T T A B L E 0 F ( 0 N f E N T
PARTI 4 Port of Houston: the earliest days JAMESPUGH Exe.t:utive Director &" CEO PARTII ~~ Cotton meant business in Houston for l{} decades TOMKORNEGAY Managing Director PARTIII JAMESBAKER Steamboats: floating palaces of" the mid-1800s l)irector of Port Operations
F. WILLIAMCOLBURN PARTIV : ;, Director of F,c:onomi{ l)evelopment Connecticut farm boy was "Father of HoustIm Channel"
A.W.ttlETALA Director o[ Trade I)evelopment PARTV L: Houston’s web of" railroads: how it was spun LINDAREESE I)irettor ot Administration PARTVI tt(}uston and (~alx’estt)n: a sibling relationship JOESCROGGINS, JR. l)irector of Facilities PARTVIi ~:, JOEFLACK Houstonians took an innovative approach to financing (lOLl I1 [), r \uditor PART VIII i: tt(}uston gets its ship channel
PARTIX ,!’~:2 The first 15 years of deep water
PARTX :’~’ Slowstart for an era ot growth
THEPORT OF HOUSTON MAGAZINE {]ssx oo3e48zs)i~ PAR1Xl 29 {If tfouston enters the oil business published monthlx IB the I’urt ttouston \uthori(\, lSlq Capitol ~.xe., [IotlMon, Iexas 770{}2, and is distribut/:d tie{: It) nlitritirne, industrial and transpt}I- tdti()tl illt(~rosts ill th(~ /?llited States and ~0r{!i~ll G{)UII PART XII ; tries. SECONDCL.\SS P{}STAGEP\II) AT It{It [S’I {)N, The last 20 years: transitions and innovations TEXAS. I’OSTMASTER:Send address changes t(} I’OR3 Ill ttOL’STON MAIL\ZINE,I’O. Box 2562. Houston, TX 77252-2562. The magazine stait includes: ¢;ommunica- TODAY ;4 th)tas Manager, ,Janet \nders(}ll; Editor, \nil Bord(:loll; l touston: a world-class port Writer, Susan Humphrey; Adxertising Manager, Sheila \dams; I’rodut:ti{n] (ioordinator, Ken Burke; grid Pho- togr,lpht:r, Ril\ S(}to This l}ul~lit:ation is not copyrighted and permission is giTt:n ft}r the reprodut:- ON THE COVER ti{m /}r use of an; original materials, pl{}~ ided {:redit The cover for this special edition includes a repr{}duction of a l}ainting created iS ~ix{~ll tO the Port {}f Ilouston ,\uthoril\. \dditiona] by llouston artist GeorgeCampbell for the Port of tloustt}n’s 75th anniversary. ill[orm,lti{)n, extra { {ll}ies {}r ;Idvertisillg rates illtly b(: {}l}t,lini:d b\ writing the I’ORI’ Or HOUST(}N M~,/; \ZINE.
PORTCOMMISSIONERS
NED ttOLMES llJ. NIIDDLETON MILTON CARROLL ROBERT GILLETTE LEROY BRUNER CC. SMITHERMAN J, MICHAELSOLAR Chairman Commissioner Conlmissioner Comnlissioner (~omnaissioncr C(}mmissioner Commissi{}ncr
L PAGE I J OPPOSITE PAGE: Houston’s port and downtown bu~smess district haz~c both changed considerably since 1904 (in,set photo).
FOREWORD
T he 12 articles included in this commemorative edition of’ the Port of Houston Magazine were originally
published in the monthly 1989 editions of the same magazine. They trace the histoD~ of t iouston’s involvement in waterborne commerce from the mid-1800s through the 1980s. These articles were written as Houston observed its 75th anniversary as a deep-water port. The comic strips shown were first published in the Houston Chronicle in 1959 as part of an educational campaign sponsored by the Port of Ilouston Authority. The strips were drawn by Bob Schoenke. The com- mentaries in the strips were updated for this
series. Someof the infl~rmation in the arti- cles was drawn from articles and essays
written for the 1959 educational cam- paign. Another key source of information was "The Port of Houston: A History," written for the l’ort of’ Houston Authority in 1968
by Marilyn McAdams Sibley. (Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-21251)
PAGE 2
POR-" OF HOUSTON
the Republic of Texas was estab- PART lished, they named the town after Sam Houston, commanding gen- eral of the Texas Armyand, later, president of the republic. In 1837, waterways were the most efficient avenue for trans- porting goods. Texas roadways, for the most part, were dirt paths worn by horses and wagons. Houston had no rail connection. Overland travel was tedious and expensive. he Allen brothers knew that a Au~’ustus Alhm ]ohn Allan Twater connection would en- hance the growth of the Houston economy. So, they arranged the voyage of the steamship LAURA. Two years later, five steamboats were calling at Houston. In 1840, a wharf was built along the waterfront, and in 1841, a ci- ty ordinance officially created the Port of Houston. Those in charge of’ the new port soon realized that something had to be done to make it easier for boats to navigate the bayou. In 1842, the Texas Con- gress gave Houston the right to he story of the Houston Ship improve the bawmfor navigation. TChannel really began in wo years later, the Allen 1837 when a small steam- Tbrothers, never ones to over- boat, the LAURA, made her way look a chance to promote up Buffalo Bayou to Allen’s Houston, engaged the CONSTIT{~- Landing. TION, a larger ship than the The LAURA’s voyage proved the LAURA, to make the trip to town could be reached by water, Houston. There was some ques- and regular steamship service to tion as to whether a vessel that Houston began the same year. large could find a place to turn Early terminals were established around for the return trip to tljpical paddle wheeler wending its way at the foot of Main Street where Galveston Bay. The CONSTIT~.’- tq) Buffalo IJauou in the mid-18OOs. the junction of Buffalo Bayou and TION found space for her White Oak Bayou aflbrded a wider downstream turn at the end of the place for the vessels to be warped Long Reach- a spot that was around for the return ,journey to known for many years as Con- the bay. stitution Bend. fter that, the port developed Constitution Bend eventually Asteadily, gaining impetus from was selected as the site for the Port the growth of the town and the vi- of Houston’s Turning Basin, one sion of its business leaders. John of five publicly owned terminals and Augustus Allen were the first operated by the Port of Houston of these Houston visionaries. The Authority. Allen brothers, who were real he Allen brothers were the first estate speculators fl’om NewYork Tof Houston’s leaders to envi- state, had purchased a town site sion the city as a (:enter of trade. along Buffalo Bayou shortly They were followed by a number before Texas won its independ- of other business and civic leaders ence from Mexico in 1836. When who saw the town’s potential and
