This Day In Texas History - August 5

[joe817]

1838 - Samuel D. Parr arrived at Point Bolivar and claimed a league of land there, thus becoming the first permanent settler in the area. Point Bolivar is at the western tip of Bolivar Peninsula, across from the eastern end of Galveston Island.

1840 - Near Hallettsville, a large band of Comanches begin killing and looting across Central Texas. Texas Rangers and a volunteer army defeated the Comanches on August 11 at Plum Creek near Lockhart. The Comanches attacks were in retaliation for the Council House Fight on March 19, 1840.

1870 - The International Railroad was chartered to build from the Red River near Fulton, Arkansas, to Laredo by way of Austin, TX.

1873 - James R. Moss and a band of seven men fought the last "Indian fight" in Llano County, an area notorious for raids by Native Americans. Days before, a group of about 20 American Indians, most likely Apaches, had traveled along the South Llano River, stealing horses and raiding. On Aug. 4, Moss, his two brothers and five other men took to the trail, tracking the Indians. The group followed the Indians for 25 miles, overtaking them at the top of Packsaddle Mountain, where they had laid out 300-400 pounds of beef to cure on the rocks. Moss attacked, killing three Indians. Four of his band were wounded. The Packsaddle Mountain Fight ended nearly a decade of raids on Llano County. A granite plaque placed at the site on the one-year anniversary in 1938 commemorates the skirmish.

1917 - The Simms-Sinclair No. 11 Sweet gushes in and becomes Goose Creek Oil Field's greatest producer.

1924 - In a memo dated August 5, 1924, to his father Edward Musgrove (Ted) Dealey(Publisher of the Dallas Morning News & board member of the Belo Corporation) insisted that the paper endorse Miriam A. Ferguson against the 1924 Ku Klux Klan gubernatorial candidate.

1940 - Frederick Albert Cook, physician, polar explorer, and infamous oil promoter, died in New Rochelle, New York. In 1918 Cook went to work as a geologist in the Texas oilfields, and in 1922 he organized the Petroleum Producers Association at Fort Worth. After investigating widespread charges of fraud committed by the PPA, a Fort Worth grand jury indicted 400 people, including Cook, who was convicted, sentenced to fourteen years and nine months in prison, and assessed a fine of $12,000. He was paroled from Leavenworth in 1930 and pardoned by President Roosevelt in 1940 as an act of mercy for a dying man.

1961 - The amusement park Six Flags Over Texas opened in Arlington. Celebrating Texas history, it was one of the first theme entertainment centers in the United States. The narrow gage steam railroad is still in operation.