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Post by Greg C. on Dec 3, 2007 18:21:53 GMT -5
Keep it coming Theodore!
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 4, 2007 1:35:39 GMT -5
December 3rd in Texas History.......A little late Outlaw meets his match On this day in 1884, noted outlaw and cattleman Joseph Graves Olney came to an ignominious end after a colorful and controversial life. Olney, born in 1849 in Burleson County, first became embroiled in a cattle dispute and shot a man in Llano County in 1874. The following year he killed a man named Moses Baird, thereby becoming part of the Central Texas Hill Country’s notorious Mason County War. After mortally wounding a deputy in a gunfight, Olney escaped to New Mexico and established a ranch under the alias of Joe Hill. Fleeing a warrant for his arrest, he was in Arizona by 1879. A rash of cattle rustling and stage robberies in the early 1880s attracted the attention of Wyatt Earp himself, who tried to pin the crimes on Olney, but there was no evidence to indicate his guilt. Olney finally died when his horse fell on him while he was working on his ranch. .....And so the Texas history goes....a little late today
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 8, 2007 17:58:20 GMT -5
December 8 in Texas History..... Mission church begins remarkable run......"Concepcion" On this day in 1755, the stone church at Mission Concepción near San Antonio was dedicated. Its forty-five-inch-thick walls, two towers, latticed windows, and choir loft, among other features, would stand the test of time through years of tumultuous change. The mission was originally founded as Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de los Hainais in 1716 in East Texas, but famine, epidemics among the Caddoans, and French incursions forced the Spanish to retreat. They reestablished the facility in 1721, but had moved it to the Colorado River by 1730. The following year missionaries finally found a more suitable location on the east bank of the San Antonio River and renamed the mission Nuestra Señora de la Purísima Concepción de Acuña. Mexican independence in the nineteenth century brought secularization, and the property was sold at auction. During the Texas Revolution the battle of Concepción, in which James Bowie and his men defeated Mexican forces led by Martín Perfecto do Cos, took place on the mission grounds. In 1841 the Republic of Texas gave title of the building and land to the Catholic church, though the church continued to be used as a barn by settlers and, after annexation, as a supply depot by the United States Army. The Concepción church is considered by some historians to be the oldest unrestored church in the United States. The structure is now part of San Antonio Missions National Historical Park, and Mass is still celebrated each Sunday. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 15, 2007 0:52:39 GMT -5
December 14 in Texas History Republic licenses doctors On this day in 1837, the Congress of the Republic of Texas established the Board of Medical Censors, a forerunner of the Board of Medical Examiners, for the purpose of granting licenses to practice medicine and surgery in the republic. The law required that the board be composed of one physician from each senatorial district and that the members be graduates of medicine and surgery from authorized colleges and universities. A twenty-dollar fee was collected from those who passed an examination. Without a license, physicians could not collect unpaid fees in court. The first board included among its members Ashbel Smith, A. C. Hoxey, George W. Hill, J. B. P. January, R. A. Irion, Thomas Anderson, and A. M. Levy. The board was scheduled to meet once each year, but difficulty of transportation over long distances and Indian attacks frequently prevented annual meetings. The board was discontinued by a state legislative act in 1848. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 17, 2007 21:29:36 GMT -5
December 17 in Texas History..... Mexican governor born in San Antonio On this day in 1778, Juan Martín de Veramendi, future Mexican governor of Coahuila and Texas, was born in San Fernando de Béxar (San Antonio). Veramendi, an early friend to Anglo-American colonists, and Juan José Erasmo Seguín met Stephen F. Austin at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1821 and accompanied him to Bexar. In 1822-23 Veramendi served in Bexar as collector of foreign revenue, from which office he was elected as alternate deputy of the Texas Provincial Deputation to the Mexican National Constitutional Congress. Veramendi was the first alcalde of Bexar in 1824 and 1825. He was elected vice governor of Coahuila and Texas in 1830, whereupon he moved with his family from Bexar to Saltillo. In April 1831, his daughter, Ursula María de Veramendi, married James Bowie. Bowie and Veramendi formed a partnership to establish cotton mills in Saltillo, and Veramendi began to divide his time between Texas and Coahuila. He assumed the office of governor upon the death of José María Letona in 1832 and served until 1833. His administration was favorable to the Anglo-American colonists and therefore unpopular with many Mexicans. In the summer of 1833, while at his summer home at Monclova, he died in a cholera epidemic. .....And so goes the Texas History
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 22, 2007 21:06:49 GMT -5