PAGE 4 worked diligently to develop it. cotton gins next in line. At the All of them understood the impor- end of the cycle were the long- tance of the port to the city’s shoremen and the crews that economic growth. manned the vessels aboard which Today, the Port of Houston gen- the bales were loaded. In between, erates nearly $3 billion a year in the cotton passed through a num- revenues. An estimated 111,000 ber of hands. people work for organizations Moving the bales from the cot- that are in some way related to ton gins to the wharves provided Port of Houston activity. As its a living for some residents. At early supporters expected, the first, wagoners brought the baled The 1914 ccrcmony that port has become a vital force in fiber to Houston in ox carts. Five marked the Ol)cming ol the t lolt,Ston ,sh it~ (,tmn m:l. the i touston economy. main wagon trails converged on the town, and cross trails permit- ted the wagoners to turn off into Washington Road, cross the bayou PART and take their choice of several camping grounds or wagon yards. ne early yard was "Vinegar OHill," a spot of high ground where the Southern Pacific railroad station was eventually built. There the cotton planters and wagoners spent their hard- earned money on entertainment that caused dismay among the "solid" citizens of Houston and inspired many a sermon in the city’s early churches. Later, railroads carried the cot- ton to the banks of the bayou. Workers began laying track for
the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Col- (.otwn began arril’ing in orado Railway Co. in 1851. In Housto~t on railroad cars m I853, the company announced the 1850s. biweekly rail service between Staf- any citizens of" Texas f0rd’s Point and Harrisburg, a Mdepended on the cotton distance of 20 miles. By the eve of trade in the 1840s and the Civil War, Houston was estab- 1850s. The farmers were at the lished as the railroad center of beginning of the cycle, with the Texas. Five railroads radiated
"~N THOSE[~’/5 BUFFALOB/aYOU w, q5 ",~i"TOOKTH,~z_E I~’/S TOG~-T FR’O~ WARI~BII~ ~EEPE~T~qN rr t6 h~ow/:INP VE~:’Y l TO HOUSTON....~H~K~T~e-Y OY~R~PDFI~E~ BKALrnFUL THE ~ WEK’E THICKLY // MRR’XANp W~t, iT ONUP WHrT~ OAK Ig~yOIJ. CA~Tq~NGgW50N 8POKED gOWN W~4FFEOAK CAI~PETEDWITH G~/~-~J WILDFLOWEDtS, [ ANOTI~3USAN OS OF GI~NT ~ TEEES.i INTO BUFFALOAND T~EN FRDCEED,F-P CLrI~,NG T~ LIMB5 AND BLOW)NG UP / DOWNIk:’lgE~. THEY.900N 5POTTE.PTHE LOG-JAM~ MADE5LOW GOWG." J FlEW 5MALL 5H~K~ THAT MADEUP THE CITY OF ~N. "
PAGE 5 from the town. Texas had approx- he Civil War disrupted the cot- imately 450 miles of track, and Tton trade, but it made fortunes 350 miles of that led to Houston. for certain enterprising Houston he cotton had to be kept some- businessmen. The Union Navy Twhere near the wharves until blockaded the Galveston entrance it could be loaded on the steam- channel in 1861. Still, records boats. At first sheds were con- show that nearly 71,000 bales of structed along the bayou, pro- cotton left Houston by water that viding some protection for the year. baled cotton. About 1850 Tom Contraband cotton usually went Whitmarsh built a large ware- to Mexico or the West Indies and house for cotton and other com- from there to England or, After the opening of the deep-water modities on the banks of the ironically, to Northern U.S. textile channel to Houston, cotton was loaded mills. Cotton brought as much as aboard larger ressels like the bayou, a short distance east of SS MERRYMOI;NT, shown here in what is now Main Street. By 1910 a dollar a pound, and merchan- 1919 at a Houston eit!! dock. there were 12 cotton warehouses dise brought back to Texas also in Houston. sold at premium prices. homas W. House and William In order to save warehouse and T vessel space, cotton compresses Marsh Rice were two of the cot- were built. The Davis Compress ton factors (brokers) who profited from the contraband trade in was one of the earliest, established in 1844. Others included the cotton. House arrived in 1838 from Houston Cotton Compress, estab- lished in 1860; the Bayou City England and began trading goods he bought in New York, Boston Compress, established in 1875; and the Peoples Compress in 1881. and New Orleans for cotton. He then shipped the cotton to Liver- In 1910, the city had seven pool, England. During the Civil compresses. War he avoided Confederate cur- ottonseed oil factories pro- rency, amassed gold reserves in Cduced oil, coke, meal, linters, England and attempted to run cot- hulls and soap stock, and ship- ton through Matamoros, Mexico, builders and companies that using British vessels. maintained railroad equipment Rice arrived in Houston in 1839 A newspaper cartoon flourished with the cotton trade. bragged on Houston’s and was moderately successful cotton receipts at the Merchants also made money prior to the Civil War. However, turn of tire centurB. from the exchange of cotton. Col. he became a millionaire during Cornelius Ennis was the city’s the war by running cotton first cotton merchant in 1840, through Mexico. handling cotton grown in Fort n 1874 cotton factors and busi- Bend County. Inessmen organized the Houston
"(~OTTONw.q5 SENTBY B,q~GEF&~NI HOlib-T-ON TO G.clLVESTON.THE Fl~5"l’- 5FtlPMtSNT OF COTTONFROM THE FE)Ef" OF GALVEST’ONTO ~O’STON W, ci5 MADEBY COLONELENNI5 JN tOql. HE WAN 500N TO BECO/VIE ONEOF TIlE LIqE’GESTCOTTON 8UyEE5 /~ND 5HID~;~E-1~5Rxl THE 5T/TTE "’
PAGE 6 POR’- OF HOUS’-ON
