Jesse Jones
Jesse H. Jones, elected chairman of the War Fund Drive in 1917, was presented with a fund raising goal of $150,000 but went on to collect $250,000. The remarkable accomplishment stood out because the price of cotton had dropped dramatically that year, causing financial distress throughout the South. Mr. Jones went on to become director of military relief for the American Red Cross in Washington. He was appointed to the Red Cross War Council and became a delegate to the European conferences which formed the League of Red Cross Societies. He later became U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Houston Endowment Inc., the charitable trust established by Jesse H. Jones and his wife, Mary Gibbs Jones has supplied grants to meet the disaster and building needs of the Houston Chapter and to support the growth and service Jesse Jones envisioned.

1900
September 8 - A “Great Storm” sweeps Galveston, killing more than 6,000 of its 37,000 residents. American Red Cross President Clara Barton and volunteers react swiftly establishing a local unit and an orphanage, while giving temporary shelter to thousands. The hurricane remains the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history and the last relief effort Barton personally oversaw.

1916
February 5- Houston Chapter of the American Red Cross forms. Houston's population at the time was 12,000.

1917
March 13 - Local Chapter conducts first annual meeting.
April 6 - America declares war on Germany.

1918
Mary Bartlett is hired as Chapter’s first paid employee earning $75 a month.
Mary Snoddy becomes second paid employee continuing her service until 1952.
Mrs. Frank Moore hands thousands of Red Cross post cards to troops passing through.
Local first aid and water safety classes start as nurses leave for Europe’s front lines.
Houston Ship Channel completed making it a port city.

1919
Families come from everywhere to be with war-wounded. First Charity Hospital opens at Army’s Camp Logan (Memorial Drive area). Veterans' Bureau aids returning servicemen. U.S. Veterans' Bureau rep offices at Chapter headquarters while Motor Service provides transportation and money for the needy.

1920’s
Counseling and claims services provided for veterans as they returned home.
Safety classes increase and fire prevention courses begin. Christmas baskets given to many needy Houston veterans' families.

1926
Lay-instructor program begins for safety services.

1935
Flood engulfs downtown Houston. Red Cross caseworkers assist the low-income families of the Fourth Ward and Heights areas. With no federal money available ARC rebuilds homes, businesses and lives.

1941
Chapter expands to provide help to servicemen and their families. Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Nation goes to war as chapter facility moves to 2710 Albany. Services for families of POWs a re established. Families of American prisoners in Germany transmit to POW camps through Red Cross.

1943
Baytown opens branch office serving area families. Chapter buries unknown victims of Gulf Hotel fire.

1944
Gray Lady Corps, named for the gray veils they wore, is established. Gray ladies served local military hospitals by counseling, transporting, and comforting patients.
City auditorium used several times to help hurricane and other disaster victims..

1946
Chapter counsels vets on benefits programs, employment, housing, medical and personal problems.

1947
April 16 - Texas City Disaster brings heavy chapter involvement with more than 100 paid staff and 5,000 volunteers working for Red Cross.
August 24 – More than 600 houses and buildings damaged and destroyed in storm. Chapter assists with emergency aid and rehabilitation.

1948
Kirby mansion, at 2006 Smith St. becomes first permanent home. Mr. and Mrs. W. A. Paddock furnish the new headquarters.

1950’s
Leon Jaworski heads fund raising, netting three times the established goal. Chapter partners with United Way for fund-raising.
Chapter responds to Foe Elementary School bombing on October 8.

1961
Hurricane Carla pillages Gulf Coast, causing mass movement. Chapter is there, working, supporting, caring and rebuilding.
S.S. Berean and Union Reliance collide in Houston Ship Channel. Chapter responds with first aid assistance.

1962
Chapter teaches artificial respiration to 98,000 people
Volunteer ham radio communication system established by Dr. (Doc) W. Estill. ARC offers both local and worldwide disaster communications through ham and citizen band radio operations. Jan de Harrog writes about poor conditions at Jefferson Davis Hospital. Begins city wide awareness campaign accelerating completion of Ben Taub Hospital.

1964-1966
Christmas "talking letter" program begins families even brought the dog to bark a Yuletide greeting.

1969
Chapter becomes "Texas Gulf Coast Division." Youth volunteers gives 15,000 hours of community services providing Friendship Kits to South Vietnam orphanages, ditty bags to American servicemen, and comforts to local hospitals and community centers.

1970’s
Personnel practices and salary scale adopted for staff. Office of Volunteers renamed to Offices of Volunteer Personnel and Program Development.

1974
After years of effective volunteer services, Mrs. Sally Bossung becomes first woman Chapter chairman. Search and verification begins for locally settled refugees.

