< Previous90 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Seaside StyleDr. Helen RhodesStory by Sue Mayfield Geiger | Photos by Chris KulhmanBorn in Oxford, England, Dr. Helen Rhodes moved to Austin with her family when she was 4 years old. By age 9, her English accent was gone. With medicine in her DNA — her maternal grandparents were physicians in En-gland— Rhodes became an OB-GYN, and worked at various hospitals as well as in private practice, all while raising three daughters.She lives in Clear Lake Shores and manages practices in both the Clear Lake area and Houston.Rhodes likes to garden and be on the water with husband, Tom Lambert. They like to sail, kayak, paddle board and slip off to their beach house in Galveston, where Rhodes is learning to surf.“My fashion style is classic with a little bit of funk,” she said.Each month, Coast Monthly visits with some of the most charming people on the Texas Coast to see a few of their favorite things.Here are a few of her favorite things:1. Wooden bowl with shells: This was a wedding present, made by a craftsman in Louisiana. It’s made of elm with turquoise inlay and etched with pelicans, my favorite bird. I filled it with shells, many of which were gifts.2. Handmade serving piece: a Christmas gift from my husband — with my favorite colors, blue and aqua. He bought it at an art show in Galveston.3. Corner cabinet: This an-tique made of tiger oak belonged to my grandparents. all of the china inside is from my mom’s collection.4. Porcelain figurine with seagull: My grandfather gave this to my grandmother as an en-gagement gift. She had this in her home and I always admired it.5. Bone china cup and sau-cer: This is bavaria china made in Germany and is a cherished item from my mom’s collection.6. Book: I’m currently reading “Mountains beyond Mountains” by Tracy Kidder, a Pulitzer Prize winner. It’s a fantastic non-fiction narrative about Dr. Paul Farm-er’s mission to conquer diseases among the world’s poor, especial-ly in Haiti.7. Sandpiper: My daughters gave me this one Christmas. They know how much I love coastal birds.8. Scarf: My husband bought me this while we were on our honeymoon in Tahiti. It is very versatile in that it can be a shawl, a skirt or even a dress.9. Turtle: I love turtles. Tom made this for me out of koa wood, which is native to Hawaii. I put my rings on it at night. 123457689 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 91PROPERTY MANAGEMENT MADE EASYanne@sandnsea.comI409.797.5505sandnsea.comVacation Rental Management Since 1974CUSTOM HOME BUILDER409-684-7233MINWESTHOMES.COMNOW BUILDING IN THEPRESERVE AT GRAND BEACH!CUSTOM HOMES, LLC92 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Currents | ArtSeeing the lightPeople travel from all around to see unusual designs in Santa Fe shopStory by Erin Graham Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsJohn Daniels has some bright ideas.In his Santa Fe shop, he shows the world how he turns these ideas into reality.Daniels spent years as an electrician aboard oil tankers. He traveled the world, sepa-rated for weeks at a time from his family. Those weeks of separation finally took a toll, and he and his wife, Courtney, decided he’d had enough.“I missed the birth of my son, Blaine,” he said.About four years ago, Daniels began making light fixtures in a workshop next to his home. He began selling them in the online marketplace Etsy. Designers from across the country discovered his site and began calling.The couple scours the Hill Country searching for items from which John Daniels can see light. Old barn implements are popular subjects. He also works a lot with refurbished antiques.Sometimes, clients will bring him items of sentimental value and ask for a fixture. One par-ticular piece was a blue and green stained-glass sconce.The glass belonged to the client’s mother. John Daniels transformed it into a sconce.“She sent us this photo and said the reflection looked like angel wings,” Courtney Daniels said.John Daniels has created fixtures that have ap-peared in fashion shoots, in studios, wine bars and hotels from coast to coast, in cities such as New York, Boston and Los Angeles.(Right) John Daniels, an electrician who spent years working in the oil industry, now turns industrial and household items into unique lighting fixtures. COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 9394 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Currents | ArtThey also work with interior designers who find the business online.“It doesn’t matter where you’re located with the internet,” Courtney Daniels said.A designer from North Carolina came to the Santa Fe workshop in her high heels, and that was the moment the couple decid-ed they needed a storefront.“She said it was fine; she’d been in worse places,” Courtney Daniels said.The couple worked with the designer on fixtures for several rooms in a lake house. But they didn’t like the sight of the woman climbing around the workshop in her heels.In June last year, they opened J Knox De-signs, brick-and-mortar, 12470 state Highway 6 in Santa Fe.