Marion Merseburger, “A Political History of Houston, Texas, during the Reconstruction Period as Recorded by the Press: 1868-1873” (MA thesis, Rice University, 1950).

https://hdl.handle.net/1911/88972

Very much a “Dunning school” / Coulter era view throughout this thesis, but with some valuable sources and timelines.

Chapter 1

p. 5: speaking of the unsettled confidence in the City Council appointed by Reynolds in fall of 1867:

As a result of the desperate financial straits in which the city found itself, very few civic improvements could be made. There was great need for the grading of the streets, for the improvement of street crossings, for the construction of more bridges, for a suitable market house, for decent city offices; yet there was small expectation that the city would be able to provide these. Only a few token improvements could be contracted for. However, an important step was taken when the Council authorized its Street and Bridge Committee to contract with the Houston Gas Light Company for the lighting of the city streets, the Council chamber, and the market house. It also granted a charter to a street railway company, but nothing significant was ever done by this company.

pp. 8ff deal with the events of the summer of 1868. She also details purported efforts that year by the Democracy to recruit Black men into their clubs.

p. 28 discusses the “Teutonic Band of Brothers” or T. B. O. B., which placed its placards on lampposts and which the Houston Daily Union identified as a Klan organization in all but name.

p. 29 reports the existence of a “Thad. Stevens Republican Club” for Black women presided over by a prominent Black Republican, organized in August 1868.

Chapter 2 - 1869

Focuses on the lead up to the state elections that elevated Davis to governorship

p. 47: Describes the resignation of A. K. Taylor over his salary and the appointment of “Captain M. E. Davis, former Houston agent of the Freedmen’s Bureau,” to his place on February 23, 1869, as a “minor change.”

p. 48: in February 1869 there was a “duel” between J. G. Tracy, editor of the Houston Daily Union and Sommers Kinney, editor of the Houston Times, in which a bystander was killed, leading Tracy to be charged with murder. Judge Fayle refused to seat Black jurors, angering “the Radicals,” who had Reynolds remove Fayle on the grounds of his refusal to seat Black jurors. Merseburger reads the whole episode in a way critical of Radicals and Reynolds.

p. 51: Says that the rumored appointment of a Black police officer that caused controversy around this time turned out not to be true.

p. 56: reports a meeting from June 16, 1869, in which Hamilton addressed conservatives in the square, while at the same time 80 Black women and 150 Black men attended speeches by Keppard and Carter—Erastus Carter?—at the courthouse. See also Juneteenth page.

p. 57 - says that the Harris County Republican Club (formed in March 1869) met before April 7 “in the negro Baptist church, but thereafter, the club gathered in its own rooms in the Concrete Building.”

p. 58 - identifies a growing split within the Club between radicals led by Tracy and the conervative “bolting group” led by Fayle who eventually joined the Conservatives.

p. 59-60 - A speech by W. P. Hamblin (who later becomes a Democrat? see p. 170) at the club’s May 19, 1869, meeting “urged the negroes to rise and demand the number of public offices commensurate with their strength in the country,” over the apparent objections of Tracy and Bachelder. She sees the election of men like Richard Allen to the legislature as examples of Black leaders who were more aligned with Tracy and Bachelder in seeing Black Texans as potential partisan voters; those who won more local office, she claims, were more representative of the rank and file within the Black community. (The position also taken by Pitre on Allen?)

p. 61 - at county club meeting to elect delegates to state nominating convention on June 5 in Houston, Black delegates selected for 3 of the 4 delegates (and 13 of 23 alternates) sent to convention to oppose A. J. Hamilton. The other delegate was Tracy.

p. 68 - J. T. Brady identified as a prominent Democratic leader.

Chapter 3 - 1870

As Democrats regroup in the summer of 1870, Goldthwaite and Lubbock noted as key Democrats.

p. 103 - a quote from the Daily Telegraph denouncing the appointment of Black aldermen to the City Council.

p. 105 - new City Charter from 1870 expanded city limits for taxation purposes, and office of street commissioner created

p. 105 - newly appointed Council, according to Merseburger, “defied the recommendations of both the Republican Club and the Loyal League” in its elections for city marshal (selecting Joseph Smallwood over Louis Baptiste 8 to 2) and for assessor and collector

p. 108 - appointment of two African American city policemen

p. 111 - The Houston Daily Union opposed council’s appointment of A. R. Masterson, a Democrat, over radical A. C. Rogers, as city attorney.

