This Day In Texas History - July 14

[joe817]

1805 - Charlotte Allen was born. She is known as the "Mother of Houston." Her and her brothers bought land along Buffalo Bayou to establish the town in 1836.

1832 - The expedition of José Antonio Mexía during the summer of 1832 had two purposes: the carrying into execution of the Plan of Vera Cruz against Anastacio Bustamante and absolutism in Mexico, and the preservation of Texas in the Mexican union. Mexía left Matamoros on July 14, 1832, on his way to Texas, after being joined by Stephen F. Austin, who was on his way home from a meeting of the legislature of Coahuila and Texas. Mexía had four hundred troops when he reached the mouth of the Brazos River on July 16.

1836 - After the Battle of San Jacinto, Major William Hester Patton was given custody of Antonio López de Santa Anna and was one of the commissioners selected to escort him to Washington, D.C. On July 14, 1836, Patton was one of eighteen officers who testified against President David G. Burnet on charges of usurpation and treason. Patton was General Houston's aide-de-camp.

1836 - James Clark(founder of Clarksville, Red River County), raised a company of mounted riflemen to join the fight for Texas independence. This company, known as the Red River Blues, was enlisted into service at Clark's home and was commanded by Capt. William Becknell. Clark served as first lieutenant. Though Clark was delayed along the way because of illness, the company traveled to the Lavaca River in South Texas and joined Gen. Thomas Jefferson Green's brigade.

1843 - The arrival of the Texas Navy warships the Austin and the Wharton at their home port of Galveston on July 14, 1843, effectively ended all operations of the Texas Navy.

1870 - On this date in 1870, the United State Congress approved a bill making Houston an official Port of Entry for the US. The bill includes funds to assist Houston in building a customs house, and surveys of a proposed ship channel.

1879 - The state of Texas authorized selling state land for fifty cents an acre. Half the proceeds were to go for reduction of the public debt and half to pay into the Permanent School Fund, established in 1876. The state sold 3,201,283 for $1,600,641.55 in fifty-two West Texas counties. On January 22, 1883, the Fifty Cent Act was repealed as a public necessity resulting from fraudulent speculation in the land.

1890 - The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway went into receivership, with Benjamin F. Yoakum as one of the two receivers. The SA&AP was chartered in 1884 to connect San Antonio with Aransas Bay, a distance of 135 miles. The SA&AP, which eventually built hundreds of miles of track in South and Central Texas, was a competitor in many areas with various Southern Pacific lines and was acquired by the SP in 1892.

1912 - Folk singer Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Guthrie was born in Oklahoma. During the Dust Bowl, his family moved to Pampa, Texas, where he met and married his first wife, Mary Jennings. Woody is best known for "This Land is Your Land" which is a national favorite.

1938 - Houston born Howard Hughes and a four-man crew landed their specially equipped Lockheed 14 in New York City, having circled the globe in three days, nineteen hours, and seventeen minutes. Along the way, they cut in half Charles Lindbergh's record for crossing the Atlantic.

1943 - Julius Bledsoe's performance of "Ol Man River" in Showboat in 1927, made the song an American Classic. On this date in 1943, Julius Bledsoe died in Hollywood. He was born in Waco where he is now buried.

1960 - In a surprise move on this date in 1960, John F Kennedy selected Lyndon B Johnson, Senator from Texas, as his Vice Presidential running mate, in a move that JFK hopes will solidify the Southern conservative vote. Kennedy and Johnson went on to win the 1960 Presidential election, defeating Richard Nixon, in one of the closest elections in American History.

1987 - On this date in 1987, Texas native George Strait scored a number one country with his song, All My Ex's Live in Texas, featured on his album, Ocean Front Property, also hit number one on the Country Album charts and broke into the pop charts. Strait who was born on May 18, 1952 in Poteet, Texas, a small town near San Antonio, spent his formative years in in the neighborhood town of Pearsall. He developed his interest in and love for music while a student at Pearsall High School.