1910
Houston's population stood at 78,800 Houstonians compared to 39,000 Galvestonians. This represented a 76.4 percent increase over 1900. The city's black population was 23,929
Almost 1,300,000 tons of freight passed over the city's wharves in Bayou trade. The goods, valued at nearly $37,500,000 were dominated by cotton, lumber, oil, and rice
Houston bank deposits amounted to $370 per capita when the national average was $194
The importance of the cotton industry to Houston was emphasized by the presence of six oil mills, seven compresses, twelve cotton warehouses, and forty-seven cotton factors
February 18
Houston's first airplane demonstration was given by Louis Paulham, a French aviator
March
The work of placing street signs on each of the four corners of the downtown and principal residential streets has commenced
July
Ground was broken for Rice Institute's first building
July 4
Racial tensions ran high as Houstonians awaited the results of the heavyweight prize fight between black Houstonian Jack Johnson and Jim Jefferies in Reno, Nevada. Johnson's victory sparked some punching, but no riots as in other major cities
August
Union Railroad Station was opened
December
"Carter's folly," a 16-story skyscraper, was completed to the amazement of local residents
The popularity of movies prompted the creation of a Board of Censors
December 1
A new $500,000 post office was opened
1911
The 75th anniversary of Texas Declaration of Independence
Houston's first aviation meet was held
Bellaire was annexed to the city
January 10
Harris County voters overwhelmingly approved the creation of the Harris County and Houston Ship Channel Navigation District, along with a bond issue of $1,250,00 for channel improvements
August 29
The first all-steel train in Texas history left Houston for Galveston
September
Booker T. Washington speaks to a crowd of over 7000 people at the Auditorium
October
The Montrose addition is placed on the market
A railroad strike resulted in the death of one strikebreaker and injuries to several more
November
Mayor Rice makes the first official trip over the Houston-Galveston Electric Railway, better know as the Interurban
D
ecemberA survey by the Men and Religion Forward Movement found Houston with 4 theaters, 6 dance halls, 311 saloons, 36 pool rooms, 117 churches, along with good and bad hotels
J
uneContracts were signed, and work begun, on deepening the ship channel to 25 feet from Bolivar Roads to the Turning Basin
S
eptember 23Rice Institute opened its doors for classes with an enrollment of 59 students
November
Albert T. Patrick, who is serving a life sentence in Sing Sing prison for the murder of William March Rice, is pardoned by Gov. Dix of New York
Ben Campbell became Houston's mayor
Houston had 347 factories producing goods valued at over $50,000,000
A group of citizens forms the Houston Symphony Society, and the Houston Symphony Orchestra was organized with Julian Paul Blitz as conductor
Parcel post delivery was inaugurated
Voters approved $3,000,000 in bonds for port facilities and the establishment of a City Harbor Board
April
The Main Street Viaduct is opened
April 11
A $15,000 Carnegie Free Library for blacks was opened
May
The new $3,000,000 Rice Hotel opens
June
The Houston Symphony Society sponsored its first concert in the Majestic Theatre
July-August
The city provided segregated drinking fountains in front of City Hall, and Union Station established divided waiting rooms
September
Three new schools are opened in Houston for the beginning of the new school year--Dow, Longfellow, and Crocket
October 16
Houston voters approved amendments for initiative, referendum, and recall
November
Main Street's first suffragette parade was led by Mrs. Angelina Pankhurst
December
The first moving picture film of Houston is being made by the Paragon Feature Film Company of Omaha
Armour built a 20,000-tons-per-year fertilizer plant
Because of the war, ship channel trade fell off from 1,860,452 tons in 1913 to 1,070,700 tons in 1914
May 30
George Hermann, millionaire and pioneer, gives the city half a million dollars worth of land for a park. The 285 acres of land which would become the nucleus of Herman park is located opposite of Rice Institute
September
Houston school children will start a zoo by buying a pair of Ostriches. This will be the first contribution to the Houston Zoological Gardens
September 7
Work deepening the ship channel to 25 feet was completed
The 50-mile- long, 100-foot wide, 25-foot deep Houston Ship Channel is opened
September 26
The first Ocean-going vessel arrives at the Port of Houston via
the Houston Ship Channel which confirms the city's status as an international seaport.
