New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 12

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416

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Galveston furnished adequate complements of men and finances to the Texas war for independence and to the Southern side in the war between the states At the close of the latter war, the population of the city was approximately 10,000. The city boasted of one railroad 45 miles in length and half a dozen wharves at which numerous light draft vessels loaded and unloaded, the bar at the entrance of the harbor did not permit of vessels drawing more than fifteen feet of water to enter.

have been coming into the harbor and an effort is now being made for the government to undertake the deepening of the channel and bar to thirty-five feet. Illustrative of the wide appreciation of Gal- veston as a port, on one day recently there were vessels flying fourteen different flags loading or unloading at the wharves.

Galveston's present population is about 40,000 and everything points to a rapid increase over these figures. The storm of 1900, while it gave the city a temporary set back, in reality proved to be a blessing in disguise for it taught the people a much needed lesson and measures were at once taken to surround the city with a protecting wall while the city itself was elevated, in some places to a height of seventeen feet above its old elevation. Then, too from the storm and its toll of heavy repair expenses came the commission form of government by which not only Galveston but numerous other communities throughout the nation have been able to carry on at a much reduced expense and wider satis- faction.

Galveston today holds first place as a cotton ex- porting gateway and has entered the field for a new record in grain exportation. Elevator facilities and side track provisions are ample and if the port is supplied with adequate tonnage, Galveston will be as noted for handling export grain as she is for

Seagoing Vessels at Wharves in the Galveston Harbor Taking Cargo Enroute to Various American and European Ports

In the year 1896, after an extended campaign of handling outward bound cotton. The taxable val- education conducted throughout the west and the Middle west, congress made an appropriation for the deepening of the harbor and the work was im- mediately started. By 1875 vessels drawing twen- ty-five feet of water could enter the harbor and year by year since that time deeper draft vessels

uation of the city is given at $41,000,000.00 This city went over the top in every Liberty bond, Red Cross and War Work Activities drive launched dur- ing the recent war, though, by the war, deprived of her shipping and a large portion of her popu- lation.

GALVESTON, THE TEXAS PORT, GATEWAY OF THE SOUTHWEST By EDWIN CHEESBOROUGH

G ALVESTON is the chief seaport of Texas, the largest cotton ex- porting port in the world, a wholesale distributing point and a winter and summer re- sort. It has a beautiful, well fortified harbor 32 to 50 feet deep, thirty up-to-date piers and birth room at the docks for 100 ocean going vessels. It has a modern 10,000 ton dry dock, fuel oil station, coal elevators and floating bunker plants, a powerful wireless station, cable communication direct with Mexico, four large grain elevators and nine high density cotton compresses. Galveston's population is around 40,000.

Deep water was procured at Galveston by the National Government at the cost of $10,000,000. The average yearly business passing over Galves- ton's docks in from $300,000,000 to $450,000,000. Exports in 1918-19 were $301,166,702.

In December 1835 M. B. Menard, recognized as the founder of Galveston, purchased of the Repub- lic of Texas for the sum of $50,000 one league and one labor of land on the East end of Galveston Island the site of the present city of Galveston. He organ- ized the Galveston City Company, April 13, 1836 and immediately laid out the city. On April 30 1838 a public sale of town lots was held. The city

was incorporated and elected its first mayor and Board of Aldermen in March 1839.

Up to October 1902 the City was located on an unprotected flat sandy surface with a grade running from four to seven feet above mean low tide. On an average of once every eleven years the City was inundated by storm water from the Gulf of Mexico, but the result and damage was always very small. The building of a seawall along the Gulf front to protect the city from storm wave action was fre- quently suggested, but no active steps were taken to bring about the desired results.

On Sept. 8, 1900, at a time when Galveston pos- sessed a population of 40,000, a great tropical storm, originating in the West Indies, struck the city with a fury hitherto unbelievable. Approxi- mately 5,300 lives and $17,000,000 in property val- ues were destroyed. This disaster left the city gov- ernment practically bankrupt and many of its mu- nicipal improvements in ruins. A grave situation faced the city. The people realized fully, that in order to restore confidence and to make Galveston a safe place in which to reside herculean efforts and wise planning was absolutely necessary. Under the law, no city or county in Texas can sell or dispose of their lands at less than par. Galveston was facing a question of civic life or death.

