The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969 Page: 4
498 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
the obtaining of contracts [for buildings] . . . or any other of the
Mechanical Branches that are taken by contract." The petition called
for a law to keep "Negroes in their places (Vez [sic]: in Corn and Cot-
ton Fields) ."' While such actions as mass meetings and petitions can
hardly be considered "organizations" (except in the sense that they
represent the attempts of individual workmen to gain a more respon-
sive ear for their desires through collective actions), this type of action
precedes more permanent organizations.
A substantial portion of the wage earners in Texas were of foreign
birth, with the result that ethnic organizations drew workers into
their orbit." These groups provided social, benevolent, and educational
services to those of a common national origin. In Texas towns ethnic
groups were strong and numerous, and as each national group gained
relative importance, an ethnic society developed. In Houston, in addi-
tion to the several "singing societies," there were the German Union
(established in 1841), the Scandinavian Club (begun shortly after
the Civil War), and the Irish Texan Society (founded in 1871) .' In
Galveston, where the German clubs were quite active before the war,
the Irish Benevolent Association (organized in 1871) and the Spanish
Benevolent Association (started about 1874) provided social services
to the underprivileged and unfortunate.'o Club Reciproco, established
in Corpus Christi in 1873, was the first of numerous benevolent so-
cieties for Latin-Americans established particularly in South Texas
during the late nineteenth century." All these groups were quite ac-
tive and, while not barring foreign-born workers from union activity,
their vitality surely retarded the development of similar societies, for
workers alone by providing the foreign-born wage earner with services
he might have otherwise sought ini workingmen's associations. There
was also a secondary consideration. Occupational benevolent societies
'A petition of Sundry Citizens of Harrison Co[unty], Marshall, Texas, January 19, 1861,
Memorials and Petitions, Legislature of the State of Texas (Archives, Texas State Library,
Austin) .
8James V. Reese, "The Worker in Texas, 1821-1876" (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Texas, 1964), 19-33; Ralph A. Wooster, "Foreigners in the Principal Towns of Ante-
Bellum Texas," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LXVI (October, 1962), 2o9, 213-214.
9Rudolph L. Biesele, The History of the German Settlements in Texas, 1831-1861
(Austin, 1939), 41; Telegraph and Texas Register (Houston), December 9, 1840; Gal-
veston Daily News, June 6, September 2, October 18, 1871.
0lbid., January 5, 1872; John H. Heller, Heller's Galveston City Directory, 1876-7
(Galveston, 1876), 161.
"Paul S. Taylor, An American-Mexican Frontier, Nueces County, Texas (Chapel Hill,
1934), 173-175.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 72, July 1968 - April, 1969, periodical, 1969; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117146/m1/20/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.