The Hidden History of Texas

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas. This is Episode 80 – Texas Politics as the 1850s Begin.   I’m your host and guide Hank Wilson. Texas politics is a contact sport, and actually today’s Texas politics and politicians often seem like they still are set in 200 years ago. In fact, if you think about some of the laws that are being passed today, if you didn’t know better, you’d think that you had somehow traveled back in time to the 1850s. Currently there are portions of the political world that are trying to roll back civil rights. Racial animosity is at an all-time high. There is little tolerance for those who don’t think like the party in power wants you to think. Texas politics today are a mess and as they were in 1850. What was Texas and America like in 1850? Frankly, as I mentioned, it was a mess, the country was mired in controversy after controversy, especially when it came to the issue of slavery. Texas itself, after lowering the flag of the Republic in 1846 struggled to find its footing. After the war with Mexico in 1848 the state government was bound and determined to make the Rio Grande river, especially the far western part, the state’s boundary. Well, this meant that most of Eastern New Mexico, including an area that reached all the way to Santa Fe would become a part of Texas. In fact, in 1848 the state legislature declared that part of Eastern New Mexico to be named Santa Fe County and the governor, George T. Wood, sent Spruce Baird there to set up a county government.  Needless to say, the proud people of Santa Fe, refused to accept the Texans and with the help of federal troops forced Baird and the other Texans with him to depart. Baird was only able to stay until July 1849 at which time he left the region Meanwhile, in Washington D.C. a major controversy was brewing between legislators from the North and those from  the South. Of course, this was over the issue of slavery and especially if it was to be allowed in the newly acquired territories that had recently been acquired from Mexico in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which ended the Mexican-American war. This necessarily drew Texas into the dispute on the side of the South, remember the early Anglo settlers of Texas were mostly southerners and their allegiance was to the south and to the slave owners.... This is not the entire transcript so for the entire transcript about Texas Politics as the 1850s Begin - contact me for a free PDF

This is episode 79 of the Hidden History of Texas, Central Texas Floods of the 2000s. The Central Texas Floods of the 2000s damaged Lake Marble Falls 2002 Central Texas Floods The summer of 2002 brought storm after storm, pounding San Antonio and the Hill Country with relentless rain. By July, creeks had swollen into rivers, and the city’s flood-control systems groaned under the pressure. Cars floated down highways, neighborhoods were cut off, and families had to be rescued from rooftops in San Antonio’s South Side. San Antonio International Airport recorded a staggering 9.52 inches of rain on July 1 alone, setting a new record for the month Over the next week, rainfall totals in several counties reached between 25 and 35 inches, leading to widespread flash flooding. The Guadalupe and Blanco Rivers swelled beyond their banks, inundating communities and causing significant damage. The floodwaters claimed 12 lives, damaged approximately 48,000 homes, and resulted in an estimated $1 billion in damages. Twenty-four counties were declared federal disaster areas. 2015 Blanco River Flood (Wimberley & San Marcos) The event was part of a larger weather system that affected Texas and Oklahoma, producing 75 tornadoes and widespread flooding. The Blanco River, which typically flows at 93 cubic feet per second, experienced a record-breaking crest of 44.9 feet at Wimberley, Texas, with a peak flow of 175,000 cubic feet per second as a result on the night of May 23, 2015, yes it was another Memorial Day Weekend flood, and the Blanco River transformed into a wall of water. Fueled by nearly a foot of rain falling in the Hill Country, the river rose over 40 feet in just a few hours. In Wimberley, whole houses were lifted from their foundations and carried downstream like rafts, some with families still inside. In Wimberley the floodwaters rose more than 30 feet in less than three hours, overwhelming the Fischer Store Road bridge and sweeping away entire homes. The rapid rise of the river left little time for residents to evacuate, and the devastation was immense. In Wimberley alone, more than a dozen lives were lost, and the community was left to grapple with the aftermath 2025 – Kerrville & Central Texas Floods On July 4, 2025, flash floods devastated Kerrville and surrounding Hill Country communities. Late on July 3, 2025, the remnant mid-level circulation of Atlantic Tropical Storm Barry became embedded within a broader mid-level trough already containing tropical east Pacific remnant moisture This system developed into a massive thunderstorm which stalled over Central Texas. Flooding began on the morning of July 4, after significant rainfall accumulated across Central Texas. Six flash flood emergencies, which included the cities of Kerrville and Mason, were issued the same day. The Guadalupe River rose about 26 ft in 45 minutes. It surged an estimated 29 ft in the Hunt area, where more than 20 children were declared missing from a summer camp. July 5 saw more flash flood warnings for the Lake Travis area, which is part of the Colorado River watershed. In the span of a few hours, the equivalent to four months’ worth of rain fell across the Texas Hill Country region, with the highest rain totals being 20.33 inches. Over 135 people died in the flood The Central Texas Floods of the 2000s, weren't the first floods to cause destruction in the region and in all likelihood they won't be the last. All we can do is try to prepare the best we can.

