By Braden Dodson and Winnie Wong
Resourcefulness, persistence, and kindness towards his fellow citizens remain bright spots in Charles H. Milby’s legacy. For generations, the Milby family played a vital role in supporting the Texas community. Charles’s father, William P. Milby, moved to East Texas from Delaware in 1842 and served in the Republic of Texas Legislature. Born on August 29, 1852, in Indianola, Texas, Charles Henry Milby was the youngest of William and his wife Mary’s seven children. After finishing his public education, the young Milby arrived in Houston in 1872. The following year, he relocated to Harrisburg, where he managed a small market and country store, the first a long line of successful enterprises.
In 1879, Milby and his friend, Andrew Dow, formed the firm Milby and Dow, purchasing coal holdings in Oklahoma. The same year, he married Maggie Grant Tod, the daughter of Texas Navy commodore John Grant Tod. The newlyweds moved into a home built by the commodore on the corner of Elm at 614 Broadway, which became known as the Milby House. They had two daughters and one son.
Milby and Dow were true-blue entrepreneurs, dabbling in coal, real estate, banking, factories, brickyards, and other industries. Milby also owned the Milby Hotel Company, including the Milby Hotel. When the Southern Pacific shops suddenly moved from Harrisburg to Houston, Milby curbed panic by providing residents steady employment in his brickyards. Milby served as a Harris County commissioner and committee member promoting construction of the Harris County Courthouse. Throughout his life, he displayed a noble and consistent desire to improve his community by bettering Harris County’s religious, political, economic, and educational facilities.
As chairman of the Harris County Citizen’s Committee, Milby and other impassioned citizens, particularly U.S. representatives Thomas Ball and Joseph C. Hutcheson, spearheaded the initiative to develop the Houston Ship Channel as a deep-water port, situated in the Harrisburg area. Milby supported trips to Washington to convince the federal government to agree to the committee’s plans and secure the rights-of-way. The channel became a driver of the region’s economic development, which benefited the city and Milby, who owned several surrounding industrial properties.
On July 19, 1925, Milby passed away while on vacation in Colorado Springs. His widow, Maggie, a devoted church member, continued to teach Sunday School at Milby Memorial Methodist Church and lived at the Milby House until she, too, died in 1941.
A year after Charles Milby’s passing, controversy swirled around what to name Harrisburg’s new high school, until someone suggested Milby’s name. The school board voted unanimously to name the school for Charles H. Milby, beloved by residents across the county. Replacing the former Harrisburg High School (1911-1926), Charles H. Milby High School opened in March 1926 and became part of the Houston Independent School District (HISD) in 1927, ushering in a new era of opportunity for Houston’s East End.
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