This Day In Texas History - June 3

[joe817]

1836 - On this date in 1836, shortly after Sam Houston defeated Santa Anna at San Jacinto, twenty Texas Rangers (known as Texas Shore Marines), who had been scouting the retreating Mexican army, spotted a strange ship near Corpus Christi. Unable to board the ship from shore, the Rangers persuaded the ship's crew to send a landing boat so they could get out to the ship. Soon, the Rangers were on board, and took charge of the American vessel the Watchman. The Rangers quickly found that the vessel was carrying supplies bound for the Mexican army. Shortly thereafter, two other American vessels, the Comanche and the Fanny Butler arrive on the scene, with more supplies for the Mexican army. The Rangers then seized both ships, thus preventing a rearming of an army still stinging from their defeat at San Jacinto, and eager to have another chance at the Texans.

1836 - James Pinckney Henderson(statesman, soldier, and first governor of the state of Texas) arrived at Velasco, Texas, on June 3, 1836, and was commissioned by David G. Burnet as brigadier general and sent to the United States to recruit for the Texas army. Henderson organized a company in North Carolina and sent it to Texas, reputedly at his own expense. Upon his return to Texas in November 1836, he was appointed attorney general of the republic under Sam Houston and in December 1836 succeeded Stephen F. Austin as secretary of state.

1836 - Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, who had established his headquarters at Victoria after San Jacinto and was passing through Goliad in pursuit of Gen. Vicente Filisola's retreating army, gathered the remains of those massacred there, and buried them with military honors. Some of the survivors attended the ceremony. After the executions the bodies were burned, the remains left exposed to weather, vultures, and coyotes, until this day, when they were buried. The common grave remained unmarked until about 1858, when a Goliad merchant, George von Dohlen, placed a pile of rocks on what was believed to be the site. In April 1885 a memorial was finally erected, in the city of Goliad rather than on the site, by the Fannin Monument Association, formed by William L. Hunter, a massacre survivor.

1850 - Delegates from the southern states collected in Nashville, Tennessee, to discuss the sectional crisis resulting from the Mexican War. In 1849 a bipartisan convention met at Jackson, Mississippi, and called for a southern convention to meet at Nashville in June 1850 "to devise and adopt some mode of resistance to northern aggression." Both Texas senators, Sam Houston and Thomas J. Rusk, opposed the convention. Nevertheless, the Texas legislature passed a joint resolution recommending that the people choose representatives to the convention on the same day they selected a permanent state capital. J. Pinckney Henderson was the sole Texas delegate to attend the convention. Like most Texans, he was primarily concerned about the boundary dispute with New Mexico.

1910 - The last legal hanging in the Panhandle occurred in Clarendon on June 3, 1910.

1936 - On this date in 1936, author Larry McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls. Many of his books have been made into movies, including The Last Picture Show, Lonesome Dove, Hud (based on his Horseman, Pass by) and Terms of Endearment. McMurtry operates the largest antique book store in Texas, "Booked Up", located in his hometown of Archer City (location for the filming of The Last Picture Show).

1963 - On this date in 1963, Ninnie L Baird (born Ninia Lilla Harrison) died. Better known as Mrs Baird, she began her baking business as a young widow in 1912, baking and delivering fresh breads in Fort Worth. Today, Mrs Baird's is the best known brand of bread in Texas.

1965 - Ed White of San Antonio becomes the first American to walk in space.

1973 - Governor Dolph Briscoe signed into law the Bilingual Education and Training Act. The bill required that all Texas elementary public schools enrolling twenty or more children of limited English ability must provide bilingual instruction. Previously, the Texas Department of Education had told Spanish-speaking parents that their children must learn the English language.