The Schooner William C. May became the first
ocean-going vessel to traverse the new 25 foot channel
October
In the week since the school children's donation of Ostriches, the Houston Zoological Gardens has received a pair of white swans and a pair of Chinese Geese from City Council, a fox, four teal ducks, and four fantailed pigeons
November 10
The new deepened ship channel was officially opened in a celebration which featured a cannon fired by remote control by President Woodrow Wilson in Washington
The cotton market collapses
1915
The Gulf Oil Company built a plant at Lynchburg on the ship channel, starting Houston on the way to becoming the focal point of the oil industry in South Texas
The Ship Channel Navigation District completed its first public wharf
March
Houston now possessed 196 miles of paved streets, including those of shell and gravel
May
The Stude family has given the city 22.39 acres of land for a park to be known as Stude Park
June
The city's official flag was designed by W.A. Wheeldon
August
Houston is hit by a hurricane with winds gusting between 80-110 miles per hour. This is the worst storm since the one in 1900
August 22
The Satilla docks in Houston officially making the city a seaport; the first vessel of the Southern Steamship Company. By the end of the war, this company was carrying most of the non-oil tonnage on the channel
O
ctoberHouston claimed the first all-woman fair, and the event was opened with a 2,000-woman parade
November
The Liberty Bell arrives in Houston tonight and will be on view at Grand Central station for an hour
A new Houston stock exchange opened. It was basically a clearing house for stocks, leases, and purchase of oil
J
une 3Main Street's first "Preparedness" parade was held
August
The First Presbyterian Church of Houston is ranked strongest in the Southern Assembly
November
Harrisburg incorporates and becomes a city
December
T. P. Lee pays $90,000 for the J. W. Link residence-- at the time it was the highest price ever paid in Houston for a residence
J. J. Pastoriza became Houston's mayor. He was followed by J.C. Hutcheson. Jr. the same year
A Federal Farm Loan Bank was opened. It granted $37,000 in loans during its first 7 years
J
anuary 13The Baltimore, the first ship to sail for a foreign port from Houston, left the harbor
June Over 12,000 men had enrolled in the local selective service registration, and Liberty Loan subscriptions totaled over $2,500,000Houston's scholastic population is 26,951
July 24
Construction began on Camp Logan, a facility for National Guard Units
African American soldiers at Camp Logan, a U.S. military training base in Houston preparing soldiers for WWII, rioted their resentment of the "Jim Crow" laws
The city is placed under martial law
August 23
A race riot erupted when black soldiers from Camp Logan entered the city to avenge alleged maltreatment of black soldiers by Houston police. When order was restored on August 27, seventeen people were dead and sixteen wounded. Thirteen black participants were later hanged at Fort Sam Houston
September
Construction began on Ellington Field, a $1,000,000 facility to train army flyers
September 1
Houston's first police woman, E. J. Backer, starts work today
October 31
The Texas Gulf Coast oil workers went on strike demanding $4.00 a day. Troops occupied oil installations to prevent sabotage
1918
A. Earl Amerman became mayor of Houston
Industrial development along the ship channel continued with twenty-two establishments now located below the Turning Basin and sixteen above
Eight oil fields around Houston were producing thirty million barrels a year
City firemen, municipal employees of the street and bridge departments, and telephone workers all affiliated with the A.F. of L.
