This Day In Texas History - August 2

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1832 - The Battle of Nacogdoches, sometimes called the opening gun of the Texas Revolution, occurred on August 2, 1832, when a group of Texas settlers defied an order by Col. José de las Piedras, commander of the Mexican Twelfth Permanent Battalion at Nacogdoches, to surrender their arms to him. Tensions had been building since the passage of the Law of April 6, 1830, which halted immigration from the United States to Texas. Manuel de Mier y Terán, commanding the northern provinces, had stationed garrisons and customs collectors in Texas to implement the 1830 law. The situation also reflected a clash of states'-righters in Texas against the Centralists in power in Mexico.

The Texans found support (they thought) from Antonio López de Santa Anna, when he declared in 1832 against the Centralist regime. Samuel S. Davis and Bailey Anderson, Jr., brought men to Nacogdoches from the Ayish Bayou region, and James Bradshaw arrived with a party from the Neches settlement; other groups came from the Sabine and Shelby settlements. They rendezvoused at Pine Hill, east of Nacogdoches, and elected as their senior captain James W. Bullock, of Attoyac Bayou.

On the morning of August 2 Bullock demanded that Piedras rescind his order and declare for Santa Anna, but he refused. Piedras placed soldiers in the Stone House (now known as the Old Stone Fort), a church, and in his headquarters (known as the Red House). In the battle, Piedras lost forty-seven men killed and forty or more wounded. Three Texans were killed (a fourth died later) and four were wounded. The battle of Nacogdoches is an important lesser-known conflict that cleared East Texas of military rule and allowed the citizens to meet in convention without military intervention.

1836 - The Telegraph and Texas Register, later variously known as the weekly, tri-weekly, or daily Telegraph, was the first newspaper in Texas to achieve a degree of permanence. The paper was begun on October 10, 1835, at San Felipe de Austin by Gail Borden, Jr., Thomas H. Borden, and Joseph Baker. It became the official organ of the Republic of Texas, which was organized a few months later. The first Columbia number, issued on August 2, 1836, contained a copy of the Constitution of the Republic of Texas, which had been available to very few up to that time.

1882 - Roy Bean, a frontier justice of the peace known as the "Law West of the Pecos," was born in Mason County, Kentucky, the son of Francis and Anna Bean. Bean may have had some unofficial military experience, but he found it prudent to leave the country and began a new life in San Antonio. Early in 1882 Roy left home, probably at the suggestion of his friend W. N. Monroe, who was building the "Sunset" railroad toward El Paso and had almost reached the Pecos. Moving with the grading camps, Bean arrived at the site of Vinegarroon, just west of the Pecos, in July.

Crime was rife at the end of the track; it was often said, "West of the Pecos there is no law; west of El Paso, there is no God." To cope with the lawless element the Texas Rangers were called in, and they needed a resident justice of the peace in order to eliminate the 400-mile round trip to deliver prisoners to the county seat at Fort Stockton. The commissioners of Pecos County officially appointed Roy Bean justice on August 2, 1882. He retained the post, with interruptions in 1886 and 1896, when he was voted out, until he retired voluntarily in 1902. Bean died in his saloon on March 16, 1903, of lung and heart ailments and was buried in the Del Rio cemetery. His shrewdness, audacity, unscrupulousness, and humor, aided by his knack for self-dramatization, made him an enduring part of American folklore.

1888 - The Jaybird-Woodpecker War was a feud between two political factions for the control of Fort Bend County. The Jaybirds, representing the wealth and about 90 percent of the white population, were the regular Democrats who sought to rid the county of the Republican government that had gained control during Reconstruction. The Woodpeckers, numbering about forty persons and also claiming to be Democrats, were the officials and former officials who held office as a result of the black vote for the Republican ticket.

Former friends, neighbors, and relatives became bitter enemies as a result of the feud. The election of 1888 engendered much bitterness. Serious altercations occurred between rival candidates. On August 2, 1888, J. M. Shamblin, Jaybird leader, was killed. In September Henry Frost, another Jaybird leader, was seriously wounded. The Jaybirds held a mass meeting at Richmond on September 6 and resolved to warn certain black people to leave the county within ten hours. They did so. Members of both factions were armed , and Texas Rangers were stationed in Richmond. The heaviest vote in the history of the county was polled on election day, which passed peacefully.

1979 - Schlitterbahn is a waterpark and tourist attraction in New Braunfels. The park, which opened on August 2, 1979, originated when Bob and Billye Henry bought a resort motel, called Landa Resort, on the Comal River in the early 1970s. Tubing—floating down the river in large rubber inner tubes—has long been a popular way to beat the summer heat in Texas, and the Henrys decided to expand the motel's water recreation business. Schlitterbahn, which is open from late April until mid-September, has some 1,500 seasonal employees, and during its 2000 season attracted more than 900,000 visitors. The park has been featured on the NBC Today Show and on the Travel Channel. Its sister company NBGS International, based in New Braunfels, designs and builds rides for waterparks around the world.