1870
The Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company succeeds in
obtaining a Congressional designation of Houston as a port of delivery
awarding it federal funds to finance an improvement project
Thomas H. Scanlan, the most famous of Houston's Reconstruction Radicals, was appointed mayor by Radical Governor Edmund J. Davis. Blacks held positions on the city council and in the police force during his four-year administration
Houston's population stood at 9,332. Harris County had a population of 17,375. Only Washington County had more people
Harris County had sixty-four manufacturing establishments, employing 583 laborers and adding $305,359 in value to manufactured items
Eureka Mills, a $125,000 textile factory, opened five miles northwest of the city
Congregation Beth Israel established the first synagogue in Houston, at Franklin and Crawford
The City Bank of Houston opened
The first 300 Chinese immigrant laborers arrived in Houston
The cornerstone was laid for the first synagogue
First Lt. H. M. Adams of the U. S. Army Engineers began the first federal survey of a ship channel for Houston
April 16 Martial law ends, and with it the formal ReconstructionTexas is readmitted to the Union
Henry Journeay, the fiddler of Perote Castle, killed in Galveston by a mule drawn omnibus
May
The first Texas State Fair was held in Houston
May 23
The Texas Historical Society was organized with Ashbel Smith as president
July 14
Congress declared Houston a port of entry, authorized a customs house, and ordered a survey of the proposed channel from Houston to the Gulf
A
ugustHouston recedes a new city charter establishing eight city wards
May
Horace Greeley makes a speech in Houston urging young farmers to "come southwest"
1872
Texas and Pacific Railroad Company formed
Mayor Scanlan's administration initiated work on a $400,000 Market House, which would include a theatre, vendors' stalls, and city government offices
Nicholas J. Clayton opens architects office in Galveston
January
A horse-drawn sleigh is seen going down icy Main Street
June 10
Congress appropriated $10,000 for ship channel improvements. The Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company had started dredging a channel across Morgan's Point, but the work was interrupted by the financial panic of 1873
N
ovemberDespite his reputedly corrupt administration, Scanlan was reelected mayor
when Houstonians had their first chance in six years to select their own
mayor. He was elected with a full Radical slate, including two black
aldermen, in what may or may not have been a clean election
The city of Houston sheds the restraints of the despised Reconstruction Rule
The Houston Light Guard was organized to compete in military events. There had been two similar volunteer groups before the Civil War. Both had disbanded as their members joined various fighting units for the war. The Houston Light Guard fought as a unit in the Spanish American War
The National Exchange Bank opened
The legislature passes an act allowing Houston to reincorporated as a city
The Population: 9,400 residents
The city's earlier Republican charter is invalidated
May 28
The Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railroad was chartered by Galvestonians, who panned to build an access route to the interior that would by-pass Houston
Houston got through rail service to St. Louis when Houston and Texas Central linked up with the Missouri, Kansas, and Texas at Denison
December 6Mayor Scanlan petitioned Congress for federal aid to
continue work on the ship channel when the Panic of 1873 threatened
continuation of improvements underway
1874
Government engineers recommended that the ship channel be deepened to ttwelve feet rather than six
The Annunciation Catholic was built at Crawford and Texas
Government engineers recommended that the ship channel be deepened to twelve feet rather than six
January
Houston was granted a new charter which authorized the governor to appoint city officials. Democratic Governor Coke turned out Scanlan's administration and appointed James T. D. Wilson as mayor and "respectable and prominent" citizens as aldermen. These appointees were later regularly elected to their posts
Reconstruction Ends
April 18
The Sixth Ward was created
June 12
Cotton factors and businessmen formed the Houston Board of Trade and Cotton Exchange (the Cotton Exchange), a body which strongly supported ship channel projects and C. S. Longcope was elected president
July 1
The Port of Galveston and the Morgan Steamship Line fell out over wharf fees
Commodore Charles Morgan, millionaire shipping tycoon, bought the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Company and promised to finish the cut through Morgan's Point and construct a 9-foot deep and 120-foot wide channel from Houston to Galveston Bay. He completed this and established a terminal he called Clinton. Morgan built a rail line to connect his docks at Clinton with the major railroads in Houston.
