This Day In Texas History - August 22

[joe817]

1750 - José Vázquez Borrego, pioneer cattle rancher from Coahuila, Mexico, established the first permanent settlement at the site of present Dolores in South Texas on August 22, 1750. When José de Escandón started his entradas into South Texas, Vázquez Borrego had his son Juan José Vázquez Borrego request that his settlement be included in the Nuevo Santander colonization project. As an incentive to Escandón, Vázquez Borrego started a ferry service across the Rio Grande at Dolores that became an important point of entry into Texas because it was the only ferry on the river. Nuestra Señora de los Dolores Hacienda was the first colony on the northern side of the Rio Grande and was started with livestock, supplies, and thirteen families that Vázquez Borrego moved from his ranch. Along with a 150,000-acre land grant, Vázquez Borrego was given the title of captain and the benefits the title entailed. By 1757 Vázquez Borrego's hacienda was home to twenty-three families all employed by him. Eventually he received land in excess of 350,000 acres in the area that is now Zapata and Webb counties. Upon his death the land grant was divided into Dolores, Corralitos, and San Ygnacio. As late as 1960 his heirs owned part of the original grant.

1798 - Daniel Montague, pioneer surveyor, state senator, and foreman of the jury involved in the Great Hanging at Gainesville, son of Seth and Rachel (Smith) Montague, was born at South Hadley, Massachusetts, on August 22, 1798. He moved to Texas in 1836 to assist Sam Houston but arrived after the battle of San Jacinto. He then returned to Louisiana to settle his business affairs and in 1837 brought his family to Texas to settle at Old Warren in the Fannin Land District on the Red River. As the first surveyor of that district he amassed a large estate. Montague became a leader in the settlers' fight against the Indians. In 1843 he led the attack in what was said to be the last Indian fight in what is now Grayson County; the grove in which the Indians were killed came to be known as Montague's Grove. By 1849 Montague had moved to Cooke County, where he was employed to survey the county boundaries and locate the county seat. When the Union League of Texas was discovered in Cooke County in 1862, Montague was one of the twelve men selected by a citizens' group to serve on a jury for the event that came to be known as the Great Hanging at Gainesville. Montague died on December 20, 1876. Montague County, where he had served as surveyor, was named in his honor.

1836 - John Hogue Pierson was severely wounded in a battle with Comanches at Coleto Creek near Victoria, Texas. Being permanently disabled from his wounds, Pierson received title from the Republic of Texas to 4,280 acres of land on May 3, 1838. He died in Hamilton County on June 9, 1867, and was buried at the Hamilton and Graves-Gentrey Cemetery at Hamilton, Texas. His wife, as the widow of a Texas Revolution veteran, received from the state of Texas on October 2, 1881, title to 1,280 acres of land.

1863 - The Thirty-seventh Texas Cavalry, also known as the Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry or Terrell's Texas Cavalry, was originally organized as a battalion, but so many men volunteered that it was accepted as a regiment. The regiment was formed from several unattached companies of cavalry from around Palestine, Texas. On July 8, 1863, they were ordered to Bonham, and on August 22, they were sent to Galveston to help quell a minor mutiny by some infantry troops. The Thirty-seventh Texas Cavalry participated in more than twenty-five engagements including a mutiny in Columbus, Texas, on September 11, 1863, and affairs in Wood, Van Zandt, and Kaufman counties in October. The Thirty-seventh fought in numerous engagements of the Red River campaign including Natchitoches, Crump's Hill, Campti, Wilson's Farm, Carrol's Mill, Sabine Cross Roads, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Monett's Ferry, Hudnot's Plantation, Governor Moore's Plantation, Alexandria, Smith's Plantation, Yellow Bayou, and the Atchafalaya River. During the summer of 1864, the regiment returned to Texas, where they served around Houston and Hempstead. The unit was disbanded by Lt. Col. John C. Robertson on May 14 at Wild Cat Bluff near Hempstead and surrendered at Galveston in June of 1865.


