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There are no known copyright restrictions in
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http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924104081736
INDIAN WAR5
AND
Pioneers of Texas
BY
JOHN HENRY BROWN. ^
L. E. DANIELL, Publisher,
Austin, Texas. J
Press of
Nixon- Jones Printing Company,
St. Louis, Mo.
-beck told—
Pminting and Book Mfg. Co.
st. louis, mo.
BINUEKg.
DEDICATORY PREFACE.
The reader of this vokime is introduced to a series of advancing scenes in a
drama that had its beginning in the first feeble attempts that were made at the
settlement of the country, and to a succession of actors from the solitary explorer
of seventy years ago to the men of to-day.
To one of the most useful, honored and capable of the latter, our esteemed
friend —
Mr. George Sealy,
of Galveston,
this work is respectfully dedicated.
The book leads the reader through the past to the present and here leaves him
amid active and progressive men who are advancing, along with him, toward the
future.
Including, as it does, lives of men now living, it constitutes a connecting link
between what has gone before and what is to come after. It is therefore fitting
that it should be dedicated to a prominent man of our day in preference to one of
former times. The matter presented, in the nature of things, is largely biographical.
There can be no foundation for history without biography. History is a
generalization of particulars. It presents wide extended views. To use a para-
dox, history gives us but a part of history. That other part which it does not
give us, the part which introduces us to the thoughts, aspirations and daily life
of a people, is supplied by biography.
When a good action is performed we feel that it should be remembered
forever. When a good man dies, there is nothing sadder than the reflection that
he will be forgotten. No record has been preserved of the greater number of
(3)
4 DEDICATORY PREFACE.
noble actions. The names of some of the men who have done most to make
history have found no place upon its pages.
As Thomas-a-Kempis hath truly said : " To-day the man is here ; to-morrov*^ he
hath disappeared. And when he is out of sight, quickly also is he out of mind.
•' Tell me now, where are^all those doctors and masters, with whom thou wast
well acquainted, while they lived and flourished iu learning? ISTow others possess
their livings and perhaps do scarce ever think of them. In their lifetime they
seemed something, but now they are not spoken of.''
The men whose deeds are recorded in this book were or are dee])ly identi-
fied with Texas, and the preservation in this volume in enduring form of some
remembrance of them — their names, who and what they were — has been a
pleasant task to one who feels a deep interest and pride in Texas — its past
history, its heroes and future destiny. The book is presented to the reader
with the hope that he will find both pleasure and profit in its perusal.
c^OOV
INTRODUCTORY
TO THE
Mian Wars and Pioneers of Texas,
The first contest on the soil of Texas between
Americans and Indians antedates the visit of Moses
Austin to the country in 1820 ; but the combatants
were not colonists ; they were a part of the second
expedition of Capt. James Long in aid of the
patriots in the Mexican revolution. His first ex-
pedition, entering East Texas by land, had been
defeated in detail and driven from the country by
the troops of Spain, sent from San Antonio. This
second expedition came by water to Bolivar Point,
opposite the east end of Galveston Island, and forti-
fied that place. Some of the expedition, under
Don Felix Trespalacios, and among whom was the
subsequently distinguished martyr of Bexar in 1835,
Col. Benjamin R. Milam, sailed down the coast
and landed near Tampico. Fifty-two men remained
with Long, among whom were John Austin (com-
mander at Velasco in 1832), John McHenry,
deceased in Jackson County in 1885, and a number
of educated and daring Americans from different
States of the Union. In December, 1853, in De
Bow's New Orleans Review, the author of this work,
after repeated interviews with Capt. McHenry,
long his neighbor, gave this account of that first
strictly American-Indian fight in Texas, late in the
autumn of 1819. Its verity has never been ques-
tioned : —
While Long was at Bolivar, a French sloop
freighted with wines and Mexican supplies, bound
to Cassano; stranded on Galveston Island near the
present city. The Carancahua Indians, to the
number of 200 warriors, were then encamped in
the immediate vicinity, and at once attacked and
butchered all on board the sloop, plundered the
craft, and entered upon a general jollification and
war-dance. Long (discovering these facts) deter-
mined to chastise them for their baseness. Accord-
ingly after nightfall, at the head of thirty men
(inchiding McHenry), he passed over in small
boats to the island, and made an unexpected assault
upon the guilty wretches, who were then greatly
heated by the wines.
The Carancahuas, however, though surprised,
instantly seized their weapons, and yelling furiously,
met their assailants with determined courage.
With such superior numbers, they were a full match
for Long. The combatants soon came to a hand-
to-hand fight of doubtful issue ; but Long directed
his men in a masterly manner and effected a retreat
to his boats, leaving thirty -two Indians killed, three
of his own men dead, and two badly besides several
slightly wounded. George Early was severely
wounded. Long's party took two Indian boys
prisoners, and retained them, one of whom was
accidentally killed some time afterwards. This is
doubtless the first engagement known between the
war-like Carancahuas and the Americans.
THE FIRST CONTEST WITH THE COLONISTS.
The first two schooner loads of immigrants to
Texas, under the auspices of Stephen F. Austin,
landed on the west bank, three miles above the
mouth of the Colorado, late in March, 1822, having
left New Orleans on the 7th of February. The first
of the two vessels to amve was the schooner Only
Son, owned by Kineheloe and Anderson, two of the
immigrants, and commanded by Capt. Benjamin
Ellison, who made many subsequent trips to our
coast and died at his home in Groton, Connecticut,
July 17, 1880. [The writer met him at his own
home in 1869 and 1870, and found him to be a
refined and elegant old Chi-istian gentleman, with
(5)
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
kind recollections of the early pioneers on our
coast, and yet retaining a warm interest in the wel-
fare of Texas.] Among those arriving on the
Only Son were Abram M. Clare, from Kentucky,
who, till his death about forty years later, was a
worthy citizen; Maj. George Helm, of Kentucky,
who died on the eve of leaving to bring out his
family, one of whose sons, John L. Helm, was
afterwards Governor of Kentucky, while another is
the venerable Rev. Dr. Samuel Larne Helm, of the
Baptist Church, still of that State; Charles Whitson
and fapaily, James Morgan and family; Greenup
Hayes, a grandson of Daniel Boone, who did not
remain in the country ; Mr. Bray, who settled at the
mouth of Bray's bayou, now Harrisburg, and his
son-in-law. While in Galveston Bay a number of
the colonists died of yellow fever, before reaching
Matagorda Bay. Among those who arrived by the
other vessel were Samuel M. Williams, afterwards
so long Secretary of Austin's Colony, and Jonathan
C. Peyton and wife, Angelina B., a sister of Bailie
Peyton of Tennessee, afterwards the wife of Jacob
Eberly, by which name she was widely known and
esteemed throughout Texas, till her death about
1860. These personal facts are mentioned in justice
to those who were the first of our countrymen to
cross the gulf and seek homes in the wilderness of
Texas — the first, in that mode, to vindicate the
grand conception of the already deceased Moses
Austin, at the very moment that his son and suc-
cessor, Stephen F. Austin, was encountering in San
Antonio de Bexar the first of a long series of
obstacles to the prosecution of the enterprise — an
enterprise in the fruition of which, as time has
already shown, was directly involved the welfare of
two and a half millions of people now on the soil of
Texas, besides indirectly affecting other vast mul-
titudes now resident in California, Nevada, Utah,
Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. The politico-
economical aspect of this question would fill a
volume in following the march of our race
from Jamestown, Plymouth and Beaufort to the
present time, both interesting and edifying to the
highest order of political philosophers ; but its
discussion does not fall within the scope of this
work.
These immigrants, leaving a small guard with
their effects, somewhat aided by a few persons who
had settled on and near the Colorado, within the
present bounds of the counties of Colorado and
Fayette, moved up in that portion of the wilderness.
James Cummins, Jesse Burnham, and a few others
constituted the infant settlements referred to at
that time.
Before leaving their supplies under guard those
savages of the coast, the Carancahuas,* had visited
the immigrants, professed friendship, and entered
into a verbal treaty of good will. But, in keeping
with their instincts, as soon as the families and
main strength of the party had been gone sufficiently
long, they clandestinelj^ assailed the camp — the
guard escaping more or less wounded — and seized
its contents. On learning this a party marched
down and chastised a small encampment of the
Indians, giving them a foretaste of what they real-
ized, when too late, that they must either In good
faith be at peace with the Americans or suffer an-
nihilation. Thirty years later their once powerful
tribe — long the scourge of wrecked vessels and
their crews — was practically, if not absolutely,
extinct. This was the first blood shed between the
settlers and the Indians.
The Carancahuas were both treacherous and
troublesome, often stealing from the settlers and
often firing upon them from ambush. The earlier
colonists living in proximity to the coast were
greatly annoyed by them. But there is no reliable
account of many of their earlier depredations.
About 1851 a small volume was published, purport-
ing to consist of letters by an early settler in the
section mentioned to a friend in Kentucky, giving
current accounts of events from 1822 to about 1845,
when in fact thej' were written by another, and a
stranger in the country, from the verbal recitals
from memory of the assumed author. The gross
inaccuracies in regard to events occurring much
later, especially in 1832 and 1840, necessarily
weaken confidence in his statements in regard to
earlier occurrences. We must, therefore, be con-
tent with more or less imperfect summaries of the
conflicts with the Carancahuas for the first few years
of the colony.
Among the first of which any account has been
preserved was an attack from ambush by these
savages upon three young men in a canoe in the
Colorado river, in the spring of 1823. The locality
is now in Colorado County. Loy and Alley (the lat-
ter one of several brothers) were Idlled. Clark, their
companion, escaped to the opposite bank, severely
but not mortally wounded. On the same day another
young man named Robert Brotherton was fired upon
and wounded by them, but escaped on horseback to
convey the news to the settlers above, these two
attacks being near the mouth of Skull creek.
* I follow the correct Spanish spelling of the names
of the Texas Indian tribes, giving also the correct pro-
nunciation. Thus, Caran-ca-hua, pronounced Kar-an-
ka-wah. There has been no uniformity in the orthograpliy
of these names among American writers. All, however,
will agree that there should be.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
This was Robert Brotherton from St. Louis
County, Missouri, of which his two brothers, James
and Marshall, were successively sheriff, from 1834
to 1842. Eobert died unmarried at Columbiis,
Texas, about 1857, leaving his estate to his nephew,
Joseph W. McClurg, who, after a short residence
in Texas, returned to Missouri, to become later a
congressman and Governor of the State.
A party of the settlers, numbering fourteen or
fifteen, by a cautious night march arrived at the
Indian camp in time to attack it at dawn on the
following morning. Completely surprised, the
Indians fled into the brush, leaving several dead.
This was on Skull creek, a few miles from
Columbus.
The depredations of the Carancahuas continued
with such frequency that Austin determined to
chastise and if possible force them into pacific
behavior. [Having left San Antonio very unex-
pectedly for the city of Mexico in March, 1822, to
secure a ratification of his colonization scheme by
the newly formed government of Iturbide, the
original concession of 1821 to Moses Austin having
been made by the expiring authorities under
Spain, Austin was now, in the summer of 1824, at
his new home on the Brazos, clothed temporarily
with authority to administer the civil and judicial
affairs of the colony, and to command the militia
with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel.] Capt.
Eandall Jones, in command of twenty-three men,
in the month of September, moved down' the
Brazos in canoes. On the lower river he was
visited by some of the Indians who, on seeing his
strength, manifested friendship. But learning that
about thirtj' warriors of the tribe were encamped
on a tributary of the Bernard, about seven miles
distant, and also that about a dozen others had
gone to Bailey's, further up the river, to buy
ammunition, Capt. Jones sent two messengers
up the river for help. These two found a small
number already collected to watch the party at
Bailey's. Becoming assured of their hostile intent,
the settlers attacked them, killed several and the
others fled.
Without waiting for reinforcements, Capt.
Jones determined to attack the party on the creek.
Crossing to its west side he moved down in the
night abreast the Indian camp, which was on the
margin of a marshy expansion of the creek, covered
with high grass, reeds, etc. At daylight the whites
fired, charging into the camp. In a moment the
Indians were secreted in the rank vegetation, hurl-
ing arrows with dangerous precision into their
exposed assailants. In another moment one or two
of the whites fell dead, and several were wounded.
To maintain their position was suicidal ; to charge
upon the hidden foe was madness ; to retire as
best they could was the dictate of common sense.
This they did, pursued up the creek to where they
recrossed it. They had three men killed, bearing
the names of Spencer, Singer, and Bailey, and
several wounded. It was claimed that fifteen
Indians were killed, but of this there was no
assurance when we remember the arms then in use.
Be that as it may, it was a clear repulse of the
whites, whose leader, Capt. Jones, was an expe-
rienced soldier of approved courage. Such a result
was lamentable at that period in the colony's
infancy. It was this affair which caused the name
of "Jones" to be bestowed on that creek.
Soon after this the Carancahuas, a little above
the mouth of the Colorado, captured an American
named White and two Mexicans, in a canoe, who
had gone from the San Antonio to buy corn. They
let White go under a promise that he would bring
down corn from the settlement and divide it with
them — the canoe and Mexicans remaining as hos-
tages. When White reported the affair to the
people above, Capt. Jesse Burnham, with about
thirty men, hastened to the spot agreed upon, and
very soon ambushed a canoe containing seven or'
eight Indians, nearly all of whom were slain at the
first fire, and it was not certain that a single one
escaped.
Col. Austin, near this time, raised about a
hundred volunteers and marched from the Brazos
southwesterly in search of the Carancahuas. Some
accounts say that he went to meet them, at their
request, to make a treaty. Others assert that he
started forth to chastise them, and that after
crossing the Guadalupe at Victoria he met messen-
gers from the Indians, sent through the priests of
Goliad, proposing to meet and enter into a treaty
with him. This is undoubtedly the true version.
Austin started prepared and determined to punish
the Indians for their repeated outrages, or force
them to leave the limits of his colony. Had he
only gone in response to their invitation, he would
not have taken with him over a dozen men. He
met them on the Menahuilla creek, a few miles
east of La Bahia, and, being much persuaded
thereto by the clergy and Alcalde of that town,
made a ti'eaty with them, in which they pledged
themselves never again to come east of the San
Antonio river. More than one writer has been led
to assert that the Carancahuas kept that pledge,
which is notoriously untrue, as they committed
occasional depredations east of that river at inter-
vals for twenty-one years, and at other intervals
lived at peace with settlements, hunting and some-
8
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
times picking cotton for the people. In 1842 they
were living on the margins of Matagorda Bay,
often seen by the author of this work, while during
the succeeding December, with the Somervell
expedition, he saw perhaps a dozen of the tribe
on the banks of the Rio Grande. The last Ameri-
can blood shed by them was that of Capt. John
F. Kempen, in Victoria County, whom they mur-
dered in November, 1845., [Vide Victor M. Eose's
History of Victoria County, page 21. J
Austin's movement was a wise one. It con-
vinced those unfaithful creatures that the Ameri-
cans had become strong enough to hold the country
and punish their overt acts. They had formerly
been partially under the influence of the mission-
aries, and still had their children baptized by the
priests who stood somewhat as sponsors for them
in the treaty, probably a stroke of policy mutually
understood by them and Col. Austin, as sure to
have no evil effect, and with the hope that it might
exert a salutary influence, as it doubtless did. We
must not forget that those were the days of infancy
and small things in Texas.
As to the number of Indians in Texas in its first
American settlement, we have no reliable statistics.
The following semi-official statement, published in
the Nashville (Tenn.) Banner of August 1, 1836,
is deemed authentic as far as it goes ; but it does
not include those tribes or portions of tribes — as
for instance the Comanches — pertaining to Texas,
or south of the Arkansas river and west of the
100th degree of longitude west of Greenwich : —
Me. Editor — As the public mind has been and
still is somewhat excited with regard to the situa-
tion of our western frontier, and the State being
now under a requisition of Gen. Gaines for a
regiment of mounted gun men to maintain its
defense, I have thought it would not be uninter-
esting to the public to know the names and numbers
of Indian tribes on that frontier. The statement
is taken from an estimate accompanying a map of
survey showing the geographical and relative posi-
tions of the different tribes, which was prepared at
the topographical bureau during the present year,
which I have not yet seen published.
The names and numbers of the Indians who
have emigrated to the west of the Mississippi : —
Choctaws l.'jjOOS
Apalachicoles 265
Cherokees 5,000
Creeks 2,459
Senecas and Shawnees 211
Senecas (from Sandusky) 231
Potowatomies 141
Peorias and Kaskaskias 132
Plenkeshaws 1''^
Wees 222
Ottoways 200
Kickapoos ^^0
Shawnees 1,250
Delawares ^26
The names and numbers of the Indian tribes
resident west of the Mississippi : —
lowas 1,200
Sacs, of the Missouri 500
Omahas 1,400
Ottoes and Missourians 1,600
Pawnees 10,000
Comanches 7,000
Mandons 15,000
Mineterees 15,000
Assinaboins 800
Crees 3,000
Crosventres 3,000
Crows 45,000
Sioux 27,500
Quapaws 460
Caddos 800
Poncas 800
Osages 5,120
Konsas 1,471
Sacs 4,800
Arickaras 8,000
Chazenes 2,000
Blackfeet .30,000
Foxes 1,600
Areehpas and Keawas 1,400
There is yet remaining east of the river in the
Southern States a considerable number: the five
principal tribes are the Seminoles, Creeks, Chero-
kees, Choctaws and Chickasaws.
Seminoles, yet remaining east 2,420
Choctaws, yet remaining east 3,500
Chickasaws, yet remaining east 5,420
Cherokees, yet remaining east 10,000
Creeks, yet remaining east 22,668
Those stated as western tribes extend along the
whole western frontier. And taking as true the
opinions of the department, that the average
number of an Indian family is four, it may bo seen
what number of warriors, by possibility, might be
brought into the field, and what number on the
other hand might be required to keep them in
check.
By publishing the foregoing statement, you will
oblige your humble servant,
Thomas J. Porter.
CHIEF AT HOME.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
At that time there were in East Texas the Chero-
kees and their twelve associate bands of United
States Indians, embracing portions of the Dela-
wares, ' Shawnees, Kickapoos, Alabamas, Coosh-
attes, Caddos, Pawnees, and others.
There were also remnants of ancient Texas
Indians — some almost extinct — such as the
Achaes, Jaranenies, Anaquas, Bedwias — still
formidable bodies of Carancahuas, Tsixahuas,
Lipans, Tahnacarnoes, Wacos, Wichitas, Keechies,
lonies, Towdashes, and others, besides the still
principal tribes of the Comanches, Kiowas and
to their west the Apaches, Navajoes, and others
more strictly pertaining to New Mexico, but often
depredating in Texas, as did the Mescalaros and
other tribes from beyond the Rio Grande hailing
from Coahuila and Chihuahua.
Our work is hereafter confined to events after the
American settlements began. It covers the period
from 1822 to 1874, fift\'-two years, and much is
untold, but the early struggles in every part of this
State are given as illustrations of what the pioneers
of Texas suffered.
Mrs. Jane Long at Bolivar Point— 1820.
Bolivar Point lies, green and inviting, a high
point of land in sight of Galveston. It seems to
say to pleasure-seekers, " Come and visit me. I
have shady groves, fresh breezes, and in the season
fine melons and fruits to offer, but there are events
of historic and romantic interest connected with
me, which add tenfold to my attractiveness." Yes,
truly, seventy-six years ago Bolivar was the scene of
events now known to comparatively few, except per-
haps members of old Texas families, who have
heard them related by the remarkable woman who
there displayed a heroic devotion and courage rarely
equaled in modern times.
First we see her, in the year 1815, at Natchez,
Miss., with sun-bonnet hiding her clustering curls,
and school satchel on arm, as she wends her way to
the academy. The same day she meets, for the
first time, Dr. Long, who has just distinguished
himself in the battle of New Orleans, where he won
from Gen. Jackson the sobriquet of "The
Young Lion." The stream which separates simple
acquaintance from passionate love was soon crossed,
and the boy surgeon of twenty and Jane Wilkinson,
the school girl of fifteen, became husband and wife.
A few years of quiet domestic life, and the adven -
turous spirit and manly ambition of the soldier
assumed full sway over a mind which could not be
content with the peaeefulpursuits of the farmer, nor
yet with the humdrum traffic of the merchant, which
Long successively engaged in after his marriage.
Mexico was struggling to be free from Spain, and
in 1819 Gen. Long became the leader of a gal-
lant band of men raised in Natchez for the purpose
of wresting that portion of Mexico called Texas
from the Spanish yoke. Through the many excit-
ing scenes incident to a soldier's life in this almost
unknown country, Mrs. Long followed her husband,
content if she could but be near him. In 1820 she
found a resting place in a rude fort at Bolivar
Point, fortified and provisioned by Gen. Long
before his departure for La Bahia, or Goliad. Here
the adoring wife long awaited a return, of whose
impossibility her boundless faith would not allow
her to conceive. As time wore on, and no news of
the General's fate arrived, Bolivar was deserted by
the two men who constituted the guard. Although
several vessels touched at the point for the purpose
of conveying Mrs. Long to New Orleans, she, with
her little daughter and negro servant girl, Kian,
determined, at all hazards, to await her husband's
return.
When we look upon the Galveston Island of to-
day, with its city rising from the sea, its market
gardens and dairy farms, its beach gay with costly
equipages, and surf noisy with the shouts of bathers,
it is difficult to recognize in it the Galveston Island
of seventy-six years ago. At that time, deserted
even by the pirate Lafltte, the red house and the
three trees the only objects that rose above the
water's edge, the cry of seagulls and pelicans,
mingled with the doleful sighing of breaking waves,
the only sounds to reach the ear of the brave woman
who kept her lonely watch at Bolivar, as we view
the incoming ships, laden with freight from every
quarter of the globe, and the sailing yachts bearing
pleasure parties perhaps to the very spot whence
Mrs. Long often strained her eyes to descry a dis-
tant sail which might bring good tidings, it is
10
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
almost impossible to form a true conception of the
extreme desolateness of her situation.
In the midst of a region little known by whites,
the only human beings she could expect to see were
the savage Carancahua Indians, who might be
tempted to return to their old haunts, on the island,
now that Lafltte had deserted the place, or other
Indians who might approach from the Trinity.
Whenever they came near enough to cause her to
dread an attack, she had presence of mind to fire
off the cannon, and give .other indications that the
fort was occupied by a formidable force. There
were times when, not daring to go out by day, Kian
would visit the beach at night, in order to get
oysters, which were often their only article of
food. Great was the rejoicing when, during that
severe winter of 1820-21, which converted the bay
into a sheet of ice, Kian found numbers of be-
numbed or frozen fish beneath the icy surface, and,
with Mrs. Long's assistance, a hole was cut, and a
good supply obtained and packed in the brine of
mackerel barrels. The cold was at this time so in-
tense that the ice was strong enough to bear the
weight of a bear which calmly pursued its way
across the bay, unmolested save by the barking of
Mrs. Long's dog, "Galveston."
At length the period of lonely waiting drew to
a close. One day there came a Mexican from
San Antonio, sent by Gen. Palacios, bearing
a message ; but how different were the tidings
from those for which the devoted wife had fondly
hoped I
The tragic manner of Gen. Long's death in
the city of Mexico is well known to readers of
Texas history, but none can ever know the shock
which his young wife experienced at this rude
awakening from her long dream of a happy reunion.
Some weeks later a second messenger came, pro-
vided with mules to convey her and her little family,
consisting of two girls (an infant having been born
during her sojourn at Bolivar) and the faithful ser-
vant, to San Antonio. Here she was treated with
marked distinction by the Mexican government, as
the widow of a patriot and a hero.
Her long life of widowhood, intimately bound up
with the history of Texas, came to a close, at the
age of eighty-two, on the 30th of December, 1880,
at Richmond, Texas, where her son-in-law. Judge
Sullivan, and granddaughter still reside. Her
Spartan qualities became the legacy of Texians, for
historians have concurred in bestowing upon her
the worthy title, " The Mother of Texas."
The Cherokee Indians and Their Twelve Associate Bands —
Fights with the Wacos and Tehuacanos —
1820 to 1829.
A little before 1820, dissatisfled portions of the
great Cherokee tribe of Indians, who had, from the
earliest knowledge we have of them, occupied
a large, romantic and fertile district of country,
now embraced in East Tennessee, Western North
Carolina and the upper portions of South Carolina,
Georgia and Alabama, began emigrating west of
the Mississippi. Before the close of that year a
portion of them reached and halted temporarily on
Red river, in the northeast corner of Texas. The
Itirger portion located in the valley of the Arkansas,
between Little Rock and Fort Smith, and there
with annually increasing numbers, remained a
number of years, until tlie main body yet remain-
ing in the loved land of their fathers, under treaty
stipulations with the United States, began their
final removal to the magnificent territory now be-
longing to them ; a migration occupying a number
of years, and not completed uiitil 1837. In that
time those along the Arkansas joined them. Those
coming down to Red river also received acces-
sions, for a number of years, from the different
migrating bodies, including small colonies from
twelve other partially civilized tribes.
Very soon, perhaps before the close of 1820, and
certainly in 1821, they explored the country south
of them and began locating in East Texas, in what,
from that time till their expulsion in 1839, was
known as "the Cherokee country," now embrac-
ing the county of Cherokee and adjoining territory,
where they and their twelve associate bands, grad-
ually established homes, building cabins, opening
farms and raising domestic animals. Some joined
them as late as 1830 and '31. In 1822 when
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
11
Stephen F. Austin and Green De Witt of Missouri,
Haden Edwards of Mississippi, and Eobert Lef twich
of Nashville, Tennessee (the original grantee in
what subsequently became Robertson's Colony),
were in the city of Mexico, seeking colonial privi-
leges in Texas, three Cherokee chiefs, Bowles,
Fields and Nicollet, were also there, seeking a
grant, or some sort of concession, to the district in
which they were locating, not a contract for colon-
ization, as desired by the gentleman named, but a
specific grant to their people in tribal capacity.
But they did not succeed, receiving only polite
promises of something when Mexican affairs should
be more settled.
In 182G Fields and John Dunn Hunter (both of
mixed blood. Hunter possibly altogether white, but
of this there is no positive knowledge, and both of
good education) visited the Mexican capital on a
similar mission for the Cherokees, but they also
failed and returned to their people in an ill humor,
just in time to sympathize with Haden Edwards
and his colonists in their outrageous treatment by
the Mexican Governor of the State of Coahuila and
Texas, in declaring, without trial or investigation,
the annulment of his contract and ordering the
expulsion of himself and brother from the countiy.
Fields and Hunter, smarting under what they con-
sidered the bad faith of Mexico, induced their
people to treat with and sustain the Edwards party
in what received the name of the Fredonian war.
But this had a brief existence. Bean, as agent of
Mexico, seduced the Indians from their agreement
and secured their support of the Mexican troops
then advancing, which caused the Fredonians to
yield the hopeless contest and leave the country.
Not only this, but the Cherokees turned upon their
two most enlightened and zealous champions.
They basely assassinated both Fields and Hunter.
This ended that embroglio. The Cherokees claimed
a promise from Bean that Mexico, in reward for
their course, would grant them the lands desired.
Whether so promised or not, the grant was never
made.
A band of Cherokees, en route to tbeir people in
Texas, halted on Red river, in order to raise a
crop of corn, in the winter of 1828-9. An account
of what followed wsls written and published in 1855,
and is here reproduced. * * * They had not
been at this place very long before their villages
were discovered by a party of Wacos, on a robbing
expedition from the Brazos ; and these freebooters,
true to their instincts from time immemorial, lay
concealed till the silent midnight hour, and then,
stealthily entering the herds of the sleeping Chero-
kees, stampeded their horses, driving off a large
number. To follow them was labor in vain — but
to quietly forget the deed was not the maxim among
the red sons of Tennessee.
A council was held and the matter discussed.
After the opinions of the warriors had been given,
the principal war-chief rose, and in substance said :
" My brothers ! the wild men of the far-off Brazos
have come into our camp while the Cherokee slept !
They have stolen our most useful property. With-
out horses we are poor, and C3.nnot make corn.
The Cherokees will hasten to plant their corn for
this spring, and while that is springing from the
ground and growing under the smiles of the Great
Spirit, and shall be waving around our women and
children, we will leave some old men and women to
watch it, and the Cherokee braves will spring upon
the cunning Wacos of the Brazos, as they have
sprung upon us."
The corn was planted, and in the month of Maj^,
1829, a war party of fifty-five, well armed, left the
Red river villages on foot in search of the Wacos.
At this time the principal village of the Wacos was
on the bluff where the beautiful town of Waco now
greets the eye on the west bank of the Brazos.
One band of theTehuacano (Ta-wak-a-no) Indians,
who have always been more or less connected with
the Wacos, were living on the east bank of the
river, three miles below. Both bands had erected
rude fortifications, by scooping up the earth in
various places and throwing up a circular embank-
ment three or four feet high, the remains of which
still are to be seen. The principal work of this
kind at the Waco village occupied a natural sink in
the surface.
The Cherokees struck the Brazos above the vil-
lage some forty miles, and traveled downward
until they discovered signs of its proximity, and
then secreted themselves in the cedar brake till
night. The greater portion of the night was spent
in examining the position, through experienced
scouts. Having made the necessary observations,
the scouts reported near dayhght, when the war-
chief admonished them of what they had come
for — revenge! Waco scalps!! horses!!! — and
led them forth from their hiding-place, under the
bank of the river, to a point about four hundred
yards from the wigwams of the slumbering Wacos.
Here they halted till rays of light, on that lovely
May morning, began to gild the eastern horizon.
The time for action had come. Moving with the
noiseless, elastic step peculiar to the sons of the
forest, the Cherokees approached the camp. But
a solitary Waco had aroused and was collecting the
remains of his fire of the previous night, prepara-
tory to his morning repast. His Indian ear caught
12
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the sound of footsteps on the brush — a glance of
his lynx-eye revealed the approaching foe. A
single shrill yell from him, which echoed far and
near through the Brazos forest, brought every
Waco to his feet. The terrible Cherokee war-
whoop was their morning greeting, accompanied
by a shower of leaden rain. But, though surprised,
the Wacos outnumbered their assailants many
times — their women and children must be pro-
tected or sacrificed — their ancient home, where
the bones of their fathers had been buried for ages,
was assailed by unknown intruders. Their chief
rallied the warriors and made a stand — the fight
became general, and as the sun rose majestically
over the towering trees of the east, he beheld the
red men of Tennessee and the red men of Texas in
deadly strife. But the bows and arrows of the
Waco could not compete with the merciless rifl.e of
the Cherokee. The Wacos were falling rapidly,
while the Cherokees were unharmed.
After half an hour's strife, amid yells and mutual
imprecations, the Wacos signaled a retreat, and
they fell back in confusion, taking refuge in the
fortified sink-hole. Here, though hemmed in, they
were quite secure, having a great advantage. In-
deed, they could kill every Cherokee who might
peradvenlure risk his person too near the brink.
The Cherokees had already killed many, and now
held a council, to consider what they should do.
It was proposed by one brave that they should
strip to a state of nature, march into the sink-hole
in a body, fire their pieces, then drop them, and
with tomahawks alone endeavor to kill every man,
woman and child among the Wacos. A half-breed
named Smith, who was in favor of this desperate
measure, as an incentive to his comrades, stripped
himself, fastened half a dozen Iiorse-bells (which
he had picked up -in the camp) round his waist,
and commenced galloping and yelling around the
sink-hole, now and then jumping on the embank-
ment and then back, cursing the Wacos most lustily.
Arrows were hurled at him by scores, but he fell
not.
Just as the Cherokee council was coming to a
close, at about an hour after sunrise, they heard a
noise like distant thunder on the opposite side of
the river and delayed a few moments to discover its
cause. Very soon they discovered a large body of
mounted Indians rising the river bank a little
below them. What could it mean? they murmured
one to another. The story is soon told. A mes-
senger had rushed from the Wacos in the outset,
for the Tehuacano village, begging help, and now
two hundred Tehuacano warriors, mounted and
ready for the fray, were at hand. The whole aspect
of the day was changed in a moment. To conquer
this combined force was impossible — to escape
themselves would require prudence. The Tehua-
canos, in coming up, cut off a Cherokee boy,
twelve years old, killed and scalped him, and plac-
ing his scalp on a lance, held it up defiantly to the
view of the Cherokees. The boy was an only
child, and his father beheld this scene. The brave
man's eye glared with fury. Without a word he
threw from his body every piece of his apparel,
seized a knife in one hand, a tomahawk in the
other. "What will you.?" demanded the chief.
"Die with my brave boy. Die slaying the wild
men who have plucked the last rose from my
bosom!" The chief interceded, and told him it
was madness ; but the Cherokee listened not ; with
rapid strides he rushed among the Tehuacanos,
upon certain death; but ere death had seized its
victim, he had killed several and died shouting
defiance in their midst.
The Tehuacanos occupied the post oaks just
below the Cherokees, and kept up a lusty shouting,
but ventured not within rifle-shot. The latter, see-
ing that on an open field they could not resist such
numbers — having taken fifty-five Waco scalps
(equal to their own number) — having lost two
men and the boy — now fell back into the cedar
brake and remained there till night. They were
convinced that their safety depended upon a cau-
tious retreat, as, if surrounded on the prairies, they
would be annihilated. When night came on, they
crossed the river, traveled down the sand bank a
mile or two, as if they were going down the coun-
try, thence, turning into the stream, waded up the
edge of the water some six or seven miles (the river
being low and remarkably even), and thus eluded
pursuit. In due time, they reached their Red
river villages, without the thousand horses they
anticipated, but with fifty-five Waco scalps — glory
enough in their estimation. The tribe was speedily
called together for a grand war-dance. For miles
around the American settlers were surprised to see
such a commotion and gathering among the Indians.
A gentleman, my informant, was there visiting a
widowed sister. He rode up to the Cherokee
encampment, inquired into the cause of the move-
ment, was invited to alight and spend the day.
He did so, aud witnessed one of thtf grandest war-
dances he ever saw, and he was an old Indian
fighter. A very intelligent man, a half-breed,
named Chisholm, one of the fifty-five, gave
him a full history of the whole transaction. He
noted it carefully, and from him I received it in
1855.
That gentleman was Capt. Thomas H. Barron,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
13
formerly of Washington County, then residing near
Waco. When he first visited Waco in 1834, he at
once recognized the battle-ground and sink-hole as
described by Chisholm. The Cherokees did not
forget the Tehuacanos, but held them to a strict
account.
Cherokee and Tehuacano Fight in 1830.
After the Cherokees returned to their temporary
home on Bed river, from the attack on the Wacos,
in 1829, they determined to take vengeance on the
Tehuacanos for their interference in that engage-
ment on behalf of the Wacos. It seems that early
in the summer of 1830, they fitted out a war party
for this purpose, numbering about one hundred and
twenty fighting men.
The Tehuacanos, like the Wacos, had several
principal villages, favorite places of resort, from
some peculiarity, as fine springs of water, abun-
dance of buffalo, etc. One of them, and perhaps
their most esteemed locality, was at the southern
point of the hills of the same name, now in the
upper edge of Limestone County, and the pres-
ent site of Tehuacano University. Around these
springs there is a large amount of loose limestone
on the surface, as well as in the hills, and the
whole surrounding country is one of rare beauty and
loveliness.
The Tehuacanos had erected several small in-
closures of these loose stones, about three feet high,
leaving occasional spaces some two feet square re-
sembling the mouths of furnaces. Over the tops
they threw poles and spread buffalo- hides, and
when attacked, their women, old men, and children
would retreat into these cells while the warriors
would oppose the attacking party from without,
until too closely pressed, when they, too, would
seek refuge in the same, and lying flat on the
ground, would send their arrows and bullets
through these apertures whenever an enemy came
within range. From the attacks of small arms
such a protection, however primitive, was gen-
erally quite effective.
This party of Cherokees, having been informed
of the locality of this place, and the value set upon
it by the Tehuacanos, and knowing that it was a
considerable distance from the Wacos, determined
to seek it out and there wreak vengeance upon
those who had by their own act called forth feel-
ings of hostility. Guided by an Indian who had
explored the country as a trapper, they reached
the place in due season. When discovered, the
Tehuacanos were engaged at a play of balls around
the little forts. The Cherokees stripped for action
at once, while the ball-players, promptly ceasing
that amusement, rushed their women and children
into their retreats, and prepared for defense.
They had quite a large village, and outnumbered
the Cherokees in fighting-men.
A random fight commenced, the Cherokees using
the surrounding trees as protection and taking the
matter as a business transaction, made their ad-
vances from tree to tree with prudence. Their
aim, with the "rest" against the trees, told with
effect, and one by one, notwithstanding their hid-
eous yells and capering, to and fro, the Tehuacanos
were biting the dust.
The moment one was wounded, unless a very-
brave fellow, he would crawl into the*hiding-plaee
among their women and children, unless, per-
chance, on his way, a Cherokee ball brought him
to the ground.
The fight continued this way an hour or more,
when, upon a signal, the whole body retired within
their breastworks. At this time, the Cherokees,
elated by what they supposed to be a victory,
charged upon the openholes, ringing their victori-
ous war-whoop most furiously. But they were soon
convinced that though concealed, the besieged were
not powerless, for here they received a shower of
arrows and balls from the hidden enemy which
tumbled several of their braves alongside of those
they killed on the other side. Yet, excited as they
had become, they were not easily convinced that
prudence in that case was the better part of valor.
On the contrary, they maintained the unequal con-
test for some lime, until one of their old men
advised a talk.
They withdrew a short distance, and held a con-
sultation. Their leaders said they had come there
for revenge and they would not relinquish their
design so long as a Cherokee brave was left to
fight — that to go back to their people and report
a defeat would, disgrace them — they would die on
14
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the field rather than bear such tidings! " Where
there's a will there's a way," is a trite old adage,
and at this juncture of affairs it was verified by the
Cherokees. The old man who had advised the
"talk" now made a suggestion, which was sec-
onded by all. He proposed that a party should be
sent off a short distance to cut dry grass and bring
a lot; that men, loaded with this combustible
material, should cautiously approach each hole in
the breast-works, from the sides, using the grass
as a shield on the way ; that the door-holes should
be stopped up with it (with new supplies constantly
arriving), and set on fire, by which very simple
process the inmates would be suffocated or com-
pelled to throw off the hides and leap out, breath-
less and more or less blinded through the smoke,
while the Cherokees, stationed round in circles,
would have an easy time in butchering their
astounded red brethren. This was a rich idea,
and, delighted with the anticipated fun on their
part, and misery among their enemies, the Chero-
kees speedily made all their arrangements and dis-
posed of their fighting-men to the best advantage.
The grass was placed in the required position, and
at the same moment, set on fire. For a moment
or two no response was heard from within ; but
very soon the smolte was seen escaping, through the
rocks and from under the skins, proving that each
little refuge was full of the strangulating exhala-
tion. To endure such a torture long 'was beyond
human power ; and in a little while a doleful howl
issued forth, followed by a significant upheaving of
the buffalo-skin roofs, and a rush of the gasping
vicliras, blinded by smoke, leaping over the walls,
they knew not where. To render the picture more
appalling, the exulting Cherokees set up a terrible
yelling, and dealt death to the doomed creatures
with their guns, tomahawks, and scalping knives
until all were slain or had made their escape from
the dreadful sacrifice by headlong flight. Quite a
number of squaws and children, and perhaps a few
men, had been unable' to rise, and died from suffo-
cation inside the works.
And thus ended this tragic scene in the course
of our Indian warfare. Comparatively few of the
Tehuacanos escaped. The surviving women and
children were preserved prisoners, and a consider-
able number of horses, blankets, skins, and indeed
the entire camp equipage, fell into the hands of the
victors, who returned to their people on Red river
in triumph, displaying not only their available
booty but a large number of the greatest of all
Indian symbols of glory, scalps.
These facts I obtained in 1842 from an old
Spaniard, who composed one of the party, and I
have little doubt but they were furnished by him
with fidelity.
This old Spaniard, whose name was Vasquez,
was a native of New Madrid, Missouri, and had
passed much of his life with different Indian tribes.
About 1840 he appeared at Gonzales, Texas, where
I formed his acquaintance. He fought with the
Texians at Salado, in September, and at Mier in
December, 1842. Escaping from the latter place
he returned to Gonzales, his home being with Capt.
Henry E. McCulloch, to suffer a cruel death soon
after. In 1843 he was captured by Mexican
banditti, west of the San Antonio, who, knowing
his fidelity to Texas, suspended him to a tree by
the heels, in which position he died and was a few
days subsequently found.
First Settlement of Gonzales in 1825 — Attack by the Indians in
1826— Murder of French Traders in 1835 at Castleman's
Cabin — Battle of San Marcos — 1825 to 1835.
The settlement of Gonzales and De Witt's colony,
of which it was the capital, is replete with matters
of unusual interest in the pioneer history of Texas
and its Indian wars. At its birth it was baptized
in blood, and for twenty years a succession of
bloody episodes attended its march towards peace-
ful civilization.
As soon as Green De Witt, then of Ralls County,
Missouri, entered into contract with the Mexican
authorities for colonizing that beautiful district of
country, now embracing all of Gonzales, Caldwell,
Guadalupe and De Witt counties and portions of
Lavaca, Wilson and Karnes, he left for Missouri to
bring out his family. At the same time, Maj.
James Kerr was appointed surveyor of the colony,
with authority to lay out the capital town and sub-
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
15
divide the dedicated four leagues of land upon
which it was to be located into small farm lots to be
allotted to the settlers of the town. In fulfillment
of his duties, Maj. Kerr, with his negro servants
and six single men, arrived on the present site of
Gonzales in July, 1825, he thereby becoming the
first American settler, as the head of a family, west
of the Colorado river in Texas.
The six single men who accompanied him to
Gonzales, and for a time remained in his service as
chainmen, rodmen or hunters, were the afterwards
famous Deaf Smith, Bazil Durbin, John Wight-
man, Strickland, James Musick and Gerron
Hinds.
His chief servants were Shade and Anise, the
parents and grandparents of numerous offspring,
who became widely known to the future settlers of
the country and greatly esteemed for their fidelity
to every trust and their patriotism in every conflict.
Soon after Maj. Kerr's settlement, Francis
Berry, with a family of children and two step-
children, John and Betsy Oliver, arrived and settled
half a mile below him. Cabins were erected and
their new life auspiciously begun.
The little settlement remained in peace for a year,
receiving occasional calls from passing parties of
Indians, professing friendship, and occasional visits
from Americans exploring the country. Among
these were Elijah Stapp, from Palmyra, and Edwin
Moorehouse, from Clarksville, Missouri, both of
whom settled in Texas five or six years later.
Capt. Henry S. Brown, brother-in-law of Maj.
Kerr, having arrived on the lower Brazos as a Mex-
ican trader in December, 1824, made his first trip
into Mexico in 1825, and halted his caravan for rest
at the new settlement on both his outward and
return trip.
In the meantime, Maj. Kerr prosecuted his
labors in the survey of lands, his people subsisting
on wild meat and coffee. Each household opened
afield and planted crops in the spring of 1826. In
June, Maj. Kerr was absent on the Brazos.
There was to be a primitive barbecue on the Colo-
rado at Beson's, seven miles below the present
Columbus. It was agreed among the pilgrims that
they must be represented, notwithstanding the dis-
tance was about seventy miles. Bazil Durbin,
John and Betsy. Oliver and Jack, son of Shade and
Anise, were selected as the delegates. On the
afternoon of Sunday, July 2d, this party left on
horseback for Beson's. At that time Deaf Smith
and Hinds were out buffalo hunting ; Musick,
Strickland and the colored people were spending
the afternoon at Berry's, and John Wightman was
left alone in charge of the premises, consisting of a
double log house, with passage between and two or
three cabins in the yard. No danger was appre-
hended as no indications of hostility by the Indians
had been observed.
Durbin and party traveled fourteen miles, en-
camped on Thorn's branch and all slept soundly,
but about midnight they were aroused by the war^
whoop and firing of guns. Springing to their feet
they discovered that their assailants were very near
and in ambush. Durbin fell, but was assisted into
an adjoining thicket where all found safety. The
Indians seized and bore away their horses and all
their effects. Durbin had a musket ball driven
into his shoulder so deep that it remained there till
his death in Jackson County in 1858, thirty-two years
later. He suffered excruciating pain, from which,
with the loss of blood, he several times fainted.
■Daylight came and they retraced their steps to
headquarters ; but on arriving were appalled to
find the house deserted and robbed of its contents,
including Maj. Kerr's papers and three surveying
compasses, and Wightman dead, scalped and his
mutilated body lying in the open hallway. Hast-
ening down to Berry's house they found it closed,
and written on the door with charcoal (for Smith
and Hinds) the words: "Gone to Burnam's, on
the Colorado." It was developed later that when
Musick, Strickland and the colored people returned
home late in the evening they found this condition
of affairs, returned to Berry's and all of both
houses left for the Colorado. As written by the
writer more than forty years ago, in the presence
of the sufferer: "Durbin's wound had already
rendered him very weak, but he had now no alter-
native but to seek the same place on foot, or perish
on the way. Three days were occupied in the trip,
the weather was very warm and there was great
danger of mortification, to prevent which mud
poultices, renewed at every watering place, proved
to be effectual."
And thus was the first American settlement west
of the Colorado baptized in blood.
Maj. Kerr then settled on the Lavaca and made
a crop there in 1827. His place temporarily served
as a rallying point for De Wilt and others, till the
spring of 1828, when the settlement at Gonzales
was renewed. Maj. Kerr remained permanently
on the Lavaca, but continued for some years as
surveyor of De Witt's colony. The temporary set-
tlement on the west of the Lavaca was subsequently
known as the "Old Station," while Maj. Kerr's
headright league and home were on the east side.
In the autumn of 183S, John Castleman, a bold
and sagacious backwoodsman, from the borders of
Missouri, with his wife and four children and his
16
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
wife's mother, settled fifteen miles west of Gonzales,
on the San Antonio road and on Sandy creek. He
was a bold hunter, much in the forest, and had four
ferocious dogs, which served as sentinels at night,
and on one occasion had a terrible fight with a
number of Indians in the yard endeavoring to steal
the horses tied around the house. They evidently
inflicted severe punishment on the savages, who
left abundant blood marks on the ground and were
glad to escape without the horses, though in doing
so, in sheer self-defense, they killed each dog.
Castleman, in his meanderings, was ever watchful
for indications of Indians, and thus served as a
vidette to the people of Gonzales and persons
traveling on that exposed road. Many were the
persons who slumbered under his roof rather than
camp out at that noted watering place.
In the spring of 1835, a party of thirteen French
and Mexican traders, with pack mules and dry
goods from Natchitoches, Louisiana, en route to
Mexico, stopped under some trees a hundred yards
in front of the cabin. It was in the forenoon, and
before they had unpacked Castleman advised them
that he had that morning discovered ' ' Indian
signs" near by and urged them to camp in his
yard and use his house as a fort if necessary.
They laughed at him. He shrugged his shoulders
and assured them they were in danger, but they
still laughed. He walked back to his cabin, but
before he entered about a hundred mounted
savages dashed among them, yelling and cutting
out every animal of the party. These were guarded
by a few in full view of the camp, while the main
body continued the fight. The traders improvised
breastworks of their saddles, packs and bales of
goods and fought with desperation. TJie engage-
ment lasted four hours, the Indians charging in a
circle, firing and falling back. Finally, as none of
their number fell, the besieged being armed only
with Mexican escopetas (smooth-bored cavalry
guns) they maneuvered till all the traders fired at
the same time, then rushed upon and killed all who
had not previously fallen. Castleman could, many
times, have killed an Indian with his trusty rifle
from his cabin window, but was restrained by his
wife, who regarded the destruction of the strangers
as certain and contended that if her husband took
part, vengeance would be wreaked upon the
family — a hundred savages against one man.
He desisted, but, as his wife said, " frothed at
the mouth" to be thus compelled to non-ac-
tion on such an occasion. Had he possessed a
modern Winchester, he could have repelled the
whole array, saving both the traders and their
goods.
The exultant barbarians, after scalping their
victims, packed all their booty on the captured
mules and moved off up the couuti-y. When night
came, Castleman hastened to Gonzales with the
tidings, and was home again before dawn.
In a few hours a band of volunteers, under Dr.
James H. C. Miller, were on the trail and followed
it across the Guadalupe and up the San Marcos,
and finally into a cedar brake in a valley surrounded
by high hills, presumably on the Rio Blanco.
This was on the second or third day after the
massacre. Finding they were very near the
enemy, Miller halted, placing his men in ambush
on the edge of a small opening or glade. He sent
forward Matthew Caldwell, Daniel McCoy and
Ezekiel Williams to reconnoitre. Following the
newly made path of the Indians through the brake,
in about three hundred yards, they suddenly came
upon them dismounted and eating. They speedily
retired, but were discovered and, being only three
in number, the whole crowd of Indians furiously
pursued them with such yells as, resounding from
bluff to bluff, caused some of the men in ambush
to flee from the apparent wrath to come ; but of the'
whole number of twenty-nine or thrity, sixteen
maintained their position and their senses. Daniel
McCoy, the hindmost of the three scouts in single
file, wore a long tail coat. This was seized and
tightly held by an Indian, but " Old Dan," as he
was called, threw his arms backward and slipped
from the garment without stopping, exclaiming,
" Take it, d — n you I " Caldwell sprang first into
the glade, wheeled, fired and killed the first Indian
to enier. Others, unable to see through the brush
till exposed to view, rushed into the trap till nine
warriors lay in a heap. Realizing this fact, after
such unexpected fatality, the pursuers raised that
dismal howl which means death and defeat, and
fell back to their camp. The panic among some of
our men prevented pursuit. It is a fact that
among those thus seized with the "buck ague,"
were men then wholly inexperienced, who subse-
quently became distinguished for coolness and
gallantry.
Among others, besides those already named, who
were in this engagement were Wm. S. Fisher,
commander at Mier seven years later ; Bartlett D.
McClure, died in 1841; David Hanna, Lnndon
Webster and Jonathan Scott.
Dr. James H. C. Miller, who commanded, soon
after left Texas and settled in Michigan. His
name has sometimes been confounded with that of
Dr. James B. Miller, of Fort Bend, long distin-
guished in public life under the province and
republic of Texas.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
17
An Adventure in 1826.
In the year 1826 a party of fourteen men of the
Red river settlements, of which Eli Hopkins was
quasi-leader, made a trip to the west, hunting and
trading with Indians. Besides Hopkins I have
been able to gather the names of Henry Stout,
Jamas Clark, Charles Birkham, Charles Hum-
phreys, Foi'd, Tyler, and Wallace —
«ight of the fourteen — though the only published
allusion to the matter I have ever seen (in the
Clarksville Times about 1874), only names Messrs.
Hopkins and Clark and states the whole number
at twenty men — nor does it give the year of the
■oceurrerrce. I obtained the date, the number of
men and the additional six names from Henry Stout,
some years later.
It seems that on their return trip homewards, these
fourteen men were surrounded and beset by a large
party of Indians, some of whom had been trading
in their camp before. Instead of opening fire, the
Indians demanded the surrender of Humphreys to
them, describing him by the absence of a front
tooth (a loss they had discovered in their previous
visit and now pretended to have known before),
alleging that on some former occasion Humphreys
had depredated upon them. This was known to
be false and a ruse to gain some advantage. So,
when the chief and a few others (who had retired
to let the party consult), returned for an answer,
they were told that Humphreys was a good man,
had done them no wrong and they would die rather
than surrender him. Wallace was the interpreter
and had been up to that time suspected of coward-
ice by some of the party. , But in this crisis they
quickly discovered their error, for Wallace, with
cool and quiet determination, became the hero,
telling them that he would die right there rather
than give up an innocent man to such murderous
wretches. His spirit was infectious. Every man
leveled his gun at some one of the Indians, Hop-
kins holding a deadly aim on the chief, till they all
agreed to leave the ground and not again molest
them.
They at once retired, evidently unwilling to
hazard an attack on such men. Intrepid coolness
saved them while timidity would have brought their
destruction. As it was they reached home in
safety.
The Early Days of Harris County — 1824 to 1838.
The first political subdivision of the large dis-
trict of which the present large county of Harris,
containing a little over eighteen hundred square
miles, formed but a part, was erected into the
municipality of Harrisburg not long before the revo-
lution began, in 1835. It is, at this day, interest-
ing to note the first settlement of that now old,
historic and wealthy district, embracing the noble
•city of Houston, in which the whole State feels
justifiable pride. For a short while also the island
of Galveston formed a part of Harrisburg
"county" — so called under the Republic, after
independence in March, 1836.
The first Americans to cultivate the earth in that
region were Mr. Knight and Walter C. White, who,
at the time of Long's expedition in 1820, burnt off
a canebrake and raised a crop of corn on the San
Jacinto, near its mouth ; but they did not remain
2
there, becoming subsequently well-known citizens of
Brazoria. For an account of the first actual set-
tlers of the district during the first ten or twelve
years, I am indebted to the fine memory and facile
pen of Mrs. Mary J. Briscoe, of Houston, whose
evidence dates from childhood days, her father,
John R. Harris, the founder of Harrisburg, having
settled there in 1824, and laid out the town in 1826.
He built the first steam saw mill in Texas, for which
he received as a bounty two leagues of land. He
became also a merchant, established a tannery and
owned the schooner " Rights of Man," which plied
between Harrisburg and New Orleans. In 1828 his
brother David came ; in 1830 William P. Harris,
came, accompanied by " Honest " Bob Wilson, and
in 1832 came Samuel M. Harris, a fourth brother,
all of whom came from Cayuga County, New York,
and were valuable men. Mary J., daughter of the
18
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
first immigrant, John R. Harris, subsequently mar-
ried Capt. Andrew Briscoe, who, as the colleague of
the grand Mexican patriot, Don Lorenzo de Zavala,
from that municipality, signed the declaration of
independence, and fifty days later commanded one
of the largest companies at San Jacinto. He was
also the first Chief Justice of Hariisburg County
and so remained for many years. The well-known
De Witt C. Harris, who died in 1860, was a brother
of Mrs. Briscoe, as is also Lewis B. Harris, of San
Francisco, who was my fellow-soldier on the Rio
Grande in 1842.
According to the notes of Mrs. Briscoe the first
actual settlers arrived in April, 1822, of whom
Moses L. Choate and William Pettus were the first
settlers on the San Jacinto, and a surveyor
named Ryder, unmarried, settled on Morgan's
Point, on the bay. In June John Ijams, with his
wife and two youthful sons arrived, of whom John,
the elder, then fifteen years old, still lives in Hous-
ton, aged 82, a tribute certainly to the climate in
which he has lived sixty-seven years. They settled
at Cedar Point, afterwai-ds a favorite home of Gen.
Sam Houston. Johnson Hunter settled near Mor-
gan's Point, but ultimately on the Brazos. In the
same year Nathaniel Lynch settled at the confluence
of the San Jacinto and Buffalo bayou, where
Lynchburg stands ; John D. Taylor on the San
Jacinto at the place now called Midway ; John
Jones, Humphrey Jackson and John and Frederick
Rankin, on the same river, where the Texas and
N. O. railroad crosses it. Mr. Callahan and Ezekiel
Thomas, brothers-in-law, located as the first set-
tlers on Buffalo bayou. Mrs. Samuel W. Allen,
youngest daughter of Mr. Thomas, still resides in
Houston — another tribute to the climate. In the
same year four brothers, William, Allen, Robert
and John Vinee, all young men, settled just below
the mouth of Vince's bayou, rendered famous in
connection with Vince's bridge immediately before
the battle of San Jacinto, the destruction of the
bridge by order of Gen. Houston, leading to the
capture of Santa Anna. William Vince had a horse
power sugar mill on his place. During the same
year, Mrs. Wilkins, with her two daughters and her
son-in-law. Dr. Phelps, settled what is now known
as Frost-town in the city of Houston, being the
first settlers there. In 1824 came Enoch Bronson,
who settled near Morgan's Point ; also Wm. Blood-
good and Page Ballew, with families, and several
young men who settled in the district ; also Arthur
McCormick, wife and two sons, who settled the
league on which, twelve years later, the battle of
San Jacinto was fought. He was drowned soon
afterwards in crossing Buffalo bayou, as was his
surviving son, Michael, a long time pilot on a
steamboat, in 1875. It was suspected that the
widow, eccentric, well-to-do and living alone, was
murdered by robbers and burnt in her dwelling.
George, Jesse, Reuben and William White, in 1824,
settled on the San Jacinto, a few miles above its
mouth; William Scott at Midway, together with
Charles E. Givens, Presly Gill and Dr. Knuckles,
who married Scott's daughter, while Samuel M.
Williams married another. [Mr. Williams was
the distinguished secretary of Austin's Colony and
afterwards, long a banker in Galveston. J
In 1824, Austin, with Secretary Williams and the
Commissioner, Baron de Bastrop, visited the settle-
ment and issued the first titles to those entitled to
them.
In 1825 the Edwards family settled on the bay
at what has since been known as Edwards' Point.
Ritoon Morris, a son-in-law of Edwards, and a man
of wealth, came at the same time. He was greatly
esteemed and was, known as " Jaw-bone Morris,"
from a song he and his negroes sang while he picked
the banjo. He settled at the mouth of Clear Creek.
About 1829 Mr. Clopper, for whom the bar in Gal-
veston bay is called, bought Johnson Hunter's
land and afterwards sold it to Col. James Morgan,
who laid out a town destined never to leave its
swaddling clothes, calling it New Washington. Its
chief claim to remembrance is in the visit of Santa
Anna a day or two before his overthrow under the
war cry of "Remember the Alamo." Sam Mc-
Gurley and others were early settlers on Spring
Creek. David G. Burnet, afterwards President,
came in 1826. In 1831 he brought out the machin-
ery for a steam mill which was burned in 1845.
With him came Norman Hurd and Gilbert Brooks,
the latter still living. President Burnet built his
home two or three miles from Lynchburg. Lynch-
burg, and San Jacinto, opposite to it, were de-
stroyed by the great storm and flood, on the 17th
of September, 1875.
Passing over the intervening years, we find that
in 1835 the municipality of Harrisburg abounded
in a splendid population of patriotic citizens, the
noble Zavala having become one of them. In the
Consultation of November 3-14, 1835, her delegates
were Lorenzo de Zavala, William P. Harris, Clem-
ent C. Dyer, John W. Moore, M. W. Smith and
David B. McComb. In the convention which de-
clared independence, March 1-18, 1836, her dele-
gates were Lorenzo de Zavala and Andrew Briscoe,
as previously stated. When the provisional gov-
ernment of the Republic was created David G.
Burnet was elected President and Lorenzo de
Zavala Vice-president, both of this municipal-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
19
ity. Harrisburg, grown to be quite a village,
was the seat of justice, and from March 22d
to April 13lh, 1836, it was the seat of govern-
ment, but abandoned on the approach of the Mexi-
can army, by which it was burned. The first Lone
Star flag had been improvised there in March by
Mrs. Dobson and other ladies — that is, the first
in Texas, for that by Miss Troutman, of Georgia,
had been made and presented to the gallant Capt.
(afterwards Colonel) William Ward two or three
months earlier. The ladies also, says Mrs. Briscoe,
cut up all their flannel apparel to make cartridges,
following the example of Mother Bailey, in Groton,
Connecticut, in the war of 1812.
In August, 1836, the brothers A. C. and John K.
Allen laid out the town of Houston. The First Con-
gress of the Republic, at Columbia, on the 15th of
December, 1836, selected the new town as the seat
of government, to continue until the session of 1840.
The government was removed there prior to May
1st, 1837. Soon afterwards the county seat was
moved from Harrisburg to Houston, and the latter,
under such impulsion, grew rapidly. This was
one of those enterprising movements at variance
with natural advantages, for all know that Harris-
burg, in facilities for navigation, was greatly supe-
rior to Houston, and, as a town site otherwise, fully
as desirable. But notwithstanding all these, pluck
and enterprise have made Houston a splendid city.
The first sail vessel to reach Houston was the
schooner Rolla, on the 21st of April, 1837, four
days in making the trip of 10 or 12 miles by water
from Harrisburg. That night the first anniversary
of San Jacinto was celebrated by a ball, which was
opened by President Houston and Mrs. Mosely
Baker, Francis R. Lubbock and Miss Mary J. Har-
ris (now Mrs. Briscoe), Jacob W. Crugerand Mrs.
Lubbock and Mr. and Mrs. Welchmej'er.
The first marriage license signed under the laws
of the Republic, July 22, 1837, by DeWitt C. Har-
ris, county clerk, was to Hugh McCrory and Mary
Smith, and the service was performed next day by
the Rev. H. Matthews, of the Methodist church.
Mr. McCrory died in a few months, and in 1840 the
widow married Dr. Anson Jones, afterwards the
last President of Texas. She still lives in Houston
and recently followed to the grave her popular and
talented son, Judge C. Anson Jones.
At the first District Court held in Houston, Hon.
Benjamin C. Franklin presiding, a man was found
guilty of theft, required to restore the stolen money
and notes and to receive thirty-nine lashes on his
bare back, all of which being accomplished, it is
supposed the victim migrated to other parts.
Thieves, in those days, were not tolerated by foolish
quibbles or qualms of conscience. There were no
prisons and the lash was regarded as the only avail-
able antidote.
In 1834 the Harris brothers brought out a small
steamboat called the Cayuga, but the first steamer
to reach Houston was the Laura, Capt. Thomas
Grayson. On the first Monday in January, 1838,
Dr. Francis Moore, Jr., long editor of the Tele-
graph and afterwards State geologist, was elected
the first mayor of Houston. He and his partner,
Jacob W. Cruger, early in 1837, established the
first newspaper, by removing the Telegraph from
Columbia. On the 21st of May, 1838, agrandball
was given by the Jockey Club, in Houston. " The
ladies' tickets," says Mrs. Briscoe, "were printed
on white satin, and I had the pleasure of dancing
successively, with Generals Sam Houston, Albert
Sidney Johnston and Sidney Sherman."
I have condensed from the interesting narrative
a portion of its contents, omitting much of interest,
the object being to portray the outlines of how the
early coast settlements passed from infancy to self-
sustaining maturity. Locally, the labors of this
early Texas girl — now ranking among the mothers
of the land — are of great value.
Fight of the Bowies with the Indians on the San Saba in 1831.
In 1832 Rezin P. Bowie furnished a Philadelphia
paper with the following narrative. It has been
published in several books since. Col. James,
Bowie made a report to the Mexican Governor at
San Antonio, not so full but in accord with this
report. It gives an account of one of the most
extraordinary events in the pioneer history of
America.
"On the 2d of November, 1831, we left the
town of San Antonio de Bexar for the silver mines
on the San Saba river ; the party consisting of the
following named persons : Rezin P. Bowie, James
Bowie, David Buchanan, Robert Armstrong, Jesse
Wallace, Matthew Doyle, Cephas D. Hamm, James
Coryell, Thomas McCaslin, Gonzales and Charles,
servant boys. Nothing particular occurred until
20
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the 19th, on which day, about 10 a. m. we were
overhauled by two Comanche Indians and a Mexican
captive, who had strucli our trail and followed it.
They stated that they belonged to Isaonie's party,
a chief of the Comanche tribe, sixteen in number,
and were on their way to San Antonio with a drove
of horses, which they had taicen from the Wacos
and Tawaclianies, and were about returning to
their owners, citizens of San Antonio. After smok-
ing and talking with them about an hour, and
making them a few presents of tobacco, powder,
shot, etc. , they returned to their party, who were
waiting at the Llano river.
'■'■ We continued our journey until night closed
upon us, when we encamped. The next morning,
the above named Mexican captive returned to our
camp, his horse was much fatigued, and who,
after eating and smoking, stated that he had been
sent by his .chief, Isaonie, to inform us we were
followed by one hundred and twenty-four Tawac-
kanie and Waco Indians, and forty Caddos had
joined them, who were determined to have our
scalps at all risks. Isaonie had held a talk with
them all the previous afternoon, and endeavored to
dissuade them from their purpose ; but they still
pers'sted, and left him enraged and pursued our
trail. As a voucher for the truth of the above, the
Mexican produced his chief's silver medal, which
is common among the natives in such cases. He
further stated that his chief requested him to say,
that he had but sixteen men, badly armed and
without ammunition ; but if we would return and
join him, such succor as he could give us he would.
But knowing that the enemy lay between us and
him, we deemed it more prudent to pursue our
journey and endeavor to reach the old fort on the
San Saba river before night, distance thirty miles. ■
The Mexican then returned to his party, and we
proceeded on.
" Throughout the day we encountered bad roads,
being covered- with rocks, and the horses' feet be-
ing worn out, we were disappointed in not reaching
the fort. In the evening we had some little difficulty
in picking out an advantageous spot where to en-
camp for the night. We however made choice of
the best that offered, which was a cluster of live-
oak trees, some thirty or forty in number, about
the size of a man's body. To the north of them a
thicket of live-oak bushes, about ten feet high, forty
yards in length and twenty in breadth, to the west,
at thie distance of thirty-five or forty yards, ran a
stream of water.
"The surrounding country was an open prairie,
interspersed with a few trees, rocks, and broken
land. The trail which we came on lay to
the east of our encampment. After taking the
precaution to prepare our spot for defense, by cut-
ting a road inside the thicket of bushes, ten feet
from the outer edge all around, and clearing the
prickly-pears from amongst the bushes, we
hobbled our horses and placed sentinels for the
night. We were now distant six miles from the
old fort above mentioned, which was built by the
Spaniards in 1752, for the purpose of protecting
them while working the silver mines, which are a
mile distant. A few years after, it was attacked
by the Comanche Indians and every soul put to
death. Since that time it has never been occupied.
Within the fort is a church, which, had we reached
before night, it was our intention to have occupied
to defend ourselves against the Indians. The fort
surrounds about one acre of land under a twelve-
feet stone wall.
"Nothing occurred during the night, and we
lost no time in the morning in making preparations
for continuing our journey to the fort ; and when
in the act of starting, we discovered the Indians on
our trail to the east, about two hundred yards dis-
tant, and a footman about fifty yards ahead of the
main body, with his face to the ground, tracking.
The cry of ' Indians ' was given, and ' All hands to
arms.' We dismounted, and both saddle and pack-
horses were made fast to the trees. As soon as
they found we had discovered them, they gave the
war whoop, halted and commenced stripping, pre-
paratory to action. A number of mounted Indians
were reconnoitering the ground ; among them we
discovered a few Caddo Indians, by the cut of
their hair, who had always previously been f i iendly
to Americans.
"Their number being so far greater than ours
(one hundred and sixty-four to eleven), it was
agreed that Rezin P. Bowie should be sent out to
talk with them, and endeavor to compromise with
them rather than attempt a fight. He accordingly
started, with David Buchanan in company, and
walked up to within about forty yards of where
they had halted, and requested them in their own
tongue to send forward their chief, as he wanted to
talk with him. Their answer was, "how-de-do?
how-de-do?" in English, and a discharge of twelve
shots at us, one of which broke Buchanan's leg.
Bowie returned their salutation with the contents of
a double barreled gun and a pistol. He then took
Buchanan on his shoulder, and started ])ack to the
encampment. They then opened a heavy fire upon
us, which wounded Buchanan in two more places
slightly, and pierced Bowie's hunting shirt in sev-
eral places without doing him any injury. When
they found their shot failed to bring Bowie down.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
21
eight Indians on foot took after him with their
^tomahawks, and when close upon him were dis-
covered by his party, who ruslied out with their
rifles and brought down four of them — the other
four retreating back to the main body. We then
returned to our position, and all was still for about
five minutes.
" We then discovered a hill to the northeast at
the distance of sixty yards, red with Indians who
opened a heavy fire upon us with loud yells, their
chief, on horseback, urging them in a loud and
audible voice to the charge, walking his horse per-
fectly composed. When we first discovered him,
our gans were all empty, with the exception of Mr.
Hamm's. James Bowie cried out, ' Who is
loaded?' Mr. Hamm observed, 'I am.' He
was then told to shoot that Indian on horseback.
He did so, and broke his leg and killed his horse.
We now discovered him hopping around his horse
on one leg, with his shield on his arm to keep off
the balls. By this time four of our party being re-
loaded, fired at the same instant, and all the balls
took effect through the shield. He fell and was
immediately surrounded by six or eight of his tribe,
who picked him up and bore him off. Several of
these were shot by our party. The whole party
then retreated back of the hill, out of sight, with
the exception of a few Indians who were running
about from tree to tree, out of gun-shot.
"They now covered the hill a second time,
bringing up their bowmen, who had not been in
action before, and commenced a heavy fire with
balls and arrows, which we returned by a well
directed aim with our rifles. At this instant,
another chief appeared on horseback, near the spot
where the last one fell. The same question of who
was loaded, was asked; the answer was nobody;
when little Charles, the mulatto servant, came run-
ning up with Buchanan's rifle, which had not been
discharged since he was wounded, and handed it to
James Bowie, who instantly fired and brought him
down from his horse. He was surrounded by six
or eight of his tribe, as was the last, and borne off
under our fire. During the time we were engaged
in defending ourselves from the Indians on the
hill, some fifteen or twenty of the Caddo tribe had
succeeded in getting under the bank of the creek in
our rear at about forty yards distance, and opened
a heavy fire upon us, which wounded Matthew
Doyle, the ball entering the left breast and passing
out of the back. As soon as he cried out he was
wounded, Thomas M'Caslin hastened to the spot
where he fell, and observed, ' Where is the Indian
that shot Doyle?' He was told by a more
experienced hand not to venture there, as, from
the report of their guns, they must be riflemen. At
that instant they discovered an Indian, and while
in the act of raising his piece, M'Caslin was shot
through the center of the body and expired.
Robert Armstrong exclaimed, ' D— n the Indian
that shot M'Caslin ! Where is he? ' He was told
not to venture there, as they must be riflemen ; but,
on discovering an Indian, and while bringing his
gun up, he was fired at, and part of the stock of
his gun cut off, and the ball lodged against the
barrel. During this time our enemies had formed a
complete circle around us, occupying the points of
rocks, scattering trees and bushes. The firing then
became general from all quarters.
" Finding our situation too much exposed among
the trees, we were obliged to leave it, and take to the
thickets. The first thing necessary was to dislodge
the riflemen from under the bank of the creek, who
were within point-blank shot. This we soon suc-
ceeded in, by shooting the most of them through
the head, as we had the advantage of seeing them
when they could not see us.
' ' The road we had cut around the thicket the
night previous, gave us now an advantageous situ-
ation over that of our enemies, and we had a fair
view of them in the prairie, while we were com-
pletely hid. We baffled their shots by moving six
or eight feet the moment we had fired, as their only-
mark was the smoke of our guns. They would put
twenty balls within the size of a pocket handkerchief,
where they had seen the smoke. In this manner
we fought them two hours, and had one man
wounded, James Coryell, who was shot through
the arm, and the ball lodged in the side, first cut-
ting away a bush which prevented it from penetrat-
ing deeper than the size of it.
"They now discovered that we were not to be
dislodged from the thicket, and the uncertainty of
killing us at a random shot ; they suffering very
much from the fire of our rifles, which brought a
half a dozen down at every round. They now
determined to resort to stratagem, by putting fire
to the dry grass in the prairie, for the double pur-
pose of routing us from our position, and under
cover of the smoke, to carry away their dead and
wounded, which lay near us. The wind was now
blowing from the west, they placed the fire in that
quarter, where it burnt down all the grass to the
creek, and bore off to the right, and leaving around
our position a space of about five acres that was
untouched by fire. Under cover of this smoke they
succeeded in carrying off a portion of their dead
and wounded. In the meantime, our party were
engaged in scraping away the dry grass and leaves
from our wounded men and baggage to prevent the
22
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fire from passing over it ; and likewise, in pulling
up rocks and bushes to answer the purpose of a
breastwork.
" They now discovered they had failed in routing
us by the flre, as they had anticipated. They then
re-occupied the points of rocks and trees in the
prairie, and commenced another attack. The firing
continued for some time when the wind suddenly
shifted to the north, and blew very hard. We now
discovered our dangerous situation, should the
Indians succeed in putting flre to the small spot
which we occupied, and kept a strict watch all
around. The two servant boys were employed in
scraping away dry grass and leaves from around
the baggage, and pulling up rocks and placing them
around the wounded men. The remainder of the
party were warmly engaged with the enemy. The
point from which the wind now blew being favora-
ble to fire our position, one of the Indians succeeded
in crawling down the creek and putting flre to the
grass that had not yet been burnt ; but before he
could retreat back to his party, was killed by
Robert Armstrong.
" At this time we saw no hopes of escape, as the
flre was coming down rapidly before the wind,
flaming ten feet high, and directly for the spot we
occupied. What was to be done? We must either
be burned up alive, or driven into the prairie
among the savages. This encouraged the Indians ;
and to make it more awful, their shouts and yells
rent the air, they at the same time flring upon us
about twenty shots a minute. As soon as the
smoke hid us from their view, we collected together
and held a consultation as to what was best to be
done. Our first impression was, that they might
charge us under cover of the smoke, as we could
make but one effectual fire, the sparks were flying
about so thickly that no man could open his powder
horn without running the risk of being blown up.
However, we finally came to a determination had
they charged us to give them one fire, place our
backs together, and draw our knives and fight
them as long as any one of us was left alive.
The next question was, should they not charge us,
and we retain our position, we must be burned up.
It was then decided that each man should take
care of himself as best he could, until the fire
arrived at the ring around our baggage and
wounded men, and there it should be smothered
with buffalo robes, bear skins, deer skins, and
blankets, which, after a great deal of exertion, wu
succeeded in doing.
"Our thicket lieing so much burned and scorched ,
that it afforded us little or no shelter, we all got
into the ring that was around our wounded men
and baggage, and commenced building our breast-
work higher, with the loose rocks from the inside,
and dirt dug up with our knives and sticks.
During this last flre, the Indians had succeeded
in removing all their killed and wounded which
lay near us. It wa.s now sundown, and we
had been warmly engaged with the Indians
since sunrise, a period of thirteen hours; and
they seeing us still alive and ready for fight,
drew off at a distance of three hundred yards,
and encamped for the night with their dead and
wounded. Our party now commenced to work in
raising our fortification higher, and succeeded in
getting it breast high by 10 p. m. We now filled
all our vessels and skins with water, expecting
another attack the next morning. We could dis-
tinctly hear the Indians, nearly all night, crying
over their dead, which is their custom ; and at
daylight, they shot a wounded chief — it being
also a custom to shoot any of their tribe that are
mortally wounded. They, after that, set out with
their dead and wounded to a mountain about a
mile distant, where they deposited their dead in a
cave on the side of it. At eight in the morning,
two of the party went out from the fortification to
the encampment, where the Indians had lain the
night previous, and counted forty-eight bloody
spots on the grass where the Indians had been lying.
As near as we could judge, their loss must have
been forty killed and thirty wounded. [We after-
wards learned from the Comanche Indians that
their loss was eighty-two killed and wounded.]
" Finding ourselves much cut up, having one man
killed, and three wounded — live horses killed,
and three wounded — we recommenced strength-
ening our little fort, and continued our labors
until 1 p. m., when the arrival of thirteen Indians
drew us into the fort again. As soon as they
discovered we were still there and ready for action
and well fortified they put off. We, after that,
remained in our fort eight days, recruiting our
wounded men and horses, at the exijiration of
which time, being all in pretty good order, we set out
on our return to San Antonio de liexar. We left
our fort at dark, and tr.iveled all night and until
afternoon of the next day, when we picked out an
advantageous spot and fortifuid ourselves, (ex-
pecting the Indians would, when recruiled, follow
our trail; but, however, we saw no more of them.
" David Buchanan's wounded leg hero mortified,
and having no surgical instruments, or medicine of
any kind, not even a dose of salts, wc boiled some
live oak bark very strong, and thickened it with
pounded charcoal and Indian meal, made a poul-
tice of it, and tied it around his leg, over which we
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
23
sewed a buffalo skin, and traveled along five days
without looking at it ; when it was opened, it was
in a fair way for healing, which it finally did,
and the mortified parts all dropped off, and his
of the party but had his skin cut in several places,
and numerous shot holes through his clothes.
" On the twelfth day we arrived in good order,
with our wounded men and horses, at San Antonio
leg now is as well as it ever was. There was none de Bexar."
The Scalping of Wilbarger and Death of Christian and
Strother, in 1833.
In the year 1828, Josiah Wilbarger, recently
married to a daughter of Leman Barker, of Lin-
coln County, Mo., arrived at Matagorda, Texas.
The writer of this, then in his eighth year, knew
him intimately. The Wilbarger family adjoining
the farm of my parents, lived on a thousand arpents
of the richest land, one mile east of the present
village of Ashley, Pike County, Missouri, sixteen
miles from the Mississippi river and seventy-five
miles above St. Louis. In the autumn of 1826,
Capt. Henry S. Brown, father of the writer, tem-
porarily returned home from Texas, after having
spent two years in that then terra incognita and
Northern Mexico. His descriptions of the country
deeply impressed young Wilbarger, as well as a
large number of persons in the adjoining county of
Lincoln, whose names subsequently shed luster on
the pioneer life of Texas. The remainder of the
Wilbarger family, or rather two brothers and three
sisters of their number, came to Texas in 1837.
Josiah spent a year in Matagorda, another in Col-
orado County, and in J.831 settled on his headright
league, ten miles above Bastrop on the Colorado, with
his wife, child and two transient young men. He
was temporarily the outside settler, but soon others
located along the river below and two or three
above, the elder Reuben Hornsby becoming the
outer sentinel, and so remaining for a number of
years. Mr. Wilbarger located various lands for
other parties in that section, it being in Austin's
second grant above the old San Antonio and Nacog-
doches road, which crossed at Bastrop.
In August, 1833, accompanied by four others,
viz., Christian a surveyor, Strother, Standifer and
Haynie, Mr. Wilbarger left on a land-locating
expedition, above where Austin now is. Arriving
on the ground and on the eve of beginning work,
an Indian was discovered on a neighboring ridge,
watching their movements. Wilbarger, after vainly
beckoning to him to approach, rode toward him,
manifesting friendship, but the Indian, pointing
toward a smoke rising from a cedar brake at the
base of a hill, in plain view, indicated a desire for
his visitor to go to camp and galloped away. The
party, after a short pursuit, became satisfied there
was a considerable body of Indians, hostile la feel-
ing, and determined at once to return to the settle-
ment. They started in, intending to go directly to
Hornsby' s place, but they stopped at a spring on
the way to take lunch, to which Wilbarger objected,
being quite sure the Indians would pursue them,
while the others thought otherwise. Very soon,
however, about sixty savages suddenly charged,
fired and fell back under the protection of brush.
Strother fell dead and Christian apparently so.
Wilbarger's horse broke away and fled. He fol-
lowed a short distance, but failed to recover him.
Hastening back, he found the other two men
mounted and ready to fiee, and discovered that Chris-
tian, though helpless, was not dead. He implored
the two mounted men to stay with him in the ra-
vine, and endeavor to save Christian. Just then
the Indians renewed the fire at long range and
struck Wilbarger in the hip. He then asked to be
taken behind one of the men, but seeing the
enemy approaching, they fled at full speed, leaving
him to his fate. The Indians, one having mounted
Christian's horse, encircled him on all sides. He had
seized the guns of the fallen men and thus with
these partly protected by a tree just as he was
taking deliberate aim at the mounted warrior, a
ball entered his neck, paralyzing him, so that he fell
to the ground and was at once at the mercy of the
wretches. Though perfectly helpless and appar-
ently dead, he was conscious of all that transpired.
A knife was passed entirely around his head and
the scalp torn off. While suffering no pain, he
ever asserted that neither a storm in the forest nor
24
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the roar of artillery could have sounded more
terrible to a sound man than did this scalping pro-
cess to him. The shrieks and exultant yells of the
brutes were indescribable.
Christian's life ebbed away, all three were
stripped and scalped ; the savages retired and Wil-
barger lay in a dreamy state of semi-consciousness,
visions flitting through his mind bordering on the
marvelous and the supernatural.
The loss of blood finally aroused him and he
realized several wounds unknown to him before.
He crawled to a limpid stream close by and sub-
merged his body in it both to quench a burning thirst
and stop the flow of blood, and succeeded in both ;
but in an hour or two became greatly chilled and
crawled out, but was so weak he fell into a sound
sleep — for how long he knew not — on awakening
from which he found his wounds covered with
those disgustinginsects, " blowflies." Occasionally
refreshing himself in the pool, the hours sped and
night came. He had realized that the escaped men
would spread the news and as soon as the few
settlers below could collect, rehef might come.
After dark and many efforts he was able to rise and
stand — then to stagger along — and resolved to
make an effort to reach the Hornsby place. He
traveled about a quarter of a mile, utterly failed
in strength and sank under a large tree, intensely
suffering with cold. When morning came he was
unable to move and his suffering, till the sun rose
and warmed him, was intense. He became able to
rise again, but not to walk. He affirmed that while
reclining against the tree his sister, Margaret,*
vividly appeared before him, saying, " Brother
Josiah! you are too weak to go in by yourself!
Remain here and before the sun sets friends will
take you in." She disappeared, going directly
towards the settlement. He piteously called to her :
"Margaret, my sister, Margaret! stay with me
till they come! " But she disappeared, and when
rehef did come he told them of the vision and
believed till that time that it was a reality.
During the day — that long and agonizing day —
between periods of drowsy slumber, he would sit
or stand, intensely gazing in the direction Margaret
had taken.
The two men who fled gave the alarm at
Hornsby' s, and runners were sent below for aid,
which could not be expected before the next day ;
and here occurs one of those incidents which,
however remarkable, unless a whole family and
several other persons of unquestionable integrity
* This sister was Mrs. Margaret Clifton, who had died
the day before at Florissant, St. Louis County, Missouri.
were themselves falsifiers, is true, and so held by
all the early settlers of the Colorado. During the
night in which Wilbai-ger lay under the tree, not-
withstanding the two men asserted positively that
they saw Wilbarger, Christian and Strother killed,
Mrs. Hornsby, one of the best of women and
regarded as the mother of the new colony, about
midnight, sprang from bed, aroused all the house
and said: "Wilbarger is not dead! He sits
against a large tree and is scalped ! I saw him
and know it is so! " Those present reassured and
remonstrated, even ridiculed her dream, and all
again retired. But about three o'clock, she again
sprang from the bed, under intense excitement,
repeated her former statement and added : "I saw
him again ! As sure as God lives Josiah Wilbarger
is alive, scalped and under a large tree by himself !
I saw him as plainly as 1 now see you who are
present ! If you are not cowards go at onco or he
will die! " " But," said one of the escaped men,
" Mrs. Hornsby, I saw fifty Indians around his
body and it is impossible for him to be alive."
" I care not what you saw," replied the seem-
ingly inspired old mother, "I saw as plainly as
you could have seen, and I know he is alive! Go
to him at once." Her husband suggested that if
the men all left before help came from below she
would be in danger. "Never mind me! I can
take to the dogwood thicket and save myself!
Go, I tell you, to poor Wilbarger! "
The few men present determined to await till
morning the arrival of succor from below, but
Mrs. Hornsby refused to retire again, and busied
herself cooking till sunrise, so as to avoid any
delay when aid should come. When the men came
in the morning, she repeated to them in the most
earnest manner her dual vision, urged them to eat
quickly and hasten forward and, as they were
leaving, took from her bed a strong sheet, handed
it to them and said: " Take this, you will have to
bring him on a litter; he cannot sit on ahorse."
The men left and after long search found and
buried the bodies of Christian and Strother.
Wilbarger spent the day in alternate watching
and dozing till, late in the evening, completely ex-
hausted, having crawled to a stump from which a
more extended view was obtained, he was sinking
into a despairing slumber, when the rumbling of
horses' feet fell upon his ear. He arose and now
beheld his dehverers. When, after quite a search
they discovered the ghastly object -a mass of
blood — they involuntarily halted, seeing which he
beckoned and finally called : " Come on, friends • it
is Wilbarger." They came up, even then lie'si-
tating, for he was disfigured beyond recognition
GKN. EDWARD BUULKSON.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
25
He begged for water ! water ! which was promptly
furnished. He was wrapped in the sheet, placed
on Mr. Hornsby's horse and that gentleman,
mounting behind, held him in his arms, and thus,
slowly, he was borne to the house, to be embraced
with a mother's warmth by her who had seen him
in the vision.
The great loss of blood prevented febrile ten-
dencies, and, under good nursing, Mr. Wilbarger
recovered his usual health ; but the scalp having
taken with it the inner membrane, followed by two
days' exposure to the sun, never healed, The dome
of the skull remained bare, only protected by arti-
iicial covering. For eleven years he enjoyed
health, prospered and accumulated a handsome
estate. At the end of that time the skull rapidly
decayed, exposed the brain, brought on delirium,
and in a few weeks, just before the assurance of
annexation and in the twelfth year from his
calamity, his soul went to join that of his waiting
sister Margaret in that abode " where the wicked
cease from troubling and the weary are at rest."
Recalling the days of childhood, when the writer
often sat upon his lap and received many evidences
of his kindly nature, it is a pleasure to state that
in 1858 he enjoyed and embraced the opportunity
of honoring his memory by naming the county of
Wilbarger jointly for him and his brother Matthias,
a surveyor.
John Wilbarger, one of the sons of Josiah, while
a ranger, was killed by Indians in the Nueces
country, in 1847.
Events in 1833 and 1835 — Campaigns of Oldham, Coleman,
John H. Moore, Williamson, Burleson, Coheen — Fate
of Canoma — Choctaw Tom— The Toncahuas.
In the year 1833, a stranger from the United
States, named Reed, spent several days at Tenox-
titlan, Falls of the Brazos, now in the lower part of
Falls County. There were at that time seven
friendly Toncahua Indians at the place, with whom
Reed made an exchange of horses. The Indians
concluded they had been cheated and pretended to
leave; but secreted themselves and, on the second
day afterwards, lying in ambush, they killed Reed
as he was leaving the vicinity on his return to the
United States, and made prize of his horse and
baggage.
, Canoma, a faithful and friendly Indian, was the
chief of a small band of Caddos, and passed much
of his time with or near the Americans at the Falls.
He was then in the vicinity. He took seven of his
tribe and pursued the Toncahuas. On the eighth
day he returned, bearing as trophies seven scalps,
Reed's horse and baggage, receiving substantial
commendation from the settlers.
In the spring of 1835 the faithful Canoma was
still about Tenoxtitlan. There were various indi-
cations of intended hostility by the wild tribes, but
it was mainly towards the people on the Colorado.
The wild Indians, as is well known to those conver-
sant with that period, considered the people of the
two rivers as separate tribes. The people at the
Falls, to avert an outbreak, employed Canoma to
go among the savages and endeavor to bring them
in for the purpose of making a treaty and of recov-
ering two children of Mr. Moss, then prisoners in
their hands.
Canoma, leaving two of his children as hostages,
undertook the mission and visited several tribes.
On returning he reported that those he had seen
were willing to treat with the Brazos people ; but
that about half were bitterly opposed to forming
friendly relations with the Coloradians, and that at
that moment a descent was being made on Bastrop
on that river by a party of the irreconcilables.
The people at the Falls immediately dispatched
Samuel McFall to advise the people of that infant
settlement of their danger. Before he reached his
destination the Indians had entered the settlement,
murdered a wagoner, stolen several horses and left,
and Col. Edward Burleson, in command of a small
party, was in pursuit.
In the meantime, some travelers lost their horses
at the Falls and employed Canoma to follow and
recover them. Canoma, with his wife and son,
armed with a written certification of his fidelity to
the whites, trailed the horses in the direction of and
nearly to the three forks of Little river, and re-
covered them. On his return with these American
20
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
horses, Burleson and party fell in with hira, but
were not aware of his faithful character. He ex-
hibited his credentials, with which Burleson was dis-
posed to be satisfied ; but his men, already incensed,
and finding Canoma in possession of the horses
under such suspicious circumstances, gave rein to
unreasoning exasperation. They killed him and his
son, leaving his wife to get in alone, which she lost
no time in doing. She reported these unfortunate
facts precisely as they had transpii'ed, and as they
were ever lamented by the chivalrous and kind-
hearted Burleson.
This intensely incensed the remainder of Cano-
ma's party, who were still at the Falls. Choctaw
Tom, the principal man left among them, stated
that they did not blame the people at the Falls, but
that all the Indians would now make war on the
Coloradians, and, with all the band, left for the
Indian country.
Soon after this, in consequence of some depreda-
tions, Maj. Oldham raised a company of twenty-
five men in Washington, and made a successful
attack an the Keechi village, on the Trinity, now in
Leon County. He routed them, killed a number
and captured a considerable number of horses and
all their camp equipage.
Immediately after this, Capt. Robert M. Cole-
man, of Bastrop, with twenty-five men, three of
whom were Brazos men well known to many of the
Indians, made a campaign against the Tehuacanos,
at the famous springs of that name now in Lime-
stone County. He crossed the Brazos at Washing-
ton on the 4th of July, 1835. He was not
discovered till near the village. The Indians
manifested stubborn courage. A severe engage-
ment ensued, but in the end, though killing a
considerable number of Indians, Coleman was com-
pelled to retreat — having one man killed and four
wounded. The enemy were too numerous for so
small a party ; and it was believed that their recog-
nilion of the thi'ee Brazos men among tlioir assail-
ants, stimulated their courage and exasperated
them against tlie settlers on that river, as they were
already towards those on the Colorado.
Coleman fell back upon Parker's fort, two and a
half miles iibove the present town of Groesbeck,
and sent in an express, calling for an augmentation
of force to chastise the enemy. Thrctc companies
were immediately raised — one commanded by
Capt. Robert M. Williamson (the gifted, dauntless
and eloquent three-legged Willie of the popular
legends), one by Capt. Coheen and a third by Dr.
George W. Barnett. Col. John H. Moore was
given chief command and Joseph C. Neill (a
soldier at the Horseshoe) was made adjutant.
They joined Coleman at the fort and rapidly
advanced upon the Tehuacanos at the springs ;
but the wily red man had discovered them and
fled.
They then scoured the country up the Trinity as
far as the forks, near the subsequent site of Dallas,
then passed over to and down the Brazos, crossing
it where old Fort Graham stands, without encoun-
tering more than five or six Indians on several
occasions. They, however, killed one warrior and
made prisoners of several women and children.
One of the women, after her capture, killed her
own child, for which she was immediately shot.
Without any other event of moment the command
leisurely returned to the settlements.
[Note. Maj. Oldham was afterwards one of
the Mier prisoners. Dr. Barnett, from Tennessee,
at 37 years of age, on the second day of the next
March (1836), signed the Declaration of Tcxian
Independence. He served as a senator for a num-
ber of years and then moved to the western i)art of
Gonzales County, where, in the latest Indian raid
ever made into that section, he was killed while
alone, by the savages. The names of Robert M.
Williamson and John H. Moore are too intimately
identified with our history to justify farther notice
here. As a Lieutenant-Colonel at San Jacinto,
Joseph C. Neill was severely wounded. Robert
M. Coleman was born and reared in that portion of
Christian County, Kentucky, which afterwards be-
came Trigg County. He came to Texas in 1880.
He, too, at the age of 37, signed the Declaration
of Independence and, fifty- one days later, com-
manded a company at San Jacinto. He was
drowned at the mouth of the Brazos in 1837. In
1839 his wife and 13 year-old-son were killed at
their frontier home in Webber's prairie, on the
Colorado, and another son carried into captivity by
thu Indians, never to be restored to civilization.
Two little girls, concealed under the floor by their
heroic child brother before his fall, were saved.
Henry Bridgcr, a young man, i\w\\ just from Cole
County, Missouri, afterwards my ni^iglibor and close
friend in several campaigns and battles- — modest
as a maiden, fearless as ii tiger — also a Mier pris-
oner, saw his fiist service in this campaign of Col.
Moore. Sam MctFall, the bearer of the warning
from the Falls to Bastrop, iVoin choice went on
foot. He was six I'c^el and thvw, inches high, loan,
lithe and audacious. He was the greatest footman
ever known in Texas, and made the distance in
shorter time than a saddle horse could have done.
He becami' famous among tiie Mier ))iiHoncrs at
Pcrotc, 1843-4, by feigning lunacy and stampeding
whenever harnessed to one of tlie little Mexican
carts for hauling stone, a task forced upon his
comrades, but from which lie escaped as a
"lunatico." He died in McLennan County some
years ago, lamented as an exemplar of true," inborn
nobility of soul and dauntless courage.]
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
27
The Attempted Settlement of Beales' Rio Grande Colony in
1834— Its Failure and the Sad Fate of Some of the Col-
onists—Twelve Murdered — Mrs. Horn and Two
Sons and Mrs. Harris Carried into
Captivity — 1834 to 1836.
Before narrating the painful scenes attending
the attempt to form a colony of Europeans and
Americans on the Rio Grande, about thirty miles
above the present town of Eagle Pass, begun in
New York in November, 1833, and terminating in
bitter failure and the slaughter of a portion of the
colonists on the 2d of April, 1836, a few precedent
facts are condensed, for the more intelligent and
comprehensive understanding of the subject.
Dr. John Charles Beales, born in Aldborough,
Suffolk County, England, March 20, 1804, went to
Mexico, and, in 1830, married the widow of Richard
Exter, an English merchant in that country. She
was a Mexican lady, her maiden name having been
Maria Dolores Soto. Prior to his death Mr. Exter
had become associated in certain empresario con-
tracts for introducing colonists into northern or
rather New Mexico with Stephen Julian Wilson, an
English naturalized citizen of Mexico.
In 1832 Dr. Beales and Jose Manuel Roquella
obtained from the State of Coahuila and Texas the
right to settle colonists in the following described
limits: —
Beginning at the intersection of latitude 32°
north with longitude 102° west from London, the
same being the southwest corner of a tract peti-
tioned for by Col. Reuben Ross ; thence west on
the parallel of latitude 32° to the eastern hmit of
New Mexico ; thence north on the line dividing
New Mexico and the provinces (the State) of Coa-
huila and Texas, to a point twenty leagues (52f
miles) south of the Arkansas river ; thence east to
longitude 102°, on the west boundary (really the
northwest corner) of the tract petitioned for by
Col. Reuben Ross; — thence south to the place of
beginning. Beales and Roquella employed Mr. A.
Le Grand, an American, to survey and mark the
boundaries of this territory and divide it into twelve
or more blocks. Le Grand, with an escort and
proper outfit, arrived on the ground from Santa Fe,
and established the initial point, after a series of
observations, on the 27th of June, 1833. From
that date till the 30th of October, he was actively
engaged in the work, running lines north, south.
east and west over most of the large territory. In
the night, eight inches of snow fell, and on the
30th, after several days' examination of its topog-
raphy, he was at the base of the mountain called
by the Mexicans " La Sierra Oscura." Here, for
the time being, he abandoned the work and pro-
ceeded to Santa Fe to report to his employers.
Extracts from that report form the base for these
statements. Neither Beales and Roquella nor Col.
Reuben Ross ever proceeded farther in these enter-
prises ; but it is worthy of note that Le Grand pre-
ceded Capt. R. B. Marcy, D. S. A., twenty-six
years in the exploration and survey of the upper
waters of the Colorado, Brazos, Red, Canadian and
Washita rivers, a field in which Capt. Marcy has
worn the honors of first explorer from the dates of
his two expeditious, respectively, in 1849 and 1853.
Le Grand's notes are quite full, noting the cross-
ing of every stream in all his 1800 to 2000 miles
in his subdivision of that large territory Into dis-
tricts or blocks numbered 1 to 12.
Le Grand, in his diary, states that on the 14th
of August: " We fell in with a party of Riana In-
dians, who informed us they were on their way to
Santa Fe, for the purpose of treating with the
government. We sent by them a copy of our jour-
nal to this date."
On the 20th of August they visited a large en-
campment of Comanche Indians, who were friendly
and traded with them.
On the night of September 10th, in the country
between the Arkansas and Canadian, five of the
party — Kimble, Bois, Caseboth, Boring and
Ryon — deserted, taking with them all but four
of Le Grand's horses.
On the 21st of September, near the northeast
corner of the tract they saw, to the west, a large
body of Indians. This was probably in " No Man's
Land," now near the northeast corner of Sherman
County, Texas.
On the night of September 27th, twenty miles
west of the northeast corner, and therefore near
the northwest corner of Sherman County, they
were attacked by a body of Snake Indians. The
28
INDIAN WANS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
action was short but furious. The Indians, evi-
dently expecting to surprise and slaughter the
party while asleep, left nine warriors dead on the
ground. But the victors paid dearly for the
triumph; they lost three killed, McCrummins,
Weathers and Jones, and Thompson was slightly
wounded. They buried the dead on the 28th and
remained on the ground till the 2'.)th. The country
over which this party carried the compass and
chain, between June 27th and October 30th, 1833,
measuring on the ground about eighteen hundred
miles, covers about the western half of the pi-esent
misnamed Texas Panhandle, the eastern portion
(or a strip thereof) of the present New Mexico,
the western portion of "No Man's Land," and
south of the Panhandle to latitude 32. The
initial or southeast corner (the intersection of
longitude 102 with latitude 32), judging by our
present maps, was in the vicinity of the present
town of Midland, on the Texas and Pacific Railway,
but Le Grand's observations must necessarily have
been imperfect and fixed the point erroneously. It
was, however, sixteen miles south of what he called
throughout the ''Red river of Texas," meaning
the Colorado or Pasigono, while he designates as
"Red river" the stream still so called. This
large territory is now settled and being settled by
stock raisers, with a decided tendency towards
farming pursuits. The writer of this, through the
press of Texas, ever since 1872, has contended that
in due time Northwest Texas, from the Pacific
road to latitude 36° 30', notwithstanding consid-
erable districts of worthless land, would become
the seat of an independent and robust agricultural
population. It is now being verified.
BEALES COLONY ON THE KIO GRANDE.
Dr. Beales secured in his own name a right to
settle a colony extending from the Nueces to the
Rio Grande and lying above the road from San
Antonio to Laredo. Next above, extending north
to latitude 32°, was a similar privilege granted to
John L. Woodbury, which expired, as did similar
concessions to Dr. James Grant, a Scotchman
naturalized and married in Mexico (the same who
was killed by the Mexican army on its march to
Texas, in February, 1836, in what is known as the
Johnson and Grant expedition, beyond the Nueces
river), and various others. Dr. Beales entered
into some sort of partnership with Grant for
settling colonists on the Rio Grande and Nueces'
tract, and then, with Grant's approval, while re-
taining his official position as empresario, or con-
tractor with the State, formed in New York an
association styled the " Rio Grande and Texas
Land Company," for the purpose of raising
means to encourage immigration to the colony
from France, Ireland, England and Germany, in-
cluding also Americans. Mr. Egerton, an English
surveyor, was sent out first to examine the lands
and select a site for locating a town, and the first
immigrants. He performed that service and
returned to New York in the summer of 1833.
The Rio Grande and Texas Land Company organ-
ized on a basis of capital " divided into 800 shares,
each containing ten thousand acres, besides sur-
plus lands." Certificate No. 407, issued in New
York, July 11, 1834, signed, Isaac A. Johnson,
trustee ; Samuel Sawyer, secretary, and J. C. Beales,
empresario, with a miniature map of the lands, was
transmitted to me as a present or memento, as the
case might be, in the year 1874, by my relative,
Hon. Wm. Jessop Ward, of Baltimore, and now
lies before me. As a matter of fact, Beales,
like all other empresarios under the Mexican
colonization laws, contracted or got permission
to introduce a specified number of immigrants (800
in this case) and was to receive a given amount of
premium land in fee simple to himself for each
hundred families so introduced. Otherwise he had
no right to or interest in the lands, and all lands
not taken up by immigrants as headrights, or
awarded him as premiums within a certain term of
years from the date of the contract, remained, as
before, public domain of the State. Hence the
habit generally adopted by writers and map-makers
of styling these districts of country "•grants" to
A., B. or C. was and ever has been a misnomer.
They were in reality only permits.
The first, and so far as known or believed, the
only body of immigrants introduced by Dr. Beales,
sailed with him from New York, in the schooner
Amos Wright, Capt. Monroe, November 11th, 1833.
The party consisted of fifty-nine souls, men, women
and children, but how many of each class cannot be
stated.
On the 6th of December, 1833, the Amos Wright
entered Aransas bay, finding nine feet of water
on the bar; on the 12th they disembarked and
pitched their tents on the beach at Copano and
there remained till January ;i, 1831, finding there
only a Mexican coast-guard consisting of a corporal
and two men. On the 15th of December Don Jose
Maria Cosio, collector of customs, came down from
Goliad (the ancient La Bahia), and passed their
papers and goods as correct and was both courteous
and kind. Throughout the remainder of December,
January and February there were rapidly succeed-
ing wet and cold northers, indicating one of the
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
29
most inclement winters known to the inhabitants —
flooding the coast prairies and causing great dis-
comfort to the strangers, who, however, feasted
abundantly on wild game, fish and water fowl.
On the 20th Dr. Beales, his servant, Marcelino,
and Mr. Power started to Goliad to see the Alcalde,
Don Miguel Aldrete, and procure teams for trans-
portation, the roads being so flooded that, although
the distance was only about forty miles, they did
not arrive till the 22d. Returning with animals to
draw their vehicles, they arrived at Copano late on
the 31st of December, having halted, both in going
and returning, at the Irish settlement of Power's
and Hewetson's infant colony, at the old mission
of Refugio. (This colony had for empresarios Mr.
James Power and Dr. James Hewetson, both
well known in the subsequent history of that sorely
desolated section. )
The party left Copano on the 3d of January,
1834, and after numerous vexations and minor
accidents, arrived at Goliad, crossed and encamped
on the east bank of the San Antonio river on the
16th, having thus left behind them the level and
flooded coast lands. Dr. Beales notes that, while
at Goliad, " some of the foreigners in the town,
the lowest class of the Americans, behaved ex-
ceedingly ill, endeavoring, by all means in their
power, to seduce my families away." But only
one man left, and he secured his old Majordomo
(overseer or manager), John Quinn, and a
Mexican with his wife and four children, to
accompany the party. He also notes that on
Sunday (19th) a Carancahua Indian child was
baptized by the priest in Goliad, for which the
collector's wife, Senora Cosio, stood godmother.
On the 20th of January, with freshly purchased
oxen, they left for San Antonio and, after much
trouble and cold weather, arrived there on the 6th
of February. A few miles below that place (a
fact stated by Mrs. Horn, but not found in Beales'
diary) they found Mr. Smith, a stranger from the
United States, lying by the roadside, terribly
wounded, and with him a dead Mexican, while two
others of his Mexican escort had escaped severely
wounded. They had had a desperate fight with a
small party of Indians who had left Mr. Smith as
dead. Dr. Beales, both as physician and good
Samaritan, gave him every possible attention
and conveyed him to San Antonio, where he
lingered for a time and died after the colonists
left that place. While there a young German
couple in the party were married, but their names
are not given.
On the 18th of February, with fifteen carts and
wagons, the colonists left San Antonio for the
Rio Grande. On the 28th they crossed the Nueces
and for the first time entered the lands designated
as Beales' Colony. Mr. Little carved upon a
large tree on the west bank — " Los Primeros
colonos de la Villa de Dolores pasaron el 28 de
Febrero, 1834," which being rendered into Eng-
lish is: "The first colonists of the village of
Dolores passed here on the 28th of February,
1834," many of them, alas, never to pass again.
On the 2d of March Mr. Egerton went forward
to Presidio de Rio Grande to examine the route,
and returned at midnight with the information that
the best route was to cross the river at that point,
travel up on the west side and recross to the pro-
posed locality of Dolores, on the Las Moras creek,
which is below the present town of Del Rio and ten
or twelve miles from the northeast side of the Rio
Grande. They crossed the river on the oth and on
the 6th entered the Presidio, about five miles from
it. Slowly moving up on the west side, by a some-
what circuitous route and crossing a little river
called by Dr. Beales "Rio Escondido," the
same sometimes called Rio Chico, or Little river,
which enters the Rio Grande a few miles below
Eagle Pass, they recrossed to the east side of the
Rio Grande on the 12th and were again on the
colony lands. Here they fell in with five Shawnee
Indian trappers, two of whom spoke English and
were not only very friendly, but became of service
for some time in killing game. Other Shawnee
trappers frequently visited them. Here^Beales left
a portion of the freight, guarded by Addicks and
two Mexicans, and on the 14th traveled up the
country about fifteen miles to a creek called " El
Sancillo," or " El Sanz." On the 16th of March,
a few miles above the latter stream , they arrived at
the site of the proposed village of Dolores, on the
Las Moras creek, as before stated said to be ten or
twelve miles from the Rio Grande. The name
"Dolores" was doubtless bestowed by Doctor
Beales in honor of his absent wife.
Preparations were at once undertaken to form
tents, huts and cabins, by cleaning out a thicket
and building a brush wall around it as a fortifica-
tion against the wild Indians who then, as for gen-
erations before and for fifty years afterwards, were
a terror to the Mexican population on that frontier.
On the 30th, Dr. Beales was unexpectedly com-
pelled to go to Matamoras, three or four hundred
miles, to cash his drafts, having failed to do so in
Monclova. It was a grave disappointment, as
money was essential to meet the wants of the peo-
ple. Beyond this date bis notes are inaccessible
and subsequent events are gleaned dimly from other
sources. It must suffice to say that without irri-
Missing Page
Missing Page
32
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tive ladies could it have been made known and this
they had no oppoi-lunity of doing excepting after
their recovery and through the narrative from
which these facts are collected. Neither was ever
afterwards in the settled parts of Texas, and indeed
never were before, excepting on the trip from
Copano, via Goliad and San Antonio, to the Rio
Grande.
On another occasion, after traveling for a short
distance on a large road, evidently leading to
Matamoras, they arrived near a rancho, near a
lake of water. The main body halted and a part
advanced upon the house which, though near, could
not be seen by the captive ladies, but they heard
the fight going on, firing and defiant shouts, for a
considerable time, when the Indians returned,
bearing two of their comrades severely
wounded, and showing that they had been
defeated and feared pursuit. They left the road
and traveled rapidly till night, and then made
no fire. On the following day they moved in
haste, as if apprehensive of attack. They made
no halt till night, and then for the first time
in two days, allowed the prisoners water and a
small quantity of meat. After two hours' travel
next morning, to the amazement of the captives,
they arrived at the spot where their husbands and
friends had been murdered and where their naked
bodies still lay, untouched since they left them, and
only blackened in appearance. The little boys,
John and Joseph, at once recognized their father,
and poured forth such wails as to soften any but a
brutal, savage heart. They soon passed on to the
spot where lay the bodies of Mr. Harris and the
_young German, who, Mrs. Horn says, fell
upon his face and knees and was still in that
position, being the only one not stripped of his
clothing.
Startmg next morning by a different route from
that first pursued, they traveled rapidly for three
days and reached the spot near where they had
killed the little Mexican and his family and had
secreted the plunder taken from his house and
the other victims of their barbarity. This, Mrs.
Horn thought, was on the 18th day of April, 1836,
being the fifteenth day of their captivity. This
being but three days before the battle of San
Jacinto, when the entire American population of
Texas was on, or east of the Trinity, abundantly
accounts for the fact that these l)loody tragedies
never become known in Texas ; though, as will be
shown farther on, they accidentally came to my
knowledge in the year 1839, while in Missouri.
Gathering and packing their secreted spoils, the
savages separated into three parties of about equal
numbers and traveled with all possible speed till
about the middle of June, about two months. Much
of the way was over rough, stony ground, pro-
visions scarce, long intervals without water, the
sun on the bare heads and naked bodies of the
captives, very hot, and their sufferings Were great.
The ladies were in two different parties.
The narrative of Mrs. Horn, during her entire
captivity, abounds in recitals of cruelties towards
herself, her children and Mrs. Harris, involving
hunger, thirst, menial labor, stripes, etc., though
gradually lessened as time passed. To follow them
in detail would become monotonous repetition. As
a rather extreme illustration the following facts
transpired on this long march of about two months
from extreme Southwest Texas to (it is supposed)
the head waters of the Arkansas.
Much of the route, as before stated, was over
rough and stony ground, " cut up by steep and
nearly impassable ravines, with deep and dangerous
fords." (This is Mrs. Harris' language and aptly
applies to the head waters of the Nueces, Guadalupe,
the Conchos and the sources of the Colorado,
Brazos and Red rivers, through which they neces-
sarily passed.) At one of these deep fords, little
Joseph Horn slipped from his mule while ascending
the bank and fell back into the water. When he
had nearly extricated himself, a burly savage, en-
raged at the accident, pierced him in the face with
a lance with such force as to throw him into deep
and rapid water and inflict a severe wound just be-
low the eye. Not one of the demons offered remon-
strance or assistance, but all seemed to exult in the
brutal scene. The little sufferer, however, caught
a projecting bush and succeeded in reaching the
bank, bleeding like a slaughtered animal. The
distracted mother upbraided the wretch for his con-
duct, in return for which he made the child travel
on foot and drive a mule the remainder of the day.
When they halted for the night he called Mrs.
Horn to him. With a knife in one hand and a whip
in the other, he gave her an unmerciful thrashing,
butinthisas in all her afflictions, she says: " I have
cast myself at His feet whom I have ever been
taught to trust and adore, and it is to Ilim I owe it
that I was sustained in the fiery trials. When the
savage monster liad done whipping me, he took his
knife and literally sawed the hair from my head.
It was quite long and when he completed the oper-
ation, he tied it to his own as an ornament, and, I
suppose, wears it yet. At this time we had tasted
no food for two days, and in hearing of the moana
of my starving children, bound, as on every night,
with cords, I laid down, and mothers may judge, if
they can, the measure of my repose. The next day
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
33
a wild horse was killed and we were allowed to par-
take of the flesh."
The next day, saj's the captive lady, they came
to a deep, rapid stream. The mules had to swim
and the banks were so steep that the riders had to
dismount in the edge of the water to enable them
to ascend. They then soon came to the base of a
mountain which it was difficult to ascend. Arriv-
ing at the summit, they halted, when a few of the
Indians returned to the stream with the two little
boys and enjoyed the barbaric sport of throwing
the little creatures in till life would be almost
extinct. Reviving them, the}' would repeat the
torture and this was done time and again. Finally
they rejoined the party on the mountain, the chil-
dren being unable to stand, partially unconscious
and presenting a pitiable spectacle. Their bodies
were distended from engorgement with water and
Joseph's wounded face was terribly swollen.
Water came from their stomachs in gurgles. Let
Eastern humanitarians bear in mind that this was
in the spring of 1836, before the Comanches had
any just pretense for hostility towards the people
of Texas (however much they may have had in
regard to the Mexicans), and that this narrative
comes not from a Texian, but from a refined En-
glish lady, deeply imbued with that spirit of reli-
gion whose great pillars are " Faith, Hope and
Charity." My soul sickens in retrospective con-
templation of that (to the uninformed) somewhat
plausible gush of philanthropy, which indulges in
the Pharisaical " I am holier than thou " hypocrisy
at home, but soars abroad to lift up the most
inferior and barbaric races of men ! — a fanaticism
which is ever blind to natural truth and common
sense on such subjects — ever the fomentor of
strife rather than fraternity among its own people —
and which is never enjoying the maximum of self-
righteousness unless intermeddling with the affairs
and convictions of other people.
Referring to the stream and mountain just de-
scribed and the probable time, in the absence of
dates, together with a knowledge of the topography
of the country, and an evidently dry period , as no
mention is made in this part of the narrative of
rain or mud, it is quite certain that the stream was
the Big Wichita (the Ouichita of the French. ) The
description, in view of all the facts, admirably
applies to it and to none other.
On the night of this day, after traveling through
the afternoon, for the first time Mrs. Horn was
allowed the use of her arms, though still bound
around the ankles. After this little unusual hap-
pened on the journey, till the three parties again
united. Mrs. Harris, when they met, seemed barely
3
to exist. The meeting of the captive ladies was
a mournful renewal of their sorrows. Mrs. H.'s
breasts, though improved, were not well and her
general health was bad, from which, with the want
of food and water, she had suffered much. The
whole band of four hundred then traveled together
several days, till one day Mrs. Horn, being in front
and her children in the rear, she discovered that
those behind her were diverging in separate parties.
She never again saw her little sons together, though,
as will be seen, she saw them separately. They
soon afterwards reached the lodges of the band she
was with, and, three days later, she was taken to
the lodge of the Indian who claimed her. There
were three branches of the family, in separate tents.
In one was an old woman and her two daughters,
one being a widow; in another was the son of the
old woman and his wife and five sons, to whom
Mrs. Horn belonged ; and in the third was a son-
in-law of the old woman. The mistress of Mrs. H.
was the personification of savagery, and abused her
captive often with blows and stones, till, in des-
peration Mrs. Horn asserted her rights by counter-
blows and stones and this rendered the cowardly
brute less tyrannical. She was employed con-
stantly by day in dressing buffalo robes and deer
skins and converting them into garments and moc-
casins. She was thrown much with an old woman
who constituted a remarkable exception to the
general brutality of the tribe. In the language of
the captive lady: "She contributed generally by
her acts of kindness and soothing manners, to
reconcile me to my fate. But she had a daughter
who was the very reverse of all that was amiable
and seemed never at ease unless engaged in some
way in indulging her ill-humor towards me. But,
as if by heaven's interposition, it was not long till
I so won the old woman's confidence that in all
matters of controversy between her daughter and
myself, she adopted my statement and decided in
my favor."
Omitting Mrs. Horn's mental tortures on ac-
count of her children, she avers that the sufferings
of Mrs. Harris were much greater than her own.
That lady could not brook the idea of menial
service to such demons and fared badlj'. They
were often near together and were allowed occa-
sionally to meet and mingle their tears of anguish.
Mrs. Harris, generally, was starved to such a degree
that she availed herself of every opportunity to get
a mite of meat, however small, through Mrs. Horn.
In about two months two little Mexican boy
prisoners told her a little white boy had arrived
near by with his captors and told them his mother
was a prisoner somewhere in the country. By per-
34
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
mission she went to see him and found her little
Joseph, who, painted and his head shaven except-
ing a tuft on the crown, recognized her at a distance
and ran to her overflowing with cries and tears of
joy. She was allowed to remain with him only half
an hour. I draw the veil over the heartrending
scene of their separation.
It was four months before she heard of John,
her eider son, and then she saw him passing with a
party, but was not allowed to go to him. But
some time later, when the different bands congre-
gated for buffalo hunting, she was allowed to see
him. Time passed and dates cannot be given, but
Mrs. Horn records that " some of Capt. Coffee's
men came to trade with the Indians and found me."
They were Americans and made every effort to
buy her, but in vain. On leaving, they said they
would report to Capt. Coffee and if any one could
assist these captives he could and would. Soon
afterwards he came in person and offered the
Indians any amount in goods or money ; but with-
out avail. Mrs. Horn says: "He expressed the
deepest concern at his disappointment and wept
over me as he gave me clothing and divided his
scanty supply of flour with me and my children,
which he took the pains to carry to them himself.
It is, if possible, with a deeper interest that I
record this tribute of gratitude to Capt. Coffee be-
cause, since my strange deliverance, I have been
pained to learn that he has been charged with
supineness and indifference on the subject ; but I
can assure the reader that nothing can be more un-
just. Mrs. Harris was equally the object of his
solicitude. The meeting with this friend in the
deep recesses of savage wilds was indeed like water
to a thirsty soul ; and the parting under such
gloomy forebodings opened anew the fountain of
grief in my heart. It was to me as the icy seal of
death fixed upon the only glimmering ray of hope,
and my heart seemed to die within me, as the form
of him whom I had fondly anticipated as my deliv-
ering angel, disappeared in the distance."
(The noble-hearted gentleman thus embalmed in
the pure heart of that daughter of sorrow, was
Holland Coffee, the founder of Coffee's Trading
House, on Red river, a few miles above Denison.
He was a member of the Texian Congress in 1838,
a valualdc and courageous man on the frontier and,
to the regret of the country, was killed a few years
later in a difficulty, the particulars of which are not
at this time remembered. Col. Coffee, formerly
of Southwest Missouri, but for many years of
Georgetown, Texas, is a brother of the deceased.)
Soon after this there was so great a scarcity of
meat that some of the Indians nearly starved.
Little John managed to send his mother smal'
portions of his allowance and when, not a great
while later, she saw him for the last time, he was
rejoiced to learn she had received them. He had
been sick and had sore throat, but she was only
allowed a short interview with him. Soon after this
little Joseph's party camped near her and she was
permitted to spend nearly a day with him. He had
a new owner and said he was then treated kindly.
His mistress, who was a young Mexican, had been
captured with her brother, and remained with them,
while her brother, by some means, had been restored
to his people. He was one of the hired guard at
the unfortunate settlement of Dolores, where Joseph
knew him and learned the story of his captivity and
that his sister was still with the savages. By acci-
dent this woman learned these facts from Josejth,
who, to convince her, shbwed how her brother
walked, he being lame. This coincidence cstal>-
lished a bond of union between the two, greatly to
Joseph's advantage. As the shades of evening
appn^ached the little fellow piteously clung to his
mother, who, for the last time, folded him in her
arms and commended his soul to that beneficent
God in whose goodness and mercy she implicity
trusted.
Some time in June, 1837, a little over fourteen
months after their capture, a party of Mexican
traders visited the camp and bought Mrs. Harris.
In this work of mercy they were the employes' of
that large-hearted Santa Fe trader, who had pre-
viously ransomed and restored Mrs. Rachel
Plummcr to her people, Mr. William Donoho, of
whom more will hereafter be said. They tried in
vain to buy Mrs. Horn. Although near each other
she was not allowed to sec Mrs. Harris before her
departure, but rejoiced at her liberation. They
had often mingled their tears together and had been
mutual comforters.
Of this separation Mrs. Horn wrote: "Now
left a lonely exile in the bonds of savage slavery,
haunted by night and by day with the image pf my
murdered husband, and tortured continually by an
undying solicitude for my dear little ones, my life
was little else than unmiUgated misery, and the
God of Heaven only knows why and how it is that
I am still alive."
After the departure of Mrs. Harris the Indians
traveled to and fro almost continually for about
three months, without any remarkable occurrence.
At the 011(1 of this time they were within two days'
travel of San Miguel, a village on the Pecos,' in
eastern New Mexico. Here an Indian girl told
Mrs. Horn that she was to he sold to people who
lived in houses. She did not believe it and cared
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
35
tout little, indeed dreaded lest thereby she might
inecer see her children, but hope suggested that as
a prisoner she might never again see them, while
•her redemption might be followed by theirs. A
great many Indians had here congregated. Her
old woman friend, in reply to her questions, told
■her she was to be sold, wept bitterly and applied
to her neck and arms a peculiar red paint, symbolic
of undying friendship. They started early next
morning and traveled till dark, encamping near
a pond. They started before day next morning
And soon reached a river, necessarily the Pecos or
ancient Puerco, which they forded, and soon
arrived at a small town on its margin, where they
-encamped for the remainder of the day. The
inhabitants visited the camp from curiosity, among
them a man who spoke broken P^nglish, who asked
if Mrs. Horn was for sale and was answered
afflrmatively by her owner. He then gave her to
understand that if he bought her he expected her
to remain with him, to which, with the feelings of
a pure woman, she promptly replied that she did
not wish to exchange her miserable condition for
a worse one. He offered two horses for her, how-
ever, but they were declined. Finding he could
not buy her, he told her that in San Miguel there
was a rich American merchant, named Benjamin
Hill, who would probably buy her. Her mistress
seemed anxious that she should fall into American
hands, and she was herself of course intensely
anxious to do so.
They reached San Miguel on the next daj' and
encamped there. She soon conveyed, through an
old woman of the place, a message to Mr. Hill.
He promptly appeared and asked her if she knew
Mrs. Hai'ris, and if she had two children among the
Indians. Being answered in the affirmative, he
■said: "You are the woman I have heard of," and
added, " I suppose you would be happy to get away
from these people." "I answered in the affirmative,
when he bid the wretched captive ' Good morning,'
and deliberately walked off without uttering another
word, and my throbbing bosom swelled with unut-
terable anguish as he disappeared."
For two days longer she remained in excruciating
suspense as to her fate. Mr. Hill neither visited
nor sent her anything, while the Mexicans were very
kind (it should be understood that, while at Dolores,
she and her two little boys had learned to speak
Spanish and this was to her advantage now, as it
had been among her captors, more or less of whom
spoke that language.)
On the morning of the third day the Indians be-
igan preparations for leaving, and when three-fourths
of the animals were packed and some had left, a
good-hearted Mexican appeared and offered to buy
Mrs. Horn, but was told it was too late. The ap-
plicant insisted, exhibited four beautiful bridles and
invited the Indian owning her to go with her to his
house, near by. He consented. In passing Hill's
store on the way, her mistress, knowing she pre-
ferred passing into American hands, persuaded her
to enter it. Mr. Hill offered a worthless old horse
for her, and then refused to give some red and blue
cloth, which the Indians fancied, for her. They
then went to the Mexican's house and he gave for
her two fine horses, the four fine bridles, two fine
blankets, two looking glasses, two knives, some
tobacco, powder and balls, articles then of very
great cost. She says : "I subsequently learned
that for my ransom I was indebted to the benevo-
lent heart of an American gentleman, a trader, then
absent, who had authorized this Mexican to pur-
chase us at any cost, and had made himself respon-
sible for the same. Had I the name of my bene-
factor I would gratefully record it in letters of gold
and preserve it as a precious memento of his truly
Christian philanthropy."
It will be shown in the sequel that the noble
heart, to which the ransomed captive paid homage,
pulsated in the manly breast of Mr. William
Donoho, then of Santa Fe, but a Missourian, and
afterwards of Clarksville, Texas, where his only
surviving child, Mr. James B. Donoho, yet resides.
His widow died there in 1880, preceded by him in
1845.
The redemption of this daughter of multiplied
sorrows occurred, as stated, at San Miguel, New
Mexico, on the 19th of September, 1837 — one
year, five months and fifteen days after her capture
on the 4th of April, 1836, on the Nueces river.
On the 21st, much to her surprise, Mr. Hill sent
a servant requesting her to remo^^e to his house.
This she refused. The servant came a second
time, saying, in the name of his master, that if she
did not go he would compel her to do so. A trial
was had and she was awarded to Hill. She re-
mained in his service as a servant, fed on mush
and milk and denied a seat at the luxurious table
of himself and mistress till the 2d of November.
A generous-hearted gentlemen named Smith,
residing sixty miles distant in the mines, hearing
of her situation, sent the necessary means and
escort to have her taken to his place for temporary'
protection. She left on the 2d and arrived at Mr.
Smith's on the 4th. The grateful heart thus notes
the change: "The contrast between this and the
house I had left exhibited the difference between
a servant and a guest, between the cold heart that
would coin the tears of helpless misery into gold
36
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
to swell a miser's store, and the generous bestowal
of heavenly friendship which, in its zeal to relieve
the woes of suffering humanity, gives sacred
attestation that it springs from the bosom of ' Him
who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became
poor that we, through His poverty, might become
rich.' "
Her stay at the home of Mr. Smith was a daily
repetition of kindnesses, and she enjoyed all that
was possible in view of the ever present grief over
her slaughtered husband and captive children.
In February 1838, she received a sympathetic
letter from Texas, accompanied with presents in
clothing, from Messrs. Workman and Rowland,
Missourians, so long honorably known as Santa Fe
traders and merchants, whose families were then
residing in Taos. They advised her to defer leav-
ing for Independence till they could make another
effort to recover her children and invited her to re-
pair, as their guest, to Taos, to await events, pro-
vided the means for her doing so, placing her under
the protection of Mr. Kinkindall (probably Kuy-
kendall, but I follow her spelling of the name).
" But," she records, " friends were multiplying
around me, who seemed to vie with each other in
their endeavors to meet my wants. Other means
presented themselves, and I was favored with the
company of a lady and Dr. "Waldo."
She left Mr. Smith and the mines on the 4lh of
March, 1838, and after traveling in snow and over
rocks and mountains part of the way, arrived at
Taos on the 10th. From that time till the 22d of
August, her time was about equally divided between
the families of Messrs. Workman and Eowland, who
bestowed upon her every kindness.
She now learned that these gentlemen had for-
merly sent out a company to recover herself and
Mrs. Harris, w'hohad fallen in with a different tribe
of Indians and lost several of their number in a
fight. Her friend, Mr. Smith, had performed a
similar service and when far out his guide faltered,
causing such suffering as to cause several deaths
from hunger, while some survived by drinking the
blood of their mules. While Mrs. Horn remained
with them these gentlemen endeavored through two
trading parties, to recover her children, but failed.
A report came in that little John had frozen to
death, holding horses at night; but it was not
believed by many. Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Plummer
reached Missouri under the protection of Mrs.
Donoho. On the 2d of August, all efforts to recover
her children having failed, leaving only the hope
that others might succeed, Mrs. Horn left in the
train and under the protection of Messrs. Workman
and Rowland. She was the only lady in the party.
Nothing unusual transpired on the journey of 700
or 800 miles, and on the last day of September,
1838, they arrived at Independence, Missouri. On
the 6th of October, she reached the hospitable home
of Mr. David Workman at " New " Franklin.
This closes the narrative as written by Mrs. Horn
soon after she reached Missouri and before she
met Mr. Donoho. Her facts have been faithfully
followed, omitting the repetition of her sufferings
and correcting her dates in two cases where her
memory was at fault. She sailed from New York
on the 11th of November, 1833, a year earlier than
stated by her, hence arrived at Dolores a year
earlier, and consequently remained there two years
instead of one, for it is absolutely certain that sh&
arrived there in March, 1834, and left there in
March, 1836. I have been able also, from her
notes, to approximate localities and routes men-
tioned by her, from long acquaintance with much
of the country over which she traveled.
Mr. Donoho, in company with his wife — a lady
of precious memory in Clarksville, Texas, from
the close of 1839 till her death in 1880 — conveyed
Mrs. Plummer (one of the captives taken at Parker's
Fort, May 19, 1836), and Mrs. Harris, from Santa
Fe to Missouri in the autumn of 1837. He escorted
Mrs. Plummer to her people in Texas, left his wife
and Mrs. Harris with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lucy
Dodson in Pulaski County, Missouri, and then
hastened back to Santa Fe to look after his property
and business, for he had hurried away because of a
sudden outbreak of hostilities between the New
Mexicans and Indians formerly friendly, and this^
is the reason he was not present to take personal,
charge of Mrs. Horn on her recovery at San Miguel.
When he reached Santa Fe Mrs. Horn had left
Taos for Independence. Closing his business in
Santa Fe, he left the place permanently and
rejoined his family at Mrs. Dodson's. Mrs. Horn
then, for the first time, met him and remained several
months with his family. Prior to this her narrative
had been written, and she slill saw little of him, he
being much absent on business. Mrs. Harris had
relatives in Texas but shrunk from the idea of goino-
there ; and hearing of other kindred near Boonville,
Missouri, joined them and soon died from the expos-
ures and abuse undergone while a prisoner. Mrs.
Horn soon died from the same causes, while on a.
visit, though her home was with Mrs. Dodson.
Both ladies were covered with barbaric scars — their
vital organs were impaired — and they fell the
victims of the accursed cruelty known only ta
savage brutes.
Mr. William Donoho was a son of Kentucky,
born in 1798. His wife, a Tennesseean, and
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
87
daughter of Dr. James Dodson, married Mm in
Missouri, in 1831, where their first child was born.
From 1833 till the close of 1838, they lived in Santa
Fe, where the second daughter, born in 1835, and
their first son, born in 1837 (now Mr. J. B. Don-
oho, of Clarksville, the only survivor of six chil-
dren), were the two first American children born
in Santa Fe. Mr. Donoho permanentlj' settled at
Clarksville, Texas, late in 1839 and died there in
• 1845.
In verification of the facts not stated by Mrs.
Horn, because, when writing, they were unknown
to her, I have the statements of Dr. "William Dod-
son and Mrs. Lucy Estes, of Camden County, Mis-
souri, brother and sister of Mrs. Donoho, who were
with all the parties for nearly a year after they
reached Missouri.
A copy of Mrs. Horn's memoir came into my
possession in 1839, when it had just been issued
and so remained till accidentally lost many years
later, believed to have been the only copy ever in
Texas. The events described by her were never
otherwise known in Texas and have never been be-
fore published in the State. This is not strange.
Beales' Colony was neither in Texas at that date,
nor in anywise connected with the American col-
onies or settlements in Texas. It was in Coahuila,
though now in the limits of Texas. When its short
life terminated in dispersion and the butchery of
the retreating party on the Nueces, the Mexican
army covered every roadway leading to the in-
habited part of Texas, before whom the entire
population had fled east. None were left to re-
count the closing tragedy excepting the two
unfortunate and (as attested by all who subse-
quently knew them), refined Christian ladies whose
travails and sorrows have been chronicled, both of
whom, as shown, died soon after liberation, and
neither of whom ever after saw Texas.
Fortunately, through the efforts of Mr. James
B. Donoho, of Clarksville, and his uncle, Dr. Dod-
son, and aunt, Mrs. Estes, of Missouri, I have
been placed in possession of a manuscript copy of
Mrs. Horn's narrative, made by a little, school girl
in Missouri in 1839 — afterwards Mrs. D. B. Dod-
son, and now long deceased. Accompanying its
transmission, on the 5th of February, 1887, Mr.
James B. Donoho says: —
"As it had always been a desire with me to
some time visit the place of my birth, in the summer
of 1885, with my wife and children, I visited Santa
Fe, finding no little pleasure in identifying land-
marks of which I had heard my mother so often
speak, being myself an infant when we left there.
I had no trouble in identifying the house in which
my second sister and self were born, as it cornered
on the plaza and is now known as the Exchange
Hotel. While there it was settled that my sister,
born in 1835, and myself, born in 1837, were the
first Americans born in Santa Fe, a distinction (if
such it can be called) previously claimed for one
born there in 1838."
The novelty of this history, unknown to the peo-
ple of Texas at the time of its occurrence, has
moved me to extra diligence in search of the troth
and the whole trdth in its elucidation. As a deli-
cate and patriotic duty it has been faithfully per-
formed in justice to the memory of the strangely
united daughters of England and America, and
of those lion-hearted yet noble-breasted American
gentlemen, Messrs. Donoho, Workman, Rowland
and Smith, by no means omitting Mrs. Donoho,
Mrs. Dodson and children, nor yet the poor old
Comanche woman — a pearl among swine — who
looked in pity upon the stricken widow, mother and
captive.
Lamenting my inability to state the fate of little
John and Joseph, and trusting that those to
come after us may realize the cost in blood through
which Texas was won to civilization, to enlightened
freedom and to a knowledge of that religion by
which it is taught that — " Charity suffereth long
and is kind — * * * beareth all things, believeth
all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all
things," I do not regret the labor it has cost me to
collect the materials for this sketch.
38
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The Heroic Taylor Family of the Three Forks of
Little River — 1835.
In the autumn of 1835 the outermost habitation
on the waters of Little river was that of the Taylor
family. It stood about three miles southeast of
where Belton is, a mile or so east of the Leon river
and three miles or more above the mouth of that
stream. The junction of the Leon, Lampasas and
Salado constitutes the locality known as the " Three
Forks of Little River," the latter stream being
the San Andres of the Mexicans as well as of
the early settlers of Texas. This change of name
is not the only one wrought in that locality, for
the names "Lampasas" (water lily) and "Sal-
ado " (saltish) were also most inappropriately
exchanged, the originals being characteristic of
the two streams, while the swap makes descriptive
nonsense. At an earlier period the same incon-
gruous change occurred in the names of the
" Brazos " and " Colorado " rivers.
The home of the Taylors consisted of two long
cabins with a covered passage between. The
family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, two
youthful sons and two daughters. One of the
latter, Miss Frazier, was a daughter of Mrs. Tay-
lor by a former husband, and afterwards the wife
of George W. Chapman, of Bell County.
In the night of November 12th, 1835, eleven
Indians attacked the house. The parents and girls
were in one room — the boys in the other. The
door to the family room, made of riven boards,
was a foot too short, leaving an open space at the
top. The first indication of the presence of the
enem^- was the warning of a faithful dog, which was
speedily killed in the yard. This was followed by
a burly warrior trying to force the door, at the
same time in English demanding to know how
many men were in the house, a supply of tobacco
and the surrender of the family. By the bright
moonlight they could be distinctly seen. Mrs.
Taylor defiantly answered, "No tobacco, no sur-
render," and Mr. Taylor answered there were ten
men in the house. The assailant pronounced the
latter statement false, when Taylor, through a
crack, gave him a severe thrust in the stomach with
a board, which caused his hasty retreat, whereupon
Mrs. Taylor threw open the door, commanding the
boys to hasten in across the hall, which they did,
escaping a flight of balls and arrows. The door
was then fastened, a table set against it, and on it
the smallest boy, a child of only twelve years, was
mounted with a gun and instructed to shoot
through the space over the door whenever an
Indian appeared. There were not many bullets on
hand, and the girls supplied that want by moulding ■
more. Taylor, his wife and larger son, watched
through cracks in the walls to shoot as opportunity
might occur. Very soon a warrior entered the
passageway to assault the door, when the twelve
years' " kid," to use a cant phrase in use to day,
shot him unto death. A second warrior rushed in
to drag his dead comrade away, but Mr. Taylor shot
him, so that he fell, not dead but helpless, across
his red brother. These two admonitions rendered
the assailants more cautious. They resolved tO'
effect by fire that which seemed too hazardous by
direct attack. They set the now vacated room on
Ore at the further end and amid their demoniac
yells the flames ascended to the roof and made
rapid progress along the boards, soon igniting those
covering the hallway. Suspended to beams was a
large amount of fat bear meat. The burning roof
soon began to cook the meat, and blazing sheets of
the oil fell upon the wouuded savage, who writhed
and hideously yelled, but was powerless to extri-
cate himself from the tortune. Mrs. Taylor had
no sympathy for the wretch, but, pee[)ing through
a crack, expressed her feelings by exclaiming:
" Howl! you yellow brute ! Your meat is not fit
for hogs, but we'll roast you for the wolves ! "
As the fire was reaching the roof of the besieged
room, Mr, Taylor was greatly dispirited, seeming
to regard their fate as sealed ; but his heroic wife,
thinking not of herself, but of her children, rose
equal to the occasion, declaring that they would
whip the enemy and all be saved. From a table
she was enabled to reach the boards forming the
roof. Throwing down the weight poles, there
being no nails in the boards, she threw down
enough boards in advance of the lire to create an
empty space. There was a large quantity of milk
in the house and a small barrel of home-made
vinegar. These fluids were passed up to her by
her daughters, and with them she extinguished
the Are. In doing so her head and chest formed
a target for the enemy ; but while several arrows
and balls rent her clothing, she was in nowise
wounded.
While these matters were transpiring, Mr. Taylor
and the elder son each wounded a savawe in the
QUANATI PARKER.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
39
yard. Having accomplished her hazardous mission,
Mrs. Taylor resumed the floor, and soon discovered
an Indian in the outer chimney corner, endeavoring
to start a Are and peering through a considerable
hole burnt through the "dirt and wooden" jam.
Seizing a wooden shovel, she threw into his face
and bosom a . shovelful of live coals and embers,
causing him to retreat, uttering the most agonizing
screams, to which she responded " Take that, you
yellow scoundrel!" It was said afterwards that
her warm and hasty application destroyed his eye-
sight.
After these disasters the enemy held a brief con-
sultation and realized the fact that of their group
of eleven, two were dead and partially barbecued,
two were severely wounded, and one was at least
temporarily blind under the "heroic" oculistical
treatment of Mrs Taylor. What was said by them,
one to another, is not known ; but they retired
without further obtrusion upon the peace and
dignity of that outpost in the missionary field of
civilization.
An hour later the family deemed it prudent to
retire to the river bottom, and next morning fol-
lowed it down to the fort. A small party of men
then repaired to the scene of conflict and found the
preceding narrative verified in every essential.
The dead Indians were there, and everything
remained as left by the family'. Excepting Mrs.
Chapman, all of that family long since passed away.
Before the Civil War I personally knew Brown
Taylor, one of the sons, then a quiet, modest young
man, carrying in his breast the disease destined to
cut short his days — consumption.
This all happened more than fifty years ago.
To-day two large towns, Belton and Temple, and
half a dozen small ones, and two trunk line rail-
roads are almost in sight of the spot.
Fall of Parker's Fort in 1836 — The Killed, Wounded and Cap-
tured — Van Dorn's Victory in 1858 — Recovery of
Cynthia Ann Parker — Quanah Parker,
the Comanche Chief.
In the fall of 1833 the Parker family came
from Cole County, Illinois, to East Texas — one or
two came a little earlier and some a little later.
The elder Parker was a native of Virginia, resided
for a time in Georgia, but chiefly reared his family
in Bedford County, Tennessee, whence, in 1818, he
removed to Illinois. The family, with perhaps one
exception, belonged to one branch of the primitive
Baptist Church, commonly designated as Two Seed
Baptists.
Parker's Fort, or block-house, a mile west of the
Navasota creek and two and a half northwesterly
from the present town of Groesbeck, in Limestone
County, was established in 1834, with accessions
afterwards up to the revolution in the fall of 1835.
At the time of the attack upon it, May 19, 1836, it
was occupied by Elder John Parker, patriarch of
the family, and his wife, his son, James W. Parker,
wife, four single children and his daughter, Mrs.
Rachel Plummer, her husband, L. T. M. Plummer,
and infant son, 15 months old ; Mrs. Sarah Nixon,
another daughter, and her husband, L. D. Nixon ;
Silas M. Parker (another son of Elder John), his
wife and four children ; Benjamin F. Parker, an
unmarried son of the Elder;. Mrs. Nixon, Sr.,
mother of Mrs. James W. Parker ; Mrs. Elizabeth
Kellogg, daughter of Mrs. Nixon ; Mrs. Duty ;
Samuel M. Frost, wife and children ; G. E. Dwight,
wife and children ; David Faulkenberry, his son
Evan, Silas H. Bates and Abram Anglin, a youth|of
nineteen years. The latter four sometimes slept in
the fort and sometimes in their cabins on their farms,
perhaps two miles distant. They, however, were in
the fort on the night of May 18th.
On the morning of May 19th, James W. Parker
and Nixon repaired to their fleld, a mile dis-
tant, on the Navasota. The two Faulkenberrys,
Bates and Anglin went to their fields, a mile
further and a little below. About 9 a. m. several
hundred Indians appeared in the prairie, about
three hundred yards, halted, and hoisted a white
flag. Benjamin F. Parker went over to them, had
a talk and returned, expressing the opinion that the
Indians intended to fight ; but added that he would
40
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
go back and try to avert it. His brother Silas
remonstrated, but be persisted in going, and was
immediately surrounded and killed ; whereupon
the whole force sent forth terrific yells, and charged
upon the works, the occupants numbering but three
men, wholly unprepared for defense. Cries and
confusion reigned. They killed Silas M. Parker on
the outside of the fort, while he was bravely fight-
ing to save Mrs. Plummer. They knocked Mrs.
Pluramer down with a hoe and made her captive.
Elder John Parker, wife and Mrs. Kellogg attempted
to escape, and got about three-fourths of a mile,
when they were overtaken, and driven back near to
the fort, where the old gentleman was stripped,
murdered and scalped. They stripped and speared
Mrs. Parker, leaving her as dead — but she revived,
as will be seen further on. Mrs. Kellogg remained
captive.
When the Indians first appeared, Mrs. Sarah
Nixon hastened to the field to advise her father,
husband and Plummer. Plummer hastened down
to Inform the Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin.
David Faulkenberry was first met and started im-
mediately to the fort. The others followed as
soon as found by Plummer. J. W. Parker and
Nixon started to the fort, but the former met his
family on the way, and took them to the Navasota
bottom. Nixon, though unarmed, continued on to-
ward the fort, and met Mrs. Lucy, wife of the dead
Silas Parker, with her four children, just as she
was overtaken by the Indians. They compelled
her to lift behind two mounted warriors her nine-
3'ear-old daughter, Cynthia Ann, and her little boy,
John. The foot Indians took her and her two
younger children back to the fort, Nixon following.
On arriving, she passed around and Nixon through
the fort. Just as the Indians were about to kill
Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with his rifle,
and caused them to fall back. Nixon then hurried
away to find his wife, and soon overtook Dwight,
with bis own and Frost's family. Dwight met J.
W. Parker and went with him to his hiding-place
in the bottom.
Faulkenberry, thus left with Mrs. Silas Parker
and her two children, bade her follow him. With
the infant in her arms and the other child held by
the hand, she obeyed. The Indians made several
feints, but vrere held in check by the brave man's
rifle. One warrior dashed up so near that Mrs.
Parker's faithful dog siezed his pony by the nose,
whereupon both horse and rider somersaulted,
alighting on their backs in a ditch.
At this time Silas Bates, Abram Anglin and
Evan Faulkenberry, armed, and Plummer, un-
."vrmed, came up. They passed through Silas
Parker's field, when Plummer, as if aroused from
a dream, demanded to know what had become of
his wife and child. Armed only with the butcher
knife of Abram Anglin, he left the party in search
of his wife, and was seen no more for six days.
The Indians made no further assault.
During the assault on the fort, Samuel M. Frost
and his son Robert fell while heroically defending
the women and children inside the stockade.
The result so far was : —
Killed — Elder John Parker, Benjamin F. Parker,
Silas M. Parker, Samuel M. Frost and his son
Robert.
Wounded dangerously — Mrs. John Parker and
Mrs. Duty.
Captured— Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia
Ann and John, children of Silas M. Parker, Mrs.
Rachel Plummer and infant James Pratt Plummer.
The Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin, with Mrs.
Parker and children, secreted themselves in a
small creek bottom. On the way they were met
and joined by Seth Bates, father of Silas, and Mr.
Lunn, also an old man. Whether they had slept
in the fort or in the cabins during the previous
night all accounts fail to say. Elisha Anglin
was the father of Abram, but his whereabouts do
not appear in any of the accounts. At twilight
Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry started
back to the fort. On reaching Elisha Anglin's
cabin, they found old mother Parker covered with
blood and nearly naked. They secreted her and
went on to the fort, where they found no one alive,
but found $106.50 where the old lady had secreted
the money under a book. They returned and
conducted her to those in the bottom, where they
also found Nixon, who had failed to find his wife,
for, as he ought to have known, she was with her
father. On the next morning. Bates, Anglin and
E. Faulkenberry went back to the fort, secured
five horses and provisions and the party in the
bottom were thus enabled to reach Fort Houston
without material suffering. Fort Houston, an
asylum on this as on many other occasions, stood
on what has been for many years the field of a wise
statesman, a chivalrous soldier and an incorruptible
patriot — John H. Reagan — two miles west of
Palestine.
After six days of starvation, with their clothing
torn into shreds, their bodies lacerated with briars
and thorns, the women and children with unshod
and bleeding feet, the party of James W. Parker —
2 men, 19 women and children — reached Tinnin's,
at the old San Antonio and Nacogdoches crossing
of the Navasota. Being informed of their approach,
Messrs. Carter and Courtney, with five horses, met
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
41
them some miles away, and thus enabled the
women and children to ride. The few people
around, though but returned to their deserted
homes after the victory of San Jacinto, shared all
they had of food and clothing with them. Plum-
mer, after six days of wanderings, joined the
party the same day. In due time the members of
the party located temporarily as best suited the
respective families. A party from Fort Houston
went up and buried the dead.
The experienced frontiersman of later da^'s will
be struck with the apparent lack of leadership or
organization among the settlers. Had they existed,
combined with proper signals, there can be little
doubt but that the Indians would have been held
at bay.
THE CAPTIVES,
Mrs. Kellogg fell into the hands of the Keechis,
from whom, six months after her capture, she was
purchased by some Delawares, who carried her
into Nacogdoches and delivered her to Gen. Hous-
ton, who paid them $150.00, the amount they had
paid and all they asked. On the way thence to
Fort Houston, escorted by J. W. Parker and
others, a hostile Indian was slightly wounded and
temporarily disabled by a Mr. Smith. Mrs. Kel-
logg instantly recognized him as the savage who
had scalped the patriarch, Elder John Parker,
whereupon, without judge, jury or court-martial,
or even dallying with Judge Lynch, he was invol-
untarily hastened on to the happy hunting-ground
of his fathers.
Mrs. Rachel Plummer, after a brutal captivity
through th€ agency of some Mexican Santa Fe
traders, was ransomed by a noble-hearted Amer-
ican merchant of that place, Mr. William Donoho.
She was purchased in the Rocky Mountains so far
north of Santa Fe that seventeen days were con-
sumed in reaching that place. She was at once
made a member of her benefactor's family, after
a captivity of one and a half years. She, ere long,
accompanied Mr. and Mrs. Donoho to Independ-
ence, Missouri, and in due time embraced her
brother-in-law, Nixon, and by him was escorted
back to her people. On the 19th of February,
1838, she reached her father's house, exactly
twenty-one months from her capture. She had
never seen her infant son, James P., since soon
after their capture, and knew nothing of his fate.
She wrote, or dictated an account of her sufferings
and observations among the savages, and died on
the 19th of February, 1839. About six months
after her capture she gave birth to a child, but it
was cruelly murdered in her presence. As remark-
able coincidences it may be stated that she was born
on the 19th, married on the 19th, captured on the
19th, released on the 19th, reached Independence
on the 19th, arrived at home on the 19th,
and died on the 19th of the month. Her
child, James Pratt Plummer, was ransomed and
taken to Fort Gibson late in 1842, and reached
home in February, in 1843, in charge of his grand-
father. He became a respected citizen of Ander-
son County. This still left in captivity Cynthia
Ann and John Parker, who, as subsequently
learned, were held by separate bands. John grew
to manhood and became a warrior. In a raid into
Mexico he captured a Mexican girl and made her
his wife. Afterwards he was seized with small-pox.
His tribe fled in dismay, taking his wife and leaving
him alone to die ; but she escaped from them and
returned to nurse him. He recovered and in dis-
gust quit the Indians to go and live with his wife's
people, which he did, and when the civil war broke
out, he joined a Mexican company in the Confed-
erate service. He, however, refused to leave the
soil of Texas and would, under no circumstance,
cross the Sabine into Louisiana. He was still liv-
ing across the Rio Grande a few years ago, but up
to that time had never visited any of his Texas
cousins.
EECOVERY OP CYNTHIA ANN PAKKER.
From May 19th, 1836, to December 18th, 1860,
was twenty-four years and seven months. Add to
this nine years, her age when captured, and, at the
latter date Cynthia Ann Parker was in her thirty-
fourth year. During that quarter of a century no
reliable tidings had ever been received of her.
She had long been given up as dead or irretriev-
ably lost to civilization. As a prelude to her
reclamation, a few other important events may be
narrated.
When, in 1858, Major Earl Van Dorn, United
States dragoons, was about leaving Fort Belknap
on his famous campaign against the hostile tribes,
Lawrence Sullivan Eoss (the Gen. " Sul " Ross,
a household favorite throughout Texas to-day),
then a frontier Texas youth of eighteen, had just
returned for vacation from college. He raised and
took command of 135 friendly Waco, Tehuacano,
Toncahua and Caddo Indians and tendered their
services to Van Dorn, which were gladly accepted.
He was sent in advance to " spy out the land," the
troops and supply trains following. Reaching the
Wichita mountains, Ross sent a confidential Waco
and Tehuacano to the Wichita village, 75 miles east
of the Washita river, hoping to learn where the
42
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
hostile Comanchea were. On approaching he
village these two scouts, to their surprise, found
that Buffalo Hump and his band of Comanches,
against whom Van Dorn's expedition was intended,
were there, trading and gambling with the Wichitas.
The scouts lay concealed till night, then stole two
Comanche horses and hastily rejoined Ross with the
tidings. With some difficulty Ross convinced Van
Dorn of the reliability of the scouts and persuaded
him to deflect his course and make a forced march
for the village. At sunrise, on the first day of
Outober, they struck the village as a whirlwind,
almost annihilating Buffalo Hump and his power-
ful band, capturing horses, tents, equipage and
numerous prisoners, among whom was the white
girl, " Lizzie," never recognized or claimed by
kindred, but adopted, educated and tenderly reared
by Gen. Ross and subsequently married and died
in California. VanDorn was dangerously wounded ;
as was also Ross, by a rifie ball, whose youthful
gallantry was such that every United States officer,
while yet on the battle field, signed a petition to
the President to commission him as an officer in the
regular army, and he soon received from Gen.
Winfield Scott a most complimentary official recog-
nition of his wise and dauntless bearing.
Graduating at college a year later (in 1859), in
1860 and till secession occurred in the beginning
of 18fil, young Ross was kept, more or less, in the
frontier service. In the fall of 1860, under the
commission of Governor Sam Houston, he was
stationed near Fort Belknap, in command of a com-
pany of rangers. Late in November a band of
Comanches raided Parker County, committed serious
depredations and retreated with many horses, creat-
ing great excitement among the sparsely settled
inhabitants. Ross, in command of a party of his
own men, a sergeant and twenty United States
cavalry, placed at his service by Capt. N. G.
Evans, commanding at Camp Cooper, and seventy
citizens from Palo Pinto County, under Capt. Jack
Curington, followed the marauders a few days
later. Early on the 18th of December near some
cedar mountains, on the head waters of Pease
river, they suddenly came upon an Indian village,
which the occupants, with their horses already
packed, were about leaving. Curington's company
was several miles behind, and twenty of the rangers
were on foot, leading their broken-down horses,
the only food for them for several days having been
the bark and sprigs of young cottonwoods. With
the dragoons and only twenty of his own men,
seeing that he was undiscovered, Ross charged the
camp, completely surprising the Indians. In less
than half an hour he had complete possession of the
camp, their supplies and 350 horses, besides killing
many. Two Indians, mounted, attempted to escape
to the mountains, about six miles distant. Lieut.
Thomas Killiher pursued one ; Ross and Lieut.
Somerville followed the other. Somerville's heavy
weight soon caused his horse to fail, and Ross pur-
sued alone till, in about two miles, he came up with
Mohee, chief of the band. After a short combat,
Ross triumphed in the death of his adversary,
securing his lance, shield, quiver and head-dress,
all of which remain to the present time among
similar trophies in the State collection at Austin.
Very soon Lieut. Killiher joined him in charge of
the Indian he had followed, who proved to be a
woman, with her girl child, about two and a halt
years old. On the way back a Comanche boy was
picked up by Lieut. Sublett. Ross took charge of
him, and he grew up at Waco, bearing the name of
Pease, suggested doubtless by the locality of his
capture.
It soon became evident that the captured woman
was an American, and through a Mexican interpre-
ter it became equally certain that she had been cap-
tured in childhood — that her husband had been
killed in the fight, and that she had two little boys
elsewhere among the band to which siie belonged.
Ross, from all the facts, suspected that she might
be one of the long missing Parker children, and on
reaching the settlements, sent for the venerable
Isaac Parker, of Tarrant County, son and brother
respectively of those killed at the Fort in 1836.
On his arrival it was soon made manifest that the
captured woman was Cynthia Ann Parker, as per-
fectly an Indian in habit as if she had been so born.
She recognized her name when distinctly pro-
nounced by her uncle ; otherwise she knew not an
English word. She sought every opportunity to
escape, and had to be closely watched for some
time. Her uncle brought herself and child into
his home — then took them to Austin, where the
secession convention was in session. Mrs. John
Henry Brown and Mrs. N. C. Raymond interested
themselves in her, dressed her neatly, and on one
occasion took her into the gallery of the hall while
the convention was in session. They soon realized
that she was greatly alarmed by the belief that the
assemblage was a council of chiefs, sitting in judg-
ment on her life. Mrs. Brown beckoned to her
husband, who was a member of the convention, who
appeared and succeeded in reassuring her that she
was among friends.
Gradually her mother tongue came back, and
with it occasional incidents of her childhood, includ-
ing a recognition of the venerable Mr. Anglin and
perhaps one or two others. She proved to be a
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
43
sensible and comely woman, and died at her
, brother's in Anderson County, in 1870, preceded a
short time by her sprightly little daughter, "Prairie
Flower."
One of the little sons of Cynthia Ann died some
years later. The other, now known as Capt.
Quanah Parker, born, as he informed me, at Wich-
ita Falls, in 1854, is a popular and trustworthy
chief of the Comanches, on their reservation in the
Indian Territory. He speaks English, is consider-
ably advanced in civilization, and owns a ranch
with considerable live stock and a small farm —
withal a fine looking and dignified son of the
plains.
Thus ended the sad story begun May 19th, 1836.
Various detached accounts have been given of it.
Some years ago I wrote it up from the best data at
command. Since then I have used every effort to
get more complete details from those best informed,
and am persuaded that this narrative states cor-
rectly every material fact connected with it.
Note. Eider Daniel Parker, a man of strong
mental powers, a son of Elder John, does not figure
in these events. He signed the Declaration of In-
dependence in 1836, and preached to his people till
his death in Anderson County, in 1845. Ex-Kep-
resentative Ben. F. Parker is his son and successor
in preaching at the same place. Isaac Parker,
before named, another son, long represented Hous-
ton and Anderson Counties in the Senate and
House, and in 1855 represented Tarrant County.
He died in 1884, not far from eighty-eight years of
age. Isaac D. Parker of Tarrant is his son.
The Break-up in Bell County in 1836 — Death of Davidson and
Crouch — The Childers Family — Orville T. Tyler —
Walker, Monroe, Smith, Etc.— 1836.
When the invasion of Santa Anna occurred, from
January to April, 1836, there were a few newly
located settlers on Little river, now in Bell County.
They retreated east, as did the entire population wesfc
of the Trinity. Some of these settlers went into the
army till after the victory at San Jacinto on the
21st of April. Some of them, immediately after
that triumph, with the family of Gouldsby Childers,
returned to their deserted homes. During the pre-
vious winter each head of a family and one or two
single men had cleared about four acres of ground
on his own land and had planted corn before the
retreat. To cultivate this corn and thus have bread
was the immediate incentive to an early return.
Gouldsby Childers had his, cabin and little field on
his own league on Little river. Robert Davidson's
cabin and league were a little above on the river,
both being on the north side. Orville T. Tyler's
league, cabin and cornfield were on the west side
of the Leon in the three forks of Little river, its
limits extending to within a mile of the present
town of Belton. Wm. Taylor's league was oppo-
site that of Tyler, but his cornfield was on the
other land. At this time Henry Walker, Mr. Mon-
roe, and James (Camel Back) Smith had also
returned to their abandoned homes, in the edge of
the prairie, about eight miles east of the present
town of Cameron, in Milam County, their cabins
being only about a hundred yards apart. This
was the same James Smith who, in October, 1838,
escaped, so severely wounded, from the Surveyor's
Fight, in sight of the present town of Dawson, in
Navarro County, as narrated in the chapter on that
subject.
Nashville, on the Brazos, near the mouth of
Little river, was then the nearest settlement and
refuge to these people, and the families of those
who returned to cultivate their corn in the new
settlement, remained in that now extinct village.
The massacre at Parker's Fort on the Navasota,
occurred on the 19th of May. In the month of
June, but on what day of the month cannot be
stated, two young men named John Beal and Jack
Hopson, arrived as messengers from Nashville to
advise these people of their great peril, as large
bodies of hostile Indians were known to be maraud-
ing in the country. On receipt of this intelli-
gence immediate preparations were made to retreat
in a body to Nashville. Their only vehicle was a
wagon to be drawn by a single pair of oxen. They
had a few horses but not enough to mount the
whole party. The entire party consisted of Capt.
Gouldsby Childers, his wife, sons, Robert (now
living at Temple), Frank (17 years of age, and
44
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
killed In Erath's fight with the Indians, on Big Elm,
in the same section, in January, 1837), William
and Prior Childers, small boys ; his two grown
daughters, Katherine (afterwards Mrs. E. Lawrence
Stickney); Amanda (afterwards Mrs. John E.
Craddock, and still living in Bell County); and
Caroline, eight years old (now the widow of Orville
T. Tyler and the mother of George W. Tyler, liv-
ing in Belton), the whole family consisting of nine
souls — also an old man named Rhoads, living with
the Childers family, Shackleford, Orville T.
Tyler, Parson Crouch and Robert Davidson (whose
families were in Nashville), Ezekiel Roberson and
the two messengers, John Beal and Jack Hopson —
total souls, seventeen, of whom eleven were able
to bear arms, though Mr. Rhoads was old and
infirm.
On the evening of the first day they arrived and
encamped at the house of Henry Walker, where
the farailies of Monroe and Smith had already
taken refuge. It was expected that these three
families would join them in the march next morn-
ing; but they were not ready, and the original
party, when morning came, moved on. When two
or three miles southeast of Walker's house, on the
road to Nashville, via Smith's crossing of Little
river, Davidson and Crouch being about three hun-
dred, and Capt. Childers about one hundred yards
ahead and two or three men perhaps two hundred
yards behind, driving a few cattle, the latter discov-
ered about two hundred mounted warriors advanc-
ing from the rear at full speed. They gave the
alarm and rushed forward to the wagon. Capt.
Childers, yelling to Crouch and Davidson, hastened
back. They reached the wagon barely in time to
present a bold front to the advancing savages and
cause them to change their charge into an encircle-
ment of the apparently doomed party ; but in
accomplishing this purpose the enemy discovered
Messrs. Crouch and Davidson seeking to rejoin
their companions. This diverted their attention
from the main party to the two unfortunate gentle-
men, who, seeing the impossibility of their attempt,
endeavored to escape by flight, but being poorly
mounted, were speedily surrounded, killed and
scalped. Then followed great excitement among
the Indians, apparently quarreling over the dispo-
sition of the scalps and effects of the two gentle-
men. This enabled the main party to reach a
grove of timber about four hundred yards distant,
where they turned the oxen loose, and only sought
to save their lives. At this critical crisis and just
as the savages were returning to renew the attack,
Beal and Hopson, who had won the friendship of
all by coming as messengers, and by their conduct
up to that moment, made their escape from what
seemed certain death.
For a little while the Indians galloped around
them, j'elling, firing and by every artifice seeking
to draw a fire from the little band ; but they pre-
sented a bold front and fired not a gun. Shackle-
ford could speak the Indian tongue and challenged
them to charge and come to close quarters, but the
Indians evidently believed they had pistols and
extra arras in the wagons and failed to approach
nearer than a hundred yards and soon withdrew.
In close order, the besieged retreated changing
their route to the raft, four or five miles distant,
on Little river, on which they crossed, swimming
their horses. Carolina Childers, tiie child of eight,
rode behind her future husband, Orville T. Tyler,
who had a lame foot and was compelled to ride,
while others, for want of horses, were compelled to
travel on foot. They doubted not the attack would
be renewed at some more favorable spot, but it
was not. Thus they traveled till night and
encamped. They reached Nashville late next day.
During the next day Smith, Monroe and Walker,
with their families, arrived. Immediately on leav-
ing the former party the Inilians had attacked the
three families in Walker's house and kept up a fire
all day without wounding either of the defenders,
who fired deliberately through port-holes whenever
opportunity appeared. While not assured of kill-
ing a single Indian, they were perfectly certain of
having wounded a considerable number. As night
came on, the Indians retired, and as soon as satis-
fied of their departure, the three families left for
Nashville, and arrived without further molestation.
Note. Robert Davidson was a man of intelli-
gence and merit, and was the father of Wilson T.
Davidson and Mrs. Harvey Smith of Belton, Mrs.
Francis T. Duffau of Austin, and Justus Davidson
of Galveston, all of whom have so lived in the
intervening fifty-one years as to reflect honor on
their slaughtered father. Of the family of Mr.
Crouch I have no knowledge. Mrs. Stickney died
in Coryell County, December 24, 1880. Prior
Childers died in Falls County in 1867 or 1868.
William Childers died in tlie Confederate army in
1864, having served from the beginning of the
war.
0. T. Tyler was born in Massachusetts, August
28, 1810; landed in Texas in February, 1885;
married Caroline Childers in 1850; was the first
chief- justice of Coryell County, and filled various
other public stations; and full of years and the
honors of a well-spent life, died at his elegant home
in Belton, April 17th, 1886. His son. Senator
George W. Tyler, of Belton, was the first white
child born in Coryell County.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
45
The Murder of the Douglas and Dougherty Families — 1836.
The month of March, 1836, ranks overwhelmingly
as the bloodiest and yet, in one respect, the brightest
in the annals of Texas. On the second day of that
month, at Washington on the Brazos, the chosen
delegates of the people, fifty-two being present,
unanimously declared Texas to be a free, sovereign
and independent Republic, according to Gen. Sam
Houston, their most distinguished colleague, the
opportunity of subscribing his name to the solemn
declaration, the second of its kind in the history of
the human family, on his birthday, an event not
dreamed of by his noble mother when in Rockbridge
County, Virginia, on the second day of March, 1793,
she first clasped him to her bosom. On the 4th of
March, Gen. Houston was elected commander-in-
chief of the armies of the Republic, as he had been
in the previous November of the armies of the Pro-
visional, or inchoate, government. On the 11th,
Henry Smith, the Provisional Governor, one of the
grandest characters adorning the history of Texas
and to whom more than to any one man, the cause
of Independence was indebted for its triumph, sur-
rendered his functions to the representatives of the
people. On the 2d, Dr. Grant and his party,
beyond the Nueces, were slaughtered by Urrea's dra-
goons, one man only escaping massacre, to be held
long in Mexican dungeons and then escape, to
survive at least fifty-five years, with the fervent hope
by hosts of friends that he may yet be spared many
years to see a commercial city arise where he has
resided for over half a century. The veteran
gentleman referred to is Col. Reuben R. Brown, of
Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos. On the 6lh
the Alamo and its 182 defenders went down to
immortality under the oft-repulsed but surging
columns of Santa Anna. On the 19th Fannin
capitulated to Urrea on the plains of Coleto. On
the 27th he and his followers, to the number of
about 480, were massacred in cold blood, under the
specific orders of that arch traitor and apostate to
liberty, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, whose life,
twenty-four days later, when a prisoner in their
hands, was spared through a magnanimity unsur-
passed in the world's history, by the lion-hearted
defenders of a people then and ever since, by prej-
udiced fanatics and superficial scribblers, charac-
terized as largely composed of outlaws and quasi-
barbarians, instead of being representatives, as they
were, of the highest type of American chivalry,
American civilization and American liberty.
While these grand events were transpiring, the
American settlers on the Guadalupe, the Lavaca
and farther east were removing their families east-
wardly, flying from the legions of Santa Anna as
from wild beasts. Many had no vehicles and used
horses, oxen, sleds or whatever could be improvised
to transport the women, children, bedding and food.
Among those thus situated were two isolated
families, living on Douglas' or Clark's creek, about
twelve miles southwest of Hallettsville, in Lavaca
County. These were John Douglas, wife and
children, and Dougherty, a widower, with
three children. The parents were natives of
Ireland, but had lived and probably married in
Cambria County, Pennsylvania, where their children
were born and from which they came to Texas in
1832. They were worthy and useful citizens, and
lived together. The}' prepared sleds on which to
transport their effects, but when these were com-
pleted the few people in that section had already
left for the east. On the morning of the 4th of
March Augustine Douglas, aged fifteen, and Thad-
eus Douglas, aged thirteen, were sent out by their
father to find and bring in the oxen designed to
draw the sleds. Returning in the afternoon, at a
short distance from home, they saw that the cabins
were on fire, and heard such screams and war
whoops as to admonish them that their parents and
kindred were being butchered ; but they were
unarmed and powerless and realized that to save
their own lives they must seek a hiding-place.
This they found in a thicket near by, and there
remained concealed till night. When dark came
they cautiously approached the smoldering ruins
and found that the savages had left. A brief
examination revealed to them the dead and scalped
bodies of their father, mother, sister and little
brother and of Mr. Dougherty, one son and two
daughters, lying naked in the yard — eight souls
thus brutally snatched from earth. Imagination,
especially when assured that those two boys were
noted for gentle and affectionate natures, as per-
sonally known to the writer for a number of years,
may depict the forlorn anguish piercing their young
hearts. It was a scene over which angels weep.
There were scarcely anything more than paths,
and few of them, through that section. Augustine
had some idea as to courses, and speedily deter-
mined on a policy. With his little brother he pro-
ceeded to the little settlement in the vicinity of
46
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
where Halleltsville is, but found that every one had
retreated. The3' then followed the Lavaca down
about thirty-five miles to where their older sister,
the wife of Capt. John McHenry, and a few others
lived — but found that all had been gone some
time. They then took the old Atascosita road
from Goliad which crossed the Colorado a few
miles below where Columbia is. Near the Colo-
rado, almost starved to death, they fell in with
some Mexican scouts and were conducted to the
camp of the Mexican general, Adrian Woll, a
Frenchman, who could speak English and to whom
they narrated their sad story. Woll received them
kindly and had all needful care taken of them. In
a few days the boys were taken by a Frenchman
named Auguste, a traitor to Texas, to his place on
Cummins' creek, where he had collected a lot of
negroes and a great many cattle belonging to the
retreating citizens, from which he was supplying
Gen. Woll with beef at enormous prices. The 21st
of April passed and San Jacinto was won. Very
soon the Mexicans began preparations for retreat.
Auguste, mounting Augustine Douglas on a fine
horse, sent him down to learn when Woll could
start. In the meantime a party of Texians, headed
by Alison York, who had heard of Auguste' s
thieving den, hurried forward to chastise him before
he could leave the country with his booty. He
punished them severely, all who could fleeing into
the bottom and thence to WoU's catap. When
York's party opened fire, little Thadeus Douglas,
not understanding the cause, fled down the road
and in about a mile met his brother returning from
WoU's camp on Auguste's fine horse. With equal
prudence and financial skill they determined to save
both themselves and the horse. Thadeus mount-
ing behind, they started at double quick for the
Brazos. They had not traveled many miles, how-
ever, when they met the gallant Capt. Henry W.
Karnes, atthe head of some cavalry, from whom they
learned for the first time, of the victory of San
Jacinto, and that they yet would see their only sur-
viving sister and brother-in-law, Capt. and Mrs.
McHenry. In writing of this incident in De Bow's
Review of December, 18.53, eighteen years after
its occurrence, I used this language: —
"These boys, thus rendered objects of sym-
pathy, formed a link in the legends of the old
Texians, and still reside on the Lavaca, much re-
spected for their courage and moral deportment."
It is a still greater pleasure to say now that they
ever after bore honorable characters. One of the
brothers died some years ago, and the other in
1889. The noble old patriot in three revolu-
tions — Mexico in 1820, South America in 1822,
and Texas in 1835 — preceded by gallant conduct
at New Orleans in 1815, when only sixteen years
old — the honest, brave and ever true son of Erin's
isle, Capt. John McHenry, died in 1885, leaving
a memory sweetly embalmed in many thousand
hearts.
Erath's Fight, January 7, 1837.
Among the brave and useful men on the Brazos
frontier from 1835 till that frontier receded far up
the river, conspicuously appears the name of the
venerable Capt. George B. Erath. He was born in
Austria. His first services were in Col. John H.
Moore's expedition for the relief of Capt. Robert
M. Coleman, to the Tehuacano Hill country, in
July, 1835. Though green from the land of the
Hapsburgs, he won a character for daring courage
in his first engagement, leading in the charge and
gaining the soubriquet of " The Flying Dutchman."
His second experience wns on the field of San Ja-
linto, April 21, 1836. In the summer of that year
he located at Nashville, at the falls of the Brazos,
and over after resided in that vicinity and McLen-
nan county. As surveyor and ranger for ten years
or more he had many adventures and was in many
skirmishes and engagements with the Indians. He
served in the Congress of the Republic, and after-
wards in the one or the other house of the Legisla-
ture, at intervals, till 18G5.
His third engagement as a soldier occurred on
the 7th of January, 18;i7, on Elm creek, in
Milam County. At that time Lieut. Curtis com-
manded a small company of illy equipped rangers
at a little fort at the three forks of Little river, in
Bell County, subsislin-^ chiefly on wild meat and
honey. Erath, as a lieutenant, was first there and
erected several cabins, but on the arrivul of Curtis
he became the ranking ollicer.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
47
A man arriving at the fort reported a fresh
" foot " Indian trail twelve miles east and bearing
towards the settlements below. It was agreed that
Erath should pursue them. He started on the
morning of the 6th with thirteen men and boys,
nearly half being on foot. Three of the number
were volunteers for the trip, and eleven were sol-
diers, viz. : Lishley (a stranger), Robert Childers
(now living at Temple) and Frank Childers, his
boy-brother, volunteers ; the soldiers were Lieut.
Erath, Sergt. McLocblan, Lee R. Davis, David
Clark, Empson Thompson, Jack Gross, Jack
Houston, and four boys, viz. : Lewis Moore,
Morris Moore, John Folks and Green McCoy,
a boy from Gonzales. They traveled twenty-
three miles east, striking the trail and finding that it
was made by about a hundred Indians on foot. Af
night they heard the Indians, who were encamped
in the bottom, on the bank of Elm creek, eight
miles west of the present town of Cameron, in
Milam County. They remained quiet till nearly day-
light, then, after securing their horses, cautiously
approached along ravines and the bed of the creek
till they secured a position under the bank within
twenty-five yards of the yet unsuspecting savages,
who very soon began to move about and kindle
their flres. When it was sufficiently light each man
and boy took deliberate aim and about ten Indians
tumbled over. With revolvers (then unknown),
they could easily have routed the whole band. But
each one had to reload by the old process. During
the interval the Indians seized their guns, there not
being a bow among them, and, realizing the small
number of their assailants, jumped behind trees
and fought furiously. Some of them entered the
creek below to enfilade Erath's position, and this
compelled a retreat to the opposite bank, in accom-
plishing which David Clark was killed and Frank
Childers wounded. Erath continued to retreat by
alternation, one half of the men covering the retreat
of the other half for thirty or forty yards at a time,
so that half of the guns were alternately loaded and
flred. The bottom favored this plan till they
reached their horses at the edge of the prairie. On
the way, Frank Childers, finding his life ebbing,
reached a secluded spot on one side, sat down
by a tree against which his gun rested, and there
expired, but was not discovered by the enemy,
who, instead of continuing the fight, returned to
their camp and began a dismal howl over their
own dead.
There were numerous narrow escapes, balls cut-
ting the clothes of nearly every man. One broke
McLochlan's ramrod, another the lock of his gun,
a third bursted his powder horn, a fourth passed
through his coat and a fifth through the handker-
chief worn as a turban on his head. At- that time
the families of Neil McLennan and his sons-in-law
were living eight miles distant. The men were ab-
sent, and, but for this attack of the bold " Flying
Dutchman," the women and children would have
fallen easy victims to the savages. A month later
one of McLennan's young negroes was carried into
captivity by them. David Clark was past middle
age and was a son of Capt. Christopher Clark, of
near Troy, Lincoln County, Missouri, known to the
writer of these sketches from his infancy. Green
McCoy was a maternal nephew of Clark and a
paternal nephew of Jesse McCoy, who fell in the
Alamo. The Childers brothers were maternal
uncles of George W. Tyler, the first child born (in
1854) in Coryell County. Capt. Erath, Robert
Childers and Lewis Moore, of McLennan County,
are the only survivors of this episode of nearly
fifty-two years ago. Of the whole party, men and
boys, every one through life bore a good character.
They were in truth of the " salt of the earth " and
" pillars of strength " on the frontier.
The Surveyors' Fight in Navarro County, in October, 1838.
At this date the long since abandoned village of
" Old " Franklin, situated in the post oaks between
where Bryan and Calvert now stand, was the
extreme outside settlement, omitting a few families
in the Brazos valley, in the vicinity of Marlin, and
was the county seat of the original Robertson
County, with its immense unsettled territory.
including the west half of Dallas County and terri-
tory north and west of it. It was a rendezvous
for both surveying parties and volunteers on expe-
ditions against the Indians. Its male population
was much larger than the female, and embraced a
number of men of more or less note for intelligence
and courage. Among these were Dr. George W.
48
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Hill, long a senator and once in President Houston's
Cabinet, for whom Hill County was named : Capt.
Eli Chandler, a brave frontiersman; E. L. R
Wheelock, Cavitt Armstrong, the father of the
Cavitt family of later times, and others.
There was a great desire on the part of both dis-
charged soldiers and other citizens who had just re-
ceived bounty and head-right certificates for land to
have them located and the land surveyed. In the
early summer of 1838, near Richlandcreek, twelve or
fourteen miles southerly from Corsicana, three men
belonging to a surveying party were surprised and
killed. Their names were Barry, Holland, and
William F. Sparks, a land locator from Nacog-
doches. The remainder of the party, too weak for
defense against the number of the savages, cau-
tiously and successfully eluded them and returned
home.
Early in October of the same year William F.
Henderson, for many years since an estimable
citizen of Corsicana, fitted out a surveying party
to locate lands in what is now the southwest por-
tion of Navarro County. He and his assistant each
had a compass. The entire party consisted of
twenty-four men and one boy, and was under the
command of Capt. Neill.
The party arrived on the field of their labors and
encamped at a spring or water hole about two mile
northwest of what after that expedition was and
ever since has been known as Battle creek.
Here they met with a large body of Indians,
chiefly Kickapoos, but embracing some of several
tribes, who were encamped in the vicinity, killing
buffalo. They professed friendship, but mani-
fested decided opposition to having the lands sur-
veyed, assuring the party that if they persisted
the Comanches and lonies would kill them. But it
was believed their design was only to frighten
them away. After a day or two a trial of the
compasses was made, when it was found one of
the needles had lost its magnetism and would not
work. William M. Love, afterward a well-known
citizen of Navarro County, and a Mr. Jackson were
sent back to Franklin for a magnet to recharge
the needle, thus reducing the party to twenty-
three. Early on the following morning Henderson
ran a line for a mile or so, more or less Indians
following and intently watching the manipulation
of the compass, one of them remarking: "It is
God's eye." The party, after a satisfactory trial,
returned to camp for breakfast, and after that was
over, returned to, and were about resuming their
work, when from a ravine, about forty yards dis-
tant, they were fired upon by about fifty Indians.
The men, led by Capt. Neill, at once charged upon
them, but in doing so, discovered about a hundred
warriors rushing to aid those in the ravine from
the timber behind them. At the same time about
the same number of mounted Indians charged
them from the prairie in their rear. Neill retreated
under heavy fire to the head of a branch in the
prairie with banks four or five feet high. There
was some brush and a few trees ; but seventy-five
yards below them was another cluster, of which
the enemy took possession. This was between 9
and 10 o'clock a. m., and there the besieged were
held under a fluctuating fire until midnight.
Every one who exposed himself to view was killed
or wounded. Euclid M. Cox for an hour stood
behind a lone tree on the bank doing much execu-
tion, but was finally shot through the spine, upon
which Walter P. Lane, afterwards a distinguished
Brigadier-general in the Confederate army, jumped
upon the bank and dragged him into the ravine,
in which he died soon afterwards. A man named
Davis, from San Augustine, having a fine horse,
attempted to escape through the line of Indians
strung in a circle around the little band, but he
was killed in sight of his comrades. A band of
mounted Indians, not participating in the fight,
collected on an elevation just out of gunshot, and
repeatedly called out, " Come to Kickapool Kick-
apoo good Indian! " and by gesticulations mani-
fested friendship, in which our men placed no
possible confidence ; but among them was Mr.
Spikes, a feeble old man of eighty-two years, who
said his days were few at best, and as he could not
see to shoot he would test their sincerity. He
mounted and rode up to them and was mercilessly
butchered. Night brought no relief or cessation
of the attack, and a number of our men were dead
in the ravine. The moon shone brightly until
midnight. But when it sank below the horizon,
the survivors determined to make an effort to reach
the timber on a brushy branch leading into a creek
heavily covered with thickets and trees, and dis-
tant hardly half a mile. Three horses yet lived,
and on these the wounded were placed, and the
fiery ordeal began. The enemy pressed on the
rear and both flanks. The wounded were speedily
shot from their horses. Capt. Neill was wounded
and immediately lifted on one of the horses, but
both fell an instant later. A hundred yards from
the brush Walter P. Lane was shot in the leg,
below the knee, shattering, but not breaking the
bone. He entered the brush with Henderson and
Burton. Mr. William Smith entered at another
place alone, and Mr. Violet at still a different
place, terribly wounded, and at the same instant
another man escaped in like manner. Once under
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
49
cover, in the dark, each lone man, and the group
of three, felt the necessity of perfect silence.
Each stealthily and cautiously moved as he or they
thought best, and the fate of neither became
known to the other until all had reached the settle-
ments. Smith, severely wounded, traveled by
night and lay secreted by day till he reached the
settlements on the Brazos, distant over forty miles.
The unnamed man, slightly wounded, escaped
eastwardly and succeeded, after much suffering,
in reaching the settlements. Henderson, Lane
and Burton found lodgment in a deep ravine lead-
ing to the creek. Lane became so weak from the
loss of blood that Henderson tore up his shirt to
stanch and bandage the wound, and succeeded in
the effort. Passing down some distance, they
heard the Indians in pursuit, and ascended the
bank and lay in brush with their guns cocked.
The pursuers passed within three or four feet but
failed to discover them. About an hour before
day they reached the creek and traveled down to
a muddy pool of water. On a log they crawled
onto a little island densely matted with brush,
under which they lay concealed all day. They
repeatedly heard the Indians, but remained undis-
covered. When night came as an angel of mercy,
throwing its mantle over them, they emerged from
their hiding place ; but when Lane rose up, the
agony from his splintered leg was so great that he
swooned. On recovering consciousness he found
that Burton, probably considering his condition
hopeless, was urging Henderson to abandon
him ; but that great-hearted son of Tennessee
spurned the suggestion. The idea inspired Lane
with indignation and the courage of desperation.
In words more emphatic than mild he told Burton
to go, and declared for himself that he could, and
with the help of God and William F. Henderson,
would make the trip. By the zigzag route they
traveled it was about thirty miles to Tehuacano
springs. They traveled, as a matter of course,
very slowly, and chiefly by night. Lane hobbling
on one leg, supported by Henderson. For two
days and nights after leaving their covert they had
neither food nor drink. Their sufferings were
great and their clothing torn into rags. On the
third day, being the fourth from their first assault
by the enemy, they reached the springs named,
where three Kickapoos were found with their
families. At first they appeared distant and sus-
picious, and demanded of them where and how they
came to be in such condition. Henderson
promptly answered that their party, from which
they had become separated, had been attacked by
Comanches and lonies, and that they, in their dis-
tress, had been hoping to fall in with some friendly
Kickapoos. This diplomacy, however remote from
the truth, had the desired effect. One of the red
men thereupon lighted his pipe, took a few whiffs,
and passed it to Henderson, saying, " Smoke!
Kickapoo good Indian!" All smoked. Provis-
ions were offered, and the women bathed, dressed
and bandaged Lane's leg. Henderson then offered
his rifle to one of them if he would allow Lane to
ride his horse into Franklin. After some hesita-
tion he assented, and they started on; but during
the next day, below Parker's abandoned fort,
hearing a gunshot not far off (which proved to
belong to another party of Kickapoos, but were
not seen), the Indian became uneasy and left
them, taking both his pony and the rifle. It should
be stated that Lane's gun had been left where they
began their march, at the little island, simply
because of his inability to carry it ; hence Bur-
ton's gun was now their last remaining weapon.
But now, after the departure of the Indian, they
were gladdened by meeting Love and Jackson,
returning with the magnet, ignorant, of course, of
the terrible calamity that had fallen upon their
comrades. Lane was mounted on one of their
horses, and they hurried on to Franklin, arriving
there without further adventure.
A party was speedily organized at Franklin to
go to the scene and bury the dead. On their way
out at Tehuacano springs, by the merest accident,
they came upon Mr. Violet in a most pitiable and
perishing condition. His thigh had been "broken,
and for six days, without food or water, excepting
uncooked grasshoppers, he had crawled on his
hands and knees, over grass and rocks and through
brush, about twenty-five miles, in an air line, but
much more, in fact, by his serpentine wanderings
in a section with which he was unacquainted. His
arrival at the springs was a providential interposi-
tion, but for which, acconapanied by that of the
relief party, his doom would have been speedy and
inevitable. Two men were detailed to escort him
back to Franklin, to friends, to gentle nursing, and
finally to restoration of heallh, all of which were
repaid by his conduct as a good citizen in after
life.
The company continued on to the battle-ground,
collected and buried the remains of the seventeen
victims of savage fury, near a lone tree.
It mav well be conceived that heroic courage and
action were displayed by this little party of twent}'-
three, encircled by at least three hundred Indians —
not wild Comanches with bows and arrows, but the
far more formidable Kickapoos and kindred asso-
ciates, armed with rifles. It was ascertained after-
50
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
wards that they had sustained a loss in liilled equal
to double the number of the Texians, besides many
wounded. It was believed that Euclid M. Cos,
before receiving his death wound, killed eight or
ten.
The Surveyors' Fight ranks, in stubborn courage
and carnage, with the bloodiest in our history —
with Bowie's San Saba fight in 1831, Bird's victory
and death in Bell County in 1839, and Hays'
mountain fight in 1844, and others illustrating sim-
ilar courage and destructiveness.
THE SLAIN.
Of the twenty-three men in the fight seventeen
were killed, viz. : Euclid M. Cox, Thomas Barton,
Samuel Allen, — Ingraham, — Davis, J. Hard,
Asa T. Mitchell, J. Neal or Neill, William Tremier,
— Spikes, J. Bullock, N. Barker, A. Houston, P.
M. Jones, James Jones, David Clark, and one
whose name is not remembered.
Those who escaped were William F. Henderson,
Walter P. Lane, wounded as described, and Bur-
ton, who escaped together; Violet, wounded as de-
scribed ; William Smith, severely wounded in the
shoulder; and the man slightly wounded, who
escaped towards the east — 6. Messrs. Love and
Jackson, though not in the fight, justly deserve to
be classed with the party, as they were on hazard-
ous duty and performed it well, besides relieving
Lane and then participating in the interment of the
•dead. •
In the year 1885, John P. and Rev. Fred Cox,
sons. of Euclid, at their own cost, erected, under
the shadow of that lone tree, a handsome and beflt-
-ting monument, on which is carved the names of
.all who were slain and all who escaped, excepting
that one of each class whose names are missing.
The tree and monument, inclosed by a neat fence,
one mile west of Dawson, Narvarro County, are in
plain view of the Texas and St. Louis railroad.
Note. This William Smith, prior to this dis-
astrous contest, but at what precise date cannot be
stated, but believed to have been in the winter of
1837-8, lived in the Brazos bottom. The Indians
became so bad that he determined to move, and
for that purpose placed his effects in his wagon in
his yard, but before starting his house was at-
tacked. He barred his door and through cracks
between the logs fired whenever he could, nearly
always striking an Indian, but all his reserve
ammunition had been placed in the wagon and the
supply in his pouch was nearly exhausted, when
Mrs. Smith opened the door, rushed to the wagon,
secured the powder and lead and rushed back.
Balis and arrows whizzed all about her but she
escaped with slight wounds and immediately began
moulding bullets. She thought not of herself but
of her little children. Honored forever be the
pioneer mothers of Texas and thrice honored be
such as Mrs. Smith. It was my pleasure after-
wards, personally, to know her and some of her
children, and to serve on the Southwestern frontier
with her fearless husband, an honest Christian
man. One of their sons was the late Prof. Smith
of Salado College, a son worthy of such parents.
Mr. Smith crippled so many of his assailants that
thoy retired, leaving him master of the situation,
when he removed farther into the settlements.
There is one fact in connection with this affair
that, as a Texian, I blush to state. There was an
able-bodied man in Mr. Smith's house all the time
who slunk away as the veriest craven, taking
refuge under the bed, while the heroic father and
mother "fought the good fight and kept the
faith." I have not his name and if it were known
to me would not publish it, as it may be borne by
others of heroic hearts, and injustice might be
done ; besides, the subsequent life of that man must
have been a continuing torture.
Karnes' Fight on the Arroyo Seco, August 10, 1838.
From the beginning of 1837, lo his death in
August, 1840, Henry W. Karnes, a citizen of San
Antonio, stood as a pillar of strength and wall of
defense to the Southwestern frontier. He was ever
ready to meet danger, and often commanded small
bodies of volunteers in search or pursuit of hostile
Indians. He had numerous skirmishes and minor
encounters with them and was almost invariably
successful.
In the summer of 1838, in command of twenty-
one fearless volunteers, while halting on the Arroyo
Seco, west of the Medina, and on the 10th day of
August, he was suddenly and furiously assailed by
two hundred mounted Comanches ; but, ever alert
and prepared for danger, in the twinkling of an eye
his horses were secured and his men stationed in
their front, somewhat protected by a ravine and
chaparral, and fired in alternate platoons, by which
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
51
-one-third of their guns were always loaded to meet
the attack at close quarters. Their aim was deadly
and warriors were rapidly tumbled to the ground.
Yet, knowing they were ten to one against the
Texians, the Comanches were not willing to give up
the contest till over twenty of their number lay
dead, and doubtless as many more were wounded.
■Col. Karnes, in his intense and unselfish desire to
both save and encourage his men, greatly exposed
himself and was severely wounded, this being the
only casualty to his party, though nearly all his
horses were more or less wounded. It was a gal-
lant and successful defense against immense odds,
.and served to cement more closely the already
strong ties that bound the modest but ever faithful
and fearless Karnes to the hearts of the people of
San Antonio and the whole Southwest. Living,
fighting and dying in the country without family or
kindred ; leaving no trace on paper indicating his
long and faithful service ; largely winning achieve-
ments of which neither oflScial nor private record
was kept ; though personally having had very slight
acquaintance with him, it has ever been to the writer
a sincere pleasure to rescue from oblivion his many
gallant deeds, and place his memory where it right-
fully belongs in the galaxy composed of the truest,
best, most unselfish and bravest men who wrought
for Texas at any time between 1821 and 1846.
The Captivity of the Putman and Lockhart Children in 1838.
In the summer of 1837, succeeding the great
-exodus of 1836, Mr. Andrew Lockhart returned to
his frontier home on the west side of the Guad-
alupe, and nearly opposite the present consider-
able town of Cuero, in DeWitt County. He was
accompanied, or soon joined, by Mitchell Putman,
with his wife and several children. Mr. Putman
was a man of good character, and had been honor-
ably discharged from the army after having served
a full term and being in the battle of San Jacinto.
The two families temporarily lived in the same
yard.
When the pecans began ripening in the fall, the
children of both families frequented the bottom
near by to gather those delicious nuts, which, of
course, were highly prized at a time when nearly
all, and oftentimes all, the food attainable was
wild meat, indigenous nuts and fruit.
On one occasion, in October, 1838, Matilda,
daughter of Mr. Lockhart, aged about thirteen,
and three of Mr. Putman's children, a small girl,
a boy of four and a girl of two and a half years,
left home in search of pecans. The hours flew
by — night came, and through its weary hours
parental hearts throbbed with anguish. Signal
fires were lighted, horns blown and guns fired —
the few accessible settlers were notified, but the
morning sun rose upon two disconsolate house-
holds. The four children, as time revealed, had
been cunningly surprised, awed into silence, and
swiftly borne away by a party of wild Indians.
Pursuit was impracticable. There were not njen
enough in the country and the families needed
nightiy?protection at home.
Mr, Lockhart, more able to do so than Mr. Put-
man, made every effort to recover his daughter and
the other children. For this purpose he accompa-
nied Col. John H. Moore on expeditions into the
mountains in both 1838 and 1839. In one of these
expeditions Col. Moore made a daylight attack on
a large hostile village on the San Saba, or rather
just as day was dawning. Despite the remon-
strances of others the resolute seeker of his lost
child rushed ahead of all others, exclaiming in
stentorian voice: "Matilda Lockhart! Oh, my
child ! if you are here run to me. I am your
father! " He continued so to shout, and, dear
reader, Matilda heard and recognized that loyed
voice repeatedly ; but the moment the fight opened
she was lashed into a run by squaws and speedily
driven into the recesses of thickets. So time
passed, the stricken father seizing upon every hope,
however faint, to recover his child.
Negotiations were opened with the hostiles, by
direction of President Lamar, in the winter of
1839-40, seeking a restoration of all our captive
children, and there was known to be quite a number
among them. The wily foe betrayed the cunning
and dissimulation of their race from the first.
They promised much in two or three interviews,
but performed little.
During the spring of 1840 the little boy of Mr.
Putman was brought in and restored to his parents.
The elder daughter was not heard of until during
52
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the late war, in 1864, twenty-seven years after her
captivity, when she was providentially restored to
her family at Gonzales, and it happened in this wise :
Judge John R. Chenault, of Southwest Missouri,
who had, in former years, been an Indian agent
west of that State, refugeed to Gonzales, where he
had kindred. In his family was a girl he had in
that day recovered from the Indians, and educated.
She was identified beyond doubt as the missing
daughter of Mr. Putman and resumed her place
among her kindred. Judge Chenault died several
years since, a citizen of Dallas County.
In fulfillment of one of their violated promises
to bring in all the prisoners they had, the warriors
only brought in one poor woman, who had been
cruelly treated throughout her captivity — her body
burnt in small spots all over — and this was Matilda
Lockhart.
Restored to her family and adorned in civilized
costume, she speedily developed into one of the
prettiest and most lovely women in the surround-
ing country, becoming a great favorite, distin-
guished alike for modesty, sprightliness, and
affectionate devotion to her kindred and friends.
A few years later a cold contracted at a night
party, fastened upon her lungs, and speedily closed
her life, to the regret of the whole surrounding
country. The story, from her own lips, of the
cruelties practiced upon her throughout her cap-
tivity, would fill a small volume, the reason for
which was unknown to her and unexplainable at
home. Temporary brutality to captives is common
among the wild tribes, but in a little while the young
are treated as other children.
This leaves the little girl of Mr. Putman alone to
account for. She was two and a half years old
when she was captured in 1838.
Another party of warriors in the spring of 1840,
brought in and delivered up at San Antonio a little
girl of about five, but who could not or would not
tell where she was captured, and no one there from
her appearance, could imagine her to be one of the
lost children of whom he had any information.
The child could not speak a word of P^nglish and
was wild — afraid of every white person — and
tried on every occasion to run away. The military
authorities were perplexed and linew not how to
keep or how to dispose of her. Here, again, came
providential interposition.
The District Court was in session, the now
lamented Judge John Hemphill presiding for the
first time. In attendance as a lawyer was his pre-
decessor. Judge James W. Robinson, who then
lived two miles above Gonzales, and one mile below
him lived Arch Gipson, whose wife was a daughter
of Mitchell Putman, and a sister of the missing
little girl. Hearing of the child he examined her
closely, trusting she might show some family re-
semblance to Mrs. Gipson, whom he knew well and
whose father lived only fifteen miles from Gonzales.
He could recognize no resemblance, but deter-
mined to take the little stranger home with him,
for, as he assured the writer, he had a presenti-
ment that she was the Putman child, and had a
very sympathetic nature. He, Judge Hemphill and
John R. Cunningham (a brilliant star, eclipsed in
death as a Mexican prisoner two years later), made
the trip on horseback together, the little wild crea-
ture alternating behind them. They exhausted
every means of gentling and winning her, but in
vain. It was necessary to tie her in camp at night
and watch her closely by day. In this plight they
arrived at Judge Robinson's house as dinner was
about ready, and the Judge learned that Mrs. Gip-
son was very feeble from recent illness. He deemed
it prudent to approach her cautiously about the
child, and to this end, after dinner he rode for-
ward, alone, leaving the other gentlemen to follow
a little later with the child who, up to that time, had
not spoken an English word.
Judge Robinson gently related all the facts to
Mrs. Gipson, said it could not be her sister, but
thought it would be more satisfactory to let her
see in person and had therefore brought the little
thing, adding: " Be quiet, it will be here very
soon."
The gentlemen soon rode up to the yard fence,
the child behind Judge Hemphill, on a very tall
horse. I quote by memory the indelible words
given me by Judge Robinson a few days after-
wards:—
" Despite my urgent caution Mrs. Gipson, from
her first realization that a recovered child was
near at hand, presented the strangest appearance
I ever saw in woman, before or since. She
seemed, feeble as she was, to skip more as a bird
than as a person, her eyes indescribably bright,
and her lips tightly closed — but she uttered not a
word. As the horsemen arrived she skipped over
the fence, and with an expression which language
cannot descril)e, she stood as if transfixed, peering
up into the little face on horseback. Never before
nor since have I watched any living thing as I
watched that child at that moment. As if moved"
by irresistible power, the instant it looked into
Mrs. Gipson'8 face it seemed startled as from a
slumber, threw up its little head as if to collect
its mind, and with a second piercing look, sprang
from the horse with outstretched arms, clasping
Mrs. Gipson around the neck, piteously exclaim-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
53
ng: 'Sister, sister!'" And tears of joy
mingled with audible sobs fell from three of the
most distinguished men of Texas, all long since
gathered to their fathers — Canningham in Mexi-
can bondage in 1842, Robinson in Southern Cali-
fornia about 1850, and Hemphill in the Confederate
Senate in 1862. But when such tears flow do not
the angels sing pseans around the throne of Him
who took little children " up in His arms, put His
hands upon them and blessed them ! "
Texas Independence — A Glimpse at the First Capitals, Harris-
burg, Galveston, Velasco, Columbia, the First Real
Capital, Houston, and Austin, the
First Permanent Capital.
Independence was declared in a log cabin, with-
out glass in its windows, in the now almost extinct
town of Washington-on-tbe-Brazos, on the second
day of March, 1836. The government ad interim,
then established, with David G. Burnet as Presi-
dent, and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice-president, first
organized at Harrisburg, but soon fled from Santa
Anna's army down to the barren island of Galveston,
where it remained till a short time after the battle
of San Jacinto, when it moved to Velasco, at the
mouth of the Brazos. After the first election under
the Republic, President Burnet, by proclamation,
assembled the First Congress, President and Vice-
president, at the town of Columbia, on the Brazos,
on the 3d of October, 1836. No other place in
Texas, at the time (excepting, perhaps, Nacog-
doches, in the extreme east), had sufflcient house
room to meet the emergency. There was in
Columbia a large two-story house, divided in the
center by a wide hall and stairway into large rooms
above and below — one on each side of the hall, and
an ell containing several rooms. It had been
erected and occupied in 1832-3 by Capt. Henry S.
Brown, father of the author, and in it he died on
July 26, 1834, his attending physician being Dr.
Anson Jones, afterwards the last President of the
Republic. This building was torn down early in
1888.
In this building the First Congress of the Repub-
lic of Texas assembled under President Burnet's
proclamation on the third of October, 1836. In it
on the 22d of the same month. President Burnet
delivered his farewell message, and at the same
time Sam Houston, as first constitutional Presi-
dent, and Mirabeau B. Lamar, as Vice-president,
took the oath of office and delivered their inaugural
addresses. In it all of the first Cabinet took the
oath of office, viz. : Stephen F. Austin as Secre-
tary of State (died on the 27th of December fol-
lowing) ; Ex-Governor Henry Smith, as Secretary
of the Treasury (died in the mountains of Cali-
fornia, March 4, 1851) ; Thomas J. Rusk, as Secre-
tary of War (resigned a few weeks later and was
succeeded by William S. Fisher, who died in 1845,
while Gen. Rusk died in 1857) ; and Samuel Rhoads
Fisher, as Secretary of the Navy (who died in
1839.) A portion of the officers were in other
buildings and for a time one House of the Congress
occupied a different building.
In this really first Capitol of Texas were enacted
all the original laws for organizing the Republic and
its counties, and the afterwards famous law defining
its boundaries, the western line of which was the
Rio Grande del Norte from its source to its en-
trance into the Gulf of Mexico ; and in it Robert
J. Walker, of Mississippi, then a distinguished
member of the United States Senate, was received
as the guest of the infant nation.
From Columbia the capital was moved to the
new town of Houston in the spring of 1837. From
Houston it was removed to the newly planned
frontier town of Austin in October, 1839, and here
is where I propose to locate what follows.
The government was established at Austin in
October, 1839. Mirabeau B. Lamar, one of the
truest knights of chivalry that ever figured on Texas
soil, was President; David G. Burnet, the embodi-
ment of integrity — learned and experienced — was
Vice-president; Ab(jer S. Lipscomb, one of the
trio who subsequently gave fame to the judicial
decisions of Texas, was Secretary of State ;
Albert Sidney Johnston, the great soldier and
54
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
patriot who fell at Shiloh on the 6th of April, 1862,
was Secretary of War ; Louis P. Cooke, who died
of cholera at Brownsville in 1849, and had been a
student at West Point, was Secretary of the Navy ;
Dr. James H. Starr, of Nacogdoches, was Secretary
of the Treasury ; John Rice Jones was Postmaster-
General ; John P. Borden was Commissioner of the
Land Office ; Thomas J. Rusk was Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, the Associates being the Dis-
trict Judges of the Republic ; James Webb was
Attorney-General ; Asa Brigham, Treasurer ; E.
Lawrence Stickney, Stock Commissioner ; Wm. G.
Cooke, Quartermaster-General; Hugh McLeod,
Adjutant-General; Wm. L. Cazneau, Commissary-
General ; Jacob Snively, Paymaster-General ;
Peter H. Bell (afterwards Governor), Inspector-
General ; Edward Burleson was Colonel command-
ing the regular army ; Charles DeMorse was Fund
Commissioner, or something of that sort.
These men arrived in Austin as the government,
in September and October, 1839. Austin was the
outside settlement on the Colorado and so remained
until annexation was perfected on the I9th of
February, 1846. Through those six years it
remained exposed to the forays of all the hostile
Indians in upper Texas, from which many valuable
lives were lost and quite a number of women and
children carried into savage captivity. Just com-
pleting my eighteenth year, I became a denizen of
Austin at its birth, setting type on one of the two
newspapers then started, and so remained for a
considerable time, in which it was my privilege to
make the personal acquaintance of each of the
gentlemen named as officials of the government,
and ever after to enjoy the friendship of nearly all
of them, the exceptions arising from early and per-
manent separation by distance.
No new town, in this or any other country, ever
began its existence with a larger ratio of educated,
talented and honorable men, especially of young
men. A few of the latter now, in the fiftieth year
afterwards, still live there. Among them are James
H. Raymond, John M. Swisher, Joseph Lee, James
F. Johnson, James M. Swisher, Fenwick Smith,
Wm. S. Hotchkiss. Among those known or be-
lieved to be living elsewhere, are Henry H. Collier,
in Canada ; *Thoma8 Gales Forster, in Cincinnati ;
Wm. B. Billingaly, in Bastrop ; Archibald C. Hyde,
of Dvalde County (the first postmaster and one of
the first justices of the peace at Austin) ; John P.
Borden, of Colorado County ; Gen. Geo. W. Morgan,
of Mount Vernon, Ohio (then Captain in the Texian
army) ; *Rev. Joseph A. Clark, living at Thorp's
Spring, and founder of Ad Ran College ; Parry W.
Humphries, of Aransas Pass ; John Adriance, in
Columbia ; Alex. T. Gayle, Jackson County ; and
ex- Governor Bell, living in North Carolina. Of
those who are dead I recall George J. Durham, who
died in 1869; James M. Ogden, Thos. L. Jones
and *Martin C. Wing, all of whom drew black beans
and were put to death in Mexico, March 25, 1843 ;
Capt. Ben. Johnson, killed by Mexicans near the
Nueces soon afterwards; — Dodson and — Black,
killed by Indians opposite Austin, in 1842 ; Henry
W. Raglan, Richard H. Hord, died in Kentucky;
George D. Biggar, Capt. Joseph Daniels, died in
San Francisco in 1885 ; M. H. Nicholson, *Joel
Miner, "Alexander Area, •William Clark, Ambrose
B. Pattison, died in Onondaga Hollow, N. Y. ;
Maj. George W. Bonnell (editor, and killed
as one of the guard at Mier, December 26,
1842); *James Glasscock (a Mier prisoner);
* — McClelland, died in Tyler; * William Carleton,
Wm. H. Murrah, Alex. C. McFarlane, George
K. Teulon (editor), died in Calcutta; Maj. Samuel
Whiting (founder of the first paper in Austin),
died in New Jersey; Rev. Edward L. Fontaine,
died in Mississippi; John B. Ransom (poet),
accidentally killed in 1841 ; John W. Lann, died a
Santa Fe prisoner ; Thos. Ward and Col. Thomas
Wm. Ward, Dr. Richard F. Brenham (killed in
the rescue of the Mier prisoners at Salado, Mexi-
co, February — 1843); Horace L. Upshur, M. H.
Beatty, M. P. Woodhouse, Wm. H. H. Johnson,
James W. Smith (first Judge of Travis County),
killed by Indians in sight of Austin, in 1843 ;
Harvey Smith died in Bell County ; Thomas W.
Smith (their father), killed by Indians near
Austin in 1841 ; Francis P. Morris, died a dis-
tinguished Methodist preacher in Missouri; *W.
D. Mims, Dr. Moses Johnson (first Mayor of
Austin), died in Lavaca ; Charles Schoolfield, killed
by Indians; Henry J. Jewett, Judge Luckett,
Alfred W. Luckett, Wm. W. Thompson, died in
Arizona; Wayne Barton (the first sheriff), killed
in Washington County in 1844; Capt. James G.
Swisher, »George W. Noble, died in Mobile ; Mus-
grove Evans, Charles Mason (respectively first and
second Auditors), James Newcomb, L. Vancleve,
Capt, Mark B. Lewis, killed in 1843; Jesse C.
Tannehill, Jacob M. Harrell, Wm. Hornsby, Na-
thaniel Townsend, Samuel Browning, Capt. Stephen
Crosby, Abner H. Cook, Alfred D. Coombs, Neri
Chamberlain, Joseph Cecil (both arms shot off),
Massillon Farley, John Green, Joseph Harrell,
Anderson Harrell, Mrs. Angelina Eberly, died in
Kentucky; Mrs. Eliza B. Logan, Mrs. Anna C.
* All those mArked thus *, Including myself, were
printers.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
55
Luckett, R. D. McAnelly, Nelson Merrill, A. B.
McGill, B. D. Noble, Dr. Joseph W. Robertson,
Mrs. Ann T. J. Wooldridge, Moses Wells, Joseph
Waples, Thos. G. Western, Michael Ziller, Charles
R. Sossaman, Martin Moore, Charles De Morse.
These names, drawn from memory, in a very large
sense, apply to persons who then or subsequently
became widely known in the public service — in-
deed, in their respective spheres valuable men in
the country. Of course I can only recall a portion
of those entitled to honorable mention in an article
of this character. Gathered together from all
parts of the Union, and a few from Europe, their
bones are widely asunder, at least as far as from
New York to San Francisco, and one in China.
The then future of Austin, seemingly bright, was
invisibly portentous of evil. On the capture of
San Antonio by Mexicans, in March, 1842, Austin
was abandoned as the seat of government, and so
remained for four years, or until February, 1846.
Many of the inhabitants thereupon left their homes,
and with a greatly depleted population, the town
was left open to savage attacks from the north,
east and west. Their trials and deprivations were
great. The day of comparative deliverance came
when, in connection with annexation, the govern-
ment was returned to Austin, from which period
the place slowly grew until railroads reached it,
since which time its increase in population, wealth
and costly edifices has been rapid, until, with ample
public buildings, and four State asylums, and a
State House pronounced equal in grandeur and
appointments to any in the Union, it is regarded
with pride by the State and admiration by stran-
gers as one of the most charming and beautiful
of State capitals of the Union. Though perhaps
the youngest of its self-governing inhabitants
at the time of its birth, it was my privilege on
numerous subsequent occasions, covering a period
of twenty years, to represent other portions of the
State in its deliberative bodies assembled there,
and I have never ceased to feel a deep interest in
its prosperity. Hence, on this fifty-third anniver-
sary of Texian independence, and in the fiftieth of
the life of our State capital, with the utmost sin-
cerity, I can and do salute thee, oh ! thou dearly
won but beautiful city of the Colorado, and would
gladly embrace each of its survivors of fifty years
ago — male and female — and their children and
grandchildren as well, were it practicable to do so.
May the God of our fathers be their God and bless
them.
A Succession of Tragedies in Houston and Anderson Counties —
Death of the Faulkenberrys — Cordova's Rebellion — A
Bloody Skirmish— Battle of Kickapdo — Slaughter
and Cremation at John Edens' House —
Butchery of the Campbell Family —
1836 to 1841 — Etc., Etc.
In the account of the fall of Parker's fort, prom-
inent mention was made of David Faulkenberry,
his son Evan, a youth, and Abram Anglin, a boy
of eighteen. They with others of the defeated
party temporarily located at Fort Houston, as
before stated, a mile or two west of where Palestine
now stands. In the fall of 1836 these three, with
Columbus Anderson (one account gives this name
as Andrews), went down to the Trinity to the
point since known as Bonner's ferry, crossed to the
west bank for the purpose of hunting, lay down
under the bank and all fell asleep. James Hunter
was in the vicinity also, but remained on the east
bank. While gathering nuts near by he heard the
guns and yells of Indians, and hastening to the
river, witnessed a portion of the scene. At the
first fire Columbus Anderson received a death
wound, but swam the river, crawled about two
miles and died. David Faulkenberry, also mortally
wounded, swam over, crawled about two hundred
yards and died. Both of these men had pulled
grass and made a bed on which to die.
A bullet passed through Abram Anglin' s powder
horn and into his thigh, carrying fragments of the
56
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
horn, but he swam the river, climbed its bank,
mounted behind Hunter, and escaped, to live till
1875 or 1876, when he died, in the vicinity of his
first home, near Parker's lort. Of Evan Faulken-
berry no trace was ever found. The Indians after-
wards said that he fought like a demon, killed two
of their number, wounded a third, and when scalped
and almost cloven asunder, jerked from them,
plunged into the river and about midway sank to
appear no more — adding another to the list of
heroic boys who have died for Texas. Honored be
his memory ! The dead were buried the next day.
