Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Texas. Show all posts

Monday, March 24, 2025

Thursday, March 24, 1825. State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825.

The Mexican legislature passed the State Colonization Law of March 24, 1825, allowing immigrants to take up agricultural lands in Texas for a nominal fee, provided that they took oath promising to abide by the federal and state constitutions, to worshiped according to the Catholic faith, and to display sound moral principles and good conduct. 

Immigrants arrived, but they were largely Protestant (Southern) Americans, violated Mexican slavery laws, and demonstrated very little loyalty to Mexico.

Perhaps they should be deported.

There are a lot of lessons in this story.

Last edition:

Saturday, March 19, 1825. Fort Vancouver opens.

Tuesday, February 25, 2025

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 76th Edition. Keeping them in the sky, with measles, and down on the metaphorical farm.

KEEP CALM AND FLY ON Experts say despite recent incidents, commercial flights are safe

No, Trump isn't responsible for this, but it is oddly synchronicitous that at the same time the Trump regime is attacking the government, aircraft keep crashing.

Again, it isn't his fault.  

But if Biden was President, you can be sure that Trump would blame him.

Update:

And a scary near miss incident today.

Measles outbreak surfaces in Texas Infection can lead to serious complications including pneumonia and blindness

Almost everyone was unvaccinated.

Gee, what a surprise.

Elsewhere, there's a claim, and its pretty unverified, that a FBI whistleblower has revealed that the Epstein files are being purged at the FBI.  MAGAs immediately leaped to the conclusion that this must be because they hold all sorts of dirty secrets about the Democrats and now the Q files will at last be revealed.

Funny, if that's happening, and I have no reason to believe it is, my assumption would be that after Patel taking over the FBI, if that's happening, it wouldn't be files about the Democrats they were seeking to hide. . . 

Trump, of course, was a frequent flyer on the Lolita Express and that brings up something that occured to me today while reading what the WFC is up to.  As noted in another thread, they've passed the "keep 'em ignorant bill" in the legislature, as they fear that the requirement to report to school districts with curriculum might reveal that some people's home school program is limited to a children's edition of the King James Bible.  This seems set to pass, and some must be lamenting that the WFC wasn't as strong in 2023, when the legislature had the temerity to outlaw child marriages.  Gosh, now that we're in the golden age we could have kept the children uneducated and pregnant, or at least the girl ones.

Who voted against outlawing child brides.  Here's who:  Dockstader, Baldwin, Kinsky, Hicks, Steinmetz, Biteman, Salazar, Ide, French, Kolb, Hutchings, McKeown, Allemand, Allred, Angelos, Banks, Bear, Davis, Haroldson, Heiner, Hornok, Jennings, Knapp, Locke, Neiman, Ottman, Pendergraft, Penn, Rodriguez-Williams, Singh, Slagle, Smith, Strock, Styvar, Tarver, Ward, Winter.

Some usual WFC suspects there.

Cont

Funny how quickly things develop.  Now both Democrats and Republicans are lobbying Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files, which she had stated were "on her desk".

And yet, they haven't been.

She had said she was waiting on a directive from King Donny, a buddy of the late procuror. 

Come on Pam. Release the info.

Last edition:

Cliffnotes of the Zeitgeist. 75th Edition. Dim Wit.

Friday, January 17, 2025

Satuday, January 17, 1925. Ma Ferguson in the Governor's office.


Miriam "Ma" Ferguson became the first female governor of Texas and the second, after Nellie Tayloe Ross, in the United States.

The Italian Chamber of Deputies repealed the "plural voting" provision in the electoral bill passed the previous day.

That didn't last long.

It was Saturday.

The Literary Digest had a two page Seiberling tire advertisement.


Obviously, certain symbols hadn't acquired their current meaning.

Last edition:

Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.

Thursday, January 16, 2025

Friday, January 16, 1925. Leadbelly released from prison and some Italians got to vote a lot.


