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1836 - When Sam Houston's army retreated from Gonzales after the battle of the Alamo, it camped on the east bank of the Colorado in Colorado County, and the Mexican army camped about two miles west of the river; the armies remained for seven or eight days. Other Mexican troops under Antonio López de Santa Anna arrived on March 25, 1836, and Houston ordered further retreat. During the Runaway Scrape hundreds of persons crossed the river at Benjamin Beeson's ford.

1843 - Seventeen Texans were executed at Salado, Tamaulipas, Mexico. As the members of the defeated Mier expedition were being marched from Mier to Mexico City, they attempted a mass escape on February 11. Some 176 were recaptured, and Mexican dictator Santa Anna ordered that one in ten of the prisoners be shot. The victims were chosen by a lottery in which each man drew a bean from an earthen jar containing 176 beans, seventeen of which were black. This event has come to be known as the Black Bean Episode. The bodies were returned to Texas and are buried on Monument Hill at La Grange, Fayette County.

1918 - in what proved to be the last serious incident of the border troubles initiated by the Mexican Revolution, Mexican raiders attacked the Neville ranch in northwest Presidio County. Edwin W. Neville's isolated ranch stretched for eighteen miles along the Rio Grande, six miles upriver from Porvenir. Neville and his son Glen were discussing the rumors of an attack when they heard a disturbance outside. Neville looked out and saw fifty approaching horsemen who opened fire on the house. Seeking protection, the Nevilles ran toward a ditch about 300 yards away. The older Neville reached the ditch uninjured, but the raiders shot Glen in the head and beat him with their rifle butts as he lay dying. The Nevilles' housekeeper, Rosa Castillo, was also shot and her body mutilated. As Neville wandered in the darkness, the raiders stole horses, clothes, bedding, and supplies. U.S. cavalry arrived soon after the raid and followed the trail of the bandits across the Rio Grande. In a gunfight at the village of Pilares thirty-three Mexicans were killed and eight were wounded. One American, private Carl Alberts, was also killed. The American soldiers destroyed all but one house in Pilares and recovered some of Neville's stolen property. It is likely that the Neville ranch raid was not a simple act of robbery, but retaliation for the Porvenir Massacre, which had taken place two months before. It is also likely that the raiders had Villista connections. In addition, soldiers found German-made Mauser rifles at Pilares, a fact that may suggest German involvement in the raid.

1926 - Following several days of heavy rains, Alum Creek in Bastrop flooded. The new Hwy 71 bridge, built so the highway would remain open under most severe weather, was left high and dry, but both approaches to the bridge were washed away.

1942 - The Ninetieth Division, known as the "Tough 'Ombres," "Texas' Own," or the "Alamo" division, was reactivated at Camp Barkeley, west of Abilene. It was originally activated at Camp Travis on August 25, 1917, under command of Maj. Gen. Henry T. Allen. Texas and Oklahoma furnished the original division, although all states were later represented. The monogram T-O insignia was adopted in France. The Ninetieth Division saw action in both WWI and WWII.

1986 - The General Land Office received a new seal in commemoration of the Texas Sesquicentennial. Texas governmental seals usually feature a slightly modified version of the state seal or a single star. The 1986 seal featured a design representing the agency's land and resource management responsibilities. The seal consists of a bison in front of a fish-eye view of mountains, plateaus, prairies, bays, barrier islands, and the Gulf of Mexico, all surmounted by a Lone Star, and "1836-GENERAL LAND OFFICE-1836-THE STATE OF TEXAS."

2006 - Sherman Texas born, Buck Owens, died at his home at Bakersfield, California. Buck starred with Roy Clark and others on the hit TV series "Hee Haw", but also had a long list of smash hits on the Country and Pop Charts, including "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail", "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line" and "Act Naturally" He was 76

Joe here is a link to the raid that set off the Neville Ranch raid. How much of this is true I don't know.
http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/onli ... /jcp2.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I have been to the Brite ranch several times and know this family fairly well. It is still owned by a granddaughter of the owner at the time of the raid.

Here is what has been related to me by the family members that I have never seen in print about this raid.

On xmas day 1917 Mexican bandits crossed the Rio Grande at a ford south of Capote Peak onto the ranch. They stopped the mail hack about 1/4 mile from headquarters and cut the throats of 2 Mexican and 1 white passenger in the hack. They were later buried on this spot. The hack driver was forced to drive the hack into headquarters with bandits inside where they began to shoot at the residents and houses there. This allowed the rest of the bandits to enter and besiege the headquarters area and empty out the store and post office. The hack driver was hung by his heels from the rafters of a barn and his throat cut. Prior to start of the raid the phone line to the ranch had been cut to shut off communications from the ranch.

In the middle of the siege a preacher and his wife arrived for xmas dinner and services. Mexican employees of the ranch let the bandits know that he was a man of God and he was passed into the headquarters house unharmed. As he was being apprised of the situation he noticed the ranch foreman with a bottle of whisky in one hand and a rifle in the other. He stated that under the circumstances he really could not say anything about the drinking but to pass him a rifle.

After cleaning out the store, post office and 86 head of horses the bandits fled back to Mexico through a different ford in the rimrock country of the ranch. This precipitated the raid into Mexico on Porvenir prior to the Neville ranch raid. The Brite ranch kept a 24 hour guard on this ford for the next year.

Much of the stolen goods from the store and 82 horses were recovered in the raid on Porvenir. No one was brought to trial over this raid although 5 rangers were fired and the ranger captain was transferred to East Texas.

Headquarters of the ranch are about 1/2 mile north and west of Capote Peak and the Post office still stands though it has been closed for years. It is really beautiful country around there.

Fascinating Sidro! Thanks for sharing that piece of Texas history with us!