THE MEXICAN KEBELLION.
' At the time of the revolution there was a consid-
erable resident Mexican population in and around
Nacogdoches. About the first of September, 1838,
Jose Cordova, at the head of about two hundred of
these people, aided by Juan Flores, Juan Cruz and
John Norris, rose in rebellion and pitched camp on
the Angelina, about twenty miles southwest of
Nacogdoches. Joined by renegade Indians, they
began a system of murder and pillage among the
thinly scattered settlers. They soon murdered the
brothers, Matthew and Charles Roberts, and Mr.
Finley, their relative. Speedily, Gen. Thomas J.
Rusk, at the head of six hundred volunteers, was
in the field. Cordova retired to the village of
"The Bowl," Chief of the Cherokees, and sought,
unsuccessfully, to form an alliance with him ; but
succeeded in attaching to Lis standard some of the
more desperate of the Clierokees and Cooshattas.
In a day or two he moved to the Kickapoo village,
now in the northeast corner of Anderson County,
and succeeded in winning that band to his cause.
Rusk followed their line of retreat to the Killough
settlement, some forty miles farther. He became
convinced of his inability to overhaul them ; also,
that they had left the country, and returned home,
disbanding his forces.
BATTLE OP KIOKAI'OO.
Rusk had scarcely disbanded his men, when the
numerous family of Killough was inhumanly butch-
ered by this motley confederation of Mexicans and
Indians, which alarmed and incensed the people
exposed to their forays. The bugle blast of Rusk
soon re-assembled his disbanded followers. Maj.
Leonard H. Mabbitt then had a small force at Fort
Houston. Rusk directed him to unite with him at
what is now known as the Duty place, four miles
west of the Neches. Mabbitt, reinforced by some
volunteers of the vicinity under Capt. W. T. Sad-
dler, started to the rendezvous. On the march, six
miles from Fort Houston, a number of Mabbitt's
men, a mile or more in rear of the command, were
surprised by an attack of Indians and Mexicans,
led by Flores and Cruz. A sharp skirmish ensued,
in which the little band displayed great gallantry,
but before Mabbitt came to their rescue, Bullock,
Wright and J. W. Carpenter were killed, and two
men, McKenzie and Webb, were wounded. The
enemy, on seeing Mabbitt's approach, precipitately
fled. This occurred on the 11th or 12th of Octo-
ber, 1838. The dead were buried. Only one
Indian was left on the field, but several were
killed.
On the 13th a spy company was organized, under
Capt. James E. Box, and on the 14lh Mabbitt re-
newed his march for a junction with Rusk. On the
afternoon of the 15th a few Indians were seen pass-
ing the abandoned Kickapoo village, evidently
carrying meat to Cordova. Gen. Rusk soon arrived,
his united force being about seven hundred men.
It was nearly night, and he pitched camp on a
spot chosen as well to prevent surprise as for de-
fense.
At dawn on the 16th, Rusk was furiously assailed
by iibout nine hundred Kickapoos, Delawares,
lonies, Caddos, Cooshattas, a few Cherokees, and
Cordova with his Mexicans. Indians fell within
forty or fifty feet of the lines. Many were killed,
and after an engagement of not exceeding an hour,
the enemy fled in every direction, seeking safety in
the dense forest. The assaults were most severe on
the companies of Box, Snively, Bradshaw, Saddler
and Mabbitt's command ; but owing to the sagacity
of Rusk in the selection of a defensive position, his
loss was only one man, James Hall, mortally wound-
ed, and twenty-five wounded more or less severely,
among whom were Dr. E. J. DeBard, afterwards
of Palestine, John Murchison, J. J. Ware, Triplett
Gates, and twenty-one others. It was a signal defeat
of Cordova and his evil-inspired desire for vengeance
upon a people who had committed no act to justify
such a savage resolve. He retired to Mexico, and
thence essayed to gratify his malignant hatred by a
raid, under Flores, in the following year, which was
badly whipped by Burleson, six or eight miles from
where Seguin stands, and virtually destroyed by
the gallant Capt. James O. Rice, in the vicinity of
the present town of Round Rock, on the Brushy,
in Williamson County. His last attempt to satisfy
his thirst for revenge was in the Mexican invasion
of September, 1842, in command of a band of
Mexican desperadoes and Carrizo Indians. In the
battle of Salado, on the, 18th of that month, a yager
ball, sent by John Lowe, standing within three feet
of where I stood, after a flight of about ninety
yards, crushed his arm from wrist to elbow and
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
57
passed through his heart. This, however, is
digression.
Tlie wounded of Gen. EusIj were borne on litters
back to Fort Houston. Hall survived about twenty
days — the other twenty-five recovered.
THE TERRIBLE TRAGEDY AT JOHN EDENS' HOUSE.
When the citizens of that locality volunteered
under Capt. W. T. Saddler, a soldier of San Jacinto,
to accompany Maj. Mabbitt in the Cordova-Kicka-
poo expedition, the families of several of the party
were removed for safety to the house of Mr. John
Edens, an old man, and there left under the protec-
tion of that gentleman and three other old men,
viz.: James Madden, Martin Murchison (father of
John, wounded at Kickapoo), and Elisha Moore,
then a prospector from Alabama. The other per-
sons in the house were Mrs. John Edens and
daughter Emily, Mrs. John Murchison, Mrs. W. T.
Saddler, her daughter, Mrs. James Madden, and
two little sons, aged seven and nine years, Mrs.
Robert Madden, and daughter Mary, and a negro
woman of sixty years, named Betsey or Patsey.
This is the same place on which Judge D. H. Edens
afterwards lived, in Houston County, and on which
he died. The ladies occupied one of the two rooms
and the men the other, a covered passageway
separating them. On the fatal night, about the
19 th of October, after all the inmates had retired,
the house was attacked ,by Indians. The assault
was made on the room occupied by the ladies and
children. The savages broke down the door and
rushed in, using knives and tomahawks. Mrs.
Murchison and her daugliter, Mrs. Saddler, were
instantly killed. Mrs. John Edens, mortally
wounded, escaped from the room and crossed two
fences to die in the adjoining field. Of Mary,
daughter of Robert Madden; Emily, daughter of
John Edens, each three years old, and tbe two
little sons of James Madden, no tidings were ever
heard. Whether carried into captivity or burned
to ashes, was never known, but every presumption
is in favor of the latter. The room was speedily
set on fire. The men durst not open the door into
the passage. Mrs. Robert Madden, dangerously
wounded, rushed into the room of the men, falling
on a bed. One by one, or, rather, two by two, the
four men ran the gauntlet and escaped, supposing
all the others were dead. Early in the assault
Patsey (or Betsey), seized a little girl of John
Edens', yet living, the beloved wife of James
Duke, swiftly bore her to the house of Mr. Davis,
a mile and a half distant, and then, moved by an
inspiration that should embalm her memory in every
generous heart, as swiftly returned as an angel of
mercy to any who might survive. She arrived in
time to enter the rapidly consuming house and
rescue the unconscious Mrs. Robert Madden, but
an instant before the roof fell in. Placing her on
her own bed, in her unmolested cabin in the yard,
she sought elsewhere for deeds of mercy, and found
Mrs. James Madden, utterly helpless, under the
eaves of the crumbling walls, and doomed to
speedy cremation. She gently bore her to the
same refuge, and by them watched, bathed, poul-
ticed and nursed — aye, prayed! — till the morrow
brought succor. However lowly and humble the
gifts of the daughters of Ham, every Southron,
born and reared among them, will recognize in this
touching manifestation of humanity and affection
elements with which he has been more or less
familiar since his childhood. Honored be the
memory and cherished be the saintly fidelity of this
humble servant woman.
Mrs. James Madden, thus rescued from the
flames, bore upon her person three ghastly wounds
from a tomahawk, one severing her collar bone, two
ribs cut asunder near the spine, and a horrible
gash in the back. But it is gratifying to record
that both of these wounded ladies recovered, and
in 1883, were yet living near Augusta, Houston
County, ob-'ects of affectionate esteem by their
neighbors.
On the day following this horrid slaughter, the
volunteers — the husbands and neighbors of the
victims — returned from the battle of Kickapoo, in
time to perform the last rites to the fallen and to
nurse the wounded. The late venerable Capt.
William Y. Lacey, of Palestine, Robert Madden,
Elder Daniel Parker, aud others of the Edens and
other old families of that vicinity were among
them.
ANOTHER BLOODY TRAGEDY MORDEE OF MRS. CAMP-
BELL, HER SON AND DAUGHTER.
In the year 1837, Charles C. Campbell arrived in
the vicinity of Fort Houston, and settled on what
is now called Town creek, three miles west of Pal-
estine. His family consisted of himself, wife and
five children — Malathiel, a youth of twenty; Pa-
melia, aged seventeen ; Hulda, fourteen ; Fountain,
eleven ; George, four, and two negro men. They
labored faithfully, built cabins, opened a field, and
in 1838, made a bountiful crop.
In February, 1839, Mr. Campbell sickened and
died. During a bright moon, about a week later,
in the same month, soon after the family had re-
tired, the house was suddenly attacked by a party
58
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
of Indians. The only weapon in the house was an
old rifle with a defective flint loci?. "With this Mala-
thiel heroically endeavored to defend his mother
and her children. The negro men, having no means
of defense, managed to escape, Mrs. Campbell
caused Pamelia, the elder daughter, to take refuge
under the puncheon floor, with her little brother
George, enjoining upon her silence as the only means
of saving herself and the child. The son soon
found that the gun lock refused to work, and the
mother sought to ignite the powder with a brand of
fire, but in doing so stood so near the door that an
Indian, forcing it slightly ajar and thrusting in his
arm, nearly severed her arm from her body. The
door was then forced open, the Indians rushed in,
and in a moment tomahawked unto death Mrs.
Campbell, Huldah and Fountain. Malathiel, knife
in hand, sprang from the room into the yard, but
was speedily slain by those outside. While these
things were being enacted in the house Pamelia,
with little George, stealthily emerged from her hid-
ing place and nearly escaped unobserved ; but just
as she was entering a thicket near by, an arrow
struck the back of her head, but fortunately it
glanced around without entering the skull, and she
soon reached Fort Houston to report her desola-
tion.
The Indians robbed the house of its contents,
including six feather-beds (leaving the feathers,
however), a keg of powder, four hundred silver
dollars, and a considerable amount of paper money,
which, like the feathers, was cast to the winds. At
daylight the bloody demons crossed the Trinity
eight miles away, and were thus beyond pursuit
by the small available force at hand ; for the west
side of the river at that time teemed with hostile
savages.
Pamelia Campbell, thus spared and since de-
prived by death of the little brother she saved, yet
lives, the last of her family, respected and beloved,
the wife or widow of Mr. Moore, living on Cedar
creek, Anderson County.
THE LAST KAID.
The last raid in that vicinity was by one account
in 1841, by another in 1843, but both agree as to the
facts. A small party of Indians stole some horses.
They were pursued by Wm. Frost, who escaped
from the Parker's Fort disaster in 1836, and three
others. They came upon the Indians while they
were swimming the Trinity at West Point. Frost
fired, killing an Indian, on reaching the bank a
little in advance of the others, but was instantly
shot dead by a warrior already on the opposite
bank. The other three men poured a volley into
the enemy yet under the bank and in the river.
Four were killed, when the remainder fled, leaving
the horses in the hands of the pursuers.
In 1837 there was a severe encounter in Maine's
prairie, Anderson County, but the particulars are
not before me, nor are those attending the butchery
of the Killough family, which led to the battle of
Kickapoo, and was one of the impelling causes of
the expulsion of the Cherokees and associate bands
from the country.
In the accounts here given some conflicting state-
ments are sought to be reconciled. The unrecorded
memory of most old men, untrained in the habits
of preserving historical events, is often at fault.
Unfamiliar with the localities, it is believed that
substantial accuracy is attained in this con-
densed account of these successive and sanguinary
events, illuminating the path of blood through
which that interesting portion of our beloved State
was transferred from barbarism to civilization.
Some Reminiscences — First Anniversary Ball in the Republic
of Texas, and other Items of Interest.
The following relating to the first anniversary
celebration of Texian Independence and the battle
of San Jacinto, respectively given at Washington,
March 2d, 1837, and at the newly laid out town of
Houston, April 21, 1837, will doubtless interest
the reader.
The invitation to the first or Independence ball
ran thus : —
Washington, 28th February, 1837.— The pleas-
ure of your company is respectfully solicited at a
party to be given in Washington on Thursday, 2d
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
59
March, to celebrate the birthday of our national
independence.
Devereau J. Woodlief, Thos. Gay, E. Stevenson,
W. B. Scates, Asa Hoxey, James E. Cook, W. W.
Hill, J. C. Hunt, Thos. P. Shapard, managers.
All these nine now sleep with their fathers. Mr.
Scates, the last to die a few years since, was a
signer of the Declaration of Independence ; Wood-
lief was terribly wounded at San Jacinto ; the gal-
lant James E. Cook, a lieutenant at San Jacinto and
a colonel under Somervell in 1842-43, was killed
in a momentary difficulty about the first of April,
1843, a deeply lamented occurrence.
For a description of the ball in Houston credit is
due the gifted pen of a lady survivor of the scene,
then little more than a child : —
"Following the impulses common to humanity,
as the 21st of April, 1837, drew near, the patriotic
citizens of Texas, with the memory of San Jacinto
still fresh in their minds and appreciating the ad-
vantages resulting from it, 'resolved that the event
should be celebrated at the capital of the Eepublic,
which this victory had made possible, and which
had been most appropriately named for him who
wore the laurel. The city of Houston was at that
time a mere name, or at best a camp in the woods.
White tents and temporary structures of clapboards
and pine poles were scattered here and there near
the banks of the bayou, the substantial log house of
the pioneer was rare, or altogether wanting, it being
the intention of the builders soon to replace what
the needs of the hour demanded, with ■ buildings
fitted to adorn the capital of a great Eepublic.
"The site of the capitol had been selected where
now stands the fine hotel bearing its name, but the
materials for its construction had not yet arrived
from Maine. There was, however, a large two-
story buildijig about half finished on the spot now
occupied by T. W. House's bank. It was the
property of the firm of Kelsey & Hubbard, and,
having been tendered for the free use of the public
on this occasion, men worked night and day that it
might at least have floor, walls and roof, which
were indeed the chief essentials of a dancing hall.
As there was neither time nor material at hand for
ceiling or laying the second floor, a canopy of green
boughs was spread over the beams to do away with
the unpleasant effect of skeleton timbers and great
space between floor and pointed roof.
"Chandeliers were suspended from the beams
overhead, but they i-esembled the glittering orna-
ment of to-day in naught save use for which they
were intended. Made of wood, with sockets to
hold the sperm candles, and distributed at regular
distances, each pendant comprised of five or six
lights, which shed a dim radiance, but alas, a liberal
spattering of sperm upon the dancers beneath.
The floor being twenty-five feet wide, by fifty feet
in length, could easily accommodate several cotil-
lions, and, although the citizens of Houston were
very few, all the space was required for the large
number who came from Brazoria, Columbia, San
Felipe, Harrisburg and all the adjacent country.
Ladies and gentlemen came in parties on horseback,
distances of fifty and sixty miles, accompanied by
men servants and ladies' maids, who had in charge
the elegant ball costumes for the important occa-
sion. From Harrisburg they came in large row
boats, that mode of conveyance being preferable
to a horseback ride through the thick under-
growth, for at that time there was nothing more
than a bridle path to guide the traveler between
the two places.
" Capt. Mosley Baker, a captain at San Jacinto,
and one of Houston's first citizens, was living with
his wife and child (now Mrs. Fannie Darden), in a
small house built of clapboards ; the house com-
prised one large room designed to serve as parlor,
bed-room and dining-room, and a small shed-room
at the back. The floor, gr rather the lack of the
floor, in the large apartment, was concealed by a
carpet, which gave an air of comfort contrasting
strongly with the surroundings.
"As the time for going to the ball drew near,
which was as soon as convenient after dark, several
persons assembled at Capt. Baker's for the purpose
of going together. These were Gen. Houston,
Frank E. Lubbock, afterwards Governor, and his
wife, John Birdsall (soon after Attorney-General),
and Mary Jane Harris (the surviving widow of
Andrew Briscoe.) Gen. Houston was Mrs. Baker's
escort, Capt. Baker having gone to see that some
lady friends were provided for. When this party
approached the ball room, where dancing had
already begun, the music, which was rendered by a
vioUn, bass viol and fife, immediately struck up
' Hail to the Chief,' the dancers withdrew to each
side of the hall, and- the whole party. Gen. Houston
and Mrs. Baker leading, and maids bringing up the
rear, marched to the upper end of the room. Hav-
ing here laid aside wraps, and exchanged black
slippers for white ones, for there was no dressing
room, thej' were ready to join in the dance, which
was soon resumed. A new cotillion was formed by
the party who had just entered, with the addition
of another couple, whose names are not preserved,
and Mr. Jacob Cruger took the place of Mr. Bird-
sail, who did not dance. Gen. Houston and Mrs.
Baker were partners, Mrs. Lubbock and Mr. Cru-
ger, and Mr. Lubbock and Miss Harris. Then
60
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
were the solemn figures of the stately cotillion exe-
cuted with care and precision, the grave balancing
steps, the dos-a-dos, and others to test the nimble-
ness and grace of dancers.
" Gen. Houston, the President, was of course the
hero of the day, and his dress on this occasion was
unique and somuwhat striking. His ruffled shirt,
scarlet cassimere waistcoat and suit of black silk
velvet, corded with gold, was admirably adapted
to set off his fine, tall figure ; his boots, with short,
red tops, were laced and folded down in such a
way as to reach but little above the ankles, and
were finished at the heels with silver spurs. The
spurs were, of course, quite a useless adornment,
but they were in those days so commonly worn as
to seem almost a part of the boots. The weakness
of Gen. Houston's ankle, resulting from the wound,
was his reason for substituting boots for the slip-
pers, then universally worn by gentlemen for dan-
cing.
"Mrs. Baker's dress of white satin, with black
lace overdress, corresponded in elegance with that
of her escort, and the dresses of most of the other
ladies were likewise rich and tasteful. Some wore
white mull, with satin trimmings ; others were
dressed in white and colored satins, but naturally
in so large an assembly, gathered from many differ-
ent places, there was great variety in the quality of
costumes. All, however, wore their dresses short,
cut low in the neck, sleeves generally short, and all
wore ornaments or flowers or feathers in their hair,
some flowers of Mexican manufacture being partic-
ularly noticeable, on account of their beauty and
rarety.
" But one event occurred to mar the happiness of
the evening. Wtiilst all were dancing merrily, tlie
sad news arrived that the brother of the Misses
Cooper, who were at the time on the floor, had been
killed by Indians at some point on the Colorado
river. Altliough the young ladies were strangers to
most of those present, earnest expressions of sym-
pathy were heard on all sides, and the pleasure of
their^imraediate friends was of course destroyed.
" At about midnight the signal for supper was
given, and tlie dancers marched over to the hotel of
Capt. Ben Fort Smith, which stood near the middle
of the block now occupied by the Ilutchins House.
This building consisted of two very large rooms,
built of pine poles, laid up like a log house, with a
long shed extending the full length of the rooms.
Under this shed, quite innocent of floor or carpet,
the supper was spread ; the tempting turkeys, veni-
son, cakes, etc., displayed in rich profusion ; the
excellent coffee and sparkling wines invited all to
partake freely, and soon the witty toast and hearty
laugh went round.
"Returning to the ball room, dancing was re-
sumed with renewed zest, and continued until the
energy of the musicians began to flag, and the
prompter failed to call out the figures with liis ac-
customed gusto ; then the cotillion gave place to
the time-honored Virginia reel, and by the time
each couple had enjoyed the privilege of "going
down the middle," daylight began to dawn, parting
salutations were exchanged, and the throng of dan-
cers separated, many of them never to meet again.
" Ere long the memory of San Jacinto's first ball
was laid away among the mementos of the dead,
which, being withdrawn from their obscurity only
on each recurring anniversary, continue to retain
their freshness even after fifty years have flown.
" Of all the merry company who participated in
that festival, only a few are known to be living at
the present day. They are ex-Governor Lubbock,
Mrs. Wynns, Mrs. Mary J. Briscoe and Mrs.
Fannie Darden."
Addenda. In January, 1886, the following an-
cient item in a Nashville paper, announcing the
death of Noah W. Ludlow, the old theatrical man-
ager, appeared, viz. : —
"In July, 1818, in Nashville, an amateur per-
formance of Home's tragedy of Douglas was given,
in which Mr. Ludlow appeared as Old Norval.
There were remarkable men in that performance.
The manager of the amateur club was Gen. Jno. M.
Eaton, afterward Secretary of War diirinir Gen.
Jackson's presidential term. Lieut. Sam. Houston,
afterward Gen. Sam Houston, of Sun Jacinto fame,
played Glunalvon ; Wm. S. Fulton, afterward Gov-
ernor of Arkansas, was the youni; Norval ; K. H.
Foster, later United States Senator^rom Tennessee,
was a member of the club, and the part of Lord
Randolph was taken by W. C. Dunliip, who, in 1839,
was a member of Congress from Tennessee. Gen.
Andrew Jackson was an honorary meml)er of the
same dramatic club."
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
61
Death of Capt. Robert M. Coleman in 1837 — Murder of
Coleman and her Heroic Boy" and the Battle
of Brushy in 1839.
Mrs.
Robert M. Coleman, a native of Trigg County,
Kentucky, born in 1799, is elsewliere mentioned in
connection witli ttie expedition under tiimself first,
and Col. John H. Moore, secondly, into the
Tehuacano Hill region, in 1835. He was a gallant
man, courageous and impetuous, and settled on the
Colorado, near Bastrop, in 1830. He was in the
siege of Bexar, in the fall of 1835, signed the
Declaration of Independence on the second of
March, 1836, and commanded a company at San
Jacinto, on the 21st of April, his wife and children
being then among the refugees east of the Trinity.
In the summer of 1837, while on a mission to
Velasco, at the mouth of the Brazos, he was
drowned while bathing in the river. This was
justly deplored as a great loss to the frontier of the
country. He left, besides his wife, three sons and
two daughters.
Mrs. Coleman returned to their former home in
what was called Wells' prairie, a prolongation of
the lower end of Webber's prairie, perhaps twelve
miles above Bastrop, her nearest neighbors being
the late Geo. W. Davis and Dr. J. W. Roberbson,
of Austin, and one or two others. Her cabin and
little field stood in the lower point of a small
prairie, closely flanked on the east, west and south
by dense bottom timber, the onlj' approach being
through the prairie on the north, and it was very
narrow. She and her sons made a small crop there
in 1838.
On the 18th of February, 1839, while Mrs.
Coleman and four of her children were employed
a short distance from the cabin, a large body of
Indians, estimated at from two to three hundred,
suddenly emerged from the timber, and with the
wildest yells, rushed towards them. They fled to
the cabin and all reached it except Thomas, a
child of five years, who was captured, never more
to return to his kindred though occasionally heard
of many years later as a Comanche warrior. At
the moment of the attack James Coleman and
— Rogers were farther away, separated from the
others by the Indians, and being powerless, es-
caped down the bottom to notify the people
below.
As Mrs. Coleman reached the door of the cabin,
Albert and the two little girls entered, when, missing
little Thomas, she halted to look for him. It was
but for an instant, but long enough for an arrow
to pierce her throat. In the throes of death she
sprang inside. Albert closed atd barred the door,
and she sank to the floor, speedily- to expire.
Albert was a boy under fifteen years of age, but
a worthy son of his brave sire. There being two
or three guns in the cabin, he made a heroic fight,
holding the enemy at bay for some time, certainly
killing four of their number ; in the meantime
raising a puncheon, causing his two little sisters
to get under the fioor, replacing the puncheon,
and enjoining upon them, whether he survived or
perished, to make no noise until sure that white
men called them. Soon after this he received a
fatal wound. As life ebbed he sank down, re-
peated his former injunction to his little sisters,
then, pillowing his head on his mother's pulseless
bosom, died. A year later, in the Congress of
Texas, my youthful heart was electrified on hear-
ing the old patriot, William Menefee, of Colorado,
in a speech on the "Cherokee Land Bill," utter
an eloquent apostrophe to " Mrs. Coleman and
her heroic ,boy."
For some reason, doubtless under the impression
that there were other men in the house, the Indians
withdrew. They next appeared at the house of
Dr. Robertson, captured seven negroes and, the
doctor being absent, robbed the house.
At twilight John D. Anderson, a youth who lived
within a few miles (afterwards distinguished as a
lawyer and an orator), rode to the cabin and called
the children by name. They recognized his voice
and answered. He then raised a puncheon and
released them. Remounting, with one before and
one behind him, he conveyed them to Geo. W.
Davis' house, where the families of the vicinity had
assembled for safety — possibly at a different
house, but Mr. Davis remained iu charge of the
guard left to protect the women and children.
Speedily two squads of men assembled at the
locality — twenty-five under Capt. Joseph Burleson
and twenty-seven commanded by Capt. James
Rogers. Thus, fifty-two in number, they pursued
the savages in a northerly direction. On the next
forenoon, near a place since called Post Oak Island
and three or four miles north of Brushy creek, they
62
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
came in sight of the enemy, who, all being on foot,
sought to reach the thicket on a branch, somewhat
between the parties. To prevent this a charge was
ordered to cut them off, and if need be, occupy the
thicket as a base of defense ; but some of the men
hesitated, while others advanced. Skirmishing
began, confusion ensued, followed by a disorderly
retreat, some men gallantly dismounting time and
again, to .hold the enemy in check. In this engage-
ment Capt. Joseph Burleson was killed, while dis-
mounted and trying to save the day. The horse of
W. W. (afterward Captain) Wallace escaped and
was caught and mounted by an Indian. A. J.
HaynJe, seeing this, gallantly took Mr. Wallace up
behind him and thus saved his life.
The whole party, notwithstanding the disorder,
halted on reaching Brushy.
While remaining in a state of indecision, Gen.
Edward Burleson (of whom Joseph was a brother)
came up with thirty-two men. All submitted at
once 'to his experienced leadership. Reorganizing
the force, with Capt. Jesse Billingsley commanding
a portion, he moved forward, and about the middle
of the afternoon found the Indians in a strong
position, along a crescent-shaped branch, partly
protected by high banks, and the whole hidden by
brush. Burleson led one party into the ravine
above and Billingsey the other into it below the
Indians, intending to approach each way and drive
the enemy out. But each party found an inter-
vening, open and flat expansion of the ravine, in
passing which they would be exposed to an enfilad-
ing fire from an invisible enemy. Hence this plan
was abandoned and a random skirmish kept up until
night, a considerable number of Indians being
killed, as evidenced by their lamentations, as they
retreated as soon as shielded by darkness. Burle-
son camped on the ground.
The next day, on litters, the dead and Mr.
Gilleland were carried homeward, the latter to die
in a few days.
The men of Bastrop were ever famed for gal-
lantry, and many were the regi-ets and heart-burn-
ings among themselves in connection with the first
engagement of the day; but ample amends were
made on other fields to atone for that untoward
event.
Doubtless interesting facts are omitted. Those
given were derived long ago from participants, sup-
plemented by a few points derived at a later day
from Mr. A. D. Adkisson, who was also one of
the number.
For several years succeeding the raids into and
around Bastrop, stealing horses, and killing, some-
times one and sometimes two or three persons,
were so frequent that their narration would seem
monotonous. In most cases these depredations
were committed by small parties early in the night,
and by sunrise they would be far away, rendering
pursuit useless. They were years of anguish,
sorely testing the courage and fortitude of as
courageous a people as ever settled in a wilderness.
Cordova's Rebellion in 1838-9 — Rusk's Defeat of the Kicka-
poos — Burleson's Defeat of Cordova — Rice's Defeat
of Flores — Death of Flores and Cordova —
Capt. Matthew Caldwe-11.
At the close of 1837, and in the first eight or
nine months of 1838, Gen. Vicente Filisola was in
command of Northern Mexico, with headquarters
in Matamoros. He undertook, by various well-
planned artifices, to win to Mexico the friendship
of all the Indians in Texas, including the Cherokees
and their associate bands, and unite them in a per-
sistent war on Texas. Through emissaries passing
above the settlements he communicated with the
•Cherokees and others, and with a number of Mexi-
can citizens, in and around Nacogdoches, and suc-
ceeded in enlisting many of them in his schemes.
The most conspicuous of these Mexicans, as devel-
oped in the progress of events, was Vicente Cor-
dova, an old resident of Nacogdoches, from which
the affair has generally been called " Cordova's
rebellion," but there were others actively engaged
with him, some bearing American names, as Nat
Norris and Joshua Robertson, and Mexicans named
Juan Jose Rodriguez, Carlos Morales, Juan Santos
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
63
Ooy, Jose Vicenti Micheli, Jose Ariola, and An-
tonio Corda.
The first outbreak occurred on the 4th of August,
1838, when a party of Americans who had pursued
and recovered some stolen horses from a Mexican
settlement in Nacogdoches County, were fired upon
on their return trip and one of their number killed.
The trail of the assailants was followed and
found to be large and made by Mexicans. On the
7th Gen. Husk was informed that over a hundred
Mexicans, headed by Cordova and Norris, were
encamped on the Angelina. He immediately re-
cruited a company of sixty volunteers and posted
them at the lower ford of that stream. The enemy
were then on the west side. On the 10th it was
reported that about 300 Indians had joined Cor-
dova. On the same day President Houston, then
in Nacogdoches, who had issued a proclamation to
the immigrants, received a letter signed by the per-
sons whose names have been given, disavowing
allegiance to Texas and claiming to be citizens of
Mexico.
Cordova, on the 10th, moved up towards the
Cherokee Nation. Maj. H. W. Augustin was*
detailed to follow his trail, while Gen. Rusk moved
directly towards the village of Bowles, the head
<!hief of the Cherokees, believing Cordova had
gone there ; but, on reaching the Saline, it was
found that he had moved rapidly in the direction
of the Upper Trinity, while the great body of his
followers had dispersed. To the Upper Trinity and
Brazos, he went and remained till March, 1839, in
■constant communication with the wild Indians,
urging them to a relentless war on Texas, burning
and destroying the homes and property of the
settlers, of course with the deadly horrors of their
mode of warfare, and promising them, under the
instructions of Gen. Filisola first, and his succes-
sor. Gen. Valentino Canalizo, secondly, protection
under the Mexican government and fee simple
rights to the respective territories occupied by
them. He sent communications to the generals
named, and also to Manuel Flores, in Matamoros,
charged with diplomatic duties, towards the Indians
of Texas, urging Flores to meet with him for con-
ference and a more definite understanding.
In the meantime a combination of these lawless
Mexicans and Indians committed depredations on
the settlements to such a degree that Gen. Busk
raised two hundred volunteers and moved against
them. On the 14th of October, 1838, he arrived at
Fort Houston, and learning that the enemy were in
force at the Kickapoo village (now in Anderson
County), he moved in that direction. At daylight
on the 16th he attacked them and after a short, but
hot engagement, charged them, upon which they
fied with precipitation and were pursued for some
distance. Eleven warriors were left dead, and, of
course, a much larger number were wounded.
Rusk had eleven men wounded, but none killed.
The winter passed without further report from
Cordova, who was, however, exerting all his povrers
to unite all the Indian tribes in a destructive war-
fare on Texas.
On the 27th of February, 1839, Gen. Canalizo,
who had succeeded Filisola in command at Mata-
moros, sent instructions to Cordova, the same in
substance as had already been given to Flores,
detailing the manner of procedure and directing
the pledges and promises to be made to the Indians.
Both instructions embraced messages from Canalizo
to the chiefs of the Caddos, Seminoles, Biloxies,
Cherokees, Kickapoos, Brazos, Tehuacanos and
other tribes, in which he enjoined them to. keep
at a goodly distance from the frontier of
the United States, — a policy dictated by fear
of retribution from that country. Of all the
tribes named the Caddos were the only ones
who dwelt along that border and, in consequence
of acts attributed to them, in November, 1838,
Gen. Rusk captured and disarmed a portion of the
tribe and delivered them to their American agent
in Shreveport, where they made a treaty, promis-
ing pacific behavior until peace should be made
betvreen Texas and the remainder of their people.
CORDOVA EN KODTE TO MATAMOROS.
In his zeal to confer directly with Flores and
Canalizo, Cordova^ resolved to go in person to
Matamoros. From his temporary abiding place on
the Upper Trinity, with an escort of about seventy-
five Mexicans, Indians and negroes, he set forth in
March, 1839. On the 27th of that month, his
camp was discovered at the foot of the mountains,
north of and not far from where the city of Austin
now stands. The news was speedily conveyed to
Col. Burleson at Bastrop, and in a little while that
ever-ready, noble and lion-hearted defender of his
country found himself at the head of eighty of his
Colorado neighbors, as reliable and gallant citizen
soldiers as ever existed in Texas. Surmising the
probable route of Cordova, Col. Burleson bore
west till he struck his trail and, finding it but a
few hours old, followed it as rapidly as his horses
could travel till late in the afternoon of the
29th, when his scouts reported Cordova near
by, unaware of the danger in his rear. Burleson
increased his pace and came up with the enemy in
an open body of post oaks about six miles east, or
64
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
probably nearer southeast, from Seguin, on the
Guadalupe. Yoakum says the enemy fled at the
first fire. He was misinformed. Cordova promptly
formed his men, and, shielded by the large trees
of the forest, made a stubborn resistance. Bur-
leson dismounted a portion of his men, who also
fought from the trees for some time. Finally see-
ing some of the enemy wavering, Burleson charged
them, when they broke and were hotly pursued
about two miles into the Guadalupe bottom, which
they entered as twilight approached. Further pur-
suit was impossible at night and Burleson bore up
the valley six miles to Seguin, to protect the few
families resident there against a possible attack by
the discomfited foe. The conduct of Gen. Bur-
leson in this whole affair, but especially during the
engagement in the post oaks, was marked by
unusual zeal and gallantry. The lamented John D.
Anderson, OwenB. Hardeman, Wm. H. Magilland
other participants often narrated to me, the writer,
then a youth, how gloriously their loved chief bore
himself on the occasion. All the Bastrop people
loved Burleson as a father. Cordova lost over
twenty-five in killed, fully one-third of his follow-
ers, Burleson lost none by death, but had several
wounded.
PURSUIT OF CORDOVA BY CALDWELL.
At the time of this occurrence Capt. Matthew
Caldwell, of Gonzales, one of the best known and
most useful frontier leaders Texas ever had, was in
command of a company of six months' rangers,
under a law of the previous winter. A portion of
the company, under First Lieut. James Camp-
bell, were stationed in the embryo hamlet of
Seguin. The other portion, nnder Calilwell, was
located on the Guadalupe, fourteen miles above
Gonzales and eighteen miles below Seguin, but
when the news reached them of this affair, during
the night succeeding Cordova's defeat, Capt.
Caldwell was in Gonzales and Second Lieut.
Canoh C. Colley was in command of the camp.
He instantly dispatched a messenger, wbo reached
Caldwell before daylight. The latter soon sent
word among the yet sleeping villagers, calling for
volunteers to join him by sunrise. Quite a number
were promptly on hand, among whom were Ben
McCulloch and others of approved gallantry.
Traveling rapidly, the camp was soon reached
and, everything being in readiness, Capt. Caldwell
lost no. time in uniting with Campbell at Seguin,
so that in about thirty -six hours after Burleson had
driven Cordova into the Guadalupe bottom, Cald-
well, with his own united company (omitting the
necessary camp guards), and the volunteer citizens
referred to, sought, found and followed the trail of
Cordova.
But when Cordova, succeeding his defeat,
reached the river, he found it impracticable to
ford it and, during the night, returned to the up-
lands, made a detour to the east of Seguin, and
struck the river five miles above, where, at day-
light, March 30th, and at the edge of the bottom,
he accidentally surprised and attacked five of
Lieut. Campbell's men returning from a scout, and
encamped for the night. These men were James
M. Day, Thomas R. Nichols, John W. Nichols,
D. M. Poor and David Reynolds. Always on the
alert, though surprised at such an hour by men using
fire-arms only, indicating a foe other than wild
Indians, they fought so fiercely as to hold their as-
sailants in check sufflciently to enable them to reach
a dense thicket and escape death, though each one
was severely wounded. They lost their horses and
everything excepting their arms. Seeing Cordova
move on up the river, they continued down about
five miles to Seguin, and when Caldwell arrived
early next morning gave him this information.
Besides those from Gonzales Caldwell was joined
at Seguin by Ezekiel Smith, Sr., Peter D. Ander-
son and French Smith, George W. Nichols, Sr.,
William Clinton, IL G. Henderson, Doctor Henry,
Frederick Happell, George 11. Ciray and possibly
two or three others.
Caldwell pursued Cordova, crossing the Guad-
alupe where New Braunfels stands, through the
highlands north of and around San Antonio and
thence westerly or northwesterly to the Old Pre-
sidio de Rio Grande road, where it crosses the Rio
Frio and along that road to the Nueces. It was
evident froni the "signs" that he had gained
nothing in distance on the retreating chief who
would easily cross the Rio Grande thirty or forty
miles ahead. Hence farther pursuit was futile and
Caldwell returned, following the road to San
Antonio. He had started without provisions, reiv-
ing upon wild game; but Cordova's party had, for
the moment, frightened wild animals from the line
of march and after a serpentine route of a hundred
and sixty miles through hills, the men were in need
of food and became much more so before traveling
a hundred and ten additional miles to San Antonio.
Arriving there, however, the whole town welcomed
them with open arms. In a note to the author
written August 24, 1887, more than forty-eight
years later. Gen. Henry E. McCulloch, who was a
private in Caldwell's Company, says: "The
hospitable people of that blood-stained old town,
gave us a warm reception and the best dinner pos-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
65
■sible in their then condition, over which the heroic
and ever lamented Coi. Henry W. Karnes pre-
sided. They also furnished supplies to meet our
wants until we reached our respective encamp-
ments."
On the way out Caldwell passed at different
points wounded horses abandoned by Cordova.
■One such, in the mountains, severely wounded,
attracted the experienced eye of Ben McCulloch as
a valuable horse, if he could be restored to sound-
ness. On leaving San Antonio for home by per-
mission of Capt. Caldwell, with a single companion,
he went in search of the horse. He found him,
and by slow marches took him home, where, under
good treatment, he entirely recovered, to become
iamous as "Old Pike," McCulloch's pet and
favorite as long as he lived — a fast racer of rich
chestnut color, sixteen hands high, faultless
in disposition and one of the most sagacious
horses ever known in the country. The tips
of his ears had been split for about an inch,
proving his former ownership by one of the Indian
tribes. Another coincidence may be stated, viz.,
that returning from a brief campaign in June,
1841, when at a farm house (that of Mrs. Sophia
Jones), eight miles from Gonzales, the rifle of an
old man named Triplett, lying across his lap on
horseback, with the rod in the barrel, accidentally
-fired, driving the ramrod into Old Pike's shoulder
blade, not over four feet distant. McCulloch was
on him at the time and the writer of this, just dis-
mounted, stood within ten feet. The venerable
Mrs. Jones (mother of the four brothers, William
E., Augustus H. , Russell and Isham G. Jones),
wept over the scene as she gazed upon the noble
.animal in his agonizing pain, and "strong men wept
at what they supposed to be the death scene of
•Old Pike. But it was not so. He was taken in
-charge by Mrs. Jones ; the fragments of the shat-
tered ramrod, one by one, extracted, healthy sup-
.puration brought about ; and, after about three
months' careful nursing, everyone in that section
rejoiced to know that Old Pike " was himself
again." In a chase after two Mexican scouts,
between the Nueces and Laredo, in the Somervell
•expedition, in December, 1842, in a field of per-
haps twenty-five horses, Flacco, the Lipan chief,
slightly led, closely followed by Hays on the horse
.presented him by Leonard W. Grace, and Ben
JMcCulloch, on Old Pike. Both Mexicans were
captured.
PURSUIT AND DEATH OF MANUEL FLOBES.
Bearing in mind what has been said of Cordova's
■correspondence with Manuel Flores, the Mexican
Indian agent in Matamoros, and his desire to have
a conference with that personage, it remains, in
the regular order of events, to say that Flores,
ignorant of the calamitous defeat of Cordova (on
the 29th of March, 1839), set forth from Mata-
moros probably in the last days of April, to meet
Cordova and the Indian tribes wherever they might
be found, on the upper Brazos, Triuity or east of
the latter. He had an escort of about thirty
Indians and Mexicans, supplies of ammuni-
tion for his allies and all his official papers
from Filisola and Canalize, to which reference
has been made, empowering him to treat with
the Indians so as to secure their united friend- ^
ship for Mexico and combined hostility to Texas.
His march was necessarily slow. On the 14th of
May, he crossed the road between Seguin and San
Antonio, having committed several depredations on
and near the route, and on the 15th crossed the
Guadalupe at the old Nacogdoches ford. He was
discovered near the Colorado not far above where
Austin was laid out later in the same year.
Lieut. James O.' Rice, a gallant young ranger,
in command of seventeen men, fell upon his trail,
pursued, overhauled and assailed him On Brushy
creek (not the San Gabriel as stated by Yoakum),
in the edge of Williamson County. Flores en-
deavored to make a stand, but Kice rushed for-
ward with such impetuosity as to throw the enemy
into confusion and flight. Flores and two others
were left dead upon the ground, and fully half of
those who escaped were wounded. Rice captured
and carried in one hundred horses and mules,
three hundred pounds of powder, a large amount
of shot, balls, lead, etc., and all the correspond-
ence in possession of Flores, which revealed the
whole plot for the destruction of the frontier
people of Texas, to be followed up by the devast-
ation of the whole country. The destruction of
the whole demoniacal scheme, it will be seen, was
accomplished by a train of what must be esteemed
providential occurrences.
THE FATE OF VICENTE OOEDOVA.
Cordova, after these admonitions, never returned
to East or North Texas, but remained on the Rio
Grande. In September, 1842, in command of a
small band of his renegade Mexicans and Indians,
he accompanied the Mexican General, Adrian WoU,
in his expedition against San Antonio, and was in
the battle of Salado, on Sunday the 18th of that
month. While Woll fought in front, Cordova led
his band below the Texian position on the creek and
reached a dry ravine where it entered the timbered
bottom, at right angles with the corner of the creek.
66
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
At intervals were small thickets on the ravine, with
open spaces between. Cordova, in the nearest
open space to the bottom and about ninety yards to
the right of my company, when in the act of firing,
was shot dead by John Lowe, who belonged to the
adjoining company on our right and stood about
thirty feet from me, while I was loading my gun.
I watched the affair closely, fearing that one of
our men might, fall from Cordova's fire. There
could, at the instant, be no mistake about it.
Others saw the same ; but no one knew it was Cor-
dova till his men were driven from the position by
Lieut. John R. Baker of Cameron's Company, when
old Vasquez, a New Madrid Spaniard in our com-
mand, recognized him, as did others later. And
thus perished Cordova, Flores, and largely, but by
no means entirely, their schemes for uniting the
Indians against the people of Texas. The great
invasion of 1840, and other inroads were a part of
the fruit springing from the intrigues of Filisola and
Canalizo.
These entire facts, in their connection and rela-
tion to each other, have never before been pub-
lished ; and while some minor details have been
omitted, it is believed every material fact has been
correctly stated.
In subsequent years contradictory statements
were made as to the manner of Cordova's death, or
rather, as to who killed him. I simply state the
absolute truth as I distinctly saw the fact. The
ball ran nearly the whole length of the arm, hori-
zontally supporting his gun, and then entered his
breast, causing instant death. I stated the fact
openly and repeatedly on the ground after the
battle and no one then asserted differently.
Caldwell's Company of six months' men, while
failing to have any engagement, rendered valuable
service in protecting the settlers, including Gonzales
and Seguin, on the Guadalupe, the San Marcos and
La Vaca. In the summer of 1839, Capt. Caldwell
also furnished and commanded an escort to Ben
McCulloch in survej'ing and opening a wagon road
from Gonzales to the proposed new capital of Texas,
then being laid out at Austin, the course, from the
court house at Gonzales, being N. 17° W., and the
distance, by actual measurement, fifty-five and one-
fourth miles. Referring back to numerous trips
made on that route from soon after its opening in
1839 to the last one in 1869, the writer has ever
been of the impression that (outside of mountains
and swa;mps), it was the longest road for its meas-
ured length, he ever traveled.
The Expulsion of the Cherokees from Texas in 1839.
When the revolution against Mexico broke out in
Texas in September, 1835, all of what is now called
North Texas, excepting small settlements in the
present territory of Bowie, Red river and the
northeast corner of Lamar counties, was without a
single white inhabitant. It was a wilderness bccu-
pied or traversed at will by wild Indians. The
Caddos, more or less treacherous, and sometimes
committing depredations, occupied the country
around Caddo and Soda lakes, partly in Texas and
partly in Louisiana. The heart of East Texas, as
now defined, was then the home of one branch of
the Cherokees and their twelve associate bands, the
Shawnees, Kickapoos, Delawares and others who
had entered the country from the United States
from about 1820 to 1835. It has been shown in
previous chapters that in 1822 three of their chiefs
visited the city of Mexico to secure a grant of land
and failed: how in 1826, two of their best and
most talented men, John Dunn Hunter and —
Fields, visited that capital on a similar mission ancJ
failed, returning soured against the Mexican gov-
ernment; how, in the autumn of that year, in con-
sequence of that failure, they united with Col.
Haden Edwards, himself outraged by Mexican in-
justice, as the head of a colony, in opposition to
the Mexican government, in what was known as
the Fredonian war, and how, being seduced from
their alliance with Edwards through the promises
of Ellis P. Bean, as an agent of Mexico, they
turned upon and murdered Hunter and Fields,
their truest and best friends, and joined the Mexi-
can soldiery to drive the Americans from Nacog-
doches and Edwards' colony.
So, when the revolution of 1835 burst forth, the
provisional government of Texas, through Gen.
Sam. Houston and Col. Jno. Forbes, commissioners,
in February, 1836, formed a treaty with them]
conceding them certain territory and securing their
neutrality, so far as paper stipulations could do it.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
67
But it was soon suspected that Mexicans were
among them, and when it became known that the
whole population west of the Trinity must flee to
the east of that stream, if not to and across the
Sabine, perhaps two or three thousand men — hus-
bands, fathers and sons — were deterred from join-
ing Gen. Houston's little band of three hundred at
Gonzales, in its retreat, from March 13th to April
20th, to the plains of San Jacinto. It was a fear-
ful moment. Being appealed to, on the ground
that these were United States Indians, Gen.
Edmund P. Gaines, the commander at Fort Jessup,
near Natchitoches, Louisiana, encamped a regiment
of dragoons on the east bank of the Sabine, which
was readily understood by the Indians to mean that
if they murdered a single Texian family, these
dragoons would cross that river and be hurled upon
them. This had the desired effect.
Again, in the early summer of 1836, when a
second and much more formidable invasion of
Texas seemed imminent, it became known that
Mexican emissaries were again among these In-
dians, and great apprehensions were felt of their
rising in arms as the Mexicans advanced. Presi-
dent David G. Burnet, on the 28th of June, at the
suggestion of Stephen F. Austin, who had arrived
at Velasco on the 26th from the United States,
addressed a letter to Gen. Gaines, asking him for
the time being, to station a force at Nacogdoches,
to overawe the Indians. Austin also wrote him of
the emergency. That noble and humane old soldier
and patriot assumed the responsibility and dis-
patched Col. Whistler with a regiment of dragoons
to take post at Nacogdoches. This had the desired
effect on the Indians. The Mexican invasion did
not occur, and the crisis passed.
But the seeds of suspicion and discord between
the whites and Indians still existed. Isolated mur-
ders and lesser outrages began to show themselves
soon afterwards. The Pearce family, the numer-
ous family of tlie Killoughs and numerous others
were ruthlessly murdered.
Gen. Houston, who had great influence with the
Cherokees, interposed his potential voice to allay
the excitement and preserve the peace. In
, 1838, Vicente Cordova headed an insur-
rection of the Mexicans of Nacogdoches and took
position in the Cherokee country, — and sustained
more or less by that tribe, and joined by a few of
them, greatly incensed the whites against them.
In November, 1838, Gen. Busk fought and
defeated a strong force of Kickapoo and other
Indians. Gen. Houston retired from his first
presidential term in December, and was succeeded
by Gen. Mirabeau B. Lamar, who was in deep
sympathy with the people, and had probably
brought with him from Georgia a measure of
prejudice against those who had fought and slain
his kindred and fellow-citizens in that State.
President Lamar resolved on the removal of
these people from the heart of East Texas, and
their return to their kindred west of Arkansas — by
force if necessary. He desired to pay them for
their improvements and other losses. He ap-
pointed Vice-president David G. Burnet, Gen.
Albert Sidney Johnston, Secretary of War, Hugh
McLeod, Adjutant-general, and Gen. Thomas J.
Rusk to meet and treat with them for their peace-
ful removal ; but if that failed then they were to be
expelled by force. To be prepared for the latter
contingency, he ordered Col. Edward Burleson,
then in command of the regular army, to march
from Austin to the appointed rendezvous in the
Cherokee country, with two companies of regulars
and the volunteer companies of Capts. James
Ownsby and Mark B. Lewis, about two hundred
strong, and commanded by Maj. William J.
Jones, still living at Virginia Point, opposite Gal-
veston. On the ground they found the com-
missioners and about the same time Gen. Kelsey
H. Douglas arrived with several hundred East
Texas militia and took chief command. Burleson
took with him also Capt. Placido, with forty
Toncahua warriors.
After three days' negotiation terms were verbally
agreed upon. The Indians ' were to leave the
country for a consideration. The second day fol-
lowing was fixed for signing the treat j-. But the
Indians did not appear. The rendezvous was
ten miles from their settlements. Scouts sent out
returned reporting the Indians in force moving off.
It turned out that Bowles, the principal chief, had
been finessing for time to assemble all his warriors
and surprise the whites by a superior force. His
reinforcements not arriving in time, he had begun
falling back to meet them. Col. Burleson was
ordered to lead the pursuit. He pressed forward
rapidly and late in the afternoon (it being July
16th, 1839), came up with them and had a severe
engagement, partly in a small prairie and partly in
heavy timber, into which Burleson drove them,
when night came on and our troops encamped. I
now quote from the narrative of Maj. Wm. J.
Jones, who was under Burleson in the first as well
as the last engagement on the 17th of July. He
says : —
"It soon became apparent that the reinforce-
ments looked for by Bowles had not reached him
and that he was falling back to meet them. This
he succeeded in accomplishing next morning (the
68
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
17th day of July), at the Delaware village, now in
Cherokee County, occupying an eminence in the
open post oaks, with the heavily timbered bottom
of the Neches in their immediate rear. When our
forces overtook them the main body of the enemy
were in full sight occupying the eminence where the
village was located, while a detachment was posted
in a ravine, tortuous in its course, and was
intended to conceal their movements towards our
rear, with a view'to throw themselves between our
men and their horses. But the watchful eye of
Col. Burleson, who well understood the Indian
tactics, discovered this movement in good time,
when he ordered his entire force of three hundred
men to charge and drive the Indians from their
place of concealment. Although the weather was
extremely hot and the men all famished for water,
this order was executed with promptness, routing
the Indians and driving them back to.wards the
village, surrounded by fences and cornfields.
■Gen. Rusk, with all the force (about 400) of East
Texas under his immediate* command, had in the
m-eantime advanced upon the enemy's front and
kept them so hotly engaged in defense of fheir
women and children that no reinforcement could
be spared from that quarter for the support of
those who had been driven from the ravine. When
they retreated upon the main body, their entire
force was terrorized and fell back in great disorder
upon the cornfields, then in full bearing, and the
dense timber of the river bottom. It was here that
Bowles evinced the most desperate intrepidity, and
made several unavailing efforts to rally his trusted
warriors. * * * it was in his third and last
effort to restore his broken and disordered ranks,
that he met his death, mounted upon a very fine
sorrel horse, with blaze face and four white feet.
He was shot in the back, near the spine, with a
musket ball and three buckshot. He breathed
a short while only after his fall. * * *
" After this defeat and the loss of their great and
trusted chief," the Indians disappeared, in the
jungles of the Neches and, as best they could, in
squads, retreated up the country, the larger por-
tion finally joining their countrymen west of
Arkansas ; but as will be seen a band of them led
by John Bowles (son of the deceased chief) and
Egg, en route to Mexico, were defeated, these two
leaders killed and twenty-seven women and children
■captured, near the mouth of the San Saba, on
Christmas day, 1839, by Col. Burleson. These cap-
tives were afterwards sent to the Cherokee Nation,
The victory at the Delaware village freed East
Texas of those Indians. It had become an imper-
ative necessity to the safety and population of the
country. Yet let it not be understood that all of
EIGHT was with the whites and all of wrong with
the Indians — for that would be false and unjust,
and neither should stain our history. From their
standpoint the Cherokees believed they had a
moral, an equitable, and, at least, a quasi-legal
right to the country, and such is truth. But be-
tween Mexican emissaries on the one hand, mis-
chievous Indians on the other and the grasping
desire of the unprincipled land grabbers for their
territory, one wrong produced a counter wrong
until blood flowed and women and children were
sacrificed by the more lawless of the Indians, and
we have seen the result. All the Indians were not
bad, nor were all the whites good. Their expul-
sion, thus resolved into the necessity of self-preser-
vation, is not without shades of sorrow. But it has
been ever thus where advancing civilization and its
opposite have been brought into juxtaposition for
the mastery.
But to return to the battle-field of Delaware vil-
lage. Many heroic actions were performed. Vice-
president Burnet, Gen. Johnston and Adjt.-Gen.
McLeod were each wounded, but not dangerously
so. Maj. David S. Kaufman, of the militia
(afterwards the distinguished congressman), was
shot in the cheek. Capt. S. W. Jordan, of the
regulars (afterwards, by his retreat in October,
1840, from Saltillo, styled the Xenophon of his
age), was severely wounded when Bowles was
killed, and one of his privates, with " buck and
ball," says Maj. Jones, " had the credit of killing
Bowles."
[In a letter dated Nacogdoches, July 27, 1885,
Mr. C. N. Bell, who was in the fight under Capt.
Robert Smith, and is vouched for as a man of in-
tegrity, says: " Chief Bowles was wounded in the
battle, and after this Capt. Smith and I found him.
He was sitting in the edge of a little prairie on the
Neches river. The chief asked for no quarter.
He had a holster of pistols, a sword and a bowie
knife. Under the circumstances the captain was
compelled to shoot him, as the chief did not surren-
der nor ask for quarter. Smith put his pistol right
to his head and shot him dead, and of course had no
use for the sword." So says Mr. Bell, but the in-
quisitive mind will fail to see the compulsive neces-
sity of killing the disabled chief when his slayer
was enabled "to put his pistol right to his head
and shoot him dead." I well remember in those
days, however, that the names of half a dozen men
were paraded as the champions, who, under as
many different circumstances, had killed Bowles.]
Inthis battle young Wirt Adams was the Adjutant
of Maj. Jones' battalion. He was the distinguished
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
69
Mississippi Confederate General who was killed in
some sort of personal diflSculty a year or two years
ago. Michael Chavallier, subsequently distinguished
as a Texas ranger, drew his maiden sword in this
fight. Maj. Henry W. Augustine, of San Augustine,
was severely wounded in it. Charles A. Ogsbury,
now of Cuero, was a gallant member of Capt. Owns-
by's Company. John H. Reagan,* then a youth,
recently arrived in the country, was in the hottest of
the engagement, and now sits in the Senate of the
United States. David Rusk, standing six feet six
in his stocking feet, was there, as valiant as on San
Jacinto's field. The ever true, ever cool and ever
fearless Burleson covered himself with glory and by
his side rode the stately and never faltering chief,
Capt. Placido, who would have faced "devils and
demons dire " rather than forsake his friend and
beau ideal of warriors, "Col. Woorleson," as he
always pronounced the name.
1 cannot give a list of casualties, but the
number of wounded was large ^- of killed
small.
Col. Burleson's Christmas Fight in 1839 — Death of Chiefs John
Bowles and the " Egg."
After the double defeat of the Cherokees in East
Texas, in the battle of July 16th and 17th, the
whereabouts of those Indians was unknown for a
considerable time. Doubtless a considerable por-
tion of them sought and found refuge among their
kindred on the north side of the Arkansas, where
Texas had long desired them to be. The death of
their great chief, Col. Bowles, or "The Bowl," as
his people designated him — the man who had been
their Moses for many years — had divided their
counsels and scattered them. But a considerable
body remained intact under the lead of the younger
chiefs, John Bowles, son of the deceased, and
"The Egg." In the autumn of 1839, these, with
their followers, undertook to pass across the coun-
try, above the settlements, into Mexico, from which
they could harass our Northwestern frontier with
impunity and find both refuge and protection
beyond the Rio Grande and among our national
foes.
At that time it happened that Col. Edward Bur-
leson, then of the regular army, with a body of
regulars, a few volunteers and Lipan and Toncahua
Indians as scouts, was on a winter campaign against
the hostile tribes in the upper country, between the
Brazos and the Colorado rivers.
On the evening of December 23d, 1839, when
about twenty-five miles (easterly) from Pecan
bayou, the scouts reported the discovery of a large
trail of horses and cattle, bearing south towards
* Since above was written, resigned from United
States Senate, and is now a member of the Texas State
Bailroad Commission.
the Colorado river. On the following day Col. Bur-
leson changed his course and followed the trail.
On the morning of the 25th, Christmas day, the
scouts returned and reported an encampment of
Indians about twelve miles distant, on the west
bank of the Colorado and about three miles below
the mouth of the San Saba. (This was presumably
the identical spot from which Capts. Kuykendall
and Henry S. Brown drove the Indians ten years
before in 1829.)
Fearing discovery if he waited for a night attack.
Col. Burleson determined to move forward as
rapidly as possible, starting at 9 a. m. By great
caution and the cunning of his Indian guides he
succeeded in crossing the river a short distance
above the encampment without being discovered.
When discovered within a few hundred yards of
the camp, a messenger met them and proposed a
parley. Col. Burleson did not wish to fire if they
would surrender ; but perceiving their messenger
was being detained, the Indians opened a brisk
fire from a ravine in rear of their camp, which was
promptly returned by Company B. under Capt.
Clendenin, which formed under cover of some
trees and fallen timber ; while the remainder of the
command moved to the right in order to flank their
left or surround tkem; but before this could be
executed, our advance charged and the enemy
gave way, and a running fight took place for two
miles, our whole force pursuing. Favored by a
rocky precipitous ravine, and a dense cedar brake,
the warriors chiefly escaped, but their loss was
great. Among the seven warriors left dead on
the field were the Chiefs John Bowles and "The
70
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Egg." The whole of their camp equipage, horses
and cattle, one man, five women and nineteen
children fell into the hands of the victors. Among
the prisoners were the mother, three children and
two sisters of John Bowles.
Our loss was one Toncahua wounded and the
brave Capt. Lynch of the volunteers killed — shot
dead while charging among the foremost of the
advance.
The prisoners were sent under a guard com-
manded by Lieut. Moran to Austin, together with
important papers found in the camp.
Col. Burleson made his official report next day
to Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston, Secretary of
War, from which these details are derived. He
then continued his original march, scouring the
country up Pecan bayou, thence across to the
Leon and down the country. Several bodies of
Indians were discovered by the scouts — one being
large — but they fled and avoided the troops.
Two soldiers deserted on the trip, and both were
killed by the hostiles. Among others in this
expedition were Col. Wm. S. Fisher, Maj. Wyatt,
the gallant Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Lieut. Lewis,
Dr. Booker and Dr. (then Capt.) J. P. B. Jan-
uary, who died in Victoria, Texas, a worthy sur-
vivor of the men of '36.
A few months later, after an amicable under-
standing, the prisoners were sent to their kindred
in the Cherokee Nation, west of Arkansas.
Bird's Victory and Death in 1839.
In 1839 the savages, flushed with many trophies,
became exceedingly bold, and were constantly
committing depredations. The settlers on the
upper Brazos, Colorado and Trinity called upon
the government for some measure of relief and
protection. Under an Act of the Congress in the
beginning of that year several companies of three
months' rangers were called out.
The fraction of a company, thirty-four men,
recruited in Houston, and under the command of
Lieut. William G. Evans, marched from that city
and reached Fort Milam the 3d of April, 1839.
This fort, situated two miles from the present town
of Marlin, had been built by Capt. Joseph Daniels,
with the Milam Guards, a volunteer company, also
from Houston. William H. Weaver was Orderly
Sergeant of Evans' Company. Evans was directed
to afford all the protection in his power to the
settlers.
A company of fifty-nine men from Fort Bend
and Austin counties, was mustered into the ser-
vice for three months, on the 21st of April, 1839,
under the command of Capt. John Bird, and
reached Fort Milam on the 6th of May. Capt.
Bird, as senior officer, took command of both com-
panies, but leaving Evans in the fort, he quartered
in some deserted houses on the spot where Marlin
now stands.
Nothing special transpired for some little time,
but their provisions gave out, and the men were
compelled to subsist on wild meat alone. This
occasioned some murmurs and seven men became
mutinous, insomuch, as, in the opinion of Bird, to
demand a court-martial ; but there were not
officers enough to constitute such a tribunal, and
after their arrest he determined to send them under
guard to Col. Burleson, at Bastrop. For this pur-
pose twelve men were detailed under First-Lieut.
James Irvine. At the same time Bird detailed
twelve men, including Sergt. Weaver, from Evans'
command, to strengthen his own company, and
determined to bear company with the prisoners
on a portion of the route towards Bastrop.
They reached the deserted fort on Little river on
the night of the 25th of June and camped. Next
morning, leaving Lieut. Wm. R. Allen in charge,
Bird and Nathan Brookshire accompanied the
guard and prisoners for a few miles on their route
and then retraced their steps towards the fort.
On the way, they came upon three Indians, skin-
ning a buffalo, routed them and captured a horse
loaded with meat.
About 9 o'clock a. m., and during Bird's ab-
sence, a small party of Indians, on the chase, ran
a gang of buffaloes very near the/fort, but so soon
as they discovered the Americans they retreated
north over the rolling prairie. Sergt. Weaver
was anxious to pursue them, but Allen refused,
lest by so doing they should expose Bird and
Brookshire. So soon as the latter arrived, and
were informed of what had been seen, Bird directed
an examination into the condition of their arms.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
71
and ordered "To horse," and a rapid march In
the direction the Indians had gone, leaving two
men in the fort as guard. In about four miles
they came in view of fifteen or twenty Indians and
chased without overhauling them. The enemy
were well mounted and could easily elude them,
but seemed only to avoid gun-shot distance, and
continued at a moderate speed on the same course,
through the broken prairie. Now and then, a sin-
gle Indian would dart oft in advance of his com-
rades and disappear, and after pursuing them some
four or five miles small parlies of well mounted
Indians would frequently appear and join the first
body; but still the retreat and the pursuit were
continued.
After traveling some twelve miles in this way,
through the prairie, the Indian force had been ma-
terially augmented, and they halted and formed on
the summit of a high ridge. Bird, immediately
ordered a charge, which was firmly met by the
enemy and they came into close quarters and hot
work. As they mingled with the Indians on the
elevated ridge, one of Bird's men, pointing to the
next ridge beyond, sang out: "Look yonder,
boys! What a crowd of Indians! " and the little
band of forty-five men beheld several hundred
mounted warriors advancing at full speed. They
immediately surrounded our men and poured a
heavy fire among them. The intrepid Weaver
directed Capt. Bird's attention to a ravine two hun-
dred j'ards distant and at the base of the hill, as an
advantageous position. Bird, preserving the ut-
most composure amid the shower of bullets and
arrows, ordered his men to dismount, and leading
their horses in solid column, to cut their way down
to the position named.
Cutting their way as best they could, they reached
the head of the little ravine and made a lodgment
for both men and horses, but a man named H. M.
C. Hall, who had persisted in remaining on his
horse, was mortally wounded in dismounting on
the bank. This ravine was in the open prairie with
a ridge gradually ascending from its head and on
either side, reaching the principal elevations at
from two hundred and fifty to three hundred
yards. For about eighty yards the ravine had
washed out into a channel, and then expanded
into a flat surface. Such localities are com-
mon in the rolling prairies of Texas. The party
having thus secured this, the only defensible point
within their reach, the enemy collected to the
number of about six hundred on the ridge, stripped
for battle and hoisted a beautiful flag of blue and
red, perhaps the trophy of some precious victory.
Sounding a whistle they mounted and at a gentle
and beautifully regular gallop in single file, they
commenced encircling Bird and his little band,
using their shields with great dexterity. Passing
round the head of the ravine then turning in front
of the Texian line, at about thirty yards — a trial
always the most critical to men attacked by supe-
rior numbers, and one, too, that created among
Bird's men a death-like silence and doubtless tested
every nerve — the leading chief saluted them with:
"How do you do? How do you do?" repeated
by a number of his followers. At that moment,
says one of the party, my heart rose to my throat
and I felt like I could outrun a race-horse and I
thought all the rest felt just as I did. But, just as
the chief had repeated the salutation the third time,
William Winkler, a Dutchman, presented his rifle
with as much self-composure as if he had been
shooting a beef, at the same time responding: " I
dosh tolerably well; how dosh you do, God tarn
you! " He fired, and as the chief fell, he con-
tinued: '■'■Now, how dosh you do, you tam red
rascal ! " Not another word had been uttered up to
that moment, but the dare-devil impromptu of the
iron-nerved Winkler operated as an electric battery,
and our men opened on the enemy with loud and
defiant hurrahs — the spell was broken, and not a
man among them but felt himself a hero. Their
first fire, however, from the intensity of the ordeal,
did little execution, and in the charge, Thomas Gay
fell dead in the ditch, from a rifle ball.
Recoiling under the fire, the Indians again formed
on the hill and remained about twenty minutes,
when a second charge was made in the same order,
but in which they made a complete circuit around
the Texians dealing a heavy fire among them. But
the nerves of the inspirited defenders had now be-
come steady and their aim was unerring — they
brought a goodly number of their assailants to the
ground. They paid bitterly for it, however, in the
loss of the fearless Weaver, who received a death
ball in the head, and of Jesse E. Nash, who was
killed by an arrow, while Lieut. Allen and George
W. Hensell were severely wounded and disabled ;
and as the enemy fell back a second time, Capt.
Bird jumped on to the bank to encourage his men ;
but only to close his career on earth. He was shot
through the heart with an arrow by an Indian at
the extraordinary distance of two hundred yards —
the best arrow shot known in the annals of Indian
warfare, and one that would seem incredible to
those who are not familiar with their skill in shoot-
ing by elevation.
They were now left without an officer. Nathan
Brookshire, who had served in the Creek war under
Jackson, was the oldest man in the company, and
72
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
at the suggestion of Samuel A. Blain, was unani-
mously called upon to assume the command. He
assented, and requited the confidence reposed in a
most gallant manner.
For the third time, after a brief delay on the
ridge, the enemy came down in full force, with ter-
rific yells, and an apparent determination to triumph
or sacrifice themselves. They advanced with impet-
uosity to the very brink of the ditch, and, recoiling
under the most telling fire from our brave boys,
they would rally again and again with great firmness.
Dozens of them fell within twenty or thirty feet of
our rifles — almost every shot killed or wounded an
Indian. Brookshire's stentorian voice was heard
through the lines in words of inspiring counsel.
The stand made by the enemy was truly desperate ;
but the death-dealing havoc of the white man, fight-
ing for victory or death, was too galling for the red
man, battling for his ancient hunting-grounds, and
after a prolonged contest, they withdrew with sullen
stubbornness to the same position on the ridge, leav-
ing many of their comrades on the field. It was
now drawing towards night, and our men, wearied
with the hard day's work, and not wishing to pro-
voke a feeling of desperation among the discom-
fited foe, concluded it would be unwise to hurrah
any more, as they had done, unless in resisting a
charge.
The Indians drew up into a compact mass on the
ridge and were vehemently addressed by their prin-
cipal chief, mounted on a beautiful horse and
wearing on his head a buffalo skin cap, with the
horns attached. It was manifest, from his manner
and gesticulations, that he was urging his braves
to another and last desperate struggle for victory —
but it would not do. The crowd was defeated.
But not so with their heroic chief. Failing to
nerve the mass, he resolved to lead the few who
might follow him. With not exceeding twelve
warriors, as the forlorn hope, and proudly waving
defiance at his people, he made one of the most
daring assaults in our history, charging within a
few paces of our lines, fired, and wheeling his
horse, threw his shield over his shoulders, leaving
his head and neck only exposed. At this moment,
the chivalrous young James W. Robinett sent a
ball through his neck, causing instant death, ex-
claiming, as the chief fell, "Shout boys! I struck
him where his neck and shoulders join! " A tre-
mendous hurrah was the response. The Indians on
the hill side, spectators of the scene, seeing their
great war chief fall within thirty feet of the Amer-
icans, seemed instantly possessed by a reckless
frenzy to recover his body; and with headlong
impetuosity, rushed down and surrounded the
dead chief, apparently heedless of their own dan-
ger, while our elated heroes poured among them
awful havoc, every ball telling upon some one of
the huge and compact mass. This struggle was
short, but deadly. They bore away the martyred
chief, but paid a dear reckoning for the privilege.
It was now sunset. The enemy had counted
our men — they knew their own force — and so
confident were they of perfect victory, that they
were careful not to kill our horses, only one of
which fell. But they were sadly mistaken — they
were defeated with great loss, and as the sun was
closing the day, they slowly and sullenly moved
off, uttering that peculiar guttural howl — that
solemn, Indian wail — which all old Indian fighters
understand.
Brookshire, having no provisions and his heroic
men being exhausted from the intense labors of
the day, thought it prudent to fall back upon the
fort the same night. Hall, Allen and Hensell were
carried in, the former dying soon after reaching
there. The next day Brookshire sent a runner to
Nashville, fifty miles. On the second day, his
provisions exhausted, he moved the company also
to Nashville. Mr. Thompson received them with
open arms and feasted them with the best he had.
Brookshire made a brief report of the battle to the
Government, and was retained in command till
their three months' term of service expired, with-
out any other important incident. " Bird's Vic-
tory," as this battle has been termed, spread a
gloom among the Indians, the first serious repulse
the wild tribes had received for some time, and its
effect was long felt.
I have before me copies of the muster rolls of
both Bird's and Evans' companies, in which are
designated those who were in the battle, excepting
one person. The list does not show who composed
the prisoners or guard. Lieut. Irvine and L. M.
H. Washington, however, were two of the guards.
As the muster rolls have been burnt in the Adjutant-
General's ofHce, these rolls are the more important
and may be preserved in this sketch. The names
are classed and hereto appended.
bird's company.
Those known to be in the fight were : John Bird,
Captain ; Wm. R. Allen, Second Lieutenant ; Wm.
P. Sharp, Second Sergeant; Wm. P. Bird, First
Corporal. Privates : Nathan Brookshire (Captain
after Bird's death), William Badgett, James
Brookshire, Tillman C. Fort, James Hensley,
William Hensley, H. M. C. Hall, J. H. Hughes,
A. J. Ivey, Edward Jocelyn, Lewis Kleberg, Green
B. Lynch, Jesse E. Nash, Jonathan Peters, William
^
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Jf •• iM
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GEN. BEN. McCDLLOCH.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
73
Peters, E. Rector, Milton Bradford, Warren Hast-
ings, T. W, Lightfoot, G. W. Pentecost, Eli Fore-
man, A. G. Parker, Daniel Bradley, Geo. W.
Hensel, Benj. P. Kuyger, John D. Thompson,
Joseph H. Slack, Thomas Bradford — 32 and one
omitted — say 33. Left in charge of the fort,
Joseph S. Marsh and F. G. Woordward — 2. Ab-
sent (as before stated, including the man in the
fight not remembered), James Irvine, First Lieuten-
ant. Privates : Bela Vickery, Wm. Blair, Second
Corporal, George Allen, Wm. Ayres, Joshua O.
Blair, Lewis L. Hunter, W. Hickson, Neil Mc-
Crarey, J. D. Marshall, James Martin, J. W.
Stoddard, Henry Verm, Joseph H. Barnard,
Stephen Goodman, M. J. Hannon, C. Beisner,
Jackson E. Burdick, James M. Moreton, .Joseph
McGuines, Wm. J. Hodge, Charles Waller, L. M.
H. Washington, John Atkinson, Joshua O. Blair —
25.
LIEUT. EVANS' COMPANY.
Those in the fight were: William H. Weaver,
First Sergeant ; Samuel A. Blain, Second Corporal ;
Privates: Thomas Gay, Charles M. Gevin, W. W.
Hanman, Robert Mills, Thomas S. Menefee, H. A.
Powers, James M. Robinett, John Romann, William
Winkler, Thos. Robinett — 12. Those left at Fort
Milam were : Wm. G. Evans, First Lieutenant ;
J. O. Butler, Second Sergeant; Thos. Brown,
First Corporal ; A. Bettinger, Musician ; Privates:
Charles Ball, Littleton Brown, Grafton H. Boatler,
D. W. Collins, Joseph Flippen, Abner Frost, James
Hickey, Hezekiah Joner, John Kirk, Laben Mene-
fee, Jarrett Menefee, Thomas J. Miller, Frederick
Pool, Washington Rhodes, Jarrett Ridgway, John
St. Clair, John Weston, Thomas A. Menefee — 22.
Joseph Mayor crippled and left in Houston — total
company, 35.
RECAPITULATION.
Bird's men in the battle 33
Evans' " " " 12—45
Bird's men not in the fight 26
Evans' " " " " 22—48
Aggregate force of both commands 93
The classification of the names was made by one
of those in the battle, from memory. It may pos-
sibly be slightly incorrect in that particular ; but
the rolls of each company as mustered in are
official.
Ben McCulloch's Peach Creek Fight in 1839.
Among the survivors of that day, it is remem-
bered as a fact and by those of a later day, as a
tradition, that in February, 1839, there fell through-
out South and Southwest Texas, the most destruc-
tive sleet ever known in the country. Great trees
were bereft of limbs and tops by the immense
weight of ice, and bottoms, previously open and
free of underbrush, were simply choked to impassa-
bility by fallen timber. The cold period continued
for ten or twelve days, while ice and snow, shielded
from the sun, lay upon the ground for a much
longer period. This occurred in the latter half of
February, 1839, in the same year but several
months before Austin, or rather the land upon
which it stands, was selected as the future seat of
government.
At that lime Ben McCuIloch, who had entered
Texas just in time to command a gun at San
Jacinto, was a young man in his twenty-eighth year
residing at Gonzales, having been joined by his
brother, Henry E., his junior by several years.
during the preceding year. At the same time the
Toncahua tribe of Indians were encamped at the
junction of Peach and Sandy creeks, about fifteen
miles northeast of Gonzales.
Just prior to this great sleet Ben McCulloch had
made an agreement with a portion of the Toncahuas
to join him and such white men as he could secure
in a winter expedition against the hostile Indians
above. The sleet postponed the enterprise and,
when the weather partially resumed its usual
temperature, it was difficult to enlist either whites
or Indians in the contemplated enterprise. Both
dreaded a recurrence of the storm. But following
Moore's San Saba trip and in hope of recovering
Matilda Lockhart and the Putman children, Mc-
Culloch deemed that an auspicious time to make
such a trip, and about the first of March left the
Toncahua village for the mountains. The party
consisted of five white men — Ben McCulloch, Wil-
son Randall, John D. Wolfin, David Hanson and
Henry E. McCulloch — and thirty-five Toncahua
74
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
warriors commanded by their well-lsnown and wily
old chief, " Capt. Jim Kerr," a name that he
assumed in 1826 as an evidence of his friendship
for the first settler of Gonzales, after that gentle-
man had been broken up by other Indians in July
of that year. The medicine man of the party was
Chico.
On the second day out and on the head waters of
Peach creek, they struck a fresh trail of foot
Indians, bearing directly for Gonzales. This, of
course, changed their plans. Duty to their threat-
ened neighbors demanded that they should follow
and break up this invading party.
They followed the trail rapidly for three or four
hours and then came in sight of the enemy, who
promptly entered an almost impenetrable thicket
bordering a branch and in a post oak country.
The hostiles, concealed from view, had every
advantage, "and every attempt to reach a point from
which they could be seen or flred upon was ex-
posing the party attempting it to the fire of the
unseen enemy. Several hours passed in which
occasional shots were fired. From the first Capt.
Jim refused to enter or allow his men to enter the
thicket, saying the dangei was too great and Ton-
cahuas too scarce to run such hazards. One of
his men, however, from behind the only tree well
situated for defense, was killed, the only loss sus-
tained by the attacking party. Finally, impatient
of delay and dreading the approach of night,
McCulloch got a promise from Capt. Jim to so
place his men around the lower end of the thicket
as to kill any who might attempt to escape, while
he, his brother, Randall and Henson would crawl
through it from the upper end. Wolfln declined a
ticket in what he regarded as so dangerous a lot-
tery. Slowly they moved, observing every possible
precaution till — " one by one " — each of the four
killed an Indian and two or three others were
wounded. The assailed Indians fired many shots
and arrovrs, but seemed doomed to failure. In
thickets nothing is so effective as the rifle ball.
Finally the survivors of the enemy (nine of an
original thirteen) emerged in the branch at the
lower end of the thicket and were allowed by Capt.
Jim to escape. When the whites effected an exit
the enemy was beyond reach, sheltered in a yet
larger thicket.
This closed the campaign. The Toncahuas,
scalping the four dead hostiles, felt impelled by a
patriotic sense of duty to hasten home and celebrate
their victory. They fleeced off portions of the
thighs and breasts of the dead and all started in ;
but they soon stopped on the way and went through
most of the mystic ceremonies attending a war
dance, thoroughly commingling weird wails over
their fallen comrade with their wild and equally
weird exultations over their fallen foes. This cere-
mony over, they hastened home to repeat the savage
scenes with increased ferocity. McCulloch and
party, more leisurely, returned to Gonzales, to be
welcomed by the people who had thus been pro-
tected from a night attack by the discomfited
invaders. Such inroads by foot Indians almost
invariably resulted in the loss of numerous horses,
and one or more — alas ! sometimes many — lives
to the settlers.
This was forty-eight and a half years ago ; yet,
as I write this, on the 19th day of August, 1887,
Henry E. McCulloch, hale, well-preserved and spot-
less before his countrymen, is my guest at the
ex-Confederate reunion in Dallas, and verifies the
accuracy of this narrative. Our friendship began
later in that same year, and every succeeding year
has been an additional record of time, attesting a
friendship lacking but eighteen months of ha f a
century. After 1839 his name is interwoven with
the hazards of the Southwestern frontier, as Texas
ranger — private, lieutenant and captain — down
to annexation in 1846 ; then a captain in and after
the Mexican war under the United States ; later as
the first Confederate colonel in Texas, and from
April, 1862, to the close of the war, as a brigadier-
general in the Confederate army.
Moore's Defeat on the San Saba, 1839.
In consequence of the repeated and continued
inroads of the Indians through 1837 and 1838, at
the close of the latter year Col. John. H. Moore,
of Fayette, already distinguished alike for gallantry
and patriotism, determined to chastise them. Call-
ing for volunteers from the thinly settled country
around him, he succeeded in raising a force of .fifty-,
five whites, forty-two Lipan and twelve Toncahua
Indians, an aggregate of one hundred and nine.
Col. Castro, chief of the Lipans, commanded his
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
75
warriors, assisted by the rising and ever faithful
young chief, Flacco, whose memory is honored,
and whose subsequent peifldious fate is and ever
has been deplored by every pioneer of Texas.
Among this little troup of whites was Mr. Andrew
Lockhart, of the Guadalupe, impelled by an
agonizing desire to rescue his beautiful little
daughter, Matilda, who had been captured with
the four Putman children near his home. Her
final recovery, at the time of the Council House
fight in San Antonio, on the 19th of March, 1840,
is narrated in another chapter.
The advance scouts reported to Col. Moore the
discovery of a large Comanche encampment, with
many horses, on. the San Saba river, yet the sequel
showed that they failed to realize its magnitude in
numbers.
With adroit caution that experienced frontiers-
man, by a night march, arrived in the vicinity be-
fore the dawn of day, on the 12th of February,
1839, a clear, frosty morning. They were in a
favored position for surprising the foe, and wholly
undiscovered. At a given signal every man un-
derstood his duty. Castro, with a portion of the
Indians, was to stampede the horses grazing in the
valley and rush with them beyond recovery. The
whites and remaining Indians were to charge, with-
out noise, upon the village. The horses of the
■dismounted men of both colors wer§ left tied a mile
in the rear in a ravine.
As light sufficiently appeared to distinguish
friend from foe, the signal was given. With thirty
of his people the wily old Castro soon had a
thousand or more loose horses thundering over
hill and dale towards the south. Flacco, with
twelve Lipans and the twelve Toncahuas, remained
with Moore. The combined force left, numbering
seventy-nine, rushed upon the buffalo tents, firing
whenever an Indian was seen. Many were killed
in the first onset. But almost instantly the camp
was in motion, the warriors, as if by magic, rush-
ing together and fighting ; the women and children
wildly fleeing to the coverts of the bottom and
neighboring thickets. It was at this moment, amid
the screams, yells and war-whoops resounding
through the valley, that Mr. Lockhart plunged
forward in advance of his comrades, calling aloud :
" Matilda! it you are here, run to me! Your
father calls! " And though yet too dim to see
every word pierced the child's heart as she recog-
nized her father's wailing voice, while she was
lashed into a run with the retreating squaws.
The contest was fierce and bloody, till, as the
sunlight came. Col. Moore realized that he had
only struck and well-nigh destroyed the fighting
strength of the lower end of a long and powerful
encampment. The enraged savages from above
came pouring down in such numbers as to
threaten the annihilation of their assailants. Re-
treat became a necessity, demanding the utmost
courage and strictest discipline. But not a man
wavered. For the time being the stentorian voice
of their stalwart and iron-nerved leader was a law
unto all. Detailing some to bear the wounded,
with the others Moore covered them on either
fiank, and stubbornly fought his way back to the
ravine in which his horses had been left, to Sad
that every animal had already been mounted by a
Comanche, and was then curveting around them.
All that remained possible was to fight on the
defensive from the position thus secured, and this
was done with such effect that, after a prolonged
contest, the enemy ceased to assault. Excepting
occasional shots at long range by a few of the most
daring warriors, extending into the next day, the
discomfited assailants were allowed to wend their
weary way homewards. Imagine such a paity,
150 miles from home, afoot, with a hundred miles
of the way through mountains, and six of their
comrades so wounded as to perish in the wilder-
ness, or be transported on litters home by their
fellows. Such was the condition of six of the
number. They were William M. Eastland (spared
then to draw a black bean and be murdered by the
accursed order of Santa Anna in 1843); S. S. B.
Fields, a lawyer of La Grange ; James Manor,
Felix Taylor, — Lefiingwell, and — Martin, the
latter of whom died soon after reaching home.
Cicero Rufiis Perry was a sixteen-year-old boy in
this ordeal. Gonzalvo Wood was also one of the
number.
After much suffering the party reached home, pre-
ceded by Castro with the captured horses, which the
cunning old fox chiefly appropriated to his own tribe.
Col. Moore, in his victorious destruction of a
Comanche town high up the Colorado in 1840,
made terrible reclamation for the trials and adver-
sities of this expedition.
76
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The Famous Council House Fight in San Antonio, March 19,
1840 — A Bloody Tragedy — Official Details.
From the retreat of the people before Santa
Anna in the spring of 1836, down to the close of
1839, the Comanches and other wild tribes had
depredated along our entire line of frontier, steal-
ing horses, killing men, and carrying into captivity
women and children, more especially the latter,
for they often murdered the women also.
On several occasions, as at Houston in 1837, and
perhaps twice at San Antonio, they had made quasi-
treaties, promising peace and good behavior, but
on receiving presents and leaving for home they
uniformly broke faith and committed depredations.
The people and the government became outraged
at such perfidy and finally the government deter-
mined, if possible, to recover our captives and
inculcate among the hostiles respect for pledges
and a desire for peace.
The seat of government in the fall of 1839 was
removed from Houston to Austin, a newly, planned
town, forming the outside settlement on the Colo-
rado. There was not even a single cabin above or
beyond the place, west, north, or east, above the
falls of the Brazos. So stood matters when the
first day of January, 1840, arrived, with Mirabeau
B. Lamar as President, David G-. Burnet as Vice-
President, and Albert Sidney Johnston on the eve
of resigning as Secretary of War, to be succeeded
by Dr. Branch T. Archer.
On the 10th of January, 1840, from San Antonio,
Col. Henry W. Karnes (then out of office), wrote
Gen. Johnston, Secretary of War, announcing that
three Comanche chiefs had been in on the previous
day, expressing a desire for peace, stating also that
their tribe, eighteen days previously, had held a
council, agreed to ask for peace and had chosen a
prominent chief to represent them in the negotia-
tion. They said they had rejected overtures and
presents from the hostile Cherokees, and also of
the Centralists, of Mexico, who had emissaries
among their people. Col. Karnes told them no
treaty was possible unless they brought in all
prisoners and stolen property held by them. To
this they said their people had already assented in
council. They left, promising to return in twenty
or thirty days with a large party of chiefs and
warriors, prepared to make a treaty, and that all
white prisoners in their hands would be brought in
with them.
From their broken faith on former occasions, and
their known diplomatic treachery with Mexico from
time immemorial, neither the President, Secretary
of War nor Col. Karnes (who had been a prisoner
among them) had any faith in their promises, be-
yond their dread of our power to punish them.
Official action was based on this apprehension of
their intended duplicity.
On the 30th of January Lieut.-Col. William S.
Fisher, commanding the First Regiment of Infan-
try, was instructed to march three companies to San
Antonio under his own command, and to take such
position there as would enable him to detain the
Comanches, should they come in without our pris-
oners. In that case, says the order of Gen. John-
ston, " some of their number will be dispatched as
messengers to the tribe to inform them that those
retained will be held as hostages until the (our)
prisoners are delivered up, when the hostages
will be released." The instructions further sayr
"It has been usual, heretofore, to. give presents.
For the future such custom will be dispensed
with."
Following this military order, and in harmony
■with the suggestion of Col. Karnes, President Lamar
dispatched Col. Hugh McLeod, Adjutant-General,
and Col. William G. Cooke, Quartermaster-General,
as commissioners to treat with the Comanches,
should they come in, and with instructions in ac-
cord with those given Col. Fisher. They repaired
to San Antonio and awaited events.
On the 19th of March, in the morning, two Co-
manche runners entered San Antonio and announced
the arrival in the vicinity of a party of sixty-five
men, women and children, and only one prisoner,
a girl of about thirteen years, Matilda Lockhart.
In reporting the subsequent facts to the President
on the next day Col. McLeod wrote : —
"They (the Indians) came into town. The
little girl was very intelligent and told us that she
had seen several of the other prisoners at the prin-
cipal camp a few days before she left, and that they
brought her in to see if they could get a high price
for her, and, if so, they intended to bring in the
rest, one at a time.
" Having ascertained this, it became necessary
to execute your orders and take hostages for the
safe return of our people, and the order was
accordingly given by Col. William G. Cooke, act-
ing Secretary of War. Lieut.-Col. Fisher, First
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
77
Infantry, was ordered to inarch up two companies
of his command and post them in the immediate
vicinity of the council room.
" The chiefs were then called together and asked :
' Where are the prisoners you promised to bring in
to the talk?'
" Muke-war-rah, the chief who held the last talk
with us and made the promise, replied : ' We have
brought in the only one we had ; the others are with
other tribes.'
" A pause ensued because, as this was a palpa-
ble lie, and a direct violation of their pledge,
solemnly given scarcely a month since, we had the
only alternative left us. He observed this pause
and asked quickly : ' How do you like the an-
swer? '
"The order was now given to march one com-
pany into the council room and the other in rear
of the building, where the warriors were assembled.
During the execution of this order the talk was
re-opened and the terms of a treaty, directed by
your excellency to be made with them in case the
prisoners were restored, were discussed, and they
were told the treaty would be made when they
brought in the prisoners. They acknowledged
that they had violated all their previous treaties,
and yet tauntingly demanded that new confidence
should be reposed io another promise to bring in
the prisoners.
"The troops being now posted, the (twelve)
chiefs and captains were told that they were our
prisoners and would be kept as hostages for the
safety of our people then in their hands, and that
they might send their young men to the tribe, and
as soon as our friends were restored they should be
liberated.
" Capt. (George T.) Howard, whose company
was stationed in the council house, posted sentinels
at the doors and drew up his men across the
room. We told the chiefs that the soldiers they
saw were their guards, and descended from the
platform. The chiefs immediately followed. One
sprang to the back door and attempted to pass the
sentinel, who presented his musket, when the
ohief drew his knife and stabbed him. A rush
was then made to the door. Capt. Howard col-
lared one of them and received a severe stab from
him in the side, He ordered the sentinel to fire
upon him, which he immediately did, and the
Indian fell dead. They then all drew their knives
and bows, and evidently resolved to fight to the
last. Col. Fisher ordered : ' Fire, if they do not
•desist! ' The Indians rushed on, attacked us des-
perately, and a general order to fire became
necessary."
"After a short but desperate struggle every one
of the twelve chiefs and captains in the council
house lay dead upon the floor, but not until, in the
hand-to-hand struggle, they had wounded a num-
ber of persons.
"The indoor work being finished, Capt. Howard's
company was formed in front to prevent retreat in
that direction ; but, in consequence of the severity
of his wound, he was relieved by Capt. Gillen, who
commanded the company till the close of the action.
"Capt. Redd,* whose company was formed in
the rear of the council house, was attacked by the
warriors in the yard, vrho fought like wild beasts.
They, however, took refuge in some stone houses,
from which they kept up a galling fire with bows
and arrows and a few rifles. Their arrows, wher-
ever they struck one of our men, were driven to
the feather. A small party escaped across the
river, but were pursued by Col. Lysander Wells
with a few mounted men and all killed. The only
one of the whole band who escaped was a renegade
Mexican among them, who slipped away unob-
served. A single warrior took refuge in a stone
house, refusing every overture sent him by squaws,
with promise of securit}', and killing or wounding
several till, after night, when a ball of rags, soaked
in turpentine and ignited, was dropped through the
smoke escape in the roof onto his head. Thus, in a
blaze of fire, he sprang through the door and was
riddled with bullets.
" In such an action — so unexpected, so sudden
and terrific — it was impossible at times to distin-
* Note. Cap. Redd and Col. Wells fought a duel in
San Antonio later the same year and killed each other.
Judge Robinson died In San Diego, California, in 1853.
Judge Hemphill died during the Civil War, a member of
the Confederate Senate. Capt. Matthew Caldwell, then
of the regulars and a famous Indian fighter, died at his
home in Gonzales in the winter of 1842-3. Col. McLeod,
commanding a Texas regiment, died at Dumfries,
Virginia, during the Civil War. Col. William S. Fisher,
afterwards commander at Mier and a "Mier prisoner,"
died in Galveston in 1845, soon after his release. Col.
Wm. G. Cooke died at Navarro ranch, on the San Gero-
nimo, in 1847. He came as Lieutenant of the NewOrleans
Grays in 1835, succeeded Burleson as Colonel of the
regulars in 1840. He married a daughter of Don Luciano
Navarro. He was Quartermaster-General, a commis-
sioner to Santa Fe and a prisoner, and was a noble man.
Col. Henry W. Karnes died 1q San Antonio, his home, in
the autumn of 1840. Henry Clay Davis was "a volunteer
in the fleht on horseback. An Indian sprang up behind
■ him and, while trying to kill him with an arrow used as
a dirk, Davis killed him with one of the first lot of Colt's
revolvers ever brought to Texas. Davis settled at Bio
Grande City, married a Mexican lady, was once in the
Senate, and was killed accidentally by his own gun while
out hunting.
78
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
guish between the sexes, and three squaws were
killed. The short struggle was fruitful in blood.
Our losses were: —
"Killed: Judge Hood, of San Antonio; Judge
Thompson, of Houston ; Mr. Casey, of Mata-
gorda County ; Lieut. W". M. Dunnington, First
Infantry; Privates Kaminske and Whitney, and a
Mexican — 7.
"Wounded: Capt. George T. Howard, Lieut.
Edward A. Thompson and Private Kelly severely ;
Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Judge James W. Kobin-
son, Messrs. Higgenbottom, Morgan and Car-
son—8."
"John Hemphill, then District Judge and after-
ward so long Chief Justice, assailed in the council
house by a chief and slightly wounded, felt reluct-
antly compelled (as he remarked to the writer
afterwards) to disembowel his assailant with his
bowie knife, but declared that he did so under a
sense of duty, while he had no personal acquaint-
ance with nor personal ill-will towards his antag-
onist.
"The Indian loss stood: Thirty chiefs and war-
riors, 3 women and 2 children killed. Total, 35.
' ' Prisoners taken : Twenty-seven women and chil-
dren and 2 old men. Total, 29.
"Escaped, the renegade Mexican, 1. Grand
total, 65."
Over a hundred horses and a large quantity of
buffalo robes and peltries remained to the victors.
By request of the prisoners one squaw was
released, mounted, provisioned and allowed to go
to her people and say that the prisoners would be
released whenever thej' brought in the Texas
prisoners held by them.
A short time afterwards a party of Comanches
displayed a white flag on a hill some distance from
town, evidently afraid to come nearer. When a
flag was sent out, it was found that they had
brought in several white children to exchange for
their people. Their mission was successful and
they hurried away, seeming to be indeed "wild
Indians."
These are the facts as shown by the official
papers, copies of which have been in my possession
ever since the bloody tragedy. At that time a few
papers in the United States, uninformed of the
underlying and antecedent facta dictating the
action of Texas, criticised the affair with more or
less condemnation ; but the people of to-day,
enlightened by the massacre of Gen. Canby in
Oregon, the fall of the chivalrous Gen. Custer, the
hundreds of inhuman acts of barbarism along the
whole frontier of the United States, and the recent
demonisms of Geronimo and his band of cut-
throats, will realize and indorse the genuine spirit
of humanity which prompted that as the only mode
of bringing those treacherous savages to a real-
ization of the fact that their fiendish mode of
warfare would bring calamities upon their own
people. Be that as it may, the then pioneers of
Texas, with their children in savage captivity,
shed no tears on that occasion, noi' do their sur-
vivors now. Their children of to-day dispense
with that liquid, eye-yielding manifestation of
grief.
The Great Indian Raid of 1840 — Attack on Victoria — Sacking
and Burning of Linnville — Skirmish at Casa Blanca
Creek — Overthrow of the Indians
at Plum Creek.
Of this, the most remarkable Indian raid in the
annals of Texas, numerous fragmentary and often
erroneous, or extremely partial, accounts in former
years have been published. It was a sudden and
remarkable inroad by the savages, took the country
by surprise, drew the fighting population together
from different localities for a few days, to speedily
disperse to their homes, and there being no offluial
control, no one was charged with the duty of re-
cording the facts. The great majority of the par-
ticipants, as will be seen in the narrative, witnessed
but a portion, here or there, of the incident.
The writer was then nineteen years old and,
though living on the Lavaca near Victoria and Linn-
ville, happened to be with a party from that vicinity
that passed lo the upper and final field of opera.
COMANCHE WARRIORS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
79
tions — a party that saw more of the entire episode
than any other one party. More than this, he took
care at once to gather all the facts not seen by him
and made copious notes of all, which have ever
since remained in his possession. In January, 1871,
in the town of Lavaca, the successor of Linnville,
he delivered (for a benevolent purpose) to a large
audience, embracing both ladies and gentlemen
resident in that section at the time of the raid, a
lecture historically narrating the events connected
with it, and received their public thanks for its
fullness, fairness and historical accuracy. These
remarks are justified by the false statements in
" Dewees' Letters from Texas," giving the credit
of fighting the battle of Plum Creek to four com-
panies of citizen volunteers, he claiming to have
been Captain of one of them, when in fact not one
of such companies was in the fight or even saw the
Indians. Tliis falsehood was exposed by the writer
hereof, on the appearance of Dewees' book, in the
Indianola Bulletin of January, 1853, an exposure
unanswered in the intervening thirty-five years.
At the time of this raid the country between the
Guadalupe and San Marcos, on the west, and the
Colorado on the east, above a line drawn from Gon-
zales to La Grange, was a wilderness, while below
that line it was thinly settled. Between Gonzales
and Austin, on Plum creek, were two recent set-
tlers, Isom J. Goode and John A. Neill. From
Gonzales to within a few miles of La Grange there
was not a settler. There was not one between Gon-
zales and Bastrop, nor one between Austin and San
Antonio. A road from Gonzales to Austin, then in
the first year of its existence, had been opened in
July, 1839.
This Indian raid was known to and encouraged
by Gen. Valentin Canalizo, commanding in
Northern Mexico, with headquarters in Matamoras.
The Comanches were easily persuaded into it in
retaliation for their loss of thirty-odd warriors in
the Council fight in San Antonio during the previous
March. Renegade Mexicans and lawless Indians
from some of the half-civilized tribes were induced
to join it. Dr. Branch T. Archer, Secretary of
War, from information reaching him gave a warning
to the country two months earlier ; but as no enemy
appeared, the occasion became derisively known as
the " Archer war."
THE KAID.
On August 5, 1840, Dr. Joel Ponton and Tucker
Foley, citizens of the Lavaca (now Hallettsville)
neighborhood, en route to Gonzales, on the road
from Columbus and just west of Ponton's creek,
fell in with twenty-seven mounted warriors, and
were chased about three miles back to the creek.
Foley was captured, mutilated and killed. Ponton
received two wounds, but escaped, and during the
following night reached home. The alarm was
given, and next day thirty-six men, under Capt.
Adam Zumwalt, hastened to the scene, found and
buried Foley, and then pursued the trail of the
savages.*
In the meantime the mail carrier from Austin
arrived at Gonzales and reported a large and fresh
Indian trail crossing the road in the vicinity of
Plum creek, bearing towards the coast. Thereupon
twenty-four volunteers, under Ben McCuUoch, has-
tened eastwardly to" the Big Hill neighborhood,
about sixteen miles east. This is an extended
ridge bearing northeast and southwest, separat-
ing the waters of the Peach creeks of the Guad-
alupe from the heads of Rocky, Ponton's, and
other tributaries of the Lavaca and the latter
stream itself. Indian raiders, bound below,
almost invariably crossed the Columbus and
Gonzales road at the most conspicuous elevation
of this ridge — the Big Hill. Hence McCul-
loch's haste to that point. On the 6th McCuUoch
and Zumwalt united on the trail and rapidly fol-
lowed it in the direction of Victoria. Some miles
below they fell in with sixty-five men from the
Cuero (now De Witt County) settlements on the
Guadalupe, and some from Victoria, commanded
by Capt. John J. Tumlinson. The latter assumed
command of the whole 125 by request and the march
was continued.
On the same afternoon the Indians approached
Victoria. At Spring creek, above the town, they
killed four negroes belonging to Mr. Poage. On
the Texana road, east side of town, they met and
killed Col. Pinkney Caldwell, a prominent cit-
izen and soldier of 1836. They chased various
persons into the town, killing an unknown Ger-
man, a Mexican, and three more negroes. A
party hastily repaired to the suburbs to confront
the enemy. Of their number Dr. Gray, Varlan
Richardson, William McNuner and Mr. Daniels
were killed, a total of thirteen.
The Indians retired and passed the night on
Spring creek, having secured about fifteen hundred
horses and mules on the prairie in front of Victoria,
* Arthur Foley was killed in the Fannin massacre,
March 27, 1836; James Foley was killed by Mexican
marauders west of the Nueces in 1839; Tucker was the
third brother to fall as stated. They were the sons of
an eccentric but wealthy planter (Washington Green Lee
Foley), who died in Lavaca County some years ago.
The father of Dr. Ponton was killed ijy Indians near his
home, on Ponton's creek, about 1834-35.
80
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
a large portion of which, belonging to " Scotch"
Sutherland, had just arrived en route east. On
Friday, August 7, the Indians reappeared, made
serious demonstrations, but were held in checlc by
citizens under cover of houses. Securing several
hundred more horses, they bore down the country
to Nine Mile Point, where they captured young
Mrs. Crosby, a granddaughter of Daniel Boone,
and her infant. They then deflected to the east,
across the prairie in the direction of Linnville.
They camped for a portion of the night on PlaciJo
creek, killed a teamster named Stephens, but failed
to discover a Frenchman ensconced in the moss
and foliage of a giant live oak over their heads.
Moving before dawn on Sunday, August 8, as
they approached Linnville, its inhabitants entirely
unconscious of impending danger, they killed Mr.
O'Neal and two negro men belonging to Maj. H.
O. Watts. The people, believing the enemy to be
friendly Mexicans with horses to sell, realized the
fearful truth only in time to escape into the sail-
boats anchored in shoal water about one hundred
yards from shore. In attempting this, Maj.
Watts was killed in the water. His young bride,
negro woman, and a little son of the latter were
captured. There was an immense amount of goods
in the warehouses destined for San Antonio and
the Mexican trade. Rapidly were these goods
packed on horses and mules, but it consumed the
daj', and late in the afternoon every building but
one warehouse was burned, the citizens, becalmed
all day in their boats, witnessing the destruction of
their homes and business houses.
During the night the jubilant savages began their
return march for their mountain homes, taking a
route that passes up the west side of the Garcitas
creek, about fifteen miles east of Victoria.
On the 8th of August (Sunday) while Linnville
was being sacked, Tumlinson reached Victoria
about sunset, rested for a time, received some sup-
plies, left about twenty-flve men and received about
an equal number, continuing his effective force at
125 men. They moved east on the Texana road
and at midnight camped on the Casa Blanea creek,
a small tributary of the Garcitas from the west.
George Kerr was dispatched for recruits to
Texana, but at Kitchen's ranch, on the east side of
the Arenoso, near tidewater junction with the Gar-
citas, he found Capt. Clark L. Owen of Texana
with forty men. It was then too late to unite with
Tumlinson. The enemy in force had come between
them. Owen sent out three scouts, of whom Dr.
Bell was chased and killed, Nail escaped by the
fleetness of his horse towards the Lavaca, and the
noble John S. Menefee (deceased in 1884) escaped
in some drift brush with seven arrows piercing his
body, all of which he extracted and preserved to
the day of his death.
Thus Tumlinson early in the day (August 9) eon-
fronted the whole body of the Indians with their
immense booty, on a level and treeless prairie.
He dismounted his men and was continually
encircled by cunning warriors, to divert attention
while their herds were being forced forward.
McCulloch impetuously insisted on charging into
the midst of the enemy as the only road to victory.
The brave and oft- tried Tumlinson, seeing hesitancy
in his ranlfs, yielded, and the enemy, after immate-
rial skirmishing, was allowed to move on with herds
and booty. Later in the day Owen's party joined
them and desultory pursuit was continued, but the
pursuers never came up with the Indians, nor did
any other party till the battle of Plum creek was
fought by entirely different parties. In this skir-
mish one Indian was killed and also Mr. Mordecai
of Victoria.
On reaching the timber of the Chicolita, some
twenty miles above the Casa Blanea, writhing
under what he considered a lost opportunity, Ben
McCulloch, accompanied by Alsey S. Miller,
Archibald Gipson, and Barney Randall, left the
command, deflected to the west so as to pass the
enemy, and made such speed via Gonzales that
these four alone of all the men at any time in the
pursuit, were in the battle of Plum creek. The
pursuers, however, were gallant men, and many of
them reached the battle ground a few hours after
the flght.
Let us now turn to the series of movements that
culminated in the overwhelming overthrow of the
Indians at Plum creek, and of much of this the
writer was an eye-witness. On the night of
August 7, advised by courier of the attack on
Victoria twenty-two volunteers left the house of
Maj. James Kerr (the home of the writer) on the
Lavaca river. Lafayette Ward was called to the
command. The writer, then a boy of nineteen, was
the youngest of the party. Reaching the Big
Hill, heretofore described, and finding the In-
dians had not passed up, the opinion prevailed that
they had crossed over and were returning on the
west side of the Guadalupe. They hastened on
to Gonzales where the old hero, Capt. Matthew
Caldwell, had just arrived. He adopted the same
view, and announced that the Indians would
recross the Guadalupe where New Braunfels now
stands. In an hour he was at the head of thirty-
seven men, making our united number fifty-nine
We followed his lead, traveled all night, and at
sunrise on the 10th, reached Seguin. As we did so
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
81
" Big" Hall, of Gonzales, on foaming steed, over-
took U3 with the news from Victoria and Linnville,
and that the Indians, pursued, were retreating on
their downward made trail. The old veteran Cald-
well at once said we mustmeet and fight them atPlum
creek. After rest and breakfast, and strengthened
by a few recruits, we moved on and camped that
night at the old San Antonio crossing of the San
Marcos. The 11th was intensely hot, and our
ride was chiefly over a burnt prairie, the flying
ashes being blinding to the eyes. Waiting some
hours at noon, watching for the approach of the
enemy after night, we arrived at Goode's cabin, on
the Gonzales and Austin road, a little east of Plum
creek. Here Felix Huston, General of militia, with
his aide, James Izard, arrived from Austin about
the same time. We moved two or three miles and
camped on Plum creek, above the Indian trail.
Here we met the gallant Capt. James Bird, of
Gonzales, with about thirty men, who had come up
the road directly from that place, and with the
indefatigable Ben McCulIoch and his three com-
rades. Our united force was then one hundred
men.. We camped at midnight and sent pickets to
watch the trail. Men and horses were greatly jaded,
but the horses had to eat while the men slept.
At daylight the pickets dashed in and
reported the Indians advancing about three
miles below. In twenty minutes every man
was mounted and in line. Capt. Caldwell, in
the bigness of his heart, rode out in front and
moved that Gen. Felix Huston take command.
A few responded aye and none said nay, but in
fact the men wanted the old Indian fighter Caldwell
himself to lead. They respected Gen. Huston
as a military man in regular war. They knew he
had no experience in the business then in hand, but
they were too polite to say nay, having a real
respect for the man. The command moved forward
across one or two ravines and glades till they entered
a small open space hidden from the large prairie
by a branch, thickly studded with trees and bushes.
At this moment the gallant young Owen Hardeman,
and Reed of Bastrop dashed up with the infor-
mation that Col. Edward Burleson, with eighty-
seven volunteers and thirteen Toncahua Indians
(the latter on foot) were within three or four miles,
advancing at a gallop. They were too invaluable
to be left. A halt was called. Gen. Huston
then announced his plan : a hollow square, open in
front, Burleson on the right, Caldwell on the left,
Bird and Ward forming the rear line, under Maj.
Thomas Monroe Hardeman. During this delay we
had a full view of the Indians passing diagonally
across our front, about a mile distant. They were
singing and gyrating in divers grotesque ways,
evidencing their great triumph, and utterly ob-
livious of danger. Up to this time they had lost
but one warrior, at the Casa Blanca ; they had
killed twenty persons, from Tucker Foley, the first,
to Mordeeai-, the last ; they had as prisoners Mrs.
Watts, Mrs. Crosby and child, and the negro
woman and child ; they had about 2,000 captured
horses and mules, and an immense booty in goods
of various kinds. Before Burleson arrived the
main body had passed our front, leaving only
stragglers bringing up bunches of animals
from the timber in their rear. It must be under-
stood that the whole country, about forty miles
from the Big Hill to the north side of Plum creek,
is heavily timbered, while beyond that it is an open
prairie to the foot of the mountains, with the Clear
Fork of Plum creek on the left and parallel to the
Indian trail.
Here is an appropriate place to speak of the
number of Indians. Their number was variously
estimated, but from all the facts and the judg-
ment of the most experienced, it is safe to say
they numbered about 1,000. Our force was: —
Number under Caldwell, including Bird and
Ward 100
Under Burleson, 87; and 13 Indians..-. 100
Total 200
As soon as Burleson arrived the troops were
formed as before mentioned, and the advance made
at a trot, soon increasing into a gallop. The main
body of the Indians were perhaps a mile and a
half ahead. As soon as we ascended from the
valley on to the level plain, they had a full view of
us, and at once prepared for action. Small par-
ties of their more daring warriors met and eon-
tested with a few of our men voluntarily acting as
skirmishers, and some heroic acts were performed.
I remember well the gallantry of Capt. Andrew
NeiU, Ben McCulloch, Arch. Gipson, Reed of
Bastrop, Capt. Alonzo B. Sweitzer (severely
wounded in the arm), Columbus C. DeWitt, Henry
E. McCulloch, and others then personally known
to me.
The Indians, as we neared them, took position
in a point of oaks on the left, with the Clear Fork
in their rear, and a small boggy branch on their
left, but in the line of their retreat. It was only
boggy a short distance, and was easily turned on
our right advance.
When within about two hundred yards of the
enemy we were halted and dismounted on the open
82
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
plain. Bands of warriors then began encircling us,
firing and using their shields with great effect.
From the timber a steady fire was kept up, by
musljets and some long range rifles, while about
thirty of our men, still mounted, were dashing
to and fro among the mounted Indians, illustrating
a series of personal heroisms worthy of all praise.
In one of these Eeed of Bastrop had an arrow
driven through his body, piercing his lungs, though
he lived long afterwards. Among the dismounted
men several were wounded and a number of horses
were killed. In all this time the herds and pack
animals were being hurried onwards, and our oldest
fighters, especially Burleson, Caldwell, Ben Mc-
CuUoch, and others, were eager for a charge into
the midst of the savages. At last, perhaps half an
hour after dismounting, an Indian chief, wearing a
tremendous head dress, who had been exceedingly
daring, approached so near that several shots struck
him, and he fell forward on the pommel of his
saddle, but was caught by a comrade on either
side and borne away, evidently dead or dying, for
as soon as he was led among his people in the oaks
they set up a peculiar howl, when Capt. Caldwell
sang. out, " Now, General, is your time to charge
them! they are whipped!" The charge was
ordered, and gallantly made. Very soon the
Indians broke into parties and ran, but ran fight-
ing all the time. At the boggy branch quite a
number were killed, and they were killed in clusters
for ten or twelve miles, our men scattering as did
the Indians, every man acting as he pleased.
There was no pretense of command after the
boggy branch was passed. A few of our men pur-
sued small bodies for twelve or more miles. In
one of these isolated combats it fell to my lot to
dismount a warrior wearing a buffalo skin cap sur-
mounted with the horns. He was dead when I dis-
mounted to secure the prize, which was soon after-
-wards sent by Judge John Hayes to the Cincinnati
museum, and was there in 1870.
During the running fight Mrs. Watts was severely
wounded in the breast by an arrow, but fell into
our hands. The negro woman shared a similar
fate, and her little son was recovered without
wounds. Mrs. Crosby, by some means (probably
her own act), was dismounted during the retreat
near a small thicket, and sought to enter it, but in
the act a fleeing warrior drove a lance through her
heart. With several others, at about a hundred
yards distance, I distinctly witnessed the act ; but
though at full speed none of us could overtake the
bloody wretch.
The heroic action of Placido, chief of the Ton-
cahuas, attracted universal praise. He seemed
reckless of life, and his twelve followers, as rapidly
as mounted, emulated his example. All being on
foot, they could only be mounted by each vaulting
into the saddle of a slain Comanche, but they were
all mounted in a marvelously short time after the
action commenced.
Great numbers of the loose and pack animals
stampeded during the engagement, and were seen
no more ; but large numbers on the return were
driven in, and about the middle of the afternoon the
men had generally returned to the point where the
action began, and near which a camp was pitched.
A welcome shower proved refreshing about this
time. Later in the afternoon Col. John H. Moore,
of Fayette, Capt. Owen, previously mentioned,
and in all about 150 men arrived on the ground,
having followed the trail that far.
The trophies, during the next day, were classi-
fied, numbered, and drawn by lot. I only remember
that a horse, a fine mule, $27 worth of silk, and
about foO worth of other goods fit for ladies' use
fell to my lot, and the latter were so donated. I
gave the horse to a poor man as a plow horse, and
sold the mule for $100 on trust to a stranger whose
horse died on the road, and never received a cent
thereof ; and although he so treated me, an inex-
perienced boy, I was very sorry some years later
when the Indians shot on arrow through his breast.
It was impossible to determine how many Indians
were killed. They sank many in the creek, and
many died after reaching their haunts, as was
learned from prisoners afterwards reclaimed. From
this source of information it was ascertained that
fifty-two so died in a few days, and I became sat-
isfied by the after discovery of secreted and sunken
bodies and the number found on the field that at
least eighty-six were killed in the action, being a
total of 138 certainly killed.
The Indians lost everything. The defeat was
unexpected — a surprise, complete and crushing.
Followed by a great victory over them in the fol-
lowing October, near where Colorado City now
stands, won by Col. John H. Moore and his brave
volunteers, the Comanches were taught lessons
hitherto unknown to them.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
83
Moore's Great Victory on the Upper Colorado, in 1840.
Following Col. Moore's defeat on the San Saba
in January, 1839, came the Cherokee battles, of
July and December, and many engagements or
calamities of lesser magnitude during that year,
including the massacre of the Webster party of
fourteen men and one child and the capture of
Mrs. Webster, her other two children and negro
woman, on Brushy creek, in what is now William-
son County. In March, 1840, occurred the
Council House fight, in San Antonio, and in Au-
gust the great Indian raid to the coast, the rob-
bery and burning of the village of Linnville, two
miles above the present Lavaca, and the final defeat
and dispersion of the Indians in the decisive battle
of Plum Creek, on the 12lh day of that month.
Following this last raid the veteran soldier, Col.
John H. Moore, of Fayette, sent forth circulars
calling for volunteers to again penetrate the country
of the hostiles, on the upper waters of the Col-
orado, as another lesson to them that the whites
were determined to either compel them to abstain
from robbing, murdering and capturing their fel-
low-citizens or exterminate them. A prompt
response followed, and about the first of October
the expedition left Austin, at once entering the
wilderness. Col. Moore commanded, with S. S. B.
Fields, a lawyer of LaGrange, as Adjutant. Capts.
Thomas J. Rabb and Nicholas Dawson, of Fayette,
■commanded the companies, the latter being the
same who commanded and fell at the Dawson
massacre in 1842. There were ninety men in all.
Clark L. Owen, of Texana (who fell as a Captain,
at Shiloh, in 1862), was First Lieutenant in Rabb's
Company. R. Addison Gillespie (who fell as a
Captain of Texas rangers in storming the Bishop's
palace at Monterey, in 1846), was one of the
■lieutenants, his brother being also along. Nearly
all the men were from Fayette and Bastrop, but
there were a few from the Lavaca, among whom I
remember Isaac N. Mitchell, Mason B. Foley,
Joseph Simons, of Texana, Nicholas J. Ryan and
Peter Rockfeller (Simons and Rockfeller both
dying in Mexican prisons, as Mier men in 1844 or
1845.) I started with these young men, then my
neighbors, but was compelled to halt, on account
of my horse being crippled at the head of the
Navidad. Col. Moore also had with him a detach-
ment of twelve Lipan Indians, commanded by Col.
Castro, their principal chief, with the famous
young chief Flacco as his Lieutenant.
The command followed up the valley of the
Colorado, without encountering an enemy, till it
reached a point now supposed to be in the region of
Colorado City. The Lipan scouts were constantly
in advance, and on the alert. Hastily returning,
while in the vicinity mentioned, they reported the
discovery of a Comanche encampment fifteen or
twenty miles distant, on the east bank and in a
small horseshoe bend of the Colorado, with a high
and somewhat steep bluff on the opposite bank.
Col. Moore traveled by night to within a mile or
two of the camp, and then halted. It was a clear,
cold night in October, and the earth white with
frost, probably two thousand feet above the sea
level. The men shivered with cold, while the un-
suspecting savages slept warmly under buffalo-
robes in their skin-covered tepees. In the mean-
time Moore detached Lieut. Owen, with thirty
men, to cross the river below, move up and at dawn
occupy the bluff. This movement was success-
fully effected, and all awaited the dawn for sufficient
light to guide their movements.
The stalwart and- gallant old leader, mounted
on his favorite steed, with a few whispered words
summoned every man to his saddle. Slowly,
cautiously they moved till within three hundred
yards of the camp, when the rumbling sound of
moving horses struck the ear of a warrior on watch.
His shrill yell sounded the alarm, and ere Moore,
under a charge instantly ordered, could be in their
midst, every warrior and many of the squaws had
their bows strung and ready for fight. But pell-
mell the volunteers rushed upon and among them.
The rifles, shot-guns and pistols of the white man,
in a contest largely hand-to-hand, with fearful
rapidity struck the red man to the earth. Sur-
prised and at close quarters, the wild man, though
fighting with desperation, shot too rapidly and
wildly to be effective. Seeing their fate a consid-
erable number swam the narrow river and essayed
to escape by climbing the bluff. Some were shot in
their ascent by Moore's men from across the
stream and tumbled- backwards. Every one who
made the ascent to the summit of the bluff was
confronted and slain by Owen's men. At the onset
two horses were tied in the camp. On these two
warriors escaped. Besides them, so far as could be
ascertained, every warrior was killed, excepting a
few old men and one or two j'oung men, who sur-
rendered and were spared.
84
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Many of the Indian women, for a little while,
fought as stoutly as the men and some were killed,
despite every effort to save them. In the charge
Isaac Mitchell's bridle bit parted asunder and his
mule rushed ahead into the midst of the Indians —
then halted and " sulked" — refused to move. A
squaw seized a large billet of wood and by a blow
on his head tumbled him to the ground; but he
sprang to his feet, a little bewildered, and just as
his comrades came by, seeing the squaw springing
at him knife in hand, they sang out, "Kill her,
Mitchell! " With a smile, not untinged with pain,
he replied: " Oh, no, boys, I can't kill a woman!"
But to prevent her killing himself, he knocked
her down and wrenched the weapon from her
hands.
A hundred and thirty Indians were left dead on
the field. Thirty-four squaws and children and
several hundred horses were brought in, besides
such camp equipage as the men chose to carry
with them, among which were goods plundered at
Linnville the previous August.
A Raid into Gonzales and Pursuit of tiie Indians in May, 1841 —
Ben McCulloch in the Lead.
Late in April, or early in May, 1841, a party of
twenty-two Indians made a night raid into and
around Gonzales, captured a considerable number
of horses and, ere daylight came, were in rapid
flight to their mountain home. It was but one of
oft-recurring inroads, the majority of which will
never be known in history. In this case, however,
as in many others, I am enabled to narrate every
material fact, and render justice to the handful of
gallant men who pursued and chastised the free-
booters.
Ben McCulloch called for volunteers ; but not, as
was most usual, to hurry off in pursuit. He knew the
difficulty and uncertainty of overhauling retreating
savages, with abundant horses for frequent change,
and preferred waiting a few days, thereby inducing
the red men, who always kept scouts in the rear, to
believe no pursuit would be made, and in this he
was successful.
When ready, McCulloch set forth with the fol-
lowing sixteen companions, every one of whom was
personally well known to the writer as a brave and
useful frontiersman, viz. : Arthur Swift, James H.
Callahan (himself often a captain), Wilson Randle,
Green McCoy (the Gonzales boy who was in
Erath's fight in Milam County in 1837, when his
uncle, David Clark, and Frank Childress, were
killed), Eli T. Hankins, Clement Hinds, Archibald
Gipson (a daring soldier in many fights, from 1836
to 1861,) W. A. Hall, Henry E. McCulloch,
James Roberts, Jeremiah Roberts, Thomas R.
Nichols, William Tamlinson, William P. Kincannon,
Alsey S. Miller, and William Morrison.
They struck the Indian trail where it crossed the
San Marcos at the mouth of Mule creek and fol-
lowed it northwestwardly up and to the head of
York's creek; thence through the mountains to the
Guadalupe, and up that stream to what is now-
known as " Johnson's Fork," which is the principal
mountain tributary to the Guadalupe on the north
side. The trail was followed along this fork to its
source, and thence northwestwardly to the head of
what is now known as " Johnson's Fork " of the
Llano, and down this to its junction with the
Llano.
Before reaching the latter point McCulloch
halted in a secluded locality, satisfied that he was-
near the enemy, and in person made a reconnoisance
of their position, and with such accuracy that he
was enabled to move on foot so near to the encamp-
ment as, at daylight, to completely surprise the
Indians. The conflict was short. Five warriors
lay dead upon the ground. Half of the remainder
escaped wounded, so that of twenty-two only about
eight escaped unhurt ; but their number had prob-
ably been increased after reaching that section.
The Indians lost everything excepting their arms.
Their horses, saddles, equipages, blankets, robes,
and even their moccasins, were captured. It wa»
not only a surprise to them, but a significant warn-
ilig, as they had no dread of being hunted down
and punished in that distant and remarkably
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
85
secluded locality. In March and April, 1865, in
command of 183 men, the writer, as a Confederate
officer, made a campaign through and above that
country, following the identical route from the
mouth of Johnson's Fork of the Guadalupe to the
spot where this conflict took place twenty-four
years before, and found it still a wild mountain
region — still a hiding-place for savage red men,
and at that particular period, for lawless and dis-
reputable white men.
Red River and Trinity Events in 1841 — The Yeary and Ripley
Families — Skirmish on Village Creek and Death
of Denton — Expeditions of Gens. Smith
and Tarrant.
For a great many years I have had notes on the
expedition in which John B. Denton was killed,
furnished at different times by four different per-
sons who were participants, viz.. Cols. James Bour-
land and Wm. C. Young, Dr. Lemuel M. Cochran
and David Williams, then a boy ; but there has
appeared from time to time in former years such a
variety of fiction on the subject that I determined
to publish nothing until thoroughly convinced of
the accuracy of the statements thus obtained — all
the while hoping for a personal interview with my
venerable friend of yore, Henry Stout, of Wood
County — who, besides Denton, was the only man
hurt in the trip. This I now have together with a
written statement from Dr. Cochran, dated Gon-
zales, September 26, 1886, and the personal recol-
lections of John M. Watson, Alex W. Webb and
Col. Jas. G. Stevens, then a youth.
As a prelude to the expedition it is proper to say
that late in 1840, the house of.Capt. John Yeary,
living on Sulphur, in the southeast part of Fannin
County, was attacked by a party of ten Indians
while he and a negro man were at work in his field
three hundred yards from the house. Mrs. Yeary,
gun in hand, stood on the defensive, inside of the
closed door. Yeary and the negro man, armed
with a hoe each, rushed towards the house and
across the yard fence, fought the assailants hand to
hand, in which Yeary received an arrow just above
the eye, which glanced around the skull without
penetrating. Mrs. Yeary, with a gun, ran out to
her husband, but in doing so was shot in the hip.
Thus strengthened in the means of defense, the
Indians were driven off, without further casualty
to the family.
Early in April, 1841, a part of the Ripley family
on the old Cherokee trace, on Eipley creek, in Titus
County, were murdered by Indians. Riplej' was
absent. Mrs. Ripley was at home with a son
scarcely twenty years old, a daughter about six-
teen, two daughters from twelve to fifteen, and
several smaller children, living some distance from
any other habitation. The Indians suddenly ap-
peared in daylight, shot and killed the son as he
was plowing in the field, and rushed upon the house,
from which the mother and children fled towards a
canebrake, two hundred yards distant. The elder
daughter was shot dead on the way. The second
and third daughters escaped into the cane ; the
mother and the other children were killed with
clubs ; one child in the house, probably asleep.
The Indians then plundered the house and set it on
fire, the child inside being consumed in the flames.
This second outrage led to a retaliatory expedi-
tion, which required some time for organization, in
the thinly populated district. By prior agreement
the volunteer citizens, numbering eighty (as stated
by Dr. Cochran, who was Orderly Sergeant ; but,
seventy, according to Henry Stout's statement), met
in a body on Choctaw bayou, eight miles west of the
place since known as Old Warren, on the 4th of Ma}',
1841, as shown by the notes of John M. Watson,
yet (1886) living in Fannin County. On the next
morning they organized into a company by electing
James Bourland, Captain, William C. Young,
Lieutenant, and Lemuel M. Cochran, Orderly Ser-
geant. John B. Denton and Henry Stout were
each placed in charge of a few men as scouts.
Edward H. Tarrant, General of militia, was of the
party without command, but' was consulted and
respected as a senior officer. On the same day the
company moved west to the vacant barracks,
86
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
erected during the previous winter by Col. William
G. Cooke, senior officer in command of the regular
troopa of Texas. At the barracks, which stood
in the immediate vicinity of the present town of •
Denison, the company remained two or three days
for a portion of the volunteers, who had been de-
tained. On their arrival the command moved west
on the old Chihuahua trail, leading to Natchitoches.
Jack Ivey, a man of mixed Indian and African blood,
was pilot. At that time Holland Coffee, who was one
of the party, lived eight miles above the barracks. At
some poict on the trip, but exactly when or where, I
have been unable to learn, he, with a man named
Wm. A. (Big Foot) Wallace, Colvill, and seven
others, left the company andjreturned to his post
or trading house. This doubtless accounts for the
disparity in numbers given by Cochran and Stout.
It was believed that the depredating Indians
were encamped on a creek which enters the west
fork of Trinity from the northeast si^de, where the
town of Bridgeport now stands, in Wise County,
the reputed village being at a broken, rocky spot,
four or five miles up the stream, which now bears the
name of "Village" creek. The expedition moved
under that belief, passing where Gainesville now is,
and thence southwesterly to the supposed Keechi
village, but found it abandoned, without any evi-
dence of very recent occupancy, beyond some fresh
horse tracks, not far away.
The next day they crossed to the west side of
the Trinity, and for two days traveled south
obliquely in the direction of the Brazos. Find-
ing no indication of Indians, they turned north-
easterly, and on the afternoon of the second
day recrossed the Trinity to the north and trav-
eled down its valley, camping in the forks of
that stream and Fossil creek. On t^he next day,
near their camp, they found an old buffalo trail,
leading down and diagonally across the river, and on
to an Indian encampment on Village creek, a short
distance above, but south from where the Texas and
Pacific Kailroad crosses that creek, which runs from
south to northeast, and is some miles east of Fort
Worth. On this trail they found fresh horse tracks,
and followed them. Henry Stout then, as through-
out the expedition, led an advance scout of six
men. Nearing the camp referred to, they dis-
covered an Indian woman cooking in a copper ket-
tle, in a little glade on the bank of the creek. See-
ing he was not observed, and being veiled by a
brush-covered rise in the ground. Stout halted and
sent the information back to Tarrant. While
thus waiting, a second woman rose the bank and
joined the first, one of them having a child. As
Tarrant came up the squawsdiscovered them, gave
a loud scream, and plunged down into the bed of
the creek. The men charged, supposing the war-
riors were under the bank. A man named Alsey
Fuller killed one of the squaws, not knowing her
to be a woman, as she ascended the opposite bank.
The other woman and child were captured.
Here the men scattered into several different
parties in quest of the unseen enemy. Bourland,
with about twenty men, including Denton, Coch-
ran and Lindley Johnson, crossed the creek and
found a road along its valley. They galloped along
it down the creek a little over a mile, when they
came upon a large camp, when Bourland, with
about half of the men, bore to the right, and Coch-
ran, with the others, to the left, in order to flank
the position, but the Indians retreated into the
thickets on the opposite side. Cochran and Elbert
Early both attempted to fire at a retreating
Indian, but their guns snapped. On reaching the
creek the Indian fired at Early but missed. The
whole command became badly scattered and con-
fused. Eight men again crossed the creek and in a
short distance came upon a third camp just deserted.
Tarrant ordered them to fall back to the second
camp. When they did so about forty were pres-
ent. While waiting for the others to come up, Den-
ton asked and obtained Tarrant's reluctant consent
to take ten men and go down the creek, promising
to avoid an ambuscade by extreme caution. After
Denton left, Bourland took ten men and started in
a different direction ; but about a mile below they
came together, and after moving together a short
distance Bourland and Calvin Sullivan crossed a
boggy branch to capture some horses, one of
which wore a bell. The others bore farther down
the branch into a corn-field, crossed it and found a
road leading into the bottom. At the edge of the
bottom thicket they halted, Denton to fulfill his
promise of care in avoiding an ambush. Henry
Stout then rode to the front saying, "If you are
afraid to go in there, I am not." Denton brusquely
answered that he would follow him to the infernal
regions and said " Move on!" In about three hun-
dred yards they came to and descended the creek
bank. Stout led, followed by Denton, Capt.
Griffin and the others in single file. When the
three foremost had traveled up the creek bed about
thirty paces from a thicket on the west bluff they
were fired upon. Stout was in front, but 'partly
protected by a small tree, but was shot through his
left arm. He wheeled to the right, and in raising
his gun to fire, a ball passed through its butt, caus-
ing the barrel to strike him violently on the head,
and five bullets pierced his clothing around his
neck and shoulders. Denton, immediately behind
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
87
Stout, was shot at the same instant, wheeled to the
right-about, rode baclt up the bank, and fell dead,
pierced by three balls, one in his arm, one in his
shoulder and one through his right breast. The
other men, being in single file, did not get in
range, being screened by a projection in the bank,
and some had not quite reached the creek bed.
Those firing upon Stout and Denton fled in the
brush after a single volley, and in a little time the
savages were securely hidden in the surrounding
thickets. Griffin was grazed by a ball on his
cheek, and several passed through his clothes.
The men hastily countermarched to the field,
where Capt. Bourland met them. They were con-
siderably demoralized. Pretty soon all were
rallied at the first point of attack. Bourland
took twenty-four men, went back and carried
off the body of Denton. Eighty horses, a consid-
erable number of copper kettles, many buffalo
robes and other stuff were carried away. Our men
retraced their steps to the Fossil creek camp of the
previous night, arriving there about midnight,
after losing much of the spoil. Next morning,
crossing Fossil creek bottom to its north side, they
buried Denton under the bank of a ravine, at the
point of a rocky ridge, and not far from where
Birdville stands. Ten or twelve feet from the
grave stood a large post oak tree, at the roots of
which two stones were partly set in the ground.
This duty performed they traveled up the country
on the west side of the Cross Timbers and Elm
Fork, until they struck their trail outward at the
site of Gainesville, and then followed it back to the
barracks, where they disbanded, after a division of
the captured property. The Indian woman escaped
on the way in. Gen. Tarrant kept the child, but it
was restored to its mother some two years later, at
a council in the Indian Territory.
The expedition was unsuccessful in its chief
objects and, from some cause, probably a division
of responsibility, the men, or a portion of them, at
the critical moment, were thrown into a degree of
confusion bordering on panic.
On returning home from this fruitless, indeed
unfortunate, expedition, measures were set on foot
for a larger one, of which Gen. Tarrant was again
to be the ranking officer.
At that time Gen. James Smith, of Nacogdoches,
was commander of the militia in that district. He
led an expedition at the same time to the same
section of country, there being an understanding
that he and Tarrant would, if practicable, meet
somewhere in the Cross Timbers.
The volunteers of Ked river, between 400 and
500 in number, assembled from the 15th to the
20th of July, 1841, at Fort English, as the home
of Bailey English was called, and there organized
as a regiment by electing William C. Young as
Colonel and James Bourland as Lieutenant-Colonel.
John Smither was made Adjutant, and among the
captains were William Lane, David Key and Robert
S. Hamilton.
Gen. Tarrant assumed command and controlled
the expedition. Simultaneously with this assem-
bling of the people two little boys on the Bois
d'Arc, lower down, were captured and carried off
by Indians, to be recovered about two years later.
The expedition moved southwest and encamped
on the west bank of the Trinity, probably in Wise
County, and sent out a scouting party, who made no
discoveries ; yet, as will be seen, the Indians dis-
covered Tarrant's movements in time to be unseen
by him and to narrowly escape a well-planned attack
by Gen. Smith. Without discovering any enemy,
after being out several weeks, Tarrant's command
returned home and disbanded.
In the meantime Gen. Smith, with a regiment of
militia and volunteers, moved up northwesterly in
the general direction of the present city of Dallas.
On arriving at the block houses, known as King's
Fort, at the present town of Kaufman, he found
that the place had been assaulted by Indians during
the previous evening and a considerable fight had
occurred, in which the assailants had been gallantly
repulsed and had retired, more or less damaged.
Gen. Smith fell upon and followed the trail of
the discomfited savages, crossing Cedar creek (of
Kaufman County), the " East Fork," White Rock
and the Trinity where Dallas stands, this being a
few months before John Neely Bryan pitched his
lonely camp on the same spot. On the spring
branch, a mile or so on the west side of the river,
the command halted, enjoying limpid spring water
and an abundance of honey, from which one of the
springs derived' the name it still retains — Honey
spring. From this camp Gen. Smith dispatched a
scout of twelve men, under Capt. John L. Hall, to
seek and report the location of the Indian village.
Besides Capt. Hall there were in this scout John H.
Reagan (then a buckskin attired surveyor — years
later United States senator, having first entered the
lower House of Congress in 1857), Samuel Bean,
Isaac Bean, John I. Burton (of race-horse fame),
Hughes Burton, George Lacey, Warren A. Ferris,
a Creek Indian named Charty, and three others
whose names have not been obtained. They crossed
Mountain creek above or south of the Texas and
Pacific railroad of to-day, thence passed over the
prairie into the Cross Timbers and to within a short
distance of Village creek. From the number of
88
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fresh trails, apparently converging to a common
center, it became evident they were in the vicinity
of an Indian town. Secreting his party in a low
and well hidden spot, Capt. Hall sent Judge
Reagan and Isaac Bean on foot, to discover the
exact location of the village and the best means of
approaching and surprising it. These brave but
cautious men, well-skilled in woodcraft, spent over
half a day in " spying out the lay of the land,"
finding the Indians in quiet possession of their
camp and that it was approachable at both the
upper and lower ends of the village. Thus informed
they lost no time in reporting to Capt. Hall, who,
as soon as night came, cautiously emerged from his
hiding-place with his party, and hastened with the
information to Gen. Smith, who, by the way, was a
gallant old soldier in the Creek war under Gen.
Jackson. Camping at night on Mountain creek,
after starting as soon as possible after the arrival
of Hall, Gen. Smith reached the village about noon
next day. The command was divided into two
battalions, respectively commanded by Gen. Smith
and Lieut.-Col. Elliott.
Judge Reagan acted as guide in conducting Smith
to the upper end of the village, while Bean per-
formed the same service in guiding Elliott to the
lower. Both moves were successfully made ; but,
when the crisis came and the enthusiasm of the
men was at fever heat, it was found that the enemy
Ijad already precipitately fled, leaving some supplies
and camp fixtures.
The simple explanation was that the Indians had
discovered Tarrant's force and fled barely in time to
elude Smith. Pursuit, under such circumstances,
would be useless.
Without meeting, each command, in its own way,
returned homeward ; but, though bloodless, the
invasion of the Indian country, in such force, had
a salutary effect in preparing all the smaller hostile
tribes for the treaty entered into in September, 1843.
Death of McSherry and Stinnett — Killing of Hibbins and
Creath and the Capture of Mrs. Hibbins and
Children — 1828 to 1842.
In 1828, there arrived on the Guadalupe river a
young married couple from the vicinity of Browns-
ville, Jackson County, Illinois — John McSherry
and his wife, Sarah, whose maiden name was Creath.
They settled on the west side of the Guadalupe,
near a little creek, which, with a spring, was some
two hundred yards in front of the cabin they erected.
This was in the lower edge of DeWitt's Colony, as
it is now in the lower edge of DeWitt County.
Their nearest neighbor was Andrew Lockhart, ten
miles up the river, and one of a large family of
sterling pioneers on the Guadalupe, bearing that
name. Mrs. McSherry was a beautiful blonde, an
excellent type of the country girls of the West in
that day, very handsome in person, graceful in
manner and pure of heart. Mr. McSherry was an
honest, industrious man of nerve and will. They
were happily devoted to each other.
Early in 1829, their first child, John, was born in
that isolated cabin, in one of the most lovely spots
of the Southwest.
Later in the same year, about noon on a pleasant
day, Mr. McSherry went to the spring for a bucket
of water. As he arose from the bank, bucket in
hand, a party of Indians with a wild yell, sprang
from the bushes and in a moment he was a lifeless
and scalped corpse. His wife hearing the yell,
sprang to the door, saw him plainly and realized
the peril of herself and infant. In the twinkling of
an eye, she barred the door, seized the gun and
resolved to defend herself and baby unto death.
The savages surveyed the situation and manceuvered
to and fro, but failed to attack the cabin and soon
disappeared. Thus she was left alone, ten miles
from the nearest habitation, and without a road to
that or any other place. But truly, in the belief
of every honest person of long frontier experi-
ence, the ways of providence are inscrutable.
About dark John McCrabb, a fearless and excel-
lent man, well armed and mounted, but wholly
unaware of the sad condition of matters, rode up to
the cabin to pass the night. Hearing the recital his
strong nerves became stronger, and his heart pul-
sated as became that of a whole-souled Irishman.
Very soon he placed the young mother and babe
on his horse and, by the light of the stars, started
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
89
on foot, through the wilderness, for the house of
Andrew Lockhart, reaching it before daylight,
where warm hearts bestowed all possible care and
kindness on those so ruthlessly stricken in the
wilderness and so remote from all kindred ties.
Mrs. McSherry, for a considerable time, found a
home and friends with the Lockharts; but a few
years later married John Hibbins, a worthy man,
who settled on the east side of the Guadalupe, in
the vicinity of where the town of Concrete now
stands, in DeWitt County.
In the summer of 1835, with her little boy, John
McSherry, and an infant by Mr. Hibbins, she re-
visited her kindred in Illinois. She returned via
New Orleans in the winter of 1835-6, accompanied
by her brother, George Creath, a single man, and
landed at Columbia, on the Brazos, where early in
February, 1836, Mr. Hibbins met them with an ox
cart, on which they began the journey home.
They crossed the Colorado at Season's and fell into
the ancient La Bahia road on the upper Navidad.
In due time they arrived at and were about
encamping on Rocky creek, six miles above the
subsequent village of Sweet Home, in Lavaca
County and within fifteen or sixteen miles of their
home, when they were suddenly attacked by
thirteen Indian warriors who immediately killed
Hibbins and Creath, made captives Mrs. Hibbins
and her two children, took possession of all the
effects and at leisure moved off up the country
with perfect unconcern. They traveled slowly up
through the timbered country, the Peach creek
region between the Guadalupe and the Colorado,
securely tying Mrs Hibbins at night and lying
encircled around her. About the second day, at
one of their camps, the baby cried with pain for
some time, when one of the Indians seized it by the
feet and mashed its brains against a tree, all in the
presence of its helpless mother. For two or three
days at this time Mrs. Hibbins distinctly heard
the guns in the siege of the Alamo, at least sixty
miles to the west. That she did so was made cer-
tain a little later by her imparting the news to
others till then unaware of that now world-
renowned struggle.
In due time her captors crossed the Colorado at
the mouth of Shoal creek, now in the city of
Austin. They moved on three or four miles and
encamped on the south edge of a cedar brake,
where a severe norther came up and caused them
to remain three nights and two days. On the third
night the Indians were engaged in a game till late
and then slept soundly. Mrs. Hibbins determined,
if possible, to escape. Cautiously, she freed her-
self of the cords about her wrists and ankles and
stepping over the bodies of her unconscious guards,
stole away, not daring even to imprint a kiss on
her only and first-born child, then a little over six
years of age.
Daylight found her but a short distance from
camp, not over a mile or two, and she secreted
herself in a thicket from which she soon saw and
heard the Indians in pursuit. The savages com-
pelled the little boy to call aloud, "Mama! Ma-
ma!" But she knew that her only hope for her-
self and child was in escape, and remained silent.
After a considerable time the Indians disappeared.
Bat she remained concealed still longer, till satisfied
her captors had left. She then followed the creek
to the Colorado and, as rapidly as possible, traveled
down the river, shielded by the timber along its
banks.
The crow of a chicken late in the afternoon sent
a thrill through her agonizing heart. The welcome
sound was soon repeated several times and thither
she hastened with a ileal born of her desperate con-
dition, for she did not certainly know she was in a
hundred miles of a habitation. In about two miles
she reached the outer cabin on the Colorado, or
rather one of the two outer ones — Jacob Harrell
occupying the one she entered and Reuben Horns-
by the other. She was so torn with thorns and
briars, so nearly without raiment, and so bruised
about the face, that her condition was pitiable.
Providentially (as every old pioneer untainted with
heathenism believed), eighteen rangers, the first
ever raised under the revolutionary government of
Texas, and commanded by Capt. John J. Tum-
linson, had arrived two days before and were
encamped at the cabin of. Hornsby. To this warm-
hearted and gallant officer Mrs. Hibbins was per-
sonally known and to him she hastily narrated her
sad story.
Tumlinson knew the country somewhat and felt
sure he could find the Indians at a given point
further up the country. He traveled nearly all
night, halting only a short while before day to rest
his horses and resuming the march at sunrise, and
about 9 o'clock came upon the Indians, encamped,
but on the eve of departure. I have the privilege,
as to what followed, of quoting the exact language
of Capt. Tumlinson, written for me forty years ago,
as follows : —
" The Indians discovered us just as we discov-
ered them, but had not time to get their horses, so
they commenced running on foot towards the
mountain thickets. I threw Lieut. Joseph Rogers,
with eight men, below them — and with the others
I dashed past and took possession of their route
above them. The Indians saw that the route
90
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
above and below them was in our possession, and
struck off for the mountain thicket nearest the side
of the trail. I ordered Lieut. Rogers to charge,
and fell upon them simultaneously. I saw an
Indian aiming his rifle at me, but knew that he
must be a better marksman than I had seen among
them to hit me going at my horse's speed, and did
not heed him till I got among them. Then I
sprang from my horse quick as lightning, and
turned towards him ; at the same instant he. flred ;
the ball passed through the bosom of my shirt and
struck my horse in the neck, killing him immedi-
ately. I aimed deliberately and fired. The Indian
sprang a few feet into the air, gave one whoop and
fell dead within twenty-five feet of me. The fight
now became general. Pell-mell we fell together.
The Indians, thirteen in number, armed with bows
and rifles, were endeavoring to make good their
retreat towards the thicket. Several of them fell,
and two of my men were wounded ; when finally
they effected an entrance into the thicket, which
was so dense that it would have been madness to
have attempted to penetrate it, and we were forced
So cease the pursuit. I dispatched Rogers after
the child, the horses and mules of the Indians,
whilst I remained watching the thicket to guard
against, surprise. He found the child in the Indian
camp tied on the back of a wild mule, with his
robe and equipments about Lim fixed on for the
day's march, and had to shoot the mule in order to
get the child. He also succeeded in getting hold
of all the animals of the Indians, and those they
had stolen. My men immediately selected the best
horse in the lot, which they presented to me in place
of the one that was killed.
•'We watched for the Indians a while longer;
and in the meantime sent a runner for the doctor
to see to the wounded. I sent a portion of the
men under the command of Rogers with the child,
and the wounded men and I brought up the rear.
The wounded were Elijah Ingram, shot in the arm,
the ball ranging upwards to the shoulder ; also
Hugh M. Childers, shot through the leg. Of the
Indians, four were killed. We arrived that night
at Mr. Harrell's, where we found Mrs. Hibbins,
the mother of the child. Lieut. Rogers presented
the child to its mother, and the scene which here
ensued beggars description, A mother meeting
with her child released from Indian captivity, re-
covered as it were from the very jaws of death!
Not an eye was dry. She called us brothers, and
every other endearing name, and would have fallen
on her knees to worship us. She hugged her child
to her bosom as if fearful that she would again lose
him. And — but 'tis useless to say more."
Lieut. Joseph Rogers was a brother of Mrs. Gen.
Burleson, and was killed in a battle with the Indians
a few years later. Thus the mother and child,
bereft of husband and father, and left without a
relative nearer than Southern Illinois, found them-
selves in the families of Messrs. Harrell and
Hornsby, the outside settlers on the then feeble
frontier of the Colorado — large-hearted and sym-
pathizing avant-couriers in the advancing civili-
zation of Texas. The coincident fall of the Alamo
came to them as a summons to pack up their effects
and hasten eastward, as their fellow-citizens below
were already doing.
The mother and child accompanied these two
families in their flight from the advancing Mexi-
cans, till they halted east of the Trinity, where, in a
few weeks, couriers bore the glorious news of vic-
tory and redemption from the field of San Jacinto.
Soon they resumed their" weary march, but this
time for their homes. In Washington County Mrs.
Hibbins halted, under the friendly roof of a sym-
pathizing pioneer. There she also met a former
neighbor, in the person of Mr. Claiborne Stinnett,
an intelligent and estimable man, who, with Capt.
Henry S. Brown (father of the writer of this)
represented De Witt's Colony in the first delibera-
tive body ever assembled in Texas — the able and
patriotic convention assembled at San Felipe,
October 1, 1832.
After a widowhood of twelve months, Mrs. Hib-
bins married Mr. Stinnett and they at once (in the
spring of 1837) returned to their former home on
the Guadalupe. In the organization of Gonzales
County, a little later, Mr. Stinnett was elected
Sheriff. Late in the fall, with apackhorse, he went
to Linnville, on the bay, to buy needed supplies.
Loading this extra horse with sugar, coffee, etc.,
and with seven hundred dollars in cash, he started
home. But instead of following the road by Vic-
toria, he traveled a more direct route through the
prairie. When, about night, he was near the
Arenosa creek, about twenty miles northeast of
Victoria, he discovered a camp fire in a grove of
timber and, supposing it to be a camp of hunters,
went to it. Instead, it was the camp of two " run-
away" negro;;men, seeking their way to Mexico.
They murdered Mr. Stinnett, took his horses, pro-
visions and money, and, undiscovered, reached
Mexico. The fate of the murdered man remained
a mystery. No trace of him was found for five
years, until, in the fall of 1842, one of the negroes
revealed all the facts to an American prisoner in
Mexico (the late Col. Andrew Neill), and so de-
scribed the locality that the remains of Mr. Stinnett
were found and interred.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
91
Thus this estimable lady lost her third husband —
two by red savages and one by black — and was
again alone, without the ties of kinship, excepting
her child, in all the land. Yet she was still young,
attractive in person and pure of heart, so that, two
years later, she was wooed and won by Mr. Philip
Howard. Unwisely, in June, 1840, soon after their
marriage, they abandoned their home on the Guad-
alupe and removed to the ancient Mission of San
Juan, eight miles below San Antonio. It was a
hundred miles through a wilderness often traversed
by hostile savages. Hence they were escorted by
seven young men of the vicinity, consisting of Byrd
Lockhart, Jr. (of that well-known pioneer family),
young McGary, two brothers named Powers (one
of whom was a boy of thirteen and both the sons of
a widow), and three others whose names are for-
gotten. On arriving at the mission in the fore-
noon their horses were hobbled out near by and
little John McSherry (the child of Mrs. How-
ard, recovered from the Indians in 1836, and at
this time in his eleventh year) was left on
a pony to watch them ; but within half an
hour a body of Indians suddenly charged upon
them, captured some of the horses, and little John
barelj' escaped by dashing into the camp, a vivid
reminder to the mother that her cup of affliction
was not yet full. In a day or two the seven young
men started on their return home. About noon
next day, a heavy shower fell, wetting their guns;
hut was soon followed by sunshine, when they all
flred off their guns to clean and dry them.' Most
imprudently they all did so at the same time, leav-
ing no loaded piece. This volley attracted the
keen ear of seventy hostile Comanches who other-
wise would not have discovered them. In a
moment or two they appeared and cried out that
they were friendly Toncahuas. Tne ruse succeeded
and they were allowed to approach and encircle the
now helpless young men. Six of them were in-
stantlj' slain, scalped and their horses and effects,
with the boy Powers, carried off. During the
second night afterwards, in passing through a
cedar brake at the foot of the Cibolo mountains, he
slid quietly off his horse and escaped. In three or
four days he reached the upper settlements on the
Guadulupe, and gave the first information of these
harrowing facts.
Thus again admonished, Mr. and Mrs. Howard
removed low down on the San Antonio river, below
the ancient ranch of Don Carlos de la Garza, in the
lower edge of Goliad County, confident that no hos-
tile savage would ever visit that secluded locality.
But they were mistaken. Early in the spring of
1842, the hostiles made a night raid all around
them, stole a number of their horses, murdered
two of their neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Gilleland, and
carried off their little son and daughter ; but a party
of volunteers, among whom were the late Maj.
A-lfred S. Thurmond, of Aransas, and the late Col.
Andrew Neill, of Austin, overhauled and defeated
the Indians and recaptured the children. The boy
is now Wm. M. Gilleland, long of Austin, and the
little girl is the widow of the late Rev. Orseneth
Fisher, a distinguished Methodist preacher.
Following this sixth admonition, Mr. and Mrs.
Howard at once removed to the present vicinity of
Hallettsville, in Lavaca County, and thencefoward
her life encountered no repetition of the horrors
which had so terribly followed her footsteps through
the previous thirteen 5''ears. Peace and a fair share
of prosperity succeeded. In 1848 Mr. Howard was
made County Judge, and some years later they
located in Bosque County.
The Snively Expedition Against tine IVIexican Santa Fe
Traders in 1843.
The year 1843 was one of the gloomiest, at least
during its first half, ever experienced in Texas.
The perfidious and barbarous treatment given the
" Texian Santa Fe " prisoners of 1841, after they
had capitulated as prisoners of war, preceded by
the treason of one of their number, a wretch named
William P. Lewis, had created throughout Texas a
desire for retaliation. The expedition so surren-
dered to the overwhelming force of Armijo, the
Governor of New Mexico, was both commercial
and peaceful, but of necessity accompanied by a
large armed escort to protect it against the hostile
Indians, covering the entire distance. The wisdom
and the legality of the measure, authorized by
92
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
President Lamar, on his own responsibility, were
severely criticised by many ; but Texas was a unit
in indignation at the treacherous, dastardly and
brutal treatment bestowed upon their brave and
chivalrous citizens after honorable surrender,
among whom were many well-known soldiers and
gentlemen, including Hugh McLeod, the com-
mander, Jose Antonio Navarro, William G. Cooke
and Dr. Richard F. Brenham as Peace Commis-
missioners, Capt. Matthew Caldwell, Geo. W.
Kendall of New Orleans, young Frank Coombes
of Kentucky, Capt. Houghton and an array of
first-class privates, the choice spirits of the coun-
try, of whom my friend of forty-eight years,
Thomas W. Hunt, now of Bosque County, is still
an honorable sample.
The triplicate Mexican raid of 1842, ending with
the glorious but unsuccessful battle of Mier, inten-
sified the desire for retaliatory action towards
Mexico and especially so towards New Mexico.
As the result of this feeling, on the 28th of
January, 1843, Jacob Snively, who had held the
staff rank of Colonel in the Texian army, applied
to the government for authority to raise men and
proceed to the upper boundaries of Texas, and
capture a rich train belonging to Armijo and other
Santa Fe Mexicans. Permission was issued by
George W. Hill, Secretary of War, on the 16th of
February, with provisos that half the spoils should
go to the government and should only be taken in
honorable warfare.
On the 24th of April, near the present town of
Denison, the expedition, about 175 strong, was
organized, with Snively unanimouily chosen as
commander. A few others joined a day or two
later, making a total of about 190. They followed
the old Chihuahua trail west till assured of being
west of the hundredth meridian, then bore north,
passing along the western base of the Wichita
mountains, and on the 27th of May encamped on
the southwest bank of the Arkansas. This was
said to be about forty miles below the Missouri-
Santa Fe crossing, but was only eight or ten miles
from the road on the opposite side of the river.
It was known before they started that a Mexican
train of great value (for that day) would pass from
Independence to Santa Fe, some time in the spring,
and as the route for a long distance lay in Texas, it
was considered legitimate prey.
They soon learned from some men from Bent's
Fort that six hundred Mexican troops were waiting
above to escort the caravan from the American
boundary to Santa' Fe. Snively kept out scouts
and sought to recruit his horses. His scouts in-
spected the camp of the enemy and found their
number as reported, about six hundred. On the
20th of June a portion of the command had a fight
with a detachment of the Mexicans, killing seven-
teen and capturing eighty prisoners, including
eighteen wounded, without losing a man, and
securing a fine supply of horses, saddles and arms.
Snively held the prisoners in a camp with good
water. On the 24th three hundred Indians sud-
denly appeared, but, seeing Snively's position and
strength, professed friendship. There was no con-
fidence, however, in their profession, excepting so
far as induced by a fear to attack.
The long delay created great discontent and
when scout°s came in on the 28th and reported no
discovery of the caravan, a separation took place.
Seventy of the men, selecting Capt. Eli Chandler
as their commander, started home on the 29th.
Snively, furnishing his wounded prisoners with
horses to ride, the others with a limited number of
guns for defense against the Indians and such pro-
visions as he could spare, set the whole -party at
liberty. Whereupon he pitched another camp
farther up the river to await the caravan, perfectly
confident that he was west of the hundredth meri-
dian and (being on the southwest side of the Ar-
kansas, the boundary line from that meridian to
its source), therefore, in. Texas. Subsequent sur-
veys proved that he was right. By a captured
Mexican he learned that the caravan was not far
distant escorted by one hundred and ninety-six
United States dragoons, commanded by Capt.
Philip St. George Cooke. On June 30th they were
discovered by the scouts and found to have also
two pieces of artillery. Cooke soon appeared,
crossed the river, despite the protest of Snively
that he was on Texas soil, and planted his guns so
as to rake the camp. He demanded unconditional
surrender and there was no other alternative to the
outrage. Cooke allowed them to retain ten guns
for the one hundred and seven men present, com-
pelled to travel at least four hundred miles through
a hostile Indian country, without a human habita-
tion ; but their situation was not so desperate as
he intended, for a majority of the men, before it
was too late, buried their rifies and double-barreled
shot-guns in the friendly sand mounds, and meekly
surrendered to Cooke the short escopetas they had
captured from the Mexicans. Cooke immediately
re-crossed the river and slept. He awakened to a
partial realization of his harsh and unfeeling act ;
and sent a message to Snively that he would escort
as many of his men as would accept the invitation
into Independence, Missouri. About forty-two of
the men went, among whom were Capt. Myers F.
Jones of Fayette County, his nephew John Rice
o
-9!
P
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
93
Jones, Jr., formerly of Washington County, Mis-
souri, and others whose names cannot be recalled.
With Cooke, on a health-seeking trip, was Mr.
Joseph S. Pease, a noted hardware merchant of
St. Louis, and an old friend of the writer, who
bitterly denounced Cooke and defended the cause
of the Texians on reaching St. Louis.
Col. Snively hastily dispatched a courier advising
Capt. Chandler of these events and asking him to
halt. He did so and on the 2d of July the two
parties re-united. On the 4th the Indians stam-
peded sixty of their horses, but in the fight lost
twelve warriors, while one Texian was killed and
one wounded.
On the 6th the scouts reported that the caravan
had crossed the Arkansas. Some wanted to pursue
and attack it — others opposed. Snively resigned
on the 9th. Sixty-flve men selected Chas. A. War-
fleld as leader (not the Charles A. Warfield after-
wards representative of Hunt County, and more
^.recently of California, but another man of the
same name who, it is believed, died before the Civil
War.) Col. Snively adhered to this party. They
pursued the caravan till the 13th, when they found
the Mexican escort to be too strong and abandoned
the enterprise and started home. Warfleld resigned
and Snively was re-elected. On the 20th they were
assaulted by a band of Indians, but repulsed them,
anfl after the usual privations of such a trip in
mid-summer, they arrived at Bird's Fort, on the
West Fork of the Trinity, pending the efforts to
negotiate a treaty at that place, as elsewhere set
forth in this work. Chandler and party, including
Capt. S. P. Eoss, had already gotten in.
Besides those already named as in this expedition
was the now venerable and honorable ex-Senator
Stewart A. Miller, of Crockett, who kept a daily
diary of the trip, which was in my possession for
several years and to which Yoakum also had access.
The late founder of the flourishing town bearing
his name, Robert A. Terrell, was also one of the
party, and a number of others who are scattered
over the country, but their names cannot be
given.
When this news reached St. Louis, the writer
was on a visit to that city, the guest of Col. A. B.
Chambers, editor of the Republican, in whose
family six years of his boyhood had been passed.
The press of the country went wild in bitter de-
nunciation of the Texians as robbers and pirates.
The Republican alone of the St. Louis press
seemed willing to hear both sides. Capt. Myers
F. Jones and party published a short defensive card,
supplemented by a friendly one from Mr. Joseph
S. Pease. That was nearly forty-flve years ago,
when the writer had just graduated from contests
withMexican freebooters, runningfor the ten months
next prior to the battle of Mier. He could not
submit in silence, and published in the Republican
a complete recapitulation of the outrages, robberies
and murders committed in 1841 and 1842 by the
Mexicans upon the people of Texas, closing with a
denunciation of the conduct of Capt. Philip St.
George Cooke.
The Thrilling Mission of Conmmissioner Joseph C. Eldridge to
the Wild Tribes in 1843, by Authority of President
Houston — Hamilton P. Bee, Thomas Torrey —
The Three Delawares, Jim Shaw, John
Connor and Jim Second Eye —
The Treaty.
When the year 1843 opened, Gen. Sara. Houston
was serving his second term as President of the
Republic of Texas, and the seat of government was
temporarily at the town of Washington-on-the
Brazos. He had uniformly favored a peace policy
toward the Indians, whenever it might become
practicable to conclude a general treaty with the
numerous wild and generally hostile tribes inhabit-
ing all the western and northwestern territory of
the republic. On this policy the country was
divided in opinion, and the question was often
discussed with more or less bitterness. Nothing
94
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
could be more natural, respecting a policy affecting
so deeply the property and lives of tbe frontier
people, who were so greatly exposed to the raids of
the hostiles, and had little or no faith in their
fidelity to treaty stipulations ; while the President,
realizing the sparsity of population and feebleness
in resources of the government and the country,
hoped to bring about a general cessation of hostili-
ties, establish a line of demarcation between the
whites and Indians, and by establishing along the
same a line of trading houses, to promote friendly
traffic, with occasional presents by the government,
to control the wild men and preserve the lives of
the people.
At this time Joseph C. Eldridge,* a man of
education, experience, courage, and the highest
order of integrity, was appointed by the President
as Commissioner of Indian Affairs. About the
same time a delegation from several of the
smaller tribes visited the President, in order to
have a talk. Among them were several Delawares,
nearly civilized, and among them were persons who
spoke not only our language, but all the tongues
of the wild prairie tribes, some speaking one
and some another tongue. It occurred to the
President, after frequent interviews, that he could
utilize these Delawares, or the three chief men
among them, Jim Shaw, John Connor and Jim
Second Eye, as commissioners in inducing all the
wild tribes to meet the President and peace com-
* Joseph C. Eldridge was a native of Connecticut, and
of an ancient and honorable family. Of him Gen. Bee
writes me: "He was an aimirable character, brave,
cool, determined in danger, faithful to public trusts and
loving in his friendships. He did more than his duty on
this trip. He served as Paymaster in the United States
navy from 18i6, and died the senior officer of that corps
in 1881, at his home in Brooklyn, New York. His stern
sense of duty was displayed on our way out, when, north
of Red river, we met and camped all night with a com-
pany of men under Capt. S. P. Eoss, returning from the
ill-fated Snively expedition. They urged us to return
home, as the Indians on the plains were all hostile — our
trip would be fruitless, and the hazards were too great
for such a handful. Only Eldridge's courage and high
sense of duty caused him to reject the advice and pro-
ceed; but pending our trial in the Comanche council we
all regretted not having yielded to the warnings of Capt.
Ross. Capt. Eldridge died of softening of the brain. He
had a son, Houston Eldridge, named for the President
after their temporary unpleasantness, a most promising
young officer of the navy, who died not long after his
father. Jjhn C. Eldridge, a cousin of Joseph C, also
figured honorably in Texas for a number of years, and
their names were sometim^is confounded. Charles W.
Eldridge, another cousin, deceased in Hartford, Con-
necticut, was a brother-in-law to the writer of this his-
tory.
missioners, at a point to be designated, for the
purpose of making a treaty. Subsequent events
went to show that the Delawares had imbibed that
idea; but President Houston finally decided to
commission Capt. Eldridge for that onerous and
hazardous mission, to be accompanied by two or
three white men of approved character, together
with the Delawares and a few Indians of other
tribes. Capt. Eldridge eagerly applied to his young
and bosom friend, Hamilton P. Bee, to accompany
him. They had crossed the gulf together on their
first arrival in Texas in 1837 — Bee accompanying
his mother from South Carolina to join his father,
Col. Barnard E. Bee, already in the service of
Texas, and Eldridge coming from his native State,
Connecticut. He selected also Thomas Torrey,
already an Indian agent, and also a native of
Connecticut.
The preparations being completed, the party left
Washington late in March, 1843, and consisted of
Joseph C. Eldridge, commissioner, Thomas Tor-
rey, Indian agent, the three Delawares as guides
and interpreters, several other Delawares as hunt-
ers, helpers and traders, Acoquash, the Waco head
chief, who was one those who had been to see
the President, and Hamilton P. Bee. There may
have been a few other Indians. They had a small
caravan of pack mules to transport their provisions
and presents for the Indians. They also had with
them for delivery to their own people two Comanche
children about twelve years old, one a girl named
Maria (May-re-ah) and the other a boy who had
taken the name of William Hockley, being two of
>the captives at the Council House fight, in San
Antonio, on the 19th of March, 1840, elsewhere
described in this work. They also had two young
Waco women, previously taken as prisoners, but
these were placed in charge of Acoquash.
They passed up the valley of the Brazos, passing
Fort Milam, near the present Marlin, around which
were the outside habitations of the white settlers.
Further up, on Tehuacano creek, six or seven
miles southeast of the present city of Waco, they
reached the newly established trading house of the
Torrey brothers,* afterwards well known as a
* There were four of the Torrey brothers, all from
Ashford, Connecticut, the younger following the elder to
Texas 1836 to 1840. David was the head of Torrey's
Trading House. He was the third one in the order of
death, bemg killed by Indians on the Brazos frontier
not far from the time of annexation. James, a gallant
and estimable young man. kindly remembered by the
writer of this for his social and soldierly virtues, was one
of the seventeen justly celebrated Mler prisoners who
drew black b.ans at the hacienda of Salado, Mexico
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
95
resort for Indians and traders. Here they found a
large party of Delawares.
The Delawares ac'companying Eldrldge also had
mules freighted with goods for traffic with the wild
tribes, and, among other commodities, a goodly
supply of that scourge of our race — whisky —
doubtless intended for the Delawares found here,
as expected by those with Eldrldge, for at that
time the wild tribes did not drink it.
On the arrival of the commissioner, all became
bustle and activity. The liquor was soon tapped
and a merry time inaugurated, but soon after dark
every Indian surrendered his knife and firearms to
the chiefs, by whom they were secreted. Then
loose reign was given to unarmed warriors, and
throughout the night pandemonium prevailed ac-
companied by screams, hideous yells, fisticuffs,
scratching, biting, and all manner of unarmed per-
sonal combat, causing wakefulness and some degree
of apprehension among the white men. But no
one was killed or seriously injured, and in due
time, sheer exhaustion was followed by quiet
slumber, the red man showing the same maudlin
beastliness when crazed by mean whisky as, alas!
cliaracterizes his white brother in like condition.
It required two days to recover from the frolic,
and then Eldridge resumed his march into the
wilds beyond. His instructions were to visit as
many of the wild tribes as possible, and the head
chief of the Comanches — to deliver to them the
words of friendship from their Great Father, the
President, and invite them all to attend a grand
council to be held at Bird's Fort, on the north side
of the main or west fork of the Trinitj', com-
mencing on the 10th of August (1843), where
they would meet duly accredited commissioners
and the President in person to treat with them.
and were shot to death by order of Santa Anna, on the
19th of March, 1843. Thomas, the companion of Eld-
ridge and Bee on this hazardous mission, a worthy
brother of such men as David and James, was a Santa
Fe prisoner in 1841-42, marched in chains twelve hundred
miles, from Santa Fe to the city of Mexico, and was there
imprisoned with his fellows. He passed the terrible
ordeal narrated In this chapter, as occurring in the
council of Payhaynco — separated from Eldridge and Bee
at the Wichita village, successfully reached Bird's Fort,
with detachments of the wild tribes, there to sicken and
die, as success largely crowned their efforts to bring
about a general treaty. John F. Torrey, the only sur-
vivor of the four brothers, the personification of enter-
prise, built and ran cotton and woolen factories at New
Braunfels. Floods twice swept them and his wealth away.
At a goodly age he lives on his own farm on Comanche
Peak, Hood County. Honored be the name of Torrey
among the children of Texas!
This fort was about twenty-two miles westerly
from where Dallas was subsequently founded.
At a point above the three forks of the Trinity,
probably in Wise or Jack County, the expedition
halted for a few days and sent out Delaware mes-
sengers to find and invite any tribes found in the
surrounding country to visit them. Delegations
from eleven small tribes responded by coming in,
among them being Wacos, Anadarcos, Towdashes,
Caddos, Keecbis, Tehuacanos, Delawares, Bedais,
Boluxies, lonies, and one or two others, constitut-
ing a large assemblage, the deliberations of which
were duly opened by the solemnities of embracing,
smoking, and a wordy interchange of civilities.
Capt. Eldridge appeared in full uniform, and Bee *
performed the duties of secretary. The council
opened by an address from the Delaware interpre-
ters, and the whole day was consumed in a series
of dialogues between them and the wild chiefs,
Capt. Eldridge getting no opportunity to speak,
and when desiring to do so was told by the Dela-
ware's that it was not yet time, as they had not
talked enough to the wild men. So, at night, the
council adjourned till next day when Eldridge de-
livered his talk, which was interpreted to the differ-
ent tribes by the Delawares. Finally Eldridge
said: "Tell them I am the mouth-piece of the
President, and speak his words." Two of the Dela-
wares interpreted the sentence, but Jim Shaw re-
fused, saying it was a lie. The other two conveyed
the language to all. The result was satisfactory,
and the tribes present all agreed to attend the
council at Bird's Fort. Returning to bis tent,
Capt. Eldridge demanded of Shaw, who was the
leader and more intelligent of the Delawares, the
meaning of his strange conduct, to which he replied
that the three Delawares considered themselves the
commissioners, Eldridge being along only to write
down whatever was done. He also charged that
Eldridge had their commission, attested by seals
" Hamilton P. Bee is a native of Charleston, South Car-
olina, favorably and intimately known to the writer for
half a century as an honor to his country in all that con-
stitutes a true and patriotic citizen — a son of the Hon.
Barnard E. Bee, who early tendered his sword and ser-
vices to struggling Texas, and a brother of Gen. Barnard
E. Bee, who fell at Manassas, the first General to yield
his life to the Confederate cause. Hamilton P. Bee was
Secretary to the United States and Texas Boundary Com-
mission, 1839-40; Secretary of the first State Senate in
1846; a gallant soldier in the Mexican war; eight years a
member of the Legislature from the Rio Grande, and
Speaker of the House in 1855-56; a Brigadier-General in
the Confederate army, losing a handsome estate by the
war, and later served as Commissioner of Insurance,
Statistics and History of the State of Texas.
96
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and ribbons, with his baggage. This document
being Eldridge's instructions as commissioner, was
brought out, read and explained by Bee. Jim Shaw
was greatly excited, and had evidently believed
what he said ; but Eldridge bore himself with great
composure and firmness. After the reading Jim
Shaw said: " I beg your pardon, Joe, but I have
been misled. I thought the Delawares were to
make the treaties. We will go no farther, but go to
our own country, on the Missouri river — will start
to-morrow, and will never return to Texas." Eld-
ridge, alarmed at this unexpected phase of affairs,
appealed to the trio to stay and guide him, as the
President expected them to do ; but they seemed
infliixible. To proceed without them was madness,
and in this dilemma Eldridge sent for Jose Maria,
the noted chief of the Anadarcos, who had been so
severely wounded in his victorious fight with the
whites, in Bryant's defeat near Marlin, in January,
1839. He explained to him the facts just related,
and asked him if he would escort him back into the
settlements. Greatly pleased at such a mark of
confidence — his keen black eyes giving full expres-
sion to his gratified pride — he promptly and sol-
emnly promised to do so.
On the next morning, while Eldridge was pack-
ing and mounting for his homeward march, sur-
rounded by his promised escort of one hundred
Anadarco warriors, well mounted and armed with
bows and lances, with Jose Maria at their head,
Jim Shaw sent word to Capt. Eldridge that he had
changed his mind and would continue the trip. An
interview followed and a full understanding was
entered into, acknowledging Capt. Eldridge as the
sole head of the expedition ; but after this the manner
of the Delaware trio was formal and reserved, and
their intercourse long confined to business matters.
Continuing the march, they next reached the
principal village of the Wacos, whither they had
been preceded by Acoquash, with the two released
"Waco girls, who greeted them warmly. During
their stay he was their guest, and most of the time
had his family on hand. It was a little odd, but
his friendship was too valuable to be sacrificed on
a question of etiquette. Here the Delawares
annouDced that it would be necessary to send out
runners to find the Comanches ; that this would
require fifteen days, during which time the trio —
Shaw, Connor and Second Eye — would take the
peltries they had on hand to Warren's trading
house down on Red river, for deposit or sale, and
return within the time named. During the delay,
Eldridge camped three miles from the village, but
was daily surrounded and more or less annoyed by
the Wticos, men, women and children. The wife of
Acoquash became violently ill, and he requested his
white brothers to exert their skill as medicine men.
Mr. Bee administered to her jalap and rhubarb,
which, fortunately for them, as will be seen later,
speedily relieved and restored her to health.
The runners returned on time with rather encour-
aging reports ; but the essential trio, so indispen-
sable to progress, were absent twenty-eight instead
of fifteen days, causing a loss of precious time.
Their next move was for the Wichita village, at
or near the present site of Fort Sill. They were
kindly received by this warlike tribe, who had heard
of their mission and promised to attend the council
at Bird's Fort.
They next bore westerly for the great prairies and
plains in search of the Comanches, Acoquash and
his wife being with them. It was now in July and all
of their provisions were exhausted, reducing them
to an entire dependence on wild meat, which, how-
ever, was abundant, and they soon found the tal-
low of the buffalo, quite unlike that of the cow,
a good substitute for bread. They carried in
abundant strings of cooked meat on their pack
mules.
After twenty days they found Indian" signs" in
a plum thicket, " the best wild plums," wrote Young
Bee, "I ever saw." They saw where Indians
had been eating plums during the same day, and
there they encamped. Pretty soon an Indian,
splendidly mounted, approached, having a boy of
six years before him. He proved to be blind, but
a distinguished chief of the Comanches — a man
of remarkable physique, over six feet in height, a
model in proportions and his hair growing down
over his face. He told the Delaware interpreter
the localitj' in which they were, and that the town
of Payhayuco, the great head chief of the
Comanches, was only a few miles distant.
As soon as the blind chief's boy — a beautiful
child, handsomely dressed in ornamented buck-
skin—gathered a supply of plums, they mounted
and returned to their town, accompanied by a few
of the Delawares. In the afternoon a delegation
of the Comanches visited Eldiidge and invited him
and his party to visit their town. Promptly sad-
dling up and escorted by about 500 Comanche
warriors, in about two hours' ride, they entered
the town of the great chief
PAYHAYUCO,
and for the first time beheld the pride aad the glory
of the wild tribes — the Comanche Indian in his
Bedouin-like home. With considerable ceremony
they were conducted to the tent of Payhayuco who
was absent, but the honors were done by the chief
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
97
of his seven wives, who caused the best tent to be
vacated and placed at the disposal of her white
guests. It was hot, August weather, and such
crowds of Comanches, of all ages and sexes, pressed
in and around the tent that it became so suffocat-
ing as to necessitate the erection of their own tent,
which was open at both ends. First getting the
consent of their hostess, this was done.
Finding that the chief would be absent a week
yet to come, and their business being with him,
they could only patiently await his arrival. They
were ceaseless curiosities to all the younger Coman-
ches, who had never seen a white man, and who
continued to crowd around and inspect them ; roll-
ing up their sleeves to show their white arms to the
children, etc. While thus delayed the Comanches
twice moved their town, and our people were aston-
ished at the regularity with which each new location
was laid off into streets and the precision with
which each family took its position in each new
place. Mr. Bee accompanied the warriors on two
or" three buffalo hunts, and was surprised at their
wonderful dexterity.
Payhayuco arrived On the afternoon of August
9 (1843), and occupied the tent adjoining the
whites. They were soon informally presented to
him and courteously received, but no clue was
obtained as to the state of his mind. At sunrise
next morning about a hundred warriors met in
council in a large tent, sitting on the ground in a
series of circles diminishing from circumference
to center, wherein Payhayuco sat. Our friends,
not being invited, took a brief glance at thetn
and retired to their own tent, leaving their case
with the Delawares, who attended the council.
About 10 a. m. a sort of committee from the
council waited on tljem to say that a report
had come from the Waco village, where they
had tarried so long, charging that they were bad
men and had given poison to the Wacos, and
wanted to know what they had to say about it.
This was supremely preposterous, but it was also
gravely suggestive of danger. They repelled the
charge' and referred to the old Waco chief,
Acoquash, then present, their companion on the
whole trip, and whose wife they had cured.
What a hazard they had passed ! Had that poor
squaw died instead of recovering under Bee's
treatment, their fate would have been sealed. A
Choctaw negro, who understood bat little Co-
maache, told them the council was deliberating
op their lives and talking savagely. They sent for
the Delawares and told tluem of this. The Dela-
wares denied it, and reassured them. But half an
hour later their favorite Delaware huater, the only
one in whose friendshiji they fully confided,, in-
formed them that the Comanches were going to kill
them. They were, of course, very much alarmed
by this second warning, and, again summoning
the trio, told .Jim Shaw they were not children, but
men, and demanded to know the truth. Shaw re-
plied that he had desired to conceal their peril
from them as long as possible, and for that reason
had told them a lie ; but in truth the council was
clamorous and unanimous for their death ; that all
the chiefs who had a right to speak had done so,
and all were against them ; that they (Shaw and
Connor) had done all they could for them ; bad
told the council they would die with them, as they
had promised the White Father they would take
care of them and would never return without them ;
and that Acoquash had been equally true to them.
They added that only Payhayuco was yet to speak,
but even should he take the opposite side they did
not believe he had influence enough to save their
lives, "Next came into our tent " (I quote the
language of Gen. Bee on this incident), " our dear
old friend Acoquash, where we three lone white
men were sitting, betraying the most intense feel-
ing, shaking all over and great tears rolling from
his eyes, and as best he could, told us that we
would soon be put to death. He said, he had told
them his father was once a great chief, the head of
a nation who were lords of the prairie, but had
always been the friends of the Comanches, who
always listened to the counsel of his father, for
it was always good, and he had begged them to
listen to him as their fathers had listened to his
father, when he told them that we (Eldridge, Bee
and Torrey) were messengers of peace; that we
had the ' white flag,' and that the vengeance of
the Great Spirit would be turned against them if
they killed such messengers ; but he said it was of
no avail. We had to die and he would die with us
for he loved us as his own children. Poor old In-
dian ! My heart yearns to him yet after the lapse
of so many years." [Gen. Bee to his children.]
Acoquash then returned to the council. Our
friends, of course, agonized as brave men may who
are to die as dogs, bat they soon recovered com-
posure and resolved on their course. Each had
two pistols. When the party should come to take
them out for death, each would kill an Indian with
one, and then, to escape slow torture, empty the
other into his own brain. From 12 to 4 o'clock
not a word was spoken in that council. All sat in
silence, awaiting the voice of Payhayuco. At 4
o'clock his voice was heard, but no one reported to
the doomed men. Then otl*er voices, were heard,
and occasionally those of the Delawares. A little
98
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
later confusion seemed to prevail, and many voices
were heard. Bee said to Eldridge : " See the set-
ting sun, old fellow ! It is the last we shall ever
see on earih! " At the same instant approaching
footsteps were heard. Each of the three sprang to
his feet, a pistol in each hand, when "dear old "
Acoquash burst into the tent and threw himself
into the arms of Eldridge. Bee and Torrey
thought the old Spartan had come to redeem his
jpledge and die with them, but in a moment realized
that his convulsive action was the fruit of uncon-
trollable joy. The next moment the Delawares
rushed in exclaiming, "Saved! saved!" "Oh!
God ! can I ever forget that moment ! To the
earth, from which we came, we fell as if we had
been shot, communing with Him who reigns over
all — a scene that might be portrayed on canvas,
but not described ! Prostrate on the earth lay the
white man and the red man, creatures of a common
brotherhood, typiiied and made evident that day
in the wilderness ; not a word spoken ; each bowed
to the earth — brothers in danger and brothers in
the holy electric spark which caused each in his
way to thank God for deliverance." [Gen. Bee to
his children.]
After this ordeal had been passed, succeeded by
a measure of almost heavenly repose, the inter-
preters, now fully reconciled to Eldridge, explained
that after that solemn silence of four hours, Pay-
hayuco had eloquently espoused the cause of
mercy and the sanctitj' of the white flag borne by
the messengers of peace. His appeal was, perhaps,
as powerful and pathetic as ever fell from the lips
of an untutored son of the forest. Upon con-
clusion, amid much confusion and the hum of
excited voices, he took the vote per capita and was
sustained by a small majority. The sun sank at
the same moment, reflecting rays of joy upon the .
western horizon, causing among the saved a solemn
and inexpressibly grateful sense of the majesty and
benignity of the King of kings — our Father iu
Heaven.
As darkness came, the stentorian voice of Pay-
hayuco was successively heard in the four quarters
of the town, its tones denoting words of command.
Our countrymen demanded of the interpreters to
know what he was saying. The latter answered:
" He is telling them you are under his protection
and must not, at the peril of their lives, be hurt."
A hundred warriors were then placed in a circle
around the tent, and so remained till next morning.
No Indian was allowed to enter the circle.
When morning came they were invited to the
council, when Capt. Eldridge delivered the meseage
of friendship from President Houston, and invited
them to accompany him in and meet the council ab
Bird's Fort; but this was the 11th of August, a
day after the date heretofore fixed for the assem-
blage, and a new date would be selected promptly
on their arrival, or sooner if runners were sent in
advance. The presents were then distributed and
an answer awaited.
On their arrival the little Comanche boy had been
given up. He still remembered some of his mother
tongue and at once relapsed into barbarism. But
now Capt. Eldridge tendered to the chief, little
Maria, a beautiful Indian child, neatly dressed,
who knew no word but English. A scene followed
which brought tears to the eyes of not only the
white men, but also of the Delaware*. The
child seemed horrified, clung desperately and im-
ploringly to Capt. Eldridge, and screamed most
piteously ; but the whole scene cannot be described
here. It was simply heartrending. She was taken
up bj' a huge warrior and borne away, uttering
piercing cries of despair. For years afterwards she
was occssionally heard of, still bearing the name of
Maria, acting as interpreter at Indian councils.
Succeeding this last scene they were informed
that the council had refused to send delegates to
the proposed council. Payhayuco favored the
measure, but was overruled by the majority.
Within an hour after this announcement (August
11th, 1843) our friends mounted and started on
their long journey home — fully five hundred miles,,
through a trackless wilderness. I pass over some
exciting incidents occurring at the moment of their
departure between a newly arrived party of Dela-
ware traders, having no connection with Eldridge,
and a portion of the Comanches, in regard to" a
Choctaw negro prisoner bought from the c'omanches
by the traders. It was dreaded by our friends as a
new danger, but was settled without bloodshed by
the payment of a larger ransom to the avaricious
Comanches.
Without remarkable incident and in due
time, our friends arrived again at the principal
Wichita village (at or near the present Fort Sill),
and were again kindly received. The day fixed for
the treaty having passed, Eldridge knew the Presi-
dent would be disappointed and impatient; so
after consultation, it was agreed that Torrey, with
Jim Shaw, John Connor and the other Indian
attaches, still with them, should return on the route
they had gone out, gather up the tribes first men-
tioned in this narrative, and conduct them to Bird's
Fort; while Eldridge Bee and their most trusted
Delaware hunter, witli Jim Second Eye as auide
would proceed directly to the fort. Thus thev
separated, each party on its mission, and to
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
99
Eldridge and Bee it was a perilous one. I shall
follow them.
On the second day, at 3 p. m., they halted in a
pretty grove, on a beautiful stream, to cook their
last food, a little Wichita green corn. This en-
raged Second Eye, who seized the hunter's gun,
and galloped away, leaving them with only holster
pistols. The Delaware hunter was a stranger in
the country and could only communicate by signs.
For three days he kept a bee line for Warren's
trading house on Red river, as safer than going
directly to Bird's Fort, guided by the information
he had casually picked up from his brothers on the
trip, for neither of the white men knew the country.
On the third day they entered the Cross Timbers
where brush and briers retarded their progress,
and camped near night on a pretty creek. The
Delaware climbed a high tree and soon began joy-
ful gesticulations. Descending he indicated that
Eldridge should accompany him, leaving Bee in
camp. He did so and they were gone two or three
hours, but finally returned with a good supply of
fresh corn bread, a grateful repast to men who had
been without an ounce of food for three days and
nights. The camp visited proved to be that of a
party of men cutting hay for Fort Arbuckle, on the
Washita, who cooked and gave them the bread and
other provisions, with directions to find the trading
house and the information that they could reach it
next day. With full stomachs they slept soundly ;
started early in the morning and about 2 p. m.
rode up to Warren's trading house. The first
man seen was Jim Second Eye, the treacherous
scoundrel who had left them at the mercy of any
straggling party of hostile or thieving savages.
He hastened forward with extended hand, exclaim-
ing: "How are you, Joe? How are you, Ham?
Glad to see you ! "
The always courteous Eldridge, usually gentle
and never given to profane language, sprang from
his horse and showered upon him sueh a torrent of
denunciatory expletives as to exhaust himself ; then,
recovering, presented himself and Mr. Bee to Mr.
Warren, with an explanatory apology for his violent
language, justified, as he thought, towards the base
wretch to whom it was addressed. Quite a crowd
of Indians and a few white men were present. Mr.
Warren received and entertained them most kindly.
They never more beheld Jim Second Eye.
After a fest of two days Eldridge and Bee, with
their faithful Delaware, left for Bird's Fort, and,
without special incident, arrived there about the
middle of September, to be welcomed by the com-
missioners, Messrs. George W. Terrell and E. H.
Tarrant, who had given them up as lost. Tlie
President had remained at the fort for a month,
when, chagrined and greatly disappointed, he had
left for the seat of government.
Capt. Eldridge, anxious to report to the Presi-
dent, tarried not at the fort, but with Bee and the
still faithful Delaware, continued on. On the way
Mr. Bee was seized with chills and fever of violent
type, insomuch that, at Fort Milam, Eldridge left
him and hurried on. Mr. Bee finally reached the
hospitable house of his friend, Col. Josiah Crosby,
seven miles above Washington, and there remained
till in the winter, before recovering his health.
Capt. Eldridge, after some delay, met and reported
to the President, but was not received with the
cordiality he thought due his services. Jim Shaw and
John Connor had preceded him and misstated vari-
ous matters to the prejudice of Eldridge, and to
the amazement of many who knew his great merit
and his tried fidelity to President Houston, he was
dismissed from office. Very soon, however, the old
hero became convinced of his error ; had Eldridge
appointed chief clerk of the State Department
under Anson Jones, and, immediately after annexa-
tion in 1846, secured his appointment by President
Polk, as Paymaster in the United States Navy, a
position he held till his death in his long-time home
in Brooklyn, New York, in 1881. Excepting only
the incident referred to — deeply lamented by
mutual friends — the friendship between him and
President Houston, from their first acquaintance in
1837, remained steadfast while both lived. Indeed
Capt. Eldridge subsequently named a son for him —
his two sons being Charles and Houston Eldridge.
A TREATY MADE.
On the 29th of September, 1843, a few days after
Eldridge and Bee left, a treaty was concluded by
Messrs. Tarrant and Terrell, with the following
tribes, viz. = Tehuacanos, Keechis, Wacos, Caddos,
Anadareos, Ionics, Boluxies, Delawares, and thirty
isolated Cherokees. The Wichitas and Towdashes
were deterred from coming in by the lies of some
of the Creeks. Estecayucatubba, principal chief
of the Chickasaws, signed the treaty merely for its
effect on the wild tribes. Leonard Williams and
Luis Sanchez, of Nacogdoches, were present and
aided in collecting the tribes, who failed to assemble
on the 10th of August, because of the non-return of
Eldridge and his party. Roasting Ear, S. Lewis
and McCuUoch, Delaware chiefs, were present at
the signing and rendered service in favor of the
treaty.
The most potent chief in the council, to whom
the wild tribes looked as a leader, was Kechikoro-
qua, the head of the Tehuacanos, who at first
100
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
refused to treat with any one but the President ;
but finally yielded, after understanding the powers
of the commissioners.
A line of demarcation was agreed upon between
the whites and Indians, along which, at proper in-
tervals, trading houses were to be established.
Three points for such houses were selected, which
indicate the general line chosen, viz. : one at the
junction of the West and Clear Forks of the Trin-
ity; one at the Comanche Peak; and one at the
old San Saba Mission.
From undoubted data this narrative has been pre-
pared, the first ever published of this most thrilling
succession of events in our Indian history. It
reflects the highest credit on the three courageous
young men who assumed and triumphed over its
hazards, though sadly followed by the death of the
heroic and much loved Thomas Torrey.
Scenes on Red River — Murder of Mrs. Hunter, Daughter
and Servant.
From the first settlements along and near Red
river in the counties of Fannin and Grayson, cov-
ering the years from 1837 to 1843, the few and
scattered inhabitants were at no time free from the
sneaking savages, who in small parties, often clan-
destinely entered the vicinity of one or more of
the new settlers and lay in wait till opportunity
should offer for their murderous assaults under cir-
cumstances promising them greater or less immun-
ity from danger to themselves. The number of
such inroads during those years was considerable,
and relatively many lives were lost, besides quite
a number of women and children being carried into
captivity. It must seem incredible to those who
have ever lived in peace and security in old com-
munities, that men, in no sense compelled to
abandon such localities on account of crowded
population, should, with their wives and children,
thrust themselves forward entirely beyond the arm
of governmental protection, or even the aid of their
own countrymen. To such persons thousands of
the hazards thus voluntarily assumed must appear
as the offspring of inexcusable temerity. The idea
of voluntarily subjecting women and helpless chil-
dren to the constant hazard of such fiendish horrors,
i-5 appalling to those who are born, live and die in
the older States of our country. All this seems
unreasonable to those around the peaceful firesides
of home, in the midst of population, comfort,
schools, churches, law and government. But the
political philosopher as well as the enlightened stu-
dent of American history, meets these tender sen-
sibilities of the human heart with the stubborn and
all-pervading fact, that had it not been for this
trait in the Anglo-Saxon character, tKis lofty defi-
ance of danger and love of adventure, the Ameri-
can Union to-day would scarcely have passed the
Ohio in its march towards the West. The truth of
this opinion, in a large degree, if not in its entirety,
is attested by the blood of the slain in ten thousand
places west and southwest of the Alleghanies, and
by the heroism, the anguish, the tears and the
prayers of more than ten thousand mothers ascend-
ing to the throne of God pleading for their children
" because they were not." It is a truth the
quintessence of which should ever comfort every
American freeman as one of the great testimonials
by Which he enjoys life and liberty, home and hap-
piness in much the larger portion of this Republic
of Republics, reaching from the Eastern io the
Western ocean, entirely across the New World. Of
all men on earth such a freeman should be a good
citizen, jealous of his rights, as sacred boons, con-
ferred that he and his fellows might stand forth as
true men — the unfaltering friends of good govern-
ment and of liberty, regulated by wise and just
laws.
As samples of the horrors referred to, the sub-
joined narrative of one of the lesser demonisms
pertaining to our pioneer settlements is given.
In the year 1840, Dr. Hunter and family located
in the valley of Red river, about eight miles east
or below the trading house or village of Old Warren
and several miles from any other habitation. The
family consisted of the parents, a son nearly
grown, three daughters, aged about eighteen,
twelve and ten, and a negro woman. They soon
erected cabins, and the elder daughter married Mr.
William Laiikford of Warren, and settled at a new
place. The family were pleased with the surround-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
101
ings and labored assiduously in opening up a
permanent home. Like thousands before them,
they finally fell into a state of fancied security
and became careless, till on one occasion, the
father and son both left home to be absent till
night.
Late in the afternoon of the ill-fated day, the
two little girls went to the spring, about a hundred
yards from the cabin, for a bucket of water. But
as they started on their return to the house, a party
of eleven lurking savages sprang from the brush,
shot one of the children to death and seized the
other so suddenly that neither made the slightest
noise. Scalping the slain child and holding fast to
the other, they noiselessly approached the cabin,
unheard and unseen till they sprang into the door
and thei'e, in the presence of the captive, merci-
lessly killed and scalped her mother and killed,
without scalping, the negro woman. As speedily
as they could they plundered the house of all they
could carry off and left at dark, of course bearing
away the child prisoner.
Before they had passed beyond hearing young
Hunter reached home and hallooed for some one to
come out. The Indians increased their pace, a
stout warrior carrying the child on his shoulders.
Eeceiving no answer the young man entered the
house and before he could strike a light, stumbled
over his dead mother. The light, when struck,
revealed the dead bodies and the destruction other-
wise wrought. He lost no time in mounting and
hastening for help, but the people were too few and
scattered to make any effective pursuit. Arriving
at the place next day the dead little girl was found,
and this led to grave apprehensions as to the fate
of the other. It had rained all night, rendering it
impracticable to rapidly follow the trail of the
retreating marauders.
Subsequent developments showed that the Indians
traveled all night in the rain, but during the next
day slackened their pace and thereafter traveled
slowly for several days to their villages. At night,
before the fire, the little captive was compelled to
work in dressing her mother's scalp. Months
passed and no tidings came of the missing one ;
but perhaps a year later the father and son learned
that a party of Choctaws had bought such a child
from wild Indians. The son hastened into the
country of those friendly people and after three or
four days' travel, found and recovered his sister.
He hastened her back to the embraces of her
stricken father and sister, to cherish through life,
however, an everpresent recollection of the ghastly
scene she was compelled to witness.
Captivity of the Simpson Children — The Murder of Emma and
the Recovery of Thomas — 1844.
Among the residents of Austin in the days of its
partial abandonment, from the spring of 1842 to
the final act of annexation in the winter of 1845-6,
was an estimable widow named Simpson. During
that period Austin was but an outpost, without
troops and ever exposed to inroads from the In-
dians. Mrs. Simpson had a.daughter named Emma,
fourteen years of age, and a son named Thomas,
aged twelve. On a summer afternoon in 1844, her
two children went out a short distance to drive
home the cows. Soon their mother heard them
scream at the ravine, not over 400 yards west
of the center of the town. In the language of Col.
John S. Ford, a part of whose narrative I adopt:
"She required no explanation of the cause; she
knew at once the Indians bad captured her darlings.
Sorrowing, and almost heartbroken, she rushed to
the more thickly settled part of the town to implore
citizens to turn out, and endeavor to recapture
her children. A party of men were soon in the
saddle, and on the trail.
"They discovered the savages were on foot —
about four in number — and were moving in the
timber, parallel to the river, and up it. They found
on the trail shreds of the girl's dress, yet it was
difficult to follow the footsteps of the fleeing red
men. From a hill they descried the Indians just
before they entered the ravine south of Mount Bon-
nell. The whites moved at a run, yet they failed
to overtake the barbarians. A piece of an under-
garment was certain evidence that the captors had
passed over Mount Barker. The rocky surface of
the ground precluded the possibility of fast trail-
ing, and almost the possibility of trailing at all..
102
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Every conceivable effort was made to track the
Indians, and all proved unavailing. They were
loth to return to Austin to inform the grief-stricken
mother her loved ones were indeed the prisoners of
savages, and would be subject to all the brutal
cruelties and outrages of a captivity a thousand
limes more terrible than the pangs of death. The
scene which ensued, when the dread news reached
Mrs. Simpson's ears, can not be painted with pen
or pencil. The wail of agony and despair rent the
air, and tears of sympathy were rung from fron-
tiersmen who never quailed when danger came in
its most fearful form. The pursuing party was
small. All the names have not been ascertained.
Judge Joe Lee, Columbus Browning and Thomas
Wooldridge, were among them."
Pursuit under the then condition of the almost
defenseless people of Austin was impossible. No
further tidings of the lost children were had for a
year or more. About that time Thomas Simpson
was ransomed by a trader at Taos, New Mexico.
He was finally returned to his mother, and then the
fate of Emma became manifest. TLomas said
" his sister fought the Indians all the time. They
carried her by force — dragged her frequently,
tore her clothing and handled her roughly.
Thomas was led by two Indians. He offered no
resistance, knowing he would be killed if he
did.
" When the Indians discovered they were fol-
lowed they doubled, coming back rather in the
direction of Austin. They made a short halt not
far from Hon. John Hancock's place. Thomas
begged his sister not to resist, and told her such a
course would cause her to be put to death."
The Indians then divided for a short time, the
sister in the charge of one and the brother of the
other couple. When they reunited on Shoal creek,
about six miles from Austin, Thomas saw " his
sister's scalp dangling from one's belt. No one
will ever know the details of the bloody deed.
Indeed, a knowledge of Indian customs justifies
the belief that the sacrifice of an innocent life
involved incidents of a more revolting character
than mere murder. In the course of time the
bones of the unfortunate girl were found near the
place where Mr. George W. Davis erected his
residence, and to that extent corroborated the
account of Thomas Simpson. It is no diflScult
matter to conceive what were the impressions
produced upon parents then living in Austin by
this event. It is easy to imagine how vivid the
conviction must have been that their sons and
daughters might become the victims of similar mis-
fortunes, suffering and outrages."
In the language of Col. Ford: " Let the reader
extend the idea, and include the whole frontier of
Texas in the scope, extending, as it did, from Red
river to the Rio Grande, in a sinuous line upon the
outer tiers of settlements, and including a large
extent of the Gulf coast. Let him remember that
the country was then so sparsely populated it was
quite all frontier, and open to the incursions of
the merciless tribes who made war upon women
and children, and flourished the tomahawk and the
scaiping-knife in the bedrooms and the boudoirs,
as well as in the forests and upon the bosoms of
the prairies. When he shall have done this he can
form a proximate conception of the privations and
perils endured by the pioneers who reclaimed Texas
from the dominion of the Indian and made it the
abode of civilized men."
Brief History of Castro's Colony.
With the declaration of Texian independence,
March 2d, 1836, all prior colonial grants and con-
tracts with Mexico or the State of Coahuila and
Texas ceased. Really and practically they ceased
on the 13th of November, 1835, by a decree of the
first revolutionary assembly, known as the consulta-
tion, which, as a preventive measure against frauds
and villainy, wisely and honestly closed all land
otfice business until a permanent government could
be organized. Hence, as a historical fact, the
colonial contracts of Stephen F. Austin, Austin &
Williams, Sterling C. Robertson, Green De Witt,
Martin DeLeon, Power & Hewetson and McMullen
& McGloin ceased qn the 13th of November, 1835
The concessions to David G. Burnet, Joseph
Vehlein and Lorenzo de Zavala, previously trans-
ferred to a New York syndicate, known as the New
York and Galveston Bay Company, of which Avchi-
bald HotchkHs, of Nacogdoches, was made resi-
dent agent, and which, in reality, accomplished
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
103
little or nothing, also ejjpired by the decree of the
13th of November, 1835.
The Republic was born March 2, 1836, and for
the five succeeding years, until February 4th, 1841,
in the last year of Lamar's administration, there
was no law authorizing colonial contracts. But on
the last named day a law was passed authorizing
the President, under conditions set forth, to enter
into contracts for the colonization of wild lands in
Northwest and Southwest Texas. That act was
amended January 1st, 1843.
President Lamar entered into a contract for
what became known as Peters Colony, in North
Texas, August 30, 1841, which was altered Novem-
ber 20, 1841, and, by President Houston, on the
26th of July, 1842, Houston having succeeded
Lamar as President. Under this law, besides the
Peters Colony, already granted. President Houston
made grants to Henry F. Fisher and Burchard
Miller, for what afterwards became linown as the
■German Colony, which did much to populate the
beautiful mountain country drained by the Perdcr-
nales, Llano and San Saba rivers.
On the 16th of January, 1842, Henry Castro
entered into a contract with President Houston for
settling a colony west of the Medina, to continue
for five years, the eastern boundary being four
■miles west of the Medina and cutting him off from
that beautiful stream ; but he bought from private
parties the lands on it and thereby made the Medina
his eastern boundary. At the same time President
Houston appointed Mr. Castro Texian Consul-Gen-
eral to France.
Who was Henry Castro? He was an educated
and accomplished Frenchman, bearing a Spanish
name, and was rightfully Henri de Castro. Owing
to the invasion of Texas in 1842 and other
obstacles, on the 2oth of December, 1844, after
he had brought over seven hundred immigrants,
on seven different ships, cliartered at his own
cost, his contract was prolonged for three years
from its original period of termination — a just
and honorable concession by Texas to one of such
approved zeal and energy.
A volume of interest could be written descriptive
of the efforts of Mr. Castro to settle his colony,
then exposed to the attacks of bandit and guerrilla
Mexicans but a little to its west, and to all the
hostile Indians north and west of his proposed
settlement. He hurried to France and besides his
otHcial and personal affairs, did great service in
aiding Gen. James Hamilton, the Texian minister,
in popularizing the cause of Texas in France. He
encountered great obstacles, as the French govern-
ment was using immense efforts to encourage
migration to its colony in Algiers; but on the 13th
of November, 1842, he dispatched the ship, Ebro,
from Havre with 113 immigrants for Texas. Soon
afterwards the ships Lyons, from Havre, and the
Louis Philippe, from Dunkirk, followed with im-
migrants, accompanied by the Abbe Menitrier.
These were followed from Antwerp on the 25th of
October, 1843, by the ship, Jeane Key ; and on
May 4th by the Jeanette Marie. The seven ships
named brought over seven hundred colonists. In
all, in thirty-seven ships, he introduced into Texas
over five thousand immigrants, farmers, orchard-
ists and vine-growers, chiefly from the Rhenish
provinces, an excellent class of industrious, law-
abiding peeple, whose deeds " do follow them " in
the beautiful gardens, fields and homes in Medina
and the contiguous counties on the west.
On the 3d of September, 1844, after manv
delays, the heroic Castro, at the head of the first
party to arrive on the ground, formally inaugurated
his colony as a living fact. A town was laid out
on the west bank of the Medina, and by the unani-
mous vote of the colonists, named Castroville. It
was a bold step, confronting dangers unknown to
the first American colonists in 1822, for besides
hostile savages, now accustomed to the use of fire
arms, it challenged inroads from the whole Rio
Grande Mexican frontier, which, in 1822 furnished
friends and not enemies to foreign settlement in
Texas. It was doing what both Spanish and Mex-
ican power had failed to do in 153 years — 1692 to
1844 — since the first settlement at San Antonio.
It was founding a permanent settlement of civilized.
Christian men, between San Antonio and the Rio
Grande, the settlements and towns on which, from
Matamoros (Reynosa, Camargo, Mier, Guerrero,
Larioredo, Dolores, San Fernando, Santa Rosa,
Presidio del Rio Grande, Presidio del Norte),
bristled in hostility to Texas and its people. It
was an achievement entitling the name of Henri de
Castro to be enrolled among the most prominent
pioneers of civilization in modern times. Yet the
youth of to-day, joyously and peacefully gallopinw
over the beautiful and fertile hills and valleys he
rescued from savagery, are largely ignorant of his
great services.
The gallant Col. John. C. Hays, the big-hearted
Col. George T. (Tom) Howard, John James, the
surveyor, and, among others, the pure, warm-
hearted and fatherly John M. Odin, the first Cath-
olic Bishop of Texas, besides many generous
hearted Americans, visited Castroville and bade
godspeed to the new settlers from La Belle France
and the Rhine. Bishop Odin (friend of my youth
and of my mother's house), laid and blessed the
104
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
corner-stone of the first house dedicated to the
worship of God — a service rendered before the
settlers had completed respectable huts to shelter
their families. On his return from this mission the
good bishop dined at my mother's house, and,
though a Baptist, both by inheritance and forty-six
years of membership, in the broader spirit of civil-
ization and that spirit which embraces all true and
pure hearts, regardless of party and creed, she
congratulated him on the work he had done. But
in fact every man, woman and child who knew
Bishop Odin (0-deen) in those years of trials and
sorrow in Texas, loved him, and sorrowed when he
returned to and died in his native Lombardy.
Mr. Castro, soon after inaugurating his colony,
was compelled to revisit France. He delivered a
parting farewell to his people. On the 25th of
November, 1844, to the number of flfty-three heads
of families, they responded. Their address is
before me. They say: "We take pleasure in
acknowledging that since the first of September —
the date at which we signed the process verbal of
taking possession — you have treated us like a
liberal and kind father. * * * Our best wishes
accompany you on your voyage and we take this
occasion to express to you our ardent desire to see
you return soon among us, to continue to us your
paternal protection." Signed by Leopold Mentrier,
J. H. Burgeois, George Cupples, Jean Baptiste
Lecomte, Joseph Weber, Michael Simon and forty-
seven others.
The Indians sorely perplexed these exposed peo-
ple. In the rear of one of their first immigrating
parlies, the Indians, forty miles below San Antonio,
attaclied and burnt a wagon. The driver, an
American, rifle in hand, reached a thicket and
killed s?veral of them ; but they killed a boy of
nineteen — a Frenchman — cut off his head and
nailed it to a tree. In the burnt wagon was a
trunk containing a considerable amount of gold
and silver. In the ashes the silver was found
melted — the gold only blackened. This was one
of tlie first parties following the advance settlers.
In this enterprise Henry Castro expended of his
personal means over one hundred and fifty thousand
dollars. He fed his colonists for a year — furnished
them milch cows, farming implements, seeds, medi-
cines and whatever they needed. He was a father,
dispensing blessings hitherto unknown in the col-
onization of Texas. He was a learned, wise and
humane man, unappreciated by many, because he
was modest and in nowise self-asserting, and his
tastes were literary. He was a devoted friend of
Presidents Lamar, Houston and Jones, all of whom
were his friends and did all in their power, each
during his term, to advance his great and patriotic
idea of planting permanent civilization in South-
west Texas. He was a devout believer in the
capacity of intelligent men for self-government, and
abhorred despotism as illustrated in the kingly gov-
ernments of Europe — the rule of nations by suc-
cession in particular families regardless of sense,
honor or capacity. He believed with Jefferson, in
the God-given right of every association of men,
whether in commonwealth, nations or empires, to
select their own officers, and, by chosen represent-
atives, to make their own laws. Hence he was, in
every sense, a valuable accession to the infant
Republic of Texas.
When war raged and our ports were closed, Mr.
Castro sought to visit the land of his birth, and, to
that end, reached Monterey in Mexico. There lie
sickened and died, and there, at the base of the
Sierra Madre, his remains repose.
The "Chihuahua-El Paso" Pioneer Expedition in 1848.
When the Mexican war closed and the last of the
Texian troops returned home in the spring of 1848,
the business men of San Antonio and other places
became deeply interested in opening a road and
establishing commercial intercourse with El Paso
and Chihuahua. The U. S. Government also
desired such a road. Meetings were held and the
plan of an expedition outlined. A volunteer party
of about thirty-five business men and citizens was
formed, among whom were Col. John C. Hays, Mr
Peacock, Maj. Mike Chevalier, Capt. George T*
Howard, Maj. John Caperton, SamuelA. Mav^erick'
Quartermaster Ralston, Dr. a German from
Fredericksburg, and a young friend of his, Lorenzo,
a Mexican, who went as a guide and who had been
many years a prisoner among the Comanches.
At that time Capt. Samuel Highsmith was in
command of a company of Texas rangers, stationed
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
105
opposite the little German settlement of Castell, on
the Llano river. In response to a request from the
citizens interested, Capt. Highsmith was directed
to detail thirty-five of his company and escort
the expedition. Col. Hays commanded the com-
bined forces. Capt. Highsmith, instead of making
an arbitrary detail, called for volunteers. Instantly
more men stepped forth than were required, but
the matter was amicably arranged. Among those
who went were bugler A. K. Barnes, now of Lam-
pasas, Calvin Bell, Joseph Collins, Jesse Jerkins,
— Jerkins, John Hughes, — Measbe, Herman
L. Eaven, still of Travis County, Solomon Ramsey,
James Sims, Thomas Smith, John Warren and
John Conner, a noted Delaware Indian who was
the regular guide of the company. My informant,
Herman L. Raven, can only recall these names.
The San Antonio party arrived at Highsmith's
camp about the 1st of August, 1848. The troops
were given a pack mule to each mess of four men
and carried rations for thiity days. The com-
mand, seventy in all, moved up the valley of the
Llano to the source of the South or Paint Rock
fork. They then crossed the divide and reached
the upper Nueces river. The route then pursued
passed the Arroyo Las Moras, a tributary of the
Elo Grande (on which Beales' unfortunate party
essayed the establishment of an English-American
colony in 1834, as will be seen in the remarkable
narrative of Mrs. Horn, one of the victims, else-
where in this work), and thence to Devil's river,
near its confluence with the Rio Grande. This
stream had previously acquired the name of San
Pedro ; but after occupying three days in getting
across and away from it, accompanied by several
accidents, the expedition voted that it should ever
more bear the name of El Eio del'Diablo, or the
Devil's river. It required three days to pass from
this to the Pecos river, the water found on the way
being reddish and brackish. Thenceforward, no
man in the expedition knew the country. Having
crossed the Pecos they found themselves in
the rough, broken and unknown region
lying between that stream and the Eio Grande.
