Texas Almanac, 1954-1955 Page: 93
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POPULATION 93
While the Coastal Plain was the first
area settled by the Anglo-American colo-
nists, it lagged for several decades while
the human tide rolled across Blacklands,
Cross Timbers and the West Texas Low
and High Plains. In recent years, .the
development of the great oil and gas. in-
dustries of the Gulf Coast, the excavation
of the numerous deepwater ports and
the increase in the production of raw
materials for export from the Gulf Coast
hinterland has caused a new upsurge, of
development in the tidewater belt.
Today there are two shoestring belts
that contain most of the industry and a
large. part of the population of Texas.
One is the tidewater belt extending from
the Lower Rio Grande Valley to the
Sabine with such populous centers as
Brownsville, Harlingen, McAllen, Corpus
Christi, the Brazosport cities in the vi-
cinity of Freeport, Houston, Galveston
Texas City, Beaumont, Port Arthur and
Orange.
The second great populous belt is that
extending from historic .San Antonio
northeastward to the Red River includ-
ing Austin, Temple, Waco, Dallas, Fort
Worth, Sherman, Denison, Paris, Green-
ville and numerous smaller cities. In
these two belts is centered most of the
industry, transportation, distribution, fi-
nance and other factors in the Texas
economy.
There are also several minor economic
belts including one running southwest-
ward from Wichita Falls and including
such cities as Vernon, Abilene, Sweetwa-
ter, San Angelo, Big Spring, Colorado
City, Midland and Odessa. This belt de-
pends upon crops, livestock and oil.
Above the Caprock is the oil-agriculture
belt running from the north Panhandle
line through Borger, Pampa, Amarillo,
Plainview, Lubbock and other cities of
the Great Plains.
In East Texas, oil, agriculture, forestry
and industry support a group of cities
with related economy, including Tyler,
Texarkana, Longview, Marshall, Hender-
son and Lufkin.
El Paso is the only large isolated city
in the state. It depends upon an irrigated
agriculture, mining and transcontinental
and international commerce. The smaller
places of Del Rio, Eagle Pass and Laredo
occupy similar border positions.
The development of Texas population
has come largely from three racial and
national groups. These have been the
(1) Anglo-Americans who came from the
East together with (2) the Negroes. from
the Old South beginning with slavery,
and (3) the Latin Americans from below
the Rio Grande. Today the percentages
are: English-speaking white, 69.7; Span-
ish-speaking or Latin-American, 17.6;
Negro and other nonwhite races, 12.7.
In the above percentages, the first in-
cludes a number of minority national
groups who have held in some degree to
language and home 'customs by settling
in communities of their own after mi-
grating to Texas. Of this foreign-born
and native-born foreign stock, those fromGermany and Austria have been the most
distinctive.
The first German colony in Texas was
established at the present site of Indus-
try, Austin County, in 1842, but the real
beginning of German immigration into.
Texas was in the founding of the Asso-
ciation for the Protection of German Im-
migrants in Texas in 1843, under the
patronage of a number of German noble-
men.
The organization mentioned above pur-
chased the Fisher-Miller grant of land
lying between the Colorado and the San
Saba Rivers. In 1844 three shiploads of
immigrants landed at Galveston and pro-
ceeded by schooner to Lavaca Bay, where
they began their trek to the Fisher-Mil-
ler grant under the leadership of Prince
Carl of Solms-Braunfels. Becoming dis-
couraged and realizing the great distance
to the Fisher-Miller tract, the caravan
founded New Braunfels on its present
site at the great Comal Springs.
A later attempt of colonists was made
to reach the Fisher-Miller grant resulting
in the establishment of Fredericksburg,
and some other German-American com-
munities in that vicinity. The German
society continued its colonization efforts
throughout 1845-6-7, bringing several
thousand immigrants into Texas.
This organized colonization scheme was
undoubtedly the cause of the gradual im-
migration of Germans into South Central
Texas over a long period.
Czechs settled at many points in South
Central Texas, including Williamson,
Washington and Fayette Counties, but
in no place do they remain dominant as
the German language and customs do
in some German-American communities.
There are a number of small Swedish
settlements in this area also, such as
New Sweden in Travis County. The prin-
cipal Norwegian settlement in Texas is
in and around Clifton, Bosque County.
Foreign Stock Communities.
There are many interesting towns and
villages scattered throughout Texas,
which were founded as colonies of im-
migrants from European countries. Some
of these places have interesting histories,
and not infrequently evidences of the ar-
chitecture and atmosphere of the mother
country of the immigrants are found.
Mason, New Braunfels, Fredericksburg
and Brenham were largely of German-
American beginnings.
Castroville is one of the unique places
in Texas because of its quaint architec-
ture, the town having been settled by
Alsatian German and French under the.
leadership of Henry Castro. Utopia was
also settled by Alsatians. Bandera, Panna
Maria and a number of other towns have
a large Polish population. In Bandera
are several log residences built in 1854
when the Polish colony settled in the
then abandoned Mormon colony. Wind-
thorst, German-American community on
the rolling prairies of Eastern Archer
County, with its tall church spire visible.
for many miles, is typical of the isolated
foreign stock communities of Texas.
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Texas Almanac, 1954-1955, book, 1953; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117168/m1/95/?q=waco+tornado&rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.