A thumb-nail history of the city of Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1836 to the year 1912 Page: 10

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10 A THUMB-NAIL HISTORY OF
same year the Texas Congress granted the City of
Houston a charter.
Having become a chartered city it was necessary
to elect a mayor and board of aldermen. Unfortunately
all the records of the city have been twice
destroyed by fire, but tradition and the oldest inhabitants
declare that Dr. Francis Moore, Jr., was
the first mayor of Houston. Now there is really no
good nor substantial reason for doubting that Dr.
Moore was the first mayor, and the question is
brought up in this way so as to give place to a doubt
introduced by Maj. Ingham Roberts, who has made
a close study of all that relates to the early history
of Houston. Major Roberts, in the History of
Southeast Texas, of which he was one of the editors,
publishes a list of Houston's mayors and gives
the honor of being the first to James S. Holman.
The Major gives as his authority for doing this, a
notice published in the Telegraph of Sept. 29, 1837,
calling an election to fill vacancies caused by the
deaths of two aldermen, which notice was signed
Jas. S. Holman, "Mayor."
Major Roberts is a most careful student and accurate
writer, and yet one is constrained to believe
that a serious error has been committed by himself
or by the paper publishing that notice. In the first
place, Houston was not incorporated until a year
after the date of that notice and, therefore, could
not have had a mayor or board of aldermen. In the
next place, James S. Holman was clerk of the Eleventh
District Court from February, 1837, until

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Young, Samuel Oliver. A thumb-nail history of the city of Houston, Texas, from its founding in 1836 to the year 1912, book, 1912; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth24649/m1/13/ocr/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .

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