This Day In Texas History - July 8

[joe817]

1833 - On this date in 1833, Stephen F Austin arrived in Mexico City with the proposal of the Convention of 1833 in which delegates proposed to become a separate state from Coahuila. However, before he can get the Mexican government to agree to it, he will be arrested.

1855 - The US Military establishes Camp Verde (Kerr County) as headquarters for a Camel Expedition. It is hoped that Camels will be able to travel farther and require less food and water than a traditional horse brigade. Within a year, the first camels are unloaded from the Middle East, and taken to Camp Verde. The Camp Verde store between Kerrville and Comfort still stands as a reminder of this chapter in Texas history.

1860 - On this day in 1860, a series of mysterious fires broke out in North Texas, devastating several communities and leading to the Texas slave panic of 1860. The most serious fire destroyed most of the downtown section of the small town of Dallas. In addition, about half of the town square in Denton burned, and fire razed a store in Pilot Point. At first, the leaders of the affected communities attributed the fires to a combination of the exceedingly hot summer (it was reportedly as hot as 110 degrees in Dallas on the afternoon of the fire) and the introduction into the stores of the new and volatile phosphorous matches. Indeed, subsequent experience with "prairie matches" in Denton satisfied the citizens of that town that spontaneous combustion was the probable cause of the fire there. In Dallas, however, certain white leaders detected a more sinister origin to the area's fires.Charles R. Pryor of the Dallas Herald blamed the assault on an abolitionist plot "to devastate, with fire and assassination, the whole of Northern Texas...." By the end of July, communities and counties throughout North and East Texas had established vigilance committees to root out and punish the alleged conspirators. By the time the panic subsided in September, between thirty and 100 blacks and whites had been killed by the vigilance committees. Often called "the Texas Troubles" by the press, the Texas panic of 1860 helped prepare Texans and other Southerners to leave the Union.

1868 - At the Constitutional Convention of 1868-69, Titus H. Mundine proposed enfranchising women and African Americans. Mundine was possibly the first man in a position of power to propose woman suffrage in Texas.

1869 - On this date in 1869, the Brazos Iron Bridge Association completed a new permanent bridge across the Brazos River to accommodate the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad. The bridge association was created specifically to finance and build this bridge. The following year, this bridge, the railroad and another small railroad were merged to for the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway. Within 25 years, this line would carry passenger service from New Orleans to the West Coast as part of the Southern Pacific Railroad.

1907 - The town of Post, founded by C.W. Post of Toasties fame, becomes the seat of Garza County.

1925 - The San Antonio Conservation Society was incorporated. The group's goal was to create the Riverwalk and restore the Spanish Governor's Palace.

1955 - The University of Texas Board of Regents voted to permit Texas Western College to admit black students. The college later became known as the University of Texas at El Paso.