Now some scholars believe the story of humans here is even older — dating back 15, years or more. Research to find traces of the earliest Texans continues. As ice age animals became extinct and the climate began to change, the lifestyles of people living in Texas evolved. Those changes marked the beginning of the Archaic period.
People began making a larger range of stone tools, using bows and arrows for hunting, creating pottery for food storage, and creating trade networks that stretched hundreds of miles. The Late Prehistoric period is marked by a huge diversity in cultures across the state — a cultural distribution that early European explorers found when they arrived in the s.
Texas has various symbols such as the Bluebonnet state flower , the Northern Mockingbird state bird , and the horned lizard state reptile. Another important site is the San Jacinto Monument in La Porte, Texas, which is built on the actual battleground where Texas won its independence from Mexico. Note: The above-mentioned symbols and historic sites are only a few mentioned in this article. Texas has more symbols and historic sites throughout the state.
While we diligently research and update our holiday dates, some of the information in the table above may be preliminary. If you find an error, please let us know. Thanksgiving Day in the United States is traditionally a holiday to give thanks for the food collected at the end of the harvest season.
Robert E. Sign in. Federal troops seized control of the Mississippi River and New Orleans in , cutting Texas off from its southern markets. With most men involved in the war, cattle were left to roam. By , there were thousands of unbranded "maverick" cattle throughout the state. Large-scale cattle raids by Comanche became common with attacks in Cooke, Denton, Montague, Parker, and Wise counties. In December, some Comanches attacked settlements in Montague and Cooke counties and escaped after driving off soldiers from the Frontier Regiment.
Saddle pad, s. Herman P. Army Col. After a battle of several hours, Carson and his troops narrowly escaped, outnumbered by about 1, Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache warriors. The Freedman's Bureau was a federal agency created to assist African Americans in the South with their transition to freedom following the Civil War. The agency assisted newly freed African Americans with legal matters, education, and employment. The Bureau was also tasked with curbing the violence inflicted upon African Americans, especially by the KKK, a newly founded hate group.
Illustration of The Freedmen's Bureau distributing rations. Granger proclaimed the end of slavery for , African Americans as well as the end of the Confederacy. The economic devastation of the South after the Civil War meant Texas ranchers had to look elsewhere for profitable markets. The challenge was getting them there.
Cow folk and their cattle traveled the famed Chisholm Trail that crossed the Red River and headed into Kansas in order to reach the rail heads that could take the cattle to market. The Army Reorganization Act authorized Congress to form the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 38th, 39th, 40th, and 41st Infantry units. These African American troops become known as "Buffalo Soldiers" because of their bravery in battles against Native Americans.
The term eventually became a reference for all African American soldiers. Cathay Williams was a cook for the Union Army. When the Civil War ended, Cathay needed to support herself. When she was hospitalized, the doctor discovered her secret. On October 14, , "William Cathay" was declared unfit for duty and honorably discharged. In , Cathay applied for a military pension, but was denied because women weren't eligible to be soldiers. When not engaged in skirmishes with the Apache and Comanche Indians, the soldiers guarded civilian and government stagecoaches traveling along the San Antonio to El Paso road.
Fort Lancaster 9th Cavalry Company K soldiers were moving their horses to pasture. The Buffalo Soldiers scurried to fire at the invaders while herding their valuable horses back toward the fort's corral.
Bullets and arrows flew throughout the night. By the time the battle ended the next morning, Company K had lost 38 cavalry horses and two soldiers to the Kickapoo. Kenedy fenced his ranch with smooth wire in , marking the beginning of enclosed ranching in Texas.
In , Laureles was incorporated into the mighty King Ranch. After the Civil War, the United States entered the era of Reconstruction, during which former Confederate States had to meet certain conditions for readmission into the Union. This included recognizing the U. Nine African Americans were delegates to the Constitutional Convention. One of these delegates, George T. Ruby was elected to the Texas Senate a year later, becoming the first African American to serve in the legislature. Texas was readmitted to the United States on March 30, Hyrum Wilson and several others between and owned and operated a pottery company on land granted to them by their former enslaver, John Wilson.
George T. Ruby left and Matthew Gaines right. Elected in to serve in the Texas Senate were George T. Together, these men pushed for resolutions to protect African American voters and supported bills for public education and prison reform. The original four infantry units of Buffalo Soldiers were reorganized into two regiments.
