From the Annals of Spanish Colonial Government – In 1716, Martín de Alarcon was re-appointed Spanish governor of Coahuila and Texas. Alarcón was first appointed governor of the Spanish provinces of Coahuila and Texas in 1705 when there were no active Spanish settlements in Texas.  The last of the original Catholic missions in East Texas had been abandoned in 1699.  After his re-appointment, in the spring of 1718, Alarcon led a party of 72 settlers across the Rio Grande which resulted in the founding of San Antonio de Valero mission and San Antonio de Béxar presidio. Alarcon is credited as being the founder of San Antonio which was by far the most important town in Spanish Texas.  Alarcón also traveled to East Texas to re-provision and inspect the newly built missions and to quell the incursion of the French into the area.  Alarcon’s tenure was short as he was relieved of his gubernatorial duties in the fall of 1719.

Image from http://www.hmdb.org

From the Annals of Twin Cities – In 1873,Texarkana was established.  Texarkana, Texas that is.  There are of course two Texarkanas in Texas and Arkansas.  Texarkana (site of a former Caddo Indian village) was strategically located on the Great Southwest Trail which for centuries was the primary route from Indian villages of the Mississippi River country to those in Texas and further west.  Its importance as a crossroads continued when in 1874, the Cairo and Fulton Railroad connected to the Texas and Pacific Railroad at Texarkana.

And despite what the song says there is no place in Louisiana that is “just about a mile from Texarkana.”

From the Annals of Boozing —  In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified ending the era of Prohibition in America.  The 21st Amendment repealed the 18th Amendment but still allowed states  to enact their own laws regarding the possession or importation of “intoxicating liquors.”  Surprisingly, Utah was the 36th state to ratify the amendment which achieved the required  approval of three-fourths of the 48 states.  Pennsylvania and Ohio had ratified it earlier in the day.

Riley’s Tavern in Hunter claims to have been the first establishment to obtain a beer license after Prohibition ended.  Some of us are old enough to remember the “liquor by the drink” days when it was still illegal to sell mixed drinks in Texas.

From the Annals of Wildcatting – In 1928, Carl (the Big Swede) Cromwell completed drilling of the world’s then deepest oil well.  Cromwell had come to prominence in the oil world with the drilling of  the famed Santa Rita No. 1 on land owned by the University of Texas in Reagan County.  After that success, Cromwell was named the drilling superintendent of the Texon Company’s rapidly expanding field on UT’s land in Reagan County. Cromwell also obtained private leases and began his wildcat operations.  Along with company engineer Clayton W. Williams, Cromwell began to drill deeper than the typical 3,000 foot depth of the deepest wells. In 1926 Williams located a site and Cromwell’s crews began work.  By late November 1928,Cromwell was directed to cease operations because of mounting expenses.  True to his wildcat spirit, Cromwell ignored the order and kept drilling deeper. By December 4, the well had reached 8,525 feet and hit the  pay zone.  The well, named University 1-B, remained the world’s deepest oil well for 3 years.

Photo of University 1-B Well from the Briscoe Center for American History at UT-Austin.

From  the Annals of TV Pioneers –  Dallas TV station KRLD (now KDFW) first signed on the air on December 3, 1949.  KRLD was a CBS affiliate started by the since closed Dallas Times Herald Newspaper which also owned KRLD AM radio. The new TV station used the call letters of tis radio sister which originated from the radio station’s original owner, Radio Laboratories of Dallas. Channel 4 was the third television station in the Metroplex.  KBTV (channel 8, now WFAA in Dallas) aired in September of 1949; and WBAP-TV (channel 5, now KXAS in Fort Worth) had been broadcasting since September of 1948. KRLD’s studio was located in the Times Herald offices at 1101 Patterson Street.

Photo of KRLD’s transmitter being lifted to the top of its first transmission tower at Griffin and San Jacinto.  From http://www.akdart.com

From the Annals of the Octopus –  In 1880, the Missouri Pacific Railway Company entered Texas by leasing the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad’s line from Kansas to Texas.  The Missouri Pacific was purchased by Jay Gould in 1879 to develop a southwestern rail network.  Gould also gained control of various other railroads in the state.  Gould’s venture into Texas was unsuccessful and several of the Missouri Pacific’s component lines entered receivership in the 1880s.  The company reorganized as the Missouri Pacific Railroad Company in 1917, but filed for bankruptcy in 1933 and remained in receivership until 1956. It was acquired by the Union Pacific Corporation in 1982.

The MoPac name lives on as a central freeway in Austin that follows the old MoPac line through town.

