This Day In Texas History - April 10

[joe817]

1722 – Mission Nuestra Senora del Espiritu Santo de Zuniga was founded in present-day Victoria County to serve the Karankawa Indians.

1768 - The Marqués de Rubí filed an official report in Mexico City on Spain's frontier presidios. He had just traveled some 7,600 miles, from the Gulf of California to Louisiana, on a 23-month inspection tour. His report recommended that Spain reorganize its frontier defenses in a cordon of fifteen presidios more or less along the current U.S.-Mexico border. The report also recommended that Spain maintain only San Antonio and Santa Fe to the north of this line; abandon East Texas completely; and undertake a war of extermination against the Lipan Apaches. More than four years passed before a royal proclamation, the New Regulations for Presidios, incorporated many of Rubí's recommendations. Under the New Regulations, Spain abandoned all missions and presidios in Texas except those at La Bahía and San Antonio, designated the latter city the new capital of Texas, removed all settlers and soldiers from East Texas, and implemented a new policy intended to establish good relations with the enemies of the Apaches.

1836 - Almanzon Huston, quartermaster general of the Texas army, set about the construction of a series of depots between Natchitoches, Louisiana, and the Brazos River in order to expedite the movement of volunteers and supplies overland from the United States to the Texas army.

1837 - George W. Wheelwright, commander of the Texas Navy schooner-of-war Independence sailed from New Orleans on April 10, 1837, bearing the Texas minister to the United States, William H. Wharton, back to Texas. Off the mouth of the Brazos River the Independence encountered two ships of the blockading Mexican fleet, the Vencedor del Álamo and the Libertador. In a running cannonade observed by the entire population of Velasco, the two Mexican brigs-of-war gave the Texas ship a cruel raking, and by 11 A.M. the larger and better armed Libertador closed in on the Independence. Neither ship was substantially harmed by the exchanges of broadsides, but Captain Wheelwright was wounded and taken below; he was the only Texan casualty. Lt. John W. Taylor took command and continued the battle, but by 11:45 both Mexican warships had closed to within a pistol shot of the Independence, and the Libertador was in position to rake its stern with a broadside. Taylor prudently struck his colors, and Wharton and all of the ship's officers and men were taken prisoner. Although kindly treated, all were imprisoned at Matamoros until, singly or in small groups, they were exchanged or escaped. The Independence was commissioned into the Mexican navy under its Texas name and continued to serve in the Gulf against its former masters.

1874 - The Frontier Battalion was formed on April 10, 1874, a branch of the Texas Rangers. The battalion operated as a full-time, statewide police force, organized along military lines into squads, platoons, and companies. Its mission included a full-time patrol of the frontier and the Mexican border. Its main concerns focused on the Indian problem (at least through 1878), and conflict with the Mexicans. The lion's share of the adjutant general's budget went toward establishing frontier security. The Frontier Battalion directed its efforts after 1874 at ending Indian and Mexican border conflicts and apprehending criminals. The militia was thus freed to perform traditional militia roles. Citizen soldiers, called the "Uniformed Militia" until 1879, the "Texas Volunteer Guard" to 1903, and the "Texas National Guard" in the twentieth century, had the traditional militia responsibility to repel invasions, suppress insurrections, and execute the laws of the Union. (I didn't know that the Texas National Guard was born from the old Frontier Battalion.)


1887 - José María Botello was ordained a minister by the Presbytery of Tamaulipas. Botello was born in Tamaulipas between 1840 and 1850 and lived in Matamoros. He converted from Catholicism to Presbyterianism and served as an elder in the Matamoros Presbyterian congregation. In 1883 the Presbytery of Western Texas licensed him "to preach the gospel to his people," and he was instrumental in the establishment of the Mexican Presbyterian Church of San Marcos, the first Mexican-American church in Texas to be affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Botello reportedly died in Mexico at the age of ninety-seven.

1912 - On this date in 1912, Roy Hufheinz was born in Beaumont. He served as a judge and as mayor of Houston. He was instrumental in getting a major league baseball team in Houston, and later in getting Houston to build the Astrodome, which he billed as "the Eighth Wonder of the World". It was the world's first domed stadium

1937 - Lyndon B Johnson won his first elected office, being elected to the US House of Representatives as Congressman from the 10th District of Texas. He is helped in his election by the Speaker of the House, Texan Sam Rayburn.

1938 - On this date in 1938, "Dandy" Don Meredith was born in Mount Vernon (Franklin Co). Meredith was the quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1960 to 1969, and took Dallas to within one game of the first ever NFL/AFL Championship Game (later called the Superbowl). Later he became an announcer on ABC's Monday Night Football.

1962 - Major league baseball comes to Texas with the Houston Colt .45's 11-2 win over the Chicago Cubs. The Colt .45's were later to be named the Astros.

1963 - Lee Harvey Oswald attempted to kill Maj. Gen. Edwin A. Walker at the latter's home; the bullet missed Walker by inches.

1965 - President Lyndon B. Johnson dedicated the Gary Job Corps Training Center. Following the passage of the Federal Economic Opportunity Act on August 20, 1964, the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity began awarding contracts to establish centers for vocational training. On December 16, 1964, the Texas Educational Foundation, a private, nonprofit, Texas corporation, was awarded a contract to establish the Gary Center near San Marcos at the former site of Gary Air Force Base. Between 1965 and 1967 it became the largest such training center in the nation, having approximately 3,000 trainees in 1967.

1979 - The single worst tornado in Texas history in terms of property damage, hit Wichita Falls on this date in 1979 when an F4 tornado hit the city destroying 3,000 homes and causing over $400 million in damages. The tornado touched down about 3 miles northeast of Holliday where it damaged homes and businesses. Entering Wichita Falls, it severely damaged Memorial Stadium, McNeil Junior High, and a major part of the residential area of the Wichita Falls. The tornado continued it's path northeast across the Red River and into Oklahoma where it dissipated north of Waurika. The Wichita Falls tornado of 1979 was one of the deadliest in Texas history, killing 42, and leaving over 20,000 people homeless. Among the dead were 25 who died in their vehicles trying to escape the storm.