The City of Houston from Wilderness to Wonder Page: 1
55 p. : ill., ports. ; 20 cm.View a full description of this book.
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The Beginning of Houston and
Houston Up to the Civil War
The city of Houston can truly be called the mother city,
true birth place of the Republic of Texas, because the battle of
San Jacinto was the deciding factor in its inception. Immediately
after that memorable stroke by General Sam Houston and
his band of heroes, demolishing Santa Anna's army in his attempt
to repeat the tyrannical acts of cowardly slaughter at the
Alamo and Goliad, A. C. and John K. Allen sought a location
to establish a city. Finding land near Harrisburg too high in
price, A. C. Allen, the older of the brothers, quietly sought
Mrs. Parrott, a sister of Stephen F. Austin, and purchased a
five thousand acre land grant from her, upon which the great
city now stands. It is interesting to know that at the time A. C.
Allen purchased the site, his partner brother, John K. Allen, had
become a congressman; and was in attendance of the first session
of that body at Columbia, some 30 miles distant. Upon receipt
of a letter from A. C. Allen stating that he had purchased the
site for the city, the young congressman was a little fearful his
brother had gone too far up Buffalo Bayou, but upon a personal
inspection of the location he found his sagacious brother
had looked into every detail of requirement in this project, having
spent days in making surveys and soundings in a skiff, and
recording every sounding showing shoal water or deep, and
proving that ample depths of water prevailed for all purposes of
navigation. Whereupon, his brother John K. Allen was, if
anything, more enthused than A. C. Allen, and at once they
started the survey which resulted in the plot and map of the
present great city.
One could hardly picture the jungle and swampy sweet
gum woods that a good portion of the city is built upon. These
swampy grounds had to be cleared and drained. The writer
himself quite clearly remembers that the southwestern portion
of the city was a green scum lake, studded with giant sweet gum
trees, and water from one to two and a half feet deep. Some of
these trees are to be seen today here and ther in yards of elegant
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Allen, O.F. The City of Houston from Wilderness to Wonder, book, 1936; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth46823/m1/13/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .