Texas

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General Information, Facts & Symbols

The United States of America accepted Texas as the 28th state to enter the union on December 29, 1845.

Abbreviation:
TX

Capital of Texas State:
Austin

Primary Agriculture:
Chief agricultural products of Texas include cattle, grain sorghums, cotton lint and seed, wheat, rice, dairy products.

Primary Industry:
The major industries of Texas include chemicals and allied products, petroleum and coal products, food and kindred products, transportation equipment, petroleum, natural gas, natural gas liquids.

Texas State Nickname:
The Lone Star State

Texas State Motto:
Friendship

Texas State Flower:
Blue Bonnet (Lupinus texensis)
(Legislation of 1901)

Texas State Tree:
Pecan (Legislation of 1919)

Texas State Bird:
Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos)
(Legislation of 1927)
The only mockingbird commonly found in North America is the Northern Mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos).

The Northern Mockingbird is a medium-sized songbird that can mimic other bird calls. It is pale gray above, whitish below with two white wingbars and shows large white patches in the wings while in flight. It has a thin black bill with brown base, yellow/orange eyes with thin dark eyeline. It has a long tail with white outer tail feathers, black central tailfeathers and long dusky legs. There is no difference in the appearance between the males and females of the species.

Generally, the Northern Mockingbird will build a twig nest in a dense shrub or tree and will aggressively defends against other birds and predators, including humans.

Texas State Fish:
Guadalupe Bass (Legislation of 1989)

Texas State Insect:
Monarch Butterfly (Legislation of 1995)

Texas State Gemstone:
Blue Topaz (Legislation of 1969)

Official State Seal:
Depicted to the right is the state seal of Texas. The seal of the state of Texas is a symbol of the authority and sovereignty of the state and is a valuable asset of its people. It is the intent of the state government to ensure that appropriate uses are made of the state seal and to assist the secretary of state in the performance of the secretary’s constitutional duty as custodian of the seal.

Official State Flag:
Depicted to the left is the state flag of Texas. The flag of the state of Texas is a symbol of the authority and sovereignty of the state and is a valuable asset of its people. The Texas flag is flown over all state buildings just below the country flag of the United States of America.

State Commemorative Quarter:
From the 1999-2008 United States Mint 50 State Quarters® Program
The Texas quarter is the third quarter of 2004, and the 28th in the 50 State Quarters® Program. On December 29, 1845, Texas became the 28th state to be admitted into the Union. The quarter’s reverse design incorporates an outline of the State with a star superimposed on the outline and the inscription, “The Lone Star State.” The lariat encircling the design is symbolic of the cattle and cowboy history of Texas, as well as the frontier spirit that tamed the land.

Texas comes from the Indian word “tejas,” meaning friends or allies, and appropriately Texas’s motto is “Friendship.” Probably the two most recognized symbols of Texas are its unique shape and the lone star that is represented on the State flag. The Texas flag design was approved in 1839 to symbolize the Republic of Texas and was adopted as the State flag in 1845. The simple design of a lone star and three bold stripes of red, white and blue represent bravery, purity and loyalty, respectively. Texas is the only state to have had six different flags fly over its land; Spain, France, Mexico, Republic of Texas, Confederate States of America and the United States of America.

Quarter Specifications
Release Date: June 1, 2004
Reverse (tails) Side: The Lone Star State
Engraver: Norman E. Nemeth
Standard Weight: 5.670g
Standard Diameter: 24.26mm (0.955 in)
Thickness: 1.75 mm
Edge Detail: Reeded
Composition: Cupro-Nickel Clad
(8.33% Nickel / 91.67% Copper)

Important Historical Figures of Texas

Steven Fuller Austin
1793-1836: He grew up in Missouri, studied at Transylvania Univ. in Kentucky, served (1814-20) in the Missouri territorial legislature, and was studying law in New Orleans when his father died. Stephen took up the plans to colonize Texas and on a journey there (1821) selected the area between the Brazos and Colorado rivers. In January, 1822, he planted the first legal settlement of Anglo-Americans in Texas. He later went to Mexico City to have his grant cleared and confirmed by the newly independent Mexican government. Austin’s settlements, with the towns of San Felipe de Austin and Brazoria, prospered. Other American colonists poured in. As friction developed over the years with the Mexican government, Austin opposed illegal efforts at Texan independence. He was sent in 1833 to Mexico City to present the settlers’ grievances, to ask that Texas be separated from Coahuila, and to get the Mexican immigration law modified. He was accused of treason and imprisoned. On his return to Texas in 1835 he opposed the government of Santa Anna and so forwarded the Texas Revolution. He was sent as one of the commissioners (1835-36) of the provisional government to obtain aid in the United States, was defeated (1836) by Samuel Houston for the presidency of Texas, and served briefly until his death as secretary of state.

