Junction High School - Golden Eagle Yearbook (Junction, TX)

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COLONIZATION, REVOLUTION AND PIONEER INSTITUTIONS Simultaneous with the Mexican Revolution, the Indians slowed the westward expansion of settlers. In 1817, Secretary of War John C. Calhoun initiated the policy of removing all Indians from the American frontier to the Louisiana meridian — the western extremity of the timberlands and beyond. In conjunction with this action, effective in 1825, land laws of Spain and Mexico became more attractive to settlers than those of the United States. By 1820, land was selling for 50 times less in Texas. The movement of settlers into Texas was largely the story of two men, Moses Austin and his son, Stephen Fuller Austin. On Dec. 3, 1820, the elder Austin approached Gov. Antonio de Martinez in San Antonio, requesting permission to establish a colony of 300 families in Texas. Moses Austin died soon after his return home, and it was Stephen F. Austin, then 27 years old. A large part of Texas was once Comanche country. Pictured here is Quanah Parker, one of the last Comanche war chiefs, son of Chief Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker. Photo from the Rare Collection of the Texas Dallas History and Archives Division. Dallas Public Library. who would complete his father's task. Stephen F. Austin later earned the title, Father of Texas. By the beginning of the Texas revolution, the name Texan represented a group of tough, self-reliant individualists. After three centuries of Spanish rule, the sensitive Mexicans were unprepared for self-government. In 1825, President John Quincy Adams offered Mexico $1,000,000 for the removal of the border to the Rio Grande River. President Andrew Jackson raised Adams' offer. Again, Mexico declined the offer. It was becoming apparent a violent solution was the only course of action. Folk tales say Americans never fought better than they did in Texas. They fought for a new way of life — as cattlemen and farmers on the brazen Texas frontier. While life on the early frontier has sometimes been compared to the Old South, most Texans could only dream of large plantations. They were small subsistence farmers with primitive homes and farming methods. Inadequate frontier transportation systems were later updated to increase the efficiency of mail and cattle delivery and cotton exportation. Early settlers worried about Indians, epidemics, weather and crop failure. Early Texans acquired a reputation for lawlessness. Settled towns provided a sanctuary for saddle-weary range riders. In 1850, the state had no spare towns. Galveston, with its 4,177 citizens, was the largest. San Antonio and Houston followed. Austin, long buffeted by Indians, had only 639 residents. Riding the crest of a population boom, San Antonio's population rose to 8,236 by 1860. The best buildings in town were usually the hotels Service was often poor. An exception was the full two-and-one-half-story Menger Hotel, on the Alamo Plaza in San Antonio. The building of fine-cut stone, together with its carpiets, decorations and furniture, cost $16,000. Only wealthy p eople could afford a room in the Menger. The rank-and-file slept in the wagon ya rds.

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 'Ifich'i HERITAGE xcept for Alaska, Texas is the largest state in the union with 267,399 square miles of territory extending from the High Plains of the Panhandle to the Gulf of Mexico. An aerial view of Texas would divide our state into three regions: the Atlantic-Gulf Coastal Plain, the Great Plains of Central North America and the Rocky Mountain system. The Coastal Region has heavy soil and a variety of vegetation. East Texas is a region spanned with lush farms and pine forests. The area produces pork, beef, poultry and dairy products. The Central Texas Prairies Region extends from Austin northward to the Red River. Rich, black soils produce grain, cotton and livestock- support crops. Texas comes from the Spanish word, tejas, meaning friends” or allies.” Early Spanish explorers and mission- aries applied the name to the territory between the Trinity and Red Rivers called the Land of the Indians. THE INDIANS The first Europeans found many Indian tribes in Texas and a variety of native cultures — the Caddoans of East Texas; the Karankawas along the Gulf Coast; the Wichita and Tonkowa tribes in Central Texas; the Coahuiltecans, a number of small tribes who lived south of San Antonio; and the Apaches, who lived in the western part of the state and later were forced to share their land with the Comanches. Among the nomadic Comanches was the famous Quanah Parker, one of the last Comanche war chiefs. He was the son of Chief Nocona and Cynthia Ann Parker, a captive white woman. The Comanches were superb horsemen and warriors and made life unsafe for settlers until about 1875. SPANISH AND FRENCH EXPLORERS In 1519, Alsonso Alvarez de Pineda mapped the Gulf of Mexico’s coast. Pineda spent 40 days at the mouth of the Rio Grande River — which he called River of Palms” — and recommended a settlement be constructed at the site. Two hundred years later the first settlers arrived. The first Spaniards to enter Texas were Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca and three companions. In 1682, a trader from Canada was the first settler in Texas. The 1763 Treaty of Paris gave Florida to England from Spain in exchange for Spain retaining possession of western Louisiana. Between 1763 and 1821, Texas was ruled by the Spanish, then by Mexico before winning independence.

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o is for the Oil we take from the ground exas in 1900 boasted a population of three million. Cities were growing, lifestyles reflected a diverse cultural ■ background, and effects of industrialization were noticeable. ■ But the state was decidedly rural. Newspapers advertised land and agriculture. The state’s leading industries were cotton, cattle and land. For Texas, the 20th century did not begin until Jan. 10, 1901 when the Lucas No. 1 oil well blew out at Spindletop, Texas — near Beaumont — and brought in the state’s first gusher. The state’s history changed its course at that moment. Oil had come to Texas. It took six days to cap the Lucas No. 1 as the well spilled an estimated 75,000 barrels of oil each day. Thousands of spectators rushed to see the spectacle. In 1902, Spindletop accounted for 94 percent of the state's oil production. The salt dome formations around Beaumont were now housing wells within a 150-mile radius which created an oil glut attracting global attention. At one point, oil was selling for three cents-a-barrel while drinking water for oil-field workers sold for five cents-a-cup. The Texas Gulf Coast became a magnet for large corporations and entrepreneurs. Among those building refineries, pipelines and export facilities in the Port Arthur-Beaumont region were the Gulf Oil, Sun Oil and Texas Companies. By 1911, a group of Houston investors formed their own company, the Humble Oil and Refining Company, later affiliated with Standard of New Jersey. These smaller, independently-owned oil Today’s wildcats are a different breed. As powerful and dangerous as the sea itself, massive offshore drilling rigs line the Texas Gulf Coast.