1840
Houston's charter was altered and the town divided into four wards, with each ward electing two representatives to the municipal government. The First Ward was everything to the north of Congress and west of Main. The Second Ward was everything north of Congress and east of Main. The Third Ward was everything south of Congress and east of Main. The Fourth Ward was south of Congress and west of Main. The Fifth Ward and Sixth Ward were added later as development spread north of Buffalo Bayou. These wards ceased to exist as political subdivisions many years ago, but the terms sometimes are still used
The first local dock was constructed as the Texas Congress authorized the city to build and maintain wharves
Construction was begun of the first local church, and interdenominational structure
The city council passed one ordinance prohibiting the carrying of deadly weapons, and another, imposing fines and jail sentences for "lewd" activity by females
January 6
Charles Bigelow was elected Houston' fourth mayor
January 18
Five prisoners escaped from the Harris County jail in Houston' s first major jailbreak
January 28
A group of Houston merchants was granted a Republic of Texas charter to found a chamber of commerce, and so Houston's first Chamber of Commerce was established
April 4
The Chamber of Commerce was organized at a meeting at John Carlos' City Exchange. Its main early accomplishment lay in setting standard rates for freight handling and storage
November 22
Seventy-five resident German families founded the Deutscher Verein fur Texas to aid newcomers
1841
The Houston House opened as the town's first luxury hotel
Two sawmills and a brick factory, were among Houston's first industries, and were located on the outskirts of town
A grand jury reported that vice had diminished and dueling was considered "ungentlemanly"
Construction was begun on the first Presbyterian church
The Houston-Austin stage line began operations over a run where twenty days was considered good time for freight wagons, and freight rates were $30 per hundredweight
January 16
Col. J. D. Andrews was elected mayor
April 10
The First Baptist Church of Houston was organized
June 10
A city council ordinance established the Port of Houston, giving it control over all wharves, landings, slips, and roads on the banks of the Buffalo and White Oak Bayous, as well as the right to collect wharfage fees and invest the funds in Bayou improvements
November 6
Houstonians turned out for a day-long celebration when General Sam Houston returned for a visit
Sam Houston elected president for second term
1842
Sam Houston temporarily returns the seat of government to the city of Houston
The city extended from the bayou on the north to Walker Street on the south, from Bagby Street on the west to Caroline Street on the east
A wave of temperance swept Houston bring almost nightly meetings
Houston's first parochial school was established by the Catholic church
Rev. H. Reid opened the Select Classical School which charged $5.00 a month
The city's fathers build the first City Hall
January 29
The Texas legislature passed a bill permitting the city to clear vessels sunk in Buffalo Bayou and obstructing navigation. Further, Houston was authorized to collect wharfage fees with which to improve navigation above Harrisburg
April
Sam Houston stopped from moving the state archives from Austin to Houston
April 11
Galveston News begins publication
Summer
The first Catholic church was constructed, the Church of St. Vincent de Paul
After a Mexican army invades Texas, Congress, by order of President Houston, meets in special session at Houston, using the Presbyterian Church building
June 27
The Texas Congress temporarily returned to Houston with Austin threatened by Mexican attack
September 29
The Capital is removed to Washington on the Brazos
1843
Francis Moore, Jr. again became mayor
The first bridge was built over Buffalo Bayou
June 30
Second Sante Fe expedition captured by U.S. Army
September 1
With prostitution an early problem, an ordinance was passed, prohibiting "lewd" women within city limits
1844
Sam Houston's 2nd term as president of Texas ends
Horace Baldwin became Houston's Mayor
The first cotton compress was established
The first saw mill was established on Buffalo Bayou at Milam Street
A cornmeal mill on the bayou at Texas Avenue was using three oxen on a treadmill for power
A decade of heavy German immigration to Texas began, and many of the new arrivals remained in Houston
The Davis Compress, the city's first cotton compress, began operating
Eighty steamboats and sloops docked at Houston, taking on 6,893 bales of cotton and 6, 486 hides, among other items
May 12
The Methodist church, said to be the first brick building in Texas, was opened