Lake Buchanan, built to help prevent floods in Central Texas Central Texas – The Flash Flood Capital of the State - The Floods of 1957, 1981, and 1998 1957 - The Longest Drought In Texas History Ends With Massive Floods - Central Texas Flood (Hill Country) Texas climate changes can often be considered extreme. The State is so large that one portion of it can suffer from flooding rains to extreme drought. In fact, parts of Texas are currently experiencing a drought, (as is most of the Western United States, but this book is about Texas, so…) The worst drought in Texas history was the 1950s drought, lasting from 1949 to 1957, and is considered the state's "drought of record". It was caused by prolonged periods of little to no rainfall, and as a result there was extensive agricultural losses, dried-up water resources, destructive weather event (tornadoes, windstorms, but no rain), and played a significant role in how the economic structure of the state began to shift away from the rural communities to its current model of mostly urban. The environmental effects of the drought definitely laid the foundation for the devastation that was to follow during the flood.  Rivers and creeks dried up, reservoirs emptied, and the landscape was severely impacted. One interesting side effect was there were occasions when the State experienced destructive hail and multiple tornadoes. When the drought broke, it broke in a big way. They called it  "The Day of the Big Cloud". The drought officially ended with a significant rain event on April 24, 1957, which brought 10 inches of rain within a few hours and marked "The Day of the Big Cloud". But that wasn’t the only water that fell from the sky. In Lampasas, on May 12th, on Mother’s Day heavy rainfall overwhelmed Lampasas, particularly its Sulphur Creek watershed, breaching levees and sending a surge of floodwaters through the heart of town. The flood inundated 68 downtown blocks: destroying 38 homes and five businesses, severely damaging 46 houses and 47 businesses and affecting about 90% of the downtown area. Total damages were estimated at $4.5 million  Worse than the economic losses, five residents lost their lives during the Lampasas flood  The event proved a turning point for the town; afterward, officials implemented new and substantial flood-control measures which have come in handy even in today’s world. The massive amount of rainfall turned Hill Country creeks into torrents of raging water that swept through Llano, Burnet, and Lampasas counties with a fury born of years of pent-up skies. Dozens perished as flash floods tore through towns and carried homes away like driftwood. The flood was both a tragedy and an ending. While the flood broke the back of the 1950s drought, but at a terrible human cost. Almost 25 years later Central Texas would once again see heavy flooding, this time in Austin. 1981 Austin Flood (Shoal Creek & Onion Creek) It was a summer storm that seemed ordinary at first, but by the night of May 24, 1981, Memorial Day Weekend, Austin was drowning. Shoal Creek is the largest of Austin’s north urban watersheds, encompassing approximately 8,000 acres (12.9 square miles). About 27% of the watershed is over the Edwards Aquifer Recharge Zone.[1] Its length is approximately 11 miles. It runs parallel to and between Waller Creek to its east and Johnson Creek to its west. According to the National Weather Service Advanced Hydrologic Prediction Service, on May 24,1981 Shoal Creek reached its record highest crest ever recorded at 23.11 feet. This record crest led to the deaths of 13 people and $36 million in damages. Shoal Creek burst its banks, turning streets into rivers that carried cars away like driftwood. Downtown stores filled with water, entire blocks of North Lamar were gutted, and homes along Onion Creek were swallowed in the flash floods. Thirteen people lost their lives that night, caught in the sudden, violent rise of the water. For Austin, the flood was a wake-up call: even in a growing, modern city, nature could still claim the upper hand in an instant. In addition to the flooding, the storms also knocked power to the National Weather Service station as well as local television and radio stations, leaving thousands of people and first responders without ways to communicate with each other. The hilly terrain, coupled with the heavy rain events that tend to happen in the month of May have given Central Texas an infamous meteorological nickname: Flash Flood Alley and in 1998 that moniker would be borne out with disastrous consequences. 1998 October 1998 Texas Flood The October 1998 Texas Flood event took place over parts of South and Southeast Texas. For two days, October 17 and October 18, 1998 the rain never let up. The storm brought over 20 inches of rain to some parts of Southeast Texas and causing over $750 million in damages. 31 people died as a result of the storm, most of them by drowning. The storm was created when a very strong upper-level trough approached from the Western United States and collided with very warm, moist air which had been sitting over Southern Texas for the past few days. This caused dew points in the area to be in the mid 70s that weekend. Also, an area of very warm and moist air was present nearby due to Hurricane Madeline, which was sitting off the west coast of Mexico. On October 16, the storm was being forecast by the National Weather Service to produce a significant amount of rain and was only missing one ingredient for it to be a disastrous storm. The missing ingredient was a cold front, and guess what, one was moving steadily towards Texas. And it was a short 4 years later that the area was hit again by torrential rain and more flash floods and I'll talk about those floods in the next episode

1935 -  A Very Wet Year in Texas and I don’t mean because prohibition had ended, but there were 3 major floods that ravaged the state. They say that April showers bring May flowers and while that is true, in Texas too many April showers can be an indication of floods to come and that was especially true in the year 1935. Central and South-Central Texas experienced heavy rains that Spring which greatly affected Austin, San Antonio and lesser cities like San Marcos, Junction, Uvalde and D'Hanis. In May, San Antonio received 14.07 inches of rain in May and over 8 inches in June. That amount of rainfall caused the downtown area to flood and the town of  D'Hanis reported that 20-24 inches of rain in just 2 Hours and 45 Minutes. The biggest problem with that amount of rain in that short of time, is that once the ground is soaked the water has no place to go except to run off. Central Texas is a vast region of Texas that contains the Texas Hill Country, it’s a beautiful, hilly area on the Edwards Plateau known for its limestone bedrock, springs, canyons, and rare plants and animals. The Hill Country is characterized by its "rolling to hilly grassland," which formed as the plateau eroded over millions of years, exposing the hard limestone beneath. This region blends rural landscapes with growing towns and cities and is a significant source of water from the underground Edwards Aquifer. There are several major rivers in the Texas Hill Country including the Colorado, Guadalupe, Frio, Nueces, and Pedernales Rivers, along with several tributaries like the Llano, San Marcos, and Comal rivers. Spring fed rivers, such as the Lampasas and the Blanco. These rivers are known for their crystal-clear waters, scenic beauty, and are popular for activities such as tubing, kayaking, and fishing, with several notable outfitters offering services on their waters.  It is also an area that with heavy rains is prone to severe flooding. In 1935 during the months of May and June that was born out in floods, one was the Blanco River Flood, and the other took place in Austin on the Colorado River. then in December, the city of Houston suffered one of the most catastrophic floods in Texas history.