p. 112-113 - depicts a split between Quick and four Black aldermen on the Council as the Radicals, against Binz and more conservative councilmen, with Binz resigning in the last days of December. He was then replaced by the governor with A. C. Rogers

Chapter 4 - 1871

p. 121 - in late January, Davis removes 4 of 10 aldermen, replacing Huebner (a conservative from Binz’s faction) with Taylor Burke, the Black former “deputy sheriff of the county.” T. H. Hailey (also a Binz faction conservative) was replaced by Hilliard Taylor, clerk in a dry good store and also a Black man. Simultaneously, Parker replaced by Love (a former Democrat but now a Radical and an agent for the Union) and Johnson Rice by D. J. Johnson. According to Merseburger, all of these changes had the effect of strengthening Radical control desired by Tracy and Quick. But contemporary evidence makes it hard to assess why these changes were made.

p. 122-123: J. E. Whittesley resigned as street commissioner and was replaced by a Black man: James Snowball.

p. 130: “Burden, additional to the market house and the Campbell and Courtney contracts, was placed on the city’s finances on February 9, by the Council’s authorization of the subscription to two hundred shares of stock to cost ten thousand dollars, of the State Fair Association.”

p. 131: “Monday was saved by permitting the street commissioner to use city convict labor exclusively on his jobs.”

p. 134-135: special Congressional elections scheduled for that year, with attention on Third Congressional District—a perceived state Radical stronghold that included Harris County."

p. 140: May 24, “the negroes of the city met at the Antioch Baptist Church, and nominated an elder in their church, as candidate for Congress; however, the white Radicals successfully defeated this move,” as well as an attempt by Richard Nelson to stand for nomination.¹ Eventually W. T. Clarke was nominated at convention on August 2, over the vocal objections of Allen and Gaines who said that at least one of the four Texas congressional seats should be filled by a Black Republican.

p. 142: two mass meetings held by Radicals that summer, one on June 7 (followed by “Colored Labor Convention” on June 8 and June 9) and one on August 17, which was preceded by a torchlight parade with 200 Black marchers and a brass band. The Union claimed 10,000 were present to hear Governor Davis speak.

p. 145-146: election held in early October, amid disputes over registration and alleged fraud

DeWitt Giddings wins amid controversy, but Clarke takes Harris County

Chapter 5 - 1872

This year in November, there would be open city elections, and presidential vote

pp. 158-159: bids requested by city for sidewalks, referred to special committee of Whittlesey, Burke, Brock, McDonald, and Johnson, and then majority elects “to award contracts to Hitchcock and Company for brick or asphalt paving and to Richard Allen for wooden sidewalks, allowing the property owners to decide which type they would prefer.”

p. 160 - repairs needed for a bridge across Buffalo Bayou, and a bid for a wooden bridge accepted.²

p. 170 - John H. Reagan, W. P. Hamblin, Ashbel Smith, and George Goldthwaite mentioned as prominent Democrats at state convention in Corsicana on June 17; prior to the Baltimore convention endorsing Greeley. On July 27 in Houston, a meeting of Liberal Republicans and Democrats meet in Houston to endose the Baltimore decision: present were R. Q. Mills, D. C. Giddings, Goldthwaite, and others.

p. 175 - a convention of the “Joint Committee of Wards” to nominate city office candidates for the Democrats was called by I. C. Lord and held on September 19.

p. 176 - a mass meeting of Democrats on October 23 was disrupted: “At the conclusion of the speaking, as the parade was about to leave the courthouse, three drays and a hack driven by negroes were rapidly run through the procession, done, the Telegraph charged, on instructions from the Radicals.”³

p. 180 - radicals state convention was held in Houston during the State Fair; then, at Third Congressional District nominating convention on August 6, Richard Allen defeated for nomination as congressman by A. J. Evans, while Erastus Carter was defeated by C. C. Gillespie as nominee for presidential elector.

p. 182: Radicals nominate county officers in September, and city officers on October 1, at a meeting with John Cos as secretary. Taylor Burke nominated as street commissioner; Richard Brock nominated as alderman.

Chapter 6 - 1873

A growing rift on the City Council between Scanlan and his allies, and the Black aldermen and theirs. Among the disputed matters is licensing of vehicles to the Fair Grounds