December 22 in Texas History..... General Land Office established On this day in 1836, the General Land Office was established by the First Congress of the Republic of Texas. John P. Borden, the first commissioner, opened the office in Houston on October 1, 1837. He was enjoined by law to "superintend, execute, and perform all acts touching or respecting the public lands of Texas." Much of the early business of the office consisted of translating and registering Spanish and Mexican land grants, and issuing headrights, military bounties, homestead preemptions, and veteran donations. Extensive land grants have been used to fund the public debt and education and to develop railroads. Texas is the only public-land state with complete control over its public lands and over the proceeds resulting from the administration and sale of lands. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 25, 2007 16:09:23 GMT -5
December 25 in Texas History and a big Merry Christmas.... ;D Kit Carson signs Sawtooth Mountain On this day in 1839, frontiersman Kit Carson allegedly carved his name and the date on a huge boulder on Sawtooth Mountain in the Davis Mountains. Carson was born in 1809 in Kentucky and grew up in Missouri. He ran away to Santa Fe in 1826 and subsequently embarked on an arduous and wide-ranging career as a fur trapper. As a guide and hunter for John C. Frémont in the 1840s, he gained national fame through Frémont's published reports. Carson was an Indian agent in Taos, New Mexico, in the 1850s. He served in the Mexican War and in the Civil War, commanding a New Mexico volunteer regiment in the battle of Valverde. His connections to Texas history included helping foil the Snively Expedition in 1843 and leading the attack against a large number of Kiowas and Comanches in the first battle of Adobe Walls in 1864. He died in Colorado in 1868. Engineers of the State Department of Highways and Public Transportation discovered the inscription on Sawtooth Mountain in 1941. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 26, 2007 15:43:37 GMT -5
December 26 in Texas History..... First commercial buffalo hunt in Texas On this day in 1874, Joseph McComb led a party out from Fort Griffin on the first commercial buffalo hunt in Texas. The party consisted of McComb; two assistants, John Jacobs and John W. Poe; and teamsters, skinners, and an ox-drawn wagon. The season's kill brought 2,000 hides, which were marketed at Fort Griffin at $1.50 and $2.00 each. Other hunting trips headed by McComb followed in 1875, 1876, 1877, and 1878. McComb estimated that he killed no fewer than 12,000 buffalo during his five hunting seasons. The completion of the transcontinental railroad was a catalyst for the slaughter of buffalo in the 1870s and 1880s, since the railroad made possible the profitable shipment of hides from the Great Plains to eastern markets. Thousands of hunters and skinners participated in the hunts. By 1884 the great herds had been exterminated. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 28, 2007 18:27:44 GMT -5
December 28 in Texas History...... Oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas chartered On this day in 1859, Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest Jewish house of worship in Texas, was chartered as the Hebrew Congregation of the City of Houston. The congregation, which consisted of twenty-two members, many of western European origin, had been organized as an orthodox synagogue five years earlier. The institution started a religious school in 1864 and incorporated as the Hebrew Congregation Beth Israel in 1873. By 1943 it had completed the transformation from an Orthodox to an American Reform Jewish congregation. The Franklin Avenue Temple Beth Israel was completed in 1874, and funds donated in memory of Abraham M. Levy helped pay for a new temple at Austin Street and Holman Avenue in 1925. Among the congregation's chief rabbis was Hyman Judah Schachtel, who arrived in 1943. The Hebrew Congregation Beth Israel was renamed Congregation Beth Israel in 1945. ...., And so goes the Texas History
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 29, 2007 21:16:31 GMT -5
December 29 in Texas History..... U.S. Congress approves annexation of Texas
On this day in 1845, the United States Congress voted to annex Texas. Statehood was first proposed in 1837, but was rejected by President Martin Van Buren. Constitutional scruples and fear of war with Mexico were the reasons given for the rejection, but antislavery sentiment in the United States undoubtedly influenced Van Buren and continued to be the chief obstacle to annexation. Under President James Polk the United States Congress passed the Annexation Resolution in February 1845. Texas president Anson Jones called the Texas Congress into session on June 16, 1845, and a convention of elected delegates met on the Fourth of July. Both the Texas Congress and the convention voted for annexation, and a constitution was drawn up. The document was ratified by popular vote in October 1845 and accepted by the United States Congress on December 29, 1845. On February 19, 1846, President Jones of the Republic of Texas handed over control of the new state government to Governor James Pinckney Henderson. .....As the Texas History goes ;D
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Post by neferetus on Dec 29, 2007 23:52:30 GMT -5
Seems like it should be a State holiday, Ted. California admission day is a State holiday.
