News Around Texas

Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson, wife of President Lyndon Baines Johnson, served as First Lady of the United States from 1963-1969, but she remained the beloved “First Lady of Texas” for the rest of her life. December 22 was her birthday.

There was nothing Lady Bird Johnson loved better than wildflowers, so it was fitting that the National Wildflower Research Center in Austin opened to the public in 1982 on her 70th birthday. Lady Bird, herself, conceived the idea of a national center for the study of wildflowers and native plants and the preservation of the ecology.

If you’re in the Austin area, the national Wildflower Research Center is well worth a visit!

Texas Rangers led by Lawrence Sullivan Ross “rescued” Cynthia Ann Parker from the Comanche Indians on December 18, 1860.

Cynthia Ann was only nine years old when Comanche warriors killed her pioneer family and took her captive in 1836. She endured harsh treatment, but was eventually adopted into the tribe. Over the years she learned the Comanche language and culture, and when she was grown Chief Peta Nocona chose her as his wife. Together they had two sons, Quanah and Pecos, and a little daughter, Topsannah.

On December 18, 1860, while the men were away hunting, Cynthia Ann and Topsannah were “rescued” when soldiers and rangers raided their squaw camp on the Pease River. She was now 34 years old. The soldiers barely recognized her as a white woman—only her blue eyes gave her away.

Ranger Captain Lawrence Sullivan Ross brought them back to Ft. Cooper and contacted her uncle.  Isaac Parker was overjoyed to see his niece, but Cynthia Ann did not want to live again in the white man’s world. She missed her husband and sons and worried that they might have been killed in the battle at Pease River. She longed to return to “her people,” but her uncle locked her into her room to keep her from running away to rejoin her Native American family.

Three years later, Topsannah fell ill with a fever and died. Cynthia Ann was distraught. She began to waste away and finally died of influenza in 1870.

Texas was an independent nation from March 2, 1836 until December 29, 1845 when President James Polk signed the annexation acts that allowed Texas to become the 28th state in the Union.

Only one other state has also been a sovereign nation. Do you know which one it is?

Weakened by his captivity in Mexico City, Stephen F. Austin died on December 27, 1836, but he lived long enough to see his dream. Texas was free!

Stephen F. Austin did not particularly want to go to Texas. He had a fine position as a federal circuit judge in Arkansas.

Moving to Texas was the dream of his father, Moses. The elder Austin had secured permission to establish a colony but died before he could complete the task. To honor his father’s dying request, Stephen continued the work.

Though he was only 29, he proved to be an able recruiter and an excellent leader. By December 1821 the first Anglo families began arriving at Austin’s colony.

Eli Whitney, who was born December 8, 1765 in Westboro, Massachusetts, had a very inventive mind. At the age of 14, he manufactured nails for profit from a workshop on his father’s farm. After graduating from Yale College in 1792 he moved to South Carolina. At that time, slaves spent hours plucking seeds from cotton bolls by hand. Whitney got the idea for a machine that could do the work while he watched a cat trying to catch a chicken and pull it through a fence. Only the feathers passed through. His invention separated cotton fibers from the seeds, doing the work of 50 slaves.

Some believe that Whitney hoped his invention would make slavery obsolete since now a machine could do the work. Instead, the cotton gin streamlined production, increasing the market for inexpensive cloth. Cotton became a major economic crop throughout the South, requiring more slaves to keep up with demand. Unscrupulous men copied Whitney’s machine. Unable to defend his patent until 1807, he nearly declared bankruptcy, but the cotton gin made Whitney’s name famous.

In 1798, Whitney obtained a contract to supply the United States military with 10,000 muskets and invented a way to manufacture the guns with interchangeable parts. It was this invention that made Whitney wealthy.

Eli Whitney’s nephews, Eli and Philos Blake, inherited their uncle’s armory. The younger Blake, under contract to Samuel Colt, manufactured Whitneyville Walker Colt revolvers for the Texas Rangers.

On November 30, 1544 hostile Indians attacked a small group of Spanish priests and Indian converts near Amarillo, Texas. Kneeling in prayer, Juan de Padilla sacrificed himself to give his companions a chance to escape. He was the first missionary martyred on Texas soil.

Taking nothing from the Pilgrims, the first Thanksgiving in the New World took place in TEXAS, not Plymouth.

When Don Juan de Onate crossed the Rio Grande near San Elizario, Texas with 500 settlers on April 30,1598 he paused with his caravan to thank God for their safe travels thus far and ask His blessing on the remainder of their journey toward modern-day Santa Fe, New Mexico. This event, the first formal thanksgiving, took place 22 years before the Pilgrims’ celebration in 1620. The caravan would need God’s blessings. Their trek was known as La Jornada del Muerte–the journey of death.

Don Juan de Onate established the western branch of El Camino Real (the royal road), which provided an essential supply and communications link between Mexico City and Santa Fe. His was the first Spanish settlement. He is also credited with naming El Paso and introducing the horse, the Catholic religion, European plants and livestock to the New World. Unfortunately, his legacy also includes extreme cruelty to the Indians he encountered. Demanding that they supply his settlement with food they could not spare, he attacked and enslaved them when they could not meet his demands.

I don’t know about you, but that gives me much to ponder. Please comment. What do you observe through this historical out-take?

Defying Santa Anna’s dictatorship, the colonial government of Texas declared independence and began to raise an army.  In November 1835, the General Council approved funds for a Texas Navy—four ships to defend the coastline against Mexican blockades. Read more about the Texas Navy here.

On November 19, 1854,  Sam Houston was baptized in Rocky Creek, about two miles south of Independence Baptist Church in Independence, Texas. Throngs of onlookers witnessed the joyous and long-awaited event. When told that his sins were washed away Houston, who was quite a scoundrel, is said to have replied, “I pity the fish downstream!”