United States of America offers statehood to the Republic of Texas
1845
March 1
Texas was annexed to the United States and becomes the 28th state of the Union
W. W. Swain was elected mayor
Houston's Port handled 11,359 bales of cotton
Mexico severs relations with the United States of America
1846
James Bailey was elected mayor
Four regiments of volunteers from Harris, Galveston, and Jefferson Counties join the United States forces in the Mexican War
Water transportation was interrupted as the federal government chartered steamboats for the Mexican War
January 9
Houston hosted a pioneer convention of primary school teachers
February 19
Republic of Texas flag lowered and U.S. flag raised at Austin
May 13
The United States declared war on Mexico
1847
B.P. Buckner was elected mayor of Houston
March 2
Signing of treaty between German settlers and Comanches
December
A local census set the city's population at 4,737, with 607 qualified voters and 622 slaves
1848
Mexico yields all its claims to the territory to Texas, part of nearly one million square miles of land it ceded to the United States of America
The Houston Lyceum was granted a charter and opened a 382-volume library, but the movement did not really succeed until late in the century
Galveston Country Club opens, with the first golf course in Texas
Sept-October
Houston has Yellow Fever epidemic which kills 105 people
1849
Francis Moore, Jr. once again became Houston's mayor
A number of Houstonian get "Gold Fever" and head for California to seek their fortunes
The Ogden arrived in Houston directly from New Orleans. It was the first Ocean-going steam packet to do so, but the shallow Bayou prevented inauguration of regular service
1850
William Marsh rice married railroad promoter Paul Bremond's daughter Margaret
The U.S. Census reported Houston's population at 2,397, only 322
more than in 1839.
Harris County Population: 4,686
Galveston is ranked as the largest and wealthiest city in Texas with the largest port
February 11
A charter was granted for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado, a railroad centered on the town of HarrisburgMay
Local businessmen organized the Houston Plank Road Company which built a toll road to the Brazos River
THE FORMATIVE YEARS
By Marvin Hurley
HE first decade in the history of Houston came during a
period national expansion and exploration. The population of the United States in
1840 was 17,069,453, and that of Texas less than 100,000 with Harris County having under
2,000. The population figures for Harris County and Texas are estimates since there
was no official census in the Republic. The nation's first normal transatlantic
steamer service was inaugurated in 1840, and the first covered wagon train via the Oregon
Trail reached California in 1841. Federal employees succeeded in their long efforts
to get their work week reduced to 60 hours, and a law was passed limiting the factory work
of children to 10 hours per day, but it was never enforced. Edgar Allen Poe created
quite a stir when he wrote a fictitious story the "New York Sun" about a balloon
crossing the Atlantic with passengers from Europe to America.
Problems were piling up on the new Republic of Texas, with an unruly army, threats of invasion from Mexico, financial problems, and widespread frauds. Colonization was encouraged, and a number of large land grants were made. Armed forces from Mexico took possession of San Antonio and other nearby points in March, 1842, but retired across the Rio Grande before a counter force could be organized. Later in the year, another Mexican force captured San Antonio, but again retreated to the border.
Concerned by these invasions, President Houston ordered the seat of government moved back to Houston. His action resulted in the so-called "archive war" in which the people of Austin fought to maintain the archives in their town. After a few shots were fired, the seat of government was moved instead to Washington-on-the-Brazos but was returned to Austin in 1844. Although Texas had attained security in its independence, there was a growing undercurrent of feeling that its future development would best be achieved under United States sovereignty. The admission of Texas to the national federation was delayed because of the slavery issue, but the Congress of the United States adopted a resolution for the annexation of Texas late in 1844. The Texas Congress voted on June 21, 1845, to accept the proposal. A state constitution was written by a convention of delegates meeting at Washington-on-the-Brazos, and on December 29th the Congress of the United States accepted the new Texas constitution. Then on February 19, 1846, the Lone Star Flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised over the Capitol at Austin, with Texas thus becoming the 28th state of the Union.
