1836
The Colt revolver, a six-shooter designed by Samuel Colt, is patented. Today the gun is used by the fear-inspiring Texas Rangers
March 2
A convention at Washington on the Brazos issued the Texas Declaration of Independence as Santa Anna's Mexican troops swept into Texas
March 24
President Burnet and his government fled from Santa Anna, setting up headquarters in Harrisburg
Santa Anna marches thru Harrisburg.
April 15
Harrisburg was put to the torch as the Texas government sought refuge in Lynchburg
April 21
Victory at last! A captured Mexican scout reveals Santa Anna's plans, enabling General Sam Houston and 900 of his stronger men to march on Lynch's Ferry, where Buffalo Bayou joins the San Jacinto. There they catch the Mexicans off guard during their traditional siesta time. After making their presence known with a four-piece band playing Will you come to my bower I have shaded for you?, the Texans charge, and within 18 minutes, kill 630 Mexicans, wound 208 and take 730 prisoner. They capture Santa Anna the next day, insuring the Republic's independence
Harrisburg County is established
August 26
Augustus C. and John K. Allen purchased for $5000 ($1000 down) the site on the ruins of Harrisburg, burned by Santa Anna, for which would be the location for Houston
August 30
The Allens placed their "paper town" on the market. Land is offered for sale at $1 per acre
Republic's 1st congress convened at Columbia south of Houston
September
Sam Houston elected first president of the Republic of Texas, and Lorenzo De Zavala elected vice-president
November 30
Augustus Allen's offer to make Houston the capital of the Republic wins congressional acceptance and the First Texas Congress chose Houston as the capital of the Republic of Texas
Gail and Thomas Borden survey and map the original townsite for Houston
1837
Houston's population of about 1,200 consisted in large part of political officials and their families
The first large warehouse was erected and used primarily for cotton
Mrs. Andrews opened a school primarily for girls
January 22
The first steamboat to arrive could not find the city. The 85-foot "Laura" went three miles beyond the stakes marking Houston and had to back up
April 26
Sam Houston arrived in the town and praised its potential
May 1
The Texas Congress convened for the first time in Houston in the yet unfinished Capitol Building. There were no chairs inside, nor any roof on top
May 2
Gail and Thomas Borden established Houston's first newspaper, the Telegraph and Texas Register. It had been published formerly in Columbus, Texas
A row of commercial establishments were built on the west side of Main Street between Preston and Congress
The new Republic's congress arrives in Houston
June 5
Houston's first charter was issued and Houston was incorporated as a city
Houston's population of about 1,200 residents consisted in large part of political officials and their families
The first large warehouse was erected and used primarily for cotton
Mrs. Andrews opened a school primarily for girls
August 14
James S. Holman won the town's first mayoral election
October
The Texas Congress appropriated $1,000 for a City Hospital
Legislators were already discussing moving the capital out of Houston
The 1st courthouse and jail are established
1838
Francis Moore, Jr. was chosen as Houston's second mayor
The city council appointed two constables and thereby initiated police activity in the town. Night protection, however, was still often left to volunteers
The government of the republic bought a small store building at Main and Preston and converted it into a residence for the chief executive. This first Texas White House was on the site where the Scanlan sisters later built the Scanlan Building
Deputy Constable Edward Stiff reported forty-seven places selling intoxicating drinks
The Philosophical Society of Texas was founded under President Mirbeau D. Lamar
April 28
Journeymen printers met and formed the Texas Typographical Association, the first organized group in Houston
William Marsh Rice arrives in Houston
March
The Telegraph and Texas Register reported four steamboats regularly plying the Houston-Galveston run
June 11
Theater was inaugurated in Houston with two plays at the John Carlos theater, the city's 1st theatre
August 18
John K. Allen died of yellow fever at the age of 28
December
The city council appointed a market a market inspector and authorized private construction of a market house
1839
Houston's second charter was issued providing a more detailed account of the city's powers and limitations
George W. Lively was elected Mayor
Individual merchants began installing sidewalks, and an 1858 ordinance made it obligatory for all merchants along Main Street
Henry F. Byrne opened a short-lived subscription library with a 1,300 volume collection
The Morning Star reported Houston's population at 2,075 residents
Early. The city council attacked the city's serious health problem by appointing a board of Health which operated sporadically for several years
The Texas legislators moved the state capital to Austin with the transfer completed by September
William Marsh Rice settled in Houston
One of the capital city's prominent female citizens was locked up in the log jail and put on trial for her life in the log courthouse. Pamala Mann had borrowed some money from a man named Hardy to finance a boarding house at Washington-on-the Brazos during the convention that produced the Texas Declaration of Independence. She was found guilty of forging a receipt, which was a capital offence with a penalty of being hanged. President Mirabeau Lamar's last official act was to pardoned her and she went back to her boarding house that she built by the time her case came to trial
The first Episcopal congregation was organized
Harrisburg County becomes Harris County though an Act of Congress
February
The city's first Abstinence Society held its initial
meeting with 98 signing pledges
February 11
Houston's first public school opened with most students paying a fee, but with some poor children admitted free. Individual Merchants began installing sidewalks, and an 1858 ordinance made it obligatory for all merchants along Main Street
April 19
A group of local businessmen had cleared five miles of the Buffalo Bayou of overhanging limbs and snags, thus completing the first improvements on the shipping route
Summer
A devastating yellow fever epidemic swept Houston, killing 240 of the city's 2,000 residents
December
Over 200 German immigrants arrived and were in sheltered in the old Capitol building
FROM A TROUBLED BEGINNING
By Marvin Hurley
OUSTON'S turbulent beginning was in keeping with the
period of Texas history and largely reflected the conflicts that existed throughout the
United States. While Mexico was breaking away from Spain in the early 1800s,
restless people from throughout the older states headed for the southwest in search of
adventure and opportunity. Within a few years, the Americans out numbered the Mexican
settlers in Texas, and by the early 1830s there was talk about independence. The
Mexican government sought by harsh measures to maintain control, but in 1835 the Texans
rebelled. If this revolt of Texas against Mexico had merely marked the transition
from one political connection to another, it would have been an event of no slight
historical significance. But its broader importance was found in the influence it
was to have on the making of two nations--the United States and Mexico.
