Moments in Texas History ~ 6/4/2011

 

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David Dickson, future lieutenant governor, begins political career

June 04, 1845

On this day in 1845, David Catchings Dickson was elected justice of the peace of Precinct Two in Montgomery County. He had graduated from medical school in Kentucky and moved to Texas in 1841. Throughout his political career he practiced medicine intermittently. After his small beginning, he was elected to the Texas House of Representatives (1849). He ran successfully for lieutenant governor with gubernatorial candidate Elisha M. Pease in 1853, but lost in his attempt to unseat Pease in 1855. In the latter election, though he was a Democrat, he was supported by the American (Know-Nothing) party. After another stint in the House, he commanded a local militia company during the Civil War. In 1866 Governor James W. Throckmorton appointed Dickson financial agent of the state penitentiary at Huntsville, where, in addition to his primary duty, he cared for the inmates during a yellow fever epidemic. When Throckmorton was removed from office as an "impediment to Reconstruction," Dickson retired to Grimes County. He had become quite wealthy over the years.

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Border photographer documents Mexican Revolution

June 04, 1913

On this day in 1913, Brownsville photographer Robert Runyon arrived in Matamoros and began compiling a unique record of the Mexican Revolution along the Texas-Mexico border. The Kentucky native arrived in Texas in 1909 and opened a photography studio the following year. He is best known for his coverage of the revolutionary conflict in northeastern Mexico between 1913 and 1916. He traveled to Matamoros the day after its Federal garrison had been captured by Gen. Lucio Blanco's Constitutionalist revolutionary forces. There Runyon photographed the wounded and the dead, destroyed buildings, and political executions. In August he recorded the ceremony at Los Borregos in which General Blanco turned over captured land to the peasants who worked there. He was the only professional photographer to record two 1915 raids across the United States border, the Norias Ranch raid and the train wreck near Olmito. A number of Runyon's images were used on widely distributed postcards that contributed to a stereotypical view of Mexicans and their culture. Runyon also documented the buildup of United States military forces at Fort Brown with more than 2,000 images. He was an accomplished botanist, and served as city manager and mayor of Brownsville before his death in 1968. In 1989 the Barker Texas History Center organized an exhibition of Runyon's photographs.

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Booker T. Washington speaks at first Prairie View graduation

June 04, 1897

On this day in 1897, black leader Booker T. Washington delivered the first commencement address at Prairie View Normal Institute, the future Prairie View A&M University. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama, was the leading advocate of black advancement through self-help and solidarity programs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His trips to Texas included an appearance at the State Fair and visits with prominent black families such as the Covingtons of Houston and the Watsons of Dallas. Washington inspired a generation of black Texas leaders, including Emmett Jay Scott and Laurine Cecil Anderson.

posted by Jeff ~ 6.4.2011  Info by The Texas State Historical Association