Teri Thackston

September 3, 1895

On this day in 1895, the last surviving signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, died less than two weeks before his ninety-first birthday. William Carrol Crawford was a native of North Carolina. He moved to Texas in 1835, settling in Shelby County. He and Sydney O. Penington represented Shelby County at the Convention of 1836 which took place in Washington-on-the-Brazos. There, they participated in writing the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the Republic of Texas. Although all the signers are long gone, they documented in writing the spirit of independence that has continued in Texans to this day. One has only to look at the way Texans responded to the tragedy of Hurricane Harvey over this past ten days or so to see that the spirit of our early colonies is still alive and strong. May it continue as “…we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.”

August 20, 1886

I’ve been fascinated by the story of Indianola, Texas for years. At one time, it was the second busiest port in Texas—after Galveston—with deep-water piers and as many as five thousand residents. But two nineteenth-century hurricanes made it obvious that it was a town that wasn’t meant to be. On this day in 1886, the town, which was located on Matagorda Bay in Calhoun County, was wiped out by the second hurricane and fire. All that remains is an old cistern and a quiet beach, along with a few written memories by former residents to inspire the imagination.



August 13, 1836 

Most Americans know that Texas wasn’t always part of the USA., that it was a separate country from 1836 to 1845. Some believe that the USA always intended to make Texas a part of the Union—and that Texans wanted the same thing. But on August 13, 1836, Henry Mason Morfit started sending reports from Texas to President Andrew Jackson recommending that the two remain separate.

Morfit was a State Department representative who came to Texas to check out the newly formed country. He believed that Texas’ population was too small to resist any effort by Mexico to re-take the land. The new republic had other marks against it—debt and disputed lands.

The independence of the fledgling nation seemed far from settled. The coming years, however, would see Texas rise above Morfit’s doubts. The new republic’s hard-won independence would persevere.

For more information, check out TexasDayByDay.com