Four Noted Achievements

Galveston is credited with having accomplished four noted achievements. The Commission Plan of City Government, the building of a great Seawall and boulevard, the raising of the grade of a large part of the city and the erection of a magnificent

Galveston is the Gateway to the Great Southwest Empire. The Greatest Cotton Shipping Port of the South. Texas Products are Shipped through this Harbor to all Parts of the World. The Giant Causeway in the Center is the Longest Viaduct in the World.

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

all-arched re-inforced concrete causeway two miles in length connecting the city with the mainland. The Commission Plan of City Government

After the great storm of Sept. 8th, 1900, it was suggested that the first step necessary to a com- plete rehabilitation of Galveston, was through re- organization of the City government. It was gen- erally recognized that an efficiently managed mu- nicipal government has a direct bearing upon the growth, development and prosperity of a city, be- cause it encourages the people, invites capital and stimulates activity.

The Galveston Deep Water Committee

An organization composed of twelve of the lead- ing business men of the city, and whose original purpose was to work for National aid in securing deep water for the port, decided that an application

Sewerage; Commissioner of Streets and Public Prop- erty, and Commissioner of Police and Fire Depts. The Mayor or any Commissioner can be removed from the office for official misconduct, drunken- ness or incompetency by a district judge upon a proved charge.

What the new system of City government accom- plished for Galveston was indeed remarkable. Its success was so marked, that hundreds of cities all over the United States have adopted the Commis. sion Plan.

Sea Wall

One of the first acts of the Board of City Com- missioners, was the employment of an engineering board composed of General Henry M. Robert, Alfred Noble and H. C. Ripley, their duty being to devise plans for the protection of the city from the force of the waves and currents in the several storms

Bathing in the Surf at Galveston, the Atlantic City of the South, the Gulf Water is Delightfully Warm, and Bathers May Stay in the Surf all Day and Late into the Night Without Becoming Chilled

should be made to the state legislature for a new charter, designed to benefit the people rather than to provide sinecures for politicians: Mr. R. Waverly Smith, President of the First National Bank of Galveston, a lawyer by training, and who, for four years prior to that time has held the office of City Attorney, and who was a member of the Deep Water Committee, and now its chairman, suggested the appointment of a committee from that organ- ization to thoroughly revise and rewrite the city charter. Accordingly a sub committee of three from said organization was appointed, consisting of Mr. Smith, Col. Walter Gresham, a lawyer and a former member of Congress, and Mr F. D. Minor, a lawyer of high character and splendid ability. This subcommittee procured copies of the charters of a number of cities, including the law governing the city of Washington, D. C., a copy of the act cre- ating the taxing commission for Memphis, Tenn., and after the great yellow fever epidemic in 1878, and a copy of the so-called model charter of Balti- more, Md.

The commission features of the new charter were suggested and drawn by Mr. Smith, and the controll- ing was the creation of a governing body which should conform, as near as possible, to the organ- ization of a great business corporation providing the duties, sharply defining the responsibilities, and through the heads of the various departments, con- centrating both power and responsibility.

Commission Plan in Brief

The Board of Commissioners of the City of Gal- veston is composed of a Mayor-President and four Commissioners, all elected to their respective posi- tions by the qualified voters of the city at large every two years.

The Mayor or President is the executive head of the City Government. The four Commissioners are designated as follows: Commissioner of Finances and Reserve; Commissioner of Water Works and

known to occur in the Gulf, and to prevent storm water from ever reaching a depth in the city, dan- gerous to life and property. To accomplish this ob- ject the Board of Engineers proposed the building of a solid concrete wall and the raising of the city grade to eight feet at Avenue "A", 10 feet at Broad way, 12 feet at Avenue "P" and continuing this slope upward to the seawall seventeen feet above mean low tide.

The county of Galveston, of which the city contri- butes about 85% of the taxes, agreed to build the Seawall at a cost of $1,500,000, issuing 4% bonds being purchased by the citizens of Galveston and the city, with aid extended by the State of Texas, agreed to raise the grade at a cost of $2,000,000, the people to pay the expenses incident to the rais- ing of their building and other improvements cost. ing about $1,000,000 additional. Galveston county built 17,592 feet of the Seawall and the United States Government built in front of Fort Crockett, joining the county seawall, 5506 feet, making a to- tal of 23,098 feet, or a little over 4 1-3 miles. Work on the wall started Oct. 1902 and was completed Oct. 18, 1905. The cost of the wall and filling be- hind same to the Government was $678,424.00. The wall proper is 16 feet wide at the base, is 17 feet above mean low tide and is five feet across the top It is backed up by sand filling. Adjacent to the wall and flush with its top is a cement sidewalk 16 feet wide, next to the sidewalk is a brick pavement, 68 feet wide, and adjacent to that is another cement sidewalk. These two cement sidewalks with brick pavement in the center is called the "Seawall Boule . vard." At a point 200 feet from the wall proper, or 100 feet north of the seawall boulevard, a cement wall is sunk into the earth five feet deep, its top which is 21 feet above mean low tide being even with the ground surface, or four feet higher than the seawall. This upward slope of four feet for a distance of 200 feet from the seawall causes all

