The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916 Page: 61
452 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Harris County, 1882-1845
ilies of Usener, Schweikart, Habermehl, Bottler, and Karcher, and
a single man named Schnell settled in Houston.
The German element in Houston and Harris County has always
been accounted a valuable asset, and one which has contributed a
large share towards the upbuilding of the county. Some of the
descendants of these early German settlers are still living in the
city and are among its leading citizens.
The foregoing chronicle of the period of small beginnings in
Harris County would be incomplete without special mention of
some of the distinguished citizens who dwelt on the shores of Buf-
falo Bayou and Galveston Bay. That they should have chosen
homes on these shores excites no surprise in the minds of those
who knew these delightful home sites at a time when nature with
a free band distributed her bounties. Such a wealth of forest
trees, magnolias, wild peach, bays, laurels, cedars and pines as
lined the bayou banks and bay shores to the very water's edge!
Such festoons of yellow jasmine and coral honeysuckle, binding
in a bower of sweet perfume the flowering ash, dogwood, and
hawthorne of the early spring time. The convenience of water
transportation, and accessibility to the base of supplies offered a
very practicable argument in favor of such locations, and, when
to these are added the abundance of fish and game that were close
at hand, it is easy to see that the first settlers chose well.
Burnet and De Zavala dwelt near Lynchburg, where Burnet's
Bay and Zavala's Point still preserve the identity of their homes.
Dr. Ashbel Smith, after living for a few years at Houston, retired
to his country place on the eastern bayshore, to "Evergreen,"
nearly opposite Morgan's Point. His distinguished service to the
Republic of Texas in representing the government at the Courts
of St. James and St. Cloud are well known, as are his devotion
to the interests of the state during the whole of his long life.
His great learning earned for him at home the deserved title
"Sage of Evergreen," while his cultured manners and diplomatic
talents caused him to be known abroad as the "Benjamin Franklin
of Texas."
At Cedar Point,25 on the eastern shore of Galveston Bay, General
2'Cedar Point is not within the limits of Harris County, being near the,
left bank of Cedar Bayou, the boundary between Harris and Chambers,
but the intercourse by sail boats between all bay shore settlements was.
frequent.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 19, July 1915 - April, 1916, periodical, 1916; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101067/m1/70/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.