Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Dr. White really delivered

Q. A friend told me she was born in Corpus Christi in the White Hospital. I have lived here all my life and have never heard of White Hospital. She said she was delivered by a Dr. White. Do you have any information on this hospital?
   Blair Jones,
   Portland
  
   A. Your friend has a lot of company. If all the "babies" who were delivered by Dr. White wanted to get together, they would need something bigger than the Convention Center. Dr. Hosea A. White came here in 1915 from Mississippi. Old clips say he delivered some 20,000 babies over half a century.
   In the early years, he traveled in a buggy over rough roads, delivering babies from Kingsville to Rockport. His fee for delivering a baby ran from $15 to $35, depending on ability to pay. Some poor families he didn't charge at all.
   In an interview in 1961, Dr. White said he liked being a country doctor best. "When I drove on my rounds in a horse and buggy, I had time to think and pray between patients. Now, with the automobile, there's no time for that."
   Dr. White opened White Maternity Hospital at 711 Tancahua in 1942; it closed in 1952. He died in 1966.
  
   Q. We are working on bios of people buried in Old Bayview. We have the remains of James M. Hunter, C.S.A. The Handbook of Texas speaks of someone by that name as a Confederate officer. Do you think the person in the article is the same who is buried in Bayview?
   Geraldine McGloin,
   Corpus Christi
  
   A. Almost certainly. James M. Hunter owned a livery stable on Water Street. There were ads for his firm in the Caller. He was referred to as a former Confederate officer. Mary Sutherland's "Story of Corpus Christi" names the city merchants who were Confederate veterans; she includes Hunter on that list.
  
   Q. Where did Zachary Taylor's troops land when they reached Texas? Grant's Memoirs say Shell Island. Was that Harbor Island?
   Dicky Neely,
   Flour Bluff
  
   A. I think the first U.S. soldiers in Texas waded ashore on St. Joseph's Island, but the accounts differ. Grant wrote that the army landed "at an island in the channel called Shell Island." Capt. W.S. Henry wrote that the troops went ashore at St. Joseph's, where they found "good water and had fish and oysters for breakfast." Surgeon N.S. Jarvis wrote that, "We disembarked at Shell Point." Lt. Dana wrote that the army landed at St. Joseph's.
   Take your pick. Perhaps separate units of Taylor's army landed at St. Joseph's and at the little Shellbank Island, near Harbor Island, facing the channel of Aransas Pass.
  
   Q. I'm intrigued by a story of a man named Ziegler who supposedly buried a large sum of money on North Beach. I have a metal detector and dream about finding this cache. Is this a myth or a real story?
   Name withheld by request, Corpus Christi
  
   A. It's an old legend; it may be true. Jacob Ziegler was a prominent businessman here in the 1860s and '70s. He ran a saloon and a hotel. The yellow fever epidemic of 1867 was believed to have started when a traveler put up at Ziegler's hotel; he was sick and died within two days. Anyway, Ziegler also had a German-style beer garden on North Beach, surrounded by salt cedars he planted. Legend says he buried $50,000 in gold coins beneath this grove of salt cedars and that he died without revealing the location. A lot of holes were dug over the years searching for Ziegler's gold coins.
  
  
  Oops: Last week I wrote that the body of Julia Fox Driscoll was brought back to San Antonio for burial in the family mausoleum. She was buried in London.
  
  
  
  

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