This can turn into a raging river with enough rain Welcome to Episode 76 - When it floods it destroys – 1908 Trinity River - 1921 San Antonio. Today I'm looking at one of the more silent disasters that can hit a state and that is flash flooding and flooding in general. If you don't mind how about visiting my sponsor Ashby Navis & Tennyson Digital Publishers great audiobooks, mobile apps, and video games. Picture a dry creek bed or a street that looks calm and harmless. Then, suddenly, heavy rain falls—sometimes miles away—and all that water rushes downhill at once. In minutes, what was once dry ground can turn into a roaring river. That’s a flash flood. Unlike regular floods, which rise slowly over hours or days, a flash flood lives up to its name: it happens fast, often with little warning. Walls of water can sweep through canyons, streets, or neighborhoods, carrying debris, cars, even parts of buildings. A flash flood is nature reminding us just how quickly things can change. One moment calm, the next moment a surge of unstoppable water. It’s powerful, dangerous, and one of the hardest types of flooding to escape—because it gives so little time to react. 1908 Trinity River Flood (Dallas) Stretching from a few miles south of the Red River the Trinity River runs for 710-miles. As the river ran through Central Texas, the Caddo people called the river the Arkikosa and as it neared the Gulf Coast it was known as the Daycoa. In 1687 French explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, named the river Riviere des canoës ("River of Canoes") and then in 1680 Spanish explorer Alonso de León named it, "La Santísima Trinidad" ("the Most Holy Trinity"). However, in 2022, language preservationists from the Caddo Nation determined their ancestral language lacked the letter “R” sound. So that means that the original Caddo name, Arkikosa was likely a corruption or misspelling of the word Akokisa. That word was actually taken from the language of the Atakapa people who lived in the woodlands along the Gulf Coast. The river passes through the cities of Dallas and Fort Worth and is and was a major waterway in the region. Anyway, about the flood…. In the spring of 1908. rain had fallen for days, soaking the earth until it could hold no more. By late May, the Trinity River was no longer a river, it was a roaring, unchained sea. On the morning of May 24, the people of Dallas awoke to a sight they would never forget: the river had swallowed nearly a third of their city. Homes in the bottoms lay under brown, swirling water. Families scrambled to rooftops with what little they could carry, waiting for boats to pull them to safety. The wooden bridges that once connected Dallas to Oak Cliff were gone, swept away like twigs. With rail lines drowned and telegraphs silenced, the city stood alone, an island cut off from the world. At its height, the Trinity surged more than fifty feet above normal. The flood took lives, at least a handful, records from that time period are scarce, so there may have been many more who lost their lives. We do know that thousands were left homeless. Livestock drowned in the fields, businesses were ruined, and the muddy water lingered long after the rain had stopped, reminding everyone of the river’s power. Yet out of the wreckage came resolve. Dallas leaders saw clearly that the Trinity could not be ignored or left to its own wild course. Within a few years, levees would rise, the channel would be straightened, and a grand new bridge, the Houston Street Viaduct, would span the river, a promise that Dallas would never be humbled in the same way again. 13 years later, South Texas would experience much the same from the San Antonio River and its tributaries. 1921 San Antonio Flood For 23 straight hours the rain came not from San Antonio’s skies, but from the Hill Country beyond. On September 9, 1921, torrents fell upstream, and the unsuspecting city slept as the water gathered strength. By dawn, the San Antonio River and its tributaries were raging walls of water. Streets became rivers. Entire neighborhoods disappeared under the flood, and families clung to treetops or roofs in desperation. A thousand acres of the city were flooded. A three-quarter square-mile area of downtown was covered by two to twelve feet of water. Floodwaters ripped through the city’s predominately Mexican West Side neighborhoods, killing more than eighty people. Many of them in the  neighborhoods along San Pedro and Alazan creeks and their tributaries. Meanwhile a wall of water crashed into the central business district on the city’s North Side, wreaking considerable damage.  The wall of water swept through the streets and tore through structures, including city hall, police headquarters, and hospitals. The flood inundated downtown with up to twelve feet of water in some areas. Despite at least 500 rescues, many by soldiers mobilized from nearby United States Army posts, more than 200 souls were lost, swept away in what became one of Texas’ deadliest floods. In the aftermath, the city vowed never again to be caught unprepared, but it took nearly three more years for flood prevention plans to be finalized and for $2.8 million in municipal bonds to be approved so work could start. The city hired Samuel F. Crecelius, retired from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to supervise the overall project. Olmos Dam finished in 1926. Downtown, floodwaters would be diverted into a straight path to avoid the politically sensitive Great Bend, also known as the Horseshoe Bend. Floodgates at both ends of the Great Bend would seal it from floodwaters. The bypass channel was completed in 1930. The city’s response to this disaster shaped its environmental policies for the next fifty years, carving new channels of power. Decisions about which communities would be rehabilitated and how thoroughly they were made in the political arena, where the Anglo elite largely ignored the interlocking problems on the impoverished West Side that flowed from poor drainage, bad housing, and inadequate sanitation. To this day, San Antonio’s West Side, while not being as ignored as it was then, often goes underserved in favor of services being diverted to the wealthier North Side of the city. Next episode we’ll move the calendar up to 1935 a few years after the great depression and while the world was recovering, 1935 proved to be a very wet and disastrous year for many in Texas. I’ll see you then.

We’re talking about some of the Extreme Weather Events in Texas History. It's the 2000s and the Bad Boys are about to hit the Texas Coast, In the past few episodes, I’ve talked about some of our most devasting hurricanes. The one that wiped out the entire town of Indianola in the 1800s, how in 1900 a Hurricane devastated Galveston, and last episode in the 60s and 70s, we met hurricanes, Carla, Beaulah, and several others all of whom battered the Texas coast and brought forth death and destruction throughout the region. For a few decades it seemed like things were becoming peaceful. Even as the century changed, into the 2000s, things really were different. Not exactly silent,  but they seemed to be more subdued. The ocean was entering a quieter rhythm; part of a natural heartbeat scientists call the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. The waters of the Gulf were a little cooler, the winds aloft a little harsher, slicing apart many storms before they could rise into monsters. Some years, El Niño set up shop in the Pacific, tilting the balance of the atmosphere and turning the Gulf into a hostile place for hurricanes to grow. Storms still came, but many curved away, sparing Texas and spending their fury elsewhere. To long-time coastal residents, it almost felt like a truce — as though the Gulf itself was taking a breath between great battles. But as history always warns, quiet seas are never quiet forever. Coastal cities in Texas received a warning that things might be different when in 2005 Hurricane Rita brushed the Texas-Louisiana border in 2005, and then when Humberto came along in 2007 and Ike in 2008, it was a grim reminder that Texas was always living on borrowed time. You can stream my complete audiobook on Spotify

This is episode 74 of the Hidden History of Texas and it’s time to meet some of the Mean Girls of the 60s and 70s. The 1960s and 1970s saw Texas getting hit by several storms, all of which were given ladies names, but none of whom acted very lady like. Let's meet Hurricane Carla in 1961, in1967 Hurricane Beulah's showed up, not to be outdone Hurricane Celia hit in 1970, and then in 1979 it was Hurricane Claudette. All of which devastated parts of Texas. In September of 1961, the Texas coast faced one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes in recorded history — Hurricane Carla. It turns out that Carla was indeed a monster of a storm. Out over the Gulf of Mexico, her winds reached 175 miles per hour, and by the time she aimed herself at Texas, hurricane-force winds stretched more than a hundred miles from the center. Even if you weren’t in the direct path, you were going to feel Carla’s fury. On September 11, Carla roared ashore near Port O’Connor and Port Lavaca as a Category 4 hurricane. The storm pushed a towering wall of water ranging from 15 to 20 feet high across the coast. Entire towns were swallowed by the surge. Port Lavaca was nearly destroyed, and low-lying areas across Matagorda and Calhoun Counties disappeared beneath the sea. Winds tore apart homes, ripped up piers, and flung debris miles inland. Even Houston, dozens of miles away, was shaken by hurricane-force gusts. And then came the tornadoes — more than two dozen of them, spinning off Carla’s circulation, tearing through Texas, Louisiana, and as far north as the Midwest. By the time the storm finally moved inland and began to fade, 43 lives had been lost. But that number could have been far higher. Warnings from forecasters and state officials led to half a million people evacuating the Texas coast, the largest evacuation in U.S. history up to that point. --- NOT A COMPLETE TRANSCRIPT ---

