TOMBSTONE TUESDAY: Howard Gallemore Hartzong, Sr.

TOMBSTONE TUESDAY (June 3, 2025): Howard Gallemore Hartzong, Sr. (1901-1968): “I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the water to create many ripples” … Mother Teresa. Her words would be a good description of Howard G. Hartzog, a local stone caster that actively worked to change the world around him. 

Howard Gallemore Hartzog was born on April 11, 1901, in Tolosa, Kaufman County, Texas to Joseph O. Hartzog and Sybil G. Martin Hartzog. His mother was the daughter of “Howdy” Martin, who served as a major in Hood’s Brigade during the Civil War and later served in the United States Congress. Joseph brought his family to Calhoun County in 1912 to build an electricity generating plant at Austwell and shortly thereafter moved to Port Lavaca and became a partner in Port Lavaca Industrial Plant. The firm operated the electric plant, the broom factory, and 3 cotton gins. Capital stock had not been paid in, and Joseph “lost his shirt.” Then the family moved to San Marcos and returned to Port Lavaca to stay in 1928. 

While living in San Marcos, Howard attended San Marcos Academy where he played football for four years. He then attended Southwest Texas Normal School (now State University) and played football there for two seasons. Howard then attended Baylor University and earned a Bachelor of Arts degree also earning two diamond studded gold footballs during two years of Baylor Bears football teams winning two Southwest Conference Championships in 1922 and 1924. Howard was nominated for All-American but did not make the team. After graduating in 1928 he signed on with Rock Island Independents out of Illinois. It was a professional grid team, but the team folded after a hurricane caused three games on the East Coast to be cancelled. Never one to be idol for long Howard and some friends from Texas moved to Washington, D.C. to meet with a representative of the Buffalo Bills. He wasted no time following in his mother’s footsteps by enrolling in George Washington University and tried out for the football team there. Within a year and a half, he had earned his law degree. Finding himself in debt he returned to playing professional football for the 1928 season for New York Giants. At Christmas of that year, he had to leave the team and return home to Port Lavaca when his mother suffered a stroke. 

During his years in Washington, he served as a committee clerk for Texas Senators Tom Connolly and Morris Shepherd experiencing his first taste of politics. He spent a summer sightseeing in Europe and watching the Olympics, true to character Howard then tried out for the Olympic team in swimming, diving, and vaulting but did not qualify. He decided to see the Olympics anyway, so he took a job as a coal patcher on a freighter headed for Rotterdam. 

After all the adventures and excitement he had experienced in his younger years, Howard came home to Port Lavaca to stay. He opened a law office then to “make a living” he signed on as a deckhand on a shrimp boat. 

In 1935 he married Anna Paul Allen of Marlin, Texas. They had two children, Martha was born on March 8, 1940, and Howard (Howdy) Jr born January 2,1945. Upon marriage the couple bought a small 3 room frame house that was built in 1901 at the corner of Commerce and Center Streets. As their family grew, they added on rooms to accommodate the family. Howard and Anna turned their home into a showplace, and it was unique and well known in the community. The outside of the structure looked like a rustic cabin with a beautiful Texas Star-stained glass window in the front peak of the house. They built a rock fireplace and chimney with rocks they picked up from central Texas on trips from Austin. The interior walls were paneled in “pecky” cypress from Louisiana that Howard accepted as payment for legal services. The walls were never papered or painted because he liked to show off the “pecky” cypress. He liked to tell folks that they could “throw darts at the living room door and they wouldn’t hurt anything, because we do!” The home was furnished with antique furniture brought to Texas by their families via riverboat and covered wagon. Sadly, the house was razed several years ago to allow new owners to build a new home.

Howard Hartzog was instrumental in leading not only our county and South Texas forward but also our great state of Texas. After opening his law office, public service once again called his name. He had learned a great deal about politics while in Washington D.C. and New York, where he was involved for a time with the Tammany Hall Organization. His course was set, and he carried on the duties of public service with commitment and gusto until his death. In 1933 he was elected representative in the 69th district of the Texas House of Representatives for Calhoun, Victoria, and Goliad counties, which were all represented together. While serving he was author and co-author on some of the most significant legislation of the time. Among the most notable, was the authorization of county-wide school districts among which Calhoun County became one of the first. Working with Lyndon B. Johnson, whose desire to establish GBRA was one of the main cornerstones of his career, Howard helped the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority come to fruition. He also sponsored the Seawall Act which granted the building of seawalls to help stop erosion and conserve lands of Calhoun County and other areas along the Texas coastline. Howard was responsible for the certification of Title concerning automobile registration. He labeled himself as a liberal until Roosevelt changed that. Nevertheless, up until his death he was a tenacious promoter of programs, both at the state and federal levels, that would bring more progress in for Calhoun County and South Texas.