To men whose rations, as at this time, were
about exhausted, it was a dismal succession of
barrenness in hill, vale and barranca. Lorenzo,
the guide, failed to recognize the landmarks and
became bewildered. In a day or two their supplies
gave out. There was no game in the country, and,
as many had been driven to do before, they re-
sorted to their pack mules, the flesh of which was
their only food for ten or twelve days. Fortun-
ately a party of Mescalero Indians discovered them
and, as Col. Hays, from prudential motives with
reference to Indians in that region, always had a
white flag flying, came close enough to invite a talk,
for which purpose three of their number met three
of the Texians. After mutual explanations, easily
understood on both sides through the Spanish lan-
guage, and a liberal distribution of presents, with
which the San Antonians were well supplied, they
gave the party careful directions how to reach and
cross the Eio Grande, and get to the Eancho San
Carlos, on the Mexican side. Before reaching the
river a doctor of the San Antonio party became de-
ranged and wandered o'ff. Five days after leaving
the Mescaleros they arrived at San Carlos in a pitia-
ble condition, where they procured a supply of food.
After resting one day they continued their march
about forty miles further up the country, recross-
ing the Eio Grande to Fort Leaton, on the east
side and nine miles below Presidio del' Norte, on
the west side, where they arrived on the forty-
seventh day from the initial point on the Llano.
Fort Leaton (pronounced "Laytou") was a sort
of fortified trading house kept by two or three
brothers of that name, the senior of whom, Ben-
jamin Leaton, a Tennesseean and an old Apache
trader, was personally known to the writer of this.
The expedition remained there sixteen days recruit-
ing their animals and providing supplies, during
which lime the proprietors gave them a barbecue,
the chief elements being meat, tortillas (Mexican
corn pancakes), and that most cheiished of all
beverages among old Texians — coffee ! The
Bishop of Chihuahua sent them also some supplies.
For reasons deemed sufificient it was determined
to prosecute the enterprise no farther. Winter was
close by. They had left to be absent only sixty
days. At the expiration of that time they were
not yet recruited at Leaton's. The troops, having
started in August, had only summer clothing. The
result showed the wisdom of their determination
to return.
About the first of November the return march
was begun. The men had thirty days' rationsi of
meat, beeves to be driven on foot, and more or
less " Pinola " or parched corn meal. Their route
was b^' Lost Springs, where they arrived after a
fast of two and a half days without water. They
struck the Pecos at the Horsehead crossing, and
followed that stream down to Live Oak creek,
where Fort Lancaster was afterwards established.
It was in this locality that the command separated.
Twenty-eight of the San Antonio party started in a
direct route for that city and safely arrived at their
destination. Col. Hays, with six men, returned by
way of the Las Moras and also got in safely, but
both parties suffered much.
106
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
From Live Oak creek Capt. HighsmitU bore
across the country towards the sources of the South
■Concho. On the way, on one occasion, some of
the men fell in the rear on account of their failing
horses, and at night camped in a thicket of small
bushes. While asleep at night a party of Indians
furiously rode over them, seizing a saddle and some
-other articles and successfully stampeded their
horses. On foot they overhauled the company at
■camp next morning. On the head of South Concho
they encamped for the night. One of the sentinels
^ell asleep and at daylight it was found that the
Indians had quietly taken off thirteen of their
horses. Thenceforward about half the men traveled
on foot.
At the head of Brady's creek, these men, clad
only in their now tattered and torn summer gar-
ments, encountered a violent snow storm. Capt.
Highsmith, with a few men, pushed forward to his
•quarters on the Llano, to relieve the anxiety of the
country as to their safety, correctly conjecturing
that intense anxiety among the people must exist
on account of their prolonged absence. The other
men remained shivering in an open camp for five
days. The sufferings of both parties were terrible.
Their beef was exhausted and wild game was their
■only food, but it was abundant in deer, antelope
and turkey. On the forty-seventh day from Fort
Leaton the last party reached the camp on the
Llano. Thus with forty-seven days each on the
outward and inward trip and eighteen days at
the Fort, they had been absent 112 instead of
60 days. The re-united company was marched to
Austin, and on the 26th day of December, dis-
charged, their term of service having expired.
From the sufferings of this trip, in less than a
month, Capt. Sam Highsmith died. From 1826 to
1848 he bad justly borne the character of a noble
pioneer— warm-hearted, generous, brave; yet,
most tender in nature and ever considerate of
the rights of others, he never had personal difficult-
ies. I knew him well, and as he had been a long-
time friend and comrade of my then long deceased
father, his friendship was prized as priceless.
Col. Hays brought in a little son of Mr. Leaton,
to be sent to school.
The doctor who became deranged and wandered
off, fell into the hands of a party of Indians,
by whom his hunger was appeased and he was
kindly treated, as is the habit of those wild tribes
towards insane persons. He gradually recovered
and, after he had been mourned by his wife as dead
for over a year, suddenly presented himself to her,
sound in mind and body.
The Bloody Days of Bastrop.
Before and immediately after the Texas revolu-
tion of 1835-6, Gonzales, on the Guadalupe, and
Bastrop, on the Colorado, with the upper settlements
on the Brazos, were more exposed to Indian depre-
dations than any other distinct localities in Texas.
These sketches have more fully done justice to Gon-
zales and the Brazos, than to Bastrop, the home of
the Burlesons, Coleman, Billingsley, Wallace,
Thomas H. Mays, Wm. H. Magill, the brothers
Wiley, Middletonand Thomas B. J. Hill, Washing-
ton and John D. Anderson, Dr. Thomas J. Gasley,
L. C. Cunningham, Wm. A. Clopton, Bartlett
Sims, Cicero Rufus Perry, the Wilbargers, Dr. J.
W. Robertson, John Caldwell, Hurch Reed, John
H. Jenkins, Hon. William Pinkney Hill, for a time
Robert M. Williamson, the eloquent orator and
patriot, Highsmith, Eblin, Carter Anderson, Dal-
rymple, Eggleston, Gilleland, Blakey, Page, Pres-
ton Conley, the Hardemans, the Andrews brothers.
the Crafts, Taylor, the Bartons, Pace, John W.
Bunton, Martin Wolner, Geren Brown, Logan Van-
deveer, George Green, Godwin, Garwood, Halde-
ma*n, Miller, Holder, Curtis, Bain, Hood, McLean,
Graves, Allen, Henry Jones, Thomas Nicholson,
Vaughan, Hugh Childers, Hancock and John
Walters.
Aside from many important battles, in which a
large per cent of those men and others not named,
participated, as at and around San Antonio in 1835,
at San Jacinto in 1836 (in which fifty of them fought
under Col. Burleson in Capt. Jesse Billingsley's
company, and in which Lemuel Blakey was killed,
and Capt. Billingsley, Logan Vandeveer, Washing-
ton Anderson, Calvin Page and Martin Walter were
wounded), at Plum creek in 1840, in which a hun-
dred of them and thirteen Toncahua Indians fought
under Burleson, and other important contests, for
fifteen years they were exposed to Indian forays and
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
107
had numberless encounters and also fruitless pur-
suits after those ever active and cunning enemies.
■Some of these sanguinary incidents have been de-
scribed ; but, many have not and some, from the
death of the participants and failing memories,
never will be. But enough has been preserved to
shed a halo of honor on those pioneers, by this
writer many years ago styled — "The brave men
of Bastrop."
In this chapter, availing myself somewhat of the
recollections of Mr. John H. Jenkins, I will briefly
summarize some of the incidents not heretofore
given.
By a false alarm of Mexican invasion in 1837,
as in 1836, the people of Bastrop fled from their
homes, but the alarm passed and they soon returned
from near the Brazos.
Near where Austin is, later in 1837, Lieut.
Wrenn, of Coleman's Company, surprised a body
of warriors, killed several, had one man shot in
the mouth and killed, defeated the Indians and
captured all their horses.
In the same fall the Indians attacked the home of
Mr. Gocher (or Gotier) east of Bastrop, killed him,
his wife and two sons, and carried off Mrs. Craw-
ford, his widowed daughter, one of his little sons
and a little son and daughter of Mrs. Crawford.
This tragedy was discovered by Col. Burleson
some days later, when too late to pursue the mur-
derers. Mrs. Crawford and the children, after
several years of captivity, were bought by Mr.
Spaulding, a trader, who married the widow and
brought them all back to live in Bastrop County.
Not far from this time a party of Indians robbed
a house below Bastrop. Burleson drove them into
a cedar brake on Piney creek, above town, and
sent back for more men. While waiting, the
Indians slipped out and retreated east toward the
headwaters of the Yeguas. Reinforced, Burleson
followed their trail at half speed, overtaking them
late in the afternoon, and drove them headlong,
after quite a chase, into a ravine, from which they
escaped unhurt and soon reached their camp, but
most of them only to die. They had gorged them-
selves on fat pork, killed in the woods, and soon
after arriving among their people nearly all of them
died, proving that stomachs overcharged with fat
and fresh hog meat were not prepared for rapid foot
races, the deceased sons of the forest having been
on foot. Mrs. Crawford was then a prisoner in
the camp and verified these facts.
The next raid was made in daylight. A party of
Comanehes came in sight of town and drove off
fifteen horses. They were hastily followed by a
few citizens, who overhauled them eight miles out.
A running fight ensued — the Indians abandoned
their own and the stolen horses and found security
in thickets.- No one was killed on either side, but
the citizens returned with their own and the Indian
horses. Richard Vaughan's horse, however, was
killed under him.
Early in 1838 the Indians entered the town at
night, killed Messrs. Hart and Weaver and es-
caped.
Soon afterwards, about three miles east of town,
Messrs. Robinson and Dollar were making boards.
Fifteen Indians charged upon them. Each sprang
upon his horse, near by, but Robinson was killed
at the same moment, while Dollar was pursued and
hemmed on a high bank of the river; but, leaving
his horse, he leaped down the bank about twenty
feet, swam the Colorado and then hastened to town.
Soon afterwards he started to leave the country and
was never again heard of. No doubt was enter-
tained, however, of his having been killed by
Indians.
Raid into Gonzales and De Witt Counties in 1848 — Death of
Dr. Barnett, Capt. John York and Others — Death
of Maj. Charles 0. Bryant in 1850.
For several years prior to 1848 the country
between the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers
escaped annoyance from the Indians, though their
depredations beyond were frequent. The people
in the section referred to had ceased to regard
themselves as exposed to danger, and were there-
fore unprepared for it. Early in October, 1848,
they realized, however, that they were open to
savage fury. A party of Indians descended from
the mountains along the valley of the Cibolo, and
thence southeasterly to the " Sandies," a set of
small streams in the western part of Gonzales
108
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
County. On the Sandies they came across and
killed Dr. George W. Barnett, also a recent settler
in that locality — the same gentleman mentioned
in my chapter on the events in 1833 and 1835, as a
Captain in '35, a signer of the Declaration of Inde-
pendence, a soldier at San Jacinto and a senator of
the Eepublic. Another party of Indians, presumed
to be of the same band, and acting in concert with
them, crossed from the west to the east side of the
San Antonio, and formed a junction with the first
named party, the two bands numbering thirty-five
or forty warriors, including, it was believed, some
outlawed Mexicans, the Indians being Lipans, theu
living in the border Mexican Slate of Coahuila, be-
yond the Rio Grande. Before their junction, about
the 5th of October, the second named or lower
gang had killed a Mr. Lockard (or Lockhart) and
a young man of Goliad County, son of Mr. Thacker
Vivian, at the Goliad and San Antonio crossing of
the Ecleto creek.
These events alarmed the settlers onthe west side
of the Guadalupe, the remainder of the district
mentioned being still a wilderness, and a company
of thirty-two men and boys from the west side of
the river in De Witt County, assembled to meet
and repel the raiders. John York, a brave old
soldier who commanded a company in the storming
of San Antonio in 1835, was made Captain ; Eiehard
H. Cblsholm, another veteran, Lieutenant, with H.
B. McB. Pridgen and Newton Porter, Sergeants,
and Joseph Tumlinson, guide.
On the night of October 10th, these hastily col-
lected volunteers encamped on the head waters of
the Cabesa, twenty-five miles above Goliad. On
the morning of the 11th they traveled some miles
up the country, and then struck the trail of the
Indians, which bore southerly towards the mouth
of the Escondida, a tributary of the San Antonio
from the southwest side. It became evident the
enemy had secured a considerablenumber of horses,
were leaving the country, and the pursuit was
quickened. Passing the San Antonio, on its west
bank they found the recently abandoned camp of
the savages, with a letter and some trifling articles
proving they were the murderers of Lockard and
Vivian. The letter found was from George W.
Smyth, Commissioner of the General Land Office,
to a citizen of Robertson County, on official busi-
ness, and sent by Lockard. Young Vivian was
the son of a neighbor of my parents when I was a
child in Missouri, and a kinsman of Mrs. Dr. A.
A. Johnston, of Dallas. Believing that they had
been discovered, and that the Indians were hastily
retreating, Capt. York pressed forward rapidly till^
on reaching the brushy banks of the Escondida,
about five miles beyond the abandoned camp, and
while a portion of the pursuers were a little behind^
those in front received a heavy fire from ambush,
accompanied by yells of dtfiance and imprecations
in broken English, which threw some of the inex-
perienced into confusion, causing a recoil, and this
disconcerted those in the rear, but tiie brave old
leader ordered the men to dismount in a grove of
trees, and was obeyed by a portion of his followers,
who returned and kept up the fire. Lieut. Chis-
holm (Uncle Dick, who cast the first cannon ball in
the Texas revolution) tried to rally the halting,
but the panic was on them and he tried in vain.
James H. Sykes, a stalwart man of reckless daring,
dashed up to the dense chaparral in which the
Indians were sheltered, and was killed. James
Bell, a son-in-law of Capt. York, and a man of ap-
proved nerve, was shot down between the contend-
ing parties, when Capt. York ran to him and while
stooping to raise him up was shot through the
kidneys. The brave couple expired in the embrace
of each other. Joseph Tumlinson and Hugh R.
Young were severely wounded, and James York,
son of the dead captain, one of the handsomest
boys I ever knew, was shot centrally through the
cheeks from side to side, supposed at the time to
be fatally, but he rode home and finally recovered,
though greatly disfigured. The contest was kept
up about an hour, when both parties retired, ours
only a little down the creek to get water for the
wounded. It was believed the Indians lost six or
seven in killed, but of this there was no certainty.
Besides those already named among those who
stood to their colors to the last were William R.
Taylor (Goliad), Johnson, A. Berry, and others
whose names cannot be recalled. Some men of
unquestioned courage were among the victims of
the panic, and others were inexperienced boys who
had never been under fire.
This, so far as is remembered, was the last raid
in that section of country below the Seguin and
San Antonio road; but above that line the pioneers
of the frontier, till some years after the Civil War,
were the victims of a predatory and brutal war, in
which the most remorseless cruelties were more or
less practiced.
The facts as herein narrated were communicated
to me by a number of the participants on the 20th
of October, only nine days after the fight, and have
been so preserved ever since. I persohally knew
every one named in connection with the engagement.
HENRY Mcculloch.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
109
Death of Maj. Charles G. Bryant.
The isolated murder of this estimable gentleman,
by the Indians, occurred about fourteen months
after the events herein described, but being in the
same section of the State, the facts are added to
this chapter, with some other matters of interest
in relation to him and his family.
Charles G. Bryant was born in 1803 at Thomas-
ton, Maine, and was long captain of a company in
Bangor, being of an ardent military temperament.
Being also a warm sympathizer with the rebellion
in Canada in 1837-8, he crossed the border in the
latter year and joined his fortunes with those in
arms against the British power. In their final de-
feat he was captured, tried and sentenced to death.
By the intervention of friends, at great hazard to
themselves, on the night before his appointed exe-
cution, he escaped from prison, and by relays of
ho'-ses previously provided, rode in a gallop from
Montreal to Bangor. A large reward was offered
for him, dead or alive, and to escape extradition he
chartered a small vessel, on which, with his elder
son, Andrew Jackson Bryant', leaving the remainder
of his family behind, he sailed for Galveston, arriv-
ing there in January, 1839. His son entered the
Texas navy, as midshipman, won esteem as such,
and in the naval battle off Campeeehy in the spring
of 1843, was fearfullj' wounded,, displaying the
highest order of heroism. He sailed from Galves-
ton for New York a few months later for medical
treatment and to bring out his mother and the other
children, but the vessel went down at sea. No tid-
ings of it or any of its human freight were ever
received. In January, 1845, Mrs. Bryant arrived
in Galveston, accompanied by their sons, Charles
C. (now an employee on Texas Farm and Ranch),
Martin, Clinton and Wolfred N. (now of Dallas).
During the Mexican war, probably in 1846 or
1847, Maj. Bryant removed his family from Gal-
veston to Corpus Christi. It had been reinforced
at Galveston by the birth of a son named Edwin,
and a daughter, now of Dallas, and known through-
out the State from her brilliant and patriotic poet-
ical effusions, as Mrs. Welthea Bryant Leachman,
a favorite pet of the Texas Veteran Association, to
whom she is endeared by ties honorable to her
mind, her genius and her heart.
Maj. Bryant was a prominent and valued citizen
of Corpus Christi. He was mustering officer of the
three companies of Texas rangers, commanded
respectively by Capts. John S. Ford, John G.
Grumbles and Charles M. Blackwell. On the 11th
of January, 1850, he left Corpus Christi on horse-
back for Austin, on business growing out of this
official position, crossing the reef at the head of
Corpus Christi bay. Early on the next day, about
nine miles from Black Point, and in plain view of
several persons who had fortunately discovered the
danger and concealed themselves in some chaparral,
he was completely surprised, murdered and robbed
by a party of nine Indians. He had on his person
several hundred dollars in gold, and a large amount
in bank bills. In that locality he had no reason to
apprehend danger, but though surprised, he fought
with desperation, till overwhelmed by the odds
against him. The concealed and unarmed specta-
tors, though being unseen by the Indians, and see-
ing their approach in time to save themselves, could
give no warning to him whose life was at hazard.
The Southwest Coast in 1850 — Henry McCulloch's Fight on
the San Saba in 1851.
In 1849 and 1850, while Gen. Brooke, with head-
quarters at San Aptonio, was in command of the
United States troops in Texas, there was such a
Siuccession of Indian raids into the coast country
between the San Antonio and Nueces rivers, and
west of the latter stream in rear of Corpus Christi,
as to create a constant sense of insecurity among
the scattered population of that section. It will be
remembered, as shown elsewhere, that on the 11th
of January, 1850, Maj. Charles G. Bryant, of Cor-
pus Christi, was killed by one of those raiding
parties.
110
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Gen. Brooke, in view of these increasing depre-
ciations, called into service a company of Texas
rangers, who were mustered in at Austin, Novem-
ber 5, 1850. Henry E. McCulIoch, for the fifth
time since June'8, 1846, was elected Captain, John
R. King, First Lieutenant, Calvin S. Turner, Second
Lieutenant, and Wm. C. McKean, was Orderly
Sergeant.
The company formed a central camp on the
Aransas, between the Nueces and San Antonio,
and kept up an active system of scouts from the
one river to the other, and successively discovered,
pursued and broke up two or three raiding parties,
capturing their horses and outfits, though the sav-
ages in each case escaped into the almost impene-
trable chaparrals of that section. Two Indians,
however, during the stay of the company in that
locality, slipped inside the lines, captured a small
boy, son of Hart, at the Mission Refugio, and suc-
cessfully escaped ; but this in a period of five
months, was the only success they achieved, being
wholly defeated in every other attempt, and confi-
dence was restored. The company, being six
months' men, were discharged at Fort Merrill, on
the Nueces, on the 4th of May, 18.51, but reor-
ganized as a new company for another six months
on the next day. Capt. Gordon Granger (a
Federal General in the civil war) was the officer
who mustered out the old company and remus-
tered them in the new.
Of this second company (the sixth and last one
in the service of the United States commanded by
the same gentleman) Henry E. McCulloeh was
unanimouslyelectedCaptain, MilburnHarrell, First,
and Wm. C. McKean, Second Lieutenant, Oliver H.
F. Keese, Orderly Sergeant, the other Sergeants
being Houston Tom, Thomas Drennan and James
Eastwood ; the corporals w^re John M. Lewis,
Abner H. Beard, Thomas F. Mitchell and Archi-
bald Gipson; Wm. J. Boykin and James E. Keese,
buglers ; John Swearlnger, blacksmith ; Thomas
Sappington, farrier. There were seventy-four
privates and a total in rank and file of eighty-
nine.
In the mean time Gen. Brooke died in San
Antonio and Gen. Wm. S. Harney had succeeded
to the command. He directed Capt. McCulloch to
take such position in the mountains, covering the
head waters of the Guadalupe, Perdenales, Llano
and San Saba, as, by a system of energetic scout-
ing, would enable him best to protect the settle-
ments inside, in reality covering most of the
country between the upper Nueces and the Colo,
rado. About the 1st of June Capt. McCulloch
established his headquarters on the north branch of
the Llano river, about ten miles above the forks,-
and thenceforward had daily reports from a long
line of observation. This active service, without
any important action or discovery, continued until
early in August, when the scouts reported a con-
siderable and fresh 'Indian trail to the west of the
encampment bearing from the lower country in a
northerly direction.
Capt. McCulloch, with a detail of twenty-one
men, started in immediate pursuit.
Following the trail, rendered very plain by the
number of stolen horses driven by the Indians, it
became manifest that the robbers apprehended no
danger and were traveling leisurely. On reaching
the south branch of the San Saba, not far from its-
source, it became certain that the enemy was near
by, Capt. McCulloch halting the company, with
Chris. McCoy went forward, soon to discover the
Indians encamped on a deep branch, evidently feel-
ing secure, and their horses grazing at some distance
from them. A plan of attack was at once adopted.
A charge was so made as to cut the horses oft and
the Indians took position in the branch, but be-
trayed more of a desire to escape than to fight. .
The rangers, inspired by their captain, crowded
upon them whenever and wherever it could be done
without reckless exposure to their invisible shots.
Some of the squaws with bows and arrows, fought as
men, and two would have been killed in the deadly
melee but for the discovery of their sex, upon which
they were overpowered and disarmed, this being
the highest manifestation of chivalry possible under
the circumstances, including, of course, the safe
custody of the captured ladies. Herman L. Raven
was wounded by one of the squaws. Jeremiah
Campbell's horse was killed by a rifle ball. The
Indians were closely pressed as they retreated
down the branch until they found security in the
thickets on its borders.
Seven or eight warriors were left dead on the
ground. All the horses and other property of the
Indians were captured. It became evident that the
raiders had been robbing Mexicans on the Rio
Grande. On reflection Capt. McCulloch furnished,
the two squaws horses and outfits, telling them
to find their people and say to them that If they
would come into Fort Marlin Scott (two and a half
miles cast of Fredericksburg, and on the Perde-
nales), bring in any prisoners they might have and
pledge themselves to cease depredations on the
frontier, their horses and effects would be restored
to tbem. This offer was accepted and carried into
effect Ketemsi, chieJ of the defeated party, con-
tended that he had been warring on Mexicans only
and It was not right for Texians to attack him - a .
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Ill
position untenable while he passed over and occu-
pied Texas soil in his hostile movements against
people with whom we were at peace. But in truth
he was ready lo rob and slay Texians as well as
Mexicans.
The company continued in active service till the
expiration of their period of enlistment, when on the
5th of November, 1851, they were mustered out at
Fort Martin Scott. As previously stated, they
were mustered in at Fort Merrill by Capt. Gordon
Granger, afterwards a distinguished Union General
in the war between the States. They were mustered
out by James Longstreet, an equally distinguished
General on the Confederate side in the same war.
Governor Fitzhugh Lee's Hand-to-Hand Fight with a Stalwart
Warrior in 1855.
I am unable to give the date or precise locality
of the incident about to be narrated ; but it was
about 18o5, and not far from one of the U. S. mil-
itary posts then on our western frontier, and the
facts are derived from Capt. Hayes, the only wit-
ness of the scene. The hero of the occasion was
Fitzhugh Lee, then a young Lieutenant of cavalry
in the United States army, afterwards distinguished
as a General of cavalry in the Confederate army and
still later as Governor of Virginia. He is a nephew
of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and a son of Com. Sidney
Smith Lee, deceased, of the United States navy.
Capt. Hayes (then, I think, a lieutenant), and
Lieut. Lee, on the occasion referred to, were roam-
ing through a forest when they espied a large and
robust warrior quite near and mounted on horse-
back. As soon as he discovered them he gave a
steatorian war whoop and darted off through the
timber, pursued by Lee and Hayes. The chase con-
tinued for a considerable distance, first one and then
the other party gaining ground, till finally, owing
to thick brush on the bank of a creek, the Indian
was forced to abandon his horse and seek conceal-
ment, in doing which he leaped down the creek
bank where it was about ten feet high.
The pursuers dismounted, Lee passing down
the creek on one side and Hayes on the other.
In a little while Hayes saw Lee stoop down and
pick up a fine blanket, dropped by the Indian, and
called to him to be cautious, as the owner must be
near at hand. He had scarcely done so when the
savage sprang from behind a ledge of rocks, not
over four feet distant, and with a wild yell, seized
Lee, and a life and death struggle began. The
Indian was much the stronger of the two and
very soon had Lee down. The former had a
lance and a bow and arrow on his back while
Lee had a pistol and carbine, but, at ihe first
onset, the lance and carbine, respectively, wer&
dropped. Lee, being agile, rose to his feet, tightly
clenched by his antagonist, but was again thrown
to the ground. His pistol fell and rolled beyond
the reach of either. Lee rose a third time and was
again thrown, when they rolled over and over each
other. Lee, with his left hand, seized the Indian's
throat and endeavored to suffocate him, but his
hand was seized by the savage and restrained.
Lee continued his efforts — they again rolled over
each other and finally Lee found himself on top and
renewed his choking operation ; but at the same
instant discovered that they had rolled within reach
of his pistol, seizing which, unseen by the Indian,
he held it near the ground and fired, the ball pass-
ing through the Indian's cheeks.
The savage then made a powerful effort to-
" turn " Lee and get possession of the pistol. In
the language of Capt. Hayes: " Each man fought
with superhuman strength, and each knew that it
was a battle unto death."
In all this time, and it was but a moment, Capt.
Hayes had seen the struggle and hastened to reach
the spot in aid of his friend, for he dare not fire
unless immediately at them, lest he might kill Lee,
but he was delayed by brush and the bluff in cross-
ing the creek. " But," says he, " just as I reached
Fitz he fired again and the ball went crashing
through the Indian's heart, killing him. Lee then
arose and I said to him : That was a close call»
Fitz. He replied: 'Yes, I thought I was gone.'
Afterward I asked him how in the world he man-
aged to turn the heavy Indian ? In his own peculiar
way Fitz replied : ' I tell you what saved my life,
Jack. When I was a boy at school in Virginia I
learned a litt'e trick in wrestling that the boys
112
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
called the back heel, and the thought struck me,
when he had me down, that if I tried that Virginia
back heelon him I would get him. I tried it and I
got him.' "
An account of this rencounter speedily spread all
over the frontier of Texas and gave Fitzhugh Lee
a hold on the people which is a pleasant remem-
brance among the surviving pioneers unto this day,
and has never been weakened by any act of his
since : but, on the contrary, they have ever followed
and rejoiced over his brilliant career as soldier, and
statesman, with a pride akin to kinship. Not long
after the occurrence, he visited Dallas in charge of
an escort to a supply train, where the people gave a
ball and supper in his honor — then sent a commit-
tee to escort him on his return as far as McKinney.
where the same honors were paid.
As Governor of Virginia he worthily occupied a
seat honored aforetime by his grandfather, Light
Horse Harry Lee, of glorious memory, but erecting
another monument to the fact that since Richard
Lee, first of the name in America, came to the
colony- of Virginia as secretary to Governor Sir
William Beverly, in 1641, no Lee has ever left
a stain upon his name or proved untrue to his
country.
Van Dorn's Fight at the Wichita Village, October 1, 1858.
Some years since Capt. (now ex-Governor) L. S.
Ross wrote the following brief account of this
battle, Maj. Van Dorn being of the U. S. Cavalry
and severely wounded: —
"In 1858 I returned from school and found
Maj. Van Dorn was at Belknap organizing an ex-
pedition against the Comanches, then supposed to
he somewhere on the head waters of the Arkansas
and Canadian rivers. I went at once to the Indian
agency and raised one hundred and thirty-five
Waco, Tehuacano, Toncahua and Caddo warriors,
and with them reported to Maj. Van Dorn for
co-operation in the expedition. He sent me in ad-
vance to the Wichita mountains, while he followed
with trains, supplies, and troops, expecting to
establish a depot there for supplies, etc. When I
reached the mountains, I sent a Waco and a Tehua-
cano Indian to the Wichita village, seventy-five
miles east of the Washita river, hoping to learn
through them where the Comanches were to be
found. When the scouts came in sight of the vil-
lage they found, to their surprise, "Buffalo Hump "
with his band of Comanches (the very ones we
were hunting), encamped there, trading and gam-
bling with the Wichitas. The scouts concealed
themselves until after dark, and then stole two
Comanche horses and returned to me to report the
facts. With difficulty I convinced Maj. Van Dorn
that the Indians could be relied upon and induced
him to turn the direction of his columns, and by a
forced march we reached the village at sunrise
October 1st, 1858, surprising and almost completely
destroying that band of the Comanches, capturing
their horses, tents, supplies and several prisoners,
among whom I captured the white girl named
" Lizzie," subsequently raised by my mother, and
of whose family or parentage no trace has been
discovered. For their services Maj. Van Dorn
gave the Indians of my command the spoils cap-
tured, horses, etc. I received for mj- pay a dan-
gerous gun-shot wound, still a painful reminder of
the occasion, together with a petition, signed on
the battle-field by every D. S. officer present, re-
questing my appointment by the Government in
the regular army for distinguished gallantry, and
after due time came a complimentary order from
Gen. Winfield Scott, which documents I still have,
but have never made or attempted to make use of
them."
Tills, when but twenty years old, was the
beginning of Gen. Ross' brilliant career as a
soldier.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
113
A Story of Gen. Lee— His Attack Upon a Band of Savages in
1860, Wliile on the Way to the Rio Grande.
" Col. A. G. Brackett, who in 1886 and for sev-
eral years commanded at Fort Davis, Texas, spent
the better part of a long and arduous military career
in Indian fighting and the roughest of frontier work
generally," writes a correspondent of the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat; and then continues: " For years
prior to the war, when San Antonio was but a far
outlying post, when railways were an unknown
quantity in Texas' taxable values, and the Coman-
ches and Mexicans practically owned creation.
Col. Brackett was holding up his end of government
guard duty, and of necessity became intimate with
most of the men who for some portion of their lives
lived on the then far frontier, and afterward be-
came heroes of national story and song. To a
group of interested listeners Col. Brackett detailed
the following hitherto unprinted episode in the life
of Gen. Robert E. Lee — in 3860 a Colonel in com-
mand of the department of Texas, and in 1865 the
Confederacy's grandest soldier.
" ' Robert E. Lee,' says Col. Brackett, ' was on
his way from San Antonio to the Rio Grande for the
purpose of doing what he could toward bringing the
Cortinas war to a close and settling the disturbances
connected therewith. He had for his escort my
company of the Second Cavalry, and was marching
as rapidly as possible. He had done what he could
in his office, and now found his only safe plan was
to go himself to the spot where hostilities were pro-
gressing. He was a man who always attended to
everything himself as far as possible. Utterly with-
out pretension, he held every man to a strict per-
formance of his duty, and spared nothing in having
his plans carried out. He was an able department
commander, and foreshadowed many of those quali-
ties which made him famous in a more extended
sphere of action, and proved him one of the great-
est military leaders this country has produced. He
was strict in his ways, but at the same time was one
of the most benevolent and kind-hearted of meij.
" ' As he approached Seco river a messenger came
galloping up to him and reported that the Indians
were just ahead and were robbing the settlements
8
on and near that stream. It took but a moment to
pass the word to me. We dashed off with our
troops and were soon in the midst of the savages,
who, unaware of our proximity, were plundering
without hindrance and to their own great satisfac-
tion. But when the cavalry dashed in upon them
there were seen some amazing feats of horseman-
ship as with wild yells the Indians endeavored to
get out of the way. They had killed some head of
cattle, and were about to rob a house occupied by
women who had huddled together there, when Lee
appeared on the scene. Again they went in every
direction, but generally up the river toward the
mountains, the cattle lowing from fright, and' the
big bay horses of the troopers bounding after the
red men over the rocks, stones and bushes in a
way to gladden the heart of every true horseman.
For a time the din was great as the troops tore
through the bushes. It was a race for life, and a
most exciting one, as all must admit. How many
were hurt was never accurately known to the whites,
as an Indian can conceal himself in a place which
would almost seem impossible. The chase was
kept up for a couple of miles, but in the broken
ground all further efforts were useless. The men
returned to the house, when a recall was sounded,
their horses being blown and their clothing in
strings from the brush and briers. The women
were dreadfully frightened, their husbands and
brothers being away from home at the time of the
attack, but as the soldiers returned they came in
and were profuse in their thanks to Lee for his
timely arrival and his handsome performance in
beating off the red rascals. He was as impassive
as ever, but it was plainly to be seen that he
thoroughly enjoyed the discomfiture of the Indians,
as well as the eagerness of his men to get at them.'
" In lengthy and interesting mention of the great
commander as one who had broken bread and lived
in camps with him, Col. Brackett speaks of the
Confederate General with the respect and tender
appreciation of a lifetime soldier for a gallant
foe."
114
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
A Raid in Burnet County in April, 1861 — Death of James
Gracey — George Baker and Family's Escape —
Escape of John H. Stockman, a Boy.
In 1861 Thomas Dawson, a single man, lived
about nine miles westerly from Lampasas, and two
miles east of the road from Burnet to San Saba.
With him lived a fatherless boy of thirteen, John
H. Stockman, whose aunt. Miss Greenwood, subse-
quently became the wife of Dawson. On the 10th
of April, 1861, James, the thirteen-year-old son of
John N. Gracey, then and still (in 1887) of
Lampasas, went to Dawson's in search of horses,
and remained all night.
On the morning of the 11th these two boys, on
foot, went out seeking the horses. When about
two miles from the house and very near the Burnet
and San Saba road, while Stockman was trying to
kill a turkey a short distance from Gracey, and in
a body of post oaks, he heard a rumbling sound —
then shouts, and, on looking, discovered fifteen
Indians in charge of about a hundred stolen and
frightened horses. Checking up the herd, three of
the savages seized little Gracey, stripped off his
clothing, scalped him as he stood upon the ground,
then beckoned him to run, and as he did so, sent sev-
eral arrows through his body, causing instant death.
It was the work of but a moment, during which
Stockman stood among the trees as if paralyzed, not
doubting a similar fate ; but just as the wretches
were about to rush upon him, their attention was
directed to another party a short distance below on
the road. It consisted of George Baker, of Austin,
on horselDEck, his wife and infant, and Mr. Austin,
his father-in-law, in a buggy. Most of the Indians
were required to hold their restless herd, but the
remainder attacked the party. Mr. Baker sought
to defend his precious charge till they could reach
some timber and brush perhaps two hundred yards
away. He had both a gun and pistols. He was
soon wounded, but killed the most daring of the
assailants at an instant when Mrs. Baker was for
a moment at their mercy. But they were so san-
guine of killing the husband and holding the wife,
that the whole party succeeded in reaching the
desired haven and found partial protection. Mr.
Austin was an old man somewhat palsied in the
arms and could do nothing. Baker held them at
bay, firing several shots and wounding a second
Indian; but he was wounded several times and
finally became unable to do more. Mrs. Baker
drew the arrows from his body and staunched the
wounds as best, she could ; but in the last dread
alternative stood in his stead, wielding his weapon*
and holding the brutal creatures at a respectful
distance. An arrow entered the baby's stomach
through several folds of a Mexican blanket, but
not far enough to endanger its life.
In the meantime two other fortunate events-
transpired. The boy, Stockman, seized the occa-
sion to escape. He found partial protection for a
short distance along a ravine. Having on a very
white shirt, easily seen at a considerable distance,
he cast it off. Having to cross a small prairie, he
crawled perhaps half a mile, lacerating his flesh
and limbs, and while so engaged, a part of the
Indians, in preventing a stampede of the horses,,
rode almost upon, without seeing him, in the high
grass. Through brush and briers be ran rapidly,,
by circuitous routes, six or eight miles, to reach
the house of Thomas Espy, two miles east of Daw-
son's place. He was severely torn and bruised,
but not otherwise injured, though frantic over the
horrors he had witnessed.
The other incident was that as the occupants
quit the buggy, the horse ran away, casting off one
of the four wheels, and, providentially leaving the
road, he went full speed to Dawson's house, near
which one or two of the Indians captured, unhar-
nessed and hurried him back to their fellows. This
was seen by Mr. Dawson, who mounted his own
horse and started in a run to give the alarm at
Lampasas ; but, again providentially, within a mile
he fell in with a hunting party from Lampasas,
consisting of Dempsey Pace, John Greenwood
George Weldy and Newton Knight, who, at half
speed, followed the trail made by the buggy, and
soon arrived on the scene, to find the enemy still
endeavoring to accomplish their object, without
losing any more of their own number. The savao-ea
challenged them to combat at some distance on the
prairie ; but their purpose was to protect and save
the apparently doomed family. They prepared, as
best they could, for conveying them to the house
of Mr. Espy, the nearest family in that region.
The Indians soon retired with their booty, and the
rescuers safely conducted their charges in, carrying
Mr. Baker in a litter. He was gently nursed for
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
115
six or eight weelis, and was then enabled to reach
his home, where he in due time recovered, as proud
of his heroic wife as he was thankful for their pres-
ervation through such apparently hopeless dangers.
A party, accompanied by little Stockman, went
out during the succeeding night to recover the
body of little James Gracey, but were unable to
find it. They camped at the spot indicated by
Stockman, and when daylight came found it in
their midst, and then realized the cause of their
failure in the fact that the nude bodj', lying among
the white rooks, was not distinguishable in the
night time. The remains were conveyed to his
stricken parents and family, and interred in the
presence of a sympathizing concourse.
Stockman now lives in San Antonio, but has been
much about Dallas, and only a few days since
recounted to mci his version of this bloody episode
in our border history. It will be of interest to
many old residents of East and Southwest Texas to
know that he is a grandson of Elder Garrison
Greenwood, a sterling old Baptist preacher, who
settled in Nacogdoches County in 1833, and moved
west in 1846, finally to die in Lampasas County.
Raid into Cooke County, in December, 1863.
On the 22d and 23d days of December, 1863,
occurred one of the most bloody and destructive
Indian raids to which our poorly protected frontier
was subject during and for some years after the
late war. At this time Col. James Bourland, one
of the bravest and truest of all our frontiersmen,
commanded a regiment of Confederate troops with
his headquarters at Gainesville, but at the time of
this particular raid he was in Bonhara, on official
business with Gen. Henry E. McCulloch. Col.
Bourland had to protect with his regiment such an
extended reach of frontier that he was compelled
to scatter his troops in small squads far apart, and
for this reason it was impossible to concentrate any
considerable number of his troops at any given
point in time to repel such an invasion as this.
At this time Capt. Wm. C. Twitty, a brave and
true soldier, was in commabd of the few troops of
Col. Bourland' s regiment, that then happened to
be at and near Gainesville not exceeding fifty or
seventy-five in number.
At the same time Capt. Jno. T. Rowland, a
brave and experienced Indian fighter, commanded
a company of Texas State troops. Capt. Rowland
was in camp at Red River Station, in Montague
County, and was the first to hear of the raid. The
Indians crossed Red river into Texas about 2
o'clock in the afternoon of the 22d of December,
1863, a few miles below Red River Station,
and at once commenced their fiendish work
of murder and burning. They first came upon the
house of Mr. Anderson. They killed his wife, and
left her with her feet so near a fire in the yard as
to roast her feet. At the residence of Wesley
Willet they killed Mr. Willet and one daughter,
while his wife and another daughter made their
escape. They burned and plundered Mr. Willet's
house, and then came upon the house of Mr. G. L.
Hatfield. Hatfield and his family made their es-
cape, but they had fled only a short distance before
they looked back and saw their home in flames.
After taking such things as they wanted the Indians
set flre to the house. Settlements at this time
along the Red river border were quite spare and
what was then known as the Wallace settlement, in
Sadler's bend in Cooke County, was the next set-
tlement below Hatfleld's and was some twelve or
fifteen miles distant. The Indians started in the
direction of this settlement when they left the Hat-
field place, but they were closely pursued by Capt.
Rowland with about twe.nty-five men. The Indians
were between two and three hundred strong.
Before reaching the Wallace settlement the Indians
reerossed Red river and this led Capt. Rowland to
believe that they had abandoned the raid, as it was
their custom to make these sudden inroads upon
the settlements and then make their escape under
cover of night. Capt. Rowland and his men had
ridden very rapidly — the Indians had so much
the start of them, that their horses were
completely wearied out, so he thought it was
best to turn into Capt. Wallace's and rest
his men and horses for the night, and renew
the pursuit early next morning. The news of
the raid and the massacre of the Willet family
with the usual exaggerations, had already been
carried to the Wallace settlement, by some terrified
settler, and when Capt. Rowland reached Wallace's
116
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
he found that the whole settlement had forted there
as a means of protection. The news had also been
conveyed to what was known as the Elmore settle-
ment, on the head of Fish creek, about six miles
east of Wallace's ; also to what was known as the
Potter settlement, some four miles southeast from
Elmore's, and a fleet courier had also carried the
news to Gainesville. During the night of the 22d,
the few families in that settlement gathered at the
residence of James Elmore, and the few families
that composed the settlement around Capt. C.
Potter's were also gathered in there before daylight
of the morning of the 23d. Many of these families
were simply women and children, the husbands and
fathers being in the Confederate army, and the few
men in the county were armed with the poorest
class of firearms, all the best guns having been
given to those who joined the Confederate army.
When Capt. Twilty heard the news of the raid,
which reached him at Gainesville, in the early part
of the night of the 22d of December, he imme-
diately dispatched about tweuty-flve men from
Capt. S. P. C. Patton's Company, to the scene of
the raid. These men, after a hard ride, reached
Capt. Wallace's a short time before daylight on
the morning of the 23d. Capt. Rowland, who was
not expecting reinforcements, and taking these
men for the enemy, came near firing upon them
before the mistake was discovered. But the
Indians, confident in their superior numbers, deter-
mined to do more devilment before leaving and early
next morning, recrossed Red river and went in
below Capt. Wallace's. At sunrise they were scam-
pering over the prairies, stealing horses, shooting
cattle, and burning houses. They soon came to
the Elmore place and their number was so unpre-
cedentedly large, that they struck terror to the
hearts of the men and women crowded in the house,
and they at once fled to the woods, scattering in
every direction. Some were killed, others were
chased for miles — but most of them made their
escape, though they lay in the woods all that day
and the following night. Many thrilling incidents
could be related of this flight. Among others, a
Mr. Dawson, when the stampede began from
the house, seized a babe about six months old,
but not his own. When he reached a spot where
he thought he could safely hide, the child began to
cry and would not be comforted. Dawson could
see the Indians coming in his direction and knew
that they must soon hear the screams of the child,
if they had not already done so. So he ran deeper
into the woods, seeking the most inaccessible
places. The Indians continued to follow and the
-child to cry, as poor Dawson thought louder than
ever. In utter despair of ever making his escape
with the babe, he laid it down in a deep dry branch
and covered it with leaves. The little thing went
to sleep in a moment. Dawson thus made his
escape and when the Indians left he went back,
got the babe and carried it to its almost frenzied
mother. After the people left Elmore's house the
Indians plundered it, took what they wanted and
set fire to it. The people forted up at Capt,
Potter's, soon saw the flames at Elmore's house
and knew that the Indians were coming on in their
direction. About a mile and a half south of Capt.
Potter lived the families of Ephraim Clark and
Harrison Lander. These families, contrary to
their usual custom, failed to go to Capt. Potter's,
as their neighbors had done when they received
the report of the raid. When the people at Pot-
ter's saw Elmore's house burning they knew that
it was too late to get Clark's and Lander's families
to Potter's. Hence they concluded that it was
best to go to Clark's or Lander's, as they lived
very near together. About the time they left
Potter's house, James McNabb, who had left
Potter's early that morning to go to his home
a mile away to look after" his stock, came flying
back, hotly pursued by a squad of Indians who
were in advance of the main body. McNabb made
a narrow escape. Before he dismounted the
Indians surrounded the house and tried to cut him
off from his horse, but he made his escape by
making his horse jump the fence. The people
forted at Capt, Potter's, as well as his own family,
made a hasty retreat to Lander's house going by
Clark's and getting his family. Many of the chil-
dren were taken from bed and without being
dressed were hurried into a wagon and driven
rapidly away. They had not reached Lander's
house before they saw the flames bursting from
the roof of Capt. Potter's house. Mr. Lander's
house was situated on a prairie knoll near a very
high and precipitous bluff. Here the affrighted
women and children were gathered in the house,
while four men and three boys, with poor and
uncertain guns in their hands, stood in the yard
and about the outhouses ready to protect as best
they could all that was dear to them. Soon the
Indians came in sight and a sight it was. They
came not in a body but in squads' and strin<.s.
They had bedecked their horses with the b°ed
clothing, sheets, quilts, counterpanes, table-cloths,
ladies wearing apparel, etc.
The women gathered in the house were fratotic.
It was supposed that all had been killed at Elmore's
as the house had been seen to burn. It was known
that they had as much or more fighting force at
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
117
Elmore's than they had at Lander's and when the
overwhelming force of Indians came in sight strung
out for a considerable distance, with their yells and
queer decorations, all hope sank. Some women
prayed, others screamed and cried, while others
held their children to their bosoms in mute despair.
Soon the Indians were around the place and had
driven off the loose 'horses that had been driven
along by the fleeing people with the hope of saving
them. The horses that had been ridden and driven
were brought inside the yard fence and tied. It
was some time before all the Indians congregated
and, as they would come up, they would stop near
the house, shoot arrows at the men in the yard,
occasionally fire a gun or pistol, and at times some
daring fellow would come within gun-shot, but the
citizens were too experienced in Indian warfare to
Are until it had to be done to save the dear ones
in the house. The Indians were so slow about
making an attack upon the house that it was thought
that the women and children might be hurried over
the steep bluff that was just north of the house and
down this the Indians could not follow them on
their horses, and if the bluff could be reached
escape was certain to most of the party. A plan
was soon arranged ; the Indians were south of the
house and the main body of them three hundred
yards away. The bluff was north of the house and
one hundred and fifty yards away. The men and
boys with guns were to mount their horses and
form a line for the protection of the women and
children, who were to make a break for the bluff.
-The men were soon on their horses and the women
and children started, but as they poured out of the
house and out of the yard, the Indians set up an
unearthly yell, and all the women and children ran
back into the house. After some further delay,
another effort was made to carry out this scheme.
It might not have been successful, but about the
time the women and children got out of the yard,
the soldiers came in sight upon the brow of a high
hill a mile away to the north, and this gave the
Indians something else to do. They at once took
to their heels and ran for two miles to the highest
point of the divide between Fish creek and Dry
Elm and then halted.
The soldiers seen were Capt. Eowland with that
part of his own company that was with him the day
before, and that part of Capt. Patton's Company
that had joined them the night before at Wallace's,
as already related. They had learned early on the
morning of that day that the Indians had again
crossed Red river and were continuing their depre-
dations. Capt. Eowland immediately ordered a
pursuit and he found it no trouble now to trail the
Indians, as he could follow them by the burning
houses. But they had so much the start and
traveled so rapidly that long before Capt. Rowland
came in sight of them the horses of many of his
men were completely worn out and they could go
no farther. By the time the soldiers reached
Lander's, Capt. Rowland's own horse had given
out, but he was furnished another by Clark. Soirie
of his men also obtained fresh horses from the citi-
zens who were only too glad to show favors to those
who had just saved them and their families from
death. Some of the citizens joined the soldiers in
pursuit of the Indians. The Indians were over-
taken near the high point where they had first
stopped. Indeed they showed no disposition to get
away when they ascertained the small number of
whites. Capt. Rowland led his men through Capt.
Potter's prairie farm and, in going out on the south
side, the rail fence was thrown down and left down
in two or three different places. This fact proved
most fortunate to the whites, as will hereafter
appear. After going some three hundred yards
south of the fence, Capt. Rowland halted his com-
mand, but it was with great difficulty that he got
them into a tolerable line. The Indians soon
seemed to divide into two wings, one starting east
and the other west around the soldiers, to surround
them. The troops, without waiting for command,
commenced firing, but at such long range as to do
little damage. As the Indians got closer and be-
gan to fire upon the line, many of the soldiers
thinking the odds too great, broke line and started
to run. Capt. Rowland did all in his power to stop
this and to rally the men, but the panic soon be-
came general and the whole command fled. The
object seemed to be to go through the gaps
left in the fence and turn and fight the Indians
from behind the fence. The Indians at once
began a hot pursuit of the flying men, and with
their guns, and pistols, bows, arrows and spears,
they did fatal work on the poor men whose tired
horses could not carry them out of reach of the
Indians. Before the fence was reached three men
were killed and several others were wounded. Mr.
Green, of Capt. Pollard's Company, also another
man, whose name is not remembered, were killed.
Mr. Pollard, an officer in Rowland's Company, was
severely wounded, having four arrows shot into his
back, which were pulled out by Capt. Rowland
after the men had reached the inside of the fleld,
but the spikes from some of the arrows were left in
his body. S. B. Potter, a son of Capt. Potter, was
also wounded in the head by an arrow that struck
the skull and then turned to one side. There was
quite a rush among the men to get through the gaps
118
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
in the fence to a place of security beliind it, as the
Indians were pressing them hard. Men rode at full
speed against the fence, endeavoring to get through
the gaps. Capt. Rowland was about the last man
to pass through the gaps. He had purposely kept
near the rear, and did what he could to protect the
hindmost of the men, reserving his fire until a shot
was absolutely demanded. Just before riding into
the field he fired his double-barrel shot-gun at an
Indian not more than thirty yards from him, and
at the fire the Indian dropped his shield and gave
other signs of being badly hurt. It was afterwards
learned that this shot killed him and that he was
the chief. When the Indians saw the men forming
behind the fence they precipitately fled. Capt.
Rowland attempted to encourage his men to again
attack them, but they were too much demoralized
to renew the fight against such odds. Capt. Row-
land, finding that he could not hope to again fight
the Indians with the force he then had, dispatched
couriers to different points to give the alarm and
with a few men he went to the head of Elm in Mon-
tague County where there were a few families
without protection. The Indians soon continued
their raid, going south and east, and soon reached
the Jones' settlement on Dry Elm. Here they
came upon and mortally wounded Mr. White and
dangerously wounded his step-son, young Parker.
Mr. Jones, their companion, escaped. Parker be-
longed to Wood's company of Fitzhugh's regiment.
He had been severely wounded in the battle at Mil-
lican's Bend, June 7th, 1863, and was home on
sick furlough.
The Indians beat a hasty retreat that night and
crossed Red river with a large number of stolen
horses before daylight next morning. Small squads
of Indians would scatter off from the main body
and commit all sorts of depredations. One of
their parties came upon Miss Gouna, who was carry-
ing water from a spring some distance from the
house. They thrust their spears into her body in
several places and cut off her hair, but she escaped
and finally recovered from her wounds.
Young Parker, above alluded to, saw the Indians
and heard the shooting in their fight with Capt.
Rowland, but did not believe it was Indians and
kept riding towards them, against the protests, too,
of his companion, Mr. Miles Jones. He did not
discover that it was Indians until- a squad of them
dashed upon and mortally wounded him. He died
in ten days.
The following additional facts are taken from a
letter written by me at the time to the Houston
Telegraph : —
"At every house burnt, the savages derisively
left hanging a blanket, marked 'U. S.' During
the night of the twenty-third, they made a hasty
retreat, left about fifty Indian saddles, numerous
blankets and buffalo robes, and considerable of the
booty they had taken from houses.
" In the meantime nearly a thousand men had
reached Gainesville and made pursuit next day as
soon as the trail could be found ; but a start of
twenty-four hours by fleeing savages cannot be
overcome in the short and cold days of winter, when
they could travel at night and only be followed in
daylight. The pursuit, though energetic under Maj.
Diamond and aided by Chickasaws, was fruitless.
'' As soon as the news reached Col. Bourland, at
Bonham, that old veteran spared neither himself
nor horse till he was on the ground doing his duty.
Capts. Patton, Mosby and many citizens were in
the pursuit under Diamond. Lieut.-Col. Showal-
ter, with Capts. Wm. S. Rather (then and now of
Belton), Wilson and Carpenter, with their compa-
nies, made a forced march from Bonham, hoping
for a tilt with the Indians ; but on reaching Red
river, some twenty miles northwest from Gaines-
ville, information from the advanced pursuers ren-
dered the effort hopeless. Being on detailed duty
at that time in Bonham, I accompanied Col. Sho-
walter in this severe march."
The Murder of Mrs. Hamleton and Children in Tarrant County,
in April, 1867.
In the fall of 1860 James Myres, wife and six
children, came from Missouri and settled on Walnut
creek, in the northwestern edge of Tarrant County.
His wife, Sally, was a daughter of Nathan AUman,
who had settled on Walnut creek in 18-50 and on
whose land a country church was built. Mr
Myres died in the spring of 1861, and a year or so
later his widow married William Hamleton, by
whom she had two children. The tragedy about
to be related occurred in cotton-picking time in
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
119
1867. The children at that time were "William
Myres, aged sixteen, MahalaEmilene, aged fifteen,
Eliza, thirteen, Sarina, eleven, Samuel, nine, and
John Myres, aged seven. The two Hamleton chil-
dren were Mary L., aged about five years, and
(jrus., aged about eighteen months.
On the day of the attack Mr. Hamleton had
gone some distance to mill; the elder son, Will-
iam, was from home attending cattle. Mahala,
Eliza, Samuel and John were picking cotton.
Sarina Myres, Mary and little Gus. were at the
house and their mother was weaving cloth in a
hand loom.
8uch was the situation when a band of Indians,
said to have been led by the Comanche chief,
Santag — the same who, while a prisoner with
Santanta and Big Tree in 1871, was killed by the
guard — surrounded and entered the house. Mrs.
Hamleton was at once murdered ; and little Gus.,
Sarina and Mary were seized. The house was
then plundered of everything portable desired by
the Indians, and with their little prisoners and
booty they left. Little Mary, from the effect of
chills, was very weak, so much so that on leaving
their camp next morning, they left her and started,
but she cried so wildly that they went back and
killed her. The only eye-witness to these double
horrors was Sarina, who was also in feeble health,
but had both the strength and fortitude to en-
dure without murmur the indignities and hardships
incident to her condition in the hands of such
brutal creatures. She was held by them about six
months and by some means recovered at Fort
Arbuckle, on the False Washita. Her brother,
William, as soon as advised of the fact, went to
the fort and escorted her home.
Mr. Hamleton died about two years after the
murder of his wife and children.
A Bloody Raid in Cooke County in 1868.
To many persons latterly drawn to the pretty and
prosperous little city of Gainesville, Cooke County,
it must be difficult to realize how that place was at
one time exposed to the inroads of murderous
savages.
On Sunday, January 5th, 1868, about a hundred
Indians suddenly appeared upon the head waters
of Clear creek, in the northwestern part of Cooke
County. They gathered horses wherever seen,
aggregating a large number, and killed during their
stay nine persons, Mr. Long, a young man named
Leatherwood, Thomas Fitzgerald and wife, Arthur
Parkhill, an old man named Loney, and Mr.
Manascos. Previously they had killed Mrs. Car-
rolton and captured her sixteen-year-old daughter.
Mr. Manascos living about seventeen miles west of
Gainesville, on his way home from church discov-
ered signs of the Indians and immediately hastened
to the house of Edward Sbegogg, his son-in-law,
whom he knew to be from home and whose wife and
infant were alone. Mr. Manascos took his daughter
and her child and started to his own house, near
which the savages fell upon and killed him and
made captive the mother and infant, the latter,
however, being killed soon afterwards. During the
succeeding night Mr. Shegogg, having returned
home and collected a few men, fired upon the sav-
ages on the overland mail road about fifteen miles
west of Gainesville. In the confusion produced
among them by this attack Mrs. Carrolton escaped
from them and followed that road till she ap-
proached the premises of Dr. Davidson, but, very
prudently fearing to go to the house lest she again
might fall into the hands of her captors, took shel-
ter in a ravine, covered with brush, and there
remained till morning came and she discovered
white persons in possession of the house. She then
hastened to it, having suffered much from cold
durilig the night.
The Indians had divided into two or more parties
and covered considerable territory. They captured
horses from St. Clair, Jones, Newton, Gilbert and
others southwest of Gainesville, and killed some.
They seem to have become bewildered, as during
the night they halted on the west bank of Elm
creek, immediately below the farm of Samuel Doss
and within a mile of Gainesville and remained there
about three hours. Yet, while this was transpiring,
another party, as discovered next day, had halted
and built a fire a mile above town on the east side
of the creek, and another party, or scouts from one
of these two, had entered the town, apparently
without knowing of its existence, for they hurriedly
left it, crossed the creek and either by design or
120
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
accident joined the party near Doss' place, making
such communication to them as to cause much ex-
citement and confusion. Mrs. Shegogg, taking ad-
vantage of this and the darkness of the night, man-
aged to escape and secrete herself till morning,
when almost nude and suffering greatly from cold,
she found refuge in Mr. Doss' house. The Indians
hastily retired as she escaped. The party that had
been in town had left so hurriedly that they left sev-
eral of their horses, with saddles on, one of which
was found next morning at the door of the hotel
stable — another with saddle, moccaains and other
Indian outfit, was in the yard of Mr. Patton, in a
few hundredjards of the court house — and various
articles of Indian toilet were found in different
parts of the town ; yet the inhabitants slept the
sleep of security, unconscious of the murderous
wretches being in the country till morning revealed
these facts, followed by the appearance and recital
of Mrs. Shegogg, who had not only been robbed of
most of her apparel, but also of her beautiful suit
of hair, clipped close to the scalp.
Near the time of the killing of Mr. Manascos, they
had captured two children of W. G, Manascos, and
a negro boy. Prior to that, on Clear creek, they
had robbed the houses of Joseph Wilson, Mr. Mc-
Crackin and Washington Williams, burning the two
former, and at the time of killing Mr. and Mrs.
Fitzpatrick, captured three of their children. Mrs.
Parkhill and children, in connection with the murder
of their husband and father, successfully secreted
themselves and escaped. In all seventeen women
and children were carried into brutal captivity in
the midst of winter and a cold period for that sea-
son, and being, without doubt, deprived of most of
their clothing, must have suffered greatly. Of
their ultimate fate I am not advised.
The citizens collected and did all in their power
to overhaul and chastise the enemy and recover the
captives, but the severity of the weather, the gen-
eral poverty of the people in munitions of war
at that dark period of reconstruction, when some
of the most favored leaders of the people were
ostracised by the military despotism enthroned at
Austin and New Orleans, and when a majority of
the men felt bound to stand by their own families
during such a raid, abundantly accounts for their
inability to wreak vengeance on the raiders. It
was one of those blood-curdling desolations follow-
ing the war when, with abundance of troops,
munitions and supplies, the army, to the disgust
of its honorable officers and men, was diverted
from its mission of protection to the people against
wild and bloody savages, to that of espionage and
constabulary duties for the annoyance, the arrest
and the imprisonment of men whose only offense,
as a general fact, had been fidelity to their own
State and section during the war, and who were
honored in becoming objects of vengeance to the
creatures then suddenly risen to the surface as
petty and (thank God) ephemeral rulers of a peo-
ple by the respectable and honorable portion of
whom they were despised ; and by none more than
by honorable officers of the army and civilians who
had been consistent Union men from convictions of
duty. Those classes never ceased'to realize that in
a mighty issue, involving millions of people on both
sides, American freemen might differ and die in
their convictions, without being tainted with treason
or inBdelitj' to human liberty. They left that soul-
less manifestation of littleness of heart, weakness of
intellect and meanness of spirit to such as chose to
follow the vocation of spy, informer and perse-
cutor.
On the 16th of the following June, five months
after the destructive assault on those frontier peo-
ple, a once famous resolution was introduced in the
reconstruction convention at Austin, among thou-
sands of others, specifically and forever disfranchis-
ing a large number of the very men exposed to this
raid, because during the war, and under the laws of
their country at the time, they had belonged to
Gen. Wm. Hudson's Brigade of State troops, whose
chief duty was the protection of the women and
children on the frontier against these barbarian
savages, whose mode of warfare " respected neither
age, sex nor condition." But from that Bedlam
of hate sprang forth a single fact more preciously
freighted with faith in the perpetuity of American
unity and American liberty than a thousand theories
and prophecies by political philosophers. It is the
simple fact that the American heart, as soon as time
for reflection had passed, disdained to tolerate per-
secution for opinion's sake; that the opposin-^
soldiers in the Civil War are long since, friends and
reconciled countrymen ; breaking bread toaetheron
holy days ; voting together as seemeth to them best
now, regardless of the past;, sitting together in the
same sanctuary; counseling together for the com-
mon weal as their conditions are now; partners in
business; their children intermarrying; jointly
burying their deceased comrades; jointly aiding
their unfortunate comrades; and jointly upholding
each other when unjustly assailed. Talk not of
American liberty failing through faction, when con-
fronted with this one ever-present, grand and
heaven-blest fact! Leave that bewai'lin'g whine to
moral dyspeptics and intellectual dwarfs.
COMANCHE INDIAN GROUP.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
121
Indian Massacres in Parker County, 1858 to 1873.
Tbe first settlements in the present territory of
Parker County were made about 1853-4. The
county was created by the legislature, December
12, 1855, and organized March 2, 1856. It was
long exposed to forays by bands of hostile savages,
and while no important battle was ever fought,
life and property were insecure as late as 1873.
During the existence of the Indian reservation on
the Brazos, in Young County, and especially for
two years prior to the removal of the Indians to
Fort Cobb, north of Red river, in the summer
of 1859, it was alleged, and almost universally
believed by the border people, that many of the rob-
beries and murders were committed by the tribes
resident on the ten miles square embracing that
reservation. That matter will not be discussed
here. The writer was one of five commissioners
deputed by the Governor to investigate that matter,
in 1859, the board consisting of Richard Coke,
John Henry Brown, George B. Erath, Joseph M.
Smith and Dr. Josephus M. Steiner. The writer
also commanded a company of Texas rangers for
some time before and during the removal of the
Indians, to prevent their leaving the reservation
before their removal or committing depredations on
the march. Hence he was well informed on the
existing matters in issue, which, for the moment,
were more or less distorted for political effect. It
is enough here to say that while many exaggerated
or false statements were scattered broadcast over
the country, arousing the people to such a frenzy
as to cause the killing of probably two small par-
ties of unoffending Indians, still it was unques-
tionably true that more or less of the depredations
committed along the frontier, from Red river to the
Guadalupe, were perpetrated by the Indians be-
longing to the one or the other of the two reserva-
tions— the second, at Camp Cooper, on the clear
fork of the Brazos, being exclusively occupied by
a portion of the Comanche tribe — ithiXe on the
other Brazos reservation were various small tribes,
embracing the Wacos, Tehuacanos, Keechis, Ana-
darcoes, Towashes, Toncahuas, lonies, Caddos
and perhaps one or two. others, with a few indi-
viduals, or families of Choctaws, Delawares, Shaw-
nees and others. It is equally true that those
Indians left the localities named with the most
vengeful animosities towards such localities on the
frontier as they believed had been active against
them, and this feeling especially applied to Parker,
Wise, Jack, Palo Pinto, Erath, Comanche and
other outside counties.
It is proposed in this chapter to briefly narrate
the successive massacres in Parker County, in so
far as I have the data, for portions of which I am
indebted to Mr. H. Smythe's history of that
county.
In December, 1859, following the removal of the
Indians, a party of five assaulted, killed and scalped
Mr. John Brown, near his residence about twelve
miles from Weatherford, and drove off eighteen of
his horses. Two miles away they stole seven
horses from Mr. Thompson, and next, with their
number increased to fifty, they appeared at the
house of Mr. Sherman, whose family consisted of
himself, wife and four children. They ordered the
family to leave, promising safety if they did. They
obeyed the mandate and hurried away on foot, but
in half a mile the savages overtook them, seized
Mrs. Sherman, conveyed her back to the house,
committed nameless outrages on her person, shot
numerous arrows into her body, scalped and left her
as dead ; but she survived four days, to detail the
horrors she had undergone.
In June, 1860, Josephus Browning was killed
and Frank Browning wounded on the Clear Fork
of the Brazos. At that time several citizens of
Weatherford were in that section and pursued the
murderers. The party consisted of John R. Bay-
lor, George W. Baylor (of Weatherford), Elias
Hale, Minn Wright and John Dawson. On the
5th day of June, 1860, they overtook the Indians
on Paint creek and boldly attacked them, killing
nine and putting the remainder to flight. As attest-
ations of their achievment they scalped their
victims and carried the evidence thereof into the
settlements, along with sundry trophies won on
the occasion.
In the spring of 1861 a party of eleven Indians
attacked David Stinson, Budd Slover, John
Slover, — Boyd and — McMahon, a scout from
Capt. M. D. Tackett's Company, a few miles
north of Jacksboro, but they were speedily re-
pulsed, with the loss of one Indian killed and one
wounded. On the next day, William Youngblood,
a citizen, was killed and scalped, near his home,
by a party of nine Indians. The five rangers
named, reinforced by James Gilleland, Angle
Price, — Parmer and others, pursued and attacked
the enemy, and killed a warrior and recovered the
122
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
scalp of Youngblood, which was conveyed to his
late residence in time to be placed in its natural posi-
tion before the burial.
In the summer of 1861, a party of Indians on
Grindstone creek attacked two young men named
William Washington and John Killen, while stock
hunting. They killed Mr. Killen while Washington
escaped severely wounded, but recovered after
prolonged suffering.
In the same summer Mrs. John Brown, living on
Grindstone creek and having twin babies, started
to visit a neighbor, s&e carrying one and a' young
girl the other infant. The girl was some distance
ahead, when the Indians appeared, and reached the
neighbor's house. Mrs. Brown retreated to her
own house and entered it, but was closely followed
by the murderous wretches, by whom she was
killed and scalped. The infant, however, was left
unharmed.
Prior to these tragedies, in January, 1861, Mrs.
Woods and her two sisters, the Miss'es Lemley, of
Parker County, were ruthlessly assailed by five sav-
ages, who murdered and scalped the former lady,
and shockingly wounded the young ladies, leaving
them as dead, but after great suffering, under the
assiduous treatment of Dr. J. P. Volintine they
recovered.
In September, 1861, the house of Jas. Brown, on
the Jacksboro road, in his temporary absence, was
attacked by a small party of Indians, but they were
repulsed and driven off by Mrs. Brown, who under-
stood the use of five arms and used them most
effectually.
In the beginning of 1863, William and Stewart,
sons of Eev. John Hamilton, living in the valley
of Patrick's creek, while near their home, were
murdered, scalped and otherwise mutilated.
On the same day the house of Mrs. F. C. Brown,
in the same neighborhood, was attacked and the
lady killed. Her daughter, Sarah, aged sixteen,
and another fourteen years of age, on their return
home from the house of a neighbor, were both
wounded, but escaped — Sarah to die of her
wounds — the younger sister to recover.
A Mr, Berry, while at work in his field on Sanchez
creek, in September, 1864, was killed by a squad
of Indians.
In those same days of insecurity and bloodshed,
a child was captured and carried into captivity from
the home of Hugh O. Blackwell, but was subse-
quently recovered at Fort Cobb, in the Indian
Territory. But soon after his return home from
the disbanded Confederate army in 186.5 Mr. Black-
well himself, while returning home from Jacksboro,
was killed by a party of these prowling assassins
and scalped.
In the same year Henry Maxwell was murdered
by a similar band on his farm near te Brazos
river.
In June, 1865, Fuller Milsap was attacked by
two savages near his house, seeing which, his
heroic daughter, Donnie (subsequently Mrs. Jesse
Hitson), ran to him with a supply of ammunition,
when her brave father rebuked her temerity, but
must have felt an exalted pride in such a daughter,
who had on former occasions exhibited similar
courage, and was once shot through her clothing.
Honored be her name in her mountain home, far
away in Colorado ! The father triumphed over his
foes, and they fled.
In July, 1865, in a fight with a small party of
Indians in Meek's prairie, A. J. Gorman was
killed, about a month after reaching home from the
Confederate army. Charles Rivers and his other
companions repulsed the attacking party.
In November, 1866, while working in his field
on Sanchez creek, Bohlen Savage was butchered
and scalped. His child, eight years old, ran to
him on seeing the assault, and was carried off, to
be recovered two years later at Fort Sill. The
wretches then passed over to Patrick's creek,
where James Savage, a brother of Bohlen, lived,
and where they murdered him with equal brutality.
In August, 1866, William, son of Hiram Wil-
son, of Spring creek, twelve years of age, and
Diana Fulton, aged nine years, were captured.
On the fourth day afterwards, in Palo Pinto
County, Captain Maxwell's Company attacked the
same Indians, killed several, routed the band, and
recovered the two children.
On Rock creek, in April, 1869, Edward Rippey
was attacked a short distance from his home. He
fled towards the house, calling to his wife to bring
the gun. She ran toward him with the weapon,
but before meeting her he was killed, when the
demons slew the devoted wife. In the house was
their only daughter and a boy named Eli Hancock.
This heroic lad quickly barred the door, and with
the arms still in the house, defied and beat off the
blood-stained vandals. On a prior occasion, Mrs.
Rippey, rifle in hand, had successfully held at bay
one of these roving bands.
On the 4th of July, 1869, while returning from
a visit to. a neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Light were
murdered near their home on Grindstone creek.
Both were scalped, but Mr. Light survived two
days. Their children were at home and thus
escaped a similar fate.
On the 16th of December, 1870, on Turkey creek,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
123
George and Richard Joel repulsed an attack by
twelve Indians. Two hours later the savages fell
in with three gentlemen returning to their home on
the Brazos, from a business trip to Kansas. They
were Marcus L. Dalton (who had nearly $12,000
with him), James Eedfield and James McAster.
They were evidently taken by surprise, speedily
slain and scalped. The freebooters secured five
horses and other effects, but failed to find the
money. They fell in Loving's valley, and their
mutilated bodies were discovered next day by
Green Lassiter, destined himself soon to share a
similar fate. He was horribly butchered in the
Keechi valley a few months later.
On the 23d of April, 1871, in sight of his father's
house, twelve miles west of Weatherford, Linn
Boyd Cranflll, aged fifteen, and son of Isom Cran-
fiU, was mortally wounded by a fleeing party of
savages, in full view of his sister, who gave the
alarm and caused the assassins to flee without
scalping him.
On the 14th of March, 1872, in front of the
house of Fuller Milsap, on Eock creek, Thomas
Landrum was murdered by a party of red demons.
Mr. Milsap and Joseph B. Loving attacked and
pursued the murderers, killing one. It was on this
occasion that the heroic girl, Donnie Milsap, fol-
lowed her father with ammunition and received a
shot through her clothing.
On the 14th of July, 1872, two lads from the
Brazos, enroute to mill in Weatherford, viz., Jack-
son, aged thirteen, a son of Jesse Hale, and Martin
Cathey, aged eighteen (the boys being cousins)
were murdered by another of those bands, so often
appearing on the frontier.
In August, 1873, while standing in his yard, in
the northwest part of Parker County, Geo. W.
McCIusky was instantly killed by an Indian con-
cealed behind an oat stack, and armed, as were
many of these marauders in the years succeeding
the Civil War, with Winchester or other improved
rifles.
These recitals may embrace inaccuracies in dates
and otherwise, but are believed to be substantially
correct ; but they by no means embrace all the
bloody tragedies enacted in the years named.
Bear in mind that this is only a brief and very
.incomplete recital of a portion of the fiendish
murders in Parker County alone for the fourteen
years from 1859 to 1873. In several other counties,
as Palo Pinto, Wise, Jack, Comanche Brown and
San Saba, the catalogue would be, in a general
average, full as bloody — in some much more so,
in others possibly less. The same calamities fell
upon the southwestern frontier from the San Saba
to the Rio Grande, and also upon the counties of
Cooke, Montague and Clay on Red river.
They are sad memorials of the trials, sufferings
and indomitable courage of those fearless and lion-
hearted men and women, by whom those portions
of Texas were won to peace, to civilization and to
Christianity.
The Heroism of the Dlllard Boys in 1873.
On the 7th day of August, 1873, Henry Dillard,
aged about twenty, and his brother Willie, aged
thirteen, made one of those heroic fights and
escapes which approach the marvelous even in the
hazards of frontier life. They lived on the Brazos ;
had been to Fort Griflln with a two-horse wagon
load of produce for sale ; had sold their commodi-
ties and, iifter sitting up late the previous night, in
attendance upon a ball at the fort, were quietly
returning home through an open prairie country.
Henry was armed with a six-shooter and a Win-
chester rifle — Willie with a six-shooting revolver
only.
When about fifteen miles from the fort, Henry,
who had fallen into a partial slumber, was aroused
by loud voices and the tramping of horses. Arous-
ing, he instantly realized that he had driven into a
band of thirty mounted Indians. Each brother
seized his arms and stood on the defensive. The
foremost Indian, abreast of and very near the
wagon, fired at Henry, cutting away one of his
temporal locks and powder-burning his head.
Henry fired twice, but discovering that his balls
failed to penetrate the Indian shields, fired a third
ball lower down, breaking the thigh of an Indian
and the backbone of his horse.
Instructing Willie to follow and be with him,
Henry then sprang from the wagon and determined,
if possible, to reach a branch about a quarter of a
mile distant. The Indians at once formed a circle,
124
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
galloping around and firing upon them. "Walking,
running, halting by alternation, the boys fired with
great precision, rarely failing to strike an Indian
or his horse, or both. Very soon the cylinder of
Willie's pistol was knocked out by a ball, and
thenceforward he could only carry cartridges for his
brother. At one time Henry tripped and fell on
his face. An Indian dashed up and dismounted to
scalp him, but while yet on the ground the brave
boy drove a pistol ball through his heart. At
another time Willie called out: "Henry! look
here! " On looking he found the little fellow run-
ning around a mesquite bush, pursued by an Indian
clutching at his clothes, but shot him dead, and the
boys, as before, continued their retreat, the enemy
charging, yelling and firing. The brothers con-
tinued firing, loading, dodging, turning, trotting or
running as opportunity offered, all the while realiz-
ing that to halt was death, and the only haven of
hope was in the thickets on the branch. As they
neared the covert the enemy became more furious,
but the boys, encouraged by their seeming miracu-
lous immunity from death or wounds, and thus
buoyed in the hope of safety, maintained perfect
self-possession, and finally reached the hoped for
refuge. But one savage had preceded them, dis-
mounted, and confronted their entrance. Henry
tried to fire his Winchester at him, but it was empty.
The Indian, seeing this, remounted and charged
upon him, but Henry sent a pistol ball through his
body. The astounded red men, seeing their prey
escape from such fearful odds, seemed awe-stricken.
After a short parley they returned to the wagon,
took the horses and its contents and retired, bear-
ing their dead and wounded, and leaving, five
horses dead on the ground. The day — August
7th, be it remembered — was very hot, and the
boys, following such a contest, came near dying
for water.
When night came the brothers sought the neare s
ranch, some miles away. Mounting horses there
they hurried back to Fort Griffin and reported the
facts to Gen. Buell, U. S. A., commanding that post.
That gentleman promptly dispatched a party of
dragoons in pursuit. The pursuers discovered that
the Indians, bearing northwesterly, had divided into
twoparties, the left hand gang carrying off the killed
and wounded. In two or three days they came
upon a newly deserted camp in which were three
beds of grass gorged with blood. Discovering buz-
zards sailing round a mountain near by, some of
the party ascended it and found three dead Indians,
partially buried on its summit. They also found
in this camp Henry Dillard's memorandum book.
The gallant boy, let it be understood, was among
the pursuers. From this locality, which was about
the head of the Big Wichita, hopeless of over
taking the Indians, the dragoons returned to the
fort.
This is among the extraordinary episodes in our
frontier history. It seems almost incredible. The
officer commanding the pursuit, after all his dis-
coveries, asserted that the brothers had killed and
wounded eleven .Indians, besides the five horses
left on the field.
The gentleman to whom I am chiefly indebted
for these details, says that Henry Dillard is a Ken-
tuckian, who came to Texas a boy five or six years
before this occurrence. He is about five feet nine
inches high, slender, erect and quick in movement,
with brown hair, handsome features and clear,
penetrating gray eyes. He afterwards set-
tled on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, near
the scene of this remarkable conflict, and stood as
a good citizen, enjoying the confidence and esteem
of the surrounding country — an acknowledged
hero of modest nature, void of all self-adulation
and averse to recounting his deeds of daring to
others. It is ever pleasant to record the merits of
such men.
Don Lorenzo De Zavala.
For one who loves truth and admires purity in the
character of public men and benefactors to the mul-
titude in the land of their birth or adoption, the
career of Don Lorenzo de Zavala possesses peculiar
interest. Only the oldest and best informed citi-
zens of Texas have any intelligent knowledge of
his character and services in the cause of human
liberty. But every school boy and school girl in
• our State should be familiar with his history.
Lorenzo de Zavala was born in Madrid, Spain,
on the 3d of October, 1789. His father was a man
of education and refinement and belonged to that
class of men in Europe who had glimmerings of
human rights and yearnings to possess them! In
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
125
other words, he was a Castilian of noble aspirations
and possessed of love for his fellow-beings. "When
his child, Lorenzo, was but eighteen months old he
determined to quit Spain and seek a home where he
hoped for more liberty. Instead of going to the
United States and among a different race, where
. liberty was a birthright, he went to Yucatan, which
was then not a part of Mexico, as now, but a dis-
tinct Captain-Generalcy under the Spanish crown.
He settled, in the infancy of his child, Lorenzo, in
the beautiful city of Merida, and hence it is that
the impression became general (including among
ils believers not only enlightened Mexicans, but
also his first-born son, Lorenzo de Zavala, Jr.),
that he was born in that place ; and such was my
own impression till recently furnished with data
having the sanction of his own name. The father
gave Lorenzo every possible advantage to gain an
education, and kept him from his earliest boyhood
at a fine school in Merida. The son advanced
beyond the liberal ideas of the father and began to
grasp the Jeffersonian idea of the rights of man.
He acquired a knowledge of the English language
and eagerly read everything he coulrl reach to
enlighten his mind. While a student, he bepame
an intense Jeffersonian Republican. Passing on
the street one day the Governor, he failed to lift
his hat as an obeisance, whereupon his Excellency
struck him with his riding whip. The young Jef-
fersonian thereupon jerked the Governor from his
calesa (a sort of buggy) and gave him a pounding.
For this outrage on dignity (by a compromise) he
was banished to Europe to complete his education.
He went, and studied with assiduity.
Returning in the year 1809, and in his twentieth
year, on board the good ship which bore him he fell
in love with a Castilian maiden, the daughter of a
family on board. This maiden bore the name of
Toresa Correa. Soon after arriving in Yucatan,
Lorenzo and Toresa became husband and wife.
It was a happy union of pure hearts, and three
children were born to them.
The young Democrat arrived in Merida sur-
charged with a sense of political rights, and a
reformer against the outrageous oppressions borne
by the people of Spain, and more especially by
those of Spanish America. He became, by the
inspiration of his own sense of true manhood,
a missionary among a down-trodden people.
Newspapers did not exist. He found a substitute.
He organized a sort of political institute, to which,
at its regular weekly meetings, he read his own
productions, the grand, all-pervading idea of which
was that, under the providence of God, all men
were born free and equal and were entitled to a
fair and equal participation in the blessings of
government. He rejected in toto the idea that the
accident of birth should confer upon a particular
family — regardless of sense, honesty or merit —
the power to rule over a multitude, a common-
wealth or a nation of men. On this point, without,
perhaps knowing it, he was an assimilated disciple
of Thomas Jefferson. He exerted vast influence
in Yucatan, and became, for one so young, the idol
of the people, a fact of which I had abundant
evidence during my four months tour in Yucatan
in the winter of 1865-6, for, when it became known
in Campeachy that an American gentleman of
Texas, who was a friend of Lorenzo de Zavala was
a guest of the son of the celebrated John McGregor,
the house was visited by many, and an old lady of
benevolent face, when introduced, said to my host:
" Win the gentleman permit one who loved Lorenzo
de Zavala to embrace him .? " Without waiting for
interpretation, as I perfectly understood her, I
said: "Yes, dear madam, with keenest pleasure ; "
and the embrace was mutual, a la Mexicana. My
heart yet warms to the dear old lady. I recall the
whole scene, too long to be described here, with
a pleasure which whispers to my heart that truth,
virtue, manhood, womanhood, patriotism, anfl all
the attributes pertaining to the highest developed
humanity, are not the peculiar and exclusive char-
acterigtics of my own countrymen, but exist, in
some form or other, wherever the children of men
are found. " The wind bloweth where it listeth
but thou canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither
it goeth; such is the kingdom of God." So it is
in virtue, in honor, in love, in manhood and in
womanhood.
Returning to Merida with an education finished
in Europe, young Lorenzo was made secretary of
the city council of Merida (then a city of about
sixty thousand inhabitants), and he filled that
office through 1812-13, and until July, 1814, when,
in 'consequence of his liberal doctrines, he was
seized and imprisoned in the castle of San Juan de
UUoa, in front of Vera Cruz. He was held in that
prison till 1817, covering three years of the Mexi-
can revolution (1810 to 1821). While in prison
his library and property were conflscated. Liber-
ated in the last half of 1817, and going forth bank-
rupt, he rallied on a previous study in medicine
and became a physician in Merida from the latter
part of 1817 to about the close of 1819.
It must be remembered that during the Mexican
revolution against Spain (1810 to 1821), Yucatan
was a separate Captain-Generalcy and took no part ;
but that as soon as Me?;ican independence was
secured Yucatan joined the Mexican confedera-
126
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tion as a State. This is important to bear in mind
as a historical fact.
In 1820 Zavala was elected by Yucatan as a
deputy to the then ephemeral Cortes of Spain. He
attended the sessions of that body and proposed
a measure to establish a legislative body for
Yucatan and other Spanish-American colonies, for
their local self-government ; but this caused among
the monarchists per se, a great cry against him,
and, to save his liberty, if not his life, he was
compelled to flee. He escaped into France and
thence found his way over to London and from
there sailed for his home.
In September, 1821, the Mexican revolution,
under Iturbide's plan of Iguala, triumphed.
Thereupon Yucatan determined to join her fortunes
to Mexico, and in February, 1822, elected Don
Lorenzo as one of her deputies to the first Congress
of that country. He took his seat in that notable
assembly and was elected its President. That body
finally adopted the Eepablican constitution of 1824.
The first name signed to it is that of Lorenzo de
Zavala, President, and Deputy from Yucatan.
Under that constitution, the future Congress
being divided into a Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, Zavala was senator from Yucatan in
1825 and 1826. In March, 1827, he was made
Governor of the State of Mexico, (including the
capital city), and held that office till 1830, when a
revolution fomented at Jalapa compelled him, as a
friend of free constitutional government, to flee to
the United States. During his exile he made a
tour of the United States and wrote a most valuable
volume on his observations, designed to enlighten
his countrymen as to the practical workings and
benefits of free government.
On the triumph of Santa Anna, in 1833, as the
champion of the Republican constitution of 1824,
Zavala returned to Mexico. He had been a friend
of Santa Anna and the Liberal party, and incident-
ally a zealous friend of the American colonists in
Texas. Indeed he had bought land on Buffalo
bayou, in Texas, and resolved to make that his
home, that he might live among a free and liberty-
loving people ; but fate delayed the consummation of
his wishes. His great and lucid mind seems to
have foreseen the future grandeur of Texas. He
acquired the right to found a colony in the eastern
part of the province, but his public duties forbade
his personal attention, and he transferred the right
to persons, or a company, who did nothing to carry
out the project.
On the triumph of Santa Anna, Zavala was
appointed Mexican Minister to France. In the
meantime Mrs. Zavala had died, early in 1831, and
he had married an accomplished lady in New York,
whose maiden name was Emily West, who was
born in New York, September 9, 1811. (This lady,
subsequently Mrs. Hand, died in Houston, June 15,
1883, and was buried at the family cemetery,
Zavala's Point, opposite the battle ground of San
Jacinto. ) Mrs. Zavala was considered at the court
of St. Cloud a beautiful and accomplished woman,
and was greatly esteemed for her social virtues.
Don Lorenzo repaired at once to his post in Paris
flushed with high hopes as to the future of his
country. He had scarcely arrived, however, when
ominous sounds rolled over the Atlantic — sounds
soon rendered certainties — admonishing him that
his old friend and chief, Antonio Lopez de Santa
Anna, had become a traitor to the cause of liberty
and was now the champion of despotism — of the
Church and State party — and in fact was the
champion of the cast-off despotism of Spain, the
only difference being in a name.
When this whole fact, thrice repeated, came to
be understood by Zavala in Paris, his honest soul
revolted, and he promptly sent his resignation to
Mexico. He at once resolved to carry out his idea
of becoming a citizen of Texas — then a Mexican
province — where he hoped to rear his children in
an atmosphere of freedom. He sent his son
Lorenzo de Zavala, Jr. , who was his Secretary of
Legation also, to Texas, to begin improvements on
the lands he had previously bought. He wrote
Santa Anna a letter worthy of his character, de-
nouncing the latter's apostasy to the cause of
liberty, and telling him that whereas, heretofore
his cause had prospered because it was right, now
that he had betrayed that cause, he would fall.
Truer prediction was never uttered, though it re-
quired nineteen years to bring the grand truth
home to Santa Anna, and make him a refucree from
the wrath of his own countrymen, never more to
be tolerated on the soil of his birth, except when
old and decrepit, to be allowed the privilege to
return and die in the capital of the land he had
outraged. The poor old apostate did so return and
die, a veritable outcast, in the old Hotel Vergara,
about 1874.
Governor Zavala arrived in Texas early in 1835.
He was received with open arms by all classes, and
was consulted by all prominent men in regard to
the condition of the country. When the people
elected members to the first revolutionary conven-
tion (consultation), of November 3d, 1835, he was
a delegate, and aided in forming the provisional
government, of which that grand and noble patriot,
Henry Smith, was made chief.
When the second convention declared Texas to
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
127
be a free and independent nation, Marcli 2d,
1836, Zavala was a member and signed the docu-
ment.
When the convention of independence formed a
government ad interim for the Republic, on the
17th of March, 1836, David G. Burnet was elected
President and Lorenzo de Zavala, Vice-president.
Both held oflSce until the formation of the con-
stitutional government, on the 22d of October,
1836.
Zavala's home was at Zavala's Point, on Buffalo
bayou. In crossing the bayou early in November,
just after yielding up the vice-presidency, in a
canoe, and with his son, Augustin, then only three
years old, the canoe capsized. It was a cold,
windy day. Securing his child on the bottom of
the capsized boat, he swam and guided it to the
opposite shore. In saving his child he became
chilled; pneumonia followed, and on the 16th of
November, 1836, the pure and noble soul of
Lorenzo de Zavala went to God.
Consider where and when this man was born ;
where and under what conditions he lived, how he
demeaned himself, and your judgment must be that
he was an honor to his race. His memory will be
hallowed while that of his apostate enemy and per-
secutor, Santa Anna, will be hissed as something
detestable between the teeth of freemen. Blessed
is the memory of one — detested that of the other.
In such a sketch I am compelled to epitomize
rather than enlarge on the subject-matter. Yet I
cannot withhold an expression of the opinion enter-
tained of the exalted and spotless character of this
noble man. That this is not a recent opinion is
shown by the fact that in the legislature of 1857-8,
while a member from Galveston, I introduced and
carried through the legislature a bill creating and
naming the county of Zavala. My visit to Yucatan,
in 1865-6 — being then " a man of sorrow and
acquainted with grief" — intensified the original
pleasure I had enjoyed in accomplishing that tribute
to his memory. Donna Joaquina Peon, of Merida,
made famous in Stephens' work on Central America,
being made sensible of the fact by the gentleman
who presented me, was profuse in expressions of
thankfulness, because, as she said, Don Lorenzo
was one of God's noblemen.
By his marriage with Toresa Corrca, Governor
Zavala had three children, viz. : Lorenzo, Jr., who,
in 1881, lived in Merida. He was on the battle
field of San Jacinto, and part of the tame acted as
interpreter between Santa Anna and Gen. Houston.
He left Texas in 1841 and went to his native city
of Merida, where he still resided in 1881, though
he was absent during my visit there in 1865-6.
There was a daughter named Manuela, and a
daughter who died in infancy.
By his second marriage, late in 1831, to Miss
Emily West, of New "York, he had three children,
viz. : —
1. Augustin de Zavala, born in New York, Janu-
ary 1, 1838, married Julia Tyrrell, and now lives in
San Antonio, Texas. Their children are Adina, an
educated and accomplished young lady (as I know
from correspondence with her), Florence, Mary,
Zita, Thomas J. , and Augustin P.
2. Emily de Zavala, born in February, 1834, mar-
ried Capt. Thomas Jenkins, a lawyer, and died in
Galveston, April 20, 1858, leaving a child named
Catherine.
3. Ricardo de Zavala, born in New York in 1835,
twice married and both wives dead. He still lives,
having two sons and two daughters.
In all my meditations on the men and history of
Texas — with an Involuntary reverence for the char-
acters of Milam, Travis, Bonham, Bowie, and numer-
ous others — I dwell with fascinating delight on
the character of Lorenzo de Zavala. He must not
be judged and weighed in the same scale that we
apply to native born Americans, but by the times,
country, institutions and surroundings attending his
birth and growth into manhood. Tried by the test,
he presents one of the most spotless and exalted
characters of modern times, and his memory should
be cherished by the children of Texas as one of the
purest patriots of this or any other age.
He was one of the proscribed citizens of Texas,
and Santa Anna sought both through the civil
authorities and his military minions sent to overawe
Texas in 1835, to have him arrested and sent to
Mexico for trial. The civil authorities spurned the
infamous request, and the military at San -Antonio
were impotent to effect it. Through his grand-
daughter, Adina, I have recently come into posses-
sion of the only picture of him ever in Texas, a
painting executed in Havana, about 1831.
128
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
David G. Burnet.
David Gouveneur Burnet, son of a revolutionary
surgeon, was born at Newark, New Jersey, April
4th, 1788.
His family ranked high for intelligence and
moral worth. His elder brother, .Jacob, was sen-
ator from Ohio and many years Chief Justice of
that State. Another brother, Isaac, was long
Mayor of Cincinnati. David G. received a thor-
ough education and when in his eighteenth year,
on the Ist of January, 1806, joined in New York,
the expedition of Gen. Francisco de Mirando,
a native of Venezuela, for the liberation of that
country from Spanish bondage. On that day he
received from that patriot chi.ef a commission as
Second Lieutenant of infantry, the original of which
is in my possession, a gift from him in 1869. The
sons of many noted families of New York, New
Jersey and Massachusetts, including a grandson of
President John Adams, were in the expedition.
The invading squadron entered the gulf of Venez-
uela, accompanied by the British frigate Buchante,
whose launch boat was commanded by Lieut.
Burnet, under whose orders the first gun was fired
in behalf of South American liberty. This was in
an attack on the fort protecting La Villa de Coro,
on that gulf. The assailants carried the fort, its
occupants retiring to the interior. At Porto
Caballo, a number of the invaders were captured —
ten of whom were slaughtered, some condemned to
the mines, and others died. The death of Pitt,
Premier of England and patron of Mirando, caused
au abandonment of the enterprise and the return
of the survivors to New York.
In 1808 Mirando renewed the contest and secured
a position on the coast. Burnet hastened to him,
but he was persuaded by the patriot chief to
return home. Soon afterwards Mirando was cap-
tured and sent to Spain, where he died in prison.
Various thrilling incidents are omitted.
Burnet, a few years later, went to Cincinnati,
and early in 1817, to Natchitoches, Louisiana.
Threatened with consumption, in the autumn of
that year, he went among the wild Comanches and
lived about two years with them, recovering robust
health, and having as a companion for a part of the
tin>e Ben R. Milam, who went among those wild
people to exchaijgB goods for horses, furs and pel-
tries. On leaving them Burnet gave the Indians
all his effects in exchange for a number of Mexican
women and children held captives by them, all of
whom he safely returned to their people, refusing
all offers of compensation. For the seven suc-
ceeding years, in Texas, Louisiana and Ohio, he
devoted his time to the study and practice of law.
Marrying a lady, whose memory is fondly cherished
wherever she was known, in 1826, he became a
permanent citizen of Texas, on the San Jacinto
river, near Galveston Bay, introducing a steam saw
mill, which proved a failure for want of people to
buy lumber.
In 1833 he was a member of the convention
which drafted and sent to Mexico a proposed con-
stitution for Texas as a State, and a long and able
memorial praying for its adoption. Gen. Sam
Houston was chairman of the committee which
drew the constitution ; Burnet wrote the memorial,
and Austin, as commissioner, carried both to
Mexico. The base imprisonment of Austin and
utter refusal to adopt the constitution and allow
Texas to have a separate State government from
Coahuila were the causes, direct and indirect, of
the Texas revolution.
In 1834 a law was passed establishing a Supe-
rior Court in Texas, with a judge, and three dis-
tricts with a judge each — Bexar, Brazos and Na-
cogdoches. Burnet was appointed judge of the
district of Brazos, that is, all of Central Texas.
He held terms of court until superseded by the
revolutionary provisional government in November,
1835, and was the only person who ever held a
court of law in Texas prior to that time.
The convention which declared Texas independ-
ent and established its government as such, on
the 18th day of March, 1836 (the last of its
session), elected David G. Burnet, President;
Samuel P. Carson, Secretary of State; Thomas J.
Rusk, Secretary of War; Robert Potter, Secretary
of the Navy ; Bailey Hardeman, Secretary of the
Treasury, and David Thomas, Attorney General.
The presidency of this ad interim term con-
tinued till the 22d of October, when it was suc-
ceeded by officers elected by the people under the
constitution, Gen. Houston becoming President and
Mirabeau B. Lamar, Vice-president.
The fame of President Burnet very largely rests
upon his administration through those eight months
of peril, gloom, disaster and brilliant success.
The Alamo had fallen twelve days before. The
butchery of Fannin and his 345 men occurred nine
days later. Houston was then retreating before
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
129
Santa Anna. The sun of San Jaointo rose in
splendor and went down in blood thirty-four days
after Burnet's election, but its rays were reflected
over a land won to freedom.
Then followed grave problems. First the dis-
position to be made of Santa Anna; second, the
maintenance of an army in the field, without
money, supplies or resources in a country from
which the inhabitants had recently fled and were
returning without bread — the condition soon
aggravated by men poorly fed and idle in camp ;
third, the creation of a navy against Mexican
cruisers; fourth, Indian ravages on the frontier;
and fifth, the regular organization of the Republic,
by elections under and the ratification of the con-
stitution. Passions ran high ; demagoguery had
its votaries, and nothing short of superhuman
power could have escaped unjust criticism. But
to men of enlightened minds and just hearts it
has long been evident that the administration of
this over-burdened first President was wise and
eminently patriotic. It will bear the most rigid
scrutiny and be pronounced a durable monument
to the head and heart of its chief.
After remaining in retirement two years he be-
came Vice-president by a large majority in Decem-
ber, 1838, and served three years, several months
of the time as President. He participated in the
Cherokee battles of 1839, and was wounded.
With 1841 he retired to private life, but served as
Secretary of State through 1846 and 1847, with
Governor J. P. Henderson.
In 1866 he was elected to the United States
Senate, but was. denied a seat on account of the
question of reconstruction.
The close of the war found him alone in the
world. His wife and three children lay buried on
his San Jacinto farm. His last child, the gallant
Maj. Wm. E. Burnet, had fallen in the battle of
Spanish Fort, near Mobile, March 31, 1865 — a
noble young man worthy of his noble parents.
President Burnet was not only a learned, wise
and upright man, but a man of sincere and pro-
found religious convictions, from which, neither in
youth nor manhood, did he ever depart.
. 9
He was tendered and accepted a home in the
generous and estimable family of Mr. Preston
Perry, in Galveston, but in 1868 his kindred in
Newark, tendered him a home among them, on his
native spot. The affections of childhood returned
and he concluded to go. This becoming known in
Galveston, on the 23d of May, 1868, a farewell
letter was addressed to him signed by ninety-eight
gentlemen and twenty-seven ladies, embracing some
of the most eminent names in the State. That
letter, now before me, is touchingly beautiful and
as true as beautiful. It is too long for this place ;
but I want young people to read at least its con-
cluding paragraph. Here it is : —
" Texas, whom you have loved and served, sends
you to-day from her mountain tops to her sea
l)oard, from both sexes and all ages her affection-
ate greeting and farewell. It comes alike from the
few feeble voices that long ago, in the day of
youth and strength, elevated you to the supreme
authority in the Republic of Texas ; the heroic
few that won her independence and accepted her
destiny as their own ; from the lispings of child-
hood, who have learned from parental lips the
value of your services, and beauty of your char-
acter ; and from strangers, too, who have learned
to love in you all that is pure, unselfish, and noble
in man. And that God, in his goodness, may
bless and preserve you, is the earnest and universal
prayer of Texas and her people."
This letter to President Burnet, in its entirety,
with the names attached, is a proud monument to
his memory.
He went to his native place, but did not long
remain. The changes there had removed the
scenes of childhood and he moved among strangers.
The love of Texas — the product of fifty years'
association in manhood and its trials — came upon
him, by contrast, with resistless force. He came
back to die in the land of his love, and then to
sleep beside his wife and children. Peacefully, on
the 5th day of December, 1870, he departed from
life, aged eighty-two years and eight months, in
the home of Mrs. Preston Perry of Galveston, who
was to him all that a daughter could be.
130
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
James Butler Bonham.
It is honorable to human nature to feel some-
thing akin to personal interest and, with many,
kinship, in the character of men whose deeds stamp
them as of the highest order of honor and heroism.
Of such is the character we have under considera-
tion. Most that is known among the multitude,
even of well-informed Texians, is that Bonham, a
South Carolinian, fell in the Alamo. The true
sublimity of his acts and bearing has been locked
in the hearts of a few, and never till recently, by
the writer of these chapters, given to the public,
and then only to contradict a published historical
misstatement awarding to another the credit due to
Bonham, and to Bonham only.
Who was this almost matchless hero, patriot and
friend — friend to the illustrious Travis, as David
and Jonathan were friends — a friendship hallowed
in Masonry and in the hearts of men three thousand
years after its manifestation in the days of Saul ?
Very briefly I will answer.
The Bonham family, in so far as their American
history goes, are of Maryland origin. They
branched off more than a hundred years ago fiom
that State into South Carolina, Kentucky (from
Kentucky into Missouri and thence to Texas), and
elsewhere in the newer portions of the Union.
James Bonham, in the Revolutionary War, was a
private soldier at fifteen years of age in a Mary-
land cavalry company, whose captain and oldest
member was but nineteen. They served at the
siege of Yorktown. The wife of this James Bon-
ham was Sophia Smith. They had five sons and
three daugthers. Jacob, the eldest, died in child-
hood. The second, Simon Smith Bonham, died a
lawyer and planter in Alabama, in 1835.
The third, Malachi Bonham, died in Fairfield,
Freestone County, Texas, during the Civil War, and
has children there now. The fourth son was the
hero of Alamo, James Butler Bonham. The fifth
and last son was Milledge L. Bonham. This son
was Adjutant of a South Carolina brigade in the
Florida war. He was Colonel of the 12th U. S.
Infantry in the Mexican war. He was Solicitor in
his district in South Carolina for nine years ; a
member of Congress from 1857 to the Civil War in
1861. He was Major-General commanding all the
troops of South Carolina at the time of her seces-
sion from the Union, and so remained until April
19, 1861, when the State troops were merged into
the Confederate army, and Gen. Bonham, as a fact.
led the first brigade into that service. In the fall
of that year, however, he was elected to the Con-
federate Congress, in which he served one session,
and in 1862 was elected Governor of South Caro-
lina,-serving till the close of 1864, when, as Briga-
dier-General, he re-entered the Confederate army
and so remained till the close of the war. He died
at the age of 80 years in 1890, while President of
the State Board of Railroad Commissioners.
Returning to Bonham, the martyr, it may be
stated that his sister, Sarah M. , married John Lips-
comb, of Abbeville, S. C, while Julia married Dr.
Samuel Bowie,- and died in Lowndes County,
Alabama.
James Butler Bonham, fourth son of Capt. James
Bonham, was born on Red Bank creek, Edgefield
County, South Carolina, February 7, 1807. Wm.
Barrett Travis, slightly his senior, and of one of the
best families of that country, was born within five
miles of the same spot. Their childhood and boy-
hood constituted an unbroken chain of endearment.
Both were tall, muscular and handsome men. Both
were noted for manly gentleness in social life and
fearlessness in danger. Travis came to Texas in
1830. His career thence to his death is a part of
our history. We turn to Bonham. He was well
educated, studied law, and was admitted to the bar
in 1830. In the fall of 1832, with the rank of
Lieutenant-Colonel, he was appointed Aide to Gov-
ernor James Hamilton (afterwards so justly en-
deared to Texas. ) That was when South Carolina
was a military camp in the time of nullification. He
was at Charleston in all the preparations for de-
fense. The citizens of Charleston, charmed by his
splendid physique, accomplished manners and gentle
bearing, made him Captain of their favorite artillery
company, which he commanded in addition to his
staff duties. The passage of Henry Clay's com-
promise averted the danger, and young Bonham
resumed his practice in Pendleton District ; but in
1834 removed to Montgomery, Alabama, and at
once began a career full of brilliant promise. But
about September, 1835, there was wafted to him
whisperings, and then audible sounds, of the impend-
ing revolution in Texas. While the correspondence
IS lost. It IS certain that earnest and loving letters
passed between him and Travis. Communication
was slow and at distant intervals compared with the
present time; but by November the soul of Bon-
ham was enlisted in the cause of Texas. He
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
131
abandoned everything and came — came with such
indorsements as commanded the confidence of Gov-
ernor Henry Smith, the leader of the party of in-
dependence, Gen. Houston, and all the prominent
men who advocated an absolute separation from
Mexico. At San Felipe he met and embraced his
loved Travis. Bexar had fallen. Wild schemes
not untinged with selfishness, and consequent de-
moralization, were in the air. Govenor Smith sent
Col. Travis to take command at San Antonio, after
Johnson, Grant and their self-organized expedition
to take Matamoros had depleted San Antonio of its
military supplies and left it as a defenseless out-
post. Travis hastened to his post of duty, pre-
ceded a short time by the friend of his youth,
Bonham. Travis, grand in intellect, unselfish in
spirit and noble in heart, organized his force as best
he could, determined to hold the advancing enemy
in check until Gen. Houston could collect and
organize a force sufficient to meet and repel him in
the open field. He trusted that Fannin, with over
four hundred thoroughly (equipped men at Goliad,
would march to his relief. He sent appeals to him
to that effect, and finally, after Santa Anna's co-
horts had encircled his position in the Alamo, he
sent Bonham for a last appeal for aid, with in-
structions also to his lifetime friend to proceed
from Goliad to Gonzales in search of aid. This
missioQ was full of peril from both Mexicans around
San Antonio and Indians on the entire route of his
travel. As things were then, none but a man oblivi-
ous of danger would have undertaken the mission.
James Butler Bonham, then just twenty -nine years
of age, assumed its hazards. He presented the
facts to Fannin, but the latter failed to respond.
Thence Bonham, through the wilderness, without a
human habitation between the points, hastened from
Goliad to Gonzales, just as a few volunteers began
to collect there. In response to the appeals of
Travis thirty-two citizens of that colony had left
a day or two before, under Capt. Albert Martin,
to succor the 160 defenders of the Alamo. The
siege had begun on the 23d of February. These
thirty-two men had fought their way in at daylight
on the 1st of March. Bonham, supplied with all
the information he could gather, and satisfied he
could get no further present recruits, determined
to return to Travis. He was accompanied by John
W. Smith. When they reached the heights over-
looking San Antonio and saw that the doomed
Alamo was encircled by Santa Anna's troops, Smith
deemed it suicidal to seek an entrance. That was
the ninth day of the siege and the doom of the
garrison was inevitable. Smith, by his own hon-
orable statement afterwards, to both Gen. Sam
Houston and ex-Governor Milledge L. Bonham, in
Houston, in 1838, urged Bonham to retire with
him ; but he sternly refused, saying : " I will report
the result of my mission to Travis or die in the
attempt." Mounted on a beautiful cream-colored
horse, with a white handkerchief floating from his
hat (as previously agreed with Travis), he dashed
through the Mexican lines, amid the showers of
bullets hurled at him — the gate of the Alamo flew
open, and as chivalrous a soul as ever fought and
died for liberty entered — entered to leave no more,
except in its upward flight to the throne of God.
The soul communion between those two sons of
Carolina — in that noonday hour may be imagined.
Sixty-six hours later they and their doomed com-
panions, in all 183, slept with their fathers.
Bonham had neither wife nor child. He was but
twenty-nine years and fourteen days old when he
fell. His entrance into the Alamo under a leaden
shower hurled from an implacable enemy was
hailed by the besieged heroes with such shouts as
caused even the enemy to marvel. It was a per-
sonal heroism unsurpassed in the world's history.
In its inspiration and fidelity to a holy trust it was
sublime.
Such was James Butler Bonham. Shall any man,
after the immortal Travis, be more prominently
sculptured on the Alamo monument than he? Let
all who love truth and justice in history answer.
The spirit of truth and justice appeals to those who
would commemorate the deeds of the Alamo, that
the names to be most signalized should be arranged
with that of Travis in the foreground, then Bon-
ham, Bowie, who heroically died sick in bed, Albert
Martin, leader of the thirty-two from Gonzales,
after which should follow those of Crockett, Green
B. Jameson, Dickenson, Geo. W. Cottle, Andrew
Kent, and the others down to the last one of the
one hundred and eighty-three.
South Carolina went into mourning over Travis
and Bonham, sons in whom she felt a sublime
pride. I have before me the proceedings of several
public meetings held in that State when the truth,
in all its chivalrous glory, spread over her borders.
Carolina wept for her sons " because they were
not." She baptized them with tears of sorrow, not
unmingled with the consolatory resignation of a
mother who bewails the loss of her sons but rejoices
that they fell in a cause just and righteous —
gloriously fell that their country might be free.
Among many sentiments uttered at these meetings
in South Carolina, I extract the following: —
1. "The memory of Cols. Travis and Bonham:
There is cause for joy and not of mourning. The
District of Edgefield proudly points to her 'two gal-
132
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fant sons who fell in a struggle against a monster
tyrant, contending for those sacred principles which
are dear to every American bosom."
2. "The memory of Cols. Travis and Bonham :
Martyrs in the cause of Texian liberty. We are
proud to say that this spot of earth gave them
birth ; and that here they imbibed those principles
in the maintenance of which they so gloriously
fell."
3. By James Dorn : "James Butler Bonham,
who perished in the Alamo — a noble son of Caro-
lina. May her sons ever contend for that soil on
which he so nobly fought and died."
Throughout the State similar meetings were held,
and hundreds of Carolina volunteers hastened
to Texas, to save the land for which Travis,
Bonham, Bowie, Martin, Crockett ^nd their com-
rades died. Bowie, by name, shared in the eulogies
pronounced, as did also Crockett. Each name is
dear to Texas; but no name in the splendor of
manhood and chivalrous bearing can ever eclipse
that of James Butler Bonham.
Benjamin R. Milam.
The career of this chivalrous martyr to Texian
liberty possesses romantic interest from its incep-
tion to its close.
Born in Kentucky about 1790, of good stock and
reared in that school of republican simplicity and
unbending integrity so characteristic of a large ele-
ment of the people of that (then) district in old
Virginia, he entered upon man's estate, fortified by
sound principles of right and never departed from
them. He inherited the love of enterprise and
adventure, and among such a people, in passing
from childhood to manhood, this inheritance grew
into a passion.
In early manhood he was a daring soldier in the
" war of 1812," and won both the admiration and
affection of his comrades. In 1815 he and John
Samuel, of Frankfort, Kentucky, took a large ship-
ment of flour to New Orleans, but finding a dull
market, he and two others chartered a schooner and
sailed with the flour for Maricaibo.
On the voyage the yellow fever appeared in its
most malignant form, carrying off the captain and
nearly all the crew. A terrific storm disabled the
vessel. The adventure proved a total loss. The
survivors were finally conveyed to St. Johns, N. B.,
and thence to New York. Milam ultimately reached
his Kentucky home.
We next find him, with a few followers, in 1818,
on the head waters of the Colorado, trading with
the wild Comanches. It was there that he first
met David G. Burnet, afterwards the first Presi-
dent of Texas, then among those wild men of the
plains, as has been elsewhere shown, successfully
striving to overcome the threatened inroads of
pulmonary consumption. They slept on the same
blanket among savages, few of whom had ever seen
an American. The closest ties of friendship speed-
idly united them in the warmest esteem, never
to be severed, except in death. It was a beautiful
affection between two noble men, whose souls,
dedicated to liberty and virtue, were incapable of
treachery or dishonor. They separated to meet
again as citizens of Texas.
Returning to New Orleans in 1819, Milam sailed
for Galveston Island and there joined Long's ex-
pedition for Mexico, in aid of the patriots of that
country. Milam, however, sailed down the Mexi-
can coast with General Felix Trespalacios, and a,
small party, effecting a landing and union with
native patriot forces, while Long marched upon La
Bahia (now Goliad), Texas, and took the place, but
in a few days surrendered himself and fifty-one fol-
lowers to a Spanish royalist force. They were
marched as prisoners to Monterey, whence Long^
was conveyed to the city of Mexico. When he
reached there the revolution, by the apostasy of
Iturbide from the royalist cause, had triumphed
Long was then hailed as a friend. Trespalacios,
Ml am Col. Christy and John Austin (the tw;
latter having sailed with them from Galveston)
arrived in the capital about the same time. Everyl
thing, to them, wore a roseate hue and they were
he recipients of every courtesy. It was soon de-
termined by the new government to send Tre-
palacios as Governor of the distant province Of
iexas. That personage, however, became jealous
o the influence of Long and basely procured his
assassination. This enraged Milam! Christy and
Austin, who had fought for Mexican iberty in sev-
eral battles. They left the capital in advanc of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
133
Trespalacios, rejoined their companions at Mon-
terey, reporting to them the dastardly murder of
Long. It was agreed among them to wreak ven-
geance on the new Governor on his arrival at
Monterey,
Before his arrival, however, two of the party there
revealed the plan. Thereupon they were all seized
and sent to the city of Mexico and there thrown
into prison, with every prospect of being put to
death. At the close of 1822, on the arrival in that
city of Joel R. Poinsett, of South Carolina, as a
•commissioner of observation from the United States,
he secured their liberation and return home.
After the formation of the constitutional govern-
ment in Mexico in 1825, Milam returned to that
country, and was recognized as a valiant soldier.
He was granted in consideration of his services, a
large body of land, which, unfortunately, he located
on that portion of Red river which proved to be in
Arkansas, and hence a total loss to him. Before
that discovery, however, he established a farm and
placed cattle on it. He also purchased a steam-
boat and was the first person to pass such a vessel
through and above the raft on Red river. He be-
came also interested with Gen. Arthur AVavell,
an Englishman, in a proposed colony farther up
that stream ; but from various causes the enter-
prise was not carried forward. Milam was almost
idolized by the few people scattered on both sides of
that stream. Of those most dearly attached to him
were that sturdy old patriot, Collin McKinney, his
wife and children, some of whom were then grown.
About 1826 Milam secured in his own right a
grant to found a colony between the Colorado
and Guadalupe rivers, bounded on the south by
the old San Antonio and Nacogdoches road, and
extending up each river a distance of forty-five
miles. This territory now includes all of Hays
and Blanco counties, the east part of Comal, the
upper part of Caldwell, the northwest quarter of
Bastrop and the west half of Travis. He appointed
Maj. James Kerr, the Surveyor-general of De-
Witt's Colony, as his agent and attorney, in fact to
manage the affairs of his proposed colony. The
original power of attorney, drawn and witnessed
by David G. Burnet, dated in January, 1827, in
old San Felipe, and signed " Ben R. Milam," is a
souvenir now in my possession. But before mat-
ters progressed very far Milam sold his franchise
to Baring Brothers, London. They totally failed
to carry out the enterprise.
For three or four years prior to the opening
of 1835, Milam remained on Red river. In that
time the people became greatly alarmed in that
section in regard to their land matters and the
true boundary line between Texas (or Mexico)
and the United States. They appealed to Col.
Milam to intercede for them with the State govern-
ment of Coahuila and Texas at Monclova. He
could not resist. Early in 1835, alone on horse-
back, he started through the wilderness with a
little dried beef and parched meal, to travel about
seven hundred miles, trusting to his rifle for further
supplies of food. He made the trip, passing only
through San Antonio from Red River to the Rio
Grande. He found Governor Augustine Viesca
anxious to do all in his power in behalf of Milam
and his constituents ; but revolution was in the
air. Santa Anna had just given a death blow to
the constitutional government on the plain of
Zacatecas, and the flat had gone forth for the
overthrow of the State government at Monclova.
Time rapidly passed. Governor Viesca, with
Milam and Dr. John Cameron, undertook to
escape into Texas. They were seized and impris-
oned. One by one they escaped and reached
Texas, Milam being the flrst to do so. On the
night of October 9th, 1835, he passed round
Goliad and fell into the road east of the town.
Hearing the approach of men on horseback, he
secreted himself in brush by the road side. As
the party came opposite him he heard American
voices and called: —
"Men! who are you .? "
" We are volunteers, marching upon Goliad ; who
are you? "
"I am Ben Milam, escaping from prison in
Mexico! "
"God bless you. Col. Milam! we thought they
had killed you. All Texas will shout in joy at
your escape! Mount one of our horses and help
us take Goliad! "
"Indeed I will, boys, and already feel repaid for
all my sufferings ! "
He soon realized that he was in the presence of
Capt. George M. Collinsworth and fifty-two volun-
teers from the lower Colorado, Lavaca and Navidad.
Noiselessly they approached the unsuspecting
fortress, a barricaded stone church, and, at the
pre-arranged signal, burst in. In five minutes they
were in full possession, with three Mexicans dead
and all the others prisoners, while Samuel McCul-
loch, fearfully shot in the shoulder, was the only
casualty among the assailants ; and on the 21st of
April, 1886, fifty-one and a half years later, he
was a guest of Col. W. W. Leake, at the serai-
centennial reunion of the Texas veterans in Dallas.
A few days later Col. Milam, as a private, joined
the volunteers in their march upon San Antonio,
then occupied by the Mexican General, Cos, with
134
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
about eleven hundred men, afterwards increased to
fifteen hundred. From the 27th of October, to the
4th of December, varying in number from six hun-
dred to eleven hundred men, first under Austin and
then under Burleson, the volunteers had laid in a
mile or so of San Antonio, without any attack upon
the town. A brilliant victory was won by Bowie
and Fannin, at the Mission of Concepcion at day-
light on the 28th of October, before Austin's
arrival with the main body ; and on the 26 th of
November, the day after Austin left, the Grass fight
occurred, in which a detachment of the enemy
were driven into the town with some loss ; but noth-
ing decisive had occurred. First under Austin and
next under Burleson propositions for storming the
place had failed. Dissatisfaction arose and men
came and went as they pleased. On the 4th of
December, the force had fallen from eleven hun-
dred to five or six hundred. On that day the last
proposition had failed and great discontent pre-
vailed. Milam became aroused and alarmed lest
the entire encampment should disband and go
home. He moved to and fro as a caged lion, till
late in the day he stepped out in plain view of all
and in a stentorian voice called out: —
" Who will follow Ben Milam into San Antonio?
Let all who will, form a line right here."
In the twinkling of an eye three hundred men
were in line. The plan was soon formed. During
the night the entrance was made in two divisions,
one led by Milam, the other by Francis W. John-
son. Under a heavy fire they effected lodgments
in rows of stone houses and then for five days tun-
nelled from room to room. On the 8th, while
crossing a back yard from one house to another, a
ball pierced Milam's head and he fell dead. But
his spirit survived. He had imparted it to his fol-
lowers, who continued to press forward his plans,
till on the 9th, after having been driven from the
town into the Alamo, Cos raised a white flag. On
the 10th he capitulated, verifying the genius, the
courage and ability to command of the grand and
glorious Milam, whose death was bewailed as a
personal loss in every hamlet and cabin in Texas.
In person Col. Milam was of commanding form —
tall, muscular and well-proportioned, with a face,
a countenance and manner that instantly won re-
gard and confidence. None of the heroes of Texas
was so universally loved. His intelligence in prac-
tical affairs was of the highest order. Unambitious
of official place, he was always and everywhere a
leader, because of the unbounded confidence men,
and women as well, had in his wisdom, his infiexi-
ble honesty, his kindness and his courage. I never
dwell on his character without emotions of grati-
tude to God for giving Texas in her infancy and
travail such an example of the highest and noblest
illustration of American manhood.
A DEPEURED MEMORIAL.
In the General Council of the Provisional Gov-
ernment, December 27th, 1835 (nineteen days
after Milam's death), the honorable John J. Linn,
member from Victoria, the official journal says:
" Presented a resolution providing for the erection
of a monument to the memory of Benjamin R,
Milam, at San Antonio de Bexar, which was
adopted ; and his excellency Governor Henry Smith,
James Cockran, John Rice Jones, Gail Borden and
John H. Money were appointed a central committee
to carry into effect the objects of the resolution."
(Journals of the Council, page 215, December 27,
1835.)
Mr. Linn died in Victoria on the 25th of Octo-
ber, 1885, in his 88th year. Fifty-six years, less
two months and two days, had passed since the
adoption of his resolution and other years have
been added to the past, and still there is no mon-
ument to Milam. Some men have become million-
aires in the town he won to liberty and a large
number have become wealthy. Every man on that
committee and every member of that council is
dead, and still there is no monument to Milam!
Will it for ever be thus ? God forbid !
Rezin P. and James Bowie — The Bowie Family.
An erroneous impression has ever prevailed in
regard to the Bowie family, in the belief that they
sprang from Maryland. Such, until now, was my
own impression ; but I am now in possession of per-
fectly authentic facts to the contrary. Two of
three Scotch brothers of the name did settle in
Maryland and have a numerous posterity. But a
third brother, at the same time, settled in South
Oaro ma. His son, Rezin Bowie, born in South
Carolina, was wounded and taken prisoner by the
REZIN P. BOWIE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
135
British. While so held in Savannah, among other
American ladies who bestowed kindness upon him,
was a lovely and pious young lady named Elve
(sometimes written Elvy) Jones, of a large and
educated family. In 1782 Eezin Bowie and this
girl were married in Georgia and settled there.
They became the parents of the Texas Bowies.
Their first children, dying in infancy, were twin
girls, Lavinia and Lavisia. David, a remarkably
pious youth, died at the age of nineteen ; Sarah,
who married Mr. Davis and died in Opelousas, La.,
in her first childbirth ; Mary, afterwards Mrs.
Abram Bird, and John J., who died a few years ago
in Issequana County, Miss. These six were born
in Georgia. The parents then removed to Elliott's
Springs, Tennessee, where, on the 8th of September,
1793, the distinguished Rezin Pleasants Bowie was
born. Two years later, in 1795, James Bowie,
martyr of the Alamo, was born at the same place,
followed by Stephen, who became a planter on
Bayou Bceuf, La., and Martha, who first married
James Nugent, who was accidentally killed, and
then Alexander B. Sterrett, who, it is claimed, was
the first settler at Sbreveport, La., where he was
sheriff and was killed. He has grandchildren in
Shreveport, named Gooch, and a widowed daughter,
Mrs. Bettie Hull, whose only surviving child is her
widowed daughter, Mrs. Reizette Bowie Donley.
Presumably about 1802, Eezin Bowie, Sr., removed
from Elliott's Springs, Tenn., to Catahoula parish,
Louisiana, thence to Bayou Teche, and finally to
the district of Opelousas, where he died in 1819.
His widow, nee Elve Jones, of Georgia, a woman
noted for charity and deeply religious principles,
died at the house of her son-in-law, Alex. P. Ster-
rett, in 1837 or 1838, in Shreveport. Having thus
sketched the family, we return to the two brothers,
whose names are linked with that of Texas.
Rezin P. Bowie, the elder of the two, at the
Catholic Church in Natchitoches, La., in 1812,
married Frances, daughter of Daniel Neville.
They had five children, two of whom died in child-
hood; Martha A., died, aged twenty-one years, in
New Orleans, in 1853; Matilda E., married Joseph
H. Moore, and is a widow in New Orleans, residing
with my friend, her estimable son, Mr. John S.
Moore. Elve A., married Taylor Moore, and died
in Claiborne County, Miss., in 1872. Rezin P.
Bowie was three times a member of the legislature
of Louisiana, and filled other positions besides his
connection with Texas. He was an educated and
accomplished gentleman and a fine orator. He,
too, and not his brother James, was the designer of
the famous hunting instrument known as the Bowie
knife. He died in New Orleans, January 17, 1841.
Col. James Bowie, on the 22d of April, 1831, in
San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, married Maria
Ursula, daughter of Don Juan Martin de Vere-
mendi, Lieutenant-Governor of Coahuila and
Texas. I have before me the " propter nuptias,"
authenticated by Jose Maria Salinas, the constitu-
tional Alcalde, in which he settled upon his beauti-
ful and lovely spouse the sum of fifteen thousand
dollars, and in which his estate, in Texas and the
United States, was shown to be worth $222,800.
The instrument is witnessed by Jose Francisco
Flores and Ygnacio Arocha. Two children blessed
this union, but on a visit to Monclova, in Coahuila,
in 1833, they and their young mother, as well as
Governor Veremendi, died of cholera. It was to
this quadruplicated affliction that Bowie so patheti-
cally referred in his wonderful outburst of eloquence
before the Council of Texas, at San Felipe, in De-
cember, 1832.
These facts are authentic and meet the desires of
many to know the true genealogy of the Bowie
family.
The character of Col. Bowie has been grossly
misunderstood by the great mass of the American
people — a misunderstanding as great as that be-
tween a ruffian on the one hand and a high-toned,
chivalrous gentleman on the other. In no conceiv-
able sense was James Bowie a ruffian ; but, by
titles as indisputable as those under which the
people of Texas hold their homesteads, he was a
high-toned, chivalrous and great-hearted gentle-
man. He was one of several sons of moral, upright
parents, his mother especially being an exemplar of
Christian womanhood in her every-day' life, and
never, in all the vicissitudes of life, did the heart
of son more tenderly revere mother than did that
of James Bowie, who died in the Alamo, as he had
ever lived, a champion of liberty and free govern-
ment.
The Bowie family has long been conspicuous in
Maryland, in politics and jurisprudence, occupying
the highest social status.
Many statements in regard to James Bowie
which gained more or less currency through the
press were purely imaginary. He was not, as so
persistently repeated, the fabricator of the famed
Bowie knife. Rezin P. Bowie, in a written state-
ment after his brother's death, asserted positively
that he, and not James, whittled the model of that
knife, from which pattern a blacksmith made the
knives for hunting purpose. In common with the
general public I had entertained the contrary
opinion and had so written of the matter until a
few years since, when I met this statement.
Prior to locating in Texas, the two brothers wnic
136
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
planters and traders. James first entered Texas
with the view of locating, in 1824 —became a citizen
in 1826 — but did not wholly give up his- home in
Louisiana till 1828. He was fond of hunting and
camp life, and became deeply interested in explora-
tions for the discovery of gold and silver mines,
devoting much time at intervals for several years to
that search.
The celebrated fight on a sand bar near Natchez,
in 1828, was the product of a feud in which oppos-
ing factions agreed upon that mode of adjusting
their difficulties. To that extent it was a duel in
which a number were engaged on either side.
Bowie fell from a wound and was unable to rise.
His antagonist closed upon him, and, though pros-
trate, Bowie, by the use of his knife, killed him.
After a time he recovered and suffered no perma-
nent disability. In the article before referred to
Eezin P. Bowie asserts that this was the only duel
in which he or his brother were ever engaged. On
the contrary, on many occasions, Bowie interposed
to prevent difficulties and to reconcile excited men
for whom he entertained kindly regard. He was,
to this extent, a peace-maker.
Bowie's noted fight with the Indians, on the 2d of
November, 1831, from an account furnished by
Rezin P. Bowie, to a Philadelphia paper in 1832, has
been described in almost every book on Texas.
The account appears in this volume.
Bowie arrived in Nacogdoches after the battle of
August 2d, 1832, between the Americans and the
Mexican garrison under Col. Jose de la Piedras.
The latter retreated during the night on the road
to the west. He was pursued and surrendered at
the Angelina on the 4th. Bowie escorted the
prisoners to San Antonio.
Bowie, in 1832, commanded a small company
into the Indian country to retaliate for their attack
upon him. But the red men received information
of his movement and fled as from a pestilence,
declaring him to be a "fighting devil." In a tour
of several hundred miles he never saw an Indian.
Bowie joined the volunteer citizen soldiery at
Gonzales in October, 1835, and with Fannin com-
manded an advance of ninety-two men, who, at the
Mission of Concepcion, two miles below San
Antonio, at daylight, on the 28th of October, were
attacked by four hundred Mexicans, with two
cannon. They occupied a fine position on the bank
of the river, and after a short contest repulsed the
enemy with heavy loss, on their part losing but one
man, Richard Andrews.
On the 26th of November Bowie commanded in
the Grass Fight, on the west side of San Antonio
and drove the enemy into the town.
During the winter, pending the provisional gov-
ernment, he desired a commission under which he
could raise and command a regiment. Gen. Hous-
ton estimated him as an able and safe commander
and desired him in the field — indeed, assigned
him, for the moment, to an important position.
Bowie repaired to the seat of government and
applied to the legislative council for the authority
desired. That body was torn by faction and
delayed action. Bowie became impatient. Tired
of waiting, he suddenly appeared at the bar of the
council and essayed to speak. "Order! Order!"
rang through the hall, while Bowie stood erect, hat
in hand, the personification of splendid manhood
and fierce determination. The air was full of
revolution — Bowie the idol of a majority of the
people. A crisis was at hand. The presiding
officer quickly spoke, suggesting that Col. Bowie —
so long tried, distinguished and courageous — be
heard. The council, grasping the situation, invited
him to speak.
He was a splendid specimen of manhood — six
feet and one inch high, straight as an arrow, of
full but not surplus fiesh, fair complexion, fine
mouth, well-chiseled features and keen blue eyes —
with grace and dignity in every movement. So
far as known this was his first and last public
speech.
Stepping inside the railing, still hat in hand,
with a graceful and dignified bow, he addressed
himself to the president and council, for nearly an
hour, in a vein of pathos, irony. Invective and
fiery eloquence, that astonished and enraptured
his oldest and most intimate friends. He reviewed
the salient points of his life, hurled from him with
indignation every floating allegation affecting his
character as a man of peace and honor — admitted
that he was an unlettered man of the Southwest,
and his lot had been cast in a day and among a
people rendered necessarily, from political and
material causes, more or less independent of law;
but brave, generous and infinitely scorning every
species of meanness and duplicity ; that he had
honorably cast his lot with Texas for honorable
and patriotic purposes ; that he had ever neglected
his own affairs to serve the country in the hour of
danger; had betrayed no man, deceived no man
wronged no man, and had never had a difficulty in
the country, unless to protect the weak from the
strong and evil-intentioned. That, yielding to the
dictates of his own heart, he had taken to his
bosom as a wife a true and lovely woman of a
different race, the daughter of a distinguished
Loahuil-Texano; " yet, as a thief in the night,
death had invaded his little paradise and taken his
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
137
father-in-law, his wife and his little jewels, given
to him by the God his pious mother had taught
him to reverence and to love as " Him who doeth
all things well," and chasteneth those he loveth ;
and now, standing as a monument of Omnipotent
mercy, alone of all his blood in Texas, all he asked
of his country was the privilege, under its iBgis, of
serving it in the field, where his name might be
honorably associated with the brave and the true
in rescuing this fair and lovely land from the grasp
of a remorseless military despotism.
The effect was magical. Not an indecorous or
undignified word fell from his lips — not an un-
graceful movement or gesture — but there he
stood, before the astonished council and specta-
tors, the living exemplification of a natural orator.
He tarried not, but left, satisfied that in the more
perfect organization of the government he would
receive generous consideration, and returned to
San Antonio, soon to be immured in a sick room —
a daik, little, cell-shaped room in the Alamo — and
there, after a siege of thirteen days, to be perhaps
the last of the hundred and eighty-three martyrs to
yield up his life for his country.
It was never my fortune to meet Col. Bowie, but
I enjoyed close associations, in youth and early
manhood, with many good men, who knew him
long and well. Their universal testimony was that
he was one of nature's noblemen, infiexible in
honor, scorning double-dealing and trickery — a
sincere and frank friend, kind and gentle in in-
tercourse, liberal and generous, loving peace and
holding in almost idolatry woman in her purity.
He tolerated nowhere, even among the rudest men,
anything derogatory to the female sex, holding
them as "but a little lower than the angels." In
the presence of woman he was a model of dignity,
deference and kindness, as if the better elements
of his nature were led captive at the shrine of true
womanhood. But, when aroused under a sense of
wrong, and far more so for a friend than for him-
self, "he was fearful to look upon," and a dan-
gerous man to the wrong-doer. In 1834 Capt.Wm.
Y. Lacey spent eight months in the wilderness with
him, and in after years wrote me saying; "He
was not in the habit of using profane language and
never used an indecent or vulgar word during the
eight months I passed with him in the wilder-
ness."
I could multiply testimonials to his great worth,
including the exalted opinion of Henry Clay, but
space forbids. Many interesting incidents are
omitted.
One estimate, however, is added. Capt. Wm.
G. Hunt wrote some years ago that he first met
Col. Bowie and his wife (then en route to Louis-,
iana) at a party given them on the Colorado, on
Christmas day, 1831; that "Mrs. Bowie was a
beautiful Castilian lady, and won all hearts by
her sweet manners. Bowie seemed supremely
happy with and devoted to her, more like a kind
and tender lover than the rough backwoodsman
he has since been represented to be."
Is it not a shame that such a man, by the merest
fiction and love of the marvelous, should, for half
a century after his glorious death, be held in the
popular mind of his country as at least a quasi-
desperado — brave, truly, but a rough, coarse man,
given to broils and affrays.? The children of
Texas, at least, should know his true character,
and, in some important aspects, emulate it. By
doing so they will make better men than by swal-
lowing much of the sensational literature now cor-
rupting the youth cf the land. No boy taking
Bowie as a model will ever become an undutiful
son, a faithless husband, a brutal father, a treach-
erous friend or an unpatriotic citizen.
P. S. After the foregoing had been widely
published. North and South, an attache of the
Philadelphia Press sought to revive and wonder-
fully add to the old slanders of desperadoism, by
publishing a real or pretended interview with as
vile an impostor as ever appeared in historic
matters, attaching to the name of Bowie crimes and
acts never before heard of.
Some years ago the Philadelphia Times pub-
lished a tissue of falsehoods about the campaign
and battle of San Jacinto by a pretended partici-
pant, who had never been in that section, but was
really a reformed gambler. I exposed the fraud in
a courteous letter to the Times, which it refused
to publish.
When the interview hereafter referred to appeared
in the Philadelphia Press, on the 3d of October, a
venerable and noble citizen of that city sent me a
copy and urged that I should send him an exposure
of its falsehoods, saying he would have it published
in the Times.
I did so promptly, but it was not published.
Under conspicuous head lines appeared the inter-
view in question in regard to the Alamo, Bowie,
etc. Of the impostor the interviewer says: —
"In 1814 Samuel G. Bastian was born in this
city, at the southwest corner of Front and Spruce
streets. When he was ten years of age his father,
who was a gunsmith, removed to Alexandria, in
Louisiana, and to-day, after an absence of sixty-
three years, the son revisits his birthplace, a stal-
wart man despite his seventy-seven years. His
career has been a most eventful one. He is with-
138
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
out doubt the only surviving American who wit-
nessed the fall of the Alamo in the Texian revolu-
tion of 1836, and his account of it will show of how
little worth is popular opinion as material for
history."
" 'When I lived at Alexandria,' says Bastian,
' it was a frontier town and the abiding-place of
many of the worst ruffians in the Southwest.
Prominent among these was Bowie. He devoted
himself to forging land titles, and it is amusing to
me to read accounts of his life, in which he is
spoken of as a high-toned Southern gentleman and
a patriot who died for the cause of Texian inde-
pendence. He has come down to these times as the
inventor of the Bowie knife, but my recollection is
this: Bowie had sold a German, named Kaufman,
a forged land title. Mr. Dalton, the United States
land registrar, refused to record it, Kaufman
threatened to prosecute Bowie and was promptly
stabbed to death for his presumption. In a suit at
law shortly after, the United States district judge
complained of the endless litigation over land
claims, and one of the attorneys answered sarcasti-
cally, ' that Bowie's knife was the speediest and
surest way of settling trouble about such disputes,'
and this, I believe, is the story of Bowie's connec-
tion with the historic knife.' "
In the days referred to the brothers Rezin P.
and James Bowie were quiet planters on Bayou
Lafourche, 124 miles from Alexandria, and rarely
in that place. This man's age was, according to
his own statement, then ranging from ten to sixteen
years. His statements about land titles, murders
and the Bowie knife, are notoriously false. At the
time he became sixteen. Col. James Bowie, from
being a casual, became a permanent citizen of
Texas, married the lovely and accomplished daugh-
ter of Governor Veramendi, of San Antonio, and
until the death of herself and two children was a
model and devoted husband and father. A happier
couple, by the testimony of all who knew them,
never lived.
Of the Alamo in 1836 the impostor says: " I
was in the Alamo in February. There was a bitter
feeling between the partisans of Travis and Bowie,
the latter being the choice of the rougher party in
the garrison. Fortunately Bowie was prostrated
by pneumonia and could not act. When Santa
Anna appeared before the place most of the garrison
were drunk, and had the Mexicans made a rush the
contest would have been short. Travis did his
best and at once sent off couriers to Colonel Fan-
nin, at Gonzales, to hurry up reinforcements. I
was one of these couriers, and fortunately' I knew
the country well and spoke Spanish like a native,
so I had no trouble. On the 1st of March I
met a party of thirty volunteers from Gonzales
on the way to the Alamo and concluded to
return with them. When near the fort we were
discovered and fired on by the Mexican troops.
Most of the party got through ; but I and three
others had to take to the chaparral to save our
lives. One of the party was a Spanish Creole from
New Orleans. He went into the town and brought
us intelligence. We were about three hundred
yards from the fort concealed by brush, which
extended north for twenty miles. I could see the
enemy's operations perfectly."
After the fall, March 6th, he says: " Disguising
myself, and in company with Rigault, the Creole, we
stole into the town. Everything was in confusion.
In front of the fort the Mexican dead covered the ,
ground, but the scene inside the fort was awful."
The idea of the fellow being concealed as stated,
with thousands of Mexican troops camping on the
ground, is in any and every sense preposterous;
but when we consider that at that time there was
no chaparral or thicket as stated by him, nor for
miles in that direction, it was absolutely impossi-
ble. Moreover, neither he nor any one else was
cut off from the Gonzales band. There were
thirty-two of them, and every one of them died in
the Alamo. He falsifies about bearing an express
to Fannin at Gonzales. Fannin was at Goliad, a
hundred miles nearer the coast, with a wilderness
and no road between them.
Here is another sample of his gifts. After
claiming to have spent some time in the Alamo —
long enough to see the dead — he says : —
"We now thought it time to look after ourselves,
and made for the chaparral, where our companions
were. We had nearly reached the wood when a
mounted lancer overtook us. Rigault awaited and
shot him dead, and so we made our escape. Our
good fortune did not end here, for we had to make
a detour to reach Gonzales and learned in time that
the place was invested, and so were spared the fate
of the garrison, for they and their commander,
Colonel Fannin, were massacred by the Mexicans."
Gen. Houston did not leave Gonzales till seven
and a half days after this man claims to have
started for that place. Fannin had not been there.
The place was never invested. The Mexicans did
not arrive till seven days after Houston left.
The fame of Bowie as a soldier, a patriot, a gen-
tleman, and as a husband and father, will pass
from father to son and mother to daughter, so long
as honor, justice and truth abide in Texas.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
139
Maj. James Kerr, the First Pioneer in Southwestern Texas.
Many noble pioneers who have wrought for the
settlement and civilization of Texas sleep in their
graves never to be resurrected in memory except
at the bar of God, with the welcome, " Well done,
thou good and faithful servant." Some left
kindred or friends to assert their merits and shield
their reputations in the record of the history of
their times. Many did not. There has been a
tendency to concentrate the entire honor and the
glory of settling Texas — with some, on one man —
with others on a handful of men. The truth is,
that near the same time half a dozen Americans
conceived substantially the same idea, among
whom stand the names of Moses Austin and Green
DeWitt of Missouri, Robert Leftwich of Tennessee
and several others. To the Americans of the first
quarter of this century, while Texas was a terra
incognita in fact, it was a paradise in the imagina-
tion of many. Its beauties and fertility had been
portrayed by traders and trappers and the adven-
turers under Toledo, in 1812-13. Moses Austin
received his right to introduce American immi-
grants just before the final fall of Spanish power in
1821. He returned home, sickened and died.
His son assumed his responsibilities and was ac-
corded his privileges, the whole being finally
perfected on the 14th April, 1823. From this
(begun in 1821) sprang the first American colony
of Texas. The applications of DeWitt and others,
almost simultaneously made, were delayed on
account of the rapidly changing phases of political
events in Mexico, till the spring of 1825, although
DeWitt's grant was promised contemporaneously
with that of Austin. DeWitt, assured of success,
did not await the final consummation by the newly
organized government of Coahuila and Texas, but
proceeded to his home in Missouri to perfect ar-
rangements for the settlement of his colony, through
which ran the beautiful mountain rivers, Guadalupe
and San Marcos, while the limpid Lavaca formed
its eastern boundary. Yet he was again present
at the final consummation of his plan in April, 1825.
De Witt, in Missouri, secured the co-operation
of James Kerr, then a member of the senate of
that State, who became the suveyor-general of the
colony, its first settler, and fop a time its chief
manager. Mr. Kerr was born near Danville, Ky.,
September 24, 1790, removed with his father to
St. Charles County, Missouri, in 1808, was a
gallant soldier in the war of 1812-15 — a lieuten-
ant under Capt. Nathan Boone — had been sheriff
of St. Charles County, a representative in the
legislature and then a senator. He had a wife,
three little children and eight or ten favorite negro
servants. With these he arrived at the mouth of
the Brazos in February, 1825. Before the first of
July his wife and two of his little children had
died — the first in a camp, the others on the road-
side. During July he reached the present site of
Gonzales, accompanied by five or six single men
and his servants. He erected cabins, laid out the
townsite as the capital of the future colony and
began the survey of its lands. On the 1st or 2d
day of July, 1826, in his absence, Indians attacked
his houses in the temporary absence of most of
the inmates, killed one man and severely wounded
another, robbed the establishment and then retired.
Thereupon Maj. Kerr removed nearer the coast,
to the Lavaca river, in what is now Jackson County,
but continued his labors as surveyor of De Witt's
colony, and subsequently, also, as surveyor of the
Mexican colony of De Leon, next below on the
Guadalupe. To his laborious duties, in January,
1827, were added the entire superintendence of the
affairs of Col. Ben. R. Milam, in his proposed
Southwestern colony.
From 1825 till 1832, Maj. Kerr's house was
the headquarters of Americanism in Southwest
Texas. Austin's colony on the one side, and De
Witt's and De Leon's on the other, slowly grew,
and he stood in all that time, and for several years
later, as a wise counsellor to the people. When
the quasi-revolution of 1832 occurred, he was
elected a delegate to that first deliberative body
that ever assembled in Texas, at San Felipe,
October 1, 1832, and was on several of its com-
mittees. That body of about fifty-eight repre-
sentative men, so strangely overlooked by the
historians of Texas, laid the predicate for all that
followed in 1833-35-36, and caused more sensa-
tion in Mexico than did the better known conven-
tion of 1833, which did little more than amplify the
labors of the first assembly.
Maj. Kerr, however, was a member of the
second convention which met at San Felipe on the
first of March, 1833, and was an infiuential mem-
ber in full accord with its general scope and
design. He presided, in July, 1835, at the first
primary meeting in Texas, on the Navidad river,
which declared in favor of independence.
140
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
He was elected to the third convention, or gen-
eral consultation, which met at San Felipe, Novem-
ber 3d, 1835, and formed a provisional government,
with Henry Smith as Governor, and a legislative
council. Being then on the campaign in which the
battle of Lipantitlan was fought, on the Nueces, he
failed to reach the first assembly, but served about
two months in the council, rendering valuable ser-
vice to the country.
On the first of February, 1836, he was elected to
the convention which declared the independence of
Texas, but his name is not appended to that docu-
ment for the reason that the approach of the
Mexican army compelled him to flee east with his
family and neighbors, and rendered it impossible
for him to reach Washington in time to participate
in that grave and solemn act. But riglitfuUy his
name belongs there.
Returning to his desolated home after the battle
of San Jacinto, he stood as a pillar of strength in
the organization of the country under the Republic.
It may be truly said that no man in the western
half of Texas, from 1825 to 1840, and especially
during the stormy period of the revolution, exerted
a greater influence for good as a wise, conservative
counsellor. His sound judgment, tried experience.
fine intelligence and candor, fitted him in a rare
degree for such a field of usefulness.
In 1838 he was elected to the last Congress that
assembled at Houston and was the author, in whole
or in part, of several of the wisest laws Texas ever
enacted. From that time till his death, on the 23d of
December, 1850, he held no oflScial position but con-
tinued to exert a healthy influence on public affairs.
Nothing has been said of his perils and narrow
escapes from hostile savages during the twelve years
he was almost constantly exposed to their attacks.
Many of them possess romantic interest and evince
his courage and sagacity in a remarJjable degree.
While no dazzling splendor adorns his career, it
is clothed from beginning to end with evidences of
usefulness and unselfish patriotism, presenting those
attributes without which in its chief actors Texas
could not have been populated and reclaimed with
the feeble means used in the achievement of that
great work. His name is perpetuated in that of
the beautiful county of Kerr, named, as the crea-
tive act says, " in honor of James Kerr, the first
American settler on the Guadalupe river." His
only surviving son, Thomas R. Kerr, resides in
Southwest Texas, and a number of his grand-
children live in South Texas.
Col. William S. Fisher, the Hero of Mier.
In the revolutionary days of Texas there were
three men of prominence bearing the name of
Fisher. The first and the earliest immigrant to the
country was Samuel Rhoads Fisher, of Matagorda.
He was a native of Philadelphia, and a man of edu-
cation, who came about 1830. He was a leader in
local affairs, holding municipal position, and the
husband and father of one of the most intelligent
and refined families in a community distinguished
for refinement and intelligence. Capt. Rhoads
Fisher of Austin is the junior of his two sons. He
represented Matagorda in the convention of 1836,
and signed the Declaration of Independence ; and
on the installation of Gen. Houston as President of
the Republic in October, 1886, he appointed Mr.
Fisher Secretary of the Navy. In 1838 he lost his
life in an unfortunate personal difflculty, greatly
lamented by the country. His memory was
honored by the high character of his family.
John Fisher was a native of Richmond, Virginia,
and came to Gonzales, Texas, in 1833 or 1834. He
was a man of education, ability and sterling char-
acter, and was also a signer of the Declaration of
Independence, but died soon afterwards.
William S. Fisher, the subject of this chapter,
was a brother of John and, like himself, a native of
Virginia. He was also a man of finished education
and remarkable intelligence and one of the tallest
men in the country. As a conversationalist he was
captivating, ever governed by a keen sense of pro-
priety and respect for others — hence a man com-
manding esteem wherever he appeared. His first
experience as a soldier was in the fight with the
Indians on the San Marcos, in the spring of 1835 —
sixteen men against the seventy Indians who had
murdered and robbed the French traders west of
Gonzales, in which the Indians were repulsed, with
a loss of nine warriors.
His first appearance in public life was as a mem-
ber of the first revoluntionary convention (com-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
141
monly called the Consultation) iu November, 1835.
He was also a volunteer in the first resistance to
the Mexicana at Gonzales and in the march upon
San Antonio in October.
In the campaign of 1836, he was early in the
field, and commanded one of the most gallant com-
panies on the field of San Jacinto, in which he won
the admiration of his comrades. He remained in
the army till late in the year, when he was called
into the Cabinet of President Houston to succeed
(■iren. Busk as Secretary of War, thereby becoming
a colleague of Governor Henry Smith, Stephen F.
Austin and S. Rhoads Fisher in the same Cabinet,
soon to announce the death of Austin in the follow-
ing order: —
" War Department, Columbia, Tex.
"December 27, 1836.
"The father of Texas is no more. The first
pioneer of the wilderness has departed. Gen.
Stephen F. Austin, Secretary of State, expired this
day at half-past 12 o'clock, at Columbia.
" As a testimony of respect to his high standing,
undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the
nation's gratitude for his untiring zeal and invalu-
able services, all officers, civil and military, are
requested to wear crape on the right arm for the
space of thirty days. All officers commanding
posts, garrisons or detachments will, so soon as
information is received of the melancholy event,
cause twenty-three guns to be fired, with an inter-
val of five minutes between each, and also have the
garrison and regimental colors hung with black
during the space of mourning for the illustrious
dead.
" By order of the President.
" Wm. S. Fisher,
Secretary of War."
The. services of Col. Fisher were such that when
provision was made for a regular army by the Con-
gress of 1838-9, he was made Lieutenant- Colonel
of the only permanent regiment, of which the vet-
eran Burleson was made Colonel. In this capacity
he commanded the troops engaged in the Council
House fight with the Comanches, on the 19th of
March, 1840, and rendered other important ser-
vices to the frontier ; but in the summer of 1840
he resigned to become a Colonel in the Mexican
Revolutionary or Federalist army in the short-lived
Republic of the Rio Grande. But the betrayal of
Jordan and his command at Saltillo, in October of
the same year, followed by the latter's successful
retreat to the Rio Grande — an achievement which
has been likened to that of Xenophon — was fol-
lowed by the disbandment of the Federal forces and
the triumph of centralism, upon which Col. Fisher
and his three hundred Amercian followers returned
to Texas.
His next appearance was as a Captain in the
Somervell expedition to the Rio Grande in the
autumn of 1842. The history of that campaign is
more or less familiar to the public. There were
seven hundred men. From Laredo two hundred
of them, under Capts. Jerome B. and E. S. C.
Robertson, returned home. At the mouth of the
Salado river, opposite Guerrero, another division
occurred. Two hundred of the men (of whom I
was one) returned home with and under the orders
of Gen. Somervell. The remaining three hundred
reorganized into a regiment and elected Col.
Fisher as their commander. They moved down
the river, crossed over and entered Mier, three
miles west of it, on the Arroyo Alcantra, leaving
forty of their number as a guard on the east bank
of the river. They entered the town at twilight on
the 25th of December, amid a blaze of cannon and
small arms, in the hands of twenty-seven hundred
Mexicans, commanded by Gen. Pedro de Ampudia,
and for nineteen hours fought one of the most
desperate battles in American annals — fought till
they had killed and wounded more than double
their own number, and till their ammunition was so
far exhausted as to render further resistance hope-
less. Then they capitulated, to become the famed
Mier prisoners, or " the Prisoners of Perote ; "
to rise upon their guard in the interior of Mexico
and escape to the mountains — there to wander
without food or water till their tongues were
swollen and their strength exhausted, to become an
easy prey to their pursuers — then to be marched
back to the scene of their rescue, at the hacienda
of Salado, and there, under the order of Santa
Anna, each one blind folded, to draw in the lottery
of Life or Death, from a covered jar in which
were seventeen black and a hundred and fifty-three
white beans. Every black bean drawn consigned
the drawer to death — one-tenth of the whole to
be shot for an act which commanded the admira-
tion of every true soldier in Europe and America,
not omitting those in Mexico, for Gen. Mexia
refused to execute the inhuman edict and resigned
his commission. But another took his place and
those seventeen men were murdered.
The entire imprisonment of the survivors (some
of whom being in advance, were not in the rescue
and therefore not in the drawing) covered a
period of twenty-two months. They were then re-
leased and reached home about the close of 1844.
In 1845 Col. Fisher married a lady of great
142
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
worth, but soon afterwards died in Galveston.
Neither he nor his brother John left a child to bear
his name, but the county of Fisher is understood
to be a common memorial to them and S. Ehoads
Fisher.
There was a fourth man of the name — George
Fisher — who figured in Texas before, during and
after the revolution, chiefly in the capacity of clerk
and translator, but he was a Greek and died in
California.
Maj. Richard Roman.
Was born in Fayette County, Ky., in 1810,
migrated to Illinois in 1831, and was an officer in
the Black Hawk war of 1832. In December, 1835,
he landed at Velasco, Texas, and joined Gen.
Houston, as Captain of a company, on the Col-
orado, during the retreat from Gonzales to San
Jacinto, and performed gallant service in that
battle. He was next aide-de-camp to Gen. Rusk,
while he was in command of the army on the San
Antonio and Guadulupe. He settled in Victoria
and several times represented that county in the
Texian Congress ; also frequently serving in expe-
ditions against the Indians.
By the Congress of 1839-40 he was elected one
of the three members composing the traveling
board of commissioners for all the country west of
the Brazos river, for the detection of fraudulent
land certificates by a personal examination of the
records of each County Court and hearing proof,
a high compliment to both his capacity and integ-
rity. He was a senator in the last years of the
Republic and participated in all the legislation con-
nected with annexation to the United States.
In 1846 he entered the Mexican war as a private
soldier in the celebrated scouting companv of
Capt. Ben McCulloch, in which were a number of
men of high character at that time and numerous
others who subsequently won more or less distinc-
tion. In this respect it is doubtful if a more
remarkable company for talent ever served under
the Stars and Stripes. But Private Roman, at the
instance of Gen. (then U. S. Senator) Rusk was
soon appointed by President Polk, Commissary of
Subsistence, with the rank of Major. As such he
was in the battle of Monterey, in September, 1846,
and Buena Vista in February, 1847. The Amer-
ican army evacuated Mexico in June, 1848, and
early in 1849 Maj. Roman started to California.
Following the admission of that State into the Union
in 1850, he was elected for the two first terms,
State Treasurer, and then came very near being
nominated by the dominant party for Governor.
By President Buchanan he was appointed Appraiser
General of Merchandise on the Pacific coast.
About 1863 he became severely palsied and so deaf
as to receive communication from others only
through writing. Never having married, his last
years were made pleasant in the family of a loving
relative in San Francisco till his death in 1877.
He was a man of ability, firmness, fidelity in every
trust and strong in his attachments and, unlike
many men of such characteristics, without bitter-
ness or prejudice. The name of "Dick" Roman
is cherished wherever it was known in Texas.
IIENUY ROSENBERG.
HENRY ROSENBERG,
GALVESTON.
Grotius and Vattel, among the earliest and most
erudite of modern writers upon international law,
who from the pandects of Justinian, the maritime
code of Louis XIV, the laws of Oleron and the Han-
seatio League and other sources, with wonderful
brilliancy of genius and depth of philosophy, laid
the foundation of that science which now regulates
the intercourse of the community of nations, en-
riched their pages by illustrations drawn from the
history of many peoples, and from none more than
from that of the people of Switzerland, to which
they turned for the most striking examples of
fidelity to treaty obligations, jealous defense of
national honor, humanity, magnanimity and cour-
age.
Vattel declares that for more than three centuries
prior to his time, Switzerland, although surrounded
by nations almost constantly at war and eager for
the acquisition of new territory, had preserved her
independence, and enjoyed the confidence and
respect of her neighbors. It is related that in the
oldgn time, fifteen hundred Swiss, acting as the
advance guard of a French army, came suddenly
upon the full force of the opposing Austrians ; and,
disdaining to retreat, although overwhelmingly out-
numbered, charged into the midst of the enemy
and, no re-inforcements coming up, perished, all
save one man, who saved his life by flight and was
subsequently driven from his native canton to die
a despised wanderer in a foreign land.
Who does not remember the story of Martha
Glar ? Her country invaded and the men to defend
it few in number, she called upon the women to
arm and strike with them for the liberties of Swit-
zerland and, later, fell sword in hand with her hus-
band, sons, daughters, and granddaughters upon a
bard contested field. Famous for their valor and
love of freedom, the Swiss are no less renowned for
their kindliness, justice and simple and unaffected
piety. Of this race was the subject of this memoir.
While his native land may well be proud of such
a son, she cannot alone lay claim to him. The
best years of his ripened manhood were spent in
Texas. Such men are true citizens of the world
and the memory of worthy deeds that they leave
behind them is the heritage and common property
of mankind. Deeply attached to the institutions
of the United States and to the people of Texas
and of Galveston especially, he never ceased to
love the land of his birth and his friends of long
ago.
" There is a land, of every land the pride,
Beloved by Heaven o'er all the world beside;
There is a spot of earth supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest.
" • Where shall that land, that spot of earth be found? '
Art thou a man ? — a patriot? — look around !
O! thou Shalt find, where'er thy footsteps roam
That land thy country and that spot thy home! "
With this love of country was coupled a venera-
tion for the great and good of all climes. As will
be seen further on in this brief sketch of his life,
he has paid the most substantial tribute that has
yet been paid to the men who fought for Texas
independence, an act peculiarly fitting, as there is
a bond of common brotherhood that binds together
the hearts of the sons of Switzerland and the
defenders of liberty in all lands and that neither
time nor distance can affect.
Broad-minded, generous and true-hearted — a
genuine lover of his kind — the memory of Henry
Rosenberg is dear to the people of Texas. His
name will forever be associated with the history of
the city of Galveston, a city in which he spent more
than fifty of the most active and useful years of his
life. He was born at Bilten, Canton Glarus,
Switzerland, June 22, 1824. His early educational
advantages were restricted. He was apprenticed
when a boy and learned a trade which he followed
until past eighteen years of age, when he came to
America with one of his countrymen, JohnHessley,
reaching Galveston in February, 1843. He was
afterwards associated with Mr. Hessley in the mer-
cantile business, which he enlarged and carried on
for about thirty years, during which time he laid
the foundation for the fortune which he afterwards
accumulated. His latter years were devoted chiefly
(143)
144
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
to his banking interests, wliieli were founded in 1874
upon the organization of the Galveston Bank & Trust
Co., an incorporated institution of which he was
one of the originators and which he bought out in
1882 and replaced with the Eosenberg Bank, of
which he was thereafter sole owner. Early in his
career he began investing his means in Galveston
city property, and, later, in other real estate, im-
proved and unimproved, elsewhere in Texas and, as
a consequence, in time became the owner of a large
amount of realty, which, gradually appreciating in
value, contributed materially to the increase of his
wealth. Mr. Rosenberg was prominently identified
with many of the important enterprises and under-
takings which served to build up and promote the
growth of Galveston.
Prominent among these: —
The First National Bank — of which he was one
of the organizers and for many years the vice-
president; The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Rail-
way,— of which he was one of the organizers,
president from 1875 to and including 1878 (during
which period the first fifty miles of the road were
constructed), and of whose board of directors he
was an active member for ten years thereafter ;
the Galveston Wharf Company, — of which he
was a director for a long term of years, and for
three years vice-president, and the Galveston City
Railway Company, of which he was president in
1871. He was tendered re-election to the last
named position but declined to accept that honor
as other important business interests demanded his
attention. He was an active and influential mem-
ber of the board of aldermen of the city of Gal-
veston in 1871-72 and again in 1885-87. As a
result of his industry, strict application to business
and superior practical sagacity, aided by circum-
stances, he succeeded in amassing a fortune of
about $1,200,000.00. He contributed to and
took stock in nearly every worthy enterprise. He
was keenly alive to the interests and especially
proud of the city of his adoption, manifesting
a deep concern in everything relating to its wel-
fare.
Mr. Rosenberg was long'known among his more
intimate acquaintances as a man of generosity
and great kindness of^heart, though he often times
appeared otherwise to strangers. " Henry Rosen-
berg," says an old and prominent citizen of Gal-
veston, " was one of the best men I ever knew.
He was pure, truthful, upright and just. He was
strict in business and demanded honesty in others.
He despised frauds and shams.
" In fact, he was cordial and companionable and
full of good nature in his social life. In the ordi-
nary business relations, he was exact and just,
but, impatient and aggressive when subjected to
unfair, unjust or unreasonable treatment, or de-
mands, from others. His superb gift to the chil-
dren of Galveston, the Rosenberg Free School
Building, erected in 1888, seating 1,000 pupils,
his donation to Eaton Memorial Chapel of Trinity
Church in that city and his erection of a church in
his native village in Switzerland attested his interest
in the cause of education and Christianity and are
the best remembered of his more important acts of
benevolence in which the public shared a knowledge
before his death. It was not, however, until after
his death and the provisions of his will became
generally known, that his character was fully ap-
preciated." After bequeathing to his surviving
widow, relatives and friends $450,000.00, he left
the remainder, about two-thirds, of his entire for-
tune, to educational and charitable purposes, the
bulk of it going to the people of Galveston. After
remembering his native place with two bequests,
one of $30,000.00 and the other of $50,000.00, he
made provision for the city of Galveston as fol-
lows: The Island City Protestant Orphans' Home,
$30,000 ; Grace Church parish (Protestant Episco-
pal), $30,000; Ladies' Aid Society of the German
Lutheran Church, $10,000; for a Women's Home,
$30,000 ; the Young Men's Christian Association,
$65,000; for a monument to the memory of the
heroes of the Texas Revolution of 1835-6, $50,-
000 ; for drinking fountains for man and beast,
$30,000; and the residue of his estate to the
erection and equipment of a great free public
library.
The following extract from the residuary clause
in his will providing a large sum for a public library,
is pertinent in the latter connection: "In making
this bequest I desire to express in practical form
my affection for the city of my adoption and for the
people among whom I have lived for many years,
trusting that it will aid their intellectual and moral
development and be a source of pleasure and profit
to them and Iheir children and their children's
children." The wisdom exercised by him in his
bequests is no less worthy of admiration than their
munificence.
Mr. Rosenberg's death occurred May 12th, 1893
Every appropriate mark of respect was shown to
his memory in Galveston and his death was taken
notice of generally by ihe press throughout the
State. Now that he has laid aside his earthly bur-
dens he has left behind him on earth the imperish-
able memory of worthy deeds.
No marble monument, stately monolith or princely
sarcophagus can add to the merits of such a man.
MES. HENRY EOSENBURG.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
145
The Galveston News of May 13th, 1893, contained
the following editorial: —
" Early yesterday morning the earthly career of
Henry Rosenberg closed after a painful illness. In
his death Galveston has lost a worthy and re-
spected citizen. Elsewhere will be found a sketch
of his public life and actions, but the News desires,
besides this, to briefly add its testimony to the
private virtues and charitable excellence of this
good man who has gone to his reward. In the
donation of the school which bears his name, to the
youth of Galveston, Mr. Rosenberg associated
himself with the city's best interests. He did not
leave this act to be performed after he himself had
passed away and was himself done with the world's
means and the world's ways, but in the vigor of his
own manhood and from means of his own acquiring
he saw erected and established an institution that
promises to generations yet unborn the opportunities
of education perhaps denied himself.
" It was not ostentation upon the part of Henry
Rosenberg that prompted the act. He was not an
ostentatious man. On many an occasion, known
to the writer, Henry Rosenberg's purse was placed
at the disposal of the needy, but always upon the
principle that his left hand should not know what
his right hand was doing.' Upon an especially large
donation to a worthy object some years ago the
writer requested of Mr. Rosenberg permission to
make known the fact through the columns of the
News. 'No;' said Mr. Rosenberg, 'you will
offend me if you do. Whatever I do in this way I
do because I like to do it, but it would be no source
of satisfaction to me to find it paraded before the
public' Such was the man. * * * Peace to
his ashes wherever they may rest."
As the news of his death spread over the city it
was followed by a wave of universal sorrow that
embraced in its sweep the entire population. The
remains laid in state at the Rosenberg Free School
building, where they were viewed by thousands who
loved him well. Impressive funeral services were
held in Assembly Hall. The remains were taken
from Assembly Hall to Grace Church, where the
beautiful and impressive funeral service of the
Episcopal Church was read by the rector, Rev. J.
R. Carter, after which the body was temporarily
deposited in Payne vault in the cemetery at Gal-
veston, to await removal to Baltimore, Md. Mr.
Rosenberg had been consul for Switzerland at Gal-
veston for more than thirty years, and at the time
of his death wasfirst dean of the consular corps. A
message of condolence was received from the Swiss
minister at Washington and the consular corps met,
passed suitable resolutions and paid the last tribute
10
of respect to the memory of their friend and col-
league.
The vestry of Grace Episcopal Church, of
which for many years he had been a mem-
ber, City Council, School Board, board of
trustees of the Rosenberg Free School, and
other civil bodies, took similar action and a
great mass meeting (presided over by some of
the most distinguished men in Texas), assembled
in response to a proclamation issued by the mayor
of the city to listen to suitable speeches and pass
appropriate resolutions. At this meeting was read
the following poem: —
IN HONOR OF HBNRT ROSBNBBRG.
" The freightage of the surf is many kind.
Both wreck and treasure ride the crested wave ;
And ever as it frets its force away
Against unyielding shores, it builds the strand
For men to walk upon and trade and thrive.
There, bleaching lie, the shells of myriad life
That throbbed but briefly in a stifling sea
And perished. And some, untimely cast ashore,
Lie festering upon the sun-kissed sands,
Abhorred and pestilent; while some are ripe
To death and but repose in welcome rest ;
And some are puny pygmies, sprawling prone,
And rudely crashed into forgetfulness
By hurrying heels of eager, searching crowds,
And some are of larger growth and stand erect,
Majestic emblems of a giant kind,
Impacted in the sands of time ; behold,
Nor wind, nor tide, nor jostling jealousy
Can shake their adamantine base — unmoved
Of all the mutable that throng the earth.
" And there are those, who, in their speeding day,
While youth and strength lent opportunity,
With frugal husbandry, wrought hard and fast
To garner yellow wealth in honest bins.
And when the sun shone golden in the West
And shadows deepened to the coming night.
They looked upon their stores and smiled to think
That Power now was minister to Wish,
And straightway loosed the locks and smote the bars
That old and young and mind and soul and beast
Might share thebleasings of a fruitful life.
And they live on. Along the pebbled way,
That stretches from the utmost to the end.
They mark the certain progress of mankind
And guide us up to Godlier destinies."
"The remains of Henry Rosenberg, the Texas
philanthropist," says the Baltimore Sun of June
1st, 1893, " were consigned to their final resting
place in Loudon Park Cemetery yesterday after-
noon. The body was brought to Baltimore from
Galveston, of which city the deceased was an hon-
ored citizen. The funeral services held there were
elaborate, the whole city testifying to the esteem in
which he was held. * * * The pall-bearers were
146
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Judge David Fowler, G-eorge French, Howell Gris-
wold, Richard G. Macgill, Jervis Spencer, Dr. Guy
Hollyday, John Fowler and Patrick H. Macgill.
Among those present were Chas C. Tuvel, secretary
-of the Swiss legation at Washington, representing
•the Swiss government ; William Nichols, of Galves-
ton; Mr. and Mrs. Peter Cokelet, of New York,
who had been close friends of Mr. Rosenberg for
•more than forty years ; Dr. Chas. Macgill, of
Catonsville ; Miss Rouskulp, of Hagerstown ; Mrs.
Howell Griswold ; Mrs. Dr. Gibson ; Miss West ;
Miss Bettie Mason Barnes ; Mr. and Mrs. George
"Gibson ; Mrs. Drewry, of Virginia ; Davidge Mac-
gill, of Virginia; Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Gary; Miss
Fowler ; the Misses Carter, of Catonsville ; Miss L.
K. Spencer; Mrs. George French, Col. Robert
Smith, and others."
Hundreds of editorial notices appeared in lead-
ing newspapers throughout the country. The fol-
lowing extracts are made from a few that appeared
in Texas papers : —
Galveston .News: "Trite reflections upon the
•lives and ends of such men have little force beyond
■the circle of their immediate friends, but, many
will draw a serious lesson from that of the de-
ceased. * * * He was one of several who
accumulated large fortunes in Galveston and were
not spoiled by their possessions nor estranged from
those who had been less successful by the disparity
in their circumstances. He was regarded with
tender veneration by young ani old, rich and
poor. A stranger on the Market street car line
might have frequently observed a ruddy-faced and
cheery old gentleman getting on or off at Thirteenth
street, and on the outgoing trip the motorman
would generally bring the car to a stop on the near
side, though the rule would have taken it to the
other side. This was quietly done for Mr. Rosen-
berg, who always had a smile for the laborer and
t^ie poor. Coming down town in the morning he
was constantly nodding to his friends."
Waco Day-Olobe: "It was reserved for a Tex-
ian by adoption, a citizen who was born on foreign
soil, to make the first real practical move towards
honoring the memory of the fathers of Texas
liberty. In his will the late Henry Rosenberg,
of Galveston, born in Switzerland, bequeathed
$50,000 for the erection of an appropriate and
enduring memorial in honor of the heroes of the
Texas revolution. It may also be remarked that
this foreign-born citizen placed himself at the head
-of the all too small list of Texas philanthro-
pists. • * • In the disposition of the accumu-
lations of his lifetime Mr. Rosenberg dealt out his
•benefactions with an impartial hand. He seems
to have lost sight of creed or race. A profound
desire to benefit the human family was the ideal he
strove to reach and so sound was his judgment, so
broad and generous his impulses, that the money
he has left will bless his fellowmen through cen-
turies to come."
Hempstead News: "His name will go down to
after times as one of the best and noblest men of
his day. Oh ! if there were more like him, this
world would be a better world."
Surviving him he left a widow, but no children.
He had been twice married — marrying first, June
11th, 1851, Miss Letitia Cooper, then of Galveston,
but a native of Virginia. This estimable lady died
June 4th, 1888, and November 13th, 1889, he
married Miss Mollie R. Macgill, daughter of Dr.
Charles Macgill. She was born at Hagerstown,
Md., February 28th, 1839. At the time of
Miss Macgill's birth Mr. Rosenberg's first wife
was visiting the family of Dr. Macgill and in-
duced the doctor to promise the child to her
and afterwards made several offers to adopt her,
which, however, were not accepted, as the parents
would not agree to part with her entirely even to
please so dear a friend. In September, 1856, Mr.
Rosenberg brought Miss Macgill to Texas, where
she remained eleven months as a guest of Mrs.
Rosenberg. In the fall of 1860 Mrs. Rosenberg
again sent for Miss Macgill, who arrived in Galves-
ton in September expecting to remain two years,
but returned to her parents in April, 1861, on
account of the war, and remained with them until
the close of the struggle. Returning to Galveston
in March, 1866, she joined the family permanently
and, Mrs. Rosenberg, becoming an invalid, Miss
Macgill, who reciprocated the deep affection she
felt for her, assumed full management of the house-
hold and continued her tender ministrations until
Mrs Rosenberg's last illness, and was present at
her bedside when she quietly fell " asleep in Jesus "
Mr. and Mrs. Rosenberg, with Miss Macgill,
paid annual visits to Miss Macgill's parents in
Richmond, Va. Miss Macgill's niece. Miss Minnie
Drewry, of Virginia, was with her during the
latter part of Mrs. Rosenberg's illness. The two
remained with Mr. Rosenberg, traveling during the
summer, and in the fall Miss Macgill and niecf re-
until the following July and then with him visited
we" 17%' "°''" ^-^ ^'^'"-"'^ -<^ ^-m t ere
went to the Springs and New York City, returning
rtr;^t:l^^5--^-^-°-bergan^
m marriage November
Miss Macgill were united
l^th 1889, at Grace Episcopal Church by Rev
Hartly Carmichael of St. Paul's Church, assiLdby
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
147
Rev. H. Melville Jackson of Grace Church, present
assistant Bishop of Alabama. Dr. Charles Macgill
was a native of Baltimore, Md. His grandfather
on the maternal side was Thomas Jennings, who filled
the position of King's Attorney under the Colonial
government of Maryland, and on the paternal side,
Rev. James Macgill, of Perth, Scotland, who settled
in Maryland in 1728 and was the first rector of
Queen Caroline Parish, Elkridge, Anne Arundel
County, Md. Dr. Macgill served as full surgeon
in the Confederate army during the war between
the States ; and was one of President Jefferson
Davis' family physicians. Dr. Macgill died in
Chesterfield County, Va., May 5th, 1881. Mrs.
Rosenberg's mother, now eighty-eight years of
age, lives with her at Galveston. Of Mrs. Rosen-
berg's brothers, Wm. D. enlisted at Palestine,
Texas, in Company A. , Second Cavalry, and, after the
battle of Sharpsburg, was transferred to the First
Maryland Cavalry, Company C, and died in
Baltimore, Md., August 25, 1890; Davidge en-
listed in the First Maryland Cavalry, Company C,
under Col. Brown in 1861, and served throughout
the war. Dr. Chas. G. W. Macgill was a surgeon
in Stonewall Jacks"on's brigade and James enlisted
in the Confederate army at sixteen years of age
and served in the same commands with his brother
Wm. D. until the close of hostilities. Dr. Chas.
G. W. Macgill and James Macgill surrendered with
the troops in Virginia as did their father Dr. Chas.
Macgill ; but Wm. D. and Davidge Macgill did not
surrender until April 20, 1865, as they managed to
get through the Federal lines and tried to make
their way to Johnston, who surrendered before they
reached him. A reader of the Birmingham Age-
Herald, living at Childersburg, Ala., in an interest-
ing and lengthy communication to that paper,
under date of October 11, 1890, contributes the
following: —
"In your issue of the 7th inst., under the
heading ' Some Persons of Prominence,' you
kindly give space to eulogizing Dr. Macgill and
family, formerly of Hagerstown, Md., and later of
Richmond, Va., but more especially of Mrs. Helen
E. Swan, from the announcement of her death,
which occurred on the 22d of September last, at
the home of her brother-in-law, Dr. S. A. Drewry
in Richmond.
" Among other things, you give prominence to
their many intellectual, physical and social graces,
together with their political prominence. * * *
Now it may be that you ' reckoned better than
you knew ' and that you did not know that
there were some ex-Confederates who were con-
stant readers of your valuable paper and in
your Immediate vicinity who have special cause to
honor and remember this illustrious and patriotic
family. I allude particularly to Capt. John
('Piney,') Oden, Company, K., Tenth Alabama
Regiment, Confederate Volunteers, who was severely
and, at the time, thought by his comrades to be
mortally wounded, on Wednesday, September 17th,
1862, at Sharpsburg, receiving a wound fourteen
inches long, reaching the whole length of the thigh,
from which he has been a permanent cripple and
great sufferer ever since. Besides he received at
the same time a painful wound in the left side from
a piece of bomb-shell. * * * He lay upon the
battle-field in that helpless condition for twenty-six
hours. When all other efforts for removal failed,
he made some Masonic characters upon a piece of
paper and requested that they be carried to the
general in command of the Federal army, he being
then within the Federal lines. Very soon six men
came for him with an improvised litter, an old
army blanket. They made a slip gap in the fence,
near which he lay, and ran across the hill to a field
hospital with him upon the litter, which was more
than once punctured with balls from his friends'
guns, they not understanding what was going on.
He was finally removed to the Hagerstown, Md.,
courthouse, which had been converted into a Federal
hospital. * » * Here he first met and learned
to love and honor the name of Macgill and the
members of the family, for the daughters that were
then at home came to the hospital and inquired
especially if there were any Confederate soldiers
among the wounded there. Capt. Oden being
pointed out, they began immediately to beseech, in
view of his condition, that he be paroled and they
be allowed to carry him to their private dwelling,
which request, at their earnest and importunate
solicitation, was granted. * * « por six
months the members of the family, including Dr.
Chas. Macgill, Jr., who was then at home, contin-
ued their ministrations. * * * At one time the
femoral artery sloughed in two and Capt. Oden's
life was despaired of, but every physical, and even
spiritual, aid was rendered him. Finally he rallied
and recovered, and lived many years thereafter to
call them blessed. Capt. Oden often said that he
was especially indebted to Miss MoUie Macgill,
now Mrs. Rosenberg, of Galveston, and named a
daughter Mollie Macgill Oden in honor and grate-
ful remembrance of her. The intimacy and friend-
ship between the Macgill and Oden families has
been kept up ever since the war by correspondence
and interchange of visits. * * * "
Capt. Oden died in Odena, Talledega County,
Ala., May 23, 1895. All this particularity of detail
148
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
has been entered into to show that all that could be
said in praise of the Macgill family is well deserved
and that indeed, thousands of ex-Confederates
have cause to remember them kindly, generally, and
some especially.
Through an interview published in the Macon,
Ga., Daily Telegraph, of June 24th, 1894, Mr.
Chester Pearce, a leading citizen and politician of
Georgia, adds his quota of grateful recollections to
that of Capt. Oden. Mr. Pearce took part in the
battle of Sharpsburg as a soldier in the Eighteenth
Georgia, Hood's Texas Brigade ; was shot entirely
through the body with a minnie ball ; laid on the
field many hours, and was finally carried to
Hagerstown, Md., nine miles distant, where he
was placed in the hospital at the courthouse.
Here the doctors declined to dress his wound,
saying that it was useless as death would soon
come to relieve him of his suffering. For two
days he lingered in this miserable condition with-
out nourishment, no one even showing him the
kindness to bathe his face and hands. Then a
committee of ladies visited the hospital, among
them the daughters of Dr. Macgill.
"These daughters of Dr. Macgill," says the
interviewer, "■ minis1;ering angels indeed, gave
guarantee bond for the return of the young sol-
dier, should he recover, and took him to their
elegant and palatial home. Here for the first
time he received medical attention. Dr. Chas.
Macgill, Jr., taking him in charge and dressing
his wounds. Miss Mollie Macgill, a beautiful
young lady, became his nurse. In two months'
time he was sufficiently recovered to go to Balti-
more, the military post. Here Mr. James Carroll,
a friend of Southern soldiers, gave guarantee bond
for his safe-keeping and he was finally exchanged.
He rejoined the Confederate army, took part in the
murderous charge of Round Top — at the battle of
Gettysburg ; later was again captured by the Fed-
erals and was sent by them to Fort Delaware ; made
his escape, but was retaken and carried to Fort
Henry, where he was thrown into a dungeon with
the vilest of criminals and remained until exchanged.
He then again hurried to the front and fought in
the lines until he surrendered with the other soldiers
of Gen. Lee's army at Appomatox. * * * In
the course of years, Miss Mollie Macgill, who had
so tenderly nursed back to life the boy-soldier,
married a Mr. Rosenberg, a wealthy banker of Gal-
veston, Texas. There she met Mr. and Mrs. Dan
Henderson j of Camilla, Ga., and told them the
story of the young soldier she had nursed, and re-
quested them to discover his whereabouts, if
possible.
"Not long since Mr. Henderson read in the
Macon Telegraph, that a Chester Pearce was a can-
didate for the legislature from Houston County.
Mrs. Rosenberg wrote to the candidate to know if
he could be the Chester Pearce whom she had
known in Maryland, sending her kindest regards,
and this was the letter that brought forth the ' war
record ' of Chester Pearce, — this was the letter of
which he so fondly spoke and that elicited from him
expressions of grateful remembrance, worthy of the
man and the kind friends who rescued him from an
untimely grave."
In peace and war, — through all the vicissi-
tudes of time and circumstance, the Macgills
have been the same true, generous and -chivalric
race. Mrs. Rosenberg's life has been spent in
an earnest, Christian effort to do all the good within
her power and to render all about her happy. She
has been a member of the Episcopal Church since
she was sixteen years of age. After her husband's
death, when it became known that his remains were
to find sepulture out of the State, she was petitioned
by thousands of people to allow them to be interred
in one of the public squares of Galveston. She,
however, carried out the wish expressed by him in
his lifetime and consigned them to earth in Loudon
park cemetery in Baltimore, Md., where his first
wife is buried and a costly monument now marks
the spot. Mrs. Rosenberg is a lady of rare brill-
iancy and strength of mind. Her" husband was
deeply attached to her. She was in full sympathy
with all his acts of beneficence and in every way
aided him to the full extent of her power in all his
undertakings. No lady in Galveston is more gen-
erally admired and beloved.
^ng'StyHSCKoevoeuNY
John Sealy
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
149
JOHN SEALY,
GALVESTON.
The late lamented John Sealy, during many
years a member of the famous banking house of
Ball, Hutchings & Company, of Galveston, Texas,
and an active promoter of the best interests of that
city, was born in the great Wyoming Valley at
Kingston, Luzerne County, Pa., October 18, 1822,
and when fourteen years of age entered a country
store as a clerk under an agreement to work for
board and clothes until twenty-one years of age and
tnen receive as further payment flOO.OOand an
extra suit of clothing. When he had reached eight-
een years of age his employer, although continu-
ing merchandising, engaged in developing coal
mines in addition thereto, and soon found that the
young employee was competent to look after these
outside interests and placed him in charge of them
as general manager, which position he continued to
fill, under the terms of agreement originally
entered into as to remuneration for personal ser-
vices, until he had attained his majority. He was
then retained on a salary until twenty-four years
of age, when he determined to cast his fortunes
with the people of the State of Texas. He arrived
in Galveston in 1846 with about seven hundred and
fifty dollars, saved from his earnings, and suc-
ceeded in securing employment as salesman in the
house of Henry Hubbell & Co., who were at that
time considered the leading dry goods merchants
in the city. He continued in this position for
about a year and during that time became ac-
quainted with, and an intimate friend of Mr.
J. H. Hutchings, bookkeeper for the firm. Mr.
Hutchings had also saved from his salary
about seven hundred and fifty dollars. The two
young men decided to combine their means and go
into business upon their own account and with their
joint capital of fifteen hundred dollars succeeded
in purchasing from Hubbell & Company, who had
the greatest confidence in their integrity and
capacity, a stock of goods, valued at several thou-
sand dollars, which they took to the town of Sabine
Pass, Texas, where they opened a store in 1847,
under the firm name of Hutchings & Sealy. They
soon won the confidence of the business community
and built up a fine trade, which they rapidly ex-
tended until they ranked as the leading merchants
of the section. They remained in business at
Sabine Pass, until 1854, when, having accumulated
about $50,000.00, they deemed it advisable to
close out there and change their base of operations
to some larger place. Accordingly they wound up
their affairs at Sabine Pass, took a few months
much needed rest, and moved to Galveston, where
they formed a copartnership with Mr. George
Ball, under the firm name of Ball, Hutchings &
Company, and embarked in the general dry goods
and commission business. The commission busi-
ness was sold out in 1860 and the dry goods busi-
ness in 1865, when the firm went regularly into the
banking business. Two years later Mr. George
Sealy was admitted to the copartnership, which
continued with this personnel until the death of the
subject of this sketch, Mr. John Sealy, August
29th, 1884. Mr. John Sealy's widow, Mrs.
Rebecca Sealy, has been allowed to retain the
partnership interest of her late husband in the
business up to the present time, 1896.
Mr. Sealy was married to Miss Rebecca Davis
of Bedford, Pa., in 1857. Two children, John and
Jane Sealy, were born of this union. The son
will succeed to his father's interest and become a
full partner in the firm. Mr. Sealy was identified
with, every important public enterprise inaugurated
in Galveston during his residence in that city and
was instrumental in originating many of them.
From the beginning he had a deep and abiding
faith in the continued growth and prosperity of the
city of his adoption and inspired all who came in con-
tact with him with like confidence. He was an officer,
or director, in nearly every corporation chartered
and doing business in Galveston, by reason of his
well recognized financial ability and the large stock
interests that he held. At the time of his death he
was the wealthiest man in Galveston, owning among
other property a landed estate sufficiently large to
form a good sized principality. Among other gen-
erous bequests in his last will and testament he
set aside a sum of money for the erection of a char-
ity hospital which has since been erected at a cost
of $75,000.00 and been of great benefit to the suf-
fering poor of the State, as people from all parts of
Texas are admitted free of charge. He did not
wait until he no longer had a use for the things of
this world to put his wealth to good purpose. His '
life was a long record of worthy deeds and silent
benefactions. As between himself and others,
whether friends or enemies, he kept the scales of
justice evenly balanped. No man could ever say
150
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
that he had treated him unfairly. He was incapa-
ble of a little, mean or unworthy action.
He started in the race of life penniless and with-
out friends, other than those he had won by his
energy, truthfulness, faithful discharge of duty,
adherence to correct principles and purity of
thought, speech and living. He resisted and over-
came many temptations and encountered and sur-
mounted many obstacles, following always with
undeviating fidelity the lode-star of duty. His
career in all essential respects was identical with
that of his brother, Mr. George Sealy, a biography
of whom appears elsewhere in this volume. The
following is from the Galveston News of Sunday,
August 31, 1884:—
" To say that the news of the death of Mr. John
Sealy touched the whole community with a deep thrill
of sorrow yesterday, but poorly conveys the idea of
the sense of the community upon the sudden taking
away of one of its most prominent members. The
flags upon the Santa Fe general office, Custom-
House, Cotton Exchange, Galveston News building,
British, German, Russian, Norwegian and Austrian
consular offices, engine houses. Artillery Hall, Tur-
ner Hall, Beach Hotel, Mallory and Morgan offices,
Hendley, Eeymershoffer, Blum Block, Oppenheimer
& Co.'s, Kauffman & Eunge, Marwitz, and a num-
ber of other buildings, not now remembered, were
placed at half-mast in honor of the memory of Mr.
Sealy. An hour before the time set for the funeral,
clouds gathered heavily in the north, and the pros-
pect of a storm prevented many from attending the
funeral services, but, as it was, there were hun-
dreds present. The officers and employees of the
Santa Fe road formed at the general office in a
body and marched to the residence. A number of
the members of Hook and Ladder Company No.
1, were also present.
"The floral tributes were numerous and beauti-
ful, the casket being literally covered with choice
flowers most artistically arranged.
" At five o'clock, Rev. Dr. S. M. Bird, rector of
Trinity Church, began the reading of the solemn
and impressive service for the dead. Upon its con-
clusion he delivered the following beautiful and
touching comment upon the good man gone: —
" ' Words of eulogy flow almost spontaneously as
we stand amidst the funereal tributes to excellence
and worth.
" ' We have to restrain, rather than encourage,
the natural instincts of affection which inspire the
coronation of a successful and generous life.
" ' We look into the calm, dead face of our friend
ahd brother and read there all the story of amia-
bility, frankness and honor, and as we recall the
outlines of a life so suddenly closed, memory fully
anticipates the epitaph which will be carved upon
his tomb. We think of him as citizen, father,
friend, neighbor, and each chapter unfolds its
blending harmonies of goodness, purity and virtue.
Wheij one of the old Patrician leaders of Rome
expired, it was the custom of the common grief
for each associate and colleague to bring to his
bier the eblematic tokens of the particular virtue
which most impressed itself upon the offerer.
One brought the laurels which crowned his brow
with the badges of noble bearing and courtly pride ;
another placed in his dead hands, the white lilies
of purity, commemorating a gentle life and unself-
ish patriotism ; a third placed upon his shield the
red rose of unsullied courage and iron purpose;,
and thus, part by part, his catafalque was strewn
with the silent symbols of worthiness and renown.
I have thought if each one of ourselves could come
from our reserve and give out from the respective
treasures of our knowledge the impressions made
by the long and useful life of our departed friend,
the homage would be large indeed, for we would not
cease until we had robed his casket in a funeral
mantle, graceful as ever covered that of Roman
senator or conscript father. To his public spirit
and organizing industry our prosperous city is
indebted for large and enduring elements of its
permanency and present growth. Forecasting
with unerring genius the future of Galveston,
he conceived and carried out many of its in-
stitutions which contribute to-day to its stability
and wealth. Prompt with his judgment and good
will, he promoted every interest which looked to the
happiness of the people and the increase of their
fortunes. Generous oftentimes beyond his share,
he led the way in the courses of liberality and im-
provements. His business and untiring industry
became a passion to him, which laid up its results
in strong material success for himself and in large
and generous returns for others. Wealth brings
power and responsibility, and so to his native
strength of purpose, we find in maturer years this
new gift added to his resources — a gift used so
wisely that nearly every enterprise of public or
municipal interest was unprojected until his name,
his judgment, and his co-operation were first as-
sured. This done, his fellow-citizens and fellow-
capitalists were inspired by the one needed resolu-
tion which almost Invariably leads up to such positive
results as leave little to be desired. Responsibility,
too, was fully appreciated, and so we find the stroma
and solid banking house, whose business he con-
tributed so much to enlarge and strengthen, became
identified directly and at once with every depart-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
lot
ment of the city's life, and widely enough in the
progress of the entire State. The founder of a
city, who lays deeply those varied elements which
make up the security of its wealth, the integrity of
its credit and the happiness of its homes, must
outrank in the hightest verdict every one of those
who, with martial victories and trained warfare,
destroy and pull down the habitations of man. A
successful citizen is always a more interesting
man than a conquering soldier, as the spirit
of construction is always more large than the
spirit which destroys. In the later days of
his health and vigor many of his friends dis-
covered a strong physical and personal resem-
blance to the greatest soldier of the Northern
armies. The likeness was remarkable, and yet we
may be pardoned in rejoicing that our departed
friend and brother possessed powers of worth and
appliance of virtue so different and so much more
laudable, that they will endure in their fruits of
increase long after the ashes of smoking towns and
the ruin of a people's industries have faded from
the records which they so long disfigured. The
commonwealth is made up of its citizens, and its
best citizens are always the basis of its strength
and the welcome prophecies of its fortunes. If we
pass from his life as a citizen to his life as a man
of business we discover similar distinguishing
marks of excellence. One of the finest tributes I
ever heard to a man of business was awarded to
Mr. Scaly by his lifelong friend and partner at the
latter's house on the occasion of a brilliant marriage,
and the entire ' worthiness of the testimony was
seen in the hearty sanction of the moment, and is
echoed loudly by every one brought into commer-
cial relations with him. Whether as banker, rail-
road manager, president of a corporation, or a
private in the ranks — the same straightforward-
ness, integrity and painstaking, was the simple
secret which made him everywhere trusted, and,
most of all, by those whose dealings with him were
intimate, mutual and constant. He enriched him-
self never at the expense of others, while others
were made partakers with him in all his successes
and his fortunes. This is no small consideration in
these days when men are ' making haste to get
rich;' when, regardless of the social compact,
careless of all moral restraint, impatient at the
checks of conscience and defiant against every
principle of virtue, they trample down all obstacles
in the way of interest, until duty, honor and truth
are outraged — wrecked in the rapid eagerness to-
achieve results — and high names and the highest
places, and highest trusts are prost'tuted, drag-
ged down in the financial scramble to the level
of common fraud and unblushing crime. Here
there is not a whisper of detraction or reproach.
If large wealth rewarded his industry and toil, it
was the normal issue of a large heart which refused
all unjust and ungenerous methods. His hands-
are clean, even in death, because they never worked
in the lower ventures of avarice and greed ; and so^
too, his hands were liberal, with a liberality which-
was always his own and not another's. The mer-
cantile spirit of the age was strong within him —
too strong, for it overtaxed his time and his strength.
In this mammon-loving country, I suppose his
temptations were strong and keen, as only success-
ful men can feel them ; but always they seemed
dominated by a justice and discretion which led us
all to recognize his calm superiority to passing
inducements and a ' conscience void of offense.'
More than twelve years continuously I have been
his neighbor. It is needless to say that in him 1
always felt that I had a neighbor ; yea, more, a
friend, a counselor and confidant. His pleasing
manners and cheerful bearing made him accessible
to a fault. One was reassured at the outset,' and
invited to the freest confidence. More than once I
have felt drawn to his side in my moments of doubt,
and depended upon him in my moments of hesita-
tion, and always I have met just what I requiretJ
and in the way that I wanted it. To my church he-
gave a constant support, to my work an open hand>
and to myself a generous and unswerving friend-
ship. I may not intrude upon the inner circle of
his retired home, where he has been a father, a
husband, a brother — where his coming has been
always as the coming of the genial light which
falls upon the flowers, where his intercourse
has been of that quiet and considerate careful-
ness which made blessings fall like sunbeams
upon every member of his family. Yesterday
the light of his house went down in thick
darkness. The shadows of eventide, coming with
the closing hours of his life, fell like a pall of night
upon all his home. A strong brother's arm is no
more within reach, and the strong voice of gentle
love, his children will wonder why they can no
longer hear. Home to him was his atmosphere,
his paradise. Rarely could he be drawn from its
charmed circle. Only affairs of urgent business
and necessity could tempt him abroad. This led '
some to think him retiring and reserved, but his
home was his own creation, and the ideal of his
earthly life, made lovely by his own good heart and "
stamped anew every day with his genial and kindly
nature. In this home the tears are falling fast, as
they will flow long. In this home hearts are
aching with strange and new sorrows, which come
Eliy'ij-,-ll '■ r Kor.>-oi-,is.]IY
J N HUTCHTN'
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
15a
Confederate States government. As the coast of
Texas was closely blockaded, goods of all kinds
soon became scarce in the State, and one of the
first importations made by the firm was a cargo of
fifty thousand pairs of cotton and wool cards,
which they brought in under a contract with the
State, to enable the people of Texas to manufacture
their own clothing. These were introduced by way
of Mexico, through which country they continued
to make large shipments of cotton during the con-
tinuance of the blockade, while at the same time
they employed foreign vessels to run war material
into the harbor of Galveston. In all of this they
were eminently successful, and Mr. Hutchings is
still proud of the fact that, through the energy and
daring enterprise of the firm, vessels were, at the
close of the war, arriving at Galveston with arms
and munitions, and departing, laden with cotton,
on every change or dark of the moon, with almost
the regularity of mail steamers.
In 1865 the firm returned to Galveston and re-
sumed the banking business in the same building
which they had erected in 1855, and which they have
now occupied for thirty-seven years ; but Mr.
Hutchings still cherishes the kindest feelings for
the people of Houston, with whom he lived so hap-
pily and prosperously during the dark days of the
Civil War. Soon after their return to Galveston
they admitted as a partner Mr. George Sealy, who
was a brother of Mr. John Sealy, and had long
been in their service. The firm name, however,
remained unchanged. In March, 1884, Mr. George
Ball died, and in the following August Mr. John
Sealy died, leaving Mr. Hutchings and Mr. George
Sealy the only surviving members of the firm, and
they have continued the banking and exchange
business under the same firm name until the present
time, and their rating for wealth and credit in bank-
ing circles is perhaps as high as that of any other
banking house in the world.
The old building, which, in simple strength, so
long and faithfully abided by the fortunes of the
firm, has just been replaced by another, con-
structed by Mr. Hutchings specially for their use
and having every feature of safety, comfort and
convenience suggested by the long conduct of the
banking business. This structure is the best
equipped and most thoroughly appointed bank
building in the South.
It is one of the handsomest buildings on the
strand.
. In addition to being one of the two managers of
this great banking house, Mr. Hutchings has occu-
pied, and still holds, many important and responsi-
ble business positions. His sound judgment, his
solid integrity, his far-seeing enterprise, his great
activity, his superb business qualities, and remark-
able success in all his undertakings, have caused
his name and services to be almost indispensable in
a leading connection with every important enter-
prise of Galveston. He was for a long time presi-
dent of the Galveston Wharf Company and it
was during his presidency of this association
that a compromise was effected with the city, which
settled long disputed claims as to the title of the
wharf property. In consideration of the value of
his services in negotiating this settlement, the com-
pany presented him with a handsome service of
silver. The McAlpine survey of the wharf was
also made during the same time, and improvements
were begun which have created valuable property
for the company, and given a spacious and beauti-
ful front to the city. He was the first president,
after the war, of the Galveston Gas Company, and
has continued ever since to be one of its directors,
and is now its president. He has long been a
director of the Southern Press Manufacturing Com-
pany of Galveston, and is at this time its president.
He was for some time a director of the Galveston
City Company, and is now the president of that
company. He was appointed by Judge E. P. Hill,
the Confederate States Judge for Texas, a Commis-
sioner of the Confederate States Court, which he
held as long as the Confederate States were in exist-
ence, and still preserves his commission from Judge
Hill and values it very highly. He was also one of
the original directors of the Gulf, Colorado and
Santa Fe Railroad Company, also of the Galveston
Oil Mills Company, of the Land and Loan Com-
pany, and also of the Galveston, Houston and Hen-
derson Railway Company, and of the Galveston
Insurance Company. In 1859-60 he was an alder-
man of the city of Galveston, and negotiated the
bonds for the first bridge biiilt over the bay. He
was the author of the plan for raising money to
open the inner bar in Galveston harbor, and
drafted the ordinance of June 25, 1869, which ,
put his plan into successful execution, He was
the originator and chief promoter of the estab-
lishment of the splendid line of steamers plying
between Galveston and New York, so well known
as the Mallory line, and now incorporated as the
New York and Texas Steamship Company, and he
is one of the five directors of this company. He
accomplished this splendid enterprise by inducing
the Galveston Wharf Company, of which he was
president, to take a fourth interest in the four first
steamers built for the line, by taking stock himself
and inducing his partners to do likewise ; and the
present firm still owns a large interest in the line.
154
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
He and his partner, John Sealy, formed a company
and built the Factor's Cotton Press, but the com-
pany was soon afterwards merged into the Southern
Cotton Press and Manufacturing Company, the
suggestion and accomplishment of which was the
work of Mr. Hutchings, and his associates, appre-
ciating his skill, industry, and ability in the adjust-
ment of that matter, presented him with a gold
watch and chain of the most costly kind, which he
prizes highly and wears daily.
It is said of Mr. Hutchings that in all these
varied and exacting business relations, with their
multitudinous demands upon his time and energy,
he has never been known to fail in an appointment ;
and he has maintained this course throughout a
lifetime of hard work, extending through more than
fifty years. He early found his task, and has
faithfully stood to it. There has been no time in
such a life for idle dreams. To him all true work
has been held sacred — as wide as the earth, with
its sumipit in heaven ; and if genius be, as has been
said by one, " an immense capacity for taking
pains; " or, as said by another, " a great capacity
for discipline," in either character we find it in
an eminent degree in the life of Mr. Hutchings.
Being asked by the author the measure of his suc-
cess, and the qualities and conditions to which he
chiefly attributed it, he answered promptly: " Suc-
cess in life depends much upon honesty, sobriety,
industry, economy, and a disposition to promote
the best interests of the community in which one
lives. This disposition is always observed and
appreciated ; and the measure of a man's success
depends much upon the kindly disposition of his
neighbors towards him. Success in life consists
not so much in making money as in being use-
ful ; and the man who has been the most useful
in his day and generation is the most successful
man."
The life of Mr. Hutchings grandly illustrates his
views of usefulness and success. Few men have
^ taken the lead in so many enterprises that pro-
moted the interests of the communities in which
they lived ; and he has always faithfully discharged
every duty which devolved upon him", laboring at
all times for the public good, as well as for the
interests and welfare of those who were directly
concerned in his undertakings or affected by them ;
and amid all the advantages and opportunities
afforded by his official positions, he has never
speculated upon his knowledge, his power, or his
influence.
He has strong faith in the future of Galveston
as a great commercial city, and in the illimitable
growth and prosperity of Texas. For nearly
twenty years, he has taken a warm and active
interest in every project for deepening the channel
over Galveston bar, as being not only of the
greatest importance to the welfare of the city,
but of the whole State.
During all this time, while so busily engaged in
enterprises of a public character, he has not failed
to attend with equal minuteness and promptitude
to his private affairs. Early and late he has
always been found at his bank during business
hours, and is still found there at the proper time.
He believes strongly in the old adage, that it is
better to wear awaj' than to rust away.
"While Mr. Hutchings, like all long-disciplined
and successful business men, is stern and strict
in his business habits, in social life he is
kind, courteous, and genial. He is devoted
to his family and warmly attached to his friends,
and kind to all who have dealings with him.
He was married in Galveston on the 18th of
June, 1856, to Miss Minnie Knox, a lady of supe-
rior reflnement and excellence of character, who
was the niece of Robert Mills, at that time the head
of the then well-known banking house of R. & D.
G. Mills. They have reared a large and interest-
ing family of children. Their third daughter was
married a few years since to Mr. John W. Harris,
an excellent young man, and a son of the late
Judge John W. Harris, a distinguished pioneer of
the Texas bar.
Mr. Hutchings has a marked fondness for the
beauties of nature, and claims great skill in the
transplanting and nurture of trees. He has
beautified his home in Galveston with an enchant-
ing verdure of live oaks, flowers, and shrubbery ;
and a visit to his hospitable mansion will well repay
those who have a taste for the combined embellish-
ments of art and nature.
And yet the crowning virtue of the life and char-
acter of Mr. Hutchings is his deep-founded faith
in the precepts and promises of Christianity. He
has long been a devout communicant of the Episco-
pal Church ; and he considers spiritual attainment
and a Christian life far above all earthly posses-
sions and worldly successes — the golden crown of
a successful life, of which all other qualifications
are but parts. He is a liberal supporter of the
church, and wears upon the brow of age the
chaplet of many noble charities and benefactions.
E^8 V^^C Koevoets NY
Mrs J.H.HuTCHiNGs.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
155'
GEORGE BALL,
GALVESTON.
It has often struck me that the real is the most
unreal. David Copperfield was a more real person-
^Se and will longer exercise an influence in shaping
the course of human lives and ultimate human des-
tinies than many of the persons who are living and
have actually lived. The ordinary human life,
except in so far as it concerns the individual
soul and affects those with which it mediately
or Immediately comes in contact, is void of
lasting effect. As to itself, it passes away like a
shadow and is remembered no more. But there
have been lives whose influence will extend to
remotest time and of these was the life of the sub-
ject of this memoir, Mr. George Ball.
It is doubtful if there ever was an intrinsically
noble man who did not have a noble mother, and it
is doubtful if any man ever accomplished much
worthy of commemoration, who was not sustained
and cheered by the companionship and counsel of a
noble wife. Mr. Ball possessed both and few men
have done more to entitle themselves to an honorable
place upon the pages of the State's history.
He was born May 9th, 1817, at Gausevoort,
Saratoga County, N. Y., where he resided until
twelve years of age, when he went to live with
his uncle, George Hoyt, at Albany, in that
State. He learned the trade of silversmith and
jeweler from his uncle and was indebted to him also
for most excellent training in business affairs. On
reaching his majority, he set out to seek a location
for himself, traveling extensively through the
Western and Southern States, and finally set
tling for a time in Shreveport, La. There he
came to hear a great deal of Texas, and being
influenced by favorable reports, at last decided to
try his fortunes in the then infant republic.
Eeturning to New York, he formed a copartner-
ship with his brother Albert, and, procuring a stock
of general merchandise and lumber suflQcient to
erect a small store house, embarked for Galveston,
and arrived there in the fall of 1839, during the
disastrous epidemic of yellow fever that prevailed
that year. Nothing daunted by the gloomy sur-
roundings that environed him, he landed his cargo
and, leasing a lot on Tremont street, between
Mechanics and Market streets, proceeded to erect
his building and open his business. His brother
joined him the following year, and their business
proving successful, they moved to the vicinity of
Strand and Twenty-second streets, at that time
much nearer to the center of trade than the first
site selected. After a few years this firm was dis-
solved, Albert entering the clothing business and
George continuing that of dry goods.
In 1854, Mr. Ball disposed of his mercantile
interests and, associating himself with John H.
Hutchings and John Sealy, formed the firm of Ball,
Hutchings & Co., for banking and commission pur-
poses. As senior member of this firm, Mr. Ball
showed himself to be a man of good ability.. Under
his management it soon took rank among the first
in the city and eventually became the first in the
State. During the four years of the late war (from
1861 to 1865) this firm transacted an extensive
business with Europe in the interests of the Con-
federate government through Mexico and after-
wards, in 1873, tided over that year of panic and
failure. Ball, Hutchings & Co., met all demands
and, by integrity and business skill, have met and
weathered all subsequent financial storms that have
wrecked so many business concerns and are now
one of the most famous banking houses that the
United States can boast. From the first Mr.
Ball manifested his belief in the future of Gal-
veston and took great interest in everything per-
taining to its welfare. There were very few enter-,
prises started in the city in which he was not
one of the foremost workers. To a number of cor-
porations and scores of private undertakings, he
was a stanch friend and valued contributor. He
early saw the advantages that Galveston possessed
as a shipping point and advocated and promoted
the adoption of all measures that tended to the de-
velopment of the transportation interests of the
city. He took the first $10,000.00 worth of stock
in the Mallory Steamship Company on its organiza-
tion. On April 19, 1843, Mr. Ball married Miss
Sarah Catherine Perry, a native of Newport, E. I.,
and a daughter of Capt. James Perry, who set
tied at Galveston in 1839. Capt. Perry was con-
nected with the Custom House in early days and
was for many years a respected citizen of Galves-
ton. Of this union six children were born, but two
of whom survive : Mrs. Nellie League of Galveston
and Frank Merriam Ball. Mr. Ball sought no pub-
lic office, his family and business occupying all of
his time and attention. He was a man of quiet
tastes and retired habits, known for his great kind-
156
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ness of heart and disposition to be helpful to others.
He came to be the possessor of much wealth, which,
however, he sought to use in such a manner as to
accomplish the most good for himself and his fellow-
men. The year preceding his death, he donated
fifty thousand doDars for the erection of a building
in Galveston for public school purposes, to which
donation, while the building was in course of con-
struction, he added $20,000.00niore. This build-
ing was barely finished when his life drew to a
close, at 1 : 15 o'clock on the morning of March
13, 1884.
The following letter of acknowledgment was
addressed to him by the trustees of the city public
free schools, through their secretary: —
" Office or Superintendent, 1
"Galveston, Texas, June 9th, 1883. |
" George Ball, Esq., Galveston, Texas:
' ' Dear Sir — I have the honor to inform you that
at a regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of
the Public Free Schools of the city of Galveston,
held June 7th, 1883, Col. W. B. Denson offered
the following resolution, which was adopted by a
unanimous vote, viz. . —
" 'Resolved, by the Board of Trustees, that we
have received notification of the generous and mag-
nificent donation of our fellow-townsman, George
Ball, in donating $50,000.00 to be used in the
erection of a public school building in the city of
Galveston, and, as the representatives of the pub-
lic free schools of this city, we tender him our
sincere and profound gratitude and we bespeak for
this broad philanthropy of Mr. Ball the commenda-
tion of a grateful people.'
" I have the honor to further inform you that at
the same meeting of the Board of School Trustees,
on motion of Col. Denson, the action of the City
Council in leaving the construction of the building
aforesaid to your direction and supervision was
indorsed by the Board.
" Respectfully yours,
" Foster Rose, Secy."
His will provided funds in trust, for other char-
ites, the chief of which was a fund of $50,000.00
to aid the poor of the city. Mr.- Ball was buried
March 4th, 1884, with all the honors a grateful
people could confer upon the memory of one so
universally mourned.
The following is an extract from an editorial that
appeared in the columns of the Galveston Daily
Newsot the morning of March 15th, 1884: —
" In all the history of Galveston there has never
been a more spontaneous and frevent manifestation
of sorrow at the death of a member of the commun-
ity than that which was given yesterday upon the
funeral of Mr. George Ball. The city wore a
Sunday-like appearance and, except that the scores
of flags that were at half-mast told their own story
of the sorrow of the community, a comer to the
city would have wondered at the quiet that pre-
vailed. At 12 o'clock the Cotton Exchange and
banks closed for the day, and between that hour
and three o'clock a large number of stores closed
their doors. During the day numerous tender gifts
of flowers were sent to the residence, many of
them elegant and elaborate. Among the handsome
floral tributes each district school sent a gift, while
the children of the Grammar school contributed a
number of beautiful crosses, crowns and wreaths
into which were wrought the initials G. B. Very
handsome and artistic floral offerings were sent by
Mrs. Kopperl, Mrs. Adoue, Mrs. George Sealy,
Capt. Bolger, Mr. and Mrs. W. H. Willis, Mrs. A.
G. Mills, Miss Sorley, the Ladies Aid Society and
Miss Garley. One of the tenderest tributes was
brought by a little girl, who went to the door of the
residence and offered a little cross, saying, ' Please
put this on the coflin ; it is the best I could do.'
The little giver can rest assured that her offering
of love was given a place upon the casket. The
funeral services were held at three o'clock, but long
before that hour citizens of high and low estate,
old and young, white and black, had begun to
gather at the residence. The body, inclosed in a
handsome casket, rested in the drawing room, where
it was viewed by hundreds. Those who knew Mr.
Ball in life, could not help noting the naturalness
which marked the features in death. The face
wore a look of calm, placid rest, as though Mr.
Ball had ' wrapped the mantle of his couch about
him and laid down to pleasant dreams.'
