Come to Texas

by Rozek, Barbara J.

• ISBN13: 9781585442676
• ISBN10: 1585442674
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2003-07-01
• Publisher: Texas A & M Univ Pr

Summary

"Come to Texas, " urged countless advertisements, newspaper articles, and private letters in the late nineteenth century. Expansive acres lay fallow, ready to be turned to agricultural uses. Entrepreneurial Texans knew that drawing immigrants to those lands meant greater prosperity for the state as a whole and for each little community in it. They told the "Texas story" to whoever would read it. In this book Barbara J. Rozek documents their efforts, shedding light on the importance of their words in peopling the Lone Star State. Rozek traces the efforts first of the state government (until 1876) and then of private organizations, agencies, businesses, and individuals to entice people to Texas. In whatever form, the appeals were to hope--hope for lower infant mortality rates, business and farming opportunities, education, and marriage--and they reflected the hopes of those writing. Using archival material, Rozek shows the enthusiasm with which Texans promoted their native or adopted home as the perfect home for others. Texas is indeed an immigrant state--perhaps

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Preface	ix
Words of Enticement	3	(18)
A Bureau of Immigration	21	(19)
Closing the Government Door	40	(19)
Words, Words, Words	59	(20)
A Tantalizing Array of Invitations	79	(22)
Government Gets the Message Out	101	(18)
Advertising Texas	119	(22)
Railroading People In	141	(27)
Galveston and the Immigrants	168	(22)
Texas, the Immigrant State	190	(9)
Notes	199	(26)
Bibliography	225	(14)
Index	239