Board of Trade in order to diversified, constructing facilities regulate and systemize the cotton and purchasing equipment that business. The group also organ- can handle a wide variety of goods ized the Houston Cotton Ex- and materials. [] change to work with the Board of Trade. During the next four decades, PART the cotton trade had its ups and downs, but it continued to be a STEAMBOATS:FLOATING major factor in Houston’s eco- PALACESOF THE nomic development. The city was MID-1800S constantly improving its position In the 1850s and 1860s, steam as one of the leading cotton boats were the rnost impressive markets in the world. vessels on Buffalo Bayou. A suc- One of the principal players in cession of companies organized this era was Anderson, Clay- by Houston businessmen operat ton and Co., which became one of ed the shallow-draft vessels, the largest cotton brokerage firms which carried passengers and in the world. In 1916, Frank Gen. Sidney Sherman was a freight betw’eer~, Houston and leader in the effort to improve Anderson, Monroe Anderson and Galvestor~ the channel so largcr l,csscls William Clayton moved the head- could call at the Port of quarters of their company from Houston. Oklahoma to Houston. he LAURA was the first "Houston was the little end of the funnel that drained all of Tsteamboat to reach Houston. Her achievement was the be- Texas and the Oklahoma terri- ginning of a journey that would tory," explained Will Clayton in later years. "We were at the back eventually make Houston a major world port. However, in the early door, and we wanted to be at the years, traffic in Galveston Bay was front door." limited to barges and steam- nderson, Clayton established driven paddle wheelers. Asales agencies in Europe, Asia Ocean-going vessels could not and Central America. In the cross the sand bars that stretched United States, they established across the entrance to Galveston buying units in Los Angeles, Bay. The barges and steamboats Charlotte, Atlanta and Memphis. would meet the ships at the mouth The company built warehouses of the bay and cargo would be and compresses in Houston and "lightered" on to or offthe ships. New Orleans and even produced Paddle wheelers like this were arges were the workhorses of thc glamour vessels of Gah,cston its own bagging material. Bthe bay, but the steamers, Bay and Buf~f?do Bayou in the Although cotton ceased to be the which also carried passengers, 1850s and 1860s. Port of Houston’s chief export in were the glamour vessels of the the 1940s, Anderson, Clayton con- era. They provided comfortable tinued to prosper, expanding its accommodations, meals and operations to include food proc- entertainment for the passengers essing, manufacturing and making the overnight trip be- insurance. tween Galveston and Houston. mphasis in Houston shifted to The era of the steamboat lasted Ethe oil industry during World only a few decades because cer- War II. Today, oil and liquid bulk tain Houstonians were deter- chemicals account for much of mined to make their port accessi- the tonnage moving through the ble to the larger ocean-going port, but cotton is still being ex- vessels. Gen. Sidney Sherman was ported regularly. In 1987, more an early proponent of waterway than 880,000 bales were exported improvements. Sherman had a from Houston. survey of the bayou performed at Like Anderson, Clayton, the his own expense in 1847, and the Port of Houston has become more results convinced him that im-
PAGE 7 PORT OF HOUS--ON
provements at the Red Fish and tive boatman on the bayou in Clopper’s sandbars would allow those days. Between 1838 and sea-going vessels to comeas far as 1857, he made an estimated 4,000 Harrisburg, just east of Houston. trips between Houston and n 1847, Sherman bought the Galveston. He served as master for Iassets of the Harrisburg Town at least five different Galveston Company and began to seek fi- Bay steamboats and was the nancial backing for his project. A general agent for the Houston group of Boston investors became Navigation Co. interested in developing Har- y 1858 improved railroad con- risburg, but wanted to concentrate Bnections had made it easier to on building a railroad instead of’ move goods from the interior, and improving the waterway. So, the the Houston Navigation Co. had bay and bayou remained as na- increased its fleet to seven boats, ture had designed them through having added the ISLAND CITY, (;apt. Thomas GraBson was the 1850s and 1860s, and barges BAYOU CITY, NEPTUNE NO. 2 master o[" the steamboat and paddle wheelers remained the and DIANA. A company steamer IAT/RA, u,hich made the first dominant means of water trans- left each of the two cities at 3 p.m. l,oflagc z~p l~u[ialo Bayou to l lm~stmt. portation. every day except Sunday and In the 1850s the Houston reached its destination in eight Navigation Co. dominated naviga- hours. Fares were two to three tion on Buffalo Bayou. In 1856 the dollars. Tariff for a bale of cotton company had three steam- was fifty cents. boats -- the NEPTUNE, SAN AN- It was apparently an intriguing TONIO and JENKINS -- regularly trip. Abbe Domenech, a French operating between Houston and missionary, described his journey Galveston, and the Telegraph and along the bayou. "We entered the Texas Register reported that all Buffalo river, bordered with reeds had as much business as they and bulrushes, in the midst of could handle. which heron and cranes, and he company was organized in thousands of ducks were disput- T1851 b5 a group of Houston ing. By-and-by the banks, increas- merchants and steamboat cap- ing in height, approached so near tains. Principal among them were each other, and formed so many The steamboat IJZZIE sits at thc foot merchants William Marsh Rice, tortuous windings that at every in- o[’~lain ,Street in 1876. William J. Hutchins, Paul Bre- stant the boat was caught either by mond and Cornelius Ennis and the bow or by the stern. At length Captains John H. Sterrett, James the high lands appeared, covered Montgomery and Michael McCor- with magnolias with their large mick. white flowers and delicious per- Capt. Sterrett was the most ac- fumes. Grey and red squirrels
