This Day In Texas History - July 5

[joe817]

1716 - Mission Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas was established near Alto, but abandoned three years later because of the Spanish-French conflict.

1745 - The Chevalier Grenier was captain of the French ship Superbe, which was wrecked at the mouth of Matagorda Bay in 1745. The crew's walk toward Tampico, tragic in its consequences, in some ways parallels that of the castaways from the Padre Island Spanish shipwrecks of 1554. An armed merchant vessel from Martinique, Superbe sailed from Veracruz on April 19, 1745, with a cargo of flour for New Orleans. Approaching the Louisiana coast, she grounded on Trinity Shoal but hauled off. By faulty latitude computed from a noonday sighting of the sun, Grenier concluded that he stood east of the Mississippi and therefore turned west, away from his destination. West of Galveston Bay, he heard from a Spanish-speaking Indian that a Spanish post was within five days' travel by land. The Indian referred to Nuestra Señora de Loreto Presidio; Grenier, thinking he meant Pensacola, continued to sail west.

At night on May 12, his order for half-hourly soundings was disregarded. At nine-thirty in the evening the ship struck bottom, breaking a hole in her hull. Morning light revealed that she lay near a small island between two larger ones, in the mouth of a large bay-Matagorda Bay. After twelve days, ninety-five men began walking along the treeless island to the west (Matagorda Island), expecting to arrive at Pensacola Bay. On July 5, forty-three days and 500 miles from the wreck of their ship, one-third of those who had begun the tragic march came to the Río Pánuco and were conducted to Tampico by the guard at the river mouth. Grenier, after a few others straggled in, purchased a ship to return to New Orleans. In the final muster, no more than thirty of the ninety-five men who had begun the march survived to complete the voyage. Upon reaching the Mississippi on September 22, Grenier learned that the dory he had left at Matagorda Bay had returned more than a month previously, but with eight men instead of fourteen; six had chosen to remain among the Texas coastal Indians. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fgrav ]

1834 - The Brazoria Texas Republican, a weekly newspaper, began publication on July 5, 1834. Franklin C. Gray and A. J. Harris were publishers until Harris retired in December 1834. The paper began as a three-column, four-page sheet but changed to five columns by November 14, 1835. Publication probably ceased in March 1836 with the Mexican attack. According to some sources, Gray was accused of trying to effect the escape of Antonio López de Santa Anna after San Jacinto, and this accusation destroyed the paper's influence.

1836 - Sam Houston arrived in San Augustine today, from a trip to New Orleans for treatment of injuries incurred at San Jacinto. While in New Orleans he was greeted by cheering crowds. But hearing that the new government of Texas was nearing collapse, Houston left New Orleans after only four weeks of treatment, arriving in San Augustine, Texas on this date in 1836.

1838 - Julián Pedro Miracle, an officer in the army of Zacatecas, was a native of Colombia. A Mexican liberal refugee in the confidence of Governor Agustín Viesca of Texas, he appeared at the General Council of the provisional government of Texas in 1835, representing Antonio Canales and other influential liberals in Mexico. Miracle gave to members of the council information relative to movements of the liberals in the interior of Mexico, stating that Mexican liberals would join with Texas in the revolution providing Texas did not declare independence. This information was presented to the General Council on December 5, 1835. In 1838 Miracle launched an expedition that seems to have been an attempt to reconquer Texas for Mexico. He left Matamoros headed northward on May 29 and on July 2 reached the Trinity River. On July 5, Vicente Córdova reached him with a communication from Gen. Vicente Filisola instructing him to join forces with all Indians who were hostile to Texans. On July 20 Miracle made an agreement with several chiefs for a concerted war on Texas, but he was killed on the Red River on August 20, 1838. The papers bearing evidence of his activities were found on him.

1848 - On this date in 1848, three years after Texas joined the union, the United States Congress settled a dispute between Texas and Louisiana, by extending the eastern boundary of Texas from the western bank to the middle of the Sabine River.

1855 - Governor Elisha Pease authorized James Hughes Callahan to cross the Rio Grande into Mexico for the alleged purpose of punishing Apache Indians who raided in Texas and then fled to Mexico. The expedition may have been an attempt by Texas slaveholders to capture runaway slaves who were being permitted to settle in Mexico. Governor Santiago Vidaurri of Nuevo León y Coahuila had rebuffed the slaveholders' emissary and ordered his troops to prepare for invasion. Callahan crossed into Mexico on October 1-2 and encountered a Mexican detachment at the Rio Escondito near Piedras Negras. There were casualties on both sides. Callahan retreated to Piedras Negras, captured the town, and burned it. American forces across the river covered his retreat. Historians have long argued about the real purpose of the operation. In 1876 the Claims Commission settled claims originating from the expedition, awarding 150 Mexican citizens a total of $50,000 in damages.