1900 – The Galveston Hurricane The city of Galveston sits on Galveston Island which is two miles offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. The island is only about 50 miles from Houston, and it is a part of what are called the barrier islands. The islands sit between the mainland of Texas and the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. As such, they often bear the brunt of any storm that arises in the Gulf.  Galveston has a natural harbor and in the early days of Texas was regarded as the best Gulf port site between New Orleans and Veracruz. Karankawa Indians lived on the island and it is thought to be the most likely location of the shipwreck landing of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1528. It received its name in 1785 from José de Evia, who named it in Bernardo de Gálvez, the viceroy of Mexico. Mapmakers then used the name Galveston for the entire island and in 1816 Louis Aury established a naval base at the harbor in order to provide support for the Mexican revolution. It was during that time when the pirate Jean Laffite, set up a pirate camp called Campeachy to dispose of contraband and provide supplies for the freebooters. In 1821, however, the United States forced Laffite to evacuate. Mexico designated Galveston a port of entry in 1825 and established a small customshouse in 1830. During the Texas Revolution the harbor served as the port for the Texas Navy and the last point of retreat of the Texas government. Following the war Michel B. Menard and a group of investors obtained ownership of 4,605 acres at the harbor to found a town. After platting the land in gridiron fashion and adopting the name Galveston, Menard and his associates began selling town lots on April 20, 1838. The following year the Texas legislature granted incorporation to the city of Galveston with the power to elect town officers. Between that time period and 1900 Galveston struggled during the civil war and then in 1867 the island and town was ravaged by the yellow fever, and it is estimated that 20 people a day died from the disease. Regardless of the hardships, Galveston eventually thrived and in fact, It had the first structure to use electric lighting, the Galveston Pavilion; the first telephone; and the first baseball game in the state. The Galveston News, founded in 1842, is the state's oldest continuing daily newspaper. Back in the old days, many of us would get up early in the morning, walk out to our front porch and pick up the daily newspaper. It was a ritual, that was how we got our news. Now we don’t do that anymore, most of us turn on our TVs, phones or computers and get our news from there. But back in 1900, on September the 8th, if you were one of the approximately 38,000 people who lived in Galveston, Texas at that time and had awakened early and picked up your morning edition of Galveston News, you would have seen a story, not a headline, but a story on page 3 about a tropical storm that seemed to be roaming about in the Gulf of Mexico. That’s not an unusual type of story for people living along the gulf coast, especially during the month of September.  However, one thing that made this story a little different was that on Friday, The Weather Bureau, now days known as the National Weather Service, had placed Galveston under a storm warning. The paper also contained a small one column story, that said that great damage had been reported from communities on the Mississippi and Louisiana Coast from the storm. Unfortunately, the story, which had originated in New Orleans at 12:45 AM, was only one paragraph and didn’t really contain much information.  The local paper did print a story beneath the report that said, "At midnight the moon was shining brightly, and the sky was not as threatening as earlier in the night. The weather bureau had no late advice as to the storm's movements and it may be that the tropical disturbance has changed its course or spent its force before reaching Texas." So based on that type of reporting, citizens were not really prepared for what was to occur. People in Galveston had been made aware of the storm once it was reported as being over Cuba on September 4th. Remember, though, this was 1900 so communications were sketchy at best and those ships who were in the gulf had no way sending weather observations to shore stations. No satellites existed there was simply no way to warn people what was coming. This particular Saturday started out much like every other weekday. Now I say weekday because in 1900 a six-day workweek was common. There was more rain and wind then usual, but nothing that would have aroused too much suspicion. Eventually though people began to notice the tide began to run higher than usual, but may Galvestonians were used to what they called “overflows” which occurred when high water crept over the beachfront. In fact, most houses and stores were elevated because of that type of issue. This time was different, because the tide kept rising and moving further inland and the wind showed a steady increase. Isaac M. Cline, who was the Weather Bureau official in charge locally, actually went around town in his horse-drawn cart and warned those people living in low areas to evacuate. However, as people are often stubborn, few took his warnings seriously. Soon the bridges that connected Galveston Island to the mainland collapsed, and those people who lived along the beach had waited too long and were unable to even seek shelter in some of the larger building in the downtown area. As you would expect, the houses closest to the beach fell prey to the storm first. In fact, the storm moved debris from one row of buildings and sent it smashing against the row behind it until almost two-thirds of Galveston was destroyed. Any person who was outside and trying to make it to higher ground were often hit by bricks and lumber from destroyed buildings. By 5:15 in the afternoon, the wind was record at a consistent eighty-four miles per hour, over a five-minute period. Gusts of 100 miles per hour were also recorded and some later estimates believe gust reached more than 120 miles per hour. The wind wasn’t the worse of the storm, just about 6:30 in the evening, a wave came sweeping across the shore causing a rise of over four feet in depth which put the entire city at least 15 feet underwater. This wave cause the majority of the damage the city endured. By 10:00 PM, the tide began to fall and the worse was clearly over. Sunday September 9th dawned, and the destruction and devastation was clear to all of the survivors. The city was completely in shambles. In the city alone, somewhere between 6 and 8 thousand people had perished. Over the entire island it’s estimated that between 10 and 12 thousand people lost their lives. Newspapers from around the nation reported on the disaster. The September 10th edition of the Salt Lake Herald had the headline, “Pestilence Menaces Stricken Galveston” with the secondary headline of “Decaying bodies everywhere fill the air with odors and Sickness is on the increase”. The San Francisco Call “Thousands of Dead Strew the Ruins of Galveston.”  In the Houston Post on September 15, there was a drawing labeled, “Condition of Twenty-First Street” the drawing showed the rubble of homes, giving a clear depiction of the devastation the city endured. Due to the high death toll, the Galveston storm that year was, up until the 1980s, still regarded as the worst recorded natural disaster ever to strike North America. In response to the destruction, the city built a six-mile-long seawall that stands at least 17 feet above the average low tide, and that protective barrier has been extended since then. The city learned its lesson from the storm and is now constantly on watch for this type of storm and is constantly revising and trying to strengthen its defenses against the power of hurricanes. In the next episode, I will talk about some of the most powerful storms to hit the Texas coast during the 1960s and 1970s.

