Category Archives: Today in Texas History

Today in Texas History – August 4

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From the Annals of Mr. Texas –  In 1941, Lt. Gov. Coke Stevenson was sworn in as  Governor of Texas when Pappy O’Daniel resigned to take office as a United States senator. Stevenson’s story is rather remarkable.  He grew up in hard scrabble land of the western Hill Country and had almost no formal education.   He began work in his teens running mule teams that hauled freight between Junction and Brady. He educated himself on the trail studying history and bookkeeping at night.  He worked his way up from janitor to bank cashier and continued to study – this time tackling law under the tutelage of Judge Marvin Blackburn.   He passed the bar exam in 1913 and continued his banking career while practicing law.  Stevenson organized and became president of the First National Bank in Junction and also aspired to politics.  He was elected Kimble County Attorney and County Judge.  He later was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1928 and became Speaker of the House in a remarkable short five years.  In 1939, he was elected lieutenant governor. After succeeding Daniel he was elected governor on his own in 1942 and served until 1947.  Unfortunately, he may be most famous for his loss to Lyndon Johnson in the   1948 Democratic Primary.  It was a race filled with controversy and scandal and revealed LBJ as a politician who would stop at nothing to win.  The race and Stevenson’s own remarkable rise to power  is brilliantly chronicled in Robert Caro’s Path to Power volume of his series on LBJ.

Today in Texas History – August 2

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From the Annals of Space Objects –  In 1946, the Peña Blanca Spring meteorite plunged into a natural springs swimming pool at the headquarters of the Gage ranch in Brewster County in front of twenty-four witnesses – one of whom saw the meteorite in flight.  The meteorite was approximately 155 lbs and two major fragments were recovered from the pool – one weighing 104 lbs and another at 29 lbs.  The one eyewitness to the fall described the object as “looking like a black bag falling out of the sky.”  Local residents recovered part of the space rock, but the major recovery was done by O.E. Monnig and Harrison Morse of Fort Worth who were meteorite enthusiasts.  Five pieces of the PBS meteorite can be seen at the Monnig Meteorite Gallery at TCU in Fort Worth.

Today in Texas History – July 29

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From the Annals of Public Non-Broadcasting  –   In 2010, Baylor University’s KWBU-TV/Waco signed off after 21 years due to budgetary shortfalls. The PBS station went on the air in 1989 as KCTF and in 1994 the license was transferred to Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation and the station was moved to the Baylor campus.  The Waco community never fully supported the station and lack of local contributions ended its run.  Although Baylor had majority control of the BVPBF, KWBU still technically held a community license. However, the partnership with Baylor led to the perception that it was a “Baylor station,” which further cut into the community support needed to keep the station on the air.  Baylor itself was apparently uninterested in picking up the slack to keep public broadcasting on the air in Waco.  Could the University’s all-consuming focus on its corrupt men’s basketball and football programs have had anything to do with that?

Today in Texas History – July 28

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From the Annals of the Toreros –   In 1908, Harper Lee of Ysleta made his first appearance as a novillero, or apprentice matador, in the Plaza de Guadalajara.   In 1895 Harper’s mother married Samuel M. Lee, a resident of Guadalajara. Harper joined the family there and enrolled in high school in 1899. He called himself Harper Baylor Lee even though he was never legally adopted. His amigos called him El Gringo Harper.  Lee showed early promise in bullfighting games.  He was invited to bull haciendas as was given the opportunity to test young fighting bulls and breeding cows.  He showed exceptional talent with the cape.  Under the tutelage of his friend Francisco Gómez, El Chiclanero, a retired matador from Spain, Lee decided to become a professional torero.  His initial appearance in Guadalajara launched a remarkable career in which he ultimately became the first North American to be acknowledged as a full-fledged matador de toros.  His career was cut short by the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution but he appeared in 52 corridas and  dispatched 100 bulls.  He “cut the pigtail” in the formal ceremony of retirement on December 3, 1911.

