Revolution and Texas Independence
The Allen Brothers and Their Dream Town
The Last Quarter of the Nineteenth Century
The Struggle for Dominance
HE decade of the 1850 marked an
era of significant economic growth in Houston. The city emerged as the regional
center of rail transportation and of the cotton trade. Since Houston lay in the gulf
coastal plain of Texas, where heavy rains could wipe out carriage roads, dependable rail
transportation was a key factor in its economy's development. By 1860, 500 miles of
rail track crisscrossed Texas; 350 of these miles and five railroad companies served
Houston. Between 1854 and 1860, the volume of cotton shipped from Houston nearly
tripled--from 39,923 to 115,010 bales annually. In addition to cotton, Houston
exported wheat, cattle, rice, and sugar. As an alternative to rail transportation,
some city fathers began to promote water transportation and in 1858 Buffalo Bayou wharf
fees were abolished.
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AN EARLY ENGRAVING--one of many versions--of Houston, showing the imaginary mountains back of town. The artist over-illustrated verbal descriptions of the bayou's banks. Gleason's Pictorial Drawing room Companion, 1853 |
Societies of music, art and philosophy sprang up as prosperity stimulated interest in culture and the arts. In 1851. In 1854, free public education, as provided by state law, came to Houston. The following year city ordinances instituted "blue laws" that closed bars, billiard parlors and bowling alleys on Sundays. Saloons however, still outnumbered churches. By 1860, 4,845 people claimed Houston as their home; the population of the city had more than doubled in ten years.
The decade, however, was not without its setbacks. Sporadic epidemics of cholera and yellow fever plagued Houston. In 1853, Buffalo Bayou overflowed its banks and caused the first major flood in the city. Six years later, fires ravaged the central part of the city. But with a resiliency that became characteristic, Houston--and Houstonians---Soon recovered.
