This Day In Texas History - April 13

[joe817]

1709 - An expedition led by Franciscan fathers Antonio de San Buenaventura y Olivares and Isidro Félix de Espinosa reached the site of what is now the city of San Antonio. They named the nearby springs San Pedro Springs and the river San Antonio de Padua. Olivares and Espinosa, escorted by Capt. Pedro de Aguirre and fourteen soldiers, had set out from San Juan Bautista on April 5, hoping to befriend the Tejas Indians on what is now the Colorado River. The expedition reached the Colorado on May 19, but discovered that the home of the Tejas was still three days' journey away. Because Aguirre's orders did not authorize them to proceed farther, and because they learned that the Tejas were not well disposed toward the Spanish, the expedition then returned to the Rio Grande.

1832 - On the streets of Washington, Sam Houston thrashed William Stanbery, United States representative from Ohio, with a hickory cane. The assault resulted from a perceived insult by Stanbery over an Indian rations contract. Houston was soon arrested and tried before the House of Representatives. Francis Scott Key served as his attorney. The month-long proceedings ended in an official reprimand and a fine, but the affair catapulted Houston back into the political arena. Leaving Diana and his life among the Indians, Houston crossed the Red River into Mexican Texas on December 2, 1832, and began another, perhaps the most important, phase of his career. His "true motives" for entering Texas have been the source of much speculation. Whether he did so simply as a land speculator, as an agent provocateur for American expansion intent on wresting Texas from Mexico, or as someone scheming to establish an independent nation, Houston saw Texas as his "land of promise." For him, it represented a place for bold enterprise, rife with political and financial opportunity.

1833 - The Convention of 1833 adjourned. It met at San Felipe on April 1 as a successor to the Convention of 1832, to which San Fernando de Béxar (San Antonio) had refused to send delegates. The convention petitioned anew for repeal of the anti-immigration section of the Law of April 6, 1830, asked for more adequate Indian defense, judicial reform, and improvement in mail service, sought tariff exemption, and passed resolutions prohibiting African slave traffic into Texas. Delegates also proposed to split Coahuila and Texas. Assuming that the petition for (Mexican)statehood would be granted, a committee of which Houston was chairman prepared a constitution for submission to the Mexican Congress.

1836 - Matagorda was taken on April 13 by the forces of Mexican General Urrea as part of series of successful operations against the Texans to secure the gulf region from San Patricio to Brazoria.

1839 – Commissioners for the permanent capital city of the Republic selected the village called Waterloo (present-day Austin) on the east bank of the Colorado River.

1882 - Henry Miller, merchant, oilman, and writer, was born on April 13, 1882, in Boonsville, Texas. In 1953 his book, Pioneering North Texas, was published. Included in the book are the author's family history and accounts of pioneer life, Indian depredations, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the barbed wire wars and grazing-lease scandals of the area.

1888 - Robert Mills, early Texas merchant and the largest slaveholder in antebellum Texas, died at Galveston. In Brazoria, the Kentucky native began engaging in the Mexican trade in 1830. Bars of Mexican silver were stacked like cordwood in the Mills brothers' counting room, and Mills became known as the "duke of Brazoria." In 1839 he built the first cotton compress in Texas. He became a shipping magnate in the 1850s. By 1860 the Mills brothers cultivated approximately 3,300 acres on their four Brazoria County plantations. Mills was reputed to have been worth between $3 and $5 million before the Civil War. He freed about 800 slaves in 1865.

1891 - The Alien Land Law was passed during the administration of James Stephen Hogg. It was designed to prohibit land speculation by foreign-controlled corporations and provided that no alien or alien company might obtain deed to or interest in Texas land except for a limited time. The law was inapplicable to aliens who became citizens within six years after they acquired land; all aliens not exempt by the law were given six years to surrender their land. The law was declared unconstitutional on December 11, 1891, in Gunter v. Texas Land and Mortgage Company on the technical ground that the subject was not expressed in the title and that although the law was passed as an amendment, it did not specify what law it was amending.

1896 - Aviation pioneer Ira Clarence Eaker was born in Field Creek, Texas. In 1930, he flew the first transcontinental flight that depended entirely on aerial refueling.

1902 - The first council of the Knights of Columbus in Texas was founded in El Paso. The Order of the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal and service organization of Catholic men, was founded in Connecticut in 1882. By 2002, the Texas State Council comprised 643 local councils. In the early 1920s the Texas State Council of the Knights of Columbus formed a historical commission to oversee the publication of a history of Catholicism in Texas from its beginnings under the Spanish flag.

