"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 by destiny; but 
certainly, Rozek demonstrates, by design.

_________________________________________________________

BARBARA J. ROZEK lives in Houston, Texas, where she teaches 
advanced placement U.S. history at Taylor High School.


Number Ninety-four: Centennial Series of the Association of 
Former Students, Texas A&M University