Theodore F. Koch Collection
.25 linear feet; 104 negatives and photographs
A1973-033
1890-1945 (unknown)
Theodore Frederick Koch was born on 04/01/1854, in Looward Castle, Netherlands and died on 09/19/1940 while on vacation in New Braunfels, Texas.. He came to the United States in 1884. He settled in St. Paul, Minnesota, where he became a land developer. He married Clara Hoeborn in 1887 and they had three children. As land for sale became scarce in the midwest, Koch searched for development opportunities elsewhere in the States. While traveling through Texas, he became aquatinted with Robert J. Kleberg Jr. and Mrs. Henrietta King, and in 1907 Koch purchased about 20,000 acres of land in southern Nueces County from Mrs. King. He developed and promoted that land, and it became the townships known as Riviera, Riviera Beach, and Vattman. Koch also constructed the Riviera Beach and Western railroad that ran from Riviera and Riviera Beach from 1912-1917. Unfortunately, a severe drought in 1915, a devastating hurricane in 1916, and World War I all combined to damage and slow the growth of the area. Koch also developed land at Palacios and Winnie, near Beaumont, Texas. A hurricane hit the area in 1915 and caused many of the new landowners to leave the area. His most profitable endeavors turned out to be a fig farm, the Beaumont-Hamshire Fig Company, and oil leases on his various properties. Theodore F. Koch died on September 19, 1940 while on vacation in New Braunfels, Texas.
The Theodore F. Koch Collection contains personal and business correspondence dating from 1912 to 1973. Included in the correspondence are items relating to purchasing land in Minnesota and South Texas. Biographical information about his family, especially his son, Walter Roosevelt Koch are included. Data concerning his Fig farm in the Beaumont-Hampshire area is included in the correspondence. Biographical materials dating from 1906 to 1947 include portions of the "Autobiography of Theodore F. Koch." Brochures and newsclippings promoting Riviera and Riviera Beach and South Texas can be found in Series IV of the collection. The negatives date back to 1912 with pictures of Model T cars, Riviera Beach, churches, homes, and the agricultural landscape of Nueces County, Texas. A brochure about the Buena Vista Hotel at Riviera Beach, which existed from 1909 to 1912 is included in Series IV.
Series I: Correspondence. Series II: Biographical materials. Series III: Legal. Series IV: Brochures & Newspaper Clippings Series V: Maps. Series VI: Photographs.
South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
Open for Research
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Theodore Koch Collectoin, A1973-033.XXXX, South Texas Archives, James C. Jernigan Library, Texas A&M University-Kingsville
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A1973-033 - Florence H. (Mrs. Theodore) Koch, 1973
Processed by Patricia F. Scott, 1981/08/17