1850
The United States takes its 1st census covering TexasWilliam 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
1851
Two Treaties, neither ever implemented, signed by federal commissioners and representatives of major Texas tribes
The Lutherans organized their first Houston church
The first iron foundry began making kettles for the sugar plantations
The Houston & Galveston Navigation Company (Houston Navigation Company) was organized by Houston merchants and steamboat captains. It virtually monopolized Bayou traffic in the 1850s
May
Ice is available from James House
A Jewish Congregation is organized
Nathan Fuller was elected Houston's mayor
Houston was connected by telegraph with Shreveport, LA
Buffalo Bayou over flows its banks and causes the 1st major flood in the city
Rice had stock in the first railroad was the line the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado built from Harrisburg to Stafford
January 1
Construction began on the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, which was known as the Galveston, Houston and Red River Railroad until 1856. It is the 2nd railroad in Texas
February 7
The State legislature passed an appropriation which included $4,000 for Buffalo Bayou improvements
March 23
Two steamships, racing on the Bayou, produced one of the ship channel's greatest disasters. The boiler of the Farmer exploded, killing between thirty-five and forty people
July 15
A city ordinance prohibited firing weapons within city limits
August
The first twenty miles of the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railroad were opened
The General Sherman, wood-burning locomotive, brings Houston's first train to Stafford's Point over the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad
August 19
The "Telegraph" reprinted from the "Western Texan" an announcement of Mirabeau B. Lamar's death. The Houston editor added that General Lamar was alive and well in Houston, had read the announcement of his death and he "don't believe a word of it"
Free public education as provided by state law, comes to Houston
Houston merchants imported inventories valued at $918,175 as commercial expansion continued
German immigrants founded the Houston Turnverein, which stressed gymnastics, music, and social events
Panna Maria, first Polish community in America, founded in Texas
1855
City ordinances institute "Blue Laws" that close bars, billiard parlors and bowling alleys on Sunday
James H. Stevens was elected mayor
The Tri-Weekly Telegraph began publication
Saloons out number churches
1856
Houston Merchants imported inventories valued at $1,719,194
The Houston and Texas Central began service on twenty-five miles of track between Houston and Cypress
Rice invested in his father-in-laws' Houston and Texas Central
Construction was initiated on the Galveston, Houston, and Henderson Railroad connecting Houston and Galveston. It was completed in 1859
February
The city fathers secured permission from the state to build the seven-mile long Houston Tap to Harrisburg and thus link up with the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado. The city sold its holdings in 1858, and the system became known as the "Sugar Railroad", or the Houston Tap and Brazoria Railroad
February 27
The Weekly Telegraph reported that only 175 of 700 youths aged sixteen to seventeen were attending school
April 7
Construction was begun on the Houston Tap, which was built with slave labor. It inaugurated the railroad fever, which would link Houston to national lines by 1873
August
Local Democrats, aroused by absolution propaganda, welcomed the nomination of James Buchanan as their party's presidential candidate
August 13
The Texas legislature passed a railroad bill which would make Houston, rather than Galveston, the center of the state's rail system. Generous grants, in the form of loans and land grants, were made available to private builders
August 30
The first effective dredge boat was launched on the Buffalo Bayou to curb shoaling. It was owned by the city
1857
Cornelius Ennis was elected mayor of Houston
Volume One of the Texas Almanac published at Galveston
April 7
The state engineer awarded a contract to David Bradbury for $22,725 of improvements on Clopper's Bar in the ship channel
July
Peter Gabel's brewery doubles in size
1858
Alexander McGowan was chosen Houston's mayor
"The Yellow Rose of Texas" words and music credited to "J. K.," first published
Sixty thousand bales of Texas cotton went to market through the Port of Houston
The Houston and Texas Central now stretched fifty miles to Hempstead. It cost $22,650 a mile to construct
The Houston Insurance Company, the first locally based insurance firm, began providing insurance for Houston merchants
January 11
Anson Jones, the last president of the Republic of Texas, committed suicide in the Capitol Hotel
March 30
The Houston Lyceum conducted a debate on "Is it in the interest of the South to dissolve the Union?" It aroused such interest that it was continued for five days
