This Day In Texas History - Dec. 17

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1778 - Juan Martín de Veramendi, future Mexican governor of Coahuila and Texas, was born in San Fernando de Béxar (San Antonio). Veramendi, an early friend to Anglo-American colonists, and Juan José Erasmo Seguín met Stephen F. Austin at Natchitoches, Louisiana, in 1821 and accompanied him to Bexar. His administration was favorable to the Anglo-American colonists and therefore unpopular with many Mexicans. In the summer of 1833, while at his summer home at Monclova, he died in a cholera epidemic.

1852 - Birthday of Galveston civic leader Iola Beers, who joined the Red Cross relief efforts after the Hurricane of 1900 and had the victims relocated to a formal grave site.

1867 - Justus Julius Schott opened a drugstore in Galveston. Schott, born in Germany in 1846, came to Galveston with his family in 1851 and was orphaned two years later when both his parents died of yellow fever. He was just twenty-one when he opened the J. J. Schott Drug Company, which became the main conduit of medical supplies from Europe to other drugstores and physicians in Galveston and throughout Texas. In 1869 Schott began to experiment with chicle, and for several years he imported and sold chewing gum wholesale to druggists throughout the country, until the Adams Chewing Gum Company sued him for infringement of patent. Schott won the case, but did not pursue his rights further. In 1885 he ventured into another enterprise with Moxie, a carbonated drink popular in the North, which he distributed throughout the state. Its popularity made Schott one of Galveston's major manufacturers. He died in 1928.

1910 - Petrolia Oilfield in Clay County blew a gusher which produced 700 barrels of oil a day from a depth of 1,600 feet, one of the shallowest oil drills in Texas.

1951 - "John Henry Faulk Show" debuted. The show, which aired on WCBS, featured music and political humor. Faulk was a renowned storyteller and made his way onto the airwaves with the help of Texas folklorist Alan Lomax. However, his career was short-lived. Faulk was one of many entertainers blacklisted as a so-called Communist during the 1950s. Faulk lost his contract with CBS and his career ended in 1957.

2008 - Sammy Baugh, legendary quarterback for TCU and the Washington Redskins, died at Fisher County Hospital, in Rotan, Texas. Sam Baugh brought passing as a formittable weapon in football. He led TCU to a National Championship, then in his rookie year at Washington, led the Redskins to an NFL Championship.