Today is Texas Independence Day, when a group of men met in a tiny unfinished wooden building in the small town of Washington-On-The-Brazos to take the daring step of announcing to the world that they were creating a new nation.

via Writer finds record of Texas’ birth 173 years ago today | Houston & Texas News | Chron.com – Houston Chronicle.

One of the differences that comes from living in Texas is you get to celebrate the births of two countries. Today  is the 173rd birthday of the Republic of Texas which after a short run became a state in the United States of America.

Through my father’s family, I had ancestors who arrived in Texas during that brief span of years. They joined others already here, who received land grants for their participation in the Texas Revolution.

If you are not from Texas you might not be aware of the difference the annexing of Texas made to the young American country.

On March 1 George C. Childress,qv who had recently visited President Jackson in Tennessee, presented a resolution calling for independence. At its adoption, the chairman of the convention appointed Childress to head a committee of five to draft a declaration of independence. When the committee met that evening, Childress drew from his pocket a statement he had brought from Tennessee that followed the outline and main features of the United States Declaration of Independence. The next day, March 2, the delegates unanimously adopted Childress’s suggestion for independence. Ultimately fifty-eight members signed the document. Thus was born the Republic of Texas.

via Handbook of Texas Online – REPUBLIC OF TEXAS.