The following are several contributions by Philip Leonard of our Vintage Brownsville, Texas and History Facebook page - in no particular order. Philip has shared these and other not often talked about aspects of our local history from a perspective not all would agree with but could learn more about. 
Before the Civil War, cotton and other goods were traded in sites like Indianola, There were no trains. OX CARTS run by Hispanics hauled things to places like San Antonio and Cotton was hauled to Indianola to be sold to the World Cotton Market. That port was blockaded by Yankee troops and BROWNSVILLE AND MATAMOROS became the Great destination.
When Union warships bottled up Southern ports during the Civil War, the Confederacy opened a back door on the Rio Grande which by treaty was an international waterway. Cotton was hauled by wagon, oxcart and mule cart down this improvised road to MATAMOROS, which in short order became the GREATEST COTTON MARKET IN THE WORLD!! The Cotton Road began at Alleyton, near today’s Columbus, which was the terminus of the railroad from Houston, and it ended at the Rio Grande, at the extreme end of the Confederacy. The COTTON ROAD ran 10 miles west of CORPUS CHRISTI. The cotton came down in a never-ending stream, with hundreds of wagons hauling thousands of bales of cotton to the border and bringing back gold and war supplies on the return trip. John Warren Hunter was 16 when he drove a cotton wagon to BROWNSVILLE, which was recounted in his book, “Heel-Fly Time in Texas.” He described Santa Margarita, with wagon trains loaded with cotton waiting to cross the river. On the other side were pack mules returning from MATAMOROS loaded with medicine, guns and ammunition. “It was sundown when we rode into this vast encampment with its bright fires and incessant din of oxen and horse bells and shouts of herdsmen,” Hunter wrote. “Generally, there were 10 oxen or six mules to a wagon carrying ten bales, but in the deep sand more animals are necessary. They journey very slowly towards BROWNSVILLE from places in the interior of Texas at least 500 miles distant. Want of water and other causes make the drivers and animals undergo much hardship. We are continually passing cotton trains going to BROWNSVILLE, also government wagons with stores for the interior.”
Do you remember riding in the country during cotton season in the 1950s and 60s? The roads were white with cotton.
During the Civil War, you could buy just about anything that you wanted in BROWNSVILLE and MATAMOROS. It was the back door to the Confederacy and one of the Greatest Cotton Markets in the World. The old Alice road to Brownsville was said to be White with cotton. In some places there were so many people on their way to and from Brownsville, that the roads were said to e almost a mile wide from the traffic. In Brownsville and Matamoros, you could buy all kinds of imported goods including guns and ammunition. Cotton was King and Brownsville was its capitol
Growing up in the Rio Grande Valley, it is hard to imagine how people lived when it was hard to get here on horseback or in an Ox Cart. It is hard to understand how people lived in those days. We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us! We learn from the past -- both the good things and the bad. To destroy or change the history of the past is Orwellian. That is the way that we do not make mistakes. I hope people understand that I do not promote slavery or racism. ON the other hand, it is important to understand how people lived in those days and how we got to where we are to continue to shape a better world in which to live.
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