This Day In Texas History - August 12

[joe817]

1838 - On August 12, 1838, thirty-three of the Gonzales Rangers, a volunteer group, joined Joseph S. Martin in laying out a townsite near Walnut Branch; they named the site Walnut Springs. The name was changed in February 1839 to Seguin for Juan N. Seguín.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HES03 ]

1840 - On this day in 1840, Gen. Felix Huston, Col. Edward Burleson, and others, including Ben McCulloch, fought a running battle with a large party of Comanche Indians. The battle of Plum Creek occurred as a result of the Council House Fight, in which a number of Comanche leaders were killed. Chief Buffalo Hump led a retaliatory attack down the Guadalupe valley east and south of Gonzales.

The band numbered perhaps as many as 1,000, including the families of the warriors, who followed to make camps and seize plunder. The Comanches swept down the valley, plundering, stealing horses, and killing settlers, and sacked the town of Linnville. The Texans' volunteer army caught up with the Indians on Plum Creek, near present-day Lockhart, on August 11 and soundly defeated them the next day.

1860 – Sam Houston’s son, Temple Houston, was the first child to be born in the Governor’s Mansion.

1861 - The Fifth Texas Cavalry was also known as the Fifth Texas Mounted Rifles and the Fifth Texas Mounted Volunteers. On August 12, 1861, Confederate Brig. Gen. Henry H. Sibley arrived in San Antonio to organize a brigade for a campaign in New Mexico and Arizona. His ultimate goal was to capture the gold and silver mines of Colorado and California and to secure a Confederate pathway to the Pacific.

Three regiments of cavalry or mounted riflemen, each with an attached battery of howitzers, were quickly formed for service in what would come to be known as the Sibley's Brigade: the Fourth Texas under Col. James Reily, the Seventh Texas under Col. William Steele, and the Fifth Texas Mounted Volunteers. The Fifth was recruited, for the most part, in Waco, San Antonio, Bonham, Weatherford, and Austin and was organized and mustered into Confederate service at San Antonio with 926 officers and men. The volunteers supplied their horses and their own weapons, the quality of which varied widely. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qkf10 ]

1862 - The battle of Corpus Christi occurred during the summer of 1862, while the coast of Texas from Cavallo Pass to Corpus Christi was under blockade by the USS Arthur. The Arthur's commander, acting lieutenant John W. Kittredge, was bold and aggressive, and his activities over a period of seven months caused grave concern to Texas military officials and near panic among coastal residents. However, Cavallo Pass was protected by Fort Esperanza at Saluria, and the intracoastal waterway remained open to commerce.

The Arthur, with a draft of fourteen feet, was unable to cross the shallow inlets to pursue small vessels trafficking in cotton and other goods. The situation changed, however, when Kittredge received from New Orleans two light-draft vessels, the steamer Sachem and the yacht Corypheus. With the yacht he captured two Confederate sloops, the Reindeer and the Belle Italia, and converted them into armed gunboats. Then, on August 12, Kittredge brought his "mosquito fleet" into Corpus Christi Bay, where the USS Corypheus overtook and captured the Confederate schooner Breaker. [ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/qec03 ]

1869 - Bremond, TX(in northwestern Robertson county): Articles of incorporation were forwarded to the secretary of state on August 12, 1869.

1929 - Alvis Edgar Owens Jr, better known as Buck Owens was born in Sherman. Buck was the star of the hit TV series "Hee Haw", but also had a long list of smash hits on the Country and Pop Charts, including "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail", "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line" and "Act Naturally"

1938 - On this date in 1938, Seymour in Baylor County, set a new all time Texas high temperature of 120 degrees. This record would stand for 56 years, until Monahans tied the heat mark on 1994.

1982 - Joseph Arrington, known as "Joe Tex," died.

1983 - A sinkhole approximately 250 feet in diameter and twenty-five feet deep, formed suddenly over the crest of the Boling Dome three miles north of Boling, collapsing the roadway. Boling Dome, an underground rock structure that contains petroleum, sulfur, and salt, is on the western bank of the San Bernard River almost entirely in Wharton County. It is oval in shape and ranges five miles east-west and three miles north-south, encompassing 5,500 acres.

Oil production at the site began in 1925 and sulfur wells began producing in 1929. Over 8,000 wells had been drilled to mine the sulfur reserve, and 12,000 more for oil and gas, producing a highly porous zone that affects the integrity of the dome. In addition to the 1983 sinkhole, several others have occurred over the Boling Dome, a condition that is becoming common at other salt dome sites where sulfur and oil are produced.

1985 - Edgar Bryan Kincaid, Jr., died in Austin. Released by wealth from regular work, Kincaid had spent ten years, beginning in 1963, editing Harry C. Oberholser's Bird Life of Texas. He reduced the massive three-million-word manuscript by two-thirds and chopped a 572-page bibliography to thirty pages--thus making this classic work accessible. In his later years, Kincaid became quite reclusive. His fear of burglars was realized when he was robbed in his own house at gunpoint, after which he developed a fever and died.

[ELB]

1838 - On August 12, 1838, thirty-three of the Gonzales Rangers, a volunteer group, joined Joseph S. Martin in laying out a townsite near Walnut Branch; they named the site Walnut Springs. The name was changed in February 1839 to Seguin for Juan N. Seguín.
[ https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/HES03 ]

Hey! I’ve heard of that place!

It’s over 100 degrees here today. Those fellars must have wanted a town awfully bad to have been laying it out in August.

[joe817]

The people back then were a lot more tougher than we are now. Give me my a/c !