The Handbook of Texas is a digital state encyclopedia developed by the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) that is freely accessible for students, teachers, scholars, and the general public. The Handbook consists of overview, general, and biographical entries focused on the entire history of Texas from the indigenous Native Americans and the Prehistoric Era to the state's diverse population and the Modern Age. These entries emphasize the role Texans played in state, national, and world history.
Today's Popular Entries
On June 19 ("Juneteenth"), 1865, Union general Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston and issued General Order Number 3, which read, "The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor. The freed are advised to remain at their present homes, and work for wages. They are informed that they will not be allowed to collect at military posts; and that they will not be supported in idleness either there or elsewhere." The tidings of freedom reached the approximately 250,000 slaves in Texas gradually as individual plantation owners informed their slaves over the months following the end of the war. The news elicited an array of personal celebrations, some of which have been described in The Slave Narratives of Texas (1974). The first broader celebrations of Juneteenth were used as political rallies and to teach freed African Americans about their voting rights. Within a short time, however, Juneteenth was marked by festivities throughout the state, some of which were organized by official Juneteenth committees.
Nineveh is on Farm Road 3178 eight miles northwest of Malvern, thirteen miles northeast of Centerville, and sixteen miles southeast of Buffalo in central eastern Leon County. It was established in the late 1800s on the stagecoach route from Buffalo to Crockett. In the 1890s Nineveh became notorious for fistfights, gunfights, and quarrels, especially between members of the Democratic party and the Populist party (see PEOPLE'S PARTY). The town name was suggested by a Miss McCreary when the post office was established in 1900. Benjamin F. Tubb was the first postmaster. In 1907 the community had two schools for some twenty-five White and Black students. Circuit-riding preachers held church services in the school building. In 1914 Nineveh had a population of fifty, a cotton gin, and a general store. By 1925 the population had grown to a high of 150, and it was reported at that level through the mid-1940s. In 1950 the town reported eighty residents and four businesses. The post office was discontinued in December 1966, but in 1968 Nineveh had 101 residents and five businesses. The population was still reported as 101 through 2000.
The Goliad Massacre, the tragic termination of the Goliad Campaign of 1836, is of all the episodes of the Texas Revolution the most infamous. Though not as salient as the battle of the Alamo, the massacre immeasurably garnered support for the cause against Mexico both within Texas and in the United States, thus contributing greatly to the Texan victory at the battle of San Jacinto and sustaining the independence of the Republic of Texas. The execution of James W. Fannin, Jr.'s command in the Goliad Massacre was not without precedent, however, and Mexican president and general Antonio López de Santa Anna, who ultimately ordered the exterminations, was operating within Mexican law. Therefore, the massacre cannot be considered isolated from the events and legislation preceding it.
The Texas Revolution began in October 1835 with the battle of Gonzales and ended on April 21, 1836, with the battle of San Jacinto, but earlier clashes between government forces and frontier colonists make it impossible to set dogmatic limits in terms of military battles, cultural misunderstandings, and political differences that were a part of the revolution. The seeds of the conflict were planted during the last years of Spanish rule (1815–21) when Anglo Americans drifted across the Neutral Ground and the eastern bank of the Red River into Spanish territory, squatted on the land, and populated Spanish Texas. More alarming than these illegal residents, who only wanted to "settle and stay," were filibusters such as Philip Nolan, who commandeered portions of Spanish lands for personal gain and political capital. During the fading years of New Spain, its ruling council, the Cortes, worried about securing their far northern frontier and began to encourage foreign immigration to Texas, including Anglo American colonization. One who was eager to take advantage of a change in Spanish policy was Moses Austin, who received a commission from the Spanish governor of Texas to bring 300 families and establish a colony, thereby rebuilding some of his lost fortune associated with the Panic of 1819. Upon his death in 1821, his son and heir Stephen Fuller Austin fulfilled his father's vision and became the first empresario of Texas.
In Galveston on the rain-darkened and gusty morning of Saturday, September 8, 1900, newspaper readers saw, on page three of the local Daily News (see GALVESTON NEWS), an early-morning account of a tropical hurricane prowling the Gulf of Mexico. On the previous day Galveston had been placed under a storm warning by the central office of the Weather Bureau (now the National Weather Service) in Washington, D.C. A one-column headline announced, "Storm in the Gulf." Under that, a small subhead proclaimed, "Great Damage Reported on Mississippi and Louisiana Coasts-Wires Down-Details Meagre." The story, only one paragraph long, had been sent out of New Orleans at 12:45 A.M. that same day, but it added nothing to the information presented in the headlines. Additional details were unavailable "owing to the prostration of the wires." Beneath the New Orleans report appeared a brief local story: "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."
