The Handbook of Texas is a digital state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) that is freely accessible for students, teachers, scholars, and the general public. The Handbook consists of overview, general, and biographical entries focused on the entire history of Texas from the indigenous Native Americans and the Prehistoric Era to the state's diverse population and the Modern Age. These entries emphasize the role Texans played in state, national, and world history.
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Silver, in northwestern Coke County, began in the 1870s as a ranching community. Thomas J. Wiley established the first post office in 1890 and a one-room school opened in the community that same year. The post office was closed in 1907 because of drought but reopened in 1908. The reported population was ten from 1910 to 1940. In 1946 the Sun Oil Company discovered oil on Allen Jameson's property, and by July 1949 the company had established fifty-nine producing wells in the Jameson oilfield. A rail spur was built from Maryneal, and State Highway 208 was paved from Robert Lee to Silver. Silver became one of the county's largest towns, with an estimated 1,000 residents, most of them living in camps established by the oil company. The small school was replaced by a million-dollar complex; the town also had three churches, a company recreation hall, two cafes, and a number of stores. In the mid-1960s oil production in the field declined and the Sun Oil Company discontinued most of its operations in the area. The population was sixty in 1980, but the post office was still open in 1986, when Silver had a trucking firm, a blacksmith and welding shop, and a Sun Oil Company field office; the school complex had been converted into a hog farm. In 2000 the population was still sixty, and there were six businesses in the community.
On June 19 ("Juneteenth"), 1865, Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, which read, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." The tidings of freedom reached the approximately 250,000 slaves in Texas gradually as individual plantation owners informed their slaves over the months following the end of the war. The news elicited an array of personal celebrations, some of which have been described in The Slave Narratives of Texas (1974). The first broader celebrations of Juneteenth were used as political rallies and to teach freed African Americans about their voting rights. Within a short time, however, Juneteenth was marked by festivities throughout the state, some of which were organized by official Juneteenth committees.
Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena]
Singer Selena Quintanilla Perez, known simply as Selena, the daughter of Abraham and Marcella (Perez) Quintanilla, Jr., was born on April 16, 1971, in Lake Jackson, Texas. She married Christopher Perez, guitarist and member of the band Selena y Los Dinos (slang for "the Boys") on April 2, 1992. They had no children. Selena attended Oran M. Roberts Elementary School in Lake Jackson and West Oso Junior High in Corpus Christi, where she completed the eighth grade. In 1989 she finished high school through the American School, a correspondence school for artists, and enrolled at Pacific Western University in business administration correspondence courses.
Ignacio Seguín Zaragoza, Mexican general and hero of Cinco de Mayo, was born on March 24, 1829, at Bahía del Espíritu Santo (see LA BAHÍA) in the state of Coahuila and Texas, near present Goliad, Texas. He was the second son of Miguel G. Zaragoza of Veracruz, Mexico, and María de Jesús Seguín of Bexar, who was a relative of Juan José Erasmo Seguín. With Mexico's defeat in the Texas Revolution, Miguel Zaragoza, an infantryman, moved his family from Goliad to Matamoros, where Ignacio attended the school of San Juan. The elder Zaragoza was transferred to Monterrey in 1844, and Ignacio entered a seminary there. By 1846 he realized that he did not have a strong vocation and left. When the United States invaded Mexico, he volunteered to serve as a cadet in the Mexican army but was rejected. He entered the mercantile business for a short time, and in 1853 he joined the militia of Nuevo León with the rank of sergeant. When his regiment was incorporated into the Mexican army, he was promoted to captain.
The Texas Revolution began in October 1835 with the battle of Gonzales and ended on April 21, 1836, with the battle of San Jacinto, but earlier clashes between government forces and frontier colonists make it impossible to set dogmatic limits in terms of military battles, cultural misunderstandings, and political differences that were a part of the revolution. The seeds of the conflict were planted during the last years of Spanish rule (1815–21) when Anglo Americans drifted across the Neutral Ground and the eastern bank of the Red River into Spanish territory, squatted on the land, and populated Spanish Texas. More alarming than these illegal residents, who only wanted to "settle and stay," were filibusters such as Philip Nolan, who commandeered portions of Spanish lands for personal gain and political capital. During the fading years of New Spain, its ruling council, the Cortes, worried about securing their far northern frontier and began to encourage foreign immigration to Texas, including Anglo American colonization. One who was eager to take advantage of a change in Spanish policy was Moses Austin, who received a commission from the Spanish governor of Texas to bring 300 families and establish a colony, thereby rebuilding some of his lost fortune associated with the Panic of 1819. Upon his death in 1821, his son and heir Stephen Fuller Austin fulfilled his father's vision and became the first empresario of Texas.
