Virtual Cache Day in Austin 5/9/2010

This morning we drove into Austin nice and early in th morning as we knew there wouldn't be any traffic to fight as we did the 11 virtual caches we had right in the middle of the city. The first cache was smack dab in the center of the city at the Austin State Capitol Building and it had to to with a monument that was a Tribute to Texas School Children. This monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol in Austin depicts six school children on a field trip to the Capitol. School children in more than 600 Texas schools raised the funds necessary to complete the statues. The monument was dedicated in June 1998 and you can see it in the picture. After finding the cache we walked around the rear of the capitol and were reading all the plaques and monuments and take a look at the picture of the offices that were underground in a circle and you could stand at ground level and look down on them.

Next cache was around the corner at the Lorenzo de Zavala Stae Archives and Library Building having to do with the Archives War. The Texas Archive War was an 1841 dispute over an attempted move of the Texas national archives from Austin to Houston and, more broadly, over then-president Sam Houston's efforts to make Houston Texas' capital.
During the period of the Republic of Texas (1836–1845), the capital of Texas moved from city to city. The Texas Congress favored a plan to build a planned city in Central Texas as the fledgling country's capital. However, Sam Houston, President of Texas at the time, preferred having the capital in Houston, the city named for him, and blocked Congress's plans. In 1839 Mirabeau B. Lamar, who favored Congress's plan, became President of Texas. The Texas Congress approved the recommendation of a commission to select the small town of Waterloo, on the Colorado River, as the site of the capital of Texas and renamed it Austin, in honor of Stephen F. Austin, the "Father of Texas". The capital was moved to Austin from Houston later in 1839, including the nation's archives.
In 1841, Sam Houston was again sworn in as President. He held a very open and public disdain for the Texas capital, and refused to stay in the official President's residence, preferring instead to stay in the boarding house of Mrs. Angelina Eberly. Then, in March 1842, a division of the army of Mexico under Gen. Rafael Vásquez invaded the southern part of Texas and seized San Antonio, Goliad and Victoria, only to withdraw after a few days. President Houston saw this as an opportunity to remove the government from Austin, and called an emergency session of Congress to meet in Houston, declaring Austin unsafe. Indeed, many Austin residents, upon hearing of the fall of San Antonio, only 70 miles (110 km) to the south, fled Austin and only a small number of residents remained.
The residents who did remain, however, were wary of President Houston's intentions, and when he called for the removal of the nation's archives to Houston for safe keeping, the residents responded by forming a vigilance committee, vowing that they would use force, if necessary, to keep the archives in Austin. Then, in September, General Adrián Woll led another Mexican expedition into Texas and temporarily captured San Antonio. This reinforced President Houston's claim that Austin was unsafe, and in December he had the Seventh Congress convene in Washington-on-the-Brazos instead of Austin. In order to secure his choice of capital, President Houston ordered Colonel Thomas I. Smith and Captain Eli Chandler to remove the nation's archives from Austin and bring them to Washington-on-the-Brazos without bloodshed.
Smith and Chandler raised a group of men, and entered Austin in the dead of night on December 29. As they loaded archives stored in the General Land Office Building into wagons, Angelina Eberly, President Houston's former landlady, was awakened by the noise. She ran outside and discharged a cannon, puncturing a hole in the side of the General Land Office Building and alerting the local citizenry that something was amiss. Smith and Chandler fled with three wagons full of archival material. In keeping their word, the vigilance committee gathered and followed Smith and Chandler with cannon in tow. Smith and Chandler were overtaken the next day 18 miles (29 km) north along Brushy Creek near Kinney Fort, in present day Round Rock. Because of President Houston's orders that there was to be no bloodshed, the archives were surrendered to the vigilantes, who returned them to Austin. The Texas Archive War ended without casualty.
In January 1843, the Texas Congress admonished President Houston for his actions in trying to move the capital from Austin, but it would not be until 1845 that the Texas government would actually sit again in Austin. To this day many residents of Austin cite this event as a turning point in keeping the city as the capital of Texas. A statue of Angelina Eberly was erected in 2004 in downtown Austin to commemorate the event.