Rhodes was eighteen miles northwest of Brazoria in northwest Brazoria County. A Rhodes post office was established in 1888 and discontinued in 1890, when service was transferred to Damon Mound. The town was evidently named for Joseph A. Rhodes, its first postmaster. In 1890 the community had two general stores, a sawmill, a gin, and a population of fifty.
Thomas Lee Charlton, professor of history, founder of Baylor University’s Institute for Oral History, university administrator, and director of the Texas Collection at Baylor, was born to Mary Zola (Broussard) Charlton and Thomas Ogden Charlton at Helena, Arkansas, on December 18, 1936. His father was a long-tenured employee of Gulf States Utilities, and at the age of five, Charlton and his family moved to Beaumont, Texas, where he graduated from Beaumont High School in 1955. He then entered Baylor University as a pre-med major with aspirations to be a physician, until a Western civilization course taught by Robert Reid turned his interests to the humanities. Charlton earned his B.A. in history from Baylor University in 1959. He earned his M.A. from the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and had studied under Walter Prescott Webb and Joe B. Frantz. He then taught for eight years at San Antonio College while completing his Ph.D. at U.T. under Frantz.
Freddie Joe Steinmark, University of Texas football player who became a national symbol of courage and determination, was born on January 27, 1949, in Denver, Colorado, the son of Fred Gene and Gloria (Marchetti) Steinmark. His father had been a professional baseball player and encouraged him in all sports, so that Freddie had an early introduction to football, playing during his elementary and junior high school years on the Rough Riders team of the citywide Young America League in Denver. At Wheat Ridge High School there he lettered in football, baseball, and basketball; throughout his entire sports career, Steinmark's teams rarely lost a game. He ranked twenty-fifth scholastically in his high school graduating class of 530, and in his senior year he received the Golden Helmet Award from the Denver Post as the outstanding scholar-athlete in Colorado; he also received the Colorado Hall of Fame award as the state's outstanding high school athlete. In 1967 he received a football scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. Despite his relatively small size, 5 feet, 10 inches, about 160 pounds, Steinmark was a valuable addition to the Texas Longhorn team. He, played defensive back on the freshman team and started in that position on the varsity during his sophomore and junior years. As a sophomore he was the team's leading punt returner and was named an All-Southwest Conference athlete-scholar while majoring in chemical engineering. On December 6, 1969, when Texas and Arkansas were rated first and second teams in the nation, respectively, he played in the game at Fayetteville, called the "Big Shootout," that gave the national championship to the Texas Longhorns. The game was important in sports annals because it determined the national football champion on the one-hundredth anniversary of college football and was witnessed by one of the largest television audiences in history. President Richard M. Nixon was in attendance and congratulated the team personally.
This entry is currently being revised and the new version will be available soon!
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire on June 28, 1914, set off a series of events that quickly led to a global war, called the Great War and later World War I, between the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire, and their allies against the Entente or Allied Powers of Great Britain, France, Russia, and later joined by Japan and Italy. The United States, determined to stay out of European affairs, formally remained neutral until declaring war against Germany and its allies on April 6, 1917, and stayed engaged militarily until fighting ceased on November 11, 1918. Texas and Texans made significant contributions to what was then called the Great War on the front lines, on the home front, and from positions within the federal government. Although U.S. involvement on the front lines was relatively short, events and conditions of the war created long-lasting changes in Texas militarily, socially, economically, and politically.
The Comanches, exceptional horsemen who dominated the Southern Plains, played a prominent role in Texas frontier history throughout much of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Anthropological evidence indicates that they were originally a mountain tribe, a branch of the Northern Shoshones, who roamed the Great Basin region of the western United States as crudely equipped hunters and gatherers. Both cultural and linguistic similarities confirm the Comanches' Shoshone origins. The Comanche language is derived from the Uto-Aztecan linguistic family and is virtually identical to the language of the Northern Shoshones. Sometime during the late seventeenth century, the Comanches acquired horses, and that acquisition drastically altered their culture. The life of the pedestrian tribe was revolutionized as they rapidly evolved into a mounted, well-equipped, and powerful people. Their new mobility allowed them to leave their mountain home and their Shoshone neighbors and move onto the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where game was plentiful.
The Chisholm Trail was the major route out of Texas for livestock. Although it was used only from 1867 to 1884, the longhorn cattle driven north along it provided a steady source of income that helped the impoverished state recover from the Civil War. Youthful trail hands on mustangs gave a Texas flavor to the entire range cattle industry of the Great Plains and made the cowboy an enduring folk hero.
