The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916 Page: 49

Harris County, 1822-1845

McGahey, who had contracted to grade ten miles of road, were
inserted occasionally in the papers, up to April, 1842. Whether
any work was actually done on this road is not known.
The city of Galveston having been incorporated, February 5,
1840, an act requiring the postmaster general to contract for hav-
ing the mail carried twice a week between Houston and Galves-
ton, was passed by the third Congress and approved by President
Lamar on the same date, February 5, 1840. Soon after this, reg-
ular mail packets began running between Houston and Galveston;
the appointed hour for leaving Houston was 10 a. m. The boat
was expected to spend one day of twenty-four hours in going, and
the next in returning. The steamboat Albert Gallatin, Captain
Sterrett, and the Dayton, Captain S. B. Eves, were among those
early packets, which greatly promoted the business interests, and
the comfort of the traveling public. They afforded the quickest
means of transportation; 'yet, the shallow waters on Redfish and
Clopper's Bars obstructed navigation in the bay, so that, during
the prevalence of northers, boats were often obliged to await a
change in the weather, to avoid being stranded for many days on
these bars.
Weekly mails had been received by carrier from Austin since soon
after the establishment of the seat of government there; western
mails via Richmond, Columbia, Brazoria, Columbus, Matagorda,
etc., eastern, via Montgomery, Washington, Nacogdoches, San
Augustine and Red River County; those to the United States and
Europe were via Galveston by steam packets, according to the days
of their arrival and departure. It was occasionally noted in the
Houston press at this time that, "nearly a month had elapsed
since the receipt of mail from the United States," and many let-
ters and important documents were conveyed by private hands or
special messengers.
A few spasmodic efforts were made to induce immigration. One
of these, by which the property holders of Harrisburg again sought
to build up their town and its environs was by the introduction of
a French colony under the auspices of Snider de Pellegrini.11 He
'1Papers of the Harrisburg Town Company record that, on July 23, 1842,
in the city of Galveston an agreement was entered into between "M. Snider
Pellegrini, Knight of the Great Cross of the Order of Jerusalem, Director
of a society of Colonization established in France, and of which the central
office is in Paris, and residing now at Galveston, Texas, on the one part,