J
anuaryRice Institute student protested military training and regulations by putting the power plant out of operation and breaking windows
February
Vote for the consolidation measure to join Houston Heights development to Houston carries 7 to 1
A
pril 28At a meeting of the Houston Teachers Association over 250 teachers became of the American Federation of Teachers, an A. F. of L. affiliate
MayThe Thirty-third Division leaves Camp Logan for France
Ream Field is established
May
News arrived of the first Houston boy to fall during WW I, in France, Donald Gregg. There would be 200 more
June
Harris County goes dry, but the roads to Spring, Cypress, and Crosby will be well traveled
Mrs. Hortense Ward was the first woman to register at the courthouse to vote
J
ulyFifteen thousand, six hundred and forty women registered for the first time for a national election
The Port of Houston was seriously affected by a maritime strike which spread throughout Texas Gulf ports
A
ugustA local branch of the Federal Reserve Bank was opened
N
ovemberThe League of the Great War, founded in April, became the first local post of the American Legion
Houston property values were assessed at $100,000,000, while the city had industrial plants worth $600,000,000. The 1,293 business houses enjoyed an annual retail trade of $63,000,000
The city experienced new construction worth $4,000,000
West University Place was annexed to the city
The first trucking firm began operating in Houston, and by 1920 there were twenty-two such freight firms
The Port of Houston registered 157 ship arrivals with a combined barge and ship freight of 1,287,972 tons
J
anuaryEllington Field becomes a permanent Air Post
February
Authorities announce plans to deepen the ship channels' draft to a depth of 30 feet, while widening it to 150 feet
March
Central High School burned to the ground
March 2
Pressed by the increasing size of oil tankers, army engineers approved a depth of 30 feet for the channel
July
Railroad shop employees struck, as they would again in October
Daisy Troop No. 1, Girl Scouts of America was organized in Houston
November 15
The first direct-to-Europe cotton shipment left Houston on the Merry Mont. By the end of the 1920s Houston would be the nation's leading cotton exporter
December 17
A $1,000,000 fire swept the Southern Pacific Railroad
shops
1920
Federal prohibition of alcoholic beverages begins
Houston's population reached 138,276, a jump of 75.5 percent since 1910. The city's black population was 33,960
Bank deposits per capita stood at $617, when the national average was $392
Houston now had 27,000 telephone customers
The Port of Houston recorded 165 ship arrivals and a combined barge and ship freight total of 1,210,204 tons. The latter figure was still well below pre-war levels
The local Houston chapter of the Klu Klux Klan was formed
February
General John J. Pershing is in Houston
March
Humble Oil and Refining Company has received the largest building permit ever issued in Houston. It is for a $1,200,000 building at the corner of Main and Polk
October
The silver service donated by the people by the people of Houston to the steamship "City of Houston" was presented to Capt. George E. White of the steamer by Mayor A. E. Amerman
INDUSTRY FOR WAR AND PEACE
By Marvin Hurley
HE 1910 census indicated a
national population of 91,972,266, and a state population of 3,896,542, with
Texas thus taking fifth place among the states of the union. Houston’s
population was 78,800, ranking it 73rd
among the nation’s cities, and Harris County reported 115,693, still
trailing Dallas and Bexar counties in Texas. Indicative of the growing
importance of industry to the state and local economy, the census of
manufacturers in 1909 showed 4,588 industrial establishments with 80,079
employees in Texas, and 249 plants with 6,289 employees in Harris County.
This was an eventful decade for Texas and the nation. Sparked by the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo, war broke out in Europe in mid-1914, and quickly took on world-wide significance. The United States declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and the Armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. The war cost the United States 349,000 armed-forces casualties, with 112,000 dead, and a direct expense of $32,800,000,000.
The federal-aid road act in 1916 established a federal-aid program for state highway building. Illiteracy in the United States reached a new low of 7.7 percent, a decline from 12.3 percent in 1870. The Titanic struck an iceberg and sank with a loss of 1,502 lives. The influenza epidemic took a heavy toll of lives during the war years. The 18th Amendment, prohibiting liquor traffic, was adopted. The 8-hour day became standard for railroad workers.
Dr. Robert H. Goddard, in 1914, received the first U. S. patent for multi-stage rockets, a development that attracted little notice until the coming of the space age. The first cross-country airplane flight consumed 82 hours and 4 minutes in flying time. Automobile Owners found that people were willing to pay for a short ride, and so the taxicab was born, with a standard price of a nickel, or "jitney", a term that was soon applied to the cars themselves.
