Be Sure to Visit my new 1900 Galveston Storm Website at: http://freepages.genealogy.rootseb.com/~barnette
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TEXAS HAD THREE NAVIES Few people are aware Texas has had three navies. The first two were both
hastily created to protect the Republic of Texas from the invading armies of Mexico in 1836 and, again, in 1839. The third Texas Navy was created in 1958 as a commemorative organization under Governor Price Daniel.
The First Texas Navy consisted of four minimally equipped small sailing vessels-the Independence, the Brutus, the Invincible and the Liberty. These four ships harassed the Mexican coastline and
Mexican Navy and prevented provisions and reinforcements from reaching Santa Anna who was defeated by Texian forces under General Sam Houston at San Jacinto. Shortly after the Revolution, with their work complete, the navy was
disbanded. In 1839 Santa Anna, refusing to honor the independence of the Republic of Texas, organized a new and much larger expedition against Texas than before. In response, the Texas Congress hurriedly
acquired six new vessels under the command of Commodore Edwin Moore, formerly of the United States Navy. With the help of Mexican separatists in the Yucatan, the Second Texas Navy harried the Mexican coast from
the Rio Grande to the Yucatan. The smaller Texian naval force decidedly defeated the larger Mexican Navy off the coast of the Yucatan. Because of Texas superiority on the seas thereafter, the Mexican government abandoned it's
planned invasion of Texas and the Texians held the upper hand in the Gulf from June of 1843. When Texas became a state the Texas Navy was incorporated into the United States Navy. TEXAS NAVY WEBSITE
Manned by Walter Nass, the Texas Navy maintains a scholarly educational and historically informative website at Texas history buffs who thrive on the important and trivial points of history
will want to return to the website each month for a taste of history about the Texas Navy. Website historian Jonathan W. Jordan will be continually posting monthly chronological vignettes of historical events pertinent to the Texas
Navies. GENEALOGICAL CLASSES OFFERED Paula Parke will offer a three part beginning genealogical course at Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church, 11612 Memorial Drive at Blalock. Classes will be held
on Thursday, October 5 and Thursday, October 12 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. A tour of the Clayton Genealogical Library and hands-on research will be conducted the following week. For more information and to enroll,
contact Kay Bradley at MDPC, 713-782-1710. ITALIANS MEET IN AUSTIN Hosted by Austin's POINTers in Person chapter #10 the POINT 2000 Conference, the Second National POINT (Pursuing Our Italian
Names Together) Conference will be held October 6-9 at the Doubletree Hotel North, 6505 North IH-35 in Austin. On Saturday and Sunday the conference will feature all day Italian genealogical and cultural workshops.
For more information and to register visit the conference website at
POLISH MEET IN CHICAGO Those with Polish roots will surely wish to attend the Polish Genealogical Society of America "Bridging the Gap" Conference in Schiller Park, near Chicago's O'Hare Airport. The
conference will consist of two full powered days of lectures and workshops aimed to helping one research their Polish ancestry. For more information on the conference and on the society, visit the society's
website at NEWS FROM THE BOOK SHELF Storms, Floods and Sunshine; Isaac Monroe Cline: An
Autobiography
is an enjoyable and informative book written by the man who was the head weather forecaster when the devastating storm wiped out Galveston in 1900. It is available for $25, plus postage from Pelican Publishing Company, P.O. Box 3110, Gretna, LA 70054.
While autobiographies sometimes tend to be self-centered, one can tell Cline was proud of his accomplishments. He was an early recruit in the newly formed weather service and rose quite quickly to the head of
the weather bureau in Galveston his post when the hurricane demolished Galveston in 1900. Due to his experiences with the Galveston Storm, he was personally involved in setting up weather warning stations
around the Gulf of Mexico and wrote several scientific articles and books on the infant study of cyclones, hurricanes, river floods, ocean currents and sea storm surges. Through his experiences, Cline
explains the evolution of the hurricane early warning systems we now take for granted. He brings to life the importance to weatherforcasting of the successive inventions of the telegraph, telephone, radio and radar.
