This Day In Texas History - February 29

[joe817]

1836 - Elijah G. Mercer, San Jacinto soldier and Indian fighter, was born in Mississippi. His family moved to Texas in November 1829 and settled on the Colorado River in what is now Wharton County, at a place known as Mercer's Crossing or Mercer's Ferry; it would later be called Egypt. On February 29, 1836, both Elijah and his father joined Capt. Thomas Rabb's company of "citizen soldiers" and marched to Gonzales. In the reorganization of the army, Rabb's men became Company F, First Regiment of Texas Volunteers. Elijah Mercer was elected second corporal.

1884 - Hugh McElroy, black soldier, was born in Springfield, Kentucky, on February 29, 1884, to Sarah and Thomas McElroy. In 1898 he lied about his age and enlisted in the Tenth United States Cavalry. He served in Cuba in the Spanish-American War and afterwards in the Philippine Insurrection. A few years after returning from the Pacific, McElroy and the Tenth participated in the border campaigns against Francisco (Pancho) Villa, accompanying Gen. John J. Pershing into Mexico in 1916. During World War I he landed in France with the 317th Engineers. On September 10, 1918, while attached to the Thirty-third Corps, Seventh French Army, he received from French war minister Georges Clemenceau the Croix de Guerre for gallantry in action. After his military service ended in 1927, McElroy followed his brother, Thomas, to Houston, where he was a hospital orderly. During World War II he was head janitor at Ellington Field. He also participated in bond drives as a speaker and poster model, for which Henry Morganthau, Jr., United States secretary of the treasury, cited him on January 11, 1945. McElroy was reportedly the first African American whose picture appeared as an advertisement for United States War Bonds. After the war he worked at local recruiting stations until retiring permanently. HemisFair '68 in San Antonio honored him in the Texas Pavilion by displaying a life-size portrait of him, beneath which was a recounting of his military record. He died on December 29, 1971. A detachment from Fort Sam Houston buried him in Paradise Cemetery, Houston, with full military honors.

1888 - The Galveston and Western Railway Company, also known as the Little Susie after its first locomotive, was chartered as part of a project to construct a railroad from Galveston to Collins, sixty miles from Laredo. On February 29, 1888, the Galveston and Western acquired from the Mexican National Construction Company fifteen miles of narrow gauge railroad on Galveston Island that had been constructed in 1876 and 1877 by the Galveston, Brazos and Colorado Narrow Gauge Railway Company.

1908 - Pat Garrett, lawman, was born on June 5, 1850, in Chambers County, Alabama. In 1869 he left home for the buffalo range in Texas. He and a friend, Skelton Glenn, hunted buffalo from Fort Griffin to Lubbock; the partnership dissolved in 1877, when Comanches destroyed their camp. Garrett then drifted west to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. In November 1880 Garrett, running as a Democrat, was elected sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico. He set out immediately to track down Billy the Kid (Henry McCarty). After killing the Kid's cronies Charles Bowdre and Tom O'Folliard, Garrett captured Billy and brought him to trial in Mesilla, New Mexico, on a charge of murder. While awaiting the hangman's rope at Lincoln, however, the Kid escaped, only to be killed by Garrett in Fort Sumner on the night of July 14, 1881.

In 1884, after failing to be elected a state senator, Garrett became captain of the LS Texas Rangers, a group of rangers sent by Governor John Ireland to the Panhandle to protect ranchers from rustlers. He served only a few weeks and then moved to Roswell, New Mexico, where he devised irrigation plans. He had insufficient funds, however, and was forced out and moved to Uvalde, Texas, where he lived from 1891 to 1896. In 1896 New Mexico governor William T. Thornton asked him to become the Dona Ana County Sheriff. Thornton wanted Garrett to find the abductors of Albert J. Fountain, a former Texas state senator, who had disappeared near what later became the White Sands Missile Range. President Theodore Roosevelt appointed Garrett customs collector in El Paso in 1901 but did not reappoint him in 1906. Garrett returned to his ranch in the San Andres Mountains in southern New Mexico. On February 29, 1908, a cowboy named Wayne Brazel allegedly shot him in the back of the head while they rode a lonely road between Organ and Las Cruces, New Mexico.

1992 - Marcelino Serna, the most decorated Texan of World War I and the first Mexican American soldier to receive the Distinguished Service Cross, died in El Paso, Texas, on February 29, 1992, of age-related causes and was buried at Fort Bliss National Cemetery with full military honors. Due to Serna’s impressive combat record, many have questioned why he never received the Congressional Medal of Honor. Serna himself later recalled that his superior officers refused to recommend him for the honor because he was too low in rank and because his English skills were not proficient enough to warrant a promotion. Others have claimed that the oversight was due to racial prejudice. In the decades since Serna’s military service, numerous Texans have pushed for further recognition.

[Jusme]

Hey joe817,
I'm sure you have heard this numerous occasions, but I just want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your Texas History posts. I thought I was pretty well versed on a lot of it, but I have learned so much, and you have filled in details about things I had heard, but only in fragments.

Keep it up I look forward to these everyday.

[joe817]

Hey joe817,
I'm sure you have heard this numerous occasions, but I just want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your Texas History posts. I thought I was pretty well versed on a lot of it, but I have learned so much, and you have filled in details about things I had heard, but only in fragments.

Keep it up I look forward to these everyday.

Thanks so much for the kind words Jusme! They are appreciated.

And if you ever want to add something, and that goes to all viewers of this humble thread, please feel free! And to be honest, I learn something new everyday. Like today, I didn't know most of that stuff about Pat Garrett and all his doings in Texas.

[WildBill]

Hey joe817,
I'm sure you have heard this numerous occasions, but I just want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your Texas History posts. I thought I was pretty well versed on a lot of it, but I have learned so much, and you have filled in details about things I had heard, but only in fragments.

Keep it up I look forward to these everyday.

Thanks so much for the kind words Jusme! They are appreciated.

And if you ever want to add something, and that goes to all viewers of this humble thread, please feel free! And to be honest, I learn something new everyday. Like today, I didn't know most of that stuff about Pat Garrett and all his doings in Texas.

I appreciate your posts too Joe. I was wondering if today's post was going to be short, considering it is February 29th.

[Jusme]

Hey joe817,
I'm sure you have heard this numerous occasions, but I just want to tell you how much I appreciate all of your Texas History posts. I thought I was pretty well versed on a lot of it, but I have learned so much, and you have filled in details about things I had heard, but only in fragments.

Keep it up I look forward to these everyday.

Thanks so much for the kind words Jusme! They are appreciated.

And if you ever want to add something, and that goes to all viewers of this humble thread, please feel free! And to be honest, I learn something new everyday. Like today, I didn't know most of that stuff about Pat Garrett and all his doings in Texas.

I appreciate your posts too Joe. I was wondering if today's post was going to be short, considering it is February 29th.

Yeah it's amazing how much happens on a day that only comes around every 4 years.

[joe817]

I appreciate your posts too Joe. I was wondering if today's post was going to be short, considering it is February 29th.

Thanks WildBill. I was wondering the same thing myself. But I found a lot of interesting stuff that I didn't include because the article would be to long. Plus I'm trying to keep it from sounding like birth announcements or the obituary column.

[joe817]

Just found this:

The Battle For The Alamo: Siege Chronology:

"Day Seven – Monday February 29, 1836

The Mexican's Jimenez battalion and the cavalry under command of General Ramirez y Sesma are ordered down the Goliad road to intercept any reinforcements that might have been sent by Fannin.

The Mexicans propose a three-day armistice and several Tejanos leave Alamo during the cease-fire. "