Ceremonial Staged for Pioneers.
San Antonio Light, Wednesday,March 2, 1927.
With heads bowed reverently in respect for the heroic deeds of their forefathers, sons and daughters of Texas Wednesday gathered in San Antonio to celebrate Texas independence day at the municipal auditorium, a $l,000,000 structure, contrasting sharply with the crude frame building in the little town of Washington where ninety-one yars ago today a handful of pioneers declared the independence of Texas from Mexico.
The celebration, attended by hundreds of persons born outside the state as well as native Texans, was held in conjunction with the annual convention of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas.
Special significance was attached to the patriotic meeting by the recent announcement that the committee, headed by Mrs. Clara Driscoll Sevier, state president of the Daughters of the Republic of Texas, appointed by Governor Moody to investigate the project, will recommened the purchase by the state of the entire block surrounding the Alamo.
Mrs. Sevier, who came from Austin to attend the celebration, said that her report of the investigation will be submitted to the state legislature within the next few days.
"We hope that a memorial park for Texas heroes, which it is planned to make of the property, is assured," Mrs. Sevier declared. It is understood that the land has been appraised at $484,000.
The Rev. P. C. Fletcher delivered the invocation and onto a stage decorated with the flags of America and the Republic of Texas, marched the combined chorus of the Brackenridge and Main avenue high schools to sing "America," while the crowd stood with bowed heads.
The celebration, presided over by Commissioner of Taxation Frank Bushick, was featured by the patriotic addresses made by Judge S. J. Brooks and Fred Hardman, youthful declaimer from Brackenridge high school. The valorous deeds of Texas heroes were praised in speech and song.
The welcome was extended by Mrs. Alexander Boynton, president of the Alamo Mission chapter, Daughters of the Republic of Texas. Mrs. Sevier responded.
Others who took part in the program were: A. Carrano, Bessie Lee Dickey, Mary Stuart Edwards and Mrs. Guy Simpson.
The music was furnished by the Texas theater symphony orchestra.
In the afternoon members of the society moved the scene of the celebration to the Alamo, where tablets to Mrs. Sevier and Judge J. E. Webb were unveiled.
It was Mrs. Sevier who saved the Alamo courtyard from being razed for a commercial building in 1908, when she contributed $65,000 from her private fortune to buy the property.
THE SECOND FLYING COMPANY OF ALAMO DE PARRAS
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