This Day In Texas History - August 21
Posted: Wed Aug 21, 2019 10:24 am
1856 - Fort Lancaster was on the left bank of Live Oak Creek above its confluence with the Pecos River. It is now a state historic site off old U.S. Highway 290 ten miles east of Sheffield in Crockett County. The post was established as Camp Lancaster on August 20, 1855, by Capt. Stephen D. Carpenter and manned by companies H and K of the First United States Infantry. Camp Lancaster became Fort Lancaster on August 21, 1856.
Fort Lancaster protected the lower road from San Antonio to El Paso in the years following the discovery of gold in California. The duties of the men stationed at Fort Lancaster were to escort mail and freight trains, pursue Mescalero Apaches and Comanches, and patrol their segment of road to keep track of Indian movements. The post was originally constructed of picket canvas and portable Turnley prefabricated buildings. By the time it was abandoned all its major structures were made of stone or adobe. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf30 ]
1859 - Camp Nowlin was a temporary military outpost near the Little Wichita River and the site of present Archer City in Archer County. It was established under the direction of Capt. John H. Brown on August 8, 1859, and served as a post for soldiers whose primary duties included escorting Indians to and from the Brazos Indian Reservation and Indian Territory. The military outpost only lasted for three weeks, as a series of illnesses forced Brown to close the camp on August 21.
1864 - Adam Rankin (Stovepipe) Johnson, frontiersman, Confederate general, and town founder, was born in Henderson, Kentucky. In 1854 he left the drugstore where he had worked since he was twelve and moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County, Texas, then the edge of the western frontier. There he gained a reputation as the surveyor of much virgin territory in West Texas, as an Indian fighter, and as a stage driver for the Butterfield Overland Mail. With the outbreak of the Civil War Johnson returned to Kentucky and enlisted as a scout under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
He was one of the few members of the Fort Donelson garrison who escaped capture by evacuating the fort with Gen. John B. Floyd. His subsequent exploits as commander of the Texas Partisan Rangers within the federal lines in Kentucky earned him a colonel's commission in August 1862 and a promotion to brigadier general on June 1, 1864. One of his most remarkable feats was the capture of Newburgh, Indiana, from a sizable Union garrison with only twelve men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon.
This episode won him his nickname. On August 21, 1864, Johnson attacked a federal encampment at Grubbs Crossroads, near Canton in Caldwell County, Kentucky, before daylight; he was accidentally shot by his own men and became totally blind. After capture by the federals he was imprisoned at Fort Warren until the end of the war.
Upon his release he returned to Texas, where he lived for his remaining sixty years and founded the town of Marble Falls, "the blind man's town." He worked to develop the water power of the Colorado River, founded the Texas Mining Improvement Company, and served as a contractor for the Overland Mail. General Johnson died at Burnet on October 20, 1922.
1876 - Wegefarth County, established by the Texas legislature on June 2, 1873, was named for C. Wegefarth, president of the Texas Immigrant Aid and Supply Company. The territory of the county lay in a disputed area west of Greer County in the eastern Panhandle of Texas. Wegefarth County was abolished by the act of legislature on August 21, 1876, which established the other Panhandle counties.
1879 - The first Texas telephone exchange opened for business on August 21, 1879 in Galveston, and soon afterward another was established in Houston. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/egt02 ]
1913 - John Henry Faulk, humorist and author, fourth of five children of Henry and Martha (Miner) Faulk, was born in Austin, Texas, on August 21, 1913. He entered the University of Texas in 1932. Under the guidance of J. Frank Dobie, Walter P. Webb, and Roy Bedichek,he developed his considerable abilities as a collector of folklore. Early in World War II the army refused to admit him because of a bad eye. By 1944 relaxed standards allowed the army to admit him for limited duty as a medic; he served the rest of the war at Camp Swift, Texas.
Radio provided Faulk the audience he, as a storyteller, craved.WCBS Radio debuted the "John Henry Faulk Show" on December 17, 1951. The program, which featured music, political humor, and listener participation, ran for six years. Faulk's radio career ended in 1957, a victim of the Cold War and the blacklisting of the 1950s. News vice president Edward R. Murrow supported Faulk's effort to end blacklisting. With financial backing from Murrow, Faulk engaged New York attorney Louis Nizer and filed suit.
When the trial finally concluded in a New York courtroom, the jury had determined that Faulk should receive more compensation than he sought in his original petition. On June 28, 1962, the jury awarded him the largest libel judgment in history to that date—$3.5 million. An appeals court subsequently reduced the amount to $500,000. Legal fees and accumulated debts erased the balance of the award.