“We get people coming in from all over the county,” John Daniels said.People enter the Santa Fe storefront in search of something unique, Courtney Dan-iels said.The shop is, indeed, filled with unique items.A fixture made from an animal yoke, a (Top, from left) John Daniels turned a metal shelf from the old Lone Star Brewery in San Antonio into a wall light. He created a multi-drop pendant chandelier with various nostalgic light bulbs. A single pendant light held by wooden hands. Some of Daniels’ lamps and chandeliers, made from household and industrial items, are displayed at his storefront, J Knox Designs, in Santa Fe. COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 95book, a meat grinder, license plates, funnels and contemporary creations from John Dan-iels’ imagination.“We added the home décor items to fill the shop,” Courtney Daniels said.It truly is a family business. The couple’s children — Lauren, a senior at Incarnate Word Academy in Houston, and Blaine, an eighth-grader at St. Mary’s in League City — both contribute to the business with ideas.Lauren has an entrepreneurial streak — she sells jewelry and trinket dishes in the shop, and the profits are hers to keep. Blaine generates fresh ideas, such as the light in his room at home made of a medieval helmet.Courtney Daniels likes to put items in the shop that can’t be found anywhere else, such as the banana planter.“Who else do you know that has a ce-ramic banana planter in their house?” she laughed. “Me and one other lady, who came to the store, walked in and said, ‘I’m here for the banana.’” www.jknoxdesigns.com(Top, from left) Daniels created an adjustable floor lamp using a vintage tripod and studio light. He also repurposed bicycle rims and Texas license plates to create a chande-lier and turned a vintage fan into a table lamp. Daniels’ creations, like his wood block lamp and one made from a meat grinder, as well as home décor items are displayed in his Santa Fe storefront. A modern chandelier, in black and brass, uses long, nostalgic tube bulbs.96 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017Charles McIntyre(409) 316-2020(281) 282-2080www.galvestoncountypoolandspa.comCUSTOMGUNITEINGROUNDSWIMMINGPOOLS YOU’RE INVITED To a congregation B’nai Israel sisterhood launch of With roger weis Technical Integration Lead at NASA EVENING PROGRAM 18:15 Intergalactic Raffle —> 19:00 Galaxy Bagel Dinner & Dessert 20:00 Lift Off with Roger Weis —> 21:00 Splash Down (tax-deductible, as this is a fundraiser for CBI’s 150th Anniversary) FOR MORE BOARDING INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT Congregation B’nai Israel: The Rabbi Henry Cohen Memorial Temple info@cbigalveston.org ▪ 409.765.5796 ▪ 3008 Ave. O, Galveston Residential & CommercialMae SpicerOwner409-682-11759185 Jamaica BeachGalveston, Texas 77554maeespicer@aol.comwww.dixieislepropertycare.comDixie IslePest Control COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 97heritagetexas.comALISON CHRISTENSENRealtor® Associate409.539.1794 achristensen@heritagetexas.comalisonchristensen.heritagetexas.comI would LOVE to help you find your Galveston retreat...Follow Me OnOpen Monday-Saturday: 6am to 2pm413 24th StreetGalveston, Texas 77550409-762-2864 409-763-9289Come by & Enjoy Breakfast/Lunch with us! - El Jardin Cafe Employees, Jake Rodriguez FamilyCAFEVoted By the Texas Monthly Dining Guide One of their Favourite Restaurants.98 COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017FeaturesKeeping the story alive1867 Settlement is pivotal part of Texas pioneer historyStory by Leslie Watts | Photos by Jennifer ReynoldsAncient oaks stand stately and tall along the approach to the historic set-aside that once was the heart of a pioneer African-American community known as the 1867 Settle-ment.Established 150 years ago in what is now Texas City, the Settlement was the result of local Judge William Jefferson Jones in 1867 receiv-ing authorization to begin selling homestead plots to local freedmen determined to be of “good standing and industrious habit.”Tucked into the northwest elbow of land formed by the intersection of the current state Highway 3 and FM 1765, the Settlement eventu-ally occupied 320 acres of land and was known for its hard-working residents who dedicated themselves to the celebration of their free-dom and the opportunity to own land. In the second half of the 20th century, however, the area began to fall into disrepair as young people increasingly left the area for opportunities elsewhere.Not content to let such pivotal history be lost, concerned Galveston County residents set about investigating ways to preserve the area and its history. Today, as a result of these efforts, the Settlement is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has two Texas historical markers, and is the subject of a growing