The history of Galveston is the history of Texas. Beyond that, it is the history of the European colonization of the New World. Galveston has seen cannibalistic Indians, Spanish conquistadors, explorers, filibusters, pirates and their treasure, ship wrecks, Civil War battles, yellow fever epidemics and survived all these to become the leading city in Texas in both population and commerce during the mid and late 19th Century. The heroes of the Alamo and San Jacinto have walked her streets. Jim Bowie, Sam Houston, General Santa Anna and President David G. Burnett are but a few of the men whose names fill our history books. She has seen a fleet of pirate ships anchored in her harbor as well as the Union Navy. Galveston had the first telegraph, first telephone, first electric lights, first medical and nursing schools in the state and the list goes on and on. At one time she had over forty millionaires living in kingly mansions of almost every style of architecture along Broadway and other avenues.