TEXAS CAPITOL PAID FOR IN LAND
The first big land giveaway in Texas started in 1749 when the Spanish Colonial government began establishing villas along the Rio Grande. Mexico continued the practice of granting empresarial contracts to men eager to establish colonies in Texas. The Republic of Texas issued land grants to pay its debts, including payment to the army and […]
Stephen F. Austin, “Father of Texas”
Stephen F. Austin fits the image of a reluctant father. He came to Spanish Texas in response to his own father, Moses Austin’s, deathbed wish for Stephen to continue with Moses’ dream of settling 300 families in Texas. Like many apprehensive fathers, Stephen F. Austin embraced his responsibilities and spent the remainder of his life […]
Burns on Trump – Don’t miss this one!
I must share this clip of Ken Burns’ interview.
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 […]
Emma Edmondson, Union Spy
Born in 1841 as Sarah Emma Evelyn Edmondson, the future spy grew up as the youngest of five children on her family’s farm in New Brunswick, Canada. To please her father, who apparently wanted a son, Emma dressed and worked on the farm like a boy. When she faced an unwanted, arranged marriage in the […]
Going to the Poorhouse in Texas
The dream of finding a new life, the belief that if a man worked hard, he could “make it,” drove settlers to Texas by the thousands. If illness, death of the breadwinner, drought or crop failure forced a family into poverty, they and their neighbors believed that the need to accept public assistance was a […]
Bessie Coleman, Aviator
When flight schools in the United States refused to accept African Americans, Elizabeth Coleman sought aviation training in France. She became the first black female to earn a pilot’s license and the first black person in the world to earn an international pilot’s license. One of thirteen children born to sharecroppers in 1892, Bessie grew […]
William Cowper Brann–The Iconoclast
His supporters called him a visionary and a brilliant writer. Some even dubbed him the “Prairie Voltaire” and the “American Carlyle.” His detractors called him the “Devil’s Disciple.” Even his biographer Charles Carver described him as “a mean Mark Twain.” Upon his death, after a gun battle that also killed his assailant, those who hated […]
Houston: The Second Choice
Houston reigns as the largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the United States, but it hasn’t always enjoyed top billing. In 1832 brothers Augustus C. and John K. Allen came to Texas from New York and joined a group of land speculators. During the 1836 Texas War for Independence from Mexico, the […]
Father of German Immigrants
Many early Texas settlers escaped a past that they preferred forgetting. Johann Friedrich Ernst not only turned his back on his past, he changed his name and became such an outstanding German Texan that he earned the title of “Father of the Immigrants.” Born in 1796 as Christian Friedrich Dirks (or Dierks), the future Texan […]