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The Daedalian General Membership Meeting was held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in
North Austin on Thursday, 9 June 2011. It was a casual dinner meeting with
members gathering as early at 1800 hours. Following a social period Flight Captain Col Dan Waddle, called the meeting to order at 1910 Hours. Provost Marshall, Mike Rhodes, toasted our departed brothers and sisters, and the Commander-in-Chief. The Flight Captain led a toast to our guests. Paid attendance was a total of 50 members and guests. Four people failed to
attend, but there were 4 people who arrived without a reservation. $ 145 was
collected for the raffle. |
Dan
Waddle introduced our guest speaker, Jerry Patterson, Land Commissioner of
Texas. Jerry spent his flying time in the Marines. Jerry said we could leave our
cell phones on because it might be our only entertainment. Commissioner
Patterson's talk was very informative and entertaining. Among the many things he
told us abut his job and Texas history were the following: The Texas Land
Commissioner works with the legislature. He said if there weren't a few idiots,
then it wouldn't be truly a representative representation of Texas. The Land
Commission was one of the first jobs created in Texas government. Texas started
out land rich but cash poor. John Borden failed to attend a meeting, and he was
appointed the first commissioner. The second commissioner was Pegleg Ward. He
got his peg leg at the battle of San Antonio. Pegleg Ward had the contract to
build the first Texas Capitol in Houston. He lost his right arm when a cannon
misfired during the official celebration of San Jacinto Day. He was fired upon
by Angelina Eberly when he and others tried to move the government archives from
Austin. They were stopped in Williamson County. (Williamson County was named
after Three Legged Willie.) He ended up in a bad divorce in two states - New
York and Texas. Jester Estates is named after a former governor. In 1836, Santa
Anna and Houston agreed to a 3 league maritime boundary. When Texas became a
state, he insisted that our country boundary would be our state boundary. In
1930, the off shore oil was discovered and the Supreme Court ruled that our
boundary only went out 3 miles like the rest of the states. In 1948, Allan
Shivers was the Lt. Governor of Texas. When Governor Beauford Jester had a heart
attack on a train, Allan became governor. By delivering Texas in the '52
presidential election for D. D. Eisenhower, the Tidelands ruling was overturned
and Texas got back its 3 league boundary.