Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Sunday, June 1, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Blinded during Civil War, Stovepipe Johnson later laid out Marble Falls< On June 1, 1864, Adam Rankin (Stovepipe) Johnson, a former surveyor in Burnet county and other developing areas of Texas, was promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Confederate army. Johnson was born in Kentucky and moved to Texas in 1854. There he gained a reputation as the surveyor of much virgin territory in Texas including Burnet County, as an Indian fighter, and as a stage driver for the Butterfield Overland Mail. With the outbreak of the Civil War, Johnson returned to Kentucky and enlisted as a scout under Nathan Bedford Forrest. His exploits as commander of the Texas Partisan Rangers within the federal lines in Kentucky earned him a colonels commission in August 1862 and a promotion to brigadier general in 1864. One of his most remarkable feats was the capture of Newburgh, Ind., from a sizable Union garrison with only 12 men and two joints of stovepipe mounted on the running gear of an abandoned wagon. This episode won him his nickname. Johnson was blinded and captured at a skirmish at Grubbs Crossroads in August 1864. He returned to Texas where he lived for his remaining 60 years and founded the town along the Colorado River in Burnet County -- Marble Falls, the blind mans town. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Stephen Powers played key role in shaping of South Texas< On June 1, 1814, Stephen Powers, lawyer, diplomat and judge, who was described as a genius at establishing and maintaining personal friendships, was born in Maine. He played a key role in the shaping of South Texas in the mid-19th century. He moved to Brownsville in early 1849 and quickly became a major figure in the bar and politics of South Texas. He and James B. Wells founded a law firm and played a key role in merging civil and common law in the establishment of land titles in the disputed area between the Nueces and the Rio Grande. Powers also became legal advisor to the business firm established by Richard King, Charles Stillman and Mifflin Kenedy. He served as postmaster at Brownsville (a city that he helped incorporate in 1850) from April 1849 to August 1851, and he was commissioned collector of customs for the District of Brazos Santiago in 1853 by President Franklin Pierce. He was elected chief justice (county judge) of Cameron County in 1858 and reelected in 1860. He also served as mayor of Brownsville during the late 1850s. He received an appointment to the Democratic state central committee in 1856. He served as a district judge throughout the Civil War. At the end of the war he returned to his law practice but was again elected judge of the Twelfth District in June 1866. He resigned in January 1867. He was appointed to the Democratic state central committee in 1868 and served as a delegate to the national convention that year. He was elected to the Texas House in 1872 and to the state Senate Legislature in 1880. He was serving in that office at the time of his death, at his home in Brownsville on Feb. 5, 1882. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Confederate general John B. Hood born in 1831< On June 1, 1831, John Bell Hood, a graduate of West Point and officer in the U.S. and Confederate Army officer, was born in Kentucky. He resigned from the U.S. army on April 16, 1861. Dissatisfied with his native Kentuckys neutrality, Hood declared himself a Texan. He was commissioned a captain in the regular Confederate cavalry. On Sept. 30, 1861, he was appointed colonel of the Fourth Texas Infantry. On March 3, 1862, Hood was promoted to brigadier general and given command of what became known as Hoods Texas Brigade. By Oct. 10, 1862, he was promoted to major general. At Gettysburg Hood received a severe wound to his left arm, which was incapacitated for the rest of his life. Hoods command spearheaded the Confederate attack that broke the Union line in the battle of Chickamauga on Sept. 20, 1963. Hood was shot in the upper right thigh, a wound that necessitated the amputation of his leg. On Feb. 1, 1864, after a period of convalescence, he was promoted to lieutenant general and transferred to the Army of Tennessee, where he was given command of a corps consisting of three divisions. Hood managed his corps aggressively during the Atlanta campaign. On July 18, 1864, he was given command of the Army of Tennessee and a temporary promotion to the rank of full general. The promotion was never confirmed by the Confederate Congress. William T. Sherman Northern troops forced the evacuation of Atlanta on Sept. 1, 1864, and Hood, hoping to force him back out of Georgia, moved his army onto the Union line in Tennessee. Sherman sent Gen. George H. Thomas to deal with Hood while he led the rest of his army toward Savannah, and the sea. Strapped to his saddle, Hood led his men toward Nashville, but met disastrous defeats at Franklin on Nov. 30 and at Nashville on Dec. 15 and 16. As the remains of the Army of Tennessee retreated toward Tupelo, Miss., it sang, to the tune of The Yellow Rose of Texas, that You can talk about your Beauregard and sing of General Lee, but the Gallant Hood of Texas played Hell in Tennessee. Relieved of command at his own request on January 23, 1865, Hood was attempting to make his way to Edmund Kirby Smiths army in Texas when the Confederacy collapsed. He surrendered to federal authorities at Natchez on May 31, 1865. After the war Hood moved to New Orleans, where he was involved in merchandising, real estate and insurance businesses. Hood died of yellow fever in New Orleans on Aug. 30, 1879, and was originally buried in Lafayette Cemetery there. He was later reinterred in the Hennen family tomb at the Metairie Cemetery. His memoir, Advance and Retreat (1880), is one of the classics of Confederate literature. Hood County is named in his honor, as is Fort Hood in Bell and Coryell counties. