Aurora, Jefferson Co, Texas: Our Family History

Media

Photos		Aurora Remembered
Photos		Sparks Museum, Museum of the Gulf Coast - Aurora 700 Procter Street Port Arthur, Texas

Documents » Slide Show		Courts and Sparks Families in Southeast Texas (d)
		Sparks and Aurora Originally published in about 1940, and published on the Internet by "Old and Sold, Turn-of-the-Century wisdom for today." Tells of life among the Sparks and families who lived in the Sparks Settlement in the mid to late 1800s. (d) http://www.oldandsold.com/articles11/port-arthur-4.shtml
		Mrs. Jack C. Beaumont Recalls Early School Days When She Was One of First Five Port Arthur Pupils Port Arthur News Sunday, March 22, 1936 Mentioned in article and linked to: Emma Lee, husband Jack Beaumont, daughter Pearl Beaumont Fred Gentz and wife Bell Sparks, children Welby Gentz and Helen Gentz and husband M.E. (Mathew Edmond) Nobles John Sidney Sparks and wife Melinda Jones; their sons: Albert, Frank, William, Thomas, James, Worth, Henry; daughters: Julia, Sarah and husband Frank Brewton and heir children Grace and Frank, Eliza Jane and husband Samuel Lee (parents of Emma Lee); Belle and husband Fred Gentz

Albums

Aurora Remembered (11)
In October 1837, two San Augustine men, H. M. Hanks and Colonel Almonzan Huston, former quartermaster general of the Texas army, teamed up to found the townsite of Aurora at present-day Port Arthur.34 One record indicates that the townsite contained 6,677 lots. Although Huston sold some lots to residents of San Augustine, no more than six transactions are recorded in Jefferson County, and the realty venture was soon abandoned. In time, the townsite’s name was transferred to nearby “Sparks’ Settlement,” at the mouth of Taylor’s Bayou, where John and Solomon Sparks settled in 1841 and operated a ferry.

Chapter VI: A History of Jefferson County, Texas
Early Town-Building and Government
By W. T. Block

Settlement on the Sabine Lake, first known as Sparks Settlement, and is now Port Arthur, where the Sparks, Courts, Gentz, Burrell, Johnson, Clark, Hayes, and other families lived from 1830s until late 1890s when disease, hurricanes, and mosquitos forced the families to abandon their settlement, moving further inland to Port Neches, Groves, and Beaumont.

Birth

Matches 1 to 1 of 1

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Birth		Person ID
1	Gentz, Jane Malinda "MJ"	24 Jul 1874	Aurora, Jefferson Co, Texas	I423

Death

Matches 1 to 3 of 3

	Last Name, Given Name(s)	Death		Person ID
1	Gentz, Buler	1886	Aurora, Jefferson Co, Texas	I425
2	Gentz, J.Lee	1886	Aurora, Jefferson Co, Texas	I426
3	Gentz, J.W.	1886	Aurora, Jefferson Co, Texas	I424