This Day In Texas History - June 12

[joe817]

1813 - Ignacio Elizondo, commander of 1,050 troops, which he led into Texas on June 12, 1813, was ordered to reconnoiter the forces of José Bernardo Gutiérrez de Lara, who had captured San Antonio on April 1.

1832 - On June 12, 1832, Anglo-American settlers opposed to the rule of Mexican commander John Davis Bradburn fled from Anahuac north to the crossing on Turtle Bayou near James Taylor White's ranchhouse. The Texas rebels had just learned that the antiadministration Federalist army had won a significant victory under the leadership of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Taking advantage of this favorable news, they verbally aligned themselves with the Federalist cause by composing the Turtle Bayou Resolutions, which explained their attack against the Centralist troops at Anahuac. They were not Anglos attacking a Mexican garrison, but Federalist sympathizers opposing a Centralist commandant as part of the civil war that had been in progress for two years between the Centralist administration of Anastasio Bustamante and those wanting to return to the Constitution of 1824. The four resolutions condemned violations of the 1824 constitution by the Bustamante government and urged all Texans to support the patriots fighting under Santa Anna, who was at the time struggling to defeat military despotism.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/mht01 ]

1854 - Reading Wood Black, merchant, county commissioner, Indian commissioner, and legislator, purchased an additional 640 acres in order to accommodate more stock, in addition to his half league, to expand his town that he called Encina (now called Uvalde).

1880 - Viejo Pass was used by Indians in prehistoric times because of its good supply of water and grass. On June 12, 1880, the pass was the scene of the last Apache attack in Presidio County; on that day four Pueblo Indian scouts and Lt. Frank H. Mills of the Twenty-fourth United States Infantry fought off twenty Apaches. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/rkv02 ]

1908 - The Roscoe, Snyder and Pacific Railway Company was chartered on October 1, 1906, for the purpose of building a railroad from Roscoe in a generally northwesterly direction to the west boundary of Bailey County, a distance of about 200 miles. Construction began the following year, and the first section of thirty-one miles from Roscoe to Snyder opened on June 12, 1908. The RS&P sold its service directly to shippers through general agents in such cities as Fort Worth, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, and Washington. The first RS&P locomotive and the original rails were purchased used from the Texas and Pacific. In 1916 the company owned three locomotives and two passenger cars and earned $15,984 in passenger revenue, $149,054 in freight revenue, and $3,189 in other revenue. In 1931 the company owned four locomotives, one freight car, and three passenger cars and earned $210,101. Passenger service was discontinued in 1953.

1915 - The "Chicken Salad Case" was involved in the impeachment charges against Gov. James E. Ferguson in 1917. On February 11, 1915, the Thirty-fourth legislature passed a deficiency appropriations act providing $2,000 a year for two years for expenses incurred by former Governor Oscar Branch Colquitt for fuel, lights, water, and ice for the governor's mansion, and for food, including "chicken salad and punch," automobile repairs, feed, and stationery for his private use.

Although Attorney General Benjamin F. Looney ruled the appropriation invalid, Ferguson signed the bill. Representative W. C. Middleton of Rains County brought suit and on June 12, 1915, was granted a temporary injunction by Judge George Calhoun of the Fifty-third District Court, Austin, restraining comptroller Henry Berryman Terrell from issuing warrants on the state treasury to cover these expenditures. . In September 1917 the High Court of Impeachment held that Ferguson was guilty of a misapplication of appropriations made by the legislature for fuel, lights, ice, and incidentals, in that he used the same in the purchase of groceries, feed, automobile tires, and gasoline for his private use, and that his refusal to repay these funds constituted a continued misapplication of the public funds of Texas.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jrc01 ]

1915 - Dwight David Eisenhower, general of the army and thirty-fourth president of the United States, born in Denison, Texas, graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point on June 12, 1915, at the top of the middle third of his class, which numbered 163. He was commissioned a second lieutenant and assigned to the Nineteenth Infantry at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, on September 13, 1915.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fei01 ]

1924 - 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. 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.
A fascinating read: [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jen01 ]