Top of the morning to fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Owner of escaped slave who survived battle of the Alamo gave up on advertising for his return< On Aug. 26, 1837, newspaper notice offering a $50 reward for the return of Joe, a slave of William B. Travis and possibly the only male survivor of the battle of the Alamo, was ended after running for three months. Joe disappeared on the first anniversary of the battle of San Jacinto. A notice for his return was placed by John Rice Jones -- who obtained ownership of Joe from Travis estate -- and published in the Telegraph and Texas Register for three months. It was discontinued on Aug. 26, 1837. Known only as Joe and believed born about 1813. Joe later said that when the final battle of the Alamo started, he armed himself and followed Travis into combat. He is believed to be the only male among people in the Alamo to escape death. After reaching Sam Houstons camp at Gonzales, he told about events at the Alamo. Joes post-Alamo accounts of the battle come from several sources and all basically agree. A gunshot and bayonet wound Joe suffered are consistent. Writing for the Memphis Enquirer, George C. Childress, a Tennessean credited with composing Texas Declaration of Independence, told of a talk with Joe in the spring of 1836. Joe said he hid in the barracks until he heard someone asking in English if any blacks were inside. Joe answered, Yes and emerged. He said when he did, a soldier shot at him and missed and another lunged at him with a bayonet, cutting him slightly. An English-speaking officer interceded and took Joe to Santa Anna. Tales differ on whether Joe and Susanna Dickinson departed together to report the Alamos fate or met on the way to Gonzales. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= J. Marvin Leonard, Fort Worth businessman and civic leader, died in 1970< On Aug. 26, 1970, J. Marvin Leonard (Mr. Marvin), Fort Worth businessman and civic leader, died in Fort Worth. He was born near Linden in Northeast Texas. A younger brother, Obadiah Paul Leonard, was a longtime partner in Leonard Brothers, a department store in Fort Worth. Poor vision in one eye kept Marvin out of the army during World War I, but he took advantage of wartime prosperity to move to Dallas, where he worked in a store that specialized in salvaged merchandise. In 1918, he moved west to Forth Worth. Obadiah joined him the next year. The business prospered and rapidly expanded beyond its original offering of groceries and salvaged merchandise. Leonard used extensive advertising, eye-catching events, and a commitment to low profit margin and high volume to turn the firm into the largest retail establishment in Forth Worth. By the 1930s, Leonard Brothers dominated retailing in the Fort Worth area. Leonard also invested in real estate, banking, and oil. Golf, particularly building golf courses, occupied much of his time. In 1934 he purchased 157 acres on the southwest side of Fort Worth and began to build a golf course. The Colonial Golf Club officially opened on Jan. 29, 1936. After redesigning the course, Leonard persuaded the U.S. Golf Association to hold the 1941 U.S. Open at Colonial. The Colonial National Invitation, which Leonard was associated with grew out of the tournament. In December 1942, he sold Colonial to its members. Leonard often combined golf and business. In the 1950s, he built the Shady Oaks course in Fort Worth. Earlier he sponsored Ben Hogan on the professional tour. For a time Leonard was Hogans partner in the production and sale of golf equipment. He also developed the residential areas around the Colonial and Shady Oaks clubs. He was a major financial supporter of the Lena Pope Home and Texas Wesleyan University. He sold his interest in the store to O.P. Leonard in 1965. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also on Aug. 26 in Texas: • In 1786, the Provincias Internas were divided into three military regions. The original authorization of the Provincias Internas by Spain occurred in 1776 and comprised a massive, semiautonomous administrative unit that included Texas, Coahuila, Nueva Vizcaya, New Mexico, Sinaloa, Sonora, and the two Californias (Baja and Alta). • In 1850, the first sale of town lots was held at Belton. The area was first settled in the late 1840s. When Bell County was established in 1850 the small settlement of Nolan Springs, named for adventurer Philip Nolan, was chosen as county seat and renamed Nolanville. In December 1851 the Texas legislature incorporated the town and changed the name to Belton, after Bell County. A new Renaissance Revival courthouse, designed by architect Jasper N. Preston, was constructed in the late 1870s. In the early 1880s, the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe reached the town followed by the MKT railroad in 1882. • In 1870, in a particularly violent chapter of the infamous Sutton-Taylor Feud, a detachment of Texas State Police under the command of Jack Helm arrested Henry and Will Kelly of the Taylor faction on a trivial charge and shot them. The Sutton-Taylor Feud, the longest and bloodiest in Texas, grew out of the bad times following the Civil War. The Taylors were descendants of Josiah Taylor, a Virginian who settled near Cuero in DeWitt County. His sons, Pitkin and Creed Taylor, and their sons, nephews, in-laws, and friends were the mainstay of that faction. • In 1883, Elisha Marshall Pease, Texas governor from 1851-55, died. He is buried in Austin. Pease was governor when the legislature established a system of public education and a state university. He also encouraged railroad construction in Texas, put the state penitentiary on a self-supporting basis, established reservations to civilize and educate the states Indian population, supervised the building campaign that led to the completion of the Governors Mansion, the General Land Office building and a new Capitol. • In 1892, the town of Runningwater, in Hale County, officially opened with a barbecue for area residents. The location was named Wadsworth until the post office, established in December 1890, was renamed Runningwater to draw attention to the presence of flowing water. The Fort Worth and Denver Railway missed the community in 1928 and the post office was moved to Edmonson Switch in 1937. Runningwater was soon abandoned. • In 1930, Mary Sutherland, writer and historian died in Corpus Christi where she lived since 1873. Unlike women of her day, Mrs. Sutherland played baseball, was an avid duck hunter and participated in the activities of the volunteer fire companies in the city. She took a deep interest in the Confederacy and the history of Corpus Christi. She assembled a city history, which was published by the Daughters of the Confederacy in 1916. • • • • • • 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.
Posted on: Tue, 26 Aug 2014 09:42:27 +0000
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