In 1947 he returned to Port Lavaca where he served as a member for the Calhoun County Independent School Board of Trustees and also served as the interim city attorney for Port Lavaca. In 1951, after taking his oath as Calhoun County Judge, he would be called Judge Hartzog for the rest of his life. He was elected for six consecutive terms, making him county judge for seventeen years, longer than any other person in county history. He stayed in the position of county judge until his death in 1968. As County Judge he presided over the Calhoun County Commissioner’s Court, during which a sizable number of projects were accomplished. During this time a new library was was built, the courthouse was finished, as well as a new agriculture building and county fairgrounds were completed. Transportation was upgraded throughout the county with a new four lane causeway across Lavaca Bay, the building of a new county airport opened to traffic, and Calhoun County became the leading county in number of miles of Farm-to-Market roads per capita in the state with all the new road construction. The hospital was brought up to speed with two major expansions that were built during Judge Hartzog’s tenure. 

As County Judge he also faced challenges that were weather related. In 1960, heavy rains dumped over twenty-nine inches of rain in three days inundating parts of the county. As county coordinator he led the recovery efforts for the rain-soaked citizens, businesses, and fields. One year later, on September 11,1961, Hurricane Carla, a category four storm, had her eye set for Calhoun County. She made landfall between Port 0’Connor and Port Lavaca. At that time, she was the strongest hurricane to hit the coast according to the National Weather Service. With winds at 145 mph, 21 tornadoes, and a tidal surge of 10 feet above normal, Carla left a mass of destruction adding up to a whopping bill of $325 million ($3.5 billion today) throughout the entire county, and up the 300-mile Texas Coast. In Calhoun County buildings, commercial fishing vessels, homes, crops, livestock, and damage to roads were left in her wake. A huge part of the middle of the drawbridge that crossed Lavaca Bay was taken out, and the new 4 lane causeway that was finished and waiting to be opened to traffic was damaged enough to delay the festivities until repairs could be done. It was again up to Judge Hartzog to lead in the rescue, clean-up, and rebuilding that was needed. 

Another part of his job was the role of Ex-Officio County School Superintendent. This position required a tremendous amount of time. He was the last to hold that office when in 1966 it was abolished and the duties taken over by the Calhoun County School District. County Judge Hartzog regularly held court in which he adjudicated hundreds of criminal, civil and probate cases. 

He actively promoted the future economic, and well-being of Calhoun County. When the community leaders wanted to expand industry in the county it was obvious that a ship channel was needed to connect the county to most every other port in the world. As Vice-President of the Mid-Coast Water Development Association, Judge Hartzog was able to bring that need to a reality and the Matagorda Ship Channel was finished in 1966. He also fought with the U.S. Air Force to let the county reclaim 2,000 acres of Matagorda Island for a State Park which would have access to the island by way of a causeway from the mainland to the island as an extension of highway 87. His vision went even further in that one-day additional miles could be added ending up with “an eight-lane causeway that extended all the way to El Paso.” 

If that wasn’t enough Judge Hartzog was also a member of the Masonic Lodge, the Rotary Club, the Chamber of Commerce, the Civic Theater, was a director of the Guadalupe River Watershed Development Association, and vice-chairman of the Gulf Coast area of the Economic Development Authority and the American Bar Association. 

Judge Howard E. Hartzog died in 1968, and he is buried next to his wife Anna, who died the year before in Port Lavaca Cemetery. He was a trailblazer and a force to be reckoned with when promoting the advancement of Calhoun County and her citizens. He wore many hats during his lifetime, and under each one he made sure that Port Lavaca and the citizens of Calhoun County would make progress in the future. Today we can still see those benefits thanks to the work he did. He cast the stone and the ripples he made did change our part of the world. 

Shifting Sands of Calhoun County pg. 169 & 170

Port Lavaca, Texas 1840-1990 pg. 269

https://www.weather.gov /lch/1961Carla#:~:text=Carla %20was%20considered%20one%20of,estimated%20at%20over%20%24300%20million.

Tombstone Tuesday is written and compiled each week by Jody Weaver and Sheryl Cuellar of the Calhoun County Historical Commission, sharing the people and stories behind Calhoun County's history.