Huddie Ledbetter, aka "Lead Belly", was granted a full pardon by Texas Governor Pat Morris Neff  Neff for having served the minimum seven years of his prison sentence for the 1918 killing of Will Stafford, a relative of his, in a fight over a woman.

It was a least his second period of incarceration, with  his first being in 1915 for carrying a handgun, something that would not be a crime now.  

While in prison for homicide, he'd be stubbled in the neck by another inmate, resulting in a permanent scar.

The pardon came about due to Ledbetter writing the Governor and seeking the same, and the Governor visiting him more than once in prison.

Ledbetter would return to prison in 1930 for attempted homicide and 1939 for assault.

Perhaps not a pacific man, he was the greatest American folk musician and one of the greatest blue musicians of all time.  He was personally responsible for the survival of the twelve string guitar.  He was principally a bluesman, but the blues had not quite stabilized into its form at the time, and not all of his music fits the genera.  Indeed, this so much the case that at least one of his songs that is typically preformed as a blue piece, The Midnight Special, was not performed quite that way by Leadbelly.  He became known to the general public due to John Lomax's recordings of him in 1933, at which time he was again in prison.

Leadbelly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889, and died of Lou Gehrigs disease in 1946 at age 61 or 62.  He took to music early and learned to paly the mandolin, accordion, guitar, harmonica, Jew’s harp, piano, and organ, with his principal instructor's being his uncles, Bob and Terrell Ledbetter.

His songs are widely preformed to this day, and once were part of the American music canon taught to school children.  Interestingly enough, he's associated with the first recorded use of the word "woke", in a spoken item after a song in which he stated; "So I advise everybody, be a little careful when they go along through there—best stay woke, keep their eyes open."

Italy passed a bill giving double votes to academians, professors, those with diplomas, knights, military officers, those with any military decorations, officeholders, certain business personnel, all those paying a direct tax of 100 lira or more, and fathers of at least five children, triple votes to members of the royal family, members of high nobility, cardinals, highly decorated war veterans, high officeholders, or anyone who met three conditions for double votes. 

Last edition:

Thursday, January 15, 1925. Trotsky gets canned, Ross addresses the legislature.

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Monday, September 28, 1874. The Battle of Palo Duro Canyon.

Outnumbered roops under Ranald Mackenzie attacked Cheyenne, Kiowa and Comanche at Palo Duro Canyon bringing about a legendary and significant Army victory in the Red River War and essentially bringing it to a close.

Casualties on both sides were overall light, but the loss of horses and supplies was devastating to the Native side.

Mackenzie is forgotten in the popular memory, although he certainly is not amongst students of the post Civil War Indian Wars.  He was an extremely effective but died a bad death at age 48, which may be part of the reason that he's forgotten.

Last edition:

Friday, September 25, 1874. The Act of September 1874.


Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Friday, September 25, 1964. Gomer Pyle, USMC.

Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. premiered on CBS.

Somehow, Pvt. Pyle managed never to be deployed to Vietnam, and seemingly, with the exception of one single episode I can think of, remain in the Pre Vietnam War era entirely.

President Johnson and Mexican President López Mateos shook hands on the International Bridge at El Paso.  Later that day President Johnson flew to Oklahoma for the dedication of the new Eufaula Dam and spoke about the Vietnam War, stating: "There are those that say you ought to go north and drop bombs, to try to wipe out the supply lines, and they think that would escalate the war. We don't want our American boys to do the fighting for Asian boys."

FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique) launched the Mozambican War of Independence.

Last edition:

Blog Mirror: Kodak Instamatic Cameras, 1964

Monday, September 9, 2024

Wednesday, September 9, 1874. The start of the Battle of Upper Washita.

The Battle of the Upper Washita River commenced on this day in 1874 when a supply train lead by Cpt. Wyllys Lyman was attacked by Comanches and Kiowas.   The battle would last for five days during which a scout was dispatched for relief.