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 30, 2007 1:07:38 GMT -5
I agree with you 100%! ;D TED COLE....aka....Cole_blooded
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 30, 2007 18:39:06 GMT -5
December 30 in Texas History..... Anson Jones throws Duff Green out of Texas On this day in 1844, President Anson Jones expelled Duff Green from the Republic of Texas. Green, a native of Kentucky and a political ally of John C. Calhoun, was appointed United States consul at Galveston in 1844, with additional duties of carrying messages to Mexico in the interest of acquiring Texas, New Mexico, and California for the United States. During the absence of U.S. chargé d'affaires Andrew J. Donelson, Green tried to secure passage of a bill by the Texas Congress establishing the Texas Land Company and the Del Norte Company. These companies, aided by a Texas army and Indians from the United States, were to occupy and claim for Texas the northern provinces of Mexico. Green offered Jones stock in the proposed companies if he would support the plan. When Jones refused, Green allegedly threatened to start a revolution and overthrow the Jones administration. Jones gave Green his passport and barred him from Texas as a consular official. The incident did not seriously impair the friendly relations existing between Texas and the United States. After the Mexican War Green promoted coal, iron, and railway development projects in the South. He died in Georgia in 1875. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Dec 31, 2007 17:46:33 GMT -5
December 31 in Texas History.....Have a Happy New Year ;D Official Spanish census records 247 male and 167 female mulattoes On this day in 1792, an official Spanish census recorded 247 male mulattoes, 167 female mulattoes, 15 male Negroes, and 19 female Negroes in a total population for Texas of 1,617 males and 1,375 females. Thus the black and mulatto population constituted 15 percent of the total population. Spanish law required free blacks to pay tribute, forbade them to carry firearms, and restricted their freedom of movement. In practice Spanish officials ignored such restrictions. After the Mexican War of Independence (1821), the Mexican government offered free blacks full rights of citizenship, but numerous free blacks fought for Texas independence--some fearing Anglo retribution if they did not serve, and others sharing Anglo beliefs about the Mexican government. However, the Congress of the Republic of Texas and, following annexation, the state legislature passed a series of increasingly repressive laws governing the lives of free blacks. The increased restrictions and the rise in white hostility resulted in a virtual halt to additional free black immigration to Texas. The United States census reported 397 free blacks in Texas in 1850 and 355 in 1860, though there may have been an equal number of free blacks not counted. .....And so the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 2, 2008 16:28:35 GMT -5
January 2 in Texas History..... Western crooner Tex Ritter succumbs in country-music capital On this date in 1974, Tex Ritter died in Nashville, Tennessee. The native of Murval, Texas, attended the University of Texas, where he was influenced by Frank Lomax and J. Frank Dobie. Some of his greatest hits were "Rye Whiskey," "Wayward Wind," and "You Are My Sunshine." His performance of "High Noon," from the movie of the same name, won an Oscar in 1952. Ritter appeared in eighty-five movies and starred in the television series "Ranch Party" (1959-1962). In 1964 he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. John Ritter, his youngest son, starred in the popular series "Three's Company." .....And so the Texas History goes.....