Welcome to a new series from the Hidden History of Texas. In this series I will be discussing the various Extreme Weather Events that have taken place in Texas History. This episode is an introductory one, in which I talk about Texas, what a hurricane is, and then I talk an in-depth look at what took place before, during, and after the 1900 Galveston Hurricane struck the Texas Coast. Texas is a land of extremes. From the dry deserts of the Trans-Pecos to the humid Gulf Coast, from the rolling Hill Country to the flat prairies, no state in America faces such a wide spectrum of natural fury. The very size and diversity of Texas mean that when disaster comes, it comes in many forms, hurricanes that drown entire cities, flash floods that sweep away homes in the night, tornadoes that reduce downtowns to rubble, droughts that starve farms for years, and even man-made catastrophes born of fire, gas, and explosives. In no other place is the saying “everything’s bigger in Texas” truer, or more tragic. Disasters here are not just local events. They ripple outward, changing laws, inspiring massive engineering feats, and reshaping the way communities think about safety, survival, and resilience. The Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the drought of the 1950s, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and the Kerrville floods of 2025—each stands not only as a story of loss, but also as a turning point in Texas history.

That's the question. Was Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, a great Texas leader or a terrible human being? And are the two ideas necessarily incompatible? Can a person be a terrible human being and still be considered a great leader? Who was Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar? He was the 2nd president of the Republic of Texas and served from 1838 until 1841. His tenure stands out, at least to me, for two totally contradictory issues. On one hand he absolutely despised the indigenous peoples of Texas and on the other he was a major support of funding public education. Well, public education for white children not all children, but I digress. Lamar was a product of his time. The story is in the podcast ---

Welcome to the Hidden History of Texas I’m Hank Wilson, and I’m talking about the presidios (or forts) the Spanish established alongside the missions.  I’ll also talk about how the French became involved with Texas and their influence on the Spanish expansion of both missions and presidios. Before I go further, please if you don’t mind subscribing to the podcast, it’d be greatly appreciated. Once the Spanish decided to expand their territory northward from its base in central Mexico, they knew that in order to be successful, they needed to send more than just missionaries, and so they created the  missions.  They also understood that they needed to send soldiers to protect the missions and they needed civilians to build towns.  The combination of presidio, the mission, and the civil settlement became the major foundation the Spanish used for colonization. Martín Enríquez, who was the fourth viceroy of New Spain (1568–80), is generally given credit with being the first to build presidios in the Southwest. He ordered the construction along the main road from Mexico City northward to Zacatecas of casas fuertes (which is translated to "fortified houses"). Over time the name was changed to presidio (from Latin praesidium, "garrisoned place"). The pattern of the early presidios was learned from the Moors and by the early eighteenth century, when Spaniards settled Texas, the patterns had not changed much.

The Spanish Build Missions In this episode I want to talk about the missions that the Spanish established when they colonized Texas. I’ll talk about the reasons for the missions, how many were established, and some of the good and the bad that took place in and around the missions. Spanish explorers operated under the philosophy of the three G’s, God, Gold, and Glory, the Spanish missions in Texas are a direct result of that philosophy. How did that come about? When Spain began to colonize the Americas, it was a Roman Catholic nation. That meant that while there was a King and a Queen (Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile) , they in fact owed their power to Rome and the Catholic Church.  They had received Papal Dispensation for Marriage: Ferdinand and Isabella were second cousins, and under canon law, their marriage required a papal dispensation (special permission). They obtained this from Pope Sixtus IV. Once they were in power they established what we know as the Spanish Inquisition. It was founded in 1478 with the aim of suppressing heresy within Spain and its territories. While initially focusing on individuals suspected of practicing non-Catholic beliefs, the Inquisition later targeted forced converts from Judaism and Islam (conversos and Moriscos) who were suspected of secretly practicing their former faiths. They were granted this power to establish the Inquisition in Castile, when Pope Sixtus IV published a bull granting them the exclusive authority to name inquisitors, although the papacy retained the right to formally appoint the royal nominees. As defenders of the Catholic Church, they believed that whenever they encountered new peoples, and that goal was to convert the natives to Catholicism.  Missions played a major role in that effort. Once the Spanish had established settlements in Mexico they turned their vision north, in search of fabled cities of gold and between 1632 and 1793, in order to establish a foothold in their northern most territory, they sent expeditions which all had at least one Spanish friar as a member.  These teams traveled north from Mexico into present-day Texas, where they built dozens of missions and presidios.  A presidio is a military fort and usually was built in very near proximity or at the same location as the mission in order to provide security to the friars and those who lived and worked at the mission. In all, 26 missions were established and maintained in Texas with various results. According to the Spanish belief system at the time their goals were somewhat noble. Establish Christian enclaves with communal property, labor, worship, political life, and social relations all under the guidance and supervision of the missionaries.  The missionaries and Spanish authorities sought to make life within the mission communities resemble that of any Spanish villages and echo Spanish culture.  To do so, the priests not only taught the Indians religion but also life skills, they felt the native peoples lacked. They introduced European livestock, fruits, vegetables, and industry into the Texas area.  The introduced a very structured format for day-to-day living including a highly organized routine of prayer, work, training, meals, and relaxation. Now of course in order to round out the training the missionaries also made certain to celebrate religious holidays and they held other types of celebrations.  As I mentioned, the Spanish plan was for the natives to become productive Spanish citizens and to meet that goal they were taught several vocational skills, such as blacksmithing, masonry, carpentry, weaving, and more. Unfortunately the results didn’t meet the expectations, for several reasons.  The day-to-day life in the missions wasn’t anything the Native Peoples had ever experienced.  The priests supervised all activities in the mission; however, when we look at their methods from our current social beliefs,

