A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

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Entry from August 14, 2007
“Texas, One and Indivisible”

“Texas, One and Indivisible” has appeared on the reverse of the state seal of Texas since 1961. The phrase also appears in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas state flag (signed into law in 1933 and with “one state under God” added in 2007):
 
“Honor the Texas flag; I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God, one and indivisible.”
 
In the 1890s, the Daughters of the Republic of Texas took “Texas, One and Indivisible” as its motto. The phrase was suggested by Guy Morrison Bryan, then president of the companion Texas Veterans Association.
     
 
Handbook of Texas Online
DAUGHTERS OF THE REPUBLIC OF TEXAS. The Daughters of the Republic of Texas is the oldest patriotic women’s organization in Texas and one of the oldest in the nation. In 1891 Betty Ballinger and Hally Bryan (later Hally Bryan Perry) formulated plans for an association to be composed of women who were direct descendants of the men and women who established the Republic of Texas. They were encouraged in their efforts by Hally Bryan’s father, Guy M. Bryan, a member of the Texas Veterans Association. The organizational meeting was held on November 6, 1891, in the Houston home of Mary Jane Briscoe. Mary S. M. Jones, widow of the last president of the Republic of Texas, agreed to serve as president. The motto “Texas, One and Indivisible” was suggested by Colonel Bryan. The name first chosen for this group was Daughters of Female Descendants of the Heroes of ‘36; the association was renamed Daughters of the Lone Star Republic, then Daughters of the Republic of Texas at the first annual meeting in April 1892. The organization was planned as a companion to the Texas Veterans Association, and the two groups held joint meetings until the veterans disbanded in 1907.
 
Handbook of Texas Online
BRYAN, GUY MORRISON (1821-1901). Guy Morrison Bryan, legislator, Confederate officer, and judge, son of James and Emily Austin Bryan, was born at Herculaneum, Jefferson County, Missouri, on January 12, 1821. His mother was the sister of Stephen F. Austin. James Bryan died in 1822, and Emily married James F. Perry in 1824 (see perry, emily margaret austin). In 1831 the family moved to Texas and lived at San Felipe and at Pleasant Bayou until December 1832, when they located at Peach Point Plantation in Brazoria County.
(...)
He was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1873, 1879, and 1887, serving as speaker of the Fourteenth Legislature in 1874. In May 1873 he was a charter member of the Texas Veterans Association and from 1892 until his death served as its president. He was also a charter member and vice president of the Texas State Historical Association. He moved to Austin in 1898 and died there on June 4, 1901. He was buried in the State Cemetery.
 
State Seal of Texas
Reverse of the State Seal
The 1961 Reverse
The Daughters of the Republic of Texas proposed a design for the reverse of the state seal that was adopted by the Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Called Session. Governor Price Daniel approved this concurrent resolution on August 26, 1961. Sarah R. Farnsworth designed the art for the seal’s reverse. This design was unusual because the legislature adopted the art itself as the reverse of the state seal, as opposed to the usual practice of adopting a description, or blazon, which is later rendered by an artist. The legislature’s concurrent resolution adopting the seal’s reverse also contained a description of the art. Unfortunately, the description in the concurrent resolution disagreed in some respects with the art, and the art itself suffered from minor inaccuracies.
 
The 1991 Modification to the Reverse
 
The Seventy-Second Legislature modified the description of the reverse of the state seal as follows:
 
RESOLVED, That the design for the reverse side of the Great Seal of Texas shall consist of a shield, the lower half of which is divided into two parts; on the shield’s lower left is a depiction of the cannon of the Battle at Gonzales; on the shield’s lower right is a depiction of Vince’s Bridge; on the upper half of the shield is a depiction of the Alamo; the shield is circled by live oak and olive branches, and the unfurled flags of the Kingdom of France, the Kingdom of Spain, the United Mexican States, the Republic of Texas, the Confederate States of America, and the United States of America; above the shield is emblazoned the motto, “REMEMBER THE ALAMO”, and beneath the shield are the words, “TEXAS ONE AND INDIVISIBLE”; over the entire shield, centered between the flags, is a white five-pointed star…
Governor Ann W. Richards approved this concurrent resolution on June 14, 1991.
 
This modification was made to correct minor inaccuracies in the 1961 description and to adopt a description of the design, rather than specific art. The legislature’s action was taken to allow the State Preservation Board to obtain revised art for the seal’s reverse that was suitable for use in the underground extension of the state capitol. Alfred Znamierowski painted the art under the supervision of Whitney Smith, executive director of the Flag Research Center, and it was revised and completed by Douglas Young of the State Preservation Board. On the recommendation of the Texas State Seal Advisory Committee, Secretary of State John Hannah, Jr., adopted this art as the official design for the reverse of the state seal in June 1992 for use by all state offices, departments, and agencies.
 
The Seventy-Third Legislature enacted the description of the reverse of the state seal, as well as the description of the state arms, as article 6139f of the Revised Statutes. The reverse of the state seal now appears in color on the floor of an underground rotunda in the capitol extension.

Posted by Barry Popik
Texas (Lone Star State Dictionary) • Tuesday, August 14, 2007 • Permalink


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