|
The
city is built near springs that used to flow not far from downtown
Waco (still marked - on the grounds of a former elementary school
(more recently the Helen Marie Taylor Museum).
A timeline of significant events in Waco:
1837: Fort Fisher, a Texas Rangers outpost was established
in but abandoned within the year.
1838: Neil McLennan moved onto land nearby on the South Bosque
River, a somewhat romantic mural commemorating the event is in the
post office in nearby Mart, Texas.
Land agent Jacob De Cordova accquires the property and has George
B. Erath survey the area. Erath had first visited the area as a
ranger stationed at Ft. Fisher.
1849: Geo. Erath laid out the first block of the new town
that they first wanted to name Lamartine.
1850: McLennan County was organized. The Waco Era, the town's
first newspaper is published.
1856: Waco Village is incorporated as the town of Waco and
a new courthouse is built that year.
The Civil War: Seventeen companies of Confederate soldiers
were raised from Waco and the surrounding countryside. Waco also
produced six Confederate generals. After the Civil War, Waco's economy
recovered rapidly despite the trials of reconstruction.
1868: Waco becomes a spur on the Chisholm Trail and cattlemen
and their cowboys often stopped in Waco for suppies and entertainment.
1870: The Waco Bridge Company opened a suspension
bridge spanning the Brazos. Designed by Robeling - the man who
went on to build the Brooklyn Bridge - the Waco bridge served as
his working model.
1871: The Waco and Northwestern Railroad was built.
1872: The African Methodist Episcopal church opens Paul Quinn
College (now in Dallas)
1880s: Two other railroads, the St. Louis and Southwestern
and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas lines, came to Waco in the early 1880s.
1884: The population reaches 12,000. 50,000 bales of cotton
were being shipped through Waco annually. During the 1880s and 90s
artesian wells were expanded and two natatoriums were built - one
of them a hotel built by J. Reily Gordon who later built the McLennan
County courthouse in 1901.
1887: Waco University merges with Baylor U., which
had moved to Waco from Independence,
Texas.
1890: Waco had streetcars pulled by mules and began to build
a system of parks, often with donated land.
1898: Waco industries include railroads, ice plants, flour
mills, foundries, boiler plants, and bottling works.
1900: Waco becomes the 6th largest city in Texas.
190I: Twenty electric trolleys were operating on city streets
and the Beaux-Arts courthouse was finished.
1905: a street paving program began
1909: The Cotton Palace
was built, and soon became one of the most popular fairs in the
south; in 1913 an estimated 500,000 people visited the site.
1911: The
Amicable Insurance Building, at twenty-two-stories becomes the
tallest building in Texas
1913: An electric interurban railway opened between Waco
and Dallas.
1917: Camp MacArthur opens (1917 to 1919) an infantry training
base covering more than 10,000 acres The 35,000 troops assigned
to the camp doubled Waco's population.
"The Reservation" - Waco's licensed red-light district since
the 1870s is shut down this year.
1930: population reaches 53,848
The Cotton Palace, a symbol of the city's prosperity, was shut down.
It later burned.
Based on a fear of not appearing "progressive"- the electric trolleys
were discontinued and replaced with buses.
1940: 55,982 people lived in Waco
World War II revives the cotton industry and Waco Army Flying
School and Blackland Army Air Field (China Spring) were opened.
1948: Waco Army Air Field was reactivated as Connally Air
Force Base
1952: population was 84,300
1953: A tornado nearly levels downtown. Hundreds of people
were buried in the rubble of buildings whose brick walls were not
braced. The loss of nearly 600 downtown buildings is still evident
today.
1966: Connally Air Force Base is closed
1970: the population was 95,326
1980: population reaches 101,216
1990: population is 103,216
|