Dwight David Eisenhower
1890-1969: Thirty-fourth U.S. president; born in Denison, Texas. After graduating from West Point in 1915, he undertook further military studies and became a fast-rising staff officer in Washington, D.C.; from 1935–39 he was an assistant to Gen. Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines. As World War II progressed, he continued to rise in rank and responsibilities and was assigned to command the allied forces during their invasions of North Africa, Sicily, and Italy (1942–43). His talent for both strategic planning and staff coordination led him (December 1943) to be named supreme commander of the allied invasion of Normandy and he directed the campaign from D-Day (June 6, 1944) to the surrender of Germany (May 1945). After commanding the U.S. occupation forces in Germany, he returned to the U.S.A. to serve as army chief of staff (1946–48) before retiring from active duty. He served as president of Columbia University (1948–50) and head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (1951–52) before the Republicans drafted him as their presidential candidate in 1952; under the motto “I like Ike,” he won by a landslide over Adlai Stevenson and did the same in 1956. His record as president was mixed, but in the years following, his low-profile approach came to seem more attractive. He established a truce in the floundering Korean War in 1953, but still maintained American presence as the main bar to communist expansionism; with the “Eisenhower doctrine” he promised aid to Middle Eastern nations resisting communism; in 1956 he sent troops to restore order in racially troubled Little Rock, Ark. At the same time, he did little to restrain the Cold War machinations of Secretary of State John Foster Dulles or the red-scare.

Lyndon B. Johnson
1908-73: Thirty-sixth U.S. president; born near Stonewall, Texas. Son of schoolteachers, he taught school briefly after graduating from Southwest Texas State Teachers College (now Southwest Texas State University) (1930), then gravitated to Democratic politics. After serving as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administrator of the National Youth Administration in Texas, he went on to the U.S. House of Representatives (1937–49) and was quickly marked by his strong support of New Deal programs. A member of the Naval Reserve, he enlisted for active duty within hours after Pearl Harbor–the first Congressman to do so; he served in the Pacific until President Roosevelt ordered all Congressmen back to their elective office in July 1942. He won a narrow race for the U.S. Senate (1948) and served two terms (1949–61). As Democratic whip and then majority leader (1955–61)–and as the consummate arm-twisting deal-maker–he helped pass some of the most progressive social legislation of the century, including the civil rights acts of 1957 and 1960. Elected John F. Kennedy’s vice-president in 1960, he became president on Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963; in 1964 he was returned to office by a landslide. He proclaimed a “Great Society” program to fight poverty and racism, achieving passage of the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), plus a slate of social-welfare programs including Medicare. At the same time, he led the U.S.A. into an increasingly bloody and unpopular war in Vietnam. Declining support from his own high-level appointees and increasing divisiveness around the country led to his decision not to run in 1968. He retired to his Texas ranch and to writing his memoirs. Larger than life in his public behavior but more than vulgar in his private speech, sensitive to the plight of many less-fortunate Americans but insecure in his dealings with the Eastern Democratic Establishment, he ended as something of a tragic figure because of his overreaching ways.

Chester Nimitz
1885-1966: Naval officer; born in Fredericksburg, Texas. He supervised the construction of the navy’s first diesel ship engine (1913–16). He was chief of staff to the commander of the Atlantic fleet submarine division in World War I. He was chief of the Bureau of Navigation (1939–41) and became commander-in-chief of the Pacific Fleet after Pearl Harbor (1941). In 1942 he was named commander of all land, sea, and air forces in the Pacific. He refused to attack until U.S. forces were fully ready, in spite of pressure from Congress and the newspapers. He developed much of the strategy of “island hopping” while leading the fleet to many victories. He signed for the U.S.A. at the Japanese surrender ceremonies, which took place aboard his flagship, the USS Missouri, in 1945. He served as chief of naval operations after the war (1945-47).

Audie Murphy
1924-71: Soldier, actor; born near Kingston, Texas. The most decorated American soldier of World War II, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the fighting in the Colmar Pocket, Germany, in 1945. He appeared in the war adventure films Beyond Glory (1948) and To Hell and Back (1948).

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