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Beeville is a city in Bee County, Texas, United States, with a population of 12,863 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Bee County and home to the main campus of Coastal Bend College. The area around the city contains three prisons operated by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Many of the stately homes, commercial buildings, and schools in the area, including the Bee County Courthouse, were designed by architect William Charles Stephenson, who came to Beeville in 1908 from Buffalo, New York. Beeville is a National Main Street City. Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore, and his son Lincoln, lived in the city during the time Rushmore was being sculpted. [edit] History and Culture
The original site on the Poesta River was first settled by the Burke, Carroll and Heffernan families in the 1830s. Present-day Beeville was established on a 150-acre land donation made by Ann Burke in May 1859 after the Republic of Texas was annexed by the United States. It was first named "Maryville" for pioneer Mary Heffernan. It was renamed "Beeville" after Barnard E. Bee, Sr., who had served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War for the Republic of Texas. It was called "Beeville-on-the-Poesta", with a nearby community "Beeville-on-the-Medio" seven miles (11 km) to the west. The first post office opened in 1859. In 1886, the first railroad was constructed through Beeville, stimulating the growth of the economy and population. The Southern Pacific Transportation Company operated these railroads until the early 1970s. Beeville was incorporated as a town in 1890, but the incorporation was dissolved the following year. Beeville was reincorporated as a town again in 1908. The city streets were paved in 1921. The Rialto Theater, one of the Beeville structures designed by W. C. Stephenson, cost $25,000. The Rialto opened on August 19, 1922, with the silent film The Three Musketeers starring Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. Admission was twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children. The theater is now used for special occasions and live performances. The Texas oil boom brought in many new residents, which grew the population of the city to 4,806 in 1930.
In September 1942, Alfred Irving, who is believed to be one of the final chattel slaves in the United States, was freed at a farm near Beeville. A.L. Skrobarcek and his daughter, Susie, were arraigned and eventually convicted for their crimes. The United States Navy operated the Beeville Naval Air Station, which trained Navy airplane pilots during World War II from 1943 through 1946. The base was reopened in 1952 as Naval Air Station Chase Field, continuing in operation until 1992. By 1950, the population more than doubled to 9,348. Beeville was served by Trans-Texas Airways (TTA) during the 1950s. TTA operated scheduled passenger flights with Douglas DC-3 prop airliners from Chase Field with service to Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Harlingen, Houston, San Antonio and other destinations in Texas. In 1967, the town was inundated by of rain during Hurricane Beulah. Today, the city of around 14,000 residents is benefitting from the Eagle Ford Shale oil extraction project.
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