History of Galveston, Texas Harbor and headed for Havana, becoming the final Confederate ship to slip through the blockade from any Southern port. In the late 1890s, the Fort Crockett defenses and coastal artillery batteries were constructed in Galveston and along the Bolivar Roads. Juneteenth, which is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States, owes its origins to the announcement of the Emancipation Proclamation upon the return of Union forces to Galveston in 1865. Galveston was the first city in Texas to provide a secondary school and public library for African Americans. At the end of the
History of Galveston, Texas Lewis Moody, Jr., a member of one of Galveston's leading families, founded the American National Insurance Company. Two years later, Mr. Moody would further invest in Galveston by establishing the City National Bank, which would later become the Moody National Bank. A military facility by the US Army Coastal Artillery on Galveston Island was established in the late 1890s and construction, which was disrupted by the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, was completed in the early 1900s, with the facility being named Fort Crockett in 1903. During the First World War, Fort Crockett served as a US Army artillery training center.