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

storm spray dashing over the seawall on to the boulevard to drain back into the Gulf.

The wall proper is built upon four round piling at intervals of four feet. The piling is driven down from 40 to 44 feet, penetrating a solid clay foundation. A double row of lapper and groved sheet piling 24 feet in length. extends the entire length of the wall under the part nearest the Gulf. In front of the wall is an apron of granite and sand- stone rip rap 27 feet wide.

Eastern Extension of Seawall

The United States Government and Galveston County jointly at a cost of $18,000,000 have extended the seawall from the Gulf at Sixth street to Fort San Jacinto a distance of 10,300 feet the County paying the cost of 3,300 feet and the Government paying for 7,000 feet. The Government's part of the wall is in front of its own land, some 700 acres comprising the Fort and the sand flats adjacent thereto. This seawall extension not only protects the channel of Galveston bay from filling during a storm, but also reclaims for commercial purposes about 5000 feet of channel frontages which is suitable for docks and terminals, also a large acre- age of sand flats, also gives the Government a mag- nificent site adjacent to Fort San Jacinto for use as a camp and drill grounds.

Raising the City Grade

Acting under the terms of the new city charter on May 15, 1903, Governor S. W. T. Lanham ap- pointed J. P. Alvey, John Sealy and E. R. Cheese- brough, as a grade raising board, they to manage, control and direct the work of filling and raising the area east of Thirteenth Street and also south of Broadway as far west as Fortieth street. The total sum available for this work was $2,000,000 represented by 5 per cent City bonds. In order to care for the interest and sinking fund on this

six years. The contractors received $1,961,259, the engineering and incidental expenses being less than two per cent of the contract price. The contractors lost between $300,000 and $400,000 on their con- tract. The surface elevation due to the raising of the city grade ranges from a few inches to eleven feet. The highest known storm water at Galveston was a fraction under 12 feet above mean low tide. Broadway as raised is 10 feet and the sidewalks 11 feet and the slope towards the Seawall is upward at the rate of one foot in 1500. The downtown sec- tion of the city from Broadway north has never been raised. This is however in active contemplation. The present grade in that area ranges from 612 to 8 feet above mean low tide. During a storm, since the building of the seawall, the water appearing on the downtown streets backs in from the bay and has no damaging force.

Due to the grade raising all bayous, lakes and low places in the western part of the City have been filled. Since the beginning of the grade rais- ing operations a total of 16,321,400 cubic yards of filling has been placed in the city, at the cost of ap- proximately $3,000,000.

The Galveston Causeway

The Galveston Causeway as completed repre- sents an outlay of $3,000,000 or more. It is 10,642 feet in length and of which 7858 is re-in- forced concrete arches resting upon a concrete piling foundation. Each arch had a clear span of sixty feet. The causeway is sixty-three feet, three inches wide, and is devoted to a county roadway, interurban and steam railway tracks. It is 14 feet above mean tide. The lift bridge has a clear span of 100 feet. Galveston County, the G. C. & S. Fe Ry. Co., Gal- veston-Houston Electric Interurban Co., G. H. & H. Ry. Co., and the Southern Pacific Railway Company, in various proportions, have contributed

Along the Walk at Galveston. Murdock Bath House, Bathing Surf and Pier on the Right. On the Left is the Crystal Bath House, Plunge and Casino

bond issue the State of Texas through legislative enactment, contributed the State's part of all taxes collected in Galveston County for a period of 17 years and later on increased it to 27 years. The Grade raising Board secured the services of Col. C. S. Richie, U. S. Engineer, as its consulting en- gineer, he to prepare plans, specifications and form of contract. The successful bidder was Messrs. Goehardt & Bates, the price being 181/2 cents per cu- bic yard, to include grading, they to dredge a service canal through the residence section of the city three miles long, eighteen feet deep and two hundred feet wide. They to use foreign built, self loading, self propelling and discharging hopper dredges to take filling from the bay and transport it through the canal and discharge it through pipe lines. They to remove all buildings in the canal right-of-way, and restore them to their original location, after re- filling the canal. The raising of the grade started July 1904 and was completed in July 1910 or with!r.

