The Munsons of Texas — an American Saga
Chapter Twenty-seven
THE LIFE AND FAMILY OF WALTER BASCOM MUNSON (I)
b. 1866 — d. 1949
SUMMARY
The seventh child and fifth son of Mordello and Sarah Munson, named Walter Bascom Munson, was born February 6, 1866. He was raised on Ridgely Plantation and attended Texas A. & M. College, Southwestern University, and the University of Texas Law School. In the early 1890s he married Adelaide Cotton of Houston. They had three children, two of whom grew to adulthood. Bascom was very successful in business — ranching, real estate, oil, and banking — and became wealthy. For his wife’s health they moved to San Antonio in 1913, and his descendants have continued to live in San Antonio, Gonzales, and nearby areas.
Bascom Munson I
Mordello returned from the last campaigns of the Civil War in Louisiana in May of 1865, and his son Walter Bascom was born on February 6, 1866. The origin of the name Walter Bascom in not known. The only clue comes from a letter from Mordello in 1842, while he was at the Methodist sponsored La Grange College in La Grange, Alabama. Mordello referred to a “Reverend Bascum,” whom he greatly admired, and who planned to visit the Caldwells at Oakland Plantation on his coming trip to Texas.
As were all of the children, Bascom was educated at home by his mother and hired governesses, including Miss Minnie C. Dewey (later Mrs. Stratton). In the spring of 1882, at the age of 16, he was living and boarding in Brazoria where he was attending a private school. He then attended Texas A. & M. College, Southwestern University in Georgetown, and the University of Texas Law School, where he graduated in 1888. He apparently then went to Houston to practice law, as a biographical sketch of Mordello written in the 1890s states that son Bascom was practicing law in Houston.
Adelaide Augusta Cotton
In Houston, in the 1890s, Bascom met and married Adelaide Augusta Cotton of the wealthy Cotton family. Adelaide and a brother, Houston Cotton, had grown up on a ranch near Coleman, Texas, but they now made Houston their home. Years later, the vague memories of an elderly daughter, Ellen Munson Fowler, recalled that an “Uncle Jim ”was associated with the Cotton Hotel. Bascom and “Addie ”Munson had three children: Stephen Olin Munson, Ellen Munson, and Houston Cotton Munson.
In about 1896 the family moved to Angleton where Bascom built a large two-story home on the Munson property there. It is reported that fine materials and furnishings were brought from Houston for the elegant home, reportedly built partly with Adelaide Cotton’s wealth. Ruth Munson Smith, who was raised in this home, well remembers its seven porches, seven fireplaces, and elaborate staircase.
Soon after Bascom and Addie occupied their Angleton home, their oldest child, son Stephen Olin, died there of scarlet fever at the age of two or three years. Little Stephen was an indirect victim of the great 1899 overflow of the Brazos, one of the most disastrous floods in that river’s history. To protect his family from the diseases that always followed flood conditions in those days, Bascom sent Addie and Stephen to San Antonio for an extended stay. It was on the train trip home in September, some two months after the flood, that Stephen was exposed to scarlet fever [1]. Bascom was so heartbroken that he refused to live any longer in that house. It is told that he said to his brother, George Caldwell Munson, who was then leaving the “Van Place” for Angleton, “George, we want you to have this house,” and he gave it to George for his large family. Bascom then built another home “down the road,” at what is now 517 Bryan Street. He later sold this home to another brother, Henry William III, whose son, Joseph Waddy II, sold it to the Strattons. At a later date it was destroyed by fire. Years later Joseph Waddy II and his wife, Myrtle, repurchased the lot and built the house which stands there today.
In Angleton, in 1901, Bascom joined the law firm of Munson, Munson & Munson with his two brothers, Milam Stephen and Joseph Waddy Munson I. Besides practicing law, Bascom was a very active businessman and leader in the community of Angleton. Together with Mr. John Faickney, he was the leading organizer of the Brazoria County State Bank, of which he was a major stockholder and the first president. The bank was chartered in 1908, and a new building to house it was built at the very center of town. The new bank building was opened in 1909, and the Munson law firm had offices upstairs. This handsome building still stands today at the corner of Mulberry and Velasco Streets. At a later date, Bascom sold his stock in the bank to Mr. J. C. Barrows, who then became president. In 1958 the bank’s name was changed to the present Angleton Bank of Commerce. Bascom was also a leader in the project to construct a new building for the Angleton Methodist Church, the church which his mother had helped to found. This building is still in use by the church today.
