A Houston Explained reader (thanks, Bill Thomas!) recently asked about one of the more unusual names in the city’s early history: Obedience Smith.
Hers is a story that dates back to before the Republic of Texas, when Houston was little more than a recently established townsite clouded in speculation, surrounded by prairie and dominated by mosquitoes.
Like many of the city’s early inhabitants, Smith received a land grant intended to encourage permanent settlement in the region — and it was so large that much of it would eventually be carved into parcels and absorbed into the neighborhoods and streets that make up modern Houston…