“Texas: The False Origin of the Name”
William Soule POSTED BY: CARDENAS.AE@GMAIL.COM APRIL 25, 2018 The Rambling Boy By Lonn Taylor I first learned about Texas history at the age of four from a book called Texas, Land of the Tejas. It was written by Siddie Joe Johnson, a Dallas children’s librarian, and was illustrated by Texas artist Fanita Lanier. It was a gift from my parents at Christmas of 1943, a reminder that we were Texans even though we were living in Spartanburg, South Carolina, where my father was stationed during the war. I learned to read from that book, and I learned the facts about the Lady in Blue, and Jean Lafitte, and Sam Houston and the Battle of San Jacinto. Those facts were made memorable by Lanier’s unforgettable color illustrations, which were scattered through the text like bright flower petals. One of those facts, right there on page three, was that Texas took its name from a tribe of Indians called Tejas who “lived in villages of funny little-rounded houses, planted gardens, and had an interestin...