After 1900 the Port of Galveston emerged as the second largest in the United States. Following completion of a deep water channel to Texas City in 1904, the mainland’s major petroleum petro-chemical plants, tin smelter and allied industries, had . . . — — Map (db m239828) HM
Designed by Frank Cox of New Orleans, this Romanesque revival structure served as an opera house, hotel, and restaurant when it opened for its first season in 1895. Converted to a movie theater in the 1920s, it was restored in the 1970s and 1980s . . . — — Map (db m26968) HM
Founded 1823 as Brazos River landing for Josiah H. Bell's plantation. Townsite of Marion laid out in 1824. Later named East Columbia. Army enlistment point and ferrying dock during Texas Revolution. Key river port and trade center during Republic of . . . — — Map (db m89323) HM
In early efforts to develop a major port here on Galveston Bay, Texas City capitalists, acting against the advice of engineers, dug a ship channel directly through and across the Bay's natural water line. As a result, currents carried silt into . . . — — Map (db m150479) HM
Friendswood was established as a Quaker colony by Frank J. Brown and Thomas H. Lewis in 1895. Among the colony's early settlers was former Kansas farmer Nereus Stout. Stout became a highly acclaimed horticulturist and is believed to be the first . . . — — Map (db m98447) HM
Forerunner of town of Edna; a camp and commissary during the building of the New York, Texas & Mexican railway, 1880-1882.
Count Joseph Telfener, one of the railway investors, brought laborers from his native Italy; station was nicknamed for . . . — — Map (db m124472) HM
Attracted by the State of Texas' offer of free land to railroad developers, a charter for the New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad was secured in 1880. Its major investor, John W. Mackay, made his fortune in the Nevada silver mines. His . . . — — Map (db m125417) HM
Within days of the devastating storm of 1900 Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, arrived in Galveston with personnel, supplies, and relief funds. Assisting the relief effort, which included Galveston Island and several mainland . . . — — Map (db m153172) HM
A veteran of the War of 1812, James Love, a lawyer, came to Texas in 1837 with his wife Lucy (Ballinger). He helped found Galveston, and was a political ally of Mirabeau B. Lamar. Love served as a delegate to the 1845 Annexation Convention, judge of . . . — — Map (db m50031) HM
Born in Galveston on March 24, 1892 to Robert and Alberta (Mabson) McGuire, Jessie May McGuire Dent was an important Galveston Civil Rights figure. In 1909, she graduated as valedictorian from Central High School while a student at Howard . . . — — Map (db m265628) HM
This community traces its origin to settlement by a few families along the bayshore in the mid-1800s. Completion in 1854 of the Half Moon Shoal Lighthouse, a Federal project near the present day Texas City Dike, hastened the formation of a village . . . — — Map (db m52591) HM
Born in New York City to German immigrants Nicholas and Margaretta Heiner, Eugene Thomas Heiner apprenticed himself to a Chicago architect when he was thirteen years old and later completed his training in Berlin, Germany. Heiner became a draftsman . . . — — Map (db m122983) HM
Swedish immigration to Texas began with the arrival of Swen Magnus Swenson in 1838. Settling first on the Gulf Coast, he became a successful businessman. In 1850 he moved to Austin, where he established a ranch in the area he later named Govalle . . . — — Map (db m99678) HM
The old section of this cemetery was in use at least as early as the 1890s as part of the town of North Galveston that was created in 1891 from the original 1837 Republic of Texas townsite of San Leon. Destroyed in the 1900 Storm, the town was sold . . . — — Map (db m307868) HM
Frank Bell, Sr. was a son of Norval and Catherine Bell from Alabama. Flavilla "Flavey" Bell was a daughter of Chisholm Trail and Butler Ranch Black Cowboy Calvin Bell from Mississippi and his German born wife, Katie. Frank and Flavey were married in . . . — — Map (db m145354) HM
The Beach Road is the coastal section of the Texas Highway 87 system. Stretching along the Gulf of Mexico from Sabine Pass through Chambers County to Port Bolivar in Galveston County, it follows a historic route that proved vital to the early . . . — — Map (db m118676) HM
General Xavier Mina, hoping to establish a settlement at what is now the Galveston County mainland, arrived and set up breastworks at Virginia Point in 1816.
Between 1815 and 1817, three leaders of expeditions against Spanish Mexico, Mina, . . . — — Map (db m143811) HM
Following Laffite's expulsion from Galveston, settlers from the West Indies began to arrive. Within a few years, Galveston became principal port to the Republic of Texas.
Galveston was declared a Port of Entry in 1825 by Mexico and a customs . . . — — Map (db m239823) HM
Born in Georgetown, South Carolina, Levi Charles Meyers Harby was the son of Solomon Harby and Rebecca (Moses) Harby. During the War of 1812, Levi served in the U.S. Navy. He was commissioned as a midshipman and stationed at Charleston. After the . . . — — Map (db m127578) HM
Called the "First Citizen of Texas" by U. S. President Woodrow Wilson, Rabbi Henry Cohen, an internationally known humanitarian, was born in London, England.
