1823 - Shortly after winning it's independence from Spain, Mexico, under it's new emperor, authorized Stephen Austin to "organize the colonists into a body of the national militia, to preserve tranquility." The militia helped to repel Indian raids to the early settlements, and the militia only remained together until the emergency was over. Still, this was the first organized military force of Anglos in Texas.
1836 - Benjamin F. Highsmith, Alamo courier, was born in St. Charles District, Missouri Territory, on September 11, 1817. His father had been a scout and ranger during the War of 1812. Highsmith's family traveled to Texas by wagon train and crossed the Sabine River by raft on December 24, 1823. They settled on the Colorado River near the site of present La Grange, Fayette County.
In 1830 Highsmith made his first trip to San Antonio de Béxar in a group of men that included William B. Travis, James Bowie, Benjamin McCulloch, Samuel Highsmith, George C. Kimbell, and Winslow Turner. At age fifteen he joined the company of Aylett C. Buckner and fought in the battle of Velasco on June 26, 1832. During that year Highsmith also settled in Bastrop, where he lived for the next fifty years. He took part in all of the major actions at the outset of the Texas Revolution: the fight for the Gonzales "Come and Take It" cannon, the battle of Concepción, the Grass Fight, and the siege of Bexar. He remained in Bexar after the siege until February 18, 1836, when he was sent by Travis with an appeal for aid to Col. James W. Fannin, Jr., at Goliad. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fhi08 ]
Upon his return to Bexar, Highsmith found the town already occupied by the Mexican army. He was spotted by the Mexican cavalry at Powder House Hill and pursued by them for some six miles. He rode to Gonzales and later served Gen. Sam Houston as a courier. He and David B. Kent, son of Alamo defender Andrew Kent, carried a message to Fannin from Houston ordering Fannin to abandon Goliad and join him at the Guadalupe River. Highsmith fought in the battle of San Jacinto as a member of Capt. William Ware's company. Highsmith died in Uvalde County on November 20, 1905.
1837 - Augustus C. Allen(early settler and founder of Houston) signed a contract with Thomas William (Peg Leg) Ward(general contractor), to build the Texas capitol in Houston. Despite missing the initial deadline due to material delays, Ward completed the building in time for the Second Session of the First Congress to meet in it.
1839 - The battle of Brushy Creek, between Texas Ranger and militia units and Comanche marauders, occurred a few miles from the site of present Taylor in Williamson County. It was a running affair along Battleground (present Cottonwood) and Boggy creeks and culminated north of Brushy Creek. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/btb02 ]
1875 -The Mason County War, commonly known as the Hoodoo War, was one of a number of feuds that developed over the stealing and killing of cattle. As early as June 25, 1874, Wilson Hey, presiding justice of Mason County, wrote Governor Richard Coke requesting that troops be stationed in the county to help deal with cattle rustling. The trouble began seriously when the sheriff, John Clark, jailed nine men on charges of stealing cattle. Before a trial was held, four of them escaped, but a mob of about forty men took the remaining five from the jail on February 18, 1875, led them to a place near Hick Springs, and hanged them. Though a district court investigated the incident, nothing came of it.
[for more info on this feud: https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/jcm01 ]
1880 - The Kansas and Gulf Short Line Railroad Company was chartered on February 18, 1880, to connect Tyler with Sabine Pass in Jefferson County.
1899 - The citizens of Amarillo voted to incorporate and elected Warren W. Wetzel mayor. However, the inauguration of city government was restrained by injunctions, and municipal administration was carried on by county officials and Texas Rangers for a while. The first annual Tri-State Fair was held in Amarillo in the fall of 1899. Amarillo, commercial center of the Texas Panhandle, is in southern Potter County and extends into Randall County.
1910 - A Frenchman, Louis Paulhan, made the first recorded airplane flight in Texas. Aerial demonstrations proliferated at sites across America, including Houston, where Paulhan made his flight. Military aviation developed at the same time. Lt. Benjamin Foulois, a colorful pioneer pilot, arrived at Fort Sam Houston in February 1910, assembled the army's recently purchased Wright biplane, and took to the air on March 2, 1910. Almost a hundred years later, Texas continues to be a leader in civil and military aviation.
1911 - Jonathan Mayhew (Skinny) Wainwright, army officer, was born in Walla Walla, Washington. Following in the footsteps of his father, he entered West Point, graduated in 1906, and took his first troop command with a cavalry unit on the Texas border. During his forty-five years of army service he was stationed at Texas forts in the cavalry at various times. He was promoted through the grades to brigadier general by 1938. In October 1940 he was assigned to duty in the Philippines under the command of Gen. Douglas MacArthur. When MacArthur left Bataan, the command was turned over to Lieutenant General Wainwright, who was taken prisoner by the Japanese at the surrender of Corregidor. Wainwright spent 3½ years in Japanese prison camps. He returned to the United States at the end of World War II, at which time he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and made a full general in September 1945. He was assigned command of the Fourth Army at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, in January 1946, and retired from that command on August 31, 1947.
Having formed an affection for Texas during his tours of duty there, he decided to make it his home. He married Adele Howard Holley on February 18, 1911, and they had one son. On September 2, 1953, Wainwright died at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. He was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. [ I didn't know that! ]
1943 - Harlon Henry Block, born in Yorktown, Texas, entered the marines in San Antonio. After parachute training he was assigned to the First Marine Parachute Regiment. As a member of this unit he experienced his first combat duty during the Bougainville campaign. He subsequently appeared in one of the most famous battle photographs ever taken: the raising of the flag atop Mount Suribachi on the island of Iwo Jima during World War II. Corporal Block helped with the second flag by stooping and guiding the base of the pole into the volcanic ash while the other five men heaved the flag upward. As the flag rose Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal snapped the Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Corporal Block, however, never saw the famous picture. He was killed in action on March 1, 1945, when his unit advanced in the direction of Nishi Ridge.
1943 - Dolly Shea graduated with the first flight-nurse class of the United States Army Air Forces at Bowman Field, Kentucky. The San Benito, Texas, native served in the European Theater during World War II. She was killed on April 14, 1945, when her evacuation plane, ferrying wounded Americans to hospitals behind the front line, was shot down over Germany. She was one of three women in the Army Nurse Corps known to have been killed by direct enemy action and the only one from Texas. Her awards include the Air Medal, the Red Cross Medal, a Special Citation from President Harry Truman, and a posthumous Purple Heart.
1949 - As a result of an invitation by the Texas legislature, Texas agricultural and livestock producers met in Austin in February 1939 to counsel the Forty-sixth Legislature on proposed legislation. This meeting, known as the "Dirt Farmers' Congress," was made up of representatives of more than 100 counties. A closer relationship between the producers and industries was stressed. The congress, under the guidance of its committee of resolutions, , requested the legislature to consider such problems as insect and rodent control, conservation of forests and wildlife, soil erosion, and compulsory dog vaccination to prevent rabies. The Dirt Farmers' Congress met again with the House of Representatives on February 18, 1949. After that time no more references to it appeared in House journals.
Thanks ELB!