1862 - Civil War firearms manufactured by J. H. Dance and Company are among the most highly prized antique weapons, valued for their fine craftsmanship as well as their rarity. From July 1862 through May 1865 the company produced six-shot Colt-pattern revolvers in both .44 and .36 caliber; total output was fewer than 400. The Dance family, originally residents of North Carolina, moved to Daniels Prairie in Greene County, Alabama, around 1835. In 1848 James Henry Dance traveled to Brazoria County, Texas, and in 1853 he moved to Texas with most of his family, including father, brothers, cousins, and slaves. The family jointly purchased 450 acres of land in the Cedar Brake section, where they established a plantation. In 1858 they built a spacious home in the thriving riverport town of East Columbia, on the Brazos River. Across the street from their residence they opened a manufactory for metal and woodwork, named J. H. Dance and Company and operated by James Henry Dance and his brothers David Etheldred and George Perry. J. H. Dance and Company prospered before the Civil War manufacturing gristmills and cotton gins. In April 1862 George Dance wrote Governor F. R. Lubbock requesting an advance of $5,000. He claimed that this sum would enable the Dances to begin firearm production with an output of fifty revolvers a week. Evidently they received some aid, for on July 5, 1862, a letter written by George's cousin Mattie Duff states that "the boys think they will soon get some three or four of their pistols finished." [There's much more to this fascinating story: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/dhd01 ]

1873 - Margaret Borland died of "trail fever" or "congestion of the brain" after successfully leading a drive of about 2,500 cattle from Victoria, Texas, to Wichita, Kansas. She was born in Ireland on April 3, 1824. Her family was among the Irish colonists who arrived in Texas in 1829 with John McMullen and James McGloin and settled at San Patricio. Margaret was thrice married and widowed. She had assisted Alexander Borland, her third husband in his cattle business and, after his death, assumed full responsibility for the estate. Though she left the physical labor to her hired hands, she bought and sold livestock. By 1873 she owned a herd of more than 10,000 cattle. She was said to be the only woman to have led a cattle drive. Her body was returned to Texas and buried in Victoria Cemetery.

1881 - When the Republic of Texas was established, it was rich in lands but low in funds. In an effort to convert the public domain into cash, an act of December 10, 1836, authorized the issuance of land scrip for sale in the United States at not less than fifty-five cents an acre, the proceeds of the sale to be applied to the public debt. The scrip was often called Toby Scrip, for Thomas Toby of the Toby and Brother Company of New Orleans, the chief scrip agent. During the republic era, 1,329,200 acres of public land was sold or used directly to retire debt. Under the Confederate Soldier's Bill of April 5, 1881, wounded Confederate soldiers, their servants, or their widows were eligible to receive a 1,280-acre land certificate. Those having property valued at $1,000 or more were ineligible, and the applicant had to take two witnesses to the county court to attest to his or her eligibility. A total of 2,068 certificates for 2,647,040 acres were issued from July 5, 1881, to February 16, 1883. Of these, 1,726 certificates (1,979,852 acres) were properly surveyed and 342 certificates (437,760 acres) were rejected. The bill was repealed in 1883. More info here:
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mnl05 ]

1950 - LaGrave Field is the name of two baseball parks in Fort Worth, Texas. The original LaGrave Field operated as the home field of the minor league Fort Worth Panthers from 1926 to 1958 in the Texas League, 1959 in the American Association, a shared home of the Dallas-Fort Worth Rangers from 1960 to 1963 in the American Association, and finally the Fort Worth Panthers in another Texas League franchise in 1964. The stadium was demolished in 1967. In 2001 the second LaGrave Field arose on the site of the original and became the home of the Fort Worth Cats, who played in several Dallas-Fort Worth minor-league baseball leagues from 2002 to 2014. Both fire and flooding damaged LaGrave Field in the spring of 1949. A night-time fire destroyed the grandstand and a total of nearly 10,000 seats on May 15, 1949. Despite damage to the field, the Cats played their regularly-scheduled game the following day. Two nights later the worst flood in the history of Fort Worth inflicted additional damage to the field and stands. Brooklyn Dodger officials, including Branch Rickey, came to Fort Worth to evaluate the field to determine whether to abandon the Cats as a farm team. Ultimately, they elected to rebuild rather than abandon it. Construction began after the season concluded with work continuing into the 1950 season. Officials dedicated the new and improved field on July 5, 1950. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/xvl02 ]

1956 - Slats Rodgers, the colorful owner of the first pilot's license in Texas, passed away in McAllen. Floyd H. Rodgers was born in Georgia in 1889 and moved to Texas with his family as a boy. As a young man he worked for the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe Railway, but aviation was his passion. With the help of an engineer friend, Rodgers designed and built a primitive aircraft, reputed to be the first built in Texas, which he flew without instruction in late 1912, a mere nine years after the first manned airplane flight by the Wright brothers. He became a flight instructor for the army in 1916 and worked as a barnstormer and circus stunt pilot after World War I. During prohibition he bought his own plane to ferry bootleg liquor from Mexico to Texas.