(For a narrative of this period, click here.)
1865
June 19 – Gen. Gordon Granger arrives at Galveston to announce that slavery has been abolished, an event commemorated today by the celebration known as Juneteenth.
September – The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen's Bureau) begins operating in Texas, charged with helping former slaves make the transition to freedom.
1866
March 15 – The Constitutional Convention approves an ordinance to nullify the actions of the Secession Convention.
Aug. 20 – President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation of peace between the United States and Texas.
Cattle drives, which had been occasional in the 1830s, sporadic during the 1840s and 1850s, and almost nonexistent during the Civil War, begin in earnest, mostly to markets and railheads in Midwest. They are at their peak for only about 20 years, until the proliferation of railroads makes them unnecessary.
1867
March 2 – Congressional Reconstruction replaces Presidential Reconstruction, dividing the South into five military districts under the command of the army.
1868
Landowners at Del Rio form a company to begin first large-scale irrigation in Texas. The canal system is completed in 1871.
1869
Nov. 30 – Texas voters approve a new state constitution.
1870
Jan. 8 – Edmund J. Davis becomes the first Republican governor of Texas.
Feb. 8 – The Legislature elected under the new constitution convenes. Its members include the first African-Americans, two in the Senate and 12 in the House.
March 30 – President Grant signs the act readmitting Texas to Congressional representation.
1871
May – Seven men in a wagon train are massacred at Salt Creek, about 20 miles west of Jacksboro, by Kiowas and Comanches led by chiefs Satanta, Big Tree, Satank and Eagle Heart.
1872
October – Construction begins on the Texas & Pacific Railway; the 125-mile stretch between Longview and Dallas opens for service on July 1, 1873.
1873
March 15 – The Houston and Texas Central Railway reaches the Red River, connecting there with the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad and creating the first all-rail route from Texas to St. Louis and the East.
Spring – First African-American "Buffalo Soldiers" are posted to Texas frontier forts.
1874
Jan. 17 – The inauguration of Democrat Richard Coke as governor marks the end of Reconstruction in Texas.
Sept. 28 – Col. Ranald Mackenzie leads the 4th U.S. Cavalry in the Battle of Palo Duro Canyon, an encounter that ends with the confinement of southern Plains Indians in reservations in Indian Territory. This makes possible the wholesale settlement of the western part of the state.
1876
Feb. 15 – The present state constitution is adopted.
Oct. 4 – The Agricultural and Mechanical College, later Texas A&M University, opens at College Station, becoming the first public institution of higher learning in the state.
Charles Goodnight establishes the JA Ranch in Palo Duro Canyon, the first cattle ranch located in the Panhandle.
1877
September – The El Paso Salt War is the culmination of a long dispute caused by Anglos' attempts to take over salt-mining rights at the foot of Guadalupe Peak, a traditionally Mexican-American salt source.
1881
Dec. 16 – The Texas & Pacific Railway reaches Sierra Blanca in West Texas, about 90 miles east of El Paso.
1883
Sept. 15 – Classes begin at The University of Texas.
1884
Fence-cutting wars prompt the Legislature to pass a law making fence-cutting a felony.
1886
Aug. 19-21 – A hurricane destroys or damages every house in the port of Indianola, finishing the job started by another storm 11 years earlier. Indianola is never rebuilt.
1888
May 16 – The present state capitol is dedicated.
1891
April 3 – The Railroad Commission, proposed by Gov. James Hogg, is established by the Legislature to regulate freight rates and to establish rules for railroad operations.
1894
June 9 – Oil is discovered at Corsicana by workers drilling for water; a commercial field opens in 1896, becoming the first small step in Texas' rise as a major oil producer.
1898
May 16 – Teddy Roosevelt arrives in San Antonio to recruit and train "Rough Riders" for the First Volunteer Cavalry to fight in the Spanish-American War in Cuba.
1898-1899
Texas experiences its coldest winter on record statewide.
