This Day In Texas History - February 27

[joe817]

1795 - José Antonio Navarro, a leading Mexican participant in the Texas Revolution, son of María Josefa (Ruiz) and Ángel Navarro, was born at San Antonio de Béxar on February 27, 1795. His father was a native of Corsica, and his mother was descended from a noble Spanish family. Navarro's early education was rudimentary, though he later read law in San Antonio and was licensed to practice. Before Texas independence Navarro was elected to both the Coahuila and Texas state legislature and to the federal congress at Mexico City. He supported Texas statehood in 1835 and embraced the idea of independence the following year. Along with his uncle, José Francisco Ruiz, and Lorenzo de Zavala, he became one of the three Mexican signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence and one of just two native-born Tejano signers. In 1846, in recognition of his contributions to Texas over the years, the legislature named the newly established Navarro County in his honor. The county seat was then designated Corsicana, in honor of his father's Corsican birth.

1836 - The first prisoners taken by Gen. José de Urrea, were the survivors of Francis W. Johnson's party, captured at and near San Patricio, now called the Battle of San Patricio. When the Mexican general reported to Santa Anna that he was holding the San Patricio prisoners, Santa Anna ordered Urrea to comply with the decree of December 30(Santa Anna sought and obtained from the Mexican Congress the decree of December 30, 1835, which directed that all foreigners taken in arms against the government should be treated as pirates and shot). Urrea complied to the extent of issuing an order to shoot his prisoners, along with those captured in the battle of Agua Dulce Creek, but he had no stomach for such cold-blooded killing; and when Father Thomas J. Malloy, priest of the Irish colonists, protested the execution, Urrea remitted the prisoners to Matamoros, asking Santa Anna's pardon for having done so and washing his hands of their fate.[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qfs03 ]

1836 - The Gonzales Rangers Respond to Fannin's plea for help: Two appeals to Col. Fannin at Goliad had resulted in an aborted start toward San Antonio with his force of 350 men when Fannin heard of the approach of Gen. Urrea's army. Responding to Col. Travis' appeals, the main contingent of the Gonzales Alamo Relief Force departed the town square of Gonzales at 2 PM Saturday 27 Feb, led by commanding officer Lieutenant George C. Kimble of the Gonzales Rangers. The senior officer accompanying the relief force was courier Capt. Albert Martin who had delivered the appeal to both Smithers and Gonzales. The force was guided by Alamo courier John W. Smith, a resident of San Antonio de Bexar. According to Dr. John Sutherland, the group consisted of 25 men who left Gonzales and increased to 32 with those who joined along the way, in particular near Cibola Creek. The Gonzales Alamo Relief Force consisting of primarily the men of the DeWitt Colony listed here was the only organized force in Texas which effectively responded without question to the appeals of Travis to aid their doomed colleagues in the mission.

1840 - John C. Clark, officer of the Texas Navy, was recommended to President Mirabeau B. Lamar by Nathan Amory in Washington, D.C., on February 27, 1840, as "an old friend...with whom I passed several years in Venezuela." In that South American country Clark commanded several Colombian ships of war under Simón Bolívar during the revolution. Clark was commissioned into the Texas Navy by Secretary of the Navy Louis P. Cooke on June 2, 1840, and commanded the Texas brig-of-war Wharton from July until December 1841. In reaction to the raid of Rafael Vásquez in March 1842, President Sam Houston appointed Clark to the command of the Galveston coast guards. With the steamer Laffite and the sloop Washington, he was to intercept any Mexican troop or supply movements aimed at the upper Texas coast and was authorized to capture not only belligerent vessels but neutrals carrying contraband as well.

1850 - Carlos Esparza, a supporter of the Mexican folk hero Juan N. Cortina, and various followers attempted to establish a territorial government and separate themselves from the rest of Texas. The Territory of the Rio Grande was intended to protect the interests of Hispanics, but the proposal became politically complicated and was dropped.

1907 - Justina Luckenbach died, four years to the day before the death of her husband Jacob. Both Luckenbachs were born in Germany and came to Texas in late 1845. In January 1846 they were among the first settlers in Fredericksburg. The Luckenbach family became American citizens in 1852 and shortly thereafter sold both Fredericksburg properties and moved twelve miles southeast. When she was appointed postmistress at the site, Sophie Engel named the post office Luckenbach in honor of her fiancé, Jacob and Justina's son Albert. John Russell (Hondo) Crouch, from nearby Comfort, bought the "town" in 1971. Popularized in regional culture as the place where "Everybody is Somebody," Luckenbach achieved mythic proportions in 1977, the year after Crouch's death, when the Waylon Jennings song "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" became a national favorite.

1917 - Future governor John B. Connally, Jr., was born on a farm near Floresville. Although he was associated with Lyndon Johnson, Connally switched to the Republican party in the middle of his political career. The most famous, and the gravest, moment in his public life came when he was wounded in the Kennedy assassination on November 22, 1963.

1948 - Fort Worth Army Airfield is renamed today for Major Horace S Carswell, Jr, a hero of the Pacific War. Carswell stayed with his plane in 1944 rather than abandon a crew member whose parachute was shot up. His plane did not make it, and eventually crashed into a mountain. In 1946 Carswell was postumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

[ELB]

1795 - José Antonio Navarro, a leading Mexican participant in the Texas Revolution, son of María Josefa (Ruiz) and Ángel Navarro, was born at San Antonio de Béxar on February 27, 1795.

... In 1846, in recognition of his contributions to Texas over the years, the legislature named the newly established Navarro County in his honor. The county seat was then designated Corsicana, in honor of his father's Corsican birth.

Following on yesterday's historical note about the renaming of the town of Walnut Springs to Seguin:

Although the county named after Navarro is close to Dallas and his house was in San Antonio, Navarro's ranch was in present day Guadalupe County, just north of the city of Seguin, along the Geronimo Creek. Geronimo Creek runs from a spring north of Seguin, meandering south until it joins the Guadalupe River south of Seguin. There is an Historical Marker commemorating his ranch on Highway 123 between Geronimo Creek and Seguin, about four miles from where I am sitting right now. Just north of there is the Navarro Independent School District complex and the tiny burg of Geronimo.

If you choose to visit any of the historical sites around Seguin (which includes Juan Seguin's grave, by the way), PM me and I'll give you recommendations on where to find the best breakfast tacos, Tex-Mex plates for lunch, and 'Murican food for dinner.

[joe817]

Following on yesterday's historical note about the renaming of the town of Walnut Springs to Seguin:

Although the county named after Navarro is close to Dallas and his house was in San Antonio, Navarro's ranch was in present day Guadalupe County, just north of the city of Seguin, along the Geronimo Creek. Geronimo Creek runs from a spring north of Seguin, meandering south until it joins the Guadalupe River south of Seguin. There is an Historical Marker commemorating his ranch on Highway 123 between Geronimo Creek and Seguin, about four miles from where I am sitting right now. Just north of there is the Navarro Independent School District complex and the tiny burg of Geronimo.

If you choose to visit any of the historical sites around Seguin (which includes Juan Seguin's grave, by the way), PM me and I'll give you recommendations on where to find the best breakfast tacos, Tex-Mex plates for lunch, and 'Murican food for dinner.

Thanks ELB! When I'm down that way I'll look you up! Mmmmm....Mexican food. My favorite comfort food!