Exploring Our Roots

By: R.K. Sawyer

We’re over a half-century-old now. We know we are, have an idea where we are going, but how many of us know where GHSC has been?

The roots of competitive sport shooting go back to just after the Civil War, a time when shotguns were most often in the hands of men who used them to eat. But economic growth after the war allowed for some outdoorsmen both the means and leisure time to begin using guns for sport. These men were most often the movers and shakers of Texas business and politics, and most lived in bustling San Antonio, Dallas, Waco, Galveston, or Houston. It was these urban sportsmen who, around 1870, founded Texas’ first competitive shooting clubs.

Members of these early clubs, along with their friends and families, often filled private Pullman rail cars and crisscrossed the state to compete in organized shooting matches. In the days before clay targets, they used glass balls, live pigeons, or sponsored “prize hunts,” where teams competed to kill the largest number of wild game on the wing. Winning “prize hunt” teams totaled the highest score from different point values assigned to waterfowl, shore- and wading birds, prairie chickens, doves, quail, hawks, eagles, and owls. With the reputation of their clubs and home cities at stake, wagers on the outcome of any sporting event varied from as little as an oyster and champagne dinner to thousands of dollars.

Houston Gun Club, Houston’s first organized shooting venue, was founded in the 1870s on an 8,000-acre “game preserve” beside Buffalo Bayou. Houston Gun Club at the turn of the century boasted 50 members and a “finely appointed clubhouse” that overlooked an artificial lake. At some point after the 1920s, the club grounds were relocated near what is now the corner of I-610 and Westheimer Avenue. The late Liston Roberts, a long-time GHSC member, recalled that Houston’s growth forced the club to relocate in the 1950s. He said the birth of GHSC, in at least one version of its founding, was a result of sporting enthusiasts who saw an opportunity in venerable Houston Gun Club’s adversity.

It is hard today to visualize what the GHSC landscape looked like at the turn of the 19th century. The south bank of Simms Bayou was far from the heart of Houston; it took half a day on horseback to reach the location as swarms of mosquitoes rose in clouds from stirrup-high prairie grass. The soil was rich, but too wet for agriculture until the late 1910s when the area was drained and native prairie burned. Together man and beast turned the scorched earth into a network of irrigation canals to grow thousands of acres of rice. Some of the old rice levees can still be seen today south of the clubhouse.

Though no one suspected it at the time, the future of that rice field south of Houston would be linked with Forest McNeir. Born in 1875, McNeir was raised in the hardscrabble fishing and farming community of Smith Point, Chambers County. He made money as a boy collecting and selling turtles, eggs from birds and alligators, and hauling farm products to Galveston by sailing sloop. Later he worked as a market hunter, shooting and selling canvasbacks for Colonel Moody at Lake Surprise, deep in the Chambers County marshes. McNeir went on to become one of the best shots in the United States. As an adult he worked as a general contractor, his path crossing GHSC in 1957 when, in the months just before he died, he drew up the plans for our clubhouse, outbuildings, and shooting fields. His photograph today hangs prominently in the clubhouse.

The visionaries behind GHSC were founding directors and officers James C. Roberts (President, 1958), John R. Downes (Chairman of the Board, 1958), Gordon Nees, H.J. Yoakum, L. E. Minor, Edmund L. Buckley (President, 1960), Titus Harris Jr. (President, 1961), and Ralph W. McNeir. Frank Moreno, from the South Louisiana Gun Club, was hired as the first club manager. The board initially advertised for members, instructing interested parties to contact E.L. Buckley at the Southwest Bank Building in Houston or, in the days before emails and area codes, to call him at CA (for capitol)-4-2915 for more information. The strategy worked; shares of stock were sold to 100 original members, their dues set at $10 a month. The roster who proudly wore the first GHGC membership lapel pin was a who’s who of 1950s Houston, including George R. Brown, Harry, and Roy Cullen, oilman Michael Halbouty, Grant Ilseng of Texas Sporting Goods, and Jake Oshman, to name but a few. Keenly aware of the value of local press, honorary memberships were provided to another half dozen Houston area newspapermen.

GHSC founders selected the site for the club in a 130-acre rice field well outside of the Houston city limits. The dream became reality when the Board of Directors, along with some supportive founding members, each guaranteed $2,000 on a $30,000 bank loan. Forest McNeir & Son Contractors was selected to build the facility, with Ralph McNeir completing construction after his father’s passing.