Despite his vindication, CBS did not rehire Faulk—indeed, years passed before he worked again as a media entertainer. He returned to Austin in 1968. From 1975 to 1980 he appeared as a homespun character on the television program "Hee-Haw." Faulk died in Austin of cancer on April 9, 1990. The city of Austin named the downtown branch of the public library in his honor.
Fort Lancaster protected the lower road from San Antonio to El Paso in the years following the discovery of gold in California. The duties of the men stationed at Fort Lancaster were to escort mail and freight trains, pursue Mescalero Apaches and Comanches, and patrol their segment of road to keep track of Indian movements. The post was originally constructed of picket canvas and portable Turnley prefabricated buildings. By the time it was abandoned all its major structures were made of stone or adobe. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf30 ]
1859 - Camp Nowlin was a temporary military outpost near the Little Wichita River and the site of present Archer City in Archer County. It was established under the direction of Capt. John H. Brown on August 8, 1859, and served as a post for soldiers whose primary duties included escorting Indians to and from the Brazos Indian Reservation and Indian Territory. The military outpost only lasted for three weeks, as a series of illnesses forced Brown to close the camp on August 21.
1864 - Adam Rankin (Stovepipe) Johnson, frontiersman, Confederate general, and town founder, was born in Henderson, Kentucky. In 1854 he left the drugstore where he had worked since he was twelve and moved to Hamilton Valley in Burnet County, Texas, then the edge of the western frontier. There he gained a reputation as the surveyor of much virgin territory in West Texas, as an Indian fighter, and as a stage driver for the Butterfield Overland Mail. With the outbreak of the Civil War Johnson returned to Kentucky and enlisted as a scout under Nathan Bedford Forrest.
He was one of the few members of the Fort Donelson garrison who escaped capture by evacuating the fort with Gen. John B. Floyd. His subsequent exploits as commander of the Texas Partisan Rangers within the federal lines in Kentucky earned him a colonel's commission in August 1862 and a promotion to brigadier general on June 1, 1864. One of his most remarkable feats was the capture of Newburgh, Indiana, from a sizable Union garrison with only twelve men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon.
This episode won him his nickname. On August 21, 1864, Johnson attacked a federal encampment at Grubbs Crossroads, near Canton in Caldwell County, Kentucky, before daylight; he was accidentally shot by his own men and became totally blind. After capture by the federals he was imprisoned at Fort Warren until the end of the war.
Upon his release he returned to Texas, where he lived for his remaining sixty years and founded the town of Marble Falls, "the blind man's town." He worked to develop the water power of the Colorado River, founded the Texas Mining Improvement Company, and served as a contractor for the Overland Mail. General Johnson died at Burnet on October 20, 1922.
1876 - Wegefarth County, established by the Texas legislature on June 2, 1873, was named for C. Wegefarth, president of the Texas Immigrant Aid and Supply Company. The territory of the county lay in a disputed area west of Greer County in the eastern Panhandle of Texas. Wegefarth County was abolished by the act of legislature on August 21, 1876, which established the other Panhandle counties.
1879 - The first Texas telephone exchange opened for business on August 21, 1879 in Galveston, and soon afterward another was established in Houston. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/egt02 ]
1913 - John Henry Faulk, humorist and author, fourth of five children of Henry and Martha (Miner) Faulk, was born in Austin, Texas, on August 21, 1913. He entered the University of Texas in 1932. Under the guidance of J. Frank Dobie, Walter P. Webb, and Roy Bedichek,he developed his considerable abilities as a collector of folklore. Early in World War II the army refused to admit him because of a bad eye. By 1944 relaxed standards allowed the army to admit him for limited duty as a medic; he served the rest of the war at Camp Swift, Texas.
Radio provided Faulk the audience he, as a storyteller, craved.WCBS Radio debuted the "John Henry Faulk Show" on December 17, 1951. The program, which featured music, political humor, and listener participation, ran for six years. Faulk's radio career ended in 1957, a victim of the Cold War and the blacklisting of the 1950s. News vice president Edward R. Murrow supported Faulk's effort to end blacklisting. With financial backing from Murrow, Faulk engaged New York attorney Louis Nizer and filed suit.
When the trial finally concluded in a New York courtroom, the jury had determined that Faulk should receive more compensation than he sought in his original petition. On June 28, 1962, the jury awarded him the largest libel judgment in history to that date—$3.5 million. An appeals court subsequently reduced the amount to $500,000. Legal fees and accumulated debts erased the balance of the award.
Despite his vindication, CBS did not rehire Faulk—indeed, years passed before he worked again as a media entertainer. He returned to Austin in 1968. From 1975 to 1980 he appeared as a homespun character on the television program "Hee-Haw." Faulk died in Austin of cancer on April 9, 1990. The city of Austin named the downtown branch of the public library in his honor.