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History Of Houston
This article documents the wide-ranging history of the city of Houston, the largest city in the state of Texas and the fourth-largest in the United States. The City of Houston was founded in 1837 after Augustus and John Allen had acquired land to establish a new town at the junction of Buffalo and White Oak bayous in 1836. Houston served as the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas. Meanwhile, the town developed as a regional transportation and commercial hub. Houston was part of an independent nation until 1846 when the United States formally annexed Texas. Railroad development began in the late 1850s but ceased during the American Civil War. Houston served the Confederacy as a regional military logistics center. The population increased during the war and blockade runners used the town as a center for their operations. Many free black people came to Houston after the civil war. Not receiving the support of the incumbent white population, they formed their own social and ...
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City
A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be defined as a permanent and densely settled place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Cities generally have extensive systems for housing, transportation, sanitation, utilities, land use, production of goods, and communication. Their density facilitates interaction between people, government organisations and businesses, sometimes benefiting different parties in the process, such as improving efficiency of goods and service distribution. Historically, city-dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization, more than half of the world population now lives in cities, which has had profound consequences for g ...
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Augustus Chapman Allen
Augustus Chapman Allen (July 4, 1806 – January 11, 1864), along with his younger brother, John Kirby Allen, founded the City of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas. He was born on July 4, 1806, in Canaseraga Village, New York (the present day hamlet of Sullivan in the Town of Sullivan, New York), to Sarah (Chapman) and Roland Allen. Early years Not long after turning 17, Augustus graduated from the Polytechnic Institute at Chittenango, New York, and started teaching mathematics there. In 1827, he changed careers and resigned his professorship. He then went to work as bookkeeper for the H. and H. Canfield Company, New York. After two years, he and his brother John bought an interest in the business. In the summer of 1832, the Allen brothers left Canfield to move to Texas, where they settled in San Augustine. By June 1833, the brothers had moved to Nacogdoches. In Texas The Allen brothers arrived first in Galveston, Texas, and then moved to the small town of Saint Aug ...
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Columbia, Texas
West Columbia is a city in Brazoria County in the U.S. state of Texas. The city is centered on the intersection of Texas Highways 35 & 36, southwest of downtown Houston. The population was 3,644 at the 2020 census. The 1st Congress of the Republic of Texas was convened in West Columbia on October 3, 1836. (It was then named simply Columbia.) Geography West Columbia is located in western Brazoria County at (29.141513, –95.647016), about west of the Brazos River. Texas State Highway 35 leads east to Angleton, the county seat, and southwest to Bay City. Texas Highway 36 leads north to Rosenberg and southeast to Freeport on the Gulf of Mexico. According to the United States Census Bureau, West Columbia has a total area of , of which , or 0.67%, is water. Demographics As of the 2020 United States census, there were 3,644 people, 1,398 households, and 984 families residing in the city. As of the census of 2000, there were 4,255 people, 1,607 households, and 1,099 fa ...
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Constitution (1829 Steamboat)
''Constitution'' is a former steamboat which operated in the Republic of Texas. ''Constitution'' is a former steamboat, registered in New Orleans, but it primarily serviced the ports within the Republic of Texas. The steamer was 262 tons and 150-feet long. ''Constitution'' was designed as a riverboat, and built at a yard in Cincinnati in 1829. It had a draft of seven feet and seven inches. Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allenthe original developers of Houstoncommissioned ''Constitution'' for a demonstration voyage to prove the navigability of Buffalo Bayou as far as their new town site. They had already dispatched the '' Laura'' for the same purpose, but detractors of the Houston town site objected that a truer test would be a much larger ship. The Allen brothers accepted the challenge. They hired Captain Edward Auld to pilot the steamer from Galveston to Houston for $1,000. He successfully navigated ''Constitution'' through Buffalo Bayou and docked in Houston on 1 Ju ...
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Laura (1835 Steamboat)
''Laura'' is a former steamboat built in 1835, originating from a shipyard in Louisville, Kentucky. ''Laura'' measured in length, and its beam measured in width. The mercantile firm of McKinney & Williams acquired ''Laura'' in June 1835. ''Laura'' engaged on behalf of Texas Independence. ''Laura'' towed schooners to sea on behalf of the Texas Navy. On September 2, 1835, it towed an armed schooner to wage a counterattack against a Mexican cruiser. The ''Correo'' had been boarding incoming vessels from the United States. ''Laura'' assisted the schooner ''San Felipe'' in the capture of the ''Correo''. The Texas Navy also used ''Laura'' to transport troops and supplies. Early in 1837, the original developers of Houston, Augustus Chapman Allen and John Kirby Allen, employed the ''Laura'' to demonstrate that Buffalo Bayou was a navigable river as far as their town site. This demonstration voyage also included passengers such as John Kirby Allen, Moseley Baker, Benjamin C. Frankli ...
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Allen's Landing
Allen's Landing is the officially recognized birthplace of the city of Houston, Texas, United States, the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States. Located in Downtown Houston between the Main Street and Fannin Street viaducts, the landing encompasses the southern bank of Buffalo Bayou, the city's principal river, at its confluence with White Oak Bayou, a major tributary. Allen's Landing is located south of the University of Houston–Downtown Commerce Street Building. In August 1836, just months after the Republic of Texas won its independence from Mexico, two New York real estate developers, John Kirby Allen and Augustus Chapman Allen, purchased and settled the town of Houston on the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The present-day landing area was advertised as the head of navigation of the bayou and served as the city's first wharf. History Allen's Landing is at the confluence of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou and serves as a natural turning basin. A dock w ...
