February Timeline
February 1
1845 - In Independence, the Republic of Texas chartered Baylor University.
1859 - The Menger Hotel opens in downtown San Antonio.
1861 - The Ordinance of Secession was passed by a vote of 166 to 8.
1882 - Though progress would become slow, the ground was ’broken’ for the state capitol building in Austin.
February 2
1848 - The Mexican War ended, the boundary between Texas and Mexico set at the Rio Grande, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo was signed.
1861 - The Committee of Public Safety, which had been formed by the Secession Convention, was directed to seize all federal property in Texas.
February 3
1845 - Nacogdoches University was chartered and was a university until 1895. Stephen F. Austin University is currently in Nacogdoches.
1848 - Seventy men left from France to begin the Icarian Colony in Texas.
1959 - The music died today...Buddy Holly, a Lubbock boy, was killed in an airplane crash.
February 4
1854 - Galveston Wharf and Cotton Press Company was given control of the waterfront facilities in the Galveston Bay area.
1861 - The secession Convention adjourned until March 2, when Texas would become sovereign, twenty-five years after Texas’ declaration of independence from Mexico was signed.
February 5
1837 - Albert S. Johnston and Felix Huston fought a duel on this date. The duel, fought near the Lava River, seriously wounded Johnston who later served the Confederacy.
1866 - Sen. Summer proposed that education restrictions be placed on Negro voting. Negroes began to vote in Texas in 1868.
February 6
1854 - Land was set aside for the Brazos Indian Reservation.
1861 - David Burnet, Elisha Pease and Edmund Davis, among others, made an address to the Texans against secession.
1875 - Texas University, now known as Southwestern University, was chartered at Georgetown.
February 7
1861 - A law allowing counties to form companies of minutemen was passed by the Texas Legislature.
1866 - The Constitutional Convention began.
1887 - Gunfighter Luke Short sold his interest in the White Elephant, a restaurant and bar in Fort Worth.
February 8
1834 - Anthony Butler wrote letters to protest Stephen F. Austin’s imprisonment. Butler was minister to Mexico and wanted Mexico to sell Texas to the U.S.
1887 - Jim Courtright was killed by Luke Short in Fort Worth.
February 9
1861 - Gov. Sam Houston ordered that a vote be taken on whether Texas would seceed from the Union or not. Texas was the seventh state to leave the Union.
February 10
1850 - The first railroad in the state of Texas was chartered - the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos and Colorado Railway.
1865 - The Military Department of the Gulf was created by the U.S. Government.
February 11
1836 - Colonel J. C. Neill gave command of the troops in the Alamo to Jim Bowie.
William B. Travis and David Crockett with his Tennessee Volunteers arrive in Bexar.
1843 - The Mier Expedition was captured in Mexico. This led to the drawing of the black beans.
February 12
1836 - Santa Anna crossed the Rio Grande and began his invasion of Texas.
1899 - In Bastrop, the temperature was ten degrees below zero (Fahrenheit) and it was reported that people were ice skating on the Colorado River.
February 13
1834 - Stephen F. Austin was in a dungeon in Mexico City. According to his diary, he was captured in January and moved from prison to prison.
1862 - Between Feb. 11-13, the Federal Navy policed Aransas Pass.
February 14
1840 - The Austin Lyceum was begun for the ’cultivation of the minds’ for young men.
1854 - In Marshall, TX, the first telegraph office was opened.
1895 - Houston, TX, had a record twenty-two inches of snow!
February 15
1842 - Henri Castro was given two grants for land that would help settle six hundred families in Texas.
1867 - Texas vs. White was filed. This act raised the question of whether Texas actually seceded from the Union or not.
1876 - The Constitution of Texas, still in use today, was voted in. Many amendments have been added since then.
February 16
1836 - Col. James Fannin received a letter for help from Travis.
1846 - The transfer of governmental authority from the Republic of Texas to the U.S. began.
1852 - A joint resolution was presented wanting to split Texas into two states. They would have been known as East Texas and West Texas. The resolution failed.
February 17
1836 - With about one thousand men, Gen. Don Jose Urrea crossed into Texas at Matamoros.
1864 - The conscription law was altered to include ages 17 through 50 and to make exemptions from the service subject to President Jefferson Davis’ approval.
1887 - Wes Hardin is let out of the Huntsville Prison.
February 18
1875 - Also known as the ’Hoodoo War’, the Mason County War (but which was just a feud) began in Mason, TX, centering over cattle thefts and deaths.
1861 - Texas sent seven delegates to the meeting in Montgomery, Alabama, for the states that had seceded from the Union.
February 19
1818 - On this date, Joanna Troutman was born. She made the first ’Lone Star’ flag that the men in the Georgia battalion carried with them when they arrived for the Texas Revolution in 1835. Called the ’Betsy Ross of Texas’, Troutman is buried in the Texas State Cemetery in Austin, TX.
1846 - Texas was formally admitted into the United States becoming the 28th state. Anson Jones term of presidency was over and James Pinckney Henderson became the first governor of Texas.
February 20
1896 - Bob Fitzsimmons was getting ready for his fight the next day with Peter Maher in Coahuila. Fitzsimmons would become the heavyweight boxing champion of the world in a fight that was sponsored by Judge Roy Bean.
February 21
1787 - Rafael Martinez Pacheo was appointed governor of Texas.
1836 - The advance guard of Santa Anna arrived in Bexar (San Antonio).
February 22
1819 - The Adams-Onis Treaty was signed. The is treaty dealt with Texas’ boundaries; Dr. James Long claiming Texas was independent and available for expansionists.
February 23
1720 - Capt. Juan Valdez and Father Antonio Margil de Jesus established San Jose Mission.
1827 - Stephen F. Austin’s friend, Baron de Bastrop, died.
1836 - Santa Anna marched into Bexar, setting up at the San Fernando Cathedral. It was also on this day Jim Bowie passed the command of the Alamo solely to William B. Travis.
1861 - With a vote of 46,129 to 14,697, Texas seceded from the Union.
1911 - Quanah Parker, last Comanche War Chief, died on this day. He was buried at Fort Sill next to his mother, Cynthia Ann Parker. His little sister Topsannah (Prairie Flower) is buried on the other side of Cynthia Ann.
February 24
1827 - Baron de Bastrop was buried on this date. The Baron spent from 1805-1827 in Texas’ service.
1836 - Travis wrote his famous letter pleading for help, signing it ’Victory or Death!’
February 25
1831 - Stephen F. Austin’s fifth contract was approved, bringing another 800 families into Texas.
1836 - Travis’ letter and appeal was delivered to Goliad and Col. James Fannin.
1870 - The Howard Bill, a bill that would split Texas into three states, was introduced into Congress.
February 26
1836 - The Colt Revolver was patented. Later Samuel Walker would come and improve it, creating the Walker Colt.
1843 - The drawing of the beans was held on this date. One hundred and seventy remaining prisoners of the ill-fated Mier Expedition drew a white or a black bean from a mug. The men who drew the seventeen black beans met their fate on this day.
February 27
1836 - The Battle of San Patricio was fought.
February 28
1845 - Texas was offered statehood, this beginning the process of Texas becoming the 28th state in the Union.
1918 - Texas began the era of prohibition by ratifying the eighteenth amendment.