The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 39
641 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
The Municipality of Harrisburg, z835-1836
a priest from St. Vincent's Church baptized a crowd of them in
what appears to have been the northern part of the county.14
The Municipality of Harrisburg was settled by Anglo-Amer-
icans at the beginning of the 182o's, about the time that Stephen
F. Austin brought his first settlers to Texas.16 Most of the mu-
nicipality lay within the limits of Austin's Colony, but the eastern
portion of it was included within Joseph Vehlein's Colony. By
1835 there must have been several hundred persons within the
municipality. Most of them were settled in the timbered areas
along the waterways, for American pioneers were suspicious of
prairies; they were convinced that land which would not bear
trees would likewise not bear crops. There may have been some
local justification for this belief, for the prairies were underlaid
with a thick stratum of impervious clay and were, therefore,
waterlogged.
Three towns had been laid out, but only one of them could
boast of being more than the figment of a real estate agent's
dream. In 1826 John Richardson Harris had platted on his league
on the west or right bank of Buffalo Bayou a town which he had
named Harrisburg. The name probably had a double inspiration.
In the first place, it likely commemorated the city of Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania, which had been founded and named by one of
Harris's ancestors,6 and in the second place, it undoubtedly was
honorific of Harris himself. The hamlet had the first steam saw-
mill in Texas, and its proprietors conveyed lumber in their
own sailing ships as far as Tampico and Veracruz. By the time
with which this paper is concerned, the village had some twenty
houses, for the most part log cabins but with two or three over-
laid with siding, scattered among the trees without any especial
reference to city planning. 7 In 1834 or 1835 Nathaniel Lynch
14Liber Batizatorum in Ecclesia Sti. Vincenti i Paulo in Presidio Houston,
Texas (MS. in office of pastor, Annunciation Roman Catholic Church, Houston).
Courtesy of the Reverend Anton J. Frank.
15Reminiscences of Nathaniel Lynch's widow in Charles A. Gulick and others
(eds.), The Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar (6 vols.; Austin, 1920-1927), IV,
124-126; C. Anson Jones, Early History of Harris County, Texas (Houston,
1928).
le6Adele Lubbock Looscan, Harris Family: Harrisburg, Pa.; Harris County,
Texas, in Adele Lubbock Looscan Papers (MSS. in San Jacinto Museum of History
Association, San Jacinto Monument, Texas).
17A Visit to Texas, 74-75. For an account of the sawmill, see Andrew Forest
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953, periodical, 1953; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101145/m1/57/: accessed April 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.