This Day In Texas History - March 18

[joe817]

1836 - The new government of Texas began a three-day stay at Groce's Retreat, Jared E. Groce's plantation home, in what is now southwestern Grimes County. President David G. Burnet and his cabinet sought sanctuary there as they retreated from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Harrisburg. Groce's house was used as the capital of the Republic of Texas until March 21.

1848 - The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, purchased a piece of property at 2015 Broadway in Galveston. Soon a church and parsonage were erected and "given to the Slaves as the Negro Methodist Episcopal Church South." Increasing tensions between North and South, exacerbated by the moral debate over slavery, fueled the white congregation's decision to separate its black and white members. After the Civil War the church was reorganized as a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In recognition of the service of Rev. Houston Reedy, who became the pastor in 1870, the congregation renamed the church Reedy Chapel. Also in 1870, the Reedy Chapel AME Church was involved in a lawsuit when the Methodist Episcopal Church, North, took possession of the chapel. Unable to worship at Reedy Chapel, the congregation rented an old soap factory for fifteen dollars a month. After a four-year battle the courts ruled in favor of the AME Church, and Reedy Chapel was restored to them. In 1885 the structure was destroyed by fire. The replacement church still stood in 2004.

1877 - The battle of Yellow House Canyon, near the site of present Lubbock, ended a brief Indian uprising known as the Staked Plains (Hunters') War. It also was the last fight with hostile Indians on the High Plains of Texas. In December 1876 a group of Quahadi Comanches led by Black Horse obtained a permit from the reservation agent at Fort Sill to hunt in Texas. Black Horse had been angered by the rapid decimation of the buffalo herds and planned to camp in Yellow House Canyon and attack every buffalo hunter he saw. On the morning of February 1, 1877, Marshall Sewell spotted a buffalo herd, left his buffalo hunting camp and set up a station, and, with his Sharps rifle, killed the animals one by one until he ran out of ammunition. Black Horse watched the slaughter, surrounded Sewell on his way to camp, and murdered and scalped him. On March 4, 1877, a group of forty-six men left Rath City to find the renegades. [ for more info: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /qfy1.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ]

1878 - Colonel A.H.Belo had a telephone line installed between his home and the Galveston News, which he owned. Belo would expand his new enterprise, which eventually became one of the largest news/broadcasting companies in America, the Belo Broadcasting Company. Soon the demand for telephone service in Galveston led to the first telephone exchange (switchboard) in August of 1879. Demand reached Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. By 1882, exchanges were open in Waco, Brownsville, Brenham, Cleburne, Colorado, Corsicana, Gainesville, Greenville, Jefferson, Marshall, Paris, Palestine, Sherman, Denison, and Texarkana.

1937 -A spark from a sander in the manual arts lab of a new school in New London (Rusk Co), sets off gas from a leaky pipe, resulting in an explosion that lifted the roof off the school, and within seconds the sides of the school collapsed on students and teachers. Heavy equipment from nearby oil fields was brought in to assist in the rescue effort. Volunteer arrived from as far as Louisiana to do what they could to help. It was learned that the school tapped a gas line to save the school money. 298 are found dead in this, the worst school disaster in American History. Later, the Texas legislature would require a chemical be added to natural gas to give off an odor that would warn of leaks. Natural gas up until that time was distributed odorless.

1981 - The U.S. disclosed that there were biological weapons tested in Texas in 1966.