to meet the cost of this structure. The causeway was constructed under two contracts. The initial contract was let to the A. M. Bladgett Construction Company of Kansas City, Mo., July 6, 1909 and on August 30 of the same year, the first work was actually started, Mr. Linton W. Stubbs, construction engineer, supervised the work. The Arch bridge portion was 2,358 feet and lift bridge 100 feet. The balance of the structure was a cement slab, protected sand roadway, surfaced with shell. Du- ring the storm of August 16, 17, 1915, a large part of the sand roadway washed out and the cement slabs fell in. In rebuilding, it was decided to construct the destroyed portion of arches, thus making the en- tire causeway an all arched structure. About 5,500 feet of arch construction, being 79 acres, comprised the second contract which was awarded to Larkin & Sangster (Inc.) This is one of the largest, if not the very largest re-inforced arched concrete struc- ture in the world.

HISTORY OF BEAUMONT

By J. L. MAPES

Vice-President and General Manager Beaumont Enterprise

B EAUMONT was found- ed in July, 1837, when its boundary lines were established and when agree- ment between Nancy Tevis and the heirs of Noah Tevis, and the Joseph P. Pulsifer Company, which was com- posed of Henry Millard, Joseph Pulsifer and Thomas P. Huling, and Joseph Grigs- by. The original town in- cluded only two hundred acres. In 1839, the town site company divided the property into boundary lines; certain tracts being set aside as public roads and commons. The lots or commons were designated in the earliest maps. These commons in- clude the present court house property, Keith Park, Millard school grounds, the high school campus, and the city hall site. Jefferson County, of which Beaumont is the county seat, originally included Orange County and part of Hardin County and was in the period of its first settlement a part of the Lorenza de Zavalla colony under the government of the States of Coahuila and Texas, with headquarters at Nacogdoches, and first called Liberty County. The section of the colony which formed the first Jefferson County had settlers prior to 1834. The

first application for any of the land in the present townsite of Beaumont was made by Noah Tevis in December, 1834. The Tevis family had, however, lived here prior to that date. From this modest be- ginning the town grew as all other communities in a pioneer country develops. The people made their livelihood in agriculture, cattle, lumber and shingle manufacturing and trading by steamboat up and down the Neches River. When railroads were built and modern methods of lumber manufacturing were introduced the growth was more rapid. The develop- ment of a deep water port and the development of rice as a major crop gave the city a further im- petus. This briefly outlines the history of the com- munity up until 1900.

Beaumont in 1900 was a town of eight thousand inhabitants. Its principal industry at that time was the manufacture of lumber. The rice milling in- dustry had become important and in time might have brought about some of the growth attained later on, but in 1901 there came a sudden change in the prosperity of the town.

On January 11, the famous Lucas oil well was brought in, a short distance from Beaumont. The incident attracted the attention of all those who were interested in the development of oil. Within a few weeks after the discovery of oil, the popula- tion of Beaumont had increased from eight thou- sand to twenty-five thousand. This influx of new people brought into town a flood of capital, which could not have been secured under normal condi- tions in many years.

ITM

Some of Beaumont's Public Buildings. Reading From Left to Right. Top Row-New Beaumont Hotel, Y. W. C. A. Build- ing, . Central Fire Station; Lower Row-San Jacinto Life Insurance Company Building and the Beaumont Postoffice.

NEW ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TEXAS

Beaumont had in 1920, a population of 40,422, which since then has greatly increased. The govern- ment estimate for 1924, was 52,548. The popula- tion is composed of 12,343 families occupying 10,- 277 homes; 31,630 adults and 20,918 children of whom 70 per cent were native whites. The new city directory, issued September 10, gives the pop- ulation for 1925 at 57,963. The city's assessed valuation for 1925 is $49,500,000; altitude above sea level, 23 feet, and average annual rainfall, 47.61 inches.