More than 200,000 Texans saw service during World War I, and because of the mild winters and dry climate in much of Texas, some of the principal training camps of the nation were located here, with Camp Logan being located in what is now Memorial Park in Houston. Middle West Texas suffered one of the most severe droughts of its history in 1917 and 1918. The public school system of the state was strengthened during this period with a new compulsory attendance law and provision for free textbooks. Women voted for the first time in Texas in 1918, even prior to the adoption of the 19
th Amendment nationally.Houston’s progress had gained national attention, and new business was being attracted, particularly in connection with the oil industry.
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Construction of Houston Municipal Wharf, Unit 4, December, 1916. |
With the new decade only ten days old, voters in Harris County approved a port-improvement bond issue for $1,250,000 which the Chamber of Commerce pushed to a 16-to-1 victory. This provided the matching funds for the federal program for a 25-foot channel, as has been indicated. At that time, the city had been expanded to 15.84 square miles, and bank deposits totaled $29,178,678. In 1913, the Rice Institute opened, while during the year that followed, the Main Street viaduct opened and parcel-post service was inaugurated. During the same year George H. Hermann gave Houston 278 acres near the Rice campus; that tract has become the Hermann Park and Zoo and the site of the Texas Medical Center.
By June, 1914, the Ship Channel dredging had been completed to a 25-foot depth from the Turning Basin to the Gulf, and on November 10, President Woodrow Wilson pressed a button in the White House to fire, by remote control, the mortar gun which officially opened the Port of Houston to ocean-going commerce. The first deep-water vessel to call at Houston was the Southern Steamship Company’s Satilla, which arrived on August 22, 1915. It had been delayed five days by the hurricane of that year which left Galveston with 200 dead and $50,000,000 in property damage.|
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Captain Frank P. Robinson of the Satilla greeted Mayor Ben Campbell with: "Your channel is great! We came from the mouth without any trouble whatever." Speakers for the occasion included Lieutenant Governor (later Governor) William P. Hobby, Port Commission Chairman Jesse H. Jones, and R. M. Farrar, who said: "The arrival of the Satilla, inaugurating regular steamship service between New York and Houston, marks an epoch in the commercial and industrial life of this city." Even more prophetically, D. D. Peden declared: "The arrival of the Satilla is one of the biggest events the City of Houston will ever know . . . The saving in freight rates, inevitably, will bring many manufacturing plants to the banks of the Houston Ship Channel."
Once
again the curious timing of history emphasized the value of Houston’s inland and
protected port. Three developments linked together a chain of timely coincidences which
would tie Houston to an exciting future. World War I brought the development and
widespread usage of the internal combustion engine to open vast markets for gasoline that
could be refined from the oil that had been produced in increasing quantities in this area
since the Spindletop discovery. Thus the discovery of oil, the opening of the Ship Channel
and the expansion of markets for gasoline and lubricants combined to give Houston an
economic momentum that continues to accelerate.
The Texas Company, organized in 1908, built its skyscraper at Rusk and San Jacinto streets in 1914. The Humble Oil and Refining Company was chartered in 1917, the same year that Gulf Oil decided to come to Houston. In 1918, Sinclair Oil Company’s 700-acre site became the first refinery staked out on the Houston Ship Channel.
uring World War I, the Chamber of
Commerce marshaled the civic forces of the community for the war effort, providing
leadership for Liberty Bond drives, rationing programs, and for "wheatless",
"porkless" and "meatless" days. Construction started on the Ellington
Air Base in 1917, and in recognition of Houston’s potential as a war-industry
shipping port, the federal government earmarked $3,500,000 to deepen the Ship Channel to
30 feet. The Southern Aircraft Company became the first commercial airline to serve
Houston.
At the end of the war, the Chamber of Commerce busied itself with plans for postwar adjustment. Its representatives participated in a statewide readjustment conference which studied all aspects of the postwar situation in the state. The need for coordination of economic development activities was recognized, but it was felt that because of its size, Texas did not lend itself to a single statewide organization. Thus began the creation of the Regional Chambers of Commerce.
