This Day In Texas History - May 15

[joe817]

1755 - Tomás Sánchez de la Barrera y Garza founded Laredo with his family and several others. Sánchez was born near Monterrey, Nuevo León, in 1709. As a young man he served in the army and later ran a ranch in Coahuila. When José Vázquez Borrego established a ranch on the north bank of the Rio Grande in 1750, Sánchez started one on the south side within sight of the new settlement. He was residing there in 1754, when he petitioned José de Escandón for permission to found a town on the north bank of the river. Escandón eventually approved the request and appointed Sánchez captain and chief justice of the new settlement, to be named Laredo. Sánchez was almost singly responsible for maintaining the settlement on the north bank of the Rio Grande, and he held the offices of chief justice and alcalde with only brief intermissions until his death in January 1796.

1871 - In 1871 William Tecumseh Sherman, visited Texas to investigate complaints against Indians from the Fort Sill Reservation. The government had attempted to insure Indian containment by encircling the Indian Territory with a ring of defensive forts and allowing the Society of Friends to manage the Indian agencies, but neither approach had worked. Sherman left San Antonio on May 2, 1871, accompanied by Maj. Randolph B. Marcy, inspector-general of the army, two aides, and seventeen mounted black troopers of the Tenth Infantry. He traveled north through forts Concho, Griffin, and Belknap, and by May 17 reached Fort Richardson, the northernmost outpost on the Texas frontier. The party had seen no Indians, and Sherman was convinced that the Texans' reports were unjustified. On May 15 over a hundred Kiowas, Comanches, Kiowa-Apaches, Arapahoes, and Cheyennes from the Fort Sill Reservation crossed the Red River into Texas.

1888 - The Port Isabel lighthouse was temporarily extinguished. Located on State Highway 100 in Port Isabel, southeastern Cameron County, the lighthouse was built by the United States government in 1852-53. The brick lighthouse had a light that consisted of four lamps on an iron platform. It was reported in 1854 that the lighthouse stood fifty-seven feet above the ground and eighty-two feet above sea level. The light was visible for sixteen miles and was produced by twenty-one reflectors and fifteen lamps. In 1887 it was discovered that the United States government did not have title to the land, and the lighthouse was closed the following year. The government, refusing to give up, sought title to the land and acquired it in 1894. The lighthouse was permanently abandoned, as no longer needed, in 1905, and the site was restored as the Port Isabel Lighthouse Historic Structure in the 1950s.

1890 - Katherine Anne Porter (born Callie Russell Porter) was born in Indian Creek, Texas. She grew up in Kyle. In addition to such major novels as Ship of Fools and Pale Horse-Pale Rider, she also published Noon Wine, a collection of short stories set in Central Texas. The Collected Stories of Katherine Anne Porter (1965) won the Gold Medal for Fiction from the National Institute of Arts and Letters, the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award. Two Texas historical markers were erected in Porter's honor: one at Indian Creek Cemetery in Brown County (1990) and another in Kyle (1991).

1896 - A series of tornadoes hit all over North Texas. Sherman, Justin, and Gribble Springs are hit the worst. In total, 76 people lose their lives.

1898 - Teddy Roosevelt arrives in San Antonio to train the Rough Riders.

1930 - Congressman John Nance Garner of Texas proposed dividing Texas into five states (per our Annexation Treaty with the US), in an effort to end "New England Dominance" over the South. On March 1, 1845, the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States, provided a provision for "New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas ... out of the territory lying south of the thirty-six degree thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line ..."
The Missouri Compromise Line was repealed in 1854, and ruled Unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision. Still, when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, and following the end of the Civil War was forced to rewrite our State Constitution, any claim Texas may have had, to be able to divide into five states, was made invalid. U.S. law does permit states to be formed from the territory of other states, providing consent of the citizenry. One related myth is that our Treaty with the US whereby Texas joined the Union in 1845, included a clause allowing Texas to withdraw from the Union at any time. Neither the treaty nor the Joint Resolution annexing Texas, contain such language.