Beaumont has more than a hundred manufac- turing establishments in operation, covering many lines, but the largest industrial units are the oil refining, shipbuilding, iron and steel industries. The Magnolia Petroleum Company refining plant is lo- cated on the outskirts of the city, owns its wharves and docks, and is one of the six among the largest oil refineries in the world. From this district goes 25 per cent of the oil exported from the United States together with the by-products.

and Orange, Texas, with the new port of Lake Charles to be opened to sea-going vessels early in 1926. Besides these there are the subports of Port Neches, Magpetco, Smith's Bluff, Sabine and Sabine Pass. The exports and imports handled in the district 1924 amounted to approximately 15,000,000 tons.

Beaumont has the following: A city tax rate of $2.36. Manager-commission government. Assessed valuation of $49,500,000.00. Bonded indebtedness, $4,944,900.00. Sixty-five miles of sewer mains and connections. Ninety miles of concrete sidewalks. Eighty-seven miles of shelled and paved streets. Municipally owned and operated abattoir. Munic- ipally owned and operated Wharf and Dock System, valued at $1,250,000.00. Six large fire stations, all well equipped, and one of the most efficient fire fighting organizations in any city of the United States of similar size. A well organized and ef- ficient health department, with health board, bacteriologist, sanitary inspectors of foods, meats, drugs, dairy products, etc., together with garbage collection system, incinerating plant, etc. Munic- ipally owned and operated water system, furnishing 4,500,000 gallons of pure and wholesome water daily, with a maximum capacity of 24,000,000 gallons every 24 hours, thirteen railway outlets. Sixty trains

The monthly payroll of the manufacturing estab- lishments within the city is $650,000. The payrolls of the six oil refineries per month is given at $3,800,000; of the lumber manufacturing industry $1,300,000 per annum, the iron industry of Beaumont alone has an annual payroll of $1,000,000 and the rice in and out daily. Six steamship lines with dated

Old Spindle-top Oil Field Near Beaumont, Where Deep Oil Was First Discovered in Paying Quantities Texas

milling and other industries will run into the mil- lion annually.

Rice growing is the outstanding agricultural production. Some 30,000 or 40,000 acres are devoted to rice in Jefferson County, but large quantities are sent to Beaumont for milling and distribution. Since 1920 when practically no cotton was raised in Jefferson County, there are over 4000 acres planted to this staple. Figs, Satsuma oranges, pecans and poultry are becoming more important in this sec- tion each year. Beaumont is a great lumber center. A total of over 100,000,000 feet of lumber was shipped out of the port of Beaumont the first nine months of 1925. It is estimated that the Beaumont district produces about $40,000,000 in lumber, giv- ing employment to about fifteen thousand people.

The extension of the Port Arthur ship canal to Beaumont and Orange made possible the develop- ment of a great maritime traffic in the Sabine district. Some eight years ago the city began to build wharves, docks and warehouses and at an expense of $1,250,000 built a harbor for sea-going vessels. From nothing the maritime traffic de- veloped to 674,058 tons in 1917, 1,066,310 tons in 1918, 1,100,047 tons in 1919, 2,167,801 tons in 1920, 2,960,525 tons in 1921, 3,041,747 tons in 1922, 3,357,- 237 tons in 1923 and 4,803,150 tons in 1924.

Beaumont is the largest city in the Sabine district which comprises the ports of Beaumont, Port Arthur,

sailings. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company with 7,903 city telephones. The Southwestern Gas and Electric Company supplies the city with gas for domestic and manufacturing purposes. The com- pany has 84.9 miles of gas mains, and a modern plant in every particular. The Eastern Texas Elec- tric Company supplies the city with lights, power, 16 miles of street railway track, and 16 miles of interurban track, modern cars and equipment, and service as nearly perfect as to be found anywhere. A public school system second to none in Texas, com- posed of 20 school buildings, including three high schools, three junior high schools, one junior col- lege, and thirteen grade school buildings, represent- ing an investment of approximately $2,500,000.00. Beaumont has two daily newspapers up to metrop- olitan standards, the Beaumont Enterprise, a morn- ing paper with about 22,500 daily circulation, 32,000 Sundays, and the Beaumont Journal, an after- noon paper with about 11,000 daily circulation.

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New encyclopedia of Texas, volume 1, Part 12

Author: Davis, Ellis A. Publication date: 1926 Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?] Number of Pages: 1416

Author: Davis, Ellis A.
Publication date: 1926
Publisher: Dallas, Tex. : Texas development bureau, [1926?]
Number of Pages: 1416