This Day In Texas History - May 9

[joe817]

1840 - Sam Houston marries Margaret Lea in Marion, Alabama. In 1837, as President, Houston passed a law allowing divorce, (something not allowed under the Catholic government of Mexico), in a failed attempt to divorce Eliza Allen, and wed Anna Raguet. Anna rejected Houston and later marries Robert Irion. The marriage today is Houston's third marriage, his first, in Tennessee, lasted only a few months.

1846 - Gen. Zachary Taylor defeats the Mexicans at Resaca de Ia Palma.

1847 – John O. Meusebach, the founder of Fredericksburg, negotiated a peace treaty with the Comanche.

1865 - Near Abbeville, Georgia, Jefferson Davis, former Texas governor Francis R. Lubbock, and Confederate postmaster and temporary treasurer John H. Reagan were captured by Union forces. Davis had been forced to flee Richmond with his cabinet on April 2, and the Confederate government had eluded Union patrols in both North and South Carolina. After his capture, Texan John Reagan was imprisoned until December.

1914 - Texas Senators Cotton Tom Heflin and Morris Shepard introduced a joint resolution declaring the second Sunday in May as a day to honor those mother's whose sons died in war, and emphasizing the woman's roll in the family. On May 9th, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed the resolution making May 9th 1914, the first official Mother's Day in the United States. Most of the 45 states had already adopted similar resolutions.

1927 - Tornados rip though several towns in North and Northeast Texas including Garland, Wolfe City, Tigertown, Nevada. All told, 39 people were killed and over 200 injured by the storms.

1930 - An angry mob stormed the Grayson County courthouse in Sherman and lynched an African-American farm hand accused of raping a white woman. The ensuing riot was one of the earliest and worst examples of racial violence during the Great Depression, and initiated a flurry of similar incidents in Texas. Despite the efforts of a small detachment of Texas Rangers, including the legendary Frank Hamer, the mob burned the courthouse and most of the town's black business section, prompting Governor Dan Moody to impose martial law. Eventually, fourteen men were indicted on various charges, though lynching was not among them. By October 1931, only two of the fourteen had been convicted, one for rioting and the other for arson.

1937 - Guitar player and songwriter Sonny Curtis was born in Meadow, Texas. He is responsible for songs such as "I fought the law," which has been covered by artists such as Hank Williams Jr. and the Clash, and the "Mary Tyler Moore" show theme song "Love is all around." He played with artists such as Buddy Holly. According to his website: "Sonny was born in a dugout about seven miles east of Meadow, Texas in 1937. He was the second youngest of six children born to struggling cotton farmers during the devastating Dust Bowl era." "Along with the other two Crickets, Sonny was inducted into the "Music City Walk of Fame" in April, 2007 and "The Musicians Hall Of Fame" in October, 2009. "Sonny and his wife, Louise, live near Nashville, where he continues to be active in the music business and tour with The Crickets, J.I. Allison and Joe B. Mauldin."

1972 - Some 4,000 workers at five Farah, Incorporated plants in El Paso went on strike for the right to be represented by a union. Their labor action lasted until they won union representation in March 1974.

1979 - The Orange Show, an open-air, multimedia sculptural installation dedicated to the orange, was opened to the public. The show, located in east Houston on 2401 Munger Street, was conceived and built singlehandedly over a period of twenty-five years by Houston postman Jefferson D. McKissack. He first became interested in oranges when he trucked them from Florida throughout the Southeast during the Great Depression. He built the exterior walls of what became the Orange Show in the mid-1950s, as part of his plant nursery on two vacant lots across the street from the bungalow where he lived. He began work on the interior space in 1962. Built without architectural plans, the Orange Show evolved into a labyrinth of stairs, catwalks, and passageways encompassing two amphitheaters, several enclosed display areas, a guest shop, a wishing well, fountains, and two observation decks. The entire complex is painted in bright primary colors and festooned with striped awnings, banners, two United States flags, and seven Texas flags. Considered the state's leading example of a "folk art environment," the Orange Show is open to the public on weekends and holidays from March through December.