This Day In Texas History - February 13

[joe817]

1687 - In Texas, French explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, crossed the lower branch of Brushy Creek(in Waller County) heading north toward the Trinity River on one of his many forays into the Texas interior in search of the Mississippi River.

1836 - James Bowie and William Travis worked out a compromise (of the division of command at the Alamo garrison) giving Travis command of the regulars, Bowie command of the volunteers, and both men joint authority over garrison orders and correspondence.

1836 - The acting governor and commander-in-chief of the militia of the provisional government of Texas, James W. Robinson, commissioned John Goodloe Warren Pierson, his aide-de-camp for Milam with the rank of colonel. Pierson was ordered to recruit and equip men for military service in the war against Mexico and to report them to the commander at Gonzales. He was "empowered to do all things in the defense of Texas for she must now fight." Pierson informed Robinson that the militia would be ready on March 19 or as soon as arms, ammunition, and provisions were procured. Pierson also provided aid to Robertson's company of rangers at Fort Milam during 1836 and 1837 and the Texas army in 1836 by supplying them with food and other supplies.

1847 - The first known earthquake in Texas occurred in Seguin and New Braunfels

1861 - Robert E. Lee was ordered to return to Washington from Fort Mason to assume command of the Union Army. Instead, Lee resigned his commission and in June of 1862 assumed command of the Confederate Army. Lee served in Texas on several occasions, including during the Mexican War as the Chief of Staff for Gen. Winfield Scott. Lee returned to Texas in 1856 as part of an effort to help protect the western frontier, but left the state in October of 1857 to administer the estate of his father-in-law after his death. Lee returned to San Antonio in 1860 to take command of a regiment.

1863 - Joseph Phillips was a Confederate States of America Army cavalry officer. He enlisted as a private in Company B, Third Virginia Cavalry, on May 14, 1861, and was promoted to second lieutenant as aide-de-camp to Gen. John Bankhead Magruder and Gen. John Bell Hood. He distinguished himself in battle at the Second Battle of Bull Run and during the Seven Days battles. He was made captain of cavalry on October 14, 1862. When Magruder assumed command of the District of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, Phillips went west with him. He was promoted to colonel on February 13, 1863. He was then appointed as commander of the Third Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade, when it was formed on February 21, 1863. The Third Texas Cavalry, Arizona Brigade, was formed from the Third Cavalry Battalion and some independent companies to regimental strength.

1897 - The Texas State Historical Association, a nonprofit organization with offices on the University of Texas at Austin campus, developed from an interest in the history of the state shared by ten individuals who met at the University of Texas at Austin on February 13, 1897. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the founding of an organization to promote the discovery, collection, preservation, and publication of historical material pertaining to Texas.

1899 - Cornelius Ennis, mayor of Houston, merchant, Confederate blockade runner, and railroad entrepreneur, was born in Belleville, New Jersey in 1813. After receiving a liberal education in New Jersey Ennis went in 1834 to New York City, where he worked in a drugstore. He moved to Houston, Texas, and opened a drugstore in 1839. After George W. Kimball became a partner, Ennis expanded into general merchandising. They sent the first shipment of cotton from Galveston to Boston in 1841. As mayor of Houston from July 1856 to December 1857, Ennis supervised the completion of the city-owned Houston Tap Railroad, begun in April 1856. This tap into the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway preserved the Brazos cotton trade with Houston.

During the Civil War Ennis ran cotton through the Union blockade to Havana, Cuba, then to England via Mexico. At his own expense he purchased an ironclad steamer, the Jeannette, for $40,000 in gold. He used the ship to carry the rifles, gunpowder, percussion caps, clothing, and other equipment he bought in Havana for the Confederate government. His successful blockade running enabled him to expand his cotton-export business after the war, when he opened a branch office in Galveston with Frank Cargill and N. Anderson. He also invested heavily in the Galveston News and the Dallas News (see DALLAS MORNING NEWS). Alfred H. Belo, president of the News, married Ennis's oldest daughter, and Cargill married the second daughter. The youngest daughter married Cesar Lombardi, a Houston merchant and later president of the Dallas News. Ennis also continued his interest in railways. The Houston Tap and Brazoria was sold to Houston businessmen in 1870, and three years later it was taken over by the International-Great Northern. Throughout these changes Ennis continued to serve on the board of directors. He promoted the Houston Ship Channel, street railways, and public utilities of all kinds. He lived in Houston sixty years and died on February 13, 1899, in his home.