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= 1960 Supreme Court decision affirmed states claim to expanded tidelands< On June 1, 1960, Texas defended its boundary in the U.S. Supreme Court, firmly establishing title to its three-league Gulfward boundary and the 2,440,650 acres within such boundary. Despite the fact that President Dwight D. Eisenhower supported the Texas claim, Republican attorney general Herbert Brownell filed suit against the state, alleging that its legal boundary and therefore its tideland ownership extended only three miles instead of three leagues (10.35 miles) into the Gulf. In the presidential campaign of 1952, Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower made special recognition of the rights of Texas under the Annexation Agreement as well as the long-recognized rights of the other states under earlier Supreme Court decisions. He declared in favor of state ownership legislation and said he would sign the bill if it were enacted again by Congress. The Republican platform agreed. Democratic nominee, Adlai Stevenson, said he would veto such a bill if enacted again by Congress. In Texas, this became the foremost issue in the 1952 campaign. The state Democratic Convention placed Stevensons name on the ticket but then passed a resolution urging all members of the Texas Democratic party to vote for Eisenhower and Eisenhower carried the state in the November election. In 1953, Congress made the restoration of submerged lands one of the first orders of business. Price Daniel, then United States senator from Texas, was co-author of the legislation in the Senate, where it survived what was then the longest filibuster in Senate history (27 days) and finally won a substantial majority in both houses. President Eisenhower signed the measure on May 22, 1953. One of the pens used by the president in affixing his signature was presented to the Texas Memorial Museum in a ceremony conducted by the University of Texas. Texas acquired the land by establishing and maintaining itself as an independent nation, reserved this as well as all other unsold land when it entered the Union in 1845. Ownership of the property by the state of Texas was recognized by officials of the United States for more than 100 years. After oil was discovered under state leases, applicants for cheaper federal leases and federal officials began to assert national ownership in the same manner as they had done against California and other coastal states. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also on June 1 in Texas: • In 1836, after recovering from wounds suffered at the battle of San Jacinto, Logan Vandeveer was discharged. He received tracts of land in what is now Burnet County for his service and purchased additional land in the area. In 1849, he secured a contract from the U.S. government to supply meat and foodstuffs to nearby Fort Croghan. By 1851, he added a contract to furnish beef to Fort Mason, 50 miles west. In 1852, he was a leader in presenting the petition to establish Burnet County and was instrumental in having Burnet named county seat. He was Burnets first postmaster. • In 1880, Ella Florence Fondren, philanthropist, was born in Kentucky. When Ella was about six, the family moved to Corsicana. As a teenager she worked in her familys boardinghouse where she met Walter W. Fondren, her future husband, who became highly successful in the oil industry before his death 1939. She continued the philanthrophy he started throughout her long life. She died at Houston Methodist Hospital on May 3, 1982, shortly before her 102nd birthday. She is buried at Forest Park Cemetery in Houston. • In 1893, Daniel James Moody, Jr., governor of Texas, was born in Taylor. He graduated from Taylor High School and University of Texas. He was admitted to the bar in 1914. He began practice in Taylor with Harris Melasky. He was the youngest elected to several public offices: county attorney of Williamson County, 1920-22; district attorney of the 26th Judicial District, 1922-25; attorney general of Texas, 1925-27; and governor, elected for two terms, 1927-31. He died on May 22, 1966, in Austin and is buried in the State Cemetery. • In 1925, Howard Hughes, future billioniare, aviator and movie producer, married Houston socialite Ella Rice (1904-1992) when he was 19. Ella’s grand uncle was William Marsh Rice, for who Rice University was named. Soon after their marriage in Houston, Howard convinced Ella that they should move to Los Angeles so he could pursue a career as a movie producer and director. Almost immediately, Howard began having extramarital affairs with actresses. On Nov. 8, 1929, she filed a petition for divorce in Houston. • In 1962, construction on the Lake Quitman dam was completed exactly a year after it started. Located four miles north of Quitman, the project is owned and operated by Wood County for flood regulation and recreational purposes. The drainage area of Dry Creek above the dam is 31 square miles. • In 1969, the Lyndon B. Johnson State Historical Park opened to the public on a strip of land bounded on the north by the Pedernales River and on the south by U.S. Highway 290, 1½ miles east of Stonewall in Gillespie County. It is two miles long and a half mile wide and contains 718 acres. It commemorates the life and career of Lyndon Johnson, whose birthplace and ranch just across the river are part of the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. • In 1972, the first Kerrville Folk Festival opened in the Kerrville Municipal Auditorium. The three-day festival was the outgrowth of several Austin musical events held during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. The first festival drew 2,800 fans and featured 13 performers. By 1973 the event had expanded to five concerts over three nights, and 5,600 people jammed the overcrowded Kerrville Auditorium. • • • • • • Texas History Day-by-Day is compiled by retired newspaper journalist Bob Sonderegger (anglebob61@yahoo). A primary source of information is Handbook of Texas Online. Your comments or additions are welcome.
Posted on: Sun, 01 Jun 2014 16:08:39 +0000
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