16,146 teachers were employed. There are many high schools and academies and several colleges, the most important being the University of Texas at Austin, which has an endowment of $5,000,000; Henry College at Campbell; Fort Worth University (M. E.) at Fort Worth; Ft. Worth Polytechnic (M. E. So.); Baylor University at Waco, founded by the Baptists in 1845; St. Edwards' College (R. C.) at Austin; and the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Texas at Bryan, endowed by the United States government. The state has four public normals for white people and Prairie View State College (normal and industrial) for colored citizens. Separate schools are maintained for the races, and educational affairs are under the supervision of a state board of education, a state superintendent and county superintendents.
Charities. There are three state schools for the deaf or blind, three insane asylums, a state orphan's home, an epileptic colony and a Confederate Soldier's Home. The state's penitentiaries are at Rusk and Huntsville; a reformatory for boys at Gatesville.
Irrigation. Irrigation in some sections of the arid portions of the state is a very old agricultural aid. The valley of the Rio Grande has many canals for this purpose that have remained almost unchanged to this day. Since 1900 large canal-systems take water from the Brazos, Trinity, Colorado, Guadalupe and other streams to the rice-fields of southern Texas. Numerous small farms are irrigated from surface-wells, and the irrigation-systems of Colorado and Brazos Rivers are worthy of mention. Orchard-fruits, small fruits, grain and forage-crops have been satisfactorily produced in these localities. The soil whereever irrigated yields abundantly, and is adapted in different sections either to agricultural or subtropical products. (See Irrigation.)
Government and Cities. The governor and other officers are chosen every two years; the legislature is made up of the senate and house of representatives. The state capitol at Austin (population 29,860), is the largest in the Union. The land-office still controls 5,000,000 acres of public lands. Texas has 14,281 miles of railway and 624 miles of electric lines. The chief cities are San Antonio (96,614), Houston (78,800), Dallas (92,104), Galveston (36,981) and Fort Worth (73,312). Galveston, the chief seaport, was visited by a most destructive hurricane on Sept. 8, 1900. The loss of life entailed by the hurricane was close upon 3,000, while property to the value of about $25,000,000 was destroyed. (See Galveston.)
History. The Spaniards explored Texas at a very early date. La Salle in 1685 founded Fort St. Louis on Lavaca River. But sickness and the Indian tomahawk
blotted out the settlement, and the country was claimed and held by the Spaniards, who founded the missions of Dolores, San Antonio and San Agostino. Indian raids and rebellions, followed by massacres, made Texas a desert, and to people it Mexico invited American colonists in 1820, and within a few years 20,000 had settled there. Many annoyning acts by the officials of Coahuila, of which Texas was a part, resulted in the Americans sending General Austin to ask that Texas be admitted as a state of the Mexican Union. He was thrown into prison, and troops sent to Texas. In 1835 the Texans rose en masse, drove out the Mexicans after hard fighting, and proclaimed a republic. The cruel massacre of the garrison of the Alamo (q. v.) by President Santa Anna was followed by his overwhelming defeat at San Jacinto by General Houston. The independence of Texas was acknowledged by the United States in 1839. In 1845 it was annexed to the American Union. At once a dispute with Mexico arose over the southern boundary, Mexico claiming to the Nueces, the United States to the Rio Grande. The result of the Mexican War fixed the southern boundary of the United States at the Rio Grande, and the sale by Texas to the United States of lands to the north and west for $10,000,000 settled the detail of the state's boundary as it is to-day. It was also given the right to divide into five states, if its future growth should require it. The state seceded in February, 1861, and was readmitted to the Union in 1870. The name of Texas means Friends and was that of the Indians first living there, whom the Spaniards called Tejas or Tecas. The nickname of The Lone Star State comes from the flag of the republic of Texas, a white ground with an azure star. See Bancroft's History of Texas.
Texas, University of, is at Austin, but its medical department is at Galveston. In 1839 the Texan republic took the first step to establishing this university, in 1858 the legislature of the state provided for organizing it, and in 1876 the constitution appropriated 1,000,000 acres to it. Incorporation came in 1881, and it opened in 1883, when 1,000,000 acres more were given. It is the crown of the Texan school-system, and is coëducational. It is governed by regents appointed by the governor, two every two years, for terms of eight years, the state senate confirming the nominations. It includes the departments of literature, science and arts; engineering; law; medicine (including a pharmaceutical school); and summer-schools. It has also had charge of the Texan mineral survey since 1901. The faculty numbers 140, the students 2,290, the library 60,000 volumes. The productive funds amount to $2,000,000, and the annual income is about $280,000.
