Coastal Bend History

Captain Randolph B. Marcy wrote the book, The Prairie Traveler, in 1859 and it became a bestseller for the rest of the century. It was written as a guide for the cavalry and the cross-country settlers headed overland to California, Oregon and Utah. Marcy was an explorer, a surveyor, a map maker and a military leader. His book distilled his decades of experience on the frontiers in the West and Northwest. The book was comprehensive, detailed, illustrated and easy to read, despite its 200 page length. The Prairie Traveler was authorized by the War Department and sold for one dollar. It was indispensable reading for any settler venturing by wagon train to the West Coast, as well as any military expedition dealing with the Indians.

Can’t really tell the date of the bluest or coldest “blue norther” in Texas because the systematic recording of weather data did not happen until about 1895. Prior to that, references to weather appeared only in personal accounts or journals of explorers and settlers. However, the use of the term “blue norther” is unique to Texas and has been in use since the early 1800s. It refers to a cold front from a mass of Artic air pushed south by the jet stream. The front can advance at speeds of 40 miles per hour and wind speeds in the front can reach 80 miles per hour. Northers are characterized by a steep drop in temperature, often from balmy conditions, accompanied by high winds and freezing rain, sleet or snow. They are followed in a day or so by clear skies and low temperatures. Temperature drops of 60 to70 degrees in a matter of hours have been seen in northers.

Cabeza de Vaca became a reluctant faith healer to the Karankawa, but it saved his life and those of his three Spanish shipwreck companions. Cabeza de Vaca was one of 80 Spanish explorers who were shipwrecked on an island, usually taken to be Galveston, on November 6, 1528, where they were the first Europeans to encounter the Karankawa. The Karankawa on the island were very helpful in feeding (fish and roots) and caring for the destitute and marooned Spaniards, even when the Spaniards resorted to cannibalism.

Stephen F. Austin barely had time for love in his life because of his commitment to the survival of his colony in Texas and then to Texas independence. When Stephen was 27, he inherited the burden of the colony upon his father’s death in June 1821, and also the family debts that his father had incurred.

Illness in frontier Texas was often fatal, but you might recover if you survived the medical treatment. Not only were medical facilities scarce to nonexistent, but the state of medical knowledge was primitive by modern standards.

The Republic of Texas owed great thanks to the French Navy in 1838. The small Texas Navy had been destroyed at Galveston by “Racer’s Storm” on October 7, 1837.