This Day In Texas History - July 25

[joe817]

1835 - The earliest document that has been found to contain the name War Party is a July 25, 1835, letter from James H. C. Miller to J. W. Smith, which suggests the arrest of the prominent leaders, reporting, "All here is in a train for peace, the war and speculating parties are entirely put down." Historians have made few attempts at defining the War Party.

The War Party, which existed before the Texas Revolution, represented a faction within the Anglo-American population of Texas that helped to sway public opinion in favor of armed conflict with the rest of Mexico in the crucial time between 1832 and 1835. The War Party and its counterpart, the Peace Party, cannot be defined easily because they were not established political parties, but rather labels for persons of opposing political dispositions-that is, "party" members did not label themselves by these terms but instead described the opposition with them. Both parties surfaced during the disturbances of 1832. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/waw02 ]

1838 - The first Independent Order of Odd Fellows lodge in Texas was organized at Houston. Jacob Raphael De Cordova, Texas land agent and colonizer and the Grand Master of the Odd Fellows in New Orleans, visited the Republic of Texas to install members in the lodge, the first established outside the United States.

1861 - On July 24, 1861, Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor led 300 men from Fort Bliss forty miles up the east bank of the Rio Grande to Fort Fillmore, New Mexico. With him were two companies of the Second Texas Mounted Rifles, a Texas light-artillery company without its howitzers, an El Paso County scout company, and some civilians. The Texans reached the vicinity of Fort Fillmore at night and placed themselves between the fort and its water supply at the river. Baylor canceled a planned attack after learning that one of his men had warned the garrison.

His Texans forded the Rio Grande and early that afternoon entered nearby Mesilla, a strongly pro-Confederate community. With 380 infantry and mounted riflemen, plus howitzers, Union major Isaac Lynde approached Mesilla from the south on July 25. When he found out that Baylor had sent for artillery, Lynde ordered the fort abandoned that night. After a short discussion, Lynde surrendered his 492-man force, despite objections from many of his officers. The victory at Mesilla was one of the war's early and surprising Confederate successes. Baylor's dashing actions of the summer of 1861 added to his fame as a folk hero. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfm04 ]

1882 - On this date in 1882, Roy Bean opened his first saloon in a railroad camp named Vinegaroon. A week after opening his saloon, the Texas Rangers appointed Bean, Justice of the Peace for that sector of Pecos county (later located in Val Verde County). The Canadian Irish working on the Southern route for the Trans-Continental Railroad, were heavy drinkers, but the Railroad bypassed Vinagaroon.

So Bean packed up and moved the few miles to Langtry (named for the railroad survey for this sector). For the next 20 years, Roy Bean was elected and reelected Justice of the Peace, and despensed his particular brand of Texas justice from his saloon, the Jersey Lilly. But it wasn't until 1898, following an otherwise outlawed prize fight held on a sandbar in the middle of the Rio Grande, that the press, and the rest of America learned about this colorful character from Texas. Judge Roy Bean died in 1903. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fbe08 ]

1931 – The free bridge crossing the Red River between Texas and Oklahoma was finally opened after delays caused by a controversial lawsuit filed by the toll bridge company.

1934 - On this date in 1934, a hurricane hits near Sea Drift (Calhoun County) killing 19, and doing over $4 million in damages, mostly to crops ready for harvest.

1953 - Staff Sgt. Ambrosio Guillen died in Korea. He had enlisted in El Paso and was a member of Company F, Second Battalion, Seventh Marines, First Marine Division. In action against the enemy near Songuch-on, he and his platoon were defending an outpost ahead of the main lines. Pinned down at night and in unfamiliar terrain, he maneuvered his platoon into fighting position. He deliberately exposed himself to heavy artillery and mortar fire to direct his men and supervise care and evacuation of the wounded. Though critically injured, he refused medical attention and continued to lead his men until the enemy was defeated. He died a few hours later. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his valor. Sergeant Guillen is buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery, El Paso.

1974 - The restored Ashton Villa, one of the first brick structures in Texas, was opened to the public. The historic Galveston home was built in 1859 by James Moreau Brown, who by the late 1850s had developed the largest hardware store west of the Mississippi. Brown purchased four lots at the corner of Broadway Boulevard and Twenty-fourth Street in 1859.

His wife, née Rebecca Ashton Stoddart, named the new family residence Ashton Villa in memory of one of her ancestors, Lt. Isaac Ashton, a Revolutionary War hero. The imposing three-story home is in the Victorian Italianate style, distinguished by deep eaves with carved supporting brackets. The home is administered by the Galveston Historical Foundation and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/gga04 ]

1974 - Congresswoman Barbara Jordan of Houston delivers her famous We, the People speech on the U.S. Constitution and impeachment.

1999 - Nolan Ryan was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

[joe817]

Folks, I'm going on vacation, and the "This Day" series will return August 2.