July
A local census reported the city's population at 4,815 residents
Fall
To the wonderment of Houstonians, forty camels arrived in the city
1859
William King assumed office as Houston's mayor
Sam Houston leaves his U. S. Senate seat to become governor of Texas
March 10
Houston suffered its first great fire disaster. The flames swept through the central part of the city, causing about $300,000 of mostly uninsured damage
June
One of Houston's two recorded lynchings claimed the life of George White, an accused rapist
September
Houston Academy opened; a school for 400 pupils with separate classrooms for boys and girls with Dr. Ashbel Smith as superintendent. At the time it represented the city's entire school system
1860
Thomas W. Whitmarsh became mayor of Houston
Buffalo Bayou's steamboat era reaches its zenith
The richest man in the county was William Marsh Rice and he was believed to the second richest man in the state. Rice owned the biggest building in Houston. One of his several businesses was hauling ice to Houston from New England by ship
Knights of the Golden Circle, Southern Rights Association, and other organizations stimulate local sentiment in favor of secession
Houston's population was 4,845. That figure included about 1,068 slaves. Fourteen Texas counties had more people than Harris County
Over 115,000 bales of cotton passed through the city
Houston was a growing rail center with five short rail lines and over 350 miles of track leading to the city by the time the Civil War began
Industry still lagged far behind commerce, as Houston could claim only fifteen manufacturing establishments. The largest was a thirty-employee iron foundry, producing about $50,000 worth of goods a year
J. E. and J. W Schrimpf opened a large meat packing plant
At least nine Houston merchants reported taxable holdings of over $250,000
The city experienced two disastrous fires, one destroying $350,000 worth of property
Founding of King Ranch
January 31
The first telegraph connection established in 1853 proved temporary. On this day, the first news dispatch arrived over what would be a permanent connection. The telegraph line was kept operating all during the Civil War with sulphuric acid from Sour Lake
February
The first train crossed the causeway linking Galveston and the mainland, and soon daily runs between the Island and Houston were in operation
A telegraph link between the two cities had been completed a short time earlier
May
Wharfage fees at Houston were abolished, primarily because they increased freight rates and hurt the competitive position of Bayou shipping vis-a-vis rail service to Galveston
November 6
Independent Democratic Party candidate John C. Breckinridge received a majority of Houston's presidential votes
December
Now aged, General Sam Houston spoke to a large crowd urging
maintenance of the Union, but he received sparse support
THE DECADE OF RAILROAD BUILDING
By Marvin Hurley
HE seventh United States census set the population
of the 31 states of the union at 23,191, 876, a total somewhat less than the net
increase in the nations' population from 1850 to 1860. In that earlier census, the
population of Texas was 212,592, or about one-ninth the net increase in the state's
population from 1850 to 1860. The federal census of 1850 reported 2,396 Houstonians
in a nine-square-mile city, with 4,668 in the 1,747-square-mile area of Harris County, or
about one-hundredth of the net increase of population in the city and county from 1850 to
1860. Eight of Texas' counties ranked ahead of Harris County in population in 1850.
This decade brought growing conflict over slavery and states' rights, a cholera epidemic through the Middle West and a yellow fever epidemic with 5,000 deaths in New Orleans, and the gold rush to California. "Bloomers" were introduced by Mrs. Amelia Bloomer, editor of a woman's rights magazine, women were hired for the first time as department store clerks and as waitresses, and there was a strong trend toward women teachers in the public schools. The decade brought firsts in overland mail delivery, electric fire-alarm systems, "fireproof" buildings, public libraries, elevators, and the first cable message across the Atlantic. It brought horse cars to the streets of New York, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago, and a steam interurban between Boston and Cambridge; as well as the express from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. The first oil business in the United States was started with the formation of the Pennsylvania Rock Oil Company. Gail Borden, the one-time Texas publisher and surveyor who platted the original street plan for Houston, invented evaporated milk and developed a meat biscuit, primarily for those on wagon trains to the west. Santa Anna restored his dictatorship in Mexico in 1853, but was finally overthrown by Mexican reformers two years later.
