This Day In Texas History - December 18

[joe817]

1825 - The birth of Charles Griffin, United States Army officer and commander of the Department of Texas during Reconstruction, was born at Granville, Ohio. Griffin took command at Galveston of the military district and Freedmen's Bureau of Texas in December 1866. He was quickly embroiled in Reconstruction politics. In the spring of 1867 he began the registration of black and white Texas voters under the Reconstruction acts. He moved to disqualify antebellum officeholders who had supported the Confederacy and surveyed the state for Unionist replacements. Griffin had been ordered to New Orleans to assume command of the Texas and Louisiana district when, on September 15, 1867, he died of yellow fever in an epidemic that was sweeping Galveston. His death removed an ardent supporter of congressional Reconstruction and of freedmen's rights. Fort Griffin on the Texas frontier was later named in his honor. [40 miles northeast of Abilene]

1829 - Pioneer Hertz brothers arrive in Nacogdoches. Brothers Joseph and Hyman Hertz arrived in Nacogdoches. During the early 1830s Joseph, a doctor, treated patients in and around Nacogdoches, sometimes traveling up to sixty miles to reach outlying settlements. Hyman, born around 1808, established a mercantile business in Nacogdoches. He represented the town at the Convention of 1832 and was killed the next year when the steamer Lioness, on which he was traveling to New Orleans, caught fire and sank on the Red River

1837 - To increase postal service revenues, Texas Congress raised the cost of mail for forty miles 12.5 cents, 25 cents for up to 100 miles, and 50 cents for longer routes.

1860 - Peta Nocona, the Comanche chief who led raids on the Texas frontier, was killed at the Pease River in a battle with Captain Sul Ross. [the town of Nacona, Texas famous for making quality boots for the working man is named after him]

1860 - Texas Rangers "rescue" Cynthia Ann Parker. Texas Rangers under the command of Lawrence Sullivan Ross attacked a Comanche hunting camp at Mule Creek. During this raid the rangers were surprised to find that one of their captives had blue eyes; it was a non-English-speaking white woman with her infant daughter. She was Cynthia Ann Parker, captured by Comanche warriors on May 19, 1836, at Fort Parker in Limestone County.

1863 - Reports that one hundred Texas Rangers arrived at Eagle Pass in a letter between Union officers N. J. T. Dana and Brig. Gen.Charles P. Stone. Dana learned that 1,200 mounted Confederates from eastern Texas have been sent to keep open a line from San Antonio to Eagle Pass and Laredo. This is of special interest to Confederate officers who have cotton interests.

1865 - The Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is ratified; slavery is abolished.

1883 - Ranald Slidell (Bad Hand) Mackenzie, hard-driving cavalry officer, was diagnosed as suffering from "paralysis of the insane." He served with great distinction in the Union cavalry during the Civil War, ending the conflict as a brevet major general. After the war he became one of the leading cavalry commanders on the frontier, leading the Fourth United States Cavalry in a number of campaigns against various Indian tribes. In Texas he is best known for his victory against the Comanches at Palo Duro Canyon and for the extralegal Remolino raid into Mexico in pursuit of Kickapoo raiders.

1984 - Conjunto accordion legend Santiago Jimenez Sr. died in San Antonio. His polkas "La Piedrera" and "Viva Seguin" (recorded in 1942) became well-known regional hits. Jimenez was known for his use of the two-row button accordion.