Harris County was created in December 22, 1836
(Organized in 1837) (as Harrisburg
County; Renamed to Harris in 1840) as an Original
County. Harris County was named for John Richardson Harris, an early settler of the future county. The County Seat is Houston. The Official County website is located at http://www.co.harris.tx.us. See also Extended History for more historical details.
Built in 1910 in Beaux-Arts style of granite and brick, this current courthouse was designed by Lang, Winchell & Barglebaugh. The 1953 annex is a Contemporary structure constructed of granite and brick.
PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.
Harris County Clerk has Court Records from 1837 , Land Records from 1837, Probate Records from 1837, Marriage Records from 1837 and Birth/Death Records from 1903 is located at 201 Caroline , 4th floor,
Houston, TX 77251; (713) 755-6411 [Branch Locations]
Mailing Address: Harris County Clerk, P.O.
Box 1525,
Houston, TX 77251-1525 . The County Clerk's Office is the record keeper of the county. The county records include birth certificates, death certificates, marriage licenses, brand registrations, DD214s (military discharges), land / real estate / property records, probate and civil filings.
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Harris County Court Records by clicking the link below:
Texas Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.
Click Here to Search Texas Birth, Marriage & Death Records! - Birth, marriage, and death records are connected with central life events. They are prime sources for genealogical information. Look also for baptism, christening, and burial records in this collection.
Vital Records,1100 West 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756, Please allow up to approximately 6-8 weeks for processing of all type of certificates when ordered through the mail. They have the following records:
Birth Certificates: Birth records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present. For births that occurred within the past 75 years, copies can be requested only by the immediate family of the person whose name is on the birth certificate.
Cost: The cost of a birth record is $22.00. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $22.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Death Certificates: Death records maintained by Bureau of Vital Statistics, Dept. of Health since 1903 through the present.
For deaths that occurred in the past 25 years, copies can be requested only by immediate family members of the deceased.
Cost: The cost of a certified death certificate is $20.00 for the first copy and $3.00 for each additional copy issued at the same time for the same certificate. If no record is found or no copy is made, state law requires that we keep $20.00 for a searching fee. Please do not send cash in the mail.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Marriage & Divorce Certificates: Marriage Verifications from Jan 1966 and Divorce Verifications from Jan 1968. Certified copies of marriage licenses or divorce decrees are only available from the county clerk (marriage) or district clerk (divorce) in the county or district in which the event occurred. Marriage verification or divorce verification letters can now be ordered ELECTRONICALLY
Cost: $20 - Fee is for verification only.
Processing Time: 6-8 weeks when ordered by MAIL or 2-5 Days when you order ELECTRONICALLY
Order Online: You can also order Order Electronically and get the certificates within 2-5 days by ordering below
Order In Person: The certificates may be ordered by coming into this office. If you want the copy the same day, our hours for same day service are 8:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. Monday – Friday. The Texas Vital Statistics Office in Austin is located at 1100 W. 49th Street,
Austin, TX 78756.
Order By Mail: Mail a check or money order (no cash) payable to the "Texas Vital Records " along with the necessary information to the following address: Texas Vital Records, Department of State Health Services, PO Box 12040,
Austin TX 78711-2040. Please include return address on envelope and application form.
Search the Social Security Death Index for FREE - Search over 82 million death records and get genealogical information crucial to your family research. New content added weekly! Most comprehensive SSDI site online!
Research Death records In The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of historical Texas newspaper articles about deaths. Search for local articles about an old family friend that died many years ago or a celebrity that committed suicide. Historical newspapers contain a wealth of information about the deceased.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29 - Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If you're unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu. These records can be searched by father's first and last names, mother's first and maiden names, year, county, and city. The certificates include the child and parents' full names, residence, occupations, age, time and date of the birth, and the name of the physician attending the birth.
