History of Houston, Texas, USA

Houston a city capital of Harris county, Texas, situated on Buffalo bayou, 45 miles by water from its entrance into Galveston bay, 82 miles N. W. from Galveston city, and 200 miles E. S. E. from Austin city. Lat. 29° 45' N., Lon. 95° 30' W. This flourishing town, the second of the state in commercial importance, is advantageously situated for trade, at the head of steamboat navigation. Several steamboats ply regularly between this place and Galveston. Houston is the principal shipping port for several adjacent counties, in which cotton, sugar, and maize arc produced, and towards which a copious tide of emigration is flowing. A large portion of the county is occupied by savannas or treeless plains, which produce excellent pasturage, and large numbers of cattle and horses are kept here with little labor. A railroad has been commenced which is to be extended westward to the Brazos river, and probably to Austin. Five or six newspapers arc published here. It contains 1 iron foundry, with a ...

Houston, a city of Texas, capital of Harris co., is on Buffalo Bayou, 49 miles by rail N.W. of Galveston, 164 miles E.S.E. of Austin, and 152 miles S. of Palestine. It is the S. terminus of the Houston and Texas Central Railroad and of the International & Great Northern Rail road, which connect here with the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad, and is also the W. terminus of the Texas & New Orleans Railroad. Is is also on the Texas Western, Texas Transportation, and Houston, East & West Texas Railroads. It was in 1870 the third city of the state in population. Steamboats ply between this place and Galveston. Two daily and 3 weekly newspapers are published here, also a Baptist religious paper. Houston contains 11 churches (2 Baptist, 2 Catholic, 1 Episcopal, 1 Jewish, 4 Methodist, and 1 Presbyterian), the Houston Academy, a convent, a city hall, 2 national banks, 4 other banks, 4 foundries, manufactures of engines, machinery, carriages, &c., 1 or 2 cotton-factories, several...

Houston, Tex., June 30 - Shortly after three o'clock Monday afternoon the boiler in the office of the Daily Age exploded, killing Engineer Henry Lyons, Miss Mattie Loeb, a stenographer in the office of W. G. Van Vleck, vice-president and general manager of the A. & T. system of the Southern Pacific railway; Edward R. Emory, telegraph operator in the same office, and seriously injuring Mr. Van Velck himself. The force of the explosion carried the entire boiler, which was of 18 horse power, fully 800 feet.

Mr. Van Velck was dictating to Miss. Loeb when the boiler crashed through the brick wall back into the rear of the building, taking everything in its way. Miss Loeb was carried nearly 20 feet from her chair and was found afterward buried under a mass of debris. She lived only about 20 minutes. Mr. Van Vleck was carried some distance also, but escaped with serious cuts on the head. In the next office, divided by a thin partition, were two telegraph operators, Edward R. Emory and...

(By Associated Press.)
Houston, Tex., Feb. 21. - A fire which broke out here at an early hour today, swept by a 35 mile an hour wind, burned a mile across the city and and an area seven blocks wide. By 7 o'clock the fire is believed to be under control, although still burning. The loss is estimated at five to ten million dollars.

Among the mills, factories and plants totally destroyed or badly damaged are McFADDEN'S warehouse, Southern Compress and Warehouse Co., DEW Bros. Syrup Co., Houston Packing Co., HOUSTON & LIGGETT Lumber Co., REGERS Paint Co., HUDSON Pencil Factory,

E. D. HARRELL Lumber Co., Standard Compress Co., Co-operative Mfg. Co., Acme Mill, St. Patrick's Catholic Church and school, Industrial rice mill and Southern rice mill.

The burned area in the residence district covers at least twenty-five blocks. More than a score of persons were injured, none of whom are thought to be fatally hurt. The fire was gotten under control at Buffalo Bayou. Although the fire...

Houston, a city of Texas, the second city (in 1900) in population of the state, an important railroad centre, and capital of Harris co., is on Buffalo Bayou, 49 miles NW. of Galveston, on the Southern Pacific, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe and other railroads. It has the Houston Lyceum, a polytechnic institute, a cotton exchange, masonic exchange, government building, and manufactures of car- wheels, engines, machinery, carriages, agricultural implements, etc. ; it has also cotton-mills and. compresses, cotton seed oil works, foundries, and several machine-shops of the railroads. Large quantities of cotton, corn, sugar, and other products are shipped here. Pop. in 1890, 27,557 ; in 1900, 44,633.