1936 - the Port of Brownsville is opened.

1937 - On this date in 1937, Trinidad Lopez III was born in Dallas. "Trini" attended Crozier Tech High in Dallas, but left before graduating to help support his family. He was discovered by King Records which signed him to a three year contact, but little came of it. Following the death of his friend Buddy Holly, the remainder of the Crickets contacted Trini to come to Hollywood to be their lead singer, but when he arrived, they were not interested in performing. So Lopez went solo. He was introduced to Frank Sinatra who signed him to his Reprise label. Soon Trini had an album, and in 1963, hit No 3 with an live version of "If I had a Hammer". He went on to have another dozen chart singles, and appeared in numerous television shows.


1973 - Texas native, Nolan Ryan, with the California Angels, pitched his first no-hitter, beating Kansas City 3-0. Ryan would go on to pitch 3 more no-hitters for California, one for Houston, and two for the Texas Rangers.

1993 - In San Antonio, TX, the Alamodome opened.

[ELB]

1930 - Congressman John Nance Garner of Texas proposed dividing Texas into five states (per our Annexation Treaty with the US), in an effort to end "New England Dominance" over the South. On March 1, 1845, the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas to the United States, provided a provision for "New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas ... out of the territory lying south of the thirty-six degree thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri Compromise Line ..."
The Missouri Compromise Line was repealed in 1854, and ruled Unconstitutional in the Dred Scott decision. Still, when Texas seceded from the Union in 1861, and following the end of the Civil War was forced to rewrite our State Constitution, any claim Texas may have had, to be able to divide into five states, was made invalid. U.S. law does permit states to be formed from the territory of other states, providing consent of the citizenry. One related myth is that our Treaty with the US whereby Texas joined the Union in 1845, included a clause allowing Texas to withdraw from the Union at any time. Neither the treaty nor the Joint Resolution annexing Texas, contain such language.

...

This seems an awkwardly worded entry, awkward enough to be in error, or at least not really imparting the correct history (at least as I have larnt it!) -- looks like it comes from the "Howdyyall.com" website?

Anyway, it was the Missouri Compromise that was repealed -- the Missouri Compromise Line is an imaginary line drawn on the map, it's still there if we want to use it.

And the five states thing: this was a limitation put on the annexation of Texas because of the slavery issue. Otherwise Texas could have (and still could) divided into as many states as it could get its citizens and the national legislature to agree to. The joint resolution for annexation limited new states to four, of which two would definitely be free, non-slave states, and up to two could be slave states. As noted in the text, that provision is essentially dead, so it is possible under the US Constitution to divide into as many states as we can get people to agree to.

Also, I think the implication of the entry from Howdyyall.com above is that Texas, while the joint resolution was in force, could subdivide into five total states on its own. I believe that Texas could not have independently done this. The joint resolution text also noted that the new states could join the US under the "provisions of the federal constitution." Those provisions included the Congress of the US voting on whether to accept the new states - the US could not be forced to accept four new states just because Texas wanted them too.

Here is the text of the joint resolution for annexation concerning the subdivision into new states:

Third, New States, of convenient size, not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas, and having sufficient population, may hereafter, by the consent of the said State, be formed out of the territory thereof, which shall be entitled to admission under the provisions of the federal constitution. And as such States as may be formed out of that portion of said territory lying south of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, commonly known as the Missouri compromise line, shall be admitted to the Union with or without slavery, as the people of each State asking permission may desire. And in such State or States as shall be formed north of said Missouri compromise line, slavery, or involuntary servitude, (except for crime) shall be prohibited.

The "provisions of the federal constitution" are...or is... this:

Section. 3.
New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or Parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.

Texas history is hard to summarize, it was a very complex, often convoluted process.

[joe817]

Thanks for clarifying ELB!