This Day In Texas History - August 19

[joe817]

1824 - On August 19, 1824, Phillip Singleton, one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, received title to a league of land at the mouth of Yegua Creek on the west bank of the Brazos River in what is now southeastern Burleson and northeastern Washington counties. The census of March 1826 classified him as a farmer and stock raiser aged between forty and fifty. His household included his wife, Susanna (Walker), two sons, and three daughters. In 1828–29 Singleton settled on the north side of Buffalo Bayou and built a log house that was afterwards bought by Lorenzo de Zavala and became Zavala's first home in Texas.

1824 - Ezekiel Thomas, early settler, was born in Edgefield, South Carolina, around 1797 and was in Texas by 1822, when he was living in the San Jacinto area. On August 19, 1824, as one of Stephen F. Austin's Old Three Hundred colonists, he received title to a league of land that later became part of Harris County. The census of 1826 listed Thomas as a farmer and stock raiser aged between twenty-five and forty. He had a wife, Elizabeth, and two small daughters. Part of his original land grant was offered for sale by the county sheriff in 1838. Thomas died about 1834.

1837 - Robert Alexander, Methodist minister and missionary to Texas, the ninth child of Daniel and Rachael (Moffat) Alexander, was born in Smith County, Tennessee, on August 7, 1811. He joined the Methodist Episcopal Church about 1826. He was admitted into the Tennessee Conference in 1830 and ordained a deacon in 1832 and an elder in 1834. He transferred to the Mississippi Conference in 1835 and in April 1837 was appointed missionary to Texas with Martin Ruter and Littleton Fowler. Alexander, the first of the three to enter the new republic, crossed the Sabine on August 19 and preached his way westward, thus beginning a ministry of forty-five years in Texas.

1856 - The first issue of the Austin Southern Intelligencer appeared on August 19, 1856. The publishers were William Baker and Irving Root, and the editor was George W. Paschal. The Southern Intelligencer was published every Wednesday under the masthead motto, "Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."

1870 - Annie Webb Blanton, teacher, suffragist, and the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office, was born on August 19, 1870, in Houston.

1895 - John Henry (Old John, Uncle John) Selman killed the famous gunman John Wesley Hardin on August 19, 1895, in El Paso, by putting three bullets in him as he rolled dice in the Acme Saloon. Selman went on trial for murder, but because of a hung jury he was released on bond. Selman was buried in El Paso's Concordia Cemetery in the Catholic section, but his grave was unmarked, and all attempts to locate it have been unsuccessful.

1906 - Eddie Durham, one of the most important Swing Era composer–arrangers, was born in San Marcos, Texas, on August 19, 1906. Durham's early training in music theory led to his work during the 1930s and 1940s as a jazz composer–arranger for four important bands from Oklahoma, Missouri, and Tennessee: the Blue Devils, Bennie Moten, Count Basie, and Jimmie Lunceford.

The tunes Durham composed or arranged for these bands include such classics as "Moten Swing," "Swinging the Blues," "Topsy," "John's Idea," "Time Out," "Out the Window," "Every Tub," "Sent for You Yesterday," "One O'Clock Jump," "Jumpin' at the Woodside," "Lunceford Special," "Harlem Shout," and "Pigeon Walk." In addition, he arranged music for Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller, among other white big bands of the Swing Era; Durham contributed to one of Miller's greatest hits, "In the Mood."

He died in New York City on March 6, 1987. His hometown of San Marcos declared August 19 as "Eddie Durham Day" and in 2003 began an annual Eddie Durham Day Musical Tribute and Festival with the long-term goal to establish a Durham Family Archival Museum and Memorial Park.

1919 - Candelaria is a ranching community at the end of Farm Road 170, across the Rio Grande from San Antonio El Bravo, Chihuahua, Mexico, and forty-two miles southwest of Marfa in western Presidio County. The United States Army built a cavalry outpost overlooking Candelaria shortly after the mobilization of National Guard troops along the border in May 1916.

On August 19, 1919, troopers of the Eighth Cavalry crossed into Chihuahua at Candelaria on the last American punitive expedition into Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. The army outpost was closed after the cavalry withdrew from the upper Big Bend area in September 1919.

1921 - Eugene Wesley (Gene) Roddenberry, television writer and producer, was born in El Paso, Texas, on August 19, 1921. He grew up in Los Angeles, California, where his father worked in law enforcement, and received an A.A. degree from Los Angeles City College. He also attended the University of Miami, Columbia University, and the University of Southern California, where he studied prelaw and aeronautical engineering. He qualified for a pilot's license and served in the United States Air Force from 1941 to 1945.

He flew a B-17 Flying Fortress on eighty-nine missions, including Guadalcanal and Bougainville, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and several other decorations. He also began writing for television, and in the 1950s and early 1960s his outlines and scripts were produced on Dragnet, Naked City, The U.S. Steel Hour, and Goodyear Theater, among other series. He received his first Emmy award as writer for Have Gun, Will Travel, a western series, for which he wrote more produced scripts than any other writer.

Roddenberry is best remembered, however, for Star Trek, which premiered in 1966 and ran until 1969. The series became a cult favorite, spawned numerous fan clubs, products, and conventions, and later became one of the most popular syndicated shows in reruns. Six Star Trek feature films had been produced by the time of Roddenberry's death; he produced the first and was executive consultant on the next three. He was also executive producer of the sequel series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and coauthored two books, The Making of Star Trek (1968) and Star Trek—The Motion Picture: A Novel (1979). His book The Questor Tapes was published in 1974. Roddenberry died in Santa Monica, California, on October 24, 1991.

2006 - During the 1970s the Armadillo World Headquarters, a concert hall in Austin, became the focus of a musical renaissance that made the city a nationally recognized music capital. Launched in a converted National Guard armory by a group of local music partners—Eddie Wilson, Spencer Perskin, Jim Franklin, Mike Tolleson, Bobby Hedderman, and others—the "Armadillo" provided a large and increasingly sophisticated alternative venue to the municipal auditorium across the street.

The Armadillo opened its doors in August 1970 and quickly became the focus for much of the city's musical life. By being able to host such top touring acts as Frank Zappa, the Pointer Sisters, Bruce Springsteen, and members of the Grateful Dead, the Armadillo brought to Austin a variety of musical groups that smaller clubs or other local entities might never have booked. The Armadillo also gave vital exposure to such future stars as Joe Ely, Marcia Ball, and Stevie Ray Vaughan.

By 1980 the demands of downtown real estate signaled the end of an era. As its lease expired the Armadillo World Headquarters held one final New Year's Eve blowout (December 31, 1980), then closed its doors to await demolition. On August 19, 2006, the city of Austin dedicated a plaque to commemorate the hall at the site where it once stood. Though the building is gone, the Armadillo's legacy as a vital center of musical and artistic creativity lives on in Texas music history.