This Day In Texas History - March 7

[joe817]

1731 - Fifty-five Canary Islanders arrived in San Antonio to establish the civilian settlement known as San Fernando de Bexar.

1842 - Albert Clinton Horton was recruited to serve as captain under Colonel Owen, to defend against Rafael Vásquez, and his force of 500–700 Mexican soldiers, who had seized San Antonio. He later became the first lieutenant governor of Texas.

1862 - Command of the Texas Brigade was passed to John Bell Hood. After that it would be known as Hood's Texas Brigade.

1867 - The Republican party of Texas originated in the spring of 1867, as Texans responded to the Congressional Reconstruction Act, passed on March 7. [ http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /war2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ]

1872 - U.S. Senator from Texas, James Winwright, delivered a speech to the Senate in support of his proposal to alienate to the federal government all of Texas north and west of a line drawn from the northwest corner of Hardeman County to the mouth of the Pecos River. This land, more than a third of the state, was to be designated an Indian reservation.

1923 - An earthquake struck El Paso and resulted in the only death associated with a Texas quake when an adobe house collapsed on a man in neighboring Cuidad Juárez. Even though earthquakes are not common in the Lone Star State, more than 100 recorded tremors have occurred since 1847. [More in 2009. Cleburne(south of Ft.Worth) has experienced a number of them which puzzles geologists.]

1901 - The Texas legislature proclaimed the bluebonnet the state flower. In the 1930s the state began a highway-beautification program that included scattering bluebonnet seed beside roadways, thus extending the flower's range. The flower-called in some Indian lore a gift from the Great Spirit-is the subject of countless photographs and paintings. It usually blooms in March and April.

1927 - The Supreme Court, in an opinion written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, struck down a Texas law prohibiting blacks from voting in state primary elections.

1955 - The popular kids show, Space Rangers was cancelled. Texas native, Lyn Osborn who played Cadet Happy on the show, had made hundreds of personal appearances with the rest of the cast, all over America.

1958 - In Odessa, groundbreaking ceremonies were held for the Globe of the Great Southwest. The theater is a replica of the original Globe Theater built in 1598 on the Thames River in London, England, for William Shakespeare's acting company.

[joe817]

Stephen F. Austin was in Louisville, KY on March 7, 1836 delivering an impassioned speech to the citizens of Louisville.

In his speech he defines why Texas issued their Declaration of Independence. It is an inspiring speech. Austin was a great orator.

It is lengthy, but worth a good read. It immediately reminded me of John Ford's epic series Why We Fight released during WWII. It also gives an insight of the mindset of Texans at the moment.

Please take the time to read it.

Address of the Honorable S. F. Austin,
Delivered at Louisville, Kentucky, March 7, 1836

http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resourc ... austin.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[TXJK]

Please take the time to read it.

Great read. Thanks for taking the time to post it.

[ELB]

From Three Roads to the Alamo:

...By rights it should have been his [Travis's] name on the declaration, for no one had done more to bring it about. Yet he had gone far beyond that piece of paper. Out there in the Alamo, in the face pf perhaps ten times his numbers, he and his garrison for the last twelve days had made of themselves a living declaration, a human document that Texians could not hold in their hands, but must ever clasp in their hearts.

And they had given Texians -- and Americans -- a definition of bravery. Not the sort of courage that Bowie showed in a spontaneous battle at the Sandbar, or of the man who in the last seconds of his life dies well. Few, even the strongest and most resolute, could really control their deaths in battle, for that lay as much in the hands of chance and their slayers. The better bravery, the real courage, lay in the fact that for nearly two weeks Travis, Crockett, Bowie, and the rest knowingly placed and kept themselves in harms way, aware each day that the Mexicans could overwhelm them at the next dawn, and yet they stayed....

I found the book to be a very fine read indeed, and recommend it to you all. Its focus is on the lives of Crockett, Bowie, and Travis, and therefore most of the book is not about the Texas revolution at all; but they come together at the Alamo, and there is a very fine day-by-day account of the siege. The author is a historian/author, and has written various pieces on the Alamo and other subjects. The full details of the book are:

Three Roads to the Alamo: The Lives and Fortunes of David Crockett, James Bowie, and William Travis Barret, by William C. Davis.

[joe817]

Remember the Alamo!

Thank you ELB .