Texas Death Certificates, 1890-1976 - These records are searchable by first and last name of the deceased, year, county, and city. A certificate may include the decedent's date, place, and cause of death; age; date of birth; last residence; and marital status. If known, it will also include occupation, birth place, parents' names, and place of burial. Browse by county, then year, then surname, beginning with the first letters of the last name of the person you seek. If unsure of the year or location, use the search box under the browse menu.
Click Here to Search Texas Voter Lists & Census Records! - Few, if any, records reveal as many details about individuals and families as do government census records. Substitute records can be used when the official census is unavailable.
Countywide Records: Federal Population Schedules that exist for Harris County, Texas are 1850, 1860, 1870, 1880, 1890 (fragment, see below), 1900, 1910, 1920 and 1930. The Texas State Library holds microfilm editions for all of Texas' federal censuses. Although the 1850, 1860, and part of the 1870 mortality schedules have been published, all the original mortality schedules are at the Texas State Library and on microfilm The 1830 territorial census of Miller County, Arkansas, enumerates an area that is in today's Texas boundaries. The remaining 1890 population schedules which exist for Texas include: Ellis County (Justice Precinct 6, Mountain Peak, and Ovilla Precinct); Hood County (Precinct 5); Rusk County (No. 6 and Justice Precinct No. 7); Trinity County (town of Trinity and Justice Precinct 2); and Kaufman County (Kaufman). Although Greer County in present-day Oklahoma functioned as part of Texas between 1886 and 1896, the 1890 census for this county was enumerated under Oklahoma Territory.
Other Federal Schedules to look at when researching your family tree in Harris County, Texas are Industry and Agriculture Schedules availible for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. Slave Schedules exist for 1850 & 1860. The Mortality Schedules for the years 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880. There are free downloadable and printable Census forms to help with your research. These include U.S. Census Extraction Forms and U.K. Census Extraction Forms
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Census Records. Email us with websites containing Harris County Census Records by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Atlas has images of old American atlases during the years 1795, 1814, 1822, 1823, 1836, 1838, 1845, 1856, 1866, 1879 and 1897 for Arkansas and other states.
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundaries for each census year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states at Census Maps
You can view rotating animated maps for Texas showing all the county boundary changes for each year overlayed with past and present maps so you can see the changes in county boundaries. You can view a list of maps for other states and State Department of Transportation Maps at County Maps.
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Maps. Email us with websites containing Harris County Maps by clicking the link below:
Click Here to Search Texas Military Records! - Military and civil service records provide unique facts and insights into the lives of men and women who have served their country at home and abroad.
The uses and value of military records in genealogical research for ancestors who were veterans are obvious, but military records can also be important to re-searchers whose direct ancestors were not soldiers in any war. The fathers, grandfathers, brothers, and other close relatives of an ancestor may have served in a war, and their service or pension records could contain information that will assist in further identifying the family of primary interest. Due to the amount of genealogical information contained in some military pension files, they should never be overlooked during the research process. Those records not containing specific genealogical information are of historic value and should be included in any overall research design.
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Military Records. Email us with websites containing Harris County Military Records by clicking the link below:
Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783 (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents in NARA publication M246 include muster rolls, payrolls, strength returns, and other miscellaneous personnel, pay, and supply records of American Army units, 1775-83.
Southern Claims Commission from the State of Texas (The National Archives): View, Print Copy & Save Original Documents In the 1870s, southerners claimed compensation from the U.S. government for items used by the Union Army, ranging from corn and horses, to trees and church buildings.
Texas tax records constitute one of the most complete sets of available records generated at the county level (by the Commissioners Court) because these documents are maintained by the state. These lists may only include approximately sixty percent of eligible males over the age of twenty-one. Persons exempted from taxes included native Americans, "idiots," "incompetents," and those exempted because of age. This final category of exemptions varied over time. Years without an older age exemption were 1840 and 1862-70. Between 1841-44 exemptions began at forty-five years; in 1845 and from 1850-61 the upward age was set at fifty years. In 1837, 1848, and 1849 the limit was established as fifty-five, and in 1846-7, and 1871 the upward limit was set at sixty years.
