Our Texas History

Stories about the History of the Great State of Texas.

Mirabeau B. Lamar

A Texas politician, poet, diplomat and soldier who was a leading Texas political figure during the Texas Republic era. He was the second President of the Republic of Texas after David G. Burnet (1836 as ad-interim president) and Sam Houston

August 15, 2016

Samuel (Sam) Houston

A sometimes volatile and often contradictory man, Sam Houston (1793-1863) played a crucial role in the founding of Texas.

August 15, 2016

Fort Worth Stockyards

As a drover headed cattle up the Chisholm Trail to the railheads, he had one last stop for rest and supplies: Fort Worth, Texas. Beyond Fort Worth, he’d be crossing the Red River into Indian Territory.

July 20, 2016

La Salle's Texas Settlement

René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, established a French settlement on the Texas coast in summer 1685, the result of faulty geography that caused him to believe the Mississippi River emptied into the Gulf of Mexico in the Texas coastal bend.

July 19, 2016

The Twin Sisters

On November 17, 1835, after Francis Smith convinced the people of Cincinnati, Ohio, to aid the cause of the Texas Revolution, the Ohioans began raising funds to procure two cannons and their attendant equipment for Texas.

July 18, 2016

The Battle of Galveston

A naval and land battle of the American Civil War, when Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. John B. Magruder expelled occupying Union troops from the city of Galveston, Texas on January 1, 1863.

July 18, 2016

Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs

The Lawrence T. Jones III Texas Photographs digital collection contains a wide range of early Texas photography. The digitized images contain approximately 4,200 photographs, ca. 1846-1945, and is held by SMU's DeGolyer Library.

July 5, 2016

Second Battle of Adobe Walls

The Second Battle was fought on June 27, 1874, between Comanche forces and a group of twenty-eight U.S. bison hunters defending the settlement of Adobe Walls, in what is now Hutchinson County, Texas.

June 28, 2016

Battle of Adobe Walls

The battle, on November 25, 1864, resulted in light casualties on both sides but was one of the largest engagements fought on the Great Plains.

June 27, 2016

The Black Bean Incident

To help determine who would die, Huerta had 159 white beans and seventeen black beans placed in a pot.

June 27, 2016

Crash at Crush

On September 15, 1896, more than 40,000 people flocked to this spot to witness one of the most spectacular publicity stunts of the nineteenth century-a planned train wreck.

June 27, 2016

Famous Gunfight in Hell's Half Acre (Fort Worth)

In 1887 Luke Short shot and killed “Longhair Jim” Courtright in a Fort Worth gunfight.

June 21, 2016

1900 Galveston Hurricane

The Hurricane of 1900, also known as the Great Galveston Hurricane, made landfall on September 8, 1900, in Galveston, Texas, in the United States. It had estimated winds of 145 miles per hour at landfall, making it a Category 4 storm.

June 21, 2016

The Fort Parker Massacre

On May 19, 1836, a large party of Native Americans, including Comanches, Kiowas, Caddos, and Wichitas, attacked the inhabitants of Fort Parker

June 14, 2016

Pioneers of the Texas Panhandle

Jean Pierre Reck, a look into the life of a pioneer family in early Texas

June 13, 2016