Thia Day In Texas History - April 23

[joe817]

1831 - James Bowie and Ursula Veramendi were married. Upon appearing before the mayor of San Antonio, he pledged to pay Ursula a dowry of $15,000. Bowie claimed his age as 32 (he was actually 35), and the value of his properties at $222,800. That was greatly exaggerated relying on over valuation of property in Arkansas and Louisiana, and included some money still owed him. In fact, Bowie had to borrow over $2,500 from his in-laws for a honeymoon trip to New Orleans and Natchez, Louisiana. After the honeymoon, Jim and Ursula Bowie settled in San Antonio.

1836 - Secretary of War Thomas J. Rusk directed Benjamin Cromwell Franklin to proceed to Galveston Island and inform President Burnet and his cabinet of the victory at San Jacinto. Franklin later received a bounty warrant for 320 acres for his service and was among the first to purchase land at the future site of Houston.

1846 - Following the Annexation of Texas four months before, Mexico declares war on the United States. Two days later, 1,600 Mexican troops would cross the Rio Grande and fight American troops from Fort Brown.

1883 - Texas purchased from the Catholic Church the Alamo property and placed the Alamo in the custody of the city of San Antonio on condition that the city should care for the building and pay a custodian for that purpose. This system continued until January 25, 1905, when the Texas legislature passed a resolution ordering the governor to purchase that part of the old Alamo fortress occupied by a business concern. It was further ordered that the governor should deliver the property thus acquired, with the property then owned by the state (the chapel of the Alamo), to the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.

1892 - A group of Fort Worth women received from the state of Texas a charter establishing the Fort Worth Public Library Association, a part of whose stated purpose was "the accumulation of paintings and artistic work of every character for the enjoyment and cultivation of our people. " The resulting gallery was named the Art Gallery of the Carnegie Public Library in 1901, the Fort Worth Museum of Art in 1910, the Forth Worth Art Center in 1954, the Fort Worth Art Center Museum in 1971, and the Fort Worth Art Museum in 1974. The current name was adopted in 1987.

1923 - Future Governor Dolph Briscoe was born. He served as Governor from 1973-79. He was a conservative Democrat, and the only Governor in the modern era to keep his pledge of "No New Taxes". Briscoe also became immortalized for his roll in closing down the notorious "Chicken Ranch" in La Grange.

1936 - Rock and roll singer Roy Orbison was born in Vernon, Texas. He grew up in Wink, and while attending Wink High School he formed a country music group called the Wink Westerners. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and died the following year.

1984 - Jazz pianist William M. (Red) Garland died in Dallas, where he had been born in 1923.