TEXAN SANTA FE EXPEDITION
When Texas was a Republic––a country all its own––the second president, Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar had plans as grand as his name. He had organized the Philosophical Society of Texas before his election and he planned to lay the foundations for Texas to become a great empire. The problem was that the United States was the […]
A 19th CENTURY WOMAN OF INFLUENCE
Jane McManus Storm Cazneau was born in Troy, New York, in 1807. After a failed marriage and being named as Aaron Burr’s mistress in his divorce, she came to Texas in 1832 with her brother Robert McManus in an attempt to improve the family’s shrinking fortune. Although she received a contract to settle families in […]
TEXAS HAD A NAVY
The Republic of Texas existed from March 2, 1836, until February 19, 1846, and during most of that time, it boasted its own navy with a history as colorful as its government. As Texas prepared to go to war for independence from Mexico, officials of the interim government realized it needed ships to bring supplies […]
A Woman Before Her Time
Jane McManus Storm Cazneau was born in Troy, New York, in 1807, but after a failed marriage and being named in Aaron Burr’s divorce, she came to Texas in 1832 with her brother Robert McManus in an attempt to improve the family’s shrinking fortune. Although she received a contract from the Mexican government to settle […]
The Texas Navy
The Republic of Texas existed from March 2, 1836 until February 19, 1846 and during most of that time it boasted its own navy with a history as colorful as its government. As Texas settlers, unhappy with the Mexican government, prepared to go to war for independence from Mexico, officials of the interim government realized […]
TEXAS’ LADY CANNONEER
I call it being organized–juggling several things at the same time. However, like a circus clown trying to toss one too many bowling pins, I’ve dropped the whole passel. Expecting Friday to be especially busy, I wrote my blog, even added all the photos and went to bed knowing at the appointed hour on Friday […]
TEXAS’ BLOODLESS WAR
If you visit downtown Austin, on the corner of Congress Avenue and 7th Street, you will see a larger than life bronze of barefoot Angelina Eberley lighting an equally gigantic cannon. The story requires a little explanation. After Texas gained independence from Mexico in 1836, Sam Houston won the election as the new Republic’s first president. […]