Hello fellow Texans and friends of Texas. Today is Friday, March 21, 2014. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Phillip Nolan believed killed by Spanish troops in Johnson County< On March 21, 1801, Philip Nolan, an adventurer who came to Texas to acquire and conducted other banned trade with Indians, died at the hands of Mexican troops. This Philip Nolan is not to be confused with the fictional Philip Nolan of The Man Without a Country by Edward Everett Hale whose background was only loosely based on the real Philip Nolans exploits. Nolan, a businessman in Natchez, Miss., left there with a body of well-armed men in October 1800 and made his way to the area north of Nacogdoches. He then proceeded to a now-unknown Central Texas site, where he erected a small fortification, including some corrals, and began capturing mustangs. He was killed at his fort by troops from Nacogdoches sent out to intercept him. His men, captured and tried, spent years in prison for their part in Nolans final expedition, the precise nature of which has not been satisfactorily explained. In 1954 a granite monument in memory of the event was placed three miles south of Rio Vista on Highway 174. Cannon and musket shot has been found in that area. The late Cleburne journalist Pete Kendall reported new information on Nolan in a March 2011 story in the Cleburne Times-Review. He said Nolan and his men were on a fourth venture to this area to corral wild horses. The ruling Spanish wanted them gone. At dawn’s early light on March 21, the Spanish began bombarding Nolan’s small fort, or stockade, with grapeshot from a 4-pound cannon. One of the projectiles hit Nolan in the head and killed him, probably instantly. His men surrendered shortly thereafter. According to the newspaper story, Nolan’s ears were severed to be sent to the Spanish governor. Nolan’s slaves were granted permission to bury him, presumably where he fell and in a shallow grave since the ground would have been hard and resistant to digging. Kendall said there are various theories about where Nolan is buried. Many belive Nolan is buried at Live Oak Cemetery in nearby Hill County. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Troops under William Ward joined Fannins troops as prisoners< On March 21, 1836, troops under Lt. Col, William Ward emerged from the swamps that were then near Victoria to find the town occupied by Mexican forces. His men became scattered after a skirmish with Urreas cavalry. Ward and the remnants of the Georgia Battalion tried to get to Dimmitts Landing on Lavaca Bay but were overtaken. Weary, dispirited, famished, and out of ammunition, they voted to surrender despite Wards warning. Marched back to Goliad and imprisoned with Fannins command. Allen Ingram, a combatant at the siege of Bexar, enlisted in the Texas army on December 31, 1835. He was with Col. James W. Fannin, Jr., at Goliad, but he left Lt. Col. William Wards command and managed to escape the Goliad Massacre. After rejoining the main army in Capt. Moseley Bakers company, he was badly wounded in the battle of San Jacinto. He was discharged on May 16, 1836. He received a bounty certificate for his service during the revolution. Ingram died in Washington County in 1848. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= One time Indian captive became charter member, president of DAR< On March 21, 1926, Rebecca Fisher died in Austin. She was born Rebecca Gilleland in Philadelphia in 1831. Her family came to Texas around 1837 and settled in Refugio County. In 1840 Comanches attacked their home, killing Rebeccas parents and taking Rebecca and her brother. The children were rescued by Albert Sidney Johnston and a detachment of Texas soldiers. Rebecca married Orceneth Fisher, a Methodist minister, in 1848. In 1855, the Fishers left Texas for the Pacific coast. They returned to Texas about 1871 and eventually established a home in Austin, where Fisher died in 1880. Mrs. Fisher was a charter member and state president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas. She also aided Clara Driscoll in saving the Alamo from destruction, and for several years she gave the opening prayer when the Texas legislature convened. She was the only woman elected to the Texas Veterans Association and was its last surviving member. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= J.R. Ewing of Dallas shot leading to question: “Who shot J.R.?”< On March 21, 1980, J.R. Ewing was gunned down on national television. The shooting made history because it captivated millions of viewers on television’s popular CBS television network prime-time drama Dallas. The shooting made the season-ending episode one of TV’s most famous cliffhangers. For the next eight months Americans, egged on by widespread media coverage, were left wondering “Who shot J.R.?” On the Nov. 21 premiere episode of Dallas third season had Kristin Shepard, J.R.’s mistress (and his wife’s sister), as the culprit. Filmed in Dallas at a ranch nearby, the series featured native Texan Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing, the man everyone loved to hate. Hagman was the son of a legendary actress Mary Martin of Weatherford. Hagman revived his role as J.R. Ewing in TNTs continuation of Dallas, which began in 2012. He died at a Dallas Hospital on Nov. 23, 2012, from complications from acute myeloid leukemia. • • • • • • =+ -+ -+-+= Also on March 21 in Texas: • In 1936, President David G. Burnet and his cabinet left Groces Retreat. From March 18 to March 21, 1836, Groces Retreat was the temporary capital of the Republic of Texas. Republic officers were on their way from Washington-on-the-Brazos to Harrisburg. • In 1843, Elijah Stapp, an early settler in Texas and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, died in Jackson County. He is buried in what became known as Russell Ward Cemetery, five miles northeast of Edna. Stapp brought his wife and six children to settle in the colony about 1830. Three other children were born to the Stapps in Texas. • In 1845, the Hill Country town of New Braunfels was founded. A wagon train of German immigrants led by Prince Carl von Solms-Braunfels arrived and settled. By 1850, New Braunfels was the fourth largest town in Texas. Now the county seat of Comal County, the town first known for its sausage is now famous for the Schlitterbahn waterpark, the most famous of attractions. • In 1857, the first election in Brown County took place in the home of Welcome Chandler the first settler, merchant and postmaster was elected county commissioner. Because of a mistake about county boundaries made by the state legislature, none of the officers elected in 1857 ever served. Instead they asked the legislature to correct its mistake, and it did so on Feb. 8, 1858. The second election, on Aug, 2, 1858, was also held in the Chandler home, and Chandler was elected chief justice (county judge). • In 1914, Edgar Huntley Rogan, lawyer, judge, publisher and legislator, died at his home in Lockhart. He is buried in Lockhart Cemetery. In 1855, Rogan established the Texas Watchman. He was elected justice of the peace in 1859 and served until the outbreak of the Civil War, when he a first lieutenant in the Confederat army. After the war he became editor of the Texas Plow Boy and later established the Lockhart News Echo. He was clerk of Caldwell County and became county judge in 1876. He was elected to the Texas legislature, where he served from 1891 to 1895 and from 1897 to 1899. • In 1928, Friona in northern Parmer County was incorporated. Friona was originally known as Frio when it was established in 1898 as a shipping station on the Pecos Valley and Northern Texas Railway. The first cotton gin was erected in 1927. • In 1950, Ida Regina McFaddin, Beaumont civic and social leader, died in Beaumont. The McFaddin home in Beaumont has been converted into the McFaddin-Ward House Museum. Mrs. McFaddin was a philanthropist who supported the United Charities, the YWCA, the Beaumont Childrens Home, and Lamar College (later Lamar University). She also donated the land to establish the Daughters of the American Revolution State Forest at Jasper. • In 1966, Edith Wilmans, who in 1922 became the first woman elected to the Texas legislature, died in Dallas. Wilmans was born in Louisiana in 1882 and moved to Dallas at an early age. She helped organize the Dallas Equal Suffrage Association and was president of the Democratic Womens Association of Texas. • • • • • • 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: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:48:30 +0000