Today in Texas History – July 27

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From the Annals of Voting Rights –   In 1940, Lonnie Smith, an African-American dentist from Houston, was denied a ballot to vote in a Democratic primary because of his race.  The stated rationale was that the parties ran their primary elections and that as a private entity, the Democratic Party of Texas could decide its membership and thus determine who could and could not vote in its primary elections.  Of course, Texas was a one-party state at the time (much like now) and winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to winning office in all but a very few instances.  The ensuing legal battle lasted four years and resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision – Smith v. Allwright , 321 U.S. 649 (1944) in which Smith was represented by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  The Supreme Court overturned the Texas law that authorized the Democratic Party to set its internal rules which called for whites only primaries.  The court held that it was an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the  14th Amendment for the state to delegate its authority over elections to the Democratic Party in order to allow discrimination to be practiced. This ruling affected all other states where the party used the white primary rule and was an important step in opening the ballot box to citizens of all races.

Photo of Lonnie Smith

Today in Texas History – July 26

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From the Annals of Cowtown –  In 1887, the Fort Worth Union Stock Yards were chartered.  John Peter Smith, J. W. Burgess and Morgan Jones obtained the charter to build the yard in north Fort Worth.  They raised $200,000 for construction which began in 1888.  The Union yard was the first step in a plan to convert Fort Worth from a temporary way station on the route from Texas to Kansas City and St. Louis into a major stock yard and meat packing center.  Over the next 30 years with the addition of several meat packing plants, Fort Worth which had already earned the nickname “Cowtown” truly became one.  

Today in Texas History – July 25

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From the Annals of the Civil War –  In 1861, the Crittenden-Johnson Resolution was passed by the U.S. Congress.  The resolution sought to reassure the border states of Missouri, Kentucky and Maryland and pro-slavery Unionists that the Civil War was being fought to restore the Union and not to eradicate slavery.  The implication was that once the war had been won, the Confederate states would be returned to the Union fold with slavery intact.  The resolution was named for its sponsors Rep. John Crittenden of Kentucky and Sen. Andrew Johnson of Tennessee.  The resolution passed with an overwhelming vote in both houses.  The plan to reassure the border states worked as none of them left the Union.  However, by December of 1861, sentiment had changed so drastically that the resolution was repealed largely through the actions of Pennsylvania Senator Thaddeus Stevens.

Today in Texas History – July 22

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From the Annals of the Weeklies –  In 1887, Henry Harold Brookes published the first edition of the  Panhandle Herald.    The Herald is the oldest continuously published newspaper in the Texas Panhandle. The paper has been mostly a weekly except during about 3 years during the 20’s when it was published semiweekly. The paper has been owned by the Panhandle Publishing Company since 1932.

Today in Texas History – July 21

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A photo of Solitario Peak in Big Bend Ranch State Park

From the Annals of the Big Parks – In 1988, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission purchased Big Bend Ranch in Presidio County to form Big Bend State Natural Area now known as Big Bend Ranch State Park. The acquisition of the 311,000 acre ranch more than doubled the amount of park land under state control.  The park offers hiking, mountain biking, horseback riding, fishing and boating on the Rio Grande and even has a 5500 foot landing strip.

Photo of Solitario Peak from Texas Parks and Wildlife.

Today in Texas History – July 19

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From the Annals of the Minor Outlaws – In 1878, Sam Bass was shot when his gang was scouting Round Rock for a planned robbery of the Williamson County Bank.  He was surprised by Texas Rangers who had been tipped off about the robbery by gang member Jim Murphy.   One story has it that the Rangers were holding Murphy’s father – who was ill and being denied treatment. Another claims that Murphy betrayed Bass for the reward money.  When Bass came into town, he was approached by Williamson County Deputy Sheriff A.W. Grimes who asked the gang to surrender their guns.  Grimes was shot and killed.  As Bass attempted to escape he was shot by Texas Ranger George Herold and then by Ranger Sergeant Richard Ware.  The next day Bass was found propped up against a tree and brought back to Round Rock.  He died two days later on his 27th birthday. In Texas, Bass was a largely unsuccessful criminal never making a big score but caused a great deal of panic and earned notoriety.  He had previously worked in a sawmill, as a cowboy, and as a freighter.   Legend has it that after squandering money earned on a trail drive, he recruited a gang and began robbing stagecoaches and railroads.

Round Rock now celebrates Sam Bass days and