REMEMBERING HILDA CARRICK NELSON COLLINS

Photo: San Antonio Express

Hilda was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on August 2nd, 1947. She was the daughter of a judge, and so she grew up in a well-known Knoxville family, surrounded by the finer things in life, and received a good education.

In 1866 she married Captain Finis Foster Collins in Alleyton in Colorado County, Texas.

Photo: Capt. Finis Foster Collins…San Antonio Light and Gazette

Because she and her husband shared a passion for travel, Hilda and Finis made six trips to Europe. They also shared a love for beautiful things and gardens which they admired throughout the continent.

They settled in San Antonio in 1877 and lived in a home at the corner of today’s Houston Street and N. St. Mary’s Street…right where today you can find the Hertzberg clock.

Photo: Author

They lived here because Captain Collins opened up a business on the banks of the San Antonio River next to where the Houston Street bridge sits….just below where the Texas Theater was once located. In the 1890’s, Captain Finis Collins operated an industrial plant at this location. At the plant, he constructed machinery, steam boilers, and windmills for ranches.

Photo: San Antonio Daily Express

Photo: San Antonio Daily Light

This was the location where Capt. Finis Foster Collins established his industrial plant on the banks of the San Antonio River at Houston Street. Today, it is occupied by a high rise and the facade of the historic Texas Theater.

Photo: Author

He was an enterprising man, and a few years later he came up with the idea of a new business for the San Antonio River. He took an old rowboat, modified it with a boiler, attached some paddle wheels on the side, and came up with the first steamboat on the river.

He ran it daily on 20 minute trips from the Houston Street bridge, heading south on the river, following the river’s natural course through what is today’s Riverwalk, and all the way to where the current South St. Mary’s Street Bridge is located, near to where we find the Tower Life Building today.

Captain Collins’ boat would turn around here, and make the return trip to Houston Street where the journey began. He offered rides for passengers, laying the groundwork for today’s tour boats on the Riverwalk.

Remember that in the 1890’s, the river bypass flood channel was not there, nor the floodgates, so the natural meandering San Antonio River provided the course for his boat rides. Heading south would have been no trouble, however, the steam powered paddle wheels would have been needed for the return journey as the little boat was competing against a healthy current in the river.

Captain Finis Foster Collins named his steamboat the “Hilda” after his wife.

A newspaper reporter wrote and account of his trip aboard the tiny boat….which was quite the sight on the San Antonio River then.

Photo: San Antonio Daily Light

But while her name was being used on the San Antonio River, Hilda Collins was also making a name for herself elsewhere.

As previously mentioned, she and her husband had an eye for beautiful things, and she had a keen interest in horticulture as well. The Collins’ had also purchased a tract of land south of San Antonio in 1902 where Hilda became occupied in the establishment of the Collins Gardens.

Photo: San Antonio Light and Gazette

There she

There, Hilda and her husband were able to demonstrate that with the use of wise irrigation, often with the application of windmills, stunning gardens could be cultivated in the Texas soil and under the Texas sun. Both of them worked hard on the property, and Hilda, through her example, instilled an interest in the minds of San Antonio residents of the improvement and beautification of their own properties and grounds.

Captain Collins sold his manufacturing plant and together they established a housing estate at Collins Gardens

Photo: San Antonio Light

At the same time Hilda and Finis Collins encouraged others to come and build their home there like they did.

Photo: San Antonio Light

Hilda also generously offered thousands of plants to the local San Antonio residents so that they too could take pride in their own surrounds and gardens. Her home became a famous attraction to visitors of San Antonio as one of the beauty spots of the city.

She even went one step further and also donated plants, trees and shrubs to the city parks as well.

Not only a keen gardener ( and floral philanthropist ) Hilda Collins could have attained literary fame had she devoted less time to inspiring civic pride with her stunning gardens. She wrote a number of books in her spare time, based on the beautiful places that she had visited with her husband on their travels.

So, today we remember Hilda Carrick Nelson Collins not only for her trailblazing and tireless efforts to beautify San Antonio, but for also lending her name to the first tour boat on the San Antonio River.

Hilda passed away in her home at the Collins Gardens 100 years ago today at the age of 76, and is interred in an unmarked grave in the family plot in San Antonio.

Photo: Author

Today, the former location of her home and gardens is the Collins Gardens area of San Antonio, featuring a Library and Elementary School just south of the city off Nogalitos.