This Day In Texas History - February 20

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1807 - James Butler Bonham is born in South Carolina.

1830 - James Bowie, 34, and his friend Isaac Donoho took the oath of allegiance to Mexico. Bowie learned of an 1828 Mexican law that offered citizens grants for eleven leagues of land (4,428.4 acres) for around $200. Bowie urged Mexicans to apply for these grants which he in turn purchased from them and so doing acquired a vast amount of land holdings in Texas.

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. 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. The Fifth Texas Mounted Rifles—numbering 835 effectives by the time it left San Antonio—marched for Fort Bliss in October. From Fort Bliss the all-Texas brigade began its march up the Rio Grande toward Santa Fe. After occupying Fort Thorn, New Mexico Territory, the brigade attempted the capture of Fort Craig. Although the fort remained in Union hands, the Texans defeated a sortie attempted by the garrison on February 20–21 at the battle of Valverde. The Fifth Texas Cavalry played a conspicuous role in the Confederate victory. With General Sibley indisposed, Colonel Green commanded the troops on the field. Capt. Willis L. Lang, the commander of Company B, led what was perhaps the only charge of lancers in the Civil War.

1871 - Martial law was declared in Walker County. Lawlessness was widespread during Reconstruction, and Republican efforts often seemed to exacerbate the problem. The so-called Walker County Rebellion, which led to the declaration of martial law, followed the murder of a freedman and the attempted trial of four white suspects.

1874 - After considering a challenge from his Democratic opponents, the Texas Senate confirmed the election of Walter Moses Burton. Burton was brought to Texas as a slave from North Carolina in 1850 at the age of twenty-one. He belonged to a Fort Bend planter, Thomas Burke Burton, who taught him how to read and write, skills that served him well in later years. He became involved in politics as early as 1869, when he was elected sheriff and tax collector of Fort Bend County, and served as the president of the Fort Bend County Union League. In 1873 Burton campaigned for and won a seat in the Texas Senate, where he served for seven years. In the Senate he championed the education of blacks. Among the many bills that he helped push through was one that called for the establishment of Prairie View Normal School (now Prairie View A&M University).

1875 - Leander Randon Millican, Baptist missionary, was licensed to preach. He was born at the community of Millican, Texas, in 1853. In 1874, while he was deputy sheriff of Lampasas County, Millican was converted in a Methodist camp meeting. He joined the Baptist Church at Lampasas later that year. He attended Baylor University at Independence during the 1874-75 term. His work was with small, struggling churches on a half-time, quarter-time, or monthly basis in an area from San Angelo west to El Paso and south to Presidio. During his ministering travels on horseback he dreamed of a camp meeting to bring ranchers, cowboys, and churches together for preaching and classes. His dream was realized on July 28, 1915, when he and George W. Truett met with ranchers to begin an annual cowboy camp meeting that became known as Paisano Baptist Encampment. Millican was called "missionary to the mountains," "circuit rider of the plains," "trail-blazing minister," "sky pilot of the plains," and "Brother Lallie." He died in 1938.

1885 - On this date, John Manning caught up to Tom Greene in a stolen wagon and a team of horses heading for California, with Manning's 12 year old daughter gagged and tied to the bottom of the wagon. Greene was 8 days on the trail at the time Manning, the Sherrif, and a Texas Ranger caught up to him. In a short fight, Manning shot and killed Greene, rescuing his daughter.

1895 - Late in the afternoon, a wall of dust hundreds of feet tall, blew across the Texas Panhandle, hurdling the afternoon into immediate darkness. The choking dust left parts of the Panhandle in as much as a foot of dust while stripping other area bare.

1917 - Tarleton State University began in 1893, when the citizens of Stephenville raised $6,500 to build Stephenville College. The property was then transferred to the trustees of the newly established John Tarleton College, which had been endowed by John Tarleton. The Thirty-fifth Legislature accepted and on February 20, 1917, passed a bill establishing a branch of Texas A&M College at Stephenville to be named John Tarleton Agricultural College. The school continued to offer a two-year degree, the preparatory program, and specialized study in agriculture, home economics, and military training.

1943 - The Women Airforce Pilots flight school opened at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas, during World War II.

1971 - A massive blizzard that left 6 to 26 inches of snow hit the Texas Panhandle. The blizzard lasted until February 22. Three people were killed in the storm, which also caused the disappearance of 15,000 cattle in Amarillo. Property losses and damages totaled $3.1 million.