1905 - The Beaumont and Saratoga Transportation Company, chartered on February 13, 1905, was a unique facility in that it was chartered, not as a railroad common carrier, but as a transportation company. Its twelve miles of track, located in northern Jefferson County, ran from a pine timber stand to a mill owned by the Keith Lumber Company in Voth. At Voth the line connected with the Texas and New Orleans and the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe. The Beaumont and Saratoga Transportation Company was sold to the Kirby Lumber Company in 1922. Its track was abandoned in 1935.

1926 - A large portion of the estate of William McDonald was left to the University of Texas to build an observatory. It was eventually built in the Davis Mountains and named for McDonald.

1943 - The first class of military aerial navigators arrived at San Marcos Army Air Field. Texas was at the forefront of aviation training during World War II, and some ten thousand navigators were eventually trained in the state. During the Korean War, SMAAF was the largest helicopter training base in the United States. In 1953 the installation was renamed Gary Air Force Base, in honor of 2d Lt. Arthur Edward Gary, the first San Marcos resident killed in World War II. The base was transferred to the army in 1956 and renamed Camp Gary. It was closed in 1963. The site is now used as the Gary Job Corps Center and San Marcos airport.

1977 - The legendary Texas Ranger M. T. (Lone Wolf) Gonzaullas died in Dallas at the age of eighty-five. He was a major in the Mexican army by the age of twenty, then a special agent for the U.S. Treasury Department for five years. He joined the Texas Rangers in 1920 and saw service from the Red River to the Rio Grande and from El Paso to the Sabine during the 1920s and 1930s. Along the Rio Grande, he later became known as El Lobo Solo. After Governor Miriam (Ma) Ferguson fired most of the rangers, including Gonzaullas, the day after she took office in 1933, the legislature created the Texas Department of Public Safety and made the rangers a division of that agency. Four rangers--the so-called "Big Four"--had an enormous impact on this change: Gonzaullas, Frank Hamer, Thomas R. Hickman, and Will Wright. Gonzaullas became the first American of Spanish descent to achieve the rank of captain in the force, and his experiences investigating a series of murders in Texarkana in 1946 became the basis for the motion picture The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1977). He retired from the rangers in 1951 and went to Hollywood as a technical consultant for radio, television, and motion pictures.

2002 - Outlaw Country Music singer, and Country Music Hall of Famer, Waylon Jennings died in Chander AZ. Country music icon Waylon Jennings was born near Littlefield, Texas, on June 15, 1937, the son of William Albert and Lorene Bea (Shipley) Jennings. Waylon learned to play the guitar before the age of ten and became a disc jockey on a local radio station by age twelve. He dropped out of high school and moved to Lubbock in 1954. There he met Buddy Holly on the KDAV radio program Sunday Party in 1955. Holly became a mentor to Jennings, coaching him in music and, in 1958, producing Jennings's first single, "Jole Blon." In 1959 Jennings joined Holly's band, the Crickets, just in time for the group's final tour. Two weeks later Holly died in the plane crash that also killed Ritchie Valens and J. P. (the Big Bopper) Richardson, to whom Jennings had given up his seat.

[carlson1]

A lot of history today. I love reading the history that goes along with the Alamo. Thanks again for posting.

[joe817]

Thanks Carl. Yes, some days have more events than others. As we get closer to the battle, there will be more and more entries, as so much was going on, and deserves the entries.

[jason812]

So glad these are back. I especially enjoy reading about the events of 1836 during this time of year.

[joe817]

So glad these are back. I especially enjoy reading about the events of 1836 during this time of year.

Thank you Jason. Glad you enjoy them!