1864 - Robert Lee Howze, winner of the Medal of Honor, son of Capt. James A. and Amanda Hamilton (Brown) Howze, was born at Overton, Rusk County, Texas, on August 22, 1864. After graduating from Hubbard College in 1883, he was admitted to the United States Military Academy and upon graduation was commissioned a second lieutenant in the cavalry. Howze's first assignment was to the Sixth Cavalry at Fort Wingate, New Mexico. He was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 25, 1891, for gallantry in a campaign to quell an uprising of Sioux Indians in South Dakota in January of that year. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Howze, now a cavalry captain, was made adjutant general of the cavalry in Cuba. Upon his return to the United States, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of volunteers and commanded the Thirty-fourth Volunteer Infantry throughout the Philippine Insurrection. He was promoted to captain in the United States Army on February 2, 1901; to brigadier general of volunteers on June 20, 1901; and to major of the Puerto Rico provincial regiment of infantry in 1901.

He was commandant of cadets at West Point, with rank of lieutenant colonel, from 1905 until 1909. He returned to active military command in 1916 as a major in John J. Pershing's punitive expedition into Mexico. Howze commanded selected mounted men in the pursuit of Francisco (Pancho) Villa and upon his return was promoted for "valiant and conscientious service." In 1917 he was made a brigadier general and assigned to Fort Bliss. He was later promoted to major general and commanded the Thirty-eighth Division, which participated in the Meuse-Argonne offensive of October 21–29, 1918. Howze commanded the Third Division in its march on the Rhine River and the Third Army of Occupation in Germany until 1919. He was then assigned to command the military district of El Paso. He was given the permanent rank of brigadier general on July 3, 1920, and organized and trained the First Cavalry Division, in which he remained on duty until 1925. He was given the permanent rank of major general in 1922. He was later transferred to command the Fifth Corps Area at Columbus, Ohio, where he died on September 19, 1926. Camp Howze, at Gainesville, was named in his honor.

1873 - Gladewater is at the intersection of U.S. highways 80 and 271, thirteen miles west of Longview on the boundary between Gregg and Upshur counties. It was founded by the Texas and Pacific Railway Company in 1873 on land bought from Jarrett Dean and Anderson White. A community called St. Clair, two miles to the east, moved to Gladewater when the railroad announced that the only mail stop in the area would be there; residents from Point Pleasant, also bypassed by the railroad, moved to Gladewater. The first post office at Gladewater was established on August 22, 1873. The town's name probably originated from its proximity to Glade Creek, a stream that rose in a rather barren region called the Glades.

1884 - John Bernard O'Hara, chairman of the board of the Dr Pepper Company, was born on August 22, 1884. He began his career in 1904, working as an engineer and surveyor for various coal companies and as an independent inspector of mines in Pennsylvania until 1917, when he was called for duty during World War I. He was sent to Waco, Texas, for training, and there he met his future wife, Virginia Lazenby, daughter of Robert Lazenby, one of the inventors of the Dr Pepper formula. After his marriage O'Hara went into business with his father-in-law, setting up a market for Dr Pepper in the Waco area and opening a second plant, which O'Hara managed, in St. Louis. In 1923 the main plant was moved from Waco to Dallas, and O'Hara served as vice president and manager of the Dr Pepper Company. In 1933 he was president of Dr Pepper, and in 1943 he became chairman of the board, a post he held until his death. O'Hara made Dr Pepper a national company. He died in Dallas on December 30, 1961.

1901 - The Granite Mountain and Marble Falls City Rail Road Company was chartered on October 30, 1888, by several citizens of Travis and Burnet counties. Under its charter the railroad was to extend from the end of the grade of the Austin and Northwestern Railroad at Granite Mountain to Marble Falls City, a distance of three miles. The capital was $50,000, and the office was in Marble Falls City. The railroad was constructed the following year when the Austin and Northwestern completed its line from Burnet to Granite Mountain and built into Marble Falls City using the charter of the GM&MFC. Both companies were acquired by Southern Pacific interests about 1891 and merged into the Houston and Texas Central Railroad Company on August 22, 1901.

1901 - The Fort Worth and New Orleans Railway Company was chartered on June 13, 1885, by J. J. Roche, Thomas Roche, M. C. Hurley, and other citizens of Fort Worth to build from Fort Worth to a point on the Sabine River in Newton County and thence to New Orleans by the most practical route. Although New Orleans was the stated destination of the road, the first major objective was to connect with the Central Texas and Northwestern Railway, which had built to Waxahachie in 1879. In December 1886 the Fort Worth and New Orleans was acquired by the Houston and Texas Central Railway Company. In 1901 the Texas legislature authorized the consolidation of the road with the Houston and Texas Central Railroad, which occurred on August 22, 1901. As the Fort Worth and New Orleans, the line hauled freight, including grain, lumber, livestock, and flour. In 1934 the Houston and Texas Central was merged into the Texas and New Orleans Railroad Company, which was subsequently merged into Southern Pacific Company in 1961. The Southern Pacific continued to operate the track in 1994.

