It Happened in Texas

Stories of Events and People that Shaped Lone Star State History

James A. Crutchfield

• Publisher: Globe Pequot Publishing
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781493039708
• Edition: 4
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: History

From the murder of French explorer La Salle to the impressive career of the state’s first female black senator, It Happened in Texas looks at intriguing people and episodes from the history of the Lone Star State.

Discover why a group of migrant farm workers marched nearly 500 miles in sweltering summer heat to meet with Texas’s governor. Find out how the annexation of Texas into the United States led to the first war Americans ever fought on foreign soil. Learn what prompted ranchers of South Texas to bombard the sky for hours with hundreds of explosives one starry night in the fall of 1891. And relive the last days of outlaw couple Bonnie and Clyde, from an endearing family reunion to their violent deaths in an unrelenting hail of gunfire.

Table of contents

• Preface
• A Prehistoric Hunt in the Panhandle, Plainview—5900 BC
• A Trek across Texas, southern Texas—AD 1534
• The Murder of La Salle, Matagorda Bay—1687
• The Misleading Mustang Hunt, Waco—1801
• A French Naturalist Meets the Indians, San Antonio—1828
• Construction of an Early Capital, Tenoxtitlan—1830
• The Fall of the Alamo, San Antonio—1836
• An Englishwoman’s Comanche Bondage, La Villa de Dolores—1836
• The Texan–Santa Fe Expedition, Austin—1841
• The Pig War, Austin—1841
• The Archive War, Austin—1842
• The Republic of Texas Officially Becomes the State of Texas, statewide—1845
• The Brownsville Secession Campaign, Brownsville—1850
• The Birth of King Ranch, Kingsville—1853
• A Cargo of Camels, Indianola—1856
• Sam Houston’s Last Hurrah, Austin—1861
• The Battle at Sabine Pass, Sabine Pass—1863
• The Emancipation of Juneteenth, statewide—1865
• The Salt Creek Prairie Massacre, Jacksboro—1871
• Billy Dixon’s Remarkable Shot, Adobe Walls—1874
• Waiting for the Sunset, San Antonio—1877
• The Time the Texas Rangers Lost, El Paso—1877
• The Violent Death of an Outlaw Legend, Round Rock—1878
• The Court-Martial of Henry Flipper, Fort Davis—1881
• The Great Rainmaking Experiment, San Diego—1891
• Sarah Bernhardt Goes on Tour, Dallas—1892
• The Murder of a Newspaperman, Waco—1898
• The Great Galveston Hurricane, Galveston—1900
• A Gusher at Spindletop, Beaumont—1901
• Langtry’s Visit to Langtry, Langtry—1904
• Quanah Parker Comes Home, West Texas—1907
• The Last Good-byes of Bonnie and Clyde, Dallas—1934
• The Texas City Disaster, Texas City—1947
• The Assassination of a President, Dallas—1963
• The Eighth Wonder of the World: Houston’s Astrodome, Houston—1965
• The March of the Melon Pickers, Austin—1966
• Mass Murder on the UT Campus, Austin—1966
• Barbara Jordan Takes Her Seat, Austin—1967
• Showdown at Waco, Waco—1993
• Bibliography
• About the Author