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 3, 2008 17:29:14 GMT -5
January 3 in Texas History..... Another bad day for A. J. Dorn On this day in 1884, Andrew Jackson Dorn lost his bid to become a congressional assistant doorkeeper. Dorn had served in a volunteer company in the Mexican War and afterward in the regular army. Although he claimed to have achieved the rank of colonel and to have remained in the U.S. Army until the outbreak of the Civil War, he was in fact mustered out of federal service in 1848. He did serve with the Confederate military, and after the war moved to Bonham, Texas. In 1873, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for Texas state treasurer. Dorn was elected on Richard Coke's ticket, but when he appointed his son as chief clerk of the treasury, the Herald attacked him for nepotism, "one of the most odious of all political abuses." Dorn was reelected in 1876 and remained in office until 1879. In 1883, unemployed, he went to Washington, D.C., seeking Samuel Bell Maxey's aid in finding a government job. "He is the most helpless man I know," wrote Maxey of Dorn, "an honorable, good man but a fearfully and wonderfully made hanger-on for office." Dorn became one of seven applicants for one of the two assistant-doorkeeper appointments to which the Texas delegation was entitled, but when the appointments were decided by lot on January 3, 1884, he was not chosen. In 1885, the destitute Dorn, with Maxey's influence, was elected as doorkeeper of the state Senate. After his tenure as doorkeeper, Dorn remained in Austin "filling some minor positions in the state departments" until his death in 1889. He was buried in the State Cemetery. .....And so goes the Texas History
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 7, 2008 0:57:55 GMT -5
.....January 6 in Texas History Viceroy appoints Coronado to find Seven Cities of Cíbola On this day in 1540, Spanish viceroy Antonio de Mendoza appointed Francisco Vázquez de Coronado to lead an expedition in search of the fabulous Seven Cities of Cíbola. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca had described the cities in his 1536 report on his wanderings through New Spain, and Marcos de Niza had confirmed Cabeza de Vaca's report in 1539. Coronado and 1,000 men set out from Culiacán in late April. There was no gold at Cíbola (the Zuñi villages in western New Mexico), but he was led on by stories told by the captive El Turco of great rewards to be found in Quivira, a region on the Great Plains far to the east. Chasing this chimera occupied Coronado until the early part of 1542. When he returned to Mexico he was subjected to an official examination of his conduct as leader of the expedition and as governor of Nueva Galicia. He was cleared of charges in connection with the expedition, but on some of the other charges was fined and lost his commission. He died in 1554. .....As the Texas History goes
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 7, 2008 18:03:21 GMT -5
.....January 7 in Texas History James Moreau Brown buys future site of Ashton Villa
On this day in 1859, businessman James Moreau Brown purchased four lots at the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Twenty-fourth Street in Galveston. On the site he built Ashton Villa, reputed to be the first brick house in Galveston. He designed the three-story, Victorian Italianate residence himself and used slave labor and skilled European craftsmen to build it. To protect the house from the damp, Brown made the brick walls thirteen inches thick, with an air space between the exterior and the interior walls. Brown died in 1895; his home withstood the devastation of the Galveston hurricane of 1900, but its basement was filled with sand and silt. El Mina Shrine bought the house in 1927 and used it for the next forty years as business offices. In 1968 the Shriners offered the property for sale. A campaign led by the Galveston Historical Foundation raised $125,000 to purchase Ashton Villa, and funding from both government and private sources helped restore and refurnish the historic home. Ashton Villa was opened to the public in 1974 and is administered by the Galveston Historical Foundation. .....And so goes the Texas History ;D
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 9, 2008 21:40:11 GMT -5
January 9 in Texas History..... Frontier icon Crockett loses election, heads for Alamo On this day in 1836, after losing his bid for a fourth term as a Tennessee representative to the U. S. Congress, Davy Crockett wrote a letter stating his intention to go to Texas. This, his last extant letter, praises Texas as "the garden spot of the world," with the "best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw." With high optimism for his political future, he wrote that he fully expected to take part in writing a constitution for Texas. "I am in hopes," he wrote, "of making a fortune yet for my self and my family, bad as my prospect has been." Crockett could not foresee his fate at the battle of the Alamo, which occurred just two months later. ......And so goes the Texas History
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Post by Cole_blooded on Jan 10, 2008 23:29:52 GMT -5
January 10 in Texas History..... Spindletop oilfield discovered On this day in 1901, the Spindletop oilfield was discovered on a salt dome south of Beaumont, marking the birth of the modern petroleum industry. Pattillo Higgins, the "prophet of Spindletop," and others had tried for years to find oil on Spindletop Hill, but with no success. In 1899, however, Higgins hooked up with Anthony F. Lucas. Despite negative reports from contemporary geologists, Lucas remained convinced that oil was in the salt domes of the Gulf Coast. On January 10 mud began bubbling from a well that Lucas had spudded in the previous October. The startled roughnecks fled as six tons of four-inch drilling pipe came shooting up out of the ground. After several minutes of quiet, mud, then gas, then oil spurted out. The Lucas geyser, found at a depth of 1,139 feet, blew a stream of oil over 100 feet high until it was capped nine days later. The discovery of the Spindletop oilfield had an almost incalculable effect on world and Texas history. Investors spent billions of dollars throughout the Lone Star State in search of oil and natural gas. The cheap fuel they found helped to revolutionize American transportation and industry. Many of the major oil companies were born at Spindletop or grew to major corporate size as a result of their involvement at Spindletop, including Texaco, Gulf Oil Corporation, Magnolia Petroleum Company, and Exxon Company, U.S.A. .....And so goes the Texas History
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