LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXAS. LATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXAS. Between the end of Reconstruction (1876) and the beginning of the Progressive era (1900) Texas hardly shared the ostentatious wealth that gave the period the title Gilded Age in America.ATE NINETEENTH-CENTURY TEXAS. Between the end of Reconstruction (1876) and the beginning of the Progressive era (1900) Texas hardly shared the ostentatious wealth that gave the period the title Gilded Age in America.