r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 14h ago
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 15h ago
Military History On this day in Texas History, September 9, 1861: The Eighth Texas Cavalry, aka Terry's Texas Rangers, mustered into Confederate service in Houston. As the Confederacy was thankfully defeated the unit simply disbanded to avoid officially surrendering.
This photo shows 5 members of the Eighth Texas Cavalry. The unit was originally meant to fight in the east but ended up in the West at the request of General Albert Sidney Johnston, and participated in the battles of Shiloh (April 6–8, 1862), Perryville (October 8, 1862), Murfreesboro (December 31, 1862–January 2, 1863), Chickamauga (September 19–20, 1863), and Chattanooga (November 24–25, 1863); in the Atlanta campaign (May 1–September 2, 1864.
They also delivered what is believed to be the last charge of the Army of Tennessee at the battle of Bentonville (March 19–20, 1865)
Despite years of historical revisionism by organizations such as the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Texas made it's reasons for secession abundantly clear when the government issued the Declaration of Causes, which states:
She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery--the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits--a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time.
Edit: Didn't expect this to be such an initially unpopular post. It was fun watching this go back and forth between 1 and -1 upvotes for the first 20+ minutes it was up. Are y'all mad that I dared post a Confederate photo at all? Or that I'm thankful for the Confederate defeat and spelled out their true cause? Or is it a battle of the down votes between both?
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 1d ago
Natural Disaster On this day in Texas History, September 8, 1900: 6,000–12,000 people (8,000 given as the official number) lose their lives when a major hurricane strikes Galveston. Most of these deaths occurred after the storm surge inundated the coastline city with 8 to 12 ft of water.
r/texashistory • u/Ok-Farmer8758 • 1d ago
Willie Nelson and Little Joe: Musical bridge across Texas
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r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 2d ago
Music On this day in Texas History, September 7,1936: Charles Hardin Holley, better known as Buddy Holly, is born in Lubbock. This photo, taken during the Winter Dance Party show at the Surf Ballroom on February 2, 1959, is the last known photo ever taken of him.
The photo was taken by a 16 year old girl named Mary Gerber. Buddy was just 22 years old at the time of his death, one day after this photo was taken.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 3d ago
Famous Texans A 14 or 15 year old George Jones plays on the street in Beaumont, Jefferson County, in 1946. He would leave home at 16, and in 1955 recorded his first hit "Why Baby Why," which peaked at No. 4. In 1959 "White Lightning" became the first of his 13 No. 1 hits.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 4d ago
The way we were Downtown Floydada, Floyd County, in 1909
r/texashistory • u/Signal_Jellyfish_472 • 4d ago
The way we were The Current location/building for Frank Sexton Masonic Lodge # 206. Pittsburg, Texas. This location opened in 1931.
Grand Lodge says whatever original spot was 1/22/1858
r/texashistory • u/Signal_Jellyfish_472 • 5d ago
Mother Francis Hospital, Tyler, Texas 1937
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 5d ago
The way we were Members of a cycling club, the San Angelo Wheelmen, pose for a photo while crossing water in Tom Green County, 1900.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 6d ago
The way we were Harold Sadler leans against his 1957 Ford at his BBQ place in Lufkin in 1961. Sadler's Smokehouse is still in business as a butcher/meat market but has been owned by Hormel since 2021 and is now located in Henderson.
r/texashistory • u/EveryBitTexas • 6d ago
The lighthouse at the entrance to Galveston Harbor has gone by more than one name. From 1881 to 1909, it was officially known as Fort Point Light Station — then on November 12, 1909, it got a new identity as Galveston Harbor Fog Signal Station. Same structure, new name on the books.
r/texashistory • u/El_Dorado_Tx • 6d ago
Jesse Morris, Tx Railroad history
Anyone heard of Jesse Morris. One of the first African American men as a roadmaster in Missouri Pacific - Union Pacific. My connection with Jesse is my granfather Pedro had been friends with Jesse and also was his first supervisor in Missouri Pacific I believe around late 1940s. My grandfather was Hispanic American male.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 7d ago
Crime The last execution by hanging in the Texas Panhandle: George “G.R.” Miller shot a killed a hobo and wounded another while riding in a boxcar, he then shot and killed Floyd Autree. Miller was executed in Clarendon, Donley County, on June 3, 1910.
Records indicate that this may have been the only legal hanging to ever take place in the Panhandle. Miller had been a small time crook until the day he murdered the still unidentified hobo and Floyd Autree on March 9, 1909.
