Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Second major hurricane finished off Indianola< On Aug. 19, 1886 Indianola was essentially finished off by the second of two major hurricanes, this time accompanied by fire. This storm was considered worse than the first one, but because there was less town, it caused less damage. The first of the two great Indianola hurricanes that resulted in the demise of the town began on Sept. 15, 1875, when Indianola was crammed with visitors attending a trial growing out of the Sutton-Taylor Feud. Two days later, when the storm subsided, only eight buildings were left undamaged, and fatalities were estimated at between 150 and 300 persons. After being rebuilt on a lesser scale, Indianola was completely destroyed by a second hurricane that blew in from the sea, carrying the water from Matagorda Bay deep into the region. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Senator Tom Connally born in McLennan County in 1877< On Aug. 19, 1877, U.S. Senator Tom Connally was born on a farm in McLennan County, He received a law degree from the University of Texas in 1898 and was elected unopposed to the state legislature in 1900 and 1902 as a progressive in his opposition to monopolies and to the powerful Sen. Joseph Weldon Bailey. Connally declined to run for a third term. He practiced law for several years in Marlin and married Louise Clarkson in 1904. He was Falls County prosecuting attorney from 1906 to 1910 and was in and out of local politics for the next decade, while building up a prosperous law practice and establishing himself in the Methodist Church and several fraternal orders. In 1916, Connally ran for the vacant 11th District Congressional seat, a jurisdiction centered in Waco. After defeating two opponents without a runoff, he was elected and placed on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He became something of a foreign-policy spokesman for the Democrats in the 1920s, urging the Republican administrators to settle their differences with Mexico and to cease invading Caribbean republics. In 1928, Connally ran against Senator Earle B. Mayfield, a Klansman who had been elected during the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan. During Franklin D. Roosevelts first term as president, Connally was a stalwart New Dealer, seldom differing with the administration. Connally first parted significantly from Roosevelt when the senator opposed the presidents attempt to change the Supreme Court in 1937. Also in 1937 Connally led the filibuster against the antilynching bill and fought diligently for the southern differential in the wage and hour law. During the war years Connally and his fellow Texas senator, W. Lee ODaniel, supported the Republican-Southern Democratic coalition more often than any other southern duo. In 1942, Connally led the 10-day filibuster against the repeal of the poll tax. The Smith-Connally Act of 1943 extended the power of the president to seize strike-bound war plants, a measure that Connally believed helped the war effort. Connally and his first wife had one son, Ben C. Connally. Mrs. Connally died in 1935. In 1942 the senator married Lucile (Sanderson) Sheppard, the widow of Sen. Morris Sheppard. Connally died on Oct. 28, 1963. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also in Texas on Aug. 19< • In 1856, Robertson County records were transferred from Wheelock to the newly completed courthouse in Owensville. That year also the post office opened. Owensville grew rapidly and remained the center of local government until after the Civil War. The railroad bypassed the community and county records moved to Calvert. In 1870, Calvert was officially declared the new county seat. Franklin is now the Robertson County seat. • In 1856, the first issue of the Austin Southern Intelligencer appeared. Publishers were William Baker and Irving Root, and the editor was George W. Paschal. The Southern Intelligencer was published every Wednesday. It was an antisecessionist supporter of Sam Houston and the Union. Publication was suspended during the Civil War. It was revived in July 1865 by Frank Brown and James A. Foster and was printed for about 16 months. The plant was then sold to Alfred E. Longley and Morgan C. Hamilton, who began publishing the Austin Republican. • In 1870, Annie Webb Blanton, teacher, suffragist and the first woman in Texas elected to statewide office, was born in Houston. She supported herself by teaching while studying at the University of Texas, where she graduated in 1899. From 1901 to 1918 Blanton served on the English faculty of North Texas State Normal College (now the University of North Texas) in Denton, where she became active in the Texas State Teachers Association. She was elected president of the association in 1916. She was the first woman to hold this position. • In 1906, Eddie Durham, one of the most important Swing Era composer–arrangers, was born in San Marcos. Brothers Eddie, Earl and Roosevelt formed the Durham Brothers Orchestra in the early 1920s. The brothers were occasionally accompanied by their sister Myrtle, a pianist. • In 1895, John Henry (Old John, Uncle John) Selman killed the famous gunman John Wesley Hardin as Hardin rolled dice in the Acme Saloon in El Paso. Selman went on trial for murder, but because of a hung jury he was released on bond. He was later killed in an altercation with U.S. deputy marshal George Scarborough. Selman died on the operating table on April 6, 1896. Scarborough was acquitted of murder. Selman was buried in El Pasos Concordia Cemetery in the Catholic section, but his grave was unmarked, and all attempts to locate it have been unsuccessful. • In 1910, the Medina Irrigation Company paid $149,200 for land to be placed under irrigation. Medina Lake was constructed to irrigate farmlands in Medina, Bexar, and Atascosa counties. It also became an important recreational facility in the area. The dam is now operated by Water Improvement District No. 1. The lake continues to serve as a source of irrigation and municipal water as well as a recreation center. • In 1954, Laura Canales, known as La Reina de la Onda Tejana (Queen of the Tejano Wave), was born in Kingsville. Canales recorded her first single, Midnight Blue, in 1975. Over the next two decades, she recorded more than 20 albums and CDs and became increasingly popular as an interpreter of contemporary Tejano music. After undergoing gall bladder in 2005, she developed pneumonia and suffered other complications. She died a few weeks later on April 16, 2005, at the age of 50. • • • • • • 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: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:48:38 +0000
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