"The funeral services, which were held at the
house, were conducted by the Reverend Mr. Scott,
of the Presbyterian Church. After reading, by
special request, the beautiful and impressive service
of the Episcopal Church, Mr. Scott continued and
said: —
" 'It needs not, dear friends, that I speak with
you to-day of him who is no longer with us, nor
would it be consonant with the feelings and wishes
of those most dearly concerned that I should do
so. The deepest and truest grief always courts
silence and retirement. His life was spent in your
midst; his record is before you, as a man,
a citizen, a philanthropist, a benefactor, he
is known to you all; and I see in this vast throng, .
here assembled, representing all classes and"
orders among us,, a clear evidence that our whole
Snj ?ly H.iS. CKoswo ete . TS-f
George Ball.
INDIAN' WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Vol
city, in all her borders, sits to-day under the shadow
of a common grief. The aged and the young, the
little children of our homes, whose friend he was —
are gathered, not onlj' under an impulse of sympathy
with those who have been so sorely bereaved, but
under a sense of personal sorrow and loss. And
now, while our hearts are touched and attentive,
may I not, as God's servant, entreat you to lay to
heart this admonition ' in the midst of life we are
in death ' and ask you to receive God's tender over-
tures of grace and salvation, so that when your
summons comes to go it may find you in perfect
charity with man, at peace with God, in the enjoy-
ment of ' a reasonable religious and holy hope ' the
result of a life spent with the constant intention to
follow the course mapped out by the divine Savior
of the world. And let us bear upon the arm of our
powerful sympathy those whose grief and sorrow
are to-day so great, endeavoring to draw from that
great well of comfort to the bereaved, those con-
solations which a merciful God gives to the broken
heart.'
' ' Mr. Scott then read sundry appropriate and con-
solatory scriptures, quoting in conclusion Elliott's
beautiful lines : —
" My God and Father while I stray
Far from my home in life's rough way,
0, help me from my heart to say :
Thy will be done.
"Let but my fainting heart be blest
With Thy sweet spirit for its guest;
My God, to Thee I leave the rest ;
Thy will be done.
" Renew my will from day to day,
Blend it with Thine, and talje away
All that makes it hard to say
Thy will be done.
" Then when on earth I breathe no more,
That prayer, oft mixed with tears before,
I'll sing upon a happy shore,
Thy Will be done.
"The casket was, upon the conclusion of the
services at the residence, taken in charge by the
pall-bearers — Mr. Rosenberg, Judge Ballinger,Mr.
John Sealy, Mr. George Sealy, Mr. J. H. Hutchings,
Mr. Waters S. Davis, Mr. A. J. Walker, Capt. A. N.
Sawyer, Mr. James Sorley, Capt. Chas. Fowler, Capt.
Bolger and Capt. Lufkin — and conveyed to the
hearse. The procession formed with the following
societies in the lead in the order named and repre-
sented by the numbers stated : —
" Screwmen's Benevolent Association, 195 men ;
Longshoremen's Association, ' 65 ; Longshoremen's
Benevolent Union, 40; Fire Department, 70; Gal-
veston Typographical Union, 60; Employees of the
Mallory Steamship Company, 60 ; Bricklayers As-
sociation, 40 ; G. C. P. E. B. and P. Association,
60; Franklin Assembly, K. of L., 25; Pioneer
Assembly, K. of L., 35; Trades' Assembly, 32;
Pressmen's Union, 10 ;
" Next came the employees of the "bank, on foot ;
then the pall-bearers in carriages. The hearse
followed, and after it the family and friends.
There were eighty-three carriages in the procession,
which- extended over a mile and a quarter on Broad-
way.
"The procession on its way to the cemetery
passed the Ball School building, which was draped
in mourning. While the funeral cortege was pass-
ing through the streets the bells of St. Mary's
Cathedral, Trinity Church and St. John's church
were tolled. The streets were lined with people
along the whole route and at the cemetery the
street was crowded with old and young. The
flags of the societies, all draped in mourning, were
stationed in a square around the grave. The casket
was lowered into its final resting-place, a feeling
prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Scott, and the floral
offerings were deposited in the grave, and the
tributes were ended.
"While most of the children of the Grammar
school were busily engaged in making the floral
tributes placed by them on the casket, several of
them passed resolutions of respect to the memory of
Mr. Ball. After the committee had finished their
work they collected all the pupils in one room, read
the resolutions to them and they were unanimously
adopted. They are as follows : —
' ' ' Whereas, God having taken from us our friend
and benefactor, Mr. George Ball, we the children
of the Grammar school, as the immediate i-eciplents
of his kindness, offer the following resolutions : —
" ' 1. We heartily sympathize with the family in the
act of Providence, which has deprived them of a
kind husband and father and us of a true friend.
" ' 2. We, the children to whom he has endeared
himself by this, the crowning work of his life, can
only regret that it was not the will of God that he
should live to see its completion, and our daily
efforts to show our appreciation of the benefits he
has placed within our reach.
"'3. That his name shall be forever cherished
among us as that of one to whom it will be said :
' Well done thou good and faithful servant.'
"'4. That a copy of these resolutions be pre-
sented to the bereaved family, and published in the
Galveston papers.
' ' ' Lewis Sorlet.
" ' (Ninth Grade) Grammar.'
"'Fannie A. Stephenson, Maud F. Royston,
158
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Waters S. Davis, Jr. (Ninth Grade) ; Anna M.
Swain, Virginia M. Sanford, Mamie Boyd (Eiglitli
Grade) ; Maggie A. Malier, Marie FoeJje, Sebas-
tian Tinsley, Harry Martin (Seventli Grade).' "
Elsewliere in the News of the same issue appeared
the following: "To-day all that was mortal of a
man whose memory will be cherished as long as the
city stands, will be consigned to the tomb to be
seen no more forever in the city in which he was an
important member for more than forty years. Re-
tiring and quiet in his tastes and habits, his name
was yet as familiar as that of the city itself, and
the notoriety which he shunned was supplanted by
the substantial respect and friendship of the peo-
ple, who admired his virtues and integrity of char-
acter and felt the benefits of his designs and far-
reaching public spirit and charity. In the presence
of the chaste and severe simplicity of such a char-
acter the ordinary forms of praise are out of place,
and only those who know perfectly — and none
knew more than partially — the beneficent acts
which he performed under a cold demeanor or con-
cealed even from the beneficiaries, can realize to a
fair extent the admirable equipoise of his character.
As a man of business, he was as methodical and
regular as a machine. In his charities, he would,
if possible, have been so, but in the impossibility
of discriminating in all demands upon it, he doubt-
less erred in being too liberal rather than too rigid.
The great commercial house of which he was the
senior member has doubtless given far more for
religious and charitable purposes and aided more
in enterprises for the public good than any other in
Texas. There is probably not one among the many
churches of Galveston which has not been aided by
them. Hospitals and asylums for the orphan and
afflicted have been equally remembered, while steam-
ships and railroads have been greatly aided by their
ample means. Mr. Ball himself was the reputed
owner of about one-eighth interest in the famous
New York and Galveston Line of steamships. The
house of which he was a senior member was doubt-
less the main instrument in making the Santa Fe
Eailroad, what it has proved, the most important
element of its kind in the prosperity of Galveston.
Hotels and city railroads have received important
aid at their hands, and no enterprise for the benefit
of the city has asked help from the firm in vain,
while the business men of the city, whether mer-
chants or mechanics, have often been sustained and
encouraged by the house. It would be hard to
name a worthy object needing aid which has. not
received it at their h?inds. But, besides this, Mr.
Ball's private charities are known to have been
large though even his nearest friends do not know
their extent. He studiously concealed many of
them. Even the crowning gift that became public
-before his death was made to take effect during his
life with much reluctance, because he dreaded the
talk and notoriety it would cause. It is under-
stood that he had last year or before made pro-
vision by will for the appropriation of $100,-
000.00 out of his estate to provide a home for aged
women, but on reflection he concluded to give half
of the amount for the erection of the public school
building which is now arising as a fitting monument
to his fame, which is destined to rise higher after
his long and useful life has ended. • * * Though
a strictly business man and supposed to look mainly
to profitable results, he loved a good name better
than riches, and would have preferred any pecuniary
loss to a tarnished reputation or any violence to his
own conscience. * * * Mr. Ball's was in every
sense of the word a remarkable and admirable
character. Indeed he may have been taken as the
type of the ideal business man. Of a fine and im-
pressive personal appearance, with a massive and
well-shaped head and keen, yet kindly eyes, his
outward appearance rightly indicated his mental
and moral qualities. It has been said by good
judges, themselves able business men, that, in their
opinion, Mr. George Ball was the most sagacious
business man in the State and, perhaps, in the
South. He was possessed of an eminently con-
servative turn of mind, of a sharp insight into men
and affairs, and, when occasion demanded it, he
acted promptly and decisively. The admirable
blending of these two qualities, caution and decision
of character, gave him the key to that success which
he invariably commanded.
" By a wise management of his affairs, Mr. Ball
acquired a large estate.
" No man will ever know the amount of unosten-
tatious beneficence that is surely credited to this
self-poised but truly modest and kind-hearted
man. * * * He ever and conscientiously de-
clined election to public office. His life was
wholly occupied by his business and his family,
and, dying, he left no enemies, no animosities, no
heart-burnings behind him. His self-reliant and
yet retiring disposition shaded him, as it were,
from public notoriety, but those who knew him well
will not think it at all extravagant when we say
that he possessed abilities that would have enabled
him to fill any position in the country with dis-
tinction. And that as a symmetrical character
and an upright man we do not know of his
superior."
It is a hard struggle to fight one's way to finan-
cial independence and harder still to achieve that
Mrs. Sarah C. Ball.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
159
independence and at the same time maintain a
philanthropic interest in the welfare of others, even
those who are contemporaneous, and almost im-
possible as regards posterity ; yet, Mr. Ball was
one of the few who succeeded in spite of all
obstacles, and, notwithstanding the many chilling
influences that every successful man must en-
counter, entertained a genuine love for his fellow-
men and a deep interest in the future welfare of
his country and his kind. He did not care for
money in itself, but simply for the power it gave
him for good. His benefactions were many and
continuous, but perhaps the most permanently
beneficial was the donation for the public school
building in Galveston. In a free country where
every citizen is intrusted with the privilege and
invested with the duties of suffrage the question of
popular education, above all others, is the most
vitally important, for the reason that the sole hope
of constitutional freedom and good government
must ever rest upon the intelligence of the citizen.
It is almost impossible to estimate the ultimate
value of this donation, equally notable for the
wisdom and enlightened and noble spirit that
inspired it — a donation worthy of all praise and
of emulation. It is sufficient to say that it is
fraught with blessings to the State. In every
walk of life he was a potential factor. He left his
impress deep upon the times in which he lived.
Subsequent to Mr. Ball's death, Mrs. Ball had
the school building beautifully remodeled and a
handsome mansard roof put on it, at an additional
cost of $40,000.00, and spent $10,000.00 more in
suitably furnishing it. She was one of the organiz-
ers of the First Presbyterian Church established in
Galveston and is the only survivor of those whose
names appear upon the first roll. A cultured,
gracious and exceptionally talented lady, she is
one of the brightest ornaments of the refined
society of the Oleander City.
GEORGE SEALY,
GALVESTON.
George Sealy, than whom no other man in Texas
has contributed more to the development of the
commerce of the State of Texas or to the develop-
ment of its general resources, and than whom in
this commonwealth there is none who has made a
deeper impress on the times in which he lives, was
born in the famous Wyoming Valley, Luzerne
Co., Pa., on the 9th day of January, 1835.
His parents, Robert and Mary (McCarty) Sealy,
were born in Cork, Ireland. They were married
and came to America in the year 181S. His father
was one of eight children — four sons and four
daughters. Quite a large family estate was owned
in Ireland, but it was entailed and his father, being
the fourth son, received only what the eldest brother
was willing to concede to him. This, however, at
the time of Robert Sealy's marriage, amounted to
several thousand dollars, which he brought with him
to America. He had also learned a trade (which
was customary at that time), to fall back on if nec-
essary. The trade that he selected was that of a
locksmith. It was well that he learned a trade, for
he found it useful in later life. He settled down
in Pennsylvania but engaged in no active business,
content, apparently, to live on his capital, instead
of endeavoring to increase it. As his capital de-
creased his family increased and, as time rolled on,
he became the father of ten children — eight daugh-
ters and two sons. Next to the oldest child came
his son John and next to the last, the subject of
this memoir, George Sealy. His family having
thus grown and his money gone, he applied himself,
from necessity, with energy and patience to the
trade he had learned in his younger days, in order
to earn a support for himself, wife and children.
When reduced to this condition he ceased all cor-
respondence with his family in Ireland and his
older brother, supposing him dead, and having no
male offspring of his own, broke the entail, and gave
the property to his nephew. This put an end to all
Robert Sealy's claims to the estate.
These facts are mentioned to show that he had
apparently little desire for the acquisition of
wealth. He died in 1855, when sixty-six years
of age. All that he left to his children was
a name as an honest man and a reputation as a
consistent member of the Presbyterian Church.
His wife was also a member of the same church and
a most devout Christian woman. Her infiuence
over the children was much more effective in mold-
160
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ing their after lives than that of the father. Her
constant prayers and advice to them was to be
Industrious, economical, honest, and truthful.
Example and precept were all she had to give
them.
Very early in life the subject of this memoir
felt the necessity of caring for himself and experi-
enced an ambition to, at some future time, become
independent. He attended common schools until
twelve years of age, and then undertook to take
care of himself. His first earnings were gained by
working for ten cents per day and his board, his
employment being to sit on the end of a plow beam
to hold the point of the plow in the ground when-
ever the plowman had to cross gravel beds. He
would walk from one streak of gravel to another
and mount the end of the plow beam until it
was passed. He next worked on a farm for five
dollars per month and board and went to school
three months during the winter season, working
during these three months, nights and mornings,
for his board. The three following years he
worked in a country store, selling goods, sweeping
out and keeping books nine months in the year at
five dollars per month, and the other three months
attending the Wyoming Seminary, at Kingston,
Pa., working mornings and evenings for his board.
When eighteen years of age the Lackawana and
Bloomsburg Railroad was built into the Wyoming
valley — the first railroad to enter the great coal
valle}' of the Wyoming — and he accepted the posi-
tion of station agent at Kingston and held it until
he was twenty-two years of age. At that time his
salary had been increased to fifty dollars per
month and he had saved eleven hundred dollars.
In the spring of 1857 he decided to come to Texas,
and, to better his chances for a position in a busi-
ness house, went to Pittsburg, Pa., and took a
course in a commercial college.
After graduating there he took one hundred dol-
lars of his money to pay his expenses to Texas and
left one thousand with his mother for her use in
ease of necessity, or for the use of his unmarried
sisters. He reached Galveston in November, 1857,
during the great panic of that year, with $25 in his
pocket. His ambition, as already stated, was to
become financially independent, and this ambition
could only be accomplished by hard work and
economizing in every way. His idea was that any
boy or young man, with good health and with no
one but himself to care for, could save enough of
his earnings to eventually become independent of
others, but to thus succeed he must deprive him-
self of what might be considered the luxuries of
tobacco, cigars and liquors of all kinds, simply, if
for no other reason, because of expense. He spent
no money on these articles until late in life. His
advice to all young men has been never to decline
work on account of the salary offered, and never to
abandon a situation unless another is offered at an
increased salary. A living should be the first con-
sideration of every poor boy or man, and if his
services are valuable, his present employers will
testify their appreciation of that fact by offering
him proper compensation therefor, or others will
discover his qualities and engage his services.
On his arrival in Galveston in November, 1857,
he offered his services to Ball, Hutchings & Com-
pany, with the understanding that he would work
one year and accept such salary, if any, as they
might determine upon.
His duties during the first year included those
of shipping clerk, opening the oflace, sweeping out
the store and any other work at which he could
make himself useful. He neglected no opportunity
to gain all the knowledge he could of the busi-
ness. He made it his business to volunteer to do
the work of any of the clerks who were sick, or
were allowed a vacation. In this way he soon
became competent to fill any position in the office.
To perform this extra labor he would commence
work at six o'clock in the morning and often
remain at his post until as late as eleven o'clock
at night. His willingness to work and eagerness to
make himself competent and valuable constituted
the basis of his after success. "The great
error," he has often said, " that young men
make, is being content to perform the only duties
they are paid for, and having no ambition to
advance themselves through the means of extra
labor for which they get no pay. As a result,
they are not competent to fill higher positions and
they, perforce, go through life receiving small
salaries and doing as little work as they possibly
can."
His salary was advanced from year to year, but
without any demand on his part. During the year
1859 he was offered a partnership in a large
grocery house, which was being considered by him,
when Mr. George Ball heard of the offer and said
to him that the firm of Ball, Hutchings & Co.,
would not allow him to leave their employ and
that all he had to do was to name a salary that
would be satisfactory and it would be cheerfully
given. A satisfactory arrangement was made and
the partnership in the grocery business abandoned.
Mr. Sealy's first vote was cast for John C. Free-
mont for President of the United States in 1856.
He was opposed to the extension of slavery into
new territory, but recognized the constitutional
Eng "^by K '> C Koevoets,N Y
GEORGE SEAJY
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
161
right of the then existing slave States to own
negroes as property ; not because he approved or
was in favor of the system of slavery, but because
it was the acknowledged law of the land and only
by war or by purchase of the negroes by the general
government could that law be rightfully abrogated.
War came and slavery was abolished. The election
of Mr. Lincoln as President of the United States in
1860 brought about the secession of the Southern
States. The question then came up in the mind of
Mr. Sealy, what was his duty to himself? He
decided that, as he came to Texas to make it his
home, he would obey the laws of the State of Texas
and take his chances with the other people of the
State, even in war, although he was opposed to
secession. He continued his connection with Ball,
Hutchings & Co., but it became necessary in 1862
for him to join some military organization or be
subject to conscription. He accordingly enlisted
aa a volunteer in the independent company of
cavalry organized by the late Col. H. B. Andrews
as one of its original members. Mr. Sealy says he
has always entertained a high opinion of the military
qualities of Col. Andrews, as the Colonel's inde-
pendent compan}' was attached to perhaps eight or
ten battalions or regiments during the war ; the
Colonel had a kind heart and was always willing to
allow his company to be attached for the time being
to a battalion to create the office of Major for some
military friend of his deserving the position, or to
•be attached to a number of companies to form a
Tegiment so as to make a Colonel of a friend of his.
It, however, never reported to any Major or Colonel
to complete the organization and thus saw no active
service.
The company, as a matter of fact, was composed
of such valuable material that the members were
:all detailed for the discharge of special and im-
portant duties, and the Colonel could never get his
men together in time to perfect a battalion or regi-
mental organization. The result was that the war
lid not last long enough to give the Colonel an
-opportunity to lead his men to the front for targets.
They all survived the war and have been grateful
for the strategy exhibited by him during the war
for the purpose of securing their comfort and safety.
Mr. Sealy enlisted for three years, as the law
required in 1862. Being opposed to secession he
was consistent in not accepting anything in the way
of pay from the Confederacy for his services as
a soldier and lived at his own expense. He was
detailed to serve in the office of Gen. Slaughter,
-commanding the Western Division of Texas, at
Brownsville, and in 1865 performed the last official
service that was rendered the Confederacy, signing
n
the parole, under official authority, of the soldiers
of the lost cause who surrendered at Brownsville On
the Eio Grande — the last to lay down their arms.
He served his full three years without pay, but not
without honor, as he was repeatedly offered higher
positions which he declined. The position he took,
from necessity, was that of a private, and he would
not do himself the injustice to accept, voluntarily,
any higher position, as he had promised himself to
comply simply with the existing laws of the land
and this he did faithfully. During the years
from 1862 to 1865 he was also representing Ball,
Hutchings & Co., at Matamoros, Mexico, in
receiving and shipping cotton from Texas to
Liverpool and cotton-cards from Europe. Ball,
Hutchings & Co. had a contract with the State of
Texas to deliver 20,000 pairs of cotton cards. A
part of the consideration was, that they were
granted by the State the privilege of exporting a
certain number of bales of cotton free from any in-
terference on the part of the Confederate officers.
The war ended in May, 1865, and, after the army
at Brownsville was disbanded, Mr. Sealy signed his
own parole, having been authorized so to do, took
passage on a government transport and went to Gal-
veston. The city was still under the domination of
the Federal military authorities. Business was
allowed to go on unimpeded and Ball, Hutchings &
Company opened their office again as bankers.
This firm was established in the year 1855 and
was composed at that time of Geo. Ball, John H.
Hutchings and John Sealy. It is not necessary to
say anything of the members individually here, as
suitable biographical notices are to be found upon
other pages of this volume. When the firm was
established their business was that of wholesale dry
goods and commission merchants. In 1860 they
sold out their dry goods business and continued the
cotton commission business. It was during this
year, 1860, that the subject of this memoir con-
ceived the idea of adding banking to the business
of the firm on his own responsibility ; demonstrated
the propriety and advantage of the step, had blanks
printed and distributed among the members of the
local business community and, in a short time there-
after, put into successful operation a regular bank-
ing business. From that time forward the firm of
Ball, Hutchings & Company became known as
bankers as well as commission merchants. It can
be truthfully said that the firm never solicited
patronage. That which came to it came voluntarily.
The firm has enjoyed from its beginning to the
present time an unbroken reputation for liberality
and fair dealing. In the year 1865 Mr. George
Sealy became interested in the business, being
162
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
allowed a percentage of the profits, and in 1867
became a full partner and has since so remained,
having active management of the banking depart-
ment. Mr. Sealy has ever been a public -spirited
citizen. He, and all the members of bis firm, have
been called upon to lead in nearly every public
enterprise inaugurated in Galveston. It has fre-
quently been said that if Ball, Hutcbings & Co.
declined to subscribe to any public enterprise, it
would necessarily fail. Consequently, Mr. Sealy
has always been expected to take an active part in
and use his influence for the promotion of such
movements. In 1873 the Gulf, Colorado & Santa ,
Fe Railway Co. was chartered and in 1877 about
fifty miles of road had been built, or rather, track
had been laid that distance, but the company had
no rolling stock, as there was no business on the
road. It extended into Fort Bend County, but the
company had neither money nor credit to extend
the line further, and the work therefore ceased.
Galveston County had contributed five hundred
thousand dollars, and its Citizens had contributed
about two hundred and fifty thousand dollars in
stock of the company, and this amount (seven hun-
dred and fifty thousand dollars) had been expended
on the road. There was great depression in Gal-
veston on account of discriminations in railroad
rates, and in 1878, Mr. Sealy, seeing the great
necessity of protecting the interests of Galveston
merchants by further extending the Gulf, Col-
orado & Santa Fe road, by his unaided efforts
organized a syndicate to purchase and extend the
line into the interior. This movement was suc-
cessful. The line was extended wholly by the
capital and credit of Galveston people, mainly
through the infiuence of Mr. Sealy and the other
members of the firm of Ball, Hutchings & Co.
By 1886 the road was built to Fort Worth, to San
Angelo and to Dallas, about seven hundred miles,
when Mr. Sealy, seeing the necessity of making a
connection with some system through which to
reach the great Northwest, entered into negotia-
tions with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co.
to make an exchange of Gulf, Colorado & Santa
-Fe stock on a basis satisfactory to both parties,
and the result of this action upon his part was
that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Co. completed
its road to Paris, Texas, to a connection with the St.
Louis & San Francisco road and to Purcell, I. T.,
to a connection with the Atchison Company, making
a total of 1058 miles of Gulf, Colorado & Santa
Fe road. Mr. Sealy remained president of the
company until this mileage was completed and
the management was transferred to the Atchison
Company.
The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe road is the
only road in Texas that has not at some
time been sold out to satisfy creditors or placed
in the hands of receivers. Its finances were
managed entirely by Mr. Sealy and his bank-
ino- firm. Every contract entered into by it was
carried out to the letter and the contractors
promptly paid in cash all amounts due them.
These facts are mentioned to show that Mr. Sealy
is entitled to be considered an able manager and
financier. For the sake of history, we might men-
tion that in the contract for the transfer, or ex-
change of stock of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa
Fe Co., to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co.,
involving about twenty-five million dollars, includ-
ing stock and bonds, it was agreed by him for the
stockholders of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Co.
that the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe should be de-
livered to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Co.
free from floating indebtedness after the completion
of its line of road. Owing to bad crops and con-
sequent bad business, when the Gulf, Colorado
& Santa Fe mileage was completed the road was
not free from floating debt (debts due outside of
its bonded indebtedness), and Mr. Sealy so reported
to the Atchison Company. The Atchison Com-
pany, having every confidence in him, left the
matter entirely in his hands for adjustment. The
difference was made out by him and he submitted
the accounts to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
stockliolders and asked them to pay an assessment
amounting to only 3 per cent on the stock to make
up the deficiency. This was freely paid by all of
the honest stockholders. A few, however, refused,
claiming that they could not be legally compelled
to pay on the ground that the constitution of the
State of Texas prohibits the consolidation with
railroad companies outside of Texas. Mr. Sealy
said that the debt was honestly due and, for him-
self, he never looked for a legal loophole to get out
of an honorable business transaction. The few,
however, whose names we will not mention, whom
he designated in public correspondence at the time
as " Colonels " did not pay their assessments and,
in order to comply with the contract he had made
with the Atchison Company, he proposed to pay
what was due from the "Colonels" himself, but
the Atchison Company declined to permit him to
do so, because of this legally unsettled constitu-
tional question. In this transaction alone, Mr.
Sealy could have made a million of dollars, but he
acted in good faith as president of the Gulf, Col-
orado & Santa Fe, and every stockholder, large and
small, received the same for their stock that he
did. When he had the contract signed, in his
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
163
hands; he could have purchased the stock of the
"Colonels" at a much less price than they re-
ceived, but he was not made of their kind of
material, and was content to deal fairly with
his fellow-stockholders. The correspondence
that , took place at the time would be interest-
ing [reading, but we have not space to intro-
duce it here. Mr. Sealy is president of the
Texas Guarantee and Trust Company, vice-presi-
dent of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa FeRy. Co.,
treasurer of the Galveston Cotton Exchange,, Gal-
veston Rope and Twine Co., Galveston Free School
Board, Galveston Maritime Association, Galveston
Protestant Ojphans' Home and Galveston Evening
Tribune Publishing Co. ; a director in the Galves-
ton Wharf Co., Galveston Gas Co., Southern Kan-
sas & Texas Ry. Co., Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Ry. Co., Galveston Cotton & Woolen Mills Co.,
Galveston Cotton Exchange, Galveston Maritime
Association, Texas Land & Loan Co., Rembert
Roller Compress Co., Southern Cotton Compress
Co., Bluefields Banana Co., Galveston Agency
of the Galveston Meat Exporting Co., and the
Galveston Electric Light Co. He has never had
a desire for public office.. Being urgently solic-
ited, he did, however, allow his name to go be-
fore the people of Galveston in the year 1872, as a
candidate for alderman and was elected to and
fllled that position. During his term he advocated
and secured the introduction of reforms that were
valuable to the city. When he entered the council,
city scrip was selling at fifty cents on the dollar.
This was caused largely by the fact of there being no
limitation to the expenditure of money in any
department of the city government. He saw the
necessity of ascertaining the probable revenue for
the coming year and of setting aside for the several
departments of the government a certain propor-
tion of the estimated revenues and confining ex-
penditures to the estimated resources for that
period. He also advocated the passage of an ordi-
nance providing that the mayor should be subjected
to a penalty for signing any draft on the treasurer
of the city, when there was no mone^' in the hands
of the treasurer to cover it. Necessary ordinances
were accordingly enacted. These salutary reforms
accomplished, the credit of the city was restored,
and its affairs thereafter conducted on a cash
basis. These reforms have since been generally
adopted in other cities in the State. Mr. Sealy
realizes that politics and business do not har-
monize. He has frequently been called upon to
allow his name to be presented for congressman, but
has always declined. Had he consented, no doubt
he would have been nominated and elected. His
name has also been frequently mentioned as a busi-
ness candidate for the position of 'Governor of
Texas. He is well known to all classes, rich and
poor, black and white, young and old. It has
been a rule of bis life to recognize manhood in the
boy as well as the man, and he speaks pleasantly
to all, irrespective of their position as regards
color, wealth, or education. It has been reported
that on one occasion, when passing through a city
in Texas, a man engaged in a profitable business
stopped Mr. Sealy in the street and, extending his
hand, said: "You do not know me now, but I
want to shake your hand. I well remember that
when I was a boy in Galveston, serving as collector
for a wholesale house and earning only a few dol-
lars per month, you always spoke to me in passing
and I always felt better after meeting you. It
made me think better of myself, and I know that
your kindly recognition had a good influence over
me, as I believed that you considered me a boy of
character or you would not have spoken to me."
Kindness costs nothing, and it often exercises a
good and lasting influence. There is no envy in'
Mr. Sealy's nature. He rejoices in the success of
his competitors and during times of panic and dis-
tress has frequently helped them with his means
and advice to escape failure. He contributes to all
classes of charities, because it is his pleasure to do
so. He has acted upon the principle that it is
" more blessed to give than to receive."
Mr. Sealy was married to Miss Magnolia Willis,
the daughter of P. J. Willis, of the great commer-
cial house of P. J. Willis &Bros., of Galveston,
in 1875. They have eight children, viz. : —
Margaret, Ella, George, Caroline, Rebecca,
Marj', Robert and William.
Mr. Sealy is not fond of display or notoriety.
He did, however, in order to gratify the desire of
his wife and children and to show his great confi-
dence in the future prosperity' of Galveston, con-
sent to erect an elegant residence, perhaps the most
expensive in the State. It has been said that its
cost amounted to two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
Mr. Sealy's firm. Ball, Hutchings & Co., perhaps
the wealthiest banking firm in the South, have been
most liberal bankers. They have been successful
and could afford to sustain occasional losses.
Their losses, however, have been nearly all in-
curred in trying to help some one to build up a
business in the interest of Galveston and the State
of Texas. From experience and observation Mr.
Sealy has concluded that, as statistics prove but
three men out of every one hundred succeed in
making more than a living, it is very risky to ad-
164
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
vance money to any one who has not proved him-
self competent to accumulate something beyond
his expenses from year to year, however small his
capital may be at the outset. It has been said
that "success is the only measure of merit."
This truism applies not only to the making, or
accumulating^of property but to all professions,
arts and sciences as well. Success is not a matter
of chance, the few exceptions noted by common
experience proving rather than militating against
the rule.
Show me your man who occupies a high and
useful place among his fellows and is adding to
the happiness and prosperity of the community
and country in which he lives and, nine times out
of ten, I will show you a man who has made his
own way, and that, too, against all manner of
opposition, to the eminence, independence and
usefulness of his present station. The life of no
man who has made the world better or wiser by
living, or having lived, or who has added to the
comfort of his fellow-beings, or has set an example
worthy of emulation, ever has been or ever can be a
failure. To really fail is to fail in all these things.
There are men in Texas to-day whose lives are
like salt leavening the mass ; whose lives are full
of wholesome lessons to the young ; men whose
deeds have been prolific of good to the common-
wealth ; men who have helped to lay broad and
deep the foundations of the State's greatness.
The development of natural resources and the
march of natural progress along all lines during
the past thirty years is without parallel in any other
period of time of thrice its length in the annals of
human history. This has been particularly marked
in the South since the war. She now no longer
mainly boasts of her statesmen and soldiers, but
that, from her best brain and purpose she has
evolved a race of able financiers and city builders.
Many railroads now traverse her hills and plains
and valleys, rich argosies ride at anchor in her
ports, furnaces glow deep red in her valleys, the
whirr of ever-increasing spindles makes music in
her cities and a tide of hardy, industrious immi-
grants is flowing into her waste places. Texas has
not been behind her sister States in the march of
industrial and commercial progress. A change
has been wrought that the most sanguine little
dreamed of in those sad days that followed after
the close of the war. The men who have been
leading workers in the bringing about of this won-
derful increase of wealth, unfolding of resources
and general development, are worthy of all praise.
They have made history — some of its brightest
pages. The enduring monuments that they have
erected are stately cities, great transportation lines
and churches, school houses and industrial enter-
prises.
One of the foremost of this band has been the
subject of this memoir, whose financial skill,
energy, liberality, patriotic purpose and con-
structive genius have done much for Texas.
HENRY J. LUTCHER,
ORANGE.
Henry J. Lutcher, one of the wealthiest saw-mill
operators in the United Slates and one of the most
widely known citizens of Texas, was born in
Williamsport., Pa., on the 4th of November, 1836.
His parents, Lewis and Barbara Lutcher, natives
of Germany, came to America in 1826 and located
in Williamsport, where they passed the remaining
years of their lives. The mother died in 1883 and
the father nine days later, leaving but little
propertj'.
The subject of this memoir was early thrown
upon his own resources. In 1857, he began busi-
ness upon his own account as a farmer and butcher
and continued in these pursuits for five years, dur-
ing which time he cleared about $15,000.00. He
then associated himself with John Waltman, under ,
the firm name of Lutcher & Waltman, and engaged
in the lumber business at Williamsport. At "the
expiration of two years he induced his copartner
to sell his interest to G. Bedell Moore, who has
since been Mr. Lutcher's business associate, under
the firm name of Lutcher & Moore. Mr. Lutcher
while operating the mill at Williamsport, Pa. , bought
a large number of cattle which he shipped to that
place over the Philadelphia & Erie Railroad and
sold to local butchers. His profits from this source
amounted to about $50,000.00. In 1876 he visited
Texas for the purpose of prospecting for timbered
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166
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
for their fellow-men, yet each man capacitated for
the task can point out the defects that he has dis-
covered and suggest the remedies that he deems
sufficient to repair them. Mr. Lutcher has done
much thinking along this line and has been solicited
by the editors of several of, the leading magazines
of the country to prepare a series of articles for
publication in their periodicals, and will probably
accede to their request during the coming year.
Thoroughly familiar with his subject, an elegant
and trenchant writer, possessed of a mind stored
with the "spoils of time," these productions will
be looked for with interest and will doubtless cause
something more than a ripple in the world of con-
temporaneous thought. Mr. Lutcher has a large
and carefully selected library and one of his great-
est home-pleasures is to spend. the evening hours
with his books. He agrees with Ruskin, who said
that it seemed strange^ to him that a man would
fritter away his time in idle conversation, when, by
going to the shelves of his book-case, he could talk
with the great an.d good of all ages, with Plato and
Socrates, with Plutarch and Marcus Aurelius — the
kings and princes in the realm of letters.
He is an indefatigable worker, every hour having
its appointed duties. He says that he owes much
of his success in life to the aid given him by his wife
and that as they have journeyed down the stream of
time she has " steered him clear of many a danger-
ous snag." She is thoroughly conversant with his
business affairs and he consults her judgment in all
matters of importance. Their palatial home covers
a beautiful site of four acres on the west bank of
the Sabine, overlooking that stream, and here they
dispense a royal hospitality to their numerous
friends in Texas and other States. Mr. Lutcher has
taken a deep interest and been a potent factor in
the development of the Texas coast country.
Every worthy enterprise has found in him a liberal
supporter. He has been a power for good in
Southern Texas. His is a strong, magnetic per-
sonality that would make itself felt in any assem-
blage, however distinguished, or in any field of
effort. He is an ardent Democrat, but with his
father was bitterly opposed to the late war. He
believes that it was brought on by scheming and
reckless demagogues, indifferent to the long train of
miseries they heaped upon their distracted country.
In the prime of a vigorous mental and physical
manhood and approaching the meridian of an un-
usually successful and brilliant career as a financier,
and full of plans for the future, his influence will
be strongly felt in the future growth and develop-
ment of his adopted State.
JAMES H. RAYMOND.
AUSTIN.
The present, with all that belongs to it, is the
outgrowth and summing up of the entire past. Its
meaning to be comprehended must be interpreted
by the past.
To the young it is the border-line that separates
them from the land of promise in which they are to
be the dominant factors in the fight for mastery ;
to the old the Pisgah height from which they gaze
backward over the past through which they have
journeyed, and forward to the future in which
others will continue the work they have begun.
The Texas of to-day is far different from the
Texas of the days of the Republic. There have
been many changes and transformations since the
first rifle shot of the Revolution was fired in 1835.
Many men of remarkable genius have trod its soil
and toiled with hand and brain and voice and pen
to shape its destinies and direct the commonwealth
along the upward course which it has pursued to
its present proud position among the States of the
American Union.
The leaders in the work of pioneer settlement,
the daring spirits who fomented and led the
pre- revolutionary movements, the heroes and
martyrs of the struggle for independence, the
presidents and cabinet oflicers of the days of the
Republic and the men who laid the foundation of
our State institutions have nearly all passed away.
The only surviving Treasurer of the Republic of
Texas is the subject of this sketch, Mr. James H.
Raymond, now a resident of the city of Austin,
with whose prosperity he has been identified for
many years and where he has rounded out a career
as a financier that, in point of success and brill-
iancy, is paralleled by that of few other men in
the State.
En^ '-"iy W T B atli ei-, B kl>T.
SA% Mo ^AVRa®WE)o
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
167
James Harvey Raymond was born the 30th
day of June, 1817, in Washington County, New
•York. He was named after Dr. Harvey, the re-
nowned religious and metaphysical writer.
William Raymond, father of the subject of this
■biographical sketch, was born in Connecticut, and
-died in Genesee County, New York, in 1847,
having located there in 1825. He was a merchant
trader, and was well and favorably known in the
community where he resided. He married Mary
Kellogg, daughter of Justin Kellogg, one of the
native farmers of Connecticut. She was an exem-
plary wife and mother, remarkable for all those
qualities of mind and heart which shine with
undimmed brilliancy around the domestic hearth,
and to her is the son indebted for the practical
habits of his life. The greater portion of his early
life was passed in Genesee County, New York,
upon a farm, where he was inured to hard labor,
enjoying no other educational advantages than
were afforded by the ordinary country schools,
which he was only permitted to attend at intervals.
In 1832, being then but fifteen years old, he aban-
doned his home and the State of his nativity, and
came to Cincinnati, Ohio, where; and at Newport
across the Ohio river in Kentuckj', he was engaged
in clerking until 1836. In that year he returned
to New York and clerked at Batavia until 1839,
when he determined to emigrate. Texas was
selected as the objective point, and his plans were
immediately put into execution.
He started, but on the way stopped at Natchez,
Miss., where he remained a short time, proceeding
from thence to Woodville, Wilkinson County,
Miss. Here he passed nearly a year studying
and practicing the rudiments of surveying with
the intention of following that occupation on his
arrival in Texas. In July, 1840, he landed in
Galveston and proceeded thence to Houston, from
which place he went on foot to Franklin, in Robert-
son County. Here he was employed as Deputy
Surveyor to accompany an expedition to the upper
Brazos country. However, in a few days, and
after all necessary preparations were nearly com-
pleted, hostile Indians approached the locality and
the contemplated expedition was abandoned, much
to his chagrin. In October following he went
to Austin in company with Geo. W. Hill, after-
ward Secretary of War under President Houston,
but at that time a member of the Congress of the
Republic of Texas. On his arrival at Austin he
was made Journal Clerk of the House of Repre-
sentatives of the Fourth Congress. In April,
1841, Gen. Lamar, who was then President
of the Republic, appointed him Acting Treas-
urer, the duties Of which office he discharged
with fidelity and marked: ability. In November,
■1841, he was elected by the Fifth Congress Chief _
Clerk of the House of Representatives and in
.this office he was retained by continued annual
elections until 1845, when the Republic ceased its
existence and Texas became a member of the Fed-
' eral Union. In 1842 he served as a soldier in
the expedition organized to repel the Vasquez and
Woll invasions, and in 1844 was appointed Treas-
urer by Gen. Houston, and discharged the duties
of that office in connection with his other offices.
In 1845 he was secretary of the convention that
framed the first State constitution and in February,
J846, was elected chief clerk of the House of Rep-
resentatives of the legislature convened after the
admission of Texas into the Union as a State. He
served but a few days, when he resigned and was
elected State Treasurer, the first Treasurer of the
State of Texas. To this office he was continually
chosen by annual election until November, 1858.
Two years afterward he began banking at Austin
as a member of the banking house of John W.
Swisher & Company, which, in 1861, changed its
uame to Raymond & Swisher, and in 1868 to Ray-
mond & Whites. In June, 1876, Mr. Frank Hamil-
ton and James R. Johnson purchased the interest
of Mr. Whites, and since that time the business
has been conducted under the firm name and style
of James H. Raymond & Company. The State
Agricultural and Mechanical College was erected
under the supervision of a commission of which he
was a member. As a member of this commission
and in other official positions of minor importance
that he has since held from time to time, he has
discharged the duties intrusted to him in a most
satisfactory manner.
In 1843 he was married in Washington, Texas,
to Miss Margaret Johnston, then recently from
Troy, Ohio.
His political connections have been those of the
dominant party in the South and marked by firm-
ness and consistency and a fearless advocacy. He
has never been blind to the political wants of his
section.
In developing the great resources of Texas he
has performed an important part. In religion he
is a member of the Protestant Episcopal Church,
and has been one of the wardens of Austin Church
for fifteen years.
The most attractive scenes with which nature de-
lights the eye owe their charm to the effects of
light and shade. It would be impossible even for
an Angelo to give expression to the visions that fiit
across the horizon of his soul if he employed only
168
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
pigments that were bright. Virtue and honor and
courage would be but idle names if there were no
, temptations to evil, no allurements to draw the un-
wary from the patli of rectitude, and no dangers
arose on the way. Human Iffe would lose its beauty,
its pathos and its purpose but for the trials that
accompany it. Sad it is to note those who fall, but
deep and lasting and full of usefulness are the"
lessons taught by the lives of those who guide
their course by the pole-star of duty and perform
the tasks that Providence allots them.
Mr. Raymond has lived beyond three score
years and ten. He has been a moving spirit in
some of the most stirring scenes that have trans-
pired upon the continent and the intimate associate
not only of such men of an earlier day, as Houston,
but of those who have succeeded them as pilotg ^
the ship of State. Jt has fallen to his fortune to,
in a quiet way, perform many valuable public ser-
vices. He has done his duty, as he saw it, faith-
fully under all circumstances, and now, in the quiet
evening of his life and in the enjoyment of the
financial independence that has come to him as
the reward of the labors of former years, he enjoys
the confidence and sincere esteem of the people of
Texas.
MOSES AUSTIN BRYAN,
BRENHAM.
The life and labors of this well remembered
patriot, honored citizen and faithful public servant,
were such as to entitle his name to a place upon
some of the brightest of the undying pages of his
country's history. He was born at Bryan's Mines
on the banks of the Hazel Run, a branch of the
Tar Blue river, in St. Genevieve County, in the
then territory of Missouri, on the 26th day of Sep-
tember, 1817.
He was the third son of James and Emily Mar-
garet (Austin) Bryan. His father, a merchant and
also a miner and smelter of lead ore at Hazel Run,
died at Herculaneum, on the Mississippi river,
twenty-five miles below St. Louis, in 1823.
Mrs. Bryan married in 1824 James F. Perry, a
merchant at Potosi, Washington County, Mo., a
town laid off by her father, Moses Austin, when the
territory belonged to Spain. Young Bryan at-
tended school at Potosi until eleven years of age
and was then employed as a clerk in Perry &
Hunter's store about a year when the firm deter-
mined to move to Texas. He accompanied W. W,
Hunter with the goods down the Mississippi river
to New Orleans, and January 3, 1831, the schooner
Maria, upon which he was a passenger, entered
the mouth of the Brazos, and three days later he
put foot upon Texas soil at the town of Brazoria
and proceeded with Mr. Hunter to San Felipe de
Austin, reaching that place January 10, 1831. In
three or four weeks Perry & Hunter's store was
opened and Bryan worked in it as a clerk during
1831, selling goods to pioneers, hunters and Lipan
and Carancahua Indians. In June of that year he
boarded with "Uncle Jimmy" and "Aunt
Betsey " Whitesides, who were among the settlers
of Stephen F. Austin's first colony. Col. Ira Ran-
dolph Lewis, with his wife and two daughters,
Cora and Stella, arrived in San Felipe at this time
and boarded at the same house. Cora Lewis was
then an infant. In after years, when she reached
lovely womanhood, she became Maj. Bryan's wife.
Stephen F. Austin was absent from San Felipe
when young Bryan arrived. When he returned,
the latter, who had not seen him for more than
ten years, called upon him at the house of Samuel
M. Williams, who was Secretary of Austin's colony,
and was cordially received.
Stephen F. Austin was then a member of the leg-
islature of Coahuila and Texas and invited his
Dephew to accompany him, as his private secretary,
to the city of Saltillo, capital of the provinces.
The offer was accepted and, after an interesting
journey through a country then almost entirely un-
inhabited, they arrived 'at Saltillo, reaching their
destination about the first of April, 1832. In June
the legislature adjourned until fall and Austin left
for Matamoros to see Gen. Terran, commander
of the military district including the Eastern States
bordering on the Rio Grande. While leisurely
prosecuting this journey he heard of the troubles
occurring in Texas and that Gen. Mexia had been
sent with four armed vessels and troops to the
mouth of the Brazos to quell the outbreak. He
therefore hastened forward with the utmost dis-
^^^yf^^c^c..,u^ c^^^.^'^cS^^ ^^^<^
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
169
patch, joined Mexia and went with him to Texas,
leaving bis horses, mules and traveling equipage
with Mr. Bedell, expecting to return in the
autumn and attend the session of the legisla-
ture. However, he found the political waters so
stirred by the battles of Anahuac and Velasco be-
tween the colonists and Mexican soldiers, that he
concluded to remain, and wrote to his nephew that
Mr. Bedell and three or four friends would take
goods to the State fair at Saltillo to be held on the
10th of September, the anniversary of the declara-
tion of Mexican independence, and he could return
with them to Matamoros, where Mr. Bedell would
give him the horses, mules and baggage and furnish
a trusty Mexican to pilot the way to San Felipe.
On approaching Goliad, the Mexican heard the
people talk of the battles of Anahuac and Velasco
and refused to proceed further. The alcalde of
the town, however, furnished a guide for the re-
mainder of the journey. On reaching his destina-
tion Bryan at once visited his mother at her home
on Chocolate Bayou. In December, 1832, his step-
father moved the family to Peach Point, ten miles
below Brazoria, where Mrs. Perry, Maj. Bryan's
sister-in-law, now resides.
After visiting his mother, Maj. Bryan returned
to San Felipe, where he re-entered Perry & Hunter's
store. He clerked for them until 1833 and then
clerked for Perry & Somervell. In 1835 he was a
clerk in the land-offlce of Austin's colony and when
Austin, in August, 1835, returned to Texas, after
his long imprisonment in Mexico, and was made
chairman of the Central Committee of Safety at
San Felipe, served with Gail Borden, as Austin's
secretary. In September of the same year Maj.
Bryan participated in the attack upon Thompson's
Mexican warship the Carreo. He was also among
the first to respond to the call to arms that fol-
lowed the battle of (jronzales (the Texas Lexing-
ton) between the colonists and Mexican troops, the
latter led by Ugartechea, who, following instruct
tions from Santa Anna, had demanded a canHon
which had been given to the jKOple of Gonzales
and they had refused to surrefider. When Austin
was elected General of the patriot forces Bryan
went with him to San Antonio in the capacity of
private secretary, and after Austin left on a mis-
sion to the United States, remained with the army
and took part in the storming and capture of San
Antonio under Johnson and Milam. He was after-
ward more or less intimately associated with Austin
as his private secretary until that remarkable man's
dicath, which occurred on the 27th of December,
1836, at Columbia, in Brazoria County, and owned
the sword that Austin wore while commander of
the Texian army. Maj. Bryan, as a spectator,
and as secretary of Lieutenant-Governor and Act-
ing Governor Bobinson, was at the meeting of the
plenary convention that assembled at Washington
on the Brazos, in March, 1836, and was present
when the committee reported a declaration of in-
dependence, and it was voted on and adopted. As
a sergeant in Capt. Mosley Baker's Company, he
was with Gen. Sam Houston (often acting as his
interpreter) on the retreat from Gonzales to the
San Jacinto river. While on this march he was
ordered by Capt. Baker (who acted under instruc-
tions from headquarters) to burn the town of San
Felipe. The order was the result of an erroneous
report, made by scouts, that the enemj' were close
at hand and about to enter the place. Bryan asked
to be excused, on the ground that he felt a natural
repugnance to having any share in putting the torch
to the first town built in the wilderness by his uncle.
He was relieved from the necessity of performing
this unpleasant duty and the town of San Felipe de
Austin was destroyed by other hands. At last the
fateful day (April 21, 1836) arrived that was to
decide the future destinies of Texas. Although
Maj. Bryan was almost prostrated with fever he
insisted upon taking part with his company in the
charge of Burleson's regiment made at ever memor-
able San Jacinto, and behaved with dislinguished.
gallantry. Three holes were shot through his coat
before the regiment carried the breast-works by
storm. After victory had been won, he did what
he could to check the indiscriminate slaughter of
Mexicans that followed, but the memory of the
massacres at the Alamo and Goliad was fresh in
the minds of the Texas soldiers and his noble
efforts were in vain. He was present when Santa
Anna was brought before Gen. Houston by Col.
Hockley and Maj. Ben Fort Smith, who had taken
charge of the prisoner soon after he had been
brought in by the scouts, Sylvester and Matthews.
Col. Hockley said: "General Houston, here is
Santa Anna." Bryan was perhaps the only mem-
ber of the party who understood Santa Anna's reply.
Gen. Santa Anna said in Spanish: " Yo soie
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, Presidente de
Mexico, commandante in jefe del exercito de
operaciones y me pongo a la disposicions del vali-
antes General Houston guiro ser tatado como deber
seren general quando es prisoners de guerra."
His speech in English was: " I am Antonio
Lopez de Santa Anna, President of Mexico, com-
mander-in-chief of the army of operations, and I
put myself at the disposition of the brave General
Houston. I wish to be treated as a general should
be when a prisoner of war."
170
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
At the close of this speech Gen. Houston rose
up on his right arm (he was then suffering from a
wound received the day before, a ball having
passed through the bones of his- right leg three
inches above the ankle joint) and replied: "Ah!
ah, indeed! General Santa Anna! Happy to see
you, General. Take a seat, take a seat," moving
his hand toward an old. tool-chest nearby.
In the subsequent interview Col. Almonte acted
as interpreter. Santa Anna made a-proposition to
issue an order for (pl-en. Filisola to leave- Texas
■with the troops under his command. Gen. Rusk
replied that, his chief being a prisoner, Filisola
would not obey the . order. Santa Anna replied
that su,ch was the attachment of the officers and
soldier^s of the army to him, they would do any-
thing that he told them to do. Gen. Rusk then
said: " Col. Almonte, teU Santa Anna to order
Filisola and army to surrender as prisoners of
war."
Santa Anna replied that he wa,s but a single Mex-
ican, but would do nothing that would be a dis-
grace to him or his nation and they could do with
him as they- would. He said that he was willing to
issue an order to Filisola to leave Texas. It was
finally decided that he should do so, the order was
issued and a body of mounted Texians, commanded
for a time by Col. Burleson and afterwards by Gen.
Thomas Rusk, followed close upon Filisola's rear
and saw that the mandate was promptly obeyed.
Upon this service Maj. Bryan accompanied Gen.
Rusk as a member of his staff, in which capacity
he rendered valuable assistance as Spanish inter-
preter. The command reached Goliad June 1,
1836, and two days thereafter gave Christian bur-
ial to the charred remains of the men who were
massacred with Fannin at that place on the 27th of
the preceding March, by order of Santa Anna.
Gen. Rusk, standing at the edge of the pit, began
an address, but was so overcome by emotion that
he could not finish it. It was a most affecting -and
solemn ceremony.
At this time Maj. Bryan became the bearer of
dispatches from Gen. Rusk to the Spanish General,
Andrada, demanding the surrender of all prisoners
held by him, a demand that was promptly acceded
to. A few days later a Mexican courier arrived at Gen .
Rusk's headquarters with a letter from two Texas
colonels, Karnes and Teel, prisoners at Matamoros,
stating that the Mexicans were assembling a large
army under Gen. Urrea for the purpose of invading
Texas. The letter was concealed in the cane han-
dle of the courier's quirt and was translated by
Maj. Bryan. A copy was sent to President Bur-
net, who at once (June 23, 1836), issued a proc-
lamation calling upon the people to hold themselves
in readiness to respond to a call to arms.
Santa . Anna, called upon to make good his
pledges, stirred up, through his friends in Mexico,
a revolutionary movement that effectually prevented
Urrea from carrying his plans for the invasion of
Texas into execution.
In January, 1839, Maj. Bryan was appointed
Secretary of the Texas legation at Washington,- D.
C, by President Mirabeau B. Lamar, and served as
such for a number of months. Dr. Anson Jones
was the Texian minister to the United States at the
time.
In February, 1840, Maj. Bryan married Miss
Adeline -Lamothe, daughter of Polycarp Lamothe,
a prominent planter of Rapides parish, Louisiana.
In 1842, as first Iteuteaant of a company organized
at Brazoria, he participated in the Rio Grande
expedition commanded by Gen. Somervell, that
resulted in bringing to an inglorious close the
attempt made by the Mexican general, Adrian
Woll, to invade and find a foothold in Texas.
Afier passing through the thrilling experiences
connected with this expedition, Maj. Bryan de-
voted himself to looking after his plantations in
Brazoria and Washington counties. In May, 1854,
Mrs. Bryan died, and in November, 1856, he mar-
ried Miss Cora Lewis, daughter of Col. Ira Ran-
dolph Lewis, an eminent lawyer, who served with
distinction during the trying times of the Texas
revolution. In 1863, Maj. Bryan, fearing an inva-
sion of the coast-country by the Federals, removed
his family to Independence, Washington County;
which place became his permanent residence.
At the beginning of the war between the States
he enlisted in the Confederate army as a private
soldier in the Third Regiment of Texas State troops,
and was elected Major of his regiment. Upon the
organization of the reserve corps he was elected
Major of the First Regiment, and served as such in
Texas until the close of hostilities, making an
excellent record as a soldier and officer. He,
with a few others, was the founder of the Texas
Veterans' Association, organized in May, 1873.
He was elected and served as its secretary until
April, 1886, when he resigned the position and
nominated as his successor his friend. Col. Stephen
H. Darden, who was duly elected. Maj. Bryan
was one of the Association's chief promoters and
leading spirits. He devoted for several years
a large share of his time to correspondence with
its members, gathering a mass of valuable historical
data and papers now in the hands of his son, Hon.
Beauregard Bryan, of Brenham. This matter will
be of great service to the future historian.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
171
Maj. Bryan served for a time as a member of
the Commissioner's Court of Brazoria County, was
active in the building of the Columbia Tap Rail-
road and was at all times an energetic worker in the
cause of higher education. He served for twenty
years as trustee of Baylor University, then located
at Independence, and donated largely to its sup-
port, being a warm friend of its founder. Judge
Baylor. He has done much for the upbuilding of
his section and the State at large, every worthy
enterprise receiving his encouragement and sup-
port. He ■ was a member of the celebrated tax-
payers convention which met in Austin in 1871,
representing Washington County. He was one oi
the committee of five who were appointed to notify
Governor E. J. Davis of the acts of the conven-
tion.
• In religion he was an Episcopalian and in politics
always a Democrat, attending as a delegate all the
State and county Democratic conventions up to the
year 1880. Maj. Bryan died at the home of his
son (Hon. Beauregard Bryan) in Brenham, March
16, 1895, after a brief illness. He left five chil-
dren: James, Beauregard, L. R., S. J., and Austin
Bryan, who Were present at his bedside during his
last moments. His wife had died June 9th, 1889.
As the wires conveyed the intelligence of his
death to all parts of the State, the public heart was
stirred as it could have been stirred by few events,
for all realized that a father in Israel had passed
away, that a man whose life connected the present
with all that is brightest and best and most glori-
ous in the past history of the commonwealth had
journeyed " across the narrow isthmus that divides
the sea of life from the ocean of eternity that lies
beyond."
The Twenty-fourth legislature was then in session
and, on the 19th of March, out of respect to the
distinguished dead, passed by unanimous votes the
following resolutions : —
Senate Resolution, offered by Senator Dickson : —
" Whereas, One of our most distinguished and
honored citizens and patriotic gentlemen has been
called from our midst in the death of the late Moses
Austin Bryan and,
" Whereas, In his death we recognize the fact
that the State of Texas has sustained a loss of one
whose true and honored name has become of great
pride and held in highest esteem by all citizens of
Texas, therefore be it.
"Resolved, That the Senate of the Twenty-fourth
legislature of Texas do hold in sacred memory his
good name and patriotism, and do extend to his
beloved children and relatives their heartfelt sym-
pathies and condolence in this their hour of deepest
sorrow and distress."
House Resolution, offered by Giddings and
Rogers : —
" Whereas, We have learned with deep regret of
the death of Moses Austin Bryan, of Brenham, on
Saturday, March 16th last, and
" Whereas, In him ye lose another of those grand
old heroes, who by their valor, patriotism and
devotion to the principles of liberty, achieved the
independence of Texas and left it as a princely
heritage to posterity, therefore be it
"Resolved, First. That while we realize that
there is no escape from the relentless hand of Time
and recognize that he had passed the allotted age of
man, and had rounded out a long life of devotion
to our loved State, yet it is with feelings of pro-
found sorrow that we see him taken from our midst.
Second. That we extend to his sorrowing relatives
and friends our sincere sympathy for the great
personal loss they have susta,ined."
The remains were interred in the cemetery at
Independence, Washington County, Texas, and
were followed to their last resting-place by the
largest funeral cortege known in the history of
that place. The people, without distinction, united
in paying tribute to the memory of the fearless
soldier, stainless citizen, and blameless patriot,
who had lived among them through so many years,
and been such a faithful neighbor and friend, and
who, as he passed among them, had scattered all
about his path of life seeds of kindness, that,
sprung into life from the soil in which they fell,
and filled with the incense of heaven's own flowers
the tranquil evening hours of his departing day.
172
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
IRA RANDOLPH LEWIS.
The subject of this sketch, Ira Randolph Lewis,
was one of the patriots, who, as an associate of
Austin, Houston, Travis and their compeers, severed
Texas from Mexico by the revolution of 1835-1836.
He was a prominent and distinguished lawyer and
political actor in those times. He was a delegate
ifrom and represented the Municipality of Matagorda
in the convention of 1833, the first ever called by the
people of Texas, and of which Stephen F. Austin
was president and Frank W. Johnson secretary.
This convention set forth the grievances of the
colonists in Texas of Anglo-American origin, in a
paper of unparalleled strength, prepared by David
G. Burnet, and addressed to the Mexican govern-
tn^at. S. F. Austin, W. H. Wharton and J. B.
Millet; were commissioned by the convention to pre-
sent this pa;per to the government of Mexico at the
city of Mexico. "Wharton and Miller refused to go
and encounter the dangers incident to such a mis- ■
sion, but Austin undertook the necessary task. His
imprisonment and sufferings in a Mexican dungeon
are matters familiar to every student of Texas
history.
Again , in the consultation of 1835 , Matagorda sent
Mr. Lewis to represent it, together with R. E.-
Eoyal. What was done by these conventions is a
part of the history of Texas and the reader is
referred to volume one of Brown's History of
Texas, which gives in full the proceedings of both
conventions.
He was again honored by being chosen a mem-
ber of the General Executive Council, consisting of
two members from each county, or municipality
as they were then called. The object of this coun-
cil was to assist the executive. Governor Smith, in
conducting the affairs of the Provisional Govern-
ment.
While performing his duties in the Executive
Council in February, 1836, Governor Henr3' Smith
commissioned T. J. Chambers, with rank as Gen-
eral, to go to the United States and enlist volun-
teer soldiers and raise funds to aid Texas in her
struggle with Mexico. Chambers appointed Lewis
on his staff with rank of Colonel and, with Cham-
bers' indorsement and Governor Smith's written
permission, he left the council in the latter part of
February, 1830, and proceeded at once to the
United States.
Col. Lewis, in his capacity as Commissioner for
Texas, actively canvassed in rapid succession the
towns and cities most accessible to him in those
days of the ox-cart, stage coach and river steamer.
But for this absence he would have participated in
the battle of San Jacinto.
On his return to Texas he made an official report-
to the President of the Republic, who was Gen.
Sam Houston. The report is as follows : —
" To the President of the Republic of Texas :
" In obedience to official duty and for the fur-
ther purpose of announcing to the proper author-
ities, for what otherwise might appear a wanton
absence from the country of my adoption during
her greatest difficulties, while in the United States
for the last ten months, I beg leave to communicate
the following information and report, which your
Excellency will be pleased to receive and transmit
to the officer of the proper department where it
belongs.
" On the 9th day of January, of the present
year, the then existing government of this Re-
public passed a law authorizing T. J. Chambers,
Esq., to raise, arm, equip and command a division
as an auxiliary army for the defense of the cause
of Texas ; the particulars of which will more fully
appear by reference to said law, a copy of which is
herewith transmitted and made a part of the report,
being marked No. 1 ; the original is on file in the
archives of this government.
"After Gen. Chambers was commissioned and
instructed to go to the United States to procure
men and means to constitute his division, and put
it in motion and serve in Texas, he^ offered me
an office on his staff as paymaster of said division,
which I accepted and was immediately com-
missioned by the proper executive of this govern-
ment, a copy of which commission is here attached
and marked No. 2 ; a proper record of the original
is to be found in the war office.
" At the time I received my appointment, which
was in February last, and from all the information
then obtained, the enemy was expected to appear
in the months of May or June last, and as the corps
was to be raised in the United States, I received an
order from Gen. Chambers to repair forthwith
with him to the United States to aid and assist in
procuring the men and means necessary to place the
division in Texas for service as speedily as possi-
ble; and in obedience to which order, I set out
from San E'elipe for the United States for the object
JRA LEWIS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
173
mentioned in the order, a copy of which is here
attached, marked No. 3.
" On the day of leaving San Felipe the news, or
rumor, from the interior, gave information that the
enemy was in motion about Saltillo, and might be
expected in April and sooner than had been antici-
pated, which prompted a more speedy action on our
part, with a view of throwing aid into the country
in time to be of use in the first contest, but nothing
is more common than disappointment, for when we
reached Natchez the news had reached there in
authentic shape that Santa Anna had besieged the
Alamo at San Antonio about the first of March and
in a few days the melancholy news arrived that the
garrison had fallen, and all its gallant defenders
had been put to the sword.
"Gen. Chambers and myself immediately com-
municated with the most respectable and influential
citizens of that place and explained the situation
and unhappy condition of our country. In a short
time the most enthusiastic feeling was found to
prevail there — and large meetings were held by the
inhabitants to manifest this feeling, and offer aid
to suffering Texas. And at that time (in the month
of March last) I had the- high gratification to learn
from Judge Quitman and Gen. F. Huston that they
would visit Texas, and enlist in her war ; and men
of their influence, wealth and distinction, I knew
would induce much efficient aid from Mississippi.
At Natchez I received further orders to proceed
forthwith to the eastern country to explain the
cause of the war, the situation of our country, and
obtain men and means for her aid ; which order is
here attached in copy, marked No. 4.
" In obedience to said order, I set out on the first
of April last for Louisville, where I arrived on the
12th of that month. When I made known the object
of my visit, and consulted with many of the lead-
ing gentlemen of that place, as to the best course
to pursue, I found the best of feeling prevailing
for our cause and in a few days a mass meeting was
called, which I had the honor, by invitation, to
address on behalf of Texas, and had the pleasure
to have the most generous responses made to the
call for aid. By unremitting efforts I procured to
be raised and dispatched. Col. C. L. Harrison's
Louisville Battalion, the van of which, was Capt.
Wiggonton's company of near one hundred men,
and the balance soon followed, being aided to do
so by the munificence of the generous citizens of
that city. From there I proceeded to Lexington,
by invitation to meet a State convention then being
held in that place.
" To the convention and inhabitants of Lexington
and the surrounding country, I proclaimed the
cause of Texas, their condition and want of aid,, in
a public address. Here I remained for two weeks
making constant exertion for our cause and having
many meetings upon the subject, which resulted in
a display of the most generous and noble sympathy
and friendship in our favor and, ultimately, the
raising and dispatching of the Lexington Battalion
of about three hundred men, and the money for
their outfit and transportation to New Orleans, fur-
nished by the generous donations of the high-minded
and chivalrous inhabitants of that city and its
vicinity. From Lexington I proceeded to Cincinnati,
where I made known my objects, and, by the aid of
the most influential gentlemen of that place, a very
large meeting was convened, which I addressed in
favor of our cause ; which resulted in the raising
of a fine company of about eighty men, who were
furnished with an excellent outfit and means for
transportation as far as New Orleans, by the dona-
tions of the well-tried friends of our cause in that
great metropolis. In all of these four named
places I had the good fortune to be aided by ad-
visory committees, composed of gentlemen of dif-
ferent places, of the first standing and influence ;
and the different corps were raised and dispatched
and the means procured by superintending com-
mittees for that purpose in each place, appointed
by the citizens of the same, who procured the
means by donations and also disbursed the satne
for the purpose of purchasing the supplies and out-
fits for the different corps and if any surplus re-
mained, the respective committees paid over the
same to the persons who took command of the
different detachments.
" This course was adopted and pursued by my
own request and suggestion, to secure the infiuence
of the committees, and secure as far as possible
entire satisfaction. All this was done and the most
of the different corps had set out for Texas during
this period, when the melancholy news was daily
reaching the United States of the fall of the Alamo
the massacre of Fannin, of Ward and of King, and
that Santa Anna was passing triumphantly over the
country, burning and devastating as he went and
that he was in a short time to be looked for on the
banks of the Sabine. It was not until late in May
last that the news arrived in that part of the United
States, in such a shape as to be believed, of the
glorious battle of the San Jacinto, and the capture
of the monster, Santa Anna, or as his own vanity
induced him to call himself, " the Napoleon of the
West." Many delays necessarily took place from
the confused and distorted statements concerning
this country, which frequently got into circulation
there, and much time was lost and operations had
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
to be delayed in order to obtain counter-informa-
tion to correct them, but every effort was made to
get our men on as rapidly as possible, and I gave
written information of all done, to Gen. Chambers at
Nashville, where he was stationed, and to President
Burnet, through the Texas agent in New Orleans,
and as fast and in the order in which I progressed,
but I am surprised to. find that nothing exists in the
archives of this government to show that I have
done anything or communicated any information to
this government.
" My own communications may have shared the
fate and miscarriages of those of Messrs. Carson
and Hamilton, who I am fully sensible addressed
the government frequently and from different parts
of the United States, for I saw their letters ; but,
like myself, 1 am told, not a word has been heard
from them.
" Shortly after my effort before the public in
Cincinnati, I fell sick and was confined with a fever
and painful illness for near a month. During this
time I received orders to proceed to Pittsburg, to
purchase some cannon, and from there to Phila-
delphia and New York and, if practicable, to effect
a loan on the credit of Texas for fifty thousand
dollars to complete the outfit of the division then
being raised, which order is herewith submitted in
a true copy and marked No. 5.
" In obedience to the last named order, I set
out from Cincinnati on the first of June, that being
as soon as I could travel, or information from this
country would authorize it ; passing by Pittsburg
but found that no cannon could be procured at that
time, inasmuch as the only foundry which made,
them had a large contract on hand for the United
States, and would not make any others before fall.
From there I proceeded to Washington City on my
way to the Elust, and for the purpose of learnino'.
the disposition of that government in relation to
Texas; thinking at the same time that such infor-
mation might be wanting, on my attempting the
loan I wished to make, and my anticipations proved
true. In Washington I found our commissioners,
Messrs. Hamilton and Childress, making every
possible exertion for our cause, and with happy
effect. Gen. Austin, Wm. H, Wharton and Dr.
Archer, the former commissioners, then being on
their way home, and all as I found having produced
by their able efforts impressions of the most en-
couraging character in favor of our cause. From
there I proceeded to New York, by way of Balti-
more and Philadelphia. There I made propositions
for the money I wanted, and with the aid and under
the auspices of S. Swartwout, Esq., and James
Treat, Esq., two of the most noble and devoted
friends that Texas ever had, ox ever will have, I
was told that the money could be had if .the gov-
ernment of the United States would recognize our
independence, or take action upon the subject,
which would be tantarnount thereto, or manifest
a favorable disposition ; and at this point did
my negotiation for a loan cease for a time. Also
one other proposed loan of another commissioner,
Mr. R. Hamilton, for five hundred thousand
dollars, and which had been set in operation by the
first commissioners with a heavy banking house of
that city. During this suspension I was advised
by some friends of Texas to return to Washington
City, and see what was likely to be done there,
which I did, and had the gratification of meeting
our Secretary of State, Col. S. P. Carson, there,
but in bad health, notwithstanding which he gave
great aid and assistance to the cause of Texas, and
much credit is due him for the successful passage
of the favorable resolution in the Congress of the
United States concerning Texas. From Washing-
ton, Messrs. Carson, Hamilton, Childress, and
myself went up to New York, for the purpose of
concluding, if possible, the two loans which had
been proposed previously. In a short time after
we reached there, and as everything was assuming
a highly favorable aspect in relation to our busi-
ness, there appeared in public prints tliat famous,
proclamation of his Excellency, President Burnet,
denouncing, without distinction, all agents and com-
missioners then in the United States and announc-
ing that Mr. T. Toby was the only Texas agent.
The same mail which announced his appointment,
also brought the intelligence of the failure of
Messrs. Toby & Bro. ; all of which was well
calculated to produce what followed, namely, that,
state of confusion and distrust in the public mind
which prevailed in the United States, after conclu-
sion of the late administration of Burnet, and a
loss to Texas at that time, of more th»n half a
milHon of dollars, which aid she was on the eve of
obtaining.
"Immediately on seeing the proclamation, be-
fore alluded to, we withdrew all propositions for
money and made no further exertions of that,
nature. In a short time after this, which was about
the latter part of July last, I set out for the South
on my way home, and met Gen. Chambers at Cin-
cinnati, to whom I communicated the result of my
mission and who I found had sacrificed a large
portion of his private fortune to advance the cause
and aid the country. I found there that another
famous proclamation of his Excellency President
Burnet, had issued that no more volunteers were
wanted from the United States, which I found had
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
lib
produced great confusion and dissatisfaction in
that country, particularly to those (and there were
many within my knowledge) who had prepared and
determined to emigrate to Texas, from " the dark
and bloody ground" of our existence, and when
to every rational mind it was supposed the war
would be prosecuted with vigor.
" But in a short time after the proclamation, last
alluded to, other threatened invasions by the Mex-
icans became imminent, and produced another
proclamation calling on the generous and sympa-
thizing of the world to come to the aid of suffering
Texas, but then it was too late in the season, as the
people of the North were afraid to come South until
fall.
" General Chambers made and was still making,
preparations to bring on a Sne band of gallant
emigrants (in addition to those already in this
country), who were to start in a short time after
Messrs. Wilson and Postlethwaite's return from
Texas.
" I think their slanderous publications destroyed
all these efforts and for a time turned the tide of feel-
ing against Texas. On the first of September, I left
Louisville on my way home, but unfortunately was
taken sick on the river, and after I reached Natchez
was confined for near a month. After my recov-
ery I had some private business which detained me
for a short time, and news of an unfavorable char-
acter after that was concluded, I proceeded home-
wards, and arrived at this place on the eighth of
this month.
"The last service I did for the cause of Texas
was in Natchez, when I aided the quarter-master
general, at his request, in selling land scrip, and
assisted in obtaining some fifty thousand dollars for
the government to purchase provisions for the army ;
and that of refuting the pamphlet publication con-
taining the calumnies against Texas of Messrs.
Wilson and Postlethwaite. I had the pleasure of see-
ing before 1 left the United States, that the highest
friendly feeling was again up for Texas and perfect
confidence was . displayed throughout that country,
on the receipt of the news of the election of the
hero of San Jacinto to the presidencj', and the
appointment of his able Cabinet, and the policies of
the same.
" The present Congress I contracted no debt for,
or on account of this government, iior made it re-
sponsible for one thing.
"The foregoing services herein related I per-
formed at my own expense, and free of charge to
the government in any manner whatever.
" By my absence I left exposed and unprotected
all my property and effects on earth ; also my office.
papers and books of all kinds (professional and
private), which were all destroyed and thereby
leaving me damaged, with others (and worse than
thej', for most of them saved their papers at least),
to a large amount of property and effects, and worse
than all, subjected to incalculable difficulties and
confusion, by the loss of my books and papers.
" The foregoing is faithfully submitted to your
Excellency and a candid world, to show the cause
of my absence from the country at a time when I
should have rejoiced to have marched with your
Excellency and all my countrymen in arms, and
perhaps gained some of the brilliant honors by
many achieved, or died with the immortal slain.
And ihe same is submitted to account for the delays
and disappointments before explained.
" In the foregoing report I have discharged a
conscientious duty, in giving a plain and candid
expose, but not as full as I would have given had
it been required or compatible with official obliga-
tion, and of this I shall content myself as in all
other matters of my life with a quiet and approving
conscience, knowing that I have faithfully and
honorably discharged my duty to my country.
" I have the honor to be, with high regard,
" Your obedient and humble servant,
"I. E. Lewis.
"Columbia, December 12th, 1836."
"P. S. For the high and generous feeling of
kindness and sympathy, which I found prevailing
in Kentucky for our cause, the highest credit is due
bur distinguished fellow- citizens. Gen. S. F. Austin
and Dr. B. T. Archer, two of our first commission-
ers, but a short time previously had passed through
that country on their way East and who, by their
zealous and able efforts, had prepared the public
mind in the ha])piest manner to respond promptly
and generously to any call which might be made in
behalf of Texas, and made my efforts more profit-
able than I could have otherwise anticipated.
" In New York I had the pleasure of meeting one
of the last commissioners sent out b}' President
Burnet, viz., our distinguished and worthy fellow-
citizen,; James CoUinsworth, just as I was on the
eve of leaving that city."
Col. Lewis also served as a volunteer in the cam-
paign of 1842. against the invasion by Woll of
Texas.
After the overthrow of Mexican rule in Texas,
Col. Lewis busied himself with his profession,
practicing principally in the counties of Matagorda^
Brazoria, Fort Bend and Wharton, until he acquired
considerable property, when he retired from the
176
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
practice to plantations purchased by him and com-
menced farming with negro slaves.
Though proficient in law and literature, Col.
Lewis discovered that he was not cut out for a
planter and, after meeting reverses, abandoned
farming and returned to the practice, in which he
continued until his death, vyhich occurred at the
home of his son-in-law, Maj. Moses Austin Bryan,
at Independence, in August, 1867.
The antecedents and family history of this public
servant and distinguished citizen are clearly traced
and well known, as he left behind him all his private
and public papers and correspondence, which are
numerous and carefully preserved ; all of which is
in the possession of his descendants living in Texas,
hereafter noted. These papers, if ever published,
will throw much light on what arc now obscure
places in Texas history, during the most trying
period. Col. Lewis was born in Virginia, Septem-
ber 25th, 1800. His mother was a Miss Randolph,
of the Virginia family of that name, and his father
was a physician. Doctor Jacob Lewis, who was
born the 13th day of October, 1767, in Somerset
County, State of New Jersey, and lived to a ripe
old age, dying in 1852 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the then
place of his residence.
The father of Dr. Lewis was a soldier in the
Revolutionary War, serving under Washington in
repelling the invasion of New Jersey and New York
by the British.
While in the Continental patriot army he con-
tracted camp fever and died.
The autobiography of Dr. Lewis, speaking of
the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, relates
the following incident:—
" After peace was proclaimed, the fourth day of
July was appointed as a day to be set apart for
thanksgiving and rejoicing. The plains where
Somerville now stands, in Somerset County, New
Jersey, was the place of meeting. The largest
collection of people I think I ever saw was collected
there to congratulate each other on the happy event
of gaining our independence. A circle formed, and
Gen. Frelinghuyson, on his war horse, rode in the
center and gave us a truly patriotic lecture ; spoke
much on our ease and comfort, and that the form
of our government would be that of a Republic ;
and further went on and explained the meaning of
a Republican form of government, viz., that our
legislators would be bound to act for the good of
the nation, not local or sectional."
The Lewis family are of French Huguenot
descent, tracing their ancestry directly back to
the flight of the Huguenots from France after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantes, A. D. 1688.
Fleeing from religious persecution in France, the
ancestors of Col. Lewis settled first in Holland,
then removed to Wales and then to America in
about the year 1700.
The Lewis family were of that baud of French
Huguenots that history records as settling in little
squads in the States of New Jersey, Delaware,
Maryland and South Carolina.
In the year 1802, Dr. Lewis, the father of the
subject of this sketch, removed to the then Terri-
tory of Ohio, a part of Virginia, which was created
a State out of Virginia in February, 1803.
He settled in the town of Hamilton, or rather
what became the city of Hamilton, Ohio. Here he
practiced his profession and prospered until the
war of 1812 came on with Great Britain, called the
second war of independence. He enlisted in this
war against the oppression of the British, as his
father had done before him in the Revolution. By
virtue of his profession he was appointed surgeon's
mate, or assistant surgeon, in the First Regiment,
Third Detachment, Ohio militia, on the 13th day of
February, 1813, and served throughout the war.
Col. I. R. Lewis was educated by his father. Dr.
Jacob Lewis, in the best schools of Cincinnati,
Ohio, and grew up and was reared to be a highly
accomplished young man. Choosing the law as his
profession, he entered upon its study under the
greatest advantages and auspices, being under
Nicholas Longworth, the great Ohio lawyer. His
father had planned for him a quiet and prosperous
career, as a Cincinnati lawyer, starting as he did as
a protege of Longworth and associate and compan-
ion of Thomas Corwin, who became so famous as a
lawyer and statesman.
Just after coming of age, he married, in 1822,
Miss Eliza Julia Hunt. Miss Hunt was a native of
Mississippi, born in Natchez, November 23d, 1802,
and was left an orphan at an early age. Miss
Hunt's uncle, Jesse Hunt, took her to Kentucky,
where the Hunt family came from, and from there
she was sent to be educated in the schools of
Cincinnati and met young Lewis. As soon as
married and in control of his wife's property,
which consisted of large landed estates and slaves,
the self-reliant and venturesome spirit of his ances-
tors cropped out and, to the dismay and chagrin of
his father and friends. Col. Ira Lewis announced
that he had quit law and would move to Mississippi
and take charge of his wife's property and become
a planter with slaves. Residing in and near Nat-
chez, Col. Lewis operated his plantation, dispens-
ing a generous and refined Southern hospitality.
After several years residence in Mississippi,- he
sold out and purchased a plantation near Baton
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
177
Rouge and Donaldson, La., and continued to live
there until the year 1830, when he concluded to go
to Austin's Colony in the then Mexican Province of
Texas. He had heard of Texas from persons he
had met in New Orleans when visiting that place to
purchase supplies for his plantation. Visiting
Texas in 1830, he satisfied himself that it was the
coming empire of the Southwest and, returning to
the United States, sold out his interests in Louisi-
ana and embarked his family in a sailing vessel in
May, 1831, bound out of New Orleans for Texas.
Passage by sea proved stormy and disastrous, re-
sulting in the wrecking of the vessel off the coast
of Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Lewis with their four
children, all girls, were saved in the boats and, after
undergoing terrible hardships for several days at
sea, tossed about at the mercy of the waves, they
were landed near the town of Matagorda, in Mata-
gorda County, on the coast of Texas, then a part
of Austin's Colony. Everything was lost in the
wreck. All that was left was on their shivering
bodies. Relics and mementoes, as well as furniture
and wearing apparel, luxuries and necessaries of
life, were all swallowed up in the Gulf of Mexico.
With hospitality, characteristic of life in a new
country, the people^ of Matagorda took into their
arms the Lewis family and provided for them until
they procured a home. This crushing blow well-
nigh crazed Mrs. Lewis and she implored her hus-
band to return to the United States, but he insisted
on remaining. As soon as the means could be pro-
cured it was determined that San Felipe de Austin,
the seat of government of Austin's Colony, was
the proper place to settle and practice his profes-
sion of law.
A writer of the period between 1831 and 1833,
speaking of the people of San Felipe de Austin,
under the head of " Early Days in Texas," says:
"San Felipe was established by S. F. Austin, in
1824, on the Brazos, and was named by Governor
Garcia as the capital of Austin's Colony. It was
the first Anglo-American town established in Texas.
Stephen F. Austin, the empresario, and Samuel M.
Williams, his secretary, lived here. Here was kept
the land ofBce; here met the Ayuntamiento, the
colonists to designate their lands, and to receive
their titles, and strangers who visited the country ;
here resided the prominent lawyers of the colonists
of Austin, among whom were W. B. Travis, W. H.
Jack, Ira R. Lewis, T. J. Chambers, Luke Lesas-
sier, Thomas M. Duke, Hosea League, Robert M.
Williamson (three-legged Willie) and others. The
society of San Felipe at that day was good. The
colonists were required by Austin to bring with
them from their former places of residence, certifi-
cates of good character. By printed notices they
were informed if they failed in this, their applica-
tion to be received as colonists would be rejected.
San Felipe could boast of elegant, refined and
beautiful women, as well as noble and cultured
men. Mrs. Ira R. Lewis, Mrs. James F. Perry
(the sister of S. F. Austin), Mrs. W. H. Jack, Mrs.
Nancy McKinney, Mrs. Townsend, Mrs. Peyton
(sister of Bailey Peyton), Mrs. Parmer and others,
from their personal attractions, lovely womanly
character, would command attention and admira-
tion anywhere. Here was established the first
Sunday school, the first newspaper and the first
Masonic Lodge in Texas. Here assembled the
representative men to consult and plan for the
weal of Texas, and it so continued until it was
destroyed by fire on the approach of the Mexican
army, under Santa Anna, in 1836. But for this
destruction it would have, in all probabilitj-, have
been selected as the capital of the Republic of
Texas."
After practicing his profession for several years
at San Felipe, Col. Lewis returned to Matagorda,
which place became for many years his permanent
place of residence.
Mrs. I. R. Lewis died January 11th, 1887, at the
residence of her son-in-law, Maj. M. A. Bryan,
and was interred in the family cemetery at Inde-
pendence, Texas.
Colonel and Mrs. Lewis had four children, all
girls, viz., Laura, born in 1824, at Natchez; Louisa,
born near Baton Rouge, La., in December, 1825,
Cora and Stella, born in Baton Rouge, La., in the
years, respectively, 1828 and 1830.
Laura married at Matagorda, Texas, Dr. A. F.
Axson and w'as the mother of three children, viz.,
Lewis, Clinton J. and B. Palmer, all born in New
Orleans. Louisa married Hon. Geo. Hancock of
Austin, Texas, and was the mother of one child,
viz., Lewis, born in Austin, Texas. Cora married
Moses Austin Bryan of Brazoria, November 3d,
1856, and was the mother of six children, to wit.
Gum M., who died at the age of two years, in
Brazoria ; Stella Louisa, who died at the age of four
years, at Independence ; Lewis Randolph, born
October 2d, 1858 ; Beauregard, born January 16th,
1862; Austin Y., born December 20th, 1863;
Stonewall Jackson, born February 2d, 1866. Of
these children the first four were born in Brazoria
County, Texas, on their father's plantation on
Oyster creek, called "Retire." The last two
were born near Independence on their father's
plantation. Stella married Maj. Hal. G. Runnels,
of Harris County, Texas, an only son of Governor
Hiram G. Runnels and cousin of Governor Hardin
178
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
E. Runnels, and was the mother of two children,
Sue and Harry G. Stella died near Independence,
Texas. Laura died in September, 1876, in New
Orleans, La., the place of her residence, and was
interred in Metarie Cemetery in that city. Cora
died June 9th, 1889, in Brenham, Texas, and is
interred in the family cemetery at Independence,
Texas.
CHARLES FOWLER,
GALVESTON.
The late lamented Capt. Charles Fowler, of
Galveston, was born in Guilford, Connecticut, in
1824; went to sea at the age of fourteen, was mas-
ter of a ship at twentj'-one and followed that
vocation until 18fi6, when he became agent for the
Morgan line of steamers at Galveston, which posi-
tion he held from that time until the time of his
death, a period of twenty-flve years.
He came to Galveston in 1847 as captain of the
brig, Mary. Three years later he returned to Con-
necticut and was married at Stratford to Miss Mary
J. Booth, daughter of Isaac Patterson Booth.
Upon the commencement of hostilities between
the States he entered the naval branch of the Con-
federate service ; at the famous engagement at
Sabine Pass participated in the capture of the
enemy's fleet and was subsequently made prisoner
and detained until the close of the war. On
returning to Galveston he was made captain of one
of the Morgan ships, from which position he was
transferred to the Galveston agency. Though
never aspiring to political preferment, he was elected
an alderman of Galveston as far back as 1873,
afterwards frequently served in that capacity and
at the time of his death, March 17th, 1891, was a
member of the board, having served continuously
since 1885. His last tenure of office began under
a system of municipal reform and his discharge of
duty was so acceptable to the people at large that
-they insisted again and again upon his standing for
election. As alderman (from 1885 to 1891) he
always held the position of honor as chairman of
the committee on finance and positions on all other
leading committees. He was, in fact, recognized
as intellectually and, in a business way, the strong-
est man in the council, and his straightforwardness.
Integrity and devotion to duty easily entitled him
to this position.
Though not a civil engineer by profession he was
a man possessed of strong and valuable practical
ideas upon matters of engineering, and in 1868,
took charge of the work of deepening the water on
the inner bar, on which there was a depth of eight
feet of water at high tide, all vessels being subject
to a pilotage of $3.00 per foot besides the $4.00 per
foot over the outer bar. In 1869, as president of
the board of pilot commissioners, he handed in a
report, showing a depth of fifteen feet over the in-
ner bar, and recommended the abolition of pilotage
over same, a recommendation that was followed
forthwith. Through his long and intimate acquaint-
ance with municipal affairs and all classes of the
people, no man was better qualified to serve the
people of Galveston and foster the best interests of
the city. He was often urged to accept the mayor-
alty but declined to become a candidate for the
honor. Physically he was a noble specimen of
manhood. He possessed in full measure solid public
and domestic virtues. His wife and three children
survive him, viz., a married daughter, Mrs. A.
Bornefeld; a son, Charles Fowler, Jr., and a
younger daughter. Miss Louise. In reporting the
fact of his death, the Galveston News of March 18th,
1891, contained the following : " The friends and
acquaintances of Capt. Charles Fowler, and their
number in Galveston is legion, have for the past two
days been hourly anticipating his death. Some ten
days ago he was taken to his bed with a chill to which
no particular importance was attached, but as days
passed his malady grew more complicated, finally
developing into a serious kidney complication,
resulting in a fatal case of uremic poisoning. He
died last night at 8-30 o'clock, and in his death
no ordinary man passed away. Few citizens
have died in Galveston who were more universally
respected and esteemed by all classes, or whose
death will be more universally regretted. Since it
has been known that death was inevitable the
inquiry upon every lip upon the street has been in
regard to Capt. Fowler's condition and if any evi-
dence was wanting as to his popularity, it was
clearly demonstrated by all classes of citizens over
CHARLES FOWLER.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
179
his critical condition. Those of high and low station,
rich and poor, displayed an abiding sorrow at the
announcement that the life-tide of Charles Fowler
was ebbing away and that his death was but a
question of a few short hours. The universal
sentiment expressed was that 'in the death of
Charles Fowler Galveston will lose one of her best
and noblest citizens,' and when the sad news came
last night that all was over it fell liije a pall upon
the busy streets."
That paper said editorially: "The mortal re-
mains of Capt. Charles Fowler were yesterday con-
signed to the earth, whence they came. In the
death of Capt. Fowler this city has lost one of her
best and most useful citizens. * » * Trained
to the sea, with its dangers and vicissitudes, he was
«ver ready in emergency and always manly and
brave in act. Yet how loving and kindly in all the
relations of life. To the general public he dis-
charged his full duty — to his immediate family all
that mortal man could do. The tribute paid to his
memory yesterday by the citizens of Galveston was
worthy of his character. Among the many who
accompanied his remains to their last resting-place
were those of every degree and station in life — the
professional man, the merchant, the civic authority
and oflfleial, the laborer, the domestic. It was not
an outpouring of popular curiosity, but a real trib-
ute to worth and manhood. The man who worked
for his daily wages upon the docks was as sincerely
grief-stricken as the man of wealth who may have
considered Capt. Fowler his more immediate com-
panion or his coadjutor in public affairs. The
tribute was beautiful in itself and pleasant to think
over, because it demonstrates that human nature
has a fine touch of grandeur after all in its recogni-
tion and appreciation of the manly virtues. The
spotless integrity and loving kindness of Charles
Fowler's nature drew from the hearts of the people
■of Galveston yesterday as fine a poem as ever poet
penned."
At a called meeting of the city council held
March 20th, 1891, Mayor R. L. Fulton submitted a
message in which he pronounced an eloquent eulo-
giura upon the deceased, and upon motion that
body adopted the following resolutions : —
" Whereas, Galveston has just lost by death one
of her most eminent, patriotic and distinguished,
citizens in the person of Capt. Charles Fowler, who
for a great number of years has been prominently
identified with the city government as alderman,
member of the Board of Health, chairman of the
Committee on Finance and Revenue, and member
of many other useful committees, where at all times
he manifested the utmost zeal for the public welfare,
great ability as a financier, enterprise, energy, a
spirit of progress in keeping with the times, and a
moral and physical courage which enabled him to
stamp his convictions on his associates and thus
give to the city of his love the full benefit of his
wise counsels, legislative and executive ability and
patriotism ; and
"Whereas, He never hesitated to expend his
time, energy and great abilities for the benefit of his
fellow citizens ; therefore, be it
"Resolved, By the city council of the city of
Galveston, that on no more melancholy and regret-
table an occasion was this council ever before
convened.
" Resolved, Further, That on Saturday, the 21st
inst., the day of his interment, as a mark of
respect, all the city offices be closed ; that the
different branches or departments of the city
government attend the funeral ; that the city hall
and council chamber be draped in appropriate
emblems of mourning and respect for the loss of
this good and useful private citizen and public
officer. Be it also
" Resolved, That his chair in the municipal cham-
ber be left unoccupied during the remainder of the
municipal term, this council pledging itself to his
constituents the same careful attention to their
interests, and that these resolutions be spread upon
the minutes and copies be furnished the members
of his immediate family, and that the daily papers
be requested to publish same. Be it also
" Resolved, That this council does hereby request
the business houses of this city to close during the
funeral to-morrow, Saturday, March 21st."
Who would not lead such a life of modest use-
fulness? Who would not leave such a memory
behind him when he passes from the scenes of life?
The cynic and the idler may well draw lessons of
profit from this brief chronicle and those who seek
for happiness, if not honor, in dubious ways,
should lay speedily to heart the truth that: " It is
only noble to be good," and that there is no happi-
ness aside from duty.
180
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
R. W. LOUGHERY,
MARSHALL.
Iq this brief memoir it is the intention of the
author to present an outline of the main incidents
in the career of a man who, for many years, figured
prominently upon the scene of action in this Stale,
and whose memory, though his form has been con-
signed to earth, which at last must receive us all,
is still revered by many of the older people of this
State, who either knew him personally or by
reputation.
His was a truly noble character. He was so
slow to think evil of others and unselfish, he failed
to ask for, and often refused to accept, the rewards
that his services had richly earned, and that, at the
time, would have been freely accorded him, but
which later, when he greatly needed substantial
recognition by his party, was denied him under a
system of politics that leads those in power to be-
stow their favors not as rewards of merit, but with
an eye-single to personal aggrandizement — to pre-
fer an obscure cross-roads politician, who can com-
mand one vote in the State convention, to an old
veteran, who has grown gray in the service of his
country. He saved the frail barques of many politi-
cians from disaster and built up the political fortunes
of several men who have since held high positions in
the councils of the nation, but sought no honors
for himself, when (for instance, within a few years
after the overthrow of the Military Commission at
Jefferson) he could have secured any oflice within
the gift of the people of Texas.
These traits were a part of his mental and
spiritual make-up and bore fruit that, while it did
not embitter (for nothing could embitter) saddened
the later years of his life, until at last he sank into
the welcome grave.
He was ambitious, not to secure political pre-
ferment, social position, influence or other reward,
or to gratify personal vanity by parading the fact
that he was patriotic, true, honorable, pious,
kindly, generous and charitable ; but, ambitious
alone to possess, cultivate and practice those vir-
tues. The pathetic appealed to him as it does to
few men. He wept with those who mourned and
rejoiced with those who rejoiced. He was above all
petty jealousy. He not only saw but applauded
the merits of others, and cheered them on in efforts
that led to distinction. He never permitted a case
of suffering to go unrelieved, that it was in his
power to relieve, and he never turned a tramp or
other beggar from his door. When the world cried^
"Crucify! "he was ever found on the side of
mercy. He never deserted his friends, but was-
quick to fly to their defense when they appealed to-
him, or when he saw that they needed his aid, and
as a result, there are thousands who remember him-,
and sincerely mourn his loss. He never failed to-
inspire the respect even of his political enemies..
He had the rare faculty of doing the right thing at
the right time, and was a consummate master of the-
higher tactics of political warfare. He was an in-
domitable and trusted defender of right, and never
failed to be the first to throw himself squarely into
the breach in time of public danger. He was-
physically and morally intrepid. He was quick to
espouse every worthy cause, and advocate it with
might and main. He was not only kind and benev-
olent to men and women, both great and small,
rich and poor, black and white; but, to God's,
creatures, the lower animals, not one of whom he
ever injured, or permitted to be injured in his.
presence, without reproof. He turned, instinctively,
to the defense of the weak and defenseless. He
never did an intentional wrong, and never com-
mitted a wrong unintentionally through error aris-
ing from mistake of judgment or misrepresentation
of facts that he did not sorely repent, and imme
diately seek to atone for. He never sacrificed'
principle to expediency.
It may be said truthfully of him that he was the-
" Father of Texas Democracy." "When he estab-
lished his newspaper at Marshall in 1849 (three
years after Texas was admitted to the Union) the
two great parties in the United States (Whigs an*
Democrats) had no representative local organiza-
tions in Texas. Seeing the confusion that prevailed
and deprecating the practice of conducting cam-
paigns merely on personal and local issues, he, for
six years, zealously taught, through the columns of
his paper, the tenets of Democratic faith, as to-
which there were many misconceptions (men run-
ning for office who claimed to be Democrats, and
who did not understand or believe in the first
principles of Democracy) and sought to bring
about party alignments, which he at last suc-
ceeded in doing, as the State convention of 1855-
was the result of his labors and the labor of those
who aided him in the work. While he believed in
that concerted action in political matters, which caa
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
181
alone be secured through perfect party organiza-
tions, he was of too manly and independent a spirit
and too clear-headed and wise a man to erect party
into a fetich, to be bowed down before and wor-
shiped. He did not hesitate to criticise platforms,
oandidates and officials — from the highest to the
lowest — when he deemed such criticism necessary
to the good of the country or party. He believed
in the great cardinal principles upon which rests
the school of political economy that claimed his
allegiance. If party leaders violated those princi-
ples he sought, as far as his influence extended, to
whip them back into line. If his views upon public
•questions were not accepted and enunciated in the
platform utterances of his party, he did not cease
to advocate their adoption, neither did he quit his
party, for, with the author of Lacon, he believed
^'that the violation of correct principles offers no
excuse for their abandonment," and was sure that
the Democratic masses would in time force their
leaders to adopt the correct course and retrace the
false and dangerous steps that were being taken.
He believed that if the principles enunciated by Mr.
Jefferson, Calhoun and their associates were prac-
tically applied to the administration of our national
and State affairs, we would have one of the most
enduring, freest and happiest governments that it
is possible for human genius to construct and human
patriotism and wisdom sustain. Party, with him,
was merely a necessary means to a desirable end —
good government and constitutional integrity and
freedom — and he combated every movement, ut-
terance, or nomination that promised to impair its
strength or usefulness.
He was devoted to the Democratic flag with a
devotion akin to that of a veteran for his flag. His
was a bold aggressive personality, fitted for times
of storm and struggle.
Comparatively early in his career it was charged
that Hon. Lewis T. Wigfall wrote the editorials for
the Texas Republican, but this piece of malicious
whispering was soon forever silenced, as he and
Wigfall became engaged in a newspaper controversy,
in which Wigfall was placed liors de combat.
He was born in Nashville, Tenn., February 2,
1820, and was educated at St. Joseph's College at
Bardstown, Ky., to which place his parents, Robert
and Sarah Ann Loughery (from the north of Ire-
land) removed during his infancy. At ten years
of age he was left an orphan and not long after
entered a printing office, where he learned the
trade.
News of the revolution in progress in Texas —
the massacres at the Alamo and Goliad and the
victory won at the battle of San Jacinto — fired him
with a desire to j oin the patriot army and strike a blow
for liberty and, although but sixteen years of age, he
went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there joined a military
company and started with it for Texas. A frail,
delicate lad, he was taken sick en route to New
Orleans and was left in that city, where he remained
a year and a half, and then went to Monroe, La.,
where he remained until 1846, part of the time con-
ducting an influential newspaper, and then again
went to New Orleans. On the 11th of February,
1841, he married, at Monroe, Miss Sarah Jane Bal-
lew, an estimable young lady, the daughter of a
leading pioneer settler in Ouachita parish. In
1847, he removed to Texas and during that year
edited a paper at Jefferson. He spent 1848 in
traveling over the State, often traversing solitudes
of forest and prairie for days together. He said
In after life that some of the most pleasant hours
that he ever spent were in the wilderness in silent
and solitary meditation as he rode along, far from
the haunts of men.
In May, 1849, he and Judge Trenton J. Patillo
established the Texas Republican at Marshall, one
of the most famous newspapers ever published in
Texas, and certainly the most widely influential and
by far the ablest conducted in the State before the
war. The paper was named the Texas Republican
in honor of the party which advocated the adoption
of the American constitution. Judge Patillo sold
his interest to his son, Mr. Frank Patillo, in 1850,
and in 1851 Col. Loughery obtained sole control
of the paper by purchase, and conducted it alone
until August, 1869. The files of the Texas Repub-
lican were purchased a few years since by the State
of Texas, and are now preserved in the archives of
the State Department of Insurance, Statistics and
History. Before the war this paper was the recog-
nized organ of the Democratic party in Texas. It
led the hosts in every contest. The fiery Know-
Nothing campaign of 1855 gave full scope for the
exercise of his varied abilities. The Know-Nothing
party was a secret, oath-bound organization, hostile
to Catholicism and opposed to immigrants from for-
eign lands acquiring right of citizenship in this
country. Largely, if not mainly, through the
efforts of Col. Loughery, a Democratic State Con-
vention was called (the first in the State), assembled,
nominated candidates for State offices, and drew
the Democracy up in regular array to contest the
State with the opposition. He was bitterly opposed
to the methods and tenets of the Know-Nothing
party.
The following incident is illustrative of the temper
of the times. Hon. Pendleton Murrah, afterwards
Governor of the State, was a candidate for Con-
182
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
gress and opened his campaign at Marshall. It
was impossible to estimate the strength of the
Know-Nothing party, as all its proceedings were
held in secret. This strength was greatly underesti-
mated by Murrah and his friends. They believed
that the excitement was of an ephemeral character
and was confined to a few individuals who hoped
to secure office by playing the roles of political
agitators. Mr. Murrah assailed the leaders and
principles of Know-Nothingism with all the vigor
and venom of which he was capable, hoping to give
the American party, so far as his district was con-
cerned, its coup de grace. One of the leading
citizens of the county arose and declared that the
gentlemen who composed the American party had
been insulted, and called upon all members of the
party to follow him from the court room. There
was a moment of breathless expectation, succeeded
by the audience arising well-nigh en masse and
moving toward the door. Soon Mr. Murrah and
two or three friends alone remained. They were
dumbfounded. The scene they had witnessed was
a revelation. They realized that there was no hope
of Democratic success in the district and that the
Know-Nothing party would sweep it. Mr. Murrah
declared his intention to at once withdraw from
the race. At this moment Col. Loughery stepped
up to him and urged him to continue the campaign
and that with increased vigor, saying, among other
things: "If you retire now in the face of the
enemy, your political career will end to-day.
Although defeat is certain, stand up and fight, and
when the Know-Nothing party is condemned by
the sober second thought of the people, you will be
remembered and honored." Mr. Murrah followed
Col. Loughery's advice and was afterwards elected
Governor. The campaign waxed hotter and hotter.
The Texas Republican's philippics, many of them
unsurpassed by any written by the author of
the letters of Junius or uttered by Sheridan or
Burke, fell thicker and faster and party speakers
flew swiftly from point to point haranguing the
multitude, sometimes alone but more often in
fierce joint debate. At last came the fateful day of
election, a day of doom for the Know-Nothing
party (but not for its spirit, for that unfortunately
is still alive) and of victory to the Democracy.
The next momentous epoch in the history of Col.
Loughery was that marked by the secession
movement. As to the right of revolution, it is
necessarily inherent in every people. The time
when it shall be exercised rests alone in their dis-
cretion. The right of secession was of an entirely
different nature. It was in the nature of that right
which a party claims when he withdraws from a
contract, the terms of which have been violated or
the consideration for which has been withdrawn,
and identical with that which nations who are
parties to a treaty of alliance, offensive and de-
fensive, reserve to themselves (although the com-
pact may in its terms provide for a perpetual
union) to consider the treaty annulled when its-
terms are departed from or the connection no longer
continues to be pleasant or profitable. Withdrawal
may, or may not, give offense and lead to a declara-
tion of war. If it does lead to hostilities, the
resulting struggle is one carried on by equals in
which heavy artillery and big battalions will settle
the fate of the quarrel. The question of moral
right must be left to the decision of the public
conscience of the world, or, if that conscience fails
to assert itself at the time, to posterity and the
impartial historians of a later period. At 'one time
in the history of the English race, the trial by
battle was a part of legal procedure by which issues,
both civil and criminal, were judicially determined.
But in course of time men came to see that
skill, strength and courage were the sole factors
that controlled the issue of such contests and that
wrong was as often successful as right. As a
consequence the trial by battle fell gradually into
disuse and at last became extinct and is now only
remembered as a curious custom incident to the
evolution of our system of jurisprudence. What
has been said of the trial by battle may be said
with equal truth of war and the fate of war. The
fact that the Southern States were defeated, con-
sequently, has no bearing upon the question of
their right to secede. The States bound themselves
together to secure certain benefits and to remain so
associated so long as the connection proved desir-
able. He believed that every essential guarantee
contained in the constitution had been grossly vio-
lated and that the Southern States could no longer
either expect peace or security to their rights, or
any benefit whatever by continuing under the same
governmental roof with the States north of Mason
and Dixon's line. He was in favor of a peaceful
withdrawal, if possible.
During the progress of the war Col. Loughery
opposed the passage of the conscript laws and the
invasion of the jurisdiction of civil authority by
military commanders. With all his powers of per-
suasion he sought to keep up the waning hopes of
the people as the months passed on into years.
Knowing that many of the families of Confederate
soldiers then in the field were in need, he inaugu-
rated a movement that resulted in a mass meeting
at the Court House in Marshall, Texas, at which a
committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
183
money and provisions for the establishment of a
depot of supplies, at which such families could ob-
tain what they needed. He continued to publish
his paper throughout the war, never missing an
issue. The final result of the struggle did not un-
nerve him as it did many other public men, some
of whom, among the number the brilliant and
lamented Pendleton Murrah, fled the country to
find graves in alien lands. Those were dark days
that followed the surrender, and the establishment
of military rule. Some of those who boasted that
they would submit to no Indignities, not only tamely
submitted but went entirely over to the Radicals,
accepted office under them and seemed to delight
in oppressing a defenseless people. This class
found no mercy at his hands. His course was
characterized by eminent good sense and was re-
markable for its fearlessness. Owing to the stand
that he took the iniquities that were perpetrated
fell far short in atrocity to what they would other-
wise have done, as he unhesitatingly not only venti-
lated, but denounced what was going on and his
papers found their way to Washington.
In April, 1867, he started the Jefferson Times
(daily and weekly) and ran it in connection with
his paper at Marshall.
At this time a complete system of oppression and
tyranny prevailed. An army of thieves were sent
into the country, ostensibly to protect the negroes
and to hunt up Confederate cotton and other
alleged Confederate property. The Freedman's
Bureau had its agents in every county. The jails
were full of respectable people, charged with dis-
loyalty or alleged crimes, on the complaints of
mean whites or depraved negroes. Five military
despotisms prevailed in the South. Governors were
deposed, legislatures dispersed at the point of the
bayonet and citizens disfranchised. The press
was silenced and men were afraid to talk, but in
many places they became bolder, until they did not
see actual danger.
Such was the case in Jefferson, in 1869, when a
number of outraged citizens broke into the jail and
shot to death a man named Smith (who had often
threatened to have the town burned) and three
negroes. These killings inflamed the Radicals.
They cared nothing about Smith, whose conduct
was about as offensive to them as to the people,
but they seemed to rejoice at the opportunity this
incident afforded to oppress a people that they
hated. Col. Loughery, with both papers, attacked
the military organization and the military commis-
sion appointed to try these men and others incar-
cerated at Jefferson, charged with alleged crimes.
The commission prevailed for over six months, and
with it a reign of terror. Men talked in bated
whispers. A large number of men left the country
to escape persecution. A stockade was erected on
the west side of town, in'^which were imprisoned
over fltty persons. Martial law prevailed, the writ
of habeas corpus was suspended, and men were
tried by army officers in time of profound peace,
in plain, open violation of jthe constitution. His
position during this period was one of great peril,
as he reported the proceedings of, and boldly
assailed, the commission and its acts from day to
day.
Col. Loughery' s able and intrepid course resulted
in the downfall of the commission, prevented the
arrest of many persons, and the perpetration of many
outrageous acts that otherwise] would have been
committed, and preserved the lives and liberties of
many of those confined in the stockade. With him
at the head of the Times, the military authorities
were compelled to restrain themselves, and think
well before they acted. They ordered him several
times to cease his strictures, but in each instance
he sent back a bold defiance, and the following
morning the Times appeared with editorials in keep-
ing with those of former issues. He had three
newspaper plants and all of his files destroyed by
fire in Jefferson, but notwithstanding these great
losses and heavy expense attendant upon the publi-
cation of a daily newspaper in those days, he con-
ducted the Times until , after which time he
published and edited papers at Galveston and Jef-
ferson, Texas, and Shreveport, La., and from 1877
until 1880, edited the Marshall IferaZd, at Marshall,
Texas, published by Mr. Howard Hamments.
Some of the best work that he ever did was on the
Herald. There was scarcely a paper in the State
that did not quote from the Herald's editorial
columns, and the editors of the State, as if by com-
mon consent, united in referring to him on all
occasions as the " Nestor of the Texas Press."
From a very early period Col. Loughery strongly
advocated the building of a trans-continental rail-
way through Texas to the Pacific ocean, and while
in New Orleans on one occasion was employed by
Col. Faulk, the original projector of what is now the
Texas and Pacific Railway, to write a series of
articles for the Picayune in defense of the corpo-
ration which Col. Faulk had then recently formed.
Later he became one of the stockholders and direct-
ors of the corporation. Throughout his life he felt
an interest in the fortunes of the Texas and Pacific,
and remained an earnest advocate of railway con-
struction. Every worthy enterprise found in him
a staunch and zealous supporter.
In 1887 he was appointed by President Cleveland
184
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Consul for the United States at Aeapulco, Mexico,
and held the office until December 1st, 1890,
making one of the best officers in the foreign ser-
vice. He was often commended by the State
Department, and his reports were copied by the
leading commercial papers in Europe and America.
Col. Loughery was undoubtedly one of the
finest writers and clearest thinkers that the South
has ever produced, and deserves to rank with
Ritchie, Kendall and Prentice. It has been said
that journalism has greatly improved in recent
years. This is true with regard to the gathering
and dissemination of news, but not true in anj-
other particular.
He was married to Miss Elizabeth M. Bowers
near Nebo, Ky., November 23, 1853. His
widow and four children, Robert W., Jr. (born
of his first marriage), Augusta M., E. H., and
Fannie L. , survive him. He died at his home in
Marshall, Texas, April 26, 1894, and was interred
in the cemetery at that place.
Mrs. E. M. Loughery was born in Christian
County, Kentucky, is the daughter of the late Mr.
and Mrs. W. W. Bowers, is descended from two
of the oldest and most distinguished families of the
" Blue Grass State," was partly educated at Oak-
land Institute, Jackson, Miss., came to Texas
with her uncle. Judge Dudley S. Jennings, and
remained some time afterward with her uncle.
Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, well remembered as
a lawyer, Attorney-general of Texas and citizen of
Nacogdoches, San Augustine and Fort Worth.
Mrs. Loughery is a lady of superior culture and
attainments, and as a writer little inferior to her
talented husband. During the days of the military
commission at Jefferson, when Col. Loughery was
threatened with incarceration in the stockade, it
was understood that in case of his arrest, she was
to assume editorial control of the Times, and con-
tinue its strictures on the despotism that prevailed,
a work, that had it become necessary, she would
have been fully competent to perform. She has
recently written and published in pamphlet form
a memoir of the life, character and services of Col.
Loughery that possesses superior literary merits
and has met with favorable comment in the leading
newspapers in the State.
R. W. Loughery, Jr., was a soldier in the Con-
federate Army during the four years of the war,
carried the last dispatches into Arkansas Post,
fought through the Tennessee and Georgia cam-
paigns, was mentioned at the head of his regiment
for conspicuous gallantry at Chickamauga and fol-
lowed the flag until it was finally furled in North
Carolina. He was a printer on the old Dallas
Herald, and later on its successor, the Dallas News,
until recently, and is still living in Dallas.
Miss Augusta M. Loughery is one of the most
accomplished ladies in Texas. E. H. Loughery
edited newspapers at Jefferson, Texas, Shreve-
port. La., Paris, Texas, Abilene, Texas, and
Marshall, Texas, during the years from 1879 to
1891; edited Daniell's Personnel of the Texas
State Government (published in 1892), Col. John
Henry Brown's two-volume history of Texas, and
the present volume (Indian Wars and Pioneers of
Texas) ; has gotten out numerous special news-
paper editions in Texas, and has done various
writing at sessions of the Texas State legislature
during the past eleven or twelve years. Miss
Fannie L. Loughery is an excellent writer, and a
poetess of great promise.
The following are three of the hundreds of
notices that appeared in Texas papers concerning
him: —
" It is now definitely known that our townsman,
Col. R. W. Loughery, the Nestor of the Texas
press, has been appointed American Consul at
Aeapulco, Mexico. Col. Loughery's reputation as
an able and fearless editor, as an honest and faith-
ful Democrat, is beyond question, and nothing we
might write could possibly add to his well-earned
and well-deserved reputation. If Col. Loughery
had done nothing more, his heroic, but perilous
fight with the military in the days of reconstruction,
when there was at Jefferson a military inquisition,
and the man who opposed it imperiled both life and
liberty, he would deserve the highest praise. As a
staunch, tried and true Democrat of the Jeffersonian
school. Col. Loughery is the peer of any and de-
serves liberal recognition from the party. Texas
owes him a large debt of gratitude and liberal
material recognition for the work he has done in
shaping her political fortunes when it cost much in
peril and sacrifice to defend her rights and auton-
omy against the combined power of Federal
authority and hireling satraps. As a writer
Col. Loughery is clear, incisive, strong, and
few men are better posted in the political
history of our national and Southern State politics,
and few, if any, are better able to defend a Demo-
cratic administration. As a consular representative
of our country in Aeapulco, Mexico, he will bring
to his duties a mind well cultivated and a large
experience in the duties of American citizenship
and an accurate knowledge of the history of our
government. The Colonel will wield a pen able and
ready for any emergency in peace or war — a Dam-
ascus blade that has never yet been sheathed in the
presence of an enemy." — Marshall Messenger.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
185
" In May, 1872, Col. Loughery was commissioned
consul at Acapulco, Mexico, and at once assumed
the duties of his office. In that city he found a
strong prejudice existing against Americans and
particularly against Texas, the heritage of a bloody
war and his predecessors in office. His geniality
and kind, courteous and business-like manner
soon swept this away, and he succeeded in sup-
planting the strong anti-American sentiment with
admiration and respect for America and Amer-
icans as strong. By untiring efforts he succeeded
in giving his government far more information than
it had ever before been able to obtain from this
portion of the Mexican republic. In fact, when he
was recalled at the expiration of President Cleve-
land's first term the relations between the United
States and this important port and coaling station
were in every way pleasant and the business of
the consulate was in better condition than ever
before."
"The death of Col. Loughery at Marshall,
April 26th, 1894, was received here with deep regret
and profound sorrow, and a pall of gloom hangs
over his old home and around the scenes of his
glorious works and accomplishments during the
dark days of reconstruction. During those trying
times he stood as a champion of civil liberty, and
boldly defended the rights of the people against
usurpation of the powers that were imposing a
tyranny and rule that was abhorred by the civilized
world. The military commission organized in a
time of profound peace, and its inhuman practices,
is a stigma upon the dominant party and a disgrace
to the power that authorized and sanctioned its
outrages. Every means to degrade and oppress
the people were organized and run in conflict and
opposition to the law and order that the best ele-
ment here was anxious to prevail. A reign of
terror was imposed, and our innocent people were
incarcerated in a Bastile, and tried by a mock
tribunal for crimes they never committed, to gratify
a petty tyranny born and nutured in partisan spirit
and sectional hatred. At the beginning of this
stormy period Col. Loughery came to the rescue and
nobly and gallantly wielded the pen and fought for
principles and justice and boldly enunciated a law
and rule to restore common rights and liberty, that
the existing martial law had stultified and sat upon
with impunity. The desired effect was at last
attained, and the commission was dissolved, and the
civil law was permitted to assume its rightful func-
tions and acknowledged superior to the military.
The gratitude of our people for his efforts along
this perilous line is a silent but eloquent tribute
to the memory of Col. Loughery. He has gone to
his reward, and we join the craft in sincere sorrow,
and mourn in common with the family of our
esteemed old friend." — Jefferson JimpUcute.
The following poem was written by Col. Loug-
hery's youngest daughter, Miss Fannie L. Lough-
ery:—
SALEM ALEIKUM.
Peace be to thy sacred dust.
Cares of earth are ended !
Through life's long and weary day
Grief and joy were blended.
Blessed is that perfect rest,
Free from pain and sorrow.
Death's dark night alone can bring
Sleep with no sad morrow.
Memory's holy censer yields
Fragrance sweet, forever.
Home holds ties, to loving hearts,
Parting can not sever.
Kindly words and noble deeds
Give thy life its beauty.
Brave and patient to the last.
Faithful to each duty.
True as steel to every trust,
Thy aims were selfish never.
Good deeds live when thou art gone.
Thy light shines brighter ever.
Good fight fought, and life work o'er.
Friends and loved ones round thee,
Garnered like the full ripe ear,
Length of days had crowned thee.
Slowly faded like a leaf.
Natural is thy slumber.
Thou livest yet in many hearts.
Thy friends no one can number.
Good night, father, last farewell.
Never we'll behold thee.
May the sod rest light on thee.
Gently earth enfold thee.
" Pax vobiscum " (solemn words).
Sadly death bereft us.
Lonely is the hearth and home.
Father, since you left us.
Sheaves of love and peace are thine,
No wrong thou dids't to any.
May thy life's pure earnest zeal
Strength impart to many.
186
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
O. C. HARTLEY,
GALVESTON.
r Oliver Cromwell Hartley was born in Bedford
County, Penn., March 31st, 1823, where his ances-
tors, who emigrated from England, settled soon
after the American Eevolution; was educated at
Franklin and Marshall College, from which he was
graduated aud honored with the valedictory of his
class in 1841 ; studied law in the ofHce of Samuel
M. Barclay, an eminent lawyer of Bedford, and at
the age of twenty-one was admitted to the bar and
began the practice of his profession. In 1845 he
married Miss Susan C. Davis, of Bedford, and in
1846 moved to Texas and located at Galveston.
The Mexican war was then in progress, and, a call
being made for volunteers to rescue the army of
Gen. Taylor from its perilous position on the Kio
Grande, Mr. Hartley volunteered as a private,
and hastened with his company to the seat of hos-
tilities which he reached soon after the battles of
Palo Alto andResaca de laPalma had been fought,
victories for the American arms which enabled
Gen. Taylor to assume the offensive and obviated
any immediate need for the services of the rein-
forcements which were at hand.
On the organization of Col. Johnson's Regiment,
Mr. Hartley was elected a Lieutenant in the com-
pany from Galveston, which, being disbanded dur-
ing the summer, he returned to the Island City and
resumed the practice of law. The statutes of the
State were at that time in much confusion as to
arrangement and the members of the bar greatly
felt the inconvenience occasioned by the want of a
sulflcient digest. Mr. Hartley prepared a synopti-
cal index of the laws for his own use, which became
the basis of his admirable "Digest of the Texas
Laws." This work was begun in 1848, and in the
spring of 1850 was submitted to the legislature,
which authorized the Governor to subscribe for
fifteen hundred copies for the use of the State.
His digest fully met the wants of the profession,
and was justly regarded as a work of great merit
and perfection.
In 1851, he was elected to represent Galveston
County in the legislature and distinguished himself
as a useful and efficient member. It was said of
him that " he was noted for the frankness and inde-
pendence of his bearing and his refusal to enter
into the intrigues and cabals by which legislation is
80 often controlled."
While a member of the legislature he was
appointed reporter of the decisions of the Supreme
Court, and held that office until his death. His
skill as a reporter was recognized as eminent.
His analyses are accurate and thorough and his
syllabi present a clear and concise exposition of
the law. He was especially apt and felicitous in
eliminating distinctive principles and establishing
legal results from complicated relations and views
arising from a combination of facts, and his efforts
greatly aided in the development of the peculiar
system of Texas jurisprudence.
In February, 1854, he was appointed by the
Governor one of the three commissioners author-
ized by the legislature, " to prepare a code amend-
ing, supplying, revising, digesting and arranging
the laws of the State." The other members of the
commission were JohnW. Harris and James Willie,
and in their division of the labor, the preparation
of a " Code of Civil Procedure" was assigned to
Mr. Hartley. To this work he applied himself
with great zeal, and with an ambition that the civil
code of Texas should be superior to that of any
other State in the Union ; and as an adjunct to its
value and merits he prepared a complete system of
forms to be used in all civil proceedings ; but the
State was not prepared to adopt a new civil code,
and its publication was postponed.
The assiduity with which he pursued his labors
upon this work, and which was unremittedly ap-
plied to his duties as court reporter and the de-
mands of his profession, finally undermined a
naturally robust and vigorous constitution. He
became a martyr to his industry and ambition, and
died of apoplexy of the brain at his residence in
the city of Galveston on the 13th of January,
1859.
Mr. Hartley was a thorough scholar. Possessed
of a patient fondness for investigation and the
acquisition of knowledge, he had from his early
youth devoted his life to its pursuit, and his mind
was disciplined by a thorough and systematic
training, and expanded by constant intellectual
nourishment. Before he left his native State he
had attracted the attention of Judge Jeremiah
Black, who was at that time Chief Justice of
Pennsylvania, whose friendship he secured and
retained. He had also won the interest and esteem
of Mr. Buchanan, who gave him flattering testi-
monials as a sesame to public confidence in Texas.
'"S^-byH.XC,P(oevoets,t^^'
O.C Hartley
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
187
As a lawyer his philosophical turn of mind led him
to closely investigate the relations of things, and
to study their correct association ; hence his skill
in analysis was acute and his powers of compari-
son of a high order. He was careful in the selec-
tion of his premises, and when conscious of their
correctness, his conclusions were deduced in a clear
and logical train. He had accustomed himself to
look at both sides of a question and, perceiving the
proper line of attack, he was prepared to adopt
the most effectual line of defense.
Nothwithstanding his devotion to his profession,
and his ambition to attain a high position at the
bar, Mr. Hartley took a deep interest in the politi-
cal issues of his day, and sought to measure all
doubtful questions by the authority of the constitu-
tion. He was a good constitutional lawyer and his
patriotism was kindled by a discussion of its inter-
pretation and the merits of its provisions. He was
exemplary in his private and social life. Reared
by a Christian mother, he was early guided into the
walks of piety and at his death was a member of
the Episcopal church. He was one of the few
precocious youths whose after-lives realized the
hopes of parental ambition and the promises of
early years.
He possessed a high sense of honor, and his con-
duct was guided by an enlightened judgment and
sensitive conscience. When the legislature author-
ized the Governor to subscribe for his digest it pre-
scribed that the binding should be " law calf " and
when his publishers remonstrated against that kind
of binding and suggested " law sheep," the usual
material for such works, he insisted that it should be
bound in the material designated by the legislature,
though it was apparent that the requirement was the
result either of ignorance or inadvertence. In his pro-
fessional intercourse he was characterized by fair-
ness and candor; a temper rarely disturbed by pas-
sion and a judgment never betrayed by impulse.
The amenity of his manners and the unobtrusive-
ness of his character, added to a native goodness of
heart, endeared him to all and to none more than
his brethren at the bar.
He was greatly devoted to his family, and his
home life was pure, simple and almost pathetic in
its tenderness. Surviving him and residing at Gal-
veston, Mr. Hartley left a widow and one daughter.
His widow is still living, being now numbered
among the old residents of that city. His daughter,
Miss Jerian Black Hartley, died unmarried in 1894.
His only son died in infancy, so that there are no
descendants now living of this pioneer lawyer, but
his works will preserve his name and memory
as long as there remains an annal of Texas
jurisprudence.
GEORGE CLARK,
WACO.
The history of Texas for the past quarter of a
century could not be truthfully written without a
resume of the career of Hon. George Clark. The
memorable Prohibition campaign of 1887 is still
fresh in the minds of the people. If a vote had
been taken in the earlier part of the campaign, the
pending amendment to the constitution prohibiting
the manufacture or sale Qf malt, spirituous or vinous
liquors in this State would have been adopted and,
under the provisions of that amendment, laws
would have been passed violative of the dearest
and most sacred liberties of the people, domicil-
iary visits inaugurated, and a system of espionage,
spying and perjury established out of touch with
this age and its civilization, necessarily tending to
breed animosities that it would have required years
to allay, and which, in fact, might never have been
allayed. The indications were that the Prohibi-
tionists would carry the State by storm. Politi-
cians are never in finer feather than when they can
parade themselves as fearless and unselfish leaders ;
but, as a matter of fact, the majority of them are the
most subservient of followers, sail-trimmers whose
greatest anxiety is to catch favorable popular
breezes with which to waft themselves into office
and keep themselves there. They regard such a
thing as personal sacriflce in the defense of
opinions very much as a majority of men do
suicide — as an act of insanity. This truth was
never more vividly illustrated than during the prog-
ress of the exciting contest referred to. One
public man of prominence after another, thinking
that the amendment would be adopted, published
open letters favoring it, although by doing
188
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
so they abandoned the position they had
previously held. The larger number of lead-
ers who had not taken this step sulked in their
tents, or remained discreetly silent, waiting for the
outcome. At this critical moment Judge Clark
threw himself into the breach, organized the anti-
prohibition forces and in a short time had the oppo-
sition on the run and begging quarter and, when
the sun set upon the day of election, he had led the
way to one of the most remarkable, signal and
brilliant political victories ever won in any State of
the American Union. The question was thoroughly
argued and was decided upon its merits. He was
the hero of the hour — the foremost and most dis-
tinguished figure in the political arena in Texas,
the idol of the people. If he had desired office, he
could have gotten anything within the gift of the
people, but he desired none. It was sufficient to
him to enjoy the calm consciousness of having done
his duty, without the expectation or desire of re-
ceiving any reward whatever. Nor did he there-
after consent to become a candidate until, as the
champion of principles upon whose triumph he
believed depended the prosperity of the country,
he led the forlorn-hope in the Clark-Hogg guber-
natorial campaign of 1892 and conducted a cam-
paign, which led to more temperate action upon
the part of those in power than could otherwise
have been expected. He is now the recognized
leader in Texas in another great contest, that is
being made in the interest of what he believes to be
the maintenance of a sound financial system by
the United States. His purity of purpose and his
learning as a lawyer and exceptional ability as a
statesman are generally recognized throughout
Texas and throughout the country.
He was born in Eutaw, Alabama, July 18, 1841.
His father was James Blair Clark, a native of
Pennsylvania, who was partially reared at Chilli-
cothe, Ohio, when it was the capital of the State,
and in the State of Kentucky by his uncle, Alex-
ander Blair. His mother's maiden name was Mary
Erwin. She was a native of Virginia and was reared
and educated at Mount Sterling, Ky. James
B. Clark and Mary Erwin were married at Mount
Sterling in 1825, and at once emigrated to the State
of Alabama, where the former rose to eminence at
the bar and was for many years Chancellor of the
Middle Division of that State. He died in 1873 and
his wife in 1863. Nine children were born to them,
seven sons and two daughters. George was the
seventh son. He was educated in the private schools
of his native place and entered the University of
Alabama at Tuscaloosa in 1857. At the beginning
of the war between the States in 1861 he left college
and joined the Eleventh Alabama Regiment of In-
fantry as a lieutenant and went with his command
to Virginia ; in July of that year joined Gen. Joseph
E. Johnston at Winchester ; was with the army in
its march across the mountains to a junction with
Beauregard but arrived too late to participate in
the first battle of Manassas ; was with the army in
its advance toward Washington in the autumn of
1861 ; went with his command to Yorktown in the
spring of 1862 ; participated in the battles of Seven
Pines, Gaines Mill, Sharpsburg, Fredericksburg,
Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Mine Run, the Wilder-
ness, ^pottsylvania, Hanover, Cold Harbor, Peters-
burg, the Mine, Reams' Station and many other
hot affairs around Petersburg in 1864 and was on
the retreat to Appomatox in April, 1865, but did
not surrender, having joined a squad of cavalry
which broke through Sheridan's line on the morning
of the surrender. He was wounded at Gaines'
Mill on June 27th, 1862, on the third day at Gettys-
burg, in Pickett's charge, and again at Reams'
Station on August 25th, 1864.
After the close of the war he returned home and
began the study of law under his father ; was ad-
mitted to the bar in October, 1866 ; removed to
Texas in January, 1867, and located at Weatherford,
in Parker County ; removed to Waco, his present
home, in December, 1868 ; was a member of the
State Democratic Committee in 1872 ; was appointed
Secretary of State in January, 1874 ; served as
Attorney-General of the State from 1874 to 1876 ;
served as one of the commissioners appointed to
revise and codify the laws of Texas from 1877 to
1879, and was one of the judges of the Court of
Appeals in the years 1879 and 1880, since which
time he has held no public office, but has devoted
his attention to the practice of his profession at
Waco.
During his term as Attorney-General, apart from
any criminal cases in which he represented the State
on appeal, and which may be found in the Texas
Reports, vols. 40 to 45 inclusive, he represented
the State successfully in many civil causes, among
others in Bledsoe v. The International Railway
Co. (40 Tex. 537),
Keuchler v. Wright, 40 Tex. 600,
The Treasurer v. Wygall, 46 Tex. 447 ,
all involving great interests. His opinions on the
bench may be found in the 7th, 8th and 9th
Court of Appeals Reports, among the more im-
portant of which are: —
Rothschild v. State, 7 Ct. of App. 519 ;
Jennings v. State, 7 Ct. of App. 350 ;
Hull V. State, 7 Ct. of App. 593 ;
Alford V. State, 8 Ct. of App. 545 ;
GEORGE CLARK.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
189
Kendall v. State, 8 Ct. of App. 569 ;
Guffee V. State, 8 Ct. of App. 187 ;
Albrecht v. State, 8 Ct. of App. 216.
As a lawyer he represents important railway and
commercial interests, and in a recent controversy
between the United States and the State of Texas,
in the Supreme Court, involving the title to Greer
County, Texas, was of counsel for the State and
participated in the argument. Few lawyers in the
State enjoy as large and lucrative a law practice.
He has long ranked among the ablest counselors in
the United States. His services in connection
with the codification of the statutes of the State
were invaluable. It was the first work of the kind
that was undertaken. The result of the labors of
the commission were the Revised Statutes of 1879.
The work was so thoroughly done, that, when the
legislature provided a few years since for a revision
of the laws of the State, the commissioners were
instructed not to change the general arrangement,
nor even the verbiage used by the former codifiers,
where such action was not rendered imperative by
later amendments to old, or the enactment of new,
laws. No greater compliment could have been
paid to Judge Clark and his colleagues. As
Attorney-General and as one of the judges of the
Court of Appeals he fully sustained the high repu-
tation with which he came to those positions.
Before those important public offices were con-
ferred upon him he had become well known to the
people of Texas. In the dark days that followed
the war between the States, he was an earnest
worker for the re-establishment of honest, constitu-
tional government, and took a prominent part in
the great popular struggle that resulted in the
overthrow of the Davis regime and the restoration
of the control of the State to the citizens of Texas.
Asa soldier, public servant, lawyer and citizen, he
has come fully up to every responsibility, and has
responded to every duty. As a member of an honor-
able profession, he has pursued it with zeal and
has devoted to it the full strength of his mind.
The people of Texas fully appreciate his high
character and important services. They have a
very warm spot in their heart of hearts for George
Clark and will not forget what he has done until
they grow to be grateful only for services they
expect to receive.
CHARLES S. WEST,
AUSTIN.
The State of South Carolina, in proportion to her
limits and population, has contributed as much, if
not more, towards developing and making the State
of Texas what she is to-day, as any of her sister
States.
To the judiciary she has sent James Collinsworth,
the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court under
the Eepublic ; Hon. Thomas J. Rusk, first Chief
Justice of the Appellate Court under the State
government and for so long a while her distin-
guished United States Senator ; Hon. John Hemp-
hill, who later filled the same position (from 1846
to 1858) and who, like his predecessor. Gen. Rusk,
represented his State in the United State Senate ;
then there was Hon. A. S. Lipscomb, also the
venerable and esteemed O. M. Roberts and Hon.
Charles S. West, the subject of this sketch, all
conspicuous examples of gallant sons of the
" Palmetto State " who have adorned the bench of
their adopted State of Texas.
The father of Judge West, John Charles West,
was a native of North Carolina, who at an early age
emigrated to Camden, South Carolina, where he
was teller in the old Camden Bank and for two
terms sheriff of Kershaw district (now county).
He was universally esteemed and respected. On
his mother's side Judge West was connected with
the Thorntons, Eccles, Copers, Clarks and other
old South Carolina families. His mother, Nancy
Clark Eccles, was a woman of more than ordinary
culture and education and possessed literary ability
of the higher order.
In the fall of 1846 young West left Jefferson
College, Pennsylvania, and became a student of
South Carolina College, then presided over by the
celebrated orator, Hon. W. C. Preston. He gradu-
ated therefrom in 1848. During the years 1849-5(>
he was in very needy circumstances and for a living
taught a small school for the Boykin family at
their Pleasant Hill home, near Camden ; at the
same time studied law under Hon. James Chestnut,
afterwards a United States senator from South
190
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Carolina, who became young West's personal
and valued friend. Judge West received his
license to practice law in South Carolina
on the law and equity sides of the docket,
respectively, the former May 13th, 1851, and the
latter May 12th, 1852, and began the practice
at Camden, but with very moderate success.
About the last of November, 1852, he left his
native State and came to Texas, reaching the State
November 2, of that year, and located at Austin,
which was ever after his home. He reached Austin
with but $7.50 in his pocket and that was bor-
rowed money, In 1854 he formed a law-partner-
ship with Col. H. P. Brewster. He was in 1855,
when twenty-six years of age, elected to the
legislature from the Austin district, and took a
prominent part in the discussion of the issues of
those days. In 1856 Hon. John Hancock and
Judge West formed what was afterwards the well-
known law firm of Hancock & West and did a
large law business, handling heavy land litigation,
railroad and other corporation cases. The firm
continued up to and during the period of the late
war and until 1882, when Judge West became an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. He was
comparatively little in public life, eschewed politics
and confined himself closely to his profession. He
was for a short while Secretary of State, under
Governor F. R. Lubbock. In the constitutional
convention of 1875 he represented Travis and a
number of adjoining counties, comprising one dis-
trict, and served on important committees. Under
the act approved July 28th, 1876, Governor Coke
appointed Judge West as one of the five commis-
sioners to revise the laws of the State and he was
chosen chairman of the body. During the late
war he served with distinction in the Adjutant-
General's department, with the rank of Captain on
the staff of Gen. P. O. Hebert and, later, on
the staff of Gen. Magruder at the battle of
Galveston and received special official mention for
gallant conduct. During the latter years of the
war he served on the staff of Gen. E. Kirby
Smith and was with him at Jenkin's Ferry on the
Sabine river in Arkansas and with Gen. Wm. E.
Scurry when that commander was killed in this
battle. For gallantry in this battle, Capt. West
was promoted to the rank of Major and was
assigned to duty in the Trans-Mississippi depart-
ment as Judge Advocate-General, which position
he ably filled until the downfall of the Confed-
eracy. He then returned to his law practice at
Austin and in 1874 was admitted to the bar of the
United States Supreme Court and argued before
that body some very heavy and important cases.
In 1859 Judge West married Miss Florence R.
Duval, daughter of Judge Thomas H. Duval, for
many years United States District Judge for the
Western District of Texas.
Her grandfather was Hon. W. P. Duval, first
Governor of PMorida and the " Ralph Ringwood "
of his friend Washington Irving's tales of Brace-
bridge Hall.
Mrs. West was an accomplished woman, a
charming vocalist and an ornament to society.
Judge West was not a member of any religious
sect or order, but was a regular attendant of the
Protestant Episcopal Church and filled before the
late war the otflce of vestryman of St. David's
Church at Austin, Texas. He was a generous and
kind-hearted gentleman and a just judge. Owing
to ill health he resigned his seat on the bench,
September 24th, 1885. He died at his home in
Austin, October 22, 1885. Mrs. West died No-
vember 19th, 1881. They left three sons: Robt.
G. West, an able lawyer of the Austin and Texas
bar and member of the firm of Cochran & West ;
Duval West, at present Assistant United States
District Attorney for the Western District of Texas ;
and William.
WILLARD RICHARDSON,
GALVESTON.
Willard Richardson was a native of Massachu-
setts, born in that State, June 24th, 1802. His
father was Zacharia Richardson, a retired capitalist
of Taunton, Mass. When fourteen years of age
the subject of this memoir and a brother ran away
from home in a spirit of boyish adventure, went
South and landed at Charleston, S. C, in the midst
of a yellow fever epidemic to which his brother
speedily succumbed. Young Richardson shortly
thereafter left the plague-stricken city and went to
Newberry district, where he taught school in the
hope of earning sufficient money to complete bis
WILLAED EICHARDSON.
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
191
education. His manly struggle to attain this
worthy end attracted the attention and won for
him the friendship of Judge O'Neill, who supplied
him the means to complete his course in the State
college at Columbia.
He then accompanied Prof. Stafford to Tusca-
loosa, Ala., as an assistant teacher, and devoted his
first earnings to the reimbursement of his friend,
Judge O'Neill, for whom he ever afterward cher-
ished sentiments of the warmest gratitude and
esteem. Emigrating to Texas, in 1837, he pro-
ceeded to the West and employed himself in locat-
ing and surveying lands. He afterwards went to
Houston and established a school for young men.
Some time there after, Dr. Francis Moore, editor of
The Telegraph, who was regarded as one of the
most finished newspaper writers then in the State,
wished to spend a summer in the North and induced
Mr. Richardson to assume editorial control of the
paper. The versatility, force and literary excel-
lence of his writings immediately attracted atten-
tion, and probably the expression of public
appreciation of his efforts had much to do with
inducing him to adopt journalism as a profession.
He bent every energy to the upbuilding of the
paper and, prudent, cool and persevering, never
lost faith in the future of the city and in the
country nor in the ultimate success of his own
efforts. He was not content to keep abreast of
the times but sought to anticipate the general
march of progress and development, and move in
advance of others. As a result the News almost
immediately became a power in the land, a position
that it has ever since maintained. He took an
active part both with his pen and by liberal contri-
butions from his private means, in aiding all worthy
public enterprises from old times down to the era
that inaugurated railroad building in Texas. He
made a powerful effort through the columns of the
News, devoting whole numbers and large extra edi-
tions of the paper to that purpose to induce the
adoption by the State of Texas of what was known
as the " Galveston Plan," under which the State
was asked to patronize a system of roads to diverge
from the navigable waters of Galveston Bay into
Eastern, Western and Central Texas.
The plan was simple, comprehensive and practi-
cable, but was not adopted by the legislature and
the State has since struggled on without a system
and under many difficulties and distractions in the
construction of roads by private companies with
State aid and complications have resulted that
threaten protracted and vexatious litigation and hot
civil convulsions in the future. Driven from Gal-
veston in the year of 1861-2 by the Federal forces
he moved his extensive and valuable newspaper
plant to Houston, where it was a short time there-
after entirely destroyed by fire. The establishment
was then, as now, by far the most valuable in the
State. It was wholly uninsured and there was no
chance to replace it in full owing to the blockade ;
but he met the heavy loss — probably $50,000 in
the original outlay — with entire equanimity and
immediately set to work to collect such material as
was available ; resumed the publication of the
paper and kept it up throughout the war, not
returning to Galveston until 1866, after the fall
of the Confederacy. During the war the News
was eminently conservative and outspoken, though
devoted to the Southern cause. He did not hesi-
tate to denounce the establ shment and enforcement
of so-called martial law under pleas of military
necessity, under which so many private rights were
outraged and lawless acts perpetrated on both sides
of the contest by those claiming to exercise military
authority. It contained well-written and trenchant
articles protesting against the arbitrary acts of both
the Confederate congress and tlie military authori-
ties at a time when one, whose devotion to the
Southern cause was not so well established as that
of Mr. Richardson, would not have dared to speak
so freely. Nor did he feel bound, like so many
editors of the day, to give only such news as was
favorable to the South and represented her as
triumphant, when in fact the clouds of adverse
fortune were lowering upon her banners.
He did nothing, however, to discourage any just
hopes of his friends. The course that he pursued
was to publish the facts as he received them.
When the final collapse of the Confederacy came
he was prepared for it and ready to render all the
aid possible toward the political and material
rehabilitation of the country. He neither yielded
himself nor desired to see others yield to apathy and
despair ; but, both by precept and example, taught
that the duty of the hour was to make a vigorous
and united effort to repair the ravages of war by
the development of the agricultural resources of
the State, increasing transportation facilities, culti-
vating commercial relations with the other States of
the Union and stimulating immigration.
During his long connection with the News, com-
mencing as editor in 1843, and afterwards as sole
proprietor or partner, Mr. Richardson presented a
model of persistent application to business. With-
out any ambition to figure in politics, caring noth-
ing for ordinary amusements, he found sufficient
entertainment in the active pursuits of life and the
literary labors his vocation involved. He was a
hard worker, but he loved his work and for the
192
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
most part was cheered by the successful results
of his enterprise and foresight. Whenever he
took a stand on any great public question he
did so after mature deliberation and adhered to
his views with consistency and firmness, apparently
as little disturbed by adverse prospects as elated
with success. His temperament and mental organ-
ism were not such as characterize the partisan or
popular politician. He was not capable of viewing
a question wholly from one standpoint, but natur-
ally considered it in all its bearings, and if he had
prejudices and prepossessions that warped his
judgment and influenced his conclusions, they never
appeared, in anything that he said or wrote. He
never indulged in the crimination and recrimina-
tion so common to the press in times of political
excitement, nor showed prejudice against a person
or cause on personal grounds. Neither did he
deal in vague generalities or exhibitions of feeling
or sentiment. Palpable facts and the most direct
and logical conclusions from them constituted the
means which he employed to influence public
opinion. Raised in the political school of Calhoun
and deeply imbued with its principles, he held with
constancy to the fixed political opinions of his
younger years, firm in the belief that they were
well founded and must be ultimately vindicated
or the government lose the vital elements of lib-
erty. In his manner toward and intercourse with
others Mr. Richardson was singularly modest and
unobtrusive. With an abiding faith in the future
of Galveston and Texas, he invested the proceeds
of his business in property that grew in value with
the development of the country and spent his
money with a liberal hand in the erection of elegant
and costly buildings. The first four- story brick
building put up in Galveston was erected by him
before the war for the office of the News. The
opera house and stores connected with it, extend-
ing to and adjoining the office of the News, fol-
lowed, involving investments which but few men
would have ventured to make at that time, but
which were all made with the cool calculation of
the man of business, as well as the laudable pride
of a man who had identified himself with the build-
ing up of the city and was willing to stand or fall
with it. He also made other valuable improve-
ments in other parts of Galveston and contributed
to almost every enterprise for the improvement of
the city and its connection with the commerce of
the interior.
In former years he sometimes served as alderman
and was once elected and served as mayor of Gal-
veston, although he had not announced himself as
a candidate. He declined to run for re-election.
He frequently expressed repugnance to office hold-
ing. He had no ambition to occupy a conspicuous
position in the public eye, either living or dead, and
placed little value upon ostentatious display, pre-
ferring the solid and useful to that which is ornate
and showy. With the increase of years and the
pressure of business he gradually relaxed his edi-
torial labors, having for some years prior to his
death retired from any active management of the
News. Though he found time afterwards to con-
tribute to its columns, he had ceased to do so
regularly for a long time and held no position in
the division of the labors of the establishment.
He took an active interest in the benevolent order
of Odd Fellows, of which he was a life-long member
and for which he exercised his pen even after he
had ceased to labor on the columns of the News.
At the session of the Grand Lodge of the United
States, held in April, 1874, it was resolved that the
history of the order should be written and an appeal
was made to members throughout the country for
aid in the work. In accordance with a resolution
then adopted by the Grand Lodge, Mr. Richardson
received the following appointment through the
Grand Master of Texas : —
" Office of R. W. Grand Master,
" R. W. Grand Lodge I. O. O. F. or the
" State of Texas.
" Waco, Texas, April 24th, 1874.
" By virtue of the authority in me vested, and in
compliance with the spirit and object of the en-
closed copy of circular letter, I hereby nominate,
constitute and appoint you Historiographer of our
beloved order in the State of Texas. While you
deservedly have the reputation of being the Nestor
of journalism in this great and rapidly growing
State, you are also esteemed properly by the
brothers of this jurisdiction as the father of Odd
Fellowship in Texas. No one in my knowledge is
more imbued with the cardinal virtues, and has
more interest in and zeal for our Order in Texas
than yourself, and no one is better prepared to
give accurately, thoroughly and attractively the
rise, progress and rapid development of Odd
Fellowship in Texas than yourself. Hoping that
you will accept the appointment, and at once open
correspondence with Brother Ridgeley, I am, fra-
ternally yours, etc.
"M. D. Herring,
" Grand Master."
This labor of love Mr. Richardson, then seventy-
two years of age, at once set out to accomplish,
and the result in a short time was a handsome book
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
193
of three hundred and fifty pages, giving a complete
history of the Order in Texas, from the opening of
the first lodge in Houston, on the 24th of July,
1838, up to 1874, a period of thirty-six years.
He held almost every office known to the Order
during his long connection with it and his name
appears in the list of chief officers of the Grand
Encampment of the State, as M. E. G. High
Priest for more than one term. For several years
successively preceding his death he was Grand
Representative to the National Grand Lodge, and
held that position at the time of his demise and
looked forward with pleasure to the period of the
Grand Reunion, which he was destined to never
more attend.
Time and space will not permit an examination
of the printed archives of the order to trace his
varied work in its behalf and he left no personal
records of himself in this or in any other respect,
though he spoke freely of his past life among his
friends. He returned to South Carolina in 1849
and June 6th of that year was united in marriage
to Miss Louisa B. Murrell, to whom he had been
engaged since early manhood. Mrs. Richardson
is a daughter of James and Louisa (Sumpter)
Murrell, at the time of her marriage residents of
Sumpter, South Carolina, where she was born in
1819. Her father was a planter. Gen. Thomas
Sumpter, of revolutionary fame, was Mrs. Richard-
son's maternal grandfather. The town of Sumpter
and Fort Sumpter in Charleston Harbor were named
for this distinguished military officer and citizen.
He also was a planter.
Mr. and Mrs. Richardson had 'one child, a
daughter, now the wife of Dr. Henry P. Cooke, of
Galveston. Dr. and Mrs. Cooke, have one son,
Willard Richardson Cooke, born in Galveston,
September 6lh, 1888.
Mrs. Richardson lives in retirement in the beau-
tiful Oleander City by the sea surrounded by a
wide circle of friends and in the enjoyment of the
companionship of her daughter's family.
Mr. Richardson died at his home in Galveston,
July 26th, 1875. He was a man who had fixed
plans and aims in life and, though he lived to work
most of them out to successful results, it is known
to his more immediate confidants that he hoped to
crown the end of his career with a work that would
have inured to the benefit of the people of Texas-
of after times and conferred enduring benefits on
the city which had been the scene of his labors^
His name deserves a place among those of the-
many illustrious men who have in this country
adorned the profession of journalism. His char-
acter embraced many of the elements of true
greatness. He did much for tlie State of Texas
and deserves grateful remembrance at the hands
of her people.
THE CARR FAMILY OF BRYAN,
BRYAN.
The Bryan branch of the Carr family in Texas
dates back to the arrival of Allan Carr at the town
of Old Washington, on the Brazos, in 1858. He
came from Noxubee County, Mississippi, and
brought with him a family of five children, the
wife and mother having died in Mississippi. He
remained at Old Washington but a short time,
however, when, having purchased a farm on the
river in Burleson County, about twelve miles north-
west of Bryan, he settled there.
He brought with him from Mississippi one hun-
dred slaves, which he worked on his farm until
affairs. State and national, became unsettled and
then, in 1860, sold them (retaining only a few house
servants) to a Mr. William Brewer, of Old Inde-
13
pendence, in Washington County. Some of these
slaves still live in and about Independence, Brenham
and Bryan.
Allan Carr was a native of North Carolina and
was born in 1807.
He led an active life until his death at his home
in Burleson County in 1861. He is remembered by
old settlers as a man of excellent impulses, strong
traits of character, and a good citizen. He was a
life-long i^lanter and raised cotton and corn with
great success.
His early ancestors were Scotch-Irish and his
more immediate antecedents were directly traceable
to the earliest colonists of old Virginia.
He married Miss Elizabeth Wooton, she being
194
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
also of North Carolina birth. Of their children,
three are now living in Texas: Robert W., Jennie,
and Allan B.
Robert W. is a resident of Bryan and for twelve
years past treasurer of Brazos County. He was
born on Tar River, Greene County, North Carolina,
October 2, 1831. "When about six years of age his
father located with the family at West Point, Miss.
In 1850 young Carr went to California and followed
mining throughout the then newly developing gold-
diggings. He passed through the tnost exciting
period of those lively early days in the "Golden
State." He remained in California until the break-
ing out of the late war, when he returned to the
South, coming via Panama, Aspinwall and New
York to St. Louis, from which place he made his
way into Arkansas, where he raised an independent
company of cavalry and equipped the men with the
best Sharp's rifles and six- shooting revolvers. With
this company he ranged through that region of
country and was with "Jeff." Thompson and his
command at the battle of BlackRiver and also later
at Pocahontas, Missouri.
At this point, receiving news from home of the
dangerous illness of his father, he disbanded his
company and returned to Texas. His father died
at his Brazos valley farm, as before recited, and
Capt. Carr joined Capt. Hargrove's scouting com-
pany, which became a part of Hood's Brigade.
Capt. Carr soon received a commission to raise a
company of cavalry, which he did and was there-
upon ordered by Gen. Magruder to fight the " Yan-
kees" in the valley of the Rio Grande, which he
most cheerfully and effectually did.
The story of Capt. Carr's campaign on the Rio
Grande river, properly written, would, in itself, make
a fair-sized volume of more than ordinary interest.
Capt. Carr remained in the vallej' until the close
of the war and for a time commanded the post at
Brownsville, which was the base of supplies from
Mexico for the Confederate States. His company
fought and won the last battle of the war at Pal-
metto Ranch, about fifteen miles below Browns-
ville, which took place some time after Gen. Lee
had surrendered and hostilities had ceased. It
should be stated, however, that Brownsville was so
far distant from the seat of war and the means of
communication so impaired that the offlcial news of
the cessation of hostilities had not reached them.
Upon the receipt of the news, Capt. Carr returned
to Texas and commenced merchandising at Milli-
can and, also, pursued farming on the Brazos until
1867, when he went to Bryan and entered the cot-
ton business, in which he has been engaged since
about 1875.
Since the year 1884: he has continuously held the
office of treasurer of Brazos County, having been
elected from time to time with increased majorities
over his opponents.
Capt. Carr married in 1867 Mrs. M. E. Farinholt,
whose maiden name was Mary E. Knowles. She
was born in Arkansas.
Mr. and Mrs. Carr have had four daughters, two
of whom are living, viz. : Mary E., who serves as
his deputy in the treasurer's office, and Lillie E. ,
who is the wife of Mr. John Davis, of Bryan.
Jennie, the second of the family now living, is
Mrs. T. C. Westbrook, of Hearne.
Allan B., the youngest living member of this
generation, is a resident of Bryan, where he has
lived since about 1873. He was born August 27,
1843, in Lowndes (since Clay) County, Miss.,
at the town of West Point, where his father was the
first settler and erected the first buildings. Here -
young Carr spent his boyhood and youth and was
about fifteen years of age when he, with his father,
came to Texas. Soon after the settlement of the
family on their Brazos bottom-farm, the war broke
out and he promptly joined the army, in defense
of the Confederate cause, as a member of the
Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col. (later
Brigadier-General) John C. Moore, as a consequence
of whose promotion. Col. W. P. Rogers took regi-
mental command. Mr. Carr participated with his
regiment in the well-known and bloody engagements
at Shiloh, Farmington and luka, and was in the
second battle of Corinth, where Col. Rogers fell in
the heat of the struggle. Mr. Carr was at the time
serving as Col. Rogers' orderly. Mr. Carr remained
with the army until the final break-up and then
returned to Burleson County and engaged in farm-
ing (his father having died). He also conducted
a ferry across the Brazos river at the old San
Antonio crossing for about two years, when he
removed to Bryan, where he has since resided.
Mr. Carr married in 1866 Miss Pandora Mosely,
a daughter of Augustus Mosely (deceased), a
pioneer of Burleson County (1857) and an exten-
sive Brazos-bottom planter. They have two sons,
Charles O' Conor Carr, engaged in the insurance
business, and Allan B. Carr, Jr., one of the most
prosperous merchants at Bryan.
Mr. Carr for twenty-two years past has, without
intermission, held the office of secretary of the city
of Bryan.
His long continuance in office is evidence of the
esteem in which he is held as a citizen and faithful
offlcial. Mr. Carr owns rural and city realty but
his time is largely absorbed with his offlcial duties.
Others of the family are deceased. Martha died
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
195
in Mississippi, tLe wife of Wm. McMulIen ; Eliza-
beth (or Bettie) married T. P. Mills, was the
mother of two daughters and a son, and died in
Houston about 1860. Titus came to Texas with
his father, married and in 1870 died at Bryan,
leaving four children and a widow, who again
married ; and William came to Texas with the
family, married, and died in the United States
mail service at Fort Worth about 1885, leaving
one son, Weatbrook. William had held a respon-
sible position in the United States service for up-
wards of twenty years.
ALEXANDER GILMER,
ORANGE.
Was born September 7, 1829, in County
Armagh, Ireland. His parents were George and
Jane Gilmer, both of whom died in Ireland.
He was educated in his native land, where he
remained until seventeen years of age, when he
came to America and located in Georgia, where he
engaged in getting out shipmasts for the French
government, working under his brother, John, who
was the contractor. He followed this employment
for three years, clearing about $700.00. He then
worked under his brother in building a schooner
and steamboat, putting all his earnings in the
steamboat, the Swan, which was to ply on the
Ghattahoochie river. She was sunk during the
second season, leaving him but ten cents when she
went down, which he gave to a negro who blacked
his boots. He then helped to build a schooner, the
AlthaBrooks, on the Chattahoochie river in Alabama
-and came out to Texas on her, landing at Galves-
ton, from which place he went to Orange to repair
a schooner. This work completed, he took a con-
tract with a man named Livingston to build a
schooner, which they completed, and then helped to
build another -schooner, the Mary Ellen.
This done, he formed a copartnership with Smith
& Merriman and his cousin, George C. Gilmer,
and built the Alex Moore, which was run between
■Orange and Galveston, and was employed in the
Texas coast-wise trade.
He and his cousin bought out Smith & Merri-
man's interest in the schooner and started a
mercantile business at Orange, which they con-
tinued about fifteen years, until George C. Gil-
mer's death at Orange.
Mr. George C. Gilmer bequeathed half his inter-
est in the store, valued at about $10,000.00, to
George Gilmer, a son of the subject of this notice.
When twenty-seven years of age Mr. Alexander
Gilmer was united in marriage to Miss Etta Read-
ing, of Orange. No children by this marriage.
His second marriage was to Miss C. C. Thomas,
of Orange, in 1867. Nine children have been born
to them, seven ofwhom are living, viz. : Laura, now
Mrs. Dr. F. Hadra, of Orange ; Mattie, now Mrs.
H. S. Filson, of Orange ; Effle, now Mrs. E. M.
Williamson, of Waco ; Eliza, Cleora, Annie, and
Ollie. Two sons died in infancy.
Mr. Gilmer engaged in the saw-mill business in
1866. He sustained q, number of severe losses by
fire, but in each instance by good management put
his financial affairs on a better basis than they
were before.
One of his largest mills was built at Orange in
1894.
Just before his last loss by fire, he established
lumber yards at Velasco ; bought one at Beeville
(which he closed in 1895), bought one at Yoakum,
one at Cuero, one at Runge, one at Karnes City,
one at Victoria, and established one at Brazoria,
which are valued at about $100,000.00. His mill
property is valued at about $75,000.00.
Mr. Gilmer's property interests now aggregate
about $300,000.00. He had but $500.00 when he
reached Texas.
He was on the G. H. Bell, commanded by
Charles Fowler, when the Morning Light was cap-
tured in the battle of Sabine Pass, during the war
between the States.
Later he ran the blockade with a schooner loaded
with cotton, commanded by Capt. Whiting, and
made a successful trip to Balize, Honduras ; then
made an equally successful trip from Columbia to
the Rio Grande ; sold one cargo from Galveston at
Havana ; was captured at Sabine Pass, by the Hat-
teras, which was sunk by the Alabama, the day
after his boat was taken, and then chartered a brig
196
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
at Jamaica and loaded her with coffee, sugar and
lumber, and took the cargo to Laredo, from wliich
place he sent It overland to Houston ; bought cotton
in Laredo, for which he was offered forty cents per
pound in gold, which he refused ; took the cotton to
Matamoros and lost mone}'.
His partner in these ventures was Mr. M. A.
Kopperl, of Galveston.
Before and after the war Mr. Gilmer owned five
schooners, coasting in the lumber trade. He lost
four schooners, with two of which all of the crew
perished.
Mr. Gilmer is now, and has been for manj' years,
one of the most influential citizens and leading busi-
ness men of the section of the State in which he
resides.
WILLIAM HARRISON WESTFALL, M. D.,
BURNET.
While there are few incidents of a sensational or
even novel kind in the ordinary lives of professional
men, there is yet in every successful career points
of interest and an undercurrenfof character well
deserving of careful thought. However much
men's lives may resemble one another each must
differ from all others and preserve an identity truly
its own. The life history of the subject of this
article, while it has many phases in common with
others of his profession, yet discloses an eneirgy,
tact, mental endowments and discipline, and social
qualities, which acting together as a motive power
have enabled him to reach and successfully main-
tain a position of respectability in his profession,
and in the world of practical business, seldom
attained by members of that profession, dis-
tinguished as it is for men of intelligence and
general merit.
Dr. Westfall comes of good ancestry, not par-
ticularly noted, but respectable, strong, sturdy
Virginia stock, of Prussian extraction. He was
born in the town of Buchanan, in what is now
Upshur County, West Virginia, December 16,
1822. He was reared in his native place, in the
local schools of which he received his early mental
training. Opportunities for a collegiate educa-
tion were not open to him, but his energy,
force of character and persistent industry helped
in a great measure to neutralize this disadvan-
tage, and, having determined on a professional
career, he began preparation for it with sufficient
mental equipment. He attended the medical de-
partment of the University of New York, in which
institution and in the hospitals of that city he spent
five years, enjoying the best advantages then open
to students. He did not enter immediately on the
practice of his profession after completing his edu-
cation, but laid aside his purpose for a while, being
induced to this by considerations which exercised a
controlling influence on the careers of many others
of his age. Those were the years in which the
country was swept by the great gold fever which^
breaking out in the wilds of California, spread to
the remotest parts of this continent, and of civili-
zation. Young Westfall was an early victim and
the spring of 1850 found him well on the overland
route towards the new El Dorado. He spent
several months in the gold fields, leading the desul-
tory life of a miner and adventurer. Then in the
winter of 1851 he returned to " the States," stop-
ping in Missouri. Up to this time his fund of
experience was considerably larger than his fund
of cash, but he was not satisfied with either, and
shortly afterward determined to try his fortunes in
a speculative scheme with a bunch of cattle, which
he undertook with some assistance to drive to the
diggings in California. That drive, one of the
earliest in the history of the country, was an
undertaking, the magnitude and hazard of
which the average reader of this day can have but
little conception. The distance covered was
over 2,000 miles and the route lay through an
utterly desert and wilderness country infested
by savage Indians and subject to the perils
of storm, famine and flood. Tbat it was accom-
plished without serious mishap is to be wondered at,
but so it was, and, what is more, it turned out prof-
itably to those who were concerned in it. Dr.
Westfall remained in California on this trip till the
fall of 1853 when, in a better financial condition, he
returned to Missouri. He now felt that it was
time for him to take up his profession and, settling
at Clinton in Henry County, that State, he formed
a partnership with Dr. G. Y. Salmon, a well-known
WoDfl„WES'TrFAD=L,[
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
197
and competent physician, and, entered on his pro-
fessiopal labors. November 20, 1853, he married
Miss Mary A. Bates, of Clinton, whose parents,
Asaph W. and Sarah Bates, originally from Ken-
tucky, had settled in Henry County in pioneer
days, where Mrs. Westfall had been born and
reared.
After four years' residence in Missouri Dr.
Westfall concluded to come to Texas, moving in
1857 to Austin, where he resumed the practice of
his profession, later purchasing land in Williamson
County, in the vicinity of Liberty Hill, which he
improved as a ranch. When the war came on he
transferred his residence from Austin to his ranch,
the returns from which, supplementing the income
from his profession, enabled him to support his
family during the period of hostilities. He was
exempt from military service by reason of his pro-
fession ; but, as a physician and citizen, he rendered
the cause of the Confederacy the best service in
his power, giving it the weight of his personal
influence and attending the families of the soldiers
in the field, free of charge.
In 1872, Dr. Westfall was elected to the lower
branch of the State Legislature from Williamson
County and served as a member of the Thirteenth
General Assembly. This was a new field for him
but one in which his energy and talents enabled him
to acquit himself with credit. It will be remem-
bered that the Twelfth, Thirteenth and Fourteenth
Legislatures were those which had so much to do
with shaping the policy of the State with respect
to schools, public funds and railways. Among the
general laws passed by the Thirteenth Legislature to
which he gave his support were those creating a
public school system and setting apart one-half of
the public domain for the support and maintenance
of the same ; the law providing for the better secu-
rity of the public funds ; the law regulating the
assessment and collection of taxes, and the law to
protect the agricultural interests of the State by
providing adequate punishment for those guilty of
destroying gates and fences or committing other
trespasses, in which last act there was a hint of the
possible conditions which actually arose ten years
later and culminated in the celebrated fence-cutting
troubles. The special laws passed by the Thirteenth
Legislature, in which he took considerable interest,
favoring some and opposing others as seemed to
him proper at the time, were those incorporating
railway, canal and ship channel companies, incor-
porating and extending the corporate powers of
towns and cities, and those establishing by charter
real estate, building, savings and banking concerns,
private educational institutions and benevolent
associations, more than 200 acts of this character
being passed by that Legislature. The Thirteenth
was distinctively the Legislature which gave practi-
cal direction to the re-awakened energies of the
people after the war and prepared the way for the
era of prosperity which followed.
From the lower house Dr. Westfall went to the
upper by election in the fall of 1873, being chosen
from the senatorial district composed of Travis,
Williamson, Burnet, Lampasas, San Saba, Llano and
Blanco. During his term of service in tbe Four-
teenth General Assembly he pursued the same line
of conduct previously marked out, entering, if
anything, more actively into the work of legislation
because by that time he had become better ac-
quainted with the necessities and wishes of the
people, and more familiar with legislative methods
and proceedings. There were some important
amendments to the school law passed by that Legis-
lature, which as' a member of the Committee on
Education, he was in a position to materially aid.
But during this, .as at the previous sitting, the rail-
roads came in for most of the time of the law-
makers. It was during the second session of the
Fourteenth Legislature that the act was passed
giving to the International & Great Northern Rail-
road Company, in lieu of the $10,000 per mile bonds
theretofore granted, twenty sections of land for each
mile of road constructed and exempting the lands
so donated and all of the property of the original
company from taxation for a period of twenty-five
years. This was in the nature of a compromise
and was regarded by many as a good settlement
for the State as well as being just and equitable
towards the railroad. At the outset Dr. Westfall
opposed it, being in favor of the bond subsidy.
But when it became known that such a subsidy
would not meet the approval of the then Governor
and believing that the best interests of the people
demanded a settlement of the question he, as a
member of the committee appointed to formulate a
bill that would receive the Governor's approval, sup-
ported this measure in accordance with his pledge
to stand by the action of a majority of the com-
mittee.
This Legislature also did itself the honor of voting
increased pensions to the surviving veterans of the
revolution by which Texas was separated from
Mexico, including the Santa Fe and Mier prisoners,
the survivors of the company of Capt. Dawson,
who was massacred near San Antonio in 1842, the
survivors of those who were captured at San
Antonio in 1842 and imprisoned at Perote and the
survivors of Deaf Smith's Spy Company. And it
also made legal holidays of the second of March
198
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
(Texas Independence Day) and the twenty-flrst of
April (San Jacinto Day), both of which patriotic
measures received the Doctor's cordial support.
With the expiration of his term as senator Dr.
Westfall gave up public affairs altogether and
turned his attention strictly to his professional and
business interests, which by that time had assumed
very gratifying proportions, gradually placing him
in a position where he could find wider fields for
active and profitable employment. He had moved
from Williamson County to Au3tin in 1876. From
Austin he moved to Burnet in 1879, having made
investments in the latter place which necessitated
this step. For a year or so after going to Burnet
he was interested in the mercantile and exchange
business there ; but, disposing of his mercantile in-
terest later, he engaged in the banking business,
associating with himself for this purpose his son-
in-law, W. H. Hotchkiss, the bank, a private insti-
tution, being opened under the firm name of W. H.
Westfall & Co. In 1883 it was converted into a
national bank and conducted as such for ten years,
at the end of which time it was denationalized and
again became a private institution, and so continues
under the old firm name. The denationalization
was resolved on and effected purely as a matter of
expedieuce and from a conviction that the old sys-
tem was the better adapted to existing conditions,
both systems having been given a fair trial. The
career of the bank under the national system had
been reasonably satisfactory to the stockholders
and eminently so to the Federal authorities-, the
latter fact being evidenced both by repeated expres-
sions from the department and by the fact, of
seldom occurrence, that the Comptroller of the Cur-
rency accepted the statements of the officers of the
bank as to its condition and granted the stock-
holders a release without the formality of an inves-
tigation. This bank with the changes here indi-
cated is the only one the town of Burnet has ever
had and it has been an important factor in the
town's and county's financial and business affairs.
Its treatment of its patrons has always been fair
and reasonable and its liberality in this respect
together with its well-known conservative course in
all things has served to entrench it in the confidence
and good will of the people generally. It is
worthy of note that the bank voluntarily reduced
its rate of interest before the Legislature took action
on that question.
Dr. Westfall has invested more or less in outside
enterprises and has made considerable money by
his investments. He is largely interested in the
South Heights addition to San Antonio and in real
estate in Utah, owning fourteen houses and lots in
Salt Lake City and some irrigated properties in
near-by counties. It may be added that his in-
vestments have been made entirely out of his indi-
vidual means, and only when he has had means
which he felt he could safely use for such purposes,
his unalterable habit having been never to touch
a dollar of other people's money intrusted to
him.
An active man of business, with a keen percep-
tion of the commercial value of things. Dr. West-
fall was among the first to direct attention to the
great wealth locked up in the stone measures of
Burnet County arid he was a staunch advocate of
the claims of that stone for building purposes long
before experts had passed favorably upon it or its
usefulness had been demonstrated by actual trial.
When the commissioners were hunting over the
State for material for the new capitol he put him-
self in communication with them, invited them to
Burnet County to inspect its resources, and person-
ally accompanied them in their travels, assisting
them in their investigations, confident that such
investigations, if fully and fairly made, would
result in the adoption of Burnet County stone for
the great work in hand. As is known, however,
the matter of selecting material for the building
was held in abeyance for some time and it was not
until the value of the product of Granite Mountain
had been thoroughly demonstrated and Dr. West-
fall and his associates. Col. N. L. Norton and Mr.
George W. Lacy, had offered to give to the State
all the stone needed, that it was decided to con-
struct the building of this material. The capitol
as a building speaks for itself. It also in some
measure may be considered a monument to the
wisdom, liberality and public spirit of those who
furnished free of cost the handsome and enduring
material out of which it is constructed.
After having developed the quarries of Granite
Mountain and shipped large quantities of the stone
throughout the State, notably for the jetties at
Galveston and the dam at Austin, the moun-
tain was sold by its owners at a fair profit,
but not until they had seen it through its entire
period of probation and fixed it firmly in pub-
lic favor. With the development of this enterprise
began Dr. Westfall' s connection with the Austin
& Northwestern Railroad, the latter being in
reality an outgrowth of the former. He was one of
the charter members of the road and for some time
its vice-president. He is still its chief surgeon.
All public enterprises — whatever will stimulate
industry or in any way result in good to the com-
munity — meet his cordial approbation and receive
his prompt advocacy and assistance.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
199
While Dr. Westfall has thus traveled far out of
the beaten path of bis profession he has never lost
sight of its claims upon him nor ceased to feel an
abiding interest in it. Confining his attention
mainly to surgery, for which branch he has special
inclination, he responds jpromptly to all calls for his
services and follows up his duties in this connection
with zeal and effleiency. He has served as pres-
ident of the examining boards of the three judicial
districts in which he has lived, and not only with
the laity but with his medical brethren he stands
among the first.
Dr. Westfall is a zealous Mason, having been
made a member of the order more than forty years
ago. He belongs to Ben Hur Shrine and Colorado
Commandery, both of Austin.
A wife and widowed daughter constitute his
family. Not the least of the many creditable
things that can be truthfully said of him is that he
makes grateful acknowledgment for what he is and
what he has to the good wife, who, joining her for-
tunes with his more than forty years ago, has
shared in all his triumphs and reverses, counseling
with him, applauding and encouraging his efforts,
and rejoicing more than any one else in his
success.
THE COLE FAMILY.
BRYAN.
The permanent settlement of the late ven-
erable Bansom Cole in Texas dates back to the
year 1850, when he established himself in Cass
County, in the eastern part of the State. He had
lived, however, a short time during 1849, just over
the State line in Western Louisiana. He was a
native of South Carolina and was born in Edgefield
district, that State, June 11, 1800. The family
history, so far as traceable, seems to be one of
pioneer record.
Daniel Cole, the father of Ransom Cole, was
among the early settlers of Virginia and as that
country became settled pushed on to the frontier
of South Carolina, and later advanced with the
progress of settlement into Georgia and later into
Alabama. Thus it was that Ransom Cole, born
and reared in a then new country, became imbued
with the genuine pioneer instinct and preferred and
during his active years lead a typical pioneer life.
He had Texas in his mind long years before his
final location in Cass County in 1850. Fifteen
years pjior to that date (1835) he explored the
Brazos valley as far north as Waco springs and
there selected lands which he purchased.
Complications arose, however, touching land
titles in that vicinity, covering the tract he had
selected. The trouble very likely occurred with
the Indians, as the Wacos were still at that time
in almost absolute possession of the upper Brazos
valley and held sway for several years later and
relinquished their final hold not without contest and
even bloodshed.
Mr.- Cole finally perfected his title to the land,
but never lived thereon, preferring to remain at his
Cass county home.
Daniel Cole, a younger brother of Ransom, also
came to Texas and located in Cass County in 1853.
He there pursued farming and lived until his death,
leaving a family, some of whom still reside there.
Ransom Cole early suffered the loss of his wife,
Agatha (jiee Bostwick) Cole, December 1, 1854, in
her forty-eighth year. She was born in 1806. She
was the mother of nine children and of these three
sons settled at Bryan in the infancy of the thrifty
county seat of Brazos County, and as merchants
and esteemed citizens have become conspicuous in
the business development and growth of the city,
standing as they do at the head of its mercantile
interests. The firm name of the house. Cole
Brothers, has become a household word throughout
the Brazos valley region. Ransom Cole remained
on his Cass County estate until, advanced in years,
he relinquished the cares of business to spend the
declining years of his life with his children at Bryan
and vicinity and there died in the year 1887, at
eighty-seven years of age. He was favorably known
as a man of quiet and unpretentious manners and a
kind, warm heart.
In view of the foregoing facts, space cannot be
more becomingly utilized than to recite the follow-
ing brief biographical facts touching the Bryan mem-
bers of this pioneer family, all of whom have seen
and taken an aggressive part in the growth of the
richest and most promising valley country in Texas.
200
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Mason D. Cole, the oldest of the family of nine
children, was born in Pike County, Alabama, on his
father's farm, February 24, 1831. His boyhood
was for the most part spent in Macon County, Ala-
bama, and he there early engaged in agriculture
until the removal of the family to Louisiana and
soon after to Texas in 1849. He remained in Cass
County, this State, until he became identified with
the commissary department of the Confederate
government, in which he served during 1864 and
1865. He, in common with his fellow-countrymen,
suffered severe losses in consequence of the war ;
but, gathering up the remnants of his estate, he em-
barked in merchandising at Douglassville, Texas,
from 1865 to 1869, and in a measure repaired his
fortunes. His two brothers preceded him to Bryan
in 1867 and engaged in merchandising under the
firm name of Cole, Dansby & Co. Mr. Cole
came on, purchased Mr. Dansby's interest, and,
with his brothers, established the firm of Cole
Brothers, which dates its existence from 1869.
Mr. Cole married, in 1872, his present and third
wife, Mrs. Mollie A. Covy, a widow lady, native of
Georgia. Of the children born of this union, two
sons survive, viz. ; Houston and Jeff Cole. By a
former marriage, Mr. Cole has a son, J. R. Cole,
and a daughter, now Mrs. Simm Cooper, both resi-
dents of Bryan.
Mr. Cole devotes his time chiefly to the exten-
sive dry goods interests of his firm. He has
served fifteen years as trustee of the public schools
tand in the city council and was one of the original
promoters of Bryan's public free school system.
Jasper N. Cole, general manager of the business
of the firm, was born in Macon County, Alabama,
January 14, 1837, and, like his elder brother, lived
■on his father's farm until about fifteen years of age.
Upon the opening of the war between the States in
1861, he promptly enlisted as a private soldier in
the Third Texas Cavalry, in Greer's Regiment, but
served for the most part under the regimental
command of Col. Walter P. Lane.
The record of the gallant Third Texas Cavalry,
under the leadership at various times of such in-
trepid and relentless fighters as Gens. Ben McCul-
loch. Price, Bragg, and Joseph E. Johnston, is a
part of the history of the great war waged in the
interest of the Southern cause. Mr. Cole fought in
the battles of Wilson Creek, Missouri ; Elk Horn, or
Pea Ridge, Arkansas; Corinth, Mississippi; and
those incident to all the great campaigns dovrn to
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and on down into Georgia.
He returned to his home in Cass County after the
war and in 1867 went to Bryan and embarked in
merchandising in company with a younger brother,
TSoah B. Cole, present junior member of the firm.
Mr. Cole married, October 21, 1869, in Brazos
County, Miss Nannie Walker, daughter of James
Walker, a pioneer of Brazos County. Nine chil-
dren born of this marriage are living, viz. : Mattie,
wife of Lemuel B. Hall, a well-known drug mer-
chant of Bryan ; May, unmarried ; Ella, wife, W. S.
Adams; Carl, Arrie, Alma, Nellie, Jasper, and
Ransom. Two, Claud and Earl, are deceased.
Mr. Cole is known in the financial circles of Texas
as the president of the Merchants and Planters
Bank of Bryan since 1889. He is also president
of the Bryan Cotton Seed Oil Mill.
NoahB. Cole, the director of the hardware store
of the firm, was born in Alabama, August 19, 1847,
the youngest of nine children, and lived on his
father's farm until 1864, when, at seventeen years
of age, he joined Lane's Regiment, so well known in
the history of the late war as the First Texas
Partisan Rangers, the services of which were con-
fined chiefly to the Trans-Mississippi Department.
He went through a lively Louisiana, Arkansas and
Missouri campaign of about eighteen months and at
the break-up returned home in August, 1865, un-
scathed. He came with his elder brother, Jasper
N. Cole, to Bryan, in 1867, and engaged in business,
the outcome of which is three flourishing stores at
that place.
He has been twice married, first in 1879, to Miss
Mollie Rawles, who died December 5th, 1888, leav-
ing one son, Robert E. Cole. Mr. Cole married,
November 14, 1890, his second and present wife.
Miss Lula Davies, a daughter of Dr. Wm. Davies,
of Burleson County. Two children have been born
to them, viz.: NoahD., and Walter R. Cole.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
201
E. M. PEASE,
AUSTIN.
We have selected for the subject of this memoir
Hon. Elisha Marshall Pease, a man who, in his day
and generation, moved as a colossal figure upon
the stage of action in Texas.
His career covered the most momentous epochs
in the history of the State, the Texas revolution,
the days of the Republic, annexation, the war
between the States, and the era of reconstruction.
A sufficient period of time has now elapsed since
the happening of those events for the formation of
a true estimate of his character and services, and
to enable the historian, by a dispassionate con-
sideration of the circumstances that surrounded
him, to obtain an insight into the motives that
prompted his public acts.
He was born at Enfield, Conn., January 8, 1812,
and enjoyed such educational advantages as were
afforded by the schools of his native town and a
short attendance at an academy at Westfleld,
Mass. His parents were Lorain Thompson, and
Sarah (Marshall), Pease.
At the age of fourteen he was placed in a coun-
try store where he remained three years. From
that time until 1834, he was a clerk at the post
office at Hartford.
The greater part of the year 1834 was spent in
traveling in the Northwestern States, and in the
fall he went to New Orleans. In that citj' he met
many persons from Texas, and, allured by the glow-
ing accounts which they gave of the character and
prospects of the country beyond the Sabine, de-
termined to seek a home and fortune within its
confines. Accordingly, in the month of January,
1835, he took passage on a sailing vessel, landed at
the port of Velasco, and from thence made his way
to the frontier settlements on the Colorado, and
located at Mina, now the town of Bastrop, where
he began the study of law in the office of Col. D.
C. Barrett, who had but recently entered upon the
practice of the profession.
The times were not such, however, that a high-
spirited and mettlesome young man could sit
quietly in an office and pore over the musty pages
of the law and, while he applied himself with such
assiduity as was possible under the circumstances,
his studies were interrupted and he made little
progress therein until later and less stormy days.
The people of Texas were smarting under a long
train of injustices and oppressions inflicted upon
them by the Mexican government and were threat-
ened with the entire overthrow of their liberties.
The affairs at Anahuac and Velasco, in 1832, which
had resulted in the expulsion of Bradburn from the
country, were fresh in memory and the capture of
Anahuac by Travis and a few fearless followers was
near at hand, conventions had been held at San
Felipe in 1832 and 1833, asking for reforms in many
directions and the reforms had been denied and the
complaints of the petitioners treated with haughty
and indignant contempt. The remnant of the once
powerful Liberal party in Mexico, that in time
past had responded to the clarion calls of Hidalgo
and Morelos, had made its last stand for the
constitution and been irretrievably defeated upon
the blood-soaked plains of Guadalupe and Zacatecas
by the minions of Santa Anna, whose baleful star
was thpn rising towards its zenith. A strong central
despotism, inimical to the Anglo-American settlers
of Texas, was no longer a danger threatened by
the future, but an accomplished fact. To the
dullest ear was distinctly audible the rum-
blings of the approaching revolution. A crisis
was upon the country. It was a time to try the
stoutest hearts — for patriots to stand firm, coun-
sel resistance, and prepare for the impending
struggle, and for the timid to talk in bated
whispers and prate of compromise and peace,
when there could be no compromise and peace with-
out the dishonor of virtual slavery. On the one
hand was arrayed the powerful Mexican nation,
numbering several millions of inhabitants and
possessing an army and navy, well equipped and
well otfloered ; on the other a small band of pio-
neers, possessed of no resources and widely scat-
tered over a vast expanse of hill and valley, plain
and forest, and with no facilities for bringing about
speedy concentration and concert of action. Such
was the prospect that confronted the people of
Texas. It was gloomy indeed. But there were
those among the pioneers (and not a few) who had
inbibed with their mother's milk detestation of in-
justice and tyranny in all its forms and that love of
liberty and those manly sentiments that in all ages
have taught the brave to count danger and death as
nothing when their rights, liberties or honor were
invaded and could only be maintained by a
resort to the sword. Descended from a race
whose sons were among the first to respond
202
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
to their country's call in 1776 and strike for
the independence of the American Colonies,
young Pease was among the most outspoken of
those who precipitated the Texas revolution,
and in a few months was elected secretary of
the Committee of Safety, formed by the people of
Mina, the first of its kind organized in Texas. In
the following September, when couriers from Gon-
zales brought an appeal for armed assistance, he
hurried to that place as a volunteer in the company
commanded by Capt. R. M. Coleman, and had the
honor to fire a shot in the first battle and to help
win the first victory of the revolution. In a few
weeks he was granted a furlough on account of
sickness and in the latter part of November went
to San Felipe, where he was elected one of the two
secretaries of the first provisional government of
Texas, in which position he remained until the
government ad interim was organized, under Presi-
dent Burnet, March 18, 1836.
While he was not a delegate to the convention
that issued the declaration of Texas independence,
he was present at its sessions, was chosen and
served as one of its secretaries and helped to frame
the special ordinance that created the government
ad interim, and the constitution for the republic
adopted by it. The latter was formulated subject
to ratification or rejection by the people as soon as
an election could be held for that purpose.
During the summer he served as chief clerk, first
in the navy and then in the treasury department,
and for a short time acted as Secretary of the Treas-
ury upon the death of Secretary Hardeman.
In November, when Gen. Sam Houston was
President, he was appointed clerk of the Judiciary
Committee of the House of Representatives, and
while in that position drew up most of the laws
organizing the courts, creating county offices and
defining the duties of county officers ; also the fee-
bill and criminal code.
Upon the adjournment of Congress in Decem-
ber he was tendered the office of Postmaster
General by President Houston, but declined it and
entered the office of Col. John A. Wharton at Bra-
zoria, where he diligently applied himself to the
study of law. He was admitted to the bar at the
town of Washington, in April, 1837, but in June
following was tendered by President Houston and
accepted the office of Comptroller of Public Ac-
counts, which he filled until December and then
returned to Brazoria, where he formed a copart-
nership with Col. Wharton and entered actively
upon the practice of his profession. In 1838, John
W. Harris became associated with them and after
the death of Col. Wharton, which occurred a few
months later, the firm of Harris & Pease continued
for many years and became one of the most dis-
tinguished in the State. During this period Mr.
Pease served as District Attorney for a short time,
and, after annexation in 1846, was elected from
Brazoria County to the House of Representatives
of the First State Legislature and was re-elected in
1847 to the Second Legislature.
These were exceedingly important sessions, as
the building of the framework for a State govern-
ment had to be done from the ground up and the
future prosperity of the commonwealth and hap-
piness of its people largely depended upon the
wisdom or unwisdom displayed in the enactment
of statutes and the formulation of lines of public
policy for later administrations to follow or reject.
Both branches of the legislature contained many
men of commanding talents (Texas' brightest and
best, among whom Mr. Pease moved as a recog-
nized leader) and accomplished the arduous duties
that devolved upon it in a manner creditable to the
members and satisfactory to the people.
During his terms of service in the House he drew
up very nearly all the laws defining the jurisdiction
of courts, and, as chairman of the Judiciary Com-
mittee in the Second Legislature, originated and
pushed to enactment the probate laws of 1848.
In 1849 he was elected to the Senate of the Third
Legislature from the district composed of the
counties of Brazoria and Galveston, and at the
regular session of 1850 added to the laurels he had
already won and still further endeared himself to
a people not insensible to the merits of those who
had not only shown themselves true patriots and
devoted to the common cause in the darkest hours
of the country's history, but capable in time of
peace of guiding the ship of State. Being absent
from Texas when Governor Bell called an extra ses-
sion of the Legislature at a l^ter period in 1850, he
resigned and terminated his services as a lawmaker.
Thereafter until 1853 he devoted himself to his
law practice, but continued a prominent figure and
potent factor in public life and indenufied himself
with all principal movements that gave promise of
promoting the best interests of the country.
With other leading men he early saw the neces-
sity of railroads as a means of developing the vast
territory of the State, deprived as it was of interior
navigation except in neighborhoods not far remote
from the coast and at Jefferson on the extreme
Northeast, and advocated the construction of a
transcontinental railway to the Pacific ocean.
With Thomas J. Rusk, Gen. Sam Houston and
others, he earnestly favored the building of what is
now the Texas & Pacific Railroad, destined, after
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
203
passing through many changes and many doubtful
stages, and by the blending of many charters, to
ultimate construction and completion in 1881.
Mr. Pease was not long suffered to remain in
retirement. In 1853 he was elected Governor of
Texas, as the successor of Governor Bell, and
re-elected in 1855, Hardin R. Runnels being elected
Lieutenant-Governor. That he was one of the
ablest and purest Governors Texas has ever
had, is the unanimous opinion of all who
are conversant with the facts. His messages to
the Legislature are model State papers, not only
on account of the knowledge of the condition and
needs of the country and the principles of civil
government that they display, but for the wisdom
of the recommendations that they contain and the
elegance and perspicuity of their diction. During
the four years that he filled the gubernatorial chair,
alternate sections of land were set aside to promote
the construction of railroads, and much of our
earliest railroad legislation was enacted, lands were
set apart for free school purposes, a nucleus for the
present munificent school fund was formed, and a
handsome appropriation was made for the establish-
ment of a State university, for no man felt a deeper
interest in popular education or more fully realized
that the hope of constitutional freedom must ever
rest upon the intelligence of the citizen ; a new
State Capitol and other public buildings were erected,
and institutions for the insane, deaf and dumb, and
blind were founded, and liberal appropriations made
for their support. When his official life as Gov-
enor began, the State tax was twenty cents on the
one hundred dollars, and when his second term
expired it was fifteen cents and the State was
entirely free from debt.
In 1854, there was introduced into Texas a secret,
oath-bound, political organization, which became
known as the Know-Nothing or American party.
It transacted its business with closed doors and
in the latter year put forth a full ticket for State
offices. The principles of the new party were
designed to place restrictions upon foreign immi-
grants acquiring American citizenship, and to
impose restraints and civil disabilities upon those
professing the Catholic religion. Its methods, tenets
and purposes were assailed by Governor Pease.
A sturdy republican, he entertained an unconquer-
able hostility to secret political organizations,
believing that, while some excuse might be offered
for their formation under the despotisms of the old
world," none could be advanced for their existence
here. He considered them, per se, inimical and a
menace to our free institutions. As to debarring
worthy foreigners from the blessings and advan-
tages attendant upon American citizenship, the
idea to him was utterly repugnant. He remembered
that our ancestors themselves were emigrees from
Europe, that many men of foreign birth had fought
in the Continental army and afterwards adorned
the walks both of public and private life in the early
days of the republic, that many such men emigrated
from their distant homes to settle in the wilderness
of Texas and that not a few had honorably borne
arms in the struggle that won for Texas her inde-
pendence, and he knew that men who would leave
the land of their birth to escape tyranny and, in
search of liberty, cross the stormy deep in the
hope of bettering their conditions amid alien scenes
and among a people to whose very language they
were strangers, were made of stuff that fitted them
for the patriotic discharge of the duties incident to
self-government. His was not the spirit of the
glutton, who, careless of the welfare of others,
wishes all for himself, but that nobler spirit that
led the fathers of 1776 to boast that they had estab-
lished an asylum to which the oppressed of every
land might turn with the assurance of safety and
protection. As to religion, he believed that to be a
matter of conscience that should rest between each
man and his God and that should in no way be
interfered with by private individuals or the State.
He believed the action the Know-Nothing party
contemplated taking against Catholics and foreign
immigrants to be contrary to the history and tradi-
tions of our government and the genius of our insti-
tutions. So believing, he entered the campaign as
the standard-bearer of the opposition, known as the
Democratic party, but containing men of widely
divergent views, and, after a spirited and exciting
contest, was elected at the polls and entered upon
his second term.
The ticket put in the field by the Know-Nothing
party contained the first nominations made by a
political party in Texas. In fact, prior to 1855
there were no party organizations, properly so
called, in the State.
Before the close of Governor Pease's second
term, the whole country was stirred from center to
circumference over questions that aroused the
bitterest sectional feeling. Under the terms of the
Missouri Compromise of 1820 and 1821, the terri-
tories of Kansas and Nebraska when admitted
would necessarily enter the Union as free States.
In 1854, Senator Douglass, of Illinois, introduced
in Congress what was known as the Kansas and
Nebraska Bill (which became a law), in which it
was declared that the Missouri Compromise —
" Being inconsistent with the principles of non-
intervention by Congress with slavery in the States
204
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and Territories, as recognized by the legislation of
1850, commonly called the Compromise Measures,
is hereby declared inoperative and void, it being
the true intent and meaning of this act, not to leg-
islate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to
exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people there-
of perfectly free to form and regulate their domestic
institutions in their own way, subject only to the
constitution of the United States."
Mr. Douglass' measure of course carried with it
the right of slave-owners to settle in Kansas and
Nebraslva with their slaves. The Eastern portion
of Kansas was regarded by many as a desirable
region in which to employ slave labor and many
Southern people located in it. The conflicts and
bloodshed that followed are familiar matters of
history. The passage of the act only served to in-
tensify sectional hatred. Gen. Houston, Senator
from Texas, voted against it for reasons which he
elaborated and which met with the sanction of Gov-
ernor Pease and others, who were firmly, convinced
that any attempt to establish slavery in that section
would prove futile and only serve to widen the
breach that separated the Southern and Northern
States, which, if not healed, threatened armed con-
flict and, probable dissolution of the Union. They
were for pouring oil upon the troubled waters and
not for still further agitating them. Gen. Houston
offered himself as a candidate for the Governor-
ship in opposition to Hardin K. Runnels, the sec-
ond nominee of the Democratic organization, and,
although he made a fine canvass, was supported by
Governor Pease (the first nominee of that party and
then occupying the Governor's chair) and had many
devoted admirers and supporters, public sentiment
was such that he was defeated, Runnels receiving a
majority of over ten thousand votes. Such was
the condition of affairs on the 21st of December,
1857, when a change of administration took place.
Two years later. Gen. Houston was elected to suc-
ceed Runnels, but a great crisis was at hand.
Threats were openly made that, if Mr. Lincoln was
elected, the Southern States would withdraw from
the Union and form a Confederacy of their own,
threats that were afterwards carried into execution.
Governor Pease opposed secession, and, finding that
his opposition was in vain, retired to private life.
He was a delegate from Texas to the convention
of Southern loyalists that met at Philadelphia in
1866 and was elected one of the vice-presidents of
that body. Later in the same year he was the can-
didate of the Union party for the office of Governor
of Texas, but was defeated by Hon. J. W.
Throckmorton. In August, 1867, he was appointed
Provisional Governor of the State by Gen. Sheridan,
but resigned before the end of the year because he
differed with the commanding general of the de-
partment. Gen. J. J. Reynolds, as to the course
that should be pursued in the reconstruction of the
State. He represented the State in the Liberal
Republican Convention of 1872 that assembled in
Chicago and nominated Horace Greeley for the
presidency. In later days he attended various
State and national Republican conventions and
continued to act with the Republican party.
Shortly after the war it was charged that he was
an extremist, but, it is a fact well and gratefully
remembered by the people of Texas that, when he
saw during the administration of Governor Davis
to what iniquities the extreme policy that was being
pursued would lead, he opposed it and threw
the great weight of his influence into the scales of
conservatism.
The stormy days before, during and after the
war are gone and the waves of passion and preju-
dice that beat so fiercely have subsided. The war
was inevitable. Questions were settled by it that
had long vexed the people and been a prolific
source of discord and that could have been settled
in no other way. Old social and commercial con-
ditions were changed that could have been changed
in no other way. Mutual confidence, respect and
friendship were restored as they could have been
restored in no other way, and a fraternal, and it is
to be hoped, eternal. Union secured that could have
been secured in no other way. Now we can enter
into full sympathy with those who could see neither
safety nor profit in continuing to live under a com-
pact of Union, every essential provision of which
they believed to have been violated, and who de-
termined to seek peace in a Confederation com-
posed of friendly States with interests in common.
We can also enter into full sympathy with those who
opposed the policy of secession. They thought that,
if wrong had been done, it could be redressed within
the Union — that the slavery and all other ques-
tions could be settled there. Governor Pease and
others of undoubted patriotism looked upon the
dissolution of the Union as the greatest calamity
that could befall the country. Upon the continu-
ation of that Union he believed depended the
destinies and future vpelfare of the race, for its
fall, he well knew, would seal the doom of free
institutions, which in a few years would perish from
the earth. "Should the blood" said men of his
party " shed upon the battle fields of the Revolution
of 1776, be shed in vain? Should the labors of
Washington and Jefferson and their compeers
prove unavaiUng? A thousand times no! " They
were right in their prognostications of the evils that
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
205
would inevitably follow a dissolution of the Union.
Tiiey were wrong in the belief that the questions
that divided the people, could be settled peace-
fully. From their standpoint they were right in
opposing secession. It is fortunate, all now agree,
that the attempt to secede was unsuccessful. It
was, however, written in the book of fate that it
should be made and fail. A stronger hand than
man's controlled the course of events and brought
about the beneficent results that have followed in
their train. We admire the moral and physical
courage that led men of both sides to brave ani-
madversion, the loss of prestige and death itself in
support of their opinions and principles that they
believed to be correct. They were animated by
that desire for the promotion of the general good
and by that spirit of their fathers that led Pym
and Hampden and Sidney to dare the block and the
soldiers at Concord to fire upon the British reg-
ulars. Let us strew flowers with impartial hand
upon those whom death has gathered in its cold
embrace and transmit their memories to posterity,
freed from reproach and with imperishable assur-
ances of our love and veneration for them.
There was nothing of the time-serving spirit in
Governor Pease's composition. He was incapable
of allowing a desire for personal aggrandizement or
for the promotion of any of his private interests to
induce him to compromise with what he believed to
be wrong. He stood for principles and, seeing
that they were about to be violated, he could not
remain silent and inactive. He had no superstitious
reverence for majorities. He knew full well that
majorities are often wrong and that the pages of
history are stained and blurred all over by records
of the mistakes they have made, and the crimes
they have committed. The majority believed for
centuries that the earth was flat and the center
of the universe ; in witches and wizards and necro-
mancy ; that it was impious to attempt by sanitary
measures to stay the pestilence, which they consid-
ered a divine visitation upon the people for their
sins, and it was in accordance with the will of
majorities that Christ was condemned to a shameful
death upon the cross, the fires of persecution were
kept ablaze at Smithfleld and Oxford, and many
noble lives were sacrificed and much cruel wrong
inflicted. He believed that the day had not yet
come when majorities were invested with the attri-
butes of infallibility. If the majority was right, he
cheerfully went with it. If he considered it in error,
he as manfully opposed it, nor could he be com-
pelled by any consideration to cease his opposition.
Even his opponents at all times freely admitted his
honesty of character and purpose. He retired from
office enjoying the respect of all the people.
In 1874 he was tendered the oflSce of Collector of
the Port of Galveston by Secretary of the Interior
Bristow, but declined it.
In 1877 he retired from the active practice of law
in which he had been engaged, except when em-
ployed in the discharge of public duties, since
1837.
In 1879 he was tendered, without solicitation
upo;i his part, the CoUectorship of the port of Gal-
veston, and, this time, accepted Jt. This was his
last public service.
He was vice-president of the First National Bank
of Austin, at the time of his death, which occurred
at Lampasas Springs, Texas, August 26, 1883, where
he had gone in search of health. § His remains were
interred in the cemetery at^Austin.
Governor Pease became a Mason in 1839, joining
St. John's Lodge, No. 5, at Columbia, Texas and took
all the regular degrees. ^He was not a member of
any religious organization, but attended the services
of the Episcopal Church, the church in which he
was reared.
As a lawyer he had few equals in the State. His
briefs were always clear, [^fair and logical, and,
while his patient research armed him at every point
in a case, he never sought undue advantage. So
fixed were these traits [that Chief Justice Wheeler
once said that the statements of facts in his briefs
were always so lucid and j just he could rely upon
them without reference to the record. He was fre-
quently consulted upon important public matters
having a legal bearing, even after his retirement
from practice, and always rendered such services
without charge.
Sincerity and candor, and an observance of the
golden rule marked his intercourse with his fellow-
men. Courtly in manner, kindly and genial, he
enjoyed the affectionate regard of the circle of
friends whom he admitted to his acquaintance. He
had as much infiuence in framing the public policies
and general laws of the State as any man who ever
lived in Texas. He was identified with the soil
from the days antedating the revolution. It was
his fortune to perform many important public ser-
vices. His career covered the most momentous
periods known to our history. He was the intimate
friend and associate of such men as W^harton,
Houston, Williamson, Rusk and Archer, and the
leaders of thought ^of later days, and his name de-
serves a place beside theirs upon the pages of the
State's history.
He was married in 1850 to Miss L. C. Niles, a
daughter of Col. Richard Niles, of Windsor, Conn.
This accomplished and most excellent lady, and her
only surviving daughter, live at the family. seat
near the city of Austin.
206
INDIAN -\\ARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ISABELLA HADDON GORDON,
CLARKSVILLE,
One of Bed River County's early^settlers, a noble
Christian woman who linked her name permanently
with that of the county's history, was born August
10th, 1805, in Montgomery County, Ky., and was a
daughter of Frank and Katie (Elliott) Hopkins, of
Kentucky. Her paternal grandfather, Wm. Hop-
kins, was from one of the New England States, and
her maternal grandfather, James Elliott, was from
Virginia. Her maternal grandmother was Katie
(Stewart) Elliott of Virginia. Her father was a
leading and wealthy planter of Kentucky. He
moved to Indiana the year of the battle of Tippe-
canoe, carrying with him all his slaves, which he
lost by some legal technicality. In 1823 he moved
to Texas, settling at the mouth of Mill creek, which
is now in Bowie County. At that time all the white
settlers "lived in neighborhoods within a mile of
Red river, and it was ten years before there were
any white settlements on the prairie. The subject
of this sketch was married, April 18th, 1824, to
John Hanks, a native of Kentucky, who died in
1827. One child, Minerva, blessed this union, is
still living and is the widow of Robert Graham.
The subject of this notice was married the second
time to James Clark, then a member of the Arkansas
legislature and a son of Benjamin Clark, a native
of Tennessee, who at the time lived in Arkansas,
but moved soon after to Texas. To this union three
children were born. The first, Frank H., born
April 27th, 1830, attended law school at Lexing-
ton, boarding with Chief Justice Marshall, and had
the benefit of the advice and association of that
eminent jurist. This bright son and promising
lawyer died in 1856. The second son. Dr. Pat
Clark, is a physician and resident of Red River
County. The third and youngest son of this union
is Capt. .James Clark, a leading and representative
citizen of Red River County. In the fall of 1832,
when Mr. Clark was a resident of Jonesboro, a
settlement on Red river. Gen. Sam Houston crossed
the river with five companions and with one of them
passed his first night in Texas at the house of the
subject of this sketch, his four other companions
being prepared to camp out. He remained with
the then Mrs. Clark awaiting guides to take him to
Nacogdoches, as at that time there were no roads.
The whole party were gentlemanly in dress and
conduct, contrary to a statement published as a
matter of history, that they were intoxicated and
disorderly ; the companions of Gen. Houston were
white men and not Indians, as erroneously declared
in the statement alluded to. James Clark died in
1838 at the late home of his widow in Clarks-
ville, Texas, which city is named in his honor.
This husband and the second of her brothers were
in the war of 1836, and fought for the independ-
ence of Texas and it was through the instrument-
ality of Mrs. Gordon, who at that time was Mrs.
Clark, that a large number of recruits were col-
lected and equipped at her expense and sent for-
ward to aid in gaining the independence of the
Lone Star Republic. The third husband of this
lady was Dr. George Gordon, of Coviugton, Ky.
John, their first son, died while discharging the
duties of a soldier in the Confederate army.
Belle was their second and Dick the third. Dr.
Gordon served in the Confederate army as assistant
to her son (and his step-son) Dr. Pat Clark, who
was surgeon of Gen. Lane's Regiment. Prior to
the time of Mrs. Gordon's arrival in Texas, the
prairies were inhabited by hostile Indians, but from
about 1826 to 1836 settlements were made by
several tribes of friendly Indians, Kickapoos,
Delawares, and Shawnees, who were really a pro-
tection to the whites. There was one Delaware
chief who had lost a hand (he said in the battle of
Tippecanoe), and there is a creek in the neighbor-
hood that derives its name from him — "Cut-
hand." Mrs. Gordon knew many of these Indians,
as they came to trade with the white people.
After the war of 1836, Texas made no provisions
for these Indians, and they returned peacefully to
their homes. The Shawnee chief was called
"Cow-leach," and lived on a prairie four miles
from Clarksville, and it still bears his name.
When our subject was first married, for one year
she lived within a mile of a village inhabited by
friendly Choctaw Indians, and they were good
neighbors. Her nearest white neighbor, a Mr.
Cnllum, was four miles off. The white people at
an early day were in constant dread of hostile
Indians. There was a settlement of Caddos on the
Sabine river, about one hundred and fifty miles
distant, and one of them came and told Mrs.
Gordon that the friendly Indians near had planned
to kill the white people. This was a favorite
trick of the Indians to get the white people to
leave their homes so that the redskins could pillage.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
207
On this occasion the men took the Indian and
whipped him, the whipping talking place near the
house of a Mr. Murphy. Just one year after
a party of Caddos came, found Mr. Murphy alone
with his sled to haul rails, and mending his
fence. He had nothing to do with the whipping,
but they killed him, took his scalp, and had a war
dance over it at their village, as reported by a
trader, who said it was done for revenge, which
must have been the case, as they did not even take
away the horse. Mrs. Murphy heard the gunshot
and went to see what was the matter. The Indians
were gone^ but she found her husband's body.
She was entirely alone and carried'waterto wash the
body, covered it and took the horse from the sled
and rode two miles to her nearest neighbor to give
the alarm.
For the first year after Mrs. Gordon came to
Texas, unless the vessels were brought with them,
the people had none but gourds. For some years
all the cloth was made from cotton, the seeds
picked out with the fingers, then spun and woven.
In those daj's there were cotton pickings, but not
like those of this day. In the long winter
evenings people would meet at a house and pick
X)ut seeds. Then it was ready to spin for making
cloth.
The pioneers had no chairs, but made stools.
Beds were made fast to the wall. For seven years
Mrs. Gordon never saw a plank floor, as all floors
were made of puncheons — that is, lumber hewn
out of logs. For a number of years there were no
wagons, and people moved in canoes. The men
wore clothes made entirely of deer skins, the skins
of deer and cattle being tanned in a trough. The
nicest shoes were made of deer skins, and our sub-
ject was married to Mr. Clark in a pair made by a
shoemaker named Huey Shaw.
The people had an abundance of food at an early
date, deer and bear meat and fat wild turkeys
being plentiful. The woods were full of bee- trees.
Bread was made by beating out the corn in a
mortar. Later the people had steel mills which
they turned by hand. About once a year a keel-
boat would be pushed up Red river with such sup-
plies as sugar, flour and coffee.
Mrs. Gordon still has relatives living in Ken-
tucky and Indiana, among them the Hamiltons of
Montgomerjr County, in the former State. Judge
Elliott, who was killed at Frankfort, Ky., a few-
years ago, by Judge Buford, was a great-grand-
nephew of her mother.
Mrs. Gordon's name is synonymous with all
that is good and charitable. The wealth which
a beneficent Providence entrusted to her care
was judiciously used for the relief and com-
fort of her fellow-creatures. Her whole life was
spent toward the advancement and good of her
country and its population. For many years her
life was not connected with any religious denom-
ination, but her life and its example could have
been followed to good purpose by many of those
who claimed to have passed through the purifying
fires of repentance. In 1864 she joined the Cath-
olic Church, of which she was thereafter a devout
and consistent member.
The love for this good woman is shown by the
numerous namesakes she has in the States of
Arkansas and Texas. She gave land, lots and
houses to many poor, but deserving, people. Hun-
dreds reverence her memory.
She died in June, 1895, and is buried at Clarksville.
T. C. WESTBROOK,
HEARNE.
Capt. T. C. Westbrook, born at West Point,
Mississippi, October 1st, 1842, of well-to-do and
highly respected parents, representatives of the
fine old Southern aristocracy of the halcyon days
before the war, had the advantage in youth of care-
ful training and thorough education, graduating
with the rank of Captain from the Military Insti-
tute, at Frankfort, Ky., when seventeen years of
of age, and soon after came to Texas with his step-
father, L. W. Carr, who located with his family on
the rich alluvial lands of the Brazos river bottom
near the town of Hearne,' in Robertson County.
Mr. Westbrook entered the Confederate army in
the spring of 1862 as a soldier in Company B., en-
listing for three years, or so long as the war might
last, and was stationed with his command first on
Galveston Island, then at Virginia Point, and then
at Camp Speight, Texas, near Millican, where the
208
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Fifteenth Texas Infantrj- was organized, with J. W.
Speight as its Colonel, andM. D. Herring, Captain,
and the subject of this memoir Lieutenant of Com-
pany B. The regiment was ordered to Arkansas,
remained at Camp Daniels until 1862, reached
Little Rock in October following, and did garrison
duty at Camp Nelson and Camp Bayou Metre until
shortly before the fall of Arkansas Post, when
it was ordered to Fort Smith, and from thence
through the Indian Territory, to Camp Kiamisha on
Red river. In 1863 the Fifteenth, and the brigade
of which it formed a part, were ordered to Louisiana
to oppose, with the other troops under Gen. Tay-
lor, the advance of Gen. Banks. The brigade was
commanded by Gen. J. W. Speight, Sr., Gen.
King and Gen. Polignac, in the order named,
and participated in the fights at Fordasb,
Bayou Bourdeau, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Marks-
ville, Yellow Bayou, and numerous skirmishes
and smaller engagements. Capt. Westbrook was
slightly wounded at the battle of Mansfield.
When mustered out of the service at Houston,
Texas, after the final surrender of the Confederate
forces, he held the rank of Captain and was acting
Adjutant of his regiment. A friend, speaking of
his bearing as a soldier, says: "In camp he was
modest and unobtrusive, kind and jovial ; in the
thickest and hottest of the raging battle, cooler
than most men on dress-parade, prompt to act and
utterly fearless. He enj'oyed the respect and con-
fidence of his men and brother and superior ofllcers.
Knowing him as I did, I can truthfully say that he
was as a friend as true and tried as tempered
Damascus steel ; as a soldier and patriot, as brave
and devoted as any man who wore the gray."
Returning to his home in Robertson County he
engaged in farming upon his own account. His
possessions increased from year to year until he
took rank as one of the wealthiest planters in
Texas. He was an ideal, practical farmer — one
of the most successful in the State — and his large
Brazos bottom plantations near Hearne, on which he
continued to reside until his death, showed at all
times the perfection of good management. He
spared no expense in securing and enjoying the
good things of life. He and his beloved wife
(formerly Mrs. Jennie Randle), to whom he was
married December 4th, 1878, dispensed a generous
and wholesale hospitality at their palatial home to
their many friends and the chance " stranger within
their gates." It was his custom, assisted by his
wife, to see that every one on his plantation, black
or white, received each Christmas day some suitable
present. He lived in the half patriarchal, half
princely style of his ancestors and was a noble sur-
vival of the high-souled, warm-hearted and chivalric
gentlemen of a by-gone day. While exact in his
business methods, his hand dispensed liberally to
others of what it gathered. He sympathized with
human suffering and sorrow and sought when he
could to relieve it, and few contributed so much to
the support of the church. It was chiefly through
his influence and exertions that the Hearne &
Brazos Valley Railroad was constructed and put into
successful operation. He was elected president of
the company upon its organization and served in
that capacity up to the time of his death, the road
earning handsome dividends on the money in-
vested, under his management.
