The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956 Page: 166
587 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
most important river-port, with water connections to New Or-
leans. In spite of a serious fire in 1866, Jefferson had a population
almost as large as Galveston's. The two cities held the same rank
as trading centers that they did in manufacturing, and both were
important points of entry for the stream of immigrants to Texas
in the post-war years.82
In 1870 the group of counties south of the thirty-first parallel
equalled the northern group in the total value of articles manu-
factured. The south had thirteen counties producing over $1ioo,ooo
worth of goods each, for a total of nearly $4,ooo,ooo, while the
north had nineteen such counties (including McLennan, Rob-
ertson, and Bell) producing a like total. As in 1860, the southern
group led in the value added by the manufacturing process.
It had thirteen counties adding $60,00o each, for a total of
$2,ooo,ooo, while the northern group had only eleven such
counties, adding a total of $1,500,000. By 1870 a third manufac-
turing area had developed along the Gulf Coast. Six counties
in this group (including Cameron, Victoria, and Brazoria) made
over $ x oo,ooo each, for a total of $1,500,000, of which 22 per cent
was value added. In all of them except Cameron, beef-packing,
"food preparations, animal," and hides and tallow were the main
industries.*8
Despite its brave beginning, by 188o the coastal manufacturing
area had disappeared, and with it Texas' primacy in the beef-
packing industry. In that year second-place Texas canned only
6,ooo,ooo pounds of beef to Illinois' g9,ooo,ooo. The Longhorn
state stood eighteenth in total value of beef slaughtered and
twenty-sixth in pounds of beef sold fresh. Whereas there had been
fifteen factory-size packing plants in Texas in 1870, by 188o there
were only three. And whereas Texas butchers and packers had
grossed $1,5oo,00o in 1870, in 188o they grossed only one-third
82U. S. Census, 187o, III, 572-573; U. S. Census, i88o, XIX (Washington, 1887),
315, 317; W. P. Webb and H. Bailey Carroll (eds), Handbook of Texas (2 vols.,
Austin, 1952), I, gog; Seth Shepard McKay, Texas under the Regime of E. J. Davis
(Master's thesis, University of Texas, 19g9), 67.
33U. S. Census, i87o, III, 572-573, 735-736. The tabulation is as follows:166
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 59, July 1955 - April, 1956, periodical, 1956; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101162/m1/184/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.