This Day In Texas History - January 24

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1822 - Jared E. Groce arrives on the banks of the Brazos to set up a home. Among his belongings is a supply of cottonseed - the first in Texas.

1836 - Philip Dimmitt, arrived at Bexar with about thirty volunteers to reinforce the Alamo and was appointed army storekeeper; his warehouse at Dimitt's Landing at Lavaca Bay served as a depot for government stores landed . Though many of the volunteers returned home upon the arrival of William B. Travis and his men on February 3, Dimmitt remained in San Antonio scouting for Travis and James Bowie until February 24.

1836 - Dr. Junius William Mottley was appointed surgeon for the post of Goliad, which he furnished with surgical instruments worth at least $125. He was a delegate from Goliad to the Convention of 1836 at Washington-on-the-Brazos and there signed the Declaration of Independence. When the convention was dissolved he hastened to rejoin the military forces. While serving as aide-de-camp to Thomas J. Rusk, Mottley was mortally wounded in the battle of San Jacinto; he died on the night of April 21, 1836, and was buried on the battlefield.

1837 -Sam Houston appointed Jacob (Old Jake) Snively an ambassador to the Shawnee Indians and instructed him to interview Chief Linney about the tribe's intentions during the ongoing struggle between the Republic of Texas and Mexico.

1839 - The Congress of the Republic of Texas established the Library of the Republic of Texas. Upon statehood, the library becomes the Texas State Library and Archives, and currently is part of the Capitol complex in Austin.

1845 - The Texas Senate ratified a peace treaty, which was brokered by Sam Houston, between Anglo settlers and 11 Native American tribes.

1867 - Joseph Barr Kiddoo was replaced as superintendent of the Freedmen's Bureau in Texas. Kiddoo, During his tenure was sympathetic to both planters and blacks. Kiddoo imposed heavy fines on whites caught enticing freedmen away from employers with whom they were under contract, limited bureau interference in the civil courts, and instituted free education for blacks in Galveston and Houston. Under Kiddoo's program perhaps 10,000 blacks learned to read and write. Although Texas planters recognized that Kiddoo was changing the social structure of the state by his reforms, many appreciated his attempts to help planters and freedmen work together.

1870 - The Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railroad was sold for $25,000. The major partner of the BBB&C, Thomas W Peirce, was made president of the new company with the same name. The rail line would eventually become part of Southern Pacific's Sunset route between New Orleans and Los Angeles.

1871 - Britton Johnson was killed by a band of Kiowas who attacked his wagontrain. He had become legendary in the previous decade for pursuing Indians who kidnapped his wife and children. After his adventures on the Llano Estacado, Johnson worked as a teamster hauling goods between Weatherford and Fort Griffin in North Texas. The evidence of spent cartridges suggests that he defended himself fiercely before dying. He and his men were buried in a common grave beside the road.

1876 - Buffalo hunter and teamster Bartholomew(BAT) Masterson was shot as he talked to barmaid Molly Brennan in Sweetwater, Texas. By the end of the gunfight, Molly was dead, but so was the original perpetrator, Corporal Melvin King. Masterson was severly wounded in the gunfight. He would go on to become a lawman in Kansas and Colorado. Despite his reputation, "Bat" Masterson never killed another man after that, preferring instead to sneak up and capture outlaws, train robbers and horse thieves. By 1887 he was working with Luke Short at the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth, Texas. There he witnessed the fatal shooting of Timothy I. (Longhair Jim) Courtright.

1948 - The former "Tri-Cities" of Baytown, Goose Creek, and Pelly united to form the city of Baytown. The area had been largely undeveloped until the opening of the Goose Creek oilfield in 1916. All three communities grew up around the oilfield, thanks in large part to the promotional efforts of Ross Sterling, president of Humble Oil and Refining Company.

1952 - Texas was awarded its first NFL team. The Dallas Texans moved to the Lone Star State from New York, where they had been known as the New York Yanks. Of course, no Texas team could ever be called the Yankees, so the Cotton Bowl-bound squad was rechristened ... the Texans. But Texas wasn't ready for pro sports. Just seven weeks into the season, the Texans ran out of money and ceased operations in Dallas. The NFL took over the team and moved its headquarters to Hershey, Pa. The two remaining "home" games were moved from Dallas' Cotton Bowl to the Rubber Bowl in Akron, Ohio. The Texans' final record was 1-11. The team was dissolved. Their players became the core of a new franchise based in Baltimore and dubbed the Colts