Special Projects
Handbook of Dallas-Fort Worth
The tremendous growth of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex from the 19th through 21st centuries far outpaced the recorded history of this economically vital area. Texas is often associated with its rural ranching history, yet as the decades passed, the cultural and economic identities of Lone Star State evolved to reflect the increasing importance and influence of the urban areas. No area in Texas illustrates this transformation better than DFW—a well-traveled location during the cattle trailing and early railroad eras that blossomed into a modern financial and cultural hotspot in the present day. We need a more complete documentation of the DFW metroplex, and the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA) seeks to correct this imbalance in the historical record.
Handbook of Texas Medicine
Texans lay claim to a dynamic medical history. The state has borne witness to deadly disease outbreaks, the establishment of world-renowned medical institutions, and the discovery of new therapeutics and cures. From the first documented surgery on Texas soil by Cabeza de Vaca in the sixteenth century to the innovative research spearheaded by university laboratories to develop vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19, the medical story of Texas is reflective of the many ways Texans have engaged to protect and promote their health and well-being. Today, the healthcare industry represents a significant share of the Texas economy, contributing more than $108 billion to the state’s GDP, according to data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. Yet, despite the fundamental role medicine has played in shaping the growth and development of the state, a comprehensive and authoritative medical history of Texas remains unfulfilled. With the development of the Handbook of Texas Medicine, TSHA proudly presents a unique opportunity to address this disparity.
Handbook of Texas Women
The Handbook of Texas Women project strives to expand on the Handbook of Texas by promoting a more inclusive and comprehensive history of Texas. Texas women make Texas history, and TSHA wants to significantly recognize the various ways women have shaped the state’s history at home, across the state, nationally, and abroad. The impacts of women on Texas history are often overlooked, and as more and more people are accessing information using smartphones, tablets, and other mobile technologies, this project will seize upon the unprecedented opportunities of the digital age in order to reshape how Texas women’s history will be understood, preserved, and disseminated in the twenty-first century.
Handbook of Texas Music
What is it about Texas music? Trying to define it is like reviewing a dictionary. There is way too much detail to try to pin it down. However, this much is clear: Texans have given American music its distinctive voice, and that's no brag, just fact.
Handbook of Tejano History
The TSHA is proud to announce the launch of the Handbook of Tejano History, which contains more than 1,200 entries, including 300 new entries, detailing the critical influence of Tejanos on the Lone Star State. Released on March 29, 2016, to commemorate the fourth anniversary of the Tejano Monument unveiling on the Capitol grounds in Austin, the Handbook of Tejano History is the culmination of a two-year effort involving dozens of researchers, educators, students, and Texas history enthusiasts committed to capturing and sharing Tejano contributions to Texas life and culture. Originally conceived in partnership with the board of directors of the Tejano Monument, Inc., the Association’s Handbook of Tejano History joins a number of other important initiatives born out of the legacy of the Tejano Monument, including the Tejano History Curriculum Project and Austin Independent School District’s Cuauhtli Academy/Academia Cuauhtli.
Handbook of African American Texas
African Americans have been part of the landscape of Texas for as long as Europeans and their descendants. Spanning a period of more than five centuries, African American presence began in 1528 with the arrival of Estevanico, an African slave who accompanied the first Spanish exploration of the land in the southwestern part of the United States that eventually became Texas. While African Americans have been subjected to slavery, segregation, and discrimination during this long history, they have made significant contributions to the growth and development of Texas. They have influenced Texas policies and social standards. Living and working with other ethnic groups, they have helped create a unique Texas culture. Historians have not always acknowledged the role that African Americans have played in the Lone Star State. Although numerous studies of Texas’s past appeared in the twentieth century, until 1970 there remained too many empty pages in the history of the state concerning the black population. This situation has changed since the 1970s, but the need to capture more of the African American experience still exists. For this reason, we are happy to launch the Handbook of African American Texas.
Handbook of Civil War Texas
At 4:30 on the morning of April 12, 1861—one hundred and fifty years ago this spring (2011)—Confederate States of America artillery opened fire on United States troops in Fort Sumter, South Carolina, beginning the American Civil War. Texans, who had voted overwhelmingly in February 1861 to secede from the Union and then watched their state join the Confederacy in March, thus became involved in a four-year conflict that would take the lives of many and leave none untouched. Texas escaped much of the terrible destruction of the war for a simple reason—United States troops never managed to invade and occupy the state’s interior. In sum, the Civil War exacted a huge price, primarily in terms of lives lost and ruined in the Confederate Army and in the privations of those left at home. However, the conflict had two vitally positive results for Texas: It freed the state’s more than 200,000 enslaved people, and it destroyed the curse of the ‘Peculiar Institution’ for the entire society of the Lone Star State.