number of efforts directed toward increasing awareness of the importance of African-American history in Texas.In “Pioneer Families of the 1867 Settlement, Texas City, Texas,” published in 2015 in cooperation with the Galveston County Historical Commission, author Melodey Mozeley Hauch writes that the Settle-ment’s first residents, Kneeland and Sylvia Britton, paid $100 each for three 10-acre tracts of land. Their daughter Priscilla with her husband, Albert Phillips, purchased a single 10-acre tract.The Brittons, similar to a number of the Settlement’s first residents, were initially associated with the large nearby cattle ranch operated by George Washington Butler. Some of the men had been slaves on the ranch at one time, but after their emancipation stayed on with Butler to work as freedmen and drive his cattle on the legendary Chisholm Trail. In addition to Kneeland Britton and his son Tom Britton, the Settlement’s founding black cowboys included Calvin Bell, David Hobgood and Thomas Caldwell, whose own achievements as well as COASTMONTHLY.COM / February 2017 99those of their family members, are woven throughout the Settlement’s subsequent history.Several of the early Settlement residents not only met their future wives while working for the Butler Ranch, but arranged to have a por-tion of their wages paid in cattle, with which they started their own herds. Among the wives was Katie Johnson, also a ranch employee, who married Calvin Bell. Originally from Germany, she became the Settlement’s first school teacher, teaching both children and adults to read and write. Another first was the African-American cemetery estab-lished by the Phillips family in the 1870s.As the Settlement grew and prospered, more families bought land and established churches, stores and other businesses. By 1900, there were 83 permanent residents, and the literacy rate was 88 percent.The 20th century saw farming and ranching begin to take second place to employment with the industrial plants that were quickly be-coming the area’s economic drivers, and the Settlement began to add population and businesses, but lose some of its cohesive identity.In 1953, the once independent African-American community was annexed by Texas City, but many of the descendants of its early resi-dents, along with state and local historians, were unwilling to let the Settlement story be forgotten.Mary Margaret Smith, who grew up in the Settlement and later earned a doctoral degree in education, was among those determined to preserve the story of her home community’s pivotal role in Texas City history. Today, she serves on the Galveston County Historical Commission and heads up its African-American Historic Preservation Committee, of which Hauch is a member.“The Settlement gave me my roots,” Smith said. “It is my honor today to be able to give back to the community by keeping alive the story of this vibrant and pioneering African-American community.”Today, despite boarded up windows in some homes and emp-ty slabs where a prosperous community once stood, those who do remain in the Settlement area take pride in being a part of this pivotal chapter in Texas pioneer history.On his way to recent services at the Greater Bell Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Gregory DeLaney pointed out the sites of several now-gone landmark buildings and, with special excitement, a football field that served the former Lincoln High School.A few streets down, Roy Daniels welcomed friends arriving with a lumber-loaded pickup. They were there to help him rebuild the chick-en coop behind the house he had inherited from his mother, the late Ethel Mae Daniels, whom he described as one of the Settlements’s last influential matriarchs.“My mother loved her chickens,” he said. “She always had chickens, and this house is not the same without them.”On leaving the community, a stroll through the old cemetery yielded a surprise encounter with a few fire ant mounds, but amid a light scattering of broken grave stones, one of the few remaining intact markers offers what could perhaps be a clarion call for the future of the Settlement: “Gone, but not forgotten.” (Opposite page) The historic Frank Sr. and Flavilla Bell House is part of the 1867 Settlement, a Reconstruction-era, self-sustained, African-American community in what is now West Texas City. It was founded by Calvin Bell, Thomas Hobgood, Thomas Caldwell and Kneeland Britton, all former slaves.(Above, from left) Odeal Bell, left, and Alice Bell, descendants of Calvin Bell, recall family stories as they scroll through old photographs in the Frank Bell Sr. House during the fifth annual 1867 Settlement Celebration in 2015. Vivian Bell Curry, left, and Beverly Bell Boyer, both descendants of Norvell Bell Jr., talk with Mary Smith about their family history during the celebration. The 1926 Frank Jr. and Ollie Caldwell Bell House is part of the 5-acre 1867 Settlement Historic District.Photo by Kevin M. CoxNext >