R eturning to work on Sept. 5, 1837, Samuel Rhoads Fisher, secretary of the Texas Navy, was stunned to discover that President Sam Houston had changed the locks on him. When the Independence appeared off the port of Velasco in the spring of 1837, the whole town went down to the docks.   No one wante...

E xhausted by three exciting weeks in the United States Senate, 86 year old Andrew Jackson Houston checked into a Washington, D.C. hospital on June 21, 1941. During the months prior to the April death of Morris Sheppard, Gov. W. Lee O’Daniel had his eye on the Senator’s job. Most Texans believed fla...

Photo by Jim Cullen Blanco Vista Elementary fifth graders staged a Multicultural Living History Museum last week. Students presented research on a variety of historical figures, and even had the chance to dress the part. Notable figures presented were Sam Houston, Wilt Chamberlain, Michelle Obama, G...

Hearing his commander-in-chief had decided to stand and fight, an insubordinate captain rejoined the Texas Army on Apr. 14, 1836 in time for the Battle of San Jacinto. When Travis’ final appeal reached the independence convention at Washington-on-the-Brazos on Mar. 5, 1836, Sam Houston quickly excus...

I n the eyes of Texas and the whole South, the Hero of San Jacinto failed a loyalty test on Feb. 28, 1854 by voting against passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Negotiations with the Plains tribes, which concluded in the summer of 1853, opened 13 million acres north and south of the Kansas River to ...

W hen the news of Tom Green’s pending promotion to major general trickled down through the ranks on Feb. 18, 1864, the men of the Texas Cavalry Brigade gave their popular leader three rousing, heartfelt cheers. Born in Virginia and raised in Tennessee, Green had every reason to stick close to home. ...