This Day In Texas History - June 20

[joe817]

1832 - On June 20, together with 103 others, including John Austin, W. H. Wharton, and Edwin Waller, George B. McKinstry signed an agreement at Brazoria organizing a military unit composed of Austin colony recruits. The next day he and others received orders from John Austin to seize the arms and ammunition at Brazoria from the Mexican collector of customs. Taking two cannons from Brazoria and loading them on a schooner, McKinstry and his group sailed down the Brazos River. At Velasco, however, near the mouth of the river, the Mexican commander refused them permission to pass. In the ensuing battle of Velasco, the colonists used powder and lead that McKinstry had helped secure in New Orleans.

1836 - Based on reports that the Mexican Congress had repudiated the agreements that Santa Anna had made with the ad interim government of Texas and that Gen. José de Urrea was organizing a large Mexican army to invade Texas, on June 20, 1836, ad interim president David G. Burnet issued a proclamation calling for volunteers to meet the enemy.

1837 - Gail Borden Jr. sold his partnership in the newspaper Telegraph to Jacob W. Cruger and became the first collector of the port of Galveston under the Republic of Texas.

1841 - The schooner San Bernard, a warship of the Navy of the Republic of Texas, While crossing the Bay of Campeche on patrol the topmast was carried away, and was compelled to return to Galveston, where it arrived on June 20.

1852 - On this day in 1852 Fort Clark was established at Las Moras Springs in Kinney County. Originally named Fort Riley, the post was renamed in honor of Major John B. Clark, a deceased officer who had served in the Mexican War. Fort Clark was the southern anchor of the line of frontier forts protecting the western frontier. The land was leased from Samuel Maverick. Oscar Brackett established a supply village for the fort at Las Moras, later called Brackettville. From 1872 until 1914 the fort was the home of the Black Seminole scouts and the Fourth United States Cavalry. Later Fort Clark was the garrison for the Tenth United State Cavalry and the Twenty-fourth and Twenty-fifth United States Infantry regiments. These units were mounted regiments of black soldiers, known as "buffalo soldiers." From 1920 to 1941 Fort Clark was home to the Fifth Cavalry. In 1938 Col. George S. Patton was regimental commander. In June 1944, after full mechanization of the cavalry, Fort Clark, one of the last horse-cavalry posts in the country, was ordered closed. In 1971 the property was purchased by North American Towns of Texas and turned into a private recreation and retirement community. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf10 ]

1870 - Texas senator Marmion Bowers delivered a speech opposing Governor Edmund Davis's newly legislated right to declare martial law. He served in the Confederate army during the Civil War until he was elected to the Tenth Texas Legislature (1863-64). In 1869 he was elected to the Texas Senate, where he served until his death. There he opposed Republican attempts to restore order to the state through the use of force. Governor Davis's declarations of martial law and his use of the militia and state police in Madison, Hill, Walker, Limestone, and Freestone counties were some of the most controversial Reconstruction-era measures.

1874- R. P. "Scrap" Taylor and two others were lynched at Clinton, Texas. The incident was part of the notorious Sutton-Taylor feud, which grew out of violent Reconstruction-era politics. The Suttons were allied with the Reconstruction authorities, particularly the State Police, while the Taylors opposed them. The family fight began in earnest when Bill Sutton killed William "Buck" Taylor on Christmas Eve 1868. It subsequently developed into the longest and bloodiest feud in Texas history. It ended with the killing of Jim Taylor and two companions by a Cuero posse on December 27, 1875. Other Reconstruction-era feuds included the Earl-Hasley feud in Bell County and the Lee-Peacock feud in the Grayson-Fannin County area. [ For a fascinating read of the Sutton-Taylor feud: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcs03 ]

1889 - The army abandoned Fort Concho on June 20, 1889. Fort Concho, in San Angelo, was one of a number of United States military posts built to establish law and order in West Texas as settlers began to move in after the Civil War. Soldiers from Fort Concho scouted and mapped large portions of West Texas; built roads and telegraph lines; escorted stagecoaches, cattle drives, and railroad survey parties; and served generally as a police force. [This is a fascinating read! https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbf11 ]

1924 – Audie Murphy was born near Kingston, Texas. He grew up to be the most decorated soldier of WWII, and went on to star in 39 motion pictures.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmu13 ]

1930 - Randolph Air Force Base was dedicated as a flying training base, a mission it maintains to this day. The base, about 15 miles northeast of San Antonio, has been known as the "West Point of the Air" - the name of a 1935 film shot on location at Randolph - and "the Showplace of the Air Force." The field is named for Captain William Millican Randolph, an Austin native and a Texas A&M graduate, who was killed on February 17, 1928, when his AT-4 crashed on takeoff. At the time)of construction), Randolph Field was the largest construction project the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had undertaken since the Panama Canal. [MUCH more fascinating info to be read: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qbr01 ]

1935 - On this date in 1935, the formation of Big Bend National Park was authorized by the United States Congress. Big Bend is to become one of the largest parks in the National Park system. The canyons, mountains and vistas of the region provide some of the most unspoiled landscapes in America.