This Day In Texas History - January 12
Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 4:00 pm
1841 - A short-lived bill authorizing the formation of a French-Texan immigration company was introduced in the Texas Congress. The Franco-Texian Bill, proposed by two Frenchmen, Jean Pierre Hippolyte Basterrèche and Pierre François de Lassaulx, called for the introduction of 8,000 immigrant families to occupy three million acres of the Republic of Texas. The bill passed the House, but was never presented to the Senate because the sponsors saw that it could not pass over the expected veto by acting president David G. Burnet.
1845 - William Henry Hord, his wife Mary Jane, their two sons, and her two sons settled on 640 acres of high, oak-shaded land across the Trinity River from John Neely Bryan's settlement. The area where they settled became known as Hord's Ridge(now the Oak Cliff section of Dallas) and in 1850 lost the Dallas county-seat election by twenty-eight votes.
1861 - Unionist editor John W. Barrett published the Marshall Harrison Flag for the last time. He bought the Star State Patriot in 1848 and in 1856 renamed it the Harrison Flag. The Flag supported Sam Houston, the American (Know-Nothing) party, and the Constitutional Union party of 1860.
1874 - Responding to an influx of thugs after the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad reached the Red River, vigilantes hanged a horse thief in Denison. In sections of the Texas frontier where courts and jails had not been established or where officials and juries could not be depended upon, vigilance committees were often formed to stamp out lawlessness and rid communities of desperadoes.
1883 - The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad met the Southern Pacific Railroad 227 miles West of San Antonio just west of the Pecos River near Langtry. GH&SA President, Thomas W. Peirce drove a silver spike on the Western edge of the bridge of the Pecos. This line opens a new route across Texas for the Southern Transcontinental Railroad. Now Houston and San Antonio were connected to the West coast.
1886 - Pugnacious editor Simeon Newman folded the El Paso Lone Star. Newman, a staunch Methodist and Democrat, was a reformer, strong-willed, irascible, acerbic, and libel-prone, and he chose "Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may" for the Lone Star's motto. In his editorials he attacked the tinhorn gamblers, saloon keepers, gunmen, and other undesirables who had flocked to El Paso with the arrival of the Southern Pacific railroad; the editors of the rival newspapers and some of the businessmen who had formerly helped him also suffered attacks from his pen when he discovered their corruption. Many withdrew their support for the Lone Star, forcing him to close the paper six days after his fortieth birthday.
1888 - Several states were hit by what became known as the "Schoolchildren's Blizzard." The Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas combined for 235 deaths.
1904 - Gus Roghfuss drove from his hometown of Eagle Pass to San Antonio - a distance of 165 miles - in only thirteen hours. That's an average of 12.7 MPH, excellent speed for his day, especially considering that the roads of the day were little more than wagon ruts. On the journey, he used only nine gallons of gas. That's over 18 miles to the gallon.
1905 - Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter was born at Murvaul in Panola County. His hits include "Rye Whiskey" (1931), "Boll Weevil" (1945), "Wayward Wind," and "You Are My Sunshine" (1946).
1926 - Country Music star Ray Price was born in Quitman. He graduated from Adamson High School in Dallas at the end of World War II.
1845 - William Henry Hord, his wife Mary Jane, their two sons, and her two sons settled on 640 acres of high, oak-shaded land across the Trinity River from John Neely Bryan's settlement. The area where they settled became known as Hord's Ridge(now the Oak Cliff section of Dallas) and in 1850 lost the Dallas county-seat election by twenty-eight votes.
1861 - Unionist editor John W. Barrett published the Marshall Harrison Flag for the last time. He bought the Star State Patriot in 1848 and in 1856 renamed it the Harrison Flag. The Flag supported Sam Houston, the American (Know-Nothing) party, and the Constitutional Union party of 1860.
1874 - Responding to an influx of thugs after the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad reached the Red River, vigilantes hanged a horse thief in Denison. In sections of the Texas frontier where courts and jails had not been established or where officials and juries could not be depended upon, vigilance committees were often formed to stamp out lawlessness and rid communities of desperadoes.
1883 - The Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railroad met the Southern Pacific Railroad 227 miles West of San Antonio just west of the Pecos River near Langtry. GH&SA President, Thomas W. Peirce drove a silver spike on the Western edge of the bridge of the Pecos. This line opens a new route across Texas for the Southern Transcontinental Railroad. Now Houston and San Antonio were connected to the West coast.
1886 - Pugnacious editor Simeon Newman folded the El Paso Lone Star. Newman, a staunch Methodist and Democrat, was a reformer, strong-willed, irascible, acerbic, and libel-prone, and he chose "Hew to the line, let the chips fall where they may" for the Lone Star's motto. In his editorials he attacked the tinhorn gamblers, saloon keepers, gunmen, and other undesirables who had flocked to El Paso with the arrival of the Southern Pacific railroad; the editors of the rival newspapers and some of the businessmen who had formerly helped him also suffered attacks from his pen when he discovered their corruption. Many withdrew their support for the Lone Star, forcing him to close the paper six days after his fortieth birthday.
1888 - Several states were hit by what became known as the "Schoolchildren's Blizzard." The Dakotas, Montana, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas and Texas combined for 235 deaths.
1904 - Gus Roghfuss drove from his hometown of Eagle Pass to San Antonio - a distance of 165 miles - in only thirteen hours. That's an average of 12.7 MPH, excellent speed for his day, especially considering that the roads of the day were little more than wagon ruts. On the journey, he used only nine gallons of gas. That's over 18 miles to the gallon.
1905 - Woodward Maurice "Tex" Ritter was born at Murvaul in Panola County. His hits include "Rye Whiskey" (1931), "Boll Weevil" (1945), "Wayward Wind," and "You Are My Sunshine" (1946).
1926 - Country Music star Ray Price was born in Quitman. He graduated from Adamson High School in Dallas at the end of World War II.