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PAGE 8 leaped from branch to branch; Cargo was unloaded from noon, had a fine supper, listened while mocking-birds and car- ocean-going vessels outside the to the band, danced or played dinals imparted life and language Galveston sand bar. In addition to cards, had a good sleep, breakfast to these wonderful solitudes." the 12 foot bar that blocked the next morning and landed at Gal- n element of excitement was way between Galveston Bay and veston in ample time to attend to Aadded to some passages in the the Gulf of Mexico, a so-called any business you might have and early 1850s when rival steamboats inner bar had formed between take the return boat late in the would race to see who could dock Bolivar channel and Galveston evening." first. At times the boats would ac- harbor proper about 1866-1867. In 1869, 11,500 passengers tually strike each other. Normal- Attributed to obstructions placed traveled along the bayou and ly, little damage was done. in the harbor during the Civil across the bay. An estimated However, on March 23, 1853, War, this bar shoaled to about 546,000 barrels of freight were disaster struck. The NEPTUNE, nine and one-half feet in spite of transported upstream and nearly with Capt. Sterrett in charge, and efforts to remove it. 269,000 downstream for a total of the FARMER, guided by a Capt. n 1868, the new company’s prof- 815,000 barrels. Webb, were racing to Galveston. Iits were so substantial that Capt. The boiler of the FARMERexplod- Sterrett had a new luxury boat y 1873, the Houston Direct ed at a spot just west of Pelican built in Louisville. Named the BNavigation Co. had six passen- Island. The exact number of T.M. BAGBY,the boat was 175 feet ger steamers, 40 barges and five deaths was never determined but the Galveston Tri-Weekly News estimated the total at 36, in- cluding the captain and 12 other crew members. en. Sherman was aboard the GFARMER and narrowly es- caped with his life. Although Ster- rett was commended for rescuing the survivors, he and Webb were criticized by local newspapers for "criminal recklessness." Thereaf- ter, the captains of the Houston Navigation Co. left racing to the steamboats on the Misssissippi River. Houston Direct Navigation Co. was established in 1866 to put barges on the bayou to load and in length and 50 feet in beam. This drawing depicts the Port of unload ocean vessels in mid- Both it and its sister ship, the lloustoH about 1866. channel. Incorporators included DIANA, were described as Sterrett, who was the general "floating palaces" and widely ac- agent for the Houston Navigation claimed as being as fine as any on Co.; William Marsh Rice, also a the Mississippi River. veteran of the older company, and Other famous bayou steamers of Thomas M. Bagby. Sterrett was the late sixties and early seventies named general agent for the new were the LIZZIE, named by Capt. navigation company. Dave Connor for his daughter, y the spring of 1868, the and the CHARLES FOWLER, the BHouston Direct Navigation Co. only boat on the bayou to boast a had a shipping agreement with calliope. Although the Galveston- the New York steamship company Houston railroad took much of C.H. Mallory and was advertis- passenger traffic from the chan- ing "through bills of lading from nel, the steamboat trip between Houston to New York and from Galveston and Houston became New York to Houston without popular with excursionists and touching Galveston, at a savings honeymooners. of 20 percent to 40 percent to the N. Gray wrote in his memoirs: shipper." E¯ "Youstarted late in the after-
PAGE 9 POR’" OF HOUSTON tugs with a carrying capacity the bars. Reconstruction politics harles Morgan was born in equal to 20,000 bales of cotton. following the Civil War inter- Connecticut on April 21, Still, Houston business leaders rupted this government effort at C1795, and fought his way to were not satisfied. The barge and channel improvement, but pri- the top in the highly competitive steamboat operations were seen vate interests continued to pursue U.S. shipping industry. By the as stopgap measures to keep cargo the idea. [] time he decided to move his Texas moving until the channel could headquarters from Galveston to be deepened and ocean vessels Houston in 1874, he was 79 years could travel up the bayou. old, owned his own fleet of ships n 1865, new efforts began to im- and had gained a reputation for Iprove the water route to Hous- getting things done his way. ton. The Buffalo Bayou Ship Chan- In November of 1837 Morgan nel Co. was founded in 1869. CONNECTICUT FARM had inaugurated the first sched- Several of the Houston Direct BOYWAS ’FATHER OF uled steam-packet service to the Navigation owners were among HOUSTONCHANNEL’ Republic of Texas by sending the the organizers of this new ven- COLUMBIAto Galveston. During ture. The new company began the next few years, the CUBAand dredging a canal across Morgan’s the NEWYORK were added to the Point in 1870. About the same trade, and before annexation time, Congress declared Houston other Morgan ships-- among a port of entry, authorized a them the SAVANNAH, KING- customs house and ordered a STON, REPUBLIC and GALVES- survey of the proposed water TON- had visited the Texas route. coast. In 1867, Houston’s mavor had organ was a canny business- appointed a committee to raise Mman. During the Civil War, he money for opening Red Fish and had made a fortune building boats Clopper’s bars and the city coun- for the federal government at the cil advertised t0r bids fbr dredging same time that one of his vessels, the FRANCES, was running the blockade between Havana and Confederate ports. 1 Another example of Morgan’s / shrewdness was illustrated by his / charter of three vessels to the federals for a gross profit of $701,000 before selling them to the government for $495,000 in August of 1865. A year later he bought them back for $225,000. | t this time, Morgan’s head- Aquarters were in New Orleans, La. However, in the early 1870s he lost patience with the high pilotage rates on the lower Mississippi, high municipal taxes and high wharfage at New Orleans. So he shifted the head- quarters of his steamship line to Brashear City (later renamed The MORGAN,the commodore’s "little red sidewheeler." Morgan City) and began dredging a channel from the Atchafalaya River to the Gulf in 1871. The channel was opened on May 4, 1872. Meanwhile, the Galveston Wharf Co. had granted Morgan free use of its facilities in 1867 and
