The university's Strecker Museum was also the oldest continuously operating museum in the state until it closed in 2003, and the collections moved to the new Mayborn Museum Complex.

It moved to Waco in 1886 and merged with Waco University, becoming an integral part of the city. In 1845, Baylor University was founded in Independence, Texas. In 1885, the soft drink Dr Pepper was invented in Waco at Morrison's Old Corner Drug Store. The Reservation was suppressed in the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, a red-light district called the 'Reservation' grew up in Waco, and prostitution was regulated by the city. Since 1971, the bridge has been open only to pedestrian traffic and is in the National Register of Historic Places. The population of Waco grew rapidly, as immigrants now had a safe crossing for their horse-drawn carriages and wagons. Some chose to pay the Suspension Bridge toll, while others floated their herds down the river. The cowboys and cattle-herds following the Chisholm Trail north, crossed the Brazos River at Waco.

The economic effects of the Waco bridge were immediate and large. Griffith, a civil engineer based in New York, for the supervisory engineering work. The company commissioned a firm owned by John Augustus Roebling in Trenton, New Jersey, to supply the bridge's cables and steelwork and contracted with Mr. They formed the Waco Bridge Company to build the 475-foot (145 m) brick Waco Suspension Bridge, which was completed in 1870. In 1866, Waco's leading citizens embarked on an ambitious project to build the first bridge to span the wide Brazos River. 1866–1900 Waco in 1886 Suspension Bridge, Waco, Texas Because of this, Ross is considered to have been the founder of Waco, Texas. His daughter Kate was the first settler child born in Waco. In March 1849, Shapley Ross built the first house in Waco, a double-log cabin, on a bluff overlooking the springs. Property owners wanted to name the city Lamartine, but Erath convinced them to name the area Waco Village, after the Indians who had lived there. In 1849, Erath designed the first block of the city.

Jacob De Cordova bought McLennan's property and hired a former Texas Ranger and surveyor named George B. Neil McLennan settled in an area near the South Bosque River in 1838. In 1902, the Waco received allotments of land and became official US citizens. In 1872, they were moved onto a reservation in Oklahoma with other Wichita tribes. The Waco were eventually pushed out of the region, settling north near present-day Fort Worth. Austin PapersĪfter further violence, Austin halted an attempt to destroy their village in retaliation.

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