Countdown to Aggie Baseball 2025

100,408 Views | 1116 Replies | Last: 17 min ago by aggiewilliford
aggiewilliford
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Days Left 101
Frank Bell House
Texas City in Galveston County, Texas

Frank Bell, Sr. was a son of Norval and Catherine Bell from Alabama. Flavilla "Flavey" Bell was a daughter of Chisholm Trail and Butler Ranch Black Cowboy Calvin Bell from Mississippi and his German born wife, Katie. Frank and Flavey were married in 1887. Oral tradition tells that the house was built shortly after their wedding out of lumber salvaged from houses destroyed during the three hurricanes in 1886 that ravaged Galveston County.

Frank originally built the house on his mother and stepfather's land in the William Bell Subdivision where Lincoln School was later constructed on Carver Street. William Bell, born in Texas, was William Britton's son who was raised by his grandparents, Kneeland and Sylvia Britton. After Frank's father Norval died, his mother Catherine married William Bell who had no relation to the Norval or Calvin Bell families. Flavey was born on the old Butler Ranch in north Galveston County, Texas. Her father was Calvin Bell, a Black Cowboy who drove cattle up the Chisolm Trail with the Butler Brothers after the Civil War. The Butler family moved to north Galveston County, Texas from Louisiana in 1854. The house Frank built his bride is unique in Galveston County. It was built in the Creole Cottage style like the original Butler Ranch house. It is the oldest surviving structure in the 1867 Settlement Historic District, and the last known circa 1800s Creole Cottage Style house surviving in Galveston County.

The young couple survived the 1900 Storm in this house at its original site. In 1904, when the young couple purchased their own property, the house was rolled the short distance across the prairie on cypress logs to the land where it stands today at 117 South Bell Drive. The Frank Bell, Sr. family survived many more major hurricanes in the small house at its present site, starting with the 1915 Storm and continuing through the century to hurricanes Carla and Alicia.

Frank Bell, Sr. began working cattle soon after his family moved to the Settlement in the mid-1870s. During the mid-1880s to the early 1890s he worked for Stringfellow Orchards in the neighboring community of Hitchcock. During the mid-1890s, Frank went back to ranch work. He was known as a skilled "bronc buster" and worked for several Galveston County ranches. Frank Bell, Sr. invested his earnings in several parcels of land in the Settlement until he was thrown from a horse and critically injured. Frank Bell, Sr. never fully recovered from his injuries and his two oldest sons, Fred and Frank Jr., had to leave school and find jobs to help support the family. Frank Sr. and Flavilla Bell had seven children: three boys, Fred, Frank Jr. and Isaac Bell, and four daughters, Katy, Louise, Ruth and Elnora.

Louise Bell married James Robinson. Louise Bell Robinson and her family stayed in the house and took care of her parents, Frank Sr. and Flavilla "Flavey" Bell, until they passed away in the early 1930s. Louise Bell Robinson and her family lived in the house through the next four generations. The Frank Bell, Sr. family donated the historic Frank Sr. and Flavilla Bell house to Texas City.


aggiewilliford
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You Had One Job 101

Rongagin71
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AG
Wish I knew the story.
Well, maybe I wish I knew the story.
dabo man
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AG
Texas County Courthouses:
100 Hardin County, Kountze, Texas

Rongagin71
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AG
That Courthouse clock looks like it is squatting.
ensign_beedrill
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AG
100

Quote:

STATE HIGHWAY NO. 100
Adm. Auth., dated 01/23/1975; Adm. Cir. 019-1975, dated 02/15/1975
From US 83 at Russelltown eastward to west end of Laguna Madre causeway at Port Isabel. (Cameron County)
https://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/hwy/SH/SH0100.htm


We're almost to one of my favorite parts of the countdown: the part where people start whooping because I'm calling out class years!
aggiebaseball12
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Double digits tmrw!!!
jkag89
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dabo man said:

Texas County Courthouses:
100 Hardin County, Kountze, Texas


The clock "tower" looks out of place. I wonder if it came from the old courthouse?
greg.w.h
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AG
jkag89 said:

dabo man said:

Texas County Courthouses:
100 Hardin County, Kountze, Texas


The clock "tower" looks out of place. I wonder if it came from the old courthouse?
Looks like they have a municipal power generation company in the back, a brutalist county court in the middle, and a mullet up front.
zpj0001
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AG
jkag89 said:

dabo man said:

Texas County Courthouses:
100 Hardin County, Kountze, Texas


The clock "tower" looks out of place. I wonder if it came from the old courthouse?


Yep. If it's not the actual tower, they built it to look exactly like the old one.
Aggie12B
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AG
What a great day.
Last triple digit day
aggiewilliford
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Days Left 100.......
Alvin in Brazoria County, Texas
Birchfield - McCown House

Built by A. J. Birchfield, first editor of Alvin "Sun", 1894. Often a storm refuge, house kept over 100 safe in famed 1900 coastal hurricane. Leading townspeople -- Greer, Carleton, Finger, and McCown families -- have owned this 12-room Victorian structure.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1972.



aggiewilliford
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You Had One Job 100.....

