This Day In Texas History - July 9

[joe817]

1716 - Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe de los Nacogdoches Mission was founded by the Domingo Ramón expedition in a village of the Nacogdoches Indians. Father Antonio Margil de Jesús was in charge of the mission, which was abandoned temporarily in 1719 and became the first Zacatecan mission to be restored by the Marqués de Aguayo in 1721. Although the Nacogdoches mission was generally unsuccessful in its goal of converting the local Indians, it provided an important presence to offset French influence. It was permanently abandoned in 1773. In 1779 the deserted buildings formed the nucleus for the settlement of Nacogdoches.

1839 - Mirabeau B. Lamar, president of the Republic of Texas, wrote to Colita, chief of the Coushatta Indians, expressing regret that conflicts had occurred between the Indians and white settlers. The event is notable because it marked a sharp divergence from Lamar's general Indian policy. Unlike Sam Houston, whose administration had attempted to conciliate the Indians--especially Houston's "own" tribe, the Cherokees--Lamar thought that the Indians should be either exterminated or driven from Texas. This animus helped to bring about several of the most serious clashes between Indians and whites in early Texas.

Lamar's proffer of friendship toward the Alabamas and Coushattas was therefore a striking exception to his usual policy. Perhaps he was remembering how these East Texas Indians had helped the white settlers to escape from the Mexican army in the Runaway Scrape (1836). In any case, Lamar offered land to the Alabamas and Coushattas and appointed Joseph Lindley as a mediator between the Indians and the settlers. The gesture turned out to be futile, however, for when the Indians saw their land being marked off, they assumed it was for white settlers and abandoned the area; whereupon white settlers took the land.

1857 – A stage coach carrying mail departed San Antonio for San Diego in what was said to be the first transcontinental mail and passenger service, known as the “San-San.”

1882 - Fort Hancock was moved from its initial location six miles northwest of Fort Quitman to a site on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The next month it was moved again to higher ground nearby. Commanding general William T. Sherman believed the fort would be permanent because of its proximity to the railroad, and it was one of the few Texas forts to be purchased by the United States War Department (for $2,370 in 1883). Fort Hancock, originally designated Camp Rice, was a military installation established on April 15, 1881, as a subpost of Fort Davis to defend against Indians and bandits from across the Rio Grande.

1948 - Ground was broken for the Bonham Veterans Administration Hospital. The facility was planned to provide general medical and surgical treatment and nursing-home care for veterans. Sam Rayburn, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, served as principal orator at the event.

1968 - The first All-Star baseball game to be played indoors took place at the Astrodome in Houston, TX