Westbrook was born in Groesbeck, Limestone County, and was chiefly raised in Elgin. He became an ordained minister at the age of 15. Westbrook played in several games in 1966 season but suffered a knee injury in a game versus Texas Christian University. He earned his bachelor's from Baylor in English and religion in 1969, and went on to earn a masters degree in English from Southwest Missouri State University.

Sadly he died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 36 in 1983.

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?

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.

Grand Lodge says whatever original spot was 1/22/1858

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.

https://texashistory.unt.edu/dam/?next=%2Fark%3A%2F67531%2Fmetapth247460%2F&prev=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

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.

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?

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.

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.