Texas Ad Valorem (poll, personal, and real property) tax records for 1836 through 1976 are available in microfilm at the Texas State Library from the date of respective county organization; these are arranged by county and date and are somewhat alphabetized within each division. Microfilm copies are housed in the Genealogy Section. Tax lists for the various counties from creation to 1901 may be borrowed through interlibrary loan. Tax records through 1901-1947 are readily accessible, but not on interlibrary loan. Those for 1948 through 1976 can be obtained upon request.
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Harris County Tax Records by clicking the link below:
The Repositories
in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical
and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical
Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly,
quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies
should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are
usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived
materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be
more generalized and over look the smaller details that local
societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to
look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy
section and may have some resources that are not located at
archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums
in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years
gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All
these places are vitally important to the family genealogist
and must not be passed over.
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Harris County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:
Houston Genealogical Forum,
P.O. Box 271466,
Houston 77277-1466 Meets 1st Sat. of the month Sept.- May at 9:30 a.m. at
Bayland Park Community Center 6400 Bissonnet Hou., TX; "The Genealogical Record" newsletter published quarterly
Texas State Library and Archives Commission, P.O. Box 12927, Austin, TX 78711-2927 Holdings under the auspices of the Texas State Library are divided. Most important for genealogical research are the Texas State Archives with its Local Records Department, the Records Management Division, and the Information Services Division, which includes a Genealogy Section and a Reference Department.
The Genealogy Section maintains vertical ties that contain notes, clippings, pamphlets, and correspondence on Texas families. These files may be accessed in person, by phone (512-463-5463, forty-five minute limit), or through correspondence.
Texas Historical Commision The Texas Historical Commission (THC) is the state agency for historic preservation. THC staff consults with citizens and organizations to preserve Texas' architectural, archeological and cultural landmarks. The agency is recognized nationally for its preservation programs.
Texas Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
Click Here to Search Texas Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.
During Texas's colonization period Roman Catholics were the most numerous, but early citizens included those representing other religious faiths such as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Christian or Disciples of Christ.
Many cemetery records have been collected and transcribed, including the largest of which is multi-volumes compilation by the DAR and two volumes for Peters Colonists and descendants. The DAR collection, also microfilmed, is available at the Texas State Library and through the FHL.
Some Texas county historical and genealogical societies have published local cemetery and/funeral home records. These are normally available for purchase through the respective society. Two references can help determine which cemeteries have been recorded: Kim Parsons', A Reference to Texas Cemetery Records (Humble, Tex.: by author, 1988), arranged by county; and Sharry Crofford-Gould's, Texas Cemetery Inscriptions: A Source Index (San Antonio, Tex.: Limited Editions, 1977).
Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Harris County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:
Find Obituaries in The World's Largest Newspaper Archive at NewpaperArchive.com! - Find thousands of Texas obituaries to help you research your family history. Search for a Texas newspaper obituary about your ancestor or a celebrity. Begin your search today and find death notices and funeral announcements printed in newspapers from Texas.
Click Here to Search Texas Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.
When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Harris County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information. Email us with websites containing Harris County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:
Genealogy Encyclopedia: General Abbreviations, Early Illnesses, Nickname Meanings, Worldwide Epidemics, Early Occupations, Common Terms, Censuses Explained, Free Genealogical Forms
Nichols and Related Families of Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virgina.
Texas Family & Local History Records - The Family & Local Histories Collection lets you read journals, memoirs, and other first-hand historical narratives right on your computer. Gathered from some of the world's finest libraries, these materials may provide hard-to-find town, county, and state information; tax records and wills; military, church, and court records; as well as photographs, stories, and maps.