PAGE 10 again in 1871. However, this con- Bayou," wrote Norwood Stans- the Connecticut town where he cession was terminated in 1874. bury, who worked on the project was born. In addition, the company in- during the summer of 1875. At the peak of its service to creased wharfage rates that year "The bay at night for miles is Houston the Morgan Line had a so that, in some instances, one one blaze of light, and the air is fleet of about 10 steamships, two night’s storage in Galveston was burthened with the din of machin- steamboats, 32 schooners, seven within a few cents of the freight ery. Hundreds of men find em- steam tugs and 18 barges in serv- rate between Galveston and New ployment during these hard times ice on the channel. The Morgan Orleans. at liberal wages, and the cash at Line provided Houston with a organ was already irritated by the end of the month is as sure as connection to New Orleans, and Mthe long layovers his ships the rising of the morning sun." from there to the rest of the had to make because of quaran- y 1876, the channel was clear United States. Morgan continued tine policies set by the island’s Benough for the CLINTON, a to work on a rail connection be- board of health during the height Morgan ship drawing nine and tween the two cities, intending to of the business season. Sometimes the quarantine lasted 25 days, and the proscription only affected ships coming from Louisiana. In addition, the commodore was already working on an alternate route for moving cargo between New Orleans and the Houston- Galveston area. In 1869, he had purchased the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great Western Railroad at auction and had begun planning rail connections be- tween Houston and New Orleans. o, when Eber Worthington SCave, then president of the Buf- alo Bayou Ship Channel Co., ap- proached him about taking over the company’s operation and de- veloping a waterway to Houston, Morgan was ready to deal. In return for agreeing to construct a one-half feet of water, to make its Houston’s Main Street cos it looked when Morgan co~ztrolled shipping along Buftalo nine-foot channel at least 120 feet way all the way to Sims Bayou. Bayou. wide from Galveston Bay to the The vessel carried 700 tons of environs of Houston, Morgan cargo destined for distribution in received $806,500 in the unissued Texas. divert cargo to that modeof trans- portation eventually. capital stock of the ship-channel In the meantime, Morgan was harles Morgan died in 1878, company. solidifying his hold on Houston’s C The commodore still owned the transportation network. He had but his railroad between Hous- dredges that had cleared the chan- acquired controlling interest in ton and New Orleans began opera- nel from Morgan City to the Gulf, the Houston Direct Navigation Co. tion in 1880, and his heirs divert- and he immediately put them to and the Texas Transportation Co., ed much of the traffic from the work cleaning out the channel to which held a permit to construct Buffalo Bayou. He obtained per- a railroad from Bray’s Bayou to mission from the U.S. army engi- trunk lines in Houston. neers to make the channel 12 feet he inimitable commodore deep and succeeded in getting Tpicked a site opposite the junc- Congress to appropriate money tion of Buffalo and Sims bayous for improvements. and began construction of a rail- ~ 1~ ight dredges, two derricks, a road from that point to Houston. 1.5half dozen tugs and any He also built 1,100 feet of wharves number of scows, barges, etc., are and scooped out a turning basin engaged night and day in clean- 250 feet across and 16 feet deep. ing out the channel to Buffalo He named the spot Clinton after
PAG E 11 channel to the route. Morgan ment. Congress accepted the steamers stopped calling regular- proposal in 1879, and a formal ly at Clinton in the summer of contract was finally signed in 1883. 1881. Under this contract, the im- Morgan Line vessels would call provements were to be transferred at Houston again in the 1920s, but to the federal government when the Morgan era of dominance was the channel from Bolivar Roads to over. Its passing was not altogeth- Morgan’s Cut were completed. er unwelcome. Charles Morgan The channel was officially was hailed as a hero when he was finished in 1889, but still the developing the ship channel, but transter of improvements at Clin- Houstonians had become con- ton was delayed. The chain con- cerned as his control over local tinued to block the channel. Final- transportation tightened. His in- ly, in 1892, the citizens of ttouston terests -- the Morgan Line, Hous- tired of waiting for the govern- ton Direct Navigation Co., Buffalo ment to act. A public indignation Commodore Charles Morgan Bayou Ship Channel Co., Texas meeting was held, and certain in- Transportation Co. and finally, dividuals vowed to cut the chain the Houston and Texas Central themselves. Word of the unrest Railroad -- had given him an iron reached Washington and the War hold on the channel. Department finally bought Mor- ocal businessmen particularly gan’s Canal and improvements Lresented Morgan’s right to for $92,316.85. The chain was charge a fee for passage through removed, and Houstonians began Morgan’s Canal. Morgan had to work toward an even deeper spent a great deal of moneydredg- channel. ing the canal across Morgan’s Point and he claimed the right to collect tolls there. These tolls became anathema to local in- terests and were described as HOUSTON’SWEB OF exorbitant. RAILROADS:HOW Adding insult to injury, a heavy IT WASSPUN chain was stretched across the canal to assure that vessels did not Moving qoods to Houston in the pass without paying. The chain i840s was a stow. frustrating ex John Grayson chartered compames to build belt-line railroads f~’om Harrisburg soon became symbolic of Mor- er(ise. Roadw, ays were rougL to Houston. gan’s grasp on the channel. paths (Lit t-hrough t:he brush, n the late 1870s, Morgan’s heirs They were studded with tree Iproposed turning over their im- stumps and rocks, and the> provements to the U.S. govern- became slippery, sticky rivers of
"L]N 1926, MO~G;IN5TEFtM5HIP LINES, PLYING BETWEENHO#STON /~ND NEW YOr~K, COMPLETEDON TNE NOU5TON~lP O4/~NNEL, DOCK5CO~- ING ~OR’E TH/qN ONEMILLION DOLLARS. THUS CONFI[~MING COMMODOE’B k40~G,,qN:5 P~OPHETICV,,’SJONI ."
