black history – Page 5 – Texas History Notebook

Daniel Webster “80 John” Wallace

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Daniel Webster Wallace was born in Victoria County in 1860 in slavery. He grew up learning to be a cowboy and received his first wages when he was only fifteen years old. At the age of seventeen, he made a solo horseback ride of four hundred miles from Victoria through Indian country to far southwest Texas near the edges of Runnels and Taylor counties to seek employement with buffalo hunting expeditions, but instead went to work for Sam Gholston, a rancher and veteran Indian fighter. About one year later, he went to work for an outfit known as the N.U.N. which ran 8,000 head of cattle.

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First African-American Texas Rangers

Christine Nix was hired in 1994 and became an officer with the Texas Rangers after serving in the military and as a police officer in Temple before moving to another state. She later returned to Texas, moving to Austin. She happened to live near the Texas Department of Safety office which helped to spark her interest in returning to law enforcement.

Ernie Banks – MLB Player

In honor of the opening week of another Major League Baseball season, when every team is still 0-0 and hopes are high, we remember the great player from Texas, Ernie Banks. Banks would be among a very short list of the all time best athletes from Dallas, along with such players as Bobby Layne and Doak Walker.

(Image credit: sabr.org)

Ernie Banks was born in Dallas on January 31, 1931, ironically the same year as Willie Mays and Mickey Mantle. His full name was Ernest Banks, with no middle name.

Joshua Houston

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(Image credit: Texas State Historical Association)

Joshua Houston (1822-1902) was born near Marion, Alabama and was a slave in the household of the wife of Sam Houston, Margaret Lea. In the custom of the day, Joshua and his family were left to Margaret after the death in 1834 of her father, Temple Lea. Margaret moved to Texas in 1840 after marrying Sam Houston in May.

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Buffalo Soldiers in Texas

The concept of all-black regiments had originated during the Civil War when northern states organized regiments of free blacks from the north and former slaves from the south. This concept was met with resistance in the north, which resistance is generally accepted to have been racially oriented in nature. However, by 1863 the U. S. Colored Volunteers had been organized into a cavalry regiment, an artillery regiment and almost two dozen infantry regiments. It is estimated that about one out of ten Union soldiers serving in the American Civil War were black.

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