This Date In Texas History - January 4

[joe817]

1789 - Benjamin Lundy was born. He was an antislavery advocate who planned to create a colony of free blacks in Texas. His plans were interrupted by the Texas Revolution.

1823 - The Austin Colony was permitted to settle 300 families in Texas after the Imperial Colonization Law was signed by Mexican Emperor Iturbide of Mexico.

1836 - Capt. George Morse Collingsworth tendered his resignation in the Texas Army after he was appointed collector of Customs at the Port of Matagorda. He participated in the battle of Velasco in 1832. Under Collingsworth's command his men captured the Mexican garrison at Goliad on October 9, 1835. Their victory cut off communication between San Antonio, then in possession of Mexican forces, and the Gulf of Mexico and secured valuable arms and supplies.

1854 - Sam Ketchum was born. He and his brother Thomas Edward (Black Jack), were members of a gang of outlaws that terrorized Arizona, New Mexico, and West Texas in the 1890s. On September 3, 1897, they held up the Colorado Southern passenger train near Folsom. In 1898 apparently there was some disagreement in the ranks, and Black Jack was not present when Sam and others again held up the Colorado Southern near Folsom on July 11, 1899. A posse caught up with them; Sam was wounded and captured and died two weeks later in the penitentiary at Santa Fe.

1871 - Maman-ti (Mama'nte), a Kiowa chief and medicine man also known as Swan, masterminded most of the Kiowa raids into Texas and led some of them himself in the 1870's. He was the real power behind such prominent chiefs as Lone Wolf and Satanta. On January 4, 1871, he led the foray in which Britton (Brit) Johnsonqv and three other black teamsters were killed and scalped near Flat Top Mountain in Young County. Maman-ti next made plans for a big raid in the vicinity of Jacksboro. Shortly after noon on May 18, more than 100 Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache warriors, concealed by the rocky terrain of a hill overlooking the Butterfield Trail through the Salt Creek valley, sighted the party escorting generals William T. Sherman and Randolph B. Marcy to Fort Richardson(present day Jacksboro in Jack county). Maman-ti, however, restrained his followers from mounting an ambush, declaring that his medicine decreed that the second party that passed by should be attacked. Hours later, the Indians attacked Henry Warren's wagontrain, killed seven teamsters, and destroyed the wagons. Subsequently the other participating chiefs, notably Satank, Big Tree,and Satanta, bore the blame for the episode,

1904 - When Roy Bean was appointed Justice of the Peace by the Texas Rangers, he set up shop in a small town he renamed after the internationally famous actress Miss Lillie Langtry, and his saloon courthouse, he named the Jersey Lilly. (Actually, the town was named Langtry after the railroad surveyor for that district). On this date, a full year after Judge Roy Bean died, Miss Lillie stepped off the Southern Pacific Sunset Limited at Langtry enroute from New Orleans to Los Angeles. She listened to the townspeople tell the stories of how Judge Roy Bean dispensed justice, how he once fined a corpse, and how he so admired Miss Lilly. The mayor of Langtry then presented Miss Langtry with the Judge's revolver.

1923 - Radio station WBAP in Fort Worth established the basic format for country music variety show broadcasting (a format subsequently taken over by Nashville's "Grand Ole Opry" and Chicago's "National Barn Dance") with a program that featured a fiddler, a square-dance caller, and Confederate veteran Capt. M. J. Bonner. The station was an innovator in Texas radio. In addition to its "hayride" program, it featured the Light Crust Doughboys. WBAP and the other leading Texas radio stations broke the ground in the 1920s and 1930s for a flourishing music industry.

1929 - Bose Ikard died in Austin. Ikard, born a slave in Mississippi in 1843, became one of the most famous black frontiersmen and trail drivers in Texas. The Civil War left Bose a free man, and in 1866 he went to work for Oliver Loving as a trail driver. After Loving's death, Ikard continued in the service of Loving's partner, Charles Goodnight. In 1869, after settling in Weatherford, Ikard participated in a running battle with Quanah Parker's Comanche band, riding alongside his former master, Milton Ikard. Goodnight often visited Bose in Weatherford.

1947 - John Lang Sinclair, who wrote the lyrics to "The Eyes of Texas" to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad" as a college prank, died on this date in 1947. The song was written to be sung for UT President William Prather, who would frequently admonish the student body that "The Eyes of the South are upon you."

1948 - The Alford No. I comes in: oil is found in the Permian Basin.

1965 - The most expensive office structure in the world, the Sam Rayburn Office Building was opened in Washington D.C., named for Texas Congressman and Speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn.

2001 - FBI agents in the Dallas area charged the "Texas 7" of unlawful flight to avoid federal prosecution for capital murder, broadening the manhunt nationwide.

[ELB]

1923 - Radio station WBAP ... In addition to its "hayride" program, it featured the Light Crust Doughboys...

who were led by some guy named Bob Wills. Wonder whatever happened to him...hope he found a better name for his band...

[WildBill]

1904 - Judge Roy Bean dispensed justice, how he once fined a corpse, and how he so admired Miss Lilly.

I wonder if the fine was ever paid.

[seamusTX]

The story is that a dead man was found with a handgun and $40 on his deceased person. The judge found him guilty of carrying a weapon and fined him $40. He also kept the handgun.

At that time, $40 would have been the equivalent of something like $1,000 today.

- Jim