He manifested a lively interest in and was active
in support of all worthy enterprises. He was a
life-long Democrat and ardent advocate of clean,
wholesome measures and always interested himself
in helping elect good men to office. He was a
delegate to numerous county and State conventions
and was more than once importuned to become a
candidate for election to the legislature, but de-
clined, having no desire for political honors and
much preferring the quiet and peaceful home-life to
which he Was accustomed. In July, 1893, he suf-
fered from a severe attack of la grippe from which
he never fully recovered. He sought restoration to
health by travel, sojourning for a time in Mexico,
and visiting, among other places, San Antonio, Hot
Springs and Wooten Wells. A month before the
coming of the end he was taken to Mineral Wells
and died there on the 17th of Septenaber, 1893,
leaving a wife, a daughter of Mrs. Westbrook by
her former marriage (Mrs. Monroe, Miller, of Aus-
tiu), two brothers (C. A. Westbrook, of Lorena,
McLennan County, and M. L. Westbrook of
Waco), a sister (Mrs. S. C. Beckman, of Hearne),
a step-father, to whom he had been as a favorite
son ; two nieces and a nephew and many score of
devoted friends to mourn his loss. The announce-
ment of his death cast a shade of sorrow over the
community of which tie had been such a prominent,
useful and honored citizen. The remains were con-
veyed to Hearne in a special car and were followed
to their last resting-place in Oakwood Cemetery by
the largest funeral cortege known in the history of
the town, many of those in attendance coming from
a distance. So ended the career of a noble man.
There is something peculiarly sad in the reflection
that he was cut down in the full maturity of ripened
manhood and when he was surrounded by all the
endearments that render a continuance of life
desirable. However, if ever man was ready for
the summons, he was ready. To his devoted wife
is left the consolation that through her example and
J. D. GIDDINGS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
209
influence he was led to give his heart to God and
to the perfect day of a happy immortality and
that a blessed reunion awaits them beyond the
grave.
Mrs. Westbrook is a daughter of Allen Carr, who
came to Texas in 1858 and settled in Burleson
County, were he was for many years a prominent
citizen and she was reared.
J. D. GIDDINGS,
BRENHAIW.
Jabez Demming Giddings was one of eight sons
of James Giddings, a farmer of Susquehanna
County, Pa.
James Giddings was descended from George
Giddings, of Saint Albans, Hertfordshire, England,
a gentleman Of property, who emigrated to America
in 1635, settling in the town of Ipswich, Mass.
James was born in Norwich, Conn., June 29th,
1780. At an early age, he entered the merchant
marine, rising to a captaincy, with full charge of
cargo on attaining his majority.
In consequence of a shipwreck off the Carolina"
coast in 1810, by which was destroyed the fruits of
many years of daring adventure and successful
trading, he abandoned the sea and settled on a
farm in the then wilderness of Western Pennsyl-
vania.
He was a man of great firmness and bravery and
of an adventurous spirit, qualities generously
transmitted to his numerous progeny.
The mother of J. D. Giddings was Susie Dem-
ming, of Connecticut, whose ancestors were early
immigrants from France, and who distinguished
themselves, as did the descendants of George
Giddings, by their loyalty to the fortunes of the
American Colonies in the Eevolutionary "War.
In 1835 Giles A. Giddings, an older brother of
J. D. Giddings, came to Texas to select and sur-
vey a tract of land for a colony, but finding the
Texians engaged in a struggle with Mexico, joined
the army of Gen. Houston, just previous to the
battle of San Jacinto, and died from the effects of
wounds received in that engagement. The night
before the battle he wrote to his parents a letter
worthy of copying in full as a model of literary
excellence, but from which only a few sentences
will be quoted, as disclosing the patriotic courage
and love of liberty which marks his family.
"It is reported Houston will attack them,
[Santa Anna's army] in the morning. What will
be the result or fate of Texas is hid in the bowels of
futurity. Yet I think we are engaged in the cause
of justice and I hope the God of battles will pro-
tect us. * * * I was born in the land of free-
dom, and taught to lisp the name of liberty with
my infant tongue and, rather than be driven out of
the country or submit to be a slave, I will leave my
bones to bleach on the plains of Texas. » * *
"Be not alarmed about my safety. I am no
better, and my life no dearer, than those who gained
the liberty you enjoy."
In 1838, Mr. J. D. Giddings, having completed
his educational course at the Cassanovia Institute,
New York, came to Texas to settle the estate left
by his brother and, being pleased with the coun-
try, located in Washington County. For about
two years after his arrival he taught school, study-
ing law during his leisure moments.
On a call for volunteers to avenge the raids of
Vasquez and Woll and to rescue the prisoners held
by the Mexicans, he promptly responded and re-
mained with Gen. Somervell's army until it was
officially disbanded, when he, with the great major-
ity, returned home, thus escaping the slaughter at
Mier.
As a means of support during the prosecution of
his legal studies, he sought the office of district
clerk, was elected, and served four years.
In 1844, he married Miss Ann M. Tarver,
daughter of Edmund T. Tarver, a prominent farmer,
who had moved to the State from Tennessee in
1841.
On the expiration of his term of office as district
clerk, he was admitted to the bar, where he achieved
signal success, though numbering among his com-
petitors many of the greatest minds in the State.
Of a genial disposition and possessing a wonder-
fully retentive memory ; warmly sympathizing with
the distressed and aiding the needy with kindly gen-
erosity ; charitable to the faults of others, yet con-
trolling himself by the strictest code of moral princi-
ples, his acquaintance became extensive, and ties
210
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
of personal friendship, strong and lasting, were
formed, thus predisposing most juries to a favor-
able consideration of any cause that he might ad-
vocate. His intellectual processes were, however,
distinctly logical and, though impressing his hearers
with the sincerity of his own convictions by the
earnestness of his manner, he yet appealed directly
to their reason by a masterly marshaling of his
facts and the cogency of his arguments. His
energy was indomitable and patience tireless, no
detail of a case being considered unworthy of at-
tention. This completeness of preparation, com-
bined with cautiousness in the enunciation of
legal principles or judicial rulings, gave him a mer-
ited influence with the courts and the degree of
confidence placed in his integrity and executive
capacity is shown by the frequency of his name on
the probate records as counselor or as the fiduciary
agent of estates. Though thorough in the examina-
tion of all questions, he was bold and progressive
in the advocacy of measures conducive to the
advancement of his town, county and State.
He was thus among the first to perceive the bene-
ficial possibilities of railroads and in 1856, in con-
nection with his distinguished brother, Hon. D. C.
Giddings, he assisted in the organization of a com-
pany for the purpose of constructing a railroad
through Washington County and, to prevent the
failure of the enterprise, the firm of J. D. and D. C.
Giddings undertook the building of the road.
The self-abnegation, bravery and constructive
energy of the pioneer settlers of America has made
thejr history pleasant reading to all and their
example has fired the hearts of many struggling for
the political advancement of their race, but the
promoters of the first railroads built in America
are entitled to well-nigh equal admiration, for they
have shown equal ability, equal energy and equal
courage in grappling with difficulties and have, too,
frequently sacrificed the earnings of a lifetime in
their efforts to advance their own and the material
welfare of the country. Though the line built by
J. D. and D. C. Giddings was but a short one, yet
the troublous times during which the work was
completed and the faithfulness with which they
complied with all their obligations to Northern
creditors, not only elevated them to the highest
plane of business capacity, but laid the foundation
of Brenham's present prosperity.
Treasuring as a priceless jewel the liberty gained
on the field of San Jacinto, Mr. Giddings took a
lively interest in all political issues. His wide
acquaintance, knowledge of human nature, and
executive ability made him a party leader of ex-
ceptional power, but his fondness for the pleasures
of home and his aversion to the turmoil of public life
restrained his political aspirations and he refused
offers of office on all but one occasion.
In 1866, when the disorganization consequent
upon the cessation of the war between the States
was most complete, when questions of vital impor-
tance to the peace and happiness of his people were
to be settled, and when many of our best men were
dead or bowed down by discouragement, he accepted
a seat in the legislature and served one term.
He was a religious man. His God was his friend
and counsellor. His Bible was the source of daily
comfort and aid.
The support of his church, her ordinances and
ministers, was with him not only a duty but a posi-
tive pleasure and, though sparing of time and
means for personal indulgence, neither were too
valuable for the advancement of religion or the
cause of charity. This religious element in his
nature enabled him not only to fully appreciate the
sublime beauties of the Masonic ritual, but
, prompted his aspirations to positions of honor in
the order and, as in his church he was elected to
the highest honors possible to a layman, so he held
the highest offices in the three grand divisions of
Masonry.
In 1878 he was thrown from his buggy and, a
few days afterwards, on the 25th of June, died
from internal injuries.
In 1880, the old frame church (in which as
superintendent of the Sunday school he ministered
for over twenty years) was torn down and a hand-
some modern building erected on a more beautiful
spot and dedicated as the "Giddings Memorial
Church."
With qualities pre-eminently fitting him for
political leadership, he sought only the advancement
of his friends and the good of his country. A
great lawyer and skilled in all the subtleties of his
profession, he was a willing friend and a chivalrous
opponent of youthful attorneys.
Forgetful of self, but ever indulgent of others,
a ready helper of those in need and denying ad-
vice to none in distress, welcoming all with gen-
erous hospitality, a devoted husband and father, a
true friend and good citizen, he will ever be held
in remembrance, by those who knew him best,
as a noble specimen of God's greatest work — a
Christian.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
211
WILLIAM CROFT,
CORSICANA.
Judge William Croft, long a distinguished figure
in Texas and the oldest practicing attorney of the
Navarro County bar, is a native of Mobile, Ala-
bama, born February 9th, 1827.
His parents, "William and Annie Willard Croft,
were natives, the father of England and the mother
of Pennsylvania. His father was for a number of
years a cotton commission merchant of New
Orleans, where he died when the subject of this
sketch was an infant. Judge William Croft, of
whom we here write, was reared in New Orleans
and received his earlier education in the schools of
that city, finishing at Louisville, Ky. He read
law under the Hon. Isaac T. Preston, of New
Orleans, then Attorney-General and afterwards
Judge of the Supreme Court of Louisiana ; came to
Texas in April, 1847, and was admitted to the bar
on May 5th, 1848, at Kichmond, Fort Bend
County, before the Hon. Joseph C. Megginson, of
the First Judicial District. He then entered the
practice at Richmond and followed it in Fort Bend
and adjoining counties until December, 1849, when
he came to Navarro County and took up his resi-
dence at Corsicana. He has since been a citizen
of Corsicana and has been actively engaged in the
practice of his profession at that place, except
while in the Confederate army, a period of two and
a half years. While the war was in progress there
was little or no practice in the courts. The first
session of the District Court, which Judge Croft
attended in Navarro County, was the spring term of
1850. The county having been organized in 1846,
there had been only two or three terms held prior
to that lime and the machinery of the court had not
yet been put in good working order. The presid-
ing Judge was Hon. Bennett H. Martin. Judge
Croft attended all the sittings of the District Court,
as well as of the inferior courts, from 1850 up to
the opening of the war, receiving his share of the
_ business, both criminal and civil. He was young,
vigorous, well-grounded in a knowledge of the law,
skilled in the management of cases, and pursued
his profession with enthusiasm. His success fol-
lowed as a matter of course. For twenty-five
years he never finally lost a criminal case and, con-
sidering the great number of hard cases which he
defended in those years, there is good reason for
believing that many of the verdicts which he secured
were rather compliments to his skill and eloquence
than the result of sober reflection on the part of
juries. When the war came on he responded to
the call for volunteers, enlisting in Capt. B. D,
McKie's Company, which was the second raised in
the county, Bass's Regiment. He had been afflicted
with a throat trouble for some time and the
exposure, which active service in the field rendered
unavoidable, brought on a bad case of bronchitis,
which soon necessitated his retiring from active
duty. He was honorably discharged on account of
this disability. Returning home, he entered the
Quarter-master's Department, where he remained
until just before the surrender. After the war he
attempted to resume the practice of his profession,
at Corsicana ; but, on account of the unsettled
condition of affairs there at that time, this was
impossible. He accordingly moved to Houston,
where the courts had not been disorganized and
some show was still made of conducting public
business according to established forms and usages.
He practiced there and in the courts of that local-
ity for about two years and a half and then returned
to Corsicana and took up the practice there, con-
tinuing uninterruptedly there since. Judge Croft
has devoted his entire life to his profession and his
efforts have been rewarded with more than ordinary
success. He had accumulated considerable prop-
erty when the war came on, but it was swept away
and he found himself, at the close, like thousands
of others, empty-handed and confronted with new
conditions which it was not easy to measure in all
their relations, nor master when fully understood.
But he survived it all and surveys the past as
serenely now as if his whole life had been one long
series of triumphs, thus displaying much philoso-
phy and good sense. It would be hard to imagine
a professional life better lived than his has been.
Judge Croft has been twice married. In 1851 he
married Miss Roxana Elliott, of Navarro County,
who died within a few months. He married again
in January, 1854, Miss Rebecca A. Lockhart, a
daughter of Charles J. C. Lockhart, an early
settler of the county. Two children now survive
this union: Charles W., now his father's law part-
ner, and Earnest T. , still in school. Earnest T. is
an accomplished musician and is said by some of
the most competent judges in the county to pos-
sess musical talent of the highest order. This is
already well cultivated and, with further develop-
212
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ment in this delightful field of art, there is no tell-
ing what he might accomplish. Judge Croft has
been. a Mason since 1850, being one of the first
members initiated in the mother lodge of Navarro
County. He took his first degree in company with
A. Beaton, James M. Riggs and B. L. Ham, soon
after the lodge was organized. Gen. E. H. Tarrant
being the presiding ofllcer. He is also a member
of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and. Id
accordance with his means, a liberal contributor to
all worthy purposes. He has never voted any other
than the Democratic ticket. He has long been a
prominent figure in his section of the State and at
the bar of Texas.
E. P. BECTON. M. D.,
SUPERINTENDENT STATE INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND.
The subject of this brief historical notice, Dr.
Edwin Pinckney Becton is well known throughout
the State as a pioneer Texian, leading physician
and superintendent in charge of one of the State's
most important eleemosynary institutions.
He was born in Gibson County, Tenn., June
27, 1834, and came to Texas in 1841 with his
parents, who settled at San Augustine, where he was
early placed at school and acquired the rudiments
of a good literary education.
His father. Rev. John May Becton, was born in
Craven County, North Carolina, January 8, 1806,
and was a Presbyterian clergyman of the old
school, much admired for his learning, piety and
zeal.
His mother's maiden name was Eleanor Emeline
Sharp. She was a daughter of James Sharp, and
is now (1896) living, at eighty-six years of age, at
Fort Worth with Mr. J. J. Nunnally, who married
her granddaughter, Fannie.
Rev. John May Becton' s parents were Frederick
Edwin and Fannie (May) Becton, who moved from
Craven County, North Carolina, when he was a little
past twelve months of age and located in Ruther-
ford County, Tennessee. There he was given such
school advantages as the county afforded, com-
pleting his education at Pebble Hill Academy,
located on Stone's river. He began life as a
farmer, married Miss Eleanor Emeline Sharp,
January 9, 1827, and in 1831 moved to Gibson
County, Tennessee.
He was reared in the "Hard-Shell" Baptist
faith ; in July, 1833, professed religion at a Metho-
dist camp- meeting; during the year joined the
old school Presbyterian church, and in 1835 was
licensed to preach the gospel by the latter denom-
ination. In April, 1841, he was ordained and in
November of that year came to Texas and located
at San Augustine, where he preached and taught
school. In 1844 he moved to Nacogdoches County.
He died at Church Hill, nine miles east of Hen-
derson, in Rusk County, July 14, 1853. He was
one of the early and most active pioneer clergymen
of his church in Texas and it is believed organized
more churches than any other member of the de-
nomination in the State, among others the church
at Douglass, in Nacogdoches County, in 1844 ; one
in Henderson, in Rusk County, in 1845 ; one at
Rusk in Cherokee County, in 1849, or 1850, and
the church at Larissa, in Cherokee County, in 1849.
At the same time he and the Rev. Daniel Baker
organized the Palestine Presbyterian church, at
Palestine, and organized alone the one at Gum
Springs, Rusk County, in 1851, since known as the
Danvilla church.
He organized the Presbyterian church at Church
Hill in 1852, at which place he died, as above
mentioned.
He is said by old people who knew him, to
have been an elegant and fiuent writer, and elo-
quent speaker and pulpit orator.
He was liberal and broad in his views, and, be-
ing a leader in church affairs in those days, drew
about him a large following and a wide circle of
friends and supporters. He was associated in his
work with such well-known pioneer clergymen as
the Rev. Dr. Baker, Rev. Hugh Wilson, Rev.
Peter Fullinwider, Rev. P. M. Warrener, and •
others of those who blazed the way for Presby-
terianism in Texas.
At his death he left three sons and one daughter,
the latter of whom, Isabella, died in 1862. One
son, Joseph S. Becton, was a gallant soldier in the
Confederate army during the war between the
States and finally lost his life at the skirmish at
Spanish Fort, near Mobile, Ala., April 9, 1865,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
213
the day of the final surrender of the Confederate
forces. He enlisted from Rusk County at seven-
teen years of age, and went to the front as a mem-
ber of Thompson's Company, Lock's Regiment.
John A. Becton, the second son, lives at Sulphur
Springs, Texas, and the third son is Dr. E. P.
Becton, the subject of this sketch.
Dr. Becton was but little more than six years of
age when his parents came to East Texas. He
spent his boyhood in San Augustine, Nacogdoches,
Cherokee and Rusk counties, attending the com-
mon schools of that day, and took a partial course
of study at Austin College, at Huntsville, Texas.
He then determined to adopt the practice of medi-
cine as a profession, and accordingly, entered the
office of Dr. A. R. Hamilton, at New Danville,
Texas (where the family had located), and Jan-
uary, 1855, began a course of systematic reading
and examinations preparatory to entering college.
In the winter of 1855-6 he attended, lectures at
Nashville, Tenn., and at the close of the session
went to Murf reesboro, Tenn. , where he read 'in the
office of James E. and Robert S. Wendel, physi-
cians of prominence in that State, continuing his
studies under those instructors until the opening of
the next regular session of the University of Ten-
nessee, when he entered the medical department of
that institution of learning and took a full course ,
of lectures. He graduated therefrom March 2,
1857, carrying off the honors of his class, one of
the prizes in anatomy, for the highest standing in
the department of anatomy. Dr. Becton com-
menced the practice of medicine at New Danville,
Texas, the year of his graduation. Later he
attended medical lectures at the University of
Louisville, Kentucky, 1874; at the University of
Maryland, at Baltimore, 1879-80 ; at Tulane Uni-
versity, Louisiana, 1886, and in 1891 at the Poly-
clinic, in New York. He continued practice at
New Danville, in Rusk County, from 1857 to April,
1862, at which time he entered the Confederate
army as a private soldier in Capt. J. A. Pegue's
Company, Waterhouse's Regiment. He was
appointed Assistant-surgeon of Fitzhugh's Regi-
ment. McCulloch's Brigade, Walker's Division,
and was soon thereafter recommended for promo-
tion by Chief Surgeon of Division Beall, examined by
the Army Medical Board, passed to the rank of Sur-
geon, and assigned to duty with the Twenty-second
Regiment of Texas Infantry, commanded by his
warm personal friend. Col. R. B. Hubbard (since
Governor of Texas and United States Minister to
Japan), and attached to Walker's Division. Dr. Bec-
ton remained at his post of duty until the war was
ended and then returned to Texas, and in February,
1866, located at Tarrant, in Hopkins County, and
resumed the practice of his profession. In March,
1874, he moved from Tarrant to Sulphur Springs,
in the same county, where he continued to reside
until appointed to his present official position.
Always a close and enthusiastic student of the
science and practice of medicine and surgery, he
has taken only that interest in matters outside his
profession that good citizenship required. Some-
what contrary to his tastes and wishes, he was, how-
ever, chosen to represent his district in the House
of the Twelfth Texas Legislature. He acquitted
himself in that body in a manner highly acceptable
to his large and intelligent constituency and that
won for him a place among the ablest and most
patriotic of his colleagues.
Dr. Becton is known throughout the State as
unalterably opposed to the liquor traffic and as a
supporter of its suppression by constitutional and
statutory prohibition. In the exciting State can-
vass on that issue in 1887 he took the stump in
favor of the prohibitory amendment to the State
constitution then pending before the people and
delivered a number of ringing addresses that will
be long remembered and that are destined to bear
good fruit in the future when the public conscience
arouses itself to the necessity for adequate action
upon this vitally important question.
He is a staunch advocate of organization in
medicine, is a member of the county and district
societies where he resided, and of the State and
national associations. As an evidence of the high
regard in which he is held by his confreres in Texas,
he was elected first vice-president of the Texas
State Medical Association at its meeting at Belton,
in 1884, and president at the subsequent meeting
in the city of Houston, in April, 1885, and presided
as such at the Dallas meeting the following year.
That meeting marked a crisis in the life of the
association. It was just before the Ninth Inter-
national Medical Congress was to assemble in
Washington City and the question came up on the
adoption of a resolution, instructing the delegates
to indorse and ratify the action of the American
Medical Association at New Orleans, with reference
to the exclusion of new-code men as delegates to
the congress by appointment by the committee on
organization.
Pending a discussion of this resolution. Dr.
Becton resigned the chair to the first vice-presi-
dent and, coming upon the floor, made a speech
strongly endorsing the resolution and favoring
instructing the delegates. The report was adopted.
His administration fell upon a stormy time in the
history of medicine in this country. Sentiment
214
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was somewhat divided in medical ranks in Texas
and great care and discretion were necessary in
dealing with this question, to avoid alienating cer-
tain members, and thus disrupting the cherished
organization. Dr. Becton took a bold stand
for ever preserving the purity and integrity
of honorable, rational medicine, uncontaminated
by affiliation with those who would break down
all barriers and throw to the dogs the code of
medical ethics, the "bulwark and palladium of
the profession ; " and yet the meeting was con-
ducted to a peaceful termination and all elements
were harmonized. In the course of his speech he
said, among other things: " We are in the midst of
the battle, and it is a grand sight to see the old-
regulars presenting a solid front, standing like a
'stone- wall' against those who would break our
ranks. * * * Doubtless there are some good
and true men who honor the American Medical
Association and live up to the code, who question
the expediency of the action taken by the associa-
tion at its meeting in New Orleans last year ; but,
because of this, they are not willing to see it dis-
membered. With these we have no quarrel, but
are willing to meet them in a fraternal spirit, with
the view to an honorable and amicable adjustment
of the pending difficulty. But there are those who,
tired of salutary and needful restraint, seize upon
this as a pretext for destroying the association and
trampling under their feet the Code of Ethics,
thereby removing the last barrier between them-
selves and medical quackery. * * * The Texas
State Medical Association occupies a proud position
before the medical world on this question. It has
firmly planted itself upon the eternal principles of
truth and justice and, strong in the consciousness
of its own rectitude, fears not the consequences.
It has flung its banner to the breeze, and upon its
glittering folds is inscribed in letters of living light :
' The perpetuity of the American Medical Asso-
ciation ; the honor, dignity, purity of Ameri-
can medicine ; for these we live, for these we
labor.' * * * These must and, with the bless-
ing of Grod, shall be preserved. Then let us con-
tinue to stand together ; let us give our hearts and
hands to this great work, encircling the good and true
of the profession in that chain of sympathy that binds
us together as one common brotherhood. Trusting
to the j ustness of our cause and the sanction of a j ust
God, let us have the courage to do our whole duty.
" Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend
To meaQ device for sordid end.
Courage! An independent spark from heaven's bright
throne, [alone.' "
By which the soul stands raised, triumphant, high,
As an orator. Dr. Becton stands deservedly high
and his voice is in frequent request, both in and
out of the medical meetings.
December 12, 1889, on the occasion of the
burial of Jefferson Davis, when memorial services
were held throughout the South, he was chosen by
his fellow-citizens of Hopkins County to deliver
the oration at the meeting held by them at Sulphur
Springs, and this he did in a thrillingly eloquent and
touching manner .
At the twenty-fourth annual session of the Texas
Medical Association held at Tyler, April 26th, 27th,
and 28th, 1892, he was called upon suddenly to de-
liver the closing address at the memorial services
held in honor of deceased members. Although he
had no adequate time for preparation, his oration
was pronounced a masterpiece, his references to
the tragic death of Dr. Keeves calling tears to every
eye. Dr. Reeves had been superintendent of the
State Insane Asylum at Austin and, without a
moment's warning, had been shot down by an in-
sane assassin. Dr. Becton's beloved wife had been
recently removed from his side by the hand of
death. In the early part of his remarks he took
occasion to say : "To me this is a solemn hour;
the afflictive hand of Providence has rested heavily
upon me ; I know what sorrow is ; I know how to
sympathize with those who are in trouble. One
year ago four of our fellow-members were with us
in the enjoyment of health, of happiness and of the
privileges and pleasures that we this day enjoy.
Now, they sweetly sleep beneath the shade of the
trees on the other side of the river. Life's duty
done, they have no more to do with the things of
earth;" and then followed the address — one of
the finest tributes ever paid before the association
to departed worth.
As a writer Dr. Becton is polished and forcible.
He has made several contributions to current med-
ical literature.
He was united in marriage, to Miss Mary Eliza
Dickson, November 17th, 1857. She died in 1866
leaving three children : Mrs. L. J. Wortham, Mrs.
J. J. Nunnally and Dr. Joseph Becton. In 1867
he married Mrs. Olivia L. Smith, widow of Dr.
P. L. Smith. She died at Sulphur Springs in 1891,
leaving three children: Mrs. Mary A. Chandler,
since deceased, Mrs. Ellie Y. McDanell, of Sulphur
Springs, and E. B. Becton, Jr. She left by her
former marriage two children, viz. : Mrs. Kate
W. Garrett, wife of Dr. Garrett, of Sulphur Springs,
and Mrs. Fannie Laura Sterling, wife of Dr. Stir-
ling, of Sulphur Springs.
Dr. Becton is a Presbyterian, a Mason and a
member of the I. O. O. F. ; also a K. of P. In
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
215
politics he is a staunch and unwavering Demo-
crat.
In January, 1895, he was appointed, by Governor
C. A. Culberson, superintendent of the State Institu-
tion for the Blind, at Austin, Texas, a deserved
■ honor that met with the hearty approbation of the
medical profession and people of Texas. The
board of trustees of the institution, under date of
November 1, 1895, in transmitting hisoffieial report
to the Governor, said : " The report of the superin-
tendent of the Institution for the Blind for the year
ending November 1, 1895, is so full and accurate
that we deem it unnecessary to supplement it with
any suggestions or recommendations.
"The general health of the pupils has been ex-
cellent for the past year, better, perhaps, than in
many years, and the general management of Dr.
Becton entirely satisfactory in all departments. He
entered upon the discharge of his duties, January
1, 1895, with a zeal and enthusiasm which he has
steadily maintained ; and the good order, fine dis-
c pline, and general progress and improvement of
the institution have been such as to commend him
and the institution to the continued favor of the
people of Texas."
One of the first matters that claimed his atten-
tion upon taking charge of the Institution was to
thoroughly systematize all the details of its manage-
ment, dividing the work into departments, over
which he placed competent heads, to whom he
delegated sufficient power for the discharge of their
duties. He sought from the beginning to impress
them with a proper sense of responsibility. He has
met with their hearty co-operation. As a result,
everything connected with the institution moves
with the well-ordered regularity of clock-work.
There is no friction or waste of energy and the
highest state of efficiency has been attained in
every department. The children regard him with
the affection that they would a kind and beloved
father.
The people of Texas have much to be proud of,
but of nothing more than of the enlightened states- ,
manship, wise foresight and tender human sym-
pathy displayed by the founders of the common-
wealth in making provision for the establishment
and maintenance of such public benefactions as the
State Institution for the Blind.
The absence of no other one of the senses is so
keenly felt as that of sight ; the deprivation of no
other one, under ordinary circumstances, renders
a person so helplessly and hopelessly dependent.
Yet, thanks to the existence of this institution, the
blind children of Texas are being taught useful
trades, by means of which, when they leave its
walls, they can take their places in the great army
of bread-winners. Besides, they are receiving
that culture that will enable them to participate
with their fellows in some of the pleasures incident
to higher mental and spiritual life. The delights
of music are open to them and they are also fur-
nished with the key to the golden treasure-house
of literature. Thus, .while it is denied to them to
view the beauties of the visible universe, to note
the changes wrought by nature with the progress
of the seasons — to gaze upon the witchery of hill
and wood and stream — yet, in being taught the
science and art of the harmony of sound, they are
taught that universal language of the soul that
alone can give expsession to its highest longings
and aspirations. They are being introduced to the
thoughts of the great and good of all ages, in-
structed in the principles of morality and religion,
and taught the mysteries of the manual trades
thought to be best suited to their natural capaci-
ties. They will be sent out into the world
patient, earnest, hopeful, useful men and women.
It is a noble work that is being done. How
deplorable would be their condition but for the
existence and proper management of this institu-
tion!
No Governor of Texas, be it said to their credit,
has ever been influenced by partisan motives, or
by the desire for personal aggrandizement, in
making appointments to the superintendency of
the Institution for the Blind. Their purpose has
been to select men of high standing in the medical
fraternity, superior executive ability and that
firmness of character, warmth of sympathy for
others and purity of life that will insure the
efficient discharge of the duties of the sacred trust
confided to them.
Dr. Becton is no stranger to the people of
Texas. They expected much of him as the official
head of this institution and he has not disappointed
them. On the contrary he has come up fully to
the measure of their expectations.
The writer has visited many similar institutions
and feels no hesitation in saying that the Texas
Institution for the Blind, under the supervision of
Dr. Becton, is one of the best of the kind in the
country. IJe has, like every other worthy member
of the medical profession who has been long en-
gaged in practice, been the instrument under God
for the accomplishment of much good ; but, at no
time in the past have his efforts been employed in a
worthier cause or to better advantage than since
his appointment to his present position. He has
brought to the work the most earnest predelictions
of his nature and the best energies of his heart and .
216
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
brain. What he has already succeeded in doing is
a sufficient earnest of what he will yet accomplish
in the interest of the unfortunates committed to his
charge.
Although he is giving his whole heart and all his
energies to the management of the institution he
gives a large measure of the credit of its success to
his teachers.
CARL HILMAR GUENTHER,
SAN ANTONIO.
As the pioneer history of Texas is being written
and put into print the fact is being developed that
the German Empire has contributed more of its
bone, sinew, and brain to the settlement and de-
velopment of the Lone Star State, than all of the
other nations of the world combined. The Ger-
mans were among the very first pioneers who made
their way into the region of country known as West-
ern and Southern Texas and as a rule they were
plain, honest people without means, who were ac-
customed to hardship and a rigid economy in ail of
the affairs of life and were especially adapted to
pioneering in a frontier country. The now vener-
able Carl Hilmar Guenther, of San Antonio, is a
fair type of the Texas pioneer, and a brief account
of his career will, therefore, be of interest to the
readers of this work.
Mr. Guenther was born in the town of Weissen-
fels, Prussia, March 19th, 1826. His father, Gott-
fried Guenther, was a successful business man of
that town, who, in early life, was a merchant and
later owned lands and pursued the avocation of a
farmer. He was a man of property and influence.
Hilmar Guenther spent his boyhood and youth on
his father's farm, received a liberal schooling and
learned the business of scientific milling in all of
its branches, which in those days not only involved
the operation of a mill, but also the arts of planing
and millwright. After learning his trade he held a
responsible position as manager of the largest mill
in the city of Zeitz, not far from his home. Upon
the breaking out of the great German revolution of
1848, not wishing to be involved therein, he em-
barked from Bremen for New York City on a sailing
vessel and reached his destination after a tedious
voyage of about nine weeks. He remained in New
York 'about one month, where he took up and pur-
sued the work of a carpenter. He then went to the
now old town of Racine, Wis., a port town on
Lake Michigan. Wisconsin was then a new and
unsettled State, Racine a small trading port, and
the present great cities of Chicago and Milwaukee
were but small frontier towns. At Racine Mr.
Guenther was employed as a miller a portion of
the time. There was not wheat enough raised in
that section to keep this, a merchant mill, in
operation more than three or four months in the
year. He therefore worked as a carpenter and
builder when not employed in his position
of miller. He remained at Racine something
over a year and then pushed on west to the
Mississippi river and took a steamboat for New
Orleans. Water in the river was low, however,
and the boat stranded at Lake Providence, La.
Here Mr. Guenther disembarked and took a con-
tract for building a residence for one Mr. Green, of
Green P. O., not far from Lake Providence. He
completed his contract in due time, drew his money
therefor and returned to New York, took out his
papers of citizenship, and made a trip to the father-
land to visit his parents. He remained at his home
about three months and then, with the full consent
and approval of his parents, returned to the United
States to make his fortune and his future home.
He landed this time at New Orleans where he pur-
chased himself a full kit of carpenter's and mill-
wright's tools and embarked for Texas, reaching
the little gulf port of Indianola in January, 1852.
While he had personally not much means, he had
received assurances from his father that if he found
a favorable opening for business in his line, the
money would be furnished him to engage therein,
and from Indianola he started on a prospecting tour.
He drove with an ox-team from Indianola to San
Antonio. Here for a time he worked as a carpenter
and, not long thereafter purchased a horse and
saddle and prospected for a business location at
Fredericksburg, then a considerable settlement of
German colonists. His coming to Fredericksburg
was welcomed by the people of the colony and his
proposition to build a mill met with much en-
couragement and promises of support, as, up to
JOHN STON^EHAM.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
217
that time, the grinding of corn and wheat had all
been done in small hand-mills at the homes of the
settlers. Mr. Guenther located a water-power on
Live Oak Creek about three miles from Fredericks-
burg. He received means from home and erected
the first saw mill and grist mill ever built in that
section of country.
In October, 1859, Mr. Guenther removed to San
Antonio and developed two water-powers on the
San Antonio river in the city. His first mill, now
known as the Lower Mill, was a modest two-run mill
which was propelled by an under shot water wheel.
In 1866-7 he built a second mill on the San Antonio
on Arsenal street and nearer to the business center
of the city. This is known as the Guenther Upper
Mill. As the country settled up the city grew and
Mr. Guenther's business increased. The Upper
Mill has been converted into a hominy mill and grist
mill and the Lower Millequipped as a full-fledged
roller flouring mill. The capacity of both mills
is now four hundred barrels. Mr. Guenther has
ever been an enterprising business man, always up
to and fully ifibreast of the times and alive to the
growing demands of a progressive city. As he
succeded in business he invested his surplus in
local business enterprises and San Antonio prop-
erty. In 1870 he embarked in the manufacture of
ice on a small scale, and later organized the South-
ern Ice & Cold Storage Company, of which he is
president, and the enterprise has developed into
large proportions.
Mr. Guenther married at Fredericksburg, in
1855, Miss Dorethea Pape, a daughter of Mr.
Fritz Pape, one of the flrst settlers of the Fred-
ericksburg colony. She has proved a loving and
faithful wife and mother, and a genuine helpmeet,
sharing cheerfully in all of her husband's reverses
and enjoying with him his final prosperity.
Mr. and Mrs. Guenther have seven children.
Mr. Guenther has afforded his family excellent
school advantages. All are married and occupy
honorable positions in society and business circles.
Mr. and Mrs. Guenther live at their old home on
Guenther street in the quietude of declining years,
enjoying the fruits of honorable, successful and
well-spent lives, and in the enjoyment of the
society of their children, grandchildren, and a
wide circle of friends and acquaintances.
Mr. Guenther never cared to enter public life
or took especial interest in politics, but has been
essentially a business man, only taking such
interest in matters affecting the welfare of his
city, country and State, as good citizenship re-
quired.
THE STONEHAMS.
OF GRIMES COUNTY.
Bryant Stoneham, now in his eighty-eighth year,
is the sole surviving representative of the first gen-
eration of Stonehamsthat located on Grimes Prairie,
in Grimes County, Texas. His grandfather, per-
haps the first Stoneham that ever put foot on
American soil, came over from England in colonial
days, and settled in what is now Amherst County,
Va. Ho had four sons, George, Henry, Bryant,
and James, and two daughters. The oldest
son, George, enlisted as a private in the war of
1812 and was never heard of afterwards. His son,
Henry, at the age of fourteen, ran away from home
to serve in the'Eevolutionary War; he served five
years in this war and was wounded at the battle of
Guildford's Court House. Henry afterwards mar-
ried, in Amherst County, Jane Dillard, a native of
Fredericksburg, Va., Bryant and James died in
Hancock County, Ga., at the ages respectively of
108 and 110,years.
Henry Stoneham and his wife Jane (Dillard)
Stoneham moved from Virginia to Georgia in the
year 1801. There were born to them eight sons,
viz. : George, Henry, John, William, James, Bryant,
Erastus, and Joseph, and seven daughters, Mary,
Susan, Jane, Eliza, Martha, Sophia, and Hester.
Henry Stoneham, the father of these children, died in
Hancock County, Ga., in 1815. His sons, tak-
ing their widowed mother, drifted westward from
Georgia, locating for a time in Alabama, but all
ultimately locating in Grimes County, Texas, except
Joseph, the second oldest, who died in Alabama,
leaving a number of small children. The minor
children of Joseph were brought to Texas by their
uncle and guardian, George Stoneham.
218
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Jane (Dillard) Stoneham, died on Grimes Prairie,
June 3d, 1858, beloved and respected by all who
knew her, at the extreme age of 105 years.
The Stonehams of this generation (the children
of Henry and Jane Stoneham) and indeed for gen-
erations back, were an exceptionally hardy people ;
all owners of slaves, nevertheless hard workers
themselves, the women manufacturing, by the crude
means then known to Southern people, nearly all
the cloth used for the household and the slaves.
The men inured to much hardship, also actively
participated in outdoor sports and grew to be splen-
did examples of physical manhood. Their powers
of endurance, capacity for labor, industry, perse-
verance, integrity and manly deportment secured
them wealth and the respect and admiration of
their fellow-men, as well as accounted for their un-
failing cheerfulness and abiding hopefulness of dis-
position, and their long and useful lives. The
sterling integrity, industry, thrift, enterprise and
hardiness of this generation of Stonehams may not
improperly be said to have been largely inherited
from their mother, for in her industry and enter-
prise were realized King Lemuel's description of the
ways of a virtuous woman: "She considereth a
field and buyeth it ; with the fruits of her hands
she pl'anteth a vineyard."
Several of Henry and Jane (Dillard) Stoneham's
children lived to a remarkable old age. Their son
Henry, long to be remembered for his Christian
character, his charity, his love for children and his
exalted integrity, died in Grimes County at the ad-
vanced age of ninety-five years. Their daughter,
Susan, never married, remarkable for her industry^
respected and loved for her noble character, died in
Grimes County at the age of ninety-seven years.
Another daughter, Mrs. Thos. J. Shackelford, died
in Jackson County, Ga., in 1895, at ninety-one
years of age.
None of the sons of this generation of Stonehams
are now living except Bryant, and none have left
issue, to any extent, except Joseph. He married
Rebecca Crowder near Milledgeville, Ga., after-
ward moved to Alabama, and both he and his wife
died in Conecuh County in that State in 1835, leav-
ing six sons and two daughters. The two daugh-
ters (Caroline and Martha) married in Alabama.
The two youngest sons (William and Sebron) died
in Alabama in boyhood. The remaining four boys,
George, John, Henry, and Joe, are the minor chil-
dren referred to as having been brought to Texas by
their uncle and guardian, George Stoneham.
John Stoneham, a son of Joseph Stoneham, and
of the second generation of Stonehams that came
to Texas, was born in Conecuh County, Ala.,
December 20, 1829. When a small boy he attended
school at Evergreen, Ala. His uncles being slave
owners, and desirous of obtaining richer and
cheaper lands than could be readily procured in
Alabama, left that State in 1845 and in preceding
years, taking him with them and his orphan broth-
ers in 1845. Most of them made their way overland
with wagons and teams and camp equipage enough
to make the party comfortable. Those that came
with the orphans arrived on Grimes Prairie in 1845.
They found on Grimes Prairie and vicinity, upon
their arrival there, the following well-known people :
Judge Jesse Grimes, for whom Grimes County was
named ; Mrs. Margaret Mclntyre and her two sons ;
Franklin J. Greenwood and family; Maj. Pierson
and family ; Gwyn Morrison and family ; Andrew
and Edley Montgomery and their families. What
an inviting prospect this section of country must
have presented to the energetic and enterprising
Stonehams! Kich lands of marvelous productive
capacity, well timbered and watered ; sleek cattle
on every hillside and an abundance of game were
all found there. Indeed this was a land flowing
with milk and honey and after over half of a cen-
tury of constant tillage these lands yield bountifully
to the hand of industry.
John Stoneham and his orphan brothers, under
the influences of pioneer life, grew to manhood on
Grimes Prairie. Here they were sent by their
guardian to such schools as from time to time the
people of that sparsely settled country were enabled,
in that primeval day to secure. Upon John at-
taining to his majority, his guardian, who had
judiciously managed his father's estate, placed him
in possession of his portion. He at once invested
in lands and began to follow farming, the vocation
of his father. He was married to Evaline Green-
wood, daughter of the venerable Franklin J. Green-
wood, on the 20th of October, 1853. John Stone-
ham and his brothers George, Henry, and Joe,
served in different capacities on the Southern side
in the late war. Joe was killed at the battle of
Mansfield in Louisiana. He left a widow and four
sons, all of whom are dead. George never mar-
ried ; he died the 12th of July, 1874. Henry died in
Milam County, Texas, leaving a family of girls and
boys, most of whom are married and live in dif-
ferent counties of the State. Since the war John
Stoneham actively engaged in farming, and, to some
extent, stock-raising, and, for about ten years prior
to his death, merchandised. He lived till his death
in the vicinity of Grimes Prairie and during
his long and useful life a large family of children
grew up about him. By frugal and judicious
management he acquired large bodies of valuable
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
219
land. As a citizen he was liberal and public-
spirited. Upon the building of the Gulf, Colorado,
and Santa Fe Railway through Grimes County (in
which he actively interested himself in a financial
way, giving the project his hearty support) a
station was built on lands he owned and named for
him.
The life of John Stoneham was characterized by
a rigid simplicity. The sincerity and honesty of
his deeds and words were transparent, and felt and
appreciated by all worthy people that knew him.
He was a devoted member of the Methodist church
and gave liberally to churches and schools. The
beautiful little church at Stoneham and the school
at that place stand as monuments to his zeal for
the cause of Him whose whole life was one of com-
plete, loving self-sacrifice for the benefit of others.
His unselfishness, integrity, good will for his
fellow-man, his charities, and especially his loving
self-sacrifice for his family, will ever cause his
memory to be honored and revered and, above all,
will it be sacredly enshrined in the hearts of .his
widow and children. He died at Stoneham, Texas,
on August 3d, 1894, in his sixty-sixth year, and
friends from far and near came to pay their last
tribute of respect and love when he was laid to rest
in the old burial grounds on Grimes Prairie. He
left a widow and eight sous, who have inherited his
estate. His sons are among the most thriving and
respected citizens of Grimes County.
J. B. POLLEY,
FLORESVILLE.
J. B. Polley, of Floresville, Wilson County,
Texas, was born in Brazoria County, Texas, in 1840.
His father, J. H. Polley, and his mother, Mary
(Bailey) Polley, were natives respectively of New
York and North Carolina. J. H. Polley left New
York in 1818, made his way to St. Louis and there
joined Moses Austin and made a trip to Texas in
1819. Then, returning to St. Louis, he joined
Stephen F. Austin as one of the original three hun-
dred who came to Texas in 1821. Subsequently,
he married Miss Mary Bailey, whose father, J.
Britton Bailey, had settled on the Brazos river, op-
posite Columbia, in the year 1821. The couple
lived at the edge of Bailey's Prairie until 1847 and
then moved to the Cibolo, about thirty miles east
of San Antonio — the husband dying in 1869 at the
age of seventy-three, the wife dying in 1888 at
the age of seventy-eight. Eleven children were
born to them, of whom J. B. Polley was the sixth.
The subject of this sketch, J. B. Polley, gradu-
ated at the Florence Wesleyan University at Flor-
ence, Ala., in 1861, returning home just in time to
avoid the blockade of the Texas coast. Enlisting
in Company F., of the Fourth Texas, he served four
years in Hood's Brigade, participating in most of
the important battles in which that command was
engaged. Wounded in the head during the first
real battle, that of Gaines' Mill, he lost his right
foot in the last real battle in which his regiment
participated, on the Darbytown road near Rich-
mond, October 7, 1864.
Marrying Miss Mattie LeGette in 1866, Mr.
Polley read law and was admitted to the bar in 1868,
but did not begin its practice until 1876, when he
moved to Floresville, the county seat of Wilson
County. He was County Attorney in 1877 and
1878, served as a member of the Sixteenth Legis-
lature in 1879, and since has been engaged in the
practice of his profession.
His children are: Josephine Goldstein, the wife
of E. M. Goldstein, of San Antonio, Texas ; Hortense
Rudisill, the wife of L. O. Rudisill, of Fort Worth,
Texas ; Miss Mattie Polley, Joseph H. and Jesse
Polley, the latter born in 1881.
220
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
THOMAS J. DEVINE,
SAN ANTONIO.
The lamented Judge Devine was born of Irish
parentage, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on the 28th of
February, 1820. His early opportunities for an
education were liberal and in addition to his En-
glish studies he acquired considerable proficiency
in the Latin and French languages, but he was in
early life thrown upon his own resources, and when
but fifteen years of age emigrated to Florida and
was there employed as clerk and salesman in a
mercantile house at Tallahasse, but his aspiring
genius found little congeniality in the mental re-
straints^ and fettering routine of a life of trade.
The cravings'of his mind and the soaring flights of
his youthful ambition impelled him to exertions to
reach a more compatible sphere, and, in 1838, he
began the study of law in the oflSce of Trexton
Davis, a prominent lawyer of Woodville, Miss.
In 1840 he went to Lexington, Ky., where he
continued his studies and attended lectures in
the law department of Transylvania University,
from which he graduated in 1843 and in the same
year obtained his license to practice from the
Supreme Court of Kentucky.
During that year he emigrated to Texas and
located at La Grange, in Fayette County, and he
soon thereafter removed to San Antonio, where he
established himself in the practice of his profession
and lived until his death in 1890.
Judge Devine acquired a high reputation as an
able and thorough lawyer. In 1844 he was elected
City Attorney of San Antonio and held the oflBce
by successive re-elections until 1851, when be was
elected District Judge of Bexar County. He was
re-elected to the bench in 1856 and held the posi-
tion until the outbreak of the war between the
States. He was a leading member of the Texas
secession convention in 1861, and was a member of
the committee of public safety, appointed to con-
fer with Gen. Twiggs, the commander of the
United Suites troops in Texas, and demand the
surrender of all the government arms, ammuni-
tion and military stores and the immediate re-
moval of the Federal troops from the State.
This, in conjunction with two other gentlemen
of the committee, he accomplished with the
skill of a thorough diplomatist and received the
commendation and thanks of the convention.
Being an ardent devotee and supporter of the
Southern cause and a lawyer of eminent ability, he
was soon afterwards appointed Confederate States
Judge for the Western District of Texas. The
functions of this office, though necessarily limited
in extent and application during the time of war, he
performed with the utmost fidelity, and with a view
to the importance of putting the machinery of the
new court in proper motion. In 1863 his admirable
qualities of statesmanship and knowledge of inter-
national law were again called Into requisition. At
the request of Gen. E. Kirby Smith, he proceeded
to the city of Mexico and succeeded in arranging
amicably the threatened troubles between the
Mexican and the Confederate States governments.
In 1864 there was great dissatisfaction in Texas
in consequence of the conscript law and the em-
bargo laid by the Confederate government upon
trade between Texas and Mexico, and serious
troubles were threatening to arise between the gov-
ernment of the State and the Confederacy, but the
patriotism, ability and the pacific qualities of Judge
Devine arrested all evil, and, having promptly
repaired to Gen. Smith's headquarters in Arkansas,
he arranged the whole matter satisfactorily to all
parties involved.
Thus, as a judge and peacemaker, this good man
united in his person and in his official character the
noblest qualities of a citizen and patriot and rend-
ered his country the most valuable and the happiest
of all services, the promotion of unity and concord
and the direction of its energies against the common
enemy. At the termination of the war he saw no
hope for his country through the clouds that settled
over it and he took up his abode in Mexico, but
Texas was his home. To her he owed all that he
was, or had been, and his heart was chained to her
destiny. He returned to San Antonio within a few
months, but his known ability, prominence and in-
fluence as a Southerner, drew about him the shafts
of revenge and he was arrested by the Federal
authorities and incarcerated at Fort Jackson at the
mouth of the Mississippi and there confined during
a period of about four months, after which he
returned to San Antonio, quietly resumed the prac-
tice of his profession, placidly awaited the abate-
ment of the storm and watched with anxious gaze
the restoration of the social and political wreck
which the war left in its pathway.
In 1873 Judge Devine was appointed by Governor
Coke an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
JUDGE T. J. DEVINE.
COL. W. B. AIKIN.
^
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^^^^^^HWVV°^ ^^^B~^^^^l
OEANGE C. CONNER.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
221
Texas. After a short but eminent career upon the
bench, he found that the duties of the bar which he
had so long cultivated and cherished were congenial
to his tastes as well as far more remunerative, and in
1875 he resigned and returned to his law practice at
San Antonio, which, from that time until his death,
he pursued with vigor and uninterrupted devotion.
Judge Devine did not incline to politics or public
life. Under protest from him, his friends in 1878
made him a prominent candidate for Governor of
Texas and, aside from this, he never permitted his
name to be used in connection with any political
oflSce. Judge Devine was regarded as one of the
ablest lawyers of the Texas bar. He was a man of
great intellectual vigor and superior mental en-
dowments and, while he possessed much of the
humorous vivacity and spontaneous repartee char-
acteristic of his parentage and the race from which
he sprung, candor and sincerity were the ruling
traits of his character. He was patient and thorough
in his investigations and an excellent legal coun-
sellor. His uniform courtesy and mild disposition
and his aptness on proper occasions to adorn with
good-natured jest the dull and monotonous features
of legal argument, rendered him an engaging ad-
vocate and gave him great power before a jury.
His oratory often rose to the highest stand^d of
eloquence. As a judge his decisions were charac-
terized by an independence of judgment and a
freedom from the restraints of doubtful precedent
that commended them to practitioners as the
emanations of profound learning, thorough research
and conscientious conviction.
He held the scales of justice in even balance and
no feature of wrong, however speciously attired,
could disturb their equipoise. His judgments
were fixed upon the firm basis of law and right. In
private life Judge Devine possessed the noblest
qualities. He was kind, charitable and public-
spirited, and always ready to respond to every
meritorious demand as a friend, a neighbor and a
citizen.
W. B. AIKIN,
PARIS.
Col. W. B. Aikin was born in Burke County,
North Carolina, January 23, 1805. His father,
John Aikin, a native of Ireland, came to America
at the age of twenty-three years, was a farmer by
occupation, and died in Mississippi in 1838. Col.
Aikin's mother, Mrs. Anne Aikin, was a daughter
of Samuel Aken, of Pennsylvania. She died Feb-
ruary 5th, 1867. Her father lived to the mature
age of one hundred and six years.
The subject of this memoir left his native State
in 1823 and went to Jefferson County, Ala., where
he resided until 1831. He moved to Noxubee
County, Miss., in that year, and in 1847 to Cass
County, Texas, where he resided until 1860, and
then moved to Red River County. In 1872 he
made his home in Paris, Lamar County, Texas, and,
until the time of his death, was prominently identi-
fied with the commercial and social interests of that
thriving little city. He was always largely engaged
in agricultural pursuits and left a landed estate of
about fifteen thousand acres of land situated in La-
mar and Red River counties. Prior to his death he
was vice-president of the Farmers and Merchants
Bank of Paris, a director of the First National Bank
of Jefferson, Texas, and president of the Lamar
Ware House Company, of Paris. He was a con-
sistent member of the M. E. Church, South, over
fifty years, and took a great interest in church work.
In March, 1827, be married Miss Araminta Flan-
agan, of North Carolina. Four children were born
of this union. Only two of these lived to maturity,
Mrs. O. C. Connor, now living in Paris, Texas,
and Mrs. W. B. Ward, who died in 1882, at Jeffer-
son, Texas.
In 1881 Col. Aikin founded what is now known
as Aikin Institute, an educational institution that
has since been given to the city. In 1892 he built
and gave to the city of Paris the Aikin Charity
Hospital at a cost of $12,000. He was a liberal con-
tributor to churches and charitable purposes, and in
every way, to the full extent of his means and per-
sonal influence, sought to promote the best interests
of the community and country. He died at Paris,
Texas, .June 2, 1893, and was buried in Evergreen
cemetery. One of the finest granite monuments
ever erected in Texas now marks his grave ; a
tribute to his memory prompted by the love of Mrs.
O. C. Connor.
222
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
J. J. GROOS,
NEW BRAUNSFELS.
The late Capt. Johann Jacob Groos, a man of
fine intelligence and great strength of character,
was well known throughout the State of Texas as
one of her most respected and influential pioneers.
He was a native of Germany, born at Offenbach,
March 6, 1824 ; received good schooling and learned
civil engineering. He came to America with a
young wife and landed at Indianola as a member
of the German Emigration Company's party, who
were the pioneers of their day, and who did so
much to open and develop the portion of the State
of Texas in which they settled. He brought little
with him to this country besides a stout heart,
a strong constitution, a large stock of enterprise
and grit, and a willing and ready helpmeet. He
early took up surveying and had much to do with
the location and surveying of lands in Comal,
Bexar, Kendall and adjoining counties. He lived
many years at New Braunfels where he held the
office of county surveyor of Comal County. In
the meantime he also engaged in farming. During
the late war he served as Captain of Confederate
militia, and in that capacity aided in checking
Indian depredations on the frontier. From 1869
to 1872 he kept the Guadalupe Hotel at New
Braunfels and was a popular host. He was then
elected Commissioner of the General Land Office
of the State of Texas, in which position he served
the people until bis death, which occurred at
Austin in 1878 in his fifty-fourth year. His wife
died two years earlier, in 1876, at fifty-two years
of age. Mr. and Mrs. Groos left seven children,
all born in Texas. Otto, forty-eight years of age,
the oldest living, is a banker, farmer and success-
ful business man at Kyle, Texas. Herman is a
farmer near Kyle. Emma is the wife of Mr.
George Schnabel, and resides with her husband at
Burnet. August, forty-two years of age, holds
a position in the office of the State Comptroller of
Public Accounts. William, forty years of age, is
a farmer and stock-raiser at Munroe, Oregon.
Martin E., thirty-five years of age, is chief clerk
in the General Land Office of the State of Texas.
Annie is the wife of Mr. Joseph Mayer, a well-
known broker at San Antonio.
During his entire career, Mr. Groos was noted
for his excellent abilities, strict integrity, loyalty
to his friends, and constancy, and was in every
way a most exemplary citizen. He transmitted
these excellent characteristics to his sons, all of
whom have assumed places of honor and trust
and have sustained the family name.
ORANGE C. CONNOR,
PARIS.
Capt. O. C. Connor was born at Somerville, Ten-
nessee, September 6th, 1829, attended the common
schools of the country until nineteen years of age,
and completed his education by a course at the
Somerville Baptist College. His parents were
Orange and Judith Connor, the former of whom
died in Morris County, Texas, in 1859, and the lat-
ter at the old family home in that county in 1879.
After the suppression of the Irish rebellion of 1792
by fire and sword the crown of England issued a
proclamation to the effect that all persons who had
held commissions in the Irish patriot army should
be hanged without trial. The grandfathers of both
Mr. and Mrs. O. C. Connor had held such com-
missions, but succeeded in avoiding the vigilance
of the military commanders of the British army of
occupation and effected their escape to America,
and here their descendants have since resided and
many of them risen to positions of prominence in
the various walks of life.
In 1849, Mr. Orange Connor moved to Texas
with his family. He traveled overland by ox and
mule teams, bringing about twenty-five slaves with
him, and settled in Morris County, where he opened
a farm and in time became one of the wealthiest
farmers in the county. On the arrival of the family.
J. J. GROSS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
223
in Texas, the subject of this memoir secured a
clerkship in a store at Daiilgerfleld and remained in
that place for nearly three years. In 1852 he mar-
ried Miss Mary A. Aikin, daughter of Col. W. B.
Aikin, then a resident of Cass Connty, Texas.
After marrying he moved to and engaged in farm-
ing in Cass County, in which pursuit he continued
until the beginning of the war between the States in
1861. He then enlisted in Company G-. , 19th Texas
Infantry, and was elected First Lieutenant of the
company. He served with fidelity and courage
throughout the struggle, a struggle that has no
counterpart in the annals of human history.
Among other engagements he participated in those
at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Jenkins' Ferry, Perkins'
Landing, Millican's Bend and the smaller fights in
Louisiana incidental to the defeat of Banks' army
and its being driven back to the lower part of that
State. In 1864, he was assigned to the Quarter-
master's department, in which he remained until
the final surrender of the Confederate forces.
When he returned home after the war he owned
but little property, nevertheless he possessed
enough to establish himself, in a small way as a
merchant and farmer in Eed River County, where
he remained until 1870. In January of that year
he moved to Paris, Texas, and followed merchan-
dising there until 1877, when his stocli, upon which
he carried no insurance, was burned in the fire of
that year that almost destroyed the town. After
sustaining this serious loss he devoted his attention
for a time exclusively to the management of his
various farms, but later acquired a considerable
interest in the Farmers & Merchants Bank of Paris,
and was elected president of that institution for
two terms; but, owing to failing health, retired
from that position, and is now vice-president of the
bank. Capt. Connor is one of the largest land-
holders in his section of the State. He is a mem-
ber of the M. E. Church, South, of thirty-three
years standing. He has six children: W. A., now
a farmer in Red River County ; E. S., a prominent
lawyer at Paris; O. C, Jr., a cotton merchant and
farmer at Paris ; Pearl, wife of John T. DiCkson,
a leading merchant of Paris ; Daisy, wife of P. J.
Pierce, a cotton merchant of Paris ; and Erminia,
wife of E. F. Bray, a representative of the Brown
Shoe Company, of St. Louis, resident at Paris.
Since the war Capt. Connor has been uninter-
ruptedly engaged in farming and has had as much
as three thousand acres under cultivation at one
time.
He is in every respect a representative man and
citizen, has been an active promoter of every enter-
prise inaugurated for the benefit of his section, and
enjoys the respect and esteem of his fellow-citizens,
among whom he has spent the best years of an
active and useful life.
CELESTIN JAGOU,
BROWNSVILLE.
The subject of this brief memoir is one of the
well-known and successful pioneers of the lower Rio
Grande Valley and probably has done as much if
not more, than any living pioneer to develop its
resources. He is a native of France, born at Lass-
cube, in the department of Basses Pyrenees. His
father, John Jagou, was a respected citizen and
property owner of that department. Young Jagou
received a partial education in the school of the
Christian Brotherhood in his native town and at
about the age of twelve years, his services being
needed at home, left school.
Two years later he entered a liquor distilling
establishment and learned the business. He was
restless and ambitious to accomplish something in
the world and, upon hearing the glowing reports
current of the opportunities offered young men in
the United States, embar'iied from his native land in
1859, for New Orleans. There he remained until
1862, and then made his way to Bagdad, Mexico,
and very soon thereafter went to Matamoros,
Mexico. Matamoros was at that time the best
business point on the gulf coast, the depot for all
the cotton shipments of the Southern States, and a
city of about 100,000 people, which prosperous
state of affairs continued during the Civil War only.
At Matamoros, young Jagou was engaged in the
cotton-pressing business. When the war was ended,
all lines of business at Matamoros declined and
the people disappeared like the melting of the
snow.
In 1863, Mr. Jagou opened a store in Browns-
224
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ville, Texas, where be sold fancy groceries and
liquors and did a profitable business. In 1865,
Brownsville was raided by Federal colored troops,
who entered his premises and carried off his mer-
chandise by wagon-loads. His loss was later par-
tially made good by the United States Government.
He also sustained heavy losses by the historic
tornado of 1867, which demolished nearly one-half
of the city of Brownsville, including Fort Brown.
With his accustomed energy and undaunted
determination, he continued in trade and, despite
all misadventures, finally succeeded in laying the
foundation for a competency. In 1868, Mr. Jagou
married Miss Adolphine Mailhe, a lady of New
Orleans of French descent.
Four children were born to them, viz. : Christine
and Adolphe, who reside at home with their par-
ents ; Michael, who lives near San Jose, California,
and Albert, who had charge of Mr. Jagou's branch
store at Laredo, Texas. Mrs. Jagou died in 1880
and in 1881 Mr. Jagou married Miss Agathe
Bourdet, of France.
Mr. Jagou is an enterprising, pushing business
man of tireless industry. Besides his large whole-
sale and retail store in Brownsville, he has, as pre-
viously stated, a branch store in Laredo. In 1879,
he purchased the Esperanza ranch, on which he has
the finest improvements and has demonstrated more
than any other man what Texas soil and water, in
the section in which he resides, will produce in the
line of tropical and sub-tropical fruits. He had
over 50,000 banana plants under the highest state
of cultivation. He believes that with irrigation
nearly all the tropical fruits can be profitably grown
in the lower Kio Grande valley. Mr. Jagou's suc-
cess in life is due entirely to his personal efforts.
ALBERT MOVE,
SAN ANTONIO.
Came to the Republic of Texas in 1845. He was
born in Germany in the city of Kassel, September
19th, 1820. He was reared to farming, which as
an occupation he pursued up to the time of his em-
barkation for Texas as a member of the historic
colony of Germans who came to the New World
under the leadership of Prince Solms. Upon land-
ing at Galveston, he, with others of the colony, pro-
ceeded to Indianola, where they were, for want of
transportation facilities, detained for about six
months. He finally made his way to San Antonio
during that year (1845), where he opened the first
saddler's shop established there. San Antonio
was then a town of about six hundred people. Not a
tradesman, he was, nevertheless, of a mechanical
turn of mind, handy with tools, and engaged in this
business, because he was quick to perceive that
such an establishment was needed and would pay.
His shop was located on what is now Commerce
street. He finally disposed of the business to ad-
vantage, located in the suburbs near the city and
engaged in raising vegetables. For seven years
prior to 1861 he held the oflice of justice of the
peace. That year he entered the Confederate army
as Lieutenant of Company B., Third Texas Infantry,
commanded by Capt. Kampman, and upon the pro-
motion of Capt. Kampman to a higher rank, suc-
ceeded him as Captain of the company. He re-
mained in the army two years. Eeturning home, he
engaged first in the lumber business ; later served
as superintendent and architect forMaj. Kampman,
who did an extensive business as a contractor and
builder for many years ; filled this position for
three or four years ; in 1866 engaged in the fire
and life insurance business, which he followed until
1893 and then retired from active business pur-
suits. He married in Germany and was the father
of nine children, four of whom are living: Otto,
Wilhelmina, Emilie, and Edward. Otto, the oldest,
was born in Germany, March 5, 1843; Wilhelmina,
wife of Max Krakauer, was born in San Antonio,
September 8, 1847, and has three sons and two
daughters ; Emilie, wife of Julius Piper, born No-
vember 14, 1852, has four sons and three daughters,
and Edward the youngest was born January 16,
1855, and has one son and one daughter. AH the
children live in San Antonio.
Otto Moye, the eldest, received a good common
school education and for eighteen years was identi-
fied, as salesmen, with one of San Antonio's whole-
sale hardware houses. Edward married, October
31, 1882, Miss Lillie, daughter of Louis Zork, who
was the pioneer dry goods merchant of San Antonio.
Mr. Edward Moye is a member of the well-known
mercantile firm of Krakauer, Zork & Moye, of San
Antonio.
Eng f^b/WT. Bather. BlUyn NYT
cAr^C^ ,.^ a^c-6c^~e.-.£j^j:)
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
-225
HON. JOHN CALDWELL,
BASTROP.
The Anglo-American settlement of Texas, the
revolution that followed and the establishment of a
separate republic and its merger into the sisterhood
of States that compose the Union, offered unex-
ampled opportunities for the exercise of the purest
patriotism, the most intrepid bravery and the high-
est mental endowments in the line of statecraft.
Nor were the men wanting to fill the various roles
required to meet the necessities of those stormy and
trying days.
Few States, formed in either ancient or modern
times, can boast a galaxy of greater names, in the
same period of time, than those which adorn the
pages of the early history of Texas.
The subject of this memoir, Hon. John Caldwell,
moved among the leading spirits of his day.
He came to Texas from North Alabama in 1831,
as a member of a considerable company of people
who came at the same time from the same locality.
He brought with him a j'oung wife, whose maiden
name was Lucinda Haynie, and settled on the
Navidad, where he developed a farm and resided
until 1834 when he removed to Bastrop County,
ever after his home. He was born at Frankfort,
Ky., December 10, 1802, was the oldest of six
children and was sixteen years of age at the
time of the death of his father, Mr. Adam Caldwell,
which occurred at Nashville, Tenn., July 12,
1819. The support of the family and the education
of the younger children thereupon devolved upon
him, and he met the responsibilities of the situation
with that firmness and devotion to duty that were
among his distinguishing characteristics in maturer
years.
The family after Mr. Adam Caldwell's death
located and lived at Nashville, Tenn., for a number
of years.
Adam Caldwell was a professional man and his son
doubtless inherited from him a love for books and
study, for he applied himself with great diligence
to the study of law -while supporting the family and
was admitted to the bar at Nashville, when twenty-
one years of age. Subsequently the family moved
from Tennessee to North Alabama and located at
Tuscumbia. There John Caldwell lived and prac-
ticed his profession with marked success until
1831, the year that he came to Texas. He brought
five slaves with him, one of whom, Melinda Pryor,
is now living in Austin, Texas, at an advanced age.
15
He at one time owned a large number of slaves.
The^e he treated with uniform kindness, never
selling one of them to any other master or inflicting
upon them undue discipline. Upon coming to
Texas he relinquished the practice of law and de-
voted himself thereafter to agricultural pursuits.
His home in Bastrop County was located on the
Colorado river, about twelve miles from the present
town of Bastrop (then known as Mina) where he
engaged extensively in farming, developed a hand-
some estate and reared his family.
The Caldwell mansion was known throughout
Central and Western Texas as the " White House "
and the home of one of Texas' most intelligent,
courtly and chivalric gentlemen. Spacious in size
and with hospitable doors always open, it was a
popular stopping-place for men prominent in
military and civil affairs. Here Houston, Hen-
derson, Rusk, Williamson, Wharton, Archer, Bur-
net and their compeers delighted to tarry over
night when traveling through the country, and
discuss issues pending before the people and con-
sult the cool and reliable judgment of their
esteemed host and friend.
The present Caldwell family of four sons and
two daughters were all born here and as they ad-
vanced in years the " White House " was made the
scene of many delightful social events.
Col. Caldwell enjoyed the unbounded and uni-
form confidence of the people of his locality and,
as he became known, of the entire Eepublic and
State as well. He was an active and prominent
participant in the events that led up to the Texas
revolution, was one of the first to respond to the
call to arms that followed the affair at Gonzales,
and was one of the most ardent of those who
advocated the issuance of a declaration of inde-
pendence. From the beginning he deprecated the
policy of fighting for the restoration of the Mexican
constitution of 1824, which Santa Anna had
trampled in blood and dust and bayoneted to
death on the plains of Zacatecas. He clearly per-
ceived that the Anglo-Americans of Texas had
nothing to expect from the Mexican government or
people under any circumstances and that, even if
with the co-operation of the Liberal party in
Mexico Santa Anna could be overthrown, the
Federal constitution of 1824 restored and Texas
allowed a separate State government, the battle
226
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
for independence would untimately have to be
fought. As matters stood, he knew that the
Liberal party had been, or would be, crushed in
Blexico, that Texas could look for no aid from
that quarter, that volunteers from the United States
would be slow to join the Texian standard, if the
fight was to be made merely for the rights of Texas
as a Mexican State, and that the part of wisdom
was to make a fight against Mexico like their heroic
forefathers made against Great Britain — for
absolute independence ; for liberty or for death.
Some great men were opposed to the step, but the
party to which he, Governor Smith, Wharton,
Archer and others belonged prevailed, the declara-
tion was issued, the battle of San Jacinto fought,
and the independence of Texas secured.
While with the army on its retreat he was
detailed by Gen. Houston to ride through the
country and give warning to the settlers of the
approach of the three Mexican columns that were
sweeping eastward under Santa Anna. Having
placed his family in safety at Mina (Bastrop), where
they remained until 1838, the Indians committing
so many depredations after the war as to render it
perilous to live outside the limits of the town, he
set about the performance of the duty assigned him
and, having accomplished it, hurried forward to
join the army under Gen. Houston and reached it
the day after the battle of San Jacinto. It was
always a source of regret to him that he was pre-
vented by circumstances, over which he had no con-
trol, from taking part in that grpat and glorious
engagement.
In September, 1838, he was elected to represent
his district in the House of the Third Texas Con-
gress (the first under Lamar's administration) and
acquitted himself in a manner that fully sustained
the high reputation he enjoyed, and added fresh
laurels to those he had already won.
The Congress assembled at Houston on the 15th
of November.
In the Senate were Harvey Kendrick, of Mata-
gorda; Edward Burleson, of Bastrop; William H.
Wharton, of Brazoria; and in the House such men
as John W. Bunton, Greenleaf Fisk (Col. Cald-
well's associate from Bastrop), Jose Antonio
Navarro, Cornelius Van Ness, John A. Wharton,
Wm. Menefee, Holland Coffee, Moseley Baker,
Isaac Parker, David S. Kaufman, John M.
Hansford and John J. Lynn.
It was a very important session. Laws were to
be enacted to provide for a change from the civil to
the common law (in compliance with an amend-
ment to the constitution previously adopted), a
stable currency was to be provided, steps were to
be taken to lay the foundation for a free school sys-
tem and to effectually check the hostile Indian
tribes in East Texas and elsewhere and suppress
Mexican brigandage on the southwestern border.
All this and more was accomplished by that body
or placed in process of accomplishment. A ranger
force for frontier protection was created, a law
passed for the permanent location of the seat of
government, steps were taken to provide a more
efficient navy, fifty leagues of land were set aside
for a university and lands to each county for free
school purposes; the land, judiciary and probate
laws were improved, land grants vrere extended to
encourage immigration and a score or more of other
much needed and salutary laws enacted.
The law providing for the permanent location of
the seat of government was passed in January,
1839. It was a question of deep interest and
excited more or less sectional feeling. The whole
West and upper frontier wished it located as far in
the interior as practicable in order that it might
become the focus of frontier protection. Col.
John Caldwell, of Bastrop, William Menefee, of
Colorado, James Kerr, of Jackson, and Cornelius
Van Ness, of Bexar, were the especial champions
of the measure and Col. Caldwell is said to have
afterwards pointed out to the commissioners,
appointed under the law, the site on the Colorado
selected by them, for the beautiful capital city of
Austin.
The next session of the Congress convened at the
new capital in November, 1839. This he also at-
tended. He took an active part in all the important
debates and legislation of the session and in shap-
ing the general lines of State policy that were then
developed, many of which, notably those inaugurat-
ing the policy of free popular education and of
erecting and maintaining eleemosynary institutions,
have since been very closely followed.
Returning home, he was called upon more than
once to help chastise hostile Indians and responded
with that alacrity that was characteristic of the
pioneers of that day. The Indian outrages in 1837
and 1838 and in 1839 and 1840, incited by promises
of help from Mexico, were appalling. The frontier
was bleeding 'from savage fury, from San Antonio
to Red river.
On the 5th of August, 1840, a band of a thou-
sand, composed of Comanches and Kiowas, but in-
cluding also many lawless Mexicans and Indians
from some of the more civilized tribes, passed down
the country to Victoria. They committed many
murders along the way, massacred several persons
in sight of Victoria and, after making a feint an
that town, proceeded to the village of Linnville, on
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
227
Matagorda Bay, which they looted and then burned
to the ground, massacring those of the inhabitants
who failed to make good their escape in boats
moored along the shore. The raiders then toolf up
the line of march on their return. The news
spread like wildfire and pursuing parlies were
organized, one of which was led by Col. Caldwell.
A short distance from Victoria, twenty-five volun-
teers came up with the Indians and had a skirmish ;
but, with this exception, they managed to make
their way unmolested to Plum creek, where, three
miles southwest of the present town of Lock-
hart, they were attacked on the 12th of August by a
force of about one hundred and eighty men, com-
manded by Gen. Felix Huston, Col. Ed. Burleson,
Capts. Ward, Bird and others, and defeated with
considerable slaughter. This was one of the last
of a series of bloody conflicts in Southern Texas,
and was such a chastisement of the Comanches, that
they remained comparatively quiet for a number
of years thereafter.
After the capture of San Antonio by the Mexicans
under Gen. Adrian Woll, in 1842, Col. Caldwell
hastily organized a regiment, composed of the com-
panies of Capt. Childress, of Bastrop, and Capt.
Cooke, of Austin, and hurried to the appointed ren-
dezvous at the front where he joined the force
(about 2,000 men) commanded by Col. Ed. Burle-
son. In a few days Brig.-Gen. Somervell arrived
on the ground and assumed command. Scouts
soon brought in information that the enemy,
after holding San Antonio a few days, had rapidly
retreated, Col. Caldwell remained with the troops
as long as they were kept in the field. Later, he
participated in the Somervell expedition, designed
for a retaliatory invasion of Mexico, and, after the
regular disbandment of Somervell's force on the
Rio Grande, returned home.
The extra session of the Ninth Congress that met
at Washington on the Brazos on the 16th of June,
1845, gave its consent to the joint resolution of the
Congress of the United States, providing for the
annexation of Texas and to the convention of sixty-
one delegates called by President Anson Jones, to
meet at Austin, on the 4th of July and speak the
voice of Texas on the main issue. Col. Caldwell
was elected a delegate to this convention. It met
at Austin on the day appointed and adjourned on the
27th of August, after ratifying the terms of annex-
ation and framing a constitution for the proposed
State, which was duly ratified by a vote of the peo-
ple. The constitution of 1845 was one of the best
that Texas has ever had.
Col. Caldwell's knowledge of the philosophy and
practice of law and the principles that underlie free
government and his natural breadth of mind and
philanthropic spirit, enabled him to render invalua-
ble service in this body, and to leave the impress
of his labors upon the organic law that it framed
and submitted to the people.
His next public service was as a member of the
Texas Senate in 1857-8. Here he was intimately
associated with George M. Paschal, Lewis T. Wig-
fall, Jesse Grimes, Bob Taylor, Henry McCulloch,
John M. Borroughs, M. D. K. Taylor, Lott, Stock-
dale, and a host of other men of great and brilliant
abilities then in the prime and hey-day of their
fame and Col. Caldwell easily moved to the front
among them as a man of unusual force of mind and
undoubted purity of purpose. He exercised an in-
fluence second to none in the committee rooms and
on the floor of the Senate and played a prominent
part in the important legislation enacted at that
session.
From this period the gathering clouds of sectional
hatred, that shortly after the foundation of the
government first began to rise above the horizon of
the American Union, rapidly overcast the entire
political sky and threatened a storm that would
destroy the grand fabric that the fathers of 1776
reared with the hope that it would endure to afford
an asylum for the oppressed, serve as a model for
patriots in other lands to aspire to, and bless man-
kind through all coming ages. The South was an
agricultural country. It considered that under the
tariff laws in force it was being bled to enrich New
England manufacturers. The Democratic party
brought about the Louisiana and Florida purchases,
forced the annexation of Texas and supported the
Mexican war and carried it to a successful issue.
One of the opponents of that war went so far as to
say he hoped the soldiers of Santa Anna would wel-
come our army " with bloody hands, and hospitable
graves." Thus the Democratic party had extended
the territory of the Union from ocean to ocean.
The South was solidly Democratic and contended
that its citizens should have the right to go into any
of the territories of the United States with their
slaves, which were recognized as property at the
formation of and by the compact of Union. Then
the fugutive slave laws were trampled under foot
and men who went in pursuit of their slaves mob-
bed. Conflicts in Kansas, the John Brown raid,
and other events, tended to intensify public excite-
ment on both sides of Mason and Dixon's line.
Threats of secession grew louder and deeper and,
when the news of the election of Mr. Lincoln
swept over the country, it was attempted and both
sides prepared for war — the North determined to
prevent the extension of slavery, preserve the
228
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Union at all hazards and trample what It considered
tlie heresy of secession to death ; the South to retire
from what it no longer considered a fraternal Union
and seek that peace and security under a separate
government denied it within its limits.
Col. Caldwell was present, as a spectator, at the
meeting of the Secession Convention at Austin and
used all of his great personal influence to prevent
the framing of the ordinance providing for the
withdrawal of Texas from the Union. He coincided
with his friends, Gen. Sam Houston and Hon.
James W. Throckmorton, on the want of necessity
for and unwisdom of such a step. He saw nothing
but disaster in store for the people, whether they
lost or won in the coming struggle. He thought
the South had suffered many wrongs, but his idea
was to redress them within the Union. A greater
than any human power, however, had decided the
settlement of the questions involved (which could
have been settled in no other way) by the fiery
ordeal of war. The ordinance was passed and
soon there rang out the call to arms. Deeply
crieved at the woes which he saw that his beloved
country must suffer. Col. Caldwell, too feeble for
active service himself, sent four of his gallant sons
to the front to fight and, if need be, die, for the
Confederate States.
He also loaned the State or Texas a quarter of a
million of dollars in gold to carry on the govern-
ment, when the treasury was empty, and received
bonds therefor. These bonds, owing to the down-
fall of the Confederacy, became worthless and he
never received a cent in return.
It is unpleasant to dwell upon the war period
and the period of reconstruction that followed it.
Both passed.
During the latter period, in 1866, when it was
attempted to rehabilitate the State under the plan
proposed by President Johnson, a Democratic con-
vention assembled for the purpose of nominating
candidates for State offices and a caucus-com-
mittee, of which Hon. James V. Throckmorton
was a member, called upon Col. Caldwell and
formally requested him to accept the nomination
for Governor, stating that he was considered the
proper man to lead the way to the re-establishment
of honest government in the State. Thanking them
for the honor conferred, he declined to accede to
their request and urged the nomination of his friend
and associate in the Senate in 1857-8, Mr. Throck-
morton. In accordance with this advice, Throck-
morton was given the nomination and subsequently
elected, only to be removed in a short time as an
impediment to reconstruction, by Gen. Sheridan,
military commander of the district, acting under
authority of the illiberal reconstruction laws passed
by Congress in opposition to Johnson's policy.
Col. Caldwell retired to his home near Bastrop,
where he spent in quietude the four remaining
years of his life. There he peacefully breathed his
last on the 22d day of October, 1870, surrounded
by his sorrowing family.
Death never gathered to its cold embrace a more
devoted patriot or stilled the pulsations of a truer
or more manly heart. His memory deserves ever
to be revered by the people of Texas, whom he
served in so many and such various capacities, and
his name deserves a place on the pages of the
State's history beside those of her bravest, and
brightest and best, from the days that preceded
the revolution down to those that witnessed the
close of his useful and illustrious career.
His beloved wife survived him for many years,
dying December 80th, 1895, in the city of Austin,
where she removed in the spring of 1871 to live
with her children. She was born in Knoxville,
Tenn., December 8th, 1809. She was a noble
Christian lady, distinguished for every grace that
endears to us the names of wife and mother. She
was a daughter of Rev. John Haynie, one of the
most famous and best remembered of the pioneer
preachers of the M. E. Church, who made their
way into the wilderness of Texas and blazed the
way for other and later Christian workers.
Eev. John Haynie was born in Botetourt
County, Va., April 7, 1786, and married Elizabeth
Brooks, May 23d, 1805. While he was young his
family moved to East Tennessee, and located near
Knoxville. In his twentieth year he married
Elizabeth Brooks. In 1815 or 1816 he settled in
the then village of Knoxville, where he carried on
a successful mercantile business and labored for
the establishment of Methodism. He spent about
fifteen years at Knoxville and then removed to
North Alabama, where he labored in the ministry
until 1839, when he came to the Eepublic of Texas.
He was admitted to the West Texas conference in
1840 and assigned to Austin. This was his first
year in the itineracy, although he had received
license to preach as early as 1811. The Austin
circuit, to which he was appointed, included the
new capital city and the counties of Bastrop and
Travis. Shortly after his arrival at Austin he was
elected Chaplain of the Texas Congress, a position
that he several times subsequently held. In 1846,
Rev. Mr. Haynie was assigned to Corpus Christi
and started for his field of labor, leaving his family
at their home in Rutersville, Fayette County. At
Goliad he was informed that it would be unsafe
for him to proceed without a guard and Capt.
Eng ■'-ly H ji C,Koovoete.H Y
MIFFLIN KENEDY
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
229
Price, commanding a company of rangers, fur-
nished him one. Corpus Christi was an army
station and crowded with a floating population. It
was difficult for him to find board, lodging or a
place to preach. He finally found a place to get
his meals and, after considerable effort, he obtained
permission to sleep in a store house on bags of
shelled corn. Next he procured one of the theaters
to preach in on Sunday, but at night there were
theatrical performances held in the same room.
Owing to the breaking out of the Mexican war and
the removal of the army, the town was nearly de-
populated and Mr. Haynie returned to his home.
He died at Rutersville, August 20, 1860. His
wife, Elizabeths., died October 4, 1863, at John
Caldwell's, Bastrop County,
Mrs. Caldwell was mother of eight children, viz. :
Margaretta, deceased ; John Adam, deceased ;
Mary, now Mrs. John H, Pope ; Charles G. ;
Walter H. ; LucindaP., widow of the late R. T.
Hill; Oliver B., and Orlando, all occupying
honorable positions in life.
MIFFLIN KENEDY,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Capt. Mifflin Kenedy was born in Downingtown,
Chester County, Pa., June 8, 1818. His parents
were John Kenedy and Sarah (Starr) Kenedy,
members of the Society of Friends.
The ancestors of Capt. Kenedy's father emi-
grated from Ireland to Maryland as members of
Lord Baltimore's colony. They were Catholics,
but in the course of the next century some of them
embraced Protestantism. Capt. Kenedy's ances-
try, on his mother's side, is traced back to a very
remote period and boasts a long line of distin-
guished men ; among the number, mitred prelates
and paladins of chivalry, and last, those quiet
heroes of peace, the Quakers, who dared and suf-
fered all things for conscience sake.
The branch from which he is descended appear
in France, as Huguenots, early in the fifteenth
century, and were compelled to worship in fear and
seclusion in the forests and in the fastnesses and
gorges of the Pyrenees. At some time between
the massacre upon Saint Bartholomew's Day, in
1572, and the promulgation of the Edict of Nantes
by Henry of Navarre, in 1598, they escaped to
England. After a residence of some time in Great
Britain, they became Friends or Quakers, but they
had not yet found an asylum, where they could
worship the true God after the manner dictated by
their own consciences. Here they were made the
victims of hostile legislation, derided by a fanatical
populace and imprisoned in filthy dungeons, until
they looked toward the shores of America for
relief. In 1683, Mrs. Kenedy's progenitors,
George and Alice Maris, with their six children,
sailed as members of "William Penn's first colony.
They settled at Springfield, twenty miles from
Philadelphia, in what is now called Delaware
County, Pa., and there many of their descend-
ants yet reside. The old homestead, originally
purchased from William Penn by George Maris,
still remains in undivided succession in the Maris
family.
Capt. Kenedy's childhood was spent in the
quietude of a Quaker home. He attended the
common schools of the country, acquired the ele-
ments of an English education, and was then, for
three months, in 1833, a pupil at the boarding school
of Jonathan Gause, afamous Quaker educator of the
time. He taught school during the winter of 1833-4,
after leaving the institution of Jonathan Gause, and
in the spring of 1834 (April 4) sailed on board the
ship Star, at Philadelphia, as a boy before the mast.
The vessel was bound for Calcutta and on the out-
ward voyage touched at the Madeira Islands, Island
of Ceylon, at Madras and other points of interest.
When homeward bound, the vessel encountered a
typhoon, or hurricane, in the Bay of Bengal, sprung
a leak, and, after safely weathering the storm, put
into the Isle of France, where she underwent neces-
sary repairs. While on the Isle of France, Kenedy
visited what are shown as the tombs of Paul and
Virginia, at a little hamlet called Pamplemouses,
high up on the side of the mountain, and also the
port-hole in the rock, where it was Paul's custom
to sit watching for the ship that would bring back
Virginia, This pathetic story is familiar to nearly
every one who is acquainted with French, English
or Spanish literature.
The Star soon resumed her voyage and, touching
no
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
at St. Helena for water, arrived at her wharf in
Philadelphia during the month of January, 1836.
The voyage to Calcutta thoroughly cured him of
his penchant for the sea. He returned to his home
and for three months taught school at Coatsville,
Chester County, Pa. While thus engaged he
met an old friend of his family and a resident
of that place, who -had been out West and
who told him that steamboating on the Ohio river
offered fine opportunities for young men to get on
in the world and promised to give him a letter of
recommendation to a friend residing in Pittsburg,
Pa. , and largely interested in steamboats. Kenedy
determined to take the advice proffered him,
surrendered his school, procured the letter of
recommendation and made his way to Pittsburg.
Arriving at his destination in June, 1836, he
delivered the letter and met with a kind reception
and was told that an effort would be made to secure
for him the first vacancy that occurred. In the
meantime he realized that he must secure employ-
ment by which he could earn funds sufficient to
defray current expenses, and, accordingly, worked
in a brick-yard until October 1, 1836, when he was
notified that the position of clerk on a steamer had
been secured for him.
From that time until 1842 he ran on the Ohio and
Mississippi rivers as clerk — sometimes acting as
captain.
In 1842 be went to Alabama and during one
reason on the Alabama river served as clerk of the
Champion, a boat running from Mobile to Mont-
gomery. The Champion then proceeded to Apala-
chicola, Florida, and ran on the Apalachie and
Chattahoochie rivers until 1846. He retained his
position as clerk during these years and, in the
absence of the captain, acted as commander.
While thus engaged in Florida, he met Capt.
Richard King, then a river pilot and in after years
Ills partner in steamboat operations on the Rio
Grand and ranching in Southwest Texas.
Every spring, from the year 1843 to 1846, the
Champion was sent along the Gulf coast to New
Orleans and from that point up the Mississippi
and Ohio rivers to Pittsburg, where she was owned,
to be repaired. In the early part of 1846, Capt.
Kenedy was placed in charge of the boat and
ordered to take her to Pittsburg, Pa., and reached
his destination in April following.
Upon his arrival at Pittsburg, he met Maj. John
Saunders, an engineer in the United States Army
and a friend of his, who was sent there by Gen.
Zachary Taylor to obtain boats for the use of the
army on the Rio Grande. He employed Capt.
Kenedy to assist him in this work. Maj. Saun-
ders purchased the Corvette, Colonel Cross, Major
Brown, Whiteville and other boats for the service.
Capt. Kenedy was made commander of the
Corvette, and directed to proceed to New Orleans
and report to Col. T. F. Hunt, of the Quartermas-
ter's Department, U. S. A. Col. Hunt confirmed
the appointment of Capt. Kenedy and he thereupon
enlisted for the war, as master, and was ordered to
proceed with the Corvette to the mouth of the Rio
Grande and report to Capt. K. A. Ogden, Assistant
Quartermaster, U. S. A. One of the reasons for
selecting him for this work was his experience in
conducting light boats over the Gulf.
He reached the station at the mouth of the Rio
Grande June 17, 1846, and from that time until the
close of the Mexican war transported troops and
provisions to Matamoros, Reynosa, Camargo and
other points on the river.
After the victory at Buena Vista and while mov-
ing on Vera Cruz, Gen. Winfield Scott stopped
at the mouth of the Rio Grande, desiring to go to
Camargo and consult with Gen. Worth. Capt.
Kenedy's vessel, the Corvette, was the best in the
service and he was selected to take Gen. Scott and
staff up the river.
Capt. Richard King joined Capt. Kenedy in May,
1847, and acted as pilot of the Corvette until the
close of the war, in 1848. They were thoroughly
experienced steamboatmen and rendered their
country good service. Capt. Kenedy during his
long experience as a steamboatman never met with
an accident while in charge of a boat;
At the end of the Mexican war, he and two
other gentlemen (Mr. Samuel A. Belden and Capt.
James Walworth) bought a large number of mules
and wagons and a stock of merchandise and started
for the fair at San Juan, in the State of Jalisco.
They did not succeed in reaching the fair, and sold
their outfit at Zacatecas and returned to Matamoros,
where they divided the proceeds of the trip and
dissolved partnership. Capt. Kenedy immedi-
ately purchased another stock of goods and, with
his merchandise loaded on pack-mules, started for
the interior of Mexico. Upon arriving at Monterey,
he sold out and returned to Brownsville, reaching
the latter place in the spring of 1850.
Seeing the necessity for good boats on the Rio
Grande, he then formed a partnership with Capt.
Richard King, Capt. James O'Donnell and Mr.
Charles Stillman, under the firm name of M. Kenedy
& Company. The gentlemen associated themselves
together for the purpose of building boats and run-
ning them upon the Rio Grande and along the
Gulf coast to Brazos Santiago. Capt. Kenedy
proceeded at once to Pittsburg, Pa., and
EiigJlyWT.BstliBr.BHjjniNy '
]?^? MDFIFLDM KEK1E[D)V„
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
231
built two boats, the Comanch.e and Grampus,
vessels of 200 and 500 tons burden. He bought
Capt. O'Donnell's interest in the business dur-
ing the following two years and in 1865 the new
firm of King, Kenedy & Company was formed, as
Charles Stillman bad retired from the firm. These
two firms, during their existence, built and pur-
chased twenty-six boats for the trade. In 1874
the firm of King, Kenedy & Company dissolved and
divided assets.
Capt. Richard King established the Santa Ger-
trudes ranch in Nueces County, Texas, in 1852,
and Capt. Kenedy bought a half interest in it
December 6, 1860. They dissolved partnership in
October, 1868, talking share and share alike of the
cattle, horses and sheep. Capt. King, by agree- '
ment, retained Santa Gertrudes ranch.
After the war between the States large bodies of
thieves, marauders and outlaws remained on the
frontier and committed such depredations on stock
that Capt. Kenedy and Capt. King saw that
the only way to effectually protect their cattle
ijiterests was to fence and, in order that they might
adopt this system, severed their business relations
in this connection. Capt. Kenedy purchaspd and
inclosed the Laurelas ranch, situated in Nueces
County and consisting of 132,000 acres. Capt.
King also immediately made preparations to fence'
and soon closed his pastures. They were . the
first cattle-raisers in the State to inclose large
bodies of land. Capt. Kenedy remained on the
Laurelas ranch until he sold it, in 1882, to Under-
wood, Clark & Company, of Kansas City, for $1, 100,-
000 cash. At the time of the sale it contained
242,000 acres of land, all fenced ; 50,000 head of
cattle and 5,000 head of horses, mares and mules.
Col. Uriah Lott projected the Corpus Christi,
San Diego and Rio Grande narrow gauge railrpad
from Corpus Christi to Laredo, Texas (163 miles),
in 1876. Col. Lott called Capt. Kenedy and
Capt. King to his assistance and together they
built the road and sold it in 1881 to the Mexican
National Construction Company.
In 1884 a number of citizens of San Antonio
projected the San Antonio and Aransas Pass Rail-
way, from San Antonio to Aransas Pass on the
Gulf of Mexico, organized and made arrangements
with Col. Uriah Lott (whom they elected presi-
dent) to prosecute the work. Construction was
commenced early in 1885, but languished for want
of means after a few miles were built. Col.
Lott called upon his friend, Capt. Kenedy, at
Corpus Christi, in June, 1885, explained to him
the situation, succeeded in interesting him in the
enterprise and, as president of the company, con-
tracted with him to build the road. Capt.
Kenedy supplied the money and credit necessary
for the construction of the line and built 700
miles of road which are now in operation. He also
supplied a majority of the motive power and rolling
stock for the road.
The San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway was
constructed in a remarkably short time and with very
little noise. It is the most remarkable road ever
built in Texas, one of the most thoroughly
equipped in the South, has opened up to settlement
and commerce a magnificent section and has in-
creased values in San Antonio and the country
tributary to the road fully $100,000,000.
After the sale of the Laurelas ranch Capt.
Kenedy, in 1882, established the Kenedy Pasture
Company, of which he was president and treasurer,
and his son, Mr. John G". Kenedy, secretary and
general manager. The company's land lies in
Caiperon County and is thirty miles in length by
twenty in breadth — truly a princely domain.
At Brownsville, Texas, April 16, 1852, Capt.-
Kenedy married Mrs. Petra Vela de Vldal, of Mier,
Mexico., To them were born six children, of
whom only two are now living : John G. and Sarah
Josephine (wife of Dr. A. E. Spohn, of Corpus
Christi).
Capt. Mifflin Kenedy had also an adopted
daughter, Miss Carmen Moreli Kenedy, a native of
Monterey, Mexico.
Although Capt. Kenedy spent a large portion
of his life on the Rio Grande frontier, and passed
through the days when that section was infested
with lawless and desperate men, he never had a
serious difficulty. This was due partly to the fact
that his courage was well known and recognized ;
partly to the probity that marked all his business
dealings, and partly to his cool and even tempera-
ment.
Capt. Mifflin Kenedy and Capt. Richard
King made their way to the Rio Grande at a
time when Southwest Texas was infested with
Indians, Mexicans and men from the States who
were a law unto themselves, or rather, who were
without any law except that of force, and who sub-
sisted upon the fruits of marauding expeditions.
Neither life nor property were safe and the sturdy
immigrant, in search of a peaceful home, turned to
more inviting regions.
From the close of the Mexican war they devoted
their talents, means and much of their time to
bringing about that reformation which eventuated
in banishing from that part of Texas the despera-
does, thieves and predatory savages that inhabited
it. They shunned no danger in the defense of their
232
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
neighbors' rights and in upholding the cause of law
and order. Texas owes them no small debt of
gratitude.
Capt. Kenedy died March 14, 1895, at his home
in Corpus Christi. His remains are interred at
Brownsville, beside those of his beloved wife.
His name is indissolubly connected with the his-
tory and development of Texas.
MRS. P. V. KENEDY,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Mrs. Petra V. Kenedy was born in Mier, Mex-
ico, June 29th, 1825. Her parents were Gregorio
and Josefa (Besendez) Vidal. Her first marriage
was to Louis Vidal in December, 1840, by whom
she had six children, Louisa, Bosa, Adrian, Guada-
lupe, Concepcion and Maria Vincenta. The Vidal
family was originally from Athens, Greece, and
removed first to Spain and thence to Mexico, where
a number of its scions figured conspicuously and
honorably in local history. Her uncle, Marin
Besendez, was Catholic Bishop of Zacatecas, Mex-
ico, and her father, Gregorio Vidal, was Provincial
Governor under the Spanish crown of the territory
lying between the Nueces and Bio Grande rivers
and had charge of all the Indian tribes in his
province. He was killed by mistake, by a band of
Indian warriors, under the chief Castro, in 1832,
or 1833, at the Alamo ranch, in Texas. He was
returning from one of his ranches (Beteno) and on
his way to Mier to attend to important business
matters, when he was killed.
Three of his daughters, who accompanied him,
were captured by the Indians. One was ransomed
in San Antonio, another escaped from them about
sixty miles from the Bio Grande and made her way
to friends, and the third, Paulita, was never heard
from, although an uncle searched for her among
the Indians for fifteen or twenty years.
The second marriage of our subject was at
Brownsville, Texas, to Capt. M. Kenedy, April
16th, 1852. Six children were born of this union :
Thomas, James, John G., Sarah J., William and
Phoebe Ann, of whom two only are now living:
John G. Kennedy and Mrs. Sarah J. Spohn.
Mrs. Petra V. Kennedy, died at Corpus Christi,
March 16, 1885. Her remains were taken to
Brownsville and laid in the family tomb. She was
considered one of the handsomest women of her
day. She was a woman of superior accomplish-
ments and great natural intelligence and was highly
respected for her womanly qualities. She possessed
one characteristic for which she will ever be
remembered in many a heart and home — her un-
bounded charity. A friend of the poor and humble,
none ever left her empty-handed, and she gave for
the pure and unalloyed happiness she found in
giving. She was a well-fitted help-meet to her
husband and was a devoted wife and loving mother.
JNO. G. KENEDY,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Jno. G. Kenedy is a son of the late Capt. M.
Kenedy, who was one of the wealthiest cattle rais-
ers in Texas in his day ; the man to whose energy,
clear-sightedness, public spirit, and liberality,
Southwest Texas is indebted for the construction of
the San Antonio and Aransas Pass and other lines
of railway within its territory. The subject of this
memoir was born in Brownsville, Texas, April 26,
1856, attended a private school at Coatesville,
Penn., where he remained four years, returned to
Texas in 1867, and attended St. Joseph's College
at Brownsville for nearly a year and then entered
Spring Hill College, Mobile, Ala., where he was a
student during the succeeding four years. He
IXDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
233
completed a commercial course in 1873, spent a
few months at his home in Corpus Christi, and then
went to New Orleans, where he accepted a position
with Perljins, Swenson & Co., bankers and commis;-
sion merchants. He remained with this firm for a
year and a half, and then, in 1877, returned home.
In April, 1877, he started on the cattle trail from
Laurelas, his father's rancli, to Fort Dodge, Kan.,
owned 600 square miles of pasture lands, all under
fence and supplied with windmills, tanks, and every
modern convenience, and well stocked with cattle.
In 1884, he became general manager and took entire
charge of his father's ranch. This ranch has 160
miles of fencing, a water front on Bafflns Bay, and
Laguna Madre of sixty miles and fifty-one wind-
mills, and is stocked with about 50,000 head of im-
JNO. G. KENEDY.
accompanying 18,000 head of cattle. He remained
two months at Fort Dodge, drove a herd of 2,000
cattle to Ogalala, Neb., returned to Corpus Christi,
worked for his father on the Laurelas ranch for
six months and then went into the sheep business
on his own account, in which he remained until
1882, when he sold out to Lott and Nelson. After
the sale of the Laurelas ranch, Mr. Kenedy became
secretary of the Kenedy Pasture Company, which
proved cattle, and 1,000 saddle horses, and employs
seventy-five or eighty cow boys, and other helpers.
Mr. Kenedy married Miss Maria Stella Turcotte, of
New Orleans, January 30th, 1884, and has two
children living: Jno. G. Kenedy, Jr., and Sarah
Josephine Kenedy. Mis. Kenedy is a daughter of
the late Joseph Turcotte, a well-known merchant
and prominent citizen of New Orleans. Mr. Jno.
G. Kenedy has inherited the "abilities of his father,
234
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
who fully appreciated his capacity. He will add
largely to the princely estate which has come to him
hy inheritance, and, no doubt, be as great a factor
for good in Southwest Texas, in his day and gen-
eration, as his father was in his and add new lusher
to the family name.
JOHN MARKWARD,
LAMPASAS.
The German element in Texas has been a very
important factor in the history of the State, and in
addition to the colonies which are mentioned at
some length in this work there are many individual
instances of intelligent enterprise and good citizen-
ship deserving of notice as illustrative of the
character of the men and women of that race who
have helped to settle the country, found its insti-
tutions, give direction to its energies and standing
to its society. One of this number is John Mark-
ward, for the past forty years a resident of
Lampasas, being one of the oldest citizens of that
place.
Mr. Markward is a native of Prussia, born in the
province of Pomerania on the Baltic Sea, in the year
1834. His boyhood and early youth were spent in
his native place, in the schools of which he received
what would, in this country, be the equivalent of a
good high school education. At about the age of
seventeen having heard a great deal of Texas
through the different colonization enterprises then
on foot in Germany, he determined to try his
fortunes in the New World. He sailed from
Bremen aboard the Diana, a vessel then exten-
sively engaged in the transportation of emigrants,
and landed at Indianola, this State, on the 2d of
November, 1852. He came in company with a
considerable number of his countrymen, perhaps
150 or 200, none of whom, however, he knew, and
not having come out as a member of any colony he
immediately struck out for himself, going from
Indianola to Gonzales. At Gonzales he found em-
ployment in a few days and remained there some
months, going thence to De Witt County, where he
remained the better part of three years. This time
was spent in the employ of a Frenchman named
Guichard who was a merchant and trader residing
on Peach creek. Young Markward was variously
engaged while with Guichard peddling, clerking
and doing carpenter's work; but, in all, advancing
hittself in a knowledge of the ways and means of
getting on in the world, and saving some means
from his earnings.
In the fall of 1856 he concluded to go to the
" up-country," and in company with an aequaint-
affce, went to Coryell County, where he had in-
tended to locate, but on account of the drouth and
bad crops left at the end of the first year, and, in
the fall of 1857, settled in Lampasas, then a frontier
town in a newly organized county. His first
employment at Lampasas was in the capacity of
miller for George Scott, whose little grist-mill situ-
ated on the outskirts of the town was one of the
chief industries of the place and liberally patronized
throughout that section. Scott and his mill have
both long since passed away but are remembered
by many of the old citizens. Mr. Markward
worked for Scott until a short time before the open-
ing of the late Civil War, when on account of a
failure of health he was forced to seek other pur-
suits. Joining two of his acquaintances he bought
up several hundred pounds of bacon which he
hauled overland with wagon and ox-teams to Alex-
andria., La, where he sold it at a good profit
and, reinvesting the proceeds in tobacco, brought
that back to Texas and sold it at a still better
profit. Then the war came on, and in the- spring
of 1862, he entered the Confederate Army, enlist-
ing in Gurley's Regiment, Gano's Battalion, with
which he was in active service in Arkansas and
Indian Territory till the close of hostilities. Soon
after enlistment Mr. Markward was made the
apothecary of his regiment, his knowledge of bot-
any and drugs, acquired as part of his education in
his youth, together with his steady habits, qualify-
ing him in a speciaF degree for the discharge of the
duties of this responsible position. He was more
than a mere "pill-mixer." In difficult cases he
acted as nurse and sometimes in the absence of the
physician of the regiment he prescribed in such
cases as he felt sure he could apply proper reme-
dies. An amusing incident is told of the way he
■h'XrT.Ba.fkm-.Bhl/
nSi
■y] (D) [}{] Rii M /4 c^ K w A n?( [d:>.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
235
cured three chronic cases of rheumatism which had
baffled the skill of the regimental physician for
nearly three years. There were three brothers
(their names will be omitted) who had been trying,
almost from the time of their enlistment in the
service, to get discharged on account of feigned
rheumatic troubles, one being afflicted with the
trouble between the shoulders, another with it in
the back, and third in the hips. The doctor had
treated them until he had become satisfied that
there was nothing the matter with them and
had tried other means to arouse them to a
sense of decency, but had signally failed, and
finally in the presence of the captain of the com-
pany, to which they belonged, said: " Mark ward,
I am done with those fellows. If you think you
can do anything with them, take charge of their
cases." Mr. Markward replied that he did not
know what he could do, but that he would try and
see. Calling the patients up he informed them
that the doctor had turned them over to him for
treatment, and that he proposed to resort to heroic
measures. He told them that cupping was the
thing for rheumatism, and that he was going to
begin to operate on them at once. So, making
each one bare his back, Mr. Markward got out all
the cups he had, heated them, and slapping on
four cups to the patient gave each a first-class
cupping. As a result all of them had sore backs
for several days, and the joke getting out in camp
and the patients, not knowing what nest to expect
in case they continued their complaining, concluded
to "give under." They did so with as much
grace as the nature of the case admitted of, and
after that till the close of the war made very good
soldiers. Mr. Markward met one of them some
years afterwards, and the conversation turning on
the incident the latter confessed to the fraud which
he and his brothers had been guilty of, and laughed
heartily over the very effectual way the " pill-
mixer " of the 'regiment had cured the three
chronic cases which had set at defiance the pro-
fessional efforts of the regiment's physician.
At the close of the war Mr. Markward embarked
in the mercantile business at Lampasas, the money
which he had made in his Alexandria venture,
about $600, constituting the capital on which he
began. His beginning though unassuming, was
auspicious, and it was not many years until his
establishment came to be one of the first in the
town wherehe was located, and he took rank as one
of the solid men of the community. That he has
been successful much beyond the average man
is well known to those familiar with his career
and the manner of his building up equally well
known. It was by the observance of a few simple
rules : Employing strict integrity in all his deal-
ings, living within his means, never leaving to
others what he could do himself, treating all cour-
teously, and extending aid where he could without
injury to his business, avoiding debts of a spec-
ulative nature and shunning the ruinous pastimes
of youth and early manhood, which destroy first
one's business, and afterwards his character.
Mr. Markward did not marry till late in life.
His marriage took place at Lampasas, and was to
Miss Adelphia Florence White, a daughter of Maj.
Martin White, an old and respected citizen of Lam-
pasas. Mrs. Markward died, May 22, 1894, leav-
ing three children, two daughters and a son, two
children having preceded her to the grave.
Of Mr. Markward's public career there is but
little to be said. He has been solicited to run for
office many times but has persistently refused to do
so, and the only public position which he has ever
occupied was that of postmaster at Lampasas, which
he held for eight years, immediately after the war.
But whatever has been suggested as being of public
necessity or public benefit has always found in him
a willing and able supporter, and this is especially
true of all those aids to order, law, morality, edu-
cation and good societj'. Mr. Markward's connec-
tion with one enterprise is especially worthy of
note, that being the railway that now traverses the
county in which he lives. When the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe Railway was projected through that
section of the State it fell to his lot to secure the
right of way for the road through Lampasas County.
He spent the better part of two years in the under-
taking, meeting with many obstacles, but was finally
successful, securing the right of way for a dis-
tance of seventy-five miles at the nominal cost of
$2,100.00.
Mr. Markward is a man of considerable individu-
ality of character. He is thoroughly self-reliant.
He is not a member of any order and, though he
votes and acts with the Democratic party, he is not
in any sense a partisan. He was reared in the
faith of the Lutheran Church, but is a contributor
to all denominations, being bound by none. He
believes in every one enjoying the fullest measure
of individual liberty consistent with the rights of
others.
In disposition he is genial and pleasant, full of
life and possessing a keen perception of the humor-
ous side of things.
In December, 1894, Mr. Markward retired from
active business pursuits, since which time he has
devoted his attention to the training of his children,
all of whom are still small, and to the supervision
of his estate, one of the largest in the county where
he resides.
236
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN RICHARDSON HARRIS.
HARRISBURG.
John Richardson Harris was born October 22A,
1790, fit Cayuga Ferry, now East Cayuga, N. Y.,
and May 7th, 1813, married Miss Jane Birdsall,
daughter of Mr. Lewis andMrs.Patience(L8e) Bird-
sail, of Waterloo, Seneca Falls, N. Y. , and for several
years thereafter resided at East Cayuga. During
the war of 1812-14 he volunteered and commanded
a company in the line ; and with his father. Col.
John Harris, is honorably mentioned by Gen. Win-
field Scott in his memoirs of the campaign. He
emigrated to Missouri, and in 1819 was living at St.
Genevieve, where he was joined by his wife and two
children, and where his third child, Mary Jane, was
born August 17th, 1819. Here becoming acquainted
with Moses Austin, who was contemplating the col-
onization of Texas, then a possession of Spain, he
determined to tobark in the enterprise. In July,
1820, providing his family with a fine team suitable
for making the long overland trip back to Cayuga,
he accompanied them on horseback as far as Vin-
cennes. Having taken a contract to build a State
house at Vandalia, be returned to complete this en-
gagement, and then, visiting Texas, selected a loca-
tion for a home in the colony. In 1824 he received
a grant of land from the Mexican government of
4425 acres, which he located at the junction of Buf-
falo and Bray's bayous, about twenty miles from
Galveston Bay; in 1826 laid out a town at this
point called Harrisburg ; soon after brought out
machinery for a steam saw-mill and purchased a
schooner called the " Rights of Man," which,
under the command of his brother David, plied
between this> place and New Orleans, supplying the
colonists with provisions and other necessary arti-
cles, which were kept for sale at his store at Harris-
burg. Holding the post of Alcalde, or local judge,
from the Mexican government, it was said he was
accustomed to hear causes seated under the spread-
ing branches of a large magnolia tree, situated on
a picturesque point of land separating the two bay-
ous. The country was too unsettled to admit of
his family moving to Texas at first, but in 1829
every thing promised well for their early removal
to their new home. There were no saw-mills in
the colony until his was erected. The machinery
was on the ground ready to be put in place
in August, 1829, when he found it necessary to
make a trip to New Orleans. There he was taken
sick with yellow fever and died August 21st,
1829. His widow, Mrs. Jane (Birdsall) Harris was
descended from a family of Birdsalls who emi-
grated from England in 1657-60, and settled
on Long Island, N. Y. Her grandfather, Ben-
jamin Birdsall, was a Colonel in the Revolu-
tionary army, living at that time in Duchess
County, N. Y. He and Gen. Washington were
warm friends and the General usually stopped at
his house when in the neighborhood. Lewis, son
of Benjamin Birdsall, married Patience Lee and
emigrated to western New York, settled first at
Penn Yan and afterwards near Waterloo on a farm,
and in 1829 or 1830 emigrated to Texas, where he
lived on Buffalo bayou until the time of his death,
which occurred in March, 1843. Mrs. Jane (Bird-
sall) Harris, daughter of Mr, Lewis Birdsall, was
a woman of rare courage and determination. These
qualities she displayed in traversing the wild, un-
settled regions intervening between her home near
Waterloo, N. Y., and St. Genevieve, Mo., at a
time when there were few white settlers, and in her
experience in the early days of the colonization of
Texas, which alone would suffice to fill a book of
interesting matter. In 1833, she, with her son, De
Witt Clinton Harris, removed to Harrisburg,
Texas, and participated not only in the hardships
of colonial life in the wild country, but also shared
dangers of the struggle for independence from
Mexico in 1835-36. From March 19th to April
16th, 1836, the home of Mrs. Harris was the head-
quarters of the provisional government of Texas.
When she heard of the near approach of the invad-
ing Mexican army, she and her household went
on board a schooner, which conveyed President
Burnett, Vice-President Zavala and others to New
Washington, and herself and other refugees to
Anahuac. The next day she was conveyed to
Galveston Island and with many others was en-
camped there when the news of the glorious battle
of San Jacinto, fought April 21st, 1836, reached
them. About the first of May she and her two
sons, Lewis B. and De Witt Clinton Harris (who
had arrived at Galveston, April 21st, for the pur-
pose of joining the Texas army), returned to Har-
risburg to find that every house had been burned
to the ground by the Mexicans under Santa Anna.
Her house was rebuilt of logs, hewn by the
Mexican prisoners and with various additions and
improvements stood until October 11th, 1888, when
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ANDREW BRISCOE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
237
it was destroyed by fire. Upon the organization of
counties in tlie Republic of Texas, the territory em-
bracing a large tract of land was named Harris in
honor of John Richardson Harris. Mrs. Jane
Harris, his widow, could never be prevailed upon to
leave her homestead and lived there until her
death, which occurred August 15th, 1869. She
left four children, Dc Wilt Clinton Harris, who
married Miss Saville Fenwick, Lewis Birdsall
Harris, who married first, Miss Jane E. "Wilcox,
and, after her death, Mrs. Amanda C. Dell;
Miss Mary Jane Harris, who married Judge
Andrew Briscoe, and John Birdsall Harris, who
married Miss Virginia Goodrich. The only one
of her children surviving her is her daughter, Mrs.
Briscoe.
ANDREW BRISCOE,
HOUSTON.
Judge Andrew Briscoe was the son of Mr. Par-
menas and Mrs. Mary (Montgomery) Briscoe. He
was descended from a cavalier family of England.
Four brothers of this family emigrated to Virginia
about the year 1655, in Cromwell's time. His
grandfather, William Briscoe, married Miss Eliza-
beth Wallace in Virginia and, in 1785, emigrated to
Kentucky. Soon after becoming of age, Mr. Par-
menas Briscoe emigrated to the Mississippi Terri-
tory where, on December l-Sth, 1809, he married
Miss Mary Montgomery, daughter of Mr. Samuel
and Mrs. Margaret (Crockett) Montgomery. He
was commander of a company in the Creek War,
and also in the war of 1812-14. He was for
several years General of militia of Mississippi and
served as a member of the Territorial Legislature
and the State Senate. While a member of the
latter body he introduced a bill which urged an
investigation of the status of the numerous banks
which were doing business without a substantial
capital. It resulted in breaking them up. Bris-
coe's bill was famous in Mississippi, as the measure
aroused very bitter feelings. In 1843, he was re-
elected to the State Senate by a larger majority
than ever and was urged to allow his name to go
before the people as a candidate for Congress.
This he refused to do, but continued a recog-
nized leader of Democracy up to March, 1851,
when he went to California. He died on
his return trip in 1851 aboard ship near
Acapnlco, Mexico, and was buried at sea. His
son. Judge Andrew Briscoe, subject of this
memoir, was born November 25tb, 1810, in Adams
County, Mississippi ; emigrated to Texas in 1834,
carrying with him a large stock of goods, and
established himself at Anahuac, the chief port of
entry on Galveston Bay. His resistance to the
arbitrary collection of customs dues June, 1835,
sought to be collected by Capt. Tenorio, the Mexi-
can commander of the garrison, upon goods merely
to be transported from one town in the colony to
another, led to the first active measures of resist-
ance taken by the patriot Texians in 1835. Led by
Wm. B. Travis, a band of Texians collected at
Harrisburg and vicinity, loaded a six-pound can-
non on board the sloop " Ohio," attacked the Mexi-
can garrison at Anahuac, disarmed the Mexicans
and released Andrew Briscoe from the loathsome
prison in which he had been confined for several
days. In October, 1835, he was elected Captain of
the Liberty Volunteers, who participated with him
in the battle of Coneepcion, October 28th, 1835.
He was one of the volunteers who stormed and
took San Antonio, December 6th, 1835, and was
later elected a member of the convention to assem-
ble at Washington, Texas, March 1st, 1836, and
but for this circumstance would have been one of
the victims of the Alamo. He left the army at
San Antonio in the latter part of February, but a
day or two before the town was invested by Mexi-
cans. Arriving at Washington he affixed his name
to the Declaration of Independence, which made
Texas a free and independent republic. He raised
a company of regulars for the army, which, as
Company A., he commanded in the battle of San
Jacinto, April 21st, 1836. Soon after this event,
which assured the tranquillity of the Republic, he
was appointed Chief Justice of Harris County.
August 17th, 1837, he married Miss Mary Jane
Harris, daughter of Mr. John R. and Mrs. Jane
(Birdsall) Harris. In 1839 he obtained a charter
for the Harrisburg and Brazos R. R. , the first ob-
tained in Texas. A few miles of grading'was done
but the enterprise was abandoned. The route
238
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
which it was designed to follow forms a part of the
present system of the Southern Pacific Railway.
He owned the first two-story dwelling erected in
Houston, where he lived for a year or two after his
marriage. Removing to Harrisburg in 1840, he
built there a two-story brick dwelling and engaged
in the cattle business until 1849, when he removed
to New Orleans and opened a house of banking
and exchange. In the same year he was taken
sick, and died October 4, 1849. His body was
taken to Mississippi and buried in the family bury-
ing-ground on his father's plantation in Claiborne
county. His widow, Mrs Mary Jane Briscoe, lives
at Houston, Harris County, Texas. Their descend-
ants are Parmenas Briscoe, who lives with his
mother, Andrew Birdsall Briscoe, who married
Miss Annie F. Payne, daughter of Mr. Jonathan
and Mrs. Mary (Vance) Payne, and lives at San
Antonio ; Miss Jessie Wade Briscoe, who married
Mr. Milton Grosvenor Howe and lives in Houston,
and Miss Adele Lubbock Briscoe, who married
Maj. M. Looscan and lives in Houston.
MRS. MARY JANE BRISCOE,
HOUSTON.
Miss Mary Jane Harris was the daughter of Mr.
John R. and Mrs. Jane (Birdsall) Harris and was
born at St. Genevieve, Mo., August 17, 1819,
where her parents w^re temporarily residing. Re-
turning to New York when an infant she passed
her girlhood at the homestead of her grandfather,
situated half way between Waterloo and Seneca
Falls. When her mother and brother came to
Texas in 1833, she remained at school until after
the battle of San Jacinto, when, in company with
her grandfather, Mr. Lewis Birdsall, her cousin,
George Babcock, and her younger brother, John
Birdsall Harris, she started to Texas. They spent
several weeks in travel, going first by canal to Cin-
cinnati, therice on board a small steamboat to
Portsmouth and down the Ohio and Mississippi in
boats of various sizes until they reached New
Orleans. Here they were joined by other mem-
bers of the family also en route to Texas. The
other relatives who joined them were Dr. Maurice
Birdsall, her uncle, and Dr. Abram Van Tuyl, the
husband of her aunt, Eliza Birdsall. They took
passage on the schooner '■^Julius Caesar" and had
for fellow passengers several men who had taken
a prominent part in the recent stirring events in
Texas. They arrived at the mouth of the Brazos
river at the town of Quintana in the latter part
of September. There were but two or three
houses at this place, the largest being a two-story
boarding-house built of rough lumber. Here they
spent only a few days, and taking passage on the
steamboat " Yellowstone^" proceeded to Brazoria,
where they stopped at the boarding-house kept by
Mrs. Jane Long, the widow of Dr. James Long,
who about fifteen years before had met a tragic
fate in the city of Mexico. Only a few miles dis-
tant, at Columbia, the first Congress of the Repub-
lic of Texas was in session, it having assembled
October 3d, 1836. Mrs. Long's house was" fre-
quently visited by the different officers and repre-
sentatives of the government. Here Miss Mary
Jane Harris first met the President of the Republic,
Gen. Sam Houston, beside many others whose part
in the late successful conflict had made them heroes
of all time. At a short distance, at the plantation
of Dr. Phelps, Santa Anna was a prisoner. He
was released soon afterwards. Thus did she almost
immediately upon her arrival in Texas, make the
acquaintance of prominent actors in the late revo-
lution. Although a mail service had been estab-
lished by the government, it was very imperfect and
news traveled slowly. About two weeks were spent
at Brazoria before De Witt Clinton Harris, her
brother, arrived from Harrisburg, bringing a saddle
horse for her. Ox-teams were procured for con-
veying the baggage, groceries, etc., which they
had brought with them from New York. At length
the whole party set out on horseback and, as there
had been very heavy rains, the prairies most of the
distance of fifty miles were entirely covered with
water. Arriving at Harrisburg, they found Mrs.
Harris living in the only house which had been
spared by the Mexicans when they burnt the place
a few months before. It stood in the edge of the
prairie and escaped because unseen by them and
was always known as the Prairie House. The
Mexican prisoners, of whom Mrs. Harris had a
number, were engaged in rebuilding her homp on
MRS. MARY J. BRISCOE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
239
the site of the one destroyed. As there were no
saw-mills, it was constructed of hewn logs and
some of the same men who had kindled the fire
under the old house chopped logs to build the new
one. It was here, in the "Prairie House" that
Mary Jane first met Andrew Briscoe, who was a
warm friend of her mother and brothers, and
August 17, 1837, she became his wife, the marriage
ceremony being performed by Mr. Isaac Batterson,
in the new house, which by that time was partly
completed. In the meantime the city of Houston
had become the new seat of government and the
county seat of Harris County. As Mr. Briscoe's
appointment as Chief Justice of the county of Harris
necessitated his residence in Houston, he purchased
a two-story residence in process of building on
Main street, about one block from the capitol and
where is now situated the Prince building, on the
corner of Main and Prairie streets. Mrs. Briscoe's
life is so closely connected with that of her hus-
band, that it is unnecessary to repeat her different
places of residence. As opportunities to purchase
large tracts of land induced him to make long
journeys into the interior of the sparsely settled
country, she frequently accompanied him, although
traveling was attended with danger on account of
the inroads often made by hostile Indians. At
Anderson, Grimes County, they stopped over night
at the house of Mrs. Kennard, who showed in the
floor one loose board, kept purposely so, that in
case of an attack by Indians she could make her
escape under the house. After the death of her
husband in 1849 Mrs. Briscoe lived for two years
on the plantation of his father in Claiborne County,
Mississippi, remaining there during the absence of
the latter in California, and until after his death,
in 1851.
Returning to Texas in 1852, she lived for some
years at Anderson, Grimes County, where the Rev.
Chas. Gillette had established an Episcopal school,
under the title of St. Paul's College, and where she
hoped to be able to give her sons a collegiate edu-
cation without being separated from them. After
a residence of six years there, the school having
proved unsuccessful, she moved to Galveston,
which ofSered the best educational advantages of
any city in the State. In 1859, at her mother's
solicitation, she returned to Harrisburg, where she
lived until 1873, when she moved to Houston.
Through careful economy she was able to raise and
educate her children on a limited income, keeping
for them the greater part of the large landed inter-
ests held by her husband at the time of his death.
An unusual affection characterizes this family
worthy of mention arid of imitation. While Judge
Briscoe at his death in 1849 left considerable prop-
erty, consisting chiefly of land in Texas, yet to this
day his children have never sought to obtain any
part of it although entitled to it under the community
laws of the State, but have left their mother the ex-
clusive control of it, thereby showing their deep filial
affection and sincere appreciation of her devotion to
them in childhood and in youth. She feels a reason-
able pride in her husband's connection with the war
of Texas Independence and a sincere affection for
those who shared with him the dangers of the
Revolution. For years she has been a member of
the Texas Veterans' Association and takes great
pleasure in their annual re-unions. At the earnest
solicitation of her friends she wrote an account of
one of these re-unions, which was published at the
time in several of the newspapers, and is given
below :—
THE TEXAS VETERANS THEIR LATE MEETING AT
TEMPLE.
" At the meeting of the Veteran Association in
1887, Temple was selected as the place for meet-
ing on April 20, 1888. It is beautifully situated in
a high rolling prairie country, on the Santa Fe
Railroad, 245 miles from Galveston. As it is only
seven years old, many fears were entertained that
the hearts of the citizens were too large for the
accommodating capacity of their young town ; but
all such fears were dispelled, and Temple proved
itself equal to the emergency. Everything was
managed with tact and skill, and the Veterans were
unanimous in their expressions of praise and grati-
tude. A committee met them at the railroad
depot, and conveyed them to their allotted destina-
tions, generally some private house. Mine was the
home of Mr. F. H. Ayers, which is beautifully
situated. In the view from his gallery the undu-
lations of the surrounding country looked, in the
distance, like miniature lakes. If all the Veterans
were as delightfully located as myself, they will
long remember with pleasure their meeting at
Temple. Mr. and Mrs. Ayers were the soul of
hospitality. Their house seemed made of rubber,
or like a street car — never so full but it could take
one more ; but there the similitude ends, for the
dear lady's only regret was that she had one cot
which had not been occupied, so there was no
standing up.
" On the morning of the 20th, we all repaired to
the Opera House, which is large and well ventilated,
with very comfortable seats. In addition to the
usual decorations of fiags and placards, suspended
in the center of the stage was ' Old Betsy,' an old
rifle which had been in most of the battles for
240
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
independence, and is supposed to liave liilled more
Indians than any other gun, besides having supplied
the owner's family with food for many years. The
owner, Eufus C. Campbell, was not only distin-
guished for ' Old Betsy's' unerring aim, but also
as having forged the fetters which were put upon
Gen. Santa Anna, when it was thought he was
planning to escape. Mr. Campbell's widow (who
was a daughter of Uncle David Ayers) had the
pleasure of hearing Miss Lucy Diske, one of their
forty-five grandchildren, make a very beautiful and
appropriate address upon presenting the Veterans
with an elegant satin flag from the ladies of
Belton.
"The Eev. J. C. Woollam, our grand old Chap-
lain, his colossal frame and white head towering
above all others, in his opening prayer brought
tears to all eyes. I have met with the Veterans
several times, and the last meeting always seems
more heartfelt, more glorious, more like a meeting
of a holy brotherhood, than any former one. On
these occasions familiar faces call up soul-stirring
scenes in the past, and thrilling adventures flash
upon their memories. As they meet in these an-
nual re-unions and exchange heartfelt greetings,
they are filled with the desires and hopes of other
days — 'The days when life was new, and the
heart promised what the fancy drew ' — the
" times that tried men's souls' — when their lives,
their fortunes, and their sacred honor were pledged
for home and country, God and liberty ; that
period when the repeated assaults of Indians and
Mexicans had nerved their arms and fired their
hearts to strike for freedom from the tyrannical
oppression of Mexico. It comes to them with the
freshness of yesterday, when they left their homes
and loved ones, to face the foe, drive back the
invader, and save their all from destruction.
Sooner will their right hand forget its cunn-
ing and their tongues cleave to the roof of
their mouths, than they cease to remember
and talk of Gonzales, Goliad, Concepcion, the
storming of San Antonio, where the gallant Milam
fell, the massacre of Fannin, the fall of the Alamo,
the battle of San Jacinto, of Plum Creek, the Salado,
the Cherokee fight, and other bloody and desperate
engagements. The names of all of these, with the
date of each engagement, printed upon placards,
are always placed upon the walls of the assembly
room. As a placard catches the eye of the veterans
one will say to another : ' We were together in
that fight; don't you remember how you had to
hold the mule's nose to keep her from betraying
us to the Indians before we were ready for them ? '
' I don't see your wife ; the good woman can now
sleep in a white gown if she likes ' — alluding to
the custom of our frontier women sleeping in
colored gowns so as not to be so good a mark for
Indians in case of a night attack. To which the
answer will be : ' Oh, yes ; but it always costs some-
thing to come to these meetings, and when my vrife
found I would have to pay full fare for her on the
cars, she said as I was so much better of my rheuma-
tism, I could make out without her; but she vrill
miss it mightily, as she liked to talk over her Indian
scares with those who knew her in the old times,
when we would be for weeks together with nothing
but venison to eat.'
' ' It was a touching sight when the genial presi-
dent of the Association (himself a hero of many
battles) would single out some noted Indian fighter,
and taking the old man upon the stage, tell the
audience of some of his heroic deeds. How every
eye would kindle with enthusiasm, and every voice
raise a cheer, and the poor old hero, bursting into
tears, would sink into his seat, with not a dry eye
around him.
" It is this which makes these meetings so dear to
these old ones. At home they are nothing but
poor decrepit old men and women, who are outliving
their allotted span of life — fossils that cumber
the ground. They know it; they feel it; but
when they meet at these reunions, all is changed ;
instead of being looked upon as unwelcome
intruders, they are treated with the greatest courtesy,
with veneration, as heroes, and every man, woman
and child seeks to do them honor. It is no wonder
that their tears lie near the surface, and are often
seen filling their eyes when some gallant youth or
beautiful maiden tells of their heroic deeds and the
manly fortitude displayed by them in conquering
all the hardships, difficulties and dangers by which
they were surrounded.
" Nor should admiration and veneration be con-
fined to their heroic deeds upon the battlefield.
The women of this land should always hold them in
grateful remembrance ; for were they not the first
men on earth to throw around the wife and mother
the protection of the homestead law? Were they
not the first to protect woman in the ownership^
of her separate property, and to give her an interest
in the community property .? They also surpassed
all other legislators, in making provision, for all
time to come, for the universal free education of
children.
"The memorial service is very solemn and affect-
ing, and the Rev. Mr. Stribling always very elo-
quent in his sermon. Thirty-nine is the number
on the death-roll for last year. Among them is
the late lamented Col. Charles DeMorse, who
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M. LOOSCAN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
241
occupied an honored place and felt a sincere
interest in the welfare of the Association.
" ' We are going, one by one.'
" A little incident connected with last year was
brought to mind by hearing the name of a certain
veteran read from the death-roll. He had been
brought to Mrs. Winkler's home, in Corsicana,
very early in the morning, and at brealifast Mrs.
Winkler asked him to say grace. The old man
turned his face with his hand to his ear, say-
ing, ' Cream, but no sugar,' and Mrs. W. asked
her own blessing. It was told that the old man
said to one of his friends : ' What do you think ;
the good lady I am stopping with asked me to say
grace at table ; I am such an old reprobate, I
could think of nothing ; so played deaf, and told
her, ' Cream, but no sugar in my coffee.'
" I cannot close this meager sketch of the Vet-
erans' meeting without mention of Aunt Nancy, as
she is familiarly called. She is a very well preserved
old lady of eighty-one, but does not look it. She
is a regular attendant at the meetings, and says she
would sell her last hen rather than miss one ; her
peculiar style of dress and unsophisticated manner
make her conspicuous. Being very anxious that
the Veterans' Association should hold its next
meeting at her home, Jacksonville, the Presi-
dent invited her to come on the stage and ask
the Veterans herself. He escorted her to the front,
and Aunt Nancy said : ' My dear Veterans, the
people of my town want you to come there next
year. They will take good care of you. Some
say Jacksonville is too small, but we had the Meth-
odist conference there, and treated them well, and
if you will only come, I will take care of you my-
self ! ' That of course brought down the house.
The dear old woman likes to meet those who fought
side by side with her husband, who has been dead
many years, and no one but his old companions in
danger remember him. Some one joked her about
marrying. 'No,' says she, ' I have lived thirty
years Capt. Kirabro's widow, and expect to die
Capt. Kimbro's widow.'
" The people of Temple paid the Veterans the
great compliment of asking them to meet there again
next year, saying they could do better next year, as
they had now learned how. Many thanks to them."
A. M. DIGNOWITY, M. D.,
SAN ANTONIO.
Antone Michael Dignowity was born in Kutten-
berg, Bohemia, January 16th, 1810, and came of
a family possessing some means and enjoying some
distinction for intellectual endowments. His edu-
cational opportunities were good and he availed
himself of them, taking a thorough collegiate course
in the Jesuit College of his native place. He came
to America at the age of twenty-two, sailing, as his
passport recites, from Hamburg, February 17th,
1832, resided for some time after his arrival in the
country in different parts of the South and acquired
considerable property at Natchez (where he lived
longer than elsewhere before coming to Texas),
notably a hotel which was destroyed by the great
tornado of 18 — . In 1835, while residing in Missis-
sippi he made a trip to Texas, extending as far as
San Antonio, but soon returned, read medicine at
Natchez, Miss., under Drs. Stone and Carrothers,
and attended lectures in Cincinnati, Ohio. He
adopted the eclectic system of medicine, then in its
infancy, and began its practice in Mississippi. He
16
shortly after gathered up the fragments of his hotel
fixtures and furniture (which had been scattered by
the tornado), and chartered the little steamer,
"Lady Morgan" and moved to Talequah, I. T.,
the then recently established seat of government of
the Cherokee Nation. Here he practiced his pro-
fession for a year or more, during the time fre-
quently visiting Little Rock, Ark'., where he met
and, on February 9th, 1843, married Miss Amanda
J. McCann, daughter of Francis M. McCann, who
had settled there two years before. Mr. McCann
died in 1850, and his wife in 1887, the latter at the
age of eighty-seven years. Both drew pensions
from the United States government up to the time
of their deaths. After his marriage Dr. Dignowity
moved to a small place called Illinois Falls in the
western part of Arkansas, near the Indian country,
and there continued the practice of his profession
until the early spring of 1816, when he volunteered
under ex-Governor Yell of Arkansas for service in
the war between the United States and Mexico.
242
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
With ten others he made his way across the cbuntry
to San Antonio, it^being their intention to join the
Texas rangers or some body of volunteers and pro-
ceed from that place to the armies of Scott or Taylor
beyond the Rio Grande. Wilhin a few hours, how-
ever, after Dr. Dignowity arrived at San Antonio,
while at the table taking his first meal in the place
he was hastily summoned to attend a Mexican and
an Indian who had been engaged in a street affray,
and his presence as a physician thus becoming
known and there being urgent need for his services
he was prevailed upon to remain and devote his
skill and energies, for a time, at least, to the
afflicted of that place. He soon had a good prac-
tice and finally made up his mind to make San An-
from the press, will show. As by a close vote the
State decided to secede, he, together with other
prominent men of his section, had to leave the coun-
try and early in 1861 went North, making his way
over land through Texas, the Indian Territory and
Arkansas on horseback and finally, after much suf-
fering, reached Washington City, where he secured
employment under the government and remained
during the entire period of the war.
He was a great sufferer by the war, having most
of his property swept away and his health badly
impaired. Returning to Texas in 1869 he did not
resume the practice of his profession, but devoted
his energies to the task of gathering up the frag-
ments of his fortune. He followed this vigorously
A. M. DIGNOWITY, M. D.
Lonio his home. He accordingly sent for and was
joined by his family, which he had left at Little
Rock, and from that time on until the opening of
the war between the States, (1861) devoted his time
to the practice of medicine and to land speculation,
both of which yielded him good financial returns.
On the great issue which led to a rupture between
the Northern and Southern States, Dr. Dignowity
was in harmony with a majority of the prominent
and patriotic men of his section, who, like himself,
were bitterly opposed to secession. He was always
opposed to slavery, even before the agitation of
that question in this country, as the two last books
written by him, " Bohemia under Austrian despot-
ism " and " American despotism," soon to be issued
and with a fair degree of success until his death,
April 22d, 187.5. He left surviving him a widow,
five sons and one daughter, the sons being An-
tone Francis, Edward Lucien, Henry Louis,
Charles Leonard, and James Victor and the daugh-
ter, Imogene Teresa Dignowity. One son, Albert
Wentzel, the second in age of his family, was killed
February 25th, 1872, at Piedras Negras, Mexico,
while a soldier in the army of the patriot Juarez,
and a daughter preceded the father to the grave,
dying in childhood.
Dr. Dignowity's career was an exceptional one,
made so by an exceptional mental and moral organ-
ism. He was not only an accomplished physician
but a successful man of business. While a student
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
243
and close investigator, the cast of his mind was
practical. He endeavored during all his years to
live along the lines of fairness and moral rectitude,
seeking to do what was right because it was right
and not from motives of policy or gain. He was
greatly devoted to his family and was an ardent
lover of his adopted country. He became a Repub-
lican on the organization of the Republican party,
and was evier afterwards an ardent advocate of the
principles of that party. He was reared a Catholic
and during his earlier years was an active communi-
cant of the Church, but his views on theological ques-
tions gradually underwent a change and he closed
his life with a strong leaning toward Spiritualism.
MRS. AMANDA J. DIGNOWITY.
SAN ANTONIO.
Mrs. Dignowity's maiden name was McCann.
Her father was Francis M. McCann, born in County
Tyrone, Ireland, and her mother before marriage
was Sarah Cramer, a native of Lancaster County,
Penn. Her father came to America at the age of
nine years with an uncle and settled in Baltimore,
Md., where he grew to maturity. At about the
age of twenty-one he enlisted in the United States
army under Capt. Hale Hamilton, fought through
the war of 1812, taking part in the battle of New
Orleans under Jackson, and was mustered out of
services at the close of hostilities, as lieutenant of
his company. In August, 1817, he married Miss
Cramer, of Pennsylvania, a niece of Congressman
Cramer, of that State, and moved to the mountains
of Western Virginia. There, some three years later,
July 28, 1820, the subject of this notice was born.
From Virginia, Mr. McCann moved to Hagarstown,
Md., and, after some losses and many changes, he
started with his family to Louisville, Ky. By
accident he was compelled to stop at Cincinnati,
Ohio, where he remained several years. From that
city Amanda was sent to the convent school at
Loretta, where she remained for four years, obtain-
ing there the greater part of her education. Fall-
ing in with the tide of immigration to the South
and West, Mr. McCann drifted to Mississippi and
finally, in 1840, settled in Little Rock, Ark., where
his family was domiciled and his servants quartered
on a headright some miles outside of the town.
This headright he had received for his services in
the war of 1812. Two years later the family also
settled on the headright, which now became the
homestead, the affairs of which were ordered and
conducted after the manner customary on the old-
time Southern plantations.
Speaking of her early years, Mrs. Dignowity
says : " In my childhood and girlhood I traveled
much with my father, who was a merchant as well
as planter, and as there were then no railroads, all
travel being by carriages and wagons, I traversed
in this way much of the wilds of Virginia, Penn-
sylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas
and saw and practiced many of the primitive ways
of living. Being the eldest of a large family of girls
and there being many servants to care for, at home
or on our various removals, I had to take charge
of our medicine chest, one of the necessary adjuncts
of every large household in those days, and admin-
ister such physic as was prescribed. I took a fancy
for the study of medicine and though women were
not then allowed to practice I determined to learn
something about the subject. I began to read
under Dr. J. Coombes of Mississippi ; and after
my father removed to Little Rock, I continued my
studies under Drs. Tucker andPrayther. Meeting
Dr. Wm. Byrd Powell, then president of the Medi-
cal College of New Orleans and afterwards State
Geologist of Arkansas, I studied under him, he
teaching the reform system, the eclectic, then almost
in its infancy. On February 9th, 1843, 1 was mar-
ried to Dr. A. M. Dignowity, friend and partner of
Dr. Powell, and accompanying my husband to a
small place in the western part of Kansas, settled
there. Whatever ambition I may have had for an
independent career as a medical practitioner, if,
indeed, I ever had any, was now laid aside, though
I continued my studies and often in after years
joined my husband in his researches and lent him
what aid I could in his professional labors."
Dr. Dignowity having come to Texas in the early
spring of 1846 and determined to locate perma-
nently at San Antonio, he sent the following fall
for Mrs. Dignowity, who had remained with
her parents in Little Rock during the inter-
vening months. The account of her trip is
244
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
best given in her own language. She said : " After
masses, offered by Archbishop Byrens, and the
prayers of the congregation for my safety in that
land of war and desperadoes, were said I left my
relatives and friends, some of whom I was never to
see again and others not for many years, and took
the steamer bound for New Orleans. At that place
I waited thirty days for a vessel sailing for Texas,
took passage on the bark ' William ' in the latter
part of January and, after beating about and being
driven much out of our way at sea, suffering two
days for water, we finally put in at Matagorda,
■where a supply of food and water was obtained.
The vessel then proceeded to Indianola. There
I was fortunate in meeting Mr. Van Eansalaer of
we got in. I procured a rocking chair and roll of
carpeting from ray baggage and ensconced myself
in the back part of the wagon with my babies.
" The word to start was given, the Mexicans
springing out of the way and the mules, standing
first on their hind feet and then plunging forward
in response to a yell from the driver and Mexicans,
we started on our way. We faced the north wind
for miles, I, nearly frightened to death, could only
hold myself in readiness for anything that might
come.
" Atlast we arrived at Victoria. ' Limpy ' Brown,
well known in Texas history, kept the hotel there.
After dinner we had a relay of bronchos and started
on, facing toward evening a sleeting norther. We
MRS. AMANDA J. DIGNOWITY.
New York and Judge Stuart of Texas, both friends
of my husband. We chartered a lighter and tlie
two gentlemen, myself and babies and the captain
left for Port Lavaca, which I was told was distant
only a few hours sail, but we had gone scarcely a
mile when a norther sprang up and we were driven
out and battled the storm until the next evening
before we reached Lavaca. I remained overnight
at the hotel. The next morning one of the gentle-
men asked me to step out and see the fine United
States mail coach waiting to take us over. Imagine
my astonishment to see a large wagon without
cover or seats, six Mexican broncho mules at-
tached, each mule held by a Mexican peon (the
latter as strange-looking to me as the mules) until
arrived late at Soguin half frozen, hungry and
tired out, my baby not a year old, with the croup,
our faces blistered with the sleet and cold. There
I met for the first time Capt. Jack Hays on his
way to Washington, D. C, and others who were
going to San Antonio, among them Mr. William
Vance, Capt. Shaw and Mr. A. A. Munsey, all of
whom I well knew at home. Our hostess was Mrs.
Calvert and with her still resided her beautiful
daughters, afterwards Mrs. Johnston, Mrs. Hays
and Mrs. John Twony. Her kindness to
me, a stranger, I will never forget. Next
morning with a relay of bronchos, we continued
our journey, our party having been increased by
the addition of Mr. Munsey and Capt. Shaw.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
245
The norther gone and the weather clear, we con-
tinued without further suffering or the occurrence
of any event to break the monotony of travel until
we reached the Salado crossing, eight miles east of
San Antonio.
" There we were startled by a fearful war-whoop,
and the men gathered their guns, pistols and
bowie knives and prepared for battle with a deter-
mination which frightened me so that I slid from
the chair to the bottom of the wagon and covering
my babies with the carpeting, waited. Soon a
voice called out : ' No fightie ; muche amigo ;
plenty whisky ; plenty drunk ! ' What a relief !
As we descended the hill we saw camped in the bed
of the creek over a hundred Indians. Thej' had
been to San Antonio for rations and all were beastly
drunk but three watchers.
" When we got to the top of the hill east of the
city, where my residence now stands, Mr. Van
Eansalaer remarked: 'Mrs. Dignowity, you must
not be surprised at the appearance of the town.
There has been a fearful norther and all of
the houses have been unroofed.' Which I verily
believed was so until I got fairly into the town and
more closely inspected the buildings. The hotel
at which we stopped, a typical Mexican jacal with
flat roof, dirt floor and grated windows, seemed to
be the chief place of rendezvous of the town ; but I
paid very little attention to its appearance or in-
mates. My husband, though absent at the time,
being on duty among the soldiers at Mission Con-
cepeion, had prepared a room for me and had a
nurse in waiting. I repaired at once to my apart-
ments which seemed a haven of rest, and awaited his
return. When we went out to dinner there were
about thirty persons at table and I was told that
seven languages were being spoken. There was
not one American lady in the number and I was
told, and later learned, very few in the city. I re-
member meeting at the hotel the beautiful Mrs.
Glanton, Prince Solms, Don Castro and a number
of United States officers, some of whom I had
known at home. The next day and many after I
rode with my husband to the camps and visited the
sick.
" In July our baggage, which had been delayed
for five months, arrived and we moved to our
home, my husband having purchased a place on
Acequia street. After that I saw much of the
city, met the few resident American ladies, became
acquainted with some of the Mexican ladies and
had a very pleasant time. All visiting then was
done after sundown. The Plaza from ten in the
morning till four in the evening was empty. All
doors were closed. Everyone took a siesta and
afterwards a cup of coffee and a bath, the latter
generally in the river. After 4 p. m. and after
nightfall until midnight the Plaza and streets were
gay with men and women in full dress and elegant
toilets, engaged in shopping, visiting and enjoying
the evening air.
" About one year after my arrival several ladies
formed a class and engaged Dr. Winchell, who had
been a tutor in Santa Anna's family, to teach us
Spanish. The authoress, Augusta Evans, then a
young girl, was one of the number. I visited some
of the Spanish ladies and joined 'them in visiting
the church during their festivals and fiestas, and
was much interested with manyjothers in watching
their devotions and great display ^to the honor of
the Senora Guadeloupe, their great patroness.
Later when German immigrants began pouring into
the city I found it necessary to study German,
our domestic help coming largely from among
them.
"Street fights between Indians and Mexicans
were of frequent occurrence and my husband was
many times called to attend^the wounded of both
sides. Sicls: and disabled soldiers from the Rio
Grande were also frequently brought to our house
for treatment so that we were^f or years almost con-
stantly in the midst of affliction. But in spite of
this we had our pleasures and enjoyed life quite as
much as people of this day. What American homes
there were here were always open to friends and
we had many distinguished visitors to San Antonio
in those days. I recall the names of Generals
Kearney and Doubleday of the United States army,
ex-Governor Yell of Arkansas, President Sam
Houston, Archbishop Lamy, Bishop Odin and Rev.
Mark Anthony, as among my guests in those years,
and of course there were others whose names do
not now occur to me. The incidents of the Alamo
and the invasions under Vasques and WoU were
then fresh in the minds of the people and I heard
many interesting reminiscences of those stirring
times recited by those who took part in historic
events recounted. After the establishment of peace
sometimes in company with my husband and some-
times with lady friends I visited the old missions.
Concepcion Mission vras used for a considerable
time as a stable by the soldiers who were quartered
there after the Mexican war. What a terrible
desecration it seemed to me! But this was not
more shocking than the vandalism since exhibited
by tourists in breaking and taking away the lovely
decorative work. The missions then were by no
means in so dilapidated a condition as at present.
Every sculptured flower, leaf, fruit and face was
in a perfect state of preservation.
246
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
" The opening of the Civil War brought us a new
era of trial and suffering. My husband was a
Union man. He left the country on account of his
views on slavery and secession and remained in the
North until the restoration of peace. My two eldest
sons, aged sixteen and nineteen, were conscripted
into the Confederate Army but, subsequently,
while on a furlough, swam the Rio Grande, made
their escape and joined the Union forces at Brazos
de Santiago, and later went to Washington City,
where they secured positions in the Department of
the Interior and remained until 1868. Most of our
property was swept away during the four years
struggle, some of our losses being caused by
Indians who made frequent incursions into the
country and stole cattle, horses and sheep from
the ranches, sometimes murdering the ranch-
men."
" But," said Mrs. Dignowity in conclusion, "in
spite of these unpleasant recollections, San Antonio
is very dear to me and I am every inch a Texian.
During the past twenty years I have traveled ex-
tensively throughout the Union but I cannot say
that I have ever found any place I like better then
this and I have no higher wish than to here pass in
the quiet of my home, surrounded by my children
and grandchildren, the remainder of the j'ears
allotted to me on earth."
Mrs. Dignowity has living five sons and one
daughter and ten grandchildren, all of whom reside
near her. Very naturally her chief thoughts now
center in these, and she in turn is the recipient of
their unbounded affection. Her time for the past
five years has been devoted to her estate, to her
children and to her taste for the arts in a small
way. She feels, as she says, that with all the trials
her bright days have been more than her dark ones
and that she has much to be thankful for. The
secret of her cheerful disposition and elasticity of
spirits, perhaps lies in the fact that she has passed
much of her time in intimate association with her
children and grandchildren, whose purposes, hopes
and ambitions, she has actively interested herself
in, and in the further fact that she has kept up her
reading habit formed in girlhood and her interest in
art work, thus drawing, as it were, daily inspiration
from the only real fountain of youth. She has re-
ceived from the judges of the International State Fair
and the State Art Association two gold medals for
art work and carving ; one diploma, one honorable
mention and fifteen premiums from the different
departments.
MRS. SARAH ANN BRACHES,
GONZALES COUNTY.
Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair,
Else In the heart and gather to the eyes,
In looking on the happy Autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more.
Fresh as the first beam glittering on a sail,
That brings our friends up from the under-world,
Sad as the last which reddens over one
That sinks with all we love below the verge ;
So sad, so fresh, the days that are no more.
Ah, sad and strange as in dark summer dawns
The earliest pipe of half awakened birds.
To dying ears, when unto dying eyes,
The casement slowly grows a glimmering square ;
So sad, so strange, the days that are no more.
Dear as remembered kisses after death.
And sweet as those by hopeless fancy leign'd,
On lips that are for others ; deep as love,
Deep as first love, and mild with all regret;
0, death In life, the days that are no more.
Tbnnyson.
Mrs. Sarah Ann Braches, who died at her home
on Peach creek, near the town of Gonzales, Octo-
ber 17th, 1894, aged eighty-three years and seven
months, was one of the last survivors of the colo-
nists who came to Texas in 1831.
Although confined to her bed for a number of
years, she was ever cheerful, and would laugh or
cry with the changing theme as she recounted with
glowing imagery the story of the hardships and
perils through which she passed in her earlier years.
Her memory was remarkably retentive, and her
mind singularly clear, almost up to the moment of
her death. She was the representative of a race
that redeemed the wilderness and won freedom for
Texas. Upon the broad foundation it laid, has
been erected the noble superstructure of later limes.
Truly a mother of Israel has passed away. May
the flower-gemmed sod rest lightly above her pulse-
less form, and her memory be preserved in grateful
MES. SARAH ANN BEACHES.
CHARLES BRACHES.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
247
hearts as well as upon the pages of the history of
the country she loved so well.
Her parents were John M. and Mary (Garnett)
Ashby, natives of Kentucky. She was born in
Shelby County, Ky., March 12th, 1811, and was
the oldest of twelve children. She was united in
marriage to Judge Bartlett D. McClure in Ken-
tucky in 1828. Three children were born of this
union: Alex, in 1829, John, in 1833, and Joel, in
1839, all now deceased.
Joel was a soldier in Terry's Rangers during the
war between the States, and in the charge led by
Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh was shot in
the groin, a wound from the effects of which he died
October 23d, 1870, at the old family residence.
In 1831 the Ashby family and Judge and Mi:s.
McClure emigrated to Texas. At New Orleans,
March 12th of that year, the party took passage on
a ship bound for Matagorda Bay and landed upon
Texas soil the first of May following. The vessel
was caught in a storm and the pilot losing his bear-
ings steered into the wrong pass, whereupon the ship
struck repeatedly upon a bar with such violence that
all aboard expected every moment to be engulftd
in the raging sea, but the ship was strong and kept
afloat until morning, when the passengers and crew
took to the small boats and effected a landing on
the bar. Here they pitched camp and waited four
days, when, the vessel still sticking fast, it was de-
cided to abandon her to her fate and Judge Mc-
Clure and a few companions, at the request of the
rest, made their way to the mainland and went on
to Goliad to get permission for the party to land,
from the Mexican commander, who, according to
the process of the tedious, laws in vogue, had to
send a courier to the seat of government before he
could issue them a permit to enter and remain in
the country. They were gone five days on this
mission. The whole party finally landed in boats
about fifteen miles below the present town of Rock-
port, but had to camp another week on the beach
for Mexican carts to be brought from Goliad.
They were delayed again at Goliad waiting for ox-
teams from Gonzales, as the Mexican carters would
go no farther than the Guadalupe river. The two
families separated and Mr. and Mrs. Ashby settled
in Lavaca County, on Lavaca river, five miles from
Halletsville, Mrs. Ashby dying in that county in
1836, and her husband in Matagorda County,
October 15th, 1839.
Judge and Mrs. McClure established themselves
on Peach creek near Gonzales, in De Witt's colony,
where the subject of this memoir lived almost
continuously during the after years of her life.
There were only twenty-five families in Gon-
zales when they first visited that place. At
this time (1831), the Comanches, Lipans and Ton-
cahuas were friendly, but the Waco Indians were
hostile and giving the settlers much trouble. In
September, the people of Gonzales gave a dinner
to about one hundred Comanches. The meal was
partly prepared by the ladies of the place. Know-
ing the treacherous nature of the red-skins, a guard
of fifteen well armed men was quietly appointed.
These kept on the qui vive and neither ate nor
drank while the Indians regaled themselves. No
disturbance occurred and the Indians, having fin-
ished their repast, mounted their horses and
departed with mutual expressions of good will.
These friendly relations were terminated a year
later, however, as the result of the action of a
party of French traders from New Orleans, who
passed through the country. These traders gave
poisoned bread to the Comanches, and the latter
declared war against all whites.
For many years thereafter the country was sub-
ject to raids and depredations. In all those stir-
ring times the subject of this memoir displayed a
heroism as bright as that recorded upon the most
inspiring pages of history, and a tenderness enno-
bling to her sex. On more than one occasion her
intrepidity saved the homestead from destruction.
At others she helped to prepare rations for hastily
organized expeditions and spoke brave and cheer-
ing words to the country's defenders. The wounded
could always rely upon careful nursing at her hands
and the houseless and indigent upon receiving shel-
ter and succor. Ever womanly and true, her
virtues won for her the lasting love and veneration
of the people far and wide and she is now affection-
ately remembered by all old Texians.
In August, 1838, while riding across the prairies
with her husband, they came across twenty-seven
Comanche warriors. By a rapid movement the
Indians cut them oft from the general ford on
Boggy Branch, and they deflected toward Big
Elms, another crossing place two miles distant.
In the mad race that followed she became
separated from her husband. A portion of
the band observing this fact, uttered a shout
of triumph and made a desperate effort to over-
take her. She realized that she must put the
creek between her and her pursuers and accordingly
turned shortly to the right and rode at break-neck
speed straight for the stream. As she reached it
she fastened the reins in her horse's mane, wrapped
her arms around his neck, buried her spurs in his
quivering flank and the animal, with a magnificent
exertion of strength, vaulted into the air and landed
with his fore feet on the other side, his hind feet
248
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and legs sinking deep into the mud and quicksand
tliat formed the margin of the branch. In an in-
stant she leaped over his head and seizing the bridle
encouraged him to make an effort to extricate him-
self, which, being a large and powerful animal, he
did. She then waved her sun-bonnet to her hus-
band who had effected a' crossing further down at
the Big Elms and whom she descried at that mo-
ment galloping toward her. He joined her and
they rode home, leaving the baffled Comanches to
vent their rage as best they could.
Periods of quietude and occasional social gather-
ings gave variety of life and common perils nour-
ished generous sentiments of neighborly regard,
mutual kindness and comradeship. The hardships
and dangers of the times in themselves seemed to
have had a charm for the bold and hardy spirits
who held unflinchingly their ground as an advance
skirmish line of civilization. Nor were the happen-
ing of events rich in humor wanting. These were
recounted over and over beside blazing winter
hearths to amuse the occasional guest. One of
these told to the writer "by the subject of this
memoir was the following: —
Judge McClure, on starting for Bastrop in 1834,
left a carpenter whom he had employed to build an
addition to the house, behind him to protect the
family. The man was a typical down-east Yankee.
A morning or two later Mrs. McClure's attention
being attracted by cattle running and bellowing ;
she looked out of her window and saw Indians
skulking in the brush and two of the band chasing
the cattle. She at once commenced arming herself
and told her companion that he must get ready
for a fight. He turned deathly pale, began trem-
bling and declared that he had never shot a gun
and could not fight. " Let's go back of the house,"
he said, "and down into the bottom." To which
she replied, " No, sir, you can go into the bottom
if you want to ; but I am going to fight."
The Indians killed a few calveabut kept out of gun-
shot and passed on that night. The carpenter sat up
until daylight with a gun across his lap. He could
not shoot; but, it is to be presumed, found some
comfort in holding a gun, for all that. The fol-
lowing morning she told the man that if he would
go down to the lake back of the house and get a
bucket of water, she would prepare breakfast. He
replied that he was afraid to go. She stood this
condition of affairs as long as she could and then
strapping a brace of pistols around her waist, took
the bucket and started for the lake. The fellow at
this juncture declared if she was bound to go, he
would go with her, and followed on behind a few
steps holding the gun in his hands. This so
angered her that she turned and told him that, if
he dared to follow her another foot she would shoot
him dead in his tracks. Alarmed in good earnest
he beat a hasty retreat to the house. Several days
later some men came by going to Gonzales, and the
carpenter went with them without finishing his job.
What hair-lifting tales he told when he got back to
his native heath and the prodigies of valor that he
performed may be conjectured.
She was living on Peach creek at her home,
when the Alamo fell. Prior to that event, when the
people were fleeing from Gonzales in dread of the
advance of Santa Anna on that place, twenty-seven
women, whose husbands were in the Alamo, stopped
at her house and were there when they received
news of the massacre.
Gen. Houston also stopped at her home on his
second day's retreat and sitting on his horse under
a big live oak tree (which she ever afterwards
called Sam Houston's tree) ordered a retreat, say-
ing that those who saw fit to remain behind must
suffer the consequences. A great many relic hun-
ters have secured souvenirs of moss from the tree.
The women and children were sent on ahead, and
when they had gone about four miles, heard the
explosion of the magazine at Gonzales, blown up
by Col. Patten, who later overtook them at the
Navidad.
Santa Anna and his army camped on Peach
creek for five weeks and made his headquarters in
her house during a part of the time. He then
moved on toward the east after the Goliad massacre.
The Mexicans drove off or killed all the stock on
her farm, filled the well up with bricks torn from the
kitchen floor and burned everything except the
dwelling house.
Having been ordered by Gen. Houston to go
after and bring up the " Eedlanders," Judge Mc-
Clure left his wife at Grisby's (now Moore's)
Bluff on the Nueces, proceeded to execute the
order and was thereby jirevented from being present
at and participating in the battle of San Jacinto.
He was a member of the convention of Texas, held
in 1833 ; organized the first county in DeWitt's
colony and was its first county judge ; and after
an active and useful life died and was buried in
Gonzales County in 1842.
Mrs. McClure married Mr. Charles Braches, of
Gonzales County, March 2d, 1843, a man noted
for abilities of a high order, and sterling character.
He was born at Gaulkhausen, Kreuznach, Rheim,
Prussia, February 25th, 1813; sailed from Europe
for America April 3d, 1834; arriving at Baltimore,
Md., left for St. Louis, Mo., two days later ahd
from that place moved to Sharon, Miss., where he
BARTLETT D. McCLURE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
249
conducted a literary and music school until 1840
when he emigrated to the republic of Texas, and
settled in Gonzales County, where he engaged in
merchandising with Dr. Caleb S. Brown, who was
also from Mississippi. This copartnership con-
tinued for twelve or thirteen months. A man of
rare personal magnetism, fine address and brilliant
talents, Mr. Braches soon took rank as one of the
ablest and most Influential citizens of the commu-
nity and in scarcely more than a year (1842), was
elected to represent the district in the Texas con-
gress. While going to and returning from the seat
of government he first met his future wife and
shortly after the close of the session they were united
in the bonds of wedlock. He was a participant in
the battles of the Hondo, Plum Creek and the
Medina, and numerous Indian expeditions in which
he behaved himself with conspicuous gallantry.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Braches were members of the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church for many years
and were liberal contributors to schools and
churches. During his lifetime Mr. Braches de-
voted many thousands of dollars to these purposes.
He died July 7th, 1889, at his home in Gonzales
County, admired and respected by a wide circle of
friends extending throughout Texas.
When Bowie started upon his San Saba expedi-
tion Mrs. Braches had beeves killed and dressed,
food cooked and a general supply of provisions
prepared for the use of his men on their march.
He wrote out aud tendered her vouchers against the
Eepublic to cover the expense that she had incurred,
but tliese she refused to receive, saying that she
considered it a pleasure as well as a duty to aid in a
movement designed for the protection of the homes
of the settlers to the full extent of her power and
that she could not think of receiving pay for such a
service. Sentiments equally unselfish and praise-
worthy inspired all her actions. A distinguished
Texian says of Mr. and Mrs. Braches: " After Mrs.
Braches' parents died she became a mother to her
younger brothers and sisters, viz., Mary, who mar-
ried John Smothers ; Isabella, who married in her
house in 1840, Gen. Henry E. McCulloch ; Fannie,
who married in her house Mr. Gelhorn ; Euphemia,
who married Wm. G. King, of Seguin ; William,
who died young, and Travis H. Ashby, who
died after being a Captain in the Confederate
army.
" A braver or grahder-hearted woman never trod
the soil of Texas, and all of the survivors of those
early days, from San Antonio to the Colorado and
from Texana and Victoria to the foot of the moun-
tains, will attest the truth of this statement.
Knowing her from boyhood and not having seen her
for a little over twenty years I willingly and con-
scientiously pay this tribute to her. Mr. Braches,
for forty-six years, proved himself to be worthy to
be the husband of such a woman. It is needless
for me to "speak of his character to those among
whom he so long lived. That he was a polished
and refined gentleman, of kindly heart, all will ad-
mit. He was to have been my guest at the State
Fair last fall, but sickness prevented his coming.
My little grandchildren, inspired by the eulogies
of their grandparents, were sorely disappointed at
his not coming. In conclusion, I can only say that
I believe Charles Braches to have been incapable of
a mean or dishonorable act. He was, in the high-
est sense, an honorable and benevolent man and
good citizen."
Mrs. Mary Jones, wife of Mr. H. K. Jones, of
Dilworth in Gonzales County, a station near the old
family homestead, is the only surviving child born
of this union. Mrs. Braches was the soul of pat-
riotism — a lady of rare refinement and intelligence,
and her deeds of kindness and charities were innu-
merable. Her grave will be watered by the tears
of the widow and orphan. Her life is a part of,
and interwoven with the most stirring period of
Texas history. To her belongs the glory of a Roman
matron and the halo of a tender Christian mother.
She was one of the best known, best beloved and
noblest of the noble Texian matrons who Inspired
the men of earlier days to resistance to tyranny and
deeds of heroism and kept the fires of patriotism
brightly aglow upon the hearthstones of the coun-
try. At her home, to the time of her death, she
maintained that free and elegant hospitality that
made the South famous in olden time. Her name
deserves to be wreathed with imperishable immor-
telles and to be inscribed upon one of the brightest
pages of the State's history. Peace to her ashes
and lasting honor to her memory.
250
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ALEXANDER BEATON.
GEM HILL.
(Near Corsicana, Texas.)
Maj. Alexander Beaton was born at Inverness,
Inverness-shire, the most beautiful and romantic part
of the Highlands of Scotland, February 19, 1820.
His parents, Donald and Margaret (Beaton) Beaton,
died when he was in his thirteenth year. He
received an academic education in his native town,
and in his seventeenth year was sent to the city of
London, England, where he entered the office of
an accountant, where he remained for six years.
Shortly after his first arrival in London, he wit-
nessed the grandest sight and pageant of his life,
the coronation of Queen Victoria. He came to the
United States in 1843, in November of that year
landing at New Orleans where, until 1844, he filled
a position secured by him before he left London.
He left New Orleans at the beginning of the yellow
fever epidemic in 1844, the local physicians and
newspapers advising all unacclimated persons to
pursue that course. He went from New Orleans
to St. Louis and from the latter city to Bolivar,
Polk County, Mo., where he taught school and
read law until 1847 in the oflSee of Col. Thomas
Ruflfin, who was then known as one among the
leading members of the bar in Southwest Missouri.
In the summer of that year a call was made on the
State of Missouri to raise her Third Regiment of
Mounted Volunteers for service in Mexico, and
Maj. Beaton volunteered for service during the
war and became a member of Company K. of
said regiment. Col. Ralls, of Rails County, Mo.,
was afterwards elected Colonel of the regiment,
which, after being duly equipped and made ready
for service at Fort Leavenworth, now in the State
of Kansas, started on its march across the plains
in July, 1847, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where
it took the place of Gen. Price's command, whose
term of service had expired. Maj. Beaton went to
Taos, New Mexico, with three companies of the
regiment and remained there, doing duty as acting
adjutant of the battalion, until the end of the war,
when he returned to Independence, Mo., with
the entire regimental command, where with his
fellow-soldiers he was, in the fall of 1848,
honorably discharged from the service. He now
draws a pension of $8.00 per month as a Mex-
ican war veteran from the United States govern-
ment.
Shortly after his discharge from the army, he
and Col. Riiffin came to Texas, stopped at Houston
for a brief period and then took a look at the town
of Washington, on the Brazos, which was much
spoken of at the time and believed by many to be
destined for the dignity of a city of importance at
some time. They afterwards visited and resided,
for varying periods, at Brenham, Chappel Hill, and
Richmond, Col. RufHn locating at the latter place.
Maj. Beaton during his sojourn at Chappel Hill
taught school for a few months.
He arrived at Corsicana on the 16th of March,
1850, then a small frontier village of about one
hundred inhabitants, and has since resided in and
near that place. In a short time after his arrival
he was employed in the county clerk's office and
was later appointed to fill the unexpired term of a
former incumbent of the office of county assessor
and collector of taxes and, while so engaged, in-
dustriously applied himself to the study of law.
He was admitted to the bar in 1851, license being
granted by Hon. O. M. Roberts, the presiding
judge, afterwards Chief Justice of the State Su-
preme Court, Governor of Texas and, later, senior
law professor in the Texas University. Maj. Bea-
ton afterwards, for a period of over thirty years,
engaged in the practice of the profession, before
and after the war for some years as a copartner
of the now distinguished statesman, Hon. R. Q.
Mills, and since that time, until about ten years
ago, when he retired from active pursuits to his
" Gem Hill" home, near the city of Corsicana.
He has borne a conspicuous and helpful part in
the upbuilding of Corsicana. The start in the
making of Corsicana as a city was his successful
effort in getting a depot of the Houston and Texas
Central Railway located at the town in 1871. In
the attainment of this object he was ably assisted
by Mr. James Kerr, Sr., and Col. William Croft.
In honor of his services and liberality, without any
desire or asking for it on his part, the people named
the principal street in the city, Beaton street, in his
honor. He has been a life-long Democrat and has
done good service for the party and for the cause
of honest and accountable government. His fore-
fathers for many generations were members of the
Presbyterian Church, with whose Calvinism and
authoritative teaching he could not agree. He
now worships with his wife in the Methodist Church
JAMES G. DUDLEY.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
251
whose tenets and beliefs are more in accord with
his own.
As previously stated, Maj. Beaton retired from
active business and professional pursuits more than
ten years ago and moved to his residence, " Gem
Hill," which overlooks the city of Corsicana and
is one of the most exquisitely beautiful and well
appointed country-seats in the South.
July 11, 1852, he married Elizabeth J. McKin-
ney, daughter of Rev. Hampton McKinney, a
famous pioneer and Methodist Episcopal preacher
of Navarro County, who moved to this State from
Illinois. Maj. and Mrs. Beaton have three chil-
dren, two sons and a daughter. Their eldest son,
Ralph, is a member of the firm of Damon, Beaton
& Company, of Corsicana. Their only daughter,
Mary Kate, is the wife of Dr. 8. W. Johnson, of
that city. Maj. Beaton was made a Master Mason
in 1850 by Gen. E. H. Tarrant, joining the first
lodge organized in Corsicana. Maj. Beaton has
won considerable distinction as an amateur geolo-
gist and investigator of the natural sciences, for
which he has always possessed a passionate fond-
ness and followed with a quiet and never flagging
zeal. He has contributed many valuable articles
(that have been widely copied) to magazines.
The following telegram of April 29, 1895, from
Austin, Texas, to the Dallas-Galveston News fitly
illustrates the interest he feels in the cause of
scientific progress: "It may not be generally
known that a few weeks since the University of
Texas came into the possession of the valuable and
unique cabinet of minerals collected by Hon.
Alexander Beaton, of Corsicana, on his home place,
known as ' Gem Hill ' situated about a mile south
of the town.
"Maj. Beaton has long been a student of
nature and, being impressed with the remarkable
beauty and purity of the drift-minerals found in
the fields near the house, he took the pains to have
many of the best, several hundreds, in fact,
dressed by the lapidaries of Colorado Springs,
Colo. The results are truly wonderful, bringing
out in a marked degree the hidden beauties which
less acute observers have for years passed by.
Many of these stones are suitable for various set-
tings and, doubtless, under the fostering care of a
competent expert, quite an industry could be built
up along this line in Texas.
" Mr. Beaton is strongly imbued with this idea.
The collection will soon be ready for display at the
University and visitors should bear it in mind in
making their rounds. Maj. Beaton deserves the
hearty thanks of all students of science for his
generosity in this matter. May others be moved to
fallow his example. The University is the proper
custodian for all collections which will promote the
intellectual and scientific welfare of the State."
JAMES G. DUDLEY,
PARIS.
The subject of this sketch was born in Hannibal,
Marion County, Mo., on the 8th day of April,
1848, of Virginia parentage, his father being from
Lynchburg and his mother, who is still living, from
Kanawah County, Va., and was the fourth child
of a family of six children.
His great-grandfathers on both sides were sol-
diers in the Revolutionary war for Independence
and his grandfathers were soldiers in the war of
1812. His grandfather on his father's side lost
his life at Norfolk, Va., when the father of the
subject of this sketch was about three years old.
His father was a carpenter by trade, and, when
James G. Dudley was about four years of age,
moved to the city of St. Louis, where he engaged
in contracting and building. Young Dudley at-
tended the public schools of St. Louis, known as
the Mound street and Webster schools, and there
laid the foundation for the liberal education he
afterwards acquired by private study. A few
years before the commencement of the war between
the States, his father moved to Henry County,
Mo. , where he engaged in farming, young James
G. and his only brother, W. W. Dudley, working on
the farm. In 1862, the second year of the war,
the subject of this sketch, although only fourteen
years of age, found it unsafe to stay at home on
account of his bold and openly pronounced views
in favor of the Southern Confederacy and made his
way to the command of the gallant Sidney Jackman
and proceeded south with him to Gen. Price's army,
in Northern Arkansas, and joined the celebrated
252
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Sixteenth Missouri Infantry, then commanded by
Col. L. M. Lewis (who afterwards became a Gen-
eral) and participated in nearly all the great bat-
tles fought in the Trans-Mississippi department.
After the close of the war he returned to Missouri,
and engaged in farming and running an engine in a
flouring mill until he became able to undertake the
study of law and then entered the law office of
Judge F. E. Savage, of Kentucky, then residing at
Clinton, Mo. Having been admitted to the bar
in April, 1872, he came to Texas the following
November and settled at Paris, Texas, where he
has since resided and risen to distinction in his
profession.
At the Paris bar he found it necessary to meet
such eminent lawyers as J. W. Throckmorton, T. J.
Brown, M. L. Sims, R. E. Gaines, W. H. Johnson,
R. H. Taylor, W. B. Wright and S. B. Maxey,
men who not only enjoyed State-wide but national
reputations, and not only held his own but soon rose
to be a recognized equal of theirs. No lawyer in
Texas has had a more varied practice, or been
more successful. He has been of counsel in some
of the most celebrated civil and criminal cases
tried in the State during the last twenty years. He
and Chief Justice Gaines were copartners when the
latter was elected to the upreme Bench.
In 1877 he married Miss Jennie E. Blair, who is
a descendant on her mother's side from the family
of which the heroic Travis was a scion. They
have five children living, three sons and two
daughters.
He was elected chairman of the Democratic Ex-
ecutive Committee of Texas at the Dallas conven-
tion in 1894.
The year in which this book is being prepared
for publication and will issue from the press (1896)
is one of political storm. A crisis is upon the
country that must be patriotically met and over-
come, if a long train of evils that threaten it are to
be avoided. For manyj^ears past, in fact since the
days of reconstruction, the Democratic party has
embraced within its ranks a heterogeneous mass
of individuals, many of whom were attracted to its
standard in the dark days that followed the war
between the States by reason of the fact that it
stood for honest, responsible government and had
undertaken the task of restoring the reins of gov-
ernment to the hands of the people, but are now,
when that object has been long since attained, no
longer Democrats in anything except the name.
Quite a number of this class have drifted into the
Populist and into other parties. Another and
more dangerous element in the party has been one
whose motto has been "rule or ruin," led by dis-
gruntled individuals whose political ambitions have
been disappointed, and who, actuated by malice
and a spirit of revenge, because the rank and file of
the party would not submit to their dictation, first
became bolters and have since drifted into the condi-
tion of political brigands, and followers of McKinley.
In the early part of this year they and their leaders
loudly proclaimed that they were the only true
Democrats and that they intended to see that their
declarations and principles were engrafted in the
State platforms to be promulgated by the party in
the approaching campaign. The prospect at that
time was that they would remain within the organ-
ization, confuse and darken its counsels and lead to
its defeat in November ; but, the Democratic party,
it almost seems providentially, had for its chair-
man of the State Executive Committee, a man of
high ability, unflinching courage, inflexibility of
purpose and that capacity for generalship that in
all ages haS characterized those commanders who
have led bodies of men in hours of supreme peril
(when disaster threatened from every quarter) to
victory. Owing to the prompt and decided action
taken by him and his fellow-members of the com-
mittee (named by some " the Dudley committee ")
the people were given a chance to express them-
selves through their ballots at a primary election,
and the result was true Democracj- triumphed.
Mr. Dudley delivered the oratioa for Texas on
Texas day at the Atlanta Exposition, which was
pronounced by the Atlanta Constitution "a gem
of oratory." At the Austin convention of this
year, 1896, the acts of Mr. Dudley as chairman of
the Democratic State Executive Committee were by
resolution endorsed, in the most flattering way.
No man in Texas has ever been more complimented
by a convention. The whole convention, including
a vast concourse of spectators, rose to their feet.
Mr. Dudley is now one of the most conspicuous
figures in public life in this State and has won the
admiration of all the leaders of the party through-
out the country. He has been chosen a member
of the National Democratic Executive Committee.
GEO. HANCOCK.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
253
GEORGE HANCOCK,
AUSTIN.
George Hancock, the subject of this sketch, was
truly one of the sturdy pioneers of Texas, having
immigrated to Texas in 1835. He is a lineal de-
scendant of the Virginia family of Hancock, which
is of English extraction, and had the same ancestry
as tlie Massachusetts family. Their family came
to this country from England at a very early
period.
In 1632, George Hancock settled in what is
now Campbell County, Va. At this time the
sagacious and humane Sir Francis Wyatt was
Governor of the colony, and assisted by a council
and representative assembly chosen by the people.
A written constitution had been granted, courts of
law established, and the germ of civil and religious
liberty flrmlj' planted ; for, although intolerance
and civil commotion at times disturbed the equan-
imity of the Virginia colonists, they had neverthe-
less conceived the true theory of government, and
were anxious to found it upon the basis of a true
colonization. The social status of the colony was
most excellent, and its chivalry was unquestionably
of the purest type. Political spirit of republican
freedom was ever present and, if at times there was
a Berkley to oppress with arbitrary and tyrannical
rule, there was always a Nathaniel Bacon to sustain
with all the powers of the sword, if need be, the
inalienable rights of man.
Under such favorable auspices as these, the Han-
cocks started, and their progeny have been true to
the faith of their fathers.
The subject of this biography was a native of
Tennessee, where he was born on the 11th of April,
1809. He was reared in Alabama, and is a son
of John Allen Hancock, who was a native of
Franklin County, Va., where he was a wealthy
planter, and emigrated tp Alabama about the year
1819, and died there in January, 1856.
John Allen Hancock was not a public man, his
most distinguishing characteristic being a decided
aversion to holding public office", but the private
virtues and excellencies of life he possessed in a
remarkable degree. Man is not what he does, but
what he is, and judged by this standard John Allen
Hancock was a model.
Sarah Eyan, the mother of the subject of this
sketch, was a native of Bedford County, Va.,
daughter of William Eyan, a planter, and for a
long time high sheriff ; of that county. His
ancestors came from North Ireland, and were
Presbyterians in religion. The precise date of the
emigration to America is not known, but it was
some time during the days of colonization. After
emigrating to Texas in 1835, Mr. Hancock
actively participated in the war for Independence
against Mexico, and was especially noticeable in the
battle of San Jacinto, being one of the five men
who were with Deaf Smith in cutting Vince's
bridge, which resulted in the capture of Santa
Anna.' He was also in the prominent campaigns
of the frontier, during the WoU and Mier cam-
paigns. Subsequently he passed a number of
years in locating and surveying lands, and in fight-
ing Mexicans and Indians, performing hard duties
in both civil and military service. In 1843 he
engaged in commerce, opening a mercantile house
at LaGrange, Fayette County ; subsequently in
Bastrop, and in 1845 in Austin, where he extended
his business untill it became one of the most exten-
sive in the interior of Texas. He was for several
years a member of the Texas Legislature. He as-
sisted in organizing the Texas Veterans' Association
in 1873, and was prominent in its councils, being
on its executive committee for a number of years,
and a Veteran of the first class in that association.
He was for many years preceding his death a
vestryman of St. David's Episcopal church in
Austin. He was married in 1855 to Louisa,
daughter of Col. Ira Eandolph Lewis, a sketch
of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Hancock was a man of great force of char-
acter, of unyielding and courageous honesty, and
was ready at all times to sacrifice his private inter-
ests to his principles. During the dissensions
between the States previous to 1860, he was a
strong opponent of secession, believing it to be
impossible of accomplishment and disastrous to the
South and to the whole country. When the war
broke out he retained and continued to publicly
express his convictions, preferring to risk all rather
than yield what he thought right and patriotic.
But his hand and heart were always open to his
neighbors in distress and many a soldier, fighting
the battles of the Confederacy in the front, felt
easier from knowing that his family at home would
not suffer while George Hancock was there to lend
a helping hand.
George Hancock and his brother, Judge John
254
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Hancock, recently deceased, were for many years
potential forces in the business and political affairs
of Texas. George Hancock died on the 6th of
January, 1879, in the city of Austin, leaving sur-
viving his wife, Louisa, and one son, Lewis, the
present. Mayor of Austin.
WILLIAM LEWIS CABELL,
DALLAS.
Gen. W. L. Cabell was born in Danville, Va.,
January 1, 1827, and was one of a family of seven
sons and four daughters.
His grandfather was Joseph Cabell, of Bucking-
ham County, who married a Miss Boiling, of the
same county. His father was Gen. Benjamin W.
S. Cabell, born in Buckingham, and his mother,
Sarah E. Doswell, a native of Nottoway County,
where his parents were married. Joseph Cabell,
bis grandfather, moved to Kentucky while his
father, Benjamin W. S., was young. Gen. Ben-
jamin W. S. Cabell, however, remained in Virginia
all his life and died there April 13, 1862. His
widow died in 1874. Gen. W. L. Cabell grew up
on his father's farm and attended schools in the
vicinity until 1846, when he entered the United
States Military Academy at West Point, from
which he graduated in 1850 and was assigned to
the United States Arniy as Brevet Second Lieutenant
in the Seventh Infantry. In 185-5, having attained
the rank of First Lieutenant, he was appointed regi-
mental Quartermaster and so remained until 1858,
when he was promoted to the rank of Captain in
the Quartermaster's department and was assigned
to duty on the staff of Gen. Persifer F. Smith,
then in command of the Utah expedition. Gen.
Smith died and was succeeded by Gen. Wm. S.
Harney, with whom Capt. Cabell continued until
the close of the expedition, when, in the same
year, he was ordered to Fort Kearney to rebuild
that fortification. In the spring of 1859 he was
ordered to Fort Arbuckle, in the Chickasaw Nation,
and in the fall of the same year, to build a new
post at Fort Cobb, about a hundred miles
west of Arbuckle and high up on the Washita
river, in the Indian Territory, west of the ninety-
eighth meridian. This post, since the war, has
been superseded by Fort Sill. Capt. Cabell re-
mained on duty at Fort Cobb, frequently
engaged in scouting against the wild Indians,
until the spring of 1861, when it became apparent
that the war between the States was inevitable.
He then repaired to Fort Smith, tendered his resig-
nation to the President of the United States, and
on the 12th of April left for the seat of the Confeder-
ate Government, at Montgomery, Ala. He reached
Montgomery on the 19th of the month and imme-
diately offered his services to President Davis. He
received at the same time the acceptance of his
resignation, signed by President Lincoln, and was
commissioned as Major in the Confederate army.
He was married July 22, 1856, to Miss Harriett
A., daughter of Maj. Elias Rector. They have
reared a family of children who have been an honor
to their name. They are: Benjamin E., Kate Dos-
well, John Joseph, Lawrence Duval, Lewis Eector,
Pocahontas Eebecca, and William Lewis. Mrs.
Cabell died April 16, 1887. She was a woman of
rare virtues and greatly beloved by those who were
in a position to know her many merits.
On being appointed Major, Cabell left for Rich-
mond, Va., under orders from President Davis, to
organize the quartermaster's, commissary, ord-
nance and medical departments of the army. He
remained there until the first of June, when he was
ordered to Manassas to report to Gen. Beaure-
gard as Chief Quartermaster of the Army of the
Potomac. After the battles of the 18th and 21st of
July, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston assumed command.
Maj. Cabell served on his staff until the 15th
of January, 1862, when he was ordered to report
to Gen. Albert Sydney Johnston' in Kentucky (then
commanding the Army of the West) for service
under Gen. Earl Van Dorn in the Trans-Mississippi
department. He crossed the Mississippi into Ar-
kansas with Gen. Van Dorn, who established tem-
porary headquarters at Jacksonport, and soon
thereafter was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-
General and was assigned to the command of the
troops on White river, to hold in check the forces
of the Federal General Steele, then menacing that
section from Missouri, while Gen. Van Dorn pro-
ceeded to Northwest Arkansas and assumed com-
mand of the army then under the command of
\V. L. CAUKLL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
255
Generals McCuUoch and Price. The battle of
Elk Horn was fought and lost on the 6th and 7th
of March, resulting in the transfer of that army
to the east side of the Mississippi river very
soon afterwards.
The following extract is from a sketch of Gen.
Cabell's services, written in 1878. The writer
says : —
" Gen. Cabell proved his ability as a commander,
in this emergency, and twice drove Steele's
army, which largely outnumbered his, back into
their camp in Missouri, and had control of that
section of the country until Van Dorn and Price
returned to White river previous to their leaving
for Corinth, Miss. The entire removal of this
large body of men, including McCulloch's Ark-
ansas, Louisiana and Texas troops and his own
command, the furnishing of supplies for them and
the regulation of their transportation, devolved
upon Gen. Cabell, and how well the labor was per-
formed, within a single week, those in authority
can bear witness. It was accomplished without
the slightest delay or accident of any kind.
" After arriving in Memphis, Van Dorn's corps
was continued on to Corinth and Cabell assigned
to command the brigade, composed of the Tenth,
Eleventh and Fourteenth Texas Kegiments, Crump's
Texas Battalion, McRea's Arkansas Eegiment and
Lucas' Battery, which were in several engagements
around Corinth and at Farmington ; and on the
retreat to Tupelo, this and Moore's Brigade,
brought up the rear of Van Dorn's army. When
Gen. Bragg was ordered to Kentuck3f, Gen. Cabell
was ordered to the command of an Arkansas
brigade, which he commanded at luka, Saltillo, at
Corinth on the 2d and 3d days of October, and at
Hatchie bridge on the 4th. Here he was badly
wounded and carried from the field. These, with
the wounds from the previous day, received while
leading the charge on the breastworks at Corinth,
disabled him from further handling his command,
or rather that portion of it left, and his troops
were united with the First Missouri Brigade, Gen.
Bowen. Upon his partial recovery. Gen. Cabell
was transferred to the Trans-Mississippi depart-
ment, to allow time for recuperation and the gen-
eral inspection of the Quartermaster's department
there."
Gen. Cabell's old soldiers say that on the field
he was the soul of courage, a constant inspiration
to his troops, and that with him it was always
" Come on" and not " Go on " and that he was
the first to go into danger.
When sufficiently recovered from his wounds he
was placed in command of the forces in Northwest
Arkansas, with instructions to augment the number
as much as possible by recruits, in which he was
very successful, so much so that what became
known as Cabell's Cavalry Brigade was chiefly
organized in this way. It did gallant service on
numerous battle-fields in Arkansas and during the
last great raid into Missouri, on the final retreat of
which Gen. Cabell was captured on the 24th of
October, 1864, in Kansas. This period of serv-
ice covered the battles and skirmishes of Backbone
Mountain, BentonviUe, Fayetteville, Poteau River,
Boonsboro, Elkins' Ferry, Wolf Creek, Antoinia,
Prairie de Ann, Moscow, Arkadelphia, Poison
Springs, Marks' Mill, Jenkins' Ferry, Glass Village,
Pine Bluff, Current River, Reeves' Station, Pilot
Knob, Franklin, Jefferson City, Gardner's Mills,
California, Boonville, La Mine, Lexington, Osage
River, Big Blue, Independence, Westport, Little
Santa Fe, Marie de Cygne, and Mine Creek, where
he was capturedi
The Southern Illustrated News, under date of
November 29, 1862, stated that " Gen. Cabell was
the first official representative of the Confederate
government in Richmond and to his untiring
energy the Southern people are indebted, in a
great measure, for the prompt organization of
our army."
Referring to the first Manassas, the News said :
" Maj. Cabell behaved with great gallantry, and on
several occasions exposed himself to the enemy's
fire to such a degree that Gen. Beauregard ordered
him to desist, at the time saying: 'Maj. Cabell,
your life is too valuable to the Confederacy to be
thus endangered.' "
An army correspondent, as quoted in the same
paper, of November 29, 1862, in describing the
battle of Corinth, says: "On Saturday morning,
Cabell's Brigade, of Maury's Division, was
ordered to charge the formidable fort on College
Hill. They advanced unhesitatingly at charge-
bayonets to within thirty yards of the position be-
fore they were fired upon, when they were awfully
slaughtered. Still onward they went, after return-
ing the first fire, their commander at their head.
When they reached the works. Gen. Cabell boldly
mounted the enemy's parapet, closely followed by
his command. The first man he encountered was a
Federal Colonel, who gave the command to ' kill
that rebel officer.' Cabell replied with a right cut
with his sabre, placing the officer Jiors de combat."
They were compelled, however, to retire with
fearful loss.
Gen. Cabell was confined in the Federal prisons
on Johnson's Island and Fort Warren, Boston, until
• the 28th of August, 1865. Being released on that
256
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
day, he sought. to find his wife and chilren at Aus-
tin, Texas, where they had refugeed with Mrs.
Cabell's father, and where he arrived without a
farthing, after a three days' fast, on the 12th of
September, to find that they had left and were
en route to their home in E^ort Smith, Ark. He
overtook the loved ones in Bonham, Texas, and
soon after reached Fort Smith, where he resided
until December, 1872, when he came to Texas
to remain permanently, and settled at Dallas, of
which place he has since been a citizen. During
1866 Gen. Cabell tried cotton planting on the
Arkansas river and the commission business at Fort
Smith. The high price of provisions and labor,
combined with the cotton tax, prevented these
ventures from proving successful. In 1867 he
worked as a civil engineer, farmed on a small scale,
and studied law at leisure moments. In 1868 he
was admitted to practice in the United States Court
for the Western District of Arkansas.
He was an acknowledged leader of the Demo-
cratic party and fought the Arkansas Republicans
and carpet-baggers with all the skill, energy and
determination that he could command. In 1872
the Arkansas State Convention sent him as the
chairman of the delegation to cast the vote of that
State for Horace Greely for President, and during the
campaign he canvassed all of North and West Arkan-
sas. The result was a triumph for the Democracy.
He brought his family to Dallas in 1873. He
at once took a position as leader in all matters of
importance and was afterwards repeatedly elected
Mayor of the city. When he located at Dallas
he was agent for the Carolina Life Insurance
Company, of which Hon. Jefferson Davis was
president. He afterwards engaged in various
pursuits in which he was financially success-
ful but is now retired from active business.
As a Democrat his views have always had much
weight with the people of Texas and he has
had much to do with shaping the policies of the
party and in assisting in securing party victories,
and good government for the State. He is Lieu-
tenant-General of the United Confederate Veter-
ans' Association and devotes much time and thought
to the interests of that organization. He is a very
popular speaker and is in constant demand to ad-
dress his old comrades at their reunions and camp-
fires. He has written much upon the subject of
the late war and is regarded as an authority upon
all matters pertaining thereto. True to every
obligation as a citizen and soldier, both in time of
war and peace ; a patriot of great purity of act and
purpose, a man of the most sterling qualities, he is
a fine representative of the typical Southern gentle-
man. No man, certainly, is dearer to the people
of Texas and of the whole South. His name de-
serves a place upon the pages of her history among
the South's noblest and best. His life has been
in keeping with those Of other members of the
Cabell family, all of whom have been true to their
country, their friends and themselves, and none of
whom have cast a stain upon the grand old family
name.
D. M. PRENDERGAST,
MEXIA.
Judge Prendergast is a descendant of Irish an-
cestors. His great-grandfather Prendergast came
from the old country to America in colonial times
and settled in North Carolina, where John Baker
Prendergast, the father of the Judge, was born.
John B. Prendergast went to Tennessee when
a young man, and there married Miss Bhoda King,
of Sumner County, that State. She died in Mad-
ison County, West Tennessee, when the subject of
this sketch was a boy. Years afterward Mr. Pren-
dergast came to Texas and his death occurred in
Limestone County in 1846, about a month after his
arrival there. He was a plain substantial farmer,-
a man of good judgment and of quiet, unassuming
ways. They had a family of four children that
reached maturity, the gentleman under consider-
ation being the only one of that number now
living. An older brother. Judge Luke Baker
Prendergast, an early settler of Limestone County,
died there some years ago. A younger brother
died in that county in 1816, shortly after moving
to it, and an older one, Samuel, died in Tennessee
before the father's removal to Texas.
Judge D. M. Prendergast was born in Shelby-
ville, Bedford County, Tennessee, December 26,
1816, and was reared in Madison County, that
D. M. PEENDERGAST.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
257
State, from his eighth year. He received his pre-
liminary education in local select schools and took
a collegiate course at the East Tennessee Uni-
versity, at Knoxville, graduating in the spring of
1841, with the degree of A. B. In January, 1842,
he came to Texas and began reading law at Old
Franklin, Robertson County, under the instructions
of James Eaymond. He was admitted to the bar
at Boonesville, Brazos County, before Judge E. E.
B. Baylor, in 1845, having read law, taught school,
and hunted Indians during the preceding four
years. He was elected Chief Justice of Brazos
County under the old regime and held the office for
one year. In the spring of 1846 he returned to
Tennessee and brought his father to Texas, settling,
in December of that year, at Springfield, then the
county seat of Limestone County, and then and
there entered upon the practice of his profession.
He was elected Chief Justice of Limestone County
in 1848 and filled the office one term. He con-
tinued in active practice until the opening of the
war.
In the fall of 1861 he raised a company in Lime-
stone County, was elected its Captain and, as a part
of the North Texas Infantry, entered the Confed-
erate army, serving until the fall of 1862, when, on
account of an injury received, he was compelled
to resign and come home. He was honorably
discharged from the service on account of this
disability.
Resuming the practice of his profession, he became
deeply engrossed In the same, also giving some atten-
tion to farming, until 1873, when he was appointed
by Governor Coke to fill a vacancy in the office of
District Judge of the Thirteenth Judicial District,
which vacancy was caused by the death of Judge
Banton. He completed this term, about three years,
at the end of which time the district was changed,
a new one being created out of the counties of
Navarro, Limestone and Freestone, of which he was
elected Judge and served as such four years.
At the close of this term of office Judge Pren-
dergast retired from public life and gave up the
practice of his profession, to which he had been such
an ornament. He then became interested in the
banking business with Jester Brothers, at Corsicana,
and in February, 1882, in company with L. P. and
J. L. Smith, J. W. Blake and W. B. Gibbs, he
bought out the banking interest of Oliver & Griggs
at Mexia and entered actively into the business,
17
becoming the senior member of the private
banking house of Prendergast, Smith & Com-
pany. He has since that time given almost his
exclusive attention to this business. He owns
considerable property in Mexia and some inGroes-
beck. He has taken an active interest in all local
enterprises in Mexia and is looked upon as one of
the public-spirited men of the place.
At an early day Judge Prendergast was some-
what active in politics in Limestone County, being a
prominent Democrat. He was a member of the
Secession Convention in 1861, and was in the Tenth
and Thirteenth Legislatures of Texas. He left the
Democratic party, however, in 1887, on account of
its position in reference to the whisky question, and
cast his fortunes in the political line with the Pro-
hibitionists. He is an ardent friend of temperance
and in 1892 was the nominee of the Prohibition
party for Governor of Texas.
Judge Prendergast was married May 16th, 1848,
to Miss Mary E. Collins, who was born in Lincoln
County, Tenn., in November, 1829, daughter
of George and Mary (Hudspeth) Collins, natives
of Virginia. Her mother, left a widow, came with
her family to Texas in November, 1841, and settled
on the Little Brazos river in Brazos County. She
had nine children, two sons and seven daughters.
Seven of the number reached maturity. In order
to educate her children she moved to Wheelock,
Robertson County, where she spent the residue of
her life. Mrs. Prendergast was the third daughter
of this family, and her sisters have all passed away.
Her brother, C. C, is a farmer in Harrison County,
and T. B., a farmer, lives in Bryan, Brazos County.
The Judge and his wife have had eight children,
five of whom survive, as follows: Ada R., widow
of Dr. J.,H. McCain, of Mexia ; Fannie, wife of Dr.
R. C. Nettles, of Marlin, Texas; Albert C, a lead-
ing attorney of Waco ; Mary, wife of S. H. Kelley,
of Mexia; and Annie, wife of J. R. Neece, of
Mexia.
Judge Prendergast was made a Mason at Spring-
field, forty-odd years ago, and has been a zealous
member of the order ever since. He is a prom-
inent member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church and was one of the founders of Trinity
University, at Tehuaeana Hills, the educational in-
stitution of this Church in Texas, and has been a
member of the Board of Trustees ever since it
was founded.
258
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE N. ALDREDGE,
DALLAS.
George N. Aldredge was born in Lee County,
Ga., April 14, 1846. His father was Dr. J. F.
Aldredge, who married Mary Oglesby, daughter of
George S. Oglesby. They lived for some years in
Russell County, Ala., and then moved to Pitts-
burg, Camp County, Texas, in 18.56. In 1862,
when less than sixteen years of age, he entered
the Confederate army as a volunteer soldier in
Walicer's division, Bandall's brigade, Clark's regi-
ment. Alter serving two j'ears in Clark's regi-
ment he was transferred to Chisholm's regiment of
cavalry. Major's brigade, with which he remained
until the close of hostilities, participating in all the
engagements in which his command took part. At
the close of the war between the States he returned
home and entered McKinzie College, Red River
County, Texas, where he remained two years. He
then read law under Judge O. M. Roberts, at Gil-
mer, Upshur County, Texas, was admitted to the
bar and practiced one year with Col. John L. Camp
at Gilmer and then moved to Dallas ; remained one
year in Dallas ; moved to Waxahachie, Ellis
County, where he stayed two years and then re-
turned to Dallas, where he has since remained. In
1875 he was elected County Attorney of Dallas
County and filled that office until 1878. He was
then elected District .Judge and remained on the
bench ten years, during which time he signalized
himself as a fine lawyer and man of superior judicial
ability. After retiring from the bench he engaged
in the practice of law with Judge A. T. Watts and
J, J. Eckford, with whom he is now in copartner-
ship. In 1869 he married Miss Betty W. Hearne,
daughter of Horatio R. Hearne, of Hearne, Texas.
Three children have been born of this union, George
E., H. R. , and Sawnie R. Aldredge.
Judge Aldredge by reason of his legal ability and
his political speeches in behalf of good government
and sound money, is known in every nook and
corner of Texas. He is also known throughout
the Union through his great speech at Atlanta,
Ga., on October 16th, 1895, before the American
Bankers' Association, on the subject of Sound
Money. It was telegraphed to all the leading
journals, and elicited highest commendation from
almost every one. It was published in neat pam-
phlet form, for general distribution, by the Sound
Currency Committee of the New York Chamber
of Commerce. On January 30th, 1896, Senator
Caffery, of Louisiana, introduced it in the United
States Senate as part of his speech on the same
subject, and it is printed in full in the " Con-
gressional Record," of date January 31st,
1896.
Judge Aldredge's style is peculiarly cogent and
logical, his power of illustration unequaled, and
his wit keen and irresistible. As a debater he has
had few equals and no superior in Texas.
HENRY MARTYN TRUEHEART,
GALVESTON.
Henry Martyn Trueheart, one of the leading
citizens and financiers of Galveston, was born in
Louisa County, Va., March 23, 1832, and came
to Texas with his father and family in 1845,
landing at Galveston on the 5th day of May of
that year. His father, John O. Trueheart (of
German lineage), was born in Hanover County,
Va. Mr. John O. Trueheart was a graduate of
Princeton College and a lawyer by profession.
His ancestors took part in the Revolution of 1776
in various capacities, serving in each instance with
distinction, some of them in the ranks of the Con-
tinental army as soldiers and officers. His first trip
to Texas was made in a wagon in 1838. He re-
mained in the Republic some time, during the
period assisting in the defense of the frontier
under the famous ranger. Col. John C. Hays.
He was united in marriage to Miss Ann Tomp-
kins Minor, a daughter of Col. Launcelot Minor, of
Louisa County, Va., whose sister was the mother
<L. Tt. cu
H. M. TKUEHART.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
259
■of Commodore Matthew F. Maury. John B.
Minor (now deceased), for fifty years professor
of law at the University of Virginia ; Lucian
Minor, late professor of law at William and Mary
■College, Va., the late Dr. Chas. Minor, of Alber-
marle County, Va., and Dr. William Minor, of
Alabama, all eminent in their respective callings,
were brothers of Mrs. Ann Tompkins Trueheart.
She died at Galveston in 1886, and her husband,
Mr. .John O. Trueheart, at Galveston in 1874.
Of their children, nine in number, six are now
living: Dr. Chas. W. Trueheart, Mrs. Fanny G.
Sproule, Mrs. John Adriance and Miss Mildred D.
Trueheart, of Galveston, the subject of this memoir,
and Mrs. Elvira S. Howard, of San Antonio, Texas.
Henry Martyn Trueheart had few school advan-
tages, but this deprivation was more than compen-
sated for by the careful training that he received
at the hands of one of the best of Christian mothers
and his daily association with refined and cultured
people. Long before reaching his majority he
was thrown upon his own resources and found it
necessary not only to earn a support for him.self,
but to contribute to the maintenance of the family.
In 1857 he was appointed by the Commissioners'
Court of Galveston County Assessor and Collector
•of taxes for the county, a position that he sub-
sequently filled for a period of about ten years.
He took part in the battle of Galveston, January
1, 1863, and, upon the recapture of the city by the
Confederates, was appointed Assistant Provost-
marshal, with the rank of Captain.
Several months later, feeling that every able-
bodied man ought to be at the front, whether ex-
empt from military duty or not, he proceeded to
Virginia, where he was attached to Stuart's cavalry
until wounded in a skirmish near Orange Court
House, from whence he was carried to the University
of Virginia, where he was nursed at the home of
his uncle, John B. Minor. Upon recovery, a month
later, he joined regularly an independent company,
of about one hundred men, commanded by Capt.
J. Hanson McNeil, of Hardy County, W. Va.,
with which he served until the surrender. In the
early part of 1865, as a member of this company,
he was a participant in one of the most remarkable
exploits that marked the course of the war.
McNeil marched, his men on the occasion referred
to, eastward to Cumberland, Md. (a town of four
thousand inhabitants), situated ninety miles in ad-
vance of the main Confederate forces, and,
although it was garrisoned bj' several thousand
Federal troops and protected by three lines of
pickets, captured a picket, forced the countersign,
boldly entered the town under cover of night.
marched to the respective quarters (guarded by
sentinels) of Maj.-Gen. George Crook and Maj.-
Gen. Kelly, took those officers out of their bedSj
retired as quietly as he came, marching his men
through nearly the entire Federal infantry camp,
and later delivered the Union Generals to the Con-
federate authorities at Richmond, this, too, without
being under the necessity of firing a gun. After the
close of the war Mr. Trueheart returned to Texas,
like Confederate soldiers generally, without a dol-
lar. He had to begin life anew. This he did,
nothing discouraged, and in the years that have
followed has amassed an independent fortune and
played an active part in the affairs of the city in
which he has so long resided.
In Hardy County, W. Va., in 1866, he was
united in marriage to Miss Annie Vanmeter Cun-
ningham, the beautiful and accomplished daughter
of Mr. William Streit Cunningham, of that county.
They have five children : Sally, Henry M. , Ann V. ,
Rebecca, and Elvira.
Mr. Trueheart is now serving his second term as
a trustee of the Galveston city public free schools
and has for a number of years been a member of
the board of directors of the Southern Cotton Press
Company, the Galveston & Western R. R. Co., the
Texas Trust & Guarantee Co., and the Galveston
Land and Improvement Co., and for several years
was a director and vice-president of the Galveston
Wharf Co. Besides being a director, he is also
treasurer of the Galveston Land & Improvement
Co. This company owns nearly seven hundred
acres in the western portion of the city of Galves-
ton. He has built up probably the largest land
agency business in Texas. He is a Democrat and,
while in no sense a politician, has always taken a
deep interest in public affairs, city, county. State
and national, using his influence for the attainment
of those beneficent ends, the hope of the ultimate
accomplishment of which through the medium of
popular government, led our forefathers to estab-
lish the institutions under which we live — institu-
tions to be preserved and further perfected by this
generation and then handed down, unimpaired, to
those that will succeed it. He has been faithful to
every duty as a citizen and no man occupies a
higher place in the affections of those who know
him. He is a Presbyterian, has been a member of
the Galveston church for a number of years, and
continues his active work in the Sunday-school, of
which he is at present, and has been for a number
of years, superintendent.
The great Southwest, owing to the equable and
salubrious climate that prevails throughout the
region, the fertility of its soil, and the extent and
260
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
variety of its undeveloped resources, is attracting
the eyes of capitalists and home-seekers, resident
not only in other parts of this country, but in all
lands and countries. Especially is this true of that
portion embraced within the territorial limits of
Texas. To these natural advantages in Texas, are
added the attraction of wise constitutional and
statutory provisions that guarantee immunities
and privileges, provision for the enjoyment of
which has been made by a broad and enlight-
ened statesmanship that had in view alone the
happiness and prosperity of all the people who
might thereafter make their homes in the State.
The ten or fifteen years that are at hand, will con-
stitute an era of wonderful settlement and develop-
ment of the State and also of the section of which
it is a part. All this vast region is naturally
tributary to Galveston, and that city with deep
water (now assured) will in these years become one
of the principal commercial depots of the world.
From its harbor fleets will bear away the varied
productions and manufactures of its tributary ter-
ritory and other ships from Mexico, Central and
South America, Europe and Asia, will bring count-
less cargoes in return. It requires neither a
prophet nor a son of a prophet, to foretell so much ;
for the future depicted is not remote, but near at
hand — a logical sequence of natural conditions
and the inevitable increase of population and
wealth.
Mr. Trueheart in time past has been a tireless
and effective worker for Galveston, and during the
period of development upon the threshold of which
we are now pausing, his experience, insight and
wisdom will be of invaluable service to the city and
State.
JOHN STAFFORD,
COLUMBUS.
The late lamented John Stafford, for many years
a prominent citizen of Colorado County, Texas,
was of Welsh-English descent and born in Wayne
County, Ga., April 2d, 1849.
His parents were Robert and Martha A. Stafford.
His father was a prosperous stock raiser and farmer.
The subject of this brief memoir was left an
orphan when fourteen, his mother dying when he
was two years of age and his father in 1868. He
moved to Colorado County, Texas, in 1867, accom-
panied by two sisters and four brothers. Of an
ambitious and enterprising spirit and persistent
energy he, when sutHciently matured in years, en-
gaged in the cattle business with his brother,
Robert E. Stafford, at which they greatly prospered
and amassed handsome fortunes.
At various times, as organizer and promoter, he
was connected with important enterprises and few
men in his time did more for the development of
the commercial resources of Texas. Every move-
ment giving reasonable promise of inuring to the
public good received his active support both in the
exercise of his.influence and the liberal expenditure
of his time and private means.
His success in Ufe, achieved despite many obsta-
cles and from a small beginning, was due solely to
the employment of his natural capacity for business
and unswerving rectitude. Those associated with
him in financial transactions reposed in him the most
unbounded confidence and deferred in important
matters to his judgment, the soundness of which
they recognized from long experience.
Kind, genial, generous and brave, he was respected
and beloved by the people of the community in which
he spent the best years of his life. Strange, indeed,
that such a man should fall by violence — be cut
down without warning in the flower of his days and
usefulness. But such was his sad and tragic fate.
July 7th, 1890, about 7 o'clock in the evening,
he and his brother, Robert E. Stafford, became in-
volved in a personal difflculty and, although unarmed
and unable to defend themselves, were shot and
killed upon the streets of Columbus.
In the death of Mr. John Stafford, Colorado
County was not only deprived of a good and
valuable citizen, but his family of an affectionate
husband and father, and many of a friend true and
tried. Of a loving and retiring disposition, to know
him was to like him. While he had encountered
many vicissitudes and had had to fight his way up
from poverty to independence there was nothing
cold, callous or selfish in his disposition. These
trials seemed to have broadened, deepened and
intensified his sympathy for his kind.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
261
He lent an attentive ear to the recital of the woes
of the distressed, and was quick to offer succor.
No matter of wonder then that the news of his
death was received with a thrill of horror through-
out the State, and many devoted friends sent letters
of condolence and commiseration to his stricken
wife and children, affording all the solace that they
could in this hour of grief and agony.
His spirit winged its flight to that land where all
is peace and joy, and deeds of virtue find that
recognition and reward too often denied them in
this weary world. The sod of the valley grows
green above his grave. The mound is sacred. It
has been watered by the tears of his widow and
orphan children. It has been watered by the tears
of the poor and needy whom he so often gen-
erously befriended. He came in contact with
many men and moved amid many and changing
scenes always, under all circumstances and amid
all temptations and perils, as an upright and manly
man, and the influence of his character will" long
be felt and bear worthy fruit. It can be truly said
that the world has been made none the worse but
far better by his having lived, and his memory is
affectionately enshrined in the hearts of thousands
where it will be kept ever fresh and green.
December 23, 1874, Mr. Stafford was united
in marriage to Miss Grace A. Walker, the beautiful
daughter of Mr. Seaborn B. and Mrs. Susanna
Walker, who came from Georgia to Texas about
1850 and located in Colorado County, where they
spent the remainder of their days. Mr. Walker was
a gallant soldier in the Confederate army during the
war between the States. A large family of children,
eleven in number, survive Mr. and Mrs. Walker.
The union of Mr. and Mrs. Stafford was blessed
with three children, two of whom, Joseph and
Carrie, are now living, the latter being the wife of
Mr. J. AlveyHarbert, an accomplished gentleman
and one of the leading stock raisers and farmers in
Southeast Texas.
Mrs. Stafford resides at her home, an elegant
mansion, four miles from Columbus. It occupies a
lovely site commanding an extended and pleas-
antly diversified view of woodland and prairie full
of the witchery of light and shadow, worthy of an
artist's brush.
The grounds surrounding this delightful and im-
posing house are tastefully laid off and ornamented
with trees, shrubbery, a profusion of flowers and
twining vines. It is a typical and ideal Southern
home. The evidences of a delicate and refined taste
are everywhere met with. Mrs. Stafford also pos-
sesses a well furnished library and there spends
many of her leisure hours.
She is a lady of fine literary discernment and
varied accomplishments. She is a member of the
Christian church, and in her daily life exemplifies
the teachings of the Master. Kindness and gentle-
ness and charity and truth, sanctify her saddened
home. She has bravely and with Christian forti-
tude borne her cross. Her benefactions are innum-
erable and many poor and unfortunate, whose tears
she has dried and whose necessities she has relieved,
have reason to call her blessed.