PAGE 12 PORT OF HOUSTON rT]ud vvher] it rained. Some Houg- n the meantime, Houstonians tormans waF, ted to build plank Ihad decided to build a branch roads, but others saw a great railroad that would tap into the deal of promise Ln a r’,ew’er type tracks built by the Buffalo Bayou, of t:~ anspor-tation .... railroads. Brazos and Colorado Railway. Almost at the same time planters in the sugar-producing counties y 1841 four railroads had been chartered by the along the lower Brazos River began building a railroad north- BRepublic of Texas, but none ward from Columbia that would of the chartering companies ever connect with the Houston Tap. succeeded in laying enough track The two systems eventually This 1916 photograph shows the to operate a train. Financial woes, merged to form the Houston Tap construction of railroad tracks political complications and the that coincided with the and Brazoria Railroad, also scope of the task prevented these evolution of the Houston Ship known as the Sugar Railroad. Channel. early transportation companies from achieving their goals. By the eve of the Civil War, Limited rail service was finally Houston was the railroad center achieved in 1852 when the Buffalo of Texas. Five railroads radiated Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Rail- from the town. The state had 450 way put the first locomotive, the miles of track, more than 350 General Sherman, into operation. miles of which led to Houston. The locomotive was secondhand The railroads brought an era of and had been damaged by a hur- unprecedented prosperity to the ricane at Galveston before it could town in the late 1850s, and be shipped up the bay, but it Houstonians dreamed of connect- ushered in a new era of transpor- ing Texas’s private railroads to the tation for Houston. By the sum- transcontinental lines that linked mer of 1853, 20 miles of track had the United States’ east and west By 1924, u,hcn this photo u,as been laid from Harrisburg to Staf- coasts. takcn, 17 railroads u,ere operated ford’s Point. In September 1853, ouston’s aspirations for a na- by 13 companies sen,ing Houston. the company announced biweek- Htionwide connection were ly rail service along the line. dashed by the Civil War. The war fter that, railroad fever ap- disrupted the economy and social Apeared to be rampant in Hous- structures. Improvements to Buf- ton. Paul Bremond and other falo Bayou were halted, and the Houstonians began construction railroads were neglected. Follow- on rails extending northward, and ing the war, Houston’s rail system in 1856, the Houston and Texas was in shambles, both physically Central began operation on 25 and financially. The Houston Tap miles of track connecting Hous- and Brazoria was sold at a sheriff’s llirh h~r"°ghNI~ # ton and Cypress. The line reached auction in 1869. The Buffalo >~"Louis, Oh;" <’’~ ...... ,,~,,< l the communities of Hockley, Bayou, Brazos and Colorado also Hempstead and Millican in 1860. were sold, and the Texas and New Construction began on a third Orleans was no longer in opera- railroad in 1856. The Galveston, tion. These last two railroads The Missouri, Kansas Houston and Henderson Railroad eventually became part of the & Texas Railway advertised its "Katy Co. began building at Virginia Southern Pacific empire in 1881, but in the decade after the war Flyer," oftering Point, on the mainland across accommodations and from Galveston. By the fall of they barely managed to survive. 50-cent meals¯ 1859, the company had initiated The Galveston, Houston and triweekly service to the outskirts Henderson (GH&H) railroad was of Houston. an exception, surviving the war in From the other direction, the fairly good health. The Houston Texas and New Orleans Company and Texas Central (H&TC) also began construction on a railroad fared well, recovering quickly. In from New Orleans to Houston. 1865, the GH&H completed a Track stretched as far as Beau- drawbridge over Buffalo Bayou mont by 1861. and connected with the H&TC.