Archeological sites in Harris County reveal the presence of human beings 6,000 years ago. The oldest contains a previously undisturbed deposit of bone remains and dart points dating from 4000 to 1000 B.C. A site on Clear Lake features a shell midden and cemetery with early ceramics dating between 1400 B.C. and A.D. 950. Other sites in the western area and along Galveston Bay have yielded pottery, stone tools, and points from 2,000 years ago. Many shell middens along the bayshore and brackish streams were destroyed in the nineteenth century when residents used the convenient shell heaps for construction. Although Spain claimed the Texas Gulf Coast, few Europeans visited the future Harris County between 1528 and 1821. It is possible that Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca ascended the San Jacinto River from Galveston Island about 1529 to trade with the woodland Indians, but his adventures failed to stimulate interest in the Texas coast. A few French traders from Louisiana visited Indians living on Spring Creek between the 1730s and 1745, but made no settlement. A Spanish mission and presidio complex, El Orcoquisac, was maintained near the mouth of the Trinity from 1756 to 1771 to monitor and oppose the intrusion of foreigners. In 1746 Capt. Joaquín de Orobio y Basterra from La Bahía visited the Orcoquisac villages along Spring Creek while looking for French traders. He reported the lack of roads or maps and on his return blazed a trail westward to find the Old San Antonio Road, on which he had traveled to Nacogdoches on his way to the lower Trinity and San Jacinto rivers. The first Anglo-Americans to explore Harris County were members of the various filibustering expeditions launched from New Orleans between 1815 and 1820 to aid the Mexican Republicans rebelling against Spain. Using Galveston Island and Bolivar Peninsula as a base, the men belonging to the expeditions and encampments of Louis Michel Aury, Francisco Xavier Mina, Jean Laffite, and James Longq looked around the San Jacinto estuary for future homesites, their expected reward for freeing Mexico from Spain. Some of these men were among the pioneer settlers arriving by boat from Louisiana in early 1822, just after the Mexican War of Independence.
Responding to Stephen F. Austin's advertisements, the families wrongly assumed that the San Jacinto estuary was part of his empresario grant. Some moved to the Brazos River in 1824, but merchants and boatmen remained to exploit what turned out to be the best transportation system in Texas and to petition successfully for inclusion in the Austin grant. Since Galveston Island and the Gulf shore were forbidden to Anglo settlement, Harris County was the southeastern border of the colony. The pioneers found no Indians living in the future Harris County. In July 1824 a state land commissioner, the Baron de Bastrop, arrived and spent two months issuing twenty-nine titles to settlers, even though surveys were incomplete. The pioneers, including Nathaniel Lynch, William Scott, and John R. Harris,q chose sites along Buffalo Bayou, the San Jacinto River, and the San Jacinto estuary. Between 1828 and 1833, when Austin's colonization effort virtually ended, twenty-three more families secured titles elsewhere in the county, usually along watercourses. In 1826, John R. Harris laid out Harrisburg on his league where Brays Bayou joined Buffalo Bayou, the head of navigation. He opened a store and built a saw and grist mill, while his brothers captained vessels between there and New Orleans and even Tampico. By 1833 Harrisburg was an established port of entry for immigrants and freight destined for the upper Brazos River communities of San Felipe and Washington. Moreover, it was the hub for east-west roads. Eastward from Harrisburg in 1830, travelers crossed the San Jacinto River on Lynch's Ferry on their way to Anahuac, Liberty, or Nacogdoches. Opposite Harrisburg, a road paralleled Buffalo Bayou heading northwest to a community on Spring Creek, then forked for the Brazos villages. A third important road followed the south bank of Brays Bayou for fifteen miles to a community on Oyster Creek near the site of present-day Stafford in Fort Bend County. This area was known as the San Jacinto District from 1824 until 1833, when it was renamed the Harrisburg District. From 1824 through 1827 Humphrey Jackson was the alcalde for the San Jacinto District, which stretched from Lynchburg on the San Jacinto River to the site of present-day Richmond on the west, and from Spring Creek to Clear Creek. Jackson reported to Stephen F. Austin until 1828, when the newly instituted ayuntamiento at San Felipe relieved the empresario and comisarios were named. The final stage of development under the Mexican system occurred on December 30, 1835, when the General Council set the boundaries of Harrisburg Municipality. Amid the growing crisis that culminated in Texas independence, 264 voters scattered over five precincts chose Edward Wray alcalde on February 1, 1836, and named Lorenzo de Zavala and Andrew Briscoe delegates to the March convention. Harrisburg District was represented at the conventions of 1832 and 1833q and the Consultation in 1835. Some residents also participated in the Anahuac Disturbances in 1832 and 1835 and the call for volunteers in September 1835 to oppose Gen. Martín Perfecto de Cos. On March 12, the required one-third of the Harrisburg militia responded to the call to leave immediately for Gonzales.