She is one of the noblest of our noble Texian
matrons who are the ornaments and pride and boast
of a civilization that if equaled is not surpassed by
that of any other State or land. She was born in
Colorado County, Texas, received an excellent edu-
cation, and in her childhood and girlhood days gave
evidence of those traits that won for her the affec-
tionate devotion of her late husband and endear her
to all who know her.
RICHARD MOORE WYNNE,
FORT WORTH,
Is universally recognized as one of the leading
men of the Lone Star State, having won a promi-
nence in the legal profession which can only result
from ability and the highest merit. As an
advocate he has no superiors and few equals in
his profession. From his boyhood he has been a
leader, whether among his schoolmates, his army
comrades, in business or in social life ; and his
commanding talents, and devotion to principles,
will win him still higher honors, for he is now in the
prime of life.
Col. Wynne is a native of Tennessee. He was
born in Haywood County, on the 2d day of June,
1844. His parents were W. B. and Sarah A.
(Moore) Wynne. Soon after his birth his family
moved to Busk County, Texas, in which place his
262
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
boyhood was spent on the farm of his father. In
the village of Bellevue, he began his education,
which, though limited, has been largely supple-
mented by extensive and liberal reading and ex-
perience in active life.
When the war between the States became inevi-
table, young Wynne, then just seventeen years of
age, filled with patriotic devotion for what he
believed to be right, went to the front in defense
of his country and section, and on many long and
weary marches and many bloody fields of battle,
proved himself the peer of the bravest of his chival-
rous comrades. For meritorious conduct on the
field of battle his comrades promoted him to a
Lieutenancy while he was yet a boy, and by
unanimous petition he was assigned to the com-
mand of Company B. in the Tenth Texas Regiment,
during the Georgia campaign. At the battle of
Murfreesboro he was severely wounded, becoming
disabled for some months from active service,
and again at the last battle of Nashville, when
Hood made his famous raid into Tennessee, he was
again severely wounded. The effect of this wound
was to permanently deprive him of the use of
his right arm and the partial use of his right leg.
At this battle he was left on the field wounded, and
fell into the hands of the Federals. He was confined
in Northern prisons, thus disabled and helpless,
until the close of the war, persistently refusing to
take the oath of allegiance to the Federal Govern-
ment as long as there was a Confederate flag float-
ing. On both sides of the line in that dark and
bloody conflict there were men who stood by their
colors amid shot and shell, where the hot breath of
war was spreading carnage and death, with a
heroism unsurpassed in any age or by any people.
Among the most devoted of these was young Wynne,
who never missed a scout, march, or battle until he
was struck down and permanently disabled.
In the winter of 1865 he returned to his desolated
home, impaired in health by reason of his exposure
and long confinement in Northern prisons, and
almost a physical wreck by reason of his wounds ;
but, he accepted this as the fate of war, and with
the same undaunted courage which he had for years
displayed as a soldier, he adjusted himself to the
new conditions, and at once seized the broken
threads of his young manhood. The South was in
a chaotic condition. Desolation brooded like the
pall of death over once proud and happy homes,
ravaged by war.
Young Wynne sat not down to mourn or lament.
With the energy and fortitude of a dauntless man-
hood he began the battle of life. He made the race
for sheriff of his county when just eligible for the
position, his opponents being the Major of his regi-
ment and a private soldier of his company. Win-
ning his election he served three years, or until he
was removed by the Reconstruction Act of Con-
gress. Still with the courage worthy of emulation,
he embarked in agricultural pursuits, although still
suffering from his wounds, his right arm being
withered and useless. Through the day he
labored on his farm and at night read law,
studying systematically and earnestly until he was
deeply grounded in the principles of law. He was
admitted to the bar in 1870, and at once entered into
an active practice in the town of Henderson, where
he was soon recognized as one of the most success-
ful lawyers at the bar, at which some of the most
eminent men of this State practiced. His powers
of oratory, together with close and systematic in-
vestigation and strong common sense, have been
the leading factors in this man's marked success.
He challenges the respect of the court by his can-
dor and fairness, and sways juries by his fervid
eloquence and convincing logic.
Turning from the public career to the private life
of Col. Wynne, we note that on the 23d day of
January, 1867, he was married to Miss Laura B.
Kelly, daughter of Hon. Wm. C. Kelly, one of the
most distinguished and influential men of his sec-
tion ; he was a member of the Secession Convention
of Texas and took a conspicuous part in that body.
Mrs. Wynne is a native Texian and a woman of
strong individuality and highly cultured, and of
marked intellectuality and refinement. With the
characteristic chivalry of the true Southern man.
Col. Wynne ever acknowledges his indebtedness to
his wife for much of his success.
His natural fitness for leadership and his famili-
arity with public affairs, challenged the attention
of the people among whom he lived, and in 1880,
unsought by him, he was elected to the State Senate
of Texas, where he quickly went to the front as a
legislator, and no man in that body had more in-
fiuence. His uniform courtesy and liberality won
him friends fast, who have bided with him. He
was one of the five men who drafted and formulated
a bill creating the University of Texas, and so well
and wisely did they work that that bill has never
been amended except in some minor details. He
also became conspicuous in his efforts to regulate
railway corporations. He advocated the Three-
cents-a-mile Bill which became a law, and the pass-
age of a law creating a Railroad Commission, which
has in later years become so prominent in Texas
politics. In 1882 he made the race for Attorney
General and was defeated by only a small majority.
In his speech of withdrawal from the convention
^>_
R. M. WYNNE
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
263
Col. Wynne was most happy and captured the
convention and, though defeated in fact, it was con-
ceded by all that he snatched victory out of defeat,
and from that day his leadership has been unques-
tioned. It was in 1886 that he was made perma-
nent president of the State Convention, and added to
his already growing influence by his ability and
tact in controlling men under excitement incident
to a hot political contest.
He has for some years been often spoken of in
connection with the office of Governor of this State ;
many of tlie best citizens and most influential men
of the State would give him an enthusiastic support.
It is conceded by all that should he be elected to
that high position Texas would prosper and progress
under his broad and liberal administration, for no
man is more loyal to his State and people and takes
a deeper interest in their general welfare.
It was in 1883 that Fort "Worth gained Col. Wynne
as one of its most valued cit'zens. He sought a
wider field of usefulness and found it in his present
home, where, at the bar he stands among the fore-
most, while from the public he is accorded a large
clientage. His life record is certainly one of in-
terest, demonstrating what can be accomplished by
resolution, perseverance and strict adherence to
sound business principles. Reared as a farmer,
trained on the field of battle, he entered upon a
struggle to overcome ditHculties and obstacles
which would have overwhelmed many a less reso-
lute man. He then became a leader at the bar and
in the political world of Texas, but through all this
career his bearing has ever been such as to win and
retain the respect of the best citizens of his adopted
State.
J. D. GUINN,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
A successful lawyer of New Braunfels, Texas, is
a native of Franklin County, Tenn., born in the
town of Winchester, January 23d, 1853. His
father, N. W. Guinn, was a farmer by occupation.
His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth H. Barnes.
Both parents were natives of Tennessee. They
came to Texas in 1857 and located in Gonzales
County, where the subject of this sketch was reared
and educated under the tutorship of James A. Mc-
Neal. Of the ten children born to N. W. and Eliza-
beth Guinn, all but one survive. He, Harvey H.
Guinn, died at the age of twenty-two years, shortly
after qualifying for the practice of the profession
of medicine. N. W. Guinn was a man of broad
intelligence, believed much in education, and af-
forded his children the best schooling facilities at
his command. The subject of this sketch was lib-
erally educated and at the age of nineteen started
out to fight life's battle, for himself and without a
cent of money at his command.
He taught school for one and ahalf 3'ears, and by
this means and also by money earned surveying
lands, of which he acquired much knowledge,
he accumulated sufficient money to defray his ex-
penses wbile studying law. He read law for three
years in the office of Gov. John Ireland, of Seguin.
About the year 1878 he removed to New Braun-
fels and opened an office for the practice of his pro-
fession. Here he has since remained, built up a
lucrative practice and won the confidence and esteem
of the entire community. He is public-spirited and,
outside of the profession of law, is interested in
several local enterprises, among the number the
First National Bank of New Braunfels, one of the
solid financial institutions of Southwest Texas, of
which he is a director and vice-president. He is a
warm supporter of education and an active promoter
of all enterprises tending to build up his city and
county. Mr. Guinn married Miss Bettie Howard
Jefferson, a daughter of Gen. John E. Jefferson,
of Seguin, in the year 1882, and has four charming
■ daughters.
He is a representative of the best thought and
purpose of his section of the State.
264
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
HORATIO R. HEARNE,
HEARNE,
Familiarly known as " Raish " Hearne, an old
settler and successful planter residing near the
town of Hearne, Robertson County, Texas, is a
native of Montgomery County, Ala., wliere tie
was born in 1818, being a son of William and
Nancy Hearne, who moved from Georgia to Ala-
bama in 1814. The elder Mr. Hearne was a planter,
and spent the greater part of his life in Alabama,
moving thence in later life to Arkansas, where he
died, his wife, mother of the subject of this
sketch, dying in Louisiana.
Horatio R. Hearne was reared in Alabama, leav-
ing there in the fall of 1838, when he went to Caddo
Parish, Louisiana, before the line between Louisiana
and Texas was established. He settled near the
line, not knowing till after the boundary was fixed,
whether he was in Louisiana or Texas. When the
line was run it threw his place a mile and a half on
the Louisiana side. He resided there until Novem-
ber, 1851, when he came to Texas, and bought
land and settled in the Brazos bottom, in Robert-
son County, where he has since lived. He has
added other purchases and continued to improve
his holdings until at this writing he has one of the
largest plantations in Robertson Countj', cultivat-
ing between 3,600 and 3,800 acres, principally
devoted to raising the fleecy staple. Between
seven hundred and eight hundred people live on
the plantation, and it is conducted much after the
manner of the good old ante-helium days. He
employs no overseer, preferring to keep the active
management of this large property in his own
hands. Over twenty years ago Mr. Hearne sunk
the first artesian well ever bored in that section of
the State, since which time he has experimented
largely with these wells. Recently he has put in
an apparatus to utilize the gas coming from the
wells, and has so far succeeded that he now has
gas to light his house with, and for cooking and
heating purposes, and to run a four-horse power
engine in a blacksmithing and wood-working estab-
lishment on his place, where he makes everything
in the way of machinery needed on the planta-
tion.
January 27th, 1842, Mr. Hearne married Miss
Priscilla Hearne (his cousin), then residing in
Caddo Parish, Louisiana. She helped him fight
his battles of life for fifty-odd years, dying Octo-
ber 21, 1893. They had two daughters, Mrs.
George N. Aldredge, of Dallas, and Mrs. Adams,
who now resides with Mr. Hearne.
Mr. Hearne is a fine type of the broad-minded,
cultured and progressive Southern gentleman, and
admired and loved not only by his numerous
dependents, but by a wide circle of friends through-
out the country.
JOSEPH A. TIVY,
KERRVILLE,
Was born February 25lh, 1818, in Toronto,
Upper Canada, and spent his youth there and in
Niagara County, New York, where he attended
country schools and for a few months an academy.
He came to Texas in 1837, landing at Houston
and passing on to Washington County and thence
to that portion of Milam now embraced in Burleson
County, where he remained for several years.
This part of the Republic was then considered the
extreme western frontier of the settlements. In
the winter of 1837-38, at the opening of the gen-
eral land office, he took up the occupation of
surveyor, first aa chain-carrier, and in a few years
as a regular surveyor. During those years he
spent most of his time on the frontier, and gen-
erally with that famous frontiersman, Capt. Geo.
B. Evart, sometimes surveying and locating land
and at others fighting Indians, part of the time
under the government and part of the time on his
own responsibility, killing game and buying ammu-
nition, salt and coffee with the proceeds of the sale
of his pelts.
J. A. TIVEY.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
265
In 1844 he went to San Antonio and joined Col.
Jack Hays' Rangers, and remained with that com-
pany about a year. In 1845 he was appointed
deputy surveyor of Bexar District, and in that
year surveyed and made the locations in Gillespie
County. In 1846 he surveyed the lands on the
upper portion of the Guadalupe river. From
1846 to 1849 he was often interrupted in the work
of surveying by hostile Indians. During 1847 he
completed the surveys on the San Saba. One day
during this time while in camp with about twenty
men, he was visited by Ketemsey, a celebrated
chief of the Comanches, and ordered not to mark
any more trees up there, the chief pointing at the
same time to a range of hills and saying: " That is
the white man's line." But these orders were not
obeyed, the whites being armed with rifles and
revolvers and the Indians having only bows and
arrows and spears.
In the spring of 1849, Capt. Tivy took the Cali-
fornia fever and, in company with several others,
set out in June for the Pacific Coast. They
reached San Gabriel Valley in Southern California,
in October following, after many trials and much
suffering and went into camp for the winter at
Mission San Gabriel. In the spring of 1850, the
party resumed its journey and finally reached the
mines by way of Tejon Pass. Here Capt. Tivy
went into the hotel business, renting the " United
States Hotel" at $200 per month. The building
was made of stakes and poles and roofed with can-
vas. There was only one long, narrow room which
was used as a dining room. On the sides and ends
of this the lodgers were bedded in bunks arranged
one above the other. The cooking was all done in
the open air, excepting the baking, at which two
men were kept busy almost day and night, so great
was the demand for pies, cakes and bread. The
rate charged for board and lodging was $3.00 per
day in gold dust, there being no coin.
After following this occupation for a few months
Mr. Tivy sold out and went to mining, which he
followed a little over two years. He then went
into the mercantile business, which he followed for
about a year. In July, 1853, Tulare County was
organized and he was elected county surveyor. In
connection with his official duties he went to farm-
ing and employed successfully a band of Indians,
whom he trained to agricultural pursuits. These
he would have liked to retain, but Gen. Fremont,
having secured a contract from the general govern-
ment to feed all the Indians of that locality at so
much per head, they were taken away from him
and transported to a point near the base of sup-
plies. The same year he was appointed United
States Deputy Surveyor of California and elected to
the Legislature and served in the Legislature during
the winter of 1853-4. In the spring of 1855 he
was ordered by the surveyor-general to run a line
through the Sierra Nevada mountains, accomplished
the task and ran the first correct standard line run
through those mountains. The expedition was full
of perilous adventures and hair-breadth escapes
from Indians and grizzly bears. In 1857 he went
from California to New Mexico and in the fall of
1858 returned to Texas and settled in Karnes
County, where he engaged in raising horses and
mules. In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate
army, becoming a Lieutenant in Capt. John H.
Dunkard's Company. In the fall of the same year
he was promoted to the position of First-Lieutenant,
and later put in command of the company and held
this position until the fall of 1864. In the mean-
time his health had become impaired and he was
finally forced to quit the service.
Being still in feeble health, on the recommenda-
tion of his physician he moved to Kerr County in
1872 and settled on a tract of land (on which Kerr-
ville now stands) which he had located while sur-
veying in that section in the "forties." In 1873
he was elected to the Legislature. From 1874 to
1888 he engaged in farming. On the establishment
of Kerrville in 1888 he was made the first mayor of
the place. As soon as the town was incorporated
he donated to it sixteen acres of land for a school
building and grounds and later donated other lots (in
all more than one hundred acres) for the erection of
buildings and for other improvements. He watched
the growth of the town from its inception and
always manifested a liberal spirit in promoting its
interests.
He married late in life, his wife being Mrs. Ella
Losee, widow of Dr. Henry Losee, a United States
army surgeon who died at Kerrville. She died
three or four years before Capt. Tivy. His death
occurred July 5th, 1892.
For some time he had been actively engaged in
overseeing the work of boring for artesian water
on his place. Owing to his advanced age and phy-
sical condition, this undue activity and exposure
brought on stomach complications which proved to
be the immediate cause of his demise. He was a
member of the Masonic fraternity. Religious ser-
vices were conducted at the church and services at
the grave by Kerrville Lodge No. 697, A. F. and
A. M. , and Burleson Chapter Royal Arch Masons of
San Antonio. A large delegation from Rising Star
Lodge were also present from Center Point. The
funeral cortege consisted of more than one hundred
carriages and was the largest ever seen in the town.
266
INDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
He was laid to rest on the summit of the mountain
beside his beloved wife. He was greatly beloved
by the entire community and the people omitted no
mark of respect to his memory that friendship for
him and admiration for his character could prompt.
He was associated as a brave companion with men
whose deeds have made Texas famous. He main-
tained throughout a life marked with many hard-
ships, vicissitudes and perils a character unsullied
by a single stain. He was modest, truthful, gener-
ous and kind and devoted to his God, his country,
his family and his friends. He accumulated a
handsome fortune. By his last will and testament
he constituted his sister. Miss Susan Tivy, his sole
legatee and she and Judge A. McFarland were
made executors without bond. Mr. Tivy was one
of the noblest representatives of the noblest race of
pioneers that the world has ever known.
GEO. W. O'BRIEN,
BEAUMONT.
Capt. George W. O'Brien, one of the most widely
known and highly esteemed citizens of Southern
Texas, was born about five miles below the present
town of Abbeville, Vermillion Parish, Louisiana,
May 28th, 1833 ; and in his seventeenth year
(November, 1848) came to Texas and located at
Galveston, where he made his home, until his re-
moval in the latter part of 1852, to Beaumont,
where he has ever since resided. At Beaumont,
July 21st, 1854, he was united in marriage to Miss
Sarah E. Rowley, member of another Louisiana
family that had settled in that part of Texas. Of
this union were born seven children, Ave of whom
are now living, viz. ; Mrs. Minnie G. Stark (for-
merly Wilson) ; Mrs. Lillie E Townsend, wife of
Mr. T. L. Townsend, and Mrs. Emma E. Smith,
formerly wife of A. S. John, Elsq., deceased, but
now the wife of Mr. Harvey B. Smith, all now resi-
dents of Dallas, Texas; George C. O'Brien, Esq.,
of Beaumont, recently district attorney of his district
and later a member of the House of Representatives
of the Texas Legislature, and Mrs. KaletaB. James,
wife of Mr. William James, of Cleburne, Texas.
Capt. O'Brien won the military prelixto his name
by faithful and gallant service under the Confed-
erate flag, whose waning fortunes he followed until
it was furled forever.
From September 4th to December 10th, 1861, he
served as a privatein Company F. (Capt. K. Bryans),
Fifth Texas Regiment, and afterwards, until the end
of the war, as Captain of a company in what was
first Liken's Battalion, afterwards Speights' Battal-
ion, and later Speights' Texas Regiment — a mixed
regiment. While not a seeker after political dis-
tinction or preferment, he has been frequently
honored by his fellow-Democrats with important
offices ; has served as a member of many district
and State conventions and has ever been a well-
known and trusted member of the organiztd Democ-
racy, to which he has preserved an unshaken
allegiance, and in whose interests he has helped
plan and fight many successful political bat-
tles. He was a member of the National Demo-
cratic Convention that met at Baltimore in 1872.
In the presidential campaign of that year he
favored the nomination of a sound conservative
Norlhern Democrat, foretelling that Mr. Greely
would not be accepted as a Democrat North or
South, and that his nomination would result in an
overwhelming defeat. Indeed, in this instance, as
in many others, his cool and dispassionate judg-
ment was demonstrated by pointing out the true
course to be pursued, and relieved him of personal
responsibility for party failures. For instance,
although always entertaining a great admiration for
Gen. Sam Houston, he did not permit that majestic
leader to draw him into the folly of connecting
himself with the secret oath-bound political organi-
zation that styled itself the American party, but
which is better known to history as the Know-Noth-
ing party, giving as one of his reasons for refusing
to follow Houston, his belief that the Know-Noth-
ing party in seeking to proscribe a denomination of
religion, was committed to a policy obnoxious to
the fundamental principles that form the foundation
of our government, and all constitutional freedom
as well. When this party was in its heyday, and
sweeping the country, he predicted its speedy dis-
integration, claiming that no organization seeking
to ostracise any class of citizens because of their
peculiar religious faith, could long find favor with
the American people.
GP:0. W. O'BRIEN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
267
Again in the year 1860, after the election of
President Lincoln, and the adoption by South Car-
olina of her celebrated resolutions announcing the
fact that that State had seceded from the Ameri-
can Union, he furoished another evidence of the
soundness and reliability of his judgment. As a
member of a committee on resolutions at a seces-
sion meeting held at Beaumont he refused to sub-
scribe to and vote for the adoption of a copy of
the South Carolina resolutions, taking the position,
first, that Mr. Lincoln, being an honest states-
man, would under his oath of office maintain
and enforce all existing laws enacted in accord-
dance with constitutional provisions for the pro-
tection of the rights of the South, more efficiently
than his Democratic predecessors had succeeded
in doing, antagonized as they were by the people
of the North; and, second, that a resort to seces-
sion, as a cure of the ills that existed, was then
premature, inasmuch as the abolition forces had
secured possession alone of the executive depart-
ment of the national government, and control of
both branches of Congress, and the Supreme Court
of the United States remained in the hands of the
Democrats, rendering it impossible that existing
laws would be changed, the constitution amended,
or constitutional guarantees further invaded, dur-
ing the Lincoln administration, while it was alto-
gether probable that the fanatical disregard of the
organic laws and the rights of the people of the
Southern States thereunder, would be allayed and
finally subside, if cooling time were allowed, and
then the rights of the South would be accorded
for the future, or the slavery question would be
compromised, by the adoption of a just and peace-
able system of gradual emancipation.
His opposition proved of no avail. A large
majority of his fellow-citizens dissented from his
views. When threatened and condemned at this
meeting for the position he had taken, he, without
subscribing to the resolutions, gave the extreme
politicians present to unequivocally understand
that if they and others precipitated upon our State,
secession and consequent civil war, as he believed
prematurely, he would stand by his people and be
one of the first to shoulder a musket, and, from
the beginning to the end of the struggle, would
seek to do his full duty in the ranks of the sol-
diery of Texas, as there existed no difference of
opinion between him and other members of the
meeting as to the fact that the Southern States had
suffered outrages at the hands of the abolition
party that furnished ample justification for such a
course. He maintained, however, to the end of
the discussion, the unwisdom of secession at the
time.
Capt. O'Brien lost his first wife in 1873, and was
married again in 1874 to Miss Ellen P. Chenault,
then a resident of Orange, Texas. She is a sister
of Hon. Stephen Chenault, then a citizen of that
place, now of Goliad, and a daughter of Felix
Chenault, Esq., a resident and for nearly thirty
years county clerk of Gonzales County. She was
born in De Witt County, where her father and
mother (nee Miss Anna Trigg) formerly resided. By
this marriage two children have been born to them:
Chenault O'Brien and Eobert O'Brien.
The population as shown by the census of 1850,
was about 212,000. There were no railway or
telegraph lines between the borders of the State, and
by far the greater part of her domain was a primeval
waste. While of a modest and retiring disposition,
in the period that has supervened, no man, accord-
ing to his opportunities and abilities, has been more
zealous, or labored more effectively, in the noble
work of developing tlie resources of the State, and
none feel a deeper pride in her present and future
greatness.
He is a member of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, and Masonic and Knights of Honor
fraternities.
He has aided every worthy enterprise established
in his section, and has championed every worthy
cause.
Of spotless fame, cultured and refined in manner,
kindly and generous, and a worthy type of the true
gentleman, he enjoys the unfeigned friendship and
esteem of not only his immediate neighbors, but a
wide circle of personal and political friends, extend-
ing throughout the State.
268
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
J. J. JARVIS,
FORT WORTH.
James Jones Jarvis was born in Surry Countj',
N. C, April 30th, 1831, and received iiis educa-
tion in tiiat State, Tennessee and Illinois, his
parents, Daniel and Lydia Jarvis, having moved to
Illinois when he was about twenty years of age.
He read law with Hon. W. B. Somers, of Arbana,
111., wrote in the clerk's office at the same time to
acquaint himself with the machine work of practice ;
was granted license by the Supreme Court of Illinois,
in 1856 ; then started South and reached Shreveport,
La. , and in the winter of that year determined to
go to Texas. He at first thought that he would buy a
horse to travel on ; but, only having $100, realized
that such a purchase would too greatly diminish his
scanty supply of cash, and started out afoot ;
walked from Shreveport to the east fork of the
Trinity river in Collin County, and then, doubling
back on his course, went to Quitman, in Wood
County, located there and began the practice of his
profession. When he reached the town he had sixty
dollars and, loaning fifty-five dollars to a friend,
commenced his career with only five dollars in his
pocket. He soon won an enviable standing at the
bar, served for two years as county judge and two
years as district attorney of the Sixth Judicial Dis-
trict ; returned to the practice of law and in 1872
went to Fort Worth, where he has since resided.
Having saved a few thousand dollars, he invested
all he had in real estate and is now one of the
largest tax-payers in Tarrant County. He owns
one of the finest business blocks in the city, $40,-
000 stock in the Fort Worth National Bank, of which
he is vice-president, five thousand acres of land
ten miles north of the city, other valuable country
property and one hundred acres adjoining the city,
on which he has an elegant residence. He has
quite a passion for stock-raising and is engaged
in raising fine cattle and horses on his ranch near
town.
In 1861 Mr. Jarvis entered the Confederate army
as a volunteer in Company A., Tenth Regiment of
Texas cavalry, Ector's brigade, Van Dorn's corps,
Beauregard's Army of Tennessee, and served as
Adjutant and Major of his regiment. After the
battle of Corinth the troops with which he was con-
nected were transferred to Gen. E. Kirby Smith, and
Mr. Jarvis served with that army and took part in
its battles through the whole of Gen. Smith's cam-
paign in Kentucky, participating in the battles
around Richmond, Ky., and other engagements.
On the evacuation of Kentucky and after joining
Gen. Bragg, he was also in the battles of Murfrees-
boro and Jackson, Miss. In the former battle
he was slightly wounded, but did not leave the
field. He came home just before the close of hos-
tilities on furlough, and was at home when the
Confederate armies surrendered.
Mr. Jarvis was married in 1866 to Miss Ida Van
Zandt, daughter of Isaac Van Zandt, once Minister
from Texas to the United States and who was ap-
pointed by Gen. Sam Houston to negotiate the
treaty under which Texas became a member of the
American Union of States. They have three living
children: Van Zandt, Daniel Bell and Lennie
Flynn.
Mr. Jarvis has always been an active and earnest
Democrat, believing that upon the triumph and suc-
cessful application of the principles of that organi-
zation depends the perpetuity of free institutions in
this country. Although never in any sense an
office-seeker, he has not hesitated to serve his peo-
ple when it was thought that his experience
and abilities could be employed in the promo-
tion of the general good. He was nominated in
1886 by the Democracy of the twentieth sena-
torial districts composed of the counties of Tar-
rant, Parker, Wise and Jack, and was elected
by a majority of twelve hundred votes. In the
regular and extra sessions of the Twentieth Legisla-
ture and in the Twenty-first Legislature, he was
Chairman of the Committee on Finance (perhaps
the most important of all the standing commitees),
second on Judiciary Committee No. 1 (the next
most important), and a member of the committees
on Internal Improvements, Education, Public
Debt, Frontier Protection, Retrenchment and
Reform and Engrossed Bills, committees that with
those already enumerated transact nine-tenths of
the business that comes before the Senate. He was
the author of a number of salutary laws during
these sessions, among others one enacted by the
Twentieth Legislature requiring assessors and
collectors to report monthly their collections under
oath and requiring them to send all money collected
directly to the treasurer of the State instead of to
the comptroller, as formerly. The effect of this
bill was the speedy collection of a surplus in a
previously depleted treasury. Although he had
J. J. JAEVIS.
INDIAN WAUS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
269
retired from the practice of his profession a number
of years prior to his entrance into the Legislature,
his exceptional learning and abilities as a lawyer
were well known to and recognized by his colleagues
and this fact, combined with his reputation as a
financier, 'sound Democrat and man of sturdy and
unbending patriotic purpose, caused them to accord
him the position of a leader in their deliberations
and won for him their sincere esteem and friend-
ship.
Mr. Jarvis has been a liberal giver to public and
private charities and has been an active spirit in
the promotion of every worthy movement inaugu-
rated in Fort Worth during his long residence
there, designed for the upbuilding of the city. He
is, and has been for many years, a member of the
Christian Church and is now president of the Board
of Trustees of Add Ran (Christian) University
(located at Thorp Springs, in Hood County, Texas),
to which institution he has donated $10,000 during
the past five years.
Kind, genial, active ia every good work, few
men in Forth Worth exercise so wide an influence
or are so generally liked.
THE REMARKABLE ESCAPE OF CICERO R.
KIT ACKLIN, IN 1844.
PERRY AND
In the summer of 1844 Capt. John C. Hays,
of San Antonio, commanded a company of Texas
rangers, doing duty on both the Indian and
Mexican line of frontier north and west of that
town. That region, throughout the American
settlement of Texas, down to the close of the Civil
War in 1865, abounds in incidents of blood, daring
and personal heroism. At present it Is proposed
to narrate the facts connected with one of them.
From his camp at San Antonio Hays dispatched
four men on a scout towards the Rio Grande,
whose mission was to ascertain if the Mexicans
were again menacing the country. The party con-
sisted of Christopher H. Acklin (commonly called
Kit Acklin), Cicero Rufus Perry (almost univer-
sally known as Rufe Perry), John Carlton and
James Dunn. After a week in the wilderness they
halted at noon about a hundred yards east of the
Nueces river, and about fifteen miles above the
"Gen. Woll" crossing of that stream. After
dinner Carlton and Dunn, without saddles, rode
to the river, stripped and were taking a bath, when
Perry and Acklin were suddenly and furiously
attacked by about thirty Indians, yelling as they
charged upon the surprised couple. But though
surprised, they were both men of iron nerve, expe-
rienced and at home in the perils of their occupa-
tion. Seizing their arms, they fought and slowly
retreated towards Carlton and Dunn at the river.
Perry was shot three times with arrows, one
entering his temple, one in the shoulder and one
passing through his body from the right to the left
side. From excruciating pain he fainted, and was
evidently considered dead by the Indians, but
quickly jevived, and seeing the enemy busy in
plundering the camp, he arose and reached the
river bank, when one of the naked bathers, on
bareback, rode across to him and endeavored to
take him up behind ; but being too weak to mount.
Perry seized the horse by the tail, crossed the
river, and ascended the west bank, when he again
fainted. Believing him to be dead, his wounded
companion took charge of his gun and pistols.
While this was transpiring, Acklin, partly shielded
by a tree, was wounded in six or eight places, the
most serious being an arrow in his cheek, which he
was unable to extract. A moment, probably,
after Dunn and Carlton, both naked and bare-
back, left, consciousness again returned to Perry,
and he staggered into a dense thicket, from which,
at the same time, he saw Acklin pass, and sup-
posed he would seek the same refuge — but he
saw him no more.
It was 110 miles through the wilderness to San
Antonio, the nearest habitation. On the third day
Dunn and Carlton, their flesh almost roasted and
their skins peeling from their bodies, reached that
place, and reported Perry and Acklin as unquestion-
ably dead. Good nursing soon restored them to
soundness.
While in the thicket. Perry drew the arrows from
his temple and body, but could not withdraw the
one embedded in his shoulder. Finding his life
blood flowing, he staunched the wounds with
powdered leaves and dust. Crawling to the river,
driven by thirst, he filled his shoes with water, and
^70
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
^gain sought a hiding-place. At dawn next morn-
ing he again went to the river and lay by the water
all day, bathing his wounds with mud. When the
second night came, though scarcely able to stand,
desperation impelled him onward, and he began his
long and apparently hopeless journey, suffering
tortures from the arrow in his shoulder, weakened
by the loss of blood, and harrowed by the dread of
insanity from the sun beaming on his wounded
head. Gentle whispers urged him onward —
whispers of mother, sister, friends — whispers of
trust in God. Often sinking prostrate under the
alluring shade of trees, he would sleep sometimes
for hours, at others only through fitful moments,
with the one dread of inflamed and disordered
brain, and therefore inevitable death, ever present.
Thus he toiled, suffered, agonized for six days, his
only nourishment being three prickly pears, till, on
the seventh day, a living skeleton, he staggered
into San Antonio, as one risen from the dead — to
be joyfully embraced by valiant comrades and
those blessed ladies, who at that day, won the love
and the homage of all true soldiers who from time
to time held quarters in and around San Antonio —
of whom Mrs. Elliott, Mrs. Jaques and Mrs. Mav-
erick were conspicuous examples.
Kit Acklin was yet considered among the dead.
But not so.
On the eighth day, in much the same condition
as Perry, Acklin gave renewed joy to all by appear-
ing among them. His trials had been similar to
those of his comrade. The arrow was still tenac-
iously fixed in his cheek.
Both received needful medical treatment and
gentle nursing. The arrow was extracted from
each, and in a few weeks each was restored to fair
health ; but Perry never entirely recovered from the
wound in his temple, bearing to this day the ex-
ternal evidence of its severity.
Of these four gallant men, John Carlton died
long since in San Antonio; James Dunn was killed
in 1864, in a fight between Texas and Union
soldiers at Las Rucias, on the Lower Eio Grande ;
Christopher H. Acklin was a Captain in Hays'
regiment in the Mexican war, afterwards went to
California, and died there ; Cicero R. Perry, who
was born August 23, 1822 (I think in Alabama),
came to Texas in 1833, was in Col. Moore's Indian
fight and defeat, on the San Saba, February 12,
1839, in the skirmish of Casa Blanca, August 9,
1840, and in many contests with the Indians.
When Gen. Lee surrendered in 1865, Capt. Perry
commanded the advance guard of 183 men, under
my command, in an expedition against the Indians
into the Concho country. Then, as now, he lived
in Hays County, honored as a good citizen and
high-toned gentleman. It was a genuine pleasure
to again grasp his hand at the late semi-centennial
of San Jacinto as one of the Texas Vete,ran's re-
union in Dallas. Ourfriendship began in accident-
allj' meeting alone in an exposed wilderness west
of the Colorado, on a gloomy day in October, 1840.
We traveled alone all day and slept together that
stormy night. That friendship has been unbroken
and steadfast, changed only by increased endear-
ment with the flight of time.
JOSEPH LANDA,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Joseph Landa, who for so long a period has
figured as the chief factor in the development of
the pretty city of NewBraunfels, and who is widely
known and esteemed as one of Texas' most promi-
nent and worthy pioneers, was born in Prussia,
Germany. He came to San Antonio in 1846, as a
general merchant and real estate dealer, both in
San Antonio and New Braunfels. In 1859 he pur-
chased of Mr. Merriweather his entire water power
and milling interests at New Braunfels ; took posses-
sion of the same and commenced developments in
1860, since which time he has given to them his
best thought and energies.
The plants now being operated are a flour mill of
500 barrels capacity, a large electric light plant and
an 80-ton cottonseed oil mill.
At the present time Mr. Landa is busy increasing
the capacity of his oil mill to 100 tons per day and
putting in a late improved water wheel of 260 horse-
power, to operate the oil mill. The company has
also contracted for the erectiop of a new electric
light station, and, in addition to the new wheel, will
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
271
put in another one to operate several new dynamos
for light and the transmission of power, all of which
will materialize this (1896) spring.
The firm as it now stands, is doing the most ex-
tensive business of any institution in Western
Texas. It handled last year 3000 car loads of prod-
uct, which, with their enlarged facilities, will be
greatly increased this year. They are only await-
ing the advent of another railroad to build the
lai'gest oil mill and flour mill in the State of
Texas.
The entire business is managed by his son, Mr.
Harry Landa, with an efflcient force of about
seventy-five employees.
In 1851, Mr. Joseph Landa, subject of this notice,
was united in marriage to Miss Helen Friedlander,
daughter of Mr. Solomon Friedlander, of Albany,
N. Y.
Seven surviving children were born to this union,
three sons and four daughters.
Mr. Landa's home, facing the plaza in New
Braunfels, is one of the finest family mansions, in
point of architectural grace and completeness, in
interior arrangement, finish and furnishings, in
Southwestern Texas ; and here he and his wife
with their son live in quiet retirement, surrounded
by a wide circle of friends to make serene and
happy the remaining years of life.
E. L. R. WHEELOCK,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
Col. E. L. R. Wheelook, one of the first settlers
of Eobertson County, Texas, was a native of New
England, where he was reared and partly educated,
finishing his collegiate training at West Point, of
which he was a graduate. He served in the War of
1812 and in the Black Hawk War; settled when a
youug man in Illinois, where he lived for a while;
then went to Mexico and spent something over
three years, trading in that country ; returned to
Illinois, where he resided until 1833, engaged
principally in the mercantile and milling business,
and then came to Texas, and settled in Robertson's
tlolony, on the prairie, named for him Wheelock
Prairie, and laid out the town of Wheelock, which
was also named for him. He remained in Texas
until 1846, when he returned to Illinois to settle up
some business matters there, preparatory to trans-
ferring all his interests to Texas. He had consid-
erable landed possessions in Adams County and
<Juincy, 111., his name being perpetuated in the
history of that city by Wheelock square and
Wheelock addition. While on this journey he was
taken sick and died at Edwardsville, 111. His
trunk, containing many of his valuable papers, was
never recovered by his family (who remained in
Texas) in consequence of which they lost some of
his property.
During the troubles of 1835-6 he was in Texas
and was in what is known to history as the " Run-
away Scrape." After removing his family to a
place of safety, he started with his son, George R.
Wheelock, and his afterwards son-in-law, Samuel
A. Kimble, to join the array under Houston, but
reached it the day after the battle of San Jacinto.
His wife was Miss Mary P. Prickett before mar-
riage and was born in Lexington, Ky. Her
parents emigrated to Illinois at an early day and
there she met and was married to Mr. Wheelock.
She died in Robertson County, Texas, October 12,
1881, at the age of eighty-four years. To Mr.
Wheelock and his wife five children were born, the
youngest of whom, a son, Thomas Ford, died at the
age of five. The others grew to maturity. These
were: George Ripley, Annette Woodward, William
Hillman and David P. The three sons saw more or
less military service in Texas, George R. as a mem-
ber of the Minute Men and William H. and David P.
in the Mexican War, both the latter being present at
and taking part in the battles of Monterey and
Buena Vista. William H. and David P. also
served in the Confederate army during the war be-
tween the States. But two of the family are now
living: William H., who resides at Franklin, in
Robertson County, and the daughter, Annette
Woodward, now Mrs. S. B. Killough.
Mrs. Killough, at this writing, one of the oldest
settlers of Robertson County, was born in Bond
County, 111., in 1821. Accompanying her parents
to Texas in 1833 her entire life has since been
passed in this State — and that, too, within a mile
or so of where she now lives, near old Wheelock, in
Robertson County. She remembers many events
272
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
connected with the early history of the locality
where she lives and is a very entertaining
talker. She has borne her full share of the burden
of settling the country and her life has not been
without its sorrows in addition to the hardships
incident to the settlement of the country. She has
been three times married and is now a widow. Her
first marriage was in November, 1836, and was to
Samuel A. Kimble. There being no one authorized
to solemnize the rites of matrimony in Robertson's
Colony the contracting parties had to go to Nachi-
toches, La., where they were regularly united
aiccording to the laws of that State. Mr. Kimble
died three weeks later. In March, 1837, his widow
was united in marriage with Andrew Jackson
Powers, a noted pioneer who was killed January 9,
1839, in Morgan's defeat in what is now Falls
County. Of this marriage one child was born,
Thomas Washington Powers, who died when three
weeks old. The third marriage was in 1841, to
Samuel Blackburn Killough, who was born near
Murfreesboro, Tenn., September 10, 1813, and came
to Texas in 1839, settling at Old Franklin, Roberston
County, where he was engaged a short time in the
mercantile business. He then moved to Wheelock
Prairie and there spent the remainder of his life,
engaged in planting and stock-raising. He was
County Judge of Robertson County in the '50s
and was a member of the Constitutional Convention
of 1875 from Robertson, Brazos and Milam
counties. He died at his home near Wheelock,
June 21, 1876. To Judge Killough and wife were
born eleven children, six of whom reached matur-
ity: Nancy J., wife of George H. Dunn; Sallie
E., wife of William Henry; Annette, wife of Abe
McMordie ; Henry C, Charles Cavendish and Isaac
DeLafayette Killough.
Mrs. Killough at this writing lives with her son,
Isaac DeLafayette Killough, on the farm where
Judge Killough settled. She has all the neces-
saries and comforts of life. Her other children
live near enough for her to see them quite
often. She is indeed a kind, motherly, model
woman.
FREDERICK KALTEYER,
SAN ANTONIO,
Was born in Aademer, Grand Duchy of Nassau,
in 1817, where he was reared. In boyhood and
youth he attended the schools of his native place
and completed his education at Mayence and Gels-
sen, studying chemistry in the last named place
under Baron Von Liebig. He emigrated to New
Orleans in 1846 and the same year came to Texas,
stopping at Galveston, where he remained a short
time and put up and operated the first soda foun-
tain ever in the State. But the outlook was not
favorable for him there and he returned to New
Orleans, where he engaged in the drug business
until 1854, when, through the persuasions of
George Kendall, he sold out his interests and came
to Texas and purchased a ranch near Boerne, on
which he settled and undertook to raise stock. . At
the end of three years he had lost everything he had
except his land, and that he traded to Dr. F. Herff
for a small drug store in San Antonio. Removing
to that place he engaged again at his old business
and followed this with a fair measure of success as
long as he lived. The establishment which he pur-
chased and built up is still running now under the
firm name of F. Kalteyer & Son, on the north side
of Military Plaza.
Mr. Kalteyer was a man of fine attainments as a
chemist and a thoroughly good citizen, interesting
himself in everything pertaining to the welfare of
the communities in which he lived. While residing
in New Orleans he was a member of a number of
German benevolent associations and exerted him-
self in every way to relieve the necessities of his
countrymen and to enable them to get fair starts
in the new world. While residing near Boerne in
this State he acted as physician to the scattered
settlers of that locality, served them as county
judge and in difficult matters acted for them as a
wise and faithful adviser.
After settling in. San Antonio he gave his atten-
tion mainly to his business and, with the exception
of the position of alderman, never held any public
office.
In New Orleans he married Miss Henrietta Leon-
ardt, a native of Westphalia, Germany, of which
union there were born two sons and two daughters.
The daughters are Mrs. Adolph Herff and Mrs.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
273
George Altgelt, of San Antonio. The sons are
among the leading business men of that city. The
elder, Mr. George H. Kalteyer, being the senior
member of the firm of F. Kalteyer & Son, druggists,
president of the San Antonio Drug Company,
which he organized, the principal stockholder in
the Alamo Cement Company, which he also organ-
ized, a stockholder in the Lone Star Brewing Com-
pany and, in fact, is or has been connected in some
capacity with almost every public or private cor-
porate enterprise in the city, including the railways
for which he helped secure the right of way, and
in other ways lent valuable aid when they were
building into the city.
GEORGE W. GLASSCOCK, SR.,
AUSTIN.
G. W. Glasscock, Sr., was born in Hardin
County, Ky., on the 11th day of April, 1810, and
in that State was reared and spent his boyhood
daj's. In 1830 he emigrated to St. Louis, Mo.,
and two years afterwards moved to Springfield,
III., where he engaged in the mercantile business.
Soon the tocsin of war sounded. The Indian was
on the war path. The noted Chief Black Hawk
with his warriors had to be met. A call for vol-
unteers was made. Glasscock was among the first
who enlisted. He was elected First-Lieutenant in
Capt. J. M. Early's Company, and did his duty as
a faithful soldier during that short but trying and
wearisome campaign, in which his brother, Gregory
Glasscock, lost his life in the defense of his coun-
try. Next we find him flat-boating in partnership
with President Abraham Lincoln on the Sangamon
and Illinois rivers. When he quit this business
he returned to his uncle near St. Louis, Mo., where
he remained until tidings of deeds of daring going
on in the Southwest started him on a new field of
adventure.
He emigrated to Texas in 1834 and settled at
Zavalla, in the municipality of Jasper, again fol-
lowing the occupation of merchant in partnership
with T. B. Huling and Henry Millard. It was
here in 1837 that he married Miss Cynthia C.
Knight, the daughter of John Knight, of Davidson
County, Tenn. , who departed this life in 1866 and
left him and seven children surviving her.
In the latter part of 1836 his firm engaged exten-
sively in the land locating business, and Glasscock
was the surveyor. It was in this capacity that
he first became acquainted with Western Texas,
locating most of the land certificates of the firm in
Travis, Williamson, Burnet, Hays, Lampasas, and
Milam counties. Once when locating land cer-
tificates in Williamson County, the locating party
18
divided to search for good locations on Berry's
creek, and his party escaped a band cf Indian
warriors while the other party was massacred by
them.
When the fate of Texas was quivering in the
scales of destiny in 1835-6, the young surveyor
threw aside the compass and surveying-chain to
seize the musket and sabre and hurry to the front.
Of how he conducted himself the survivors of the
Grass Fight and those who participated in the
storming and capture of ' the Alarno with him in
December, 1835, can best tell, in both of which
engagements he did his full duty as a soldier and
patriot. He was First-Lieutenant in Capt. James
Chesshire's Company from Jasper, and was in ten
feet of Col. Milam who fell on the 10th of Decem-
ber, 1835, in the city of San Antonio, Texas, at
the storming and recapture of that city by the
Texians. He was in many engagements against
the Indians in the pioneer days of Texas.
Enchanted bythe beautiful prairies and valleys of
the Colorado and San Gabriel rivers, he moved to
the town of Bastrop, in 1840, where he remained
until 1844, when he moved to a tract of land that he
purchased and improved, one and one-half miles
west of Webberville, in Travis County, Texas. In
1848 he moved to Williamson County, near George-
town, and built the first flour-mill in Western
Texas. In the same year he donated to William-
son County one hundred and seventy-two acres of
land upon which the city of Georgetown is loca-
ted and which place was named in honor of him.
To the building up of Georgetown and Williamson
County he devoted much of his energy, time and
means. He moved to Austin, Travis County, in
1853, where he resided until his death, in 1868.
From 1850 to the time of his death- he filled many
important positions. He represented Travis and
274
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Williamson counties in the Tenth and Eleventh'
Legislatures. He was public-spirited and generous,
taking great interest in all public enterprises.
In 1887, the Twentieth Legislature, in apprecia-
tion of the distinguished services rendered by him
to Texas, created and named Glasscock County in
his honor. The following language was used in the
act creating the county: " The county of Glass-
cock is named in honor of George W. Glasscock,
who participated in the struggle for Texas Inde-
pendence, and was at the storming and recapture
of the Alamo on the 10th of December, 1835,
and was in the Grass fight and other engage-
ments which resulted in the Independence of
Texas."
He was a Mason and Odd Fellow. His death
was a great loss, not only to his family, but to the
country.
GEORGE W. GLASSCOCK, JR.,
GEORGETOWN.
Hon. George W. Glasscock^ Jr., was born Janu-
ary 10, 1845, in Travis County, Texas, where he
was reared, and resided until 1879, when he moved
to Georgetown, in Williamson County, where he
ha;s since resided. He served as county attorney of
Williamson County in 1879-80; was elected county
judge in 1880, and re-elected in 1882, and in 1884
was elected to the State Senate from the Twenty-
fourth District, composed of the counties of Travis,
Williamson and Burnet (" capitol district") and
was re-elected to the Senate in 1888. He is the
only man born in the district who has represented
it in the State Legislature. He served in the Senate
during the sessions of the Nineteenth, Twentieth,
Twenty-first and Twenty-second Legislatures. In
the Nineteenth Legislature he was a member of the
Senate Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.
At that time the construction of the new capitol
was in progress and it was perhaps the most im-
portant committee of the session. He was Chair-
man of the Senate Committee on Education during
the sessions of the Twentieth and Twenty-second
Legislatures. Considering the interests to be
guarded, this position was also one of great
responsibility.
At least $2,500,000 of school money was being
expended annually by the State of Texas. The
permanent fund amounted to $7,000,000 in securi-
ties ; about 25,000,000 acres of school lands that re-
mained unsold and about $10,000,000 in land notes.
No chairman of the Committee on Education
ever labored more zealously or effectively to guard
this rich heritage, designed by the wise statesman-
ship of former years to descend to and bless many
passing generations. His labors and accomplish-
ments in other directions were equally patriotic,
painstaking and productive of good and lasting
results. He made a record second to that of none of
his colleagues. He is a clear thinker and graceful
and powerful speaker and would make his influence
felt in any popular assemblage or legislative body.
In public life he has, in the support or opposition
that he has offered to pending measures, been guided
alone by a desire to secure the greatest good to the
greatest number, to protect the weak and restrain
and, if possible, prevent the injustice of the power-
ful and rapacious. He served in the Confederate
army during the war between the States as a mem-
ber of Duff's Thirty-third Texas Cavalry, Gano's
brigade. Walker's division, and made a gallant and
faithful soldier. He is a member of the Missionary
Baptist Church, Past Grand Master of the Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Knight Tem-
plar and a member of the Ancient Arabic Order of
the Mystic Shrine in Masonry, being a member of
Colorado Commandery No. 4, at Austin, and of
Ben Hur Temple of the Mystic Shrine at Austin.
He was united in marriage to Miss J. H. Boatner,
a daughter of Mr. J. R. Boatner, at Tennessee
Colony, Anderson County, Texas, on the 19th day
of March, 1865.
As a private citizen he has managed his business
affairs so as to be in independent circumstances
and is public-spirited, often giving of his time and
means to enterprises inaugurated for the building
up of the country.
DR. M. A. TAYLOE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
275
M. A. TAYLOR, M. D.,
AUSTIN.
Dr. M. A. Taylor was born at Columbus, Ohio,
November 12, 1830. His father was of Scotch, his
mother of English, descent.
His grandfather, Matthew Taylor, emigrated to
America before the Revolution (1760) and settled
with his large family near Richmond, Va., and
after the War for Independence purchased large
land claims from the Virginia soldiers. This land
had been set apart by act of Congress and certifi-
cates issued therefor. He purchased these certifi-
cates in quantities and located the land in Ohio,
between the Scioto river on the east and the Miami
on the southwest. He removed to this land and
settled on the spot where the flourishing city of
Chillicothe now stands.
Dr. Taylor's father, also named Matthew, was an
officer in the War of 1811-12 under command of
Gen. Wm. H. Harrison, and was promoted to the
rank of Colonel as a reward for conspicuous gal-
lantry. Col. Taylor was stationed for a time at
Franklin, on the south side of the Scioto river, the
county seat of Franklin County, Ohio, and during
the winter he and an uncle (John Taylor) and
Lyon Starling, laid off the site where now stands
the city of Columbus, on the east bank of the
Scioto, and here through their efforts and the active
interest and co-operation of State Senator John
McKnight (father-in-law of Col. Taylor) the State
capital was subsequently located.
Dr. Taylor, the subject of this memoir, was the
youngest of a family of five children, three sons
and two daughters. The sons were in the order of
their respective ages: John McKnight, Harvey
Milton and Matthew Addison; the daughters,
Rebecca, who became the wife of Jesse Cherry, and
Elizabeth, who married William Watkins.
Col. Taylor upon retiring from military life en-
gaged in the peaceful pursuits of milling and
farming. He died December 28, 1832. His widow,
a lady of great force of character and deep piety,
survived him something more than six years, dying
in March, 1839.
Dr. Taylor, thus left an orphan when nine years
of age, went to live with his oldest sister, Mrs.
Rebecca Cherry ; remained with her for two years
and then Matthew Taylor (a second cousin of his
father, and uncle by marriage to the lad) having
been appointed guardian, he thereafter lived with
him at his home near Columbus. He had been
placed at school during his stay with his sister and
his guardian also gave him the benefit of school
advantages, entering him as a pupil in the district
school, where he remained for two years and then
entered the high school conducted by the celebrated
instructor. Rev. Mr. Covert, and two years later
matriculated at the University of Oxford, Ohio,
where he finished his literary education. In 1846,
at the age of sixteen, he entered the office of his
brother. Dr. Harvey Taylor, and commenced the
study of medicine and, later, his brother being
honored by a call to a position on the staff of Gen.
Winfield Scott, studied under Dr. W. H. Howard,
professor of surgery at Starling Medical College.
To be a private pupil of Dr. Howard was a dis-
tinction which gave additional stimulus to the
student's ambition and he applied himself to the
acquisition of knowledge with such zeal and inter-
est that in a short time he was pronounced suflOi- ,
ciently advanced to enter college, and accordingly,
matriculated at Starling Medical College, and, after
two courses of lectures, was graduated M. D. in ■
1849, at the age of nineteen years. He had shown
such proficiency in his studies, especially in
applied anatomy, that at the suggestion of his dis-
tinguished preceptor, he was retained some months
as prosector for the chair of surgery and to make
dissections for the demonstrator. He then chose
Logan, tjae county seat of Hocking County, Ohio,
as a suitable field, and locating there about fifty
miles from Columbus, opened an office and began
the practice of his profession.
• December 25th, 1851, Dr. Taylor was united in
marriage to Miss Phoebe Lowe, daughter of Peter
B. Lowe, formerly a prosperous merchant at Bond
Brook, New Jersey.
The young doctor soon established a fine prac-
tice ; but, "alas, all things bright and fair must
fade," the worm was already at the heart of the
rose, the fell destroyer had marked his fair young
bride for an early grave, and, seeing the hectic
glow upon her cheek and noting the unmistakable in-
dications of pulmonary consumption, he determined
to make every effort in human power to save her.
He closed up his business, and having investigated
the claims of many so-called health resorts, deter-
mined to come South in the hope that the genial air
and the sunny skies of far-famed Texas would
restore her to health, and in 1852 reached Galves-
276
INDIAN TI'ABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ton, but soon became convinced that the excessive
humidity of the atmosphere there was prejudicial,
removed to Austin. The outlook was anything
but encouraging. In fact, the surroundings were
such as to make a less courageous heart quail. A
young man, a total stranger, with nothing but his
profession to rely upon for support, in a remote
village of fifteen hundred inhabitants, with an
invalid wife, and no money! He was, however,
undismayed, realized the necessity of providing
food and raiment, shelter, and even luxuries, for
his invalid wife and went to work at manual labor,
at anything honorable, no matter how humble or
how hard, that would supply their needs until the
dawn of brighter days. In a year he was able to
open an oiBce and resume the practice of medicine
and to purchase a small home, for cash. His wife
presented him with a winsome little daughter two
years after their arrival in the State. Her health
rapidly declined after that event, and in 1857, being
attacked with pneumonia, she perished with the
roses in the autumn of that year.
On the 27th of April, 1859, Dr. Taylor married
Miss M. H. Millican (his present wife) daughter
of Capt. O. H. Millican, a staunch Mississippi
planter who had adopted the Lone Star State for
his home. Two sons and four daughters were born
of this marriage, Edward H., born in I860; Mary
O., born ia 1862, now the wife of James Howell
Bunton, Esq., of Travis County, Texas; Addison,
who died at the age of eighteen months, born in
1864; Elizabeth, born in 1868, now the wife of
John W. Phillips, Esq., of Austin; Laura, who
died in infancy, born in 1871 ; and Daisee Belle,
born in 1878.
The daughter by the first marriage, Harriett Ann,
married Wm. A. Dixon, Esq., of St. Louis, a
brother of Dr. Charles Dixon of that city. He was
killed accidentally, five years after their marriage,
and his widow now resides in Austin.
Dr. Taylor was largely instrumental in 1855 in
bringing about the first organization of medical
men ever effected in Texas. With a few leading
physicians, among whom the matter was often
freely discussed, he called a meeting of the practic-
ing physicians of the State to be held at Austin.
There were present a respectable number of repre-
sentative men, and an organization was effected.
Facilities for travel and intercommunication between
the different parts of the State were few and dif-
ficult at the time and the population much less
dense than at present. Hence, for lack of sup-
port, this laudable movement failed to accomplish
the purposes intended. There were but two meet-
ings of the organization held before its practical
dissolution. Notwithstanding this discouragement,
Dr. Taylor insisted on keeping up the Travis County
Medical Society, the local organization of physicians,
the first in the State. When the present Texas
Medical Association was organized at Houston in
June, 1869, he promptly joined it and has since
been one of its most active and valuable members,
making rich and varied contributions to its litera-
ture, working for the enactment of needed legislation
by the State Legislature, laboring for the mainte-
nance of the dignity of the profession, and filling, at
various times, important offices in the association.
He served one term as first vice-president, and was
nominated for president in 1875, and came within
one vote of being elected, although he was not a
candidate and knew nothing of the intention of his
friends until afterwards informed of their action.
He represented Texas in the American Medical Con-
gress in 1876 and 1886 ; and was a delegate to the
Ninth International Medical Congress that met in
Washington City in June of the latter year. He
was one of the first movers in the direction of rail-
road building in Texas and largely influenced by
his means and advocacy the construction of the
first road to Austin, the central tap-road to Hem-
stead. He was also largely instrumental in the
building of the Austin & North Western Railroad,
and served for a time as its vice-president. He
was the first man in Austin to urge the construc-
tion of a dam across the Colorado. He has con-
tributed thousands and thousands of dollars to the
building of railroads, churches and school houses.
The causes of religion and education, the develop-
ment of the country, and the promotion of the
happiness and prosperity of the people have been
kept near to his heart, and no man in Texas has
worked more untiringly or zealously in these noble
fields of effort.
Shortly after the founding of the State Asylum
for Deaf Mutes at Austin, Dr. Taylor was ap-
pointed one of the trustees of that institution by
Governor Sam Houston. He was also made visit-
ing physician to the Blind Institute. Governor E.
J. Davis, after the war between the States, made
him one of the Board of Managers of the Insane
Asylum and he was unanimously chosen president
of that board. He was also a member of the Board
of University Regents and filled this and other posi-
tions of trust until the time of Governor Coke's ad-
ministration. His services in these capacities were
invaluable. Under the law, as it existed when he
entered upon his duties as one of the University
regents, the University lands, of which the Univer-
sity fund of Texas mainly consists, were on the
market and being sold for $1.50 per acre. No one
S. W. SLAYDEN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
277
before him, it appears, had taken note of the fact
that with railroad extension and the consequent
development of the country, these interior lands had
greatly augmented in value. He discussed the sub-
ject with members of the legislature, and believing
that the State was being literally robbed through a
drowsy indifference on the part of those whose duty
it was to look after such matters, at once set to
work to put a stop to it. The outcome was a bill
drawn up by him and introduced in the legislature
by Jack Harris of Galveston, repealing the law.
The bill passed and no more lands were sacrificed.
Dr. Taylor was strongly opposed to secession. He
was family physician to, and a warm personal
friend of Gen. Sam Houston, and shared the opin-
ions of that hero and statesman on the subject.
When secession was attempted and war followed,
Dr. Taylor's sympathies, however, were fully with
the people of the South and he organized an asso-
ciation at Austin, to see to the maintenance of the
wives and children of Confederate soldiers, and
gave them, besides, his services as a physician
freely and without charge. Prior to the war he
had accumulated about $100,000. The close of the
struggle found him a comparatively poor man. His
courage and business acumen did not fail him at
this juncture, however. He had great faith in the
ultimate rehabilitation of the country and its rapid
development, and invested all the means that he
could command in Austin city property and realty
in other parts of Texas and did not relax his labors
as a general practitioner. As a result he is now
one of the wealthiest men in the State. In 1855,
he connected himself with the B'irst Presbyterian
church at Austin and did much to keep that then
feeble organization in existence. The oflScers of
the church early manifested their appreciation of
his zeal and liberality and elected him president of
the board of trustees. In that capacity he has
done faithful service, giving of his means with
princely generosity and laboring by day and by
night, in season and out of season, in his Master's
cause.
As a professional man. Dr. Taylor deservedly
ranks very high. His opinion in diagnosis, as well
as his aid in prescribing, is valued highly by his
colleagues, and in many difficult cases he is called
in consultation. There are few families in Austin,
or indeed in Travis County, who have not, at some
time or other, had the benefit of his wise counsel
and the benefit of his skill at the bedside of some
loved one. He is uniformly courteous in social
and professional life and in his family is a model
husband and father. He loves his home and his
children, and what leisure time he has, which is
little, he spends with his family. His palatial home,
situated in the center of the city, is an ideal man-
sion surrounded by all that is bright and attractive
or ministers to refined enjoyment. His life is one
long record of noble efforts. He is one of the men
who have not only achieved success, but deserved
it. He is admired and beloved by thousands of
people throughout Texas and is a citizen who is an
honor to the State.
S. W. SLAYDEN,
WACO.
For the subject of this memoir the author has
selected a man who is well known to all Texas, and
who has already made his impress, deep and clear,
upon the times in which he lives. We refer to Mr.
S. W. Slayden, of Waco, president of the State
Central Bank, and secretary of the Slayden-Kirksey
Woolen Mills of Waco, Texas ; vice-president of
the Dallas Cotton Mills of Dallas, Texas, and the
Manchester Cotton Mills, of Forth Worth, Texas.
He was born in Graves County, Ky., July 22, 1839.
His father, Mr. T. A. Slayden, was born in
Virginia in 1819, and moved to Kentucky in 1830,
and was a merchant and planter who controlled
large business interests.
Mr. T. A. Slayden married Miss Letitia Ellison
Beadles, also a native of Virginia, daughter of Mr.
William G. Beadles, at the time of her marriage a
wealthy planter in Kentucky.
Of this union six children were born, five of
whom are now living. Mr. T. A. Slayden died at
Mayfield, Ky., in 1869, and his wife in New
Orleans, La., in 1874.
The subject of this memoir, S. W. Slayden, was
the second of their children : secured an academic
278
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
education ; studied law under the celebrated practi-
tioner, Edward Crossland ; and in 1858 was admit-
ted to the bar atMayfleld, Ky., when nineteen years
of age.
He continued professional work until the begin-
ning of the war between the States, and then
enlisted in the Confederate army as a soldier in
Company C, First Regiment of Kentucky Infantry,
commanded by Col. Blanton Duncan, and was with
Stonewall Jackson and, later, with Longstreet in
Virginia, until the disbandment of his regiment,
when he returned to his home in Kentucky and
resumed the practice of law.
In 1869 he went to New Orleans and formed a
law partnership with Mr. Kerr, the firm name be-
ing Slayden & Kerr, a relationship that continued
until 1874.
In the latter year Mr. Slayden acquired an in-
terest in coal mines near St. Joe, Mo., and removed
to that place to look after their development, and
entered into partnership with Mr. R. D. Blair.
Here also he became a large stockholder in a com-
pany organized for the purpose of handling coal.
From this time he entered upon a brilliant and
successful career as a financier, and his business
interests became so large and varied as to render
it inexpedient for him to further continue his pro-
fessional career, although his practice had become
large and he had won for himself a commanding
position as an able and skillful lawyer.
After a residence of four years at St. Joe, he
moved to St. Louis, Mo., and in 1882 from that
city to Waco, where he has since resided.
Here he engaged in various financial operations,
and in 1887 purchased a controlling interest in the
State Central Bank, of which, as previously stated,
he is the president.
He has been a colaborer with Mr. Wm. Cameron
in many important undertakings that have been
pushed by them to success. Besides Mr. Slayden's
connection with the industrial plants heretofore
enumerated, he has various other large investments
and business connections in Central Texas.
He was married June 19, 1872, to his first wife.
Miss Susan A. Bailey, daughter of Mr. David
Bailey, of Champaign, 111. She died in Waco,
Texas, in 1886. Two children were born of
this union, of whom one is now living, Bailey
Slayden.
At Denver, Colo., November 12th, 1891, Mr.
Slayden was united in marriage to Mrs. Emma C.
Whitsitt, widow of Mr. R. E. Whitsitt, who was
a prominent resident of that city. Mr. Slayden
is a member of the Masonic fraternity. He has
been a leader in ever3' worthy enterprise inaugu-
rated in Waco, and there is not a man in that city
who has contributed more largely to the upbuilding
of the city and the development of the resources of
the central portion of the State.
His service to Texas at large has been great and
invaluable, as he has done much to demonstrate
the feasibility of the firm establishment and suc-
cessful operation of manufactories within her
borders. While not a politician, in the sense that
conveys the idea of an office seeker, he has been
a tireless, able and effective worker in the cause
of good government, using all the force of his
infiuence in that direction. He is a leading spirit
in all that pertains to the material welfare of
Texas.
H. KEMPNER,
GALVESTON.
Harris Kempner was born in the town of Kisnet-
ski, Poland, March 7th, 1837. His educational
advantages were limited, hardly, in fact, worth
mentioning. At the age of seventeen he came to
the United States, making his first stop in New
York City, where he found employment as a com-
mon laborer, at twenty-five cents a day. Later he
picked up some knowledge of the brick-mason's
trade and followed this for several months, until,
having saved enough from his earnings to buy a
small stock of merchandise and pay his passage
to Texas, he came to this State in 1856. He
established his headquarters at Cold Springs in
San Jacinto County and for about four years pre-
ceding the war followed peddling in that section of
the State.
With the opening of hostilities between the
North and the South in 1861, Mr. Kempner entered
the Confederate army, enlisting in Capt. J. Em.
Hawkins' Company, from Ellis County, which
Eng^bxH.ScC.Koevoeis.NY
r=i.i«v^vLLi4'.j ."?,■, '11. ,;'i.s.<i -■yj^'H'^ijii.-E I'^i^Jj-
nTpcc^nn/iJ^
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF. TEXAS.
279
became part of Parsons' Brigade, and with which
be served from the date of bis enlistment until the
close of the war. He took part in all the opera-
tions in which this celebrated command partici-
pated, including the series of engagements incident
to Bank's Red river campaign, in one of which his
horse was shot from under him and he was
severely wounded, necessitating his transfer to the
Quartermaster's department where, in recognition
of his gallantry and ability, he was made Quarter-
master-Sergeant.
After the war Mr. Kempner returned to Cold
Springs, opened a store and engaged in the general
mercantile business at that place until 1870, when
he moved to Galveston. There he formed a part-
nership with M. Marx under the firm name of Marx
& Kempner, and for eight years conducted one of
the largest wholesale grocery establishments in the
city of Galveston. Mr. Kempner began to interest
himself in local enterprises in Galveston immediately
upon settling there and for a period of more than
twenty years his name was connected in some
capacity with a number of the city's leading busi-
ness concerns. He was a charter member, director
and energetic promoter of the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe Railroad Company, and did much toward
building and extending the road and effecting its
consolidation with the Atchison, Topeka & Santa
Fe. In 1885, after the failure of the Island City
Savings Bank, he was made its president on
its subsequent reorganization, placed it on a
safe basis and was its oflSeial head at varying
periods until failing health led to his retire-
ment. He was for many years president of
the Texas Land and Loan Company, resigning this
position also on account of his health. His other
investments were large and . covered almost every
field of legitimate enterprise. Public enterprises,
whatever would elevate, adorn or improve the
society in which he moved or the country in which
he made his home, met his cordial approbation and
received his prompt advocacy and assistance.
Mr. Kempner was always known as simply a
plain man of business. He never sought office and
took but little interest in partisan politics. As the
directing spirit of the enterprises with which he was
connected he brought to the exercise of his duties
a ripe experience, wise foresight and calmness and
deliberation of judgment found only in few men.
He did his own thinking and acted promptly and
vigorously as occasion demanded. He was attrac-
tive in presence and hearty and winning in manner.
His uprightness and general worth were every-
where known and admitted, and his friends were
legion.
In 1872, Mr. Kempner married Miss Eliza Sein-
sheimer of Cincinnati, Ohio, and the iesue of this
union was seven sons and four daughters. His
home life was charming and pleasant; under his
own roof and by his own fire-side he realized the
best phases and the truest enjoyments of this life.
On April 13th, 1894, after a brief illness of ten
days, Mr. Kempner died, passing away in the prime
of manhood, yet leaving a name full of honor and
a record of many years spent without shame or
blemish.
MARX MARX,
GALVESTON.
Marx Marx is a native of Prussia, born on the
Rhine, October 10th, 1837. His father, a Prussian
tradesman, a man of good character, was engaged
in mercantile pursuits for some years in his native
country when he emigrated to the United States and
settled at New Orleans. From there he came to
Texas and is now a resident of Galveston, making
his home with the subject of this sketch, and is in
his eighty-sixth year. The mother of Marx Marx
bore the maiden name of Gertrude Levi and was a
native of France. She died several years ago in
New Orleans.
The subject of this memoir was chiefly reared in
New Orleans, in the schools of which place he
received his education. He attended Franklin
High School in that city to the age of fourteen,
when he entered his father's grocery store as a
clerk. After a year of this employment, not liking
the confinement, he left New Orleans and went to
Central America to seek his fortunes. After
spending eight months there and meeting with but
little success he determined to go to California
where he landed in 1852, a perfect stranger with
only ten cents in his pocket. He soon found a
280
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Lome with a widow, a former friend of tlie family
in New Orleans, and accepted the first position
that was offered him — that of clerk in a butcher's
stall at a salary of $25.00 per month.
He saved his earnings and in less than a year
was enabled to go into business for himself on a
small scale. He remained in California until 1856,
when he returned to New Orleans, making the trip
from San Francisco to that city in thirty-one days,
the quickest on record at the time. After a short
visit to his old home he returned to California and
settled at Sacramento. Investing his means in a
small cigar jobbing trade, he followed this with
marked success for some months. He then induced
two friends to join him in the purchase of a stock
of goods and the three went to British Columbia,
then an attractive field for Western adventurers.
The country at that time was mostly in. the posses-
sion of the Hudson Bay Company, whose agents
watched all American enterprises with jealous eyes,
and used every means except force to prevent
traders from settling in their locality.
Young Marx, however, established himself on
the extreme northern line of the United States, and
for the first time, planted the Stars and Stripes in
that vicinity. He soon acquired a large and lucra-
tive trade, bartering his goods for furs with Indian
trappers. After acquiring a considerable amount
of money at this, he determined to return to civil-
ization, and accordingly, with his two companions,
and four friendly Indians, attempted to cross the
Gulf of Georgia in a canoe in order to get into
what is now Whatcom, Washington, but was over-
taken by a storm and at night was washed ashore
on one of the numerous islands in that bay. Here
they were Surprised by hostile Indians from neigh-
boring islands, who were deadly foes to the Indians
of his party. Mr. Marx' presence of mind did
not desert him, but meeting them in a friendly
manner and addressing them in their own language
he told them that he was not a "King George
Man," the name given by the Indians to English-
men, but was a " Boston man," meaning a citizen
of the United States. The Chief warmly welcomed
him, consented to accept as presents several bolts
of red calico and some blankets and permitted the
party to proceed unmolested on their way. After
many other trying experiences he reached Saa
Francisco in 1861.
About this time news was received there of the
large silver finds in the territory of Nevada, and
Mr. Marx went there, where he engaged in trade
and added considerably to his possessions. In 1863
he went to Utah and established himself at Ameri-
can Fork, a small village thirty-five miles south of
Salt Lake, where he did a prosperous business for
two years. He then went to Virginia City, Mont.,
at that time the capital of the territory, and estab-
lished a wholesale grocery house. Here he took
an active part in the affairs of the day and made
money rapidly. At the end of three years he left
Montana and returned to New Orleans, where, on
July 7th, 1868, he married Miss Julia Newman and
on the following day set out for Galveston, Texas.
On his arrival at that place he engaged in the mer-
cantile business and with only one brief interval
has been so engaged since. From 1868 to 1871 he
was associated with Sampson Heidenheimer in the
grocery business. From 1871 to 1886 he was
in partnership with Harris Kempner under the
firm name of Marx & Kempner, and during this
time built up a very large wholesale grocery trade.
Since 1890 he has been senior member of the firm
of Marx & Blum, wholesale dealers in hats, caps,
boots and shoes, one of the largest mercantile
establishments in the South.
Mr. Marx has taken stock in many local enter-
prises, in some of which he has held and still holds
positions of trust, among the number: The Citi-
zens' Loan Company ; The Texas Banking and Im-
provement Company ; The Galveston Loan and Im-
provement Company, and the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe Eailway Company, besides various banks,
both in Galveston and in different parts of the State.
Mr. Marx has been successful in business, and
his success has come to him in response to the
exercise of industry, sagacity and sound business
judgment. He has never engaged in politics. He
is of the Jewish faith in religion, and is a member
of the Masonic fraternity. He and his wife have
had four children : Fannie, who died at the age of
eight, in March, 1878 ; Nettie, now Mrs. Nat M.
Jacobs; Gertrude, now Mrs. Samuel H. Frankel,
and Josetta, now Mrs. A. Blum.
ii,r![j5 2 7 'v.i.naEner nM-yn.i'i, l
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
281
LEON BLUM,
GALVESTON.
The muse of history, lifting the veil which time
has drawn between us and that remote past which
fades toward and shades imperceptibly into the
night of a still deeper past, discloses a state of so-
ciety that, to the careless observer and superficial
thinker, has nothing in common with that of the age
in which we live, and yet the essential difference is
more apparent than actual.
From that dim long-ago to the pearl-white glim-
mer of the dawn of modern civilization on down to
this time, when the sun of human progress approaches
its meridian, the world has been but a vast arena
in which all have had to struggle, and in which the
strong have ever triumphed and the weak have ever
perished. At first, and for many weary centuries,
cunning and brute force determined results. Now
it is mind that sways the destinies of men and
nations. The weapons used are of later make.
Now that the moral sense has been more fully de-
veloped, the combats are not so revolting, but the
ability and skill required are greater and the battles
fought equally fierce and unrelenting.
The savage desired to maintain his occupancy of
a piece of soil that suited his purpose, to seize the
flocks of a neighbor or to reduce an adjoining tribe
to slavery — to make others toil for him — deal out
destruction at will and to himself enjoy ease, com-
fort and security. Such was his idea of power and
happiness. The modern ideal is to meet disap-
pointments and reverses with fortitude and cour-
age, conquer diflSculties, accumulate wealth, be
widely useful and helpful, and maintain, from the
cradle to the grave, a probity of character that will
excite the respect of contemporaries and be a source
of just pride to descendants. It is a loftier ideal,
truly, and one more difficult to attain, but, many
noble-minded men and women have reached it.
The youth, when he girds him for the fight, and
steps out into the world's great arena, little dreams
of what awaits him in the fray. Confidently he
rushes into the mass to struggle with competitors.
How many are disappointed ! How many prove too
weak of purpose, of mind, of will ! How many
listen to the siren songs of the demons of unrest,
dissipation, vice and idleness! Out of a hundred,
fifty will barely manage to live on to the
final summons by acting as the agents and in-
struments of others, thirty, their early hopes
blown aloft like feathers of fancy and whistled
down the chill blasts of Destiny's December,
will be moderately successful ; nineteen prove a
curse to society and only one gains the laurel- wreath
of victory. These are truths that hold good as to
all pursuits, professions and avocations. Not one
quality alone, but many are required for the at-
tainment of what is worthy to be dignified with the
name of success. In commercial pursuits, more,
perhaps, that in any other department of human
effort, are varied abilities essential. The dangers
that threaten wreck and disaster lie thick upon every
hand and the competition is nowhere more deter-
mined, or the clash of mind with mind keener or
more constant.
Natural aptitude, clearness of mental prevision,
soundness of judgment, capacity alike for planning
and executing and the power to control men and
make them faithful, willing and capable instruments
for the accomplishment of fixed purposes are some
of the prerequisites necessary for the attainment of
any considerable eminence as a merchant, financier
or in anj' of the higher commercial walks.
Few men are so widely known in Texas or have
done more for the development of the agricultural,
industrial and trade resources of the Stale than
Leon Blum, the subject of this brief memoir. He
is a member of the great importing and mercantile
house of Leon & H. Blum, of Galveston, whose
business, through its agents and correspondents,
ramifies Texas and the Southwestern States and
extends to many distant lands.
He was born in the year 1837, in Gunderschoffer,
Alsace, at one time a department of France, and
since the Franco-Prussian War a part of the German
Empire. His parents were Isaac and Julie Blum.
The law requiring all males, without distinction of
rank or social position, to learn some useful trade,
he was apprenticed to a tinsmith ; but, the pursuit
not being congenial, he ceased to follow it after
serving his time. Believing himself capable of suc-
ceeding in mercantile life, for which he had apti-
tude, he at once embarked in it. Believing that
wider and better fields were to be found in the
United States, he set sail for this country in the
spring of 1854, and, arriving in Texas, established
himself in the town of Richmond. The author of
" Triumphant Democracy " never uttered a greater
truth than when he said that the timid, unenter-
prising and indolent of foreign countries are con-
282
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tent to live at home, however harsh the social and
political institutions, or meager the opportunities of
acquiring financial independence, and that it is the
aspiring, active, energetic, able and liberty-loving
young men who go across seas, mountains and
deserts to improve their fortunes, and that America
owes as much to the latter class of her citi-
zenship as to any other for the wonderful
progress she has made over other nations. This
truth is amply demonstrated by the lives of such
men as Leon Blum. His ventures, being carefully
watched and managed, he largely increased his
capital at Richmond and, having now become
thoroughly acquainted with the people and require-
ments of trade in the new country, felt the need
of a basis to operate from that would enable him
to extend iiig transactions and, accordingly, moved
to Galveston in 1869. He became at once the
largest importer of dry goods in Texas, supplying
the merchants of this and adjoining States, receiv-
ing in return, immense shipments of cotton and
developing an export trade in that staple. He has
invested largely in lands in Texas, and engaged in
cultivating them with considerable profit. He has
been a liberal contributor to every worthy public,
and many private, enterprises, giving liberally of
his time and means. His faith in the future of
Galveston and Texas is strong and abiding and he
has shown it by his works, few men having made
larger investments in realty and in enterprises
of a permanent nature. His business has grown
from year to year until for many years past he
has ranked among the foremost and wealthiest
of the merchants and financiers of the South-
west.
The firm of Leon& H. Blum was formed in 1865,
by the admission of his cousin, Mr. H. Blum, a
gentleman of wide business experience and capac-
ity, to a copartnership. Mr. Leon Blum was
married to Miss Henrietta Levy, of Corpus Christi,
in 1862 and has two children : Cecile, now Mrs.
Aaron Blum, and Leonora, the wife of F. St. Goar,
Esq., of New York. The soldier is said to become
steeled to carnage, the surgeon indifferent to
human suffering and the man, who has by long
years of toil acquired wealth, indifferent to the mis-
fortunes, misery and destitution of his fellow-men,
yet there have been soldiers, great ones, too, who
have been just and merciful and slow in shedding
blood ; surgeons with hearts as gentle as a woman's,
and rich men, who have earned their riches, who
have performed noble acts of charity. Such men,
and such alone, are really deserving of respect and
among such the subject of this biographical notice
deserves a worthy place. He has never been un-
mindful of the merits of the deserving but unsuc-
cessful, nor deaf to the appeals of the unfortunate,
for he has been a liberal giver from his store to the
worthy and a generous friend to those in distress,
irrespective of their religion or nationality. His
private charities have been innumerable and are of
almost daily occurrence. To such benevolent
institutions as the Baylor Orphan Home it has been
a pleasure to him to make contributions and, being
an ardent advocate of popular education, he has
donated large sums for school purposes. While he
has spent money with a lavish hand in these direc-
tions, his good deeds have always been quietly
performed, and never preceded by a fanfare of
trumpets or prompted by a desire to excite com-
mendation. What he has done, has been done be-
cause he earnestly desired to lighten burdens
bowing fellow-beings in sorrow to the dust, and to
make the world brighter and better as far as in him
lay. In personal appearance he is of the Saxon
type. He is five feet eleven inches in height, with
fair complexion and bluish-gray eyes. His physique
is well proportioned and he is what one may call a
fine-looking man. He has been identified with
Texas for more than forty-one years. He landed
on our shores well-nigh penniless and friendless and
with scarcely any knowledge of the country. The
difficulties that confronted him would have proven
insurmountable to a man of ordinary mold. He
made opportunity his slave, not his master. He
made a high position in the business and social
community and the acquisition of wealth objective
points, but honor and truth his guides. He deter-
mined not to sustain defeat, but at the same time
not to accept success except upon the terms he
prescribed to Fortune, viz., that it should come to
him because he deserved it.
EnaJl AVrE3ih=rE:d-T,]i
ILHOn SLIUM.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
283
WILLIAM VON ROSENBERG,
AUSTIN.
From the days when the immortal Hermann in-
flicted upon the legions under Varriis one of the
first and most crushing defeats ever sustained by
the Roman arms, the great Germanic race has been
famous in history for its devotion to the principles
of liberty and self-government. Its blood and
strength of purpose have found expression in the
annals of the composite English-speaking people
who have encircled the globe with their conquests
and promises to direct the future course of human
progress. Its sons, from the first settlement of
America — upon the field of battle, in legislation
and in all the varied walks of private life — have
contributed their full share to the prosperity and
glory of the country. They have come to the
United States from all ranks of life in the father-
land — not only the peasant, dissatisfied with his
lot; but, men of noble birth, who wished to cast
their fortunes with the people of this country and
exercise their energies in a wider and freer field
than the old world offered them. Of the latter
class is the subject of this sketch, Mr. William von
Rosenberg, for many years past a respected and
influential citizen of Austin, Texas.
The genealogy of the Rosenberg family dates
back to the twelfth century, when in the year A. D.
1150, Vitellus Drsini, of Rome, emigrated to the
German Empire, built the town of Rosenberg in
Bohemia, acquired the name of Ursini von Rosen-
berg, and became the founder of the family of that
name. In the early history of Austria for several
centuries members of the family occupied promi-
nent positions in church and political affairs.
Reichsgraf (Count) Andreas Ursini von Rosenberg,
who lived in the year A. D. 1685, may be mentioned
as closing the fifth century of the family liistory.
The von Rosenbergs, members of the order of Ger-
man Knights, scattered over Germany and the Bal-
tic coast States. One of them, Wilbelm Dietrich
von Rosenberg, in the year A. D. 1620 became a
member of the Bench of Knights of Courland and
from him the subject of this sketch is lineally de-
scended, as shown by the family genealogy pre-
served in the archives of the Bench. His father,
Carl von Rosenberg (at the age of sixteen) and his
father's elder brothers, Gustav, and Otto, volun-
teered in the service of their country in 1813 in the
war against Napoleon I.
His father's youngest brother, Ernest, relin-
quished his commission as Lieutenant in the Prus-
sian army for political reasons, came to America
and in October, 1821, landed, together with about
fifty-three other adventurers, on the Texas coast.
The party, known as " Long's Expedition," after
having taking possession of La Bahia (GoHad), were
taken prisoners by Mexican troops, but were re-
leased upon the promise that they would peacefully
settle in the country.
Ernest von Rosenberg, being a soldier, joined
the Mexican army and was promoted to the rank
of Colonel; but, espousing the cause of the ill-fated
Iturbite, was shot to death upon fhe downfall of
the latter. He was among the first Germans to
visit Texas.
About this time, October 14, 1821, William von
Rosenberg, the subject of this notice, was
born on his father's estate, known as Eckitten,
near the town of Memel, in East Prussia. After
completing the high school course at Memel, he
engaged as an apprentice to a government sur-
veyor. In 1838 he was the private secretary of
an administrative officer in landed affairs and,
when the latter was transferred to the province of
Saxony, went with him to his new appointment and
remained his private secretary until 1841 and then
entered the army to serve his term as a soldier, and
in 1844 was appointed a Lieutenant in the reserves.
In 1845 he entered the examination for government
surveyor and obtained the unusual qualification
"excellent." After filling a government appoint-
ment for some time, he, in 1846, entered the Uni-
versity of Architecture in Berlin, and two j-ears
later qualified as royal architect. He was then
employed in supervising the erection of two govern-
ment school buildings in Berlin, upon the comple-
tion of which he found himself, in June, 1849,
proscribed as a Democrat and unable thereafter to
secure any further employment under the Prussian
government, which had assumed reactionary tend-
encies in the direction of despotism. Owing to his
outspoken Democracy he was advised by the
major commanding the reserve battalion in which
he served, that, if he would apply therefor,
he would receive an honorable discharge from,
the army ; meaning, of course, that otherwise
he would be dismissed without such discharge.
At this time he was twenty-eight years old with
a prospect before him that whatever he might en-
284
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
gage in he would be opposed by influences beyond
his power to control. With his career in the father-
land thus abruptly ended, he concluded to leave
the country. At that time a great deal had been
written and printed in Germany about Texas, in con-
sequence of the efforts of the German Emigration
Company, and he therefore selected Texas as his
future home. His parents and family looked upon
him as a self-reliant man who had made his own
way in the world and, he being the oldest of seven
children, they did not attempt to persuade him to
remain in Germany, where they knew that he would
be the victim of persecution ; but, deeply attached
to one another, they concluded that the whole
family, consisting of thirteen persons, would emi-
grate together and seek happiness under freer in-
stitutions. Previous to their departure he married
Miss Auguste Anders, to whom he was betrothed.
After a sixty days' voyage in a sailing vessel they
landed at Galveston, Texas, on the 6th of Decem-
ber, 1849. They settled in Fayette County at and
in the vicinity of Nassau Farm. He there followed
farming for six years, learned the English language
and in 1855 became a citizen of the United States.
Being a skillful draughtsman, he was called upon
to draw a design for the courthouse of Fayette
County which was built at La Grange. This work
gave such general satisfaction that he was recom-
mended by American friends to the Commissioner
of the General Land-Office of Texas, the Hon.
Stephen Crosby, as a well-qualified draughtsman
and, in consequence thereof, moved to Austin in
April, 1856, and was appointed to the first vacancy
as such in October of the same year. The Land
Office was then in a small building in the Capitol
yard and the business of the office had not then
developed to the proportions which it has assumed
in later years. The personnel of • the office
at that time consisted of the commissioner, chief
clerk, translator, chief draughtsman, six assistant
draughtsmen and twenty clerks.
In November, 1857, Stephen Crosby was suc-
ceeded by F. M. White, who held the office of
Commissioner for four years. Mr. Crosby was
then again elected to the office, took charge in
November, 1861, and appointed Mr. von Rosen-
berg whom he had selected therefor to the position
of chief draughtsman, which he held until the
fall of 1863, when he was requested to serve as
topographical engineer under Gen. J. Bankhead
Magruder, in the Confederate army.
When the question of secession came to be de-
cided by the voters of Texas, Mr. von Rosenberg
cast his ballot for it, his reasons therefor being
that he had left Prussia on account of having been
proscribed for his political opinions, had selected
Texas for his future home with full knowledge of
the existence of the institution of slavery in the
State and had not come as a reformer, but to live
with its people, who received him as a stranger un-
conditionally. He felt it to be his duty, whether
right or wrong, to stand with the people of Texas
in upholding the cardinal principles of self-govern-
ment as laid down in the Declaration of Independ-
ence and Constitution of the United States.
When the clouds of sectional animosity and
misconstruction that had so long hovered like a
pall over the country burst in the tempest of war
and the brave and true, both North and South, were
hurrying to the front, Mr. von Rosenberg's father,
although too old for active service in the field,
dressed himself as a Prussian Uhlan and, riding
through the streets of Roundtop, the village where
he then resided, called upon the young men of the
place to enlist in the Confederate army and to
remember how their fathers had dared to do and
die in the old land in 1813, when their country was
threatened by invasion. Known to be an old hero
of the Napoleonic wars, his martial bearing and
stirring words fired the hearts of the patriotic young
men of the town and many of them afterwards tes-
tified their devotion to the cause of constitutional
freedom upon hard fought fields in the war between
the States. Some of them lived to, in later years,
receive honors at the hands of their fellow-citizens ;
others filled soldiers' graves.
Mr. William von Rosenberg's three younger
brothers, Eugene, Alexander and Walter, were
among the first to enlist in the Confederate army.
Eugene was a member of Waul's Legion and was at
the siege of Vicksburg. Alexander and Walter
were soldiers in Creuzbaur's company of artillery
and took part in the Louisiana campaign. Another
brother, John von Rosenberg, served in the Engi-
neer corps with him. After having served as topo-
graphical engineer, in the department of Texas,
during the war, Mr. von Rosenberg, at the close of
the struggle, was called back to the General Land
Office as chief draughtsman, but was swept aside
by the military usurpers, who trampled civil govern-
ment under their feet in Texas at the time. At the
election in 1866, Stephen Crosby was recalled to
administer the affairs of the Land-Office and again
made Mr. von Rosenberg chief draughtsman, a
position that he filled until during the " reconstruc-
tion " period, when the officials selected by the
people were removed and aliens appointed in their
stead.
At this time MaJ. C. R. Johns, formerly Comp-
troller of the State, had opened a land agency bus-
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
285
iness in Austin and induced Mr. von Rosenberg to
enter into partnership with him, under the firm
name of C. R. Johns & Company. The firm was
composed of C. R. Johns, J. C. Kirby, F. Everett
and W. von Rosenberg and did a large and profit-
able business for a number of years. They then
thought that by combining the business of banking
and exchange with their land agency they would
greatly increase their profits. In this they erred.
The land department of the business was under
Mr. von Rosenberg's exclusive management. The
banking department was not successful and in
November, 1876, the firm of C. R. Johns & Com-
pany made an assignment.
Being thus broken up and without financial
resources, Mr. von Rosenberg commenced the land
agency business on his own account in February,
1877, at Austin, in which business he is still engaged.
Politically he is a Democrat, but has ever
reserved to himself the right to act in accordance
with the dictates of his conscience. He has never
sought nor desired office. He was solicited to run
for the Legislature on the Horace Greely ticket ;
but, being opposed to Mr. Greely's nomination,
declined to make the race.
He has cared little for society, preferring the
quiet enjoyments of home. His wife is devoted to
her husband and children and seeks happiness
within her family. She, however, has never forgot-
ten the prospective positions apparently in store for
them in the fatherland at the time of her betrothal
to him.
His family consists of eleven children, six sons
and five daughters, all of whom are married but the
youngest daughter. This generation, born and
bred in Texas, have cut loose from the advantages
of nobility and maintain as a self-evident truth
" that all men are created, and by right ought to
be, free and equal." As they have grown up they
have had instilled in their hearts by their parents
the undying principles that underlie civil govern-
ment and are free from the prejudices of caste, as
it becomes citizens of this free country to be. The
children are: Charles, born July 18, 1850, in
Fayette County, farmer and stock raiser, lives near
Manchaca, Texas, married Walleska Sutor ;
Arthur, born September 1, 1851, in Fayette
County, clerk in his father's office and notary
public, lives in South Austin, married Mary
Holland ;
Ernest, born November 25, 1852, in Fayette
County, compiling draughtsman in the General
Land-Office of Texas, lives in Austin, married
Heilena Lungkwitz ;
Paul, born August 10, 1854, in Fayette County,
farmer and stock raiser, lives near Manchaca, mar-
ried Cornelia McCuistion ;
Laura, born February 26, 1856, in Fayette
County ; married C. von Carlowitz, attorney at
law, resides in Fort Worth, Texas ;
Emma, born May 15, 1857, in Austin, Texas,
married August Giesen, druggist and business
manager in the hardware establishment of Hon.
Walter Tips, resides in Austin ;
William, born January 14, 1859, in Austin,
attorney at law, was justice of the peace for pre-
cinct No. 3, of Travis County, from 1882 to 1886,
and county judge from 1890 to 1894, lives in
Austin ; married Louise Rhode ;
Anna, born October 10, 1860, in Austin, mar-
ried Wm. C. Hornberger, farmer and stock raiser,
resides near Fiskville, Travis County ;
Lina, born October 27, 1864, in Austin, mar-
ried George G. Bissel, stenographer with D. W.
Doom, Esq., resides in Austin;
Frederick C, born November 3, 1866, in Austin,
attorney at law, resides in Austin, married Nina
E. Stephens;
Mina Agnes, born January 17, 1869, in Austin,
unmarried, lives with her parents.
There are thirty-nine grandchildren living and
three deceased.
Mr. von Rosenberg has at . all times manifested
a deep interest in the prosperity and general wel-
fare of the city of Austin and the State of Texas,
aind has come up to the full stature of good citizen-
ship. Kind, genial and courtly, he is loved by
many and respected by all.
286
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE S. WALTON,
ALLEYTON.
George S. Walton, postmaster at Alleyton,
Colorado County, Texas, was born in Jefferson
County, Ala., March 22, 1821, and emigrated
to Missouri with his parents, Jacob and Jane
Walton, in 1827.
His maternal grandfather, Thomas Goode, was
a soldier in the Revolutionary War of 1776, and his
paternal grandfather was one of the signers of the
American Declaration of Independence.
Mr. Walton served with conspicuous gallantry in
the Mexican War as a soldier in Company N.,
Second Missouri Cavalry, commanded by Col,
Price, and particularly distinguished himself at
Puebla, Colorado, on the 24th of January, 1847.
On that occasion he mounted to the top of a seven-
story building, tore down the black flag (signify-
ing no quarter) which the Mexican commander had
hoisted above it, and planted the stars and stripes
in its place. This he did under a heavy fire of
musketry. Fourteen bullet-holes were shot through
his clothing, but fortune, which is said to favor the
brave, stood him in good stead, and he escaped
without a wound. His intrepid act was followed
almost immediately by the surrender of the enemy,
and a three-months' siege was brought to a glorious
close.
He was married, June 20, 1849, to Miss Abigail
Walton, and came to Texas with his wife, in 1858.
They have no children.
During the war between the States, Mr. Walton
was Second-Lieutenant in the Sixteenth Texas, and
fought for the success of the Confederacy until its
star paled in the gloom of defeat.
He has resided at Alleyton since 1860 (except
during the period covered by the war) ; is a popu-
lar and eflScient public official, and has done much
to promote the development and prosperity of his
section.
JAMES H. ROBERTSON,
AUSTIN.
The subject of this sketch is neither a "pioneer "
nor an " Indian fighter," but is one of the younger
men now prominent in Texas, who came here early
in life without money or acquaintances, and who
have succeeded well professionally and from a bus-
iness point of view. He was born in Room County,
Tenn., May 2d, 1853. His parents were James R.
and Mary A. (Hunt) Robertson. His father, who
was a physician and local Methodist preacher, died
April 15th, 1861,. leaving the nurture and training
of six small children to the widowed mother. She
was a woman of remarkably strong character and
possessed in a high degree of common sense and
practical judgment. She devoted her life to the
welfare of her children and died surrounded and
mourned by them in Austin, November 16, 1894,
at the age of eighty years and sixteen days.
Whatever of success the subject of this sketch has
attained in life he attributes to the teaching and
care bestowed upon him by his devoted mother.
James H. Robertson received a practical English
education, and at twenty years of age began the
study of law in the office of Col. P. B. Mayfield,
at Cleveland, Tenn. In June, 1874, he moved to
Austin, Texas, where he continued the study of
the law and was admitted to the bar in the summer
of the year following. In September, 1876, he
moved to Williamson County, where he resided for
eight years, during which time he enjoyed a large
and lucrative practice. In 1882 he was elected
to the Eighteenth Legislature, from Williamson
County, and served his constitueilfey with credit to
himself and to their entire satisfaction in that body,
but deserved further honors in this line. In 1884
he wa,s nominated by the Democracy and elected to
the office of District Attorney of the 26th Judicial
District, embracing the counties of Travis and
Williamson, and was successively re-elected to that
office in 1886, 1888 and 1890.
Upon his election to the office of District Attorney
JAMP]S HENRY MITCHELL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
287
in November, 1884, he moved to Austin, where he
has since resided. During his six years service as
District Attorney he conducted many important
criminal prosecutions, and, of the many criminal
cases tried, although defended by a bar of ability
equal to any in the State, the records show that
more than seventy-five per cent of the trials re-
sulted in convictions and that crime diminished
more than fifty per cent in the district.
In addition to the criminal business of the office,
he, as a representative of the State, brought and
tried many important civil suits, most of which
were appealed to the Supreme Court, and all of
which, except one case, resulted in final judgments
in favor of the State for all that was claimed.
The Twenty-second Legislature at its regular ses-
sion in 1891, created the Fifty-third Judicial Dis-
trict, consisting of Travis County, which required
the appointment of a judge, and Governor James S.
Hogg tendered the District Judgeship of the dis-
trict to Mr. Robertson. He accepted the appoint-
ment and qualified May 27, 1891. He was
subsequently nominated for the position by the
Democracy of the district in convention assembled
and elected in November, 1892, by a flattering
majority, a just and fitting recognition of his
eminent ' services on the bench. On March
16th, 1895, he resigned the judgeship to enter
into copartnership with Ex-Governor Hogg,
for the purpose of practicing law at Austin under
the firm name of Hogg & Eobertson, since which
tinie he has devoted himself exclusively to the
large and paying practice which has come to them
as a result of a knowledge upon the part of the
public that they constitute one of the strongest law
firms in the country. Added to unusual legal learn-
ing and superior capacity of mind, Judge Robertson
is a powerful, persuasive and elegant speaker, and
can sway judge and jury as it is not given to every
man to do.
In social life he is urbane and approachable, a
good friend and a good citizen, and is popular with
all classes of his fellow-citizens of Austin, among
whom he has passed many years of usefulness, and
to whose welfare and best interests he has at all times
shown himself to be devoted. In the prime of
intellectual and physical manhood, he has but
fairly started upon his life-work and there is scarcely
any distinction in his profession that he is not
capable of attaining. In addition to his success in
his profession he has been successful as a business
man and has accumulated a large property and
is now one of the largest property owners in the
city of Austin. No man in Texas enjoys more
fully the confidence of his neighbors than does
James H. Robertson.
JAMES HENRY MITCHELL,
BRYAN.
The true heroes of America are those who from
time to time have left the comforts of civilized life
and, penetrating deep into the wilderness, have there
planted the seeds of new States. Of this number
was James Henry Mitchell, who came to Texas in
the infancy of the Republic and here passed the
greater part of a long and exceptionally active life.
Mr. Mitchell was born in Connersville, Tenn.,
October 22, 1817. His father was James Mitchell
and his mother bore the maiden name of Jane Mc-
Intyre Henry, both of whom were descendants of
early-settled American families of Scotch-Irish
origin. James Henry Mitchell was reared in his
native State and came thence in January, or Febru-
ary, 1837, to Texas, as a member of Capt. Griffin
Baines' company of volunteers which had been
raised in Tennessee for Texas frontier service.
Shortly after his arrival in this country, he re-en-
listed at old Tinnanville, Robertson County, in
Capt. Lee C. Smith's company, with which he
served for about a year. He then returned to
Tennessee but came again to Texas in the fall of
1838, when he again enlisted in the public service
as a member of a local company of " Minute Men,"
with which he was identified more or less during the
following year. In the meantime opposition to the
independence of Texas on the part of Mexico hav-
ing in a measure subsided and the troublesome
Indians having been put under control, the more
enterprising spirits of whom the subject of this
sketch may justly be reckoned as one, began to
turn their attention to the pursuits of peace. He
bought an interest in a general store at Old
Wheelock where for a year or more he did a profit-
288
INDIAN WAR8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
able business trading with the settlers and Indians.
The attachment for his native State seems to have
been strong for about this time he made another
visit back to his old home, but returned in a few
months, reaching the country just in time to become
a member of the famous Snively Expedition with
which he was connected from its inception to its
inglorious end. He was in one other expedition of
a similiar nature about the same time which was
equally as fruitless in results.
Late in 1842, or early in 1843, Mr. Mitchell settled
at Old Springfield in Limestone County, where he
engaged in farming and afterwards in the mercan-
tile and hotel business. It was while residing at
that place in 1853 (February 3d) that he married
Miss Mary Herndon, who thereafter till the end of
his years on earth shared his joys and sorrows, and
who still survives him. Mrs. Mitchell was a daugh-
ter of Harry and Elizabeth Herndon and a native
of Kentucliy, having accompanied her parents to
Texas in early childhood. Mr. Mitchell resided
at Springfield for twenty-odd years, during which
time by thrift and industry he accumulated what for
the time was a very considerable amount of prop-
erty. The greater part of this, however, was lost
by the late war, and he left there for Bryan in
Brazos County in 1867 with but little more than
enough to establish himself in his new home and
meet his current expenses. During the war he ren-
dered to the Confederacy such service as was re-
quired at his hands (being past the age for military
duty) becoming agent for the government for the
collection and distribution of supplies, and assist-
ing, also, in the fortification of the Gulf coast
country against attack by the Federals. From
first to last he saw a great deal of service of a mili-
tary and quasi-military nature during his residence
in Texas, but he was very little in public life. To
his brother Harvey who at one time discharged the
duties of every office in Brazos County and was
more or less connected with public affairs in that
county for a number of years, this sort of service
seems to have fallen, James H. directing his atten-
tion chiefly to private pursuits when not actually in
the field under arms. Mr. Mitchell was a man of
an active, restless disposition in his early years,
and the habit of busying himself with something
clung to him down to the close of his life. He was
always employed at something and believed thor-
oughly in the philosophy of doing well what he
undertook to do. His last years were passed mostly
in retirement. He died at Bryan, March 12, 1885,
and his remains were buried at Old Boonville, in
Brazos County, where lie those of his father, mother
and other relatives. His widow, three sons and
four daughters, survive him. His sons, John Car-
son, James Henry, and Marsh, constituting the firm
of Mitchell Brothers, merchants at Wheelock, and
of the firm of Mitchell Bros. & Decherd, mer-
chants and bankers at Franklin, are among the
foremost business men of Robertson County,
and in every way worthy of the name they bear.
Two of the four daughters are married, the eldest,
Mrs. Samuel Downward, residing at Franklin, and
the second, Mrs. John T. Wyse, at Bryan, while the
single daughters, Jennie L. and Kate, with the eldest
son, who is also unmarried, make their home at
Franklin.
Mr. Mitchell was for many years in middle and
later life a member of the Independent Order of
Odd Fellows. He was reared in the Presbyterian
faith, but never actively identified himself with any
church organization. He was a man, however, of
broad views and generous impulses and would go
as far as any one to help a struggling fellow-mortal
or to further the cause of morality and good govern-
ment. He was a well-nigh perfect type of that
class of early Texians who were so well equipped
by nature for the life they lived and the services
they performed, being, of rugged constitution,
adequate courage, persevering energy, generous
hospitable, kind and faithful, with clear and well
defined convictions, sound judgment and honorable
impulses.
CHARLES GROOS,
SAN ANTONIO,
A native of Germany, came to Texas in 1848,
landing at Galveston, November 2l8t of that year.
It was his intention to settle in Fisher and Miller's
Colony, but, on reaching Galveston, he learned
that the colony was not yet organized and aban-
doned that intention. He proceeded to Houston on
a Buffalo bayou steamer, accompanied by his four
sons and four daughters, who then constituted his
R. KLEBERG.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
289
family, his wife liaving died in the old country.
His next move was to make a two weeks' prospect-
ing trip through Texas, rent a piece of land near
Eound Top, in Fayette County, and return for his
family. He found his sons had not been idle dur-
ing his absence but on the contrary had gone to
work, having secured employment on the streets of
Houston, where they were at work with pick and
shovel at $1.00 per day, payable in city scrip.
Mr. Groos made his first crop in Fayette County in
1849. He bought a tract of land of two hundred
and ten acres lying in the corner of Fayette
County the following year and there established a
permanent abode, where he resided until 1865,
when he removed to San Antonio and a little later
to New Braunfels, at which latter place he died in
1882, at the advanced age of eighty-eight years.
At his death the four sons and four daughters, who
accompanied him to Texas, were all living and had
married. He had living at that time forty-five
grandchildren. Others have since been added to
the number and a score or more have attained their
majority. Some of them are heads of families and
all of them maintain a good standing as citizens in
the communities in which they live. The eldest of
the name now living is Mr. F. Groos, the banker
of San Antonio, who was also the eldest of the four
sons and four daughters who came over in 1848.
ROBERT JUSTUS KLEBERG,
YORKTOWN.
Robert Justus Kleberg (christened Johnun
Christian Justus Robert Kleberg), was born on the
10th day of September, A. D. 1803, in Herstelle,
Westphalia, in the former Kingdom of Prussia.
His parents were Lucas Kleberg, a prominent and
successful merchant, and Veronica Kleberg (nee
Meier) a lady of fine culture, sweet temper and
good sense. They moved from Herstelle to Beve-
rungen in Westphalia, where they were quite pros-
perous for a time. Besides Robert they had the
following children: Ernest, Louis, Joseph and
Banise. For a number of years Robert's parents,
living in afiluent circumstances, were permitted to
give their children good educational advantages,
but unhappily misfortune and death deprived the
children at an early age of kind parental protec-
tion, and the subject of this sketch was thrown upon
his own resources, which consisted chiefly of a
healthy mind and body, a strong will and unsullied
name. At an early age he entered the Gymnasium
of Holzminden, where after a five years' course in
the classics he completed his studies with high
honors. Choosing the law as his profession he now
entered the University of Goettingen, and in two
years and a half received his diploma as doctor
juris. Soon after he was appointed as one of the
justices of the assizes of Nirhiem, where he re-
mained one year, after which he was promoted to
various judicial positions, in which he prepared
himself for the practice of his profession, and in
which he served with credit and distinction.
19
In 1834 when he was about ready to enter upon
a distinguished judicial career, he concluded to
emigrate to the'United States. His reason for this
sudden and important change in his life can best be
found in his own language, which is taken from a
memorandum of his own writing : —
" I wished to live under a Republican form of
government, with unbounded personal, religious
and political liberty, free from the petty tyrannies,
the many disadvantages and evils of old countries.
Prussia, my former home, smarted at the time
under a military despotism. I was (and have
ever remained) an enthusiastic lover of republican
institutions, and I expected to find in Texas, above
all other countries, the blessed land of my most
fervent hopes."
Texas was yet partially unexplored, but the
reports that reached the old country were of the
most extravagant and romantic nature, and were
well calculated to enthuse the impulsive and
courageous spirit of the young referendary. The
ardor of his desires to emigrate was heightened
by a letter written by a Mr. Ernst, a German from
the Duchy of Oldenburg, who had emigrated to
Texas a few years previous, and who at that time
resided in what is now known as Industry, Austin
County, Texas. This letter recited the advantages
of Texas in the most glowing colors, comparing its
climate to the sunny skies of Italy ; it lauded the
fertility of the soil and spoke of the perennial flora
of the prairies of Texas, etc. About this time.
290
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
September the 4th, 1834, the subject of this sketch
married Miss Rosalia von Roeder, daughter of
Lieut. Ludwig Anton Siegmund von Roeder, the
head of an old family of nobility who, too, were
anxious for the same reasons to emigrate to
Texas. The party had first contemplated to emi-
grate to one of the Western States of the United
States, but it was now determined to go to Texas.
Again, the memorandum above referred to runs as
follows : —
" We changed our first intention to go to one of
the Western States, and chose Texas for our future
home. As soon as this was determined upon we
sent some of our party, to wit, three brothers of
my wife, unmarried, Louis, Albrecht and Joachim,
and their sister Valesca, and a servant by the name
of Pollhart, ahead of us to Texas for the purpose
of selecting a point where we could all meet and
commence operations.- They were well provided
with money, clothing, a light wagon and harness,
tools, and generally everything necessary to com-
mence a settlement. They aimed to go to Mr.
Ernst, the writer of the letter which induced us to go
to Texas. Six months after our party had left the
old country, and shortly after we had received the
news of their safe arrival, we followed on the
last day of September, A. D. 18S4, in the ship
'Congress,' Capt. J. Adams."
The party consisted of Robert Kleberg and wife,
Lieut. L. A. S. v. Roeder and wife, his daughters,
Louise and Caroline, his sons, Rudolph, Otto and
William v. Roeder, Louis Kleberg, Mrs. Otto v.
Roeder, nee Pauline von Donop and Miss Antoinette
von Donop (afterwards wife of Rudolph von
Roeder). The other passengers were nearly all
Germans from Oldenburg, and one of them was
the brother-in-law of Mr. Ernst. They were all
bound for the same point in Texas, and after a
voyage of sixty days landed in New Orleans.
The narrative of said memorandum here pro-
ceeds : —
" Here we heard very bad accounts about Texas,
and we were advised not to go to Texas, which it
was said was infested with robbers, murderers and
wild Indians. But we were determined to risk it,
and could not disappoint our friends who had pre-
ceded us. As soon, therefore, as we succeeded in
chartering the schooner ' Sabin,' about two weeks
after we landed in New Orleans, we sailed for
Brazoria, Texas. After a voyage of eight days we
wrecked off of Galveston Island, December 22d,
1834. The ' Sabin ' was an American craft of about
150 tons. The captain and crew left the island, I
think, in the steamer, ' Ocean.' The wreck was
sold in Brazoria at public auction and bought by a
gentleman who had come in the ' Ocean,' for thirty-
odd dollars. Perhaps she was not regularly
employed in the trade between New Orleans and
Texas, and was only put in order to get her wrecked
in order to get the amount for which she was
insured. This was the opinion of the passengers
at the time. It is impossible for me to name with
certainty the exact point of the island at which we
stranded, but I think it was not far from the center
of the island, about ten miles above the present site
of the city ; it was on the beach side. The island
was a perfect wilderness and inhabited only by
deer, wolves and rattlesnakes. All the passengers
were safely brought to shore, and were provided
with provisions, partly from those on board ship
and partly by the game on the island. Most of the
men were delighted with the climate on the island,
and the sport they enjoyed by hunting or fishing. A
committee of five was appointed to ascertain whether
we were on an island or on main land. After
an investigation of two days the committee reported
that we were on an island. The passengers then
went regularly into camp, saving all the goods and
provisions from the wrecked vessel, which was only
about fifty yards from shore. From the sails,
masts and beams they constructed a large tent,
with separate compartments for women and chil-
dren. Thus the passengers were temporarily pro-
tected against the inclemency of the weather. Two
or three days after our vessel had sunk the steamer
' Ocean ' hove in sight and, observing our signal of
distress, anchored opposite our camp and sent a
boat ashore with an officer to find out the situation.
The captain would not take all the passengers, but
consented to take a few, charging them a doubloon
each. I, with Rudolph v. Roeder, took passage on
the steamer, which was bound for Brazoria. I went
as agent of the remaining passengers to charter a
boat to take them and their plunder to the main
land. ' Finding no boat at Brazoria, or Bell's Land-
ing, the only Texas ports at that time, I proceeded
on foot to San Felipe, where I was told I would find
a small steamer, the ' Cuyuga,' Capt. W. Harris.
I found the steamer, but did not succeed in charter-
ing her, the price asked (|1,000) being too high.
" In San Felipe I heard for the first time of the
whereabouts of my relatives, who had preceded us.
Here I also formed the acquaintance of Col. Frank
Johnson and Capt. Mosely Baker, under whose
command I afterwards participated in the battle
of San Jacinto. These gentlemen informed me
that two of my friends, Louis and Albert von
Roeder, had located about fourteen miles from
San Felipe on a league and labor of land, but that
Joachim and Valesca von Roeder had died. We
**»...
MRS. KLEBERG.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
291
found them in a miserable hut and in a pitiful con-
dition. They were emaciated by disease and want,
and without money. Tears of joy streamed from
their eyes when they beheld us. After a few days
rest I continued my errand to charter a boat. I
had a letter of introduction to Stephen F. Austin
and Sam Williams from a merchant in New
Orleans to whom our ship had been consigned,
which I presented to Mr. Austin's private secre-
tary, Mr. Austin and Mr. Williams being absent.
From him I received a letter of introduction to
Mr. Scott, the father-in-law of Mr. Williams.
From Mr. Scott I finally succeeded in chartering a
small vessel for $100.00 for three trips, and
immediately returned to Galveston, landing on the
bay side opposite the camp four weeks after I had
left it. I found the passengers of the old ' Sabin ' in
good health and spirits. They had spent their
time in hunting and fishing. Those who could not
shoot were employed to drive the deer to the
hunters. There were deer by the thousands. I
left the next day with the first cargo of passen-
gers, including my wife, her parents and Caroline
von Eoeder. After a stormy trip we arrived on
the evening of the same day at Mr. Scott's place,
where we were hospitably treated. The next day
we reached Harrisburg, where I succeeded in
renting a comfortable house, intending to remain
there until all the passengers had arrived from the
island. The last passengers did not arrive until
the winter of 1835, though had I hired another small
sloop from Capt. Smith in Velasco, which also
made three trips. The winter of 1835 was unusu-
ally severe."
This, it seems, ended the eventful and lengthy
voyage from the old country to Texas, of which
only the main incidents are given, to show the diffi-
culties and many privations to which Texas emi-
grants in those early days were subjected.
Robert Kleberg, by reason of his superior edu-
cation, was the only one among those early German
colonists who could make himself understood to
the few American pioneers who inhabited the
interior, and acted as spokesman for the rest.
Indian tribes, both savage and civil, swarmed
through the country, and it was necessary for the
colonists to explore and settle the country in com-
munities for self-defense. This condition of things
is apparent from the narrative, which relates : —
"To the place which had been settled upon by
Louis and Albrecht v. Eoeder we now repaired,
leaving the ladies and children in Harrisburg, under
the protection of one of the gentlemen. We had
formed a partnership with the view of assisting each
other to cultivate farms and build houses for each
head of a family in our party, and we were to work
in good earnest to break up land and fence it, and
to build houses, as it was our intention to move the
balance of our party from Harrisburg to our new
settlement as soon as we could erect houses, but
not being accustomed to manuallabor, we proceeded
very slowly. There was an Indian tribe, the
Kikapoos, encamped on our land about a mile from
our camp, who furnished us with game of all kinds,
which the country afforded in abundance. The
squaws were very useful to us, as they would hunt
and bring in camp our oxen and horses when they
strayed off. We rewarded them with ammunition
and trinkets, which we had brought with us for that
purpose.
" We had supplied ourselves with everything nec-
essary to commence a settlement in a new country.
We had wagons, farming implements, all sorts of
tools, household and kitchen furniture, and cloth-
ing which we had brought with us from Germany.
Early in September, 1835, we had finished build-
ing two log houses, one of them had even a floor and
ceiling, as we had sawed by hand the planks from
post-oak trees. We had also inclosed and planted a
field of ten acres in corn and cotton, and we now
moved the members of our party who had remained
at Harrisburg to our settlement, with our wagons
and teams. Such of our goods, for which we had no
room, or no immediate use, we left at the house
which we had rented at Harrisburg. Among the
objects we left was a fine piano, belonging to my
wife, many valuable oil paintings and engravings,
music books, etc., all of which fell a prey to the
flames which consumed Harrisburg during the war,
which followed in the following spring."
Many were the privations and severe the task
which these early settlers had already undergone in
permanently settling in the adopted country, but
their trials had only begun; the furies of war
threatened to devastate the settlements of the col-
onies, and Santa Anna was marching his minions
into Texas to destroy the constitutional liberty of
her people, and Texas patriots, though few in num-
ber, bore up her flag to rescue it from thralldom.
Among them we find Kobert Kleberg and his
brother-in-law and compatriots. Albert and Louis
von Boeder bad participated in the sanguinary
storming of San Antonio and returned to their set-
tlement near San Felipe, when in the spring of
1836 occurred the massacre of Goliad and the fall
of the Alamo. Texas independence had been pro-
claimed, Santa Anna was preparing his march of
conquest to the Sabine, when the young Republic,
under her noble leader, Sam Houston, was making
her last patriotic appeal to her bravest sons, in whose
292
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
hearts were now gathered all the hopes of Texas. It
was at this juncture that at a family meeting of the
Roeders and Klebergs, presided over by Ex-Lieut.
Von Roeder, that these distressed colonists held a
counsel of war to decide whether to fight for Texas
independence, or cross her borders into the older
States to seek shelter under the protecting aegis of
the American eagle. The meeting was held under
the sturdy oaks that stood on the newly acquired
possessions. It was a supreme moment in the lives
of those who participated. In the language of the
historian: " The flight of the wise and worthy men
of the country from danger, tended to frighten the
old, young and helpless, furnished excuses to the
timid, and sanctioned the course of the cowardly.
The general dismay following the adjournment of
the convention, induced many brave men impelled
irresistibly by natural impulses to go to their aban-
doned fugitive wives and children, to tender them
protection." This little band, like their compa-
triots, found themselves in the midst of a terrible
panic and they were now called upon to decide be-
tween love of country and love of self and it may
well be presumed that the debates in this little con-
vention were of a stormy nature. The subject of
our sketch, though bound by the strongest ties of
love to an affectionate young wife and her infant
child, was the champion of Texas liberty, and it
was due to the eloquent and impassioned appeals
of himself and the venerable presiding officer that
it was decided that the party would remain and
share the fate of the heroic few who had rallied
under San Houston to fight for the independ-
ence of Texas against Mexican despotism. As
Albrecht v. Roeder and Louis v. Roeder had just
returned battle-worn from the bloody fields of San
Antonio de Bexar, they and others, except L. v.
Roeder, were detailed under the aged Ex-Lieut.
Roeder to remain with the fugitive families while
Robert Kleberg, Louis v. Roeder and Otto v,
Roeder were chosen to bear the brunt of battle.
Now a parting, possibly for life, from all that was
dear on earth and a voluntary march in the
ranks of Capt. Mosley Baker's Company was the
next act in the drama of our warrior's life and, while
the curtain fell on the pathetic scene, a brave young
wife mounted a Texas pony with .her tender babe
to go with the rest of the Texas families to perhaps
across the borders of Texas, driving before them
the cattle and horses of the colonists. The acts
and deeds of Robert Kleberg from this time to the
disbanding of the Texas army of patriots are a
part and parcel of the history of Texas. Endowed
with a spirit of patriotism which bordered on
the sublime, possessed of a healthy and robust
physical constitution, a cultured, polished, cool
and discriminating mind, he despised fear and was
anxious to engage in the sanguinary and decisive
struggle for freedom which culminated so gloriously
for Texas and civilization on the historic field of
San Jacinto. After this memorable battle, in which
he and Louis v. Roeder participated to the glory
of themselves and their posterity, he was with Gen.
Rusk and the Texas van guard following the van-
quished armies of Santa Anna to the Mexican bor-
der and, returning by Goliad, assisted in the sad
obsequies of the remains of Fannin and his brave
men. In the meantime his family had moved back
to Galveston Island, and we will again draw from
the memorandum for the better appreciation and
understanding of the conditions of the country that
prevailed at this time: " It had been the intention
of our party who went to Galveston Island in the
absence of those who were in the army, to abandon
the settlement commenced on the Brazos and
settle on the island on the two leagues which were
chosen there. This move had been undertaken in
my absence, partly from fear or danger from hos-
tile Indians, also a want of provisions, and partly
with an idea to permanently settle on the island.
For that purpose the party had built a boat of
about forty tons in order to move our cattle and
horses and other property from the mainland.
They were ignorant of the laws of Mexico, which
reserved the islands for the government." To
show the state of civilization on Galveston Island at
that time, in the summer of 1836, the judge relates
the following incident which occurred while he was
in the army : ' One night during a time when all
were enwrapt in sound slumber, they were sud-
denly aroused by the frantic cries of one of the
ladies of the party, Mrs. L. Kleberg ; she was so
frightened that she could not speak, but only
screamed, pointing her finger to a huge, dark
object close to the head of the pallet upon which
lay my wife and Mrs. Otto v. Roeder and their
babes. To their great astonishment they dis-
covered it to be an immense alligator, his jaws wide
open, making for the children to devour them.
Mr. V. Roeder, Sr., and Mr. Chas. Mason, who
had hastened to the spot, dispatched the monster
with fire and sword.' "
The narrative, speaking of their residence on the
island after Mr. Kleberg returned from the war,
proceeds: "We remained about three months on
the island after building our house. Most of us
were sick, especially the women and children —
long exposure, bad food and water were the prob-
able causes. Not long after we moved into the
house, Mrs. Pauline Roeder, wife of Otto v.
KLK15ERG bliOTHERS.
294
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fight a tribe of hostile Indians, who were depredat-
ing in the neighborhood of Yorlitown. We were
soon mounted and equipped and off for the place
of rendezvous. We reached the Cabesa that same
night, where our troops, consisting of some thirty
men, camped and elected Capt. York as commander,
and Messrs. William Taylor, Jno. Thomlinson and
Euf us Taylor were detailed as spies and skirmishers.
Next morning the company, as organized, started
to meet the foe, whom we encountered about three
o'clock p. m. on the Escondido east of the San
Antonio river, about fifteen miles west of the
present town of Yorktown, just as our company
filed around a point of timber. The Indians,
about sixty to seventy strong, lay in ambush.
Our company .was not marching in rank and
file, but in an irregular way, not expecting to meet
the enemy so soon. Capt. York and Mr. Bell were
in front, followed immediately by John Pettus and
myself. The Indians raised the well-known and
hideous war-whoop and immediately opened on us
with a terrible fire of musketry. The majority of
our men took to flight and left not more than ten
or twelve of us, who made a stand, taking advan-
tage of a little grove near by, where the Texians
returned a sharp fire upon the Indians, who still
remained in ambush, only exposing their heads
now and then as they fired, thus having a decided
advantage over the men who were only protected
by a few thin trees. It was here that Mr. Bell
and Capt. York were killed. The former, a son-
in-law of Capt. York, was shot at the first fire
and mortally wounded, but he was carried along to
the little mott, where Capt. York and myself
bent over him to dress his wounds, but he died in
our hands. At this juncture Mr. Jim York, son of
Capt. York, was shot in the head. Capt. York
called me to assist him in dressing his son's
wounds. I tore off a piece of his shirt and band-
aged his wounds as well as possible. Capt. York,
overcome by grief, ran continually from his son to
his son-in-law, and thus exposed himself to the fire
of the enemy, notwithstanding I kept warning him,
and was soon struck by the fatal ball which
instantly killed him. A counsel of war was now
held by the remaining troops, consisting of eight or
nine men all told, and we decided to proceed to a
little mound or elevation near by, where we might
flank the Indians in their ambush. In attempting
to gain this point the Indians kept up a continuous
fusillade, which we returned, and by the time we
reached the elevation and directed our fire from
behind a cluster of large live oaks on the exposed
flank of the savages, they soon retired from their
position and disappeared from the field. Thus
ended probably the last Indian fight in Southwest
Texas, and such were the stirring scenes of that
time."
Mr. Kleberg had the good fortune to outlive this
period of romance and adventure, and to see his
adopted State and country developed to grand pro-
portions in population and wealth under the magic
wand of civilization.
In politics Judge Kleberg was always a con-
sistent and intelligent Democrat; a strong be-
liever in State rights and local self-government,
and an ardent admirer of the American system
of government, and in his severest trials as
an early settler, and in the gloomiest hour of
the Republic and State of his adoption he never
faltered in his faith in the free institutions of
this country, and spurned the idea of returning to
a monarchical form of government. In religion he
was free of all orthodoxy and most tolerant to all
denominations ; candid and firm in his individual
convictions, yet respectful and considerate of the
opinions of others. Pure and lofty in sentiment,
simple and frugal in habit, honest in motive, and
positive and decided in word and deed, his charac-
ter was without reproach, and indeed a model
among his fellow-men.
Mr. Kleberg was a man of deep and most Varied
learning. Besides a knowledge of Greek and Latin
he controlled three modern languages and read
their literatures in the originals. Reading and
study were a part of his daily life, and he enjoyed
a critical and discriminating knowledge of ancient
and modern literature. In field and camp and the
solitudes of frontier life his well-trained mind ever
found delight and repose in the contemplation of
its ample stores of knowledge and the graces
of a refined civilization under which it was
developed were never effaced, or even blurred by
the roughness or crudities of border life. A
man of urbane manners and courtly' address, his
intercourse with men, whether high or low, edu-
cated or ignorant, was ever characterized by a
plain and noble dignity, free of assumption or
vanity.
The principles which found expression and ex-
emplification in his long and eventful life rested
upon a broad and comprehensive philosophy of
which absolute honesty of mind was a controlling
element, and when the shadows of death gathered
around him he met the supreme moment with a
mind serene and in peaceful composure. He died
at Yorktown, De Witt County, October 23, 1888,
in his eighty-sixth year, surrounded by his family,
and was buried with Masonic honors. His wife,
Mrs. Rosa Kleberg, and the following children sur-
M. KOPPEEL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
295
vive him: Mrs. Clara Hillebrand, Mrs. Caroline His eldest son, Otto Kleberg, who served with
Eckhardt, Miss Lulu Kleberg, Hon. Rudolph Kle- distinction in the Confederate army, preceded
berg, Marcellus E. Kleberg, and Robert J. Kleberg, him in death in 1880.
MORITZ KOPPERL,
GALVESTON.
The history of other countries as well as our own
bears ample evidence to the fact that great abilities
displayed in the higher walks of commerce have
been employed, on occasion, with equal effective-
ness in other directions.
The merchants of Venice, when the Venetian
Republic was mistress of the seas and controlled
the commerce of the civilized world, were not only
traders, but many of them also lawmakers, navi-
gators, cunning artists, leaders of armies, and com-
manders of navies. Instances are not wanting in
our own country and later time where successful
merchants have become projectors of large enter-
prises, have filled positions requiring a higher order
of executive ability, have accumulated wealth and
at the same time have assisted in making the laws
and carrying on the affairs of the State and nation.
Such men would distinguish themselves in any avo-
cation because of their strength and breadth of
mind, versatility of talents and those qualities that
enable them to surmount difficulties and command
success. The subject of this brief notice, while
strictly a business man, would have made himself
felt in almost any pursuit.
Moritz Kopperl was born October 7, 1826, in the
town of Trebitsch, Moravia, where he was reared
and received his early mental training. First a
student at the Capuchin Institute at Trebitsch he
completed his education by taking a classical course
at Nicholsburg, Moravia, and at Vienna, Austria.
In 1848 he came to America on the invitation of
his uncle, Maj. Charles Kopperl, of Carroll County,
Miss., whom he succeeded in business, and with
whom he resided for a number of years in Mis-
sissippi.
In 1857 Mr. Kopperl came to Texas in company
with A. Lipman, with whom he had been associated
in business in Mississippi and engaged at Galveston
in merchandising as a member of the firm of Lip-
man & Kopperl, a connection that existed until a'
period during the war between the States. With
the closing of the port of Galveston by the Federal
blockade in 1861, all business at that place practi-
cally ceased and many of the city's most prosper-
ous and promising houses were ruined, the house
of Lipman & Kopperl being of the number. It is
to the credit of Mr. Kopperl, however, that although
all debts due by Southern merchants at the North
were supposed to have been settled by the war he
hunted up his creditors after the surrender and paid
them their claims in full.
In 1865 he resumed active business pursuits in
Galveston, engaging first in the cotton commission
business and later taking up the coffee trade, which
latter he developed into large proportions, making
the city of Galveston one of the largest importing
points for this article in the United States. In 1868
he was made president of the Texas National Bank
when that institution was in a failing condition, and
by his good management, aided by a few stock-
holders, placed the bank on a solid footing and
made of it one of the soundest and most prosperous
financial institutions in the city. In 1877 he was
made president of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Railroad and served that corporation as its chief
executive through the most critical period of its
history. When he took hold of the road the line had
been built only a few miles out of Galveston, was
without means, credit or prospects, and was har-
assed by the tax-collector, who threatened to sell
it for past due taxes, yet by his untiring energy,
and at the sacrifice of his time and health, and at
the risk of his private means and reputation, he
contracted for the construction of the road and, in
order to save its charter, carried it through the
storm until a syndicate of prominent and public-
spirited citizens was formed, who, co-operating with
him, placed it on a safe basis. The work and re-
sponsibility which this task imposed can hardly be
estimated ; for, in addition to the labor and care
Inseparably connected with such an undertaking,
the road had, as is well known, at that time to meet
the strongest possible opposition from lines of which
it would, if successfully carried through, become
296
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
a close competitor. Mr. Kopperl felt this opposi-
tion at every step he took, and but for the persist-
ent efforts made by him reinforced by the weight
of his name and influence, the road would inevi-
tably have gone down in the great fight that was
at that time made upon it.
Besides the Texas National Bank and the Gulf,
Colorado & Santa Fe Railroad, Mr. Kopperl was
connected with a number of other corporations and
was an active worker in a score of private under-
takings, his interests and investments covering
every field of legitimate business enterprise. He
was for some time president of the Galveston
Insurance Company and a director in both the
Union Fire & Marine and the Merchants Insurance
Companies.
He was among the stanchest advocates of the
claims of Galveston as a shipping point and empha-
sized these claims on all proper occasions. He
had the statistics of shipping, and of the resources
and development of Texas at his fingers' ends, and
his aid was always sought in the furtherance of those
enterprises and schemes of improvement where
facts and figures formed the basis of operation.
Having had his attention somewhat directed through
his coffee business to the necessities and possibilities
of trade between the United States and the South
American countries, he made a study of the condi-
tions of that trade in all its bearings, and was one
of the first to set forth in logical form the princi-
ples since embraced in the doctrine of " Eeci-
procity" and the benefits that would accrue
to this section of the Union from its practical
application by treaty regulations.
Although Mr. Kopperl was a business man in the
strictest sense of the word, he still found time to
interest himself to some extent in polities and filled
acceptably a number of positions of public trust.
He was a member of the City Council in 1871 and
1872, during which time he was chairman of the
Finance Committee and aided materially in devis-
ing means to meet the city's indebtedness and
maintain its credit. He was a delegate to the
National Convention at Baltimore in 1872, which
nominated Horace Greely for President, and served
also as a delegate to the Congressional Convention
at Corsicana which nominated Judge A. H. Willie
for Congress. He was elected to the State Legis-
lature in 1876 and served as a member of the Fif-
teenth Legislature, in which he was chairman of
the Committee on Finance and Revenue ; formulated
the measure which vras enacted into a law whereby
the State school fund was reinvested in State
securities and made to yield a better revenue for
present school purposes ; and also the bill which in
the form of a law enabled the Governor to dispose
of $500,000 worth of State bonds to meet the
State's accrued indebtedness and to defray the
running expenses of the government. These
$500,000 worth of bonds vrere sold to the American
Exchange Bank of New York upon Mr. Kopperl's
personal recommendation and guarantee, without
his asking or receiving from the State any part of
the commission authorized by law for negotiating
the sale.
Thus as a business man, as an ofiScial and as a
citizen, Mr. Kopperl lived and labored for the city
and State of his adoption. That his labors were
well rewarded and are still bearing good fruit the
present prosperous condition of all those enter-
prises, institutions and interests with which [he had
to dp bears abundant witness.
In 1866 Mr. Kopperl married Miss Isabella
Dyer, of Galveston, a niece of the late Isadore
Dyer and of the late Mrs. Rosanna Osterman, both
early settlers of Galveston and remembered for
their many charities. The issue of this union was
two sons, Herman B. and Moritz O., who, with
their mother, survive the husband and father.
Mr. Kopperl's death occurred July 3, 1883, at
Bayreuth, Bavaria, whither he had gone in search
of health. But his remains rest in the city of
Galveston, where he spent his maturer years and
with whose history his own was so intimately con-
nected. On his monument is engraved this
sentence : —
"I pray thee, then, write me as one who loved his
fellow man " —
a most befitting epitaph for one whose generous
heart beat in unison with the best impulses of his
race.
^"S^byH.XC.Roevoels.N-*'-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
297
THOMAS GONZALES,
GALVESTON.
Early in the present century during the political
disturbances in Mexico which finally culminated in
the independence of that country, there came over
from Spain with the historic Barados expedition
two surgeons, Juan Samaniego and Victor Gonzales,
who, after the failure of the expedition, settled in
that country. Both were natives of Valladolid, the
capitol city of Castile, and were descended from
old Castilian families. Juan Samaniego was Sur-
geon-General of the Spanish army, a talented and
capable man, as was also his junior associates who
was himself a son of a celebrated military surgeon,
Don Antonio Gonzales.
Victor Gonzales married the widowed daughter
of Juan Samaniego, Senora Rita Samaniego de
Reyes, in the City of Mexico, about 1825. He was
stationed for a time at Tampico, Mexico, in the
performance of bis oflScial duties and there lived
until his untimely death by shipwreck of the
schooner " Felecia " while he was on his way across
the Gulf to Havana, his final destination being his
native place, Valladolid. The vessel on which he
sailed was never heard from after leaving port.
The issue of the marriage of Victor and Rita
Samaniego Gonzales was two sons, Francisco
Gonzales and Thomas Gonzales. The younger of
these, the subject of this biographical notice, was
born at Tampico, Mexico, November 10th, 1829.
His mother's death occurred in 1860 at Havana,
Cuba. Soon after the death of his father he was
taken into the family of his half-sister, Mrs. Elena
Blossman, then residing in New Orleans, by whom
he was reared and educated. His brother-in-law,
R. D. Blossman, who was a large cotton dealer in
New Orleans and had some interests also at Alton,
111., between which places he made his home.
In the schools of the latter place young Gonzales
received his early mental training, finishing with a
three years' course in the select school at Valladolid,
Spain, the old family seat. He took up the cotton
business at New Orleans about 1845 under his
brother-in-law in whose interest he came into Texas
in 1846 ; arriving in this State, he spent two years
at Lavaca, and then revisited New Orleans, where,
August 28th, 1850, he married Miss Edith Boyer,
who accompanied him back to Texas, their future
home. They located at Point Isabel, then the seat
of considerable commercial activity, being a United
States port of entry, where he went into the re-
ceiving and forwarding business, and was so
engaged for two or three years. In 1853 he
moved to Galveston, where he at once became
connected with the cotton interest in the city, with
which he has had to do in some capacity for the
past forty-odd years. He was vice-president of
the Galveston Cotton Exchange for two terms, and
is the oldest cotton dealer in the city. Scarcely
a movement has been set on foot affecting the
great staple on which the commerce of this port so
much depends that his name has not been in some
way associated with it. He has also been an
active worker in a number of important private
enterprises of benefit to the city. He was one of
the organizers of the Taylor Compress Company of
Galveston, established in 1875, and has since its
organization been secretary and treasurer of the
company.
During the late war Mr. Gonzales organized the
Gonzales Light Battery, composed of 150 men,
which was mustered into the Confederate army
and did good service both in the defense of
Galveston and in the support of Gen. Dick Taylor
in Western Louisiana. This battery, which was
made up of picked men and thoroughly equipped,
was the pride of Gen. Magruder, commander of
the department of Texas, and being stationed
along the water front was one of the chief sources
of his reliance in the great naval battle fought at
Galveston, January 1st, 1863.
The following is a copy of the official report
made by Capt. Gonzales of the part taken by his
battery in the engagement : —
Galveston, January 6th, 1863.
CoL. X. B. Debray, Commanding.
COLOWEL :
I have the honor to report the part taken by my
battery of light artillery, in the engagement, on this
island, on the morning of the first inst. I re-
ceived orders to proceed with my battery and to es-
tablish it in three sections on the strand, as fol-
lows: One section, the left, at the foot of the brick
wharf near the Hendley building ; the center sec-
tion at the foot of Kuhans wharf near Parry's
foundry ; and the right at the foot of Hutching's
wharf near what is known as " The Iron Battery."
Maj. George R. Wilson commanded the left;
Lieut. R. J. Hughes was in command of the center
298
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and the right was under my own command. The
fire was opened at about half-past three in the
morning from my left section, the Major-General
commanding in person, firing the firgt gun. This
being the signal to commence firing, the battery
opened and the firing was continued until about
daylight when orders were received to cease firing
and to withdraw the pieces, the battery having
fired 317 rounds.
I have to report the following casualties : —
In Maj. Wilson's section: Private Louis Gebour,
leg broken at the knee, amputated and since
died.
In my section : Private J. R. Smith, wounded in
the hip ; Private T. Frederick, head and shoulders —
severe but probably not mortal ; Private P. Lynch-
comb, head, slight.
No other casualties occurred. The officers and
men behaved well and though under fire for the first
time, and very much exposed, handled their guns
with coolness and did their work bravely.
I have the honor. Colonel, to be, very respect-
fully, your obedient servant,
Thomas Gonzales,
Capt. Light Artillery, C. S. A.
Mr. Gonzales' career has been principally of a
business nature. He served as a commissioner of
Cameron County for one term during his residence
at Point Isabel and since coming to Galveston has
been frequently importuned to become a candidate
for various local offices, but has uniformly declined
to yield to such solicitudes and has taken only a
passing interest in political matters. He is a con-
servative Democrat, believing in the fundamental
principles of the Democratic party and, within the
bounds of reason and common sense, in party or-
ganization ; but opposes bossism and blind parti-
sanship and all else inconsistent with individual
liberty and the purity o the ballot-box.
As stated, Mr. Gonzales' marriage took place in
New Orleans just previous to his permanent re-
moval to Texas in 1850. His wife was born in
Philadelphia, December 20th, 1833, and was a
daughter of Pierre Boyer. She was connected by
blood and marriage with some of the oldest and
best families of the United States; among them
were the Verplanks and Rumseys of Fishkill,
N. Y., the Weathereds of Baltimore, the Sykes
of St. Louis and the Caverlys of Delaware.
Her brother. Dr. P. C. Boyer, was a physician of
prominence in New Orleans during and since the
war. Mrs. Gonzales was mainly reared in New
Orleans, in the schools of which city she received
her education. She was an accomplished young
lady who, though accustomed to all the comforts
and luxuries of wealth, cheerfully came to this new
country to help her husband make a home and win
a fortune. To Mr. and Mrs. Gonzales six children
were born, four sons and two daughters ; one of
the children, a son, died in infancy ; another, a
daughter, at the age of seven fell a victim to the
yellow fever epidemic of 1867, and a son, Thomas
E., died February 19th, 1892, when thirty-three
years of age. Their surviving daughter, Daisy,
was married to Francis Coolidge Stan wood, a cotton
dealer, and resides in Boston', Mass., while the two
remaining sons, Boyer and Julian Caverly, are
business men at Galveston, the former a member
of the firm of Thomas Gonzales & Sons, cotton
dealers, and the latter paymaster and accountant for
the Taylor Compress Company.
On January 3d, 1895, after a brief illness, Mrs.
Gonzales, died at her home at Galveston, sincerely
mourned by her family and a large circle of friends,
to whom she had endeared herself by her kindness,
charity, fortitude and other womanly virtues.
The religious connection of Mr. Gonzales'
family is with the Episcopal Church, upon the ser-
vices of which all are regular attendants.
BENNETT BLAKE,
NACOGDOCHES.
Judge Bennett Blake, of Nacogdoches, was born
at Sutton, Vt., November 11, 1809. His parents,
Mr. Samuel Dow Blake and Mrs. Abigail (Lee)
Blake, natives of New Hampshire, emigrated to
Vermont in 1792 and established themselves in
Sutton, Caledonia County, where they resided until
their respective deaths. They left eight children.
The subject of this memoir attended local schools
for three months in the year during a number of
years and acquired a fair common-school education
1*.
:^g?WV
JUDGP: BENNETT BLAKE.
MRS. BLAKE.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
29»
and, when twenty-five years of age, went to Bos-
ton, Mass., where he remained until March 16,
1835, and then, determining to try his fortune in
Texas, took passage on a sailing vessel bound for
New Orleans. Very rough weather was encountered
on the voyage and it took the ship forty-two days
to reach its destination. From New Orleans he
proceeded up Red river to Natchitoches, La., and
from thence overland to Nacogdoches, at which
place he arrived May 3, 1835, with $20.00 in his
pockets, and shortly thereafter employed a guide,
and with three companions, started out afoot to
look at the country. The guide proved to be in-
competent and got the party lost in the woods.
After wandering about for over four days without
food they succeeded in making their way back to
Nacogdoches. Here Judge Blake obtained employ-
ment as a clerk in the land-office, under George W.
Smith, who was commissioned to put old settlers in
possession of lands north of the San Antonio road.
In September of that year (1835) two surveyors,
whose compasses were at Natchitoches, La., one
hundred and ten miles distant, offered $150.00
to anyone who would bring the instruments to
Nacogdoches within four days. Judge Blake
undertook the journey, accomplished it in three
days and a half and was paid the sum promised.
Of a bold and resolute spirit he was among the
foremost in every expedition designed for the pro-
tection of the country.
Davy Crockett, when on his way to take part in
the Texas revolution, stopped in Nacogdoches for
several days. During the time he took his famous
oath in the old stone fort to support the cause of
the Texians, not for the restoration of their rights
under the constitution of 1824, as was then being
sought, but until their absolute independence should
be achieved. While in the town he delivered a
speech to which Mr. Blake had the pleasure of
listening. He reports "Old Davy" as having
closed his speech as follows : " We'll go to the City
of Mexico and shake Santa Anna as a coon dog
would a possum."
The fall of the Alamo, the massacre at Goliad,
and the butchery of Johnson's and Grant's men
on and beyond the Nueces and the continued
retreat of Houston before the Mexican army,
sweeping victoriously eastward in three divisions,
cast a gloom over the country and the arrival of
the merciless invaders in the eastern part of the
province was daily expected. The roads about and
beyond Nacogdoches were lined with women and
•children fleeing to Louisiana for safety. None
were afterwards seen in any part of that country
until the God of Battles smiled upon the Texian
arms at San Jacinto. The Indians taking advan-
tage of the unsettled condition of the country were
committing numerous murders and depredations.
Mr. Blake and two companions at this time were
appointed to protect the retreat of the fugitives and
watch the Indians, whom it was feared would rise
and attempt an indiscriminate massacre. He and
his comrades discharged the trust with vigilance and
courage. Judge Blake served under Gen. Rusk, in
1839, in his expedition against the noted Cherokee
Chief Bowles who had organized a formidable In-
dian insurrection. On one occasion during the cam-
paign Gen. Rusk offered a furlough of ten days to
anjf of his soldiers who would carry a dispatch from
where he was stationed, north of the Sabine, to
Nacogdoches, seventy-five miles distant, and de-
liver it upon the day of starting. The purport of
the message was a warning to volunteers not to
leave Nacogdoches for his camp except in parties
fifteen or twenty strong, as there were many In-
dians upon the road. It was a perilous mission
to undertake, but Judge Blake volunteered to per-
form the service. He was mounted on a fine
horse and made the trip in the time appointed.
He saw but one Indian on the road and gave
him a lively chase, but says that he felt no
exaggerated longing to overtake him and was
rather gratified that the distance widened rather
than diminished between them, and the Indian
finally lost to view. On arriving at Nacogdoches
he found Mrs. James S. Mayfield standing
guard, with a belt of six-shooters around her waist
and a shot-gun on her shoulder. The young men
had all taken the field against the Indians and left
the old men and women to protect the settlement.
Many of the women of those days were good shots
and of undoubted courage. At his request Judge
Blake was permitted to relieve her and stood guard
for the rest of the night, but says that he was very
tired and is inclined to the belief that he put in the
greater part of the time that intervened to day-
dawn sitting on the ground with his back against a
tree. Mr. Blake remained in Nacogdoches about
four days, and finding it very lonesome, returned to
his companions. Shortly thereafter he partici-
pated in the two days' battle that resulted in a
signal victory for the whites and so completely
crushed the spirit of the Indians that no general
uprising ever after occurred. On the second day
when the Cherokees and their allies had retreated,
Bowles, while heroically trying to rally them, re-
ceived two or three gun-shot wounds and fell from
his horse. A moment later the Texians, firing right
and left as they rode, charged directly over his
body. Bob Smith and Judge Blake were side by
300
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
side and Smith, seeing around the fallen chief's
waist a red belt holding a sword that Gen. Houston
had given him (Bowles) in former days, stooped
over to jerk it off. As they tugged at the belt
Bowles rose and Smith shot him through the head
and the noted Indian warrior tumbled forward upon
his face and expired without a groan. In the two
days' fight one hundred and eight Indians were
reported killed. Two of the whites were killed and
twenty-eight wounded.
In February, 1841, the Indians made a raid
through the Nacogdoches country and murdered a
man named Jordan. A party of settlers, flfty-two
in number, Judge Blake among them, hastily
assembled and started in pursuit. They had a
severe experience, having to walk a greater part of
the time, as the roads were so boggy they could
not use their horses. They were three days with-
out food and at the end of that time had only suc-
ceeded in traversing a distance of seventy-five miles.
The expedition proved fruitless. This was the last
expedition against the Indians in which Judge
Blake participated. The only change in use in the
country from 1835 to 1838 was made by cutting a
Mexican dollar into quarters. These circulated as
twenty-five cent pieces. Judge Blake says that it is
just to state that the Mexicans never to his knowl-
edge cut a dollar into more than four pieces,
while Americans in many instances would make
five and put them into circulation as twenty-
five cent pieces. He recounts an amusing in-
cident that marked his acquaintanceship with Gen.
Houston.
In 1835 the cholera epidemic that then prevailed
made its way to Nacogdoches and several citizens
fell victims to the scourge. Everj'body, who could,
left town and Judge Blake with eight companions,
among the number Gen. Houston, went to Niel
Martin's, eight miles from town, where they secured
board and lodging and comfortably established
themselves. The entire party slept in the same
room. The first night, and a number of nights
thereafter, Gen. Houston sat up and read until
midnight and then went to bed and called his negro
Esau, to pick ticks off him. These performances,
however agreeable to the General and improving to
Esau, were not at all edifying to the General's
room-mates and they decided to try the effects of
a practical joke. Accordingly they gathered all
the ticks they could find and put them in a box and
while Houston was eating his supper scattered them
in his bed. The General had not long retired
before he called loudly for Esau, who literally had
his hands full until some time near davlight.
Houston never disturbed the rest of his companions
again and the stay at Martin's proved delightful to
all concerned.
Judge Blake was honored by his fellow-citizens
with office almost continuously from 1837 to 1876,
serving as justice of the peace, member of the Con-
federate Legislature in 1863-4, county judge, and
member of the constitutional convention of 1875.
Confederate money was worth very little when he
was in Austin as a member of the Legislature and he
paid $100.00 per day for board and lodging for the
sixty-five days of the session. Daring his terms of
service as justice of the peace and county judge,
he tried seven thousand civil suits and five hundred
criminal cases. A great many appeals were taken
from his decisions but not one was ever reversed.
Judge Blake for many years has refused to be a
candidate for any office.
He has been married three times: first in New
Hampshire in 1833, to Miss Mary Lewis, who died
a short time after their union ; next, in Montgom-
ery County, Texas, in 1849, to widow Harrison, who
died in 1852, and in 1853 in Nacogdoches to Miss
Ella Harris, who died in 1886. Three children
were born of the latter union ; Bennett Blake, a
prominent farmer in Nacogdoches County ; Myrtle,
wife of Judge James I. Perkins of Rusk, and Addie
Louisa, widow of Mr. W. E. Bowler of Nacog-
doches. Miss Ella Harris, who became the wife of
Mr. Blake and mother of his children, a noble
Christian lady, was born in Georgia in 1832. Her
father was Dr. Eldridge G. Harris, and mother
Mrs. Mary (Hamilton) Harris. She was brought
to Nacogdoches, Texas, in 1836, by her mother,
who was joined at that place by Dr. Harris, who ■
had preceded them. Dr. Harris was a surgeon in
the Texas revolutionary army and a pioneer greatly
beloved by his fellow-soldiers and neighbors. He
died in 1838 and his wife in 1872, at the home of
Judge Blake in Nacogdoches.
Judge Blake has seventeen living grandchildren.
He is a member of the Democratic party and Royal
Arch degree of the Masonic fraternity.
Judge Blake has been successful in a financial
way, having accumulated a considerable fortune.
He has passed through many stirring and thrilling
scenes, scenes that can have no counterpart in the
after history of the country, and always bore him-
self as an upright, manly man. Privation and
misfortune only nerved him to stronger exertions
and danger but caused his blood to run swifter and
his nerves to steady themselves as he encountered
and overcame it — not his the spirit to become
dejected, nor the heart to quail. His virtues,'
abilities and services to the country entitle him to the
place accorded him upon the pages of its history.
J. R. FENN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
301
JOHN RUTHERFORD FENN,
HOUSTON.
J. R. Fenn, one of the leading citizens of Hous-
ton, a Texas veteran and a patriot whose fidelity to
the principles of liberty has often been evinced
upon Texas soil during the past half century, is a
native of Mississippi, born in Lawrence County,
that State, October 11th, 1824. He is of Scotch-
Irish descent, a strain so eloquently eulogized by S.
S. ( " Sunset " ) Cox, in his " Three Decades of
Federal Legislation," as having furnished to this
country some of its most successful generals,
purest statesmen, eminent lawyers and useful and
distinguished citizens.
His parents, Eli Fenn and Sarah Catherine
(Fitzgerald) Fenn came to Texas in 1833 with their
children, and in June of that year opened a farm
on the Brazos river, three miles below the site of
the present town of Richmond. Mr. Eli Fenn
served in the Creek War, participating, among other
engagements, in the battle of the Horse Shoe, and
in the war of 1835-6 fought in the Texian army
as a member of Capt. Wiley Martin's Company.
He died at his home in Fort Bend County, Texas,
in 1840. His wife was a daughter of David Fitz-
gerald, a Georgia planter who came to Texas in
1822, settled in Fort Bend County, and shortly prior
to his death in 1832, took part in the battle of Ana-
huac, a brilliant affair that was a fit precursor of
the more decisive struggle against Mexican tyranny
that was to follow a few years later. She died in
1860, and sleeps beside the beloved husband with
whom she braved the terrors of the wilderness.
Two children were born of the union, John R. (the
subject of this memoir) and Jesse T. Fenn, the
latter of whom died in Fort Bend County in 1873.
Mr. J. R. Fenn was not quite twelve years of age
when the battle of San Jacinto was fought, but pre-
serves a vivid recollection of the stirring scenes of
those times. His mother and others who had pre-
pared to cross the river and retreat before the
advancing Mexican army mistook a body of troops
under Col. Almonte for a part of Gen. Houston's
army, narrowly escaped into the woods from the
house in which they were and came near being
captured. His father, a member of Martin's spy
company which was near, and seeing the approach
of a portion of Santa Anna's army, and knowing
the danger his wife and other ladies were in, swam
a swollen creek with his gun on his back and arrived
on the scene at the moment his wife and others
were fleeing across the field, raising his gun to his
shoulder shot a Mexican dead. This attracted the
attention of the pursuers to him and enabled his
family and others to make good their escape. J.
R. Fenn, subject of this memoir, and a negro boy
who had gone out in the morning to drive horses,
returned to the deserted house about eight o'clock
in the morning and rode into the Mexican lines and
were made prisoners. Late in the afternoon young
Fenn made a break for liberty and, although he was
shot at by a score or more of Mexicans and the
leaves cut from the trees by their musket balls fell
thick about him, he kept going and was soon safe in
the depths of the forest. He passed his home and
went ten or fifteen miles further where he found
several white families. An hour later they were
joined by Joe Kuykendall. The party traveled all
night, at daylight arrived at Harrisburg, and during
the day reached Lynchburg. Here young Fenn
found his mother and some of the other ladies who
had fled with her. They had walked for miles
through mud and water, a keen norther blowing,
some of them (men, women and children) without
shoes and half clad. The entire company continued
east, crossed the San Jacinto river and hurried
forward as rapidly as their exhausted condition
would permit. Coming to one of the bayous that
empty into the bay, and having no rafts to effect a
crossing, they attempted and at last succeeded in
wading across on the bar at the mouth of the stream.
Although a big wave would come rolling in ever and
anon and knock them over they would scramble to
their feet and start again.
Despite such difficulties the party finally reached
the Neches river in safety. Here Mr. Eli Fenn
joined the party. Gen. Gaines commanding United
States troops near San Augustine had given the
Indians a scare and they had all left that part of
the country, and Capt. Martin, whose duty it was
to keep between the Indians on the north and the
white families that were fleeing from the Mexican
invader, seeing no further need of his men in that
section, gave them permission to go in search of
their families. Mr. Fenn took his wife and son to
Louisiana and returned to the army, where he
served until October, 1836. He then procured a
discharge and went after his family, which he
brought back to the old homestead on the Brazos.
The subject of this notice acquired a fair com-
302
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
mon school education iu such schools as the country
afforded, to which varied experience and extensive
reading and observation have since largely added.
He marched to San Antonio in the spring of
1842, and again in the autumn of that year with
Gen. Somervell as sergeant in Capt. William Ryan's
company, to oppose Gen. Adrian Woll, who
attempted another Mexican invasion. Mr. Fenn
served throughout the campaign.
In 1846, when war was declared between Mexico
,and the United States he went with Gen. Albert
Sydney Johnston to the seat of war and served with
Capt. Jack Hays' company.
During the war between the States, he enlisted
under the flag of the Confederate States and did
good service as Second Lieutenant in Strobel's
Company.
Mr. Fenn was united in marriage to Miss
Rebecca Matilda Williams, of Fort Bend County,
Texas, April 13th, 1853, and has four children:
Francis Marion Oatis, who married Miss Lottie
Benson, of Charlottesville, Va. ; May, wife of Mr.
Jas. McKeever, Jr., of Houston; Ann Belle, and
Jos. Johnston Fenn, the latter of whom married
Miss Mollle Walker, of Houston.
Mrs. Fenn was born in Woodville, Miss., in
1835. Her parents were Mr. Daniel Williams and
Mrs. Ann Fitz Randolph (Ayers) Williams. She
is a great granddaughter of Gen. Nathaniel Ran-
dolph, a Lieutenant and Aide de Camp on the staff of
Gen. Lafayette during the war of the Revolution,
and also a great granddaughter of Ezekiel Ayers,
who also served with distinction in the Continental
army. Her grandfather, Isaac Williams, was one
of the pioneers of the Province of Mississippi, of
which he served for some time as Colonial Governor.
An uncle. Governor Henry Johnson, was Governor
of Louisiana and a member of the United States
Senate, retiring from that body in 1860 when
eighty years of age. Her parents came to Texas
in 1845, and settled on Oyster creek, in Fort Bend
County, bringing with them four children : Joseph
Smith, who died in the Federal prison at Fort
Butler, in Illinois, during the war between the
States ; Johnson Coddington, who also died in that
prison ; Edwin J., now living on Oyster creek ; and
Annie Williams, who died in Houston, February
17th, 1893. Johnson Coddington Williams, who
was a member of Terry's Rangers when first
enlisted, but at the time of his death at Fort Butler
was a member of W. H. Wilke's Regiment,
Carter's Brigade.
Mrs. Fenn's first year in Texas was spent in the
old homestead of Moses Shipman, one of the
original "Austin 300." The logs and boards of
the house were all made by hand and joined to-
gether with wooden pins, there being no iron bolts
or nails in the country. Here she and the family
were obliged to drink water from creeks and ponds
and suffered all the inconveniences and hardships
incident to life in a new and, entirely undeveloped
country.
Mrs. Fenn is a member of the Presbyterian
Church, president of San Jacinto Chapter, Daugh-
ters of the Republic of Texas, and since 1877 has
been a member of the Texas Veterans' Association.
She is a lady of rare culture and intellectual
attainments.
Mr. Fenn has been a member of the Texas
Veterans' Association since 1876. He is a member
of the Democratic party, with the highest sense of
every duty, and well merits the confidence and
esteem in which he is held by those who know him
best within the social and business world. He has
met with a reasonable measure of success in a
financial way, having $100,000 judiciously in-
vested. He has lived in Houston since 1872. Mr.
and Mrs. Fenn have a delightful home in that city.
Here they are quietly and happily passing their
declining years. They have witnessed villages,
towns and cities rise where the red Indian pitched
his wigwam ; there are now waving fields of golden
grain on sun-kissed prairies over which once
wandered the buffalo and coyote ; they have be-
held the coming of the railroad and the telegraph,
and not only the dawning but wondrous growth
and expansion of a refined and elegant civilization
for which they helped clear the way. They and
others like them are entitled to lasting gratitude
and remembrance.
MRS. FENN AND DAUGHTERS.
JAMES R. MASTERSON.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
303
JAMES ROANE MASTERSON,
HOUSTON.
James Roane Masterson, though reared in Texas,
is not a native of the State. He was born in
Lebanon, Wilson County, Tenn., April 15, 1838.
His paternal grandmother was a Miss Washington,
niece of President George Washington. His father,
a lawyer of Brazoria County, Texas, was a native
of Tennessee, but removed with his family to Texas
in 1839, and was elected County Clerk of Brazoria
■County. His mother, Christiana J. Roane, born
in Nashville, Tenn., January 10, 1818, is the
daughter of James Roane, son of Governor Archi-
bald Roane, of Tennessee, in whose honor a county
of that State is named ; a grandniece of Governor
Spencer Roane, of Virginia, who was at one time
United States senator from that State, and of David
Roane, who was appointed by President Jefferson,
United States District Judge for the State of Ken-
tucky, and a cousin of Governor John Roane, of
Arkansas. The maternal grandmother of James
R. Masterson was a Miss Irby, of Virginia, a rela-
tive of President John Tyler. One of her sisters
is the mother of John Morgan, United States Senator
from Alabama. Two of her nieces married Thomas
■Chilton of the Supreme Court of Alabama, one of
whom was mother of Mrs. Abercrombie, of Hunts-
Tille. Another of her sisters, Mrs. Mary Hooker,
of New Orleans, formerly Mrs. Noble, was the
mother of John I. Noble, of New Orleans.
His paternal uncle, William Masterson, married
the eldest daughter of the celebrated Felix Grundy,
of Tennessee. His brothers, William, Washington
(now dead), Archibald, and Branch T. Masterson,
were all in the Confederate army and were gallant
soldiers, William and Washington serving as
officers. Harris was a small boy when the war
■began.
James R. Masterson's opportunities for obtaining
a thorough education were very limited. When be
was a youth there were no good schools in Texas,
and what education he received is due to his
mother. His early predilections were for the law,
and he began the study of that science at the age
of seventeen. In 1856 he entered the law office of
Gen. John A. Wharton and Clinton Terry, at
Brazoria. He had for four years been an assistant
to his father in the County Clerk's office, and there
gained much information in regard to forms and
practice, knowledge that greatly facilitated his
-advancement. He was admitted to the bar in
1858, having been declared of age for that purpose
by the Legislature of Texas. As soon as admitted
to the practice, he located in Houston and there
applied himself to his profession with great dili-
gence and assiduity. He was studious, careful and
attentive to business. The industry and caution
he displayed in the preparation of his cases gave
him a standing at the bar at once, and secured for
him a large and lucrative practice. By the unani-
mous request of the Houston bar, he was, in 1870,
appointed by Governor E. J. Davis, Judge of the
Nineteenth Judicial District of Texas, composed of
Harris and Montgomery counties. He entered
upon the duties of that office with the same energy
and industry that he had exhibited as a practi-
tioner. His predecessors in office, prior to the
war between the States, were men of acknowledged
ability and were eminently qualified for the station ;
and from the time of his appointment, he exhibited
a laudable ambition to worthily emulate their vir-
tues. His executive ability in the disposition of
judicial business is rarely equaled, and in applying
the law to the facts of the case, few men are more
careful and accurate, and none more conscientious.
Judge Masterson served under the appointment
of the Governor until the adoption of the present
constitution, in 1876. By that instrument his office
was made elective by the people, and he was the
first judge of his district elected under it. He was
nominated by the Democrats and chosen Judge of
the Twenty-first (old Nineteenth) District,
His personal character and official course have
been so eminently satisfactory to the people that
no man in the district could have been elected in
his stead. He has but a very brief military record.
He enlisted in the army to go to Virginia with
Hood's scouts, but was transferred to Elmore's Reg-
iment, Twenty-first Texas, commanded by Lieut.-
Col. L. A. Abercrombie, and served one year, and
was honorably discharged. Politically, Judge
Masterson has always been a Democrat, and in the
days of secession was a follower of Sam Houston
and favored co-operation rather than secession.
He did not endorse the constitutionality or the
expediency of secession, but advocated the co-oper-
ation of Texas with the northern tier of Southern
States. He belongs to the State's Rights school of
politics, but does not believe that secession is a
constitutional remedy.
304
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Judge Masterson is a Euight Templar and Past
Master of Holland Lodge No. 1, Ancient Order of
Free and Accepted Masons (Houston), of which
Presidents Sam Houston and Anson Jones had been
masters. He has been Captain-General and Gene-
ralissimo of Ruthven Commandery No. 2, chair-
man of the committee of Foreign Correspondence
of the Grand Commandery, and is a member of the
committee of Grievances and Appeals of the Grand
Lodge of Texas and of the Knights of Honor
and German Turn Verein. He was baptized and
reared in the Episcopal Church, of which Mrs. Mas-
terson was also a member. Judge Masterson was
married in Galveston, Texas, January 17, 1865, to
Miss Sallie Wood, a native of Galveston, daughter
of E. S. Wood, the noted hardware merchant of that
city. She graduated at Miss Cobb's Seminary in
her native city. Mrs. Masterson died in 1890.
Four children were born of this union, all at Galves-
ton: James Eoane, Annie Wood, Lawrence Wash-
ington (died in 1891), and Mary Heard Master-
son.
The life of the gentleman whose biography is
here briefly sketched demonstrates the value of
perseverance and determination to succeed in the
face of what seem to be insurmountable obstacles.
Deprived of school in early life, learning from
books only what a mother could teach amid a mul-
tiplicity of household cares incident to the rearing
of a large family, and starting without any capital,
but having ambition and energy, he has not only
earned a high position professionally, and an honor-
able name among men, but also a considerable for-
tune. He is now reckoned among the wealthy
men of Houston. In 1879 when the Court of Com-
missioners of Appeals was established, twenty-six
out of the thirty State Senators, the Lieul^enant-
Governor and a large number of Representatives
signed a recommendation, or request, to the Gov-
ernor to appoint him one of the judges of that court.
This paper was sent to Judge Masterson with the
expectation and desire that he would present it to
the Governor, who would hardly have hesitated to
comply with the wish of the petitioners and place
him on the bench. The recommendation was never
delivered to the Governor, however, as Judge Mas-
terson did not want the place, although, in point of
dignity, it is equivalent to a seat on the supreme
bench. As a further evidence of the high esteem
in which he is held by his fellow-countrymen of all
parties, it may be stated that at the Democratic
district convention held at Houston, July 30, 1880,
he was unanimously renominated for Judge of the
Twenty-first District, and the Independent conven-
tion indorsed him with equal unanimity, and he
was re-elected, beating his Republican opponent
over three thousand votes, out of a total of seven
thousand, and leading the Democratic State ticket
twenty-five hundred votes. On the bench he knows
neither Democrat nor Republican. His undoubted
integrity of character, his knowledge of law, his
quick perceptions, his decided convictions, the
urbanity of his manners and the care with which he
studiously avoids wounding the feelings of others,
are traits that account for his great popularity. He
is a shrewd business man, commanding the respect
and receiving the confidence of the community in
his financial transactions.
His life will bear microscopic inspection, whether
as an officer or a citizen. He is a close observer of
men and things and a hard student in his profes-
sion, a man worthy of the trust reposed in him in
all his relations of citizens. Christian, lawyer and
judge.
He is a man of spare build, being only five feet
seven inches in height, and weighing only one hun-
dred and forty-six pounds. His complexion is
fair, his eyes greyish-blue, and forehead high and
intellectual. He is quick spoken, and his manner
is frank and affable.
In January, 1893, Judge Masterson resumed the
general practice of his profession.
SAMUEL E. HOLLAND,
BURNET.
Samuel Eli Holland was born in Merriweather in 1841. In April, 1847, he went to Austin and
County, Ga., December 6th, 1826, and came entered the United States army as a soldier in
to Texas in 1846, having been preceded by his Samuel Highsmith's Company, Sixth Texas Cavalry
parents, John R. and Elizabeth Holland, who came (Jack Hay's Regiment), and with that command
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
305
joined the army of Gen. Taylor, then in Mexico. He
was engaged with Hays' Regiment in guerrilla war-
fare until discharged in May, 1848, when he
returned to Texas.
During September of that year he settled in Bur-
net County, then unorganized, where he purchased
land on Hamilton creek, three miles below the
present town of Burnet, twenty-five miles from his
nearest neighbor, and there commenced farming.
He invested eight or nine hundred dollars, the
amount he had saved out of his pay for services
'in the army. Capt. Holland has been married
three times. He first married Mary Scott in 1852,
by whom one son, George, who now lives in Mason
County, was born to him. She died in March,
1855. December 6, 1856, he married Miss Clara
Thomas. Nine children were born of this union,
four sons and five daughters, viz. : David B., John
H., Sam W., Porter D., Mary B., who married
George Lester, of Llano County ; Martha M. , who
married Henry Hester ; Louisa, Catherine and
Elizabeth. Mrs. Holland died January 8, 1887.
September 22, 1887, Mr. Holland married Mrs.
Susan A. McCarty, by whom he has had three
children, Charles Hamilton, Thomas A. , and Will-
iam A.
Capt. Holland has been a successful business
man. He was a member of the Texas Mining and
Improvement Company, which built the North-
western Railroad from Burnet to Marble Falls. He
is largely engaged in farming and stock-raising and
owns fine lands on Hamilton creek, in Burnet
County. He is a Royal Arch Mason and a leading
man in the Grange. He has always espoused the
cause of law and order, given a ready and active
support to the constituted authorities and been
looked to and relied upon in time of public danger.
Burnet was, for a long time after he settled there,
a border county and subjected to Indian raids. He
responded to every call of his neighbors to repel
the Indians and protect the settlers and their prop-
erty and was engaged in numerous Indian fights.
At one time there was a band of counterfeiters on
the Colorado river. Some of them were arrested
and brought to trial, but none but negro evidence
could be obtained, and they were acquitted. But
they were notified by Capt. Holland and others to
leave the county, which they promptly did.
After the war a number of parties commenced
rounding up the yearlings, branding them, and
driving off the beef cattle. A number of these
men were indicted, but Judge Turner refused to
hold court unless he was protected. Capt. Holland,
at the request of a number of respectable citizens,
organized a small police force and Judge Turner,
knowing of what kind of stuff the men were made,
said to him: "Holland, I look to you to protect
this court, else I can't hold it;" and he did protect
the court, notwithstanding the threats and show of
armed resistance that were made.
Capt. Holland, although past middle age, is yet
vigorous and active.
PHILIP SANGER,
DALLAS.
We have selected for the subject of this
memoir the head of the Dallas branch of
a great mercantile establishment that, start-
ing from a very small beginning a number of
years since, has grown to be the pride of the
State of Texas. We refer to Mr. Philip Satiger
and to Sanger Bros. , who own mammoth emporiums
at Waco and Dallas. This house is considered
the largest wholesale and retail establishment in the
Southern States. Its working capital is several
million dollars. It has three hundred and fifty
employees at Dallas, and one hundred and fifty at
Waco. It is conspicuous, not alone for its wealth
and the magnitude of its yearly transactions, but
20
for the high personal character and the important
services, both in time of peace and war, rendered
to the country by the gentlemen who compose the
firm. Men who follow any occupation or pursue
any profession are apt to consider theirs as superior
to all others. The soldier prides himself upon
being a member of the profession of arms. He
looks about him and says: " That man is actuated
by the greed of gain ; that man humbles himself to
secure votes to put himself into some petty civil
office ; that man is spending his days in represent-
ing in court clients who have defrauded their neigh-
bors or committed crimes for which they ought to be
placed in the penitentiary or hanged, while we
306
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
soldiers are relieved from all necessity for taking
stock in the sordid affairs of life and, like gentle-
men, stand ready, with clean hands and brave
hearts and willing swords, to respond to the call of
danger and defend our country if need be with our
lives. Our profession elevates and ennobles and this
can scarcely be said of any other."
The physician says : " The soldier is only needed
in time of war, and is an expense instead of an
advantage in time of peace, and his presence is
justified solely by the ■ fact that it is necessary for
the rest of the community to support hitn in order
to avoid the danger of foreign aggression. The
profession of medi'cine is the greatest of all profes-
sions. Men may get along without any thing else,
but they are obliged to have doctors." So with
the lawyer, so with the merchant and so with
the members of nearly every other avocation ;
but, the truth of the matter is, that each
and all are needed to develop and sus-
tain our complex and many-sided civilization.
It is difficult to institute comparisons and deter-
mine the relative value of any calling or pur-
suit. There is nothing more certain, however,
than that the commercial importance of a country
depends upon the ability and enterprise displayed
by its merchants and that no nation can amount to
much or take high rank without possessing such
merchants. Ancient Tyre and Sidon owed their
opulence and power to them and not to their fleets
and armies. The same may be said of Carthage,
of Venice, and of modern England, and, in a large
measure, of our own country. It requires more
capacity and more labor to successfully manage a
large establishment like that of Sanger Bros., at
Dallas, than to be Governor of Texas. The com-
mercial world is a free Eepublic in which no man
can expect special favors and in which every man
must rise or fall according to his merits. He who
enters it is compelled to meet the most skillful
opponents, and contend against men of wonderful
nerve, energy and brain. He must be constantly
upon the quivive. He must possess not only exec-
utive ability of a high order, but capacity.for the
minutest details and the hardest work. The subject
of this notice stands pre-eminent in Texas as a
financier and merchant. He was born in Bavaria,
Germany, September 11, 1841. His parents were
Elias and Babetta Sanger, who came to America
and settled in Cincinnati, Ohio, from which place
they moved to New York City, where they spent
their remaining years. His father died in 1877,
his mother in 1886. Both are buried in New York.
They had ten children, seven sons and three
daughters, of whom Isaac, senior partner of the
firm of Sanger Bros., resides in New York; Leh-
man resides in Waco, engaged in the real estate
business ; Philip and Alexander are heads of the
Dallas branch of Sanger Bros, business ; Samuel is
a member of the firm of Sanger Bros, and lives at
Waco ; Sophia, resides at Waco, her husband,
L. Emanuel, in the employ of Sanger Bros. ;
Eda, wife of Jacob Newburger, resides in New
York (Mr. Newburger is one of the Eastern buy-
ers for the firm of Sanger Bros.) ; Bertha, widow
of Joseph Lehman, resides in New York ; and Jacob
and David died of yellow fever at Bryan, Texas,
in 1867, aged, respectively, twenty and seventeen
years. After his arrival from Germany Mr. Philip
Sanger remained in New York City for eighteen
months, during which time he clerked for board and
washing and $2.50 per month. He left New York
in 1858 and went to Savannah, Ga., where he
obtained employment in a clothing store where he
received $10.00 per month for his services. At the
end of a year he was sent to the interior, where
he clerked for his employer and made collections
until the beginning of the war between the
States, Mr. Heller having gone North and left him
to settle up that part of the business. Mr. San-
ger's sympathies were with the Southern States
and he responded to the call to arms by entering
the Confederate army as a soldier in Company
G., Thirty-second Georgia, commanded by Col.
George P. Harrison, Jr. A few years since the
writer met a friend of Mr. Sanger's at Weather-
ford, Texas, who said: "I served in the army
with Philip Sanger and I never knew a braver or
better soldier." Besides other engagements, Mr.
Sanger participated in that incident to the bom-
bardment of Morris' Island, S. C, and the
battles of Ocean Pond, Fla., and Bentonville,
N. C, his term of service extended over three
years and eight months. He was slightly wounded
at Ocean Pond. Coming out of the war utterly
penniless and the South being prostrated by the re-
sults of the conflict, he went to Cincinnati, where he
clerked in a notion store for eight months. He
then joined his brothers, Isaac and Lehman, who
had established themselves in business at Millican,
Texas, where they remained until 1867, then
moved to Bryan, then the terminus of the Texas
Central Railway. In 1869 the firm followed the
terminus to Calvert and did business there a year,
after which they moved to Kosse ; stayed there six
months ; moved to Grosbeck in the spring of 1871 ;
in the fall of that year changed their base of
operations to Corsicana, and in 1872 established
themselves in Dallas, doing the leading business in
all of the towns mentioned and at Dallas laying broad
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
307
and deep the foundation for the immense business
which they have since built up. Mr. Sanger was
married August 26, 1869, to Miss Cornelia Mandel-
baum, of New Haven, Connecticut. They have
three children, one son and two daughters, all of
whom are now living. Mr. Sanger has lost five
children. He is a member of the I. O. B. B.
He is modest and unpretentious in manner and
an indefatigable worker. At the same time he
is genial in manner, a most polished and elegant
gentleman, and knows how to entertain royally
at his palatial home. He has assisted with his
personal influence in securing for Dallas many
of the leading enterprises that now add to the
prosperity of the place and has given largely in
the way of donations to railroads. He has been an
active promoter of every worthy public and private
movement for which his aid has been solicited.
His charities have been many and unostentatious.
He is recognized far and wide as a man of com-
manding talents in the field which he has selected
for his life work. He has done as much, perhaps,
of a practical nature, as any other man in the
State to build up the material prosperity of Texas
and deserves a place in this work beside those men
who have proved themselves to be potent factors
in our civilization.
SAMUEL SANGER,
WACO.
Samuel Sanger, a leading merchant of Waco and
one of the best known and most thoroughly repre-
sentative business men and financiers in Texas, was
born in Bavaria, South Germany, September 11th,
1843, and educated in Wurzburg, Bavaria, and
Berlin, Prussia, where he studied for and was ad-
mitted to the Jewish ministry. He came to the
United States in 1866 and from 1867 to March,
1873, was the rabbi in charge of the synagogue at
Philadelphia, Pa. In 1873, he came to Waco,
Texas, and there engaged in business as a member
of the famous mercantile house of Sanger Bros, of
Dallas, who, in that year, established a branch
house at Waco. Since that time he has had entire
charge of the Waco store and has built up an im-
mense trade for it.
He was united in marriage at Cincinnati, Ohio,
in 1867, to Miss Hannah Heller, daughter of K. L.
Heller, of that city. They have four sons and one
daughter, viz., Charles L., a cotton broker at
Waco ; Ike S. , connected with the New York office
of Sanger Bros. ; A. S., employed in the wholesale
notion department of the firm's establishment at
Waco ; Alex, now attending school in New York ;
and Miss Carrie Sanger, who is living at home with
her parents. Sanger Bros, is the largest dry goods
house south of St. Louis and operates on a capital
of millions of dollars. Mr. Sam. Sanger is a mem-
ber of the Knights of Honor, is a member of K. S.
B. and is also a member and Past-President of I.
O. B. B. A business man of pre-eminent energy,
enterprise and ability, he is a ripe scholar and
polished gentleman as well, and is universally
esteemed in commercial and social circles. He
is a man thoroughly representative of the best
thought and purpose of the sphere of action in
which he has for so many years been a notable and
commanding figure.
308
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILLIAM KINCHIN DAVIS,
RICHMOND.
It is difficult for men and women of this later
generation, familiar with life upon peaceful farms
and in towns and cities, to form a mental picture
of the physical aspect of Texas sixty years ago, or
to conceive of the hardships, privations and dangers,
incident to colonial life at that remote period.
Here and there, only, the smoke from a settler's
cabin chimney curled upward on lonely prairie or
in primeval river bottom and forest.
Weak and timid souls kept aloof from such a
land. Brave, adventurous, hardy spirits poured
after the disbanding of Somervell's army on the
Rio Grande, marched into Mexico with other
Texian troops and in December, 1842, participated
in the remarkable and brilliant battle of Mier, in
which he was severely wounded and which resulted
in the surrender of the Texians under stipulations
that were afterwards violated with customary Mexi-
can perfidy. The men were marched afoot, guarded
by Mexican cavalry, toward the city of Mexico.
He was one of those who made their escape at the
hacienda of Salado and were recaptured, after suf-
WM. K. DAVIS.
into its confines — a race to which a San Jacinto
was possible and that laid the foundation for the
institutions we enjoy. We have selected one of
these men, the late William Kinchen Davis, for the
subject of this memoir.
He was born in the State of Alabama on the 11th
day of November, 1822 ; came to Texas during the
month of February, 1830 ; when fourteen years of
age (in 1836), helped build a fort at the mouth of
the Brazos river and in 1839 served in a campaign
against the Indians around the head of the Brazos.
Capt. Davis took part in the Somervell expedi-
tion in 1842, as a member of Boski's command and
fering untold horrors from thirst, hunger and
exposure while wandering about lost in the moun-
tains. After their recapture, Santa Anna sent an
order for every tenth man to be shot, the victims to
be selected by lot. As many beans as there were
prisoners were placed in a jar — black beans to a
number corresponding to the number of men that
were to be killed and white beans for the rest.
The jar was well shaken and the gaunt, and miser-
able, yet still dauntless veterans were ordered to
advance one by one and take a bean from the jar.
As soon as this grim lottery of death was at an
end, the unlucky holders of black beans were foully
MRS. WM. K. DAVIS.
WM. RYON.
INDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
309-
murdered in cold blood and the line of march
resumed. Capt. Davis drew a white bean and in
due time staggered into the city of Mexico with his
surviving companions, where they were put to hard
labor. They were afterwards imprisoned at Perote,
where they received similar- treatment. Septem-
ber 16th, 1844, they were released by Santa Anna
and each man given one dollar with which to make
the journey of fifteen hundred miles back to the
settlements in Texas.
Capt. Davis returned to Richmond, Fort Bend
County, where he ever after made his home. He
was married to Miss Jane Pickens in 1845. She
was a daughter of John H. and Eleanor (Cooper)
Pickens and came to Texas with her parents at
three years of age.
Her father had made all preparations for her to
marry another gentleman, but she eloped with Capt.
Davis. They left her home on horseback and pro-
ceeded to a neighbor's house, where they were
married. They had five children: Fannie (died
when three years of age), J. H. P. (living in Rich-
mond), Eleanora (wife of B. A. Hinson, in busi-
ness at Eiehmond), William Kinclien, Jr. (killed
by cars at Richmond, August 14, 1888), and
Archietto (widow of "W. L. Jones, of Richmond).
Mrs. Hinson has two children, Mrs. Jones seven
children, and William Kinchen Davis left surviving
him a widow and four boys, who now reside in
Houston.
Mrs. Davis died in 1860, and is buried on the
old homestead in Fort Bend County. Capt. Davis
commanded a company for about six months during
the war between the States but was not in action.
He married again, March 5th, 1865, his second
wife being Mrs. Jane Green, of Richmond. They
had no children. She died in March, 1895, and is
buried in the cemetery at Richmond. Capt. Davis
died August 2d, 1891, and is interred beside her.
He was for many years prior to his death a member
of the M. E. Church South and I. O. O. F. fra-
ternity. While his educational advantages in
early life (reared as he was in a pioneer settlement)
were meager, yet he became a very successful busi-
ness man and one of the leading men of his county.
As peaceful and law-abiding in civil life as he
was gallant in time of public danger and war, he
came up to the full stature of good citizenship.
WILLIAM RYON,
RICHMOND.
The late Wm. Ryon, of Richmond, Fort Bend
County, one of the most gallant of the heroes known
to Texas history, was born in Winchester, Ky.,
resided for several years in Alabama ; came to
Texas in 1837, landing at the mouth of the Brazos,
where he clerked, kept hotel and followed various
occupations for a time ; in 1839 was a member of
the surveying party that laid off the town of Austin,
the newly selected site for the seat of government
of the Republic, and later went to Fort Bend County,
where he organized a company in 1842 and joined the
army of Gen. Somervell for the invasion of Mexico.
He was one of the three hundred men who did not
return home after the formal disbanding of Somer-
vell's army. They completed a regimental organ-
ization December 19th, 1842, composed of com-
panies commanded by Captains Ewin Cameron,
Wm. Ryon, Wm. M. Eastland, J. G. W. Pierson,
Claudius Buster, John R. Baker and C. K. Reese,
and selecting Wm. S. Fisher for Colonel and Thomas
A. Murray for Adjutant, marched across into
Mexico, where they captured the town of Mier, for
more than eighteen hours held at bay over two thou-
sand Mexican soldiers under Ampudia (killing over
seven hundred of the enemy), and finally surren-
dered under promises that they would be treated as
prisoners of war and kept on the frontier until
exchanged. The pledges of Ampudia, reduced to
writing after the surrender, were redeemed by tying
the men in pairs and marching them on foot to
Matamoros where they arrived on the 9th day of
January, 1843, and were marched in triumph
through the streets, with bells ringing, music play-
ing and banners fiying. Some of the citizens, how-
ever, moved to pity, afterwards contributed clothing
and money to supply their most pressing needs. The
main body of the prisoners left Matamoros on the
14th, marched eighteen or twenty miles a day,
were corralled at night like cattle and reached
Monterey on the 28th of January. Here they
were made more comfortable and rested until the
2d of February. Arriving at Saltillo they were
310
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
joined by five of the prisoners taken from San
Antonio by Gen, WoU in the previous September.
They left for San Luis Potosi under command of
Col. Barragan and reached the hacienda of Salado,
on the way, February 10, 1843. At a precon-
certed signal on the morning of the 1 1th the prison-
ers, led by Capts. Ewin Cameron and William
Eyon, rushed upon their guard, then eating break-
fast, disarmed them and made their way into the
court-yard, where they overcame one hundred and
fifty infantry. Here they armed themselves and
made a dash for the gate, overcame the guard
stationed there and scattered the cavalry on the
outside, capturing their horses. They had four
any of the stragglers found water. They hurried
with mad joy to the spot, to find themselves in the
midst of a body of Mexican cavalry, under com-
mand of Gen. Mexia. Nearly all, through exhaus-
tion, had thrown away their arms, and none were
in condition to offer resistance. They accordingly
surrendered. During the day other stragglers
came to the camp or were found and brought in by
the soldiers. On the 19th, Capt. Cameron came in
with quite a number and surrendered. The men were
marched back to the hacienda of Salado, where
they learned that Santa Anna had ordered all of
them to be shot, but, yielding to remonstrances from
Gen. Mexia and some of his officers, had commuted
MRS. WM. EYON.
men killed, three of whom were to have been their
guides through the mountains on their homeward
march. They secured one hundred and seventy
stand of arms and one hundred horses. At 10
o'clock a. m. they left. They traveled sixty-four
miles the first twenty-four hours on the Saltillo road.
They next abandoned the road and sought escape
through the mountains. On the night of the 13th,
in the darkness they became separated ; and, dur-
ing the five succeeding days, suffering from hunger,
thirst and the cold air from the mountains, they
wandered about searching for water. Several be-
came demented and a number became separated
from their companions and were never heard of
more. About noon on the 18th, those in the main
body discovered a smoke, the signal to be given if
the order and ordered that one in ten be put to
death. Gen. Mexia, who upon capturing the pris-
oners had treated them with great humanity, now
tendered his resignation, refusing to ofllciate at so
"cruel and unmarlial" a ceremony. Seventeen
Texians, selected from among their companions bv
drawing black beans, were marched out and shot.
Col. Juan de Dios Ortiz executing the order. The
prisoners, tied in pairs, were then marched to the
city of Mexico, which they reached on the 25th of
April. Theyremained in the city until March 12th,
1844, when they were taken to Perote, where was
situated the strongly built and fortified castle of
San Carios. In September following, the prisoners
were released by Santa Anna and permitted to return
home. Capt. Ryon received three severe wounds
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
311
in the battle of Mier and suffered more than his full
share of the miseries that afflicted the Texian sol-
diers after their surrender, seeking to ameliorate
the condition of his companions as far as lay in his
power. Returning to Fort Bend County he, in
April, 1845, married Miss Mary M. Jones, of Rich-
mond, and engaged in farming, stock raising and
merchandising, which he followed for about four
years. The family lived in Houston for about three
years, but returned to Richmond. Capt. Ryon was
a member of the Episcopal Church and Masonic
fraternity. He died October 31, 1875, at the home
of Capt. W. K. Davis at Richmond, universally
admired and respected. Mrs. Ryon's parents were
Henry and Nancy Jones of Richmond, Texas. She
was born at that place December 28, 1826, and
reared in Fort Bend County. She bore Capt. Ryon
nine children, only three of whom lived to be grown,
viz. : James E., who married Miss Josie Dagnal, of
Richmond, and died in 1895 at forty-four years of
age; Susan E., who married J. H. P. Davis, of
Richmond, and died Oct. 30, 1884, leaving two
children, Mildred, who married, first, James Wheat,
of Richmond, who was killed at his home, and next,
F. I. Booth, and now lives at Richmond with her
husband.
HENRY JONES,
RICHMOND.
This widely-known Texian, a pioneer, and mem-
ber of Stephen F. Austin's first colony (known to
Texas as " the original 800") was born in Rich-
mond, Va., March 15th, 1789. His parents were
natives of Virginia. Mr. Jones married Miss
Nancy Stiles in Missouri, January, 1821, and came
to Texas the following year, traveling overland
from Missouri to Red river, and from Red river to
Washington County, where he joined Austin's
colony at San Felipe. He lived one year at Inde-
pendence, where his first child, Wm. S., was born,
the first male child born in the colony. Wm. S.
Jones grew to manhood, married, reared a family
of children, several of whom are now living, and
was a successful farmer and stock raiser in Fort
Bend County to the time of his death, which
occurred in 1875. His wife died in 1878.
Eleven other children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
Henry Jones, viz. : James, who died at Richmond,
Texas, in 1857; Mary M. (widow of Wm. M.
Ryon), who resides at Richmond ; John H, who died
at twenty-two years of age; Hettie E., who died
in 1870; Virginia C, who died about the year of
1859; Elizabeth R., who died in 1890; Susan A.,
who married R. W. Nealy, of Franklin, Ky., where
she now resides ; Wylie P. , who now resides at
Richmond and is the justice of the peace for that
precinct; Emily, who died in childhood ; Laura H.,
wife of Lafayette Hubbard, of Montgomery, Ala.,
and Thomas W., who died at Richmond, August
28, 1895, aged forty-five years. Mr. Jones settled
in Fort Bend County, in 1823 ; brought the first
cattle into that section, cut the first road from East
to West Columbia and erected the second gin and
horse mill in Fort Bend County.
Mr. Jones was with the Texian army during the
revolutionary campaign until near its close, when
he and others were detailed to look after the fam-
ilies that were fleeing before the advancing Mexi-
cans and so missed the battle of San Jacinto, much
to his regret.
Mrs. Jones died August 5th, 1851, and Mr. Jones
June 8th, 1861, at his farm, eight miles from Rich-
mond, where they were buried side by side.
312
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN H. P. DAVIS,
RICHMOND.
J. H. P. Davis, head of the banking firm of J. H.
P. Davis & Co., of Richmond, Texas, and one of
the wealthiest and most influential stock raisers
and planters of Southeastern Texas, was born
February 11th, 1851, in Fort Bend County, where
he grew to manhood and has since resided. His
parents were Capt. Wm. K. and Mrs. Jane (Pick-
ens) Davis. Mr. Davis married Miss Susan E.
Ryon, daughter of Capt. Wm. Ryon, February iO,
1875. She died Oct. 30, 1884, leaving two chil-
dren, Mamie E. and Thomas W. She is buried in
the family cemetery upon the old homestead eight
miles from Richmond. Mr. Davis married his
present wife, nee Miss Belle Ryon, of Franklin, Ky.,
November 27th, 1888. Her parents were James
and Elizabeth (Miller) Ryon ; her father was a
prominent farmer of his section of the "Blue
Grass" State. Mr. Davis' ranch, in Fort Bend
County, is one of the most valuable in the State,
comprising about 50,000 acres, 1,000 of which are
under cultivation. He has aided every worthy
public enterprise and is a man thoroughly in
touch with the best thought and purpose of the
people.
JULIUS RUNGE,
GALVESTON.
The subject of this memoir was born at New
Braunfels, Comal County, Texas, February 1, 1851.
His father, George Runge, and mother, whose
maiden name was Dorothea Spieckle, were natives
of Germany. They came to Texas in 1850 and
settled at New Braunfels. At that time — from
1846 to 1855 — there was a large German immi-
gration into Southwest Texas.
Julius was sent to school at Cassel, Germany, but
did not attend the university located at that place.
Completing his studies at Cassel he attended a
commercial school in Saxony until 1867, when he
came to Galveston, where he has ever since resided
and has, since 1874, been a member of the well-
known firm of Kaufman & Runge. He was ap-
pointed consul at Galveston for the German Empire
in 1875, and has since held that position at that
post.
Mr. Runge served three years as a member of
the Board of Aldermen of the city of Galveston,
between the years of 1877 and 1880 (one term of
one year and one of two years) and, while acting
in the capacity of Chairman of the Finance Commit-
tee (in view of the fiscal condition of the city then
the most important position under the city govern-
ment, for it was a time when a majority of Southern
cities were contemplating the repudiation of their
obligations) was chiefly instrumental in bringing
the municipality into a sound financial condition,
by reducing the rate of interest on her bonded
indebtedness from ten and twelve to eight and five
per cent, the latter being the rate now paid, with
bonds nearly at par. To complete the good work
thus initiated Mr. Runge afterward accepted the
office of City Treasurer, which he filled from 1883
to 1891 and now holds. His investments in inter-
ests outside the firm of Kaufman & Runge are
varied and widespread. Thus he is president of
the First National Bank, an office that he has held
since 1879, and of the Texas Land & Loan Co. ;
vice-president of the Southern Cotton Press &
Manufacturing Co. ; a director in the Texas Cotton
Press Co. ; a director in the Galveston City Railway
Co. , which built the Beach Hotel ; acting president
of the Galveston Cotton Exchange during the past
five years ; a director in the Island City Savings
Bank, which he helped to reinstate upon a strong
financial basis in 1885 ; one of the organizers of
and now one of the directors in the Galveston Cot-
ton & Woolen Mills Co. ; a director of the Galves-
ton & Western Railway, and a director in the Texas
Guarantee and Trust Co. He was one of the
stockholders and directors of the Santa Fe when
that road was reorganized in 1878 or 1879 ; was
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
313
one of the charter members of the Garten Verein
in 1876, and has been a member of the Galveston
Deep Water Committee ever since its organization,
and in 1882 and 1884 went to Washington City and
labored zealously and effectively in the interests of
securing deep water at Galveston.
He has been connected with almost every large
corporation chartered or enterprise inaugurated in
Galveston during the past twenty years, and thus
he is by property as well as social ties identified
with the best interests of the city, for whose wel-
fare he has worked so unceasingly.
On starting out upon his business career Mr.
Runge inherited some money from his father and
was materially aided by his uncle, Mr. Henry
Runge, of Indianola and Galveston, who advanced
him the necessary capital to secure his admission
to the present firm of Kaufman & Runge. He
early displayed remarkable business talents and has
since made a brilliant record as a merchant, finan-
cier and public official.
In 1876 he was united in marriage to his cousin.
Miss Johanna Runge, daughter of Mr. Henry
Runge, who was a member of the firm before the
subject of this memoir was admitted to the partner-
ship. Mr. Julius Runge has seven children — three
girls and four boys. He is a member of the Ger-
man Lutheran Church and baptized and confirmed
in that faith, but is a member of no secret order.
In the prime of a vigorous, physical and mental
manhood, he is a notable figure in the commercial
world of Texas.
ELDRED J. SIMKINS,
CORSICANA.
Hon. E. J. Simkins, a distinguished ex-judge of
the Court of Appeals of the State of Texas, and for
two sessions a member of the State Senate, was
born and reared in Edgefield District, South Caro-
lina ; acquired his preliminary literary education at
Beaufort, in that State, and completed it at South
Carolina College, graduating with the class of 1859.
The Twenty-first and Twenty-second Sessions of the
Texas State Senate presented a brilliant galaxy of
talent in which his star shone as one of the first
magnitude. He took an active and prominent part
in the legislation enacted by those bodies and few
of his colleagues were more magnetic or able in
debate. He left his impress upon some of the most
salutary laws that were placed upon the statute
books.
Under an act of Congress, passed in 1862, all the
property of his family at Beaufort and in the ad-
joining islands was confiscated on account of their
loyalty to the State, made sacred to them by the
nativity and graves of the family for generations.
He volunteered in the Confederate service in 1861,
and served in the Hampton Legion until 1862, when
he was appointed to the first regular artillery
regiment and served during the war at Fort Sump-
ter and the posts around Charleston, S. C
In 1867 he moved to Florida and commenced
the practice of law at Monticello with his brother,
under the firm name of Simkins & Simkins. In
1868 he was elected Chairman of the Democratic
Executive Committee of Jefferson County and re-
tained that position until he came to Texas in 1871,
and settled at Corsicana. He was editor of the
Monticello Advertiser, a Democratic paper, in 1869
and 1870, and, on his removal to Texas, edited
the Navarro Banner, until his election as District
Attorney. Being joined, in Texas, by his brother,
he engaged in the practice of his profession under
the firm name of Simkins & Simkins ; at once took
high rank at the bar, and in 1872 was elected Dis-
trict Attorney of the Thirty-fifth Judicial District.
He was also elected to the Chairmanship of the
Democratic Executive Committee of Navarro
County, which he held until 1877. He was a com-
petitor for the Democratic nomination for Attorney-
General against Hon. John D. Templeton, in 1879.
In 1882, he was appointed one of the regents of
the University of Texas and was twice re-appointed
and confirmed. In 1884, he was a member of the
National Democratic Convention, representing in
that body the Ninth Congressional District of
Texas. In 1886 he was elected, by a majority of
2,800 votes, to the Twentieth and Twenty-first
Legislatures, from the Fifteenth Senatorial District,
composed of the counties of Navarro, Limestone
and Freestone.
Coming to the Senate at a time when popular
prejudice was most rife against the University of
314
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Texas, he was its recognized champion. By con-
stant effort and labor, and by conciliatory methods,
he disarmed hostility, changed prejudice into friend-
liness, and finally succeeded in winning, even from
its enemies, a recognition of the right of the Uni-
versity to public support.
In 1890 he was re-elected, by a large majority, to
the State Senate from his district, after one of the
most prolonged and bitter contests ever recorded in
the political annals of Texas. The Senatorial Con-
vention (almost equally divided) cast more than
1800 ballots without making a nomination and
finally adjourned sine die, each side placing its
candidate before the people. He did yeoman ser-
vice on the stump for the triumph of the Democ-
racy in the exciting contest that followed before
the people, and the signal victory that was achieved
at the polls in November was mainly due to his
effort and the efforts of the friends who espoused
his cause.
In the Twenty-second Legislature he was Chair-
man of the Senate Committee on Constitutional
Amendments, and was the author of the constitu-
tional amendment to the judiciary article which
was adopted in August, 1891, which totally changed
the appellate system of the State, separating the
criminal from the civil jurisdiction and preparing the
way for its separation in the district and county.
On the assembling of the Legislature in extra
session in February, 1892, he was made chairman
of the committee to frame the laws putting the new
system into operation, and the entire work of pre-
paring the necessary bills was relegated to him,
and, after three weeks hard labor, his work was
presented and accepted by the committee and the
Legislature almost without a change, and is the
law to-day.
Immediately upon the adjournment of the Leg-
islature Judge White, the presiding judge of the
Court of Appeals, having resigned. Senator Sim-
kins was appointed in his place and went on the
bench at Austin, in May, 1892. In November,
1892, he was elected to fill the vacancy, and re-
mained on the bench until January 1, 1895, when
he was succeeded by the Hon. J. N. Henderson.
From his first opinion to the close of his term his
great effort was to strike down "judge-made"
technicalities and bring the administration of
criminal law to the test of reason and common
sense. This aroused a powerful opposition among
the criminal lawyers and led to his defeat in 1894
before the State convention.
On leaving the bench he returned to his home in
Corsicana.
He married Miss Eliza Trescot, of Beaufort,
S. C, and has a family of five living children.
He is a member of the Episcopal Church and
the Masonic Grand Lodge. The law firm of
Simkins & Simkins having been dissolved in 1885,
by the removal of his brother to Dallas, he formed
a copartnership with Hon. R. S. Neblett, under
the firm name of Simkins & Neblett, a connection
that continued until March, 1892. Judge Simkins
is now engaged in practice at Corsicana with Mr.
Kichard Mays under the firm name of Simkins &
Mays.
WILEY JONES,
WACO.
The subject of this memoir was born in Blount
County, Ala., and came to Texas with his parents,
Acquilla and Dillie Jones. They came to this
State in the spring of 1848 and settled near Came-
ron, in Milam County. They were married in
1827 in Alabama and had six children, three boys
and three girls, all of whom were born in that State,
except one daughter, Mrs. Jack Johnson of Waco,
Texas. They moved to McLennan County, Texas,
in 1854, and engaged in farming and stockraising.
The father died in 1880 and the mother in 1890 on
their farm, twelve miles from Waco, and are buried
there.
Wiley Jones was born July 17th, 1829. He re-
ceived a good common school education and had
the usual experiences common to boys and young
men during the time he grew to manhood in this
State. Having a taste for adventure, he, in April,
1848, enlisted in Capt. John Conner's Ranger
company, attached to Bell's regiment, and until
December of that year was quartered with it at a
point near the head of Richland creek, half way
between the present cities of Waco and Fort Worth.
That portion of the country was then covered with
buffaloes and infested with hostile Indians. In
December the company marched to Austin and was
SIIAPLEY P. ROSS.
INDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
315
there mustered out of service. During the time
that Mr. Jones was a member of it he distinguished
himself for gallantry and met with many thrilling
adventures.
He was married in 1849 in Cameron, Texas, to
Miss Margaret Ellison, daughter of J. W. Ellison,
of Brazos County. Mr. Jones lived in Milam
County until 1850 and then moved to McLennan
County, where he bought improved lands and en-
gaged in stockraising and farming. Six children
have been born to them, three boys and three
girls, viz. : Travis and William, who live in Waco ;
Bettie, now the wife of J. E. Egan, of Waco ; Dee,
now wife of W. H. Gibson, of Waco ; Joney, ex-
City Secretary, who resides at Waco, and Rosa, who
is living at home. Mr. Jones, by thrift, energy
and business ability, has accumulated a compe-
tency and by the exercise of many excellent quali-
ties as citizen, neighbor and friend, has widely
endeared himself to the people, among whom he
has spent the best years of an active and useful
life, and is now, at an advanced age, enjoying a
well-earned rest among his numerous family and
friends.
SHAPLEY P. ROSS,
WACO.
Perhaps no early settler did more to free Texas
from the depredations of hostile Indians, rendered
more valuable services to the commonwealth over
a longer period of time, or is more generally or
affectionately remembered, than the illustrious sub-
ject of this memoir, Capt. Shapley P. Ross, for
many years prior to his death a resident of the city
of Waco, in McLennan County. His life-history is
a part, and a large part, of the history of Texas.
He was born in Jefferson County, Ky., six
miles from Louisville, January 18, 181]. His
parents were Shapley and Mary (Prince) Ross,
natives of Virginia. His paternal grandparents
were Lawrence and Susan (Oldham) Ross, the
former born in Scotland and a scion of the historic
Ross family of that country. Lawrence Ross came
to America with his father when a boy and, while
attending school in Virginia, was shot through the
shoulder and taken prisoner by the Indians. He
remained with the Indians until he was twenty-
three years of age and was then given up by them
upon the signing of the first treaty of Limestone.
He and his wife both lived to an advanced age, his
death occurring in Jefferson County, Ky., in 1817,
at the age of ninety-eight, and his wife two years
later.
Shapley Ross (father of the subject of this
notice) was a Kentucky planter and large slave-
holder. He moved to Lincoln County, Missouri,
in 1817, and died in 1823, at the age of sixty-five
years. His wife was descended from a distin-
guished Virginia family and was a lady of many
estimable qualities. She was a member of the
Primitive Baptist Church. Her death occurred in
Iowa at the home of her son, Capt. Shapley P.
Ross, in 1837. She left surviving her six sons and
three daughters, viz. : William, Lawrence, Mervin,
Pressly, Nevill, Shapley P., Susan, Caroline, and
Elizabeth.
After Shapley Ross' death the estate was divided
among the heirs, all grown and married except
Shapley P., who was then eleven or twelve years
of age. He lived with his mother upon the
homestead for a time, but she subsequently broke
up housekeeping and he went to live with his
brother Mervin, who was his guardian. At the
age of sixteen he visited the Galena lead mines.
He was always a lover of fine horses and while in
his teens was engaged in trading in cattle and
horses. He followed this and various other pur-
suits until, when twenty-nine years of age, he met,
wooed and, November 4, 1830, married. Miss
Katherine H. Fulkerson, a native of Bucking-
ham Countj', Va., born September 23, 1814,
daughter of Capt. Isaac Fulkerson, a wealthy
planter of German descent, who moved from Vir-
ginia to Missouri in 1814, where he died in May,
1837. Capt. Fulkerson was at one time a Senator
in the Missouri Legislature. Mrs. Ross is one of
tiie most widelj' known and estimable ladies in
Texas. Possessed of the courage requisite to fac-
ing the dangers of frontier life she at the same
time is gifted with those sweet, womanly qualities
that adorn the nome and grace the higher walks of
social life.
After his marriage Capt. Ross lived in Iowa and
316
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Missouri, engaged in farming, hotel-keeping, trad-
ing with Indians, etc., until 1839. In 1834 he and
some chosen friends, with their families, settled on
the Indian reservation on the Des Moines river, in
Iowa. The reservation was occupied by the Fox
and Sioux Indians, then under the leadership of
the noted chief. Black Hawk. They immediately
constructed houses, began farming and the com-
munity became known as the " Ross Settlement."
It was here that Col. Peter Boss and ex-Governor
L. S. Ross were born. In 1838, Capt. Ross rented
out his farm, placed his other interests in the hands
of his agent and went to Missouri. In 1839, hav-
ing been advised by his physicians to seek a warmer
climate, he came to Texas, where he ever after made
his home.
Upon his arrival here he took the oath of alleg-
iance to the Republic of Texas, which was admin-
istered by Neil McLennan, and thus became entitled
to a head-right of 640 acres of land. He settled
at Old Nashville on the Brazos in Milam County
and planted a small crop of corn and killed buffaloes
to supply his family with food. Leaving his wife
and children at Nashville, he went out with his
nephew, Shapley Woolfolk, to look at the country,
now embraced within the limits of Bell and McLen-
nan Counties, and, being pleased with it, went back
to Nashville and traded his wagon and horses for
640 acres on the Leon river and 600 acres in
Burleson County. While at Nashville, the inhab-
itants being colleclred there for protection against
Indians, Capt. Ross proposed to Capt. Monroe and
others to move with him to Little river and form
a settlement, each pledging himself not to leave
unless all left, until a treaty was made with the
Indians. Seven or eight of these men, with their
families, moved to and settled on Capt. Monroe's
league of land in Milam County, thirty-five miles
above Nashville, the nearest white settlement.
This little, but determined colony, had frequent
fights with Indians. A detailed account of Capt.
Ross' experiences in those pioneer days would read
like a thrilling romance, and would fill the pages of
a large volume. Only a brief sketch, however, can
be presented here. On one occasion the Indians
raided the settlement by night and stole all the
horses. Fortunately for the pioneers, a man came
into the settlement early next day with a number of
mules. Capt. Ross and others at once mounted
and hastened after the red-skins, who were over-
taken on Buggy creek, where a bloody and desper-
ate fight ensued. Capt. Ross singled out one big
Indian, and his nephew, R. S. Woolfolk, another,
and a hand-to-hand fight with knives followed.
Both Indians were killed and their companions were
also dispatched. All the property stolen was
recovered.
In 1842 Capt. Ross was a member of Capt. Jack
Hays' company of rangers. In 1845 he sold his
land, on which the town of Cameron now stands,
for a two-horse wagon and a yoke of oxen. He
then moved to Austin, the State capital, in order to
afford his children better educational advantages.
The following year he raised a company of volun-
teers for the protection of the frontier, was elected
Captain and in that capacity rendered eflBcient and
invaluable service to the State. With the Indian
agent, he visited all the hostile tribes on the fron-
tier in 1848 and assisted in effecting treaties of peace
with them, in consequence of theadoption of which
there was peace between them and the whites for
nearly two years.
In March, 1849, Capt. Ross moved to Waco,
being induced to locate there by the company that
owned the league of land on which Waco is now
situated. They offered to give him four lots and
the ferry privilege and to sell him eighty acres of
land at $1.00 per acre, all of which he accepted.
The town was laid out soon after. He selected his
lots and built a cabin on them. He also bought 200
acres at $2.50 an acre, in addition to the eighty
already mentioned. On the former he spent the
evening of his life, his home being a two-story frame
building, located in a natural grove, filled with
mocking birds, in the extreme south part of Waco.
In 1855 Capt. Ross was appointed Indian agent
and given charge of the various tribes then on
reservations in different parts of the State, which
position he held until 1858. By his diplomacy he
gained the good-will of all the friendly tribes and
they followed his instructions in every way. In 1857
the Comanches, who were always hostile, raided
the settlement and took away a large number of
horses and other valuable property. Capt. Ross
at once organized a force of one hundred of the
best warriors from the friendly tribes, dressed him-
self in the garb of an Indian Chief and took the
lead in pursuit of the foe. He was joined by Capt.
Ford, of the United States Army, and soon came
upon the Comanches' camp, which was deserted. A
short distance away, however, they discovered the
Indian thieves secreted in a ravine in full force and
ready to give battle. Then followed one of the
most desperate Indian fights which ever occurred
upon the soil of Texas. Seventy-five Indians were
killed and the property recaptured. During this
struggle Capt. Ross was singled out by the chief of
the Comanches, a powerful warrior, who charged
down upon him at the full speed of his horse. The
Indians covered with their arrows the chief, who,
EX-GOV. L. S. ROSS,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
317
it was afterwards discovered, wore a coat of mail.
Capt. Eoss dismounted and, with his trusty rifle,
calmly waited the oncoming of the Comanche
until his antagonist was within proper distance and
then fired, kiUing him instantly and driving parts
of the coat of mail into his body. This armor was
taken from the dead chief and deposited in the
museum in the State capitol.
On the death of Robert S. Neighbors, Superin-
tendent of Indian Affairs for Texas, Capt. Eoss
was ordered to San Antonio to settle up the affairs
of the Indian Superintendency, this work requiring
his presence in San Antonio during the entire winter
of 1859-60.
In politics he was ever a staunch Democrat. He
opposed Texas joining the Confederacy but favored
secession as a separate State under the " Lone
Star." He was not engaged in the military service
of the Confederacy. He joined the Masons in 1851
at Waco and remained a member of that fraternity
as long as he lived. He departed this life Septem-
ber 17, 1889.
He was a man of wide self-culture, a delightful
conversationalist and a writer of excellent ability,
from whom contributions, relating to old times, and
often to issues pending before the people, were
eagerly sought by the press of the State.