The original 38th and 41st regiments became the 24th regiment, and the 39th and 40th were combined to become the 25th regiment. From that point on, the Buffalo Soldiers troops were comprised of the 9th and 10th Cavalry regiments and the 24th and 25th Infantry regiments. A new technique for tanning bison hides became commercially available. In response, commercial hunters began systematically targeting bison for the first time.
Once numbering in the tens of millions, the bison population plummeted. By , the American Bison were all but extinct. This was a terrible blow to the American Indians whose livelihood depended on the bison and to whom the bison is a sacred animal. Pile of buffalo hides obtained from hunting expeditions in western Kansas, April 4, Courtesy Kansas Historical Society. Following the end of the Civil War, the cattle industry began to rebound. Cattle were turned loose in south Texas and their populations rapidly increased.
With cattle numbers on the rise again, ranchers drove their herds toward the new markets in the northern U. The cattle industry in Texas was back and booming. During Reconstruction, southern states were required to nullify acts of secession, abolish slavery, and ratify the 13th Amendment in order to be readmitted to the Union. Texas balked on the slavery issue, which prompted Congress to require that the Texas Legislature also pass the 14th and 15th Amendments before being considered for readmission.
When Texas finally met all conditions, President Ulysses S. Grant readmitted Texas to the United States. Stance and his men fought off the Apaches multiple times. Both children and over a dozen stolen horses were recovered.
For his valor, Stance was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor and became the first African American soldier to win the country's highest civilian medal in the post-Civil War period. Under the command of General William T. Sherman, the 10th Cavalry conducted an inspection tour of Texas frontier to determine the safety of white settlers against Indian threats. They traveled over 34, miles, mapping significant geographical features as they went.
The information they gathered was used to develop highly detailed maps of the unsettled territory. Kiowas and Comanche attacked a freight wagon train on the Salt Creek Prairie of Young County and killed the wagon master and seven teamsters. In response U. Army Gen. Sherman ordered operations to arrest any Comanche and Kiowa found away from their reservation.
Chiefs Satank, Satanta, and Big Tree were arrested and put on trial. They were the first Native American leaders to be tried for raids in a U. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration. In , Ransom and Sarah Williams purchased 45 acres in southern Travis County, despite the discriminatory labor practices that kept most African Americans from earning enough money to purchase land.
The Williams family supported themselves by raising horses and farming. Objects left behind at the farmstead show that the family was successful enough to have money to spend on toys, costume jewelry, manufactured dish sets imported from England, and mass-produced patent medicines and extracts. Transfer-printed whiteware saucer owned by the Williams family reconstructed , c.
About 13 women and children and their horse herd of some animals were captured. Three soldiers were killed and seven wounded. The Comanche suffered 50 killed and seven wounded. The prisoners were sent to Fort Sill in Indian Territory. As the United States recovered from the Civil War, the nation's industrial capacity developed at a revolutionary pace. The overheated economy crashed in the Panic of , causing the value of cattle to plummet. The resulting depression caused many cattle ranchers to go bankrupt and temporarily sidelined the industry.
Six companies of the 4th Cavalry, along with 24 Black-Seminole scouts led by Lt. A Black Seminole regiment, c. Black troops in the U. Army were stationed throughout Texas, the Southwest, and the Great Plains.
They were given the name "Buffalo Soldiers" by Native Americans. Four regiments served in Texas: the 9th and 10th Cavalry, and the 24th and 25th Infantry. The Buffalo Soldiers participated in many frontier campaigns and were responsible for a variety of military tasks, including building roads and escorting mail parties through the frontier.
Beginning in , a series of patents was issued to several inventors for strong, mass-produced fencing made from interlocking strands of wire, outfitted with sharp barbs that discouraged even the toughest cattle from muscling through it. In , two salesman demonstrated barbed wire in the Alamo Plaza in San Antonio. Within a few years, the simple, revolutionary invention had ended the open range.
The reduction of the buffalo herds combined with increasing numbers of settlers and military patrols had put them in an unsustainable position. This would start the Red River or Buffalo War. Alex Sweet, editor of the nationally-circulated humor magazine Texas Siftings , wrote in "The Rangers have done more to suppress lawlessness, to capture criminals, and to prevent Mexican and Indian raids on the frontier, than any other agency employed by either the State or national government.
