Thia Day In Texas History - May 10

[joe817]

1801 - The first deed on record in the future Angelina County began before the Texas Revolution of 1836. The first deed conveyed 5½ leagues of land to Vincente Micheli from Surdo, chief of the Bedias Indians, in exchange for a white shirt, eight brass bracelets, a handful of vermilion, a fathom of ribbon, a gun, and fifty charges of powder and ball. The first Anglo settlers in the district were the Burris family, who in 1820 settled in the northern part of what is now Lufkin at a place then called Burris Prairie.

1836 - On May 10, the small river steamer Laura took David G. Burnet (then president of the Republic of Texas), the cabinet, and Antonio López de Santa Anna and his aides from Galveston to Velasco.

1837 - Peter Hansborough Bell was appointed assistant adjutant general. He joined the Texas Rangers under John C. (Jack) Hays in 1840 and held the rank of major in the Somervell expedition of 1842. In 1845 Bell was captain of a company of rangers but resigned that commission to enter the United States Army at the outbreak of the Mexican War. Under the command of Gen. Zachary Taylor, Bell won distinction at the battle of Buena Vista. Bell was elected governor of Texas in 1849 and again in 1851. A few months before the expiration of his second term in 1853 he resigned to fill the vacancy in the United States Congress caused by the death of David S. Kaufman. He remained in Congress from 1853 to 1857.

1855 - Major H.C.Wayne received Presidential orders to organize a Camel Brigade for Texas. The naval storeship Supply is placed at his disposal, and soon, he will sail for North Africa to purchase desirable beasts. Spending $12,000, he returned with 33 camels and several Arabs and Turks to assist in training. They will be unloaded at Indianola on May 13, 1856, bound for Camp Verde in the Texas Hill Country.

1893 - A group of writers attending the Texas Press Association meeting in Dallas formed the Texas Woman's Press Association, which later became Texas Press Women. Thirty-eight women, representing eighteen Texas towns, became charter members. Membership was originally restricted to whites. At the time, there were few other statewide women's groups in Texas. The Texas Equal Rights Association, the first statewide female suffrage organization, was founded on the same day and in the same hotel, the Windsor. The TERA was committed to securing voting and political rights for women on the same terms as men, including the right to hold political office and serve on juries.

1897 - The Black Jack Gang robbed a train of $6,000 in Mexican silver near Lozier Canyon. Lozier Canyon, through which Lozier Creek flows intermittently, begins in southeastern Terrell County at the confluence of Meyers and Thurston canyons, one-half mile north of Cedar Draw, and runs southeast for twenty-one miles to its mouth on the Rio Grande, three miles west of the Val Verde county line. Lozier Canyon runs its entire course in southeastern Terrell County

1911 - A new airfield was named for Lt. George E. Kelly, who was killed in a crash at Fort Sam Houston on May 10, 1911. He was the first American military aviator to lose his life while piloting a military aircraft. The base was initially called Aviation Camp, then Kelly Field. When the air force achieved autonomy in 1947, the name was changed to Kelly Air Force Base. Kelly Air Force Base, the oldest continuously operating flying base in the United States Air Force, is located at the southwestern edge of San Antonio.

1917 - The Texas State Council of Defense, a branch of the National Council of Defense met first in Dallas. The Texas State Council, composed of thirty-eight members appointed by Governor Ferguson. It resulted from a request of Secretary of War Newton D. Baker to Governor James E. Ferguson on April 9, 1917, to have a state council formed to meet the national emergency resulting from World War I. The council placed at the disposal of the nation the entire resources of the state, centralized and coordinated state war work, organized and directed local councils, and sponsored independent state defense activities. It worked through ten committees: finance, publicity, legal, transportation, coordination, sanitation and medicine, labor, food supply and conservation, military affairs, and state protection. With over 240 county councils and about 15,000 community councils, its organization was at the disposal of each war loan drive and each Red Cross drive. It also sponsored the Texas Division of the Woman's Committee that promoted health, provided recreation, and aided in war drives. The Texas State Council of Defense existed through World War I. Council work was also conducted for six months after the Armistice to render aid to returning soldiers. The last council meeting was on June 7, 1919.

1956 - Intercollegiate sports began at Texas Tech University in 1925. On May 10, 1956, Texas Tech was admitted to the Southwest Conference.

1977 - Legendary actress Joan Crawford died of a heart attack at her home in New York. Crawford was born Lucille LeSeur in San Antonio in 1906. As a teenager, she caught the eye of a Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer talent scout and moved to Hollywood in 1925. MGM head Louis B. Mayer launched a fan-magazine contest to find her a new name. The result was "Joan Crawford," a name she never liked. Her career with MGM stretched from 1925 to 1942, and she became one of that company's biggest stars.

1979 - The city of Dallas declared the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas a historic landmark. The Dallas Fed, designed by the Chicago firm of Graham, Anderson, Probost, and White in the Neoclassical style of the Beaux Arts School, opened in 1921. It serves the Eleventh Federal Reserve District, which covers approximately 350,000 square miles and includes Texas, northern Louisiana, and southern New Mexico. Like the other reserve banks, the Dallas Fed is primarily a "banker's bank." It serves as a bank for financial institutions in basically the same way commercial banks and thrift institutions serve the public. Financial institutions send their excess currency and coin to the Fed, where the money is verified, sorted, and stored until it is needed to fill new orders.