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Traditionally, Texans celebrate March 2 as Texas Independence Day. A constitutional convention was convened on March 1, 1836, by the Washington- on-the-Brazos to declare Texas free from Mexico.
On March 2, 1836, a rough draft was drawn up and attendees began to sign the first document. It was fraught with numerous errors and all of the signers were not present until the next day on March 3. It was rewritten and signed on March 3 by all 59 of the delegates, including the last two who arrived that day. Recently internationally recognized artist, Ken Turner of New Ulm, was commissioned by a woman who was a descendent of Augustine Blackburn Hardin, one of the 59 signees, to paint a depiction of the distribution of the copies of the signed document. Turner, as always, diligently researched the event, including a visit to the Washington- on-the-Brazos Museum, talking to the curator of the museum and purchasing a copy of Colonel Gray’s journal that gives excellent detail about the convention.
On March 5, 1836, five handwritten copies were made and folded. These copies were given to five horsemen, the Texas Express, to be taken to the towns of Bexar, Goliad, Nacogdoches, Brazoria and San Felipe.
The printer at San Felipe was instructed to print 1,000 copies to be distributed throughout Texas as handbills. The owner of that printing press was Gail Borden who founded, with his brother, the community called Harvey’s Creek, later renamed Borden, located between present day Columbus and Weimar.
After living in Galveston and Harrisburg, Borden rejoined his brother in Colorado County where he invented Borden’s condensed milk and also founded the Borden Milk Company. He died in Borden in 1874 at the age of 72 but was buried in New York State where he was born.
Coincidently, March 2 is Sam Houston’s birthday. Houston turned 43 on the second day of the 1836 convention. Just 7 weeks later he led the Texian Army to a decisive victory over a much larger Mexican Army led by Santa Anna, the Napoleon of the West.
The wounded General Houston accepted an unconditional surrender from Santa Anna as the outraged Texian soldiers screamed for his execution. Houston wisely ignored their demands and Santa Anna, in return for sparing his life, ordered his 6,000-man army to return to Mexico, and ceded all the land north of the Rio Grande to the new Republic of Texas.
In September of 1836, Houston was elected by a landslide to be the first president of the new Republic. Considering Houston’s special significance in the birth of the Republic of Texas, I will stick with tradition and continue to celebrate March 2 as Texas Independence Day and also wish Sam Houston a happy birthday.
