A Spanish Census of Nacogdoches in 1804 showed there were present: Americans - 20, Irish - 11, English - 2, French - 18, Scots - 1 and 14 Louisiana born French.
1850/1860
|
Nationality |
San Antonio | Galveston | Houston | Austin | New Braunfels |
| German | 412/1477 | 1088/1613 | 425/816 | 60/255 | 951/1001 |
| Irish | 118/310 | 108/344 | 49/241 | 6/30 | 1/1 |
| Mexican | 570/1220 | 8/10 | 6/17 | 2/24 | 1/0 |
| English | 34/68 | 157/300 | 50/114 | 8/32 | 0/2 |
| French | 78/232 | 110/182 | 45/62 | 4/8 | 0/16 |
| Others | 52/294 | 122/249 | 23/100 | 15/75 | 3/20 |
| Total Population | 3268/7543 | 3499/6129 | 1869/3776 | 629/2517 | 1237/1740 |
| Fgn. Population | 1274/3601 | 1593/2698 | 598/1350 | 95/424 | 956/1025 |
| % Foreign | 39.0/47.1 | 48.0/44.0 | 32.0/35.7 | 15.1/16.8 | 77.3/58.9 |
From Census figures of 1850 and 1860
General Comments On This And Other Data Of The Period
In 1860, four of the five towns had foreigners constitute a third or more of their population. This compares to only 10.3 percent that foreigners made up of the whole state's free population. In the period from 1850-1860 the Irish population of Houston increased five-fold while the total population of the city only doubled. Among the "others" listed in the 1860s were Scots (56 in Galveston and 17 in Houston), Poles, Swiss, Russians, Canadians, Italians, Danes, Spanish, Belgians, Dutch, Cubans, Maltese, Portugese, Swedes, Prussian and people from the British West Indies. A quarter of the foreign born population in Houston were property holders, this is meaningful when you extrapolate the figures for children and women, most of whom did not own property. The county and city jails in the major towns had an unusually high percentage of foreigners as part of their population figures, this is believed to be the result of foreigners recieving harsh treatment by the courts.
Occupations Of Foreign Males In Houston, 1860
Houston/Galveston/San Antonio
| Nationality | Craftsman | Laborer | Merchant | Clerk | Professional |
| Germans | 69/42/32 | 92/16/3 | 49/27/21 | 33/14/26 | 9/6/4 |
| Irish | 14/3/5 | 94/10/6 | 9/4/10 | 5/8/3 | 2/0/0 |
| English | 5/4/5 | 7/4/1 | 7/4/0 | 4/3/1 | 3/1/0 |
| French | 10/4/7 | 1/4/0 | 9/1/10 | 0/0/4 | 3/1/0 |
The above information comes from a study of manuscript returns of Schedule No.1 of the 1860 Census of free inhabitants of the United States by Ralph A. Wooster as presented in the Southwestern Historical Quarterly article "Foreigners In The Principal Towns Of Ante-Bellum Texas."
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