Abandoned near Austin Street

Tucked inside the Dec. 19, 1897, edition of the Houston Post was a story about an 11-month-old boy abandoned by his mother.

J.H. Wells, a hack driver, said that on Dec. 8, between 6 and 7 p.m., a "well-dressed woman got off the train and engaged his carriage."

While on Congress Avenue, between Austin and LaBranch, she stopped the carriage and asked the driver to go inside a nearby store to buy some ribbons.

When Wells returned, the woman was gone and the baby was left behind.

The Post reported that if the parents of the child could not be found, the State Superintendent of Homes for Homeless Children "will find a home for it in a Christian family."