June 5, 2013 (Wednesday)
“Leave off the ‘Sam’ and call it ‘Houston'” –Sam Houston (in a letter to Mrs. A. C. Allen, sister of the city’s founders, who asked him about naming the city, “Sam Houston.”).
It was on this day, June 5, in 1837 that Houston, Texas was incorporated as a city. It was founded the previous year, and named temporary capital of Texas. It was the namesake of General Sam Houston, who had won Independence for The Republic of Texas at San Jacinto April 21, 1836.
By 1900, Houston had grown to 39,000 population. Over the following ten years it doubled in size, and from then on kept growing to become the nation’s fourth largest city and fifth largest Metropolitan area with more than 6 million people. It was recognized recently as the place where a person is most likely to find employment in this country.
It’s my home town. At least I was born in a place known as Houston, Texas, but the place that goes by that name today is not exactly the same place where I grew up. Landmarks are gone and freeways have taken their places. I can take you to many places in that city and tell you what used to be there.
Many years ago in Houston someone started a church that went by the name, “Clark Street Baptist Church,” later changed to “Liberty Road Baptist Church.” I happened to be born a couple of blocks from that church, but was almost 17 years old when I started attending services there on a regular basis. Through the efforts of that church I was brought to Christ and began serving him. The church moved to another part of town later on, dropping the word, “Road,” from its name. The earlier building burned to the ground, leaving nothing on the lot but the old concrete baptistry. The church, however, lives on in the lives of all the people who were a part of it through the years.
Devotional Thought: In the book, “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” a little girl named, “Topsy,” insisted that no one made her, that she probably just grew. Well, with all due respect to Topsy, there was more to her than that. Someone finally came into her life to help her see that God made her and somebody loved her. I’m thankful for all those in Houston who helped me grow up to answer God’s call to the ministry, who encouraged me every step of the way. Houston’s history is more than industry and jobs; its churches have contributed far more to their city, state, nation and world than we will ever know.
Click here to read the Allen Brothers advertisement for their newly-founded city