Rongagin71
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AG
I'm guessing someone regrets ignoring the sign not to park there.
trouble
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AG
I know that house!
Aggie12B
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AG
DOUBLE DIGITS, BABY
ensign_beedrill
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AG
99

Quote:

STATE HIGHWAY NO. 99
Minute Order 108857, dated 03/28/2002; DesLtr 1-2002, dated 04/05/2002
From SH 146 near Texas City westward, northward, eastward, and southward to BS 146-E in Baytown, a total distance of approximately 166.9 miles. (Harris and Chambers Counties)
https://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/hwy/SH/SH0099.htm


The description confused me at first. West, north, east, and south? Huh? Then I remembered… it's the Grand Parkway.
mwm
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Finally. Double digits.

Thank you, Ensign.
aggiewilliford
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And Now For The Double Digit Days
99

A.M. Armand House

New Orleans native Albert M. Armand was a clerk for Ahrens & Ott, a Houston plumbing supply company, by 1910. On Sep 15, 1911, he bought block 6 lot 5 in the Avondale neighborhood from the Greater Houston Land and Improvement Company for $2,000. Armand lived here for only two years before selling the house, which had several owners and residents in its early history. The two-story, asymmetrical, side gabled house exhibits arts & crafts styling in its wraparound porch with full-height square wood columns, gabled portico highlighting the entry, and knee brackets on the eaves of the main house and porch.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 2013


aggiewilliford
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You Had One Job 99

ensign_beedrill
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AG
Had an offseason Aggie Baseball dream last night.

Aggies were playing in a minor league-ish park. A lot of outfield seating with big bullpens in the outfield. I was in the seating out there. There was a female umpire in the outfield wearing a purple glitzy riding helmet and a Christmas sweater with a comic panel print featuring Christmas cookies.

Instead of the game starting with a first pitch, the baseball was placed out in left field. The umpire gave a signal to start the game, and the left fielder ran to the baseball to pick it up. He brought his arm back to throw it, but the umpire caught his arm before he could and declared him out. This was obviously a horrible call. Terrible. Everyone was enraged. I yelled "your sweater is cute but your calls aren't."

Weird.

Then the dream transitioned to another situation where I was in a hotel in downtown Houston and it had one of aggiewilliford's cursed bathrooms with a combo toilet-in-the-shower which I was trying and failing to figure out, so thanks for that.
aggiebaseball12
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So…. You are excited for the new ball park, but skeptical of how it could affect the traditions of the game??
Or, you're just excited for Christmas
trouble
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AG
She had a bad bit of potato before bed
Rongagin71
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AG
Your sweater is cute, but your balls and strikes aren't.
dabo man
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AG
Texas County Courthouses:
099 Hardeman County, Quanah, Texas


ensign_beedrill
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AG
Quote:

You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of underdone potato. There's more of gravy than of grave about you.
trouble
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AG
Thank you for knowing where I was headed with that
Rongagin71
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AG
You are what you eat.
But it sounds like the roaches are eating what you eat.
So many crumby roaches, they're the ones that need grave gravy.
AgBQ-00
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AG
we're in double digits
You do not have a soul. You are a soul that has a body.

We sing Hallelujah! The Lamb has overcome!
jkag89
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ensign_beedrill said:

Had an offseason Aggie Baseball dream last night.

Aggies were playing in a minor league-ish park. A lot of outfield seating with big bullpens in the outfield. I was in the seating out there. There was a female umpire in the outfield wearing a purple glitzy riding helmet and a Christmas sweater with a comic panel print featuring Christmas cookies.

Instead of the game starting with a first pitch, the baseball was placed out in left field. The umpire gave a signal to start the game, and the left fielder ran to the baseball to pick it up. He brought his arm back to throw it, but the umpire caught his arm before he could and declared him out. This was obviously a horrible call. Terrible. Everyone was enraged. I yelled "your sweater is cute but your calls aren't."

Weird.

Then the dream transitioned to another situation where I was in a hotel in downtown Houston and it had one of aggiewilliford's cursed bathrooms with a combo toilet-in-the-shower which I was trying and failing to figure out, so thanks for that.

I too have Fightin' Texas Aggie Baseball dreams but none of them are nearly as entertaining as the ones you post here. Maybe that is a good thing, if they were I'd probably wake myself laughing and would be tossing and turning for an hour or so. I love that you post these when you remember them. Thanks, if helps make the long offseason bearable.
aggiewilliford
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Days Left 98
Alvin in Brazoria County, Texas
Cummings-Smith House

After the Galveston hurricane of 1900 destroyed his home, banker-investor Oscar Smith Cummings (1866-1941) hired contractors Booth and Bigler to salvage the materials and build this Victorian residence in 1900-01. Oscar Smith, owner of a local meat market, bought the dwelling when Cummings moved to Houston in 1904. Threatened with demolition in 1972, the house was purchased and restored by Mr. and Mrs. Hubert G. Howerton.
Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1977

aggiewilliford
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You Had One Job 98

 
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