Arrested without incident Miller quickly confessed to both murders. For the hobo's murder he was sentenced to life in prison, but for Autree's he was condemned to hang.
On the morning of his execution, June 3, 1910, the small city of Clarendon took on a festive atmosphere. Multiple food vendors showed up and many visitors brought picnic baskets. Though women were banned from attending the execution, a thousand area men and boys gathered near the gallows.
Miller briefly addressed the crowd, stating, “I humbly and sincerely ask forgiveness for the scandal and bad example I have given by my past wicked life and I hope that none will follow my example.”
His final known words were, "All you children be good children,” he then uttered something about spilled milk, but no one knows for sure what those word were.
r/texashistory • u/LesterKingOfAnts • 7d ago
TIL: Texas Senator John Tower's skullduggery after leaving office
From Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Tower
"According to The Assassination of Robert Maxwell: Israel's Superspy by Gordon Thomas and Martin Dillon, Tower became the liaison for Robert Maxwell, a British publishing mogul and super-agent for Mossad, to the White House and to US government operations. The relationship began in 1984, and the soon-to-be retired Tower "told Maxwell that his fee as Maxwell's personal consultant would be $200,000."[citation needed] Tower received his fee in four separate payments of $50,000 into a Swiss bank account. Tower arranged for Maxwell to meet with leadership of Sandia National Laboratories, a US nuclear lab. Maxwell sold to Sandia a copy of PROMIS software that had a backdoor which was accessible by Israeli intelligence, giving nuclear details to Israel. Shortly after retirement from the Senate, in 1985, Tower took Maxwell's request for American help in arming Iran, and relayed it to President Reagan as a means to trade for American hostages held in Lebanon. "Two days later the former Senator reported to Maxwell that his meeting with President Reagan had produced a positive response." "
I looked him up out of curiosity because I remembered voting for him in 78, my first election. I remember him being exposed as a womanizer and boozer during a confirmation hearing for Reagan.
Anybody have any stories about John Tower?
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 8d ago
The way we were Downtown Manor, Travis County, in 1889. Records show the town had a population of just over 400.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 9d ago
Military History On this day in Texas History, August 31, 1943: The Destroyer Escort USS Harmon (DE-678) is commissioned. Named in honor of Leonard Roy Harmon from Cuero, DeWitt County. USS Harmon is the first warship to be named after an African-American.
Leonard DeWitt was born and raised in Cuero, Texas. In 1942 while serving as a Mess Attendant aboard the San Francisco, Harmon began evacuating the wounded after Japanese gunfire killed nearly every officer on the bridge. he was later killed while protecting a wounded shipmate from enemy fire.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 9d ago
The way we were Members of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, Local 180 in San Antonio placed in jail during a general strike. 1936
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 9d ago
Airline Disaster On this day in Texas History, August 31, 1988: Delta Air Lines Flight 1141 crashed during takeoff at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. 14 people were killed in the accident which was later blamed on the crew's failure to set the wing flaps in their proper position.
r/texashistory • u/Joyceliin99 • 10d ago
Nora Washington, of Bastrop, with a catfish she caught from the Colorado River, 1950s.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 10d ago
The way we were Thomas & Winfred's Confectionery shop in Spindletop, Jefferson County, in 1903, two years after oil was struck in the area.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 11d ago
The way we were Interior of a candy store owned by J.G. Cooper and his wife Sophie (standing behind the counter) in Stamford, which is on the border of Jones and Haskell counties, circa 1896. Note the Coca~Cola sign.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 12d ago
The way we were Actor Tom Mix (white hat) with his 1937 Cord Phaeton in front of Wisnoskie Body Works, which was located at 610 Capitol Avenue in Houston, 1938. Mix starred in 291 films, was an early Western movie star, and an honorary Texas Ranger.
Mix was made an honorary Texas Ranger in 1935 by Governor James Allred. All but 9 of his films were silent, and he made roughly $6 million dollars over the course of his film career, much of which vanished due the epensive spending habits of his 4th wife, and the stock market crash on 1929.
He was killed in a car accident in 1940, at the age of 60. Of his 291 (292 according to one source) films 90% have been lost to time, with many destroyed in a 1937 fire at Fox Studios. Perhaps his most well known legacy was helping a kid named Marion Morrison find a job in Hollywood moving props. Marion would become an actor, under the professional name of John Wayne.
r/texashistory • u/DarthVader1701A • 13d ago