The Hidden History of Texas Looking for Gold and Glory – Before I get too far into it today, how about subscribing to the podcast. Tell your friends that you’ve found the coolest place on the net to learn about Texas history. Well maybe not the coolest, but a pretty cool place, thanks I’d appreciate it. As I’ve discussed in the past, the Spanish presence in the Americas was pretty much an accident. Until Columbus bumped into the islands of Guanahani (Watling Island in the Bahamas) which Columbus named "San Salvador", Cuba, and Hispaniola (present-day Haiti and the Dominican Republic). They had no idea anything or anyone was between them and Asia, remember they were looking for a shortcut route to India. Even then it wasn’t until 1519 when Alonso Álvarez de Pineda mapped the Gulf Coast for the first time that they began to realize they had stumbled upon something far different than what they originally thought. So, what intrigued the Spanish so much about this new continent they encountered? I’ve talked about how in 1528 Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca, explored the Gulf Coast and his exploration fell apart. He got shipwrecked and he and some of his crew wandered across present-day Texas and northern Mexico. During their journeys and capture they heard stories from the people about cities or places that were “wealthy”. Now we don’t know exactly what the indigenous people meant by wealth or how they described the various locations, but de Vaca’s later telling of those encounters sparked an interest in what the Spanish called or were labeled the "Seven Cities of Gold" or “the Seven Cities of Cibola” But why? Why would these stories matter to the Spanish? In the early 8th century Muslims had conquered what is now Spain and Portugal. The story goes that in 714 seven Catholic bishops and their faithful followers fled across the Atlantic to a land known as Antilia, the name of which, incidentally, was the source of the name Antilles, which was initially applied to the West Indian islands of the Caribbean. The story was that when they fled, they took with them vast amounts of wealth, especially in gold and silver and each of the bishops had established a city. The story, or fable, was that those 7 cities were to be found in this ‘new’ country. However, the Antillean islands failed to produce large quantities of gold and silver, but by 1539 the lands that Cabeza de Vaca and his companions reported on were thought to contain an El Dorado (or The Gold) known as Cíbola. In that year, Viceroy Antonio de Mendoza dispatched Fray Marcos de Niza and the African Estevanico to search the area. This exploration cost the life of Estevanico at Háwikuh, the southernmost of the Zuñi pueblos in western New Mexico. On his return to New Spain (today’s Mexico), Fray Marcos reported that he had seen golden cities, the smallest of which was larger than Mexico City. Today we know that the good frier exaggerated what he saw, why I have no idea, but he definitely didn’t see any golden cities and certainly not one larger than Mexico City would have been at that time. In 1539, Mexico City, then known as Tenochtitlan, was a large and populous city. Estimates for its population ranged from 200,000 to 400,000, so as I said, the good frier was a, as we say, a teller of tall tales. However, in 1540 a follow-up expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado captured Háwikuh and learned the true nature of it as well as other nearby pueblos. In the following year, disappointed over the failure to find the Seven Cities of Cíbola Coronado launched a futile search for Quivira-(another legendary wealthy city) an undertaking that crossed the Panhandle. His toute took him from Arizona to New Mexico into Texas up to Oklahoma, and finally Kansas. It was there that he did find Quivira, it was situated in what is now central Kansas, now nobody is really certain of its exact location, and most think it was near present-day Lyons or Salina. What did he find?

Welcome to Episode 67 of the Hidden History of Texas – I’ve been discussing the 1st peoples of Texas, those who were here when the Spanish arrived and today, I’m going to discuss The Comanche, Kiowas, Tonkawas.Remember how I discussed some of the differences between the Hunter-gathers tribes (mostly nomadic lifestyle) and the farming tribes (mostly stationary lifestyle). I brought up some of the religious beliefs and how the majority of tribes embraced the idea of a supreme being or multiple gods, and they had creation stories. For agricultural tribes, various ceremonies accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game, which served as food for the tribe. One of the major tribes of hunter-gatherers was the Comanche. The Comanches started out in the Great Plains and began to migrate south due to pressure from other tribes such as the Blackfeet and Crow. It’s important to remember that throughout human history, groups of people have consistently been replace by other groups who were more powerful. Eventually the Comanche ended up in Texas, where there was abundant game, a warm climate, and an animal that would eventually become almost synonymous with them, the wild mustang.The Comanche inhabited most of the South Plains including much of North, Central, and West Texas, this part of Texas was known as Comanche country, or Comanchería. Once they arrived and settled on the Southern Plains the Utes called them Komántcia, which means "enemy," or, literally, "anyone who wants to fight me all the time." However, they called themselves Nermernuh, or "the People." We know of as many as 13 different Comanche groups and most likely there were others that were never identified. Several major bands played important roles in recorded Comanche and Texas history. The southernmost band was called Penateka, or "Honey Eaters" and their range extended from the Edwards Plateau to the headwaters of the Central Texas Rivers. A band named Nokomi or “Those who Turn Back” lived in an area north of the Penateka, they roamed from the Cross Timbers region of North Texas to the mountains of New Mexico. Their range was shared by two smaller bands, the Tanima ("Liver-Eaters") and the Tenawa ("Those Who Stay Downstream") and are often referred to as the Middle Comanches. The Quahadis ("Antelopes"), roamed the high plains of the Llano Estacado. One interesting fact about the Llano Estacado is that the Southern end of the plateau lacks a distinct physical boundary; it blends into the Edwards Plateau, (in Central Texas, where this program is recorded) and the Johnson Creek branch of the Colorado River, east of Big Spring, which is most likely its boundary. The Llano Estacado comprises all or part of thirty-three Texas and four New Mexico counties and covers approximately 32,000 square miles, a larger area than all of New England. It is part of what was known to early explorers and settlers as the Great American Desert, a semiarid region with average annual precipitation of eighteen to twenty inches. The Comanche weren’t the only tribe that lived in that area, the Kiowa also shared territory that was mostly in the Panhandle and Oklahoma. The Kiowas originally came from the Montana area around the Yellowstone and Missouri rivers. As they migrated southward, they quickly learned to adapt to the South Plains by acquiring and using horses, especially in their hunting of buffalo. They gained their horses from the Spanish who also supplied them with slaves and guns and over time they became almost a completely nomadic group, and eventually they became one of the most feared and disliked of the Plains tribes. They entered into peaceful co-existence with the Comanche and with help from the Wichitas and Taovaya received guns and ammunition from the French and British. The Kiowa camps were designed to be broken down and moved quickly, often within 30 minutes.