The U. Army began a campaign to remove all Comanche, Kiowa, Southern Cheyenne, and Arapaho from the southwest plains and relocate them to reservations in Indian Territory. Led by Comanche Chief Quanah Parker, the Indian tribes fought one last battle for their native lands.
Army, including all regiments of the Buffalo Soldiers, engaged the Indians in over 20 battles from to in the Texas panhandle around the Red River.
The cattle drives faced the constant threat of attack by American Indians. In a series of battles known as the Red River War, the U.
Army defeated a large force of Kiowa, Cheyenne, and Comanche at Palo Duro Canyon, by capturing and killing their horses.
Without their ability to make war, the Indians were forced to relocate to reservations in Oklahoma, opening up the Staked Plains to cattle ranching. They were the last large band in Texas. The United States had now defeated the unified Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, and Kiowa and forcibly confined them to reservations.
Since Texas gained independence from Mexico in , the Texas Constitution has undergone five revisions. The Constitution of was the sixth revision of the document and established the foundation for the law still in effect in Texas today.
The constitution, in part a reaction to Reconstruction, shortened terms and lowered salaries of elected officials, decentralized control of public education, limited powers of both the legislature and governor, and provided biennial legislative sessions. Henry O. Over the next five days, the troops became lost in the waterless Llano Estacado. Soldiers were delusional from dehydration and many drank the blood of their dead horses in order to survive.
Four soldiers died. This incident, called "The Staked Plains Horror," made headlines across the nation. The African American community of Quakertown opened its first school in The community itself had formed within the Denton city limits by the mids.
It is most likely named after the Quakers who aided freedmen in the early years of Reconstruction. When the school opened, many African American families from a neighboring community, Freeman Town the first black settlement in Denton , relocated to Quakertown. Joe and Alice Skinner, local business owners in Quakertown.
Two factors ended the legendary cattle drives. By , the railroads had fully extended their reach into Texas, with 2, miles of track. The next year saw the first patent for refrigerated railcars, meaning meat no longer needed to be transported "on the hoof. During July and August, detachments of the 10th Cavalry and 25th Infantry battled with the Apaches and denied them access to water in the trans-Pecos region of West Texas.
Victorio withdrew to the mountains of Mexico, where he was killed by Mexican soldiers. Victorio, Apache Chief. The 10th Cavalry and 24th Infantry units moved out toward Rattlesnake Springs, near present-day Van Horn, to intercept the chief and his warriors.
The Buffalo Soldiers surrounded them and eventually drove them back across Texas into Mexico. One month later, Victorio was killed by Mexican troops. In , a small war party of Lipan Apache attacked and looted the house of an American settler in Texas, killing two people.
Thirty Black-Seminole Scouts led by Lt. John L. Bullis pursued the band of Lipan Apache raiders into Mexico. Courtesy National Archive and Records Administration.
The fight for women's equality began long before they won the right to vote in Although the group's primary focus was battling the ills of alcohol abuse, they pushed the Texas Legislature for many social reforms, including women's suffrage. WCTU members were the foundation of the women's suffrage organizations that began to form in the next decade.
Landless cattle ranchers worked the remains of the open range, but often found their access to water and grass blocked by barbed wire. Landowners sometimes fenced land regardless of whether they held the title. Armed bands of cowboys cut through barbed wire, causing millions in damages. The conflict subsided when ranch owners were ordered to install gates every three miles.
In an non-violent walkout aimed at five ranches, Texas cowboys protested the new practice of being paid in cash instead of cattle. The strike ended with a slight pay increase but no return to a livestock-based salary system. The cowboy life was a hard one, with most men moving on after just a couple of years. Cattlemen and ranchers went to war over the practice of stringing barbed wire around plots of land. The Texas Rangers were called in on patrol.
Ranger Ira Aten proposed arming the fences with bombs triggered to explode when the fence wire was cut. The idea was nixed. Today the Tonkawa hold a yearly powwow in October that commemorates this removal and their arrival to the Ft. Oakland Reservation. The Association promoted quality education for students and good working conditions for teachers. They supported teachers through professional development opportunities and by advocating for issues like equal salaries.