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This site was important to how the Battle of San Jacinto turned out. Santa Anna left much of his army here to loot and burn while he marched off looking for Sam Houston's Army. He found it-and defeat. |
Texas declared its independence on March 2nd, 1836, but was not immediately successful in its efforts to get the United States to recognize it as a Republic. The Battle of the Alamo on March 6th unified the people of the Republic, and then on April 21st, Texas independence was established when the Texan army under General Sam Houston defeated the Mexican army under Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. Of this Battle Charles Edward Lester wrote:
"On that well-fought field, Texan independence was won. A brave but outraged people, in imitation of their fathers of the century before, had entrusted their cause to the adjudication of battle, and had gained the victory. It was not a struggle for the aggrandizement of some military chieftain, nor was it a strife for the empire. The soldiers who marched under the 'Lone Star' into that engagement were free, brave, self-relying men. Some of them, indeed, had come from a neighboring Republic, as Lafayette crossed the sea to join the struggle for freedom, but most of them were men who cultivated the soil they fought on, and had paid for it with their money or their labor. Hundreds of them had abandoned their homes to achieve everlasting freedom for their children. They were fighting for all that makes life worth living or gives value to its possession."
Only a few months before the Battle of San Jacinto, riots had broken out at an anti-slavery society meeting in New York City, and pro-slavery rioting erupted in Philadelphia with about 40 homes in the Black community being destroyed. In Boston a mob was angered by the preaching of William Loyd Garrison, the noted abolitionist, "that all men are created equal...," and he was lodged in jail overnight for his safety. Growing urbanization of American life was blamed by "The People's Magazine" for the creation of a new type of young man, "unhealthy, badly postured, pale and nervous." The Rev. Charles Giles, preaching in support of the temperance movement, declared that 56,000 people were destroyed each year in the United States by drink and that "500,000 drunkards are now living in our blessed America, all moving onward to the dreadful verge."
Undaunted
by the circumstances of the times, two New York real estate promoters, J. K. and A. C. Allen,
started a search for a location where they could begin building "a great center of
government and commerce." In August, 1836, they bought 6,642 acres of land,
without any improvements on it, from Mrs. T. F. L. Parrot, the widow of John Austin, near
the head of tidewater on Buffalo Bayou for $9,428. Out of their admiration for the
hero of San Jacinto, and anticipation his election as the first President of the Republic
of Texas, the Allen brothers named their dream city for Sam Houston. In the hope
that their city would be selected as the Capital of Texas, just one week before Houston's
election, they advertised that "Nature seems to have designated this place for the
future seat of government."
Foresight was exercised in the early steps to build Houston, when Gail Borden, Jr., publisher and surveyor, laid out its streets eighty feet wide, with Texas Avenue, the principal east-west street, one hundred feet in width. Hailing Houston a city "handsome and beautifully elevated, salubrious and well-watered, and now in the very heart and center of population," the Allen brothers persuaded the first Congress of the Republic of Texas, with inducements of government buildings and private lodgings for Congressmen, to select Houston as the capital. Although President Houston found only one small log cabin and a dozen people here in January, 1837, another visitor only two months later said of the town that "persons came pouring in until, in a short time, a floating population had collected some four or five hundred people."
The Republic of Texas was soon recognized by the United States and a number of European countries, but Mexico continued to threaten invasion and Indian hostilities continued another menace. However, Houston showed promise of making progress toward the bright future envisioned by its founders. With Congress in session, and the Texas army disbanded late in 1837, the community was experiencing boom conditions.
The excitement of the period, however, lost to Houston its first industrial prospect. A local businessman had persuaded his uncle to come from New Jersey to consider locating a carriage manufacturing establishment here. However, after gun shots were exchanged during a session of the Congress that he was visiting, he rushed out to have a soldier who had been shot in a saloon almost fall upon him, and a short time later another man with his bowels protruding from a Bowie knife wound staggered into him. He promptly left Texas, never to return.
