Texas History Notebook

Southwestern University

Southwestern University stakes its claim to be the oldest university in Texas. It is the product of the combination of four church related institutions including Rutersville College which received its charter from the Republic of Texas on January 24, 1840. The other schools were also chartered long ago: Wesleyan College of San Augustine (1844), Soule University of Chappel Hill (1856) and McKenzie College of Clarksville (1860). Southwestern’s charter was approved February 6, 1875 to be the combination of the four earlier institutions.

Horton Foote

Albert Horton Foote, Jr. was born March 14, 1916 to Albert Horton Foote, Sr. and Harriet Gautier Brooks Foote in Wharton, Texas. His name Albert is a Foote family name and the name Horton was his grandmother’s maiden name. Horton was in third generation of the Foote family to be born in Texas. His great grandfather S. D. Foote had come to the state in the 1800s.

Michel Branamour Menard

Michel Branamour Menard was the founder of Galveston, Texas and wa a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was born on December 5, 1805 in La Prairie, Canada to Michel B. Menard and Marguerite de Noyer Menard. His parents were of French heritage.

Short Line Railroads – I

Railroads in Texas began to be organized in the mid to late 1800s. For many years they were without federal regulation. In addition, the federal government promoted and helped to finance the first transcontinental railway system that was completed in 1869. The Interstate Commerce Commission (ICC) was a federal agency created in 1887 to oversee the national rail system and to act against alleged abuses and monopolistic practices. The ICC was allowed to have more broad powers generally extending to national infrastructure and regulation of commerce involving national transportation systems. The ICC was dissolved in the 1990s and railroad regulation was passed on to the Surface Transportation Board, an independent federal agency, in 1992.

Angelina

The El Paso Herald in its issue of March 11, 1907 reported on the tenth annual meeting of the State Historical Association, held in Austin. During the meeting, the article noted, a paper entitled “The Hasinai Indians of East Texas at the Coming of the Spaniards” was presented by Dr. Herbert Eugene Bolton. Dr. Bolton (1870 – 1953) was originally from Wisconsin and had earned his Ph.D. in American history from University of Pennsylvania. He served as an professor of history at University of Texas in Austin from 1901 to 1909. Though he taught medieval and European history there, he became known for his research into the native tribes north of Mexico and was the author of many articles on the subject. Dr. Bolton later moved to the west coast where he spent the rest of his career as a college professor.