Texas Almanac, 1939-1940 Page: 84
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THE TEXAS ALMANAC-1939.
Texas has been its isolated position. The
opening of ports, and more recently the
increasmg of commerce with Mexico
across the Rio Grande, will assist in rais-
ing the water level of the Texas economy.,
It is said that the future is best judged
by the past. If so, there is significance in
the fact that the Texas population in-
crease has been one of acceleration. The
increase of 1,161,487 population between
1920 and 1930 was the greatest numerical
gain for any census decade in the history
of the state. Although Pineda, the first
white man to set foot on Texas soil, vis-
ited the Texas coast more than four
centuries ago, yet practically all the
growth of Texas population has been
achieved during the last 100 years, and
more than one half of it has been
achieved since 1900.
Review of Texas Population Increase.
On another page is a table, Texas Pop-
ulation, 1744-1937, which gives a tabular
history of population increase for Texas,
and there is a similar table for the United
States.
The first permanent settlement was
that of the present communities of Ysleta
and Soccoro in El Paso County, estab-
lished in 1682, which is related in greater
detail in the chapter on history of Texas.
There were other border communities at
an early date, but it was from the estab-
lishment of San Antonio in 1718 that the
growth of white population in Texas may
be reckoned. This growth was slow, and
100 years later San Antonio, Nacogdoches
and Goliad were the only Texas white
communities of importance.
Early Population Estimates.
Yoakum, thie historian, estimates the
population of Texas at 7,000 in 1806, and
it was not much greater fifteen years
later when Stephen F. Austin founded his
colony on the banks of the Brazos. The
era of colonization of the period 1821-35
brought many settlers to the State. In
1831 Yoakum estimates the population at
20,000. The vote for the first President of
the Republic in 1836 would indicate a
population of about 50,000, and the vote
of 1845, the last year of the Republic,
indicated a population of approximately
125,000. A partial enumeration was made
in 1847, showing 135,000 population, of
which 39,000 were slaves.
Growth Halted by Civil War.
Settlement of Texas was rapid until
the period of the Civil War, which tem-
porarily halted the westward movementof population throughout the United
States. The decade 1860-70 shows the
smallest increase of population of any of
the eight decennial periods for which
enumeration of population has been
made. Following the Civil War, however,
conditions in the Old South gave impetus
to the westward movement. With the
institution of slavery gone and the agri-
cultural industry revolutionized many
planters turned their faces west, and cast
their fortunes with the great new empire
of Texas. It is not surprising that the
population of Texas increased 94.5 per
cent between 1870 and 1880.
Two Eras of Population Growth.
The history of the growth of popula-
tion of Texas from the close of the Civil
War to the present time may be divided
into two great chapters, as related to the
motivation of migration from other parts
of the United States to Texas. First,
there was the era of expansion of the
cattle and cotton industries, the cotton
Industry contributing the preponderant
influence. The growth of population has
been due partly of course to increase in
birth rate and partly to immigration from
foreign countries, but by far the greater
increase has been due to the migration
from other States. From the close of the
Civil War until 1900 this migration was
primarily of the cotton farmers of the
Old South looking for newer and more
fertile soils. To less degree the expansion
of cattle-raising contributed. These two
agricultural industries moving westward
across the state from the coastal belt and
the East Texas woods to the Blacklands,
thence to Middle West Texas and even-
tually to the High Plains accounted for
nine tenths of Texas population growth
during the decades mentioned. Yet this
development had some adverse effects as
is set forth in later paragraphs.
In 1901 the Spindle Top gusher came
in. It marked the beginning of a new era
of population and economic growth, the
significance of which has hardly been
grasped even to this day. Agriculture
continued to draw population to Texas as
the cotton fields of the Great Plains and
the Corpus Christi area were opened and
as the production of diversified crops
drew people to the new wheat belt of the
North Plains and citrus and early vege-
table producing region of the Lower
Valley, the Winter Garden and other
regions adaptable to diversified crop pro-
duction. Nevertheless, it has been petro-C. C. GALLAWAY & CO.
Rentals, Leases and Sales
SPECIALIZING IN PROPERTY MANAGEMENT FOR OUT-OF-TOWN INDIVID-
UALS, INSURANCE COMPANIES, LOAN COMPANIES AND BANKS.
REFERENCES-ANY BANK IN DALLAS.
1802 Main St. Ph. 2*4174
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Texas Almanac, 1939-1940, book, 1939; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117163/m1/86/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.