Anderson, is pictured. Twelve Buffalo Soldier regiments plus the regimental band marched from Texas to Arizona following the tracks of the Southern Pacific Railroad. As raids decreased over the next five years, most Buffalo Soldier troops moved out of Texas.
Two devastating blizzards in the winter of stunned cattle ranchers. Before barbed wire, cattle's free roaming ways had usually enabled them to survive such storms, but now they were stranded behind their fences and died before ranchers could reach them with feed. Combined with falling cattle prices and overgrazing, the winter of dealt such a blow to the ranchers that it became known as "The Great Die-Up. In , a huge oil discovery in Pennsylvania made kerosene the dominant lighting fuel in America.
The first deliberate oil strike in Texas was at Oil Springs near Nacogdoches in This well produced only about ten barrels a day. A locally successful well was drilled in Brown County in that produced about barrels a day. At that time, there was no practical means of shipping the oil out of state. Courtesy Texas Railroad Commission. Churches like this one gave African Americans a place to worship, learn, and socialize away from the violence and discrimination they faced in the Jim Crow South.
Two of its congregants — Rev. Albert A. Lucas and Rev. Wright — went on to become prominent voices in the Civil Rights Movement in Texas. In the late s, Texas officials decided that the original capitol building, built in , was too small and understated for the post-Reconstruction grandeur of Texas.
Plans for a new capitol were in the works when the old building burned down in The new capitol was designed by Elijah E. Meyers, who had previously designed the Michigan capitol. Ground broke in and construction was complete in The opening ceremony took place in May , but the building didn't reach completion until late November of that year with the placement of the Goddess of Liberty atop the dome.
The officers and men have cheerfully endured many hardships and privations, and in the midst of great dangers steadfastly maintained a most gallant and zealous devotion to duty Hogg campaigned on a platform of regulating railroads. The commission was established to oversee the rates and operations of railroads, wharves, terminals, and express companies, but it gained national importance with its oversight of oil and gas production in the 20th century. Anthony F. Lucas was a salt mining engineer from Louisiana who thought that the upper Gulf Coast had great potential for oil discovery.
But an attempt to drill for oil in Beaumont failed due to quicksand. When he could raise the necessary investment, Lucas continued to explore and drill in the area for the next nine years. The Texas Equal Rights Association was the first statewide women's suffrage organization. Organized by Rebecca Henry Hays of Galveston in , the TERA advocated for equal voting and political rights for women, including the right to hold office and serve on juries.
Oil was accidentally discovered by the American Well Prospecting Company on a water-prospecting trip in Corsicana. The discovery generated interest in prospecting in the area. In , a gusher drilled at Spindletop, near Beaumont, made Texas an oil power. In , crews drilling for water in Corsicana struck oil instead. The result was chaos.
So many wells were drilled that operators poured excess oil on the ground, and the price fell to less than 50 cents a barrel.
To stem the contamination and waste, Corsicana contracted to build pipelines, storage tanks, and a refinery. This operation was called the Magnolia Petroleum Company, one day to be known as Mobil. On October 3, the Texas Legislature declared "prizefighting" boxing illegal in the state. All Rangers were called in to stop the much-anticipated Fitzsimmons-Maher fight.
McDonald allegedly replied, "Hell, ain't I enough? There's only one prizefight! He was elected to the Texas legislature in and When the session closed, it marked the end of African American participation in the Texas legislature for 70 years as the expansion of Jim Crow laws kept African Americans from being elected until He built a successful manufacturing business and became a leader in the National Negro Business League.
Roosevelt later said,"No one can tell whether it was the Rough Riders or the men of the 9th who came forward with the greater courage to offer their lives in the service of their country. At its height, the Corsicana field produced over , barrels a year, in an era where remote Texas still could not compete with Pennsylvania oil.
Corsicana and the Magnolia Company worked to develop Texas markets for fuel, asphalt, and illumination. In , the state enacted the first laws regulating the industry, requiring operators to cap off wells to protect groundwater and to stop letting natural gas escape into the air. No; there is no honor, and but slight reward; let him fight like he can, in such furious onslaughts that nothing but the walls of hell can withstand him; and prove, to those vile creatures who would rob him of his glory and prowess, the soldier that he is, the most courageous Because of the success at Corsicana, further exploration was conducted throughout Navarro Country.