After getting the information needed for that cache it was around the corner again to the front entrance to the State Capitol Building and what is called The Great Walk. The "Great Walk" is a black and white diamond-patterned pavement shaded by trees. The four oldest monuments are the Heroes of the Alamo a bronze statue of a Texan holding a muzzle-loader rifle stands atop a Texas granite base. In 1836, during a 13-day siege, about 187 Texans under the command of William B. Travis, lost their lives defending the Alamo fort against Mexican General Santa Anna's army of more than 5,000. Names of the Texans who died in the battle, including James Bowie and David Crockett, are inscribed upon the four granite supports. Volunteer Firemen which is a bronze figure of a fireman carries a frightened child in his left arm and a lantern in his right. On the granite base are inscribed names of those Texan volunteers who have lost their lives fighting fires. Confederate Soldiers which are five bronze figures on a gray granite base represent the Infantry, Cavalry, Artillery, and Navy, headed by the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. Etched in the base are the 13 states which withdrew from the Union and formed the Southern Confederacy, as well as the battles fought between 1861 and 1865. Terry's Texas Rangers The bronze statue, by Pompeo Coppini, portrays one of Terry's Texas Rangers astride a spirited horse. In 1861, during the Civil War, Terry's Texas Rangers were mustered at Houston after Benjamin Terry and Thomas Lubbock's call for volunteers. Ten companies of 100 men each were formally activated as the 8th Texas Cavalry, and during the following five years participated in many engagements defending the Southern Confederacy. All of these 4 monuments flank the tree-lined Great Walk.



Next we walked across the street to the Old Bakerywhere we had to get some information from a historic marker. The Lundberg Bakery, also known as the Old Bakery and Emporium, is a historic bakery building currently serving as a gift shop in downtown Austin, Texas. The building was completed in 1876 and is located at 1006 Congress Avenue, half a block south of the Capitol grounds. At the time the bakery began operations, bread was not sold wrapped or packaged. People would wait in line with cloth lined baskets to place the bread in after buying it. Short story writer William Sydney Porter frequented the bakery as he passed it to and from work while employed at the General Land Office Building.
The building served as a bakery until its owner, Swedish immigrant Charles Lundberg, died in 1895. The building changed hands frequently until being bought and refurbished by the Austin Heritage Society in 1962. It was threatened with demolition in 1970, when a new building was planned for the Texas Department of Transportation, but saved when excavations next door uncovered the foundations of the previous state capitol building (a temporary structure built in 1882). Following the discovery, the foundations were converted to a historical plaza, and the bakery was saved.
The building is constructed of limestone with a brick facade, and features a large cast-iron eagle at the peak of the gabled roof overlooking Congress Avenue. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on December 17, 1969.

Then we walked across the street again to our next virtual which was on a World War 2 monument and had to do with a plaque on the monument. Next cache was in front of the Austin History Center and had to do also with the historic marker.