Pvt. Thomas Kelly, Company H, 5th U.S. Infantry, was awarded the Medal of Honor.  His citation reads:

Gallantry in action.

Kelly was, predictably, Irish, having been born in May in 1836.  He must have been a career soldiers as he was almost 40 years old, and still a private, not unusual for the time.  He lived until 1919 and died at age 83, at Leavenworth, Kansas, which was likely his last duty station.  He married Rose Kelly at some point.

One of the Wild Geese.

Last edition.

Sunday, August 30, 1874. The return to The Girl I Left Behind me and the Battle of Red River.

Friday, August 30, 2024

Sunday, August 30, 1874. The return to The Girl I Left Behind me and the Battle of Red River.

The Black Hills Expedition returned to Ft. Abraham Lincoln after covering nearly 1,200 miles over lasting sixty days.

The Sixth Cavalry and Fifth Infantry under the command of Colonel Nelson A. Miles attacked a large group of Southern Cheyenne near the Prairie Dog Town Fork of the Red River in Texas in what became the day long Battle of Red River..  Though armed with Gatling guns and a 10-pounder Parrott rifle, the Cheyenne were able to hold them the Army long enough to escape up Tule Canyon into the Staked Plains.

Last edition:

Wednesday, August 26, 1874. Lynching black suspects and violating the Second Amendment.

Saturday, August 3, 2024

Tuesday, August 3, 1824. A League of Land.

Mexico granted to Stephen F. Austin's Old 300 colonists Isaac Pennington and David Randon a league of land in the Fort Bend area.

Last edition:

Friday, May 7, 1824. Coahuila y Tejas

Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Wednesday, July 24, 1974. United States v. Nixon.



The United States Supreme Court decided in United States v Nixon that the President could not withhold evidence based on the defense of national security, thereby ordering Nixon to turn over his tape recordings.

I wonder what the current court would do?

The Greek military junta resigned in favor of former Premier Konstantinos Karamanlis who immediately granted amnesty to political prisoners.

The Huntsville Prison siege began in Huntsville, Texas.

Last edition:

Sunday, July 21, 1974. Turkish invasion of Cyprus, Israeli no, Turkish misidentification.


Friday, July 12, 2024

Sunday, July 12, 1874. The Lost Valley Fight.

On this day in 1874, a mixed company of Texas Rangers and U.S. troops numbering 35, and led by Maj. John B. Jones encountered as many as 100 Kiowas led by Lone Wolf and Mamanti at Lost Valley, 12 miles north of Jacksboro, Texas.  Two Rangers were killed in the exchange which is known as the Lost Valley Fight.

German novelist Fritz Reuter, compared to Dickens, but in the Plattdeutsch German dialect, died at age 63.  His health had been impaired due to imprisonment in his youth for being involved in the mid century German revolutionary movements.


Last edition:

Wednesday, July 8, 1874. March West.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Saturday, June 27, 1874. The Second Battle of Adobe Walls

On this day, 28 buffalo hunters at the abandoned trading post of Adobe Walls, Texas, fought the Comanche, who numbered around 700.  Fortified behind the post's walls, and armed with powerful large caliber buffalo hunting rifles, they successfully defended their party, with buffalo hunter Billy Dixon killing an Indian combatant at the amazing range of 1,538 yards.   Four of the hunters were killed in the engagement, and approximately 30 Comanche.


Last prior edition:

Sunday, June 14, 1874. Calling for an Indian War.

Monday, June 17, 2024

Saturday, June 17, 1899. It's flooding down in Texas*

 


Terrible floods occured in Texas after 8.9 inches of rain fell over 66,000 square miles. The Brazos flooded, and 284 people lost their lives.

Footnotes:

The title today is taken from Texan Stevie Ray Vaughn's blues song of that name.

Last prior edition:

Tuesday, June 13, 1899. The Battle of Zapote River

Monday, June 10, 2024

Friday, May 10, 2024

Tuesday, May 7, 2024