This led to the discovery of the Powell oilfield in By Powell produced , barrels of oil, which grew to more than 33 million barrels in The little town of Powell doubled in size to people, a foreshadowing of the wild oil boomtowns to come. The resort town of Sour Lake, 20 miles northwest of Beaumont, was the site of the first refinery in Texas in A gusher came in in and Sour Lake was transformed into a boom town.
By , over-drilling had already caused the field pressure to decline drastically. On January 10, , at a. Wildcatter Anthony F. Lucas had been right about what lay under the salt dome near Beaumont. Spindletop nearly ripped its derrick to pieces and shot a tower of pure crude feet in the air. It took more than a week to bring the giant gusher under control.
The black gold headlines spread around the world. Former Standard Oil executive Joseph F. Cullinan had founded Magnolia Company to put the Corsicana oil fields on a businesslike footing. He did the same at Spindletop with the Texas Company later Texaco , which purchased oil and transported by barge and rail car to a new refinery in Port Arthur. In , the company completed a pipeline directly from the oil field to the refinery.
Poll taxes were a fee people had to pay in order to vote, legally restricting the political participation of lower income voters. This occurred within a broader context of Jim Crow laws that severely restricted African American mobility and advancement during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Texas required voters to pay the poll tax until when the U.
Supreme Court declared them unconstitutional. Poll tax sign from Amarillo, Texas, s. Courtesy National Museum of American History. Despite his success, white America was unwilling to accept a Black champion. Jack Johnson. The Slocum Massacre occurred on July 29, , in Slocum, Texas, when white residents of Anderson County believed rumors of an African American uprising and responded with violence.
Mobs formed throughout the county to raid African American neighborhoods and attempt to kill any person that crossed their path. Six deaths were officially confirmed, but it is estimated as many as African Americans lost their lives in this massacre.
None of the attackers were ever prosecuted and no government investigation was conducted. In the aftermath, many African Americans left Anderson County and never returned. Coverage of the Slocum Massacre in a Houston newspaper. Wilbur and Orville Wright, who in had designed and flown the first successful aircraft at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, also built the Army's first airplane.
Although he crashed on the last of the four flights, Foulois's flight marked the beginning of the U. Air Force. In , drillers looking for water discovered the Electra field in Wichita County near the Red River. In , oil was discovered in the ranching town of Burkburnett. Larger strikes in and caused a huge boom, drawing more than 20, people to the area before the boom died in the late s. Fearing the resurgence of Mexican nationalism spurred on by the Mexican Revolution, President Taft stationed 20, U.
The Mexican Revolution raged between and The area quickly grew into a vibrant business, religious, and cultural center. Courtesy Houston Public Library. The soldiers spent more time in battle than other American troops, yet they confronted racism while training for war and once they returned home. Many African American soldiers in this regiment received the Croix de Guerre from the French government.
Courtesy The History Channel. Oil required the opening of new frontiers in law, chemistry, and engineering. Refineries that rivaled the largest in the world were built. Port facilities along the coast were dredged to accommodate tanker ships.
In , dredging began on the Houston Ship Channel. It was completed in , providing the link to the sea for the interior of Texas. It remains one of the most heavily utilized waterways in the U. Courtesy Fort Bend Museum.
Millard G. McKinney Papers. Raids by Mexican outlaws intent on reclaiming Texas land as outlined in the Plan de San Diego escalated into guerrilla warfare. The Texas Legislature authorized mass inductions of men to serve as Ranger forces.
Reports of vigilante-like brutality inflicted on both Mexicans and Tejanos by these less disciplined and under-supervised Rangers increased. Months passed and many Buffalo Soldiers died in ceaseless fights with Villa's men, but Villa himself remained at large.
After the arrest of Jesse Washington, an African American teenager, for the killing of Lucy Fryer, a mob gathered around the Waco courthouse and captured Washington. The aftermath of Washington's murder incited a push to end lynching around the country. The NAACP led the charge in passing anti-lynching laws which led to the decline of lynching after the s and into the early s.
