Mary, A Texas Maverick
She came to Texas as the young wife of a powerful man, and the diary she kept of her travels and her life in the growing republic has captured historians and lovers of Texas history. Mary Ann Adams Maverick (1818-1898) was born on a plantation in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. She attended a nearby boarding school […]
THE BLIND MAN’S TOWN
In 1854 Adam Rankin Johnson, a twenty-year-old from Kentucky settled in Burnet County on the edge of the western frontier. He fought Indians, which could be expected since he worked as a surveyor and Indians believed the surveyor’s compass was the instrument that was pushing them off the land. In 1854, Johnson stood on the […]
Immigrants Built a San Antonio Icon
The 159-year-old Menger Hotel is the grand dame of San Antonio’s Alamo Plaza, thanks to the hard work of two young immigrants William and Mary Menger. William was one of those younger sons in Germany who didn’t inherit so he became a cooper, making casks and barrels for beer and wine. The twenty-year-old sailed for […]
Nicholas Clayton, Texas Architect
In the last half of the nineteenth century, the most powerful men in Texas called Galveston home. The Strand, a street stretching five blocks along the docks, wore the moniker of Wall Street of the Southwest. Two-dozen millionaires officed along the route, controlling Texas’ shipping, banks, insurance companies, and the vast cotton export business. But, […]
Father of “The Father of Texas”
History takes little note of Moses Austin (1761-1821). The man known for his grand plans and bold schemes and really big failures initiated Anglo settlement in Texas, which led to Texas independence from Mexico, which led to Texas annexation to the United States, which led to the Mexican War, which resulted in the United States […]
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: RABBI HENRY COHEN
When you travel Texas highways, you see historical markers that tell some of Texas’ best tales. For several years I wrote some of those marker stories and in the process I discovered a lot of Movers & Shakers that history books never mention. I plan to share some of the stories in my blogs. I […]