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Buffalo Bayou
Buffalo Bayou is a slow-moving body of water which flows through Houston in Harris County, Texas. Formed 18,000 years ago, it has its source in the prairie surrounding Katy, Fort Bend County, and flows approximately east through the Houston Ship Channel into Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to drainage water impounded and released by the Addicks and Barker reservoirs, the bayou is fed by natural springs, surface runoff, and several significant tributary bayous, including White Oak Bayou, Greens Bayou, and Brays Bayou. Additionally, Buffalo Bayou is considered a tidal river downstream of a point west of the Shepherd Drive bridge in west-central Houston. As the principal river of Greater Houston, the Buffalo Bayou watershed is heavily urbanized. Its direct drainage area contains a population of over 440,000. Including tributaries, the bayou has a watershed area of approximately . Route The upper watershed of Buffalo Bayou is impounded by the Addicks and ...
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White Oak Bayou
White Oak Bayou is a slow-moving river in Houston, Texas. A major tributary of the city's principal waterway, Buffalo Bayou, White Oak originates near the intersection of Texas State Highway 6 and U.S. Highway 290 (the Northwest Freeway) and meanders southeast for until it joins Buffalo Bayou in Downtown. The river serves as a greenway which connects Downtown to the Houston Heights, Oak Forest, Garden Oaks, and Inwood Forest. A large majority of White Oak Bayou's route travels through highly developed areas. The river's watershed contains a population of over 430,000. Watershed White Oak Bayou drains areas throughout the northwest portions of Harris County as well as the City of Jersey Village and portions of the City of Houston. Its watershed covers and includes three primary streams: White Oak Bayou, Little White Oak Bayou and Cole Creek. In addition, Vogel Creek and Brickhouse Gully are among the major tributaries in the watershed. In all, there are about of open ...
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Moses Lapham
Moses Lapham (October 16, 1808 – 1838) was a soldier in the Texas Army during the Texas Revolution, noted for a daring action during the Battle of San Jacinto that helped seal the decisive Texian victory. Early years Moses Lapham was born near the town of Smithfield, Rhode Island on October 16, 1808 to Amos and Marcy Aldrich Lapham. He moved to Mechanicsburg, Ohio with his father and attended college at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, for a few years. Career Lapham arrived in Texas in the middle of 1831, and he taught school at San Felipe, Texas. He lived in the household of Thomas H. Borden, while assisting Borden with surveying work for about a year. Lapham spent three years in Ohio. However, by December 1835, he had returned to Texas and resumed work as a surveyor. Lapham enlisted in the Texas Army on February 23, 1836 and served as a scout. When General Sam Houston evacuated his troops from Gonzalez, Texas, Lapham was one of three sentinels who did not receive the o ...
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Gail Borden
Gail Borden Jr. (November 9, 1801 – January 11, 1874) was a native New Yorker who settled in Texas in 1829 (then still Mexico), where he worked as a land surveyor, newspaper publisher, and inventor. He created a process in 1853 to make sweetened condensed milk. Earlier, Borden helped plan the cities of Houston and Galveston in 1836. Borden's process for making sweetened condensed milk enabled the dairy product to be transported and stored without refrigeration, and for longer periods than fresh milk. After returning to the New York area to market another product, he set up factories for condensed milk in Connecticut, and later in New York and Illinois. Demand by the Union Army was high during the American Civil War. His New York Condensed Milk Company changed its name to Borden Dairy Co. after his death. Early life Gail Borden Jr. was born in Norwich, New York, on November 9, 1801, to Gail Borden, Sr. (1777–1863), and Philadelphia (née Wheeler) Borden (1780–1828). The f ...
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Telegraph And Texas Register
''Telegraph and Texas Register'' (1835–1877) was the second permanent newspaper in Texas. Originally conceived as the ''Telegraph and Texas Planter'', the newspaper was renamed shortly before it began publication, to reflect its new mission to be "a faithful register of passing events". Owners Gail Borden, John Pettit Borden, and Joseph Baker founded the paper in San Felipe de Austin, a community long at the center of Texas politics.Later, when John Pettit Borden left to join the Texas Revolution, brother Thomas Borden stepped in to take his place. The first issue was printed on October 10, 1835, days after the outbreak of the Texas Revolution. The ''Telegraph'' continued to report news of the war and the formation of the new Republic of Texas through the end of March 1836. As the Mexican Army approached the colonies in eastern Texas, most residents fled eastward. The owners of the ''Telegraph'' and their printing press evacuated on March 30 with the rear guard of the Texi ...
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John Austin (soldier)
John Austin (March 17, 1801 — August 11, 1833) was a Texian settler, one of Stephen Austin's Old Three Hundred, and the Texian commander at the Battle of Velasco during the Anahuac Disturbances before Texas Revolution. No relation (or a distant relation) to the empresario Stephen Austin, John was born to John Punderson Austin and Susan Rogers Austin in New Haven, Connecticut. He initially also bore the middle name Punderson but apparently ceased using it, as it appears on none of his Texan records. John found work as a sailor and joined the Long expedition in New Orleans in 1819. Captured and imprisoned in Mexico, John later returned to Texas and joined Stephen Austin's colony, befriending him and becoming constable of his settlement at San Felipe de Austin. He was joined in Texas by his brother William. Stephen provided the capital for John's cotton gin on Buffalo Bayou, and his brother James opened a store with John in Brazoria, Texas. Involved through his business with ...
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