September 28
Comanches defeated at Palo Duro Canyon and their horses slain
1875
I. C. Lord was chosen mayor
Texas Rangers pursue stolen cattle across Mexican border
The Houston Light Guard formed the guard of honor when former Confederate President Jeff Davis visited the City fair. The fairground site was subdivided after the show discontinued. The present state fair in Dallas began in 1886
Racial segregation was fully entrenched in Houston
Quanah Parker, last war chief of the Comanche's and the son of Cynthia Ann Parker, brings the Quohadi Comanche's into the reservation in Oklahoma
February
The Capitol Hotel closes
March 3
Congress appropriated $35,200 for channel improvements
March 11
Paul Bremond received a charter for the Houston East and West Texas Narrow Gauge Railroad , which would connect the port with the timer regions to the northwest
July
The city defaulted on bond payments. Its debt stood at $1,691,349.03, and it could only afford to pay 3 percent interest on a debt of $693,878,33
September
A hurricane inflicted $50,000 worth of damage on the city
1876
New state constitution adopted which still serves as the organic law
Congress appropriated $75,000 for channel improvements
March
Free public schools were opened in Houston. They were segregated and administered by the city government
April 22
Improvements on the ship channel allowed Commodore Morgan's Clinton, drawing 9 1/2 feet and freighting over 700 tons, to reach Morgan's turning basin at the junction of Sims and Buffalo Bayous. Freight was then sent by rail to Houston. A great transportation victory for the city, the event also initiated Morgan's monopoly over channel traffic
July 8
Scanlan's $400,000 Market House burned to the ground. It was insured for only $100,000
October 7
A $1,000,000 fire swept along Congress Avenue
December 7
Mayor Lord and seven aldermen were arrested and charged with contempt for ignoring a District Court order to pay a debt of $8,957. They remained in technical custody until December 23, when the Court of Appeals revoked the order
1877
James T. D. Wilson again became Houston's mayor
Salt War breaks out in the Trans-Pekoes
Federal surveys of the ship channel produced recommendations for work on the upper and lower Galveston Bay areas
The first grain elevator was established on the channel
The Houston Board of Trade and Cotton Exchange reorganized as the Houston Cotton Exchange and Board of Trade
Commodore Morgan's control over local transportation reached alarming proportions when he purchased the Houston and Texas Central Railroad to go along with the Morgan Line shipping), the Houston Direct Navigation Co., the Buffalo Bayou Ship Channel Co., and the Texas Transportation Co. His hold over the channel shipping was keyed by a great chain stretched across Morgan's Point where he collected tolls
Morgan's ships made 206 round trips from Louisiana ports, carrying 216,300 tons
January
The first carload of freight bound for San Antonio leaves Houston
June
Houston's first telephone was installed. Its range was about one mile
November 19
The Lyceum presented "phonographic entertainment" at the Lyceum Hall
1878
Mayor Wilson and the city council gave a private contractor a franchise to build a water system for Houston. The contractor built a dam on Buffalo Bayou at Preston and a pipeline system to deliver bayou water to homes and business buildings. There were complaints about the taste and color of the water almost from the start. A few citizens drilled deeper wells and found good artesian water. The franchise holder got discouraged and put the Houston Water Works up for sale. A group headed by former mayor T. H. Scanlan bought the system
Outlaw Sam Bass slain by Texas Rangers at Round Rock
Congress appropriated $80,000 for ship channel work
A tax collector's census showed that one-half of the city's 2,466 children of compulsory school age (8-13) were not attending classes
Black and White Greenback clubs were organized in Harris County by Houston Green backers. Their members were mostly mechanics, contractors, laborers, and small merchants
January
Telephone communication between Houston and Galveston is established
May 8
Commodore Morgan died in New York City, but his heirs continued his dominance of ship channel transportation
First telephone installed between the office and home of A.H. Belo in Galveston
December
A contract is awarded for the construction of municipal waterworks
1879
"Farmers'' Alliance, forerunner of the Populist Party, organized in Parker County
The city's five black schools had 716 students
The Western Union Telegraph Company provided local telephone service to forty subscribers
Actor Maurice Barrymore, on tour in Marshall, is wounded in a restaurant shooting
January
Andrew J. Burke took office as mayor
1880
The Houston Post is established with J. L. Watson as Publisher
William R. Baker took office as mayor accompanied by a hand-picked slate of alderman chosen from amongst the city's foremost bankers and merchants. However, his six year administration was unable to solve the city's financial woes, and Baker left office with Houston $200,000 deeper in debt
Houston's population was 16,513 and 27,985 for Harris County
The first telephone exchange was installed in Houston. There were 50 telephones in the city
Congress appropriated $50,000 for ship channel improvements
Converging upon Houston were nine railroads with a total of 2,200 miles of track in operation and 1,800 under construction
The first electric arc street light is installed on Main Street at Preston Avenue
Texas' sheep population reaches six million
The Houston Chronicle is established with Marcellus E. Foster as Publisher
March 29
Former President U. S. Grant was a passenger on the first train to arrive at the new Union Station
August 30
The rail link between Houston and New Orleans was completed and
the first scheduled passenger train between the two cities made its run
TOWARD BROADER HORIZONS
By Marvin Hurley
HE population of the United States had reached
39,818,449 by 1870, and the center of the nation's population continued its westward trend
and was located 48 miles east by north of Cincinnati, Ohio. Although the population
of Texas increased 35.5 percent during the war decade, it still had not reached the one
million mark by 1870, when it was reported as 818,579. Houston and Harris County
showed a higher rate of the growth than did the state, with Houston having 9,332, an
increase of 93 percent. This surge of growth rocketed Harris County into second
place in the state, trailing only Washington County, which reported a population of
23,104.
