This Day In Texas History - January 16

[joe817]

1839 - The Texas senate votes to buy captured Mexican ships from the French to start a new navy.

1843 - The Congress of the Republic of Texas, in a joint ballot elected Thomas Jefferson Rusk to major general of the militia of the Republic of Texas. But he resigned in June when Sam Houston obstructed his plans for aggressive warfare against Mexico. Rusk then turned his energies to establishing Nacogdoches University. He was vice president of the university when the charter was granted in 1845 and president in 1846. As a delegate from Nacogdoches to the Convention of 1836, Rusk not only signed the Texas Declaration of Independence but also chaired the committee to revise the constitution. The ad interim government, installed on March 17, 1836, appointed Rusk secretary of war. When informed that the Alamo had fallen and the Mexicans were moving eastward, Rusk helped President Burnet to move the government to Harrisburg. Rusk ordered all the coastal communities to organize militias. After the Mexicans massacred James W. Fannin's army (see GOLIAD MASSACRE) Burnet sent Rusk with orders for Gen. Sam Houston to make a stand against the enemy, and upon learning that Antonio López de Santa Anna intended to capture the government at Harrisburg the Texas army marched to Buffalo Bayou. As a security measure, Houston and Rusk remained silent about their plans. Rusk participated with bravery in the defeat of Santa Anna on April 21, 1836, in the battle of San Jacinto. From May 4 to October 31, 1836, he served as commander in chief of the Army of the Republic of Texas, with the rank of brigadier general. He followed the Mexican troops westward as they retired from Texas to be certain of their retreat beyond the Rio Grande.
[wow. a fascinating read. for more info: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... fru16.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ]

1847 - The Ursuline Sisters arrived in Galveston from New Orleans, to later found The Ursuline Academy. The school, Galveston's first parochial school, was on a ten-acre campus. Attended by girls of all faiths, the academy opened in 1854, closed for a time in 1857 during a yellow fever epidemic, and was used as a hospital by both sides during the Civil War. The main Victorian Gothic building, constructed by Nicholas J. Clayton along with the convent in the mid-1890s, sheltered more than 1,000 refugees during the Galveston hurricane of 1900.

1849 - Joseph Lancaster, first published the Texas Ranger and Brazos Guard at Washington-on-the-Brazos. As editor of this paper Lancaster began a crusade to promote steamboat navigation of the Brazos River. The first printing house was the old Capitol.

1850 - The only amendment of the Constitution of 1845 was approved today, and provided for the election of state officials formerly appointed by the governor or by the legislature. The Constitution of 1845 has been the most popular of all Texas constitutions. Its straightforward, simple form prompted many national politicians, including Daniel Webster, to remark that the Texas constitution was the best of all of the state constitutions. Though some men, including Webster, argued against the annexation of Texas, the constitution was accepted by the United States on December 29, 1845. The Constitution of 1845, which provided for the government of Texas as a state in the United States, was almost twice as long as the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. The framers, members of the Convention of 1845, drew heavily on the newly adopted Constitution of Louisiana and on the constitution drawn by the Convention of 1833 but apparently used as a working model the Constitution of the republic for a general plan of government and bill of rights.

1850 - Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri introduced a bill that that would have had Texas cede all land west of 102° longitude and north of the Red River to the United States for $15 million and would have divided Texas into two states, and ceded additional land to the U.S.This effectively halted Texas' aspirations of annexing all territory bounded by the waters of the Rio Grande(which would encompass a large part of what is now New Mexico). These acts became known as THE COMPROMISE OF 1850

1860 - Adolphus Glaevecke, a long-term observer of life on the Texas-Mexico border, gave the governor of Texas an account of events connected with the so-called Cortina Wars. Glaevecke, a native of Rostock, Prussia, had come to Texas with three of his brothers in 1836. Nearly all subsequent historians have used his account of the actions of Juan N. Cortina, whose rebellion against border Anglo-Texans is legendary.

1912 - Mrs. Edna W. Trigg became the first woman agent in the state of the Texas Agricultural and Extension Service. She was assigned to Milam County.

1919 - The Galveston Brewing Co. was forced to halt production of beer due to national Prohibition. The company began making a nonintoxicating “near beer” called Galvo.

1934 - famed bank robber Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde) broke into the Eastham Unit of the Texas Prison system and freed his former partner, Raymond Hamilton, and four other inmates.

1979 - Bill Clements became the first Republican governor of Texas since Reconstruction. The Dallas businessman and former Deputy Defense Secretary shocked the political establishment by defeating Democrat John Hill in the 1978 general election. By pulling the upset, Clements became the state's first Republican governor since Edmund Davis left office at the end of the Reconstruction era in Texas in 1874. Leaving office in January 1991, Clements retired to his beloved Dallas. He turns 93 in April.

1993 - Mr. & Mrs. LaserTex( who frequents the TexasCHLforum) became husband and wife, on this day. Happy Anniversary!

[seamusTX]

It's amusing that you can hardly have a day in Texas history that does not mention Galveston.

I wasn't born here, and I didn't even try to get here as fast as I could. It was a complete accident.

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. LaserTex.

- Jim

[WildBill]

1919 - The Galveston Brewing Co. was forced to halt production of beer due to national Prohibition. The company began making a nonintoxicating “near beer” called Galvo.

"Galvo" ... Gag!

[seamusTX]

Prohibition was a joke here, or so they tell me. Several fortunes were based on running liquor from Cuba or Mexico, along with gambling and prostitution.

I'm shocked! Shocked!

- Jim

[WildBill]

It's amusing that you can hardly have a day in Texas history that does not mention Galveston.

I wasn't born here, and I didn't even try to get here as fast as I could. It was a complete accident.

Congratulations, Mr. & Mrs. LaserTex.

- Jim

[joe817]

It's amusing that you can hardly have a day in Texas history that does not mention Galveston. - Jim

It may be amusing but hardly surprising. Galveston was THE largest and busiest seaport on the Gulf Coast next to New Orleans during that time period. It played a pivotal part in not only in helping populate the Texas Gulf Coast, but provided a port for the offloading of direly needed material for the Texas War for Independence.

[seamusTX]

Also the biggest export of Texas in the 19th century -- cotton -- was shipped from Galveston. And the port was crucial to both sides in the War Between the States.

Not gone. Not forgotten. But far from its former glory.

- Jim