TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: J.W. McKamey (1878-1955)

When you live and grow old in the same place you grew up, memories of things long gone can still be seen in your minds eye. Highway 87 is one of the most traveled roads for the citizens in Calhoun County. There is always a reason for a trip to Victoria, and I have been traveling that highway since I was a baby. I remember the landmarks that have long been gone, the big red barn with the row of little houses beside it, the big oil tanks with the Sinclair Dinosaur painted on one, and the little community of Kamey. I remember my dad taking me to the Army Store, a place that I always liked to visit because of all the interesting things that were inside. But by far the most interesting landmark on those trips for me was the old Kamey School. It looked spooky all boarded up with the paint long peeled off and carried by the wind across the fields that surrounded it. What did it look like inside? Was it two story? How many kids went to school there, and was it like a school like you would see in old western movies? Most of all, why was it built way out there in the middle of no where. Now, thanks to Tombstone Tuesday, I have answers to my questions.

The name of the little community came from its founder John William McKamey. He named it Kamey because Texas already had a McKamey. John William who was known as J.W. was born to John Samuel Monroe and Sarah Rebecca Bonham McKamey on August 8, 1878, in Salem, Arkansas. His family knew the importance and value of a good education, and they moved four times so that J.W. and his siblings could have just that. They moved to San Marcos, Marble Falls, then Waco so J.W. could graduate from Baylor University. On June 6,1899, he graduated with two diplomas, military science, and oratory. 

The family moved to Gregory in 1890, and they had 2,000 acres that they farmed cotton on. They also opened a general merchandise in Corpus Christi, Texas where at 12 years old, John helped his father with the store. After graduating he moved back to Gregory to help his father on the farm. J.W. had met a girl at Baylor who caught his eye and his heart named Maude Todd. The two married on November 6, 1901. John also attended the University of Texas Law School, but he did not stay long because he decided he didn’t want to be a lawyer, he wanted “something more active.”

 He ran the family farm until 1908 when he found out that there was some land at $12 an acre near the town of Port Lavaca. They also learned that there were many other opportunities in the Calhoun County area. John, with his brother Tunnell, bought lots in Port Lavaca and bought a mercantile store known as Bay Trading Company which they owned and operated in 1905-1907. Today that mercantile is the oldest running business in Port Lavaca, we know it as Melcher Hardware. 

The brothers also took advantage of that $12 an acre land. Tunnell and John went in with their father, and J.B. McCampbell, buying 8,500 acres of good old black dirt to farm. They bought it from a neighbor John Clark, and to pay for the land they bought, they sold 3,252 acres to John Welder of Victoria.

John’s father was the first farmer to grow cotton in black land; soon other farmers were planting cotton there as well. John and Tunnell already knew that cotton was going to yield well thanks to their dad. They also farmed grain, sorghum, and raised cattle. One of the best features of their land was that the Galveston, Harrisburg, and San Antonio Railway right of way ran on the eastern acreage of their land. They built a depot with a loading platform and got a switch stand put in so crops in the area, like cotton, maize, hay, and onions could be shipped out.

John and Maude were living in Port Lavaca during this time. Their family grew as they welcomed 6 children. Glenn, Riva, Maida, Ivy, Iris, and Lynn Worth. Sadly, little Lynn Worth died at the tender age of 10 months. John and Maude bought a piece of beautiful land in Port Lavaca to bury their little one in. They named the cemetery Lynnworth, after their little baby son. The name of that cemetery today is Port Lavaca Cemetery. 

In 1912, J.W. and Maude moved their family from Port Lavaca out to their land and named it Kamey. They moved into a house there known as the “Old Holt House.” In its heyday the population in the small town of Kamey was around 250 people, all worked on the McKamey land. In 1910 Kamey secured a post office that was in operation until 1915. They also had a telephone connection. There was a school and a teacherage built around 1910, as education was always important to the McKamey family. The school was attended by the McKamey children, the children in Kamey and any other children in the surrounding area that wanted to attend. It had grades 1st through 8th, and the teacher was Maida McKamey. In 1939 the school reported they had an enrollment of 27 students. The school was in operation until 1948 when Port Lavaca consolidated the Kamey district. 

By 1933 Kamey had about 25 citizens and 3 businesses. Around 1940 J.W. started traveling around the country buying Army surplus and opened the Kamey Army Store. The Army store was open and in operation for over 50 years. It had, as John described it, “a lot of everything” because he “didn’t believe in buying single items.”  If you are reading this and were lucky enough to take the trip to the Kamey Army Store, you know firsthand what John meant, there isn’t another place I can think of that comes close to it. He also had a gift for his town friends, giving them one sweet onion, one gardenia, and one silver dollar. 

In 1952, Chocolate Creek could not drain the rapid flow of flood water. Kamey homes, businesses, and fields flooded so J.W. presented a statement to the Improvement of Streams public hearing with the Corps of Engineers. He did not agree with the flood plan presented by the Corps. Victoria County organized a drainage district that cut large ditches into the creek that brought floodwaters down into Calhoun County, solving the problem. J.W. along with several of his children bought 1,500 acres of land out by Lake Placido. Both John and Maude were involved in promoting agriculture among the youth in the county, and John was a member of the original fair board officers of the Calhoun County Fair Association.

John William McKamey passed away in 1955, and Maude followed him in 1961. They both rest with Lynn Worth in the Lynnworth section of the Port Lavaca Cemetery. 

When the state widened highway 87 from a two lane to four lanes, a great deal of Kamey changed forever. The Kamey Army Store had been razed many years before, and a couple of the homes, warehouses, and the “Old Holt House” were torn down. John’s son Glenn continued farming the Kamey land. He also took over the operation of the Kamey Army Store that his father enjoyed so much. Glenn Sr., in the footsteps of his father, was involved in the promoting of agriculture within the county. He was a big supporter of CO-OP’s and sat on the board of both Farmers and Mormon Gins. When they widened the hi-way Glenn had his home moved to the family land at Placido Lake. 

Many of the children, and now, grandchildren, still live in Kamey and continue to farm the land that J.W. bought over 100 years ago. They have diversified the business to other types of crops and brought in new avenues of business like McKamey & Son, reinstating the “MC” brand for cattle, donkeys, and goats. They have also brought new farming techniques and introduced new and innovated methods to agriculture. 

Kamey is still there, on the side of highway 87, and it is still growing and changing with the times. John would be proud to see that his vision is still worked by his family. The McKamey family are a good example of what family can achieve when they work together as a unit. They also are a good example of the importance that agriculture has in our area, as in many rural areas across the nation. 

The next trip you take to Victoria, perhaps you can look at the small town of Kamey and imagine all that was there, once upon a time. You can still see the cistern teetering on its leaning base, that provided water for the Teacherage and the old Kamey school. As for the school it isn’t there anymore. It was huge news in Victoria and Calhoun Counties when it was loaded up on a truck and moved to Port Lavaca. If you want to see it, you can take a drive on Austin Street and find it caddy-cornered across the street from the Court House Annex. 

Resources

Port Lavaca 1840-1990

Shifting Sands of Calhoun County

Texas State Historical Association TSHA www.tshaonline.org