This is a more in-depth look at the First Peoples of Texas. Why” because there were people here long before the Spanish and any other Europeans set foot on the land, First, allow me to try and clear up some terminology especially one word and that word is “Indians”.  The people Columbus encountered when he first reached the shores of the continent where misnamed, because Columbus thought he had reached India and as we know, he was wrong.  That’s all I’m going to say about the subject. The inhabitants themselves did not refer to themselves in any specific way, other than often using the term “the people”, they did refer to other tribes with names. For example, the early Spanish encountered a group of nomadic buffalo hunters, they called Querechos.  That group was later named Apache, which came from the Zuni word for enemy “apachu” which is what they were called by the Navajo.  While some tribes were “farmers” the Apaches were hunter-gatherers and didn’t do a lot of agriculture.  When we speak of the tribes, it is important that we remember that those tribes that were hunter-gatherers had a certain lifestyle dictated by necessity as did those who were farmers.  There is no one broad brush we can paint all tribes with; however, there are certain characteristics that many tribes have in common with one another. One area that was of particular importance to all tribes was in the area of religion or spirituality. Prior to the arrival of the Europeans in the 16th century, the tribes that lived in the area that is now Texas maintained a variety of religious practices.  The majority of them embraced the idea of some type of supreme being and they all had creation stories.  They were usually not monotheistic; many held a belief in a variety of powers often organized in a form of hierarchy. For agricultural tribes, there were various ceremonies that accompanied the planting and harvesting of crops. Hunter-gatherers often sought the help of spirits before searching for game which served as food for the tribe. Most tribes saw the universe in three levels.  The upper level was one of predictability, lower level of chaos, and the level where humans lived which was a mixture of both of the other levels.  The world was divided into 6 regions, north, south, east, west, up, and down and the year had a cold period and a hot period. All believe there is a spirit in everything, including animals such as buffalo, wolves, bears, etc. Spiritual leader shaman,AKA medicine man while all shamans were medicine men, not all medicine men were shamans. Shamans in addition to using plants and instructions from spiritual helpers, they also went into trances to visit land of the dead, where they gathered information on the sickness. What were some of the Hunter-Gatherer Tribes and where did they live? Comanches – North Central / Northwest Texas Kiowas – Panhandle – shared territory with Comanche Held a summer Sun Dance – to insure regeneration of the Buffalo Tonkawas - Gulf Coast (Houston area) Venerated the Great Wolf Karankawas – Gulf Coast (shared territory with Tonkawas – inner gulf coast) Apache – (Lipan) South and Southwest Texas – (Mescalero) West Texas – El Paso Coahuiltecans (KOE-ha-HWEE-ta-kanz) Rio Grande valley in what is now southern Texas and northeastern Mexico Farmers Farming groups tended to revere the earth, corn, rain, sun, and developed their beliefs based on fertility, and crop cycles. Spiritual leader priest – The medicine man or woman, acted like Shamans even going into trances for healing help.  Priests, who most often were men, were religious specialists, had a long period of training valued not for healing abilities but because they knew the rituals and ceremonies to ensure bountiful harvests and healthy people. They also had witches who were evil.  Could change their appearance, become animals, or even sparks of a fire. They stole people’s lives and souls.

Previously I talked about the world in the 14 and1500s and how the early Spanish explorers while looking for a path to India bumped into Texas, and a little bit about the Native peoples they encountered.  Today, I will further explore some of the trials and Tribulations of The Early Spanish Explorers of Texas.  I’ll also touch on the geography of Texas because that plays a major role in how Texas was explored, and it affected the lives of those who lived here.  There is an old Texas saying, “the sun has rose, the sun has set, and I ain’t out of Texas yet”  Texas is huge, if you are going to drive from Louisiana through Texas to New Mexico, you will travel at least 982 miles (or 1,580 km for our non-American listeners).  When you look at a map of Texas, you can see it does take up a whole bunch of the middle of the country; in fact, it takes up over 250 thousand square miles, and that’s a lot of real estate.  Texas has four distinct physical or geographical regions and, in my opinion, those regions played an important role in the exploration and early settlements in Texas.  How the early Spanish explorers dealt with the physical conditions and the people who were native to the various regions often decided if they lived or died.  The four regions are the Gulf Coastal Plains, the North Central Plains, the Great Plains, and the Basin and Range Province. Not a complete trancript

(Partial Transcript) Episode 64 -Texas isn’t Texas, Mexico isn’t Mexico and Europeans go exploring and bump into a continent and are surprised to find people already there. When Europeans first encountered Texas, the world was a very different place. Well, maybe not too different because countries were fighting over land, gold, religion, natural resources, and political power much like we do today.  However, it was still different; there were no cars, planes, trains, buses, electricity, fast food joints, and certainly no TV, Radio, and Internet. Moreover, without modern technology, it took a whole lot more courage to go exploring than it does today. In the late 1400s, around 1488 Portugal became the first country whose sailors were brave enough to sail out into the Atlantic Ocean. Actually they weren’t, the Vikings were. Vikings sailed the  Northern Atlantic around 1100 AD; but for the sake of this story, we’ll give the Portuguese some credit. The Portuguese exploration was primarily along the coast of Africa.  Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to sail around the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern tip of Africa and made it to Asia.  OK, remember that most of the history you learned in school was originally written by Europeans and then turned into something that Americans could relate to so it is all very Americanized. It turns out that the Chinese admiral Zheng He, sailed all around Africa and Asia around 1404. Still though Dias’ trip was important because otherwise, to travel to Asia for trading purposes to pick up all the goods that society wanted required a lengthy overland trip.   His success lead mariners from other nations to wonder if there might be a shorter way to Asia that did not encroach on Portuguese routes.  Even though people wondered about a shorter route, there were few nations with the capability to send ships out into the Atlantic to find an answer.  Things changed when Isabella of Castille and her husband Ferdinand II of Aragon succeeded in driving out the Muslims who had ruled Southern Spain for over 300 years and united the country under a Catholic flag.  The conquest was complete by 1492 and it was at that time, Christopher Columbus convinced the monarchs that by finding a Western route to India, Spain would have increased military, economic, and just as important, religious power.  As many remember from American history classes in grade school children are taught that Christopher Columbus “discovered” America. In truth, while he was one of the first Europeans (right now I won’t talk about the Vikings who landed on the Coast of Canada 300 years earlier) to reach what, in his time, was the “New World”.  The islands he encountered are the Bahamas, Cuba, and Hispaniola in 1492 and in 1493; he landed in our current Puerto Rico.  All islands inhabited by people as they had been for thousands of years.  Columbus claimed all the land he encountered for Spain, and three years later in 1496, the Spanish put their first settlement in Santo Domingo in what is now the Dominican Republic.  From those early arrival points and settlements, the Spanish began to explore the region, usually going up and down the coast and mapping the shorelines, still looking for a short cut to India.  By 1501, Spanish sailors had explored all the way, up to what is now Newfoundland and Labrador in present day Canada.  To reach North America from the islands, it was inevitable that the ships would bump into Florida, and they did. However, they thought that Florida was just another island.  In 1519, the governor of Jamaica, Francisco de Garay, sent out an expedition to explore what was considered an unknown country between the Río Pánuco of Mexico (which empties near current day Tampico, Mexico) and the "island" of Florida.  Lt. Alonso Álvarez de Pineda set out with four ships and 270 men to explore, and he sailed into the current Gulf of Mexico. Upon reaching the west coast of Florida and sailing nort...