1942 - The Moody Foundation was established under a trust indenture dated August 22, 1942, by William Lewis Moody, Jr., and his wife, Libbie Shearn Moody, as a private charitable foundation for the benefit of the people of Texas. During the foundation's early years, it contributed largely to local charities. In 1960, when the bulk of Moody's estate was transferred to the corpus of the foundation, it began operating as a major philanthropic organization making grants throughout the state of Texas. The foundation gives grants to qualifying organizations in the areas of education, health, arts and humanities, physical life and social sciences, religion, and community and social services. In recent years, special emphasis has been given to historical restoration, the performing arts, and medical research. By the mid-1980s foundation assets were in excess of $320 million.

1979 - The Newton boys were a criminal gang composed of brothers Willis, Joe, Jess and Wylie (Doc), who operated mostly in Texas during the 1920s. Willis "Skinny" Newton robbed over eighty banks and six trains from Texas to Canada with his brothers and other outlaws, including the single biggest train robbery in United States history. By the time they were captured, they may have stolen more money than all other outlaws at that time combined. Willis Newton was born on January 19, 1889, near Cottonwood. On December 31, 1914, Willis Newton robbed his first train, near Uvalde, of $4,700. Willis and several other men then committed nighttime store robberies in Mineral Wells, Denison, and Abilene, as well as robbing $3,500 in Liberty bonds from a bank in Winters, Texas. In 1921 Willis decided to enlist his brothers Jess and Doc in the business of bank robbery. Using "Big Six" or "Special Six" Studebakers for transportation, the Newton Boys robbed a mail car in Bells, Texas, then another in Bloomberg, Texas. From November 1921 through fall 1922, they robbed banks in San Antonio, Hondo (two in one night), San Marcos, New Braunfels, Boerne, and Pearsall, Texas; Melita and Moosomin, Manitoba; Toronto, Ontario; Gallatin, Missouri; Lafayette, Colorado; and Tab and Spencer, Indiana. They robbed the Toronto Currency Clearing House and held up the Illinois Central train and a St. Joe, Missouri, train. They stole a total of $200,000 in cash and bonds from these jobs and never killed anyone in the process.

Their last and most lucrative train robbery occurred in Rondout, Illinois, on June 12, 1924, when they held up the Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul mail train. At $3 million, it was the largest train robbery in United States history. John Glasscock accidentally shot Doc during the robbery, and the law soon caught up with the brothers. They were sent to Leavenworth Prison where Jess served nine months, Joe served one year, Willis served four years, and Doc served six years for his earlier escape from prison. Willis Newton, the leader of the Newton gang, farmed in Texas with his wife Louise after his release. He died on August 22, 1979, at the age of 90. In 1998 the life and times of the Newton Boys was made into a movie for Twentieth Century Fox Studios. Directed by Richard Linklater, The Newton Boys stars Matthew McConaughey, Skeet Ulrich, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D'Onofrio, Juliana Margulies, and Dwight Yoakum.

[ELB]

Jeepers, Joe817 really went on a tear today. Took at least twice as long to read.

[joe817]

Jeepers, Joe817 really went on a tear today. Took at least twice as long to read.

Several interesting things today!

[Jusme]

Jeepers, Joe817 really went on a tear today. Took at least twice as long to read.

Several interesting things today!

Must have been a busy day in history. or it has been historically so hot on this date, that they all stayed in and wrote down what happened.

[Daddio-on-patio]

They ran this clip at the end of the movie about the Newton boys. Johnny Carson was and is so much more entertaining than anyone out there today.

[JALLEN]

"The only thing new in the world is history you don't know." -- Harry Truman

[joe817]

They ran this clip at the end of the movie about the Newton boys. Johnny Carson was and is so much more entertaining than anyone out there today.

Fascinating Daddio-on-patio! Many thanks for posting this!