Writer and Author
Thomas M. Bagby, banker, civic leader, cotton factor, library patron, was born on May 18, 1814, to Daniel and Lucy Bagby. The family moved from Virginia to Montgomery, Tennessee in 1822, where Thomas grew up. In 1837, one year after…
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John Henry “Jack” Yates was born in Gloucester County, Virginia, on July 11, 1828. His parents were Robert and Rachel Yates. When Mrs. Fields, Rachel’s mistress, died, Rachel was given charge of the Fields child. Eventually, the Fields child taught…
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What is now called the Rice Lofts at 909 Texas Avenue, between Main and Travis, was previously the Rice Hotel. The ground it stands on was donated to the Republic of Texas by John and Augustus Allen, the founders of…
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General Sam Houston has sat atop his horse, Saracen, at the entrance of Hermann Park at Montrose and Main streets since August 16, 1925. The bronze equestrian statue stands upon a gray granite arch constructed by Frank Teich. The inside…
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Eldridge Parkway in Houston is named after William Thomas Eldridge. The businessman, city marshal, hotelier, land developer, and railroad man was born on September 8, 1862, in Washington County, Texas. At age 12, Eldridge left home in the early 1880s…
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Monroe Dunaway Anderson, called the “father” of the Texas Medical Center and the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, was born the sixth of eight children to James Wisdom and Ellen (Dunaway) Anderson. He was born on June 29, 1873,…
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The Houston Ship Channel begins as Buffalo Bayou in the north east corner of Fort Bend County 30 miles west of Houston. It flows for 50 miles to the San Jacinto River and empties into Galveston Bay. John and Augustus…
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One of Houston’s most influential businesswomen was born in the 1870s in Manhattan, Kansas, to Thomas and Hannah Marie (McFarland) Keenan. As a young woman, Mellie Keenan moved to Oklahoma, where she met and married Neils Esperson in El Reno…
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Jesse H. Jones was nicknamed “Mr. Houston” because of his activities in developing and promoting Houston. Dr. Red Duke founded Life Flight in 1976 at Hermann Hospital. Sam Houston was the only person to serve as governor of two U.S….
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Julia Bedford Ideson was appointed Houston’s first professional librarian of the Houston Lyceum and Carnegie Library in 1903. She was born July 15, 1880, in Hastings, Nebraska, and moved to Houston as a child. Julia graduated in the University of…
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