This Day In Texas History - Dec. 15

[joe817]

1834 - Robert Hamilton, a native of Scotland, settled in the Red River area of Texas. Hamilton, a wealthy merchant, was one of the five men sent by Pecan Point and vicinity, or the Red River District, to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos. He was probably the wealthiest man to sign the Texas Declaration of Independence. Because of his financial experience, wealth, and extensive connections, Hamilton was appointed, with George C. Childress, on March 19, 1836, to go to Washington, D.C., to seek recognition of the independence of Texas and establishment of commercial relations with the United States. In December of that same year, President Sam Houston nominated him to be chief justice of Red River County. There is a monument honoring his memory in Red River County's old Rowland Cemetery, 22 miles from Clarksville.

1855 - On this day in 1855, troopers of the Second United States Cavalry Regiment entered Texas for the first time. The Second, one of four new regiments approved by Congress in the spring of 1855, was organized specifically for service on the Texas frontier. The regiment left Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, in late October and rode through Missouri, part of Arkansas, and a corner of Indian Territory before crossing the Red River into Texas. Its officers were hand-picked by Secretary of War Jefferson Davis; thus the elite regiment was known as "Jeff Davis's Own." The Second Cavalry remained in Texas until the Civil War. During its stay, companies of the regiment were involved in some forty engagements along the western and northern frontiers of Texas and along the Rio Grande, fighting Apaches, Comanches, Kiowas, and Mexican marauders. The regiment was known for the outstanding quality of the sixteen general officers it produced in the 6½ years of its existence. The Second supplied one-half of the full generals of the Confederate Army: Albert Sidney Johnston, Robert E. Lee, Edmund Kirby Smith, and John Bell Hood. The Second Cavalry was Lee's last command in the United States Army.

1863 - Texan troops assigned to the protection of the frontier are placed under the command of the Confederacy.

1881 - America's second transcontinental railroad links up at Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County.

1887 - The Fort Worth and Denver City Railway, the first rail line to penetrate northwest Texas, ran an excursion train to the new community of Cheyenne in Oldham County to bring in potential settlers. The Fort Worth and Denver City actively promoted the growth of towns and farming to increase traffic for the line; "No settlers, no trains" was the company's rule.

1892 - David Guion was born in Ballinger, Texas. He became a popular musician and composer, known for his arrangement of the cowboy song "Home on the Range."

1939 - Scholar and social activist Valdes Villalva born in El Paso. An expert in US-Mexico border relations, she founded several organizations to empower the working class.

[Tha_Veteran]

[seamusTX]

Though not date-related, Jefferson Davis introduced one of the most ingenious innovations to the southwest frontier: camels. The beasts are ideally suited to the climate. The experiment failed only because of their unfamilarity and the upsets caused by the recent unpleasantness of the 1860s.

http://www.texasescapes.com/CFEckhardt/ ... -Corps.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Reports of feral camels still crop up, though they have joined Bigfoot and the Marfa lights in mythology.

- JIm

[joe817]

Fascinating article Jim! Thanks for posting! I'd heard of the camel corps but sure didn't know it originated in Texas.

[LaserTex]

The Headquarters Building at Camp Verde is now the Camp Verde store and there is a historical marker at the river side. Great place to fish, if you don't mind the cottonmouths. Many, many, many of them. many!!!

Doug

[seamusTX]

The camel tradition continues: http://www.texascamelcorps.com/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

- Jim