Hodges, on Farm Road 605 between Bitter and Mulberry creeks in south central Jones County, was settled by Alexander Stephens Hodges, a Georgia native, and rancher W. L. Harris in 1885. The community was bypassed by the railroad and by major highways. In 1940 Hodges had two stores and twenty-five residents, and in 1978 it had a gin and a store. Its population was reported as thirty-one in 1980 and as 250 in 1990. The population dropped to 150 in 2000.
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The Old San Antonio Road was also known as the Camino Real, the King's Highway, and the San Antonio-Nacogdoches Road. The blazing of the trail came about as the result of three expeditions. In 1690 Alonso De León led his fourth expedition into Texas, this time with the objective to establish San Francisco de los Tejas Mission in East Texas (in the future Houston County). In 1691 Domingo Terán de los Ríos, first provincial governor of Texas, crossed the Rio Grande taking additional missionaries to the East Texas missions. Up to the Río Hondo, Terán followed much the same course as traveled by De León. During the journey he diverted his path to send a party to Matagorda Bay to meet supply ships. In 1693 Gregorio de Salinas Varona became the first man to proceed directly from the Rio Grande to the East Texas missions, in an expedition to bring relief supplies; he thus further defined the course of the road as a direct route from Monclova, then capital of the province, to the Spanish missions. In 1714 Louis Juchereau de St. Denis probably followed at least part of the road from Natchitoches to San Juan Bautista on the Rio Grande. In Spanish Texas the Old San Antonio Road was a major artery for travel into Texas. It served as a lifeline for the missions by enabling the transport of freight supplies and military protection, and it facilitated trade. During the eighteenth century Spanish ranchers conducted cattle drives along the route from points in Texas to the annual fair in Saltillo, Coahuila. In addition to being an avenue of commerce, the road enabled immigration. Moses Austin traversed the trail en route to San Antonio to request an empresario grant from the Spanish government in 1820, and many Anglo-American colonists entered Texas at Gaines Ferry on the Sabine and arrived at Nacogdoches and the interior of Texas over the road.
The strong Texas interest in flags is shown in public and private displays of the "Six Flags Over Texas," i.e., the flags of the six countries that have ruled over Texas: the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, the Mexican Federal Republic, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America. Spain has had four significant flags during its occupation of the New World. The royal banner of Castile and León, bearing two lions and two castles, was used as a state flag and ensign from around 1230 to around 1516. From 1516 to May 28, 1785, Spain used a state flag and ensign consisting of a modified red saltire on white to signify the house of Burgundy. A variant of the state flag and ensign 1580 to 1640 depicted the complete Spanish coat of arms on a white field. King Charles III established the familiar Spanish flag, with horizontal stripes of red-gold-red and the simple arms of Castile and León as the Spanish ensign, effective on May 28, 1785, and as the Spanish state flag on land, effective March 8, 1793. These flags were used until April 27, 1931.
The Comanches, exceptional horsemen who dominated the Southern Plains, played a prominent role in Texas frontier history throughout much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Anthropological evidence indicates that they were originally a mountain tribe, a branch of the Northern Shoshones, who roamed the Great Basin region of the western United States as crudely equipped hunters and gatherers. Both cultural and linguistic similarities confirm the Comanches' Shoshone origins. The Comanche language is derived from the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family and is virtually identical to the language of the Northern Shoshones. Sometime during the late seventeenth century, the Comanches acquired horses, and that acquisition drastically altered their culture. The life of the pedestrian tribe was revolutionized as they rapidly evolved into a mounted, well-equipped, and powerful people. Their new mobility allowed them to leave their mountain home and their Shoshone neighbors and move onto the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where game was plentiful.
William Barret Travis, Texas commander at the battle of the Alamo, was the eldest of eleven children of Mark and Jemima (Stallworth) Travis. At the time of his birth the family lived on Mine Creek near the Red Bank community, which centered around the Red Bank Baptist Church in Edgefield District, near Saluda, Saluda County, South Carolina. There is some confusion regarding the date and circumstances of his birth. Many sources give the date as August 9, others as August 1, 1809. The family Bible, however, records the former date. Others have confused the date of his birth with that of his elder, and illegitimate, half-brother, Toliferro Travis. The first Travers, or Travis, to settle in North America landed in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1627. Edward Travers became a member of the house of burgesses and amassed significant holdings of land. Subsequent generations of the family drifted southward to the Carolinas, where Barrick or Barrot Travers established a farm in the Edgefield District. Somewhere in the journey Travers became Travis, and Barrot came to be spelled Barret. Barrot Travis's sons, Alexander and Mark, became farmers, and Alexander also became a prominent clergyman.