Harrisburg Municipality was the home of both President David G. Burnet and Vice President Lorenzo de Zavala of the new Republic of Texas. They were elected by the delegates at Washington after midnight on March 16, 1836, and the next morning left for Harrisburg, where water transportation offered an escape if the Mexican army should win. On March 25 the group reached Harrisburg, where the president conducted business for the next two weeks. Burnet and his bride had moved to Lynchburg from New Jersey in 1831 with equipment for a steam sawmill that he built on the San Jacinto River above Lynch's Ferry. Declining to claim a headright, he bought land from Lynch for his home on a small bay below the ferry. He was not chosen to represent his neighborhood in 1832, 1833, 1835, or 1836 because of his pro-Mexican views. Delegates, torn by rivalries, chose him because he was not a delegate. Zavala, a refugee from Santa Antonio López de Santa Anna's wrath, bought a house on the north side of Buffalo Bayou below Harrisburg in August 1835, and his New York-born second wife and three children joined him in December. The republic's officials evacuated Harrisburg by steamboat to Lynchburg on April 12, when word arrived that Santa Anna's troops were crossing the Brazos below Richmond. The steamboat Cayuga later took the officials and their families to Galveston Island. A constant stream of refugees from the upper Brazos settlements had been crossing Harrisburg Municipality since mid-March en route to the United States.
Santa Anna and his advance units reached Harrisburg at midnight on April 14 and, after a day of looting, set fire to the settlement on the sixteenth. The general dispatched a cavalry troop to Morgan's Point on April 16 that almost captured the Burnet family. The battle of San Jacinto took place on April 20 and 21 opposite Zavala's house on widow Peggy McCormick's farm, where perhaps 600 dead soldiers remained unburied when neither commander ordered interment.
Harrisburg County was formed by the First Congress on December 22, 1836. The lawmakers also named Andrew Briscoe chief justice and the infant city of Houston the county seat and national capital. The county encompassed the territory of the old municipality plus Galveston Island (the mainland was attached to Brazoria County) until May 1838, when its modern boundaries were established. In December 1839, Congress changed the name to Harris County, in honor of John R. Harris. The county briefly lost its northwest corner in 1841 when Spring Creek residents tried to form a separate county. The first county court, convened in February 1837, was composed of the chief justice (called the county judge after 1861), the sheriff, the clerk, and two justices of the peace who served as associate justices. Voters in each militia precinct chose two justices of the peace, and between 1837 and 1846 these men annually elected two of their body to serve as the two associate justices on the county court. Later, with statehood and a new constitution, four county commissioners represented the four precincts on the county court, and justices of the peace exercised their duties only within their precincts. The Congress also established district courts for criminal and civil cases; the first session of the Second District Court met in Houston in March 1837. This court is the forerunner of the Eleventh District Court established after the Civil War. The criminal district court serving Harris and Galveston counties began in 1867 and lasted until 1911, when each county formed its own criminal court. Since the first log court building, the county has built four successive imposing courthouses on the courthouse square in Houston. The 1911 structure still stands but is augmented by four major new buildings on separate blocks housing courts, offices, and the jail. The county has acquired several older office buildings around the courthouse for courts and offices.