PAG E 13 The H&TC continued to expand S.P. Hamblen was the first secre- promised to complete its work on northward, reaching Bryan in tary. A contract for construction the channel. Shortly thereafter he 1868 and Corsicana in 1871. Final- of the railroad was signed in purchased the Texas Transporta- ly, in 1873, the H&TCconnected early 1867, and the road was tion Co., founded the town of Clin- with the Missouri, Kansas and almost completed by fall. ton just below Harrisburg and Texas Railway at Denison near he success of the railroad began to build a railroad connect- the Texas Oklahoma border. At Tdepended on bringing ocean ing his new community with the last, Houston had a rail connec- vessels to meet it, so the founder rails that radiated from Houston. tion to St. Louis, Mo. of the Texas Transportation Co. n April 1876, the first ship to eanwhile, John Thomas made plans to dredge the bayou as Inavigate the new channel, the MBrady was concerned about far as Constitution Bend. He also CLINTON, delivered 750 tons of making a connection between the made plans to excavate Red Fish freight to the Clinton terminal. Its railroads and Buffalo Bayou, and Clopper’s bars. However, the cargo included 500 tons of steel Houston’s pathway to the sea. As company did not have the finan- rails for Morgan’s transfer rail- a representative of Harris County cial resources to complete these road. in the Texas Legislature and chair- plans, and the projects were in- In 1878, Morgan’s railroad was man of the legislature’s commit- herited by the Buffalo Bayou Ship in operation. A reporter who took tee on internal improvements, Channel Co., which was incor- the 20-minute ride from Houston Brady became interested in the porated in 1869. With support to Clinton noted two 80-by-300 potential of the bayou. from the city of Houston, it foot storage buildings filled with tie decided to build a railroad looked as though the company cotton and merchandise, a cotton from a point near Bray’s Bayou to might achieve Brady’s goal to compress that could’process 50 to Houston. He drew the paper city open the channel to larger vessels, 60 bales per hour, livestock pens of New Houston above Harrisburg but legal complications and the and 100 employees earning $1.50 in wages per day. The opening of and organized the New Houston economic panic of 1873 delayed City Co. to sell lots. He then the beginning of work. the channel to that location organized the Texas Transporta- In 1874, Commodore Charles marked a turning point in the history of the Port of ttouston. tion Co. to build the railroad. Morgan purchased the Buffalo Brady was the first president, and Bayou Ship Channel Co. and he spur to Houston was only Tpart of Morgan’s plan. He al- ready owned railroads in Louis- iana and intended to link those tracks with rail connections in Texas. After his death in 1878, Morgan’s heirs pursued his plan, and a link between ttouston and New Orleans was completed in 1880. The completion of this link was the death knell for Clinton. Traf: fic from Galveston and l louston was diverted to rail, and Morgan steamships stopped calling at Clinton in 1883. n 1880, nine railroads main- Itained 2,200 miles of track lead- ing to Houston, and 1,800 more miles of track leading to the city were under construction. A transcontinental line was being built between San Francisco and the Atlantic, and Houston would ZJlc GalucstoH, HOld,stoH be the first tidewater point on that ~¢ He~tderson Railroad, line. Houstonians continued to u,hich initiated scrz,icc Crom ftousto~l ill 18S9, push for a deep-water channel to adl,crtised it.~ lu,vttriou.s the Gulf of Mexico, believing that parlor cans. access to the sea would assure Houston’s future as a center of
PAG E 14 commerce. John Thomas Brady appeared on the scene again in 1889, chartering the Houston Belt and Magnolia Park Railway Co. for the purpose of building a road on the south side of Buffalo Bayou from a point between Bray’s Bayou and Long Reach into Houston. The railroad, about 15 miles long, was to connect all the railroads in the city. The road was built, but the channel remained too shallow for ocean-going vessels. Instead of be- ing used to move cargo to and from the wharves, the line was used mostly by excursionists to go I~ the late 1830s, Galveston was not much of a tou, n, and Houstonians viewed to Magnolia Amusement Park, the island as a depot for goods that could PART which Brady had built on his Har- be brought to ttouston by barge¯ HOUSTONAND risburg property. rady died in 1890, his dream GALVESTON:A SIBLING Bstill unrealized, but his two creased from 1,650 miles to 8,486 RELATIONSHIP railroads were destined for miles. Galvestor~ FJrqd HotJstor~ ar-o ~or t ultimate success. The Texas In 1904, the Houston Post re- Transportation Co. became a part ported that the various lines had otrier,~, Frnirty r~~iie~:~dpar-t Iiy idr~(, of the Southern Pacific system moved 500 million tons of freight 50 rT]iles apart b>, water, [Fie t,.~
PAG E 15 Galveston, seeing the harbor as developed, Galveston business- n the meantime, Galveston in- their own and the island as a men sent these to collect produce Iterests proposed a network of depot where merchandise des- along the rivers. railroads leading "fanlike" to tined for Houston could be ther Galvestonians supported Galveston and bringing the pro- unloaded from ocean-going Oa project to dredge a canal to duce of the state to her wharves vessels and reloaded onto barges link the Brazos River with for shipment. or steam packets bound for Galveston Bay. The canal, when In opposition to this "Galveston Houston. completed in 1855, was large Plan," the railroad capitalists in However, by the time Texas be- enough to handle steamboats, the United States joined Houston came part of the United States in rafts and other small craft. At first merchants in proposing a "Cor- 1845, Galveston had outstripped the canal was successful, but the porate Plan." Under this plan, Houston, having approximately expense of maintenance dredging Texas railroads would become twice as many citizens and being cut deeply into the company’s part of the transcontinental considerably more prosperous. profits, and the canal was unable system designed by planners in An 1845 guidebook called Galves- to compete with rail transporta- the United States to run east and ton the "great commercial em- tion. west across the nation. If this plan porium" of Texas, a title the Allen Houston businessmen, alarmed were adopted, Houston could brothers, who founded Houston, by the island’s attempt to by- become the railroad center of hoped their city would hold. Still, pass them, revived the Allen Texas, and the trade of the state Houstonians continued to think brothers’ dream of bringing ocean would be routed not to the sea but of Galveston as their own ocean vessels directly to Houston. In through the rail centers of St. port, and Galveston merchants 1849, the OGDEN,a steam packet, Louis and Chicago. considered Houston their inmost sailed directly from New Orleans inally, the Texas Legislature distribution point. to Houston. Fpassed a bill favoring the "Cor- ut the honeymoon was coming ~| t is evident from the success porate Plan" and granting gener- Bto an end. The roads to Hous- 1 that has attended this experi- ous assistance in the form of loans ton were notoriously bad in the ment that a line of steam packets and land grants to private build- late 1840s, and people in the in- could be established to run be- ers. The decision was a victory for terior began looking for new ways tween New Orleans and ttous- Houston. to reach the coast. Planters on the ton," noted the Houston Tele- With the rail situation settled, Trinity and Brazos rivers and graph. the two ports returned to their bat- Galveston businessmen launched It was a pipe dream. No regular tle over water routes in the late an effort to bring agricultural steamship service grew from the 1850s. The extension of railroad products directly to Galveston by experiment. Vessels small enough tracks to Galveston made it cheap- water. to cross Redfish and Clopper’s er to ship cargo inland by rail The Galvestonians backed re- sand bars, it became evident, were than to bring it up the bayou to sourceful workers who cut trees too small for safe ocean travel. Houston’s port facilities. along the riverbanks and made rafts to bring cotton to Galveston. As steamboats with less draft were
By 1884, when this photo was taken, Gah,cston had outstripped Ifouston, becomino the ’Nrcat commcrcial emporium" o{ Tcxa~.