Freddie Joe Steinmark, University of Texas football player who became a national symbol of courage and determination, was born on January 27, 1949, in Denver, Colorado, the son of Fred Gene and Gloria (Marchetti) Steinmark. His father had been a professional baseball player and encouraged him in all sports, so that Freddie had an early introduction to football, playing during his elementary and junior high school years on the Rough Riders team of the citywide Young America League in Denver. At Wheat Ridge High School there he lettered in football, baseball, and basketball; throughout his entire sports career, Steinmark's teams rarely lost a game. He ranked twenty-fifth scholastically in his high school graduating class of 530, and in his senior year he received the Golden Helmet Award from the Denver Post as the outstanding scholar-athlete in Colorado; he also received the Colorado Hall of Fame award as the state's outstanding high school athlete. In 1967 he received a football scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. Despite his relatively small size, 5 feet, 10 inches, about 160 pounds, Steinmark was a valuable addition to the Texas Longhorn team. He, played defensive back on the freshman team and started in that position on the varsity during his sophomore and junior years. As a sophomore he was the team's leading punt returner and was named an All-Southwest Conference athlete-scholar while majoring in chemical engineering. On December 6, 1969, when Texas and Arkansas were rated first and second teams in the nation, respectively, he played in the game at Fayetteville, called the "Big Shootout," that gave the national championship to the Texas Longhorns. The game was important in sports annals because it determined the national football champion on the one-hundredth anniversary of college football and was witnessed by one of the largest television audiences in history. President Richard M. Nixon was in attendance and congratulated the team personally.
Special Projects
Handbook of Dallas-Fort Worth
The tremendous growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex from the 19th through 21st centuries far outpaced the recorded history of this economically vital area. Texas is often associated with its rural ranching history, yet as the decades passed, the cultural and economic identities of Lone Star State evolved to reflect the increasing importance and influence of the urban areas. No area in Texas illustrates this transformation better than DFW—a well-traveled location during the cattle trailing and early railroad eras that blossomed into a modern financial and cultural hotspot in the present day. We need a more complete documentation of the DFW metroplex, and the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) seeks to correct this imbalance in the historical record.
Handbook of Texas Medicine
Texans lay claim to a dynamic medical history. The state has borne witness to deadly disease outbreaks, the establishment of world-renowned medical institutions, and the discovery of new therapeutics and cures. From the first documented surgery on Texas soil by Cabeza de Vaca in the sixteenth century to the innovative research spearheaded by university laboratories to develop vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19, the medical story of Texas is reflective of the many ways Texans have engaged to protect and promote their health and well-being. Today, the healthcare industry represents a significant share of the Texas economy, contributing more than $108 billion to the state’s GDP, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Yet, despite the fundamental role medicine has played in shaping the growth and development of the state, a comprehensive and authoritative medical history of Texas remains unfulfilled. With the development of the Handbook of Texas Medicine, TSHA proudly presents a unique opportunity to address this disparity.
Handbook of Texas Women
The Handbook of Texas Women project strives to expand on the Handbook of Texas by promoting a more inclusive and comprehensive history of Texas. Texas women make Texas history, and TSHA wants to significantly recognize the various ways women have shaped the state’s history at home, across the state, nationally, and abroad. The impacts of women on Texas history are often overlooked, and as more and more people are accessing information using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile technologies, this project will seize upon the unprecedented opportunities of the digital age in order to reshape how Texas women’s history will be understood, preserved, and disseminated in the twenty-first century.
Handbook of Texas Music
What is it about Texas music? Trying to define it is like reviewing a dictionary. There is way too much detail to try to pin it down. However, this much is clear: Texans have given American music its distinctive voice, and that's no brag, just fact.
Handbook of Tejano History
The TSHA is proud to announce the launch of the Handbook of Tejano History, which contains more than 1,200 entries, including 300 new entries, detailing the critical influence of Tejanos on the Lone Star State. Released on March 29, 2016, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Tejano Monument unveiling on the Capitol grounds in Austin, the Handbook of Tejano History is the culmination of a two-year effort involving dozens of researchers, educators, students, and Texas history enthusiasts committed to capturing and sharing Tejano contributions to Texas life and culture. Originally conceived in partnership with the board of directors of the Tejano Monument, Inc., the Association’s Handbook of Tejano History joins a number of other important initiatives born out of the legacy of the Tejano Monument, including the Tejano History Curriculum Project and Austin Independent School District’s Cuauhtli Academy/Academia Cuauhtli.
