Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of … · Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony...

4
APRIL 2013 T he annual San Jacinto Day Dinner will be held on April 23, 2013, at 6:30 at the Houston Country Club. The W.S. Bellows family is being honored at this sold-out event for their many years of support to the museum and monument; from construction up to the present day. John Miller Morris is this year’s guest speaker. Dr. Morris is a professor of Geography at U.T., San Antonio, the author of several books, and the 2012 Piper Professor. The Piper Professor Award was established by the San Antonio based Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation in 1958 to annually recognize outstanding college professors across Texas. Dinner Honors Monument Constructor Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of San Jacinto C elebrate the 177th anniversary of Texas independence at the San Jacinto Day Festival and Battle Reenactment, which will take place on Saturday, April 20, 2013. The Battle Reenactment will be the highlight of the day, beginning at 3:00 p.m. Presented by the San Jacinto Volunteers and other living history organizations from across the state, the reenactment dramatizes the decisive battle where General Sam Houston led his Texian soldiers to victory over the Mexican Army. The reenactors will represent the Runaway Scrape, the cannon duel that occurred on April 20, and the final battle between the two forces. A special feature of the day will be a presentation by Dr. Mary L. Kelley Scheer, chair of the Department of History at Lamar University, who will give a talk at 12:30 on women at San Jacinto inside the monument’s theatre. Dr. Scheer authored The Foundation of Texan Philanthropy and is now working on a book entitled New Women Who Shaped Modern Texas. The festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Entertainment during the day will include Solero Flamenco, Dan Barth and his medicine show wagon, and Phydeaux’s Flying Flea Circus. Musical favorites include Liz Talley, the Celtaire String Band, and the North Harris County Dulcimer Society. Plenty of demonstrators and vendors will also be on hand. “Presenting this living, dynamic reenactment of Texas history for free would not be possible without our presenting sponsor H-E-B, as well as The Dow Chemical Company, Vopak, Pasadena Strawberry Festival, CenterPoint Energy and LyondellBasell,” says Larry Spasic, San Jacinto Museum of History President. The weekend celebration will conclude on April 21, when Texans will gather at 2:00 p.m. on the steps of the San Jacinto Monument for the Official State Commemoration of the Battle of San Jacinto. The guest speaker will be Gregg Cantrell, who is the current president of the Texas State Historical Association. Dr. Cantrell holds the Emma and Ralph Lowe Chair in Texas History at Texas Christian University. This event will culminate in a salute by the Texian Army.

Transcript of Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of … · Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony...

A P R I L 2 0 1 3

T he annual San Jacinto

Day Dinner will be

held on April 23,

2013, at 6:30 at the Houston

Country Club. The W.S.

Bellows family is being honored

at this sold-out event for their

many years of support to the

museum and monument; from

construction up to the present

day.

John Miller Morris is this

year’s guest speaker. Dr. Morris

is a professor of Geography at

U.T., San Antonio, the author

of several books, and the 2012

Piper Professor. The Piper

Professor Award was

established by the San Antonio

–based Minnie Stevens Piper

Foundation in 1958 to annually

recognize outstanding college

professors across Texas.

Dinner Honors Monument Constructor

Festival, Reenactment, Ceremony Commemorate Battle of San Jacinto

C elebrate the 177th

anniversary of Texas

independence at the

San Jacinto Day Festival and

Battle Reenactment, which will

take place on Saturday, April 20,

2013. The Battle Reenactment

will be the highlight of the day,

beginning at 3:00 p.m.

Presented by the San

Jacinto Volunteers and other

living history organizations from

across the state, the reenactment

dramatizes the decisive battle

where General Sam Houston led

his Texian soldiers to victory

over the Mexican Army. The

reenactors will represent the

Runaway Scrape, the cannon

duel that occurred on April 20,

and the final battle between the

two forces.

A special feature of the day

will be a presentation by Dr.

Mary L. Kelley Scheer, chair of

the Department of

History at Lamar

University, who will

give a talk at 12:30 on

women at San Jacinto

inside the monument’s

theatre. Dr. Scheer

authored The

Foundation of Texan

Philanthropy and is now working

on a book entitled New Women

Who Shaped Modern Texas.

The festival runs from 10

a.m. to 6 p.m. Entertainment

during the day will include

Solero Flamenco, Dan Barth

and his medicine show wagon,

and Phydeaux’s Flying Flea

Circus. Musical favorites

include Liz Talley, the Celtaire

String Band, and the North

Harris County Dulcimer Society.

Plenty of demonstrators and

vendors will also be on hand.

“Presenting this living,

dynamic reenactment of Texas

history for free would not be

possible without our presenting

sponsor H-E-B, as well as The

Dow Chemical Company,

Vopak, Pasadena Strawberry

Festival, CenterPoint Energy

and LyondellBasell,” says Larry

Spasic, San Jacinto Museum of

History President.