Harrisburg recovered from the revolution slowly. By 1853 it had a steam mill and was the terminus for the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway, which crossed the county to Stafford's Point to facilitate the shipment of cotton and sugar. Five other railroads followed before the Civil War. The Galveston, Houston and Henderson connected the island to the mainland, while the Texas and New Orleans constructed tracks along the north side of Buffalo Bayou to Liberty and Orange, thus enabling Confederate troops from Harris County to reach the Neches River on their way to Virginia. The Houston and Texas Central ran west from town to Cypress, Hockley, and Hempstead. The Houston Tap and Brazoria linked Houston with the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado south of town and had a line to Columbia to serve the Brazoria County sugar plantations.
Early settlers in Harris County were mainly from the United States-Southerners bringing their black slaves. Besides cultivating field crops, some of the African Americans worked the cattle on the open-range ranches, particularly in the area south of Buffalo Bayou, which remained ranching country into the early twentieth century. By the 1840s a number of Germans and Frenchq had immigrated to Harris County. Both groups included city-dwelling artisans, merchants, and farmers, some Catholic, some Protestant. Many of the immigrant agrarians settled north and west of Houston and established successful truck and dairy farms that drew Europeans through the turn of the century. Contrary to legend, few Mexican prisoners chose to remain in Harris County when all were released on April 21, 1837, by President Sam Houston. The 1850 United States census revealed no Mexican-born males of the right age in Harris County or surrounding counties. A few Mexican families lived in Houston in the 1880s. It was the economic opportunities offered by the Houston Ship Channel and the railroads, combined with the unsettled political conditions following the Mexican Revolution, that brought Mexicans to Houston. Most settled in the city close to their work and the Catholic churches. Asian immigrants have also settled in large numbers within the city since the 1970s.
While the first settlers lived along the streams, those coming after the Civil War chose sites along the railroads that crisscrossed Harris County. By 1890 land developers in the Midwest had purchased land along the new North Galveston, Houston and Kansas City Railroad, which ran east from Houston along the south side of Buffalo Bayou towards Morgan's Point and south to the mouth of Clear Creek. They expected to attract other midwesterners to raise fruit, berries, and vegetables or just to seek relief from cold winters. Pasadena, Deer Park, and La Porte were established in 1892, and Seabrook followed about 1900. South Houston, Genoa, and Webster developed along the Galveston, Houston and Henderson Railroad after the 1870s. Around the turn of the century, Japanese were invited to the Webster area to develop rice farms on the flat prairies and also at a site on a branch line of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway south of Houston that became Mykawa. Between 1911 and 1936 the Galveston-Houston Electric Railway, called the Interurban, ran parallel to the GH&H and provided thirty-minute service from Webster to Houston. In the 1960s the land east of Webster became the home of the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, renamed the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in 1973. Houston quickly annexed the area. The development changed the rural aspect of the area when several new towns sprang up along the north shore of Clear Lake, the largest being Clear Lake City. Northern Harris County developed similarly. After the Civil War other railways such as the Houston and Great Northern, the Trinity and Brazos Valley, the Houston East and West Texas, and the Burlington-Rock Island entered north Harris County to converge on Houston. The lumbering and farming interests established small towns such as Spring and Tomball along the tracks. The population of Humble, near the Houston East and West Texas Railway, increased with the oil boom at Moonshine Hill in 1905. Harris County east of the San Jacinto River remained an agricultural community focusing on rice culture in the 1890s. Its only commercial developments were small boatyards at Lynchburg and Goose Creek and a brick factory on Cedar Bayou that mushroomed during the 1880s to supply a building boom in Galveston. Between 1903 and 1907 oil was discovered on the eastern shore of the San Jacinto estuary at Goose Creek and Tabbs Bay. Migrant roughnecks and their families moved to the area and established a temporary boomtown amid the derricks between 1915 and 1917. The shantytown was replaced in 1917 by Pelly, which was built on private land above the noisy and dirty oil camp. In 1919 Ross Sterling and his Humble Oil and Refining Company (now Exxon) built a refinery on the San Jacinto above the mouth of Goose Creek. The site was bordered by the Humble company town, Baytown, for workers, and a middle-class enclave, Goose Creek, for executives and others. Pelly and Goose Creek vied for dominance, and after Humble sold the company houses to the workers beginning in the late 1920s, the three towns consolidated to become the "Tri-Cities" in the 1930s and finally to be renamed Baytown in 1948. Eastern Harris County also had an electric interurban train, the Houston-North Shore Railroad, which in 1925 connected the three towns to Crosby and ran along the north side of Buffalo Bayou to downtown Houston.
