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The history of Galveston, Texas, begins with the archaeological record of Native Americans who used the island. The first European settlements on the island were constructed around 1816. The Port of Galveston was established in 1825 by the Congress of Mexico following its successful revolution from Spain. The city served as the main port for ...
Sep 22, 2024 · Galveston hurricane of 1900 Path of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, one of the deadliest natural disasters in U.S. history. The storm was a category 4 hurricane that struck Galveston, Texas, on September 8, bringing winds of 130 miles (210 km) per hour and high tides that overwhelmed the low-lying coastal city, demolishing buildings, and claiming more than 8,000 lives.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
He helped organize the Galveston City Company in 1838. From 1840 to 1870, the city was a major immigration port for over a quarter million Europeans. Texas' secession from the Union and the Civil War halted development temporarily. The mid 1870s to the mid 1890s was the apex of Galveston's prosperity.
- Pirates
- Immigration
- Wall Street of The South
- The Birthplace of Juneteenth
Later visitors included corsairs, like the French Jean Lafitte, who built the small colony of Campeche in 1817. Ever the privateer, he used this as a base to raid Spanish merchant ships that passed through the Gulf. He fled after a decade, burning down the community he built (his treasures are rumored to be buried on the Island).
Founded in 1838, Galveston established prosperity through a natural deep-water port, expansion of trade routes throughout the region, and development of industry, such as cotton, in the decades leading up to the Great Storm of 1900. The people of Galveston Island would find themselves as a fundamental piece of the state and region's growth and dive...
In 1836, Canadian fur trader Michel B. Menard purchased seven square miles of land, which became the City of Galveston. It was the same year Texas gained independence from Mexico and became a republic. Other great changes followed, business flourished, and Galveston became a major U.S. commercial center and one of the largest ports in the United St...
Juneteenth is a national holiday that signifies the celebration of the end of slavery for southern slaves in Galveston two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed. This historic event holds a special place in the United States and African American history, but the richness of Juneteenth or June 19, 1865 goes well beyond celebrating Ema...
The Founding of Galveston and Its Growth as a Major Port. In the 1830s, Galveston began to transform from a pirate’s haven into a legitimate settlement. After Texas gained its independence from Mexico in 1836, Michel Menard, a French-Canadian entrepreneur, purchased land on the island and officially founded the city of Galveston in 1839.
Galveston Island is an area of the traditional homeland of the Karankawa, Atakapa Ishak, and other indigenous communities. Indigenous coastal tribes spanned the coast of Texas and northern Mexico until the mid-1800s. The groups were eventually driven out of their ancestral homeland by European expansion into Texas and the American West.
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The Foundations of Influence exhibit included portraits of well known members of Galveston families lining the walls, and special belongings displayed in the elegant hallway cases. In 1838, Michel B. Menard founded the Galveston City Company on “one league and a labor of land” on the eastern end of Galveston Island.
