Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Wednesday, - TopicsExpress

Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Wednesday, April 9, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= H-E-B grocery chain founder born in 1895< On April 9, 1895, Howard Edward Butt, founder of the H-E-B grocery chain, was born in Memphis. As a child his family moved to Kerrville because of his fathers tuberculosis. His mother, Florence Butt, opened a small grocery store there in 1905. Howard became manager of the store at 16, and was the valedictorian of his class at Tivy High School in 1914. After serving in the navy during World War I, Butt returned to Kerrville and in 1921 made the then-daring decision to operate on a cash-and-carry basis, rather than the customary charge and deliver. After several failed attempts to expand, he opened a successful store in Del Rio in 1926 and bought three more stores in the Rio Grande valley in 1928. He opened stores in Corpus Christi in 1931, Austin in 1938, and San Antonio in 1942. In 1946 he changed his companys name to H-E-B. At the time of his death, in 1991, there were more than 170 H-E-B supermarkets, and by the end of the 20th century H-E-B was the largest privately owned grocery chain in the nation. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Sam, Margaret Houston had daughter, Mary Willie, in 1850< On April 9, 1850, Mary William Houston, daughter of U.S. Sen. Sam and Margaret Lea Houston, was born in Huntsville. Both expected a boy and planned to name the child in honor of Andrew Jackson. Sams mentor. Andrew Jackson Houston was to come on June 21, 1854. Mary Willie was the Houstons fourth child and third girl. Another girl was to arrive before Andrew Jackson Houston. The tally was evened with William Rogers Houston and Temple Lea Houston. As soon as she was old enough, Mary Willie as she was known in the family, was enrolled at Baylor Female Seminary. After graduation she went to live with her sister Nannie Houston Morrow in Georgetown. On April 11, 1871, she married John Simeon Morrow, a first cousin of her sisters husband. Mary Willie and her husband moved to Abilene where he established a law practice. After his death, Mary Willie became the postmistress of Abilene in 1910. She was also an active member of the Presbyterian Church in Abilene. On Dec. 14, 1931, Mary Willie Houston died at the home of her daughter in Stamford. She is buried in Abilene. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Man who helped capture Santa Anna died in 1882< On April 9, 1882, James Austin Sylvester, who helped capture Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto, died in New Orleans. On Dec. 18, 1835, Sylvester and 50 other men joined Capt. Sidney Sherman to form a company of Kentucky riflemen to fight for Texas independence. The newly formed company arrived in Nacogdoches early in 1836. Provincial Gov. Henry Smith, commissioned Sylvester a captain in the reserve army. Sylvester and his company left Nacogdoches on Feb. 26 for Gonzales, where the Texas army was reorganized. Sylvester was appointed second sergeant and color bearer in the active army, but he still maintained his captains rank in the reserves. After the Alamo fell on March 6, 1836, Sylvester went with Sam Houstons army from Gonzales to San Jacinto. Meanwhile, Santa Anna, after his victory in San Antonio, marched to Harrisburg, which he burned to the ground before proceeding to San Jacinto. According to one account, the Mexicans captured Sylvester at Harrisburg, but he managed to escape. The day after the battle of San Jacinto, Texans began looking for members of the Mexican army who had not yet been captured. Sylvester left the main group at Vinces Bayou to hunt. He was alone when he found a Mexican dressed in a privates uniform. Not realizing he had captured the president of Mexico, he escorted the leader to the main camp of the Texas army where Santa Anna was recognized. Not long after the battle of San Jacinto, Sylvester was commissioned a captain in the cavalry. He served under Gen. Thomas Jefferson Chambers. He remained in the army until June 1837, when he was discharged from the service. He moved to Texana in Jackson County and became the deputy county recorder. In 1842 he participated in the Somervell expedition. The next year, Sylvester took a position on the New Orleans Picayune. He remained with that newspaper until his death. He was initially buried in New Orleans. His remains were later reinterred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also on April 9 in Texas: • In 1836, rear-guard contingents under Moseley Baker at San Felipe and Wyly Martin at Fort Bend were attempting to prevent the Mexicans from crossing the Brazos River. Santa Anna, not wishing to be delayed, led a column downriver toward Thompsons Ferry which he started crossing on April 14. • In 1855, Andrew Jackson Titus, who worked for the annexation of Texas, died in Savannah in Red River County. He first settled near Clarksville in Red River County and was active in developing the area. Titus moved his family to Savannah in the early 1840s where he served as the communitys first postmaster in 1846. He also served in the Mexican War. Titus County was named in his honor in 1846. • In 1856, Robert E. Lee, assigned to command the two squadrons of the Second Cavalry, arrived at his post at Camp Cooper on the Comanche reservation in present Shackelford County 25 miles north of Albany. For the next 19 months he called Camp Cooper my Texas home. Nine years after his arrival at his Texas outpost -- on April 9, 1865 -- Lee surrendered his Confederate forces to Gen. U. S. Grant at Appomattox. • In 1932, light damage resulted from an earthquake in the Mexia-Wortham area. Loose bricks were thrown down, and some plaster cracked. The shock was also felt at Coolidge, Currie, Groesbeck, Hillsboro, Teague and Richland. • In 1947, a tornado or tornadoes struck the Panhandle town of Higgins, killing 30 people. In all, 45 people died as the storm struck in White Deer and Glazier in Texas and continued into Oklahoma and even into Kansas. One witness said the tornado was so large that there were five or six smaller twisters circling the main column. • In 1964, Burke Baker, businessman and philanthropist, died in Houston. He became first an independent oil operator and insurance executive. In 1925, he founded Seaboard Life Insurance Company. He later became president and chairman of the board of American General Life Insurance Company. In December 1961, he contributed $250,000 for the establishment of the Burke Baker Planetarium in the Houston Museum of Natural Science. • In 1980, Varner-Hogg Plantation State Historical Park, two miles north of West Columbia, was named to the National Register of Historic Places. The property was originally owned by Martin Varner, a member of Stephen F. Austins Old Three Hundred and a veteran of the Texas Revolution. Varner and his family moved there in 1824 and lived in a cabin he built on the creek bank. Varner farmed corn and raised livestock and probably some sugar cane. • • • • • • Texas History Day-by-Day is compiled by retired newspaper journalist Bob Sonderegger (anglebob61@yahoo). A primary source of information is Handbook of Texas Online. Your comments or additions are welcome.