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Lawlessness, epidemics and financial problems prompted the people of the community to attempt some improvements of the conditions under which they were living. A few of them had some knowledge of organizations called Chambers of Commerce. It was agreed by many that a Chamber of Commerce was needed to work out Houston's problems, and Senator Robert Wilson, who represented the local district, introduced a bill in the Congress of the Republic on November 26, 1838, to charter the Houston Chamber of Commerce. Action on the proposal was delayed by the expulsion of Senator Wilson from Congress on January 7, 1839; and by the emergency adjournment of the Congress on January 11th, when a mob broke up the session with a demonstration following the almost unanimous re-election of Senator Wilson.
The journals of both houses of the Third Congress, which met in December, 1838, and in January, 1839, revealed that the bill for the chartering of the Houston Chamber of Commerce was under consideration. The senate journals for December 27,1838, reported that "a bill to establish a Chamber of Commerce in the city of Houston; passed." In the house journal for Friday, January 11, 1839, the reporter noted that a message had been received from the senate listing acts approved by that body; and among these, "...an act establishing a Chamber of Commerce in the city of Houston" had passed the senate and asked the immediate concurrence of the house. However, the matter did not become official until January 28,1840, when President Mirabeau B. Lamar signed the act of incorporation.
By that time, the problems that plagued the village had become acute. At the end of 1839, ten percent of the population of Houston had died from recurring epidemics of yellow fever, and although the germ-killing bitter winter of 1839-1840 had slowed its incidence, another violent outbreak was expected with the return of warm weather. In the meantime, the New Orleans suppliers had cut off the credit on which Houston merchants had been depending. The Republic's "red-back" currency first dropped to 50 cents on the United States dollar, then on down to 25 cents, and finally to 10 cents. On January 14, 1839, President Lamar had approved a bill moving the capital of the Republic to Austin, or what was then called "Waterloo." Governmental business continued at the Capital Building in Houston until the latter part of 1839. As a matter of fact, the act of 1836 provided that the capital would be located in Houston until the end of the legislative session of 1840. However, in October, the archives and furniture were loaded into wagons for the journey to Austin, and a small sign appeared in a bare window of the Capital: "For lease to responsible parties." A couple of weeks later, the Allen brothers used the columns of the "Texas Morning Star," Texas' first daily newspaper, to advertise the Capitol for rent, and it was rented in less than a month.
The "Morning Star" could report only a disintegrating community morale by April, 1840, and the young municipal government lacked the vitality to meet the issues. Thus it was that on April 4, 1840, seven men assembled at 10:00 o'clock in the morning at Carlos' City Exchange, accepting a life-or-death, or let it die forever. The seven men were Thomas M. League, Henry R. Allen, George Gazely, John W. Pitkin, Charles Kesler, E. S. Perkins, and Dewitt C. Harris. This meeting resulted in the formation of a Chamber of Commerce, through which the people of Houston might enter into a voluntary teamwork to deal with their problems. The "Morning Star" of April 6, 1840, carried an official notice of the April 4th organization meeting of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, thus culminating a year and a half of frustrating experiences as conditions in the community grew steadily worse. According to this report, George Fisher, who had some knowledge of Chambers of Commerce, was present to explain the purpose of the meeting and the procedures necessary to create a Chamber of Commerce. D.C. Harris offered the following resolution, which being accepted, was adopted:
"Resolved, That all persons, being Wholesale Merchants of the City of Houston, or the County of Harris, and paying license as such, who may enroll their names with the Secretary, and pay into the hands of the Treasurer the sum of twenty dollars, of the Promissory Notes of the government of Texas, be admitted and constituted members of the Houston Chamber of Commerce, with the same privileges as the original members embraced in the Act of Incorporation, approved on the 28th of January, 1840, until otherwise provided by the By-laws, or by a subsequent of the body, for the admission of members."
his notice was
signed by E. S. Perkins as president and John W. Pitkin as secretary for
the other organizing members, including all those present, with George
Fisher as an honorary member. The membership was doubled by this
first action of the new organization and as a result the following were
admitted: Francis R. Lubbock, Henry Kesler, J. DeCordova, J. Hart, Charles
A. Morris, and John Carols. Thus 171 years ago, the Houston Chamber
of Commerce became the coordinator of community development for a frontier
village that was dying. The urgent task was sheer survival. Visions
of greatness and dreams of glory then lay far in the future.
Commerce, cut off with the credit, soon began to move again. Stocks in
stores were still low, but now because of a growing trade with the interior, started to be
built up. Summer came and went without an epidemic. Then Houston discovered a
new and stronger and more enduring stimulator for its economy than even the capital, so
recently moved to Austin, had been. Houston became the port, at the head of
tidewater on Buffalo Bayou, for Stephen F. Austin's inland colonists.
Thus began the story of Houston, a matter of history demonstrating the possibilities when people of a community work together to attain worthwhile goals. Since 1840, Houston has arisen from a beginning that was almost unbelievably inauspicious to the great city it is today. How Houston came to write its name across the nation in steel rails and concrete roads and inland waterways, as well as around the world in the smoke from steamer stacks and in the contrails of sky-riding jets, makes an exiting story of extraordinary achievement.