He came to Galveston in 1888 as spiritual leader of congregation B'Nai Israel and . . . — — Map (db m118254) HM
This Broadway location had its roots with the purchase of the First State
Bank of Hitchcock on March 2, 1973. Charles T. Doyle of Texas City led
an investment group who purchased the bank from Shearn Moody, Jr. of
Galveston. Doyle later founded . . . — — Map (db m245513) HM
In 1893, the Alta Loma improvement and investment company, a group of developers, laid out the townsite of Alta Loma along the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe rail line. Known today as Santa Fe, Alta Loma was sited on what is said to be the highest . . . — — Map (db m144549) HM
The Phillips Memorial Cemetery began with the death of Kneeland Britton in the 1870s. It was situated on the Kneeland and Sylvia Britton land next to the Galveston, Houston & Henderson Railroad. Priscilla Britton Phillips and her husband Albert . . . — — Map (db m187171) HM
The revival of the economic, political, social and religious institutions in Galveston County following the Civil War, was more rapid than anywhere in the south. Galveston emerged as the largest city in Texas and with its natural seaport, became . . . — — Map (db m290771) HM
In 1874 Galveston County voters narrowly approved $500,000 in bonds to finance construction of a railroad line from the city of Galveston that would bypass Houston, its business rival, and reach across Texas and beyond to Santa Fe, New Mexico. Henry . . . — — Map (db m59386) HM
The original First National Bank of Galveston Building, designed by P M. Comegys for T. H. McMahan, Esquire, was three-story and erected in 1867 of pressed brick from Baltimore. The Strand front and all the door and window surroundings were of iron, . . . — — Map (db m130400) HM
Thomas Jackson and Mary Lelia (Sherman) Dick lived on their north Galveston County "Buckhorn Ranch" for many years before hiring J. R. Beerwort and O. V. King to build this house in 1904. It is a good example of a two-story center passage plan with . . . — — Map (db m50151) HM
The son of German immigrants, Joseph Boddeker came to Galveston with his parents about 1850. After service in the Civil War, he worked as a riverboat pilot and purchased this lot for his family home in the 1870s. When the original Boddeker House was . . . — — Map (db m140061) HM
Strategically located on peninsula surrounded by Galveston, Trinity and Dickinson Bays, San Leon has a rich and varied history. Amos Edwards and his family were the first to settle on the peninsula after the Mexican government opened the Texas . . . — — Map (db m187128) HM
During the American Civil War, the Confederacy relied heavily on slave labor to maintain daily functions while many of the white men were fulfilling duties as soldiers. Many of the men who founded the 1867 Settlement were slaves and because of the . . . — — Map (db m187191) HM
Isaiah Cates Day, for whom the town of Dayton is named, was born in Shelby Co. Tennessee on June 12, 1812. His family tradition says that he came to Texas in 1830 with Sam Houston, with whom he remained a life-long friend. Day married Alice D. . . . — — Map (db m206762) HM
William Selkirk (1792-1830), one of Stephen F. Austin's original "Old Three Hundred" settlers, came to Texas from New York in 1822. Selkirk was a surveyor for the Austin colony and served in the colonial Militia. He was part of a group sent (1824) . . . — — Map (db m292801) HM
In 1895, six families left the disbanded Quaker settlement of Estacado in the Lubbock area and moved to Galveston County. Here, they established the community of Friendswood, named in honor of their faith and association with the Society of Friends, . . . — — Map (db m53112) HM
Ferry service between Galveston Island and the Bolivar Peninsula began on April 12, 1930. Six daily round trips were made and only daylight service was provided. The ferries Galveston and Jefferson were operated by Southern States . . . — — Map (db m245519) HM
Established about 1895 by Laura Stewart and Julia Parr Munson. This Church is distinguished by a history of strong community involvement. The congregation has been led by various Methodist, Presbyterian, and other protestant clergy and has served . . . — — Map (db m5093) HM
In 1869, the Diocese of Galveston perceived the need for a church on the mainland to serve Roman Catholics. The following year St. Mary began in Hitchcock, and a mission church also established in 1870, named St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception, . . . — — Map (db m50155) HM
Established in 1866 by Texas Confederate veterans for children of deceased soldiers. Had capacity for 250. Rev. Henry F. Gillette was first superintendent. C.S.A. Col. Ashbel Smith, diplomat, soldier and statesman, was staff doctor. Trustees . . . — — Map (db m307845) HM
Traveling west from the Gulf of Mexico the land rises gradually and becomes Alta Loma (Spanish for high land) in this area of Galveston County. In 1893 the Alta Loma Investment and Improvement Company platted a townsite here along a Gulf, Colorado . . . — — Map (db m52466) HM
Oldest mainland settlement in Galveston County, named for John Dickinson, one of "Old 300" settlers in original colony (opened in 1821) of Stephen F. Austin. Townsite is on Dickinson Bayou land grant of James F. and Emily Austin Perry . . . — — Map (db m245779) HM
The East End Historic District, which initiated development in the area immediately east of Galveston’s Downtown Business District, saw its busiest period of construction during the last two decades of the 19th century. Many of the city’s . . . — — Map (db m142535) HM
Charles Hodgeson Pix was a member of a Texas pioneer family that came to Galveston from England in 1838. He was one of the early English merchants in Galveston who were importers of English goods direct from London. He began business at #6 Strand . . . — — Map (db m118999) HM
Frank Bell Jr. (1893–1963) was the son of early La Marque settlers Flavery and Frank Bell, Sr. Although he received little formal education, he was able to achieve business success and became a respected civic leader in La Marque’s African . . . — — Map (db m201983) HM
Communities of Galveston County were established as follows:
Algoa was named following the 1900 storm for a British Tanker which ran aground there.
Alta Loma was given the Spanish Name, “High Ground,” by a development company in . . . — — Map (db m290772) HM
Built by Frank and Florence Haven Davison, 1895-1897. Sturdy Victorian structure, of cypress.
Home of first child born in Texas City (formerly named Shoal Point). Survivor of many storms; suffered most in 1947 disaster.
Davison, prominent . . . — — Map (db m137809) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