There was a violent confrontation between Houston Police and two African American soldiers on August 23, , and Cpl. Charles Baltimore was hit over the head and taken to police headquarters. Rumors reached Camp Logan that he had been shot and killed, which fueled the African American soldiers at the camp to march on Houston. In a single night, 11 civilians, 4 policemen, and 4 soldiers were killed.
In total, members of the battalion were tried for mutiny. Nineteen were executed, and 63 received life sentences in federal prison.
No white civilians were brought to trial. It remains the largest murder trial in the history of the United States. The 92nd and 93rd Infantry regiments were established with approximately 25, African American soldiers from across the United States. Battle losses were high, but so were the Buffalo Soldiers' achievements. The French government bestowed the Croix de Guerre on 68 Buffalo Soldiers for their heroic service in battle.
On November 1, , approximately 10, Texas and Louisiana oilfield workers walked off the job to protest long hours and low pay. The strike dragged on for months. Oil producers refused to accept federal authority to mediate the dispute. Prohibition gained momentum nationally, in part due to the efforts of Senator Morris Sheppard of Texas. Texas approved the 18th Amendment to the U. Constitution in But by the mids, Prohibition had become unpopular as anti-prohibitionists took control of the Texas legislature.
Prohibition was ended in Some estimates place the number of Hispanic citizen deaths by Texas Rangers during the wars with Mexico as high as 3, Canales of Brownsville insisted on a legislative investigation. As a result of the findings, the Texas Legislature reduced the number of Ranger companies as well as the number of men in each company. More stringent Ranger selection criteria and a citizen complaint process were also put in place. By June , there were 98 suffrage organizations in Texas alone!
After years of struggle, a bill permitting women to vote passed in both the Texas House and Senate. Governor William P. Hobby signed it into law on March 26, On June 28, , Texas became the first state to approve the 19th Amendment to the U. Constitution, winning women the right to vote in national elections. Prohibition passed in The Texas oil boom exploded two years later. Rangers spent a lot of time smashing stills, intercepting bootleg liquor from Mexico, and handcuffing criminals to telephone poles when the jails were too full.
It was during this time that Ranger Captain Manuel "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas cemented his legend as a one-man law enforcement agency along the Texas border. After discovering that no American school would accept African Americans, she traveled abroad to attend aviation school in Le Crotoy, France.
Though the Fifteenth Amendment, passed in , granted all U. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson was the first woman governor of Texas, serving two terms , and She ran on a platform condemning the Ku Klux Klan, proposing spending cuts, and opposing Prohibition. Her husband, James E. Hazel Bernice Harvey Peace was an educator, community activist, humanitarian, and philanthropist born in in Waco, Texas. Terrell High School in and spanned nearly 50 years. In addition to working at universities across Texas, Peace was also the editor for the Texas Standard, an official publication of the Colored Teachers State Association of Texas.
She was active in many civic groups in the Fort Worth area and dedicated her life to fighting for social justice. Portrait of Hazel Bernice Harvey Peace, ca. Louis, then the largest school for Black women in the nation.
Branch transformed Tillotson from a struggling junior college for women into a successful four-year college. During her administration, enrollment steadily grew, and in , the college was admitted to membership in the American Association of Colleges. Her work rescued the school from near ruin and paved the way for a future merger with Samuel Huston College, forming Huston-Tillotson University in Mary Branch.
Congress from until He was elected Speaker of the House in He was selected as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's running mate in and served two terms as vice-president. He retired in The day after her inauguration, Governor Miriam "Ma" Ferguson disbanded the entire Texas Ranger force as payback for their support of her gubernatorial opponent. She personally appointed 39 men as replacements. Ferguson's men formed an ineffective and often sleazy "Special Ranger" force and crime rose steadily.
Governor James V. Rangers retained law enforcement responsibilities but were now also required to keep careful records of criminal investigations. A scientific crime lab was built that rivaled the FBI's lab. A new era of Ranger history had begun. Colonel Homer T. Garrison, Jr. Under his year leadership, the Rangers developed into a world-renowned criminal investigation unit.
Texans celebrated the th anniversary of Texas independence with statewide festivities. The United States issued commemorative three-cent stamps and half-dollars to observe the anniversary.
The Centennial Exposition was held in Dallas on the state fairgrounds, and opened on June 6, It ran until late November of that year. Over 6 million people attended.
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