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Stage lines began servicing Houston in the 1850s. Home of the cotton industry. The Capitol Hotel was very popular in horse and buggy days. |
Texas and the West made rapid gains in population and wealth during this decade. While several new towns were started, the main population increase in Texas came with the settlement of new rural areas, and eighty-nine new counties were created between 1850 and 1860. The Texas permanent school fund, now one of the greatest educational endowments in the nation, was established during this period. Encouraged by state grants of sixteen sections of land together with a loan of $6,000 per mile, eleven railroad companies built 451 miles of track prior to 1860.
The Houston Chamber of Commerce recognized the importance of transportation generally and particularly the connection of railroads to the Port of Houston, and was instrumental in the beginning of the first railroad as well as the first telegraph line in Texas. The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad was organized in 1847, but construction was not started for four years, and the first 20 miles of railroad in Texas and the second railroad west of the Mississippi River was inaugurated by this company in 1853. The next Texas railroad was started by the Galveston & Red River Railway Company, which was renamed Houston & Texas Central Railway Company after the Houston Chamber of Commerce was influential in bringing it to Houston.
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Houston's first manufacturer was Alexander McGowen, for whom McGowan Street was named, whose iron foundry became an industrial showplace in the community. Tom Whitmarsh built a large warehouse for cotton, hides and other commodities on Buffalo Bayou just east of Main Street. "King Cotton" became the familiar phrase throughout the South, and cotton was truly king of the Houston-area economy. Cotton came by ox-wagon from surrounding plantations, particularly in the Brazos River bottoms, and more than 10,000 bales piled up in the Houston warehouses. The "Morning Star" announced that a cotton grower had "engaged with a commercial house in this city to deliver 6,000 bales of cotton." Agricultural products and lumber ranked as the port's principal exports while imports were mostly for the year at 60,000 bales.
The Port of Houston
had become so important by 1853 that the Texas Legislature, urged by the Chamber of
Commerce, appropriated $4,000 to improve the channel of Buffalo Bayou. The
wood-burning "General Sherman" puffed its way to pull the first train to
Stafford's Point over the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railroad. By 1856,
Main Street was being resurfaced with shell; trains began to roll between Houston and
Galveston over the Galveston, Houston & Red River Railroad. The City of
Houston built the Tap Railroad to Pierce Junction. A city-owned dredge
deepened Buffalo Bayou for steamboats, and prosperity seemed sure and permanent.
Although the Galveston, Houston & Henderson railroad was started in 1854, most of the merchandise continued to move by more primitive means. During that year the " Houston Telegraph " estimated that 38,000 bales of cotton had been freighted to Houston. In May, 1855, the " Telegraph " announced that " not less than 4,000 bales of cotton has arrived in this city in the last two weeks on ox-wagons, giving employment to thousands of oxen and 670 wagons and drivers." The same newspaper reported that at least 200 wagon-loads of other merchandise had arrived.
Railroads, first built to serve an agricultural economy, helped immeasurably in Houston's growth to greatness. The official seal of the City of Houston encircles an ancient locomotive and a plow. This may be the original seal authorized on Friday 24, 1840, since President Lamar had signed a bill a year earlier granting a charter to a railroad that later had financing difficulties and was not built. Railroads continued to play a vital role in the building of Houston, and the Chamber of Commerce years later was to characterize Houston at the city " Where Seventeen Railways Meet the Sea."
he bright hope of the future was clouded in 1859 when a
ranging fire roared through the city, ravaging homes and businesses. The smoke
finally cleared away, but the gloom that followed deepened as an awesome cloud over the
stricken city. But once again, under coordinated constructive programs of
rehabilitation. Like the legendary phoenix bird, Houston rose from its own
ashes determined to soar to an even greater destiny.
