HOUSTON, a city of the United States, capital of Harris county, Texas, and the next city in the State to Galveston as regards both population and commercial enterprise, is situated on the left bank of Buffalo bayou at the head of navigation, and at the junction of several railways, 50 miles north-west of Galveston. The bayou is crossed at Houston by several bridges. Most of the streets are shaded by fine avenues of trees, and the principal of them are traversed by tramway cars. The chief buildings are the city-hall and market-house, completed in 1874, at a cost of 400,000 dollars, the masonic temple of the grand lodge of Texas, and the hotels, the largest of which is the finest in the State. The city is well supplied with schools and churches, and has two large public libraries. It is the principal railway centre of the State, and the depot of an extensive and rich agricultural region, besides being the seat of important and varied manufactures. The recent deepening of the bayou so as to make it navigable for vessels drawing 9 feet of water has considerably increased the shipping trade, which is chiefly in lumber. The town possesses iron and brass founderies, railway machine shops, planing-mills, factories for cars, waggons, and agricultural implements, sheet-iron and tin works, a large flour-mill, beef-packing establishments, and manufactures of cotton, soap, Portland cement, and bone dust. In the neighbourhood there are extensive nurseries. The annual fair of the State of Texas is held at Houston. The city, which was named after Samuel Houston, noticed below, was settled in 1836, and in 1837 it was for a short time the capital of the State. In 1870 the population was 9382, and in 1880 it had increased to 17,000....
HOUSTON, Samuel (1793-1863), an American general and statesman, was born near Lexington, Virginia, 2d March 1793. On the death of his father, a soldier of the revolution, in 1807, he removed with his mother to the frontier, and settling in Blount county, Tennessee, was soon on familiar terms with the Cherokee Indians. For a while he acted as clerk to a trader, and then as village schoolmaster; but in 1813, after a residence of nearly three years among the Indians, he joined the United States army. He served with Jackson in the war against Great Britain, and at the peace of 1815 had risen from the ranks to a lieutenancy. Although conscious of his success, and proud of having won Jackson’s friendship by his bravery, he then resigned his commission and turned to the study and practice of law at Nashville. In 1823 Tennessee returned him to congress, and four years later he was elected governor of the State. He married in January 1829, and in the April following, without assigning any reason, he suddenly abandoned his home and his office, and took up his residence among the Cherokees, by whom he was formally adopted as a member of their nation. Returning to Washington, he successfully pleaded their cause against the Government agents who had wronged them. In 1832 he settled in Texas, and was soon after elected a member of the convention called for the purpose of framing a constitution for that State, then in difficulties with the Mexican Government. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence, and, on the 2d of April following, won it on the field of San Jacinto, where Houston, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Texas forces, with a body of 783 raw troops, defeated 1600 Mexican veterans led by Santa Anna. On the recognition of the independence of Texas, Houston was elected president of the new republic, and re-elected in 1841; and, when Texas was admitted to the Union in 1845, he was returned as one of its two representatives to the senate. There he distinguished himself as a zealous friend of the Indians, opposing the Kansas and Nebraska bill in a memorable speech (3d March 1854), and voting against the Lecompton constitution of Kansas. His decided opposition to secession obliged him in 1861 to retire from the office of governor of Texas, which he had held from 1859. He died at Huntersville, Texas, 25th July 1863. The hero of San Jacinto was above all things an able soldier, wary, intrepid, and resolute; but he also possessed as a legislator the qualities of rare foresight, cool discrimination, and fearless candour.
See his Life (New York, 1855), his Letters to the People (1856) b and 8» L. Knapp’s History of America (New York, 1875).
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