Uncategorized – Texas History Notebook

Marlboro Men

We do not advocate smoking. The health risks of smoking have been widely communicated to the American public for decades. Despite significant declines over the last 60 years, tobacco use continues and smoking is still considered the leading cause of preventable death in the United States.

For many years, there were no governmental restrictions on advertising nicotine products. Print, audio and video advertisements used images and slogans such as these to promote their products.

“Come to where the flavor is, come to Marlboro Country”
“Winston tastes good, like a cigarette should”
“I’d walk a mile for a Camel”
“Come up to Kool”
“Lucky Strike means fine tobacco”
“Call for Phillip Morris”

Hotel Dieu, El Paso

Often mentioned in old newspaper accounts and obituaries is an early regional medical center in El Paso, Texas known as the Hotel Dieu. An injured or critically ill person would sometimes be noted as having been transported to the Hotel Dieu in El Paso for an operation or some other kind of treatment. It might seem to be an unusual name for a medical center, but this El Paso hospital was in business for about one hundred years.

July 4, 1865 and July 4, 1876

We can often learn a great deal from online newspapers. One early Texas publication was the Galveston Daily News. It had begun in 1842 and could for many years be relied on to cover state wide news despite its Gulf Coast publishing location. In its issue of July 4, 1865, it discussed several items of interest to Texas residents. Placing it in context, the Confederate surrender at Appomattox, Virginia had occurred April 8, 1865, not quite three months earlier. Major-General Gordon Granger of the United States Army had issued General Order #3, commonly referred to as the “Juneteenth” order, two weeks earlier.

New Look for the New Year

We have tried not to change the appearance of the website much since we started back in 2015, but the time has come for something new. We will probably tweak this a little here and there but hopefully we can have all the features that we had before.

Happy New Year to you all.

The Old 300 and Family Ties

The Old 300 refers to settlers in Moses Austin and Stephen F. Austin’s colony in Texas. Moses Austin petitioned the Spanish government to be allowed to settle in Texas in late 1820 and received his grant in early 1821. Shortly thereafter, Moses Austin died in Missouri and his son Stephen F. Austin elected to replace his father in the arrangement. This was later confirmed by the Spanish governor who formally recognized Stephen F. Austin as the person to succeed Moses and complete the grant.

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