Nine children were born to Capt. and Mrs. Boss,
viz. : Mary Eebecca, Margaret Virginia, Peter F.,
Lawrence Sullivan, Ann, Mervin, Robert S., Kate
and William H. Mervin died at the age of six
years. The others grew up, received excellent
educational advantages, married, have families and
are now occupying useful and honored positions in
life.
LAWRENCE SULLIVAN ROSS.
Hon. Lawrence Sullivan Eoss, ex-Governor of
Texas and now President of the State Agricultural
and Mechanical College, at Bryan, a man who
retired from political office, enjoying the unlimited
confidence, respect and affectionate regard of all
the people of Texas, irrespective of party affilia-
tions, although he was a pronounced and vigorous
champion of Democracy, and who in the position
he has now filled for several years as the head of
one of the State's most important educational in-
stitutions, has still further endeared himself to the
people and given the strongest possible proof of
the scope and versatility of his talents, was born at
Benton's Post, Iowa, in 1838. In 1856 he attended
Baylor University at Waco and the same year was
sent to the Wesleyan University at Florence, Ala.
Eeturning home in 1858 to spend the summer
vacation he assembled a company of one hundred
and twenty-five Indian warriors and hurried to the
support of Maj. Earl Van Dorn, who was leading
the Second United States Cavalry against the Co-
manches ; joined forces with that officer and in
October of that year played a conspicuous part in
the battle of Wichita and, by an act of daring
bravery, rescued a little white girl eight years of
age, who had been with the Indians perhaps from
infancy. He named her Lizzie Ross. In after
years she married a wealthy Californian and died
at her home in Los Angeles in 1886.
The Indians were completely routed in the battle,
but both Van Dorn and Eoss were badly wounded.
When sufficiently recovered the subject of this
sketch resumed his studies at Florence, graduated
in 1859, hastened back to Texas and in 1860, at
the head of Pease river, as Captain of a company
of sixty rangers, employed to guard the Western
frontier, administered a blow that forever crushed
the warlike Comanches. In the battle he killed
Peta Nocona, the last of the great Comanche chief-
tains, captured all the effects of the savages and
restored to civilization Cynthia Ann Parker, who
had been captured by the Comanches at Parker's
Fort in 1836. Very few of the Indians escaped the
fury of the rangers. As a recognition of his serv-
ices. Governor Sam Houston appointed Eoss an
aide-de-camp with the rank of Colonel. Through
the efforts of Capt. L. S. Eoss and his men more
than 800 horses stolen by the Indians were recov-
ered and returned to their owners. He gave law
and safety to the frontier after all others had failed
and when the State had expended more than $350,-
000 with little effect the year previous to his ap-
pointment. Gen. Houston wrote to him in 1860 :
" Continue to repel, pursue and punish the Indians
as you are now doing and the people of Texas will
not fail to reward you. — Sam Houston."
The old General's words were prophetic. Ross
lived to perform many other valuable services in
civil life and in a wider field of military operations,
and the people of Texas have since showered
honors upon him as they have upon few men who
have figured in the history of the State. February,
1861, he tendered his resignation to Gen. Houston ;
served for a brief period under Governor Clark on
the Indian Embassy and then entered the Confed-
erate army as a private in Company G. , commanded
by his brother, Capt. (afterwards the distinguished
Col.) P. F. Eoss ; rose rapidly from the ranks and,
September 3d, 1861, was elected Major of his
regiment, the Sixth Texas Cavalry.
In May, 1862, he was elected Colonel and was
immediately assigned by Maj. -Gen. L. Jones to
command of the brigade, but modestly declined
318
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the honor, and Gen. Phifer was subsequently
selected.
Gen. Van Dorn, with about 15,000 men, made a
forced march on Corinth, Miss., but not receiving
expected re-enforcements, was repulsed after a
sharp engagement by Gen. Rosecrans, who,
with 30,000 men, was strongly entrenched at that
place. The enemy followed up the disorderly
retreat of the Confederate troops toward the bridge
on Hatehie river the following day. Here Boss,
in command of Phifer's brigade, was stationed to
guard the Confederate wagon-trains and rear and,
with his 1,000 men, held over 10,000 Union soldiers
at bay for over an hour and a half — long enough
to enable Van Dorn to reform his troops and
retreat safely and in good order. Gen. Maury was
requested by the War Department at Richmond to
give the name of the officer who had especially dis-
tinguished himself in this action and at once
reported that of Col. Ross. Without the knowl-
edge or consent of Ross, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston
wrote to the Secretary of War, October 3d, 1863,
and had him appointed Brigader-General, a posi-
tion filled by him until the close of hostilities.
Ross served in the Trans-Mississippi department,
and also " across the river," under Gen. Joseph E.
Johnston and Gen. Hood, fighting through the
famous Georgia campaign. He was elected Sheriff
of McLennan County in 1875 ; served the same
year as a member of the Constitutional Conven-
tion; was a member of the State Senate from 1881
to 1883 ; was nominated by the Democratic party
and elected Governor in 1886 ; was re-elected Gov-
ernor in 1888 practically without opposition, and
on retiring from office early in 1891, was made
President of the State Agricultural and Mechanical
College at Bryan, the position he now fills.
The following, taken from a Texas paper and pub-
lished during Ross' second campaign before the
people for re-election to the office of Governor of
Texas, fitly illustrates his character and shows by
what means he won the respect and devotion of the
men who served under him during the war: " An
affecting scene occurred at Morgan the other day,
when a prominent attorney of one of our frontier
counties sought an introduction to Ross and, with
the tears quietly stealing down his cheeks, said :
' I have just received a letter from a favorite
brother, now in Mississippi, who was an old soldier
under you and who was desperately wounded on
the retreat from Nashville and left on the road-
side to die. He says, sir, that when you came by
him in charge of the rear guard, and the Yankees
were pouriqg shot and shell into your brave little
band that stood between Hood's disorganized col-
umns and the pursuing enemy, he hailed you and
bade you a lasting good-bye, whereupon you rode
to where he lay and, dismounting, examined his
wounds and asked if he could find strength enough
to ride behind on your horse. But he told you he
was probably mortally wounded and that you could
do nothing to aid him. This brother says, sir,
that you then turned your pocket out and found
$6, all you had, and gave it to him, and then
mounted and rode rapidly away under fire of the
enemy, then not more than 200 yards from you.
He now writes me to repay you in some measure,
in his name, for your devotion to a private
soldier.' "
MRS. KATE (ROSS) PADGITT.
Mrs. Kate (Ross) Padgitt, wife of Mr. Tom
Padgitt (a wholesale merchant and for many
years a leading citizen of Waco and Central Texas)
was born at Waco, January 6th, 1852, and was
married to Mr. Padgitt, January 3d, 1878. She
was the first white child born in the then Indian
village. At the time there were not more than
four or five white families in the settlement. Miss
Ross when quite young entered Baylor University,
under the presidency of Dr. Ruf us C. Burleson, and
in due course of time graduated from that institu-
tion with high honors. The first steamboat that
ever plied the Brazos river was named the Katie
Ross in her honor. The boat was afterwards taken to
Galveston and ran between that city and Houston.
Of congenial tastes, Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt's
beautiful home in Waco is the seat of that de-
lightful and refined hospitality that from time im-
memorial has been the boast and glory of the South.
Mrs. Padgitt is one of the brightest ornaments of
our Texas womanhood. As I write I have before
me a letter from Herbert Howe Bancroft to a cor-
respondent in this State in which he in grateful
terms expresses his appreciation of the very
valuable assistance that she rendered him in the
collection and preparation of material for his Texas
History. I, too, am indebted to her for many of
the facts used in the compilation of the memoir of
the life of her father, the lamented Capt. Shapley
P. Boss. While she takes great interest in liter-
ary and artisticljmatters and social functions, she
is at the same time thoroughly domestic and de-
voted to her husband, children, and household
duties. Mr. and Mrs. Padgitt have five living
children, viz. : Buena Vista, now wife of Mr. Fos-
ter Fort, of Waco; Catherine, Clinton, Lotta, and
Ross. One child, Sallie, died at the age of thirteen,
and another ,Thoma8, died at the age of twelve years.
.Tig ^^bj^-A' TI?u.i(ie-i-,E-iG-,-!i,lJV
u ^la^ i
^'/y'/
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
319
JAMES GARRiTY,
CORSICANA.
Capt. James Garrity, president of the First
National Bank of Corsicana, and one of the most
highly honored citizens of that thriving little city
and section of the State, is a native of Ireland,
born in Dublin, April 3d, 1842.
His earlier years were passed in Covington, Ky.,
and New Orleans, and in the schools of the latter
city he received such educational advantages as
could be had up to the age of thirteen from which
time circumstances compelled his leaving school in
order to earn a living. At the first call for volun-
teers he entered the Confederate army, enlisting
May 4th, 1861, in a local company of cadets, which
soon after became part of the Fifth Louisiana
Regiment which operated with the Army of Northern
Virginia. He entered the company as a private,
and through meritorious and gallant service rose
to the captaincy, and served with it in that capacity
in the various engagements fought by the Army of
Northern Virginia from the beginning until the end
of the war between the States. He was three times
wounded — at Sharpsburg, Malvern Hill and
Fishersville — but his injuries were not such as to
keep him out of active service for any considerable
length of time.
At the close of the war he returned to New Orleans
and for a year was employed as a clerk by Sibley,
Guion & Co., cotton brokers and part owners and
operators of the since well-known Ouion Line of
Ocean Steamers.
In the fall of 1866 he came tcr Texas and for five
years was engaged in the mercantile and banking
business, first as a clerk and later as partner in
interest, at points along the line of the Houston &
Texas Central Railroad, then being built through
the counties of Brazos, Robertson and Limestone.
Through good fortune, he says, but it would prob-
ably be more correct to say, through industry, gootl
management and sagacity, he met with success
while so employed, accumulating between $10,000
and $12,000, which formed the nucleus of the
handsome fortune which he has since amassed.
In 1871, having sold his interest in the banking
business of Adams, Leonard & Company, at Cal-
vert, he formed a copartnership with Mr. Joseph
Huey and started the pioneer banking institution of
Navarro County, this being the private banking
house of Garrity, Huey & Company, which began
business in Corsicana, in September of that year.
Capt. Garrity has since given his attention chiefly
to the banking business. In 1886 the firm of
Garrity & Huey (the "Company" having been
dropped from the style of the firm after the first
year) was succeeded by the First National Bank,
of which Capt. Garrity became president and Mr.
Huey vice-president, the bank nationalizing with a
capital of $100,000. This vras increased a year
later to $126,000, which remains the amount of its
capital stock. Capt. Garrity is still the chief execu-
tive officer. In addition to his banking business he
has various outside interests, owning a lai'ge amount
of valuable real estate in the city of Corsicana, and
being connected, as promoter and stockholder,
with some of the city's leading industries and en-
terprises, among the number, the Corsicana Com-
press Company, the Texas Mill and Elevator
Company, The Corsicana Manufacturing Company,
The Merchants Opera House Company, and the
Corsicana Cotton Oil Company. He is a member
of the Masonic, I. O. O. F., Knights of Pythias and
Elks fraternities, in all of which he takes much
interest, particularly in Masonry, in which he has
become Knight Templar and taken the thirty-second
degree and is Past Grand Commander of the Grand
Commandery of the State.
June 15th, 1870, while still residing at Calvert,
he married Miss Emma Moore, then a resident of
that place, but a native of Alabama and a niece of
ex-Governor Moore of that State. Mrs. Garrity
departed this life on February 17th, 1893, lamented
by every one who knew her, and is still mourned
for by a husband to whom she was all the world.
Few men in Texas are better known as financiers
than Capt. Garrity and no man, certainly, has done
more for the upbuilding of the best interests of
the section of the State in which he lives.
320
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ANDREW JACKSON HARRIS,
BELTON.
Judge A. J. Harris, a distinguished member of
the Texas bar and for many years a prominent
figure in political and professional life in this State,
was born in Talbot County, Ga., January 27, 1839,
and grew to manhood on his father's farm. His
parents were Thomas and Lydia Jones Harris,
members of Georgia families for many generations
distinguished in the history of the country. His
paternal great-grandfather, Richard Harris, served
as a soldier in the Revolutionary War of 1776 that
resulted in the American colonies throwing off the
yoke of British tyranny, and the establishment of
the United States of America, a monument to the
patriotism, valor and wisdom of the people of that
day which has no parallel in all the annals of
the human race. His maternal grandfather, Judge
James L. Burke, took part in the battle of the
Horse Shoe and fought through the War of 1812.
His father, Thomas Harris, was born near
Milledgeville in Georgia, September 15th, 1812,
was a farmer by occupation and died August 26,
1894, aged 82 years, in Comanche County, Texas,
where he then resided.
His mother, Mrs. Lydia Harris, was born in
Jasper County, Ga., January 28, 1816. Her
father moved to Talbot County, Ga. , when she was
a girl, and there she grew to womanhood, married
in 1835 and remained until 1845, when she moved
to Scott County, Miss., with her husband, where
she died in May, 1861, leaving nine children.
Judge A. J. Harris was six years of age when his
parents removed to Mississippi. He resided there
until after the close of the war. He graduated
from the University of Mississippi in 1861, with high
honors, and on returning home raised a company
for service in thie Confederate army and was elected
Captain. It^was mustered into service as Company
I, Twenty-seventh Mississippi Regimentof Infantry,
and did duty at Pensacola and Mobile, and in Ten-
essee and Kentucky. He participated with his com-
mand in several skirmishes and minor engagements
and took part in the great battle of Murfreesboro,
in all of (^which he bore himself with the coolness
and gallantry that became an ofHeer of one of the
grandest armies that ever marched forth to battle
for the rights ;and liberties of a people. On account
of physical disabilities he resigned his commission
in 1863 ; but subsequently, upon restoration to
health, rejoined the army, attaching himself as an
independent volunteer to the Fourth Mississippi
Cavalry and remained with it through the fall
and winter of 1863-64. From the spring of 1864
until August of that year, he was not connected
with the army, but, in August, Gen. Clark, then Gov-
ernor of Mississippi, issued a proclamation calling
on all who could bear arms even for thirty days to
go to North Mississippi and join the army under
Gen. Forrest, to meet the invading Northern army
of Gen. A. J. Smith. Responding to this call. Judge
Harris joined Duff's Regiment and served about
three months. He joined the regiment the next
day after he reached Forrest and marched with it
to Hurricane creek, north of Oxford, and remained
there night and day for several days under a constant
downpour of rain. The Confederate troops were
then driven back south of Oxford and went into
camp on Yocony creek. The next day the E'eder-
als burned Oxford and retreated with the Southern
army hanging upon their flank. The Confederates
overtook their rear guard at Abbeville and had a
slight brush with them which ended the campaign.
Judge Harris came to Waco, Texas, January 1st,
1865, and taught one month in the Waco Univer-
sity. He then went to Salado and taught in the
college at that place from February, 1865, until
July, 1867, after which he removed to Belton and
entered upon the practice of law, but was persuaded
by the people to open a school, which he taught
for two years. In 1869 he returned to the practice
of law ; but, in 1870, a vacancy occurring in the
faculty of the school at Salado, the people of that
place called upon him to fill it, promising to secure
another teacher to take his place, which they failed
to do, and he remained there one year, much against
his will. This service marked the close of his
career as a school-teacher. Returning to Belton,
he entered vigorously upon the practice of his
profession, in which he has since continued.
He was elected County Superintendent of public
free schools in 1873, and filled the office until the
adoption of the constitution of 1875, which dis-
pensed with county superintendents. He was
elected without opposition and without being a can-
didate. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate
and was elected for a second term in 1882, serving
with marked distinction in the sessions of the Seven-
teenth and Eighteenth Legislatures. In 1877 he
formed a copartnership with X. B, Saunders, under
• Enj! by Y/TBaU er. BklynNX
3^
^ ""S^b/ U6 ^ Koe /eta Me'VN' f-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
321
the firm name of Harris & Saunders. Judge
Saunders succeeded Judge Alexander in the firm,
Judge Alexander having been appointed to the Dis-
trict Judgeship to succeed Judge Saunders, who was
the incumbent. This firm has occupied a lead-
ing position at the bar of Central Texas for many
years.
Judge Harris was married July 31st, 1866, to Miss
Olivia P. Sugg, daughter of William and Mary
Sugg, of Calhoun County, Miss. They have six
children living: Mary, wife of S. S. Walker, a
merchant of Belton ; Martha Elizabeth, wife of
Pike L. Phelps, a gentleman engaged in the insur-
ance business, at Belton ; Olivia Frances, wife of
John P. Hammersmith, a Belton merchant; Lucy
Bell and Annie Jackson, who live at home and are
now students at Baylor College, and Andrew Jack-
son Harris, Jr. One son, Thomas, died July 9th,
1886, of membranous croup, aged two years and
six months.
Judge Harris has been a member of the Baptist
Church since 1876 and is one of the trustees of
Baylor Female College, at Belton.
He has never sought ofllce and has never been a
voluntary candidate ; nevertheless, at the State
Democratic Convention, held in 1886, his name was
submitted by his friends for nomination for one of
the judgeships of the Supreme Court of Texas, and
they claim that he received a majority of the votes
cast by the members of the convention, but on
account of some irregularities in counting them,
another ballot was taken and Judge R. R. Gaines
elected as the party's nominee.
Judge Harris occupies a position at the bar of
Texas, which he has so long graced with his learn-
ing and talents, that should be a matter of pride to
him and is certainly a source of gratification to his
thousands of admirers and many friends who ap-
preciate the dignity and purity of his character,
the value of the public services he has rendered
and the luster that he has added to the profession
which he has so long adorned.
T. W. HOUSE,
HOUSTON.
T. W. House, veteran, merchant and banker of
Houston, was one of the notable pioneers of early
civilization and commerce in Texas. Born in
Somersetshire, England, in the year 1813, he died
at San Antonio, Texas, January 17th, 1880. His
forefathers were from Holland, from whence they
emigrated to England in the early dawn of the
eighteenth century, and settled in Somersetshire.
Up to the time that the subject of this memoir was
nineteen years of age, he worked on his father's
farm, but his father was poor, and, being the
youngest of four children, the future was not
bright, so he decided to come to America. He was
seconded in this resolution by a friend who was
captain of a merchant vessel plying between Bristol
and New York and with whom he set sail for
America in the year 1832. He remained in New
York for several years, and afterwards went to New
Orleans, where he lived for a short time before com-
ing to Texas. It was while living at New Orleans
that his attention was first called to Texas and her
wonderful resources, and early in the year 1836 he
landed in Galveston, and at once went to Houston,
which was then being laid out. It was at this
21
place that be was destined to achieve the full meas-
ure of his ambition. Soon after his arrival at
Houston he volunteered his services in behalf of
his adopted country and served as a soldier under
Gen. Burleson in the last days of the war of
1835-6, against Mexico. In 1838 he returned to
Houston and there, with the few hundred dollars
at his command, erected a tent, purchased a supply
of goods and began his wonderful career as a mer-
chant. His fortunes grew with the growth of the
town, to whose upbuilding he contributed perhaps
more than any other man, until he achieved the
rank of a merchant prince.
In 1840, he married Mary Ehzabeth, only daugh-
ter of Charles Shearn, afterwards Chief Justice of
Harris County. At the beginning of the war be-
tween the States in 1861, he had reached such a
position in the financial world that his advice and
services were sought by those in command, of the
Confederate forces in Texas, and he co-operated
effectively with them in the work of obtaining
clothes and arms from abroad. He owned jointly
with the Confederate Government, the Harriet
Lane, the celebrated Federal steamer which was
322
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
captured by the Confederates upon the retaking
ol Galveston by Magruder the night of December
31, 1862, and the day following. Besides his
interest in the Harriet Lane he also owned a fleet
of vessels which he used as blockade-runners in
conveying cotton out from Galveston and bringing
return cargoes of clothing and arms. With vast
resources at command, with a credit at home and
abroad excelled by none, with an unimpeachable
integrity, T. W. House did more perhaps during
the war between the States, than any other man in
Texas to maintain her credit abroad and supply the
wants of his fellow-citizens. His services in the
directions indicated were invaluable. When the
war was over he became actively engaged inducing
capital to invest in Texas and was a promoter of
several of the longest railroads in the State.
Among others he induced Commodore Morgan to
make large investments in Texas, and subsequently
to purchase $500,000 of the State's bonds. It was
this purchase that marked the beginning of the
credit which has given Texas bonds rank in the
stock market second to no similar class of securities
in the world. Charitable, without ostentation,
magnetic in manner, democratic in his tastes and
associations, he died beloved by many and honored
by all who knew him.
Leaving his native isle a penniless young man he
made his way into a new country, devastated by a
war marked by the most sanguinary atrocities and
the greater extent of whose territory was an unre-
deemed wilderness. Animated by the spirit of
ancient Cresy and Agincourt, like a true Briton, he
was as ready to use a musket as to settle down to
the more peaceful business of laying for himself
the foundation of financial iudependence. A wise
philosopher has said and said truly that the young
men who left their homes in foreign lands from
1800 to 1860 to come to America and push into its
wildernesses constituted a bold and enterprising
class and as a rule were possessed of more than
usual natural abilities. They were not content
with the hard conditions to which fate had ap-
parently consigned them. The plodder, the timor-
ous and the laggard might stay discontentedly
amid such scenes, but, as for these choice spirits, in
very childhood their eyes looked wistfully out to
sea and thoughts arose in their minds of lands
beyond the far-away horizon-bar, and these thoughts
gave birth to resolves, carried in due time into exe-
cution, to try their fortunes under other skies where
courage, self-reliance and ability insured honor-
able and useful careers. Such men as these came
to America by hundreds, and many of them to
Texas, among the number the subject of this
memoir, T. W. House. In their veins flowed rich
and ruddy the blood of the old Norman conquerors.
Where armed foes were to be met, they overcame
them. Where the wilderness was to be subdued,
they subdued it. Where cities were to be built,
they built them. Where the genius of commerce
was to be evoked they evoked it with the magic of
their indomitable wills. They were state and
nation builders who occupy a unique position upon
the pages of the history of the country, whose
services to posterity have been incalculable, whose
rugged virtues are worthy of all admiration, and
remembrance of whom should be preserved to
remotest time. Should the nation ever be in dan-
ger of sinking into effeminacy, those to whom is
committed its rejuvenation can turn to these men
as models to be imitated, and rebuild and restore
the vigor of the State.
Long before his death the name of T. W. House
had become a household word in Texas. He was
one of the foremost citizens of the commonwealth —
one of the most useful men of his day and genera-
tion. In his career he demonstrated the truth of
the aphorism of the author of Lacon that " while
fortune may be blind, she is by no means invisible,
and he who will seek her determinedly will be sure
to find her."
He has passed from shadow- land to shadow-land —
from birth to death.
He played his part nobly and well. May others
seek to emulate his example.
J. C. HIGGINS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
323
JACOB C. HIGGINS,
BASTROP.
Jacob C. Higgins was born in Caledonia County,
Vt., November 2, 1815. His parents were Samuel
and Betsey (Chamberlain) Higgins. His father
came from Ireland and his mother from England.
They first met aboard a ship bound for America,
married and located in Caledonia County, Vt.,
where his father died, when the subject of this
memoir was four years of age, Mrs. Higgins follow-
ing him two years later. About a year after the
death of his mother Jacob C. Higgins fell into the
hands of an old sea-captain, Capt. Armington, who
was a TIniversalist and objected to his going to Sun-
day school. Consequently it became a regular
practice with the lad to play on that day with a
crowd of companions. On one of these occasions
while engaged in some sport, he was accosted by
Mr. Erastus Fairbanks, superintendent of the local
Presbyterian Sunday school, who asked him his
name, the names of his parents and .his place of
residence. In the conversation that followed, the
mutual discovery was made that Mr. Fairbanks'
wife was a first cousin of the boy's mother, and
a few days thereafter he was transferred to the
home of Mr. and Mrs. Fairbanks, where he was
treated in every respect as one of their sons, grew
to manhood and was given every opportunity to
perfect himself in the trade of a machinist and mill-
wright. He was quick to learn and soon became
proficient, and in 1836 was sent by the firm to
superintend the building of a saw-mill upon the
banks of one of the rivers of Alabama. This he
completed, and then engaged in steamboat
engineering, which he pursued for three years,
In 1840 he determined to try his fortune in
Texas, and landed in Galveston, March 16th of that
year, with $2,500 in good Alabama and Louisiana
money, the proceeds of a year's labor. With this
he purchased a .stock of merchandise from C. C.
Ennis, of Galveston, and went to Austin, where he
sold the goods for Texas money, which he discov-
ered, when too late, was of little or no value. He
had also bought a number of bonds. Regarding
these as worthless he laid them aside. They became
valuable later on, however, as Texas by the treaty
of annexation, sold the Santa Fe territory to
the United States for $10,000,000 and with a
part of the money so procured, called in and paid
off all outstanding bonds issued by the late Re-
public at their face value with all accumulated in-
terest thereon. Mr. Higgins, by this means, came
into possession of a considerable sum of money, his
profits on his bond purchases amounting to about
three hundred per cent. In June, 1840, soon after
his arrival in Austin, he was present at the organ-
ization of the first Methodist church established in
that town, and in fact in that section. Dr. Haney
held religious services in the old capitol on the
occasion referred to. When he called for all Meth-
odists present to come up and shake hands with
him, one man and one woman responded ; and with
these he organized the church. During the re-
mainder of that year Mr. Higgins was variously
engaged, part of the time working with a corps of
surveyors, and part of the time participating in
expeditions against the Indians.
In June, 1841, he moved to Bastrop, and was
there employed, to run a mill situated on Copperas
creek, two miles distant from town. In 1842 he
purchased the mill and ten acres of ground from
his employers on credit, and for years thereafter
husbanded his resources and invested all the money
that he could command in negroes and lands,
purchasing ten thousand acres of land in the sur-
rounding country and thereby laying the founda-
tion of future wealth.
He is an indefatigable worker and a clear-headed
financier, and hence prospered in all his business
undertakings. From the time that he landed in
Galveston to the annexation of Texas to the United
States, he endured many hardships and privations,
but thereafter when he had realized upon his bonds
and secured sufficient capital to operate upon,
lived more easily. He resided alone at the mill,
did his own cooking and housekeeping, and often,
for ten days at a time, did not see a human being
during the year 1842. In the early days of his
residence at Bastrop the Indians came into the
town and stole stock and committed numerous
depredations. About 1843, Bishop Morris, of
Baltimore, visited the place to see his son, and
while there preached in an old storehouse. During
the services a band of Indians, who were out on a
raid, broke up the meeting and the congregation was
obliged to fly for safety to a fort that had been
provided for such emergencies. During Mr. Hig-
gins' residence on Copperas creek he was also
frequently troubled by Indians. From 1871 to
1885 he added merchandising to his other busi-
324
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ness. During these years he also established a
private bank. He continued banking until 1892,
when be retired from active pursuits.
He was first married in Bastrop County, in 1843,
to Miss Sarah Gamble, daughter of,Col. William I.
Gamble, who came to Texas from Alabama with
his family in 1839. By this marriage he had two
children : William, now a prosperous farmer in
Bastrop County, and Erastus Fairbanks Higgins,
who died leaving one child, Claud C, who now re-
sides with his grandfather. Mrs. Higgins died in
1849. Mr. Higgins was married at Seguin, in 1852,
to Miss Mary Keener, daughter of a prominent col-
lege professor of Alabama, and first cousin of
United States District Judge John B. Rector of
Texas. Five children were born of this union,
three of whom grew to maturity : Samuel, who is a
well-to-do farmer in Bastrop County ; Blanche,
wife of Brook Duval, of Bastrop County, and
Horace, who died June 4, 1880. Horace graduated
at the University of the South at Sewanee, Tenn.,
and later in the Law Department in the University
of Virginia. After returning home he formed a
co-partnership with Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, but he
died three months later, and thus came to a close
what promised to be a brilliant career at the bar.
Mrs. Mary (Keener) Higgins [died in Bastrop
County, in 1861.
In 1867, Mr. Higgins marriedjhis present wife,
Mrs. Carolina Yellowley, a widow with two daugh-
ters. The elder, Bella, married Dr. G. M. Patten,
of Waco, in 1883, and died in 1888. The younger,
Charlton, became Mrs. Brieger, and now resides in
Bowie, Texas. Mr. and Mrs. Higgins have two
daughters: Lielah, wife of D. Pope Holland, of
Atlanta, Ga., and Fairbanks who is now at Bishop
Garrett's College, at Dallas.
Upon returning to Texas in 1857, from a visit to
the home of Mrs. Fairbanks, in Vermont, Mr. Hig-
gins found that^he had been elected to the House of
Representatives of the Texas Legislature. He
served one term as a member of that body. He
could have been re-elected but would not consent
to become a candidate for that or any other political
oflBce. During the war between the States he
served in the Confederate States militia for twenty-
two months. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity and has taken all the chapter degrees of
that order. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and
is senior warden of the Episcopal church at Bastrop.
In politics he is a Democrat. Although he lost
greatly by the result of the war between the States,
owning eighty valuable slaves who were set free at
its close, he has practically in all instances been
successful in his investments, and is now one of the
wealthiest men in his section and the largest tax-
payer in Bastrop County.
Up to his eleventh j'ear, when Providence discov-
ered him to his noble benefactors, Mr. and Mrs.
Fairbanks, the prospect that apparently laid before
him was cheerless. Whatever boyish hopes that
were to arise in his breast it seemed were doomed
to wither one by one, through long years of toil and
saddening disappointments, and in the end be
drifted to their graves adown the blasts of Destiny's
chill December. There was work for him to do in
life, however, and it was to come to him and be done
by him if he proved worthy. He did prove worthy
of the labor assigned him when the opportunity
came, and he embraced it.
He was grateful, he was honest, he was ambitious,
he was industrious, he was enterprising, he was
daring, resolute and patient, and as a result, his
life has been an honored, useful and successful
one. Had he failed in any of these particulars
this would not have been. Such a life contains a
moral that the young will do well to ponder and
profit by.
CORNELIUS ENNIS AND WIFE,
HOUSTON.
From the days when the commerce of Phcenicia
extended itself to the verge of the then known world
merchants have been the pioneers who have carried
forward the illumining torch of civilization. With-
out their energy and determination to attain success
amid difficulties apparently insurmountable, there
would be but little progress in wresting from nature
the waste places of the earth for the benefit of man-
kind. In the days when railroads were thought to
be impracticable and the telegraph a superstition,
a brave and hardy set of men were traveling over
Texas from end to end, on horseback, or in wagons.
L..
cornf:lius ennis.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
326
the compass being their only guide, or, if haply pre-
ceded by some comrade, they followed his footsteps
by means of the notches ^he had cut in trees. The
roads were almost impassable in rainy weather —
and, as there were no bridges, many an anxious
hour was spent at the fords. In traveling, pistols,
bowie knives and a gun across the knees, were
necessary to afford protection against man and
beast. Their avocation was, indeed, a perilous one,
but when have the sons of commerce been deterred
by peril ? They have braved alike the terrors of the
Barcan desert and the icy North, nor have they
feared to go among any savage people or travel any
foot of earth. Prominent among the pioneer mer-
chants of Texas was the subject of this memoir,
Cornelius Ennis, born in 1813 in Essex County
(now Passaic County), New Jersey. Mr.' Ennis'
great-grandfather was Mr. William Ennis, who
came from the north of Ireland in the latter part of
the seventeenth century, and settled in Bergen
County, New Jersey, with his wife (nee Miss Han-
nah Brower). Mr. Ennis' mother was a Doremus,
of Knickerbocker stock, from one of the original
Holland families that settled in this country.
After receiving as liberal an education as that
State then afforded, he went to New York in 1834,
and obtained a position in a drug store, and three
years later began a trip down the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi rivers in search of a desirable location.
Traveling on the Mississippi he met a great num-
ber of people from Texas, going to Canada to
join the patriots around Toronto. All were en-
thusiastic concerning the agricultural and business
opportunities afforded by Texas. These recitals
together with stories of the gallantry and courage
of the victors in the War for Independence, fired
the imagination of the young merchant — and he
determined to make his home in the Republic. He
returned to New York in May, continued in busi-
ness there until January, 1839, and then purchased
a stock of drugs and medicines and embarked on
the schooner " Lion " (Capt. Fish commanding)
for Galveston.
He found Galveston very sparsely settled, with-
out a hotel or wharf, and proceeded to Houston,
then two years old and the capital of the Republic.
Here he immediately established himself in busi-
ness, purchasing a lot on Main street, where he
built a storehouse. In November of the same
year he formed a partnership with Mr. George W.
Kimball, and extended his business to general
merchandise. This connection continued until
1842, when Mr. George W.Kimball and family took
passage to New York on the brig " Cuba " (Capt.
Latham), and were lost at sea in a gale off the
Florida coast. Mr. Kimball had with him cotton
and funds to be invested in the business at Hous-
ton ; but this loss served only to further develop
the energy and courage of the surviving partner,
and the business continued to prosper.
The first cotton received at Houston was in Jan-
uary, 1840, and came from Fort Bend County.
Previous to this the merchants of Columbus and
Brazoria controlled the crop. Cotton was hauled
to market in wagons which were very much delayed
by rains, there being no bridges across streams and
the roads in a miserable condition. That received
at Houston was ferried across the bayou at the
foot of Main street, and later at the foot of Com-
merce and Milam streets where the iron bridge now
stands. The firm of Ennis & Kimball made the
first shipment of cotton from the port of Galves-
ton to that of Boston in 1841, on the schooner
" Brazos " (Capt. Hardy, commander) a new
departure in business noted with much interest and
promising many benefits.
Mr. Ennis was long and prominently connected
with the building of railroads in the State. He
was one of the incorporators and directors of the
Houston and Texas Central, and also of the Great
Northern, until that road was merged into the
International. The city of Ennis, in Ellis County,
was located and named for him while he was in
control of the railroad which passed through it.
While he was mayor of Houston the city built the
Houston Tap Railroad, connecting with the Harris-
burg & San Antonio Railroad, to the construction
of which he gave his personal attention, Mr. Stump
being the civil engineer. He was for some time
general superintendent and comptroller of the
Houston & Texas Central and, later, its financial
agent, with offices in New York, where he resided
for several years, negotiating bonds and purchasing
supplies and material for the road. In 1856 and
1857 he was mayor of Houston, and gave his ser-
vices to the city without remuneration, and con-
tributed very materially to its advancement, and
also to the general welfare of its people by ferreting
out a band of outlaws who for many years had
caused the traders much anxiety and loss, waylay-
ing their negro drivers and appropriating their
goods. A young German was murdered and his
money stolen. Thd crime was supposed to have
been committed by Kuykendall (the leader of this
gang) and his negro. Napoleon. Mr. Ennis con-
tributed more than any one else in time and money
to the pursuit of these and other desperadoes —
and succeeded in having five of them arrested, tried
and sentenced to the penitentiary. They escaped
in 1861 and joined the Confederate army. During
326
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the reign of terror inaugurated by these ruflSans
one of the gang met Mr. Ennis in the street and
introduced himself, thereby giving Mr. Ennis a
decided thrill.
During the war between the States, Mr. Ennis
remained in Texas, importing supplies and export-
ing cotton. In 1864, he went to Havana by way
of Matamoros and there met Gapt. Jack Moore, a
bar pilot of Galveston, whom he sent to New York to
purchase an iron-clad steamer, the " Jeannette," at
an expenditure of $40,000 in gold. He brought
her out to Havana, where he loaded her with muni-
tions of war, consisting of twelve hundred English
Enfield rifles, ten tons of gunpowder, three million
percussion caps, a large lot of shoes and blankets
and other army supplies for the Confederate army,
all of which he turned over to the Confederate
authorities.
Mr. Ennis was married in 1841, to Miss Jean-
nette Ingals Kimball, a sister of his partner. Miss
Kimball had come to this country with her brother
from Vermont, in October, 1839. She came of
English stock, long settled in New England, and is
related to the Emersons and Ripleys of literary
fame. She was always deeply interested in the
development of her adopted State, and contributed
much to the comfort and happiness of those asso-
ciated with her in this pioneer work by her gentle
and eflScient ministrations in times of sickness and
epidemics which too frequently attend the opening
up of a new country. Her devotion was especially
marked during the fearful epidemics of yellow
fever. She was noted for her cheerful, generous
and unfailing hospitality and, also, for her efficient
co-operation with her husband in the establishment
of churches and schools. Mr. and Mrs. Ennis have
four children living, three daughters and one son.
The eldest daughter married Col. A. H. Belo,
president of the Galveston and Dallas News. The
next is Mrs. Frank Cargill, of Houston, Texas, and
of the youngest daughter is Mrs. C. Lombardi, also
Houston, Texas. The son, Richard, lives in Mexic®.
Mr. Ennis is a man of magnificent physique,
being over six feet in height and now, although
advanced in years, of erect and commanding pres-
ence. His wife is a perfect type of lovely woman-
hood. Although Mr. Ennis has passed his long life
in active business pursuits, in which fortunes have
been at intervals made and lost, his name has
always been unsullied and he has been honored for
fair dealing and blameless rectitude in all his bus-
iness dealings. And now, with the partner of his
youth and old age still by his side, they are spend-
ing the evening of life serenely and happily at their
home in Houston, surrounded by children, grand-
children and friends.
HENRY ELMENDORF,
SAN ANTONIO.
Henry Elmendorf , a prosperous merchant of San
Antonio and mayor of that historic and progressive
city, is a native Texian, born in the town of New
Braunfels, April 7, 1849.
His parents, Charles A. and Amelia Elmendorf,
were born in Prussia. His father emigrated to
America in 1844, and his mother in 1848, and set-
tled in New Braunfels. In the " Old Country" Mr.
Charles A. Elmendorf was engaged in mercantile
pursuits. He changed to farming upon his arrival
in Texas which he followed until about the year
1852, when he moved to San Antonio. Six or seven
years later he embarked in merchandising again
upon his own account as a member of the house of
Theisen and Deutz, dealers in hardware, and con-
tinued in that pursuit until the beginning of the war
between the States, meeting with a liberal degree of
success in his ventures as a result of his talent as a
financier and fine business capacity. He died in
the Alamo City in 1878. His wife still survives
him and is residing there. Henry Elmendorf, the
subject of this biographical notice, attended local
schools until he was fifteen years of age ; then went
to Germany, where he completed his education;
returned home in the fall of 1866, and entered his
father's store as a clerk. After clerking for three
years his father admitted him to a partnership in
the firm of Elmendorf & Co.
In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Emilie
Baetz, of San Antonio. Five children have been
born to them. Mr. Elmendorf was elected to the
City Council as Alderman for two years, extending
from the year 1893 to 1895, and served in that
body until September, 1894, when he was elected
MRS. COENELIUS ENNIS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
327
Mayor by the Council to fill a vacancy caused by
the death of Mr. George Paschal. February 11,
1895, he was elected by the people to fill that oflSce
by a majority of one thousand votes over Bryan
Callaghan, whom it had been thought it was well-nigh
an impossibility to defeat at the polls. Mr. Elmen-
dorf has been a liberal contributor to and promoter
of every meritorious public movement, and many
important private enterprises. Brilliant, polished.
popular, patriotic, of high abilities and wide busi-
ness experience, San Antonio, one of the largest,
most cosmopolitan and fastest growing of Texas
cities, has a chief executive of which she and the
State at large are justly proud.
With such a man at the head of public affairs,
the city's upward and onward march is sure to
receive an added impetus and the cause of law and
order be jealously and effectively defended.
FRANCIS CHARLES HUME,
GALVESTON.
The following is extracted from a biographical
sketch penned by the late Col. Thomas M. Jack, of
the Galveston bar, a near friend and professional
brother of its subject, and published in the En-
cyclopedia of the New West : —
F. Charles Hume was born in Walker County,
Texas, February 17, 1843, the son of John Hume,
a native of Culpepper County, Va., a planter, who
emigrated to Texas 1839, and resided in Walker
County until his death in 1864.
Mr. Hume received a liberal education. At the
age of eighteen he left his native State, immediately
after the first battle of Manassas, in a company of
volunteers known as Company D., Fifth Texas
Regiment, organized in Virginia, and placed under
command of Col. J. J. Archer, of Maryland. This
regiment, together with the First and Fourth Texas,
at one time the Eighteenth Georgia, and subscr
quently the Third Arkansas, constituted the famous
command known in history as "Hood's Texas
Brigade," of which Gen. Louis T. Wigfall was the
first, and Gen. John B. Hood the second commander.
Its first winter was spent in the snows about Dum-
fries, on the Potomac. He participated in John-
ston's celebrated retreat from the Peninsular, and
entered his first battle at Eltham's Landing (West
Point), near the York river. He was in the battle
of Seven Pines, and shortly afterwards near the
same ground, was wounded in the right leg while
participating in an assault on the enemy's works
led by Capt. D. N. Barziza in command of one
hundred and fifty men chosen for the purpose from
the three Texas regiments. Confined in the hos-
pital at Richmond by his wound until after Mc-
Clellan had been defeated and driven to Harrison's
Landing, he did not rejoin his regiment until the
beginning of the lighter engagements that culmi-
nated in the second battle of Manassas. Seven
flag-bearers of the Fifth Regiment were wounded in
the battle, Mr. Hume being the sixth, receiving a
bullet in the left thigh. He was mentioned in
complimentary terms in the official report of the
battle made by the Colonel of the regiment, J. B.
Robertson, afterwards commander of the brigade.
After the healing of his wound, Mr. Hume re-
joined the army at Culpepper Courthouse, and
participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, late
in 1862. Shortly after this he was promoted from
the ranks to a First Lieutenancy in the Confederate
States army, and assigned to duty on the Peninsula
as Adjutant of the Thirty-second Battalion of
Virginia Cavalry. In this capacity he served until
the battalion, with another, was merged into a regi-
ment, when he was assigned to command a picket
detail of scouts on the lower Peninsula. With this
command Lieut. Hume operated for several months
near Williamsburg, experiencing all the perils of
that peculiar service and becoming familiar with its
ceaseless ambuscades and surprises.
Gen. M. W. Gary, of South Carolina, in 1864,
assumed command of the cavalry in the Penin-
sula, and attached Lieut. Hume to his staff.
Shortly after this a battle was fought at Riddle's
Shop, on the Charles City Road, in which Gen.
Gary engaged troops under Gen. Hancock, the
latter having been sent to threaten Richmond to
cover Grant's crossing to the south side of the
James. In this action Lieut. Hume had the
honor of being assigned on the field to the com-
mand of the Seventh South Carolina Regiment of
Cavalry. The last considerable battle in which he
took part was the engagement of Tilghman's Farm,
328
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
on James river, the Confederate commander being
Gen. Gary. Here he received his third and last
wound, having been shot through the body. The
Richmond papers published his name in the dead
list of that action. When sufficiently recovered to
travel he went to Texas on a furlough, reaching there
in October, 1864. Recovering his health he was
requested by Gen. J. G. Walker to inspect troops
and departments about Tyler, which he did. Soon
afterwards he accepted an invitation from Gen. A.
P. Bagbey to serve on his staff in Louisiana, and
remained with that officer as Assistant Adjatant-
General with the rank of Major.
When the great Civil War ended, Maj. Hume
began to prepare in earnest for the important battle
of civil life. He completed his preparations for
the bar, and was admitted to practice by the Dis-
trict Court of Walker County, at Huntsville, in
1865, and followed his calling there for about one
year. From Huntsville he went to Galveston, and
rapidly took rank as an able lawyer. His patient
industry, fidelity and attainments soon gave him
prominence at a bar that has no superior in the
State of Texas. He was admitted to practice in
the Supreme Court in 1866, and in 1877 was enrolled
as an attornej' of the Supreme Court of the United
States at Washington.
Then only twenty-three, in 1866, he was elected
to represent Walker County in the Eleventh Texas
Legislature, and served one term. He was City
Attorney for Galveston for the municipal year of
1877.
Maj. Hume was educated at Austin College,
Texas, and subsequently spent a year at the Uni-
versity of Virginia. He has always been a Demo-
crat in his political views, but has not aspired to
position in the world of politics, his ambition being
wholly professional. To his business he has devoted
himself patiently and faithfully. He has no rule
but to do his duty with unfaltering fidelity. Court-
eous, affable and honorable, he is held in the
highest esteem by his professional brethren, who
are best able to judge his merits. Whatever he
does he delights in doing well ; prepares his cases
with great care and study, and is never taken by
surprise. He looks at both sides with a true judi-
cial judgment, and hence is very successful in the
prosecution of his profession. He never descends
to the arts of the pettifogger or charlatan, but
aspires to the highest professional standard.
He would anywhere be recognized as a man of
talent. As a speaker he is argumentative and
logical, sometimes rhetorical and eloquent. His
great reliance is on the merits of his case, and he
appeals rather to the judgment of men than to
their sympathies and passions.
H. K. JONES,
DILWORTH, GONZALES COUNTY.
Mr. H. K. Jones, one of the wealthiest and most
influential citizens of Gonzales County, Texas, was
born in Decatur, Lawrence County, Alabama, in
1840 ; came to Texas in 1855 with his parents, Mr.
Tignal Jones and Mrs. Susan Jones («ee Miss
Susan King) who located at San Antonio ; was sent
to the University at Oxford, Mississippi, and was a
student in that institution of learning when war was
declared between the States ; returned to his home
at San Antonio at the beginning of hostilities and
enlisted as a private in Company K., Twenty-fourth
Texas dismounted cavalry, commanded by Col. F.
C. Wilkes ; was afterward elected Lieutenant of his
company ; in December, 1862, was captured, with
the entire brigade, at Arkansas Post, upon the fall
of that fort, and taken first to Camp Chase, near
Columbus, Ohio, and four months later to Fort
Delaware near Philadelphia, where he remained
until exchanged in April, 1863 ; then made his way
to the army at TuUahoma, Tenn., where his old
regiments were reorganized, with Dishler as com-
mander of brigade and Pat Cleburne as commander
of division; was appointed Adjutant, and a month
later Quartermaster of his regiment ; although, as
Quartermaster not expected to take part in engage-
ments, volunteered in several battles, and was
severely wounded at New Hope Church ; May 27th,
1864, was again captured, and in October following
exchanged ; remained in the Confederate hospital
at Fort Valley, Ga., for a month, and then joined
Gen. Hood's army at Decatur, and served under
that commander in the famous Tennessee campaign,
participating as a volunteer, among others, in the
battles of Spring Hill, Franklin and Nashville. On
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
329
Hood's retreat Mr. Jones marched bare-footed out
of Tennessee. His feet were so badly wounded by
the rough stones of the turnpike along which the
soldiers trudged that he was compelled to go to the
hospital, where he remained for two weeks, after
which he returned to the army on its way to North
Corolina, and was made Adjutant-general of Gran-
bury's old brigade, commanded at the time by Col.
Cole, of Memphis, Tenn. His command was
ordered into the battle of Bentonville, N. C, but
the Federals broke line and retreated; leaving their
dead and wounded on the field, as this part of the
Confederate force came in sight, and the brigade
was consequently not engaged. Shortly after the
surrender of Johnston's army near Jonesboro,
Granbury's Texas brigade, which enlisted 6,000
strong at the beginning of the war, surrendered
one hundred and thirty-seven guns to Gen. Sher-
man. Thousands had gone in those days after
days of battle, shock and dreadful carnage, to sol-
diers' graves. They rest now in peace in Fame's
great Valhalla. Their memories are enshrined in
loving comrades' hearts. For them
" The muffled drum's sad roll has beat
The soldier's last tattoo,
No more on life's parade shall meet
That brave but fallen few.
On Fame's eternal camping ground
Their silent tents are spread,
And Glory guards with solemn round
The bivouac of the dead.
The Macedonian Phalanx under Alexander, the
Tenth Legion under Csesar and the Old Guard under
the first Napoleon did not display a fortitude and
valor superior to that of this heroic brigade.
Its history was singularly brilliant. After Gran-
bury and Cleburne fell to rise no more upon the
hard contested and blood stained field of Franklin it
maintained the reputation that it had earned under
those leaders undimmed until the Confederate
colors were furled under the shade of the tall pines
of North Carolina, never again to be shaken out to
the breeze and lead brave hearts on to victory or
death. When the last sad act in the drama of war
had been played the battle-scarred survivors of the
brigade separated sadly for their homes, many of
them to meet no more. As a soldier Mr. Jones
sought, like he has in all the other walks of life, to
do his full duty, and as a consequence was respected
and beloved by his comrades in arms.
He says the negro question was undoubtedly the
main issue in the war, that he always regarded
slavery as a moral wrong and that the Southern
people are well rid of the institution, but that it is
deeply to be deplored that it could not have been
abolished without resort to war.
" I have seen more dead men " said he, " on one
battle field than all the negroes in the country were
worth."
How short-sighted is human wisdom. "The phi-
losopher Locke and other philanthropic men of his
time conceived the idea of sending agents to Africa
to negotiate with various tribes and buy a number
of prisoners captured in the fierce tribal wars of
extermination then prevailing and carry them to the
plantations in North America. The humane design
of these great men was in the first instance to save
the lives of the unhappy wretches, in the next to
transport them to new scenes, where they could
learn the peaceful art of agriculture and become
civilized, and finally after these ends had been
accomplished to send them back to Africa to civilize
and Christianize that continent. What appears at
the time to be the height of human wisdom is in
reality the height of human folly, and what appears
to be wholly right not infrequently has at its heart
the seeds of radical wrong. What a dismal end
awaited the schemes of those philosophers ! The
slave trade, with its unspeakable atrocities, soon
grew to frightful proportions under the impetus
of New England cupidity. Its foul annals are
familiar to the students of history.
Under the Constitution it was abolished shortly
after the formation of the American Union. The
Constitution recognized, however, the slaves
already in the country as property, and provided
for the recovery of fugitives fleeing from one State
to another. The anti-slavery party precipitated
the war. Through its influence 7 every acquisition
of territory was opposed, citizens of the Southern
States murdered when they attempted to remove
with their property to territories purchased by the
common blood and treasure of the country, the
express provision of the Constitution providing for
the surrender of fugitive^^slaves to their masters
upon demand, nullifled by express statutory enact-
ments in many Northern States, or trampled under
foot by armed mobs, and all manner of bitterness
stirred up until the heartyjhate of one section for
the other culminated in one attempting to peace-
fully sever its connection from the other and live
apart, and a war that has no parallel in ancient or
modern times. It was a direful day when the first
slave was brought ashore upon American soil.
The evils that have followed have been innumerable.
How different would have been the history of the
country if such an event had never taken'place !
The fearful storm of war that swept over this
devoted land from 1861 to 1865 shook the very
330
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
foundations of popular government, and they have
never since become firmly settled. The Consti-
tution was warped and twisted until it bears little
semblance to what it was, and constructions have
been made and precedents laid that are full of
danger ^— not immediate, but real for all that, as
under these constructions and precedents a bitter
partisan executive and Congress could do anything
necessary to accomplish their ends, however nefar-
ious.
There are graves from the Potomac to the Eio
Grande, and from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans
filled with the country's brightest and bravest and
best. Mr. Jones truly says all the negroes owned
by the Southern people were not worth such a fear-
ful price. In justice to that people, however, it is
necessary to repeat the statement (and it can be
made truly) that they are not to be held responsible
for the war. It was thrust upon them. Such will
be the verdict of impartial history in after times.
Mr. Jones returned to Texas by way of New
Orleans, on the first steamer run after the war.
E. J. Davis, afterwards Republican Governor of
Texas, was a passenger on the boat. Mr. Jones
landed at Galveston in May, 1865, and found that
nearly all of his father's possessions had been
swept away by the war. He repaired to Victoria,
clerked for a short time in a mercantile establish-
ment at that place, and then engaged in merchan-
dizing at Gonzales, in copartnership with his
father, but the venture proving unsuccessful, soon
embarked in other pursuits.
October 29th, 1867, he was united in marriage
to Miss Mary F. Braches, daughter of Charles and
Sarah A. Braches, of Peach Creek, Gonzales
County, a lady of much refinement and worth, and
settled in the eastern part of the county, near
Peach Creek, at what is now Dilworth Station.
Mrs. Jones is one of the most accomplished and
queenly of our noble Texas ladies, and her palatial
home is the seat of that elegance, refinement and
hospitality that distinguished the South under the
old regime.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones have one child, Anna, wife
of Mr. James B. Kennard, of Gonzales, Texas.
Mr. Jones is a business man of rare discern-
ment and ability, and has met with a large measure
of success in his financial operations. "He is a
member of the Democratic party and of the Royal
Arch degree in Masonry.
WILLIAM CLEMENS,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Hon. William Clemens, son of Wilhelm and
Wilhemine Clemens, of German ancestry, was born
in Germany on the 8th day of October, 1843. His
father followed the honorable occupation of car-
penter in Germany. His parents emigrated to
Texas in 1849, bringing him with them, and settled
in New Braunfels, Comal County. At the age of
twelve years he suffered an irreparable loss in the
death of his mother, whom he dearly loved. He
passed through youth and into manhood without
her gentle care, but her sainted memory and the
lessons learned at her knee remained with and
cheered him in moments of sadness and trial and
urged him on to be a winner in the battle of life.
He was apprenticed to Hon. John A. Staehely,
who now lives at Darmstadt, Germany. Mr.
Staehely was then doing the largest and most lucra-
tive business at New Braunfels and to his strictly
honest and methodical business ways and fatherly
advice, Mr. Clemens ascribes a great deal of his
success, in life, and has always entertained for him
sentiments of respect and warmest friendship. Mr.
Clemens entered the Confederate army at eighteen
years of age, enlisting in 1862, and participated in
the sharp engagement at Jenkins Ferry in Arkansas.
He was Orderly Sergeant of Capt. Bose's company
of volunteers, of which office he is exceedingly
proud. He was afterwards elected Lieutenant.
After the war he engaged in merchandising, in
which he was quite successful, and then went into
the banking business. After having served four
years as Alderman of the city of New Braunfels and
eight years as trustee and treasurer of the New
Braunfels Academy, he was elected to the House of
Representatives of the Texas Legislature, in 1879,
from the Eighty-ninth District, composed of Bexar
and Comal counties, and also served in the house
of the Twenty-first Legislature, representing Comal,
Blanco and Gillespie counties, each time being
elected without opposition at the polls. In 1890 he
" '^y H& CKoevoeLs Tie^*^
332
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
father's side his ancestry is traced to Ireland, pos-
sibly more remotely to Wales. His mother's peo-
ple were Scotch. Theophilus Jones, his paternal
grandfather, was born in Dublin, Ireland, some-
where near the middle of the last century ; emi-
grated thence with his wife and an infant son
to America in 1774, stopping for a time at
Charleston, S. C. There his wife died, after
which event he went to Wilmington, Del., where,
on May 4th, 1775, he married Miss Mary Eccles,
daughter of John and Mary p]ccles, and settled
himself at his trade as a cabinetmaker. He
was a skillful workman and in time became a man
of some means ; afterwards abandoned cabinet-
making and engaged in trade with the West Indies
which he followed with profit until his death on the
island of St. Kitts, West Indies, about the begin-
ning of the present century. In addition to the
son by the first mairiage referred to, he left sur-
viving him three sons and two daughters by his
second marriage, namely, Mary McCorkle, John,
Theophilus, Isabella Anderson, and George. The
youngest of these, George Jones, was the father
of John M., of this article. George Jones was
born in Wilmington, Del., March 1, 1784. He
married Jane Ochiltree, of Wilmington, Jan-
uary 28, 1811, and bad issue two sons and
three daughters: Mary Jane, John Maxwell, Eliza-
beth Ann, George Crowe and Isabella. Mr. Jones'
wife died in 1821, and he later married Anna M.
Alexander McMuUen, daughter of Dr. Archibald
Alexander and widow of A. McMullen, by whom he
had a daughter and son, Henrietta Ord and Archi-
bald Alexander, the latter dying in infancy. The
senior Mr. Jones, father of John M., was a man of
superior ability as a financier and occupied a prom-
inent place in Wilmington for many years. He
was taught the trade of watchmaking by his father,
but later gave this up for the profession of dentistry
and, after having accumulated some means, de-
A'oted much of his attention to general business
pursuits and the purchase and sale of Wilmington
property and the building of workingmen's homes.
For twenty-five years he was president of the
Delaware Fire Insurance Company, was one of the
originators of the Wilmington Savings Fund and
remained one of its directors as long as he lived,
was a director of the Bank of Wilmington and
Brandywine, since nationalized and still in exist-
ence, one of the founders of Friendship Fire Engine
Company, the oldest organization of the kind in
Wilmington, and was a member of Hanover Street
Presbyterian church, in which for fifty years he was
an elder. His death occurred at Wilmington, August
15, 1867.
George Jones was a man of rare intelligence and
thrift and a man of advanced ideas on education.
He gave his children the very best of educations,
his younger son George graduating from Princeton
College in 1838. On his mother's side John M.
Jones was directly descended from revolutionary
sires, his great-grandfather, John Waugh, having
been with Gen. Washington at Valley Forge during
the terrible winter of 1776.
From such ancestry the subject of this memoir
sprung and, surrounded by scenes of commercial
thrift and in an air strongly impregnated with
morality and religious feeling, hi^ boyhood and
early youth were passed. He was born at Wilming-
ton, Del., October 8, 1814, and educated in the
schools of that place and at Bloomfleld, N. J., lay-
ing aside his books at about the age of eighteen to
take up the trade of a jeweler, which he mastered
under his father. His father offered to send him to
Princeton along with his brother George but he de-
clined, having already a good education and being
desirous of striking out for himself into active busi-
ness life. In the fall of 1836, having been taken
with a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism in
Philadelphia, where he had been clerking for a
year in the jewelry house of Edward P. Lescure, and
as his physician recommended him to take a sea
voyage, he determined to sail on a vessel then
bound for New Orleans. Through the efforts of his
father, his employer, and others, he took with him
some twenty letters of introduction to prominent
merchants in New Orleans, Natchez and Vicksburg.
These letters spoke of him in the highest terms.
His employer, Edward P. Lescure, wrote as
follows : —
"Philadelphia, Nov. 1st, 1836.
"The bearer, Mr. John M. Jones, has been in
my employ for the last twelve months and I take
pleasure in bearing testimony to his integrity,
sobriety, energy, good disposition and gentlemanly
deportment."
On crutches he boarded his vessel, taking with him
his father's gift of his own warm cloak and a hun-
dred dollars in money, and in due course of time
reached his destination, much improved in health.
Having brought with him a letter of introduction to
Hyde & Goodrich, then and for many years after-
wards the leading jewelers of that section, he
sought them out on his arrival. Mr. William Good-
rich interested himself in the young man and soon
found for him an opening in Woodville, Miss., in an
excellent jewelry house.
Mr. Jones went there about February, 1837,
remaining with his employer until July, 1838, at
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
333
which time he became imbued with Texas fever
through letters written him by his friend, James
Benson, who had been for several years located at
Washington, Texas. Mr. Jones had now become
very much attached to the South, its climate and its
people. He wished to engage in business for himself,
hence he returned to New Orleans and sought the
friendly counsel of his friend, Wm. Goodrich. Mr.
Goodrich advised him to first try Shreveport, La.,
before going to Texas. About November, 1838,
he packed up his possessions, tailing along in bis
trunk a nice assortment of watches and jewelry
purchased from his savings. On the boat he fell
in with a young jeweler and watchmaker, George
Ball, from New York, bound for the same town.
Mr. Ball located at Shreveport, but Mr. Jones,
after looking the place over to his satisfaction,
turned his steps toward Texas, reaching Galveston
about January 1st, 1839. He settled there, and
at once opened a shop. He put up one of the first
buildings in the town, erected in a string of wooden
structures on what is now the Strand, then called
by him Commercial Kow, his building, a two-story
frame, being the best in the row. It cost him
$1,000 "in United States money" which he paid
down on its completion, the lot on which it stood
being leased for a term of five years at $400 a year
" in Texas money." In the primitive condition of
things at that date the houses were not numbered,
but Mr. Jones through sport selected the day of the
month on which he was born as his number and the
street in the meantime having been named put on
his sign, "No. 8 Strand." So his place of busi-
ness was for a long time afterwards known, and a
clock which he for years used as a regulator, still
in the possession of his son, bears this designation.
His central location made space in his building
desirable and he had no difficulty in renting half of
his house at $50.00 a month, still having all the
room he needed. He was the first regular watch-
maker on Galveston Island, and, as more than half
the immigration to Texas in those days went
through Galveston, he repaired the time-pieces
and furnished the time for most of the population
of the Republic. "Jones' time" was considered
the correct time and everybody went by it. He
also did a good business repairing nautical instru-
ments, getting all the work of this kind that there
was to do. He was an industrious workman and
shrewd tradesman, and his activity and upright
business methods brought him substantial returns.
That he had bhe instinct of the latter-day merchant
is evidenced by the liberality with which he patron-
ized the newspapers and sought in every legitimate
way to place his goods and wares before the public.
In an old issue of the Civilian and Gazette of date
1845, the writer counted five separate advertisements
of his, one of which was accompanied by a cut of his
building, said to be the first cut ever inserted in a
Texas newspaper. He turned to good account his
acquaintance and previous connection with Hyde &
Goodrich, of New Orleans, receiving from them such
goods as he needed and for which he seems to have
found a ready sale. One of the advertisements
referred to above sets forth that he had just received
a large assortment of "Fashionable and fancy
jewelry, school books, stationery, blank books,
annuals, albums, gift books, writing, letter and
note paper, visiting and conversation cards, cutlery,
combs, suspenders, gloves, stocks, straps etc., etc."
One of the first things he did was to form a tem-
perance society and to push the subject of good
schools in his little community. Although a mem-
ber of the Presbyterian Church, he allied himself
with the Episcopalians for many years, as this sect
was the most active in church work and the pastor,
the Rev. Mr. Eaton, was his intimate friend.
Mr. Jones took an active interest in the town ;
became a member of its first fire company. Hook
and Ladder Company, No. 1 ; was commissioned by
President Houston Captain of militia for "Beat
No. 2, Fourth Regiment, Second Brigade, Militia
of the Republic of Texas," and, in 1850, was the
commissioner from Texas appointed by Governor
' Bell to the London Industrial Exhibition, for which
he collected exhibits and, in company with Dr.
Ashbel Smith, set forth as best he could with the
limited means at his command the resources of this
imperial commonwealth.
After his return from Europe in 1851, Mr. Jones
associated with himself Messrs. John B. Root and
B. R. Davis, forming a partnership under the firm
name of Jones, Root & Davis, and embarked in the
furniture, jewelry and book business on a somewhat
extensive scale. This business prospered until the
Civil War when, with the closing of the port of Gal-
veston, it was discontinued. Mr. Jones was past
the age for military duty when the war opened but
entered the Confederate service in the commissary
department, and spent the most of his time during
the ensuing four years in the interior of the State
procuring and forwarding supplies to the soldiers
at the front. While he deplored the dismember-
ment of the Union, still he thought that the rights
of the South had been invaded and that the only
course left for her to pursue was the one she
adopted.
On May 25, 1852, at Galveston, Mr. Jones mar-
ried Miss Henrietta Offenbach, who was then
visiting her sister, Mrs. Sam Maas, of that place.
334
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
They were married by the Eev. Mr. Eaton. Ex-
Governor Frank Lubbock was one of the grooms.
Mrs. Jones was a native of Cologne, Germany,
and a sister of the great Parisian composer,
Jacques Offenbach. Previous to taking this step
Mr. Jones had purchased property on Broadway,
between Seventeenth and Eighteenth streets (an
entire block), where, having erected what for the
time was an excellent dwelling, he established him-
self and lived for some years in bachelor quarters,
dispensing a generous hospitality to his numerous
friends. Three daughters, Anna M., Eosanna
Osterman, and Henrietta Ord, and one son, William
Goodrich, named for his old friend, the jeweler of
New Orleans, were the issue of this union. In the
earlier days Mr. Jones underwent many of the
privations to which the inhabitants of Galveston
Island were subjected, and during the Civil War
he and his family suffered in common with others
all the hardships which were visited upon the people
of that city. He passed through eight yellow fever
epidemics, he and his entire family at one time or
another having the disease, one daughter, Rosa,
dying of it.
After the war Mr. Jones took his family to
Europe, in consequence of his wife's broken health,
and remained there nearly a year, returning in the
latter part of 1866, when he took up his resi-
dence in New York. There he organized the New
York and Texas Land Company, with which he
was subsequently connected, and as long as he
lived devoted his attention chiefly to land matters.
During his residence in Texas he had, as his means
accumulated, made considerable investments in
Texas real estate both in the city of Gavleston and
in unimproved lands in different counties, and
these holdings advancing in price with the set-
tlement of the country, formed the foundation
of a comfortable fortune, the oversight of which
together with his other duties occupied his
time during the last twenty years of his life.
He built a home in Brooklyn, N. Y., and a
summer residence at Saratoga Springs in that
State, and between these two places spent his time,
making an occasional trip to Texas, and once —
from 1872 to 1875 — an extended trip to Europe.
Though much absent in later life from the State he
never forgot the scenes of his early struggles nor
the friends of his young manhood. He was devoted
to Texas and her people with that ardent attach-
ment which characterizes the feelings of all those
who have shared in the glories and sorrows of its
early days. He was the kind of material of which
new States are made. His honest, industrious,
upright ways won him friends and helped early in
his career to make him one of the foremost men in
the community where he settled. His achieve-
ments, considering his chances, were great; but
back of these was something greater, a character,
into the formation of which had entered the in-
herited wisdom and virtue of an excellent ancestry,
reinforced by patient discipline on his own part and
a fervent trust in God.
He spent much of his leisure time in after years
in study and philanthropy, and was a man of much
knowledge and general culture, and of a strong
religious character. After hisremoval to Brooklyn,
N. Y., he was for many years a communicant of
the Rev. Theo. L.Culyer's Lafaj'ette Avenue Pres-
byterian church.
Like his father, he neither smoked nor chewed
tobacco, nor drunk spirituous liquors, deeming a
man would remain healthier and happier without
these habits. He was an enthusiastic agriculturist
and lover of nature, and took great interest in tree
planting and the beautifying of cities. After a life
of much activity and crowned with more than
ordinary success he died, passing away at his sum-
mer home at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., on the 21st
day of April, 1891, in the seventy-seventh year of
his age. His widow survived him a little less than
four years, dying January 8th, 1895, at Aiken,
S. C, whither she had gone for the winter. Their
two surviving daughters reside in New York, their
son at Temple, Texas.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
335
J. H. BURNETT,
GALVESTON.
Col. J. H. Burnett, of Galveston, was born in
Greeneville, Greene County, Tenn., July 8, 1830.
His parents were Sylas E. and Malinda (Howell)
Burnett, Virginians by birth, connected by ties of
consanguinity and affinity with some of the proudest
names that adorn the pages of the country's his-
tory. They moved at an early day from Virginia
to Tennessee, and from that State to Georgia,
where they spent their remaining years.
The subject of this memoir was reared in Greene-
ville, Tenn., and Somerville, Ga., where he ac-
quired an excellent education.
Fired with the martial spirit, love of country,
and desire for adventure common to the chivalric
youth of that day, he enlisted, at the age of six-
teen, as a private soldier in Col. Calhoun's Regi-
ment, for service in the war between the United
States and Mexico. This regiment formed a part
of Gen. "Winfield Scott's army, took part in the
memorable march of two hundred and seventy-
nine miles from Vera Cruz to the city of Mexico,
and participated in the various battles that were
fought en route and in front of the city, including
the storming of the castle of Chepultepec. In all
these engagements the subject of this memoir con-
ducted himself with conspicuous gallantry, and
before the close of the campaign was rewarded with
a Lieutenant's commission. Returning to his home
in Georgia, he was honored by the Governor with a
Colonelcy in the State troops.
On his way to Mexico he traversed a considerable
part of the State of Texas and was so favorably
impressed with its climate, soil, people and future
prospects, that he determined to make his home in
the country. He served as sheriff of Chattooga
County, Ga., for a period of two or more years,
and then resigned the office to leave Somerville,
Ga., for Texas in 1854. ' He located at Crockett,
in Houston County, this State, and there engaged
in farming and merchandising, and soon acquired
a prominent position in the community, owing to
his public spirit, social qualities and superior talents.
Three years later he was elected to the Legislature
as a member of the House of Representatives. That
body then contained a number of men who would
have graced the Congress of the United States in its
palmiest days and who afterwards acquired national
reputations. The policies of the State were in a
formative condition and many issues of vital im-
portance presented themselves for discussion and
settlement. Col. Burnett was (as he still is) a
clear, forcible and elegant speaker and, from the
beginning, took rank among the foremost of his
colleagues. He was placed by the Speaker on a
majority of the important committees, where his in-
defatigable industry, sound judgment and fidelity
to duty enabled him to render valuable service to
the State. He was re-elected to the House for a
second term and before its close added new laurels
to those he had already won. He was then nomi-
nated by the Democracy of his district and elected
to the State Senate in 1860. Early in the following
year, however, the long-gathering hurricane of Civil
War burst upon the country and the Southland
called her sons to arms. Col. Burnett was among
the first to respond ; promptly resigned his seat in
the Senate, and in a short time mustered a regiment
of sixteen companies (the Thirteenth Texas Cavalry)
of which he was elected Colonel. It was his desire
to cross the Mississippi and serve under Gen.
Joseph E. Johnston, but there was some delay in
securing transportation and not desiring to remain
inactive he hurried with his command to the front,
joining Gen. Ben McCulloch, then conducting a
desperate and unequal contest in Arkansas. While
the numbers engaged in that State were not
so large as in some of the battles fought by
the armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee,
several of the conflicts in Arkansas were un-
paralled in the history of the war for their stub-
bornness, the valor displayed by the men and
the proportion of the killed and wounded to the
number of the troops brought into action. It was
hard fighting all the way through and the Thirteenth
did its full share of it. Col. Burnett's regiment
also took part in the campaign against Gen. Banks,
in Louisiana, one of the most brilliant and success-
ful inaugurated and carried out by the Confederate
arms, covering itself with glory at Mansfield, Pleas-
ant Hill and elsewhere. Banks' powerful army was
completely routed, Texas saved from invasion and
Louisiana bloodily avenged for the depredations of
an enemy more savage and merciless than the
pagan Huns who devastated Central and Western
Europe when the power of imperial Rome, like the
tower of Ushur, was darkly nodding to its fall.
After the war Col. Burnett returned to Crockett
where he resumed business pursuits and began by
WM. McFADDIN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
337
WILLIAM McFADDIN,
BEAUMONT.
Every country has had its golden or heroic
age, the memory of which has been transmitted to
after times surrounded with a halo of romantic and
chivalric interest. That of Texas may be said to
embrace the period of the revolutionary struggle
that witnessed the triumph of a few fearless free-
men over a powerful foe, and the birth of a blood-
bought Republic that, after a career of singular
brilliancy, merged itself into the great sisterhood
of States comprising the American Union. Not so
long as the human heart shall beat responsive to
the recital of deeds of patriotic self-sacrifice will
the immolation at the Alamo be forgotten, and not
until the very names of the Anglo-Saxon and
Celtic races shall have faded from the pages of
history and men ceased to prize the blessings of
constitutional freedom will the memory of San
Jacinto fail to stir the pulses of youth and age
alike, inspire reverence and affection for the men
who wrote with their swords upon the scroll of
Time the undying story of our State, and keep
warm and true the love of country in the hearts of
the people.
Houston, Rusk, Austin, Travis, Fannin, Burle-
son, the Bowies, Crockett, Bonham, Johnson,
Milam, Sherman, Lamar, Williamson, Jack, their
compeers and the men who followed them to
victory or death, are the Immortals of Texas.
A few of the veterans who followed Johnson and
Milam into San Antonio, and who charged under
Houston at San Jacinto yet survive, a majority of
them old and feeble men who have lived to see the
country change from a wilderness to a populous
and powerful commonwealth, and to witness the
full fruits of the labors of their earlier years. But
one of them, at least, is still blessed with strength
and health. We refer to William McFaddin, of
Beaumont, Texas. He was born at Lake Charles,
La., June 8, 1819, and came to Texas with his
parents, James and Elizabeth McFaddin, in 1823.
The family settled in Liberty County, where they
remained until June, 1833, when they moved into
what is. now Jefferson County and opened a farm,
one mile distant from the present town of Beau-
mont, upon which the subject of this memoir now
resides.
Mr. William McFaddin joined the Texian army
in 1835, not long after the firing of the first gun of
the revolution, and served under Capt. Andrew
'22
Briscoe in the memorable storming of San Antonio
by the columns under Milam and Johnson — one
of the most remarkable military feats recorded in
the annals of war. He saw Milam a few minutes
after that gallant leader was killed and before the
body was picked up from the spot where it had
fallen. Mr. McFaddin remained in San Antonio
until just before the siege of the Alamo. He joined
the army under Houston at Columbus, participated
in the battle of San Jacinto, was present when
Santa Anna was brought in and turned over to
Gen. Houston, and, after the battle, was a soldier
in the force under Gen. Rusk that followed the
retreating army of Filisola as far as Goliad and
there buried the charred remains of the men who
fell in the Fannin massacre. Mr. McFaddin was
honorably discharged from the service June 8th,
•1836, and walked bare-footed from Goliad to his
home near Beaumont. He received a bounty of
320 and a donation of 640 acres of land for his
services in the revolutionary war (as did other
soldiers of San Jacinto) and resumed the business
of stock raising in which he had been previously
engaged.
He was united in marriage in 1837 to Miss
Rachel Williams, daughter of Hezekiah Williams,
of Louisiana, and then received from the Republic
of Texas a family head-right of a league and labor
of land which he located in Williamson County and
upon which now stands the thriving little town of
Circleville. Mr. and Mrs. McFaddin have six
living children, viz. : James A., who is a prominent
stockman of Victoria ; Sarah, now wife of Michael
Alexander, of Beaumont; W. P. H., a stock raiser
living at Beaumont ; Di, wife of W. C. Averill, of
Beaumont; David H., a stock raiser who lives at
Victoria, and C. W., who lives in Beaumont.
Mrs. McFaddin's parents, Hezekiah and Nancy
(Reames) Williams, of St. Helena Parish, La.,
came to Texas in 1833 and located in Jeffer-
son County, where Mr. Williams engaged in farm-
ing. The Williams family was one of the first three
families that settled in the county. A son, Heze-
kiah Williams, Jr., took part in the battle of San
Jacinto. Mr. and Mrs. Williams have nine chil-
dren, all of whom are dead except three: Mrs.
William McFaddin, Marion and Annie, now the
wife of Nulbar Cropper, of Milam County. Marion,
who lives near Buffalo Gap in Taylor County, was
338
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
a soldier in the Confederate army and served as
such throughout the war between the States.
Mr. Hezekiah Williams died in Williamson County
and is buried there. His wife died in Beaumont,
Texas, and is buried in the family cemetery in
Jefferson County, near that place.
Mr. McFaddin's last military service was in the
Confederate army. He was detailed to secure
beeves for the army, and consequently did not
leave Texas during the war.
When his father came to Liberty County, there
were only three people living in Jefferson County.
As a consequence, the subject of this notice had no
educational advantages and grew to manhood with-
out an opportunity of attending school. Notwith-
standing this drawback, he has been remarkably
successful in his business operations, is now one of
the wealthiest landowners and stock raisers in the
State, and in conversation gives no evidence of the
want of book-learning. He was his parents', only
child when they came to Texas. His father died at
Natchitoches, La., in 1845, and his mother near
Beaumont in 1848, leaving four children, all of
whom, with the exception of Mr. McFaddin, are dead.
It is to be hoped that this worthy old hero of
San Antonio and San Jacinto, beloved and honored
by all who know him, will be spared to his friends,
family and Texas for many years to come.
THE ECKHARDT FAMILY,
YORKTOWN.
Among the early pioneers of Western Texas, the
Eckhardt family should receive prominent mention,
as they have been greatly instrumental in develop-
ing that section and are still among its leading and
most useful citizens. As early as 1843 we find
Charles Eckhardt in business in Indianola, Texas.
Afterwards he and Capt. John York were the
founders of the town of Yorktown, in De Witt
County, the town receiving its name from the latter
gentleman. In May, 1848, Charles Eckhardt con-
tracted witb Peter Metz and John Frank to build
the first house in Yorktown. This was a log house,
twelve by twenty feet, with back room and chim-
ney, and was afterwards occupied by his brother,
Caesar Eckhardt and his family, for whom it was
built. Before this date, in February, 1848, how-
ever, Charles Eckhardt had contracted with John
A. King, also one of the early settlers of Western
Texas, to survey and open a public road from the
town of Victoria to the prospective town of York-
town and thence to the town of New Braunfels.
This contract is still in existence and stipulates
that Charles Eckhardt and his associates in the
scheme were to pay one hundred and fifty dollars
to John A. King for the survey of this road which
was to shorten the distance between Victoria and
New Braunfels twenty miles and to run on the
western side of the Guadalupe river. This road
was for a number of years the main thoroughfare
between these points and is still the principal road
between Victoria and Yorktown. Charles Eckhardt
was one of the business pioneers of Western
Texas. He was engaged in various mercantile
enterprises and was a gentleman of culture, speak-
ing several modern languages. He was a Mexican
War veteran. In 1852 he went to Central America
and died on his return trip and was buried in New
Orleans.
In December, 1849, his brother, Ctesar Eckhardt,
settled in Yorktown with his family. They brought
with them a number of people from Germany and
in a few years many of the sturdy German families
who have since settled in Yorktown and vicinity
followed and soon changed a Western wilderness
into one of the most prosperous settlements of this
great State. Caesar Eckhardt was born August 5th,
1806, in Laasphe, Germany. He received a liberal
education, was a Lieutenant of artillery in the
Prussian army for three years, and afterwards
entered the civil service of the government and
occupied a position as magistrate when he emigrated
to Texas. He married Miss Louise Fisher, in
1833, in Laasphe, Germany, and the family con-
sisted of themselves and their children: Robert,
William, Louise, Emilie, Johanna, Marie, and
Herman, when they emigrated to Texas. Their
youngest child, Mathilde, was born in Texas. Im-
mediately upon their arrival in Texas they engaged
in agricultural and mercantile pursuits and in 1850
laid the foundation for the prosperity of the widely
known firm of C. Eckhardt & Sons. For many
years, both before and during the late war between
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
339
the States and up to the time of his death, he was
most active in building up that section and faithfully
performing his duties as a citizen. On coming to the
country he at once naturalized and became a thor-
ough-going American. He occupied at various
times positions of trust in his county. During the
war he alligned himself with the lost cause and, al-
though too old to join the regular army, organized
a company of minute men, of which he was Captain.
His two oldest sons, however, of whom we
shall speals later, both joined the Confederate army
and served throughout the entire war. After the
vrai- he continued his business. He died on the 28th
death and was active in the discharge of her duties
as such until a year or two ago she became feeble,
when she removed to her oldest daughter, Mrs.
Louise von Roeder, where she died Sunday, April
7th, 1895, surrounded and beloved by her children
and grandchildren. She was interred in the York-
town cemetery with impressive ceremonies ; the
two Yorktown bands playing dirges and sacred airs
during the funeral and the Rev. K. Pocn delivering
a most eloquent and touching funeral oration while
the whole town turned out to pay her their last
tribute of love and respect. Mrs. Eckhardt was a
remarkable woman in many respects. The mother
ROBERT ECKHARDT.
of February, 1868, at his home in Yorktown, highly
respected by his fellow-men. He was a man of
sterling integrity and character ; intelligent, social
(yet frugal and industrious), devoted to his family
and his adopted country. He loved Texas and its
people and appreciated republican institutions and
the great principles of American Democracy, inspir-
ing his children and his neighbors by his upright
living and good example.
After his death his widow, Mrs. Louise Eckhardt,
continued the mercantile business in partnership
with her sons, Robert and William, under the old
firm name of C. Eckhardt & Sons. We here repro-
duce a portion of her obituary, which appeared in
the Cuero Bulletin, shortly after her death: "She
remained a member of the Brm up to the time of her
of eight children whom she reared to be among the
most useful and respected of our citizens, she yet
found time to become the founder and projector of
one of the most extensive and reliable business
concerns in the county. The many obstacles which
she encountered would have baflled'many of the
pioneers of Texas, yet with an indomitable energy,
a restless industry, strong common sense and
unswerving integrity she overcame them all and
lived to see her efforts crowned with success. She
was unselfish to a fault and most charitable and
helpful to her neighbors. She loved the truth and
abhorred and shunned everything which savored of
sham and hypocrisy. A pure and noble woman
has passed to her rest and reward. She died in
her eighty-fourth year, but her son Robert had
340
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
preceded her in death and this leaves her son
William, the only surviving member of the old firm,
who continues the large business of G. Eckhardt &
Sons at the old stand."
Robert C. Eckhardt was the oldest child of Csesar
and Louise Eckhardt and was born March 17th,
1836, in Laasphe, Germany, emigrating to Texas
with his parents when he was thirteen years of age.
He assisted them in building up their home and
business and occupied his spare time in improving
his mind by private study and useful reading, thus
growing up to the splendid manhood of the hardy
frontiersman.
At the age of twenty-four he married Miss Caro-
line Kleberg, daughter of Judge Robert Kleberg.
He joined Wood's regiment of Texas cavalry and
served with distinction in the campaign against Gen.
Banks in Louisiana, coming out of the war at its
break-up as Second Lieutenant of his company.
After the war he engaged in mercantile pursuits,
first in Columbus, Texas, and afterwards as a mem-
ber of the firm of C. Eckhardt & Sons, after his
father's death.
His standing in the business community and as a
citizen was among the best. He was the first mayor
of Yorktown and took a leading part in every prom-
inent enterprise in the town and county. He was
a member of Cameron Lodge No. 76 A. F. and A.
M. and other fraternal societies, as well as trustee
of schools, etc. In his intercourse with his fellow-
men he was affable, generous, courteous and most
agreeable and enjoyed a large circle of friends ;
devoted to his family and country, he stood forth
an exemplar as husband, father and citizen. He
died at his home on Monday, February 28th, 1887,
and was buried with Masonic honors by his local
lodge, leaving his widow, eleven children and a
legion of friends and acquaintances to mourn his
loss.
William Eckhardt, son of Cfesar and Louise Eck-
■hardt, was born January 24tb, 1838, in Laasphe,
Germany, and emigrated to Texas, in 1849, with
his parents. He is a self-made man in the full sense
of the term. His early training in the schools of
Germany was followed in his new home in York-
town, Texas, by a course of private study which
consisted chiefly in the reading of useful books,
periodicals and papers. He developed at an early
age a talent for mechanics and applied it in many
useful ways on his father's farm and at the store,
by stocking plows, making all kinds of furniture,
building houses and constructing many other use-
ful contrivances. He was a constant student of all
practical problems which occur and often baffle the
Irontiersman in providing the necessary machinery
for his ranch and farm and by a course of self-train-
ing he managed to solve most, if not all, of them.
For many years, he has been a subscriber and close
reader of the Scientific American and to-day his
judgment on all kinds of machinery is not only
excellent, but is frequently consulted by his neigh-
bors. This practical knowledge of mechanics and
physics led him some years ago to bore for artesian
water, which he obtained without much trouble
along the banks of the creeks in his section and
which, in many places, now furnish an abundance
of fresh water to the people. His practical judg-
ment about all classes of machinery has served to
revolutionize the class of agricultural implements
in use in his neighborhood and beyond it, and he
always carries a large stock of these goods in his
mercantile business, keeping up with the latest
inventions and improvements in all kinds of
machinery. At the breaking out of the late war
he joined the first company of volunteers raised in
DeWitt County for the Confederate service, a
company commanded by Capt. W. R. Friend, of
Clinton. This company was called the DeWitt
Rifles, and contained the flower of the j'oung men
of the county. In January, 1862, however, young
Eckhardt joined the Twenty-fourth Texas Cavalry
and left Texas lor Arkansas, where his company
was dismounted at El Dorado, and placed in com-
mand of Capt. Cupples, brother of the late Dr.
Cupples, of San Antonio, Texas.
Mr. Eckhardt was in the fight at Arkansas Post.
During the battle he narrowly escaped death,
seven of his companions having been killed imme-
diately around him. He was captured on the sur-
render of the Post and held a prisoner at Camp
Butler, near Springfield, 111., where he remained
three months. Here a great many men were lost
from sickness and exposure, more dying from
disease than in battle. Finally he was exchanged
at City Point, Va., in May, 1863, and about two
weeks later his troop was armed to support bat-
teries around Richmond, during the, battle of
Chanceilorsville. He there witnessed the bringing
in of Gen. Stonewall Jackson's body from the
battlefield.
From there Mr. Eckhardt was placed in Gen.
Cleburne's Division, and the first skirmish he was
engaged in was at Bellbuckle, Tenn. The next
skirmish he was in was at Elk River, and the next
on Cumberland Mountain. Then followed the
battle of Chickamauga, in which he participated.
Here he again narrowly escaped being killed, a
grape shot striking him and wounding him severely
and taking off the sole and the heel of his shoe.
His right-hand man, Tom Moore, was killed
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
341
instantly, and his front rank man severely
wounded. Out of forty-five men of his company
reporting for duty, twenty-seven were killed or
wounded. It was here the company lost its cap-
tain, Dashler, who perished on the field. After the
battle of Chickamauga, the Texas troops, including
the company to which Mr. Eckhardt belonged,
were consolidated in Granbury's brigade, with
which it participated in the battle on Missionary
Ridge. Then followed the battle of Ringold. The
next engagement was at Duck Gap, Ga. The next
at Resaca. During the battle last named, the
Federal troops were charging a brigade of Confed-
Eckhardt was taken sick with fever and was placed
in the hospital, in Alabama, for three months, when
he obtained a special pass from Dr. Bryan to travel
with the army, thinking it would improve his health,
which it did in a measure, but, on account of poor
health, he was finally retired from the service at
Cedar Town, Ga. , as an invalid and it was three or
four years after the war before he regained his
health. Mr. Eckhardt retains a souvenir of the war in
the shape of a pocketbook made from the drum head
which was used on the drum in Granbury's brigade.
This drum had been heard by every man in the
brigade and had gone through many battles. He
MRS. CAROLINE ECKHARDT.
erates next to Granbury's. Mr. Eckhardt and
Lieut. Marsh, of Austin, Texas, were anxious to
witness this charge and placed themselves on an
elevation to see it. No sooner had they done so,
than a shot struck Lieut. Marsh and Mr. Eckhardt
caught him as he fell and carried him about fifty yards
to a spot where he was protected from the fire of the
enemy. He, however, died from the effects of the
wound. Mr. Eckhardt's brigade was next engaged
in a skirmish at Calhoun, then at Cashville, and
then in the battle at New Hope Church. In looking
over the latter battle-field the next morning the offi-
cers declared that they had never seen so many men
killed in so small a space, Granbury's brigade,
already much reduced in numbers, lost one hundred
and fifty killed in this fight. After this battle Mr.
made the pocket-book while in camp at Dalton and
greatly prizes it. Well he may, for it now reminds
the veteran Confederate soldier of the many fierce
reveilles, the drum once pealed forth when it called
and rallied the brave Texians to battle and led them
in the charge. Mr. Eckhardt has another memento,
a picture of Gen. Pat. Cleburne, around which
clusters many sacred memories of the long ago.
The following extract is from a Texas paper : —
"Mr. Albert W. McKinney received to-day a
gift that he sets much store by. It is a picture of
Maj.-Gen. Pat. Cleburne, killed charging the Fed-
eral works in the fearful fight at Franklin, Tenn.
Mr. McKinney belonged to Company B., Twenty-
fourth Texas, Granbury's brigade, and was near
Gen. Granbury when he and Gen. Cleburne wer
342
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
killed, almost within a moment of each other. The
picture is a gift of Mr. Wm. Eckhardt, who was of
Company K., in the same regiment with Mr. Mc-
Klnney and who now resides at Yorktown in this
State. It is a life-like likeness and Mr. McKinney
esteems it beyond money or price. Mr. Wm.
Eckhardt possesses Gen. Cleburne's photograph
from which he had made several large photos and
portraits, one he sent to Camp Magruder and
received the following graceful acknowledg-
ment: -:-
" Galveston, Texas, May 18, 1895.
" Mr. Wm. Eckhardt,
" Yorktown, Texas.
" Dear Sir and Comrade : Camp Magruder,
United Confederate Veterans, has directed me to
acknowledge the receipt of the handsome portrait
of Gen. Pat Cleburne, which you sent us and to
convey our hearty thanks t-o you for same. You
can understand better than I can express the feel-
ings with which we look on the likeness of this hero
of many battles, who with A. P. Hill, W. J. Hardee
and others of the same class, did sturdy military
work in all its forms, with comparatively no reward
but a sense of duty well done. Such men were
subordinates throughout the war, yet ihey earned
for their superiors the fame which the latter enjoy.
They were typical representatives of the real South-
ern soldier who fought not for money or for other
wealth, nor for fame, but for principles, and whose
self-denial and self-sacrifice knew no limits in sup-
port of those principles. In the ease of Gen.
Cleburne, patriotism received at Franklin the high-
est offering that man can give and the wail of grief
that then arose from lovers of brave manhood all
over the South has not yet died out. You could
not have done us a greater favor or honor than you
have conferred in providing us with this lasting and
vivid reminder of Southern courage and every good
soldierly quality as personified in Gen. Pat. Cle-
burne ; God bless him.
^ " Sincerely yours,
"P. H. Pott,
"Lieut. Com.
" Camp Magruder.' "
Mr. Wm. Eckhardt has also his honorable dis-
charge from the Confederate military service,
dated October 20th, 1864, thus making up a war
record of which any man may feel proud and which
his posterity will no doubt appreciate as a price-
less heritage, and as a monument to valor and
patriotism more enduring than marble and which
neither death nor time can efface. After returning
from the war Mr. Wm. Eckhardt did the buying
for his father's business which soon became one of
the largest in that section of the country. After
his father's death in 1868, his mother formed a
partnership with her two oldest sons, Eobert and
William, as before stated, under the firm name of
C. Eckhardt & Sons. Mr. William Eckhardt is now
the only surviving partner and carries on a larger
business than ever under the old firm name at the
old stand. He has been very successful in all his
business undertakings.
In 1865 he married Miss Mary Gohmert who has
borne him eight children, five of whom are now living.
X. B. SAUNDERS,
BELTON.
Hon. X. B. Saunders, for many years past a
leading attorney of Central Texas, was born in
Columbia, Maury County, Tenn., in 1831. He is
the second son and the fourth born in a family of
five children, consisting of three sons and two daugh-
ters. His parents were Joel B. Saunders and
Mariam Lewis (Kennedy) Saunders, natives of
Kentucky and Virginia, respectively. John Saun-
ders, his grandfather, married Miss Sarah Grant,
daughter of Gen. William and Mrs. Elizabeth
(Boone) Grant, the latter being the youngest sister
of the famous pioneer, Daniel Boone. His grand-
parents went to Kentucky with Boone. Many of
their descendants are now scattered over Indiana,
Illinois, Missouri and Iowa, and many of them have
attained prominence and occupied important official
positions. The Saunders family are of English
and Scotch descent. His maternal grandfather,
Robert Campbell Kennedy, was born in Augusta
County, Va., and was a son of William and Martha
(Campbell) Kennedy, natives of Scotland.
William Kennedy took part in the Revolutionary
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
343
War, participating in the battle of King's Mountain,
where several members of the family were killed.
He was there under command of Gen. William
Campbell.
Martha Campbell was a Scoth lassie from the
house of Argyle and was born at Ellerslie, the
country seat of Sir William Wallace. Her mother's
maiden name was McGregor. Judge Saunders'
maternal grandmother was, before her marriage,
Miss Esther Edmiston, her parents being Col.
William Edmiston, a revolutionary officer, and
Henrietta (Montgomery) Edmiston. The Ken-
nedys were Virginia planters. His grandfather,
John Saunders, was a planter and stock raiser in
Kentucky and died there at his homestead on the
Licking river.
Joel Boone Saunders, father of the subject of
this memoir, received his education at the University
of Maryland, in Baltimore, after which he practiced
medicine at Millersburg, Bourbon County, Ky.,
and at Fayetteville, Columbia, and Memphis,
Tenn., and still later at Natchez, Miss. After a
short residence at the last named place, his death
occurred there in October, 1833, at the age of
thirty-seven years. He was greatly devoted to his
profession and in fact sacrificed his life to it. His
widow survived him several years, her death occur-
ing March 29, 1846. He was a member of the
Methodist church and she of the Presbyterian.
Their oldest son. Napoleon B., a promising young
lawyer, died in 1858, at Memphis. Joel Boone,
the youngest child, studied law and medicine and
life apparently presented a bright prospect for him,
when war broke out between the States. He en-
tered the Confederate army in Texas in 1861, in
response to his country's call, and served until he
fell severely wounded on the battle-field of Gettys-
burg, from whence he was taken to Alabama, where
he died and was buried before the close of the year
1863. Sarah Grant, the oldest, child became the
wife of Robert Weir and is now a resident of Ger-
mantown, Tenn. The other daughter, Eliza Mar-
garet, married Calvin L. Story, of Lockhart, Texas.
Xenophon Boone Saunders was educated in Jackson
College, Columbia, Tenn., and at Hanover College,
Ind., graduating at the latter institution with the
class of 1849. He read law at Indianapolis, Ind.,
under Smith and Yandes ; finished at Nashville,
Tenn., under the Hon. John Trimble; was ad-
mitted to the bar at Memphis, Tenn., in 1854, and
in 1855 came to Belton, Texas, and began the
practice of his profession. He very soon estab^
lished a large and lucrative practice and became a
prominent figure in public affairs. In I860 be was
elected Mayor of the town. He was opposed to
secession and made a canvass of the district of the
State in which he lived in opposition to the measure.
When, however, it was adopted and Texas withdrew
from the Union, he determined to follow her for-
tunes and entered the Confederate army as Captain
of Company A., Sixteenth Regiment of Texas
Infantry, and was afterwards promoted to Major
of the regiment. He participated in the battles of
Perkin's Landing, MiJlican's Bend, Mansfield,
Pleasant Hill and Jenkins' Ferry, during a large
portion of the time commanding the regiment. He
was paroled atMilliean's in June, 1865.
After the war he returned to Belton and resumed
practice. In 1866 he was a delegate to the State
Constitutional Convention and represented Bell and
Lampasas counties in that body. In 1875 he was
elected Judge of the Fourteenth Judicial District,
composed of the counties of Bell, McLennan and
Falls, which position he resigned in 1877. After
retiring from the bench he formed a copartnership
with A. J. Harris. The firm has since been coun-
sel, on one side or the other, in nearly every case
of importance tried in that section of the State.
Mr. Saunders is also engaged in farming operations
and owns considerable city property. He assisted
in organizing the Belton Compress Company, of
which he was vice-president, and has been an
active promoter of all meritorious enterprises, hav-
ing as their object the development and upbuilding
of the portion of the State in which he lives.
He was married December 17. 1857, to Miss
Annie E. Surghnor, daughter of John Surghnor, of
Leesburg, Loudoun County, Va. To them have
been born six children, all of whom are living, viz. :
William iKIennedy, now City Attorney at Belton ;
Walter Cupples, engaged in newspaper work ;
Kathleen Shelly, wife of John T. Smither, a promi-
nent business man of Temple, Texas ; X. B.
Saunders, Jr. ; Wilson M. Saunders ; and Imogene
Mariam. Some of the family are members of the
Methodist and others of the Presbyterian church,
Judge Saunders has for many years been a 32°
member of the Masonic fraternity and is Past Emi-
nent Commander of Belton Commandery, No. 23,
K. T. , of which he was one of the organizers. He
has also been Deputy Grand Chancellor of Belton
Lodge No. 51, K. of P.
344
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ELBERT L. GREGG,
RUSK.
Elbert L. Gregg, one of the best known lawyers
and financiers la Texas, was born in Greene County,
Tenn., February 20, 1840.
His parents were Marshall W. and Alpha Gregg,
of that county, where they lived and died. Eight
children were born to them, seven of whom are now
living. The subject of this notice attended local
schools and completed his education at excellent
colleges in his native State.
During the war between the States he entered
the Confederate army as a private soldier in Capt.
T. S. Eumbough's company and was afterwards ap-
pointed Adjutant of the Sixty-fifth North Carolina
Regiment of Cavalry with which he served in West
Virginia, East Tennessee, and Kentucky, part of
the time discharging the duties of Provost Mar-
shal.
At the close of hostilities he returned home, like
many others, to find himself completely impover-
ished, and determined to go to a new field and take
up the tangled threads of life anew. He accord-
ingly came to Texas and in 1867, formed a co-
partnership with Mr. R. H. Guinn, at Rusk, Texas,
under the firm name of Guinn & Gregg, and
entered actively upon the practice of his profession.
Possessed of talents, eminently fitting him for suc-
cess at the bar, he rose rapidly and soon enjoyed a
lucrative practice and an enviable ireputation as a
learned lawyer, and skillful practitioner. The con-
nection with Mr. Guinn continued for about nine-
teen years. After Mr. Guinn's death, Mr. Gregg
formed a copartnership with Ex-State Senator
Robert H. Morris, which continued until Mr.
Morris became an invalid and retired from
practice.
In July, 1890, Mr. Gregg organized the First
National Bank at Rusk, and has since been its
president and principally devoted his attention to
financial matters, although continuing to act as
counsel in important law cases.
He was one of the commissioners whom Governor
• Coke appointed to locate the branch of the State
penitentiary now established at Rusk and has per-
formed many other services that have resulted in
advantage to the town and section in which he
lives.
He has been twice married. His first marriage
was in 1876 to Mrs. Kate Bonner, who died in 1880,
and bore him two children, one of whom, Elbert
M., is now living; and his second, in 1882, to his
present wife, nee Miss Bettie Dickenson, of Chero-
kee County, a great-granddaughter of one of the
signers of the Declaration of Independence. Five
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Gregg,
viz. : Nellie, Florence, Josephine, Luray Will, and
Eldridge R., all of whom are living except Luray
Will, who died in 1892, of bronchitis.
Mr. Gregg owns a large amount of real estate
and is one of the infiuential and representative men
of the section of the State in which he resides.
WILLIAM PINKNEY McLEAN,
FORT WORTH.
Hon. W. P. McLean, ex-member of Congress,
ex-District Judge, ex-member of the State Railroad
Commission and for many years past a distinguished
lawyer in this State, was born in Hinds County,
Miss., August 9, 1836. His parents were Allen F.
and Ann Rose McLean. His father died in 1838 and
his mother came to Texas in 1839 and settled in that
part of Bowie County now embraced within the
limits of the county of Marion.
The subject of this notice attended schools in
Cass County and Marshall, Texas, and completed
his education at the University of North Carolina,
at Chappel Hill, where he was graduated in the class
of 1857. After graduating he studied law and was
admitted to the bar.
Judge McLean served as a member of the Texas
Legislature, in 1861 and 1869; was a member of
the Forty-third Congress, a member of the Con-
L. W. GOODRICH.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
345
stitutional Convention of 1875 and Judge of the
Fifth Judicial District from 1884 to 1888 and in 1891
was appointed by Governor James S. Hogg a mem-
ber of the State Railroad Commission, a position
which he held until October, 1894, when he tendered
his resignation in order to resume the practice of
his profession at Fort Worth, where he now resides
and is a member of the law firm of Humphreys &
McLean.
At the beginning of the war between the States
he resigned his seat in the Texas Legislature and en-
listed in the Confederate army as a private in Com-
pany D., Nineteenth Texas Infantry, and, owing to
gallant and eflScient service, was soon made Adjutant
of the regiment and later Adjutant-General of the
Third Brigade, Walker's Division, with the rank of
Major of Cavalry. Judge McLean is a Royal Arch
Mason and a member of the Knights of Honor. He
was united in marriage to Miss Margaret Batte.
They have eight children: Annie, Ida, Thomas
Rusk, Jefferson Davis, William Pinkney, Maggie,
John Howell, and Bessie.
Judge McLean has been an active Democratic
worker and has often canvassed for the principles
and nominees of his party. He made an enviable
record as asoldier, member of the Legislature, mem-
ber of Congress, member of the Constitutional
Convention, District Judge and member of the
State Railroad Commission, and is a man of uncom-
mon ability and learning. As a lawyer he Las few
equals at the bar and few men have a wider circle
of friends.
L. W. GOODRICH,
WACO.
Honorable L. W. Goodrich was born May 31,
1836, in Loraine County, Ohio. His parents emi-
grated from Massachusetts to Ohio in 1833, and in
1845 moved back to the former State, and Pittsfield,
Mass., became the permanent home of the family.
The subject of our sketch attended school in
Pittsfield at various times until 1854, at which time
he entered Norwich University, Vt, where he
pursued the studies included in the scientific course
of that institution until 1855, when he returned to
his home at Pittsfield. The following May he went
to Chicago and from there to Wisconsin, where he
was employed as civil engineer and surveyor. He
later followed the same occupation in Illinois.
In the fall of 1859 he came overland, on horse-
back, through Missouri and Arkansas to Texas.
Locating in Brown County, on the very outskirts
of civilization, he began teaching school, and in
1860 was elected District Surveyor of that district.
At the commencement of the war between the
States he joined what was afterwards known as
McCulloch's regiment and was with the force that
took possession of the military posts on the Texas
frontier in February, 1861. Shortly afterwards the
command was organized into a regiment under a
commission issued by the Confederate government
to Ben McCulloch. Henry McCuUoch became
Colonel of the regiment and T.C. Frost, Lieutenant-
Colonel. The command of the regiment sub-
sequently devolved on the latter, and by him the
subject of this notice was appointed Adjutant. In
1863, Judge Goodrich became Captain of Company
G. , Thirtieth Texas Cavalry, and in that capacity
, served in Texas, Arkansas and the Indian Terri-
tory, until the close of hostilities. Although
wounded, he passed through the fiery ordeal
without sustaining permanent injury.
Immediately after the close of the war he
engaged in school teaching at Robinson, McLen-
nan County, and also took up the study of law,
which he prosecuted with diligence. He was
admitted to practice by the District Court at Waco
in May, 1866, and since that time has followed his
profession in McLennan and Falls counties. In
June, 1890, he was appointed Judge of the Nine-
teenth District and in November of the same year
was elected to that position, and has since contin-
uously held that office. He was admitted to prac-
tice in the Supreme Court of Texas In 1871, and in
the Supreme Court of the United States in 1875,
and has appeared in both courts in some of the
most important civil suits, involving titles to land,
that have arisen in the section of the State in which
he resides.
He was married in February, 1869, to Miss Alice
Battle, daughter of Judge N. W. Battle, and has
eight children : Frank Battle, now in the employ-
ment of the Texas Central Railway Co., as civil
346
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
engineer; Abigail, Nicli Whitney, Maria, Mary,
Alice, Levi, and Thomas E.
The family name of Goodrich, formerly Goodric
or Godric, is Saxon, and some members of the
family, particularly S. G. Goodrich, known to the
children of the last generation as Peter Parley and
to all lovers of good literature as the author of the
inimitable " Beeollections of A Life Time," have
inerested themselves in tracing the history of the
family. Briefly stated it is as follows: Three
brothers of the name left England in Cromwell's
time and came to the American colonies, where they
settled, one in New England, one in Virginia, and
one in South Carolina. Their decendants are
numerous and widely scattered. Like many of the
families that found homes in New England at that
period, the Goodrich family were not Puritans and
unlike many families that came to this country then,
they did not return to England after the restoration
in 1688.
On the bench Judge Goodrich is very careful
and painstaking in the trial of causes, and is
an able lawyer; his rulings are very seldom re-
versed.
JOHN H. TRAYLOR,
DALLAS.
John Henry Traylor was born at Traylorsville,
Henry County, Va., March 27, 1839. His ancestors
were of French Huguenot extraction, and the first
of the name in the Colony of Virginia of which the
records make mention, was William Traylor, who
was called a " planter" and was licensed towed in
Henrico County, December, 1695. Peter Jones,
from whom Petersburg, Va., derived its name, was
surety on his marriage bond. He had a grant of
about 3,000 acres of land from the Crown, situated
just opposite to the present site of the city of Peters-
burg, on the north side of the Appomatox river, in
that part of Henrico, which is now Chesterfield
County. His grandson, Humphrey Traylor, was
the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch,
and was an active participant in the Revolutionary
War, and died in Diniwiddie County, Va., in 1802.
The grandfather of John H. Traylor was Eev.
John C. Traylor, who was born in Henrico County,
Va., in 1788. He was licensed an elder in the M.
E. Church by Bishop McKendre, at Lynchburg,
Va. , in 1815 ; he led an exemplary and useful life,
dying in Troup County, Ga., in 1856.
The father of John H. Traylor was Robert B.
Traylor, who was a Southern planter, and took an
active interest in all public and political questions,
was a member of the Georgia Legislature at seventy-
five years of age, and died in Troup County, Ga.
in 1893.
Jno. H. Traylor was reared and educated in
Troup County, Ga., where the family is prominent
as in Virginia. He enlisted in Company B., Fourth
Georgia Regiment, in 1861, and served during the
entire war in the army of Northern Virginia, and
was in all the prominent battles in Virginia, Mary-
land and Pennsylvania. He was wounded at the
battles of Warrenton, Spottsylvania Court House
and Chancellorsville. He was wounded in the lat-
ter battle, and his only brother killed, on Saturday
evening. May 2, 1863, near the same time and place
where Stonewall Jackson received his death-wound.
He was with Jackson during the entire day, in the
capacity of sharpshooter and scout, and was in a
few yards of him when he was shot. Later on he
was appointed Quartermaster of the ordnance of
of Gen. Early's corps. He came to Texas in 1867,
and located at Jefferson, where he followed mer-
chandising. He was married to Miss Pauline
Lockettin 1969, and removed to Granbury, in Hood
County, in 1871, where he engaged in selling and
locating lands till 1875. He surveyed many thou-
sand acres in Hood, Parker, Palo Pinto and more
western counties, often coming in dangerous prox-
imity to the Comanche and Kiowa Indians, who
visited these frontier counties monthly in quest of
horses, which were disposed of at Fort Sill, and
more northern frontier posts. These savages
usually made their raids in the light of the moon,
and their monthly visits were not considered doubt-
ful ; hence, the surveyors took the precaution to
have early supper and remove a mile or so from
their camp-fire, and lariat their horses, and sleep
in some retired spot, every one being at all times
armed. Mr. Traylor was elected Sheriff and Tax
Collector of Hood County, February, 1876, under the
new Constitution and re-elected in November, 1878.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
347
In November, 1881, he was elecled to the Seven-
teenth Legislature, from the counties of Hood, Som-
ervell and Bosque. Although a new member be
■was an active and eflBcient legislator and is said to
have introduced and passed more bills than any
other member, save one.
He was the author of the bill " providing for
designating and setting apart three hundred leagues
of land out of the unappropriated public domain for
the benefit of the unorganized counties of the State,
and to provide for the survey and location of the
same" (see H. J., p. 128 q.); also bills regu-
lating sheriffs' fees, tax sales, etc.
At the extra session of 1882, he was the chairman
of the sub-committee of senatorial and represent-
ative districts in the re-apportionment of the State,
and did much arduous labor in this work. He also
introduced and passed bills to amend the law
reducing the maximum rate of passenger-fare from
five to three cents per mile (see H. J., p. 5,
1882), and the " act to repeal all laws granting land
or land-certificates to any person, firm or corpora-
tion or company for the construction of railroads,
canals and ditches." (See H. J., p. 22, Act 1882.)
In November, 1883, he was elected by a large
majority to the Senate from the Thirtieth Senatorial
District, composed of the counties of Hood, Somer-
vell, Bosque, Erath and Palo Pinto.
He was well posted in land matters and the Senate
journals will show that his knowledge was very
thorough in shaping land legislation, which, with
its various 'features of sale, lease and other dispo-
sition, was the great and perplexing question of
the day. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Legisla-
tures permanently adjusted these, and all collateral
questions.
there being no provision for paying officers' fees
in felony cases unless conviction was had, Mr.
Traylor contended that the result was a lax enforce-
ment of the criminal laws, and, hence, introduced
and passed a bill providing for the payment of fees
to county and district officers in felony cases (see
S. J., p. 16, 1883); also a bill providing for the
, payment of attached witnesses in felony cases (see
S. J., 1883, p. 46).
He was very active and efficient in questions per-
taining to school and public lands, public roads,
penitentiaries, officials' fees, the new eapitol, the
State finances, and all matters relating to the ad-
ministration of the State government. He opposed
with great earnestness and success the fifteen-year
lease of the penitentiary convicts entered into by
the administration.
Just before the extra session met in 1884 to
prevent, or rather, quell, the war between the pas-
ture men and the fence-cutters, he published an
interview outlining the conditions of adjustment,
which was copied by the papers throughout the
State, and practically enacted into law during the
extra session. This was probably the most difficult
question that ever confronted the Legislature, as it
involved unlawful fencing and its penalties, herd-
ing, line-riding, the lease and sale of the school
and public lands, public roads, free grass, fence-
cutting and the penalties, and the grazing of sheep,
cattle and horses on the State's lands, or the lands
of another person. After a long and bitter contest
in both houses and between the two houses, the
whole question was settled on February 5th, 1884,
by the second Free Conference Committee, com-
posed of Jno. H. Traylor and John Young Gooch,
on the part of the Senate, and A. T. McKinney and
A. M. Taylor on the part of the House (see S. J.,
p. 118).
He was Chairman of the Finance Committee of
the Senate in the Nineteenth Legislature, and left his
impress on most of the important legislation during
that time, especially those measures pertaining to
the appropriations for the State government. He
was author of the act " to provide for the issuance
and sale of the bonds of the State to supply the
deficiencies in the revenue" (see S. J. 1885, p.
42); also an act "to provide for the correction
and revision of the abstract of located, patented
and titled lands, (see S. J. 1885, p. 97), and sev-
eral other less important measures. He served two
years in the House and four in the Senate, where
he made a State-wide reputation as a wise, prudent
and far-seeing legislator. His recognized ability se-
cured him important positions on the various Legis-
lative Committees, and since retiring from public
life, his name has often received favorable mention
for various State offices, including chief executive.
Mr. Traylor has much of the character of the
Virginian of fifty years ago in his composition.
He has a profound sense of the importance of some
counteracting agency to the inordinate desire for
accumulating and laying up treasure ; this danger-
ous tendency of the age he believes if allowed to
prevail, will make our people degenerate, will sever
the moral ties which unite us to our forefathers,
and take away all zest from the contemplation of
the great performances achieved by them. He is a
member of the Virginia Historical Society, has
traveled much in the United States and Europe and
is very fond of the antiquated and historical. He
is now a successful business man of Dallas, well
and widely known for his good practical sense and
his association with commercial and benevolent
movements.
348
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
R. B. PARROTT,
WACO.
K. B. Parrott was born in Amherst County, Va.,
in October, 1848. His father, William J. Parrott,
died in 1893. His mother, nee Miss Jane C.
Blanks, was a niece of the founder of the Smith-
sonian Institute.
Mr. Parrott entered the University of Virginia
before he was fourteen years of age, and was the
youngest student who ever matriculated at that
great college, before or since. WheiT the war
came on he i-an away from college, having been
there only six months, joined the Southern troops
under Col. Mosby and served through the war as a
non-commissioned offlcer. December 24, 1864, he
was captured and taken to Boston Harbor, where
he was kept in confinement with Hon. Alex. H.
Stephens. He was released June 16, 1865.
After the war he returned to Virginia and
engaged with a large commission house in Eich-
mond, in which he was "on 'change." He was
the youngest man on 'change in the city and car-
ried off first premium on best sales every year that
he was there. In 1872, he came to Texas and set-
tled in Waco and at once identified himself with
the interests of that city and of the State. He
embarked in the insurance business, which he has
successfully continued. He is now the general
manager for Texas, Arkansas and the Pacific Slope
of the Provident Savings Life Insurance Company
of New York. While in California he projected
the novel and effective scheme for advertising
Texas land by moving-cars. He was largely instru-
mental in causing the organization of the Texas
and Real-Estate Association, he having first sug-
gested and urged the organization before the Waco
Board of Trade, of which he is president. He is
also president of the Provident Investment Company
which owns a valuable suburban addition to the
city. He has been honored by the bishop of the
diocese by appointment as one of the trustees of
the University of the South, at Sewanee, Tenn.
During the World's Fair he filled the position of
chairman of the Texas World's Fair Committee.
It was through his influence that the Provident
Savings Life Insurance Co. erected in Waco one of
the most complete and magnificent oflflce buildings
in the South. He has always taken an active
interest in the cause of popular education. He
was chairman of the School Committee of the city
of Waco for a number of years and has done much
to bring the schools up to their present state of
eflaciency. The nearest approach to a political
office he ever consented to accept was a position on
Governor Hubbard's staff, with the rank of Col-
onel.
Owing to his efforts and those of S. W. Slayden
and others, a splendid natatorium was built in
Waco, one of the first, if not the first, constructed
in Texas. It is located on Fourth street, near the
Pacific Hotel, and cost $75,000.
Col. Parrott was united in marriage, June 12,
1873, to Miss Alice Farmer Downs, the accomplished
daughter of W. W. Downs. They reside at the
old homestead of Maj. Downs, a beautiful and
historic home on South Third street. Their union
has been blessed with six children: Charles B.,
Rosa, Alice, Robert B., Jr., Willie, and Lillian.
Rosa died at the age of three years.
Col. Parrott is a member of the Masonic, Elks
and Knights of Pythias fraternities.
During the Hogg-Clark campaign he championed
the cause of George Clark and was indefatigable in
his efforts to secure his nomination and then to
elect him. He was called unanimously to the
leadership of the Prohibition forces and the
work accomplished by him shows how well he
discharged the duties of the trust confided to
him.
Few men have contributed more to the pros-
perity of Texas, and especially of Waco, than Col.
Parrott. His great efforts have been to introduce
into the State a cheaper system of life insurance
than that of the old lines, which drained the State
of money. After years of struggle against bitter
opposition and obstacles that would have crushed a
less resolute man, he has been eminently successful
and has saved millions of dollars to the people and
has greatly aided in advancing the material pros-
perity and development of the State.
A pleasing phase of Col. Parrott's work in Texas,
is its pure disinterestedness. He has no political
aspirations and there is no official position which
he could be induced to accept. He is a man of
fine physique, digniSed in his bearing and pleasing
in address. He is broad and cosmopolitan in his
views and strong in his advocacy of what he be-
lieves to be right. He stands high in the estima-
tion of the people of the State and of the city
in which he dwells.
R. B. PAEROTT.
WALTER GRESHA.M.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
349
WALTER GRESHAM,
GALVESTON.
Walter Gresham, ex- member of the Texas Leg-
islature, ex-member of Congress and a widely known
lawyer and financier, was born in King and Queen
County, Va. Although very young at the com-
mencement of the war, he enlisted as a soldier in
Lee's Rangers, commanded by Gen. W. H. F. Lee,
son of Gen. Robert E. Lee, and afterwards served
in Company H., Twenty-fourth Virginia Cavalry,
and other regiments. He fought under Gen. Jeb
Stewart; was with Stonewall Jackson in 1862; took
part in most of the battles fought by the army of
Northern Virginia, and, at last, stood with the
devoted band that surrendered with Lee at Appo-
matox. The Secretary of War of the Confederate
States gave him permission to complete his educa-
tion at the University of Virginia. In ihe Summer
of 1863 he graduated from the law department of
that institntion, and the following summer rejoined
his command in the field. His grandfather, Thomas
Gresham, was a noted lawyer of Essex Count}', Va.
His father, Edward Gresham, studied law and pro-
cured license ; but, possessing a large estate that
required much of his attention, and not being
dependent upon his labors at the bar, never regu-
larly practiced his profession. As a result of the
war, Edward Gresham's fortune was swept away.
Nothing disheartened by the changed prospect that
lay before him, Walter Gresham determined to
move to Texas. He landed at Galveston on the
last day of the year 1866 with only $5.00 in his
pockets ; rented an office and began the practice of
law. His early days were a hard struggle ; but,
talent is never without appreciation in an intelli-
gent community, when conjoined with other ele-
ments of character essential to success, and his rise
at the bar was rapid. He was elected to the
responsible position of District Attorney for
Galveston and Brazoria counties in 1872, served
three years, and left the office with an excellent
record. E]arly in his professional career Mr.
Gresham was admitted to partnership with Col.
Walter L. Mann and maintained this relation until
Col. Mann's death in 1875. He then practiced
alone until 1878, when he formed a copartnership
with S. W. Jones, Esq., the firm now being
Gresham & Jones. Up to 1877 Mr. Gresham en-
joyed, perhaps, a better paying practice than any
other lawyer in Texas. At that time his financial
interests became so large and began to demand so
much of his time that he, in a measure, abandoned
court room practice and has since, while continuing
the pursuit of his profession, mainly devoted his
attention to other business.
From the organization of the Gulf, Colorado and
Santa Fe Railroad to the date of its sale to the
Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe, be was a stock-
holder and director in and attorney for the road and
served for a time as its Second Vice-President. In
the infancy of the Gulf, Colorado and Santa Fe he
was the main man in the field, selecting routes, se-
curing right of way, locating towns and mapping
out and superintending other important business.
When this railway was sold it had over 1,000 miles
of track, was well equipped and was one of the
best pieces of railway property in the country.
Mr. Gresham is now one of the promoters of a
number of new railway enterprises of great magni-
tude and that will, if successfully inaugurated,
greatly enhance the prosperity of Texas.
He represented Galveston at the Deep Water
Convention held at Fort Worth in 1888 ; was a del-
egate to the Denver, Colo., Convention, held
later in the same year, and was, also, a delegate to
the Deep Water Convention held at Topeka, Kan.,
in 1889. He was made Chairman of the Special
Committee, appointed by the Topeka Convention
to go to Washington and work to secure favorable
action on the part of the National Congress, looking
to the speedy creation of a deep-water harbor at
the most available point on the Texas coast. He
was indefatigable in his efforts and succeeded in
having an amendment added to the River and Har-
bor Bill that was passed by the Fifty-first Congress,
authorizing the Secretary of War to enter into con-
tracts for the completion of the work (estimated to
cost $6,200,000) necessary to give Galveston one
of the finest harbors on the American sea-board.
He has been an active participant in every move-
ment looking to the up-building of the interests of
that city and that promised to speed Texas on to
the achievement of the proud destiny that awaits
her — to the time when she will stand foremost in
the sisterhood of States.
He represented Galveston in the Twentieth and
Twenty-first Legislatures and the Sixty-fourth Dis-
trict (Galveston and Brazoria counties), in the
Twenty-second Legislature and in those bodies was
Chairman of the Committee on Finance and a mem-
350
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ber of Judiciary Committee No. 1, and the Com-
mittee on Internal Improvements, committees that
dispatched at least four-fifths of the business trans-
acted by the House of Eepresentatives. His
appointment to the chairmanship of the House
Finance Committee in the Twentieth Legislature
(being then a new member) was a recognition of
his abilities as high as it was unexpected and well
merited. He performed the important duties of
that position so acceptably that he was retained as
Chairman during his two subsequent terms as a
member of the House. The medical branch of the
State University had been located at Galveston by
popular vote, but no appropriation had been made
to give practical effect to the will of all the people
as expressed at the polls.
In the Twentieth Legislature Mr. Gresham intro-
duced and, after a desperate parliamentary flght,
secured the passage of an act making the necessary
appropriations. He took an active part in the
deliberations of the three legislatures of which he
was a member and was recognized as a man of
great and varied abilities. Two of the most im-
portant provisions contained in the Railroad Com-
mission Bill enacted by the Twenty-second Legisla-
tures were drafted by him and introduced as amend-
ments. One provides for fixed rates, with a view
to preventing useless cutting, and the other permits
more to be charged for a short than a long haul,
when necessary to prevent manifest injustice.
The splendid record that he made in the Legisla-
ture led to his nomination and election to Congress
by the Democracy of the Tenth District, composed
of nine counties, in 1892. In that position he
added newer and brighter laurels to those that he
had already won. He at once took a position in
the National House of Representatives, seldom
accorded to any new member.
October 28, 1868, he was united in marriage, at
Galveston, to Miss Josephine C. Mann, daughter
of Col. William Mann, one of the early settlers of
Corpus Christi. Mr. and Mrs. Gresham have seven
children: Essie, wife of W. B. Lockhart, County
Judge of Galveston County ; Walter, Jr. ; Jose-
phine, T. Dew, Frank, Buelah, and Philip. Mr.
Gresham. although engaged in the conduct of im-
portant affairs, finds time to enjoy the pleasures of
social life. Surrounded by a happy family, he has
made his elegant home in the Oleander City famous
not only for its great architectural beauty, but the
refined and generous hospitality dispensed within
its walls.
MARCUS D. HERRING,
WACO.
Marcus D. Herring, one of the foremost and best
known of the lawyers who grace the Texas bar,
was born in Holmes County, Miss., October 11,
1828, and was reared on a farm. He attended the
Judson Institute at Middleton, Miss., and from
that institution went to Centenary College, Jack-
son, La., in 1845, entering the junior class in
languages and the sophomore class in mathematics.
After returning home he taught school, studied
law, was admitted to the bar and located at Shreve-
port. La. When he reached that place he had but
five dollars. Nevertheless, he was by no means
discouraged, and set resolutely to work to force his
way to the front.
His first success was in the delivery of a speech
at a Democratic rally that took his auditors by
storm, resulted in bringing him several clients and
paved the way for a lucrative practice. In a short
time he purchased a half interest in the Oaddo
Gazette, the leading paper of the place, and con-
ducted it one year under the firm name of Herring
& Reeves.
In 1850 Mr. Herring moved to Shelbyville,
Texas, where he practiced law until 1853, going
from there to Austin, where he was elected First
Assistant Secretary of the Senate, serving in that
capacity during one session of the Legislature. In
the spring of 1854 he located in Waco. There he
was at first in partnership with J. W. Nowlin (who
was killed at Ft. Donelson) and later was a mem-
ber of the firm of Herring & Farmer ; Herring &
Anderson ; Coke, Herring & Anderson ; Herring,
Anderson & Kelley, and at this writing is asso-
ciated with Mr. Kelley, under the firm name of
Herring & Kelley.
Mr. Herring is a prominent member of the
I. O. O. F., having identified himself with that
fraternity at San Augustine, Texas, in July, 1851.
^^^/^Ld/^/y.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
361
He took all the degrees, by dispensation, on that
occasion, and the following week organized a sub-
ordinate lodge at Shelbyville and was elected First
Noble Grand. He has gone through the chairs of
the Grand Lodge of Texas, served as Grand Master
in 1874, and in 1875 was elected representative to
the Sovereign Grand Lodge, remaining a member
for ten consecutive years, the most of that time
being Chairman of the Judiciary Committee. He
would have been continued a member from Texas
in that Grand Body by acclamation, as he had been
returned after his first election in 1875, but posi-
tively declined, giving as his reason that he intended
to devote all the time he could spare from his pro-
fessional engagements, to the establishment of a
Widows' and Orphans' Home. The Texas Odd
Fellow, of July, 1895, speaking of him in this
connection, says: "In 1885 he voluntarily retired,
but was again elected at "Waco in 1894, and is
now one of our Grand Representatives.
" In the sovereign body, and in the Grand Lodge
at home, his fertile brain has impressed itself upon
our legislation, many of our wisest and most whole-
some laws emanating from his pen. The crowning
glory with him, however, is in the fact that he was
the prime mover in the matter of establishing a
Widows' and Orphans' Home in Texas. He was
the author of the first resolution introduced on the
subject, was chairman of the special committee
which drafted the plan, wrote the report, and car-
ried it through the Grand Lodge amid the greatest
enthusiasm. At critical moments, in the history of
that institution, he has been found at his post,
never faltering, never wavering, but ready at all
times to break a lance with any one who attacked the
object of his love. He even went at his own expense
to the meeting of the Sovereign Grand Lodge at St.
Louis, to press and work for legislation which would
enable the Grand Lodge to provide for ample
revenue with which to support the Home. His mis-
sion was partially successful, but he continued his
efforts until, at the last meeting of the sovereign
body, in Chattanooga, the principle was clearly laid
.down that grand jurisdictions have the right to
assess their subordinates for support of widows'
and orphans' homes. For this end he had labored
for years, and the result was most gratifying. It
is now believed that the important question of
maintaining the Home has been solved, and that
every doubt in regard to its triumphant success has
been dispelled. Others have nobly assisted in this
grand work, but Bro. Herring will be accorded the
chief credit by all."
Mr. Herring was married in Waco, Texas, Octo-
ber 7, 1856, to Miss Alice G. Douglass, of Sumner
County, Tenn. Four children were born of this
union: Wm. Douglass, Joseph W.,(diedin infancy) ;
Laura Belle, now the wife of W. H. Bagby, and
Marcus D., Jr.
Soon after the beginning of the war between the
States, Mr. Herring enlisted as a private soldier in
one of the first volunteer companies organized in
Texas for Confederate service, and was soon after
promoted to the rank of Captain. He served three
years and nine months in the field, in the Trans-
Mississippi department. He acted as Major and
Lieutenant-Colonel of his regiment the latter two
years of the war, and a part of that time was in com-
mand. The contest for his rank, on appeal from
Gen. E. Kirby Smith, was pending at Eichmond,
Va., when the war ended.
At the close of the war he returned to Waco and
again resumed the practice of his profession, which
he has continued since with eminent success, his
practice extending to all parts of the State. He
has especially distinguished himself in land litigation
and as a criminal lawyer.
Mr. Herring possesses great energy, perseverance
and will-power, and it might be said that when he
has an important case he never sleeps. As an
advocate he is able, earnest and convincing. His
language is easy, chaste and winning.
Iq private life he is kind-hearted and benevolent.
He is one of the brightest ornaments that adorn his
profession in this State, and there are few cases of
any importance tried in his section in which he is
not retained as leading counsel.
352
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
DANIEL LANDES,
GALVESTON,
Daniel Landes was born in Botetourt County,
Va., July 4th, 1804, and was reared in Muhlen-
berg County, Ky., whither his parents moved and
settled early in the present century. He subse-
quently settled in Trigg County in that State,
where he married Adeline H. Thompson and en-
gaged in the mercantile business at the little town
of Cadiz. Later he turned his attention to farm-
ing, became sheriff of Trigg County, represented
that county in the Legislature and finally, in 1851,
to better his condition, sold out and came to
Texas. He was accompanied to this State by one
of his old neighbors, named Batteau, both settling
in Washington County. The caravan in which
they came was made up of their families and slaves
.and wagons loaded with a considerable part of
their household effects.
The route followed was the usual line of travel,
extending through Western Kentucky, Southeast
Missouri, and Central and Western Arkansas ; strik-
ing Texas not far from the present city of Texar-
kana. The time occupied in making the journey
was forty-eight days. Mr. Landes settled on a
farm between Chappell Hill and Brenham, where he
soon took a prominent place in the community and
engaged successfully in agricultural pursuits.
Having been active in public matters in Kentucky,
he at once interested himself in such matters in
his new home. He signed the first call ever made
for a meeting of the people to take action in the
matter of building a railroad in Texas, this move-
ment orignating in Washington County and finally
leading to the building of the Houston and Texas
Central Railroad. He was identifled with the move-
ment in its earlier stages, advocated and worked for
the success of the enterprise and was chairman of
the general convention which met at Houston and
took the first decisive steps toward the construction
of the road. In this connection it may be remarked
that the Houston and Texas Central Railroad was
originally chartered by act of the Legislature at its
second session after annexation, March 11th, 1848,
under the name of the Galveston and Red River
Railroad ; but it was not until 1853 that the build-
ing of the road actually began. The intention, at
first, was to begin at Galveston and build north-
ward to the settlements on Red river : but a
number of enterprising gentlemen, of whom Mr.
Landes was one, conceived the idea of deflecting
the road from its northward course and construct-
ing it westward through the then rich and populous
county of Washington, hence the railroad move-
ment just referred to and the convention at Hous-
ton over which he was called to preside. As the
presiding officer of that convention Col. Landes
gave the casting vote, whereby the town of Houston
was made the initial point, instead of Galveston,
his reason for this action being that since Houston
was at the head of tidewater on Buffalo bayou, it
could be easily reached with vessels of light draft,
and the proprietors of the road would thus be
saved the cost of constructing and operating fifty
miles of road — a considerable item in the then
primitive condition of railway development in
Texas. The building of the road was begun at
-Houston in 1853, the name being changed from
the Galveston and Red River Railroad to the
Houston & Texas Central by act of the Legislature
September 1st, 1866.
At the opening of the late war Mr. Landes mani-
fested great interest in the secession movement and
advocated and believed thoroughly in it ; but, being
past the age for military duty, was never under
arms. As was the case with many of his neigh-
bors, he lost nearly all of his possessions by the
war, including his slaves, after which he practically
retired from all active pursuits, and spent the
remainder of his life among his children. He con-
tinued, however, to take an active interest in politics
and attended almost every Democratic Convention
which met in Austin County for the next twenty-
five years, he having moved across the line from
Washington to Austin County in 1858. He was
also a delegate to many Congressional and State
Conventions, and was once a delegate to a National
Convention, that of the Southern wing of the
Democratic party which met at Charleston, S.
C, in 1860, and adjourned to Baltimore, Md.,
where Breckenridge and Lane were nominated as
secession candidates for the presidency and vice-
presidency. The last State Convention which Mr.
Landes attended was that of 1886, which met at
Galveston. He was present in the interest of his
old friend. Col. D. C. Giddings, of Brenham, who
was defeated for the nomination for Governor by
Gen. L. S. Ross.
Mr. Landes was a life-long Democrat, and never
belonged to any organization, secular or religious,
cJiO/yuni <iA- Kfui^xM^
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
353
other than that party. Hi3 religion was that of
the nineteenth century: an abiding faith in the
principles of morality. He was a man of good
general information. He had enjoyed very limited
educational advantages in his younger days, but
possessed a well developed faculty of observation
and a retentive memory, and was a good talker, and
thus made an agreeable companion, and a ready
and forcible speaker on public occasion. He
always delighted to associate with his kind, and this
disposition led to his ever keeping himself in touch
with the progress of things around him and to his
preserving an even temper to a serene old age. He
died June 16th, 1893, and was buried at Bell-
ville, in Austin County, where he had previously
purchased ground and made suitable preparation
for his last-resting place. His widow still sur-
vives him, being now in her eighty-second year.
She makes her home with her son, Henry A.
Landes, at Galveston. Mr. Landes had three sons
and one daughter ; Charles : who, went from Ken-
tucky to Louisiana and died there at about the age
of twenty -five ; S. Kate, now Mrs. J. E. Wallis, of
Galveston; James E., residing now in Austin
County, this State; and Henry A., of Galves-
ton.
H. A. LANDES,
GALVESTON.
Henry A. Landes, a representative business man
of Galveston, son of Daniel Landes, an old Texian
whose biography appears elsewhere in this work,
was born in Trigg County, Ky., on the 3d day of
June, 1844. He was reared mainly in Washington
County, Texas, where his parents settled in 1851,
receiving his education at Soule University, at
Chappel Hill, in that county. At the age of seven-
teen he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in
a Company commanded by Capt. John C. Wallis,
Ellmore's Regiment, Twentieth Texas Infantry, with
which he served on Galveston Island and in that
vicinity during the entire period of the war. He
participated in the battle of Galveston ; but, with
the exception of this engagement, saw very little
active service. He was Orderly Sergeant of his
company at the time of the surrender. After the
war Mr. Landes went to Austin County, but in the
fall of 1865 was induced by his old friend and com-
rade Capt. John C. Wallis, to join him and his
brother, Joseph E. Wallis, and engage in the mer-
cantile business at Galveston. The house of Wal-
lis, Landes & Co., was established that year, and
from the start took rank among the foremost mer-
cantile concerns in the city. On May 9th, 1872,
Mr. John C. Wallis died, after which his interest
was withdrawn, but the business was continued
under the original name. The members of the
firm now are Joseph E. Wallis, Henry A. Landes
and Charles L. Wallis. The house is financially
one of the strongest business firms in Texas and
has for the past thirty years been identified with
23
the commercial growth of Galveston. It is known
to be a most liberal supporter of all public enter-
prises and its members give their personal aid to
every movement which in their judgment will tend
to stimulate industry or to promote the public good.
As a member of the firm and as an individual Mr.
Landes has been among the foremost in rendering
such aid. He was one of the organizers of the
Island City Real Estate and Homestead Associa-
tion which was set on foot in 1867 and was one of
the first associations of the kind in the State, being
succeeded by the present Island City Savings Bank.
He was one of the originators of the Gulf Loan and
Homestead Company of which he was a director
and vice-president, an association which had a
prosperous career of twenty years ; and he is now
a director in the People's Loan and Homestead
Company, and in the Galveston Improvement and
Loan Company, and is vice-president of the Gal-
veston National Bank. He has been a member of
the Board of Education of the Galveston public
schools for the past eight years, but has never
filled any political office, having confined himself
strictly to business pursuits.
In 1872, Mr. Landes married Miss Mary Eliza-
beth Lockhart, a native of Washington County,
Texas, and a daughter of Dr. John W. Lockhart,
an old settler of Washington Countj', now resident
in Galveston. The issue of this union has been a
daughter, Elmina, now Mrs. E. A. Hawkins, and
two sons, Daniel and Browning.
354
mOIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
SAMUEL L. ALLEN,
HOUSTON.
Samuel Louis, second son of Roland and Sarah
(Chapman) Allen was born in 1808, in the village
of Canasareaugh, Madison County, N. Y. He has
done much for Texas and the city in which he lives
and no man in Houston is more highly respected
and honored by his fellow-citizens. He has labored
through many years, during the progress of which he
has overcome many vicissitudes and has made of his
life a successful one in the broadest and truest sense
of the word. It is to be supposed that in such along
career he met with trials and reverses and had his
periods of despondency and doubt. " Who," as a
wise philosopher has said, "that has lived long
enough in the world to know ' that man is born to
trouble as the sparks to fly upward,' but has- felt a
sinking of spirit and prostration of energy, bodily
and mentally, before he has become acclimated, as
it were, to new and trying circumstances in which
Grod in His providence has placed him from time to
time? — When the strong can no longer boast of
their strength, nor the wise of their wisdom."
Such periods as these, however, were few and
far between with him and were scarcely more than
of momentary duration. Of a strong and clear in-
tellectuality and an enterprising, courageous and in-
domitable spirit, he rose to the necessities of each
emergency and by sheer force of resolution trampled
difficulties under foot and carried his plans into
final and successful execution.
An iucident that occurred when he was three
years of age would seem to have indicated that he
was born to accomplish a mission of usefulness in
the world. The circumstances that attended it are
yet indelibly impressed upon the tablets of his mem-
ory. An older boy, an apprentice to a tanner and
currier of the village, took him to a pasture in the
environments of the place and told him to remain
near the fence while he (the apprentice) went in
search of some horses his master had ordered Lira to
drive in and promised that when these were procured
they would have anice ride back to town. Thereupon
the thoughtless apprentice left the little fellow and
galloped off. An apple tree loaded with fruit was
near at hand. It forked close to the ground and
Sam had little trouble in climbing high enough
among the limbs to reach an apple. The field
belonged to John Denny, an educated Indian,
partly of white descent, a lawyer by profession,
and an excellent citizen. His residence was sit-
uated on a hillside and commanded a view of the
pasture. His wife was a woman of ungovernable
temper and the vindictive and cruel nature of an
untamed savage, espied the child in the apple tree
and ran to the pasture, jerked him to the ground,
and with a blow knocked his teeth out, and then,
insane with fury, gathered stones with which she
continued to beat him until life had apparently left
his body. Then, fearing the consequences that
would accrue to her from the inhuman deed, she
laid the body in a fence-corner, hoping that some-
one would discover it. She then made her way
back to her dwelling unobserved. These events
occurred in the forenoon. She returned to the
field at sundown, and further investigation con-
vinced her that the child was really dead, she
hastened to the village and reported that she had
found a dead child in her field and that tbe indica-
tions were that it had been kicked and trampled to
death by horses. No one suspected her guilt, and
the body was brought to the home of the parents,
where it was found that the spark of life yet
lingered in the mangled form. Medical skill and
careful nursing finally restored consciousness, and
then the little fellow told, with circumstantial
detail, all that had transpired. His parents and
the people of the village were horror-stricken at
the recital, deeply incensed and determined to have
fitting punishment inflicted upon the woman.
John Denny had been assiduous in his attentions
from the day the child had been brought home.
He was no less shocked by the disclosure than his
neighbors and told them that the woman was in
their hands to whip, torture, hang, or do with as
they pleased, and continued to devote himself to
the child, nursing him, amusing him and bringing
him every little gift in his posver. His great kind-
ness to the boy and regard for the occurrence,
finally mollified the parents and community, and
out of regard for him nothing was done to the
woman.
Samuel was finally restored to health and at
twelve years of age was a fine, robust, manly boy.
At this age he was sent to school for three months
but was then taken home and put to work by his
parents, who were in straitened circumstances
had a large family to rear and educate and had
come to the conclusion that they could keep onlv
one of their children, the oldest, A. C. Allen at
'«!t
X
**
^
k
^^■^zsPub Co.C'h^'^°-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
355
school at the time. This finally mortified Samuel
and, after brooding over the matter, he told his par-
ents that he was determined to go out into the world
and try to make his own way in it, and asked his
mother to give him money to start with. In reply
he was told by her to go to his father. This he
did and his father said to him: " My son, go out
among my customers and collect the money you
need." This did not suit the young man, as he
knew from experience that the chances for raising
funds in the way proposed were very slim and that
the only probable result of following his father's
advice would be to delay his departure. Resolving
therefore to set off at once, he returned to his
mother and asked her for his clothes. These she
brought to him tied in a small bundle, and handed
them to him together with several loaves of bread,
saying: "Here, Sam, these will last you some
time." He remained firm, however, refused the
bread and taking a change of clothing, bade the
family good-bye and walked out of the house and
down the road. After proceeding some distance,
he came to a halt not knowing which way to bend
his steps, as he had no idea what to do or where to
go. After reflecting for a few minutes, he picked
up a stick and tossed it into the air, resolved to
journey in whatever direction it might point
on falling to the ground. It pointed toward
Syracuse and he made his way to that place.
Upon his arrival there he went to the . canal and
took passage on a boat bound for Lockport. He
had no money with which to pay his passage, but
had a vague idea that he could be of some assist-
ance in running the boat, and settle the score in
that way before reaching his destination. With
this hope he staid near the steersman and asked to
be allowed to steer the vessel, a request that was
granted by the man, who proved to be a good-
natured fellow and seemed to take pleasure in
showing him, and at the end of the first day he
could manage the boat as well as his instructor. At
Rochester the steersman stopped off and the
youngster applied for and was given the place at a
salary of $14 per month. He filled the position
for six months, during which time he practiced the
most rigid economy and then, longing to see the
dear ones at home, he dressed himself in a hand-
some new suit and returned to the old homestead
with his pockets well filled with silver dollars.
His parents had not heard from him since the day
of his departure, and upon again beholding him
folded him to their bosoms and wept for joy.
Shortly thereafter the family moved to Chittenango,
New York, where his father established a trip-
hammer business in which he employed a large
number of workmen. Samuel followed these men
in their labors and soon learned to make all man-
ner of edged tools, blacksmith's vises and screw-
plates. At the age of twenty he went to
Baldwinsville, N. Y., where he borrowed money,
erected two handsome granite-trimmed, three-story
brick business houses, purchased a large stock of
goods and engaged in merchandising with William
R. Baker as his clerk. He carried on the business
for two years and then sold the goods and turned
over the buildings to pay the money used in their
construction. His brothers had been back from
Texas several times and had given such glowing
accounts of the country that he decided to try his
future there. In due time he accordingly started
for Texas in company with Mrs. Charlotte M. Allen,
wife of his brother Augustus C. Allen (who was then
living at San Augustine, Texas), and Mr. Kelly, a
friend of the family, and traveled by boat down the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers and up Red river to
Natchitoches and from that point to San Augus-
tine on horses purchased by him. The party
reached Natchitoches on the fourth of July and
were regaled by a sumptuous dinner prepared in
honor of the occasion by the patriotic proprietor of
the hotel at which they stopped. The vegetables
served were large and fresh and the fruits and
melons so delicious and so far superior to any
grown in their home in New York, that they thought :
' ' Verily, we have reached a paradise in this Southern
clime." The desserts and wines were also excellent.
Many patriotic toasts were proposed, responded to
and drunk in flowing bumpers of champagne by the
guests seated around the festal board. The stay
of the party in Natchitoches was much enjoyed and
long pleasantly remembered. The first day's ride
from Natchitoches brought the travelers to Gaines'
ferry on the Sabine river and the next to San
Augustine. The two brothers soon moved to
Natchitoches, where the subject of this memoir re-
mained until September and then returned to New
York to wind up certain business matters prepara-
tory to establishing himself in Texas. He also de-
sired to settle a little affair of the heart which was
causing him some anxiety at the time. Business
matters disposed of, he called upon his sweetheart
and had an interview that resulted in terminating
their courtship.
She accepted him and promised to become his
wife upon the condition that he would forego his
intention of locating in Texas and agree to live in
New York. This he would not do. He thought,
as a majority of men would have thought, that if
she loved him truly she would go wherever it was
to his interest to go, even if that were to the ends
356
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
of the earth. They differed upon this point, parted
and never met again. He found Houston on his
'return to Texas the most promising and growing
city in the infant Kepublic, although Galveston,
where his brother, Augusta C. Allen, had established
a business house, was even then (in 1838) a con-
siderable town and good business point. After
visiting Houston he went down on Galveston Bay
to where his father and mother had established
themselves, and engaged in stock raising. When
Gen. WoU entered Texas with a strong Mexican
force the subject of this memoir mounted many
Texian volunteers who were hurrying toward San
Antonio to resist the invaders, freely giving to
them all his .broken horses. In attempting to
break a very fine horse for himself upon which to
ride to the front, he was thrown and sustained such
serious injuries that he was incapacitated for many
months from pursuing any active employment. In
1839 the first yellow fever epidemic that visited the
Republic made its way to Houston and among those
who died were eighteen out of a party of twenty
men from Connecticut who had put up a fine saw-
mill at that place. The survivors were anxious to
sell in order to secure funds with which to leave
the country and Mr. Allen bought the plant. He
gave employment at high wages to all persons who
sought work. This was a blessing to many, as
there were a large number of idle men in the
country, mostly soldiers who had served in the
Texian army. The mill was also a great advantage
to the community and settlers far and near, as it en-
abled them to procure lumber for building purposes.
Being the only one of six brothers who is now
living he is often spoken of as the founder of the
city of Houston. In truth, his brothers Augustus
C. and John K. Allen, who were partners in busi-
ness, ypere the founders of that promising metrop-
olis. He, however, was an important factor in
the upbuilding of the place, doing as much, or
more, perhaps, than any other cf its earlier inhabi-
tants to advance its prosperity. While the two
brothers named donated the ground upon which
to build the first Presbyterian church he gave
every foot of the lumber used in its construc-
tion. It was quite as large an edifice as
the handsome brick structure that now occupies
its former site. He opened the first for-
warding and commission house established in
Houston and associated T. M. Bagby with him in
the business. They did an immense business, ex-
tending to every part of Texas. In 1845 Mr.
Allen went to Corpus Christi as sutler in Col.
Twiggs' regiment. Maj. Carr, who had retired
from the army, was his partner. They made a
great deal of money, the sutler's stores that they
handled being in great demand, as they purchased
and kept in stock everything wanted by the oflScers
and men. This promising venture, however, was
brought to an end by a fatal epidemic that made its
appearance in camp, to which many succumbed.
Mr. Allen was stricken down and his life despaired
of. He made money fast, it is true, and if he sur-
vived and remained with the army had every reason
to expect further gains ; but, tossing on a sick bed,
his whole thoughts centered upon getting back to
Houston where he could die ameng friends. He
managed to make his way back to that city, where he
lingered long at death's door but finally recovered.
Upon his restoration to health, he found that all of
his earnings as sutler had been consumed in meet-
ing necessary expenses. As soon as he had suf-
ficiently recuperated, he purchased a stock of goods
and loaded them on wagons, which he started for
the town of New Braunfels. Following on behind
in a few days, he made inquiries along the road but
could hear nothing of the wagons. Nor, upon
arriving at his destination, could he hear anything.
Perplexed and annoyed, he went to La Grange and
there found them intact, all loaded as when they
started. The teamsters had stopped en route to
work out their crops. When the goods reached New
Braunfels he met with little difiiculty in selling
them, but was compelled to receive in return money
issued by the company that had established the
colony. It was the only medium of exchange in
use, was of various denominations and known in
the vernacular of the country as " shin -plasters."
Whenever he secured as much as $50 of this cur-
rency, he would take it to the proper officers
of the company, and be given a check on a New
Orleans bank in exchange for it. He finally
closed out the remainder of his merchandise for a
large lot of gentle, well-broken oxen, which he
sold, receiving in return "shin-plasters" and later
checks on New Orleans. These checks were not
paid on presentation at the New Orleans bank, and
went to protest. He thereupon entered suit in the
courts at San Antonio and secured judgment
against the company. Not knowing what course to
pursue to realize anything from the judgments, he
consulted Col. Fisher of the Fisher and Miller col-
ony, who told him to take stock in the New Braun-
fels company in satisfaction of the judgment, as the
stock was already paying an annual dividend of
five per cent and would become more valuable with
the further settlement of the country. He followed
this well-meant advice and has the stock yet. It is
not worth the paper it is written upon, although
that is now yellowed by age.
A. C. ALLEN, JR.
A. C. ALLEN.
CHAKLOTTE M. ALLEN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
357
Samuel L. Allen was married late in life, being
considerably above fifty years of . age. He
was united in marriage to Miss Margaret E.
Caftrey, of Yazoo County, Miss., daughter of
Margaret P. and her husband, Thomas T. Caf-
frey.
Mr. Allen resided in Houston until his death,
which occurred in his eighty-seventh year. He left
an only child, a son, named Augustus C. Allen in
honor of Mr. Allen's deceased brother, one of the
founders of the city of Houston. His son is a
practicing attorney of learning and ability, and
occupies an enviable position at the bar in that city
and his section of the State.
AUGUSTUS C. ALLEN,
HOUSTON.
Benjamin Chapman settled at Saratoga, N. Y.,
when the Revolutionary War ended. He was com-
missioned Captain of a company by Governor Clin-
ton of New York, and fought for the independence
of the American colonies from the inception of the
struggle in 1776 to its close in 1783. He and his
devoted wife, who during the absence of her hus-
band in the army performed several deeds of
heroism (as did many of the women of that trying
period) went industriously to work to repair their
broken fortunes, neither daunted or depressed,
although they were comparatively homeless, their
commodious residence, situated on a high and con-
spicuous point, having been burned by a detach-
ment of British troops as a signal to other forces
with which they were co-operating. Despite the
privations and dangers they had encountered and
the financial losses that they sustained, Mr. Chap-
man and his wife were happy at the return of white-
winged peace to the long distracted land — happy
in each other's love, happy because of the freedom
gained by their country and the fact that they had
helped to gain it, and happy in their children, sev-
eral of whom were sons (all of whom were after-
wards successful in life) and two daughters, the
youngest of whom, Sarah, was wooed and won by
Boland Allen.
He and his fair young bride made their first home
in the village of Canasareangh, N. Y., and where he
bought an Indian clearing consisting of a consider-
able tract of ground on which was situated a sub-
stantial five or six-room log-house surrounded by
several acres in cultivation. Here, in 1806, their
first child, Augustus C. Allen, was born. He was
so delicate that they had faint hope of raising him
to manhood. The atmosphere in his room was kept
at an even temperature night and day and every
means that parental affection could suggest was
employed to tide him over the critical point
of infancy. As other and sturdier boys grew
up about them they were assigned such labors
and duties as came within their strength,
but the first born was kept at school until
he graduated at the Polytechnic in the village of
Chittenango, N. Y., at that time the famous school
of the section. The adjacent villages of Canasa-
reaugh and Chittenango, both bearing Indian names,
were about fifteen miles distant from the important
town of Syracuse in the same State. After gradu-
ating, Augustus C. Allen became a professor of
mathematics in the Polytechnic School at Chitten-
ango ; but finally decided to seek a wider field and
accepted a position in the city of New York as
bookkeeper for H. & H. Canfield, soon thereafter
with his brother, J. K. Allen, purchased an interest
in the business, which was thenceforward conducted
under the firm name of H. & H. Canfield & Co.,
and feeling that he could, make suitable provision
for a wife, went to Baldwinsville, N. Y. , to claim,
and was there wedded to his promised bride, the
accomplished Miss Charlotte M. Baldwin, daughter
of J. C. Baldwin, founder of the town, one of the
most beautiful and brilliant women in the State.
Dr. Baldwin was a well-known physician and finan-
cier (owning lumber and fiour mills and other im-
portant business interests). Quick to plan and
quick to execute, after deciding to build the town
that bears his name, he erected in one day twenty
houses (stores, workshops and houses for his lab-
orers) upon the site selected. The town is situated
thirteen miles from Syracuse. The first mayor of
the latter municipality was a son of Dr. Baldwin.
The Doctor lived to see Baldwinsville become quite
a flourishing place. After his marriage, Augustus
C. Allen and his brother continued their commer-
cial connection in New York City for about two
358
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
years and then withdrew from the firm, having de-
cided upon new ventures that they had planned to
undertake in Texas. They went first to San Augus-
tine and then to Nacogdoches and employed their
capital in the purchase of land certificates at $100
per league. Older settlers laughed at them and
said, with many a wiseacre wink, that they were
green from the States. "When the elder brother,
however, went to Natchez, Miss., and sold one of
the leagues for $5,000, the " o'er wise " failed to
see anything to laugh at and themselves commenced
the purchase of certificates. The Allen brothers
came to Texas in 1832. They remained several
years in Nacogdoches, studying the country and its
people, needs and possibilities.
In 1836 John K. Allen, who was then at Colum-
bia serving as a member in the Texian Congress,
received a letter from his brother recommending
the establishment of a town on the John-Austin
half-league, recently purchased from Mrs. Parrott,
sister of Stephen F. Austin, by the brothers. Occu-
pied with his legislative duties he did not give
proper weight to the arguments advanced in favor
of the enterprise and in reply expressed himself as
opposed to the undertaking. He, however, as soon
as his official duties permitted, joined his brother
and went out to view the site selected, a point
where White Oak bayou debouches into Buffalo
bayou and to which tide-water extends. ' He was
delighted with the location and upon learning that
his brother had, in a small boat, taken soundings
down stream and had discovered that there was
sufficient depth of water to float vessels of heavy
draft, withdrew the objections that he had advanced
and entered heartily into the work of building the
proposed town, the present city of Houston. This
agreement having been reached, Augustus C. Allen
mapped out on the crown of his stove-pipe hat
(and later upon paper) streets, squares, etc., and
then with a knife that he wore in his girdle, blazed
out the pathway of Main street, where to-day stir-
ring throngs of men and women, citizens and
visitors, are hurrying to and fro to obey the calls
of business or pleasure.
The two brothers named the town in honor of
their personal friend, Gen. Sam Houston, the hero
of San Jacinto. They donated a block for a city
market, a block upon which to erect a court-house,
half a block for the First Presbyterian church, half
a block for a First Methodist church and also
grounds for Episcopal and Baptist churches.
Academy square for educational purposes ; grounds
for a jail and for cemeteries and lots and blocks to
a number of private individuals, thereby securing
the co-operation of prominent and influential people.
They also gave valuable property to Robert Wilson
as a recognition of the services rendered by him in
negotiating for them the purchase of the site from
Mrs. Parrott. A part of this property, a block of
ground in the fifth ward, is still owned by his son,
J. T. D. Wilson. To further push the enterprise
they made a liberal use of printer's ink.
As soon as the town was well started and gave
promise of future growth, John K. Allen addressed
a letter to Congress in which he set forth the advanta-
ges of the young town as a place at which to estab-
lish the seat of government and promised that, if it
was made the capital, he would erect at his own
expense suitable buildings for a State house, depart-
ments offices, the preservation of archives, etc. ;
and hotels and lodging houses for the accommoda-
tion of members of Congress, all of which he would
rent upon reasonable terms and iov any desired
length of time. It is a matter of familiar history
that these overtures were successful and that Hous-
ton became the capital of the Republic and so re-
mained until the rapid settlement of the country
necessitated a more central location and Austin was
selected.
In the early days of Houston, when accommoda-
tions were difficult to procure, the Allen brothers
provided in their comfortable home, without
money and without price, for all who sought their
hospitality. Provisions of all kinds then sold at
fabulous prices in Texas owing to the distance of
the country from sources of supply and want of
transportation facilities ; yet with lavish hospitality
they entertained friends and strangers. W. R.
Baker, who kept their books, said that sometimes
their expenses averaged $30,000 a year and that
Mrs. A. C. Allen did the honors of the house with
queenly grace and courtesy. Their dinings and
other social gatherings were graced by many dis-
tinguished and heroic Texians as well as eminent
strangers from abroad. Many elegant and beauti-
ful ladies also lent the charm of their presence.
The Aliens enjoyed in the highest degree the exercise
of these social offices, which helped to render liv-
ing in Texas, their chosen home, pleasant to others.
The first day of August, 1838, the energetic busi-
ness man and legislator, John K. Allen, came to an
untimely end, being cut off in the midst of his use-
fulness at the early age of twenty-eight years. He
died suddenly of congestion. He was deeply
lamented by all his brothers. As he had never
married, his property vested in his parents, Mr.
Roland and Mrs. Sarah (Chapman) Allen. He
had been so active as a coadjutor, so strong to lean
upon and such a constant companion for so many
years that the loss fell more heavily upon the elde
4
JOHN K. ALLEN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
359
brother, Augustus C. Allen, than upon the others,
although they too were deeply affected.
Always delicate, Augustus C. Allen's constitu-
tion now became undermined and he determined to
seek surcease of sorrow and restoration to health
amid new and strange scenes in a foreign land.
Accordingly, leaving his family well provided for,
he journeyed into Mexico, where his active mind
found exercise in business ventures no less success-
ful than those in which he had previously engaged.
Before following him to Mexico, we will refer, in
passing, to the invasion of Texas by Gen. Woll, who
entered the Republic with the avowed intention of
reducing it to subjection. The whole country was
alarmed and patriots hastily armed and hurried to
the front, Augustus C. Allen and three brothers
being among the first to volunteer. At the begin-
ning of the campaign he attached himself to Capt.
Nicholas Dawson's company. Shortly thereafter,
however, he and a man named Lindsey became
dissatisfied with what they considered the injudi-
cious course that Dawson appeared resolved to
follow, and told him that he should seek to effect
a juncture with other Texian troops before meeting '
and attacking the force under Woll, provided as it
was with artillery. Upon Dawson flatly refusing
to be guided by this advice, they left the company,
and by doing so they saved their lives. They at
once joined other commands, under Caldwell or
Hays, and did their full share of fighting, and did
not return to Houston until Woll recrossed the Rio
Grande into Mexico never to return. On leaving
Texas, Augustus C. Allen went first to British Hon-
duras, where he remained six months, and then
loaded his goods on a vessel and shipped them to
the Isthmus of Tehauntepec, where for a season he
stayed his wandering steps. In four months' time
he had acquired a sufficient knowledge of Spanish
to transact all his business and keep his books in
that language ; established a mercantile house and
employed wood choppers to cut mahogany in the
forests. In addition he shipped goods to all parts
of the isthmus on pack-mules and on the backs of
natives, paying his native employees in goods which
they were eager to procure. Doing a very heavy
business, he took an Englishman, Mr. Welsh, in as a
partner. They entered extensively into the mahog-
any trade, bought vessels and shipped many car-
goes of the valuable wood to Europe. Mr. Allen
was United States Consul for the isthmus during
his stay. He and the Mexican President, Juarez,
were personal friends, and he could at all times
secure infiuence and concessions from that ruler.
Finally his health again failed and, realizing his
condition, he recognized that the inevitable was
near at hand. He closed out his business affairs
and went to Washington, D. C, to surrender the
consulship he was no longer physically able to fill.
This was in 1864. When he arrived in Washington
the weather was severely cold. Tne sudden change
from an extreme southern climate to one so much
further north affected his lungs (always weak) and
he was stricken down with pneumonia and died
after a few days of intense suffering. Kind friends
from New York City were with him during his last
illness until he breathed his last. " Life's fitful
fever" over, at last the suffering body found
repose. He lies entombed in Greenwood cemetery
on Long Island in the loved soil of his native
State. The sighing winds from the sea sweep
over and birds sing in the branches of the trees
that grow about his grave.
ROBERT M. HENDERSON,
SULPHUR SPRINGS.
Hon. Robert M. Henderson, of Sulphur Springs,
one of the best known public men in the State and
a man who has always commanded a large political
and personal following, was born in Huntington,
Tenn., February 18, 1842, and educated in the
common schools of Tennessee and Texas.
His parents were Dr. A. A. and Mrs. Agnes P.
(Murray) Henderson, both Tennesseeans by birth,
who came to Texas in 1856 and settled at Paris.
Mrs. Henderson died September 20, 1866, in Lamar
County, and is buried there. Her husband died in
November, 1873, at Sulphur Springs, in Hopkins
County, Texas.
The subject of this memoir entered the Confed-
erate army in 1861, before reaching his majority,
as a private soldier in Company A. , Ninth Texas
Infantry, and served throughout the war, during
which period he rose to the position of Captain, and
360
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Adjutant of Col. (afterwards United State Sena-
tor) S. B. Maxey's Regiment, his promotion being
due to gallant and meritorious service. He served
througii the Mississippi campaign and the hundred
days fighting of the Georgia campaign, when John-
ston and Hood were falling sullenly back toward the
sea, contesting at every step the irresistible advance
of Sherman's army. Among other battles, he partic-
ipated in those at Shiloh, Chickamaugua, Nashville,
and Altoona Mountain. He was wounded severely at
Shiloh, left on the field, captured, and, as soon as he
was sufficiently recovered, sent to Johnson's Island,
where he remained three months, until exchanged,
after which he immediately rejoined his command.
He was also severely wounded at Cartersville, Ga.,
but escaped capture. After the sun of the Confed-
eracy had set to rise no more, he returned to his
home in Texas and engaged in farming for two or
three years, and then commenced the study of law
under his old regimental commander, Gen. Maxey,
at Paris, and in 1870 secured admission to the bar
and entered upon the practice of his profession at
Sulphur Springs, to which place he removed. After
six years, during which time he met with a liberal
measure of success, he retired from the bar to
engage in the private banking business at Sulphur
Springs, in which he continued until 1885, when
he was appointed by President Cleveland Col-
lector of Internal Revenue for the Fourth Dis-
trict of Texas, which position he held until
October, 1889, when the Republicans again assumed
control of the Government and the Republican
President appointed his successor on purely parti-
san grounds. Since that time. Col. Henderson has
been engaged in the real estate and insurance
business. Col. Henderson has been an active
worker in the organization of the U. C. V. of the
State. In 1894 his friends placed his name before
the people as a candidate for the Democratic nom-
ination for State Comptroller of Public Accounts
and he went into the convention with a following
that seemed to insure his nomination on the first or
second ballot. They claim that his failing to
secure the nomination was due to political chican-
ery and to no want of strength upon his and no
want of loyalty upon their part. He served two
terms as a member of the State Democratic Ex-
ecutive Committee and was for ten years Chairman
of the Democratic Executive Committee of the
Fourth Congressional District. He has always been
a constant and earnest Democrat and has been
looked to as a leader in his section in every con-
test that has occurred for many years past both
there and in the State at large. He is a " Sound
Money " Democrat, and this year (1896) a member
of the State ' ' Sound Money" Executive Committee.
December 9th, 1873, he was married to Miss
Virginia C. , daughter of Dr. H. H. Beck, of Sul-
phur Springs. They have five children, viz: Mur-
ray Maxey, aged twenty-one years ; Mary Agnes,
aged eighteen years ; Robert Beck, aged fifteen
years ; Thomas Louis, aged twelve years, and
Ralph Maurice, aged ten years.
Col. Henderson is a member of the Masonic
fraternity and has been a Knight Templar since
1876.
REV. H. C. HOWARD,
COLUMBUS.
Rev. Horatio C. Howard, the learned and much
beloved Episcopal minister at Columbus, was born
at Bristol, England, October 22, 1823. In 1827,
his parents, John and Matilda I. Howard, moved to
America with their family and established them-
selves in Philadelphia, Pa.
The subject of this notice has resided in Colum-
bus since 1879, and has been thrice married: to
Miss Jane F. Cox, in 1844 ; to Miss Margaret O.
Allen (daughter of the late Rev. Thomas G. Allen,
of Philadelphia), in 1858, and to Miss Sue S. Staf-
ford (daughter of Robert and Martha Stafford, of
Waynesville, Ga.), January 19, 1881, and has
three children, born of his first and second mar-
riages: Alfred R., treasurer and secretary of the
International and Great Northern Railroad ; T. G.
Allen, and Margaret M. Howard. Mr. Howard
has been for many years a member of the Masonic
fraternity, in which he has attained the 32°. He is
an earnest and devout. Christian pastor, and i
beloved by his flock and a wide circle of friends
throughout Texas.
fl/AMjA i//W>l
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
361
WALLER S. BAKER,
WACO.
Hon. Waller S. Baker was born March 30, 1855,
in Lexington, Fayette County, Ky., a son of John
H. and Amanda (Saunders) Baker, came to Texas
with his parents in 1859, and was reared at the
family homestead on Tonk creek, McLennan
County. He was educated at Baylor University, in
the city of Waco, from which he graduated in June,
1875. After leaving the University he immediately
began the study of law in the office of the late
Thomas Harrison and, April 10, 1876, was admitted
to the bar, since which time he has been actively
engaged in the practice of his profession and has
made his way to a distinguished position at the
bar. From the beginning of his career he has
taken a deep interest in public affairs and for
many years past has been one of the most trusted
and capable leaders that the Democratic party can
boast in this State^ but at no time has either sought
or desired public office. He has been sent as a
delegate to nearly every State Convention since
attaining his majority. He was elected Chairman of
the Democratic Executive Committee of his county
in 1884, and was unanimously, and without solici-
tation on his part, nominated to the State Senate
in 1887 and overwhelmingly elected at the polls.
In 1892, at the Lampasas State Convention, he
received the Democratic nomination for elector from
the Seventh Congressional District and January 3,
1893, cast his vote for Cleveland for President and
Stephenson for Vice-President. At the State Con-
vention, which met in the city of Houston, August
16, 1892, to nominate State officers, he was unani-
mously and without opposition elected Chairman of
the State Democratic Executive Committee. This
was at a time when all eyes were turned in search
of a man whose generalship could lead the Demo-
cratic hosts to victory against the combined efforts
of the Populists, Republicans and disgruntled wing
of the Democratic party. He was selected for the
trust. How well he met the great responsibility that
he was called upon to shoulder is attested by the
overwhelming victory won in favor of Hon. James
S. Hogg for Governor. Mr. Baker was married to
Miss Mary M. Mills, January 14, 1886, in Waco,
Texas. She is the daughter of Mrs. Mattie Bonner
Mills and Samuel D. Mills (deceased) of Galveston.
Mr. Baker is one of the most notable figures in
public life in Texas to-day. An excellent lawyer,
genial and affable in social life, he enjoys the confi-
dence and friendship of his fellow-members of the
bar and all who know him personally. A true and
tried popular leader, his name is one that needs but
to be mentioned to send a thrill through a Demo-
cratic assembly.
W. T. ARMISTEAD,
JEFFERSON.
Hon. W. T. Armistead, for many years past a
leading lawyer of East Texas and for several terms
a distinguished member of the Texas Legislature, is
a native of Georgia and was born in that State on
the 25th of October, 1848. He graduated from
the University of Georgia in 1871. In 1864 he
enlisted in the Confederate army as a private,
participated in engagements around Atlanta, was
wounded at the battle of Jonesboro, Ga., and was
made a prisoner at Gerard Aba during the closing
scenes of the war. He had, however, been pro-
moted and commissioned Captain before he was
captured.
Mr. Armistead came to Texas immediately after
his graduation and located atDouglassviile, in Cass
County, Texas, where he taught school. He moved
to Jefferson, Texas, in 1872, and commenced the
practice of law in 1873, which he continued for
many years as a copartner of Honorable D. B. Cul-
berson, under the firm name of Culberson & Arm-
istead. He has since practiced alone.
He has been elected a delegate to every Demo-
cratic State Convention since 1874.
He was elected to the House of Eepresentatives
of the Eighteenth Legislature and was re-elected to
the Nineteenth by an increased majority. He was
362
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
elected Senator to the Twentieth and Twenty-first
legislatures from the Fourth Senatorial District over
Hon. D. S. Hearne, by nearly 5,000 majority. He
was elected to the House of Representatives of the
Twenty- third Legislature from Marion County and
wielded an influence second to that of no other
member of that body. He is a Knight Templar
Mason, a member of the Baptist church, the Legion
of Honor and the Ancient Order of United Work-
men. As a lawyer he has met with uncommon suc-
cess and has won for himself a place in the front
rank of his pi'ofession. To a broad knowledge of
the principles and practice of law, he adds the power
and grace of a finished logical and magnetic orator.
He has done yeoman service for the Democratic
party and should he consent to remain in public life
the people will doubtless confer further honors
upon him.
GEORGE HOBBS,
ALICE.
George Hobbs was born in Derbyshire, England,
January 21, 1841, and came to Texas with his par-
ents (James and Sarah Hobbs) and brothers and
sisters in November, 1852, as a passenger on the
sailing vessel, "Osborne," the voyage from England
to New Orleans requiring seven weeks and from
New Orleans to Corpus Christi one week. The
family were a part of the immigrants introduced
into Nueces County by Capt. H. L. Kinney, and
had contracted for one hundred acres of land near
Corpus Christi, then a village containing only six
houses. Hostile Lipan Indians infested that section
of the State, rendering life and property insecure
outside of the settlements. The head of the
family found the condition of the country so dif-
ferent from what it had been represented to him
that he concluded not to open a farm or stock
ranch, rested a month in Corpus Christi, and then,
with his family, moved to the town of Nueces,
where eight or ten families soon followed. Here he
resided until the time of his death, which occurred
in August, 1868. His wife died of yellow fever in
Corpus Christi in 1854. They left seven children :
Rebecca, who married a Mr. Mitchel in England,
and did not come to America with her parents;
William ; Sarah, now Mrs. Reuben Holbein ;
James, George, Priscilla, now Mrs. Thomas
Beynon, and Miriam, the wife of George Littig,
who died soon after their marriage. All of the
boys joined the Confederate army during the war
between the States and made enviable records as
soldiers. George volunteered as a private in Capt.
Matt Nolan's company, Pyron's regiment, Sibley's
brigade. The companies of Capts. Nolan and
Tobin (detailed for duty on the Rio Grande), were
sent from Laredo to Brownsville and took charge
of the United States posts and arsenals, when the
United States forces evacuated that territory
at the beginning of the war. Later Mr. Hobbs
participated in the famous battle of Galveston,
which resulted in the recapture of that city by the
Confederates, and not long thereafter was a mem-
ber of the " Belle Crew " of volunteers that boarded
and captured at Sabine Pass the " Morning Light,"
a Federal war vessel carrying six guns. After
taking the vessel and finding that she was of too
heavy draft to be brought across the bar into the
harbor, she was left in the charge of a single
private, Eugene Aikin, of Nolan's company. Next
day the United States mailship hove in sight, and,
drawing alongside to discharge and receive mail as
as usual, requested that an officer be sent aboard.
Aikin replied in a ferocious and stentorian voice
that the "Morning Light" had been captured by
the Confederates, ordered imaginary marines to
quarters and imaginary cannoneers to clear the
guns. The captain of the mail steamer lost no time
in putting out to sea under a full head of steam and
left Aikin master of the situation. The day fol-
lowing this humorous incident, worthy to bring a
smile to the physiognomy of grim-visaged war,
the "Morning Light," was burned to prevent her
from being retaken by the Federals. Nolan's com-
pany, of which Mr. Hobbs was a member, was next
ordered to Lake Charles, La., where it was sent to
watch and report upon the movements of Gen.
Banks and did courier, scouting and picket duty for
eight months. It was then ordered back to Texas
for coastguard duty at Cedar Lake and afterwards
at Padre Island, which he performed until the end
of the war. The close of hostilities found Mr. Hobbs,
to use the expressive vernacular of the times, " flat
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GEN. BOONE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
363
broke." December 31, 1867, he was united in
marriage to Miss Margaret Beynon, and shortly
thereafter made his home in Corpus Christi, where
he followed various occupations until he started in
business as a merchant in 1872. In 1875 he moved
to Collins, situated on the line of the Mexican Na-
tional Bailroad, where he continued merchandising
during the following twelve years and was for
eleven years Postmaster. He then moved to
Alice, where he has since resided, and is now a
dealer in general merchandise, carries one of the
largest stocks of goods west of San Antonio and
conducts a large and paying business. He built
the first house in Alice, erected in May, 1888, one
month before the railroad reached the place. He
was one of the men who christened the village
Alice, a name selected in honor of the wife of Mr.
R. J. Kleberg, youngest daughter of the late Capt.
Eichard King, of Nueces County, and has done
much for the upbuilding of the place, which is now
a thriving town of twelve hundred souls. Mr.
Hobbs has four children — Philip, Felix, Rufus
and Nettie. He is a member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South, and Democratic party,
but has never taken an active interest in politics.
In 1872 he joined Lodge, No. 189, A. F. and A. M.,
at Corpus Christi ; and is a faithful member of the
Masonic fraternity. At the time his parents made
their home in Southwest Texas, that part of the
State was almost as far removed from the beaten
tracks of civilization as Central Africa is to-day,
but notwithstandins that fact a few brave and
hardy pioneers settled within the limits, determined
to establish homes, conquer the wilderness and act
as the vanguard of the tide of population that was
to come pouring in in later years. In 1852 the
year the Hobbs family located in Nueces County,
Capt. "Van Buren, of the United States army, was
ambushed and mortally wounded by an arrow
shot from the bow of a Lipan Indian. He was
nursed by the subject of this memoir, then a
boy of eleven years of age, until death relieved
him of his sufferings about a week later. The
hostility of the Indians was unrelenting, but
they were soon taught to fear the vengeance, if
they did not respect the rights, of the settlers.
Mr. Hobbs' childhood, youth and early manhood
were passed amid trials and scenes of danger
that developed the full strength of his character
and gave him that firmness and self-reliance that
has since enabled him to win his way to success in
the face of difficulties that few men would have
found it possible to overcome. His educational
opportunities were restricted but he took full ad-
vantage of such as were within his reach. What
he learned from text-books has since been sup-
planted by the wider knowledge obtained in the
school of experience, extensive reading and asso-
ciation, and he may be justly described as a strong,
well-poised man. He has led a quiet, peaceful
life, and made it a rule to attend strictly to his
own affairs. No man in Nueces County is more
highly respected or generally liked by all who
know him.
H. H. BOONE,
NAVASOTA.
To the iniquitous religious persecutions which pre-
vailed throughout Europe during the greater part
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, America
owes a large proportion of its population. From
this source came not only the " Pilgrim Fathers,"
but the Catholics under Lord Baltimore, the Hugue-
nots and the Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians.
The influence of the last named of these has per-
haps been more far-reaching than that of any of the
others, because the Scotch showed a greater dispo-
sition to migrate, were a hardier and more inde-
pendent people, were better fighters, and were thus
better equipped to withstand the hardships and
vicissitudes of a new country and to solve the
pressing problems of civilization. So it happens
that the terms, "of Scotch" and "Scotch-Irish
origin " are of so frequent occurrence in the
biographical literature of this country.
The subject of this brief notice is of Scotch
ancestry, "old blue-stocking Presbyterians " says
family tradition. Two of his paternal ancestors,
great-grandfathers, Boone and Greene, were oflScers
in the Revolution. His father was Joseph G-reene
Boone and his mother bore the maiden name of
Harriet N. Latham — the former a native of North
Carolina, belonging to the historic Boone family of
364
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
that State, and the latter a native of New York.
Joseph Greene Boone and wife migrated from
North Carolina in 1827 and settled in Tipton
County, West Tennessee, when that was a compara-
tively new country. " Mountain Academy neigh-
borhood," where they settled, was made up mostly
of Presbyterians who had been attracted to that
vicinity by Church ties and were kept there
through the influence of the academy, which had
been founded by a pioneer Presbyterian minister,
the Eev. James Holmes, a graduate of Princeton
College. In that neighborhood H. H. Boone was
born, February 24, 1834. In 1842 his parents
moved to DeSoto County, Miss., where, nine years
later, his mother died, and whence in 1852 his
father, accompanied by his two sons, the subject
of this sketch and an elder brother, came to Texas,
settling in the " old Rock Island neighborhood,"
in what was then Austin, now Waller County.
The boyhood and youth of H. H. Boone were thus
passed in the three States, Tennessee, Mississippi
and, Texas. His education, begun under the Rev.
Mr. Holmes at Mountain Academy, in Tipton
County, Tenn., was continued under the tuitor-
ship of Professor John A. Rousseau (brother of
the Federal general of that name) in Mississippi,
and, after coming to Texas, at Austin College,
Huntsville, under the direction of the Rev. Daniel
Baker, the distinguished Texas pioneer, Presby-
terian minister and teacher. While in Austin Col-
lege he took up the study of law, first under Judge
W. A. Lee, and afterwards under Col. Henderson
Yoakum, the historian, and Judge Royal T.
Wheeler, of the Supreme Court of Texas. The
illness of his father caused him to quit college fo'ur
months before graduation, but not until he had
obtained his license to practice law. For four
years after returning home he gave his attention to
the management of his father's plantation, until
1859, when he began the practice of his profession
at Hempstead.
When the late war came on between the North
and South young Boone, like hundreds of others,
was filled with the war-spirit and at once offered
his services to the Confederacy, enlisting, in Feb-
ruary, 1861, as a private in Col. John S. (" Old
Rip") Ford's regiment, with which he proceeded to
the Rio Grande frontier and participated in the
capture of the Union posts in that vicinity. Not
wishing to do garrison duty he returned home after
the capture of the posts and again enlisted in a
six months' company under Capt. McDade, with
which he was assigned to duty at Dickinson's
Bayou and in the vicinity of Galveston. A short
time before the expiration of his term of enlist-
ment in this command he was detailed as recruiting
oflficer to assist Maj. Edwin Waller in raising a
cavalry battalion. Five companies were recruited
from the lower Brazos country which, after rendez-
vousing at Hempstead, left that place July 4, 1862,
under orders to go to Louisiana. At Vermillion,
La., a sixth company under Capt. Joseph E.
Terrell, from Fort Worth, was added and Waller
then becoming Lieutenant-Colonel, Boone was made
Major. The command was attached to Sibley's
(afterwards Green's) brigade and was in active
service from that lime on along the Louisiana,
Texas and Arkansas border. Maj. Boone was in
all its operations up to September 29, 1863, when
he was wounded in the affair at Fordoche, La.,
losing his right arm and the first two fingers
and thumb of his left hand. By these wounds he
was disabled for further field service. Marrying
Miss Sue H. Gordon, of Washington, St. Lan-
dry's Parish, La., he returned to Texas and
reported to Gen. Magruder, then commanding the
department of Texas, for such duty as he was able
to perform. He was assigned to post duty at dif-
ferent points, and remained in the service till the
surrender.
After the war Maj. Boone removed from Hemp-
stead to Anderson, in Grimes County, where he re-
sumed the practice of the law in partnership with
Hon, I. G. Searcy, and continued in the active prac-
tice of his profession until 1876, when, having been
made the nominee of the Democratic party for
Attorney-General of the State, he accepted the
nomination, was elected and served one term. On
the expiration of his term of office he moved to
Navasota, where he again took up his professional
duties, which he has since followed to the exclusion
of everything else, although a number of times im-
portuned by his friends to again enter the political
arena.
As a lawyer Maj. Boone has achieved consider-
able reputation, and justly so, for he possesses all
of the attributes of a successful practitioner, a clear
legal mind, sensitive conscience and diligent habits.
He has been in the practice now for thirty-odd
years and still he pursues the arduous duties of his
profession with all the enthusiasm of youth. In ac-
cepting cases he is careful, exacting sincerity from
his clients, and in the preparation of causes for
trial he is diligent and faithful, fair in his state-
ments before the jury, courteous to adverse counsel
and circumspect to the court, a logical thinker, able
and earnest speaker. Measured by pecuniary gain
he may be said to have met with success, for by
means of his profession he has accumulated some
property after having reared and made ample edu-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
365
Cational provision for a large family of children.
He is spoken of by those who know him best in
terms of sincere respect, being regarded as a good
citizen, beloved neighbor, earnest, liberal, progres-
sive and charitable without stint. Naturally he has
a warm place in his heart for his old comrades and
he in turn has been the recipient of many marks of
esteem at their hands. He was chiefly instrumental
in organizing the first camp of Confederate veterans
at Navasota, the camp being being named for him but
afterwards changed at his suggestion to "■ CampW.
G. Post" in honor of the memory of one of its de-
ceased members. At the general reunion of the
Confederate Veterans of the United States, of Hous-
ton, in May, 1895, he was elected Commander of
the Division of Texas, which position he is now
filling.
In politics Maj. Boone is a Democrat — " Jeffer-
sonian Democrat" — but not of the variety of
which the public has heard so much in recent years.
His confession of faith excludes all of the sump-
tuary and paternal schemes of legislation which have
recently been paraded under the banner of " Jeffer-
sonian Democracy." He believes in local self-
government and in the fullest measure of personal
freedom consistent with the public good. The ele-
vation of the citizen — opportunity for the highest
possible development of the individual — should, in
his judgment, be the true end of popular govern-
ment, and this is to be attained not by ever-recur-
ring appeals to the law-making bodies of the land
nor by the practice of any form of political fetish-
ism, but by the unwearing exertion of the individual
himself under a government that guarantees to him
but one equality, namely, equality before the law.
He has always held himself in readiness to work for
his party and has done it good service in times past.
Such service, it may be added, has sprung from his
interest in the men and measures of his choice and
not from any expectation of reward. The exacting
duties of a laborious profession and the claims of
family to which he is devoted with rare fidelity long
since shut out any hope he may have entertained of
a public career.
F. R. GRAVES,
KARNES CITY.
Russell Graves, a prominent planter of Lowndes
County, Ala., came to Texas in 1838 with his
family and located near where the town of Hunts-
ville now stands, in what was then Montgomery
(now Walker) County, and three years later re-
turned to Shelby County, where he was (as a
regulator) an active participant in the war waged
for many years between the regulators and the
moderators. Here Frank R. Graves, the subject
of this notice, was born on his father's farm in
1852. He was principally educated in the common
schools of Ellis County, his parents moving to that
county and settling near Red Oak in 1857. His
mother, Mrs. Esther G. Graves, died in 1865 and
in the following year the remaining members of the
family moved to Montgomery County, Ala., and
lived there until 1875, when they came back to
Ellis County, Texas.
Frank R. Graves was united in marriage to Miss
Amanda Ryburn, atWaxahachie, in 1878, and soon
after went to Alvarado, Johnson County, where he
engaged in the hardware business. They have
three children : Davy, Esther and Frank.
In the fall of 1882 Mr. Graves failed in
the hardware business, came to Austin with his
family in 1883 and in September of that year
entered the law department of the State University.
When he reached Austin, he had only sixty-flve
dollars in money, a wife and three children. He
sold books in the afternoons and during vacations
to earn enough to meet expenses and succeeded in
supporting himself and family. He attended the
University eighteen months and was admitted to
the bar at the December Term of the District Court
in 1884. While a member of the senior law class
he was elected County Attorney of Karnes County,
in January, 1885, by the Commissioners' Court of
that county, having been, without his knowledge,
recommended by friends who had learned his worth.
He held the position for four years and made a
reputation that afterward brought him a large and
lucrative practice. He has for many yea's been
upon one side or the other of nearly every impor-
tant case tried in his section of the State.
Mr. Graves was elected to the Twenty-second
Legislature in 1890 from the Eighty-second Repre-
366
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
sentative District, composed of Karnes, Atascosa
and Wilson counties ; served upon a number of
important committees, soon took ranlj in the House
as a man of very superior capacity and made a
record that fully justified the flattering expectations
of his friends. He w»s re-eleoted to the same
position in 1892 and served in the Twenty-fourth
Legislature.
He was a memoer of the Democratic Executive
Committee for 1892 to 1894.
He was one of the founders of the Kansas Re-
porter, the first newspaper published in Karnes
City.
He is and has been since 1890 the senior member
of the law .firm of Graves & Wilson at Helena and
Karnes City.
His son Davy was a popular Page in the Twenty-
third Legislature.
This biography contains the brief outlines of a
life that should cheer every young man who is
struggling against adversity and to whom the way
that leads to success and a competency seems
blocked by insurmountable obstacles. While
fortune is capricious in her gifts, she owes a debt
to such men as Frank R. Graves which she will
never fail in due time to pay.
JOSEPH E. WALLIS.
GALVESTON.
Joseph Edmund Wallis, a member of the well-
known firm of Wallis, Landes & Co., was born
in Morgan County, Ala., in 1835. His parents
were Maj. Joseph and Elizabeth Crockett Wallis,
both connected with some of the most distinguished
families that the South can boast. His father was
a lineal descendant of the famous Sir William Wal-
lace, whose name is indissolubly connected with
the most glorious epoch of Scottish history.
Owing to a family disagreement, an American
ancestor changed his name to Wallis, and it has so
remained in the branch of the family to which the
subject of this memoir belongs. Maj. Joseph
Wallis was for many years a wealthy planter in
Alabama and Mississippi, owning lands in both
States, and for a long time planting in partnership
with Governor Chapman, of Alabama. In the
winter of 1848 he determined to move to Texas.
His eldest son, John C, brought the slaves over-
land, whilst he moved the family by water, only
leaving behind his eldest daughter, Emily, who had
married Joseph Toland, a wealthy planter of
Lowndes County, Miss. He located at Chappell
Hill, Washington County, Texas, and continued
planting. In October, 1849, his second daughter,
Elmina Carolina, was married to Dr. John W.
Lockhart, of Washington County.
When Maj. Wallis removed to Texas his second
son, Joseph Edmund, was thirteen years of age,
and had gone to school but a limited time. In the
fall of 1849 (in Texas), he spent one session at
Professor Ulysses Chapman's school. At the age
of fifteen he spent one year (1850) in merchan-
dising at Chappell Hill, then, selling out, he passed
the two sessions of 1851 and the spring session of
1852 at the Chappell Hill Male College, then in
its prime, thus acquiring a fair education. In the
summer of 1852 he again resumed merchandising
at Chappell Hill, and continued about four years,
being the Postmaster during the time. His father
now wishing to retire from active business, divided
his property among his children. This caused
Joseph Edmund to close out his mercantile business
and turn his attention to planting. When the war
began he had accumulated considerable property,
and was turning out his hundred bales of cotton
annually. On February 12th, 1860, he married
Miss S. Kate Landes, daughter of Col. D. Landes,
of Austin County, Texas, formerly of Kentucky.
His father was particularly noted for his great
industry, energy, perseverance and public spirit,
and was always a leader in public enterprises
wherever he lived; notably in this connection,"he
was the first one in Texas to advocate and start
with Col. D. Landes and Isaac Applewhite, of Wash-
ington County, the construction of the now great
Houston & Texas Central Railway, but was soon
joined by such spirits as Paul Bremond, Harvey
Allen and others of Houston, and later with other
associates, put under construction the Washington
Railroad from Hempstead to Brenham, now the
western branch of the Houston & Texas Central
Railroad. During his residence in the State he was
engaged in many other enterprises, was a leading
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
367
citizen in every respect, and at one time a prominent
candidate for the Legislature, being defeated by
Judge James E. Sheppard by a small majority.
During the secession agitation he indorsed the
opinion of his friend Gen. Sam Houston that
these questions should be settled in the halls of
Congress and at the ballot-box, not on the battle
field, but the conflict once inaugurated, he was
a zealous supporter of the Southern cause, and
cherished a great desire to live and see the result
of the war, but during 1864 his health was
greatly impaired, and after several months of
suffering he died March 15th, 1865, in the 64th
year of his age. Early in the war his two sons
obeyed their country's call and entered the Con-
federate service, John C. as Captain of Company
B., Twentieth Texas Infantry, commanded by Col.
H. M. Elmore, and Joseph E. as a private in the
same company. The regiment did duty on the
coast of Texas and was engaged in the celebrated
battle of Galveston — a sharp and hotly contested
affair and one long to be remembered by both sides.
They both continued in the service until the sur-
render.
Immediately thereafter the brothers John C. and
Joseph E. Wallis, and Henry A. Landes (a
brother-in-law of Joseph E. Wallis) determined
to close out their planting interests in Washington
and Austin counties and form a copartnership
under the style and firm name of Wallis, Landes
& Company, as wholesale grocers at Galveston.
The firm entered vigorously into business and con-
tinued prosperously without any change in its
membership until May 9th, 1872, when John C.
departed this life in the full vigor of manhood.
The firm of Wallis, Landes & Company, after the
death of John C, continued under the same firm
name and style by the two surviving partners, the
interest of the deceased partner having been with-
drawn at the time of his demise, and continues
the same to this date, only increasing the member-
ship of the firm by the admission of Charles L.
Wallis, eldest son of Joseph E. Wallis, in 1882.
At the close of the war the subject of our sketch
moved his family to Galveston. He has now four
living children, viz., Charles L. Wallis, Dan E.
Wallis, Pearl Wallis Knox, and Lockhart H. Wallis.
Mr. Wallis, both in civil and military life, has
discharged every duty devolving upon him as a
citizen in a manner to entitle him to and secure for
him the confidence and esteem of all with whom he
has been brought in contact. In commercial pur-
suits he has been called to fill many places of trust
and honor on boards of directors in the various cor-
porations, banks, etc., of the city. A number of
these he now fiUs. He took an active part in the
building of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Rail-
road, giving to it freely both of his time and money.
He followed it closely in all of its vicissitudes and
was a director of the company from the beginning
until 1886. He was one of the syndicate of sixteen
who rapidly constructed the road after its purchase
from the old company in the spring of 1879. He
was one of the most active and effective of the
workers whose efforts have secured adequate appro-
priations from the Federal government for the deep
water improvements at Galveston. He is an ofllcer
or director of the following corporations, to wit:
One of the five directors of the City Company, the
oldest and wealthiest in the city ; vice-president of
the Texas Guarantee & Trust Co. ; director of the
Galveston & Houston Investment Co. ; vice-presi-
dent of the Galveston & Western Railroad Co. ;
director of the Gulf City Cotton Press Co. ; a mem-
ber of the Cotton Exchange ; stockholder in nearly
all the corporations of the city and many of the
National Banks of this State, and also some cor-
porations of the North, and generally a strong
promoter of the new railroad enterprises.
During all his residence in Galveston he has been
closely identified with all its commercial enterprises,
upon which he believes depends the city's success
in the future. He takes but little interest in politi-
cal affairs. Since the war he has voted the Demo-
cratic ticket, but previous to that time he was a
Whig, but not old enough to cast a vote against his
relative, James K. Polk, when he was elected Presi-
dent of the United States. His hand and purse
are always open to worthy charities, and he gives
cheerfully and liberally of his means to all public
enterprises. Naturally modest and retiring in his
disposition, when not occupied in business he pre-
fers to enjoy the privacy of his comfortable and
beautiful home and the society of his interesting
family. He has never held a membership in any
church, but with his wife is an attendant upon the
Presbyterian and contributes to its support. Their
parents on both sides were Presbyterians in belief
and this is consequently the church of their choice.
Like his early ancestor, the famous Scottish "Wal-
lace of Elerslie," the first of the name of whom
history gives an account, who lived nearly a thou-
sand years ago, he is tall and of slight stature, his
eyes are dark grey and his hair. With a strong
constitution, a firm will, temperate habits, good
health and a cheerful temperament, he bids fair to
be spared for many years of business usefulness
and service to the city where his lot is cast.
368
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
CHARLES L. COYNER,
SAN DIEGO.
Charles Luther Coyner, one of the most brilliant
and successful lawyers in West Texas, and a man
who has acquired some distinction as a newspaper,
literary and political writer of merit, was born in
Augusta County, Va., February 8th, 1853, in the
old stone house built by his grandfather in 1740.
His parents were Addison H. and Elizabeth Coyrfer.
His mother's maiden name was Elizabeth Brown.
Mr. Coyner is descended from Archibald, Duke of
Argyle, and Governor Eoane, who served at dif-
ferent times as Governor of North Carolina and
Tennessee. The family has been traced back as
far as 1620, members of it distinguishing themselves
in the Thirty Years War. Three representatives
(from Virginia) were officers in the Revolutionary
War that severed the American Colonies from Great
Britain, and three in the War of 1812, and in the
war between the States, one company, alone, from
Augusta County, contained twelve Coyners, all
good soldiers. The Coyner family is the most
numerous in the valley of Virginia and especially
in Augusta County, where over seven hundred
members reside and one hundred and forty register
as Democratic voters, — there is not a Readjuster
among them.
Mr. Coyner has a brother who was Captain of
Company D., Seventh Virginia Cavalry, Army of
Northern Virginia, and who was killed in battle
September 13, 1863.
The subject of this notice received his education
in local district schools and at Forest Academy.
He came to Texas in the autumn of 1877, located at
Kaufman, read law under Hon. A. A. Burton, min-
ister at one time from the United States to Chili.
He was admitted to practice in the district and
inferior courts of the State of Kaufman, Texas, in
1877, and in the Supreme Court at Tyler soon
thereafter.
Mr. Coyner now resides at San Diego and was
County Attorney of Duval County from 1886 to
1895, when he resigned to accept the office of
County Judge of that County. He went back to
Augusta County, Virginia, on a visit, and, January
3, 1884, married Margaret, youngest daughter of
Dr. Wm. R. Blair, of that county. Mrs. Coyner is
descended from the family of Blairs, one of whom
founded William and Mary College, Virginia. One
of the family of Blairs was Governor of Virginia in
1768, and another was appointed, by Washington,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States.
Mr. and Mrs. Coyner have no children. Mr.
Coyner was secretary of the Democratic Executive
Committee of Duval County for eight years and
held the chairmanship of that body from 1892 to
1894. He has been a delegate to every Democratic
State Convention held since he made his home in
Texas and has been one of the most active and
effective workers who have secured party success
in his section of the State. He has often been
urged to accept the nomination for and election to
the Legislature," but has in each instance declined,
preferring to devote himself to his large and lucra-
tive law practice and having no desire to accept any
reward, in the way of political preferment, for the
yeoman service which he has willingly and patrioti-
cally rendered in the interest of good government.
He was appointed County Judge of Duval County,
without any effort upon his part, having made no
application for the position. He was appointed
County Judge of Duval County April 17th, 1895,
and now holds that office. He received the unani-
mous vote of the Commissioners' Court, the ap-
pointing power, and resigned the office of County
Attorney. His term expires in the fall of 1896.
One of the highest compliments ever paid Judge
Coyner was the indorsements he received from
Governor Jas. S. Hogg, Hon. Horace Chilton,
ex-Governor Hubbard and others, for appointment
by President Cleveland to the office of Third Audi-
tor of the United States Treasury, an office that he
would have filled with credit to himself and to the
State of Texas. He has made a fortune at the bar
and stands deservedly high in his profession. He
is a member of the Presbyterian Church, Masonic
Fraternity and Independent Order of Odd-Fellows.
While owner of the Athens Journal and part owner
of the Henderson County Narrow Gauge, both
published at Athens, he acquired a State- wide
reputation as a polished, trenchant and able writer,
to which he has since added by contributions to
some of the leading magazines of the country.
'Richard King,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
369
RICHARD KING,
NUECES COUNTY.
Richard King was born in Orange County, N. Y.,
July 10, 1825, and at eight years of age was ap-
prenticed to a jeweler; but, being put to menial
work and unjustly treated, slipped aboard the ship
Desdemonia, bound for Mobile, Ala., and con-
cealed himself in the hold. When tl*e vessel was
four days out, he was discovered and carried
before the captain, who, although a stern and
■weather-beaten old salt, treated him kindly, and
gave him a fatherly lecture, characterized by much
sound and wholesome advice which the boy after-
wards profited by.
At Mobile he was employed as cabin boy by the
celebrated steamboatman, Capt. Hugh Monroe,
and later worked in the same capacity under Capt.
Joe Holland on the Alabama river. Capt. Hol-
land took quite a fancy to him and sent him to
school for eight months in Connecticut. Return-
ing to Mobile, he continued with Capt. Holland
until the commencement of the Seminole "War,
and then enlisted in the service of the United
States, and participated in many of the stirring
events of that campaign. He was on the Ococho-
hee when Col. Worth, afterwards a distinguished
officer in the Mexican War, enticed aboard and
captured Hospotochke and his entire band of
warriors, an event that had much to do with bring-
ing hostilities to a speedy and successful close.
After the Seminole War, he steamboated on the
Chatahoochie river until 1847, and then went to
the Rio Grande,, where he acted as pilot of the
steamer " Corvette," of the Quartermaster's De-
partment of the United States army, until the close
of the Mexican War.
The vessel was commanded by Capt. M. Kenedy,
whom he had previously met, and who remained
through all subsequent vicissitudes and changes
his life-long friend. Peace having been declared
between the United States and Mexico, and the
armies disbanded, Capt. King bought the " Col.
Cross,^' and followed the river until 1850, when he
formed a copartnership with Capt. M. Kenedy,
Capt. James O'Donnell, and Charles Stilliman,
under the firm name of M. Kenedy & Co.
Between that period and the close of the war
between the States, they built, or purchased,
twenty steamers, which they operated to great
profit in the carrying trade on the Rio Grande.
Capt. O'Donnell retiring from the partnership, the
new firm of King, Kenedy & Co., was formed, and
continued the business until 1874.
In the meantime (1852), Capt. King traversed
the coast country lying between the Rio Grande
and the Nueces river and shortly thereafter estab-
lished the since famous Santa Gertrude's ranch, to
which he soon moved his family.
In 1860 Capt. Kenedy acquired an interest in the
property which was augmented by the establish-
ment of other ranches in the course of time. They
did business together until January 1, 1868, when
they divided equally their possessions and dissolved
the copartnership, as they had growing families
and wished to avoid complications that might occur
if either of them should die.
The King ranches, Santa Gertrude's and San
Juan Carricitos, comprise about 700,000 acres,
stocked with over 100,000 head of cattle, four
thousand brood mares and 15,000 saddle horses,
and is supplied with all the accessories known to
modern ranching.
A few years since as many as 35,000 calves were
branded annually.
During the years 1876-80 Capt. King, together
with Capt. Kenedy and Col. Uriah Lott, built the
Corpus Christi, San Diego & Rio Grande (narrow
gauge) Railroad, from Corpus Christi to Laredo.
This was the first railroad built in that part of the
State. This road was sold by them to the Mexican
National R. R. Co., who began building their rail-
way system (now extending to the city of Mexico)
by purchasing this line, which is at present their
terminal in Texas.
Capt. King was taken ill in the early part of
1885 and was told that he had cancer of the
stomach. Eminent physicians were called from
New Orleans and confirmed the statement and told
him that he could live but a short time. He
received the announcement with an equanimity
characteristic of his well-poised and heroic spirit,
and, settling his earthly affairs in order, quietly
waited for the inevitable, which came April 14th of
that year, while he was stopping at the Menger
Hotel, in San Antonio. His wife and all of his
children were present at his bedside except Mrs.
Atwood, who was with her husband in New Mexico
and, owing to sickness, could not come. He was
laid to rest the following day in the cemetery at
San Antonio. Capt. King left all of his property
370
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
to his wife and made her sole executrix without
bond.
Robert J. Kleberg, a lawyer, a trusted confidant
and friend of Capt. King, and thoroughly familiar
with the status of the property, was requested by
Mrs. King to come to Santa Gertrude's Ranch
for consultation, did so, and, at her urgent solici-
tation, became manager of the ranches, although
by so doing he found it necessary to abandon the
active practice of his profession. January 18th
of the following year he was united in marriage to
Miss Alice King, to whom he was engaged during
the lifetime of her father.
At the time of Capt. King's death his estate was
about $500,000 in debt. This debt was incurred
in the purchase of lands and making improve-
ments. There was something to show for every
dollar, yet it had to be met. Mr. Kleberg corre-
sponded with the creditors and they readily agreed
to let Mrs. King individually assume the debt and
took her notes for the amounts respectively due
them. All that remained to be done was to pro-
bate the will and file an inventory in the County
Court and this Mr. Kelberg did. The estate was
not in court over three hours. Mrs. King has since
paid the notes, has added more than 100,000 acres
to her ranches, does not owe a dollar and sell*
from 20,000 to 25,000 beef cattle annually.
When Capt. King established himself in the
Nueces country it was practically as far removed
from civilization and the operation of civil law, as
Central Africa is to-day. A few Mexican settlers
were scattered here and, there, fifty or sixty miles
apart, but were little more to be trusted than the
bands of predatory Indians who prowled over the
prairies. Desperadoes from Mexico and the States,
at a later date, also, from time to time, attempted
to effect a lodgment in the country and overawe
and despoil the people. Sagaicious and possessed
of both moral and physical courage (all of which
was needed in these trying times), firm, bold and
prompt, both in planning and acting, Capt. King
proved himself equal to these and all other emer-
gencies and did not hesitate to hold these characters
in check with an iron hand.
He maintained hisrights, the rights of those about
him, and an approach to social order.
Starting in life a penniless boy, his indomitable
will, strength of mind and capacity for conducting
large affairs enabled him long before his death to
accumulate an immense fortune, and rank as one
of the largest cattle-owners in the world.
THOMAS J. JENNINGS,
FORT WORTH.
The late lamented Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, at
one time Attorney-General of Texas, and dui'ing
his lifetime considered one of the ablest lawyers in
Texas, was born in Shenandoah County, Va.,
on the 20th of October, 1801. His parents were
Col. William and Mariam Howard (Smith) Jen-
nings. Col. William Jennings was for a number of
years sheriff and a leading citizen of Shenandoah
County. When the subject of this memoir was
about ten years of age his father moved to Indiana
where he had purchased five thousand acres of land
on the Ohio river near Vevay, remained there a
short time and then moved to Louisville, Ky.,
where he purchased a large portion of the land now
embraced within the corporate limits of that city.
This land he sold for a sum which, at this day, when
its value had been so greatly enhanced, appears
insignificant.
After a short residence at Louisville, Col. William
Jennings moved to Christian County, Ky., where
Gen. Thomas J. Jennings clerked in a country
store, attending school part of the time, until
about seventeen years, old when he secured a school
and taught for two or three years until he accumu-
lated sufficient means to attend Transylvania Col-
lege, at Lexington, Ky., where he graduated in
1824, with the highest honors, having been selected
by his classmates to deliver the valedictory. Jeffer-
son Davis, Gustavus A. Henry, of Tennessee, and a
number of other men, who afterwards distinguished
themselves in law, medicine, politics, and theology,
were his friends and fellow-students. The love he
acquired for the classics at Transylvania College
clung to him through life. There was, perhaps, no
more accurate or critical Latin and Greek scholar
in the South. He was also familiar with the French
and Spanish languages, speaking them both.
After graduating he taught school at Paris, Tenn.,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
371
studied law, secured admission to the bar and, in
copartnership with his brother, Judge Dudley S.
Jennings, practiced at Paris about two years. The
partnership was then dissolved and he went to
Huntington, Tenn., where he formed a connection
with Berry Gillespie. In 1836 he went to Yazoo
City, Miss., and there enjoyed a large and lucra-
tive practice until the spring of 1840, at which
time he moved to San Augustine, Texas, and later,
in the fall of that year, to Nacogdoches.
In January, 1844, he married at the latter place,
Mrs. Sarah G. Mason, the only daughter of Maj.
Hyde, a prominent citizen in Nacogdoches and
formerly a leading merchant of Jackson, Tenn.
While residing in Nacogdoches he was in part-
nership, successively, with J. M. Ardrey and Judge
W. R. Ochiltree.
In 1852 he was elected Attorney-General of Texas
and, on the expiration of his term in 1852, was re-
elected and held the position until 1856, when he
declined a further re-election to the office, his large
private interests and law practice requiring his un-
divided attention. On retiring from the attorney-
generalship he moved to his plantation near Alto,
in Cherokee County.
In 1857 he was elected to the Legislature from
that county and in 1861 to the Convention that
passed the ordinance of secession. In the fall of
1861 he suffered a stroke of paralysis which con-
fined him to his bed for eighteen months and from
the effects of which he never afterward recovered.
In the fall of 1864 he moved to Tyler, where he
formed a law partnership with Col. B. T. Selman.
In i868, having retired from this copartnership, he
and his son, Hon. Tom R. Jennings, formed a co-
partnership which continued for a number of years.
Gen. Jennings remained in the practice of his
profession until 1875, when, owing to his advanced
years and failing health, he retired from active pur-
suits, after being in harness as a practitioner at
the bar for half a century. At different times
he was a copartner of George F. Moore, late
Chief Justice of the State Supreme Court; Stock-
ton T. Donley and Ruben H. Reeves, late Associate
Justices of that tribunal. In 1877 he moved to
Fort "Worth, Texas, where he died, after a long and
painful illness, September 23, 1881. He was a
member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. fraternities.
He had three sons: Tom R., Monroe D., and Hyde
Jennings. Monroe died in 1868 at Alto, Cherokee
Count}', when nineteen years of age. Hyde is one
of the leading citizens of Fort Worth and, as a
lawyer, seems to have inherited the solid abilities
possessed by his distinguished father. As a prac-
titioner, he has for a number of years deservedly
ranked among the foremost in the State. Tom R.
is S. lawyer at Nacogdoches and represented Nacog-
doches County in the Twenty-fourth Legislature.
Gen. Jennings' widow survived him a number
of years, dying April 6th, 1873, in Fort Worth, at
the home of her son, Mr. Hyde Jennings, of which
she had been an honored and beloved inmate since
her husband's death. She was one of the sweetest
and most lovable ladies that the old regime could
boast.
Gen. Jennings possessed in a marked degree
those qualities of mind and heart that challenge
confidence and esteem. One trait of his character,
one worthy of all admiration, was the disinclination
that he manifested to think or speak evil of others.
Of this, the writer of this memoir had an example
in 1867. Gen. Jennings was then a member of
ihe Legislature and, upon being drawn out as to
his opinion of the leading men of the State, took
them up seriatim^ dwelling upon the excellent
mental, moral and social qualities of each. Senti-
ments of jealous rivalry never disturbed the calm
equipoise of his mind. Socially he was amiable and
generous to a fault. He mastered every question
he endeavored to discuss. His speeches were clear,
forcible and logical and, when he concluded, court
and jurj' were impressed with the conviction that he
had exhausted the subject, as viewed from his stand-
point. He was one of the brighest and ablest of
the able men of his day in Texas and one of the
purest and best as well.
372
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JUSTUS WESLEY FERRIS,
WAXAHACHIE.
Judge J. W. Ferris was born March 26th, 1823,
in Hudson, now a large city on the Hudson river,
in the State of New York. His father was Rev.
Phil. Ferris, an effective and zealous minister of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. Young Ferris'
early education was acquired in Cazenovia Semi-
nary, a noted institution of learning in Central New
York. At the age of eighteen he moved to Shelby
County, Ky., and soon entered the law office of
Hon. Martin D. McHenry, where, he pursued the
study of law. He graduated in 1845, at the age of
twenty-two, with honor, in the law department of
Transylvania University, at Lexington, Ky. In
the same year he was licensed to practice law in all
the courts of the State. In 1846 he moved to
Louisiana, where he studied the civil law under the
tuition of Judge Brent, an able and distinguished
lawyer, at Alexandria. His patron having died, he
yielded to the solicitations of his old Kentucky
friend. Rev. F. H. Blades, and emigrated to Texas
in the fall of 1847, locating at Jefferson, then a
promising young city, situated at the head of nav-
igation on Cypress bayou, in Cass (now Marion)
County, where he began his professional career.
The bar at Jefferson was at that time one of the
ablest and most brilliant in the Southwest. Here
were congregated at the courts such legal lights as
Gen. J. Pinckney Henderson, Col. Lewis T. Wigfall,
T. J. and J. H. Rogers, Richard Scurry, Col. W.
P. Hill and others, and here he underwent the
training and discipline that in after years enabled
him to successfully compete with the more skillful
of the legal fraternity. After a partnership of two
and a half years with M. D. Rogers he boldly struck
out into the practice upon his own account and
rapidly rose to prominence, his law briefs appearing
in- the Supreme Court Reports as far back as the
Fourth Texas. For one year, during the presi-
dential campaign of 1852, he edited the Jefferson
Herald, doing good service for the Democratic
party. This work was done chiefly at night, with-
out detriment to his professional labors. He was
elected to the Legislature in 1852, as representative
and floater from the counties of Titus and Cass,
and acquitted himself with credit and distinction,
exhibiting ability in debate, and pushing the meas-
ures he advocated with energy and success. The
authorship of the common-school system, then
adopted for Texas, is, in a large measure, justly
attributable to him, he having prepared and intro-
duced the bill and followed it up to its final pas-
sage. Initiatory steps, which met with his cordial
approbation and support, were also taken in offer-
ing large land donations to induce the early con-
struction of railroads. Before the expiration of
his term of office, it became necessary for him, on
account of ill health, to change bis residence, and
get away from the malaria of swamps and bayous.
