US22550.5 HARVARD COLLEGE FEB 23 1909 LIBRARY. Gift of. James F. Curtis of Burton Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1878, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. PREFACE. Among the newer States of our American Union, there is probably no one about which so much has been written and published as the State of Texas. In 1857, Frederick Law Olmsted published a volume of 516 pages, entitled " A Journey Through Texas; or a Saddle-trip on the South-western Frontier." Mr. Olmsted mentions thirty-three bound volumes on Texas, by more than thirty authors. Seven of these were in two volumes each, making an aggregate of forty separate books, many of them large octavos of from four hundred to six hundred pages. Since that period the press has thrown off scores and even hundreds of publications -histories, biographies, descriptive pamphlets, addresses, etc. These have been scattered broadcast over the country by immigration agencies, railroad corporations, companies of land speculators, and others. The question arises, then, whence the necessity of another work on Texas? Partly because previous histories have been too brief in some particulars and too diffuse in others. Many of the descriptive pamphlets have been too highly colored; personal narratives too partial, and often defective in details; and the statistics too meagre and in some instances entirely unreliable. It needed another volume to give a complete history of the State down to the present time; and to condense, and classify, and give in a reasonable space the past history, present condition and prospective development of this, the great Empire State of the continent. The design of the author is to give in the present volume a true picture of Texas, its soil, its climate, its people and their institutions, its resources, its capabilities for sustaining a dense population—a population to be counted by the million. We say a true picture, so that the immigrant entering the State may learn what part is best adapted to the business in which he proposes to engage. To the hardy poor man who expects to make his living by honest industry, and to raise his family where they will enjoy the advantages of good schools and churches, probably no portion of the American continent offers such advantages as Texas. Here labor is always in demand at remunerative price; provisions are cheap; here is land for those who wish either to lease or purchase; tenement houses are furnished to farm laborers; and a permanent home may be acquired upon accommodating terms. A homestead once secured, the man soon finds himself in possession of teams and tools, of hogs and cattle, and is surrounded with home comforts. In the departments devoted to history, special pains have been taken to give facts and dates, with such reflections as will enable the reader to understand the controversies in reference to the ownership of the country, and the various questions which have from time to time agitated the people, producing, in some instances, revolutions, and changes in the form of government. These events are generally related in chronological order, though in some instances that order has been deviated from, to complete the narrative of one event before entering upon that of another. In the notes, the reader will find a complete list of the executives of the State, and the personnel of the various departments of the government; also the votes at the principal popular elections, showing the steady increase in the number of electors. In the part devoted to the Indians may be found many interesting particulars of the aboriginal inhabitants of our prairies, and some thrilling incidents of frontier life and Indian warfare. It was not in accordance with the taste of the author to dwell long upon these harrowing scenes. Happily, such scenes now |