This Day In Texas History - March 25

[joe817]

1836 - When Sam Houston's army retreated from Gonzales after the battle of the Alamo, it camped on the east bank of the Colorado in Colorado County, and the Mexican army camped about two miles west of the river; the armies remained for seven or eight days. Other Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna arrived on March 25, 1836, and Houston ordered further retreat. During the Runaway Scrape hundreds of persons crossed the river at Benjamin Beeson's ford.

1843 - Seventeen Texans were executed at Salado, Tamaulipas, Mexico. As the members of the defeated Mier expedition were being marched from Mier to Mexico City, they attempted a mass escape on February 11. Some 176 were recaptured, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna ordered that one in ten of the prisoners be shot. The victims were chosen by a lottery in which each man drew a bean from an earthen jar containing 176 beans, seventeen of which were black. This event has come to be known as the Black Bean Episode. The bodies were returned to Texas and are buried on Monument Hill at La Grange, Fayette County.

1918 - in what proved to be the last serious incident of the border troubles initiated by the Mexican Revolution, Mexican raiders attacked the Neville ranch in northwest Presidio County. Edwin W. Neville's isolated ranch stretched for eighteen miles along the Rio Grande, six miles upriver from Porvenir. Neville and his son Glen were discussing the rumors of an attack when they heard a disturbance outside. Neville looked out and saw fifty approaching horsemen who opened fire on the house. Seeking protection, the Nevilles ran toward a ditch about 300 yards away. The older Neville reached the ditch uninjured, but the raiders shot Glen in the head and beat him with their rifle butts as he lay dying. The Nevilles' housekeeper, Rosa Castillo, was also shot and her body mutilated. As Neville wandered in the darkness, the raiders stole horses, clothes, bedding, and supplies. U.S. cavalry arrived soon after the raid and followed the trail of the bandits across the Rio Grande. In a gunfight at the village of Pilares thirty-three Mexicans were killed and eight were wounded. One American, private Carl Alberts, was also killed. The American soldiers destroyed all but one house in Pilares and recovered some of Neville's stolen property. It is likely that the Neville ranch raid was not a simple act of robbery, but retaliation for the Porvenir Massacre, which had taken place two months before. It is also likely that the raiders had Villista connections. In addition, soldiers found German-made Mauser rifles at Pilares, a fact that may suggest German involvement in the raid.

1926 - Following several days of heavy rains, Alum Creek in Bastrop flooded. The new Hwy 71 bridge, built so the highway would remain open under most severe weather, was left high and dry, but both approaches to the bridge were washed away.

1942 - The Ninetieth Division, known as the "Tough 'Ombres," "Texas' Own," or the "Alamo" division, was reactivated at Camp Barkeley, west of Abilene. It was originally activated at Camp Travis on August 25, 1917, under command of Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen. Texas and Oklahoma furnished the original division, although all states were later represented. The monogram T-O insignia was adopted in France. The Ninetieth Division saw action in both WWI and WWII.

1986 - The General Land Office received a new seal in commemoration of the Texas Sesquicentennial. Texas governmental seals usually feature a slightly modified version of the state seal or a single star. The 1986 seal featured a design representing the agency's land and resource management responsibilities. The seal consists of a bison in front of a fish-eye view of mountains, plateaus, prairies, bays, barrier islands, and the Gulf of Mexico, all surmounted by a Lone Star, and "1836-GENERAL LAND OFFICE-1836-THE STATE OF TEXAS."

2006 - Sherman Texas born, Buck Owens, died at his home at Bakersfield, California. Buck starred with Roy Clark and others on 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" He was 76