"SOME HISTORICAL DATA FOR KEMAH, TEXAS

 NATIVE INHABITANTS 

The history of Kemah, Texas goes back more than 180 years. The Karankawa Indians, a group of five nomadic, linguistically related groups including the Cocos, Cujanes, Karankawas proper, Coapites, and Copanos, occupied the area from Galveston Bay to Corpus Christi Bay during the late Spring and Summer months. Evidence of the Karankawas near present-day Kemah was discovered back in the 1890s. This discovery will be discussed later in the article. Indian inhabitants began to leave when European settlers arrived, and most had retreated from the area by 1850.

 THE DISAPPEARING FOUNDER 

The recorded history of Kemah began in the early 1800s, when Texas was still under the Mexican flag. On August 24, 1824, the Mexican government granted a labor (approx. 177 acres) of land to to a settler by the name of Michael Gouldrich. Gouldrich was listed as one of Stephen F. Austin’s first colonists in 1826, a widower over 50 years of age engaged in farming and stockraising. His land was located on the south bank of Clear Creek, where the creek flows into Galveston Bay. Oddly enough, Gouldrich disappeared from historical record after his recorded receipt of the land grant. No historical records or accounts identify him with any development of a settlement, homestead, or right of way at his claim location. Odder still, there is no record of his death. 

 ""FLANDERS GROVE"" 

Sometime between 1826 and 1830, a man by the name of William Vince of Vince’s Bayou, Harrisburg County, acquired the Clear Creek land. On several early maps of Galveston Bay dating back to that time period, the name “Flanders Grove” or “Flanders Labor” appears in the vicinity of the present day town of Kemah, at the mouth of Clear Lake. The place-name has ties to a New Hampshire native by the name of John Flanders. John was the son of Levi and Mary (Sargent) Flanders and was born in Salisbury, Massachusetts. John had been in business with his father in New Hampshire. No record exists concerning the nature of business John and his father owned, although apparently at least a part of the business they conducted dealt in real estate. In the time immediately prior to John's move to the Texas territory, he and his father had a disagreement over a mortgage held by John on a piece of property owned by a widow. John wished to foreclose and his father opposed it. The disagreement developed into bad feelings and John left home, never communicating with his family thereafter.

John Flanders was issued a passport for six months on December 7, 1830, in Austin’s colony. A notation in Austin’s Register of Families reads, “Flanders is to be included as a colonist although he takes no land.” Flanders, a 32-year-old  single farmer at the time, had arrived in the Galveston Bay region in mid to late December 1930. It is believed that his first place of residence was in Anahuac, Texas, on the northern tip of Galveston Bay. There, he acquired a house and a lot. However, he was not listed on the 1834 census of Anahuac and it is believed that somtime between early 1931 and the time of the 1934 census Flanders made the purchase of William Vince's land. Since the 1934 censuse does not record Flanders' name as a resident of Anahuac, it is reasonable to assume that he was probably living on his Clear Creek property by that time.

Sadly enough, John Flanders was listed among the dead at the Alamo. He was one of thirty-two men, commanded by Captain George Kimball, who entered the Alamo on March 1, from Gonzales. Why he was with the men from Gonzales is unknown. Flanders was a Private under Kimball, 36 years old at the time of the Alamo seige, and still unmarried.

 THE MYSTERY HEIRS 

With John Flander's death came some interesting and mysterious dealings concerning his estate that, of course, included the ""Flanders Grove""/""Flanders Labor"" tract. In 1841, Allen Vince, brother of the now-deceased William Vince and resident of Vince’s Bayou, Harris County, was named administrator of the John Flanders estate. The estate was said to consist of only the labor of land at the mouth of Clear Creek on the Southwest side. A petition for sale of the land, to satisfy debts, was requested May 28, 1844. The deceased Vince owed money for lawyer fees (in the case of Sawyer vs Vince in District Court). The land was appraised at $2.00 per acre and sold to Jonathan D. Waters on July 2, 1844 for $354.00. This transaction leaves open the questions of whether or not Flanders still owed William Vince any monies for the land purchase, and how much legal right Allen Vince had to sell the land and use the revenues to pay of a debt on behalf of his brother's estate, instead of keeping the Flanders estate intact.

Let's digress from the Kemah historical table a moment as we