This Day In Texas History - September 11

[joe817]

1696 - Martín de Alarcón was a knight of the Order of Santiago, governor of Coahuila, governor of Texas, and founder of San Antonio, Texas. Before arriving in the Indies he had served in Oran (North Africa) and as a sailor in the royal navy. On May 31, 1691, Viceroy Conde de Galve appointed Alarcón sargento mayor of a company of militia in Guadalajara, and he later selected Don Martín as alcalde mayor and capitán a guerra of Jacona and Zamora, both now in Michoacán.

On September 11, 1696, Viceroy Juan de Ortega y Montañez appointed Alarcón as capitán a guerra and protector of Indians in the locale of Mazapil. Subsequent viceroys continued to employ his services as an agent of pacification on the northern frontier of New Spain, especially in the environs of Saltillo. On December 9, 1716, Viceroy Marqués de Valero appointed Alarcón in Mexico City as commander of Presidio San Francisco de Coahuila and as governor of the province of Texas.

As chief executive, Alarcón was to resupply Spaniards who had gone to Texas earlier in 1716 under the command of Domingo Ramón. In April 1718 Alarcón crossed the Rio Grande with an entrada numbering ten families and seventy-two persons. On May 1, 1718, he assisted Father Antonio San Buenaventura y Olivares in the founding of San Antonio de Valero Mission. Four days later Alarcón founded San Antonio de Béxar Presidio. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fal02 ]

1835 - William Silvan Brown, scion of a prominent Montreal family and victim of the Goliad Massacre, was born at Montreal, Canada, on February 6, 1812. On September 11, 1835, William wrote to his brother, telling him of his circumstance and requesting his brother to sell all his belongings. During his journey south, William may have seen posters advertising the rewards for joining the cause of Texas independence.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbrec ]

1842 - Because of Mexico's refusal to recognize the independence of Texas after the Treaties of Velasco, the Republic was in constant fear of a Mexican invasion. The fear assumed reality on January 9, 1842, when Gen. Mariano Arista issued a statement from Monterrey telling the Texans that it was hopeless for them to continue their struggle for independence and promising amnesty and protection to all who remained neutral during his planned invasion. arly in March, Goliad, Refugio, and Victoria were occupied, and on March 5 the Mexican troops under Rafael Vásquez appeared before San Antonio.

The Texans retreated, leaving the town to the Mexicans, because John C. Hays found it impossible to gather enough men to make a defense immediately. Meanwhile Houston had made an appeal to the United States for money and volunteers, and Adjutant General James Davis was sent to Corpus Christi to organize volunteers with orders to hold them until the time was opportune for an invasion of Mexico. On September 11, 1842, Gen. Adrián Woll, with a force of 1,200 Mexicans, captured San Antonio. (There's much more to this story):
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qem02 ]

1861 - The Twelfth Texas Cavalry served in the Trans-Mississippi as part of Parsons's Brigade throughout the war. The regiment organized for state service on September 11, 1861, at Rockett Springs near Waxahachie. Originally known as the Fourth Texas Dragoons, it became the Twelfth Texas Cavalry Regiment when mustered into the Confederate Army on October 28, 1861.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qkt12 ]

1861 - Henry Percy (Persy) Brewster, lawyer and personal secretary of Sam Houston, was born on November 22, 1816, in the Laurens District, South Carolina, where he studied and began the practice of law. He learned of the Texas Revolution while on a trip to Alabama and traveled to New Orleans, where Lt. Meriwether Woodson Smith recruited him for service in the Texas army. At the outbreak of the Civil War he returned to Texas and was commissioned a captain and appointed adjutant general to Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston on September 11, 1861.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbr44 ]

1862 - William Sydney Porter [pseud. O. Henry], writer, was born on September 11, 1862, in Greensboro, North Carolina, the son of Dr. Algernon Sidney and Mary Jane Virginia (Swaim) Porter. When he began working at his Uncle Clark's pharmacy, he often sketched the townspeople. By 1881 he was licensed as a pharmacist, but in 1882 Dr. James Hall, a close family friend, invited him to go to Texas to visit Hall's four sons, who had all moved west. Hall was concerned by Porter's persistent cough and thought the Texas climate and the ranch life might help him.

In La Salle County, Jesse Leigh Hall, a retired Texas Ranger, managed the ranch holdings of the Dull brothers from Pennsylvania. Porter lived on this ranch for two years with Betty and Richard Moore Hall. Mrs. Hall was a well-educated woman and had a library that Porter used during these years. During his two years on the ranch, Porter gained a knowledge of ranch life that he later incorporated into many of his short stories.

Lee Hall was Porter's prototype for the Texas Ranger who appears in many of the Texas stories. For a time he was a member of the Hill City Quartette. During this time the first recorded use of his pseudonym appeared, allegedly derived from his habit of calling "Oh, Henry" to the family cat. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fpo20 ]

1866 - The Galveston Screwmen's Benevolent Association was a trade union of specialized longshoremen who, with the aid of screwjacks, stowed and packed the bulky cotton bales into the holds of ships before the use of the power cotton compress. Their specialized ability insured an increase in the bale capacity of a ship by 10 to 15 percent, a skill critical to the profitable operation of the shipper.

On the night of September 11, 1866, twenty-three Galveston cotton screwmen met to establish an association similar to the group in New Orleans, which had been established in 1850. The very nature of the screwmen's work, equality in the five-man gangs directed by a foreman who performed the same tasks, led to the success of the union. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ocs01 ]

1871 - The Houston Tap and Brazoria Railway Company was chartered on September 1, 1856, to run from Houston to Columbia in Brazoria County, with the right to also construct a line from Columbia into Wharton County. The road was authorized to acquire and took part of its name from the Houston Tap Railroad, which was begun earlier in 1856 by the City of Houston to connect the municipality with the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway Company. By the late 1860s the track had deteriorated to such a point that only infrequent service was attempted.

On February 6, 1869, it was bought at a sheriff's sale by William J. Hutchins of Houston for $500. On August 15, 1870, the legislature authorized the governor to sell the road. It was bought on July 21, 1871, by Masterson and Wagley of Houston for $130,000. Texas lost $272,000, the only loss sustained by the state from the Special School Fund on loans made to railroads. Masterson and Wagley resold the railroad to Moses Taylor, who represented the Houston and Great Northern Railroad Company. On September 11, 1871, Governor Edmund J. Davis executed a deed to the road to Taylor, the only instance on record in Texas of a railroad tracing its title to the state.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/eqh13 ]

1924 - Thomas Wade Landry, longtime coach of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, was born in Mission, Texas, on September 11, 1924, the third child and second son of Ray and Ruth Landry. Landry became a star quarterback on the Mission High School football team, leading the Eagles to a 6-4 record and the district championship as a junior, then to a 12-0 record and the regional championship, beating Hondo 33-0, as a senior in 1941. Landry was named to the Texas High School All-Star Game and offered an athletic scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fla92 ]

[ELB]

The Real Heroes are Dead.

RIP Rick Rescorla.

[joe817]

The Real Heroes are Dead.

RIP Rick Rescorla.

Very sobering. Thank you for sharing ELB.

"There are certain men born in this world, and they’re supposed to die setting an example for the rest of the weak bastards we’re surrounded with."