Free Republic

I’d say the odds of having a county, town, spring, or creek in Texas named after you these days are slim or none. Even with the population expected to continue to rise in the Lone Star State throughout the 21st century, most existing towns will just get bigger and bigger. Some large subdivisions and developments around big cities have taken on new names and evolved into incorporated cities. Our streams and rivers were given names long ago by explorers and early settlers who ventured across the Texas landscape. The names they gave them served as important signpost to travelers who...

On this day in 1836, Texas severed ties with Mexico and became a free and independent republic. It was an independent nation- until ten years later when Texas joined the Union. That streak of independence still runs strong and deep through Texans, 'Courage and a love of liberty have long been defining characteristics of the Texas spirit. Both were exemplified 178 years ago when fifty-nine delegates convened in Independence Hall at Washington-on-the-Brazos to declare Texas' independence. Inflamed by General Santa Anna's refusal to abide by the Mexican Constitution of 1824 and inspired by the United States’ first Declaration of...

AUSTIN — Just two months before he perished defending the Alamo, Davy Crockett described to his daughter and son-in-law the land he treasured enough to die for its independence. "I must say as to what I have seen of Texas it is the garden spot of the world," the famed frontiersman and former congressman from Tennessee wrote. "The best land and the best prospect for health. ..."The Texas Historical Commission announced Tuesday it bought the letter, which is believed to be the last that Crockett penned before he and about 200 other Alamo defenders were killed by Mexican forces led...

AN EXTRAORDINARY 19th- century plot by German nobility to take over Texas and turn it into a German country has been uncovered by a historian looking through old records of some of Germany’s oldest families. Prince Hans von Sachsen-Altenburg discovered that in the 1840s, when Texas was still a republic, the nobles managed to raise a small fortune from the state of Prussia under cover of an economic club known as the Adelsverein, or Association of Nobility. The association used the money to send almost 8,000 members to Texas on the pretext they were fleeing political persecution or poverty. But,...

DALLAS (AP) - Texas ranked lowest among the nation's four southern border states in its standards for teaching Latin American and Mexican history, according to a national study released Monday. The study by the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, said on a scale of zero to 10, Texas scored a five - just above the national average of 4.2. California, meanwhile, scored a 10. Arizona scored a six and New Mexico scored an eight, said Walter Russell Meade, a senior fellow for the council on foreign relations who conducted the study based on a review of...

One evening 60 years ago this past week, two friends and I got drunk. This was the day the official surrender of the Japanese Empire was broadcast. Now, crowds in London might have cheered the end of war in Europe, and maybe they were celebrating the fall of Japan on Broadway. Where we were, I do not remember anybody cheering. It had been a long war, and we were tired. I was then platoon sergeant of a roughhouse, special 72-man separate platoon. "(Sep)" in our designation meant we could operate independently. We were over strength and carried two officers. I...

  The Goliad Massacre   Around 6:00 a.m. on Palm Sunday, March 27, 1836, after being held captive for one week, Fannin's men were told to gather up their things. They thought that they were going to the Port of Copano and then on to New Orleans. They were happy and singing. They knew that Colonel Fannin had returned from the Port of Copano the previous day. What they didn't know was that at 7:00 p.m. the pervious evening, Colonel Portilla had received word directly from General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna to execute the men. About an hour...

"March 2, 1836 dawned, frigid and gray; cutting winds blew through glassless windows. Texians - as they styled themselves - huddled close, pulled blankets tight, and gave birth to a dream." -- Dr. Stephen L. Hardin, professor of history, The Victoria College That dream of which Dr. Hardin recently spoke so eloquently was that of a free Texas, a shining Republic answering to no one but its own elected representatives, and formed from the ground up by the blood, sweat and tears of a rough-hewn bunch of frontiersmen who would die willingly to stake claim to the Texas clay beneath...

Few Bee County residents were as anxious to see the release of the new Disney movie “The Alamo” as members of the local Benavides family. The reason was the Benavideses wanted to see how their ancestor, Gregorio Esparza, was portrayed in the motion picture. For them, Esparza has been a link to the past that many family members did not understand until a few years ago. George Benavides, who grew up here before moving to Austin, had heard his grandmother tell the stories of having an ancestor who fought and died at the Alamo. However, he had assumed his great-great-great-great-grandfather...

San Agustin Plaza was brought to life with a historical first during the 164th anniversary of the declaration of the Republic of the Rio Grande, Saturday afternoon. The first? It was the first woman named president of the Republic of the Rio Grande Webb County Commissioner Judith G. Gutierrez. She was recognized for her service to the community and her “hands-on approach” to the many colonia issues. The swearing-in ceremony consisted of a musket salute and the raising of the Republic of the Rio Grande flag. The event, sponsored by the Laredo Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, also featured a set...

The country may be going broke, but in just nine months President Bush has amassed more than $175 million to spend on his re-election, the most any candidate has collected in a presidential election. The reason Bush has been so successful is that he has a good gimmick. He has assembled 151 individuals he calls "Rangers," who have raised more than $200,000 each, and 241 he calls "Pioneers," who have raised at least $100,000 each. Now, he's added a third group of fund-raisers -- individuals under 40 who have raised at least $50,000. There are 52 people in that category,...

<p>The Texas Revolution has been the subject of countless articles, books, songs, and films. It is one of the foundations of our history and heritage as Texans and a part of our national story as Americans. Names like Travis, Bowie, Seguin, and Crockett and places like the Alamo, Goliad, and San Jacinto resonate with all of us, serving to shape our personal relationship with our collective history. Yet there are actually very few original documents - primary sources - that have survived to tell us this story.</p>

The town of Kenedy in Karnes County used to be known as "Six Shooter Junction" in the early 1900s for its gunfights. Now it's the "Horny Toad Capital of the World." This was just one of the little-known Texas facts churned out Saturday at TexFest-Coastal Days, part of the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. This new event, held in the Texas Trail tent, gives small towns a chance to lure visitors. Sharon Fite, self-proclaimed history buff, said it is just what she needed for her weekend trips exploring Texas towns. "I like to see what other towns are doing,"...

AUSTIN — Before the so-called Texas 11, before the Killer Ds, even before the Killer Bees' 1979 dash from the Legislature, there were 13 Reconstruction-era bolters. And their treatment when they returned apparently marked the last time state senators took dramatic action to punish a quorum-breaking colleague. The last time, that is, until last week, when Republicans imposed hefty fines on 11 Democratic senators who remain in New Mexico to halt action on a redistricting effort designed to send more Republicans to Congress. Some see parallels to the 1870 clash, which led to one senator's expulsion. "Whenever political power turns...

166 years later, Texas recalls the Goliad massacre Historic battle helped gather support for cause against Mexico 03/24/2002 By NATALIE ORNISH / Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News There likely isn't a Texan or an American who hasn't heard the famous cry, "Remember the Alamo!" But what about Goliad? It will be 166 years ago Wednesday that 342 Texians, most of whom had been surrendered by Col. James W. Fannin seven days earlier and held in the presidio at Goliad, were killed by Mexican soldiers. The Goliad massacre came 21 days after the fall of the Alamo, amid...