The development of Harris County as an industrial power began in 1911, when voters approved the formation of the Harris County Ship Channel Navigation District. Authorized by Congress and approved by the state legislature, the district could improve the waterway and manage the waterfront within the county. It immediately issued bonds to widen and deepen the channel in order to make the Houston port accessible to oceangoing vessels. In 1914 the United States Army Corps of Engineers finished deepening the existing fifty-mile-long channel to twenty-five feet from the Gulf through Galveston Bay and up the San Jacinto River and Buffalo Bayou to the district's turning basin at the Port of Houston. By 1918 petroleum refineries began locating along Buffalo Bayou and the San Jacinto River, as did various other industries. Since that time, the channel has been deepened to fifty feet and widened to accommodate larger vessels. The very profitable Harris County Navigation District owns the wharves and warehouses around the turning basin (about two miles above old Harrisburg), the Long Reach docks, and various other facilities, including a bulk handling plant at Greens Bayou, the terminal railroad, and the container facility at the Bayport industrial complex, below Morgan's Point. In addition, in the 1950s the district joined national and state governments to build the Washburn Tunnel under Buffalo Bayou from Pasadena to the north side and the Baytown-La Porte tunnel beneath the San Jacinto River, in order to reduce the number of hazardous automobile ferries. Exports from the port include rice, wheat, grain sorghums, cotton, caustic soda, cement, and petroleum products. Imports include crude oil, iron ore, molasses, coffee, gypsum, and automobiles. Another venture authorized by Harris County voters was the Harris County Domed Stadium, which was completed in 1965 and has been leased to the Houston Sports Association. The Astrodome, the first stadium of its kind, was touted as the "Eighth Wonder of the World." The county also maintains two public hospitals in Houston and since 1935 has worked to control flooding through the Harris County Flood Control District.
The success of the ship channel in attracting industry caused a surge in population. In 1930, when residents numbered 359,328, Harris County surpassed its rivals, Dallas and Bexar counties, by more than 100,000 people. It remained the most populous county in Texas. In 1960 it had more than a million residents. In 1990 it reached a population of 2,818,199, of which 64.7 percent were white, 22.9 percent Hispanic, 19.2 percent black, 3.9 percent Asian, .3 percent American Indian, and 11.9 percent assorted others. The population of Houston, the county seat, was 1,630,553. The six next largest incorporated cities were Pasadena (119,363), Baytown (63,850), Spring (33,111), La Porte (27,910), Deer Park (27,652), and Channelview (25,564). Unincorporated Clear Lake City had an estimated 45,000 residents. Harris County transportation systems serve intrastate and interstate needs with six major railroads hauling freight to distribution centers and to the port; passenger rail service is limited to Amtrak. Buses, trucks, and passenger cars utilize a network of highways including Interstate 10 east and west and Interstate 45 north and south, U.S. Highway 59 crosses the county from northeast to southwest and goes to the Rio Grande valley, and U.S. 290 leads to West Texas via Austin. Loop 610 encircles the heart of Houston, and a second loop, Beltway 8, allows traffic to move around the perimeter of the urban sector. Both loops have high-rise bridges over the Houston Ship Channel, and a third new high-rise bridge spans the San Jacinto River and replaces the Baytown-La Porte tunnel. Two major airports, Houston Intercontinental and William P. Hobby,q are within the city of Houston.
Texas Birth Certificates, 1903-10, 1926-29