This Day In Texas History - August 23

[joe817]

1835 - On August 23, 1835, while serving as síndico procurador in Nacogdoches, Antonio Menchaca (Manchaca) wrote to Governor Leona Vicario informing him that Texans there were determined to oppose Antonio López de Santa Anna and planned to "disarm all the Mexicans so that they cannot help defend the Government." He further warned against allowing immigration of so many Americans.

1837 - John P. Borden, participant in the Texas Revolution and the first commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas, was appointed to his office by Sam Houston on August 23, 1837. Starting out in his office in Houston, Borden faced the enormous task of acquiring and protecting numerous Mexican and Spanish land titles issued before the republic. The records provided valuable evidence to validate land ownership. Borden began with no money, supplies, or employees to undertake his job, and at one time he had to store the records at friends' houses. Yet in 1837 he reported the successful acquisition of land documents from all over Texas, with the exception of records from three eastern and two southern colonies.In 1839 Borden moved the land archives from Houston to Austin. He received $1,200 for the transportation by wagon of almost 5,000 pounds of documents. Borden tried to increase public and government awareness of the need for more funding, manpower, and authority for the land office that was responsible for administering 216 million acres of Texas lands. Frustrated, he resigned in December 1840.

1900 - The Angelina and Neches River Railroad Company was chartered on August 23, 1900, to connect Keltys in Angelina County with Manton, twelve miles to the east. The Angelina and Neches was one of the roads involved in the Tap Line Case before the Interstate Commerce Commission in 1910. The Railroad Commission did not recognize this line as a common carrier until 1911.

1916 - The first offshore drilling for oil in Texas occurred along Goose Creek in southeast Harris County, twenty-one miles southeast of Houston on Galveston Bay. In 1903 John I. Gaillard noticed bubbles popping to the surface of the water at the point where the creek empties into the bay. With a match he confirmed that the bubbles were natural gas, a strong indication of oil deposits. Royal Matthews leased the Gaillard property and drilled for 2½ years but could not bring in a continuously producing well. After drilling twenty dry holes in two years they abandoned the field. The American Petroleum Company, new holders of a lease on Gaillard's land, finally drilled close to the shore. On August 23, 1916, contractor Charles Mitchell brought in a 10,000-barrel gusher at 2,017 feet. Initially the well produced 8,000 barrels daily, a quantity indicating that Goose Creek was a large oilfield.

The largest well of the field was Sweet 16 of the Simms-Sinclair Company, which came in on August 4, 1917, gushing 35,000 barrels a day from a depth of 3,050 feet. This well stayed out of control for three days before the crew could close it. World War I oil prices of $1.35 a barrel encouraged Humble Oil and Refining Company and Gulf Production Company to try offshore drilling. The Goose Creek field reached its peak annual production of 8,923,635 barrels with onshore and offshore drilling by 1918.

1917 - Henry Tureman Allen, the commanding general of the Ninetieth (Texas-Oklahoma) National Army Division in World War I, assumed command of Camp Travis, in San Antonio, on August 23, 1917, and supervised the assignment of Texas and Oklahoma draftees to the new Ninetieth Division. The division underwent additional training at Aignay-le-Duc, entered the line in August 1918, participated in the St. Mihiel operation in September, and was advancing in the Meuse-Argonne on November 11. The Ninetieth was rated by Pershing's headquarters as one of the top six divisions in the American Expeditionary Forces, and its operations were subsequently studied by the AEF General Staff College and the General Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth. While in France Allen conceived the T-O design of the Ninetieth's insignia. Nevertheless, the T-O Division remained to some the Alamo Division, a designation Allen had rejected at Camp Travis.

1937 - Carl Joseph Crane, aviation pioneer and inventor, was born in San Antonio. At age ten he witnessed the birth of aviation in Texas when, at Fort Sam Houston, Capt. Benjamin Foulois first flew experimentally the only airplane owned by the United States government, a pusher-type, twenty-five-horsepower Wright Brothers biplane. After graduating from the United States Army Advanced Flying School at Kelly Field in 1925, he spent two years with the First Pursuit Group at Selfridge Field in Michigan, and then for five years was a flight instructor at Kelly, Brooks, and Randolph fields in Texas. In 1929 he teamed with William C. Ocker to devise revolutionary flying systems and to write the world's first manual for instrumental flight, Blind Flight in Theory and Practice (1932).

On August 23, 1937, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, with assistance from G. V. Holloman and Raymond Stout, Crane made the world's first fully automated landing, for which he had designed the key instruments. Among his more than 100 patented inventions were radio signaling equipment for use in aircraft trainers, which was licensed for use in the Link Trainer; the Navitrainer, designed with Colonel Ocker; the B-3 Drift Meter; the Gyro Panoramic Sextant; and numerous other navigational devices. He had inventions on the drawing board and patents pending when he died. He died on April 26, 1982, in San Antonio.

1945 - Macario García of Sugarland, was drafted into the army on November 11, 1942. García distinguished himself on the battlefield. He was wounded in action at Normandy in June 1944, but after his recovery he rejoined his unit, Company B, First Battalion, Twenty-second Infantry Regiment, Fourth Infantry Division. On November 27, 1944, near Grosshau, Germany, he singlehandedly assaulted two German machine-gun emplacements that were blocking his company's advance. Wounded in the shoulder and foot, he crawled forward alone towards the machine-gun nests, killed six enemy soldiers, captured four, and destroyed the nests with grenades. Only after the company had secured its position did García allow himself to be evacuated for medical treatment.

He was awarded the Medal of Honor with twenty-seven other soldiers at a White House ceremony on August 23, 1945, by President Harry S. Truman. García also received the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star, and the Combat Infantryman's Badge. After three years of active service, one of which was overseas, García received an honorable discharge from the army with the rank of sergeant. He returned to Sugar Land and found that he had become a celebrity around the state. In 1981 the Houston City Council officially changed the name of Sixty-ninth Street to Macario García Drive. This 1½ mile thoroughfare runs through the heart of the city's east-side Mexican-American community. In 1983 Vice President George Bush dedicated Houston's new Macario García Army Reserve Center, and in 1994 a Sugar Land middle school was named in García's honor.

[howdy]

1985- My Daughter was born. Big 30 today!!

[joe817]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY HOWDY'S DAUGHTER!!!!!