The weekend celebration will

conclude on April 21, when

Texans will gather at 2:00 p.m.

on the steps of the San Jacinto

Monument for the Official State

Commemoration of the Battle

of San Jacinto. The guest

speaker will be Gregg Cantrell,

who is the current president of

the Texas State Historical

Association. Dr. Cantrell holds

the Emma and Ralph Lowe

Chair in Texas History at Texas

Christian University. This event

will culminate in a salute by the

Texian Army.

SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013

2

Dear Members,

On the evening of April 23rd, 2013, at the Houston Country

Club we will return full circle to the genesis of our museum

association with the honoring of the W. S. Bellows family.

The W. S. Bellows Construction Company built the San

Jacinto Monument, which has always housed the San Jacinto

Museum of History since the doors of the monument were

opened to the people of Texas and their guests on April 20th,

1939.

Having contributed one of the best-known memorials in the

state, this family’s company continues to follow its proud Texas

heritage by building stunning, award-winning structures that will

certainly stand the test of time as iconic landmarks for future

generations.

We welcome the opportunity to recognize a family that has

over the years given so much to our museum and contributed to

our ability to share our knowledge, collections and educational

programs with all those who visit San Jacinto.

Thanks to steadfast supporters like the Bellows family,

museum chairman Mr. Bob Hixon will make a significant

announcement to all present at our annual dinner. This exciting

development will be shared with San Jacinto News readers in the

July issue.

Your support and our efforts are going to make one of Texas’

most creative and visible historical organizations even better. We

want you to join with us on this exciting endeavor.

Larry Spasic

President, San Jacinto Museum of History

L e t t e r f r o m t h e P r e s i d e n t

Office Systems of Texas Pasadena Rotary Club

Vopak Congressman Gene Green JSC Federal Credit Union

Haltermann John Manlove Marketing &

Communications Shell Federal Credit Union

Larry Spasic

M. D. Anderson Foundation The Brown Foundation

San Jacinto Day Foundation

Monument Inn Tregre Associates D.D.S.

Ozarka Direct Kroger

Shipley Do-nuts Luke’s Locker

Texas Chiropractic College Texas Products

Peri Photography Chick-fil-A

Firefly Business Group Havard Welding Supply Co.

Kwik Kopy Sellmark

Spencer Animal Hospital Sports Authority

Staples Tents of the Southwest

Victory Properties Walmart

5K Fun Run/Walk Sponsors

Thank you to these recent grantors:

T he second annual Texas Independence Day 5K Fun Run/Walk

on March 9 was a successful event that brought over 300

participants from the surrounding community to participate in

the event, and raised over $10,000 for the museum’s educational

programs. This year also saw the first Kids 1K fun run, with 30 young

participants. The overall winner of the

5K event was Kaleb Davis, who

completed the course, which concluded at

the circle around the San Jacinto

Monument, at a time of 19:40. The

overall female winner was Brittany

Gonzales, who

completed the

course in

29:56. A

complete list

of the race

results is at www.runhoustontiming.net.

“I want to thank Greg Zarate for the

wonderful job he did on timing the race,” said

race organizer Carolyn Campbell. “I also want

to thank Michael Peri for taking the great

photos of the race.” The photographs can be

viewed and purchased at www.peri-photography.com.

Volunteers from Sam Rayburn JROTC, led by Lt. Colonel

Mooneyham, helped make the day run smoothly, despite a light drizzle.

Awards and

prizes were

provided by

many of the

sponsors of the

race, all of whom

helped to make

the event a

success.

Fun Run a Success

SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013

3

T o d a y ’ s H e r o e s o f S a n J a c i n t o

N e w a n d R e n e w i n g M e m b e r s

Sam Houston Society

Intercontinental Terminals Co.

Monument Society Mr. and Mrs. Eliot P. Tucker

Museum Circle Ms. Mary Patricia Atkins Mrs. Jean H. Chernosky

The Honorable Gene Green Mr. and Mrs. Howard W. Horne Mr. and Mrs. Parker S. Quillen

Independence Society Mrs. Thomas Walter Blake

Mr. and Mrs. William D. Noel

Family Freedom Society Mr. and Mrs. Francis X. Bostick Mr. and Mrs. Robert P. Cochran

Ms. Nancy Jo Derby Mr. and Mrs. L. Clay Fisher Mrs. Thomas W. Houghton

Dr. Mavis P. Kelsey, Sr. Ms. Harriet Calvin Latimer

Mr. and Mrs. John T. Malone Mr. and Mrs. Bill Palko

Mr. Harvey L. Trigg Mr. and Mrs. Milton H. West, Jr.