Handbook of Houston
The Texas State Historical Association and the Houston History Alliance (HHA) are proud to announce the launch of the Handbook of Houston, which contains more than 1,250 new and existing entries highlighting the significant impact Houston has had on the state, the nation, and the world. Launched on March 2, 2017, the Handbook of Houston is the culmination of many years of historical research.
Commander of "Kirby Smith's Confederacy" dies
131 years ago today
Confederate guerilla leader arrested by own side
159 years ago today
Texas Confederates whipped in New Mexico
161 years ago today
Get the FREE! Texas Day by Day delivered straight to your inbox:
This Week's Popular Entries
Our entries are accessed thousands of times per day from all over the globe. But we need your continued support. Please consider purchasing a recurring membership or making a donation.
Juneteenth read 17,422 times in the past week
Nineveh, TX read 3,715 times in the past week
Texas Revolution read 2,808 times in the past week
Rhodes, TX read 2,359 times in the past week
Republic of Texas read 1,852 times in the past week
Steinmark, Freddie Joe read 1,580 times in the past week
Flags of Texas read 1,283 times in the past week
World War I read 1,277 times in the past week
Comanche Indians read 1,244 times in the past week
Goliad Massacre read 1,096 times in the past week
Galveston, Battle Of read 1,092 times in the past week
Dust Bowl read 1,073 times in the past week
Recent Additions
Every one of our entries is written, fact-checked, and reviewed by our team of professional and academic historians. It is the time, dedication, and support from both our staff and people like you—through your recurring memberships and donations—that makes it possible for us to continue producing quality work that you can trust.
Carter, Zephyr James Chisom 1 day ago
Hok, Ng Che 1 day ago
Charlton, Thomas Lee 1 day ago
Akers, Frederick Sanford 1 day ago
Goldthwaite, Aniela Priscilla Gorczyca 6 days ago
Rabb, Frank 1 week ago
Whiting, Hervey 1 week ago
Dycus, Charles Toliver 1 week ago
Uribe, María Ygnacia Gutiérrez de Lara 3 weeks ago
Riley, Polly Ann 3 weeks ago
Moore, Ida May Kilburn 1 month ago
Russell, James Colon 1 month ago
Galán, Enríque Manuel 1 month ago
Stark, Nelda Childers 1 month ago
Kallison, Frances Elaine Rosenthal 1 month ago
Osborne, Estelle Massey Riddle 1 month ago
Japan Cotton Company 1 month ago
San Antonio Jockey Club 1 month ago
Pool, Adrian C. 1 month ago
Sammons, Charles Addison 1 month ago
Search the Handbook
This Week's Popular Entries
Our entries are accessed thousands of times per day from all over the globe, and we are here because of you. Please consider a recurring membership or a gift.
Juneteenth read 17,422 times in the past week
Nineveh, TX read 3,715 times in the past week
Texas Revolution read 2,808 times in the past week
Rhodes, TX read 2,359 times in the past week
Republic of Texas read 1,852 times in the past week
Steinmark, Freddie Joe read 1,580 times in the past week
Flags of Texas read 1,283 times in the past week
World War I read 1,277 times in the past week
Comanche Indians read 1,244 times in the past week
Goliad Massacre read 1,096 times in the past week
Galveston, Battle Of read 1,092 times in the past week
Dust Bowl read 1,073 times in the past week
Commander of "Kirby Smith's Confederacy" dies
131 years ago today
Confederate guerilla leader arrested by own side
159 years ago today
Texas Confederates whipped in New Mexico
161 years ago today
Get the FREE! Texas Day by Day delivered straight to your inbox:
Recent Additions
Every one of our entries is written, fact-checked, and reviewed by our team of professional and academic historians. It is the time, dedication, and support from both our staff & people like you—through your recurring memberships & generous donations—that makes it possible for us to produce quality work that you can trust.
Carter, Zephyr James Chisom 1 day ago
Hok, Ng Che 1 day ago
Charlton, Thomas Lee 1 day ago
Akers, Frederick Sanford 1 day ago
Goldthwaite, Aniela Priscilla Gorczyca 6 days ago
Rabb, Frank 1 week ago
Whiting, Hervey 1 week ago
Dycus, Charles Toliver 1 week ago
Uribe, María Ygnacia Gutiérrez de Lara 3 weeks ago
Riley, Polly Ann 3 weeks ago
Moore, Ida May Kilburn 1 month ago
Russell, James Colon 1 month ago
Galán, Enríque Manuel 1 month ago
Stark, Nelda Childers 1 month ago
Kallison, Frances Elaine Rosenthal 1 month ago
Osborne, Estelle Massey Riddle 1 month ago
Japan Cotton Company 1 month ago
San Antonio Jockey Club 1 month ago
Pool, Adrian C. 1 month ago
Sammons, Charles Addison 1 month ago