Then we were off to the Caldwell Treaty Oak and a small park. The Treaty Oak, a once-majestic Southern live oak in Austin, Texas, is the last surviving member of the Council Oaks, a grove of 14 trees that served as a sacred meeting place for Comanche and Tonkawa Tribes. Forestry experts estimate the Treaty Oak to be about 500 years old and, before its vandalism in 1989, the tree's branches had a spread of 127 feet. The tree is located in Treaty Oak Park, on Baylor Street between 5th and 6th Streets.
A Native American legend holds that the Council Oaks were a location for the launching of war and peace parties. Legends also hold that women of the Tejas tribe would drink a tea made from honey and the acorns of the oaks to ensure the safety of warriors in battle.
According to popular local folklore and the inscription on the plaque at the tree's base, in the 1830s, Stephen F. Austin, the leader of the Austin Colony, met local Native Americans in the grove to negotiate and sign Texas' first boundary treaty after two children and a local judge had been killed in raids. No historical documentation exists to support this event actually taking place. Folklore also holds that Sam Houston rested beneath the Treaty Oak after his expulsion from the Governor's office at the start of Texas' involvement in the American Civil War.
The Council Oaks fell victim to neglect and Austin's development. By 1927, only one of the original 14 trees remained. The American Forestry Association proclaimed the tree as the most perfect specimen of a North American tree, and inducted the Treaty Oak into its Hall of Fame in Washington, D.C.
Since the 1880s, the tree had been privately owned by the Caldwell family in Austin. Because she could no longer afford to pay property taxes on the land, in 1926 the widow of W. H. Caldwell offered the land for sale for $7,000. While local historical groups urged the Texas Legislature to buy the land, no funds were appropriated. In 1937, the City of Austin purchased the land for $1,000 and installed a plaque honoring the tree's role in Texas history.
In 1989, in an act of deliberate vandalism, the tree was poisoned with the powerful hardwood-herbicide, Velpar. Lab tests showed the quantity of herbicide used would have been sufficient to kill 100 trees. The incident sparked community outrage, national news reports, and a torrent of home-made "Get Well" cards from children that were displayed on the fence around the park. Texas industrialist and former Reform Party candidate for U.S. President, Ross Perot wrote a 'blank check' to fund efforts to save the tree. DuPont, the herbicide manufacturer, established a $10,000 reward to capture the poisoner. The vandal, Paul Cullen, was apprehended after reportedly bragging about poisoning the tree as a means of casting a spell. Cullen was convicted of felony criminal mischief and sentenced to serve nine years in prison.
The intensive efforts to save the Treaty Oak included the replacement of soil around its roots and the installation of a system to mist the tree with spring water. Although arborists expected the tree to die, the Treaty Oak survived. However, almost two-thirds of the tree died and more than half of its crown had to be pruned.
In 1997, the Treaty Oak produced its first crop of acorns since the vandalism. City workers gathered and germinated the acorns, distributing the seedlings throughout Texas and other states. Today the tree is a thriving, but lopsided reminder of its once-grand form. Many Texans see the Treaty Oak today as a symbol of strength and endurance.

Next virtual cache was located in a small park along the river that had to do with a Texas Star monument. Next we were off to a small park in the Mexican section of the city and a small park where we had to get some information off the bust of a Mexican political hero.

Then we drove to the Texas State Cemetery, for 2 virtual caches. The Texas State Cemetery is a cemetery located on about 22 acres just east of downtown Austin, the capital of Texas. Originally the burial place of Edward Burleson, Texas Revolutionary general and Vice-President of the Republic of Texas, it was expanded into a Confederate cemetery during the Civil War. Later it was expanded to include the graves of prominent Texans and their spouses.
The cemetery is divided into two sections. The smaller one contains around 900 graves of prominent Texans, while the larger has over 2,000 marked graves of Confederate veterans and widows. There is room in the Cemetery for 7,500 interments and the Cemetery is about half full; meaning, people who are eligible for burial have chosen their plots. The Cemetery is not a military cemetery. The current guidelines on who may be buried within the Texas State Cemetery were established in 1953. Persons must be one of the following:

* Member or ex-member of the Texas Legislature
* Confederate veteran
* Elected state official
* State official appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature
* Individual designated by governor’s proclamation or concurrent resolution of the Legislature
* Spouse of anyone meeting the above criteria.
* Child of an eligible member who has remained in an eleemosynary institution.
After the death of Edward Burleson in 1851, the Texas Legislature arranged for his burial on land formerly belonging to Andrew Jackson Hamilton. In 1854, the Legislature established a monument at Burleson's grave-site for $1,000 and purchased the surrounding land. The burial ground was virtually ignored until the Civil War, when Texas Confederate officers killed in battle were buried there. In 1864 and 1866 more land was purchased for veterans' burials. An area of 1-acre (4,000 m2) was also set aside for graves of Union veterans (all but one later removed, to Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio). The remaining Union soldier is Antonio Briones, who was left at the request of his family. He lies by himself in the far northwest corner of the cemetery.
Because the Texas Confederate Men's Home and the Confederate Women's Home were located in Austin, more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows are buried at the State Cemetery. Most were buried after 1889. The last Confederate veterans in the Cemetery were buried in 1944; the last widow, in 1963.
In 1932, the State Cemetery was little known and had no roads. There was a dirt road running through the grounds of the Cemetery linked to what was then called Onion Creek Highway. The road kept its highway status when Texas historian Louis Kemp brought it to the attention of the Texas Highway Department that the road running through the Cemetery should be paved. The roads, which are officially designated as State Highway 165, are dedicated to Kemp, and were for a time known as "Lou Kemp Highway". Kemp was also the driving force behind the reinterment of many early Texas figures in time for the Texas Centennial in 1936.
The cemetery was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, but by the early 1990s, the State Cemetery had fallen into disrepair — suffering from vandalism and decay — and was unsafe to visit. In 1994, after noting the condition of the Cemetery, Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock initiated a three-year project that added a visitor center and renovated the cemetery. In 1997, there was a rededication and a reopening of the State Cemetery, and it remains one of the more visited sites in Austin for schoolchildren, adults, and history enthusiasts. Tours are offered and should be scheduled in advance.
This cemetery which is just blocks east of the State Capitol, is the final resting place of Governors, Senators, Legislators, Congressmen, Judges and other legendary Texans who have made the state what it is today. Efforts to establish the Texas State Cemetery began in 1851, with the death of General Edward Burleson. Burleson served with Sam Houston in the Battle of San Jacinto and as Vice President of the Republic of Texas. Throughout the years other notable Texans have been buried on Cemetery grounds including: Stephen F. Austin, General Albert Sidney Johnston, Governor Allan Shivers, Governor John Connally, and Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock.
It was a lovely cemetery, well kept and it looked like most of the older headstones had been replaced by new ones.
Our first cache had to do with the Boys of Praha. During the Second World War Praha had the unfortunate distinction of being the U.S. town with largest ratio of war deaths to residents. The largest number of deaths occurred in 1944, when 9 soldiers from Praha were killed. Three small identical chapels were built in memory of the dead. They no longer exist. And even in the Texas farm country where they were boys, their names are slipping from memory. People who live among the green hills here are hardly more likely to know about Praha's loss than the strangers who travel the dark farm-to-market roads in their pickups and minivans, taking scenic detours on their way to Houston or San Antonio. This is understandable. Being told the factual history does not make the truth about Praha more believable. A trip, however, to the church and cemetery at Praha will leave the visitor carrying away a distinctly American heartache.
Praha provides old soldiers a measurement of sorts for concepts like the price of freedom. There is, though, something incalculable, impossible to assess or even understand, about the sad history of Praha. Today, it is little more than a ghost of a town with only about two dozen residents. The New Handbook of Texas claims the population never surpassed 100 people during the 20th century. Those numbers are where the anguish begins in Praha's tearful truth.
After Veterans Day ceremonies conclude, the curious and the proud stand in front of the nine graves. There, they try to comprehend how war's bloody arm could reach this far, gather up this much life and destroy it. By the dates on their tombstones and the locales of the deaths, the Allied offensive against the Nazis, Mussolini and the Japanese is recorded in the destinies of these nine fallen farm boys. Little Praha was not protected from World War II by statistical improbabilities.
Pfc. Robert Bohuslav died Feb. 3, 1944, after Patton's and Rommel's tanks had already driven deep into North Africa, and the worst of the combat had passed. Three more sons of Praha went down in France, beginning the week after D-Day. The War Department sent notices of death to the families of Pfc. Rudolph L. Barta, June 16; 1944; Pfc. George D. Pavlicek, July 7, 1944; and Pfc. Jerry B. Vaculik, July 23, 1944. In Italy, Pfc. Adolph E. Rab became a casualty of war two days after Christmas 1944. Pvt. Joseph Lev, shot in the stomach during the attack of Luzon Island, died July 24, 1944. Pfc. Anton Kresta Jr.'s life ended in that same tropical theater on Feb. 12, 1945. On Sept. 7, 1944, Pvt. Eddie Sbrusch was lost at sea in the Pacific. Nineteen days later, Pfc. Edward J. Marek died in battle at Pelelieu Island. All their lives were lost, ironically, as an Allied victory appeared inevitable.

Our last cache, also in the cemetery had to do with another monument here and was regarding Texas Independance Day. Make sure you read some of the pictures of the head stones as some of them are lovely such as the Texas Rangers Prayer and you might recognize some of the names on them.

Well that was it for today and we headed back to the coach for the day. Well until tomorrow we love and miss you all. Mom & Dad Dori & Dick