TURN OF THE CENTURY TEXAS

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TURN OF THE CENTURYTEXAS
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I. RAILROADS
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By 1900, there were 10,000 miles of railroad in
the state. Journeys that once required days or
weeks now lasted only hours. Towns sprang up
near railroad lines throughout Texas. Many towns
not near railroad lines became ghost towns.
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II. Governor James Hogg
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James Hogg was the first native-born Texas
governor. He was born in East Texas in 1851.
He became an orphan at age 12. He became a
lawyer and then became governor in 1891. He and
his sons became wealthy by investing in the oil
business.
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James Hogg was a very popular and important
governor.

• He created the Railroad Commission, which set
  fair shipment rates.
• He increased funds for public schools.
• He protected Texans from unfair practices of big
  businesses (monopolies).

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Ura Hogg and Wera Hogg never existed, but Ima
Hogg did. James Hogg named his daughter after a
character in a poem written by his brother.
Ima, who never married, used her inherited
wealth in many ways to benefit her state and her
city Houston.
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Ima Hogg in 1910
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Miss Imas fiancé was killed in World War I. She
never married.
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Bayou Bend in Houston
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The 1900s

• The beginning of the modern era is marked by two
  momentous events that occurred in southeast Texas
  in 1900 and 1901. One involved water, the other
  involved oil.

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III. Disaster Strikes Galveston

• In 1900, Galveston was the most
• modern Texas city. It had the first
  electric lights and telephones in the state.

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On September 8, 1900, Galveston was struck by a
hurricane of unbelievable force. The storm
battered the city for 12 hours, with winds
reaching 120 miles an hour.
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When the storm was over, dazed Galvestonians
discovered that 6,000 of their neighbors had
perished in the water and rubble. It was the
worst natural disaster in U.S. history.
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At first, bodies were buried at sea. When they
washed up again, corpses had to be burned.
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Afterwards, a seawall was built to provide
protection against future hurricanes.
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All of Galveston behind the seawall had to be
raised, some buildings as much as 10 feet, by
pumping sand under them from the bay .
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IV. Oil Texas Gold

• Only 4 months after the hurricane
• and less than 100 miles away,
• another event occurred that changed
• the economy of Texas and the United
• States. The event was the discovery
• of a major oil deposit.

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People had known about oil for centuries.
Native Americans had
probably used it for medicine.
Early explorers used it to fix leaks
on their boats.
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In the 1840s aCanadian scientistdiscovered how
tomake kerosene fuel from petroleum.Oil was
also usedto grease wagonaxles.
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In 1866, Lyne T. Barret drilled the first oil
well in Texas, near Nacogdoches. It produced
only 10 barrels of oil per day. In 1894, Joseph
S. Cullinan pioneered using natural gas for home
heating and lighting, and using oil to power
locomotives.
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SPINDLETOPThe first Gusher

• On January 10, 1901, a rotary bit dug 1,139 feet
  into the ground near Beaumont, and mud started
  coming up the hole. There was brief silence.
  Then mud, gas, and oil started shooting into the
  air, as high as 100 feet. 100,000 barrels of oil
  flowed each day until the well could be capped.
• There had been nothing to compare with the
  Spindletop gusher.

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Beaumont changed overnight. Oil prospectors and
drillers descended on the city. Within a few
months, the population of Beaumont had increased
from 9,000 to 50,000.
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Spindletop boosted overall economic development
in Texas. Many oil companies, like the Texas
Company (later Texaco) were started here. Other
companies constructed refineries, pipelines,
ocean tankers, and storage facilities. More
importantly, the success of Spindletop encouraged
oil drilling in other Texas locations.
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Houston Benefits from the Oil Boom

• Houston reaped the most benefits from the oil
  discoveries of the Coastal Plains. As oil fields
  grew around it, Houston became the center of oil
  business activities.
• In 1900 it had a well-developed rail network.
  Its city motto was Where 17 Railroads Meet the
  Sea.

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The Houston Ship Channel

• Particularly significant was the construction
  of the Houston Ship Channel. Small vessels had
  navigated Buffalo Bayou to Houston since the days
  of the Republic, but the bayou was not deep
  enough to handle modern ships.

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Congressman Thomas Ball, for whom the town of
Tomball was later named, secured funds from the
U.S. Congress to deepen the channel. On
September 7, 1914, the Houston Ship Channel
officially opened. Today, over 4,500 ships from
sixty-one nations pass through the channel
annually.
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