The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960 Page: 407
684 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The History of Hempstead
Hempstead.-The greatest assemblage ever congregated in the Star
State, in all probability, will meet on Tuesday the 29th and Wednesday
the 3oth of June, and July 1st, 1858, at Hempstead. Persons from
various parts of the State, and our chivalrous citizen soldiery, and our
women and children, are to be there. Ample preparation is making
by Messrs. Fulton &8 Lipscomb, of the Planters' Hotel, and Capt. M. K.
Snell at his hotel, as well as others who keep houses of entertain-
ment. The soldiers are to encamp in the open air, so will many of
the gentlemen. But for ladies there will be provision made within
doors. The entertainment will consist of oratory of the highest order,
the fare of roast beef of the best kind, and terpsichorean exercises, to
consist of waltzes, polkas, schottisches, flings, &8c. Then there will be
pyrotechnic works, to consist of congreave and sky rockets, chasers,
snakes, Roman candles, Greek fire, whirligigs &c. There will be oratory,
beef, dancing and fireworks to suit the most fastidious tastes. The first
fifty miles of the Central Trunk Road of 'Texas has been completed,
amid trials and tribulations of its enterprising projectors. The work
is done to Hempstead, a town already flourishing, and which sprung
up in a few months, in consequence of its being made the terminus of
the second section of the Central Road.7
The occasion apparently lived up to its advance billing, to
judge from the fulsome account of another editor:
GREAT R. R. CELEBRATION
THE OPENING OF THE CENTRAL ROAD TO HEMPSTEADI--
EXCURSION, BARBECUE, FIREWORKS, BALLS, &C., 8CC.!l
... the 29th of June was, three weeks ago, fixed upon as the day for
the great affair to come off. Notices were extensively circulated and
the public invited to be on hand.
At 7 o'clock in the morning the train left Houston loaded with
people. For an hour previously, men, women and children were seen
gathering from all parts of the city to the dep6t, in carriages and on
foot. Three passenger cars and ten long platform cars, fitted up with
seats and shaded with bushes received the people. At about half-past
six, the Milam Rifles, dressed in their elegant uniforms, came march-
ing across the bridge. Shortly after, the Washington Light Guards, with
a band of music, also in full parade dress, to the number of forty
muskets, marched up, and all filed to their seats on board the cars,
with all the precision of movement and military bearing which has
always characterized these elegant corps, and which would do justice
to the best trained soldiers anywhere in the world. At 7 the train moved
off, all the cars were crowded, and the number on board was variously
estimated at from six to eight hundred persons. As the train started,
7Houston Republic, June 26, 1858.407
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 63, July 1959 - April, 1960, periodical, 1960; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101186/m1/511/: accessed May 2, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.