Mr. Dale T. Williamson Mr. Wallace S. Wilson

T he 449 page Curriculum Guide for Teaching Texas History along with its

related image gallery that holds 544 images of historic documents,

artifacts and photographs was released in January, 2013, on the San

Jacinto Museum of History Web site (http://www.sanjacinto-museum.org/

Education/For_Teachers/Curriculum/). The guide is designed to use the

museum’s collections as a medium to teach the state-mandated 2010 Texas

Essential Knowledge and Skills for Social Studies (TEKS) requirements for

teachers and students who are studying Texas history. The goal was to provide

a free, easy to use document that included a wealth of educational activities for

students, a wide range of primary source documents to integrate into lesson

plans, along with a series of activities to enhance the educational value of a

field trip to the museum.

School groups comprise a significant portion of the museum’s audience and

after listening to teacher requests over recent years, museum staff learned that

they needed a “textbook to make the new requirements teachable” as the

updated TEKS were released without texts or training. Teachers also wanted

the museum to provide primary source media that they could use in the

classroom that related to the TEKS lessons. The guide also provides materials

for those lessons that don’t deal directly with Texas history, such as geography,

politics and the environment.

The guide was presented at the Region 4 Social Studies Conference on

January 26, 2013, and received favorable reviews from the teachers who

felt the primary source materials would be particularly useful in the classroom.

A half day teacher training seminar designed to help teachers effectively

incorporate the materials into their classrooms will be held on June 11 at the

San Jacinto Museum. During this program, the participants will be working

with Curriculum Writer Yvonne Pittman and collection staff to learn how to

maximize the potential of this new teaching tool in the classroom. The

program is open to all who are interested free of charge and is designed to let

teachers in the fourth and seventh grades—both home-schooled and

traditional school educators—integrate the guide that includes innovative

activities using primary resources as the keystone of the program into their

lesson plans. If space in the June seminar is filled, a second seminar will be

scheduled in late summer prior to the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year.

These lesson plans include vocabulary lists, strategies for teaching and

learning, in-school and at-home activities, bonus activities for the gifted/extra

credit and over sixty print-ready research-based tools to help teachers build

their own lessons. While the guide contains many images and media links, an

on-line media gallery (http://sanjacinto-museum. Smug mug.com/

CurriculumGuide) provides teachers with additional primary-source materials

to work into their own lesson plans. To register for the June seminar or if you

have any questions about the program, please contact Curator Elizabeth

Appleby at [email protected].

New Curriculum Guide Inspires Favorable Response

All Fun Run photographs © 2013 Peri Photography.

San Jacinto Museum of History

Association

One Monument Circle La Porte, TX 77571-9585

SAN JACINTO NEWS APRIL 2013

San Jacinto

Museum of History

Board of Trustees 2013

Robert B. Hixon, Chair

Hon. Kenneth E. Bentsen, Jr.

Sadie Gwin Blackburn

Hon. Frank W. Calhoun

Tom M. Davis, Jr.

Dr. J. Frank de la Teja

Verlinde Hill Doubleday

James B. Earthman, III

Dorothy Knox Howe Houghton

Ann H. Kelsey

Chad Muir

Townes Pressler, Jr.

Arthur A. Seeligson

Hon. Mark White

CONTACT INFORMATION:

San Jacinto Museum

of History Association

One Monument Circle

La Porte (Houston), TX 77571-9585

Phone: 281/479-2421

Fax: 281/479-2428

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.sanjacinto-museum.org

The San Jacinto Museum of History

Association was chartered in 1938 to preserve

and revisualize the early history of Texas.

© 2013 San Jacinto Museum of History

4

Return Service Requested

Measure This! Lobby Exhibit

W eights and

measures were

among the

earliest tools invented by

man. The creation of tools

designed to establish

dimensions or measure set

quantities was essential for

human advancement and

assisted in the construction

of dwellings, clothing,

transportation system, in the

trade of goods; these tools

played a key role in many

important milestones of human progress.

When a society reaches a certain point in its

development, it inevitably creates numbering

systems. With these systems came the science of

mathematics, making it possible to create whole

systems of units of measure suited to trade and

commerce, land division, taxation, and scientific

research. As these societies progressed, their

systems of measurement became more complex

and trade and conflict often exposed them to

alternative systems that they either integrated into

their own or created standard conversions

between the two systems. The importance of

being able to measure accurately time after time

and in different locations, whether in was to craft

a seaworthy vessel, a container that could hold a

uniform amount of liquid, or any number of other

measurement applications, was paramount and

the regulation of measurement became one of the

most important tasks of early government.

Our current lobby exhibit, on display until mid

June, features artifacts from our collection that

were either created to measure or are examples of

how measurement systems have literally shaped

everyday objects.

This box scale with two pans and a brass balance gauge in the face of the box, topped with pink marble, was used in the Miller and Brockette Drug Store in

Itasca, Texas. The store operated from 1885 to 1914. Accurate measurement is extremely important in compounding pharmaceuticals.