This is Episode 63 – They were known as the “black Codes” . Remember now in the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but the issues that had caused the war in the first place were still around. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and Black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. If we’re being honest if you look around today, you’d swear there are people who want to take us back to those days, people who are still threatened by any and all minorities. Why do I say that, well, it’s because of two things that took place in America after the civil war and actually weren’t undone until the mid-1960s. And even though laws have been passed, the prejudice that existed before the mid-60s still exists today, because today’s boomers were raised and lived under what was known as Black codes and many of them passed their old prejudices down to their children. So, what were Black Codes?  After the war, white southern leaders were in no mood to give their newly freed slaves any rights. Now they couldn’t just re-enslave them, so they did what legislators do, they passed laws that severely restricted the rights of their black citizens. For example, here in Texas the Eleventh Legislature produced a series of laws in 1866 whose sole purpose was to reaffirm the inferior position that slaves and free blacks had held in the south and to regulate black labor. In Texas, the codes clearly reflected the unwillingness of White Texans to accept blacks as equals and also their fears that freedmen would not work unless coerced. To ensure this happened, the codes were written so that the state was able to continue legal discrimination between whites and blacks. One measure they took, was to amend the 1856 penal code in which they emphasized a definite line between whites and blacks by defining all individuals with one-eighth or more African blood as persons of color, subject to special provisions in the law. The basic cornerstone of the codes was an "Act to define and declare the rights of persons lately known as Slaves, and Free Persons of Color" passed in 1866. Which some did declare that it was a ‘civil rights’ law, and while this law did give blacks, some basic property rights; for instance, they could make and enforce contracts; sue and be sued; make wills; and lease, hold, or dispose of real and personal property. The state further guaranteed blacks the rights of personal security and liberty and prohibited discrimination against them in criminal law. Some people then, and even some politicians today claim that what they passed was a civil rights bill, but was it? Actually, no it wasn’t. Why? It specifically left in effect a multitude of legal restrictions that had been passed in earlier bills. For example, blacks were not allowed to vote or hold office, they could not serve on juries. Now they could testify in court, but only if the case involved another black person. Interracial marriage was specifically outlawed. In case, these restrictions weren’t enough to ‘as the saying went’ keep them in their place, other restrictions were added through different laws. Railroads were required to keep blacks separate from whites and that gave an opportunity to create segregated facilities in almost all public buildings. What about education, after all it is the cornerstone for a strong society. Texas created an education law that specifically excluded blacks from sharing in the public-school fund. Well,

The Hidden History of Texas. Episode 62 – The civil war has ended part 1. We are wrapping up talking about the history of Texas during the Civil war. As I’ve mentioned in earlier episodes there isn’t an exact count of how many battles and skirmishes were fought in Texas. Most of the Texans who fought for either the confederacy or the union took part in battles in Tennessee, Virginia, or elsewhere in the South.  Today I want to talk about Texas after the civil war, and folks it’s not a pretty picture. The Civil War is generally thought to have ended on April 9th, 1865, when General Lee surrendered the army of Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House. However, it was not officially ended until over a year later when President Johnson on August 20th, 1866, declared "And I do further proclaim that the said insurrection is at an end and that peace, order, tranquility, and civil authority now exists in and throughout the whole of the United States of America."  President Johnson’s belief that since the war was over then “peace, order, and tranquility” would be seen throughout the United States was soon to be dashed. In the decade that followed the Civil War, Texas was in as much confusion and chaos as it had ever seen in its short history as a state. Not only were Texans faced with political, social, and economic issues that had been caused by the war but also by the issues that had caused the war in the first place. It is true, that emancipation freed the slaves and that act actually dramatically altered the labor system that many of the wealthy landowners and economic power brokers had come to rely on. It also forced a new dynamic between the white and black populations. Not only did these changes have the potential to wreak havoc on the plantation owners’ economic power, but it also threatened both their social and political status. The period of Reconstruction provided a massive challenge to the old establishment. Texans always took pride in their independence so when in 1865 the U.S. Army moved into the state, tensions arose. The Army felt it was their duty to ensure that the State government stayed loyal to the Federal government. Additionally, they were there to protect the rights of the recently freed slaves. Gen. George A. Custer, (later to die at the battle of the Little Big Horn) was stationed at Austin, declared that the army should have complete control of the state until such times, as the Federal Government was "satisfied that a loyal sentiment prevails in at least a majority of the inhabitants." This was of course unacceptable to the locals and continued insistence upon loyalty was a threat and promised an indefinite loss of power among antebellum and wartime political leaders. To make matter worse, in September of 1865 the federal government created the Freedman Bureau. The bureau was led by Maj. Gen. Edgar M. Gregory. The bureau’s primary responsibility was to take control and make certain that freedmen (that is former slaves) were able to transition from slavery to freedom. While this was a laudable goal Gregory, and his successors failed miserably in implementation. They believed that they had to make certain that former slaves were able to work were-ever they desired. Since the same people who had owned the slaves still owned the plantations, which were almost the only place work was available, that meant that many Blacks had to work in places they had once been slaves. Due to black codes, they were unable to own land, and were forced to sign contracts that paid low wages or gave them shares in the harvest. Even though many of the while planters complained about how hard their new employees worked most of them were privately happy with the new system, since it lowered their cost even below what owning slaves cost. This also insured that their “tenants” remained in dept to them, much like peons or serfs. The bureau also attempted to provide educational opportunities ...