Handbook of African American Texas
African Americans have been part of the landscape of Texas for as long as Europeans and their descendants. Spanning a period of more than five centuries, African American presence began in 1528 with the arrival of Estevanico, an African slave who accompanied the first Spanish exploration of the land in the southwestern part of the United States that eventually became Texas. While African Americans have been subjected to slavery, segregation, and discrimination during this long history, they have made significant contributions to the growth and development of Texas. They have influenced Texas policies and social standards. Living and working with other ethnic groups, they have helped create a unique Texas culture. Historians have not always acknowledged the role that African Americans have played in the Lone Star State. Although numerous studies of Texas’s past appeared in the twentieth century, until 1970 there remained too many empty pages in the history of the state concerning the black population. This situation has changed since the 1970s, but the need to capture more of the African American experience still exists. For this reason, we are happy to launch the Handbook of African American Texas.
Handbook of Civil War Texas
At 4:30 on the morning of April 12, 1861—one hundred and fifty years ago this spring (2011)—Confederate States of America artillery opened fire on United States troops in Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the American Civil War. Texans, who had voted overwhelmingly in February 1861 to secede from the Union and then watched their state join the Confederacy in March, thus became involved in a four-year conflict that would take the lives of many and leave none untouched. Texas escaped much of the terrible destruction of the war for a simple reason—United States troops never managed to invade and occupy the state’s interior. In sum, the Civil War exacted a huge price, primarily in terms of lives lost and ruined in the Confederate Army and in the privations of those left at home. However, the conflict had two vitally positive results for Texas: It freed the state’s more than 200,000 enslaved people, and it destroyed the curse of the ‘Peculiar Institution’ for the entire society of the Lone Star State.
Handbook of Houston
The Texas State Historical Association and the Houston History Alliance (HHA) are proud to announce the launch of the Handbook of Houston, which contains more than 1,250 new and existing entries highlighting the significant impact Houston has had on the state, the nation, and the world. Launched on March 2, 2017, the Handbook of Houston is the culmination of many years of historical research.
Predecessor of Texas Conference of Churches founded
71 years ago today
Texas Radical Republican involved in Haymarket Massacre
138 years ago today
Catholic Diocese of Galveston established
176 years ago today
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Our entries are accessed thousands of times per day from all over the globe, and we are here because of you. Please consider a recurring membership or a gift.
Juneteenth read 17,637 times in the past week
Old San Antonio Road read 3,650 times in the past week
Texas Revolution read 1,896 times in the past week
Quintanilla Perez, Selena [Selena] read 1,636 times in the past week
Republic of Texas read 1,499 times in the past week
Comanche Indians read 1,393 times in the past week
Flags of Texas read 1,299 times in the past week
Steinmark, Freddie Joe read 1,208 times in the past week
Travis, William Barret read 1,176 times in the past week
McCallum, Jane Legette Yelvington read 1,164 times in the past week
Bowie, James read 1,053 times in the past week
White, Lulu Belle Madison read 1,039 times in the past week
Predecessor of Texas Conference of Churches founded
71 years ago today
Texas Radical Republican involved in Haymarket Massacre
138 years ago today
Catholic Diocese of Galveston established
176 years ago today
Get the FREE! Texas Day by Day delivered straight to your inbox:
Recent Additions
Every one of our entries is written, fact-checked, and reviewed by our team of professional and academic historians. It is the time, dedication, and support from both our staff & people like you—through your recurring memberships & generous donations—that makes it possible for us to produce quality work that you can trust.
Allen, Amelia Ann Tapscott 3 days ago
Ridgely, John 5 days ago
Holliday, Carranza Adair 5 days ago
Healthcare for the Homeless–Houston 5 days ago
Richards, Paul Rapier 1 week ago
Stratton, Monty Franklin Pierce 1 week ago
Koehler Park 1 week ago
Halaby, Najeeb Elias, Jr. [Jeeb] 1 week ago
Cash, Norman Dalton 1 week ago
Runnels, James Edward [Pete] 1 week ago
Montgomery, Ellie Alma Walls Mims 1 week ago
San Antonio Water Works Company 2 weeks ago
Arizmendi Mejía, Elena Irene 2 weeks ago
Fisher, Vernon Lane 2 weeks ago
Camfield, William Joseph [Icky Twerp] 2 weeks ago
Read, Julian Otis 2 weeks ago
Capps, Sarah Angel Brooke [Sallie] 4 weeks ago
Austin Rape Crisis Center 4 weeks ago