This Day In Texas History - May 31

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1776 - José Antonio de la Garza, early landowner in San Antonio and the first person to coin money in Texas, was born on May 31, 1776, in San Antonio de Béxar, the son of Leonardo de la Garza and Magdalena Martínez.

1783 - On this day in 1783, San Antonio merchant and alderman Fernando Veramendi was killed by Mescalero Apaches near the presidio of San Juan Bautista in Coahuila.

1837 - President Houston nominated Elisha Clapp for a commission as captain and appointment to the command of the ranger company from Nacogdoches County. The Senate confirmed the nomination on June 13. Although Houston noted in his instructions to the auditor that Clapp was illiterate and that his muster roll must be monitored with special care, when Clapp moved to the Houston County community of Alabama he helped to organize and became one of the first eleven trustees of Trinity College, in April 1841.

1861 - On May 31, 1861, Henry Hopkins Sibley resigned his commission in the Second United States Dragoons and hurried to Richmond, where he persuaded Jefferson Davis to adopt a grandiose plan to capture New Mexico Territory and use it as a gateway for Confederate occupation of Colorado and California. He organized a brigade at San Antonio in the late summer and early fall of 1861.

1862 - Col. Julius A. Andrews, commander of the Thirty-second Texas Cavalry Regiment, led his regiment with distinction at the battles of Farmington, Mississippi.

1874 - On May 31, 1874, the steamship Gussie, which had sailed up the newly completed Morris and Cummins (or Cummings) Cut pulled into the new municipal wharf and a crowd of 3,000 turned out to celebrate. The Cut was made in 1874 to link Aransas Bay and Corpus Christi Bay, and to solve a problem of seaside access from which the city had suffered since its founding.

1878 - The Georgetown Railroad Company was chartered on May 31, 1878, to build a railroad between Georgetown and Round Rock. The railroad had capital stock of $50,000, and the principal office was in Georgetown.

1969 - The Union Terminal Company was chartered on March 16, 1912, as part of a project to secure a union station for the seven railroads then serving Dallas. 1925 the Fort Worth and Denver City acquired the interest owned by the Trinity and Brazos Valley. The presidency of the company alternated among the railroads. The last regular passenger train operated by a private railroad departed the terminal on May 31, 1969, and the Union Terminal Company was abandoned as of March 13, 1974. The headhouse and other facilities were sold to the City of Dallas, and the station is currently used by Amtrak.