Soon after the division of Mordello’s estate lands in 1907, Bascom sold his inherited land at Bailey’s Prairie to his brother Armour and purchased the “Bynum Place,” a large tract of about 4,500 acres between Bailey’s Prairie and Columbia. This land was originally known as the “Mills Plantation ”(probably from the early land traders, R. and D. G. Mills), then it was owned by a Mr. Dyer, and still later it was known as the “Bynum Place.” On this ranch, Bascom, and later his son, operated a large cattle ranch into the 1950s. Today this land is the Bar-X Ranch residential development on State Highway 35. Bascom clearly was a very successful lawyer, banker, rancher, oilman, and civic leader, and he became very wealthy.
In 1913, when Joseph Waddy Munson I became county judge, the Munson law firm dissolved and Bascom moved his family to San Antonio, where he built a large, beautiful home. Addie had contracted tuberculosis, a common and an incurable disease in those days, and the doctors’ advice to such patients was to move to a drier climate. Bascom’s family was the only one of Mordello Munson’s children’s families to leave Brazoria County permanently. Addie Munson died of tuberculosis in an El Paso sanitarium on February 11, 1916. Bascom died on August 9, 1949, in San Antonio at the age of 83. Both are buried in the Angleton Cemetery.
The Descendants of Walter Bascom Munson and Adelaide Cotton
Stephen Olin Munson
The first child was Stephen Olin Munson, who died of scarlet fever at about age two in the original home in Angleton. He is buried in the Munson Cemetery. His aunt Doll Kennedy wrote in her diary, “Dear little Stephen is to-day an Angel with my Helen. O may all of us meet them in the ‘Bright Land’. Sep. 20, 1899 – Angleton.”
Ellen Munson
The second child of Bascom and Addie was Ellen Munson, born in Angleton in 1900. She was raised in Angleton and San Antonio, where she met Wendell C. Fowler. They were married in Angleton in 1928. Wendell Fowler had graduated from the U. S. Naval Academy in 1923 and was an electrical engineer. He was employed by Sangamo Electric Company (now a division of Schlumberger, Inc.) in San Antonio until 1935 and in Fort Worth thereafter. Ella “Lollie” Cahill, the sister of Kate Cahill, became a member of the Bascom Munson family and lived with them in San Antonio. She then lived as a member of Wendell and Ellen Fowler’s family in Fort Worth for many years. Ellen Munson Fowler died in an automobile accident in Ft. Worth in 1986 at the age of 85, and Wendell followed her in death seven months later from complications arising from the accident. They had no children.
Houston Cotton Munson
The third child of Bascom and Adelaide, born in Angleton on April 16, 1906, was Houston Cotton Munson, named for Adelaide’s brother. After early childhood, Houston was raised in San Antonio. In school he was an excellent football player—he attended San Antonio Academy, Washington & Lee University, and the University of Alabama. In later life he raised race horses and was a rancher, an entrepreneur, and a man of wealth. He inherited the 4,500-acre “Bynum Place” in Brazoria County, and, in the 1950s, he sold it and purchased a ranch near Gonzales, Texas. He married Genevieve Hollman and they have three children: Houston Cotton Munson II, Ellen Genevieve Munson, and Wendell Hollman Munson. Houston Cotton Munson I died in San Antonio on December 26, 1959, at about the age of 54.
Houston Cotton Munson II obtained a law degree from the University of Texas and lives near Gonzales, where he maintains a law practice and a ranch. He has also served as district attorney there. He is married to Peggy Quick and they have three children and at least three grandchildren.
Ellen Munson is married to lawyer Corbin Lee Snow Jr. of San Antonio and they have four children and at least two grandchildren. Ellen holds a doctoral degree from the University of Texas.
Wendell Hollman Munson married Linda Fluitt and is a rancher near Jourdanton, Texas.
In these families, Walter Bascom and Adelaide Munson have three
grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren, and at least five
great-great grandchildren.
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- [1] As told by Ellen Munson Fowler.