 |
|
Sam Houston's first home in the new Republic was a shack near the present seat of county government. He later built a home on the west side of Travis between Prairie and Preston, fenced it and painted shrubberies. |
During this period, Houston was making slow but substantial progress. In January, 1837, the Laura became the first steamship ever to visit Houston, and Galveston, reported this event: " The Laura had plied the waters of the Brazos under Captain Grayson. The Laura's initial trip up Buffalo Bayou marked the official opening of that stream to Houston via steamship travel. The most noted passenger on that first trip was Frank Lubbock (later a distinguished governor of Texas) who affords a highly amusing account of the voyage. ' Proceeding upstream from Cloppers Bar (now Morgan's Point), the Laura's first stop was at Harrisburg. It required three days for the little steamer to make the trip from Harrisburg to Houston, because of frequent stops to cut down overhanging trees or blow up log-jams.' "
The Allen
brothers began to promote Houston's prospects with a superlative flair in newspapers
circulated throughout the North and East, but even their most extravagant promises have
long since been over-shadowed by the attainments of their dream city. Stagecoach
service followed early waterway improvements. A toll ferry crossed Bray's Bayou from
Houston to Harrisburg. Stores, a school and jail replaced "frontier
justice." Emphasizing the growing importance of navigation on Buffalo Bayou,
Mayor John Andrews and City Aldermen officially established the "Port of
Houston." The title admittedly was then mote anticipatory than actual, but it
led to the granting by the Congress of the Republic of Texas on January 29,1842, to
Houston the right to remove obstructions from the twisting and snag-filled and
sand-bar-strewn Buffalo Bayou, and the Houston Chamber of Commerce raised $2,000 to start
a program of channel improvement that is still under way.
Already the Chamber of Commerce was making its influence felt in other ways. Editor D. H. Fitch had written optimistically in the "Morning Star" on April 6, 1840: "A Chamber of Commerce has been organized in this city. This evidence of the growing importance and extent of the commerce of Houston is gratifying; and the gentlemen whose names appear among the officers and members of this association are of such a character as to ensure the successful accomplishment of the benefits and design intended by the organization."
By 1844, the Chamber of Commerce could reflect with pride on short-term progress. Business was brisk and commerce carried forward new momentum from year to year. Frame buildings began to replace the tents in which the business of the community was transacted for several months. The Houston Academy opened with one hundred students enrolled. Further manifesting it interest in culture, the Chamber of Commerce encouraged the creation of the Houston Saengerbund as the city's first musical origination. To dramatize for Houstonians the growing importance of their city, and to call Houston to the attention of wealthy interests in the North, and East, a large steamboat, the "Constitution," was brought to the Port of Houston. Since the ship could not turn in the yet-narrow channel, it had to be backed downstream to turn in a wider part of the bayou which came to be called "Constitution Bend."
|
|
In his first message to the Congress of the Republic in 1838, President Mirabeau B. Lamar established a goal for public education in Texas when he said: " The cultivated mind is the guardian genius of democracy and, while guided and controlled by virtue, is the noblest attribute of man." Manifesting an appreciation of this objective, those from throughout the state who were interested in education convened in Houston in 1846 to adopt uniform textbooks for use in the schools of the state. This was probably the first state convention held here.
Houstonians faced statehood with mixed emotions. Some celebrated the event in Congress Avenue taverns. The timid worried about the new state's financial affairs. Mexico's threats of invasion were ridiculed and Indian raids were less feared than mosquitoes and yellow fever. With high expectations, however, founded on the already ample fulfillment of the Allen Brothers' hopes, Houstonians in 1846 were quite willing to consign to Republic of Texas to the judgments of history and to begin a new era of growth as one of the United States. But even in this year of transition, progress was pushed forward. General Sidney Sherman, a hero of the Battle of San Jacinto, ordered a survey of Buffalo Bayou at his own expense.
uring the last half of the decade, the people of
Houston and of Texas applied themselves primarily to the solution of some of their pioneer
problems and to the development of their community and state. On the national scene,
the period brought the war with Mexico which ended in 1848 with the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo; the intensification of the slavery issue; the invention of the sewing machine,
the safety pin, and the rotary printing press; the first public application of anesthesia
to surgery' the first recorded baseball game; and the discovery of gold on the estate of
John Sutter in California. The spirit of the period was phrased by John Louis
O'Sullivan in the "United States Magazine and Democratic Review," when he
employed the term "manifest destiny" for the first time as he wrote in support
of the annexation of Texas. He said: "Our manifest destiny (is) to overspread
the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying
millions."