PAG E 16 In order to save the Buffalo an advantage over Galveston were Buffalo Bayou and part of the city of Bayou traffic, Houston repealed neglected and were in extremely Houston a~s it appcarcd in the late 1880s. its wharfage fees, cutting some of poor condition when the fighting the cost of’ moving cargo up the ended. Galveston, on the other seaport, even if I had to employ a bayou. hand, still had its harbor as an detective to hunt it up. I knew it n the meantime, Galveston asset. was in Houston concealed some- Iwharf owners had organized the While the rest of the state slow- where, but I was afraid it would be Galveston Wharf and Cotton Press ly recovered from the effects of removed to a place of safety Co., a semi-public company which war, Galvestonians thrived on the before I could see it." Whenat last did not have to pay state taxes. By cargo passing through the harbor. he found it, he gave a description 1859, the company either owned iring of the Galveston Wharf well calculated to amuse Galves- or exercised control over all 10 TCo.’s policies, Houstonians re- tonians: Galveston wharves and was levy- newed their efforts to open Buf- "The Houston seaport is of a ing generous fees for wharfage falo Bayou to ocean vessels. Data very inconvenient size-- not and cargo handling. and statistics were compiled and quite narrow enough to jump over Houstonians decided to avoid included in reports to Washington and a little too deep to wade the Galveston wharfage and and Austin. Houston representa- through without taking off your handling charges by unloading tives in the federal government shoes. Whenit rains, the seaport cargo from vessels in the channel worked tirelessly to gain support rises up 20 or 30 feet, and the peo- to barges for the trip up Buffalo for their pr0iect. These efforts ple living on the beach, as it were, Bayou. They also made plans to amused some visitors to the city. swear their immortal souls away compress cotton at Houston, put "After you have listened to the on account of their harbor it on barges and load it onto ocean talk of one of these pioneer facilities. The Houst.on seaport vessels without touching the veterans for some time," wrote was so low when I saw it, that island’s wharves. one humorist, "you begin to feel there was some talk of selling the n response, the Galveston Wharf" that the creation of the world, the bridges to buy water to put in it." ICo. began levying an additional arrangement of the solar system, n one occasion, Houstonians charge on such vessels when they and all subsequent events, in- Omust have joined in the laugh- docked at Galveston to take on cluding the discovery of America, ter about their city’s aspirations as return cargoes. were provisions of an all-wise a port. Sampson Heidenheimer, a The two communities were sol- Providence, arranged with a di- Galveston merchant, shipped six idly squared away for battle, but rect view to the advancement of barge loads of salt to Houston. The another conflict was brewing the commercial interest of Hous- barges were caught in a cloud- which would make them allies ton." burst, and the salt dissolved in the again for a while. In 1860, Texas hat same humorist made a bayou. "ttouston at last has a salt became one of the Confederate T water port," reported the (;alves- great show of" looking for the ton News. "God Almighty fur- States of America, and the two Port of Houston. "Do you let nished the water; Heidenheimer cities buried their economic hat- strangers see it every day, or on- chets as the Civil War began. ly on Sundays or how? Does it uring the war, the rail connec- keep open all the season?" he Dtions that had given Houston asked. "1 yearned to see that
PAG E 17 furnished the salt." tion, and Houston’s effective lob- Houstonians also had fun at bying in the state and national Galveston’s expense during the capitols helped move the Bayou 1880s. A popular topic of conver- City into a position of prom- sation on the island was the con- inence in the Texas economy and dition of the outer sand bar at the in international commerce. [] end of the Galveston jetties. Islanders spoke often of what would happen when they got "deep water," but very little was PA II being done about dredging the outer bar. HOUSTONIANSTOOK ~]i~hen it comes to eating up AN INNOVATIVE y y money without furnishing APPROACHTO FINANCING any practical equivalent, the bar The jetties between Galveston will rival a four-horse daily paper island and Bolivar Peninsula were in a one-horse town," commented : ompleted ir~ 1896. Vessels coulcS Iforace Rice, Houston’s mayor one .journalist. According to a from 1905 to 1913, conceived cross the sand bar into Galveston story told him by a Houston man, the idea of sharing the cost of Bay wit,q 25 feet of water. This the Houston Ship Channel with local journalists were the only developmer~t was good r]ews Cot thc federal government, persons or agencies that had suc- (}a vestorqans, but spelled disas- ceeded in deepening the Galves- ton bar: "When a reporter goes (:e~ for bargir~g operatior~s or~ Bur i alo BavoLJ. out with some interested parties to inspect the bar, contractors fur- nish champagne. If he enjoys himself very much, the depth of efore the Galveston jetties water on the bar has been known Bwere completed, deep-draft to increase to 16 feet; but this is ships had to anchor outside only on extraordinaD~ occasions." the Galveston bar to load and Galveston achieved deep-water unload. Barges could carry cargo passage before Houston, but to Houston almost as easily as to Houston was to be the dominant Galveston. With the deep-draft port in the end. Houston eventual- channel to Galveston open, ly became the terminus for a so- vessels could load and unload phisticated system of rail and directly at the Galveston wharves highway connections. The deadly and barging cargo into Houston Thomas Ball, l’.S. representa- became a less attractive alterna- re’c, wa,s responsible for gaining 1900 Galveston hurricane, with its (:ong~cssional authorization and destructive tidal surge, made ship- tive. ti:dcral lunding for thc ship pers look more favorably at Houston needed a deep-water channel. Houston’s protected inland loca- channel to maintain its position
PAG E 18