Pix, about fifteen years old, remained on the ranch to help his mother. When he died in 1874 as a teenager, there was a dispute as to who controlled the Smith Point Ranch. The case went to court, and in a much publicized divorce trial in the county seat at Wallisville, the property was equally divided. Sarah’s daughter, Emily Agnes Paschal McNeir, wrote an impassioned appeal, and Judge Edwin Hobby reversed the decision. Charles Sisson Pix came away empty-handed in the first Texas case in which the wife prevailed over the husband in property rights.
This outcome did not drive Charles Sisson Pix from Chambers County, however. A few years later in 1881, he married Emma Dick, daughter of John Monroe Dick, head of an Irish immigrant family who in 1869 had settled in Chambers County near the the ranch of Sarah Ridge Paschal Pix. On these large Gulf Coast ranches insubstantial fences often failed to keep herds separated, and sometimes branding was applied to cattle not properly owned. Rumors of deliberate cattle rustling created feuds between quarrelsome neighbors, and disputes could turn violent. Accusations of brand altering and cattle theft bounced back and forth between Sarah Ridge, Charles Pix, John Monroe Dick and a ranch headed by Charles Wilborn. On August 5, 1884 a posse rode up to the Dick Family compound, and in a shoot-out, Charles Wilborn killed one of the Dick Family members, Benajah Dick. The Texas Rangers arrived on August 19th, and the matter was taken up in local courts. After a change of venue to Liberty County, the Dick Family was cleared of all charges, but Charles Wilborn went completely unpunished. The Dick Family, disgusted with the course of events, sold their holdings and drove their 400 head of cattle across the shallow headwaters of Galveston Bay to League City in Galveston County.
[http://members.tripod.com/j_richard/18th_john_m_dick.html]
After this long digression placed here to establish the complicated history of the Pix Family in the local history of Galveston and Southeast Texas, we turn back to the story of Vincent Pix, brother of Charles Sisson Pix. Vincent Pix, Sr. married Susie Wood Stackpole at Trinity Episcopal Church in 1873, Susie was born in 1852 in Palestine, TX, daugher of Ellis Merrill Stackpole from Maine.
As mentioned above, Vincent Pix, Sr. was in Massachusetts with his mother Matilda and sisters Clara and Fanny in 1860, but has not been found in 1870. He is in Dallas in 1880 working as a clerk in a drugstore. The City Directory of Galveston in 1882 finds him back in Galveston working as a bookkeeper for the Galveston Wharf Company. Also in town was his father Christopher Hodgson Pix and brother Charles Sisson Pix as real estate developers in the Pix Building at the corner of Postoffice and 22nd. The Pix Family founder, Christopher Hodgson Pix, may have traveled between England and Texas for business reasons in the final years of the 19th century, and he died in London on 13 June 1896.
The Galveston census of 1900 was taken in June, and by September 8th the city is devastated by the hurricane. June finds Vincent Sr. (55) renting at 2715 Avenue P., working as a drugstore bookkeeper; with them is Susie (Stackpole) Pix (42), Vincent C [sic: Vincent Ellis, actually] (17) and Frank S. (13). Also in Galveston is Charles Sisson Pix (63) a real estate agent who owned his own home at 1528 Avenue M; his wife Emma [Dick] (42), Herbert (18), Charles L. (16), Clara A. (14) and Miner C. (4). The Stackpole Family is there as well, and Asa Potter “Acie” DeLano and his wife Helen Stackpole DeLano and their family.
The storm would wreak havoc among the linked families. The Stackpole family was devastated by the 1900 storm. Casualties of the storm included: William Henry Stackpole and his wife Lily; her mother Eliza Lockhart Crozier; Ellis Merrill Stackpole; Viola (5); Alfred (2), Angela (6 months); Helen Stackpole DeLano and her husband Asa Potter DeLano; their four children: Elmer (10); Ruth (10); Asa (8) and Helen (1). Another casualty of the 1900 storm was Charles Sisson Pix, although the rest of his family survived.
Vincent Ellis Pix's father Vincent did not seem to have lived with his family afterwards, but the details are obscure. Perhaps he stayed in Galveston to continue his livelihood there while the Mrs and family moved to safer ground inland in Houston, as so many Galvestonians did do. He is found on the Galveston City Directory of 1908, bookkeeper and accountant for J. J. Schott & Co., living at 1902 Post Office. Whether he commuted frequently to Houston to be with his family is not known, but records do not suggest this. His death certificate of April 12, 1918 at age 74 shows his place of death as Harris “County Jail” and cause of death is “Dementia Sclerosis.” The informant is F. S.. Pix, namely his son Frank, brother to Vincent Ellis Pix. He is buried at Evergreen Cemetery east of downtown south of Harrisburg.
Obituaries for Vincent Pix, Sr. in Houston newspapers seem to obscure rather than inform the facts. The Houston Chronicle says he died at his home at 1712 Chenevert; The Houston Post says he died at a local hospital. His widow Susan returned to Galveston late in life. She died in 1930 and is buried in Old City Cemetery in Galveston.