1921 - A tornado all but wipes out the town of Melissa in Collin County. 12 people are killed and 80 injured.

1933 - Law officers raided the Joplin, Missouri hideaway where the infamous gangster gang, Bonnie and Clyde, were staying. In the shootout that followed, two lawmen were killed. The gang narrowly escaped, but they left behind a roll of film from which many of the famous photographs of the pair originated. For most of the remainder of their brief criminal careers, Clyde and Bonnie were constantly on the move, committing one robbery after the next while managing to stay one step ahead of the law.

1958 - Van Cliburn of Kilgore, TX, earned 1st prize in the Soviet Union's Tchaikovsky International Piano Contest in Moscow. He was the first American to win the award.

[joe817]

Letters From The Past: A young recruit in Sam Houston's army writes home (Note: the letter is dated April 10)

"Texas, Four Miles from Headquarters. April 10, 1836.

Dear Parents:—Since I last wrote you I have been engaged in arranging an expedition against the Indians, who have committed many depredations against the frontier. On my return to the settlements, I learned that our country was again invaded by a merciless horde of Mexicans, who were waging a war of extermination against the inhabitants.

A call was made for all friends of humanity to rise in arms and resist the foe. Men were panic stricken and fled, leaving their all behind them. I could not reconcile it to my feelings to leave Texas without an effort to save it. Accordingly, I bent my course for the army and arrived last evening at this place. I shall enter camp this morning as a volunteer.

The army, commanded by General Houston, is lying on the west side of the Brazos, 20 miles from San Filipe. The enemy is at that place waiting an attack. It is reported Houston will attack them in the morning. What will be the result, or the fate of Texas is hid in the bowels of futurity.

Yet, I think we are engaged in the cause of justice, and hope the God of battles will protect us. The enemy's course has been the most bloody that has ever been recorded on the page of history. Our garrison at San Antonio was taken and massacred; so another detachment of seven hundred, commanded by Col. Fanning, and posted at La Bahia, after surrendering prisoners of war, were led out and shot down like bears. Only one escaped to tell their melancholy fate.

In their course they show no quarter to age, sex, or condition, all are massacred without mercy. If such conduct is not sufficient to arouse the patriotic feelings of the sons of liberty, I know not what will. I was born in a land of freedom, and taught to lisp the name of liberty with my infant tongue, and rather than be driven out of the country or submit to be a slave, I will leave my bones to bleach on the plains of Texas.

If we succeed in subduing the enemy and establishing a free and independent government, we will have the finest country the sun ever shone upon, and if we fail we shall have the satisfaction of dying fighting for the rights of man. I know not that I shall have an opportunity of writing to you for some time, but shall do so as often as is convenient. Be not alarmed about my safety. I am no better, and my life no dearer than those who gained the liberty you enjoy.

If I fail you will have the satisfaction that your son died fighting for the rights of man.

Our strength in the field is about 1500. The enemy is reported 4000 strong; a fearful odds you will say; but what can mercenary hirelings do against the sons of liberty?

Before this reaches you the fate of Texas will be known. I will endeavor to acquaint you as soon as possible. I am well and in good spirits and as unconcerned as if going to a raising. The same Being who has hitherto protected my life can with equal ease ward off the balls of the enemy.

My company is waiting, and I must draw to a close, and bid you farewell, perhaps forever. More than a year has elapsed since I saw you, yet, the thought of friends and home are fresh in my memory, and their remembrance yet lives in my affections and will light a secret joy to my heart till it shall cease to beat.

Long has it been since I have heard from you. How often do I think of home and wish to be there. The thought of that sacred spot haunts my night-watches. How, often when sleep has taken possession of my faculties, am I transported there, and for a short time enjoy all the pleasures of home; but the delusion is soon over, and the morning returns and I find my situation the same.

Dear friends, if I see you no more, remember Giles still loves you. Give my love to my sisters, brothers, friends and neighbors. I would write more if time would permit, but its fleeing steps wait for none. You need not write to me as I do not know where I shall be. With sentiments of sincere respect I bid you farewell.

Your Affectionate son, G. A. Giddings."

[puma guy]

Most eloquent. Do you know if the young man survived? The last name is a familar one in the State.

Edited. I just looked up in Handbook of Texas History and Giles Giddings died of wounds received at San Jacinto.

Thank you for your posts. I look for them everyday and look forward to the information you pass along.

[joe817]

Thank you puma guy, for your kind words. It's my pleasure.

[USA1]