This decade brought developments that contributed to the nation's subsequent urbanization. It saw the emergence of the refrigerated railroad car; the assembling of the first gasoline-driven horseless carriage; the first professional fire department with paid fireman in Philadelphia; the first regular telephone exchange in New Haven, Connecticut; the first inter-city telephone line between Boston and Lowell, Massachusetts; the first electric light company in New York and the first public street lighting in Cleveland. The Simmons Hardware Company became the first mercantile corporation to formed in the nation, and Montgomery Ward & Company became the first mail-order house, beginning with a one-page catalog being distributed. The formation of the American Chemical Society reflected the growing specialization of scientific scholarship, and graduate programs of study were initiated at Yale and Harvard.
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Unidentified Log cabin with mudcat chimney, Harris County. |
Not all the developments of the decade, however, were this constructive. Carpetbag rule continued in some states of the South until 1877, with Louisiana being the last southern state to regain control of its internal government. The panic of 1873 was precipitated by the failure of Jay Cooke & Company, a banking house involved in financing the Northern Pacific Railroad. Yellow fever epidemics broke out again in New Orleans and in Memphis with thousands of deaths.
However, in Texas, with culmination of reconstruction and "Carpetbag Rule" at the beginning of the decade, the state's civic and economic development was rapidly revived. Inaugurated in 1874 under Governor Richard Coke, a program of reconstruction activities got under way. The famed Texas Rangers were established in 1874, and the unpopular State Police of the reconstruction period became a matter of unpleasant history. The adoption of a new state constitution in 1876 established a foundation for subsequent growth and development, and for the first time urban development became a factor of significance in the state.
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Houston hosted the first Texas State Fair, with the Chamber of Commerce handling most of the details. It also cooperated with the recently organized Cotton Exchange to help bring more cargo through the Port of Houston. The city's first northbound out-of-state railroad outlet for freight was established when the Houston & Texas Central Railroad reached Denton in 1873, meeting there the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Line.
After
the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, completed a survey of the Houston Ship Channel in 1871,
Commodore Charles Morgan of the Morgan Steamship Line started digging a channel across
Morgan's Point, which was not named for him, but rather for an earlier settler. This
action was prompted by the refusal to the Galveston Wharf Commission to reduce
rates. It cost Commodore Morgan $92,316 to dig this channel, but he collected fees
for its use by stretching a heavy chain across and lowering it only after collecting a
toll for each ship. The "Daily Telegraph" reported on September 22, 1876,
that: "The Steamship Clinton from Morgan City, Louisiana, with 60 carloads
of New York freight for Houston and various points on the Central, International & San
Antonio Railroad, arrived at Clinton on Buffalo Bayou yesterday morning." The
newspaper editorialized that "this is a practical result, beyond quibble and
doubt, of the success of the Ship Channel, and proves its reality to the understanding of
all."
The production of lumber from the pine forest of East Texas and from the hardwoods north and west of Houston led a growing diversification of local industry. Lumber ranked high among the port's exports, with merchandise continuing as the major import. About this time, Houston's mayor returned from a trip to New York with ambitious plans for asphalt paving, iron bridges, parks and a new city market. He reported: "Some New York capitalist have Texas on the brain.... the day is not far distant (they believe) which will see Houston the Chicago of the South."
ree Public Schools opened in Houston in 1876, with
Colonel Ashbel Smith, former Minister to France from the Republic of Texas, as county
superintendent. Teachers receive 10 cents per day per pupil. Trains were allowed to
speed up to six miles an hour inside the city, and telephones were just beginning to ring
here. The produce-rich Rio Grande Valley was linked to Houston in 1877 by rail
service from San Antonio, with fruits and vegetables moving north through Houston to the
Midwest markets. Steamer cargo, including lumber, lime, cement, railroad iron, and
salt, pushed increasing tonnages across the docks of the Port of Houston.
