This Day In Texas History - February 8

[joe817]

1830 - José Antonio Díaz de León, the last Franciscan missionary in prerepublic Texas, reluctantly complied with the Mexican state government decree that missions be secularized--that is, turned over to diocesan authorities. Díaz de León had been appointed ad interim president of all the Texas missions in 1820, three years before the Mexican government ordered their final secularization. Díaz de León declined to comply without instructions from his superiors in Zacatecas, the first in a series of delays that lasted seven years. Díaz de León surrendered the San Antonio missions to the Diocese of Monterrey in 1824.

1836 - David Crockett and his Tennessee Volunteers answering the call for aid in the fight for Texas Liberty, arrive at the Alamo, just weeks before Santa Anna lays seige to the former Spanish mission. Crockett had just enlisted in the volunteers at Nacogdoches, and received orders to report to the Rio Grande. When he stopped in San Antonio, he and his fellow volunteers learned that Santa Anna was already heading north. Today Crockett, Jim Bowie, Colonel William Travis and over 150 others began to fortify the Alamo against an overwhelming Mexican Army currently camped just South of the Rio Grande.

1850 - The state legislature passed an act providing for the appointment of a special commission to investigate claims to all Spanish and Mexican grants west of the Nueces River. The result was The Bourland and Miller Commission, 1850–1852.

1870, The elected members of the Twelfth Legislature assembled at Austin at the order of the military commander. They were to adopt the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments and select United States senators in preparation for readmission to the Union. They quickly approved the amendments and selected Morgan C. Hamilton for a six-year term and James W. Flanagan for a four-year term. This completed the requirements set by Congress for readmission. Reconstruction was finally coming to an end in Texas.

1887 - "Longhair Jim" Courtright, former town marshall of Fort Worth, was killed in a gunfight with Luke Short at the White Elephant Saloon, and witnessed by Bartholomew (Bat) Masterson. This was one of the most famous gunfights in western history--and, contrary to the movie legends, one of the few face-to-face shootouts. The duel was the first of two events that drew increased hostile attention to the hive of brothels and bars known as Hell's Half Acre. The second was the discovery of a murdered prostitute named Sally, two weeks later. Before these violent occurrences, even legitimate businesses had resisted reform of the Acre because of the money it brought in. But the deaths of Courtright and Sally brought renewed and ultimately successful cleanup efforts. [Hell's Half Acre was generally located where the Fort Worth Convention center is located extending southward to the east-west freeway, and eastward to the T&P railroad station.]
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1894 - 5 time academy award nonimee, King Wallis Vidor was born in Galveston. He was six when the Galveston Storm destroyed his hometown. He became a newsreel freelance photographer. In 1913, Vidor directed his first feature film, "Hurricane in Galveston." The national response to the film launched his directing career which spanned eight decades, a Guiness record. He directed "Stella Dallas", "Fountainhead", "War and Peace" and much of the Kansas sequences for "The Wizard of Oz" (He was never credited).

1910 - A Brewster County grand jury exposed the Progress City swindle. The grand jury, led by well-known cattleman and Sul Ross State University founder Joseph D. Jackson, reported on the Progress City Town Site Company. This bogus organization sold town lots for Progress City, an “imaginary town” situated in the Santiago Mountains about forty miles southeast of Alpine. Unsuspecting buyers across Texas had already purchased more than 1,000 lots for $1.50 each without realizing that the site was along a remote and rugged trail only accessible by horseback. The Progress City Town Site Company consisted of John L. Mauk and Lee R. Davis of Waco, who had gained title to the land from William Poole. The grand jury admitted that prosecution was probably pointless, but did accomplish its goal of exposing the caper while making clear the innocence of the people of Brewster County.

1924 - Charles Reynolds was executed at Huntsville. He was the first to be executed by "Old Sparky", the electric chair. On that day, four others are executed, all for murder.

1963 - Dallas Texans of the AFL announced their move to Kansas City. Lamar Hunt sought an NFL franchise for several years, but was rejected at every turn. He eventually decided to start his own league, the AFL. His Dallas Texans would be one of eight teams when the AFL had it's first draft in 1959.