1976
Chapter assists veterans with less-than-honorable discharges appeal their cases. ARC is non-legal representative to military discharge boards.

1975
Chapter International Committee is formed to help foreign exchange students and refugees. Chapter helps more than 10,000 people in 21 hours during torrential rains when downtown and Montrose areas are hit hardest.

1978
Disaster Action Teams established

1979
Chapter moves to Kirby Drive and Southwest Freeway.
Tropical storm Claudette hits Pasadena with more than 3,400 affected.
Jurisdictions now includes Ft. Bend and Montgomery counties.

1980
State Department asks Chapter to assist Indochinese refugees.
Hurricane Allen strikes. Chapter shelters more than 2,000 people
Hospital at Nassau Bay area requests and receives 60 permanent trained volunteers.

1981
Radio teletype data link enables instant disaster welfare inquiries and communications from disaster site to headquarters

1983
GHAC expands to nine new counties in response to growth. Now serving twelve counties including: Harris, Montgomery, Liberty, Chambers, Ft. Bend, Wharton, Waller, Austin, Washington, Grimes, Walker and San Jacinto.

Hurricane Alicia
Thursday, Aug. 18, 1983- Hurricane Alicia a category 3 hurricane strikes land at San Luis Pass on the west end of Galveston Island with 130 mph winds and tides 12 feet higher than normal. Red Cross Disaster Services cases increased by nearly 400 per cent the number of people it had assisted the year before. When the year had ended, disaster assistance had focused on helping at total of 60, 910 people. Some 5,000 Red Cross volunteers worked together to tirelessly help victims of Hurricane Alicia.

1985
GHAC opens new service centers in Magnolia Park in Houston’s East End and in Fifth Ward in northeast Houston. This brought the total number of service centers to eight, with centers already operating in Pasadena, Baytown, Clear Lake, Conroe, Richmond and Huntsville. African Relief Campaign raises nearly $240,000 to help the plight of people of drought-stricken Africa.

1987
GHAC Disaster Services assists a record 599 families burned out of their homes.

1988
Construction begins at 2700 Southwest Freeway. Facility dedicated during national convention. The building is named the Jesse H. Jones Memorial American Red Cross Building.

1989
GHAC hosts Houston’s first American Red Cross National Convention, one of the first conventions to be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center. While convention is held Red Cross delivers services for Flood and Tornado damages. Disaster striked at the Sheffield Square Apartments where 62 apartment units were destroyed by fire. Brought under control by more than 130 firefighters in what was.

1990
GHAC assisted a record 907 families burned out of their homes. Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield trigger Red Cross assistance to 6,000 families of military personnel. More than 2,400 youngsters participated in the learn to swim program.

1991
Chapter celebrates 75th Anniversary
One-family disasters (fires) reaches another record high of 1,112 cases, 23 percent increase over previous year

1992
More than 11,000 disaster victims received Red Cross assistance. Including help for 843 area families affected the Christmas time floods, 824 local families affected by the March flash flood and 128 families in Austin and Washington Counties affected by the pipeline explosion near Brenham. In addition, to record assistance to 926 single family fire victims and 104 multi-family fire victims.

1994
GHAC increases service area to17 counties, adds Fayette, Colorado, Houston and Trinity counties.
October 15 Greater Houston Flood and Fire—Torrential rains of 15 to 29 inches and flash flooding over a five-day period set in motion one of the worst disasters in Texas history. Red Cross opens 57 shelters housing more than 4,000 people, Red Cross serves more than 1 million meals, 20 Disaster Relief Centers open, Red Cross provides assistance to more than 10,000 people.

2001
Tropical Storm Allison: 22 deaths, $5 billion in area damage. The nation's worst tropical storm left its mark a devastating "one -two" punch on the Houston area.
Rolling in from the Gulf of Mexico with winds that barely qualified it as a tropical storm , Tropical Storm Allison drenched portions of Harris and Galveston counties with more than 11 recorded inches on the evening of June 5.
Water dumped on the Bayou City by Allison could have filled the Astrodome 5,600 times. More than 70,000 homes and 95,000 vehicles flooded. Property damage topped $5 billion. Areas that never had flooded were submerged. Barriers designed to protect against 100-year floods - those that have a 1 percent likelihood of striking in any given year - were swamped.
September, 11, --911 Terrorist Attack –New York, Washington D.C, Pennsylvania.. Some 30 volunteers from the GHAC served in the worst terror attack and largest disaster with the most lives lost since The Great 1900 Storm hit Galveston, Texas killing more than 6,000 people.

2002
GHAC Disaster Command Center dedicated
Space Shuttle Columbia accident

2003