Jonathan Edward Pierce and Abel Brown Pierce hired land developer Burton D. Hurd to sell 9,000 acres of their ranch lands in 1908 under an agreement to develop a town with a college and a port on Trespalacios Bay. Promoted in northern newspapers for its mild climate and farming opportunities, Collegeport attracted families who bought land, established farms, and built homes. The Gulf Coast University of Industrial Arts opened in 1909, and with service from the Missouri Pacific Railroad, the town grew quickly so that by 1912 it had a bank, post office, school, two churches, retail stores, and other businesses. It also had the county's first free public library, its first Boy Scout Troop, and the Woman's Club, founded in 1910. In 1914 a heavy freeze destroyed most crops, and drought and disease devastated livestock herds, leading many families to leave; the railroad depot was later dismantled, rebuilt as Mopac House, and attached to the public library in 1935.