From the Annals of Police Incompetence –  On November 24, Jack Ruby drove to downtown Dallas  with his two pet dogs and sent an emergency money order to one of his employees, Ruby then walked to the nearby police headquarters, where he made his way to the basement via the Main Steet ramp. Shortly before noon, officers from the Dallas Police Department were escorting Lee Harvey Oswald through the police basement to an armored car that was to take him to the nearby county jail.  Ruby emerged from the crowd of reporters and fired his .38 revolver fatally wounding Oswald. The shooting was broadcast live nationally, and millions of television viewers witnessed it.

The 1979 report from the House Select Committee on the Assassination stated:

Ruby’s shooting of Oswald was not a spontaneous act, in that it involved at least some premeditation. Similarly, the committee believed it was less likely that Ruby entered the police basement without assistance, even though the assistance may have been provided with no knowledge of Ruby’s intentions… The committee was troubled by the apparently unlocked doors along the stairway route and the removal of security guards from the area of the garage nearest the stairway shortly before the shooting… There is also evidence that the Dallas Police Department withheld relevant information from the Warren Commission concerning Ruby’s entry to the scene of the Oswald transfer. 

Well, duh.

From the Continuing Annals of Bravery in the Face of Incompetence –   In 1982,  the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington after a march to its site by thousands of veterans of the conflict. The memorial was a departure from the grandiose scale of other war memorials.  It was a simple V-shaped black-granite wall designed by Maya Lin.  The wall was inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict arranged in order of death. Many veterans’ groups opposed Lin’s winning design because it did not include heroic statues or stirring tributes to the fallen.  However, those criticisms quickly fell away after the memorial’s dedication.  The memorial is one of the most visited shrines in D.C. Veterans and friends and relatives of the fallen are seen walking the wall seeking for the names of their friends and loved ones. Visitors frequently make etchings of the names or leave simple tributes such notes, flowers, dog tags or a can of beer.  For a list of Texans killed during the war see http://www.archives.gov/research/military/vietnam-war/casualty-lists/tx-alpha.pdf

The first time I visited the memorial was late on a cold December night in 1995.  My friend and I walked in silence along the length of the memorial both struck by the feelings it invoked even though neither of us served in Vietnam nor really knew many people who did. Even at that late hour, people were there – some crying.  When we reached the Lincoln Memorial there was a makeshift booth manned by a Vietnam veteran selling items to benefit veterans.  We talked with him for a short while and told him that it was our first visit to the memorial.  What I most remember him saying was “I can’t go down there” – down to the memorial even though it was less than 100 yards away. It was just too painful.   I often wonder if he ever walked that long 100 yards.

From the Annals of Bravery in the Face of Incompetence –  World War I ended today in 1918 at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.  More than 198,000 Texans fought in the war.  On Armistice Day two Texas divisions – the 90th and the 36th – were still actively involved in combat.  The 90th was fighting in Meuse-Argonne, while the 36th was resting after suffering heavy casualties in the same campaign.  All told, 5171 Texans died in service during the war including one nurse.  Almost one-third of the casualties were in the U.S. largely due to the influenza epidemic of 1918.  My Grandfather fought with the 36th who went “over the top” on October 24 just a few weeks before the end of the war.  He commanded Company K which was held in reserve that fateful day when most of the infantry was killed within a 1-2 hour time span in a pointless battle at the end of an insane war caused by foolish leaders and led by incompetent military commanders.  Which might be the only reason I am here today.

Photo of Choctaw Indian Codetalkers from http://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org.

From the annals of Broken Promises  – in 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald, a former Marine from Fort Worth, Texas living in Moscow, announced that he would never return to the United States. Oswald secretly travelled to the Soviet Union earlier in that year.  When in Moscow he told his Intourist guide that he wanted to become a Soviet citizen.  When asked why Soviet officials —all of whom, by Oswald’s account, found his wish incomprehensible—he said that he was a communist. When his visa was due to expire on October 21, he was told that his citizenship application had been refused, and that he would have to leave  that evening.  In a failed possible suicide attempt, Oswald cut his left wrist in his hotel room bathtub.  The wound was minor but bloody.  This delayed his departure and Soviet authorities kept him in a Moscow hospital under psychiatric observation until October 28.  According to Oswald, he met with four more Soviet officials, who asked if he wanted to return to the United States.  Oswald insisted that he wanted to become a Soviet citizen.  On October 31, Oswald appeared at the U.S. embassy to renounce his U.S. citizenship. “I have made up my mind,” he said; “I’m through.”  If only that had been true.

Photo from http://www.britanica.com