Therefore, in the fall of 1854, he moved with his
family west of the Trinity river to Waxahacbie,
then a small village, surrounded by rich undulating
prairies, and beautifully situated by the crystal
waters of Waxahachie creek. Recovering his health
in a few months, his field of practice soon included
seven counties. He was reasonably successful
b9th in criminal and civil cases, taking position in
the front rank of his profession. Among the
more important criminal cases in which he took
a prominent part for the defense may be men-
tioned those of the State v. Calvin Guest, in Ellis
County; A. J. Brinson, in Terrant County; and
A. W. Denton, in Parker County, each of whom
was indicted for murder, and acquitted after a
closely contested and exciting trial. His bright-
est laurels, however, were won in the civil prac-
tice, more especially in suits involving titles to
land. In 1858 he and Col. E. P. Nicholson, of
Dallas, formed a copartnership which continued
for over two years. They did a large law practice
and, in connection with it, engaged in the business
of buying and selling exchange, establishing two
offices, one at Dallas and the other at Waxahachie,
for that purpose. These exchange offices were a
necessity at that time to emigrants, traders and
merchants, and marked the beginning of banking in
North Texas. In 1860 he was one of the nominees
of the Ellis County Convention, assembled for the
election of delegates to the convention called to
meet at Austin for the purpose of considering the
question of the secession of Texas from the Union,
but serious domestic considerations compelled him
to decline the nomination. In the following year
he was elected by a vote of the people to the office
of Judge of the Sixteenth Judicial District, which
position he continued to fill until the close of the
war, believing that by so doing he could the better
serve his country, his constitution being too feeble
to endure the exposure of camp life. The frontier
JUDGE f?:rris.
374
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Influenced by an early attachment, he returned
to Kentucky in 1850, and married Miss Mattie J.
Crow, a daughter of Mr. A. D. Crow, of Floyds-
taurg, in that State, — a most beautiful lady and
distinguished for many lovable qualities. She
voluntarily left the "old Kentucky home" with
her husband to brave the hardships of a frontier
life in Texas, and has ever been a faithful helpmate
as well as a loving and devoted wife. They have
two sons: Royal A. Ferris, born August 8th, 1861,
in .Jefferson, Texas, who was educated at the Ken-
tucky Military Institute, near Frankfort, Ky. , and
is now a successful capitalist and banker in Dallas,
Texas, and Thomas A. Ferris, born February 10,
1861, in Waxahachie, Texas, who was also educa-
ted at the Kentucky Military Institute, and is now
cashier and one of the board of directors of the
Citizens National Bank, of Waxahachie.
Judge Ferris has been a consistent member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South for many
years. Though not a demonstrative chuich worker
he }ias ever exerted a strong, steady influence in
favor of Christianity. His daily walk and con-
versation have been exemplary and have indicated
at all times \vith certainty his position on all moral
and religious subjects. He and Mrs. Ferris by
industry and economy have acquired a handsome
estate and are heavy taxpayers, owning a goodly
share of city and country realty. They have a
beautiful home, in the suburbs of Waxahachie,
supplied with a large library and every comfort —
a home blessed with pure domestic happi-
ness. Honored and beloved by all who know-
them, they are in their old age deservedly enjoy-
ing the fruits of a consistent and vrell-ordered
life.
R. S. WILLIS,
GALVESTON.
Richard Short Willis was born October 17, 1821,
in Caroline County, Md., where his father, Short
A. Willis, settled early in the present century.
The latter was a native of Scotland and was brought
by his parents to this country previous to the
Revolution, in which several members of the family
took part on the side of the Colonies, two uncles
of the subject of this sketch yielding up their lives
at the battle of Brandywine for the cause of free-
dom and against the tyranny of the British Crown.
Four of the five sons of Short A. Willis, namely,
Peter J., William H., Richard S., and Thomas A.,
came to Texas in youth or early manhood and have
spent their subsequent lives. The first to come
was Peter J., who made his advent into the new
Republic soon after the battle of San Jacinto, in
1836. After a brief tour of inspection he became
satisfied with the country and returned to Maryland
for his brothers, William H. and Richard S., who,
accompanying him, came back and settled on Buf-
falo bayou near Houston. Peter J. had then just
attained his twenty-first year, William H. was
eighteen, and Richard S. sixteen. In the limited
industries of the new country the lives of the
Willis brothers was by no means an easy one, but
they bravely performed all the labors that fell to
their lot, emerging from the trials to which they
were subjected stronger in purpose and better pre-
pared for the responsibilities of the future. By
their industry and good management they saved
sufficient means to purchase the property then
known as the " Ringold Farm " on the road from
Navasota to Washington, and there, as the reward
of their good husbandry, they laid the foundation
of the splendid fortune which later came into their
bands. It was while living on this place that the
death of William H. occurred. Early in the
forties Peter J. Willis bought a stock of goods and
began the mercantile business at Washington,
Richard S. remaining on the farm. Later Richard
S. left the farm and joined his brother and they
opened an establishment at Montgomery. This
proving successful they started a branch store at
Anderson, in Grimes County, in partnership with
E. W. Cawthon, under the firm name of Caw-
thon, Willis & Bro. With increased success
they were enabled to still further extend their
field of operations, and just previous to the
opening of the late war they formed a partnership
with S. K. Mcllheny, under the name of Mcllheny,
Willis & Bro., and opened a house at Houston.
This firm grew to be one of the most commanding
in the State, and, notwithstanding the general
business paralysis which followed the war, it con-
'"yHKC.Koevoeia.NX
R-S Willis.
="8*6
''1.4 CKoevo«ts.!''e--- Totk.
Mr s.R_S Willis.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
375
tinued active operations tliroughout the entire
period of hostilities, met all its obligations and
emerged from the almost chaotic condition of affairs
sound and solvent. Upon the close of the great
struggle Mr. Mcllheny went to Laredo, Mexico,
and died there while a member of the firm, after
which the Willis brothers purchased his interest
and continued the business under the firm name
of P. J. Willis & Bro. The Montgomery store
was sold out at the close of the war, at which
time the Houston enterprise began to assume
much larger proportions. Seeing what they be-
lieved to be an excellent opening at Galveston they
started a store at that place. This branch of their
business soon came to engross most of their time
and capital and in 1868 they decided to consolidate
their interests and accordingly removed to Gal-
veston. From that date their operations were
confined to their Galveston business, and not only
this business but many other enterprises of a
public. and private nature in that city were made to
feel the strong propulsion of their sturdy common
sense and sterling business ability.
To Mr. Richard S. Willis fell the inside care and
management of the large and ever-increasing busi-
ness of the firm, and to his labors in this connec-
tion he bent every energy, with the result of
becoming a thorough master of his situation.
Indeed later on when upon the death of his
brother, Peter J. Willis, in 1873, the entire care
and management of the business devolved on him,
he could not be persuaded that the increased
responsibilities resulting therefrom were too labor-
ious and exacting upon him, until ill-health com-
pelled him to discontinue the devotion of his
personal supervision, judgment and valuable ex-
perience entirely to the affairs and details of the
business. He was an indefatigable worker all his
life and not until physical infirmities obtained the
mastery over his iron will was he able to pull
against the current of his earlier days. He served
in various positions of trust and his name was
connected from first to last with many corporate
enterprises in the city. He was president of the
Galveston National Bank, having brought the
affairs of its predecessor, the Texas Banking and
Insurance Company, to a successful termination.
He was one of the promoters of the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe Eailwaj', and for some years a mem-
ber of its directory. He was chairman of the
Deepwater Committee, a prominent member of the
Cotton Exchange and of the Chamber of Com-
merce ; president of the Texas Guarantee & Trust
Company, and a member of the directory of the
Southern Cotton Press and Manufacturing Com-
pany. Mr. Willis was devoted to business and no
man ever left his affairs in better shape or knew
more about the details of every enterprise with
which he was connected. He was of rather
reserved disposition and of marked individuality,
possessing strong prejudices either for or against
men and measures ; but, withal, generous and
confiding where such feelings were required.
On June 3d, 1847, at Montgomery, Texas, Mr.
Willis married Miss Narcissa Worsham, a native
of Merengo County, Ala., born August 29, 1828,
and a daughter of Jeremiah and Catherine Wor-
sham, who emigrated to Texas in 1835, and settled
in what is now Montgomery County, three miles
from the present town of Montgomery. Jeremiah
Worsham was a well-to-do planter and a highly
respected citizen. One of his sons, Isvod Wor-
sham, represented Montgomery County in the State
Legislature and was a man of stirring business
ability. Mrs. Willis has a sister, Mrs. C. H.
Brooks, wife of Rev. C. H. Brooks, residing at
Chappel Hill, in Washington County, the remainder
.of the family to which she belonged having passed
away. Mr. Willis died July 26, 1892.
Besides his surviving widow he left two sons and
two daughters : Short A. Willis, of Galveston ;
Mrs. Kate Grigsby, of Louisville and Bardstown,
Ky. ; Mrs. F. A. Walthew, and Richard M. Willis,
Galveston; a daughter, Laura (Mrs. James G.
Moody), and a son, Lee W. Willis, preceding the
father to the grave, the former dying in 1886, the
latter in 1888.
The widow of this pioneer merchant is herself
one of the oldest Texians now residing in the city
of Galveston, having lived on Texas soil continu-
ously for sixty years. Coming to the country
while it was yet Mexican territory, she has lived
to see many changes and has witnessed both the
peaceful and violent revolutions which have gone
on around her, having lived under five different
governments — that of Mexico, Texas, the United
States, the Confederate States, and again that of
the United States. She has witnessed the gradual
expulsion of the red man and the steady advance-
ment of the white race. She saw the country
change from a dependency to an independent
republic and was not an uninterested spectator
when the new but vigorous republic asked for ad-
mission to the American Union. She witnessed the
movement that made Texas free, and the peaceable
settlement by which it became one of the sister-
hood of States.
Mrs. Willis has led an eminently domestic life,
but since the death of her husband has given more
or less of her attention to busihess, with the result
of keeping his business in the same admirable con-
dition in which he left it.
376
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JUDGE WILLIAM PITT BALLINGER,
GALVESTON,
The distinguished subject of this sketch was born
in Barboursville, Knox County, Ky., September 25,
1825, and died at his home in Galveston, Texas,
January 20, 1888.
His grandfather, Col. Richard Ballinger, was a
native of Virginia, and an Aide-de-Camp of Gen. St.
Clair at the time of that officer's defeat by the
Indians. He settled early in Kentucky ; was the
first clerk of Knox County ; was, later, a member
of the State Senate ; lived to a great age, and sus-
tained throughout the highest personal character.
His father, James Franklin Ballinger, was a native
of Barboursville, Ky., and, for the greater part of
his life, clerk of the courts of Knox County. A
soldier of the War of 1812, at the age of seventeen
years he was taken prisoner upon Dudley's defeat,
and forced to " run the gauntlet " for his life. He
was a presidential elector on the Whig ticket in 1837.
He removed to Texas in 1868, and died at Houston
in 1875, in the eighty-second year of his age.
W. P. Ballinger's early education was derived
from the schools of his native town ; a two years'
course in St. Mary's College, near Lebanon, Ky.,
and a faithful training in his father's oflBce in the
practical details of court business. His health re-
quiring a milder climate, in 1843 he availed of the
invitation of his uncle, Judge James Love, of Gal-
veston, Texas, and moved thither, beginning the
study of the law in that gentleman's office. Join-
ing, as a private soldier, a volunteer company for
the Mexican War, he was soon elected First Lieu-
tenant of the company. Afterwards appointed
Adjutant of Col. Albert Sidney Johnston's Texas
Begiment, he participated with it in the storming of
Monterey, and in other service. Returning to Gal-
veston in the fall of 1846, he was admitted to the
bar in the spring of 1847 and began the practice of
law. His prompt admission to partnership in the
firm of Jones & Butler, then enjoying the lar-
gest practice in the city, engaged him at once
in the most important cases in the courts.
In 1850, upon the recommendation of the judges
of the Supreme Court, and others, he was ap-
pointed United States District Attorney for the
District of Texas, and discharged the duties of that
office with characteristic efficiency. In the same
year he was married to Miss Hallie P. Jack,
daughter of William H. Jack, lawyer, statesman
and soldier of Texas long before " its birih as a
nation." In 1854 he entered into that long endur-
ing and mutually fortunate copartnership with his
brother-in-law, Col. Thos. M. Jack, which made
the firm name of Ballinger & Jack so broad in its
fame, and so conspicuous in the annals of the bar.
The memories of lawyers and of judges, the reports
of the appellate courts, the records of the trial
courts, the traditions of the people — all testify to
the impress made upon their times of this emi-
nent association of learning and eloquence. After
many years these gentlemen admitted to partner-
ship Hon. Marcus F. Mott, and the firm style
became Ballinger, Jack & Mott. Col. Jack dying,
the survivors associated with themselves Mr. J. W.
Terry, under the style of Ballinger, Mott & Terry.
Later, upon the assumption by Mr. Terry of the
attorneyship of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Railroad Company, the new Arm of Ballinger, Mott
& Ballinger was formed, composed of Judge Bal-
linger, Mr. Mott and Mr. Thomas Jack Ballinger,
only son of the senior, and was dissolved only by
the latter' s death.
The subject of our sketch was tendered a justice-
ship of the State Supreme Court, by Governor E.
J. Davis, in 1871, but declined it; and again, in
1874, was appointed to the bench of that court by
Governor Coke ; but, constrained by the demands
of his private engagements, he resigned the office
upon the very day of his confirmation. In 1877,
he was recommended by the Governor and all the
judges of the higher courts, and by the Texas
delegation in Congress, for appointment by the
President to the vacancy on the bench of the
Supreme Court of the United States, caused by
the resignation of Judge Davis; but sectional
spirit was too powerful at Washington to admit of
his nomination to that high post. In 1879, Gov-
ernor Roberts tendered him the office of Com-
missioner of Appeals, but he could not be induced
to accept it.
With the hope of rendering service to the State,
he was prevailed upon to serve as a member of the
Convention which framed the State constitution of
1876, and found his fitting sphere of labor as a
member of the Judiciary Committee of that body.
His views on many important questions were not in
accord with those entertained by a majority of the
Convention. He was opposed to an elective judi-
ciary, as baneful and corrupting to the administra-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
377
tion of law ; to short terms and inadequate salaries,
believing that the tenure and compensation of
judges should be such as to place them above the
methods of the hustings and secure them against
the cruelties of poverty, and to invite the best
equipped and most efficient lawyers to the service
of the State. Failing to affect the Convention with
these convictions, he opposed the constitution
adopted by that body and voted against it at the
polls.
A Whig so long as the Whig party maintained dis-
tinctive organization, Judge Ballinger always ad-
hered to its main political tenets. Opposed to
secession, yet, when it had been accomplished, his
heart turned with devotion to his own people and
with them he resisted to the last the war made upon
the South by the Federal government. One of a
committee sent to Richmond by the people of Gal-
veston to obtain the armament necessary to the
defense of their city, he was, while on this mission,
appointed Confederate States Receiver, and served
as such until the war ended. With Col. Ashbcl
Smith, he was, after the surrender of Gen. Lee's
army, sent bj' Governor Murrah to New Orleans to
negotiate for surrender by the State and to prevent,
if possible, its occupation by the Federal army.
Returning to Galveston, he resumed the practice of
law, devoting himself to it faithfully until his death.
Although out of politics in the sense of seeking its
emoluments, he maintained a hearty interest in all
public questions, and valued, as one of the dearest
attaching to citizenship, his right of free suffrage.
While independent in his consideration and judg-
ment of political measures, he voted with the
Democratic party.
Perhaps no lawyer of Texas ever gave greater
labor and more distinctive devotion to the science
and practice of the law than he ; or more proudly
realized the power, usefelness, ends and majesty
of that science ; or gathered more abundantly
of its rewards and honors, or deserved them
more.
Sagacious as an adviser ; laborious and exhaus-
tive in preparation, taking nothing for granted and
yielding not to the unproved dicta of names howso-
ever imposing; spirited and uncompromising in ad-
vocacy; learned in the reason and ia the philosophy
of the law, as few men are, he brought to the ser-
vice of his clients and to the aid of the courts a
professional equipment furnished with every weapon
of forensic conflict.
To his fellows of the bar he habitually manifested
that warmth of personal interest and concern so
engaging and grateful between associates in the
same profession, and they respected him as a lawyer
not more than they admired him as a companion and
prized him as a friend.
Fitted by fortune, inclination and personal ac-
complishments for the gracious arts of hospitality,
nothing pleased him more than the presence of
friends at his lovely and typical Southern home ;
and it may be doubted whether any member of the
bar of Texas ever imposed upon others so many
and so delightful social obligations.
A gentleman whose reading and reflections were
unconflned by the limitations of his favorite science,
but who touched life and thought at all points, the
charm of his fireside talks made his guests forgetful
that the law was still the exacting mistress of his
life's toil and ambition.
E. H. TERRELL,
SAN ANTONIO.
Edwin Holland Terrell, of San Antonio, lately
United States Minister to Belgium, comes from a
well-known Virginia family, and was born at Brook-
ville, Ind., November 21st, 1848. He is the son of
Rev. Williamson Terrell, D. D., one of the most
popular and widely-known ministers in the Metho-
dist Church in Indiana years ago.
Mr. Terrell's great-grandfather, Henry Terrell,
removed from Virginia to Kentucky in 1787, and
was prominently identified with the early political
history of that State. Mr. Terrell's grandmother
was a sister of Chilton Allan, one of Kentucky's
famous lawyers, who represented the Ashland Dis-
trict in Congress for many years after Henry Clay
had been promoted to the Senate.
The grandfather of Edwin H. Terrell, Capt.
John Terrell, was a gallant and conspicuous officer
in the campaigns against the Indians shortly after
the Revolution, and was present at Harmar's and
St. Clair's defeats, and also took part in Wayne's
378
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
victory over the Miamis iat the Maumee Eapids,
August 20, 1794.
Edwin H.^Terrell graduated in 1871 atDe Pauw
University, Indiana, having won the first or valedic-
tory honors of a class of thirty-three members. He
afterwards pursued his legal studies at Harvard
University, where he received his degree of L.L.B.
in 1873. He subsequently spent a year in travel
prominently identified with the growth and pros-
perity of San Antonio, having been actively con-
nected with many of the public and most progressive
movements of that enterprising Southern city.
Since his removal to the South Mr. Terrell has
always taken a prominent part in the councils of
the Republican party in this State. He was a dele-
gate to the Republican National Conventions at
and study in Europe, attending for a time the lec-
tures at the Ecole de Droit of the Sorbonne at
Paris.
Mr. Terrell returned to the United States in 1874,
and entered upon the practice of the law at Indian-
apolis, being a member of the firm of Barbour,
Jacobs and Terrell for some years.
In 1877 Mr. TerrelKremoved to San Antonio,
Texas, which is still his home. He has been
Chicago in 1880 and 1888, and in the latter was one
of the honorary secretaries and was selected as one,
of the members of the Committee of Notification.
In 1889, when President Harrison nominated
Mr. Terrell as the U. S. Minister to Belgium, the
San Antonio Daily Express (Dem.) said editori-
ally :-
"In appointing Mr. Terrell to the Belgian min-
istry. President Harrison secured the services of a
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
379
gentleman, and a sober, reliable, competent, pains-
taking business man — one who has been a North-
erner, and was never a carpet-bagger ; who has
been a Republican, and was never a 'radical;'
who has lived in the South, and was never spit
upon because of his nativity; who has exercised
his political rights, and was never bulldozed or
shot-gunned ; who is able to give a good account of
himself and the people among whom he has resided.
His selection reflects credit upon him, and upon
the administration which knew enough to choose
him."
After Minister Terrell's arrival at Brussels in
May, 1889, he had much important diplomatic work
submitted to his attention, and during his four
years' diplomatic experience took part in several
noted conferences.
In 1891 he obtained the removal by the Belgian
government of the onerous and discriminating quar-
antine regulations which had been applied to live
stock shipped from the United States to Belgium
and which had practically destroyed that Industry
in the latter country.
Mr. Terrell was Plenipotentiary on the part of
the United States to the International Conference
on the Slave Trade, which was in session at Brus-
sels from November, 1889, to July, 1890, and which
drew up the "Slave Trade Treaty," or what is
diplomatically known as the " General Act of Brus-
sels." In January, 1892, Secretary Blaine sum-
moned Mr. Terrell to Washington to assist him in
connection with the matter of the ratification of
this treaty, then pending in the Senate and sub-
sequently ratified.
In July, 1890, Mr. Terrell was special Plenipo-
tentiary for the United States in the International
Conference which met at Brussels and drafted the
treaty for the publication of the customs-tariffs
of most of the countries of the world, which treaty
was afterwards ratified by our Government.
In November and December, 1890, Mr. Terrell
represented the United States on what is known as
the Oommission Technique, an outgrowth of the
Anti-Slavery Conference, which elaborated a tariff
system for the Conventional Basin of the Congo, as
defined in the Treaty of Berlin of 1885.
In this special commission the United States had
Important commercial interests at stake, and during
its sessions, Mr. Terrell obtained a formal declara-
tion, agreed to by all the interested powers having
possessions in the Congo basin and by all the ratify-
ing powers of the Berlin treaty, guaranteeing to
the United States and its citizens all the commer-
cial rights, privileges and immunities in the entire
conventional basin of the Congo, possessed by the
signatory powers of the Treaty of Berlin.
In 189 1 Mr. Terrell negotiated with King Leo-
pold a treaty of " amity, commerce and naviga-
tion" between the United States and the Congo
State, which was subsequently ratified by the
President and Senate.
In 1892 Mr. Terrell was appointed one of the
delegates on the part of the United States to the
International Monetary Conference at Brussels, and
on its assembling he was selected as its vice-presi-
dent. He delivered, on the part of the members
of the Conference, the reply in French to the
address of welcome pronounced by Prime Minister
Beernaert of Belgium.
Ex-Minister Terrell is a gentleman of scholarly
tastes and accomplishments and possesses a thor-
ough and speaking knowledge of the French lan-
guage. In his new and elegant residence lately
constructed near the military headquarters at San
Antonio he has one of the largest and most care-
fully selected libraries in the State of Texas.
In 1892 De Pauw University conferred upon Mr.
Terrell the honorary degree of LL.D.
October 1, 1893, after his return to the United
States and to private life, Mr. Terrell received by
royal decree of King Leopold II. of Belgium, the
decoration of "Grand Officer of the Order of
Leopold," an honor rarely conferred and one
which indicated the highest personal esteem of the
King and the successful character of Mr. Terrell's
mission.
In 1874 Mr. Terrell married Miss Mary Maverick,
daughter of the late Samuel A. Maverick, one of
the founders of the Republic of Texas and promi-
nent in the history of San Antonio and Western
Texas. Mrs. Terrell died in 1890 at the U. S.
Legation at Brussells, leaving a family of six
children.
In 1895 Mr. Terrell was married to Miss Lois
Lasater, daughter of the late Albert Lasater and
niece of Col. E. H. Cunningham, the well-known
sugar planter of Southeastern Texas.
380
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
CHARLES LEWIS,
HEARNE, ROBERTSON COUNTY.
Although a uumber of settlers had taken up
their abode within the present limits of Robertson
County previous to the Revolution of 1835-6 and
others "continued to do so during the succeeding
years of the Republic, it was not until a much
later date that the Brazos portion of the county
began to fill with that thrifty class of planters
whose intelligent and well directed labors did so
much towards developing the wonderfully rich soil
of that section and in giving to the county the
excellent reputation for agriculture which it has
, since enjoyed.
The year 3852 is marked in the history of the
State as the one during which occurred the great-
est immigration, previous to the late war. Rob-
ertson County received its proportion of that
immigration, and from that year dates the advent
in the county of many who were afterwards dis-
tinguished for their thrift, wealth and good
citizenship. Of this number was the late Charles
Lewis, of Hearne.
Mr. Lewis was born in Farmington, Conn.,
April 14, 1822. His father was Calvin Lewis, and
his mother bore the maiden name of Martha Root,
both of whom were natives of Connecticut and de-
scendants of early-settled New England families,
the mother being a sister of the mother of the
distinguished Federal soldier and Congressman,
Gen. Joseph E. Hawley. Mr. Lewis was reared
in his native place in the schools of which he
received an excellent education. At the age of
twenty-four he left Connecticut on account of ill-
health and went to Louisiana, taking up his resi-
dence in Bozier Parish. There he met, and in
March, 1846, married Miss Adeline Hearne, a
daughter of William and Nancy Hearne and sister
of Ebenezer and Horatio R. Hearne, in company
with the latter two of whom he came to Texas in
1852 and settled at Wheelock in Robertson County.
Mr. Lewis had been engaged in planting in Louisiana
and immediately on settling in Robertson County,
opened a plantation on the Brazos. He gave his
attention exclusively to this interest until after the
war, up to which time he resided at Wheelock.
After the war he lived a year on his plantation,
then at Houston for six years, and in 1872, on the
laying out of Hearne, moved to that place which he
subsequently made his home till his death. He
was one of the first to locate at Hearne and erected
there the first business building and the first dwell-
ing. He was one of the earliest and always one of
the most steadfast supporters of the town and all its
interests. His own interests and pursuits were of
a somewhat diversified nature, though chiefiy agri-
cultural. In the course of years he developed a
large plantation in the Brazos bottoms and acquired
a considerable amount of property. He stood
among the first in a community noted for men of
sound intelligence and more than average wealth.
Born and reared in a Northern climate, the vigor
of his intellect lost nothing by transplanting while
he added to it habits of unweary exertion and sound
practical business methods. His reputation was
that of a safe, steady-going, straight forward man
of business and his judgment always commanded
respect. He represented Robertson County two
terms in the State Legislature and proved an able,
etBcient and acceptable representative. He had but
little inclination, however, for public affairs and
gave way in such matters to those more eager for
popular applause and political preferment. A
Democrat in politics,' he always gave a cordial sup-
port to the men and measures of his party. He
was a strong sympathizer with the South during the
war and though not in the military service, he lent
the cause very substantial aid of a kind it stood
most in need of.
Mr. Lewis was made a mason in early manhood
and took great interest in the order. He was a
charter member of the lodge at Hearne, which he
subsequently served as master. He united with
the Presbyterian Church at the age of sixteen and
was a member of the same ever after, and to the
support of this Church as well as to all worthy
purposes he was a valued contributor.
Mr. Lewis died October 22, 1882. He left sur^
viving him a widow, one son and two daughters.
His son, the late Henry L. Lewis of Hearne, was a
large planter of Robertson County, represented
that county in the State Legislature and was a
man of acknowledged ability and influence in the
State.
Mr. Lewis's eldest daughter, Mrs. Fannie M.
Glass, wife of F. A. Glass, died in 1889, leaving
four children three of whom are now living. The
youngest daughter, Mrs. Willie E. Moreland, wife
'S:"byHf. I
>^^.^
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
381
of Dr. A. C. Moreland, resides at Atlanta, Georgia.
The widow witli tlie orphaned children of her de-
deceased son and daughter, nine in number, still
makes her home in Hearne, where she is reckoned
among the oldest of that place and a representative
of the family lor which the place was named.
W. L. MOODY,
GALVESTON.
William Lewis Moody was born in Essex County,
Va., May 19, 1828, and reared in Chesterfield
County, that State, his parents, Jameson and Mary
Susan (Lankford) Moody, having moved to that
county in 1830. His father was a gallant soldier,
in the war of 1812, and his grandfathers, Lewis
Moody, of Essex County, Va., and William Lank-
ford, of Chesterfield County, Va. , fought for free-
dom in the Continental lines during the Revolution-
ary War of 1776.
His parents raised ten children to years of
maturity: Emily A., James H., David J., Leroy
F., William L., Sarah E., Joseph L., Jameson C,
Mary A., and G. Marcellus Moody. Of these only
Leroy F. Moody, Mrs. Sarah E. Simmons, and the
subject of this memoir are now living.
In 1852 Mr. W. L. Moody came to Texas and
located at Fairfield. Such of his brothers and
sisters as were then living and a dear old aunt
followed, and all settled in Freestone County.
Mr. Moody practiced law at Fairfield for about
two years, but his health becoming precarious he
determined to engage in some less sedentary pur-
suit, and accordingly, with his brothers, David J.
and Leroy F. Moody, established a mercantile
business at that place, under the firm name of
W. L. Moody & Bros. , thus taking the initial step
in a brilliant, successful and widely useful career.
In January, 1860, he was united in marriage to
Miss Pherabe Elizabeth Bradley, of Freestone
County, the beautiful and accomplished daughter
of Mr. F. M. and Mrs. (Goldsby) Bradley,
formerly of Summerfield, Alabama, where Mrs.
Moody was born, reared and educated. Col. and
Mrs. Moody have three children: W. L. Moody,
Jr., Frank Bradley Moody and Mary Emily
Moody, all married and living in Galveston. W.
L. Moody, Jr., married Miss Libby Shearn, of
Houston; F. B. Moody, Miss Battle Thompson,
of Galveston ; and Miss Mary E. Moody, Mr.
Sealy Hutchlngs, of Galveston. Early in 1861,
Col. Moody joined an infantry company raised in
Freestone County and was elected captain. The
command proceeded to the rendezvous at Hopkins-
ville, Ky., and was mustered into the Confederate
States service as a part of the Seventh Texas Inf anti-y
Which was organized upon that occasion with John
Gregg as Colonel. Col. Moody was captured at
Fort Donelson, Tenn., upon the fall of that post in
February, 1862, and imprisoned first at Camp
Douglass, 111., and then at Camp Chase, Ohio, and
Johnson's Island on Lake Erie. In September
following he was exchanged and soon after made
Lieutenant Colonel by promotion, was stationed for
a time at Port Hudson, La., saw much hard service
in Mississippi and Louisiana participating in many
fights and fierce engagements with the enemy ;
after the fall of Vicksburg was severely wounded at
the siege of Jacksonville, Miss., and after many
months of critical illness, was pronounced per-
manently disabled and retired from field service
with the rank of Colonel, being promoted for gal-
lantry. As soon as health permitted he reported
for duty and was appointed to post duty and placed
in command at Austin, Texas, where he remained
until the general surrender. The war ended, he
closed out the mercantile business at Fairfield, and
in 1866 moved to Galveston where he and his
brother engaged in the commission business under
the firm name of W. L. & L. F. Moody.
Next season Mr. F. M. Bradley of Freestone
County was admitted as a partner and the style of
the firm changed to Moody, Bradley & Co.
In 1871, L. F. Moody and F. M. Bradley retired
and E. S. Jemison of Galveston was admitted under
the firm name of Moody & Jemison, and a branch
house established in New York city in 1874, with
Col. Jemison in charge. Leroy F. Moody, so long
associated in business with his brother at Fairfield,
at Galveston and in New York, sharing with him
the joys of boyhood days and in manhood the
struggle for life and fortune, resides at present at
Buffalo Gap, Texas, where Mrs. Sarah E. Simmons,
Mr. Moody's sister, also resides. The partnership
Missing Page
Missing Page
384
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
THE STANDEFERS,
OF BASTROP.
More than a century ago, three brothers of the
name of Standefer, came from England, and set-
tled in this country, one in Virginia, one in South
Carolina, and one on the Western frontier. From
this last Anderson Standefer was descended, being
probably a son. About the beginning of the
present century he married and moved to that part
of Illinois known as the " American Bottoms,"
where he lived till his death some eight or ten
years later. He left surviving him a widow, three
sons, James Williamson, William Bailey and Jacob
Littleton, and a daughter, Sarah. Shortly after
her husband's death, the widow Standefer moved
from Illinois to Alabama, and settled in Franklin
County. From there the family came to Texas
ten years later in 1827, and for a time (about
a year) lived near the line of what is now Brazoria
and Ft. Bend Counties, then designated by the
general name of Austin's Colony. In 1828 they
moved up on the Colorado, and the widow having
married Leman Barker, they all settled in what
was then called Barker's Bend of the Colorado,
about five miles from the present town of Bastrop.
That was then on the extreme frontier of Texas,
and the three sons of this pioneer family, James
Williamson Standefer, William Bailey Standefer,
and Jacob Littleton Standefer, becoming identified
with the history of the country, bore an honorable
part in the same during the struggles which fol-
lowed. All three of them were in Houston's army,
and took part in the battle of San Jacinto, besides
serving in numerous Indian campaigns, under
those distinguished leaders, John H. Moore,
Matthew Caldwell, Ed. Burleson, and the McCul-
loch brothers, Ben and Henry. They never held
any public positions of note, though the eldest,
James W., was a commissioner in connection with
the capital location proceedings at Austin, when
that place was first made the temporary seat of
government. But in the military defense of the
country they were active and in some degree con-
spicuous. James W. Standefer married just previ-
ous to the family's coming to Texas ; the other
two, William B. and Jacob L., and the daughter,
Sarah, married after settling in Bastrop County.
William B. Standefer died in Bastrop County some
twelve or 'fourteen years since, an honored and
respected citizen, and Jacob L. still lives there,
being a resident of Elgin, where he is held in
equally high regard. James W. Standefer after
the death of his wife, Sarah Kive Standefer in 1879,
went to Lampasas, where he made his home till
his death February 19, 1892, being then in the
eighty-fourth year of his age. He was one of
those brave, generous, patriotic men to whom
Texas is so greatly indebted for what it now is as
a State and who profited so little by his long resid-
dence and arduous services. He has been for
more than forty years previous to his death a mem-
ber of the Christian Church and for about fifty
years a member of the Masonic fraternity.
The sons and daughters of James W. and Sarah
Standefer who became grown, thirteen in number,
were: Elizabeth, now widow of David Scott; Mary
widow of Jonathan Scott, both residing in Bastrop
County ; William Johnson Standefer of Lampasas ;
Thomas Standefer of Burnet County ; Sarah widow
of N. B. Scott, residing on the line of Lee and
Bastrop Counties ; James Standefer who died some
years since in Bastrop County ; Jane the widow of
W. C. Lawhon, of Bastrop County ; Richard N.
Standefer, who died in 1889 in Bastrop County ;
Elvina, Mrs. Kemp of San Antonio ; Arminta
widow of Eichard Favors of San Saba County ;
Arinda widow of Thomas Wolf, of Burnet County
and Ellen the wife of George Wilson, of William-
son County.
The data is not at hand to give in this connection
the names of the descendants of William B., Jacob
L. and Sarah (Mrs. J. L. Litton) Standefer but
the following facts concerning James W. Standefer's
descendants may be added. His three sons
William J., Thomas and Richard N., were soldiers
in the Confederate army during the late war, the
eldest as a member of McMillen's Company,
Nelson's Regiment, with which he served a year
when he raised a company of his own for frontier
service, and the other two as members of Capt.
Highsmith's Company, Parson's Regiment. Thomas
Standefer was wounded at Cotton Plant, Arkansas,
and Richard V., at Yellow Bayou. All were good
soldiers and all are or were good citizens.
Richard Vaughn Standefer, born in Bastrop
County, Texas, December 30, 1838, was reared in
his native county and there spent his entire life
except the time he was in the Confederate army.
September 11, 1866, he married Miss Tex Gatlin,
of Bastrop County, and shortly afterwards taking up
/
O'^^^ y.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
385
mercantile pursuits (beiog incapacitated for active
outdoor work by wounds received during the war)
was engaged in merchandising in Bastrop County
till his death May 23, 1889. He met with good
success and left his family well provided for. A
widow and six children survived him, though a son
and daughter have since followed him to the grave.
His children are Nannie Olive now Mrs. M. L.
Hines ; "Woody Allison who died in 1892 at the age
of fifteen ; Lula Love who died in 1895 at about
the same age ; Charles Herbert, Dick Hunter and
Grace Vaughn.
Mrs. Tex Standefer widow of Eichard V. Stande-
fer also comes of old settled families, her father
Thomas Gatlin, having come to this country in
1840 and her mother, Nancy E. Christian, in 1832.
She being a daughter of Thomas Christian who
was killed by the Indians at the time Wilbarger was
scalped. (See account of this elsewhere in this
volume.)
DEWITT CLINTON GIDDINGS,
BRENHAM.
This well-known ex-member of Congress, lawyer
and banker, was born on the 18th of July, 1827, in
Susquehanna County, Penn. His father, James
Giddings, a native of Connecticut, was in early life
a ship captain, and in later years a farmer in Sus-
quehanna County, where he died in 1863.
The earliest account in this country of the family
(which is of Scotch extraction) is of George Gid-
dings and his wife, who emigrated to America in
1635. Members of the family joined the patriot
army at the beginning of the Eevolution and re-
mained in the ranks until victory perched upon the
Continental colors and the independence of the
colonies was won.
Col. Giddings' mother, Lucy (Demming) Gid-
dings was a native of Connecticut. The Demmings
are of French descent. Representatives of the
family were early emigrants to America. In the
Revolutionary War they associated themselves with
their fellow-colonists and fought for independence.
Mrs. Giddings was a woman of rare force of
character. She reared a large family, and her sons
proudly boast that to the lessons of self-denial,
industry and love of freedom taught them by her
is due whatever of success has attended them.
Col. Giddings was the youngest son. As his broth-
ers finished school and attained maturity, one by
one they left the old home and the dull routine of
farm life. Wishing to keep his youngest boy with
him, his father refused to educate him as he had
the others ; but Col. Giddings determined to se-
cure a liberal education, and this he obtained in
the best schools of New York, earning the money
to defray his expenses by teaching country schools.
At the age of twenty he was for a short time
25
a civil engineer on a railroad, but in 1860 com-
menced reading law at Honesdale, Penn., under
the direction of Earl Wheeler, a distinguished lawyer
of that State, and in 1852 came to Texas, whither
he had been preceded by five brothers. The eldest,
Giles A., a civil engineer, came to Texas in 1833,
and in 1836, On his return from a campaign against
the Indians, in which he had been engaged for
several months, learned that Houston's army was
retreating, and, with his companions, hastened to
join it. Three days before the battle of San Jacinto
he wrote his parents a letter, full of the purest
patriotism, telling them that if he fell, they would
have the joy of knowing that their son died " fight-
ing against oppression and for the rights of man,"
a letter that was almost prophetic, for he received
wounds during the battle from which he died the
second day of Ma3' following. The subject of this
memoir, Col. D. C. Giddings, on settling in Texas,
associated himself in partnership with his brother,
J. D. Giddings, for the practice of law at Brenham.
In 1860 he married Miss Malinda C. Lusk, a
daughter of Samuel Lusk, an early pioneer, who
was an active participant in the Texas revolution, a
member of the Convention which framed the Con-
stitution of the Republic of Texas, and for many
years Countj' Clerk of Washington County. They
had five children, only three of whom survived in-
fancy, viz. : Dewitt Clinton, Mary Belle (who mar-
ried E. H. Cooke and whose death occurred in 1895)
and Lillian Giddings. Col. Giddings opposed the
idea of secession, believing that Southern rights
could best be secured within the Union ; but, when
the State seceded, he went with her heart and soul.
He entered the Confederate army in 1861 as a
388
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tion for the same company on their line from Rock-
dale to Austin ; then built, complete for rolling
•Stock, the Trinity & Sabine Railway from Trinity
to Colmesneil, a distance of sixty-six miles ; next
job was the construction of the line from Gaines-
ville to Henrietta, a distance of seventy-two miles ;
also built the Santa Fe line from Montgomery to
Conroe, fourteen miles, and later the Taylor,
Bastrop & Houston, from Bastrop to Boggy-Tank,
flfty-four miles, and in 1893 he continued the road
from Boggy-Tank to Houston, both sections com-
prising one hundred and fifteen miles, and from
Smithville to Lockhart on the Missouri, Kansas &
Texas the same year, and also built extensions from
Wichita Falls to Henrietta, sixteen miles, and the
Velasco Terminal, twenty-two miles ; associated at
various times with Mr. D. Murphy, when the busi-
ness operated under the firm name of Burkitt,
Murphy and Burns, when the business was run
under the firm name of Burkitt & Murphy, after-
wards Burkitt, Burns & Co.
' This is a history of railroad building that is as
yet unapproaehed by any man in the State of
Texas, the total mileage figuring up to many miles
of completed road.
Mr. Burkitt is a promoter of and president of
the Palestine & Dallas Railroad, which is soon to be
built between the two cities. As opportunity
afforded, he acquired large tracts of land and his
holdings now amount to about 35,000 acres and
has sold about $250,000 worth of land, principally
to Germans on eight and ten days' time, who are
paying promptly according to contract. These
lands are both improved and unimproved and lie in
seventeen counties in the State.
Mr. Burkitt has by contract supplied railroad
ties in large quantities to various roads for some
ten years pastj the timber being cut, in many
instances, from his own land.
He is closely identified with the banking interests
of Texas. In 1887 he was active in the organiza-
tion of the First National Bank of Palestine and is
now one of its directors and its vice-president.
This was the first national banking house in the
city. He is a director of the Taylor National Bank,
of Taylor, Texas, organized in 1868. He owns
stock in the First National Bank of Stephenville,
organized in 1889, and is likewise a stockholder in
the First National Bank of Orange, established in
the same year. He is president of the Taylor
"Water Works and Ice Company and a stockholder
in the Palestine Cotton Seed Oil Co., of Palestine.
Mr. Burkitt married at Houston, in 1880, Miss
Mary Hartley, a daughter of William Hartley, a
business man and mill owner of that city. They
have one son, George, and a daughter, Bessie.
WILLIAM VON ROSENBERG,
HALLETTSVILLE.
Wm. Von Rosenberg, a leading citizen and finan-
cier of Southwest Texas, was born in Washington
County, Texas, August 9, 1863, and moved with
his parents to Round Top, in Fayette County, in
1867 ; acquired the rudiments of a good English
education in the public schools of that place, and
in 1876 entered the college at New Braunfels,
Texas, where, during the following two years, he
completed his education. In 1878 he accepted
employment at Bellville, Austin County, Texas,
where he learned the mercantile business in the
large retail establishment of C. F. Hellmulb. He
remained with this firm for ten years, working him-
self up from the lowest to the highest position in
the house in three years. In June, 1888, he em-
barked in the general mercantile business on his
own account, at Hallettsville, Texas, taking his
younger brother, Otto Von Rosenberg, into part-
nership with him, and establishing the firm of Rosen-
berg Bros. By fair, liberal and honest business
methods this firm has become one of the largest
and is known as one of the most reliable and suc-
cessful business houses in Southwest Texas. It
does an annual retail business of from $75,000.00
to $100,000.00 and handles everything in the way
of general merchandise, agricultural implements,
etc., needed to supply the trade of that section.
The Messrs. Von Rosenberg are also large cotton
buyers, the principal product raised in that part of
Texas. They handle annually from 7,000 to 10,000
bales, buying principally for correspondents in
Eastern States, but also largely for export to
Liverpool and other European points. They have
acquired large landed interests in Lavaca, Jackson
and Wharton counties.
In 1891, finding their business constantly increas-
Er-.g^byH & C Koevoets,l>SY,
Francis Gonzales.
Missing Page
Missing Page
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
389
ing, they erected commodious brick buildings ia
Hallettsvllle, and added to tiieir business a banking
department, whicli from its inception has met with
a liberal patronage from the business community.
Mr. Wm. Von Rosenberg was married at Belle-
ville, Texas, May 9; 1889, to Miss Metta Bross-
mann, daughter of Mr. C. H. Brossmann, County
Treasurer of Austin County.
FRANCISCO DE PAUL GONZALES,
GALVESTON.
The subject of this sketcli, Francisco De Paul
Gonzales, was born at Guanajuata, Mexico, on the
9th day of April, 1826. His grandfather and
father were both officers in the Spanish army,
having gone to Mexico, from Spain, with the Span-
ish troops, at the time of the expedition of Barra-
das, and subsequently settled here.
Mr. Gonzales, with his younger brother Thomas,
received his elementary English instruction in the
State of Illinois, but while still quite young, he was
sent to Spain, to complete his education in the
Monastic College of his ancestral home, at Valla-
dolid. Here he was received with the demonstra-
tive hospitality, the pomp and ceremony usually
accorded to the sons of the old Spanish Grandees.
Returning from Spain, Mr. Gonzales made his
home in New Orleans, where his mother was already
living. His rare grace and charm of manner, his
fine conversational powers, and the dignity of his
distinguished presence, soon won for him the esteem
and admiration of the fastidious citizens of that
metropolis of the South.
After a period, fired by the spirit of adventure
and enterprise which at that time stirred the hearts
of so many young men, Mr. Gonzales resolved to
seek his fortune in the new State of Texas. Ac-
cordingly he located at Brownsville, and for many
years carried on an extensive and lucrative trade
with the interior of Mexico.
It was during this time of commercial prosperity
and happiness, that he married the acknowledged
belle and beauty of the Lone Star State, Miss
Martha Anne Rhea, the granddaughter of Governor
Sevier, and the daughter of the late Judge Rhea,
who, at that time, was Collector of Customs at
Point Isabel. In 1856, Mr. Gonzales, with his
family, moved to Galveston, and for years was a
prominent cotton factor. After the death of his
wife, in 1874, he retired from active business and
devoted his time exclusively to his children and his
consular office — as during the entire time of his
residence in Galveston, he was Consul for Mexico.
He had five children, two sons — Francis Edward,
who died August 9, 1885, and Joseph Maurice,
who died March 28, 1893— and three daughters,
Marie Therese, Helen, and Martha, still living.
Helen, married to Theodore Demetrius Murcou-
lides, has two children, Theodore Demetrius, Jr.,
and Marie Stella Murcoulides. Mr. Murcoulides,
who was born and educated in classic Athens, but
now a citizen of Smyrna, a city in Asiatic Turkey,
is in Galveston, managing the business of the
world-renowned Ralls House.
Mr. Gonzales was by faith and practice a Roman
Catholic. With an inflexible belief in the dogmas
of his Church in the broadest sense he obeyed its
commandments.
With strict principles and exclusive tastes, he
devoted himself to his children and his friends with
an ardor second only to that which he bore to the
divine symbol of his faith. Francisco de Paul
Gonzales died January 16, 1890.
390
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN C. WARD,
BEAUMONT,
President of the Beaumont Ice and Electric Light
Company, was born at Titus County, Texas, in
1851. His parents were Andrew J. and Nancy
Ward. He was educated at Beaumont where his
parents moved when he was a boy. He resided at
Corpus Christi and San Antonio for four years and
then returned to Beaumont. His first business ex-
perience was acquired when sixteen years of age as
shipping clerk in a sawmill. He remained in the
lumber business for about twenty years, beginning
work at fifteen dollars per month and at the close of
the time specified owned a business which he sold
for $56,000. After the sale of his mill interests he
embarked in the business in which he is now
engaged. His financial success is attributed to
perseverance, patience and judicious speculation.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
He has been twice married, first to Miss Pickie
Kyle, of Jasper, Jasper County, Texas, in 1877,
and second in 1885 to Miss Belle Carroll, of Beau-
mont. Four children were born of each union,
viz. Westley Kyle Ward, aged seventeen ; James
Dalton Ward, aged fifteen ; John Keith Ward, aged
thirteen years; Andrew Jackson Ward, living at
Jasper County, Texas, with his aunt, aged eleven ;
Mena Belle Ward, aged eight; Henry Levy
Ward, aged seven ; Carrol Ward, aged four, and
Seawillow Ward, aged two years. All of the chil-
dren, except Andrew J., are living at home.
Mr. Ward has had strong competition to contend
against. His success has been due to tireless
energy and superior capacity. He has moved
steadily to and now occupies a leading position at
the front among the brainy financiers of Texas.
JEFFERSON JOHNSON,
AUSTIN.
There is no man better known or better liked in
Travis County than Mr. Jeff. Johnson, the subject
of this notice. He is identified with the agricul-
tural interests of the county, owning a well im-
proved farm of 456 acres at Dell Vallej', but
resides in the city of Austin, where he has been
for many years engaged in business. He has for
some years past represented the Union Central
Life Insurance Company, Cincinnati, Ohio, one
of the leading institutions of the kind in the
country.
Mr. Johnson was born January 8th, 1845, in
Clermont County, Ohio, and completed his educa-
tion at the Ohio Wesleyan University. His parents
were Benjamin and Asenath (Tribble) Johnson,
the former a native of New Jersey, and the latter
a native of the State of Ohio.
Mr. Johnson came to Texas in 1879 and settled
in Travis County, where he engaged in farming,
and has since resided. February 5th, 1879, he was
united in marriage to Miss Hattie Houston, daugh-
ter of David Houston, of Cincinnati, Oliio, and
now (1896) has five children, viz., Benjamin,
Augusta, Adele, Helen, and Cornelia.
He is a member of the order of Knights Templar
in the Masonic fraternity, and is also a member
of the Tenth Street Methodist Episcopal Church,
South, in the city of his residence.
He was appointed one of the trustees of the
State Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb at Austin,
by Governor L. S. Ross, still retains that position,
and has served through the administrations of
Governors Eoss, Hogg and Culberson, the greater
part of the time as the President of the Board of
Trustees, and at present occupies that responsible
position.
He is a member of the Free School Board of
Travis County, and is Chairman of the Democratic
Executive Committee of the county. ■
In 1894 he was, prior to the assembling of the
Democratic State Convention, chairman of Hon.
John H. Reagan's campaign committee.
He is a Democrat, true and tried, a man of
exceptionally fine judgment, has the rare faculty of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
391
always espousing the right side of an issue, is a
thorough master of the tactics of political warfare,
has done yeoman service for the cause of Democ-
racy in every campaign that has been fought
before the people since coming to Texas, has in
every respect come up to the full measure of
enlightened, progressive and patriotic citizenship ;
is kind, affable, and foremost in every good work
that has in view the betterment of social conditions
and the prosperity of his adopted city and Slate,
and, consequently, is esteemed and respected by
all, and has many sincere and devoted friends, not
only in Austin and Texas, but wherever he is
known.
J. C. HODGES,
PARIS.
Hon. Jacob Calvin Hodges was born near
Boone, N. C, on the 25th day of December,
1849, and grew to manhood on the farm. In
consequence of the war between the States, in
which his father and elder brother participated, his
opportunities for obtaining an education were
meager.
In 1870 he obtained license to practice law and
soon after came to Texas, stopping a short time at
Jefferson, from whence he went to Pittsburg, Texas,
where he engaged in the practice of his profes-
sion.
In the spring of 1875 he went to Paris, Texas,
where he has since resided and been actively en-
gaged in the practice of law and has won a distin-
guished position at the bar. Learned in the law,
and a powerful and persuasive speaker, he has been
unusually successful as an advocate.
In politics he has always been a Democrat and
has been outspoken upon every political question,
State and national, that has come before the people,
and has taken an active and aggressive part in every
campaign waged by his party since he came to the
State. He was elected County Attorney of Lamar
County in 1878 and re-elected in 1880 and was an
elector at large on the Cleveland ticket in 1892.
He is justly regarded as a tower of Democratic
strength in North Texas and few men in the State
have labored more zealously and effectively in the
cause of good government.
JOHN RABB,
AUSTIN.
This veteran Texian was born in Fayette County,
Penn., in 1798, was reared in his native State to
about the age of ten, when he went to Arkansas,
where he met and, at about the age of twenty-
two married Miss Mary Crownover, daughter of
John Crownover, in company with whom and a
brother, Andrew Rabb, he came to Texas in 1822,
as a member of Austin's colony, but later moved on
to the Colorado, into what is now Fayette County,
taking up his abode on the prairie, which bears his
name, and there built on the banks of the Colorado
one of the first grist mills ever erected in Texas,
known as " Rabb's Mill." He received from the
government a grant of a league of land as a bonus
for this enterprise and by means of it became, in a
very substantial manner, one of the first benefactors
of the settlers of that section. He subsequently
built and owned a number of mills in that locality,
the last of which was a saw and grist mill combined,
the product of which went all over Central and
Southwest Texas. He was a resident, at different
times, of Fayette, Fort Bend and Hill counties and
finally, in 1860, moved to Travis County, settling
at Barton Springs, near the city of Austin, where
392
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
he died June 5th the following year. Mr. Eabb
volunteered in the patriot army in 1836 and was at
the battle of San Jacinto. He was also in the
frontier service and helped as often as occasion de-
manded to repel the attacks of Indians, and pur-
sued them and recaptured booty they had taken
during their raids. He was very little, if any, in
public life, though a public-spirited, patriotic citi-
zen. He was liberal, active and earnest, a man of a
strong mechanical turn of mind, and always mani-
fested interest in industrial pursuits of some sort.
He was a zealous member of the Methodist Church
and a liberal contributor to his church. He gave
the lumber to build the first Methodist church ever
erected in San Antonio, the lumber being hauled,
from his mill in Fayette County to San Antonio by
Mexicans on ox-carts.
Mr. Eabb's widow survived him a little over
twenty years, dying in 1882, in the seventy-seventh
year of her age. She was justly entitled to be
called one of the mothers of Texas, having come
to the country when it was a Mexican province, and
lived through all the changing vicissitudes of its
fortunes for sixty years. She was living in the
country when Texas threw off the yoke of Mexican
despotism and established an independent republic ;
She was here when the young but vigorous Republic
asked for admission into the American Union ; she
saw Texas withdraw from the Union and again enter
the sisterhood of States, thus living under Ave gov-
ernments. She was well known to, and knew many
old Texians, and possessed a large fund of reminis-
cences concerning Texas people.
Mr. and Mrs. Rabb were the parents of nine
children, one of whom died in infancy, one at about
the age of nine, the other seven living to maturity.
They had three sons in the Confederate army,
viz.: Zebulon M. P., John W., and Virgil S. Of
the seven children referred to, but three are now
living, viz. : Virgil S., Mrs. Bettie Croft, and Gail
T, Rabb.
GailT. Rabb, the youngest of this pioneer family,
was born at Rutersville, Fayette County, Texas, in
1847, and was reared there until he was thirteen, at
which time, in 1860, his parents moved to Travis
County, where he has since resided. He has been
engaged in farming, stock-raising and milling, hav-
ing erected two grist mills. He is an enterprising,
well-to-do and highly respected citizen.
Mr. Gill L. Rabb married Miss Isabella Tharp,
of Robertson County, Texas, a daughter of Eli W.
and Susanna Tharf), and a native of Ohio. She
was reared, however, in Texas, her parents coming
to this State when she was about five years old.
The issue of this marriage has been four children:
Derance, Walter Tharp, Mamie, and Tom Miller.
STERLING C. ROBERTSON,
EMPRESARIO OF ROBERTSON'S COLONY.
Sterling C. Robertson was born in Nashville,
Tenn., about the j ear 1785. He served as Major
of Tennessee troops in the War of 1812 and 1814
and was honorably discharged. He received a
liberal education and was reared in the occupation
of planting. He engaged in agriculture in Giles
County, Tenn., but in a few years moved to Nash-
ville. Enterprising and adventurous, and being
possessed of large means, in the year 1823 he
formed a company in Nashville to explore the wild
province of Texas. He penetrated as far as Brazos
and formed a permanent camp at the mouth of
Little river. All the party returned to Tennessee,
however, except Col. Robertson. He visited
the settlements that had been made and, while
there, conceived the idea of planting a colony in
Texas. Fill6d with enthusiasm over this plan, he
went to his home in Tennessee; there he purchased
a contract that had been made by the Mexican
government with Robert Leftwich for the settle-
ment of 800 families. The colonial grant embraced
a tract of land, snd by the terms of the contract
Col. Robertson was given six years in which to
introduce the 800 families ; he was to receive forty
leagues and forty labors of land for his services.
In 1829, at his own expense, he introduced 100
families, who were driven out by the military in
consequence of false representations made to the
government in regard to Col. Robertson and his
colonists. The matter was finally adjusted and in
the spring of 1834 the colony was restored, and in
the summer of the same year he laid out the town
of Sarahville D'Vlesca. A land office was opened
about October 1, of the same year, and the settle-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OE TEXAS.
393
ments were rapidly made. In the summer of 1835
he visited Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana and
Kentucliy, malting known the inducements to emi-
gration. He had been authorized by the Mexican
government to offer to settlers who were heads of
families one league and one labor of land, one-
fourth of a league, to single men, and to foreigners
marrying native Americans, one league and a quar-
ter of land.
border he was subject to all the trials and hardships
inseparable from contact with the wild and savage
Indians. Enterprising and patriotic, he had many
opportunities for an exhibition of those traits.
From the campaigns of 1812 and 1814, down to
1842, the year of his death, he was an active partici-
pant in every struggle of his countrymen. Before
the revolution of 1835-6 he introduced more than
600 families into the colonies, fully one-half of the
STERLING C. ROBERTSON.
Col. Robertson was a delegate to the General
Convention of 1836, was one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence, and of the Consti-
tution of the Republic of Texas. He commanded
a military company in the spring of 1836 and re-
ceived therefor a donation of 640 acres of land,
having participated in the battle of San Jacinto.
He was a member of the First Senate of the Con-
gress of the Republic of Texas.
He died in Robertson County, Texas, March 4,
1842, in the fift}' -seventh year of his age. No man
ever led a more eventful or trying life. On the
whole number having come at his expense. It
would require a volume to recount in detail all his
experiences, the adventures, trials and escapes
through which he passed from the time of his com-
ing to the frontier until his decease.
He was a gentleman of rare culture and was es-
teemed, not only for the nobility of his nature, but
for his cotpmanding intellectuality and unselflsh
devotion to his country and the cause of constitu-
tional freedom. He was a leader among that band
of heroes and statesmen who laid the foundation
for the Texas of to-day.
394
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE BERNHARD ZIMPELMAN,
AUSTIN.
The pioneers of Texas whose coining antedates
the year 1846, are, as years pass, rapidly joining
the " great majority," and those who remain are
representatives of an historic past, whose experi-
ences, with the passage of time, become more and
more interesting.
George B. Zimpelman left his native home in
Germany in 1845, and came to America to seek
his fortune. He was born in the then Kingdom of
Bavaria, July 24th, 1832. His father, John J.
Zimpelman, was a life-long and influential citizen,
and by occupation a prosperous farmer. He was
also born in Bavaria, was there reared, and married
a daughter of Valentine Hochdoerffer, who was
likewise a well-to-do farmer in Bavaria.
Much had been published and circulated in Ger-
many and other foreign countries about this time
concerning the new Republic of Texas, and young
Zimpelman, having caught the spirit of the hour,
decided to make his way hither. He decided on
New Orleans as his first American point of des-
tination, landing there in January, 1845. He re-
mained there about one year, and served as a
salesman in a dry goods house, and in December
of the same year proceeded to Texas and to
Austin, the recently established seat of govern-
ment. Austin was then on the extreme Western
frontier. Settlers had, however, taken up farms
along the Colorado and in the vicinity of the
capital city. Building operations were quite lively,
and, in lieu of something better, young Zimpelman
adapted himself to the situation, and took up car-
pentering as an apprentice, and in due time be-
came a master carpenter. He continued in this
business until 1854. He then became interested in
and followed gunsmithing for two years. In 1856
he located on a stock farm hear Austin and pur-
sued stockraising and agriculture until the breaking
out of the great Civil War. Upon the first call to
arms in 1861 he promptly volunteered to defend
the cause of his adopted country, and became a
member of Terry's Texas Rangers, the Eighth
Texas Cavalry, as a private, and followed his
regiment through all of the vicissitudes of that
sanguinary conflict, sharing in all of its victories
and defeats, and declining all offers of advance-
ments from the ranks, preferring to stand in line
of battle with his comrades. The heroic services
of Terry's Texas Rangers as an organization is
already a matter of historic record, and needs not '
to be here recounted. Mr. Zimpelman, with his
regiment, participated in many of the hardest
fought battles of the conflict, and in the battles
of Murfreesboro, Shelbyville, Corinth, Shilo, and
Chickamauga, was six times wounded, and was
three times wounded in the siege of Atlanta.
After the war he returned to his farm near Aus-
tin and resumed the peaceful avocation of stock
raising. In 1866 he was elected Sheriff of Travis
County, but the Radical reconstruction policy of
the United States Government precluded his serving
as such. This state of affairs soon, however, came
to an end and, he was again elected to the office in
1869 and re-elected in 1873, serving until 1876.
Upon retirement from oflSce he engaged in banking
in the city of Austin as a member of the banking
firm of Foster, Ludlow & Co., and continued in this
connection until 1877 when the partnership was
dissolved.
No citizen of Austin has been more active in the
upbuilding of the city and loyal to her business
interests. Mr. Zimpelman promptly identified him-
self with and labored for its development. He
took active part in the establishment of the ice
factory, street car lines, bridge across the Colorado
river and was the first man to bring to public notice
the possibility of a dam across the Colorado river
for water power. He spent a considerable amount
of money in making surveys and demonstrated its
practicability. Mr. Zimpelman next spent about
three years in mining in Chihuahua, Mexico, and at
the same time executed a contract with the Mexican
Government for the surveying of public lands. He
returned to Austin in 1888 and the following year
he engaged in mining projects in Lower California.
In 1893 he was appointed Postmaster of the
city of Austin under Postmaster-General Bissell
and has ably performed the duties of the office,
which he still holds. There are few men in Austin
(if indeed there are any) who have been more
active in business and more faithful in fulfilling the
duties of oflSce (which Mr. Zimpelman holds to be
a sacred trust) than the subject of this brief sketch.
Mr. Zimpelman was married in Travis County to
Miss Sarah C, daughter of Thos. Matthews, a
farmer and a pioneer of 1850. Mrs. Zimpelman
died in 1886, leaving three sons and two daughters,
Mary Louise, who became the wife of Hon. Chas
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
395
H. Howard, both now deceased; Thos. M., of
Austin; Joseph L., George W., of Utah, and a
Miss Waldin, now assistant money order clerk in
the Austin post office.
Mr. Zimpelman is a member of long and high
standing in the order of Free and Accepted Masons,
and enjoys the full confidence and esteem of a wide
circle of loyal friends.
THOMAS MOORE, M. D.,
WACO.
Dr. Thomas Moore was born in Mercer County,
Ky., August 6th, 1815. His parents were John
and Phoebe (Westerfield) Moore.
John Moore, also a native of Kentucky, was born
in 1789 and was the son of Thomas Moore (born in
1755), who was the son of Simon Moore, who, when
a young man, emigrated to Kentucky with Daniel
Boone's colony ; his ancestor was Thomas Moore,
who emigrated to America from England.
Dr. Moore was the eldest of the children born to
John and Phoebe (Westerfield) Moore, and the
only one now living of a large family. His father
served in the volunteer force in the Northwest under
Gen. William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812.
He was a farmer and school teacher by occupation,
and died in Lawrence County, Ala., in 1863. His
widow survived him until 1875, when she departed
this life at Waco, Texas. They were active mem-
bers of the Church of Christ. In 1836 young
Moore began the study of medicine in Glasgow,
Ky. , in the office of Dr. W. D. Jourdan. In the fall
of 1837 he commenced the practice of his profes-
sion in Allen County ; later practiced in Warren
and Simpson Counties, Ky., until 1845; and then
moved to Limestone County, Ala., where he
remained until 1853, in which year he moved to Bur-
net County, Texas, where he continued actively
engaged in practice. As a physician he was skill-
full and his professional labors became so extensive
and arduous as to result in such serious impairment
of his health that he abandoned the practice of
medicine. He then began the study of law, was
admitted to the bar and was soon earnestly and
successfully engaged in the pursuit of his new
profession, practicing in the various courts of
Texas.
He has never been a politician in the strict sense
of the term. He has never sought office, and has
never accepted office, save when called upon to do
so by the voice of the people. He was a member
of the Secession Convention of Texas. In that
body he served as a member of the Committee on
Federal Relations and aided the chairman of that
committee in preparing the address to people of
Texas advocating secession. During the war he
was appointed, by Judge T. J. Devine, one of the
Confederate States receivers for the court at Austin,
which position he held until the close of the war.
In 1866, while A. J. Hamilton was Provisional
Governor, Dr. Moore was, with his son, John
Moore, and some others, arrested by the military
authorities on the charge that they were opponents
of and inimical to the policy of reconstruction that
was being pursued. He was taken to Austin and
held in prison there seventy-eight days, when he, his
son and their companions, were released, after being
brought before a magistrate and giving bond. In
1867 Dr. Moore moved to Waco, where he has
since resided and devoted himself to the practice of
law. He was united in marriage in Glasgow, Ky.,
March 9, 1837, to Miss Eliza J. Dodd. They have
had eight children, five sons and three daughters,
born to them, viz. : John, Thomas P., Luke, James
I., Bart, Emily A., now Mrs. Frazier, of Bosque
County ; Ida, now Mrs. Hays, and Jennie, now
Mrs. Muenenhall.
March 9, 1887, they celebrated their golden wed-
ding, which was made a great event in Waco.
396
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
M. L. OPPENHEIMER,
EAGLE PASS.
The histor3' of the later material growth of Eagle
Pass is as phenotndial as its Indian and pioneer
history is thrilling and instructive.
The bustling, ambitious and tireless men of
business soon followed in the wake of the pioneers
and pushed the work of permanent development in
agriculture and commerce to its present stage of
growth and advancement and for this reason the
brief facts touching the leading men and financiers
of this latter historical epoch should find a becom-
ing place in this history.
Mr. Oppenhi imer belongs to and is identified
with the history of Eagle Pass and his rise in the
business and financial world is a fair illustration of
what push, perseverance and well-directed industry
will accomplish in a new and growing country.
Mr. Oppenheimer is a native of Bavaria and was
born November 16th, 1852. He left his native
home and came to America alone, and went direct
to San Antonio about the year 1867, when a youth
of about fifteen years. He secured a clerkship in
the store of a relative, B. Oppenheimer (now de-
ceased), then a leading merchant of that city, and
later represented the house as travelling salesman
in the Rio Grande valley. He thereafter worked
for the mercantile house of Goldfrank, Frank &
Company, of San Antonio, as accountant, for about
six years. For the following three years he repre-
sented his former employer, B. Oppenheimer, on
the Rio Grande and for one year the firm of Leon
& E. Blum, of Galveston, in the same region. Mr.
Oppenheimer, having ever an eye to the best chance,
became impressed with the advantages afforded by
the existing business situation and future prospects
of Eagle Pass, resigned his position, purchased a
stock of general merchandise and in 1881 embarked
in business at that place. The venture proved a
financial success and he made money. He con-
tinued in trade until 1892 and then purchased an
interest in the banking business of S. P. Simpson
'& Company, the oldest banking house west of San
Antonio, and in 1895 became sole owner of the
institution. He transacts a large volume of busi-
ness annually on a safe and conservative business
basis and his bank is one of the strong financial
institutions of Southwest Texas. Mr. Oppen-
heimer's rise in the world, from an humble begin-
ning as a poor boy 'from a foreign land, has been
steady and honorable. He is a good man for his
city, takes a, just pride in its institutions, and aids
liberally with his influence and ample means all
movements tending to its advancement and well-
being. He is president of the Texas-Mexican
Electric Light & Power Company and connected
with other leading enterprises. Mr. Oppenheimer
married an estimable San Antonio lady in 1883 and
they have three children : Leonidas, Alexander and
Ella. They have a spacious and attractive home
and are esteemed for their excellent social accom-
plishments.
WILLIAM P. HARDEMAN,
SUPERINTENDENT CONFEDERATE HOME.
Gen. William P. Hardeman is one of the very
few men now living who has served Texas in every
military struggle from her first permanent colonial
settlement. Though now eighty years of age, he
retains his mental faculties unimpaired and to a
singular degree his phj'sical activity.
He was born in Williamson County, Tenn., the
4th day of November, 1816. His family has been
distinguished in the early history of the Southern
States. His grandfather, Thomas Hardeman, was
a member of the first Constitutional Convention of
Tennessee. His father, Thomas J. Hardeman,
served several terms with marked distinction as a
member of the Congress of the Republic of Texas.
He was the author of the resolution of the Texas
Congress which gave the name of Austin to the
capital of the State. The mother of Gen. Harde-
man was the daughter of Ezekiel Polk, of Irish
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
397
descent, who was a signer of the Mecklenberg
Declaration of Independence in North Carolina.
The Hardemans were of Welsh origin. The blood
of Wales and Ireland thus mingling in the veins of
William P. Hardeman, it is not strange that an
ardent love for independence and a hatred of
oppression, in every form, should have marked his
career.
His father reached Texas with his family in 1835,
just at the time when the colonists were preparing
for unequal war with Mexico. Burleson Milam,
Frank Johnson, and others, had determined to
capture the garrison at San Antonio. Their fol-
lowers were the frontier hnnters and almost their
sponded with alacrity by volunteering, and started
for San Antonio with twenty-one men. His
father demanded that his name should be entered
in the muster roll as a volunteer and it was so
written. Houston, who had heard from the servant
of Travis of the massacre at the Alamo, fell back
from Gonzales. Hardeman, with the little band of
twenty-one men, was not so fortunate, for, know-
ing neither the fate of Travis nor the retreat of
Houston, they rode in upon the Mexican pickets
and narrowly escaped capture. The horses were
exhausted by forced marches to reach the Alamo
and Capt. Dimmit, who was in command, ordered
them to abandon their horses, which they did, and
GKN. WIM. r. HARDEMAN.
only weapons were the hunter's rifle. Artillery
was especially needed, and W. P. Hardeman, then
but nineteen years old, accompanied his uncle,
'Bailey Hardeman, and a few neighbors to Dimmit's
landing, below the month of the Lavaca river, and
procured an eighteen pound cannon, which had
been brought on a schooner from Matagorda Pass.
On the march the force was increased to seventy-
five men, among whom were twenty men known as
the Mobile Grays. Marching rapidly with this
piece of artillery to San Antonio, the news of the
approaching reinforcement reached Gen. Cos in
advance and precipitated his surrender, which
occurred before the artillery arrived.
In the spring of 1836, when Travis, hemmed in
with his men, appealed from the Alamo for help,
young Hardeman, then not twenty years old, re-
retreated on foot down the Guadalupe, marching
four days without food. On their return, Bailey
Hardeman, who was a member of President Burnet's
cabinet, ordered W. P. Hardeman back from
Harrisburg to Matagorda County, with a commis-
sion for John Bowman to raise a company, and to
remain in the county. On his arrival he found but
four men in that county, among whom was one who
had just escaped the Fannin massacre. The trip
was one of exposure and hardship ; no shelter, no
food, except such as he carried in his saddlebags.
Swimming the San Bernard river and sleeping, wet
and uncovered on the prairie at night, he at last
reached Harrisburg, but sick, exhausted and unable
to accompany his brother, Munroe Hardeman, with
the army. In 1837 he ranged the frontier with
Deaf Smith four months. On the 22d of February,
398
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
1839, he was with Col. John H. Moore in the fight
with the Comanche Indians at Wallace's Greek,
seven miles above San Saba. In April, 1839, he
was in the Cordova fight, under Burleson, four
miles east of Seguin. He served as a member of
the celebrated mounted company commanded by
Ben McCuUoch, during the Mexican "War of 1846.
He has been married three times and farmed on the
San Marcos river until sent by his county to the
State Secession Convention of 1861. In politics
Gen. Hardeman is a Democrat of the strict con-
struction school and, believing that secession alone
could preserve the institutions of the South from
Federal aggression, he voted for secession and on
many a bloody field he sought to establish it with
arms. He joined the command destined for Arizona
and New Mexico with a full company of young
men, the very flower of the Guadalupe valley, and
became senior Captain in the regiment commanded
by Col. Riley, in which the lamented William E.
Scurry was Lieutenant-Colonel, and Henry Raguet
was Major. At the battle of Val Verde, he was
promoted for distinguished gallantry on the field
and became the Major of the regiment. The
charge on McRae's battery, made by the Con-
federates at Val Verde, is one of the most re-
markable in the annals of war. In this battle
Hardeman was wounded. During that expedition
Hardeman was sent to Albuquerque with Capts.
Walker and Copewood, to hold the plain with
150 men. In that town all the ammunition, re-
serve supplies, and medicines for the army, were
stored. Fifteen hundred Federal soldiers attacked
the position. Hardeman was advised of their ap-
proach and could have retreated, but his retreat
meant the surrender of the army, for behind it was
a desert, destitute of supplies. For five days and
nights, his men never leaving their guns, he sus-
tained the attack and held the position until rein-
forcements arrived from Santa Fe. This defense
saved the army. A council of war was held the
night before the army began to retreat from Albu-
querque. The situation was fully discussed, but
no oflScer proposed any definite action, until Maj.
Jackson called on Hardeman, who was present, to
express his views on the situation. Gen. Sibley
then invited Hardeman to speak. He remarked
that it was manifest that the enemy could reinforce
quicker than the Confederates, and the sooner the
army got away the better. He was the only man
who had the moral courage to advise a retreat,
which all knew was inevitable, and his advice was
promptly adopted by Gen. Sibley.
When the retreat began, Gen. Green's regiment
was attacked at Peralto. It was saved by the
timely return of Hardeman, who was then in com-
mand of his regiment and who had started to cap-
ture Fort Craig, then garrisoned by Federal troops
under Kit Carson. His men waded the river, which
was full of floating ice, during the night. The line
of retreat was across the mountains to a point on
the river below Fort Craig. To Hardeman is due
the credit of saving the artillery on that retreat.
On the arrival of the army at El Paso he was
ordered by Col. Riley to go to the interior of
Texas and recruit. Here was exemplifled Harde-
man's unselfish devotion to duty. His first im-
pulse was that of joy at the prospect of soon seeing
again his wife and children, but he knew that his
long experience as a frontiersman better qualified
him to take the regiment safely across the plains,
than any other one in the command, and he asked
Gen. Sibley to countermand the order. He was in
the battle of Galveston, with the land forces, on
January 1, 1863, when the Federal boats were
either captured or driven from the harbor and a
Massachusetts regiment captured.
After the battle of Galveston, Gen. Magruder
requested Hardeman, then Lieutenant-Colonel of
the Fourth Regiment, to resign, and accept com-
mand of Peter Hardeman's regiment, for the pur-
pose of organizing a new force to return to
Arizona. Afterward, when Col. Riley fell at
Iberia, Louisiana, Gen. E. Kirby Smith ordered
Hardeman back to command his own regiment,
with which he remained until the close of the war.
After his return to his old regiment he participated
in the disastrous night attack on Fort Butler. Lieut.
Wilkins was present when Gen. Geeen requested
Hardeman's opinion about making the attack.
Hardeman said that many good men would fall
and nothing could be gained, for the river was full
of gunboats and, if the night attack should be
successful, the enemy would recapture the fort next
day. He added: "If the attack is made I will
lead my regiment in the fight." Green's orders to
attack were imperative and the result was more'
disastrous to the command than any other battle of
the war n this attack Hardeman was again
wounded. With 250 men he met the advance of
the army, under Gen. Banks, near Pleasant Hill.
With his small force he stubbornly resisted the
march of the Federal army, retreating and fighting
at every step, until night. At night the enemy
camped on the south side of a creek near the old
mill and Hardeman, with his little force, rested for
a time in the woods on the other side. In the
night, at ten o'clock, he put his men in motion and
fiercely charged the whole Federal army. The
strength of the attacking force was not known and
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
399
the enemy moved back two miles and camped.
This enabled the Confederate troops to fall back
next morning and take position atMansfleld, where
the decisive battle of the campaign was fought. In
that battle Gen. Hardman commanded Green's
brigade and to the fact that under his leadership it
struck the Federal line in flank and rear, at the
moment that the infantry of Mouton's Division had
been brought up standing in front of the 13lh Corps
of the Union army, unable to advance further in
the face of a deadly Are delivered from behind a
breastwork of rails, was chiefly due the victory
that the Confederates won in that engagement. To
this fact Lieut. Dudley Avery, of Gen. Mouton's
staff, bore eloquent testimony in a letter written to
Gen. H. H. Boone a few years ago, in which he de-
scribed the magnificent charge made by Mouton's
infantry and spoke of the part Gen. Hardeman
played upon that bloody and hard fought field.
In that desperate battle nearly every company
officer of Hardeman's regiment was killed or
wounded. The following day he participated in
the battle of Pleasant Hill. Banks was now in
full retreat, but with an army far stronger than his
pursuers. The eventful campaign which resulted
in driving him back to Lower Louisiana, lasted forty-
three days, thirty-nine of which were days of fight-
ing, with Hardeman nearly always at the front.
The retreat terminated in the battle of Yellow
Bayou, in which Hardeman commanded the division.
Among the many compliments received by Harde-
man's regiment from superior officers, should be
mentioned that of Gen. Dick Taylor, who wrote
that their charge at Franklin saved the army.
Here Col. Eiley was killed and Hardeman then be-
came the Colonel of the regiment and was subse-
quently commissioned Brigadier-General by the
War Department.
When peace was restored Gen. Hardeman went
to Mexico, where he was employed to survey lands
in Durango and Mellakauka. He returned home
in 1866 and engaged in cattle speculation to restore
his fortunes, but this resulted unfortunately. He
■entered the army in 1861 wealthy; at the close of
the war he found himself- poor.
When Coke was inaugurated as Governor in 1874,
armed resistance was threatened by ex-Governor E.
J. Davis, who refused to recognize the election.
Gen. H. E. McCulloch, who had been placed in
•command of the capitol grounds and buildings,
became sick, and Guy M. Bryan, Speaker of the
House, appointed Gen. Hardeman, Col. Ford and
Col. William N. Hardeman as assistant Sergeant-
at-Arms, to protect the Legislature and public
buildings, and to keep the peace. In open session
of the House he said to them : ' ' You love Texas ;
you have seen much service in her behalf during
three wars ; you are experienced and accustomed
to command men. A great crisis is upon Texas ;
she never needed your services more than now."
The crisis was manifest. Davis was relying upon
Grant, who was then President, to sustain him in
his usurpation, but in this he was deceived. The
capitol grounds swarmed with armed negroes, who
were influenced by corrupt whites, greedy to retain
power. For eight days and nights the Hardemans
and Ford were at their posts, and the Speaker of
the House, writing of their services, said: "They
showed tact, fidelity and efficiency. Twice they
prevented bloodshed." When the crisis had passed,
in open session of the House, he addressed them as
follows: " Faithful servants of Texas, I have asked
you to come here, that in the presence of the House
of Representatives of the people of Texas, in their
name, as the Speaker, and in the name of every
man, woman and child of Texas, to thank you for
the invaluable services you have rendered them.
But for you, Texas might have been drenched in
in blood and remanded back to military rule, which,
in mj' humble judgment, you largely contributed
to avert by your consummate tact, true courage
and patriotism. You are discharged."
By Governor Coke he was appointed Public
Weigher at Galveston ; by Governor Roberts, In-
spector of Railroads ; by Governor Ross, Superin-
tendent of Public Buildings and Grounds, and by
Governor Culberson, Superintendent of the Con-
federate Home, at Austin, which position he now
holds.
His early life was spent in camp and field with
the pioneer hunters and rangers of the Republic
and, yet, it would be difficult to find in any social
circle a man more gentle in his bearing and refined
in his manners. He acts now with another genera-
tion which knows nothing of the hardships and
perils which created Texas and, yet, the death of
no living man would be more sincerely deplored,
not only by her old soldiers, but by the citizenship
of Texas at large, than would that of Gen. William
P. Hardeman.
400
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ANDREW H. EVANS, M. D.,
EAGLE PASS.
Andrew H. Evans, a well-known citizen and suc-
cessful physician of Eagle Pass, is a native of Ken-
tucky and was born at High Grove, in Nelson
County, March 12, 1856. His father, Walter M.
Evans, was a successful farmer and a native of the
same State, and married Miss Sarah E. Oliphant, a
member of an old Kentucky family and a descend-
ant of the Oliphants of Virginia.
Dr. Evans spent his boyhood and youth on the
farm and received an academic education at Bards-
town, Ky. His tastes did not incline him to agri-
cultural pursuits and he entered upon the study of
medicine, and took a course of study at the Medi-
cal University at Louisville, Ky. , graduating there-
from in the class of 1880, and returned to his native
town of High Grove, where he commenced the
practice of his profession. He, in 1883, attended
lectures at Bellevue Hospital Medical College,
New York, and in 1884 received his diplomas from
the institution, and almost immediately thereafter
located at Eagle Pass, Texas, where an uncle, A.
M. Oliphant, an able lawyer, of ten years' residence
in that city, then resided.
Dr. Evans' profession abilities, great energy and
excellent social qualities soon drew about him a circle
of warm personal friends and brought to him a large
medical practice, and since his coming, little of im-
portance in the line of material growth and social
advancement has transpired that Dr. Evans has not
promoted and fostered with his moral support and
ample means. He has served his people for eight
consecutive years as a member of the Board of
Trustees of the city free schools, where his inflaenee
has had a salutary effect in elevating the grade and
standard of scholarship and the general develop-
ment of the local free school system.
Dr. Evans has for ten years past held the office
of city or county physician at Eagle Pass, and now
holds the respectable position of Slate quarantine
officer. He is one of the directors of the First
National Bank of Eagle Pass, is a director of the
Eagle Pass Board of Trade, and a director and
vice-president of the Mesquite Club, a close organi-
zation of the business men of the city, with luxuri-
ously equipped club-rooms. The club was organ-
ized for the promotion of business fellowship and
rational enjoyment. He is also one of the vestry-
men of the local Episcopal church.
Dr. Evans has been twice married, first at High
Grove, Ky., in 1884, to Miss Hattie Harris, who
died in 1887; and second, in 1891, to Miss Lulu
Burke, a daughter of T. S. Burke, M. D., of Cor-
pus Christi, Texas, a lady of fine domestic tastes
and social culture. Dr. and Mrs. Evans have one
child, a daughter, Lulu. Dr. and Mrs. Evans are
communicants of the Church of the Redeemer (Epis-
copalian) and valued and influential members of the
society circle of the city. Dr. Evans stands high
in his profession and is esteemed as one of the
most energetic, enterprising and useful citizens of
his city. He possesses great energy and is a tire-
less worker. Withal, Dr. Evans is a practical busi-
ness man and successful financier and is regarded
as one of the substantial citizens of Eacle Pass.
L. E. GRIFFITH, M. D.,
TERRELL.
Dr. L. E. Griffith, Sr. , was born at Clarksburg,
Montgomery County, Md., January 9th, 1813. His
parents were Eev. Alfred Griffith, a native of Mont-
gomery County, Md., and Miss Catherine Griffith, nee
Miss Catherine Scholl, a native of Maryland. The
subject of this notice left his home in the spring of
1836 and came to Texas and located at San Augus-
tine, nine days after the battle of San Jacinto, and
there practiced his profession until 1842, in which
year he removed to Paris, in Lamar County, Texas.
He remained there but a short time, as the country
was so sparsely settled that there was not much
business for physicians. Paris at that time con
tained but two log houses. In the larger one of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
401
these were kept the county records, together with
groceries, general merchandise and whisky, which
was a leading article of traffic and untaxed. It
was a rare thing to see a drunken man, notwith-
standing nearly every body drank liquor, it being
considered a great medicine and preventive of
chills. In the other building was- a blacksmith
shop. The same j'ear he went to Clarksville, Red
River County. In the winter of 1846 the Doctor
removed to Sabine County, near Milam, the then
county seat, where he practiced medicine for about
twelve years, removing to Nacogdoches in January,
1857, where he remained about twenty-seven years,
engaged in the practice of his profession and
merchandising. In the spring of 1883 he removed
to Terrell, Kaufman County, Texas, where he has
since resided.
He was an active practitioner for upwards of
fifty years and was familiarly acquainted with nearly
all of the noted men of Texas of early days. Gen.
Sam Houston was his first patient in Texas, the
Doctor attending him after his return from New
Orleans, where the General had gone to receive
medical and surgical attention after having been
wounded in the battle of San Jacinto. For a time
during 1846, while the Mexican War was in pro-
gress. Dr. Griffith was in charge of a field hospital
at San Antonio.
Eight children have been born to him, four of
whom, three boys and one daughter, are living.
His wife dying some years since, his maiden
daughter has charge of the household and is caring
for him in his declining years. Oae of his sons, L.
E. Griffith, Jr., is in the drug business at Terrell ;
another son, Dr. W. C. Griffith, is a practicing
physician at Terrell, Texas, and the third son, T. B.
Griffith, is engaged in the Land, Loan and Insur-
ance business at Terrell, Texas.
Although Dr. Griffith is quite a small, spare
man, his general health is much above the average,
and he bids fair to reach the one hundred years
mark.
Rather retiring in disposition, he is very jovial
and talkative when once interested and can relate
anecdotes and reminiscences of early days in Texas
which are very interesting.
D. H. TRENT,
GOLDTHWAITE.
Daniel Henry Trent was born near the town of
Fayetteville, Washington County, Ark., in 1842.
His father was John Trent, and his mother bore
the maiden name of Jane Conner, natives, prob-
ably, of Tennessee or Kentucky, but early settlers
in Arkansas. The father was a type of that class
of men common on the Western frontier fifty years
ago, whose memory has survived to this generation
only in the fireside stories of a few of their number
of exceptional prominence like Boone, Crockett,
and Carson. Such men cared but little for wealth
and less for the applause of the world. Their
home was in the forest ; their pursuits those of the
chase, which yielded them both the necessities and
the luxuries of life. John Trent moved with his
family to Texas in 1850, and was a resident, suc-
cessively, of Bastrop, Williamson, Burnet, and
Llano Counties.
Growing up on the frontier, where the training
of the young was restricted to a desultory sort of
drilling in domestic duties, far from any schools
worthy of the name, the early years of Daniel H.
Trent were passed in a manner exceedingly unfav-
orable to future success. His entire schooling did
not amount to two months, and he had no oppor-
tunities to neutralize these disadvantages in any
industrial or commercial pursuits. Still, fortune
favored him with a liberal endowment of energy,
application and force of character, which qualities
bore good fruits in after years. When about
fifteen he began to ' ' work out ' ' at twenty-five
cents a day, and soon coming to have a little
money he was fired with an ambition to accumulate
a fortune and become independent. He was, even
at that early age, the chief dependence of his
father's family, to discharge his duly to whom he
obtained permission to hire himself out on con-
dition that he turn over the bulk of his wages to
the family, being allowed to retain the balance for
his own use. He hired to one Eldredge, then
engaged in freighting between Port Lavaca and the
town of Burnet, for fifteen dollars a month, ten of
which was to be paid to his father. He worked
for Eldredge for six months, earning $90, thirty of
402
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
which fell to his share, $60 going to his father.
This $30 he invested in a sow and pigs, and adding
to the number others which he purchased with his
meager earnings, he fattened the lot and drove
them through to Washington County, where he
sold them for something over a hundred dollars.
About this time occurred one of the early Indian
raids into Llano County, and a demand being
created for firearms, young Trent went to Austin
and invested the proceeds from the sale of his hogs
in six shooters, which he readily sold at a good
profit among the settlers of Burnet and Llano
Counties. He then invested what money he had
in two cows, which had running with them their
could find bearing his brand and purchasing others,
got together a herd of about 1,500 head. These
he moved to Coleman County, then on the extreme
western limits of the settled portion of the State.
Later, establishing himself on the Clear Fork of
the Brazos, in Fisher and Jones County, he de-
veloped a large ranch, staying by his interest
through all its ups and downs until 1882, when the
cattle boom being at its highest, he sold his ranch
and brand to Steptoe and Stephens, of Abilene, for
$100,000, the property a short time afterward
passing into the hands of S. P. Moore, of Chicago,
at an advance of $10,000. Mr. Trent was wise
enough to see that the cattle business had reached
D. H. TRENT.
calves, and a heifer, and with these began his
career as a " cowman." The war coming on
a short time afterward the cattle business, in com-
mon with all other kinds, was practically broken
up, and Mr. Trent followed it in only a desultory
sort of way, his time being chiefly occupied in
helping to defend the frontier against the Indians,
who began to be especially troublesome with the
opening of hostilities between the North and
South. The years from 1861 to 1865 are memor-
able in the history of the State, for the trials and
hardships which they brought to the people of the
frontier, in all of which Mr. Trent shared, bearing
his part of the common burden, and promptly
responding when duty called him to the field of
action.
After the war he gathered up what cattle he
high-water mark in 1882, and disposed of the bulk
of his holdings before the fall in prices. He con-
tinued in the business, however, establishing another
ranch in the same locality which he still owns, and
acquiring title to other brands. Later he has
engaged some also in the horse business.
Seeking new fields for investment he, in 1886,
bought $48,000 of the $75,000 stock of the First
National Bank of Brownwood and increasing the
capital to $100,000 was made president of that
institution, which position he has since held. Two
years later he established a private bank at Gold-
thwaite on a capital of $25,000 and conducted this
as a private concern till January, 1892, when the
stock was increased to $50,000 and the bank
nationalized, becoming the First National Bank of
Goldthwaite, of which he was made president, and
SAMUEL H. SMITH.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
403
holds that position now. For the past eight or ten
years, although retaining some ranching interest,
Mr. Trent has devoted his attention mainly to
banking. His home is at Goldthwaite, where he
settled in 1887, shortly after the town was laid out,
and he spends his time between that place and
Brownwood.
Such is a brief outline of what has been an ex-
ceptionally active and, in some respects, eventful
career. Mr. Trent has not been a public man in
any sense of the word, but the value of his ser-
vices to the State is not to be measured by the
standard applied to public men. He has rather
occupied the position of scout to the advancing
army of civilization. The contests in which he
has been concerned have been the hand-to-hand
sort where the issue has turned on the personal
merit of the contestant. Beginning his life as a
cowboy on the range, when his only companion was
his pony, his best defense against hostile Indians
a pair of six shooters, his bed at night the earth,
and his covering the sky, with a chorus of coyotes
to lull him to slumber, he has followed the cattle
business through all its evolutions, experi-
encing its hardships and its pleasures, its
alternating hopes and disappointments; and now
after a third of a century so spent he is one of the
few "cowmen" of Texas who have practically
retired from that business with a fortune. The
success of such a career argues the possession of a
combination of qualities that is as rare as those
which illumine the supposedly higher walks of- life
with their achievements and fill the pages of his-
tory with more or less renown. Yet Mr. Trent is
far from making any boast of bis success. It is
doubtful, in fact, if he fully realizes the significance
of what he has done. He has been so absorbed in
the labors which he has assumed that he has never
stopped to consider the magnitude of the obstacles
he has encountered or to weigh the effort required
to overcome them.
As a citizen he has actively interested himself in
the preservation of law and order and has thrown
the weight of a strong personal example in favor
of whatever is calculated to stimulate industry
or improve the country in which he makes his
home. He feels an especially friendly interest in
education, for knowing from experience the disad-
vantages under which one labors who has not had
the benefits of schooling, it is his wish that the
rising generation may not be so hampered in the
race of life. He is a member of the Masonic
order. Lodge No. 694, of Goldthwaite, in which his
social instincts find proper expression. Steady,
temperate and economical in habits, his private life
meets the demands of good citizenship. He is
quiet and retiring in disposition, but thinks and
acts for himself.
Mr. Trent has been three times married and is
the father of seven living children. His three
eldest, issue of his first marriage, are grown, these
being Mrs. Emily Lindsey, wife of F. H. Lindsey,
of Abilene, Texas ; Mrs. Mary Ellen Thompson,
wife of William H. Thompson, assistant cashier of
the First National Bank of Brownwood, and
William H. Trent, cashier of the First National
Bank of Goldthwaite. His four remaining chil-
dren are small, these being Ida Belle, issue of his
second marriage. Alma, Letrice and Daniel Albert,
the last three being offspring of his last marriage.
SAMUEL H. SMITH,
ROCKPORT.
Maj. Samuel H. Sniith was a substantial citizen
of Kockport, a large property holder, and identi-
fied with the development of the material resources
of the Gulf region of Southwest Texas.
He was born near the town of Montgomery, in
Montgomery County, Texas, May 25, 1839, and
was the oldest of four children born to John and
Catherine (Gillette) Smith, the former of whom
was a native of Virginia and the latter of Missouri.
Mr. John Smith was one of Stephen F. Austin's
first colony of 300, and located his headright on
the Nueces river near Rockport. He was a relative
of Governor Henry Smith, Provisional Governor
of Texas during the Texas Revolution of 1835-6.
He served as a soldier through the Texas Revolu-
tion, took part in the battle of San Jacinto and
was a participant in the expeditions against Mexico.
After living for a time in Montgomery County, he
removed to Grimes County, where he died in 1848.
He was an especial friend and supporter of Gen.
404
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
S.am Houston. He was the first sheri:^ of and
built the first cotton gin in Montgomery County.
Samuel H. Smith grew up in Montgomery,
Grimes and Guadalupe counties and in 1857 moved
to Bee County and engaged in stock raising. In
1861 he espoused the Confederate cause and joined
Downley's company, First Texas Cavalry. He
was made Lieutenant of the company, then Assist-
ant Quartermaster, later Captain and finally Major.
He also served through several campaigns as Com-
missary of Buschell's brigade. At the close of
the war he returned to Bee County, where he en-
gaged in raising, buying and shipping cattle. He
was one of the chief promoters of the enterprise
that resulted in the establishment of a meat-packing
house near Rockport, which for a time did a large
business. In 1867 he located in Aransas County,
in order to secure beef cattle for this packing
house. His operations in stock were on an exten-
sive and successful scale and he built up a consid-
erable fortune in ranch lands, cattle and real estate
in and about Rockport, of which thriving little
city he was thereafter (until the time of his death,
which occurred at Rockport,' April 25th, 1895), an
esteemed and influential citizen.
He took, also, a prominent part in securing:
harbor improvements at Aransas Pass and was an
oflScer of the first company organized for that pur-
pose.
September 15th, 1874, he married Miss Clara
Hynes, daughter of Judge John Hynes, a pioneer
who came to Texas with his father from Ohio, in
1836 and located on Hynes Bay, in Refugio County,
where he was one of the first white settlers. He
served as County Judge of Refugio County and
was for many years an honored and exemplary
citizen of that county, dying there at his home OU'
Hynes' Bay, in 1887, at sixty-three years of age.
Mrs. Smith was born in Corpus Christi, Texas,
December 29, 1854.
She has seven children: Tiny, John H. and'
James H. (twins), William H., and Samuel H.
(twins), Grace and Hynes.
Maj. Smith was for two terms Mayor of the
city of Rockport and was vice-president of th&
Aransas Pass First National Bank.
The family are all members of the Cathoiie
Church. Maj. Smith embraced that faith before,
his death.
ROBERT M. WILLIAMSON,
("THREE-LEGGED WILLIE.")
Was born in Georgia ; in early life was afflicted
with white swelling, which stiffened one of his
knees ; moved to Texas and located at San Felipe
in 1827 and engaged in the practice of law ; was
Alcalde in 1834 ; was Captain of a company that
served against the Indians in 1835, and was a mem-
ber of a Committee of Safety at Bastrop, where he
then lived ; served in the General Consultation of
that year ; was District Judge in 1836 ; was elected
to the Texas Congress In 1840 and until annexation
was re-elected to that body from Washington
County ; and for several years represented that
county in the State Senate after annexation. In
1857 he had a severe attack of sickness, which
seriously affected his intellect. ' ' The death of his
wife," says Thrall, " a daughter of Col. Edwards,
of Wharton County, occurred shortly afterwards.
From these combined shocks his mind never entirely
recovered, until the time of his death, which tran-
spired peacefully and calmly on the 22d of Decem-
ber, 1859, in Wharton County."
Alluding to the one fault, or failing, that he pos-
sessed, one of the "fears of the brave and follies
of the wise, " which was to be ascribed to the temper
of the times in which a large portion of his life was
spent, the wild and disorderly state of society then
existing, a biographer in recording his demise closes
the notice with the following sentence:
"May I supplicate for Robert M. Williamson
(who, if he was a great sinner, was also a great
sufferer) the kind charity of all Christians, and
close this article with the following lines, from the
Light-House, which no voice sang so sweetly as his-
own: —
" ' In life's closing hour, when the trembling soul flies
And death stills the heart's last emotion,
Oh ! then may the seraph of mercy arise,
Like a star on eternity's ocean.' "
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
405
The following are extracts from a speech deliv-
■ered by Hon. George Clark, of Waco, before the
Texas Senate, the night of March 21, 1891, pre-
senting a portrait of Judge Williamson, which has
since adorned the walls of the Senate chamber.
Lieutenant Governoi' Pendleton's speech in reply
was equally felicitous: —
" Mk. President and Senators: This picture is
a true and life-like portrait of one of the old
fathers of Texas, a member of Austin's colony,
together in Texas from the four corners of the earth
an array of giants to do His work, for indeed may
it be truly said ' there were giants in those days.'
Few in numbers, but with a resolution of purpose
that recognized no such word as fail, they came upon
this fair land as the vanguard of a mighty civiliza-
tion. * « *
" Soldiers never make States. This is the work
of a different order of men. * « * I have some-
times thought that we have done an unintentional
injustice to the fathers of Texas. We often think
THREE-LEGGED WILLIE.'
the friend of Houston, the compatriot of Jack and
of Archer and Wharton, the trusted counselor of
Milam, the intimate associate of Travis and of
Johnson; the Mirabeau of our revolution, a man
whom it were base flattery to call ' the noblest
Roman of them all,' for Rome, even in the palmiest
days of her grandeur, never had such a man. This
is anrue picture of Three-Lfgged Willie, painted as
he would have had himself painted in life — just as
he was.
"As we gaze upon that face and recall again the
•earlier days of our most romantic history, it would
seem that Providence in the exercise of His benefi-
cence to man had purposely raised up and gathered
of their prowess as soldiers, and never weary in.
recounting to our children their deeds of heroism.
But we are prone to forget that this was the smallest
part of their contribution to civilization and to
humanity. San Jacinto migbt have been won by
barbarians, for even barbarians love liberty, but
Texas could only have been made by patriots and
statesmen. The men who fought there knew that
victory meant only the beginning of their task, and
the echoes of the ' twin sisters ' had scarce died
away before they set themselves to the grand work
of laying the foundations and erecting the frame-
work of a great State.
"Hitherto the boast of the English-speaking
406
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
people that every man's house was his castle, into
which even the king could not enter except upon
invitation, had been only partially true. The king,
perhaps, could not cross the sacred threshold, but
his sheriff could and, after entrance, seize upon the
household goods and household gods of the unfor-
tunates and drive their loved ones out into the cold "
world without shelter, food or raiment. How queer
it is that this barbarism was first arrested by the
old fathers of Texas, who sat and deliberated in
a log hut for a capitol. It seems strange now, as
we look backward, that no other civilized people
detected a wrong in the merciless seizure of the
home by the officer of the law, and that it remained
for the pioneers of Texas to establish and promul-
gate a great principle in the economy of government
which has been since adopted and followed by
every American State and Territory. The world
owes to Texas the conception of this grand idea,
that the homes of a free people are above the law
and beyond the law, and that no matter how
urgent the demand, no matter the misfortunes that
may betide, or the consequences that may follow,
the abiding place of the family shall be sacred.
In the storms that are sure to come this will be the
sheet-anchor for our safety, for the preservation of
the home begets patriotism and conservatism ; and
capital can never lay its hand upon these people
and make them aught but freemen. * * *
" And blessed be the men who conceived and
carried out the grand idea of the homestead, of
whom Three-Legged Willie was the chief.
" Another thought that seemed to pervade the
minds of our early fathers in the construction of
our government was, to banish the ' quirks and
quibbles of the law,' so that our courts should be
able to dispense speedy and substantial justice to
the citizen without embarrassment, delay or chi-
canery. • * * The code practiced in most of
the States to-day is the fruit of Texas' example
and inspiration. * * *
" Another prominent idea in the minds of our
fathers was the necessity of a general diffusion of
education among the people of the State. * * *
Indeed, so liberal has been their provision, a lapse
of fifty years finds us quarreling among ourselves
as to how we shall spend it. * * *
"But why go further in enumerating the many
other ideas prominent in our early days? Not
only this, but many nights could be spent in re-
counting to each other the manifold features which
characterized the formative period of our history.
" I have only referred to one or two of the more
prominent, in order to demonstrate, especially to
our young people, the magnificent thought and
statesmanship of those men who redeemed and
made Texas, and with and among whom Robert
M. Williamson lived and labored, primus inter
pares.
"In addressing myself to the man as he was,
I am admonished by my own instinct that my
powers are wholly inadequate to the task. To
properly delineate him, lawyer, judge, statesman,
soldier and patriot, he who essays the task should
have known him in life, have seen him upon the
field, been with him in the council and at the bar,
and mingled with him in the daily walks and con-
versations which go to make up human life. His-
tory at best deals only in fragments, and tradition
often loses its thread in the memories of men.
" Only a few, very few, comrades of Judge Wil-
liamson are spared to us, and to these we are indebted
for the glimpse obtained of his achievements and
character. Of Scotch descent, he came of good old
Eevolutionary and fighting stock, his grandfather
having been a Colonel in Washington's army, and
his father a s'oldier in the War of 1812. Endowed
by nature with a broad Intellect, with splendid
powers of analysis and oratory, and an energy of
purpose and an infiexibility of will rarely equaled,
he naturally turned to the bar as a proper field for
his labors, and at once sprang into prominence as a
lawyer in his native State and Georgia and in the
adjoining State, Alabama, to which he moved. The
years 1828-9 found him a citizen of Texas and
here his fame as an orator and statesman was won.
"The troubles and oppressions of the colony
appealed most strongly to his manhood and his
patriotism, and his clarion voice was soon raised for
liberty and independence. The nature of the man
admitted neither of truckling nor compromise. He
was aa absolute separationist from the beginning, a
bold champion of the rights of the people of Texas,
not only to self-government but unqualified inde-
pendence. With a patriotism and an eloquence at
least equal to Patrick Henry, conjoined with a rug-
gedness of expression that Henry never possessed
and which often swept his audience like a cyclone,
he went before the people of the several colonies
and preached the gospel of a pure and unadulterated
liberty. The fires of patriotism he kindled were
soon burning with bright fervor, a mere handful of
patriots resolved to be free, and then followed in
quick succession, the affairs of Turtle Bayou,
Anapuca, Velasco, which quickened the revolution
into life, and then the storming of Bexar, the heroic
holocaust of the Alamo, the butchery of Goliad, the
splendid and decisive victory at San Jacinto, and
then free Texas. The best historian of Texas so
far pays this just tribute to the man of whom I
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
407
speak that after thorough and minute investiga-
tion of the records and history of Texas he was con-
strained to say that Robert M. Williamson had done
as much, if not more, than any other man in pre-
cipitating and sustaining the revolution of 1835-36.
This is the verdict of contemporary history, and
■will be the verdict of posterity for all time. With
a price upon his head that betokened no quarter if
captured, singled out v?ith W. B. Travis from all
his compatriots as an object of special vengeance
by the usurper and invader, he faced the storm,
defied the tyrant, redoubled his almost superhuman
efforts to free his country, knowing that his good
life would be the penalty for a failure, and won by
the blessing of God.
" Soon after the inauguration of the new govern-
ment he was appointed a judge of one of the dis-
tricts, which made him ex-offlcio a member of the
Supreme Court. After that he was Senator in
Congress or Representative in the Lower House of
the Republic or State until the close of his public
career, about 1850 or 1851. A few of his old fel-
low-senators and members, still left to us, love to
dwell upon the man and never tire in recounting
his splendid bursts of eloquence, bis withering
sarcasm and ridicule, his keen sense of humor that
often destroyed an adversary with a single shaft,
his absolute freedom from fear, and his unwavering
honesty. Many of the great measures of legisla-
tion in use and effect to-day bear the imprint of
his genius, and the jurisprudence of the Senate is
indebted to him for some of its most salutary fea-
tures. He passed away from us in the year 1859,
at his home in the county of Wharton, a county
rich in reminiscence and in the deeds of the many
eminent sons she has given to the State.
" In looking over the career of Judge Williamson,
if I were called upon to select the most prominent
of his many prominent characteristics, I should
say that his greatest virtues were sterling honesty,
inflexible patriotism and an utter abnegation of
self. He was too big a man to think of himself,
too honest to build himself up at the expense of
others, and too patriotic to tolerate with any
degree of patience any measure that could by
remote probability turn to injure the State or de-
stroy the rights of the people.
" He belonged to his friends and not they to him.
His warm and generous nature forbade him to
refuse a favor, and his knightly courage never per-
mitted him to turn his back upon a foe. In all the
corruption naturally incident to the revolution and
the acquisition of a princely landed domain by the
Republic, he walked upright before God and man,
and came out without the smell of fire even upon
his garments. Nay, better even than this. He
was ever the implacable foe of the land thief and
the defender of the people's heritage. His eagle
eye always saw through the flimsy veil of the
jobber and detected at a glance the sinister pur-
pose attempted to be concealed under the disguise
of the public good ; and every act and vote and
thought of the man during his long and eventful
career in our legislative halls, attest his nobleness
of soul and his incorruptibility of purpose. He
was always, and upon all occasions, the people's
steadfast friend, and never spoke to them with a
forked tongue. Too honest to tolerate deception
he despised with loathing unutterable the slimy
arts of the demagogue, and crushed with his de-
nunciation the tricks of the politician. Men
always knew how and where he stood and his
simple word constituted his bond. And yet he
carried in his breast a heart full of loving kind-
ness for all, and a charity bounded only by the
limit of his resources. Take him all in all we
scarce shall look upon his like again. Faults he
had, like other men, but these faults sprang from
the youthful buoyancy of a heart that refused to
grow old with age. He loved ' the boys ' and he
remained one of them until he died.
" He may not have suited these times, but the
man and the hour met in the rugged days of our
earlier history, and the man was always equal to
the hour.
" In debate upon the hustings he was matchless.
In forensic tilts with his professional brethren at
the bar he may have been equaled by some but he
was excelled by none. In the councils of the State
he was a patient investigator in committee, but a
very thunderbolt on the floor. Upon the bench he
was the urbane judge and finished gentleman, tol-
erant of argument, painstaking in conclusion and
inflexible in judgment. Tradition informs us that
on one occasion he was specially commissioned by
the President of the Republic to go to a distant
county and there hold a term of court. The
county was torn and rent into factions, and instead
of raising crops the people had been devoting them-
selves chiefly in the task of cutting each other's
throats. As a consequence no courts had been
held for years in the county, and none was wanted,
for the obvious reason that it would prove exces-
sively inconvenient to most of the citizens to be
forced to plead to indictments for murder. Just
before court convened a large mass meeting of
citizens was held, which adopted a resolution that
no court should be held. When Judge Williamson
took his seat upon the bench a lawyer arose and
after a few prefatory remarks read the resolution
408
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and sat down. The court room was crowded with
armed and angry men determined to carry their
point. The judge blandly asked the lawyer if he
could cite any law for such a proceeding, as it
appeared novel to him. The lawyer arose, and
pulling out a bowie-knife laid it on the table and
said : ' This is the statute which governs in such
cases.' Quick as thought and with an eye flashing
fire the Judge drew a long pistol, drew it down on
the lawyer, and in tones that meant more than was
said, replied: 'And this is the constitution which
overrides the statute. Open court, Mr. Sheriff,
and call the list of grand jurors for the term.' The
court was held and without any conflict between the
' statute' and the ' constitution.'
" An old friend of Judge Williamson who himself
has borne a most distinguished part in the affairs of
the State, writes of him now as follows : ' Upon
the organization of the government of the Eepublic
Judge Williamson was selected to fill the important
position of Judge of the Third Judicial District.
He then removed his residence to Washington
County, where he continued to make his home till
about two years previous to his death. To evolve
law and order out of the wild and discordant ele-
ments of a revolutionary and frontier people is no
slight undertaking. The restraints of family and
the check which society imposes in older and better
regulated communities were powerless here. The
wild and daring spirits attracted hither by the love
of excitement and adventure, too frequently after
the war was over, degenerated into lawless reckless-
ness. To restrain and subdue this spirit no more
judicious appointment could have been made. To
great force of character and undaunted personal
courage Judge Williamson united great suavity of
manner and calmness of judgment. These qualities
inspired the admiration and commanded the love
and respect of the bold borderers. Did time and
space permit I might enrich this sketch with many
an amusing anecdote of that period. After suc-
cessfully establishing regular judicial proceedings
and inaugurating the new order of things conse-
quent upon the achievement of an independence
Judge Williamson withdrew from the bench. From
this time until about the year 1840, he assumed the
practice of law.
" ' He was induced then to become a candidate to
represent Washington County in the Congress of
the Eepublic ; was easily elected, and from that
time until 1850, with but a single exception, he
represented that district in one or the other branch
of the Legislature. In the stormy times which fol-
lowed the dissolution of one form of government
and preceded the institution of another, Judge
Williamson wielded a controlling influence. While
it is not claimed for him that he originated many
great measures, yet as a conservative power his
influence was widely felt and acknowledged. He
stood erect as a faithful and incorruptible sentinel
over the rights and interests of the State.
" ' Having no selfish ambition to gratify, careless
of money to a fault, he was inaccessible to the
threats or flatteries of the cormorants whose object
it was to prey upon the public treasury or the pub-
lic domain. Individuals who had bills of doubtful
merit before Congress or the Legislature feared the
sleepless eye and withering invective of Williamson
more than the opposition of all others. The good
that he thus achieved for the country is incalcul-
able.
" 'When mad extra:vagance ruled the hour and
the country seemed on the verge of destruction,
his voice was heard loudest in stern rebuke of such
evil practices. In the darkest hours of the Repub-
lic, in 1842, when peace and credit and even hope
itself had almost fled from our midst, again his
clarion notes were heard cheery and blythe and
hopeful to the end. He deserved the guerdon of
merit which the Eoman Senate awarded Varro when
the Carthagenians were assaulting the very gates of
Rome. ' For,' says the historian, ' while the weak
fled in dismay and the bold trembled, he alone did
not despair of the Republic'
" When the great question of annexation came
to be considered in 1845, Judge Williamson was its
unflinching advocate. He was a member then of the
Congress of the Republic of Texas, which accepted
the overture of the United States and ratified Presi-
dent Jones' call for a Convention and the appor-
tionment of representation (a most difl3cult and
delicate point). The stirring events of the past
ten or fifteen years had not been favorable to study.
The exciting politicahquestion of the day opened a
wider field to the ardent temperament of William-
son, and after once engaging therein he never again
regularly resumed the practice of his profession.
His last appearance before the public was as a can-
didate for Congress, when he was defeated by a
few votes by the Hon. Volney E. Howard. The
result was attributed by Judge Williamson's friends
to the late period at which he was announced and
to his want of acquaintance on the Rio Grande,
where a large vote was polled. From that time he
led a quiet and retired life upon a small farm near
Independence, in Washington County, devoting
himself exclusively to the education of his children.
Although his opportunities for acquiring wealth and
independence were unequaled by those of any other
man, yet he was of such generous and improvident
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
409
mature that he was often embarrassed in his pecu-
niary affairs. Like Mr. Jefferson, Mr. Monroe
and many other great men, he not unfrequently felt
the iron pressure of ' Bes Augusta domi.' It may
■be stated as creditable to his integrity that in the
midst of corruption and speculation, he lived and
died in poverty.
" ' He wasinmany respects a remarkable man. He
possessed a wonderful hold upon the affections of
the masses, over whose passions and sympathies his
control was unbounded. The reckless daring of
his own character contributed largely to this influ-
ence. This, aided by a generous, unselfish spirit
and captivating manners, made him wherever known
the idol of the people. Inacessible to threats or
bribes, he was an upright and honest judge, who
who unflinchingly administered the law. In Con-
gress and the Legislature he had no selfish purpose
to subserve ; he was therefore the able and watch-
ful guardian of the people's rights. His intercourse
with his brethren of the bar was marked by great
<;oLirtesy. Toward the younger members he ever
extended a helping hand and breathed a kind word
of encouragement. The writer is but one of hun-
dreds who remember gratefully the kindness ex-
tended to them in days past by Judge Williamson.
The eloquence of Judge Williamson more nearly
resembled that of John Randolph than of any other
historical character.
" ' When fully aroused there was a fire and vigor
in his speech that surpassed description. True,
there was quaintness and eccentricity, but It was
all stamped with the originality and power of
genius.
" ' He was not only a wit of the first class, but a
humorist also; and, like all great humorists, he
bore a burden of melancholy which was only
heightened by these sudden sallies, as the storm
clouds are illumined by the sheet lightning.
" ' In an appeal to the people and as an advocate
before the jury he was unsurpassed.'
" And no iv, gentlemen of the Senate, with a loving
heart, and with filial pride most commendable, his
son, born amid the stirring scenes which demon-
strated his father's greatness, presents this picture
to the State to adorn the walls of this chamber.
As a work of art it speaks for itself and reflects
luster upon the artist, but as a picture of a grand
patriot it is meet and proper that every child of
Texas who may hereafter study our history should
look upon that face and draw therefrom inspiration
of that patriotism which loved Texas more than all
things else, and never faltered in the defense of
her rights or the protection of her honor.
" Men may come and men may go but in all the
tide of time and amid the splendor of a mature
development Texas will never have a more devoted
son nor one who served her more unselfishly than
Robert M. Williamson.
" In the approaching struggle of the people for
supremacy over the grasp and greed of capital,
would to God that another 'Three-legged Willie'
could appear upon the scene as a great tribune of
the people.
" Godwin take care of the liberties of this people,
and circumstances will evolve the valiant defender
of the true faith, endowed from on high with a
courage and sagacity equal to the occasion and an
honesty of purpose to which the howling demagogue
of to-day is an entire stranger."
JOHN N. METCALF,
MERIDIAN.
John N. Metcalf, sheriff of Bosque County,
Texas, was born in Scott County, Miss., in 1855.
He was the second in a family of six children born
to A. W. H. and Ann (Liverman) Metcalf. His
parents were natives of Alabama.
His paternal grandfather, A. H. Metcalf, moved
from North Carolina to Tennessee, from Tennessee
to Alabama and thence to Mississippi ; was a pioneer
in those States and being a very firm, public-spirited
and popular man was elected to and served with
distinction in their respective legislatures ; fought
as an officer under Gen. Jackson at the battle of
New Orleans in 1815, and died in Mississippi about
the year 1854, after a long and useful career.
A. W. H. Metcalf was a farmer and also figured
in public life in Mississippi, serving as County
Clerk and County Judge and filling other offices.
Died on his farm in Mississippi in 1863.
The subject of this biographical notice was reared
in Mississippi ; moved to Texas in 1876 and located
410
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
on a farm on the Brazos river in Bosque County,
and soon, in connection with this pursuit, engaged
in stock raising; in 1887 was appointed Sheriff
and served four years; in 1892 was elected to the
oflSce and re-elected in 1894.
He was married in 1888 to Miss Lelia Bifle, a
native of Bosque County, and daughter of John
Bifle, an early settler, who was also Sheriff of the
county for a number of years. Two children have
been born to them : Addie, and an infant daughter.
Mr. Metcalf is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of
the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Meridian and of the
Commandery at Cleburne. He is also a member
of the Sheriffs' Association of Texas. Since 1885
he has made his home at Meridian. He is still
identified with the farming interests of his section,
owning a fine prairie farm near Meridian, consist-
ing of two hundred acres under cvltivation and
several hundred in pasture. He has made and is
making a most valuable and acceptable public
official and is considered one of the most vigilant
and efficient sheriffs in Texas.
THOMAS CARSON,
BROWNSVILLE.
Hon. Thomas Carson, of Brownsville, Texas,
was born in County Down, Ireland, March 12th,
1838 ; received a liberal education in the Church
of England and parish schools ; when seventeen
years of age came to America; had various ex-
periences, and, after engaging in the cotton bus-
iness at Mobile, Ala., for some time, became
business manager for Charles Slillman, and moved
to Brownsville, Texas, in 1871, where he could
give his personal attention to the diverse and
extensive interests of that pioneer investor in land
within and adjacent to the limits of that city.
Since the death of Mr. Stillman he has managed
the affairs of the estate.
He has pointed the way for many extensive
enterprises, which would have placed Brownsville
in a much more exalted position than she occupies
to-day had he been properly supported and sec-
onded by the community at large ; but, the spirit
of conservatism, and the hesitancy to disturb the
primitive business methods of this completelj' iso-
lated city, have acted as constant stumbling blocks
in his way, and prevented progress, to a great
degree. Nevertheless, he knows that the value of
his plans remains undiminished, and quietly bides
the time when his work will be appreciated at its
true worth.
In connection with the Stillman estate, he has
had 1,200 acres in the city of Brownsville plotted
into lots, and placed in marketable shape, by the
New York and Brownsville Improvement Com-
pany. He is agent for a tract of land on which
is situated La Sal del Rey (the King's Salt), one
of the most wonderful salt lakes in the world ; has
interests in immense fisheries on the coast of Mex-
ico, near Tampico, and is a joint owner of Mexican
silver and lead mines.
In an official capacity, the Hon. Thomas Carson
has been closely connected with the city and county
governments for a long term of years. He has
been successively installed as Mayor at every elec-
tion since 1879. In the fall election of 1892 he
was elected Judge of the County Court of Cameron
County, which of necessity vacated his office of
Mayor ; but he continued to act in the latter
capacity until his successor was legally e^lected.
His services as a County Commissioner were grace-
fully acknowledged by the citizens of the county by
placing him on the bench in 1892, where he has
presided with dignity, and exerted a powerful in-
fluence for good.
Mr. Carson has been a principal promoter of
every public movement inaugurated in recent years
for the upbuilding of the town and section in which
he resides, and has thoroughly identified himself
with their best interests socially, financially and
politically, and no citizen of Brownsville is more
generally and highly esteemed.
He was married in Mobile, Ala., January 20th,
1870, to Miss Lydia C. Truwit. They have one
of the most elegant and best appointed homes in
Brownsville.
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
411
GEORGE S. BONNER,
COOKE COUNTY.
George S. Bonner, until the time of his death a
leading citizen of Cooke County, this State, came
to Texas from Tennessee in 1840 and settled first
in Lamar County, where he remained until 1861.
In the latter year he moved to Cooije County and
established himself as a farmer and stoclc-raiser on
Elm creek, six miles distant from the town of
Gainesville. His wife still survives and resides
with her son, Mr. George M. Bonner, in Cooke
County. Six children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
George S. Bonner, viz. : Martha, now Mrs. John
Gillam, of Runnels County; Sallie, now Mrs. E.
C. Peery, of Gainesville; Tennie, now Mrs. Judge
Lindsay, of Gainesville ; Duckie, now Mrs. T. P.
Aiheart, of Colorado ; George M. , of Cooke
County ; and Kate, who married Mr. G. W. Lindsay,
but is now deceased.
December 21st, 1863, hostile Indians from the
Territory made a foray into Cooke County for pur-
poses of murder and robbery. Two of these
Indians rode up to the Bonner home in sight of the
house and drove off with them two horses belonging
to Mr. George S. Bonner.
He at once armed himself, mounted and started
in pursuit. He followed them for several miles
when he came upon about three hundred mounted
Indians. They started after him, but he succeeded,
by hard riding, in effecting his escape.
Mrs. Bonner, with her little son, had walked about
a mile from the house, and she had climbed a tree
to see if she could see her husband, and he, seeing
her as he approached, called to her to go back.
The Indians, hearing him calling, thought he was
calling to men behind the hill and slackened their
speed, which enabled him and his wife and child to
get back to their home. One of his daughters, a
widow, Mrs. Martha Milliken, now Mrs. John
Gillam, of Eunnels County, prepared for their
coming. When they first leftshe got on an oldf amily
horse and started to town for help, but the horse
scented the Indians and refused to go farther, and
she returned to the house, and there gathered up
all the axes, hatchets and pitchforks about the place
to arm the household. Mr. Bonner stood in front
of the house with his gun and frightened the
Indians away by shouting to imaginary supporters,
"Come on boys, we can kill them all." The
Shannons, a family living out on the prairie, heard
the Indians coming, and started for Mr. Bonner's
house. They were overtaken by the Indians and
Mr. Shannon and a little nephew were shot four
times each with arrows, but all managed to make
their waj' in and the wounded afterwards recovered.
Some men who were hunting saw the savages com-
ing and rushed to town to notify the people that
the whole country was alive with Indians, and at
about the time that Mr. Bonner took his stand in
the yard, twenty-eight men from town came up.
The Indians had crossed the creek and formed in
line opposite. The twenty-eight men thought the
Indians too many for them, did not charge them,
and in retreating had one of their number killed.
He was carried to Mr. Bonner's house and taken to
town the following day. Mrs. Milliken was ready
to fight and wanted all others to do so. After kill-
ing the man referred to, the Indians left and Mr.
Bonner's daughters were safely conveyed to town
that night. He, with the remainder of his family,
followed the next day. They did not move back
to their country place for several years thereafter.
They returned to their home eventually, however,
and were there at the time of the formidable Indian
raid of 1868. Mr. Bonner died in April, 1864,
following the last mentioned raid, and is buried in
Gainesville. This pioneer family encountered its
full share of the dangers and hardships incident to
the settlement of the country, audits members have
always been among the most useful and highly
respected citizens of the communities in which they
have made their homes.
412
INDIAN ^^'ARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
DAVID HIRSCH,
CORPUS CHRISTI,
Was born April 24, 1834. His parents were
Judah and Henrietta Hirsch, of Darmstadt, Ger-
many, botli of wiiom died before he came to America.
He was educated at Darmstadt and left home in
1852, and went to Havre, France, where he secured
a position as clerk in an emigrant furnishing store,
where he remained until 1853, and then took pas-
sage to New Orleans, from which city he, with three
hundred other passengers, started to St. Louis,
Mo., aboard the Mississippi steamer Uncle Sam,.
Cholera broke out on the boat and fifty-three pas-
sengers died before reaching Memphis, where Mr.
Hirsch left the vessel and took another for St.
Louis. There he secured a place with Greeley &
Gail, grocers. The house still exists under another
name. He remained with this house until Octo-
ber, 1854, when he moved to Texa:". Landing at
Indianola, he proceeded from that port to Gonzales
where he began peddling afoot. In a short time
he was able to get a horse, with which he continued
the business until the fall of 1858, and then moved
to Belton, in Bell County and opened a general
store, which he continued to conduct until late in
1863, when he moved to Matamoros, Mexico, where
he remained until the close of the war and made
money. In 1865 he moved to New Orleans and en-
gaged in business there. In 1899 he returned to
Texas, making his home at Corpus Christ!, where
he built up one of the largest mercantile establish-
ments in the State.
He was united in marriage to Miss Jeannette
Weil, of Lockhart, Texas, May 14, 1860, who died
at Corpus Christi, May 11th, 1873, leaving two
children, Haltie, now the wife of Silus Gunot, of
San Francisco, and Joseph, also living in San Fran-
cisco, where he is manager for M. A. Gunot & Co.
July 9, 1878, Mr. Hirsch married Miss Olivia
Benedict, of New Orleans. Two sons have been
born to him by this, his second marriage, Alcan,
born in 1885, and Mark, bornin 1887. Mr. Hirsch
retired from the dry goods business in 1878 and
bought wool and loaned money until 1890, when
he organized the Corpus Christi National Bank, of
which he has since served as president and owns a
majority of the capital stock. When he landed at
Indianola in 1854 he borrowed six dollars to pay
his way from that place to Gonzales.
He is now considered one of the wealthiest men
in Corpus Christi. The measure of success that he
has achieved has been due to the possession of
business talents of an unusually high order, personal
integrity, industry and economy.
SIMON H. LUMPKIN,
MERIDIAN.
Simon H. Lumpkin, one of the leading citizens
of Bosque County and a prominent lawyer of Cen-
tral Texas, was born in June, 1850, in Fairfield
District, S. C. He was the ninth in a family of
twelve children born to Abram F. and Patience
Partridge (Pickett) Lumpkin, natives of South
Carolina and descendants of old colonial families.
On the paternal side two brothers, William and
Joseph, were soldiers in England and came to
America in 1765 with Gen. Braddock, marched
with his army over the Allegheny Mountains and
fell with him into the disastrous ambuscade on the
Monongahela river, where Joseph was killed and
William badly wounded. On account of his wound
William Lumpkin was discharged from the army
and settled on the James river, where he married
and became a planter and the father of a family
of four sons: Joseph, Thomas, Robert and Squir-
relskin, who became the progenitors of all the
Lumpkins now in the United States. Joseph and
Squirrelskin moved to Georgia, where they married
and reared families whose descendants have held
the highest oflflces in the gifo of the people of that
State — one becoming governor and another chief
justice of the Supreme Court, both well remem-
bered throughout the land. Robert remained in
ly^r t!:H^^'<^-/i:' x^ c^>-^^i:t:::^^^^cJ
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
413.
Virginia and of his family little is known to the
writer. Thomas moved to South Carolina, where he
married Miriam Ferguson, a daughter of the noted
Tory Ferguson, who was captured at the battle of
the Cowpens by Gen. Marion. This couple were
the grandparents of the subject of this memoir
and of Dr. J. J. Lumpkin, of Meridian, Texas.
To Thomas and Miriam Lumpkin two sons were
born, Bradshaw and Abram Ferguson Lumpkin,
the latter the father of Simon H. and Dr. J. J.
Lumpkin.
Bradshaw Lumpkin is still living in South
Carolina and is now nearly one hundred years
old. He participated in many battles with the
Indians in Florida, took part in the Texas revolu-
tion and war between the United States and
Mexico. His brother, Abram F. (a farmer), when
the war between the States began, entered the Con-
federate army and served until its close. Six of
his sons (three of whom yielded up their lives
on the battle-field) also entered the army. Those
who fell in the defense of the South were:
William, killed February 4, 1865, while on
detailed scouting duty near Richmond, Va. ; Philip
P., killed in the battle of Cold Harbor, May 31,
1864, and Abram Joseph, killed in the battle of
Seven Pines, May 31, 1862. The other sons are
still living. Mr. Abram F. Lumpkin died Feb-
ruary 25, 1875, and his wife January 13, 1892.
Simon H. Lumpkin, the subject of this notice,
completed his literary education at Wafford Col-
lege, S. C, and Transylvania University, Lexing-
ton, Ky. ; taught language in a private school at
Lexington for a time ; taught school for about
a year at Centerville, Ga. ; in October, 1873,
moved to Texas, and became principal of the La
Grange College ; remained at the head of that
institution for about a year, and in November,
1874, was admitted to the bar, having assiduously
studied law at leisure moments during the pre-
ceding four years. Soon thereafter he moved to
Bosque County and entered upon the practice of
his profession. He was very successful from the
start. At first he took criminal as well as civil
cases, but for years past he has confined himself
strictly to civil business. He practices in all the
State courts and in the United States Supreme
Court, and is considered one of the ablest lawyers
at the bar of Central Texas. He has been active
in politics as a Democratic leader, has attended
the various conventions, served as a member of
State and county executive committees, and has
done yeoman service upon every occasion when
a battle was on for party supremacy. He was
married April 4, 1876, to Miss Laura Alexander,
the third white child born in Waco, and daughter
of Capt. T. C. Alexander. She is also a grand-
niece of the noted Rev. Bob Alexander, the pioneer
Methodist preacher of Texas. She graduated at
the University of Waco in 1872. Of this union-
three children have been born: Jimmie (a daugh-
ter), Abram and Ora. The family are all members
of the M. E. Church South. Mr. Lumpkin is a
member of the Masonic and I. O. O. F. frater-
nities. He has an elegant residence in Meridian,
and the grounds are tastefully adorned, and he
has a fish lake on the place. He also owns among
other realty nine farms in the county, aggregating-
three thousand acres, which he is constantly im-
proving. In 1887 he bought out the lumber yard
in Meridian, and in 1891 also bought the lumber
interests at Walnut Springs, and is doing a thriv-
ing business at both places. His success in life-
has been due to the possession not only of natural
abilides of a high order, but constant study, firm-
ness of purpose and unbending integrity.
THE HARDINS,
OF LIBERTY.
The Hardin family are known to be descendants
of a widow lady who emigrated from France to
America, landing in Philadelphia with four sons,
John, Henry, Mark and Martin Hardin. Her hus-
band, in some of the internal commotions in France,
had to flee for his life. Whether he was pursued
and killed, or died by other casualty, is unknown.
He was never heard of by his wife after bidding her
adieu and riding away. From the best information
that can be obtained, she was one of the Hugue-
nots who came to America to escape persecution by
Louis XIV. , in the year 1685. William Hardin , the
grandfather of Frank Hardin, subject of this
memoir, is supposed to have been a grandson of
this widowed lady.
Frank Hardin was born on the 25th day of
414
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
January, 1803, in Franklin County, Ga., and was
the fourth son of Swan and Jerusha (Blackburn)
Hardin. His father moved to Maury County, Tenn. ,
with his family, when Frank was three or four years
of age, and resided there until about 1825. In that
year Frank Hardin came to Texas, and about the
same time four^ brothers, Augustine B., William,
Benjamin W., and Milton A., and his father came
to the then Mexican province, and they all settled
in what is now Liberty County, on the east side of
the Trinity river. His first employment after be-
coming settled in his new home was to split rails, in
company with his brother A. B. Hardin, for an old
man living on the Trinity river, and the same year
they made a crop of corn without plow or hoe, cul-
tivating it with "hand-spikes." The first official
position that^Frank Hardin is known to have held
was that of municipal surveyor, in the year 1834.
He was afterward appointed surveyor by Commis-
sioner Jorge Antonio^Nixon, under which appoint-
ment he located and surveyed in 1835 many of the
old le_agues granted by the Mexican Government to
colonists introduced into Liberty and adjacent
counties, under Vehlin's empresario contract. On
the 6th of March, 1836, he enlisted in Capt. Wm.
M. Logan's company of volunteers, of which com-
pany he was elecied First Lieutenant. This com-
pany was raised from Liberty and vicinity,
and joined Gen. Sam. Houston's army at once,
and was a part of Sherman's regiment of
infantry, which performed such gallant service in
the battle of San Jacinto. After participating in
that memorable and glorious engagement, which
deserves a place among the important and decisive
battles of the world's history, he remained with the
army for three months — until his term of enlist-
ment expired. He then returned home and very
soon afterwards. raised and organized a company,
of which he was made captain, and joined an ex-
pedition against the Indians, and went up the Brazos
river as far as the Waco village. He was several
months in this service. Under the act passed by
the Congress of the Republic providing for the
national defense, he was, on the 9th day of Janu-
ary, 1837, appointed by the President, a Captain,
for the purpose of organizing the militia of liberty.
December 19th of that year he was also appointed
by President Houston surveyor for the county of
Liberty. At an election held in the county Septem-
ber 6th, 1841, under an act of Congress, approved
January 24th, 1839, he was elected Colonel of the
sec6nd regiment, of the second brigade, of the
militia of the Republic of Texas, E. Morehouse,
Brigadier General, with headquarters at Houston,
which position he held for several years. In 1842
he was again elected surveyor of Liberty County
and in 1857 elected as representative from that
county and served as a member of the Seventh
Legislature of the State of Texas. He was not
fond of public life and never accepted oflBcial posi-
tion, after the independence of Texas was secured,
except at the urgent solicitation of the people.
He resided in the county for over fifty years, and
died at his residence in the town of Liberty on the
20th of April, 1878, and was buried on the anni-
versary of the battle of San Jacinto.
Benjamin Watson Hardin, the oldest of the five
brothers who came to Texas, was for many years
Sheriff of Liberty County, and died at his home-
stead near the town of Liberty, January 2d, 1850.
Augustine Blackburn Hardin, the next in age,
was a member of the General Council of Texas
held in 1835, and also of the Consultation at San
Felipe de Austin, the same year, representing the
municipality of Liberty, and showed himself in
those bodies to be a stanch patriot, a determined
advocate of resistance to Mexican tyranny, and a
firm supporter of the views of those who favored a
declaration of Texian independence. He died in
Liberty County, July 22, 1871.
William Hardin, the third brother, was one of
the ten original proprietors of what is now the
city of Galveston. Under the Mexican govern-
ment, previous to the revolution, he was Primary
Judge of the Jurisdiction of Liberty, Department
of Nacogdoches. He took an active and leading
part in the revolution which separated Texas from
Mexico, was a man widely influential, and was
highly respected by all who knew him. He died at
Galveston, in July, 1839.
Milton Ashley Hardin, the youngest of the five
brothers, was also in the service of Texas during
the revolution. He died at Cleburne, Texas, in
1894.
Hardin County, Texas, was named after the
" Hardins of Liberty," a deserved honor to a
family whose name is linked by so many sacred
memories, and by such valiant and self-sacrificing
service, to the history and imperishable glory of
the Republic and State of Texas.
Mrs. Cynthia A. Hardin, wife of Frank Hardin,
was born October 29, 1812, in St. Mary Parish,
La., and was the second daughter of Christie
O'Brien and Ann Dawson Berwick, his wife, who
resided many years and both died at Berwick's
Bay, in St. Mary Parish, La. She came to Texas,
a few years before her marriage, to reside in the
town of Liberty with her sister, Mrs. Catherine
Farley. She was married to Capt. Frank Hardin,
August loth, 1839, at the residence of Mrs. Far-
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
415
ley. Capt. Hardin resided in the town of Liberty
with his family, until the latter part of the year
of 1843, when they removed to the country, about
nine miles northward from the town. They were
there engaged in farming and stock-raising, until
about the year 1857, when they removed again to
Liberty. Mrs. Hardin died November 1st, 1889,
at Dallas, Texas, while on a visit to her daughter,
Mrs. George W. Davis, and was removed to Liberty
for burial.
daughters, Camilla Gertrude, wife of Judge George
W. Davis, of Dallas; Cynthia A., wife of Capt.
John F. Skinner, of Lampasas, Texas ; and Helen
Berwick Hardin, the youngest child, who resides
with her brother, Wm. F. Hardin, at the old
family homestead in the town of Liberty.
The independence of Texas having been secured,
and there being no fear of Indian depredations,
the neighboring tribes all being friendly, the life of
Mrs. Hardin after her marriage was a quiet one.
MRS. C. A. HARDIN.
Their eldest child, a daughter, was named
Kaleta, for the old Indian, Chief of the Coshattee
tribe of friendly Indians — the old chief being
especially known and designated as the "Friend
of the White Man." This daughter died October
7th, 1884, at the family homestead, in the town of
Liberty. She was never married. The oth^r chil-
dren were two sons, William Frank and Christie
O'Brien (the latter of whom died January 13th,
1867, of a gunshot wound received by accident
while hunting in the Trinity -bottom), and three
and without incident of special note. It was spent
in the discharge of the daily routine of household
duties, visiting neighbors (of whom, when living in
the country, there were but three or four families)
and entertaining friends and strangers, as well, for
the door of the log-house in which they lived was
open without charge to every belated traveler who
passed that way.
William Frank Hardin, first son of Frank and
Cynthia A. Hardin, was born in the town of
Liberty, May 2, 1841, and resides with his young-
416
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
est sister at the old homestead in the same town.
He was four years in the Confederate service dur-
ing the war between (he States. He first enlisted
in Col. E. B. Nichol's regiment for six months
service in Galveston. At the expiration of this
term he joined the Second Battalion of Waul's
Texas Legion, enlisting for the war, which com-
mand was a part of Gen. Sterling Price's division
in the Mississippi campaign, which ended with the
siege and fall of Vicksburg. After the surrender
and parole of Gen. Pemberton's army, he returned
home, where he remained until exchanged, when?
he again joined his command. The two battalions
were afterward consolidated into a regiment, desig-
nated as "Timmon's Regiment," Col. B. Timmons^
being in command after the promotion of Gen.
Waul. He remained with the army until the final
surrender, and then returned to his old home,
where he has since been engaged mainly in the
mercantile business and stock-raising. He was
once elected County Judge of Liberty County, and^
has since refused to accept official position.
H. SCHUMACHER,
NAVASOTA.
This gentleman, one of the leading citizens of
Navasota, president of the First National Bank of
that place, proprietor of the Navasota Cotton-Seed
Oil Mill, and a resident of Grimes County for forty
years, is a native of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Ger-
many, where he was born in 1832. At the age of
fifteen he came to Texas, his father having died and
his mother having come out the year previous to
find a home for herself and four children. Mr.
Schumacher reached Galveston, November 25,
1847, where his mother had established herself, and
there he at once went industriously to work to earn
his own support. He learned the carpenter's trade
and followed it as a journeyman until 1853. He
joined the Howard Association and devoted his
attention to nursing the sick during the visitations
of the yellow fever in 1853 and 1864. In 1855 he
moved to Anderson, Grimes County, being led to
this step by the condition of his wife's health, she
having been a sufferer from the fever and finally
dying at Anderson from the effects of the disease
several months after their removal at that place.
At Anderson Mr. Schumacher established a sash,
door and blind factory on a small scale, which he
conducted with fair success until the War put an
end to all operations of this sort. He entered the
Confederate army in 1861 as a member of the
Eighth Texas Infantry, Walker's Division, with
which he went to the front early in 1 862. Before his
command was called on to do much active service
he was taken sick and was transferred to the
ordnance department at Anderson, where the most
of his services in behalf of the Confederacy were
rendered in the line of his trade as a wood-work-
man. In December, 1865, he moved to Navasota,.
which at that time was practically the terminus of
the Houston & Texas Central Railroad, and at once
began to make preparations to start a sash, door
and blind factory. He camped under a post-
oak tree, and got out the necessary timbers
and erected his dwelling and shop. The rapid
development of the up-country then tributary to
this point afforded him a good market for his
product. He added a grist mill, then a gin and
planing mill to his plant and ran them all success-
fully until 1873. At that time he turned his atten-
tion to the cotton-seed oil business, erecting a mill
for the mannfacture of the various products of the
cotton seed, his mill being the second erected in the
State. It soon engaged his attention to the exclu-
sion of all his other manufacturing interests, and
he disposed of them. Mr. Schumacher's life has
been given to business pursuits and he has achieved
notable success. At present his time is devoted to
his mill business and to his duties in connection
with the First National Bank, of which he has for
two years past been president. He was one of the
organizers of that institution and its vice-president
until elected president. He manifests a proper
interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of
the community, and is a man in whose judgment
the people in the country where he resides have
great confidence and for whose character they have
great respect.
Mr. Schumacher has been three times married
and has raised to maturity a family of ten chil-
dren. His first marriage occurred in Galveston in
1854 and was to Miss Louisa Koch, a native of
■''V%WT.Bach..-BUynU'f
iii.i.isASTreiRW€)@a
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
417
Germany, whose parents settled In Galveston about
the time Mr. Schumacher settled there. This lady
died at Anderson, Grimes County, in 1856. He
subsequently married Miss Berryman, a daughter
of William Berryman, who settled in Grimes County
in 1834 and a grand-daughter of Francis Holland,
who was the first settler in the country, taking up
his residence here in 1824. This lady lived but a
few years after marriage.
For his third wife Mr. Schumacher married Miss
Emma Horlock, a native of Pennsylvania, of Ger-
man descent.
Mr. Schumacher is a prominent member of the
Presbyterian Church.
H. B. EASTERWOOD,
HEARNE.
Young blood counts for a great deal in the
affairs of this world, and nowhere for more than
in a new and rapidly developing State like Texas.
There is healthy stimulus to activity in a growing
community, and fortunate, indeed, is the young
man, who, brought up in such a community, has,
coupled with the advantage of years, the mental
grasp and force of. character to enable him to
understand and make the best possible use of his
surroundings. Youth, energy, brains and ambi-
tion are qualities that win, and the degree of suc-
cess attained is, as a rule, directly proportioned to
the degree in which these qualities are possessed.
Henry Bascom Easterwood, son of William C.
and Martha G. Easterwood, was born in Lowndes
County, Miss., in 1856. Two years later his
parents came to Texas and, after a brief residence
in Bell County, settled on a farm near Port Sul-
livan, in Milan County, where the subject of this
notice was chiefly reared. His educational advan-
tages were restricted to local schools. At about
the age of eighteen he began clerking for his elder
brother, William E. Easterwood, in a store at
Port Sullivan, and later opened two stores for his
brother at different points in Milan County. He
continued clerking until 1880, when in March of
that year he went toHearne, where, on a borrowed
capital of $2,200, he engaged in a grocery business
on his own account. He soon secured a good
trade, and with the growing prosperity of that
place has, from time to time, extended his line of
operation until at this writing he conducts the
largest general mercantile establishment in Hearne,
and one of the largest on the Houston & Texas
Central Railway between Dallas and Houston. His
two-story, double-front, brick business block,
situated on one of the principal thoroughfares of
the town gives ample evidence of the amount of
27
business done both by the quantity of goods on
display and in the activity about the premises.
While giving his attention mainly to his mercan-
tile business Mr. Easterwood has found time to
interest himself in other enterprises, and has ac-
quired considerable outside interests. He owns
and conducts three good-sized farms in the vicinity
of Hearne ; has purchased and improved a number
of lots in that place, owns and runs a gin there ; is
vice-president of the Hearne Building & Loan Asso-
ciation, helped to organize a local compress com-
pany, and was its president until its removal to
another point ; is president of the Brazos Valley
Lumber Company ; subscribed stock to and is sec-
retary and treasurer of the Hearne & Brazos Valley
Railway ; helped to organize and is a member of
the Board of Directors of the Hearne National
Bank, and, in fact, has had some sort of interest
in every public enterprise that has been started in
the community where he lives during his fifteen
years residence there. He is open-handed and
liberal-minded, assisting with his means and per-
sonal effort whatever is calculated to stimulate
industry, or in any way add to the prosperity of
the community. He has never been in public life
and wisely keeps aloof from the entanglements of
politics. He has served as a member of the Board
of Aldermen of his town, and stands ready at all
times to honor sight drafts on his time and services
in behalf of good government, the building up of
local schools, and the promotion of all those things
that tend to elevate, adorn or improve the society
in which he moves.
Reminded of the fact that he had met with more
than ordinary success, and asked to what he attrib-
uted it, Mr. Easterwood said he supposed to his
strict attention to business. He has made it a rule
to give his business close and undivided attention :
418
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
never to postpone till to-morrow what can be done
to-day ; to attend lo business first, pleasure after-
wards ; to employ strict integrity and an unfailing
compliance with every obligation, verbal or writ-
ten, and, as near as possible, to do unto others as
he would have them do unto him. Whether his
income has been great or small he has always lived
within it; has avoided litigation; and in the dis-
charge of every duty has won the confidence and
respect of all with whom he has had business inter-
course. The cast of his mind is practical, and he
is well-built and strong, having a physical con-
stitution that insures prolonged vitality, and that
patient perseverance which moves steadily forward
in the path marked out; is earnest and active,
never hesitating to do his share of the work about
him.
Mr. Easterwood has been as fortunate in his
domestic relations as he has been prosperous in
business, and, indeed, it is no doubt true that the
one is largely attributable to the other. In 1879
be married Miss Lillie Gohlman, a daughter of
S. L. Gohlman, an old and respected citizen of
Houston, Mrs. Easterwood being a native of that
place, in the society of which she was, previous to
her marriage, a leader. The issue of this union
has been four sons and two daughters.
His home circle is charming and pleasant, and
it is under his own roof and around his own fire-
side that he realizes the best phases and the truest
enjoyments of life, as does every man who is
blessed with a good wife, an interesting family
of children, and the means to properly care for
them.
C. H. NIMITZ, SR.,
FREDERICKSBURG.
Hon. Charles H. Nimitz, St., was born in Bremen,
Germany, November 9th, 1826, and was educated
in the schools of that city. He was named for his
father. His mother's maiden name was Miss
Meta Merriotte. His parents came to the United
States in 1843 and located in Charleston, S. C.
The following year he left the Fatherland, tarried
for a time in Charleston with his father and mother,
and then pushed westward, arriving at Fredericks-
burg, Texas, May 8, 1846, where he has since re-
sided and by thrift and industry accumulated a
■comfortable fortune.
April 8, 1848, he married Miss Sophia Miller.
They have eight living children, viz.: Ernest A.,
now a resident of San Angelo, Tom Green County ;
Bertha, now Mrs. Nanwald, of Burnet ; Charles H.,
Jr., who lives at Kerrville ; Sophie, wife of Otto
Wahrmound, of San Antonio ; Augusta, who mar-
ried a Mr. Schwerin and is now a widow residing
at Kerrville; Lina, wife of E. O. Meusbach, of
Waring; William, who resides at Kerrville; and
Meta, who is married to Henry Wahrmound, of
I'^redericksliurg.
Chester B. Nimitz, who was in business with his
father, died in 1885, when twenty-seven years of
age. He was a bright and promising young man.
His death was a sad bereavement to his parents
and devoted wife. A son was born to his widow
six months after his death. Mr. and Mrs. Nimitz
lost several other children, but they died when
quite young.
In 1861 Mr. Nimitz raised the Gillespie Rifles,
but two months later was appointed by the Con-
federate States Government, enrolling oflScer for the
frontier district, and served in that capacity until
the close of the war. Mr. Nimitz is a devout mem-
ber of the Catholic Church. He is a Democrat,
true and tried, and has for years been a delegate to
nearly all conventions, and an active worker for the
success of the party. He has been a school trustee,
school examiner and member of the board to examine
teachers in the county, and in 1880 was elected to
the Twenty-second Legislature, from the Eighty-
ninth Representative District, composed of Gilles-
pie, Blanco and Comal counties.
He was a member of nearly all the important
House committees and made a record of which he
and his constituents have reason to be proud.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
419
NEWTON WEBSTER FINLEY,
DALLAS.
Hon. N. W. Finley, one of the most widely in-
fluential men in public life in Texas, and a lawyer
whose abilities have won for him the distinguished
position of Judge of the Court of Civil Appeals, was
born in Lauderdale County, Miss, (near the famous
Lauderdale Springs), July 31, 1854, in which
year his parents, Rev. Robert S. and Mary H.
Finley, moved to Texas. They first settled on a
farm near Kickapoo, in Anderson County, and
Soon after securing license Judge Finley formed a
connection with H. G. Robertson, Esq., and en-
gaged in practice in Smith County. Afterwards,
Hon. Horace Chilton, now a United States Senator
from Texas, became a member of the firm, which,
under the style of Chilton, Robertson & Finley,
continued the practice at Tyler until 1885, when
the firm dissolved. Judge Finley afterwards
formed a copartnership with Messrs. Marsh & But-
N. W. FINLEY,
afterwards lived at various points in Texas. They
now reside at Tyler. Rev. Robert S. Finley was
licensed as a minister of the Methodist Episcopal
Church South, when twenty years of age, and now
although eighty years of age still preaches occa-
sionally. He is well known to all old Texians and
no minister of the gospel in this State is so widely
and generally beloved.
N. W. Finley was educated in the common
schools of this State, and began reading law while
still" a pupil at school. He received law lectures
from Gen. Thomas J. Jennings, then living at
Tyler, and was admitted to the bar in June, 1876,
by Judge William H. Bonner, at Quitman, Texas.
ler, a connection that lasted until Judge Finley was
appointed to the bench of the Court of Civil Ap-
peals at Dallas, Texas, by Governor James S. Hogg,
in 1893. Judge Finley did not seek the appoint-
ment. He was elected to the position in 1894, and
is now filling it with eminent satisfaction to the pro-
fession and the people at large.
He Was elected chairman of the State Democratic
Executive Committee in 1888 and was re-elected in
1890. During his term of service in this highly
important position, two of the most famous politi-
cal campaigns ever fought in Texas took place and
he managed the Democratic forces with a consum-
mate skill that resulted in an overwhelming victory,
420
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
made his name a household word and won for him
the lasting gratitude of the rank and file of the
party. In 1884 he was nominated and elected
Presidential Elector from his district.
He was married in June, 1877, to Miss Alma
Louise Woldert, of Tyler. Two children were
born of this union: Alma Ophelia, and Mary
Louise.
Mrs. Finley died in February, 1883.
January 28th, 1886, Judge Finley was united in
marriage to his present wife, nee Miss Minnie Lee
Sims, of Fort Worth, Texas. Three children have
been born to them: Nora Warena, Horace Web-
ster, and Nannie Lee. Horace W. died January 2,
1893, aged about four years.
Judge Finley is an active member of the Metho-
dist Episcopal Church South, and holds the office
of steward in the Church, and takes great interest
in Sunday school work. He is a member of the
Masonic, I. O. O. F., and K. of P. fraternities,
holding the degree of Knight Templar in Masonry.
There are few lawyers in Texas capable of so
truly adorning a position upon the civil court of
last resort. He possesses a fine judicial mind and
that learning and experience which render his ser-
vices in the position he holds invaluable.
H. K. WHITE,
BRYAN.
After the revolution of 1835-6 the tide of im-
migration, which it was supposed would pour into
Texas upon the establishment of a republican form
of government to be administered by Americans,
was slow in arriving, and even that which came
made but little perceptible change in the condition
of things, on account of the immense area of ter-
ritory over which it was diffused. For a number
of years the lower Brazos country, and particularly
Washington County, which was then considered the
Goshen of Texas, received most of the Intending
settlers. Some, however, who placed the health of
their families and security from attacks by the
Indians beyond all other considerations, took up
their residence further to the east, helping to swell
the population of the ancient counties of Liberty,
Harris and Montgomery, and the newer counties
which were carved out of these. One of this num-
ber was James White, who settled within the pres-
ent limits of Grimes County in 1841. He was from
Sumter County, Ala. , and brought to Texas a numer-
ous and respectable household of children, upon
whom devolved the labors incident to the new set-
tlement of a new country which he, on account of
advancing age, was soon forced to abandon. Three
of these children, sons, now themselves well on in
years, are living, viz. : David and Joseph, in
Grimes County, and Henry K., in Brya,n, Brazos
County.
Henry K. White was born in Wilcox County,
Ala., January 19, 1828. He was just thirteen
when his parents came to Texas. His youth was
spent in Grimes County at the old homestead, five
miles west of Anderson, the county seat. He re-
mained with his parents until after he attained his
majority and then left home and went to Louisiana,
where he spent four years engaged in various pur-
suits, chiefly agricultural. He then returned to
Texas and, taking up his residence again in Grimes
County, there, in 1853, married Miss Amanda B.
Noble, a daughter of Judge G. B. Noble, an old
Texian, who for many years was a resident of
Houston. From 1858 to 1862 Mr. White was
Treasurer of Grimes County, during which time and
previous thereto he was engaged in farming, on a
small scale, in that county. He was exempt from
military service during the late war on account of
physical disabilities.
He lost his wife in 1863 and in 1869 married Miss
Hattie E. Davis, of Waco, a native of South Caro-
lina and daughter of Dr. Jas. B. Davis.
In 1873 Mr. White moved to Ellis County ; but,
two years later, receiving from Governor Coke the
appointment of superintendent of the penitentiary
at Huntsville, he changed his residence to that
place and lived there for three years. He then
settled in Burleson County, where he purchased
land and engaged in farming. While residing there
he represented Burleson County in the Eighteenth
Legislature. Moving to Bryan, Brazos County, he
was elected, as soon as his residence therein made
him eligible, to a seat in the Twenty-third Legisla-
ture, during both of which terms of service he met
the expectations of his constituents and added to
H. K. WHITE.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
421
his reputation as a man of sound sense and business
capacity.
Mr. White has always been identified with farm-
ing interests and, in fact, has made agriculture his
chief study and pursuit in life. What he has, he
has made from this source, and what he is, he at-
tributes to the training obtained while so engaged.
He owns a large body of land in Burleson County,
over 2,000 acres of which are in cultivation, and
has some property, also, in Brazos County. He is
an enterprising, public-spirited citizen and, while
giving his attention diligently to his own affairs,
still finds time to interest himself in everything of
a general nature going on around him, especially if
it is calculated to stimulate industry, add to public
convenience or reflect credit upon the community
in which he lives. As president of the Burleson &
Brazos Valley Railroad he is at this writing exerting
himself to arouse an interest in a much-needed
enterprise, this being the construction of a railroad
from Pitt's Ferry on the Brazos river to Clay's
Station on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway,
which will open, in a way never attempted hereto-
fore, a large and rich section of the Brazos country.
In politics Mr. White is a Democrat. He has
voted the straight Democratic ticket since he was
twenty-one years old, and has attended as delegate
every Democratic State Convention, with one ex-
ception, that has been held in the past fifteen years.
He is a firm friend of education and favors a
system of schools liberally supported out of the
public funds. He was a member of the Committee
on Education while in the Legislature and did good
service for the cause of education.
Mr. White has no children. A daughter, the issue
of his first marriage, died at the age of seventeen.
JUDGE JAMES JACKSON,
DOUBLE BAYOU.
The subject of this sketch is a very old Texian,
having lived on Texas soil continuously since
1823. His father was Humphrey Jackson, a native
of Ireland, born near the city of Belfast, who
came to America early in the present century,
quitting his native country on account of his par-
ticipation in some revolutionary troubles. He
was accompanied by his two brothers, Alexander
and Henry, and all three settled in Louisiana.
There Humphrey married Sarah Merriman, a
native of Louisiana, of English and Scotch ex-
traction. Accompanied by his wife and four chil-
dren he emigrated to Texas in September, 1823,
and settled in what is now Harris County about a
half mile west of the present town of Crosby,
where he died in 1833, being killed by a falling
tree while engaged in clearing land — aged' forty-
three.
He was a plain civilian, acted for a time as Alcalde
after settling in Texas, and opposed the revolution-
ary troubles which culminated in the affair at
Anahuac. His wife died the year following the
family's removal to Texas, that is, in 1824.
The four children of Humphrey and Sarah Mer-
riman Jackson were: (1) Letitia, who was married
first to Meredith Duncan and after his death to
Andrew H. Long, and died in Chambers County
in 1881; (2) Hugh Jackson, who died in Liberty
County in 1854, having served for a number of
years as surveyor of that county; (3) John Jack-
son, who died in Chambers County in 1877 — a
successful farmer and stock-raiser; (4) James
Jackson, the subject of this sketch.
James Jackson was born on Vermillion bayou in
Vermillion Parish, La., February 15th, 1822. He
was an infant when his parents moved to Texas.
His childhood and youth were passed in the wilder-
ness of old Harrisburg Municipalty and Liberty
County, his advantages in consequence being much
restricted. He was too young to take part in any
of the stirring scenes preceding and incident to the
revolution of 1835-6, but retains a distinct impres-
sion of those scenes, and remembers seeing the
smoke and hearing the guns on the battle-field of
San Jacinto.
December 23d, 1847, he married Sarah White,
daughter of James T. White, Sr., who moved to
Texas in 1826 and settled on Turtle bayou, where
he subsequently lived and died. Mrs. Jackson was
born in Old Liberty, now Chambers County, July
13th, 1832. Her family was one of the first settled
families in that locality. Her parents died there of
cholera in 1852, the father on March 4th, and the
mother on March 10th. The old White homestead
422
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was about six miles from the old Mexican military
post of Anahuac and Mr. White gave succor and
assistance to the settlers in their struggles against
Mexican authority. Mrs Jackson was one of a
family of four sons and three daughters who lived
to be grown: (1) Elizabeth, (2) John, (3) Par-
melia, (4) Robert, (.5) Joseph, (6) James, and (7)
Sarah. But three of these are now living, Robert,
James and Sarah (Mrs Jackson).
Iq 1844, Judge Jackson took up his residence in
Chambers, then Liberty County, where he now lives,
moving to his present place in 1855, and has thus
been a resident of that locality for the past fifty-one
years. He and his wife have had eleven children,
nine of whom are living: (1) Sarah E., (2) Hum-
phrey T., (3) Mary P., (4) Alice L., (5) Robert
T., (6) James Edward, (7) Humphrey H., (8)
John C, (9) Raphael S., (10) Guy C, and (11)
Eula J.
In 1861 Judge Jackson was elected Judge of
Probate in Chambers County and held this office
during the war. He has never held any other pub-
lic position, but has devoted his time and attention
to his personal affairs.
He is a large stock-raiser and owns several thou-
sand acres of land in Chambers County.
He favored annexation in 1846 and opposed
secession in 1861, and was always a great admirer
of Gen. Houston.
ED. CHRISTIAN,
AUSTIN.
Mr. Christian came to Texas in 1851. He was
a native of Virginia, and was born at Apomattox
Court House, January 10th, 1833. His father,
Judge Samuel Christian, was a lawyer of that
town, a substantial man who stood high in his
profession and in the esteem of the public. He
moved with his family to Mobile, Ala., about the
year 1844. There the family of children grew up
and the parents died when our subject was yet
a youth. He immediately set about life's work,
and by perseverance and industry gained an edu-
cation, and, being of a mechanical turn of mind,
learned the carpenter's trade at about fifteen years
of age. From Mobile he went to Montgomery,
and there met Simon Loomis, who, while several
years his senior, was yet a young man and also
a carpenter. Between the two there proved to be
a social affinity, and they came together to Texas,
stopped about one year at Bastrop, and worked at
their trade, and the following year, 1852, came to
Austin. They formed a copartnership as carpen-
ters, pooled their earnings, and accumulated a
little money, and entered the lumber business under
the firm name of Loomis & Christian, which bus-
iness relation was harmonious and successful in
the broadest sense of the term, and covered a
period of about thirty years. Upon the breaking
out of the great war between the States, Mr. Chris-
tian promptly volunteered in defense of the Con-
federate cause and served during the prolonged
and bitter conflict as a private soldier in the ranks
of Company G. (Capt. Fred. Moore), Sixteenth
Texas Infantry. After the break-up he returned
to Austin, broken in pocket, but not in spirits,
gathered up the fragments of a disorganized bus-
iness, and the firm started in anew, as it were. In
1867 they erected a planing mill and extended
their lumber yards, and from that time the business
prospered, and it soon became one of the most ex-
tensive in its line in the State, and one of the most
useful.
In 1873 Mr. Christian married Miss Matilda
Horst, a daughter of the lamented pioneer, Louis
Horst, for many years a resident and leading citi-
zen of Austin. Mrs. Christian, the third daughter
of the family, was born and reared in Austin.
Mr. Christian was a worthy member of Milam
Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He
was a man of domestic tastes, and delighted in the
society of his wife and children. He was there-
fore a valuable citizen, and had a wide circle of
friends. He died at his home in Austin, April
14th, 1888, leaving a splendid estate and an hon-
orable name as an inheritance to his family. Mrs.
Christian and three children. Miss Nannie, Miss
Margaret, and Ed Loomis Christian, survive.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
423
A. H. BARNES,
LAMPASAS.
Alexander Hamilton Barnes was born in Xenia,
Oliio, February 14, 1816. His father was John
Barnes, a native of Virginia, and his mother bore
tlie maiden name of Rachel Black and was a native
of Kentucky. Both patents were reared in Ken-
tucky, married there and moved thence early in
the present century to Ohio. The boyhood and
youth of Alexander H., were passed partly in Ohio
and partly in Kentucky, his education being mostly
obtained in private schools in the latter State.
In 1836 young Barnes, still under age, came to
opening of the Civil War. In 1861, he entered the
Confederate army, enlisting in Company C, Thirty-
third Texas Cavalry, with which he served till the
close of hostilities. He again returned to Austin
after the war and resided there till 1871, at which
date he settled at Lampasas, where, having pur-
chased a considerable tract of land adjacent to the
original town-site, he devoted the remainder of his
life to real estate matters. He had large property
interests in Lampasas and in other sections of the
State, and was one of the first men in Texas, after
A. H. BARNES.
Texas with a view of locating in the country, but
for some reason did not remain. He returned to
Ohio, and later going to New Orleans, there spent
the latter part of the succeeding ten years. He
came again to Texas in 1846 and located at Austin,
which had but a few years previous to that become
the seat of government and was the center of con-
siderable activity. In April, 1847, he enlisted at
Austin in Capt. Samuel Highsmith's Company for
service in the war with Mexico, and his command be-
coming part of Col. Jack Hay's Regiment (Sixth
Texas Cavalry), he was with that distinguished
frontier soldier during the remainder of the war. He
then returned to Austin and again taking up his resi-
dence there, he made that place his home till the
the War, to direct attention to real estate values.
He was in a sense the father of Lampasas, having
built for that place more houses than any other half
dozen men in it. The idea of building and develop-
ing was firmly embedded in his mind, and as he
sold off his property, he put the proceeds in im-
provements, thereby adding thousands of dollars to
the taxable wealth of the community and affording
homes to hundreds of families. He never held his
property waiting for it to be enhanced in value by
the efforts of others, nor put prices on it that placed
it beyond the reach of buyers. On the contrary, he
took the initiative in inaugurating improvements
and was always ready to dispose of any of his hold-
ings at a reasonable figure. It is often mentioned,
424
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
greatly to his credit, that though he sold hundreds
of lots and .built scores of houses, on many of
which he of necessity retained liens, he was never
known to foreclose against any one who manifested
the slightest disposition to pay. He was liberal in
his contributions to public enterprises and extended
a helping hand to whatever was calculated to bene-
fit the community in which he lived. He was never
in politics to speak of and held no ofllcial positions
of any consequence. His social instincts sought
expression through the medium of two or three
orders, notably the Masonic and Odd Fellows, while
his sympathies took practical form in many ways
suggested by the necessities of his struggling fel-
low-creatures. He had a brusque, off-hand way
about him that might be taken by those not familiar
with him as indicative of a reserved, austere nature.
but he was at heart kind, obliging to his friends and
indulgent as a husband and father. He was noted
for great energy, constantly busying himself with
his personal affairs down to his last days on earth.
Mr. Barnes married late in life, his marriage tak-
ing place at Lampasas, August 3, 1871, and was to
Miss Ellen Hopson, a native of San Mareas, this
State, and a resident of Lampasas since early child-
hood. The issue of this union was a son, William
Alexander, and a daughter, Ella, both of whom
reside with their widowed mother at Lampasas.
Mr. Barnes' death occurred at Lampases, March
15, 1894, and his remains were laid to rest, with
proper tokens of respect, at that place. As an old
Texian he had served his adopted State honorably in
two wars, besides taking part in a number of Indian
campaigns and the ill-fated Chihuahua expedition.
EDWARD H. R. GREEN,
TERRELL.
The little town of Terrell, Texas, is now the
home of Edward H. E. Green, one of the most suc-
cessful business men in the United States, and one
of the many-times millionaires who stand monu-
mental of the prosperity of our country.
Mr. Green is the only son of Mrs. Hetty H. R.
Green, who has for years been acknowledged as one
of the ablest financiers who have battled with the
brightest minds of two hemispheres upon Wall
street.
Her son has received a practical education, and,
untainted by the pride of wealth, has entered the
ranks of the toilers. Mr. Edward Green is now
the youngest railroad president in the world. He
was born at the Langham Hotel, London, England,
on the twenty-second day of August, 1868. He
attended the public schools of New York City, the
High School at Bellows Falls, Vt., and later grad-
uated from Fordham College.
After graduating he studied law, making a
speciality of branches relating to real estate and
railroads. He then accepted a position as clerk in
the office of the Connecticut River Railroad, and
when only twenty-one years of age was elected a
director of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad. Mr.
Green came to Texas in 1893, and purchased a
branch of the Houston & Texas Central, one of the
largest systems of railroads in Texas, and formerly
controlled by his mother. During the same year he
took the Texas Midland Railroad out of the hands
of receivers, and was subsequently elected its presi-
dent and general manager. Through his untiring
efforts and thorough knowledge of railroading the
road has made wonderful progress, being at present
entirely out of debt and paying a good dividend.
Mr. Green is not in the least afraid of work ; he
dons his blue overalls and jumper and mingles with
his numerous employees. He is kind to them, and
they in turn idolize him.
Mr. Green frequently takes a trip on an engine,
and can manage it as perfectly as any skillful
engineer. He is so enthusiastic over the progress
of his road that he visits the towns on the line and
personally interviews the merchants in reference to
freights, etc.
Mr. Green is interested in many railroads through-
out the United States, and owns blocks of houses in
the best business streets in Chicago.
He owns the controlling interest in the Texas
Midland Railroad.
Mr. Green is socially a man of the hail-fellow-
well-met class, and is immensely popular. He is a
member of many clubs, among which are the Union
Club of New York City, the Union League and Chi-
cago Athletic Club of Chicago, and the Dallas Club
of Dallas, Texas. He is exceedingly fond of athletic
E. H. R. grep:n.
DR. J. J. LUMPKIN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
425
sports, and is himself a verj' fine specimen of athletic
training.
These last named qualities he perhaps inherits
from his father, who is devoted to New Yorjj club
life, and spends most of his time in a quiet way at
the various clubs of which he is a member.
His sterling business qualities come direct from
his mother, who has by her own efforts become the
richest woman in America. Mr. Green, besides
the large fortune he now possesses, will inherit
something like sixty million dollars from his
mother.
His is a sterling, pushing, virile personality that
is certain to maJse its influence felt in the develop-
ment of the varied resources of Texas and the great
Southwest.
EDGAR P. GRAY,
BEAUMONT.
County Judge of Jefferson County, Texas.
Born in Canton, Madison County, Miss., Septem-
ber 7, 1848. Parents, Judge E. A. M. and Miria
Gray.
Came to Texas in February, 1852, with his par-
ents, who located at Beaume, where he grew to man-
hood and acquired a fair English education in local
schools. He was elected County Assessor of Jef-
ferson County in 1880 and served the .people in
that capacity until 1892, when he was elected County
Judge, the office that he now fills. Noticeable
features of his administration have been the im-
provement of public roads, the building of bridges,
and the clean and able administration of the affairs
of the county.
His discharge of his official duties has met with
hearty indorsement of his fellow-citizens. He
ranlis as one of the ablest county judges in the
State.
Married Miss Eliza Jirou, of Beaumont, Texas,
February 2d, 1870, and has seven children: Dixon
M. , aged twenty-five; Nettie (deputy county clerk
of Jefferson County), aged twenty-three; Earl,
aged twenty-one ; Myrtle, aged eighteen ; Dora,
aged fourteen; Fleta, aged twelve; and Judith,
aged eight years, all living at home with their
parents.
Judge Gray is one of the leading and most widely
influential men in the section of the State in which
he lives.
JAMES J. LUMPKIN, M. D.,
MERIDIAN.
Dr. James J. Lumpkin, the leading and oldest
practicing physician in Meridian, Bosque County,
Texas, was born in Fairfield District, S. C, in 1852 ;
after the war he was a student at the Wafford Col-
lege, South Carolina, and Transylvania University,
Lexington, Ky., completing his literary education at
the latter institution ; graduated from the Charleston
(S. C.) Medical College in 1876 ; had charge of the
Charleston hospital for two years and then came to
Texas and located at Meridian, where he has since
resided and has for a long time enjoyed a large and
lucrative practice. For a number of years he in-
vested largely in cattle and sheep-raising. By suc-
cessful business management he has acquired val-
uable property interests in town and countr}', the
latter consisting of many thousand acres of fine
farm and ranch lands. In 1894 he erected the
handsome stone Lumpkin block at Meridian, the
most imposing structure of the kind in the city, and
has always been an active and liberal promoter of
every enterprise and movement designed to accel-
erate the upbuilding of the place and surrounding
country. January 8, 1878, he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Ida E. Fuller, daughter of Moses W.
426
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Fuller, of Vermont, who settled at Meridian at an
early day and was for many years a leading mer-
chant there and at other Texas towns. She was
educated at Lockport, N. Y. She is a member of
the Episcopal Church and a most elegant and ac-
complished lady. Dr. Lumpkin is a member of the
Blue Lodge, Chapter and Knights Templar degrees
in the Masonic fraternity, has held the highest
oflSces in his lodge and chapter and is now, and haa
been for many years, master of his lodge. He is
also a member of the I. O. O. F. fraternity. He
is strictly a self-made man, courteous, gentlemanly,
enterprising and progressive, he has been a power
for good in his section of the State.
L. DE BONA,
EAGLE PASS.
The State of Texas has two distinct historical
epochs. The pioneers of the first period subdued
the Indians and blazed the way for civilization, and
in a measure opened up the country, and later
on came foreigners from other lands who took up
the line of advancement and gave the wheels of
progress another vigorous turn. These latter were
the pioneers of the second or modern epoch, and the
class to which Mr. De Bona, the subject of our
sketch, belongs. The story of his coming and the
success that has followed his labors in Texas teaches
a lesson of thrift and enterprise that the present
generation of young men may read with profit.
Mr. De Bona was born in the south of Italy, July
6th, 1847. His father, Vincenzo De Bona, was a
stock raiser and a thrifty man. When a mere boy
our subject had a desire to accomplish something
for himself in the world and, accordingly, left home
and went to Paris, France, where he learned the
shoemaker's trade. This was when he was about
fourteen years of age. He remained in Paris about
five years, working in a shoe factory where there
were about 3,000 operatives. He sailed from Paris
to New York City, reaching his destination late in the
year 1870. He remained in New York and worked
at his trade until 1872 and then went to Cleveland,
Ohio, where he stopped about eighteen months.
He next went to Detroit, Michigan, and late in
1876 came to Texas and visited Galveston, San
Antonio and other points. In 1877 he went to St.
Louis, Mo., and from that place to Des Moines,
Iowa, and remained in Iowa about seven months
and then returned to Texas, his health completely
restored. He went to San Antonio and decided on
a change of occupation, if possible. He had a small
amount of money, about $160, with which he pur-
chased a small fruit stand at the northeast corner
of Main Plaza. It was an humble beginning.
but by close attention and obliging manners his
little stock soon found willing purchasers at reason-
able profit and the business increased and thrived.
Mr. De Bona visited Eagle Pass, which was at that
time attracting considerable attention as a rising
town. This was in 1881. The iron horse had
not as yet arrived, but track for his coming
was being laid. Mr. DeBona opened a small
store at the then center of trade, put it in the
hands of an acquaintance and returned to his
business in San Antonio. Upon his next visit
to his store in Eagle Pass his newly acquired
partner was gone. He then decided to locate in
Eagle Pass and acted almost immediately upon his
decision. As compared with his now elegant es-
tablishment, his first store was a very modest affair,
but the same principles of fair dealing and dili-
gence were adhered to and he, accordingly, suc-
ceeded and gradually extended his business, adding
new lines of merchandise as his capital permitted
and the growing wants of the public demanded.
As Eagle Pass grew so did the fortunes of De Bona
and he was found never sleeping. He has ever
evinced a becoming spirit of enterprise and faith in
the stability of his adopted town. He invested his
money from time to time in Eagle Pass realty and
its enterprises. In 1890 he built the most spacious,
substantial and attractive business block in the
city. He is one of the organizers and a director
of the First National Bank of Eagle Pass. He was
one of the promoters of the public water works
system and to-day is its sole owner. Besides his
mammoth grocery and provision store, he owns one
of the best and most prosperous dry and fancy
goods stores in the city.
Mr. De Bona is essentially a business man, and his
success in life is entirely due to his own personal
energy, abilities and shrewd financiering. He is a
Lo[n)E ©©i^Ao
INDIAN WA:^S and PIONEERS OF TEXAS,
427
self-made man, having never asked or received aid
from any one. His system of doing business is
quite up to modern ideas.
He was one of the organizers of the Maverick
County Bank, the first banking house established in
Eagle Pass, and upon its reorganization as the First
National Bank, of Eagle Pass, he became one of
its directors and for a time served as its vice-
president. He took an active part in the organiza-
tion of the Texas & Mexico Electric Light Co.,
and served as its president for two years. He was
foremost in the movement to put the Eagle Pass
Telephone Exchange upon its feet, and there has not
been a public enterprise of any kind proposed that
Mr. De Bona has not encouraged with his influence
and means. He, in fact, might be truthfully called
the "Merchant Prince" of Eagle Pass. His in-
vestments in Eagle Pass are all of the beneficial
kind. He owns the imposing Post-offlce block,
besides several other substantial buildings. Eagle
Pass owes her best buildings, her finest stores, her
modern enterprises to the efforts, the thrift and the
sagacity of Mr. L. De Bona, her popular citizen
and in many things her benefactor. At the urgent
solicitation of many of the leading citizens of
Eagle Pass, we present herewith a lifelike protrait
of L. De Bona, as a truly representative man of the
town and section of the State in which he resides.
J. K. HELTON,
MERIDIAN.
Judge J. K. Helton, a sterling old-time citizen of
Bosque County and the Nestor of the Bosque
County bar, was born in White County, Tenn.,
August 12, 1817. His parents, Edward and Eliza-
beth (Knowles) Helton, were natives of Virginia.
His father, although only a boy, served for two
years in the Revolutionary War of 1776, under Gen.
Anthony Wayne ; moved to Tennessee with the
early pioneers and there resided until the time of
his death in 1846, his wife having preceded him to
the grave thirteen years before. Judge Helton, the
subject of this notice, moved from Tennessee to
Mississippi in 1835 ; in 1839 married Miss Lucinda
Mabray, a native of Tennessee, and in 1842 came to
Texas, settling in Harrison County, where he re-
mained three years and then moved to Rusk County
where he engaged in farming until 1853. In the
latter year he moved to McLennan County. In
1854 Bosque County was organized from part of
McLennan County, and his property falling within
the limits of the new county, he was elected Justice
of the Peace of Precinct No. 1 ; held that oflBce until
1861 and was made Chief Justice of the county;
served in that capacity for five years and in 1866
was removed from office by Federal authorities ;
under the constitution of that year was elected to
the newly created oflSce of County Judge ; filled
that position for one year and was again ousted by
military force ; in 1867 was admitted to the bar and
at once began practice ; in 1873 was elected to the
lower house of the State Legislature, and at the
same election was also elected County Judge (again
at that time called Presiding, or Chief, Justice) and
held both offices until 1876. The constitution
adopted by the people that year, changed the title
from Presiding Justice to County Justice, and he
was again elected to the office and served two terms,
and in 1880 voluntarily retired from official life.
He moved to Meridian in 1874 and is engaged in
the active practice of his profession here. His wife
died January 2, 1880, leaving eight children. Six of
whom are now living. He is an earnest member of
the Masonic fraternity and has belonged to and
served as master of a number of lodges.
He has been a life-long Democrat and is an active
and effective party worker.
428
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
C. W. TIDWELL.
MERIDIAN.
Charles W. Tidwell, County Clerk of Bosque
County, was born in Limestone County in 1863.
His parents, John W. and Frances R. (McGee)
Tidwell moved from Mississippi to Texas in 1853 or
1854, settling first in Cherokee and then in Lime-
stone County, where they resided until 1875, when
the family moved to Bosque and bought a farm in
the northern part of the county.
Mr. John W. Tidwell died in 1878. His widow
is still living.
Charles W. Tidwell completed his education by
a commercial course at Bryant & Stratton's Busi-
ness College, at St. Louis, Mo. ; on leaving school,
in 1885, he accepted a position as salesman in a
store at Iredell, Texas, which he continued to fill
until elected County Clerk of Bosque County, in
1892. He was renominated in 1894 and easily re-
elected at the polls, owing to the excellent record he
had made as a county official. He was united in
marriage in 1886 to Miss Rebecca Mingus, daughter
of Mr. J. Mingus, an extensive merchant at Iredell.
They have four children: Roberta, Jerry, Ruby and
Winnie.
Mr. Tidwell is a member of the M. E. Church
South, Masonic fraternity, and Democratic
party.
JAMES M. ROBERTSON,
MERIDIAN.
James M. Robertson, a prominent attorney of
Bosque County, Texas, was born in Hunt County,
Texas, October 25, 1854, the oldest child born to
Eldrldge B. and Malinda G. (Dragoo) Robertson.
His parents were respectively natives of Tennessee
and Missouri. His paternal grandfather moved
from North Carolina to Tennessee at an early day,
and was one of the first settlers of Nashville. The
family is of Scotch-Irish descent and emigrated to
America in Colonial times.
Mr. Robertson's father came to Texas in 1845
and settled at Independence, in Washington
County ; hewed timber for the first cotton gin
erected in that section, and shortly thereafter en-
gaged in land surveying, which he followed until
1850, when he moved to Hunt County, where he
located a headright and began farming, and two
years later (June 1, 1852) married Miss Malinda
G. Dragoo. He moved from Hunt to Bosque
County May 3, 1856, and established himself on
Hog creek, where he improved a farm and resided
until his death, August 3, 1876. Mrs. Robertson
is still living, a loved and honored inmate of ihe
home of her son, James M. Robertson, at Meridian.
The subject of this memoir was reared and edu-
cated in Bosque County ; was elected County Sur-
veyor in 1878, and served one term of two years;
thereafter engaged in the real estate business at
Meridian until 1889, and then, having read law at
leisure moments, was admitted to the bar, and
formed a copartnership with Mr. J. Jenkins. Mr.
Jenkins died the following December, since which
time Mr. Robertson has practiced alone. He has
acquired large landed interests in Bosque County,
and now enjoys a large and lucrative civil and land
practice in the various courts of the State. He
has for years been an active Democratic worker,
and has been a prominent delegate to county, dis-
trict and State conventions. He is a Royal Arch
Mason (now treasurer of the Masonic Chapter at
Meridian), an Odd Fellow, and a member of the
M. E. Church, South. October 2, 1879, he was
united in marriage to Miss Lula Standifer, a
native of Alabama, and a daughter of Mr. John H.
Standifer, of Meridian, Texas.
Six children have blessed this union : Mary Ida,
John E., James Monroe, Jr., Felix Hilton, Marvin
H., and Joseph Kay Robertson.
Mr. Robertson has already achieved distinction
in his profession, and is destined to win fresh
laurels in the future. He is the attorney for the
largest corporations in his county.
C. H. SILLIMAN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
429
CHARLES HERBERT SILLIMAN,
FORT WORTH.
One of Fort Worth's most prominent and influ-
ential citizens is Mr. C. H. Silliman, president of
the Chamber of Commerce, and manager of the
Land Mortgage Bank of Texas (limited). He
is a native of Monroe County, N. Y., born on
the banlis of Lake Ontario, on the 30th day of
.January, 1852. His father, La Fayette Silliman, a
native of the State of Connecticut, followed farm-
ing until 1862, and then engaged in the manufac-
ture of agricultural implements, as a member of the
firm of Silliman, Bowman & Company, at Brock-
port, N. Y. Subsequently he sold his interest
in the manufacturing business to the Johnston
Harvester Company, and is now a resident of
Albion, Mich. He married Miss Caroline, daugh-
ter of Samuel Porter, a well-known manufac-
turer of Holly, N. Y., who, at his death, in
1880, at the age of ninety years, was one of the
oldest Free Masons in the United States.
The father of our subject is a relative of the
noted Professor Silliman of Yale College, and both
the Silliman and Porter ancestors were Revolution-
ary patriots, and among the original settlers of
Connecticut.
Mr. Silliman spent much of his time while a boy,
in his father's factory, receiving considerable prac-
tical instruction in mechanics as applied to motive
power. He attended the Brockport Academy dur-
ing the school year ; always spending his summer
vacations in the country, on one of his father's
farms, where the free, open air and exercise would
remove any tendency of the physical system to
an unhealthy development, and where his mental
faculties could recover their normal vigor after a
year of hard study. The Brockport! Academy, in
1867, was converted into a State Normal School,
and young Silliman was a member of its second
graduating class, delivering the first graduating
oration in July, 1869, his subject being: "Men
the World Demands." He then went to Albion,
Mich., where his parents had removed, and there
engaged in teaching in the intermediate department
of the public schools. In 1871 he went to New
Orleans, where he was appointed first assistant in
the Fisk Grammar School, and afterward, in a
competitive examination, was awarded the pro-
fessorship of natural sciences in the Boys' High
School of that city. After filling the duties of that
position successfully until 1874, he resigned and
went to Santa Barbara, Cal., a desire to see the
Pacific Coast country prompting the change. Here
he was for a year engaged as professor of mathemat-
ics in Santa Barbara College. The following year
he went to Oakland to fill a chair in the CaUfornia
Military Academy, then under the direction of the
Reverend David McClure, the founder and proprie-
tor. In 1877 he was elected assistant in the Boys'
High School of San Francisco, a position he held
for four years, During this time Mr. Silliman took
a complete course in Hastings College of the law,
and in 1881 was graduated from that department of
the University of California with the degree of
LL.B., being a member of the first graduating law
class of that institution of learning.
Resigning Ms position in the high school, he im-
mediately entered a wider field of usefulness at San
Diego, Cal. , by engaging in the practice of the law,
but finding that merchandising in that part of the State
would afford greater opportunities for acquiring a
competency, he temporarily abandoned the law and
became managing partner of the firm of Francisco,
Silliman & Company, which was succeeded later by
that of Gruendike & Company. Mr. Silliman
remained in business at San Diego until 1884, and
then came to Texas to look after several tracts of
land he had previously acquired in his trading enter-
prises. While investigating the inexhaustible re-
sources of this State, he concluded that it would
be a good field for a land business, and he accord-
ingly opened an office in the Masonic Temple in
Austin, Texas, being associated with John Mc-
Dougall, an old Louisiana friend, who had a branch
oflBce at New Orleans. In 1885, Mr. Silliman went
to England and succeeded in organizing the com-
pany of which he is now the manager. Through his
exertions, aided by his wife's relatives, sufficient
capital was raised and the company was organized
with Mr. Alderman, Benjamin S. Brigg, J. P., of
Keighley, England, as chairman. The other direct-
ors were the Hon. Harold Finch-Hatton, David
MacPherson, Esq., Swire Smith, J. P., Joseph C.
Wakefield, Esq., and William Woodail, M. P.
Messrs. Smith, Payne & Smiths are the London
bankers, and Alfred T. Jay is the London manager.
The company organized with a capital of £500,000
of which only £11,000 was paid up when they
began operations. The development of the busi-
ness was rapid. Ample funds were offered as fast
430
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
as they could be profitably employed, and in four
years' time the nominal capital was doubled. The
company has confined itself exclusively to advance-
ments on first mortgages of freehold real estates,
not exceeding fifty per cent of their market value,
and has been eminently and uniformly successful,
paying satisfactory dividends to its stockholders,
besides accumulating a reserve fund of £60,000.
From the inception of the company until the
present time Mr. Silliman has had the management
of its affairs in Texas, and its uniform success, and
the fact that it went through the panic of 1893
without the slightest inconvenience, reflects great
credit upon his executive ability as a financier. In
1889 Mr. Silliman removed his offices from Austin to
Fort Worth, and since his residence there has been
closely identified with the advancement of the
" Queen City," and to his public spirit and liberal-
ity is due to a great extent the reputation Fort
Worth enjoys as a commercial and financial center.
In his capacity as president of the Chamber of
Commerce he has labored heroically and unceas-
ingly to secure for the city factories, railroads and
other industrial enterprises to employ labor, and
has proven himself a tower of strength in encourag-
ing and aiding in the development of the city, her
industries and institutions.
His interests are many, and he is an extremely
busy man. Three times he has visited Europe on
business in connection with his company. He is a
shareholder in several of the national banks, of the
Fort Worth Stock Yards Company, and is largely
interested in Texas real estate. His worth as a
progressive and enterprising citizen is fully ap-
preciated by his fellow-citizens, and few stand
higher than he in the esteem and admiration of all.
He is a member of the various orders of Free
Masonry, being a Past Master of Austin Lodge No.
.12, and a past officer in the commandery, and the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, having re-
ceived the thirty-second degree. He takes great
interest in church work, being a deacon of the First
Baptist Church.
Mr. Silliman was married on the 15th day of July,
1876, in the Church of the Annunciation at New
Orleans, La., to the daughter of Benjamin Jack-
son, of Louisville, Ky. Mrs. Silliman's mother's
maiden name was Swire, her people coming from
Keighley, Yorkshire, England.
Mrs. Silliman's home is known as the Somerville
Place. It is situated on the bluff overlooking the
Trinity river in the western part of Fort Worth,
where he has recently erected one of the handsom-
est residences in the city. The residence is modeled
after the colonial style of architecture, and is built
of granitic pressed-brick, with stone trimmings, and
is three stories in height. On the first floor are
the parlors, library and dining-room ; on the second
the sleeping apartments and billiard room ; while the
third floor is almost entirely taken up by the art
studio of Mrs. Silliman, who enjoys quite a local
reputation as an amateur artist. The entire house
is lighted by electricity and is heated by the most
approved appliances. Artesian water is supplied
by a deep well located on the premises. The house
is furnished in exquisite taste, and all in all is one
of the most elegant and hospitable homes in Fort
Worth, as will be attested by many at home
and abroad who have been entertained within its
walls.
ROBERT A. LOTT,
WASHINGTON,
Came to Texas in 1836, and crossed the Brazos
river into the town of Old Washington, in Wash-
ington County, December 25, of that year. He
came hither from Mississippi but was a native of
Florida, where he was born near the city of Talla-
hasse, October 10, 1797. Two brothers, John and
Jesse Lott, preceded him to Texas. John lost his
life (killed by Indians) near Killum Springs, in
Grimes County, about the year 1838. Jesse located
at San Antonio, where he died late in the 60' s.
Eobert A. Lott located in Washington County,
about four miles southwest of Washington, and in
1854 returned to the old town of Washington, where
he kept a hotel and did a general merchandising
business until the breaking out of the late Civil War,
when he closed out his business. He took part in
the Somervell expedition and was one of the Tex-
ains captured at Mier. He drew a white bean at
the hacienda of Salado and thereby escaped death
at that place. Those who drew black beans were
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
431
■shot, pursuant to orders received from Santa Anna.
He died January 3, 1861, at sixty-three years of
■age. He doubtless grew up in Florida in the stock-
raising business, as he brought a band of fine horses
with him to Texas. He married Susan C. Behn,
January 17, 1828, who survived until February 28,
1895. She was eighty -four years of age at the time
of her death. She was born May 29, 1812, and was
the mother of eleven children, five of whom, at this
writing (1895), are living, viz. : William R., Jesse
JJ., James F., Laura L. (who is now Mrs. John C.
JMcKinney), and Phrandius K.
Jesse B. Lott, son of Robert A. Lott, is a well-
known merchant of Navasota. He was born in
Washington County, near the old town of Washing-
ton, on his father's farm, April 1, 1842, and there
grew to manhood. He learned merchandising in
his father's store at Old Washington and there fol-
lowed same until 1889, when he engaged in busi-
ness for himself in Navasota, where he now resides
and owns a large mercantile establishment. He
married in Washington County, Miss Augusta L.,
daughter of Col. Henry A. Lockett, a Texas
pioneer of 1856.
Mr. and Mrs. Lott have three children : Jessie,
Alice and Edward T.
ROBERT ALEXANDER HORLOCK,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch is one of Navasota's
tmost enterprising citizens. He is a native of
Alabama, born January 5th, 1849, in the city of
Mobile, in that State. His father was of English
and his mother of German birth. His father, John
Horlock, was a ship-chandler by occupation ; estab-
lished himself in Mobile in 1840 and came from
.that city to Texas in 1860 and located at Galveston,
where he engaged in ship-chandelery at the corner
of Twentieth and Market streets. His store was
■one of the very few that kept open for business
during the prolonged period covered by the war
between the States, sustaining serious losses. He,
in 1865, returned to England and opened a store in
the city of Liverpool, taking his family with him.
He, however, came again to Galveston and soon
after his return there died in 1868. His wife sur-
^vived him until 1892. She died in Navasota. She
reared seven children, three of whom are now
living, viz.: Robert A., Mrs. T. C. Ogilvy and
William, all of whom are living at Navasota. Mr.
Robert A. Horlock was about twelve years of age
■when his parents moved from Mobile to Galveston
The war broke out about this time, schools were
closed and business disorganized. Young Hor-
lock, although a mere lad, absorbed the spirit of
:the times, boarded a blockade runner in Galveston
harbor, presented himself to the commander for
duty and was enlisted as Captain's boy. He re-
mained in service in this capacity until the fall of
Richmond and Lee's surrender and experienced all
the excitements and adventure incident to this most
hazardous feature of warfare.
The old blockade runner, the steamer Denbiegli,
happened to be lying in Galveston harbor when the
closing event of the war took place. News of Lee's
surrender reached Galveston several days before the
arrival of Federal authorities at that port, but was
immediately abandoned and her hull and boilers
have since lain off Bolliver point, a land-mark often
visited by local fishermen, who make large catches
from its ruins.
Mr. Horlock went to England with his parents
and returned to Galveston with them, where he was
employed as buyer for a firm of hide and wool, deal-
ers until 1870. He then spent one year in the hard-
ware business on the Strand, and late in 1871,
moved to Navasota, in Grimes County, Jsince which
time he has been a conspicuous figure in the busi-
ness development of that place. He is at the head
of the firm of Horlock & Hawley (cotton ginners
and manufacturers of ice), and is, also, senior
member of the firm of Horlock & Schumacher,
jewelers. *
He is manager of the Schmacher Oil Company
and has extensive landed interests in the Brazos
Valley in Grimes County.
Mr. Horlock has been twice married, in 1872 to
Miss Ella Lyon, of Evansville, Ind., who died in
1876, leaving one son, Robert, and a daughter.
432
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Emma, and in 1877 to Miss Agnes White, of New
Orleans, who has born him seven children, viz. :
Agnes, Effle, Ida, Arthur, Gladys, Naniscah and
Henry.
Mr. Horlock is a member of the K. of P. Uni-
formed Knights and Knights of Honor fraternities
and is an officer with the rank of Colonel on the
staff of Gen. Hopkins, in the U. E. K. of P.
GEORGE H. DUNN,
WHEELOCK.
His father, Capt. James Dunn, and mother,
whose maiden name was Miss Isabella Caufleld
(natives of Ireland), sailed from Belfast to America
early in the present century ; after a brief residence
in South Carolina, settled in 1815 in Alabama,
where they lived until 1832, when they started for
Texas, reaching the Irish settlement in Robertson's
Colony known as "Stagger Point" in January,
1833, and shortly afterwards moved to Wheelock's
prairie, where the following year Capt. Dunn loca-
ted a headright, the first of the kind made in
that section. Here he built a log-house which
became the nucleus of a frontier settlement. In
1837 his house was fortified and armed, and be-
came a place of considerable importance, the land-
offlce,Courtof the Alcalde, etc., being located there.
During his twenty years residence in Texas, he was
engaged mainly in locating lands and became the
owner of large bodies of " wild land" and great
numbers of cattle. He died in August, 1852.
His wife survived him eleven years, dying in
August, 1863. They had four children who
reached maturity. Mary (twice married, first to
Felix Robertson, and after his death, to David
Love), James (who served in early days against
the Indians and died in Navarro County, in 1865),
George H. (subject of this sketch), and Catherine
A. (who married Joseph Cavitt and is now
deceased). George H. Dunn was born in Green
County, Ala., September SO, 1824; and was
mainly reared in Robertson County, Texas ; was
brought up in the saddle and at an early date was
one of the best known stock-raisers in Eastern or
Central Texas ; inherited large landed and cattle
interests from his parents and through his untiring
energy and thorough knowledge of the business soon
forged to the front as the leading cattleman in his
section ; was commissioned by the Confederate
Government, with the rank of Captain, to purchase
cattle and forward them to the soldiers at the front,
and during the war between the States disbursed
thousands and thousands of dollars in this service ;
during his active business career, which continued
until a number of years ago, when he sold his cattle
and invested all of his means in land and good
securities, his cattle roamed over a dozen counties
and he effected many large sales, ranging from
$20,000.00 in one instance to $90,000 in another.
It would have been impossible for him to have
handled this volume of business alone, as he had
no educational advantages. He found a valuable
assistant in his wife, Mrs. Nancy J. Dunn, who took
charge of the clerical end of his business affairs.
She was a daughter of Judge Samuel B. Killough
(mention of whom will be found elsewhere in this
volume) and was born in Robertson County, Texas.
She was united in marriage to C?ipt. George H.
Dunn, February 24th, 1861. Thirteen children
were born of this union: Mary Ann, James Black-
burn, Isabella (who married M. C. Armstrong and
died December 9th, 1892) ; Josephine (wife of T.
A. Sims of Robertson County) ; Willie, wife of Rev.
John H. Jackson) ; Sallie E. (wife of Marsh
Mitchell of Wheelock) ; George R., John C, Annette
Woodward (wife of Wm. G. Curry of Wheelock) ;
Samuel R. Nancy J., and twins Ida and Ada.
Mr, and Mrs. Dunn have twenty grandchildren
living.
Both Capt. and Mrs. Dunn are members of the
Methodist Church.
Capt. Dunn was a member of the Masonic fra-
ternity for many years, joining the order in Wheel-
ock, where he held a membership as long as the
local lodge remained in existence.
i i
i i
J. Q. YARBOROUGLI.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
433
B. H. AHRENBECK,
NAVASOTA.
Mr. Ahrenbeck was born and reared in Hanover,
Germany, whence he emigrated to America in 1855,
landing at Galveston in November of that year.
He settled on Spring Branch in Harris County,
where he resided two years, and then moved to
Hempstead. In 1867 he moved from Hempstead
to Navasota, his present place of residence. Mr.
Ahrenbeck learned the milling business in Ger-
many ; but, on coming to this country, for lack of
«mployment at his trade, worked as a wagon-
maker. He built a flour-mill at Navasota in 1877 ;
but, after a short and unprofitable run, shut it
•down, and resumed work as a wagon-maker. In
1891 he again went into the milling business, which
he has since followed. Mr. Ahrenbeck was accom-
panied to this country by his brother Charles, and
they were always associated together in business
until the latter's death September 23, 1885. Both
were competent mechanics, and struggled hard
during their early years in Texas to secure a foot-
hold. Their efforts were finally rewarded with
success. They built up a good trade and secured
a first-class standing in the community where they
lived. Mr. Ahrenbeck is one of the leading citi-
zens of Navasota, a man of means and is highly
respected.
He married Mrs. Weston, of Grimes County, in
1869, but has no children.
JAMES QUINCY YARBOROUGH,
GRIMES COUNTY.
Col. James Quincy Yarborough, son of Alfred
und Mary Yarborough, was born in Coosa County,
Ala., September 8, 1827, and was reared in Marengo
and Sumter counties in that State, growing up on
liis father's farm, where his boyhood and youth were
divided between the duties and sports of the farm
and his attendance at the local schools. His op-
portunities for obtaining an education were good
and he availed himself of them. At about the age
of twenty-one he married and began life as a
planter upon his own account. He engaged in
planting in his native State until the death of his
wife in 1852, when, unsettled by that event and
filled with a desire to try his fortunes in the new
West, he went to California in 1849 where, however,
he remained only a short time, returning thence to
Alabama. In 1859 he came to Texas, settling at
Apolonia, in Grimes County, where he was residing
at the opening of the late war. He entered the
•Confederate army as a member of Company H.,
Carter's Regiment, with which he served in Texas,
Arkansas and Louisiana until the close of the strug-
gle. His services were rendered in the capacity of
a private, but the title of "Colonel," which he
subsequently bore, was not a purely honorary dis-
tinction, as he was Colonel of the State Militia in
Alabama previous to his removal to Texas, and took
an active part in military matters in that State.
After the war, in 1869, Col. Yarborough became
associated with Lewis J. Wilson and W. E. Howell,
under the firm name of Wilson, Yarborough & Co.,
and embarked in the mercantile business at Ander-
son, Apolonia, and Navasota, in Grimes County,
and at Madisonville, in Madison County. This
partnership lasted until 1875, when Col. Yarborough
disposed of his interest, and subsequently engaged
in business on his own account in Navasota. Later
he moved his business to the present station of
Yarborough, on the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Railway, ten miles from Navasota, and there
followed merchandising and farming until his
death. He met with more than ordinary suc-
cess both as a merchant and planter and left a
handsome estate. He was entirely devoted to
business, never holding any public positions and
taking only such interest in politics as good citizen-
ship required. When occasion demanded, how-
ever, he never hesitated to go to the front in every
movement and he always displayed in public mat-
ters much of the same spirit, energy, and enterprise
434
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEE US OF TEXAS.
which brought such pronounced success in his own
undertakings. He was especially active in securing
the extension of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Railway through Grimes County and gave to the
company the grounds on which the station of Yar-
borough is situated to which he added a bonus of
$2,000 in cash to aid in the construction of the
road. Jij Whatever tended in any way to stimulate
industry, to increase the value of property or build
up the community, found in him an intelligent and
cordial supporter. In politics he was a staunch
Democrat, adhering strictly to the principles and
traditions of the party. He never asked office for
himself but always stood ready to assist with his
means and personal efforts those who were honored
as standard bearers of the party, and in his quiet
but vigorous way did good service for the men
and measures of his choice. Col. Yarborough
was a man of strong likes and dislikes. There was
not the slightest trace of the compromise element
in his nature. He always took sides and sought in
every 'legitimate way to carry his point. If he pro-
fessed friendship for one he was ready to testify to
that friendship in a substantial way, and if any one
incurred his displeasure he did not hesitate to let
the fact be known. He was of a retiring disposi-
tion but did his own thinking, acting vigorously and
promptly as occasion demanded. He was of genial
nature, affable to his friends and easily approached
by strangers. Persistent in what he believed to be
right or expedient, he never abandoned his matured
opinions at the suggestion, or as the result of the
opposition of any one. He joined the Masons in
Alabama previous to his removal to Texas, and was
a liberal contributor to every worthy purpose.
Col. Yarborough was three times married and left
surviving him ten children. His first marriage
occurred in Alabama and was to Miss Mary A.
Parham. a native of that State and a daughter of
Mathew Parham, a respectable and well-to-do-
planter. The issue of this union was one son, the
present Mathew Parham Yarborough, of Navasota.
His second marriage occurred in Texas and was to-
Miss Alice Scott, a daughter of Judge James Scott,
of Grimes County. Three children were born of
this union, viz., Mant, now Mrs. Tom Owen, Alfred,
and Jas. L. Yarborough. His last marriage took
place in Florida and was to Miss Fannie A. Milton,
a native of Marianna, that State, and a daughter
of Governor John A. Milton, who served in the
Florida Indian wars and was Governor of the State
during the war between the States. The six chil-
dren of this union are : Earle H. , J. Milton, Martha
E., Virgil H., Guy and Hunter.
Col. Yarborough's death occurred December 23,.
1890, and called forth many expressions of sorrow
from the people of Grimes County, to whom he was-
well known and by whom he was greatly respected-
LEWIS J. WILSON,
NAVASOTA.
Was born in Harwinton, Litchfield County,
Conn., December 12th, 1832. While an infant his
parents moved to Marion, Ala., where they resided
until he was fourteen years old, when he was sent
North to complete his education, where he remained
until he was nineteen years of age.
Mr. Wilson came of an old Connecticut family,
one that has long been prominent in the history of
that State. His father, Samuel Wilson, a merchant
of large means, moved from Connecticut to
Marion, Ala., in the early 30' s and there engaged
in the mercantile business until 1851, when he
came to Texas and established a business at Ander-
son, in Grimes County, in copartnership with
Chester M. Case, under the firm name of Case &
Wilson. The son, Lewis J., came out to Texas in
1852, took 'the position of bookkeeper and generar
manager for the firm and, later, acquired a pro-
prietary interest in the business. Mr. Lewis J.
Wilson served as a member of Capt. J. R. Alston'^
Company, Twenty-first (Carter's) Regiment of
Texas Cavalry for two years during the war between
the States, and was then honorably discharged from
active service in the field on account of physicai
disabilities. Returning to Anderson, he was soo»
after made chief clerk in the ordnance department
at that place, remaining until the war was over.
Immediately after the war he began merchandising
in his own name. In 1866 he associated himself
with Col. J. Q. Yarborough and, in 1869, Mr. W.
R. Howell was admitted to a partnership in the firm.
Mr. Wilson and his partner,. Mr. Yarborough, sooi>
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
435
after moved to Navasota and opened up a general
mercantile business, leaving Mr. Howell in charge
of the business at Anderson. In 1875 Mr, Yar-
borough withdrew from the firm and the business
was continued by Wilson & Howell for six years.
Mr. Howell afterwards retired and Mr. Wilson con-
tinued the business up to his death. In May, 1890,
Mr. Wilson in connection with his son-in-law, Mr.
Gibbs, established the Merchants' and Farmers'
Bank at Kosse, in Limestone County,, a private
concern which has done and still continues to do a
goud business.
In the year 1858 he was married to Miss Lucy
Perkins, of Harwinton, Conn., who still survives
him. The result of this union was two children,
Laura and Sam. Miss Laura married Mr. Blake
Gibbs, and is now a widow, Mr. Gibbs having died
February 1st, 1891. Sam, who was married to
Miss May Matthews, of Navasota, Texas, died
July lOth, 1893.
Mr. Wilson died at his residence in Navasota, dur-
ing the morning of March Slh, 1895, after an ill-
ness of only twenty-four hours. For several months
Mr. Wilson had been in bail health, although able
to make almost daily visits to his business office.
In the morning previous to his decease he was
stricken with apoplexy. He remained in an un-
conscious state from that time until 4 o'clock a. m.,
March 8th, when he quietly passed from earth,
through the vaUey of the shadow of death, into
the bright beyond. A friend writing of him
says : —
"Mr. Wilson was distinguished for his close
application to business and strict integrity. Those
who knew him best and were most closely associa-
ted with him in business, knew him as an honest
man, and unassuming, modest gentleman. Less
than a year previous to his death he embraced the
religion of Christ and united with the Presbyterian
Church of Navasota. The sincerity of that profes-
sion is best attested by those who saw his daily life
and heard his conversation. His regular attend-
ance on all the services of the sanctuary was to his
pastor and all true Christians a fitting evidence of
his interest in divine things, all of whom will sadly
miss his familiar face."
NORVAL C. WILSON,
COLORADO COUNTY.
Nerval C. Wilson was born in Lewisburg,
Greenbrier County, Va, October 2, 1837; moved
to Texas with his parents, Hugh and Adeline
P. Wilson, in 1846, and settled in Colorado
County ; entered the Virginia Military Institute, at
Lexington, Va., in 1854, and graduated from that
institution in 1858 ; served in the Confederate army
as Lieutenant in Brown's Regiment of Texas Cavalry
during the war between the States, and returned lo
Texas after the surrender ; engaged in farming at
the old farm-place in Colorado County and now
owns a fine farm consisting of three hundred and
fifty acres of bottom land and one hundred acres of
upland. Mr. Wilson's father died in June, 1857,
and his mother in June, 1885. September 25,
1865, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss
Mollie E. Sanford, daughter of Maj. John A. San-
ford, of Tyler, Texas. Three children have been
born to them : Delia, wife of B. F. Moore, of
Glidden, Texas ; Bessie, wife of W. J. Wright, of
Colorado County, Texas, and Hugh, who lives at
home with his parents. Mr. Wilson is an enter-
prising and public-spirited citizen of Colorado
County and few men in that section have so large a
number of warm friends and admirers.
436
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN WAHRENBERGER,
AUSTIN.
If the early settlement of Texas, the final accom-
plishment of her independence, and the founding of
a splendid commonwealth is due to only one par-
ticular cause, it is certainly due to the resolute and
determined character of her pioneers. The real
pioneers of Texas were not as a rule adventur-
ers, but men and women born and raised amid
civilizing influences in law-abiding communities of
this and foreign lands, and it was the future
possibilities of the Lone Star Republic, the promise
of rewards for honest and well-directed labor, that
enticed them hither. They came to acquire homes,
rear their families and reap for themselves the
blessings of free government. The permanent set-
tlement of many of the fairest portions of Texas
was accomplished by the organized influx of people
from the German Empire and kindred peoples. A
majority of them were practically without means.
Their only capital consisted, in the main, of stout
hearts, strong constitutions and a spirit of adapt-
ability which collectively proved the very best
capital they could possibly have brought with them
to a frontier country. After Texas had acquired
her independence and assumed the dignity of a
Republic, she attracted widespread attention and
heavy accessions to her population. Antedating
that period, settlements had been made chiefly in the
Gulf-Coast country and along the Lower Brazos
river ; but, after the location of the permanent seat of
government at Austin, the tide of settlement drifted
in that direction, and among those who became
identified with the young and growing city was the
subject of this sketch. John Wahrenberger was of
Swiss parentage. He was born in Switzerland, the
most romantic and picturesque of all countries, in
the month of April, 1812.
Possessed of a restless and ambitious nature, he
left his native home when a youth and went to
Italy. There he learned the baker's trade. The
condition of affairs in that then distracted country
did not suit his ambitious purposes, and he, ac-
cordingly, in 1836, emigrated to America, landing
at New Orleans, where he found employment with
a French wine importing house. He remained in
New Orleans about five years, and in 1841 came
to Austin. This was during the exciting earlv
days of the Republic, and the lively interest with
which he entered into local affairs made for him
many friends, and he soon became popular with
the people, and familiarly known to them as
"Dutch John." Upon his arrival in Austin he
engaged on a modest scale in the confectionery,
bakery and grocery business. In 1850 he erected
a two-story building on the southeast corner of
Congress avenue and Seventh street, and two years
later occupied it. This was at that time one of
the most pretentious buildings in the town. He
prospered financially from the time he first opened
his establishment.
May 10th, 1848, he was united in marriage by
Chief Justice Cummings to Miss Caroline, a daugh-
ter of Charles Klein, a Texas pioneer of Swiss
nativity, and a citizen of high respectability, who
still survives, a venerable resident of Austin.
Mr. Klein reached Texas on Christmas day,
1846, with his family. Placing his two daughters
in an English school in Galveston, he, with his
wife and son, Arnold, proceeded by ox-teams to
Austin. He has been an active and reasonably
successful business man. His first wife, the
mother of his Children, was Barbara Schubiyer,
a daughter of a Swiss farmer. Of her children,
besides Mrs. Wahrenberger and Arnold, there still
survives Albertine, widow of the late Jacob
Steussy. Mr. Wahrenberger's. early residence in
Austin was fraught with many of the exciting
experiences so common to those unsettled times.
The country was as yet full of hostile Indians,
who took every opportunity to raid the town or
lurk in waiting by the roadside to waylay unsus-
pecting travelers. On one occasion, when on the
way to his home, he narrowly escaped death from
an Indian's arrow. A sack of meal which he car-
ried on his shoulder received the deadly missile and
saved his life. A second shot crippled his arm,
however, for life.
Mr. Wahrenberger was in the " Archive War."
While on a business trip down the country about
sixty miles he overheard a discussion about the
contemplated removal of the archives. He had no
horse or conveyance and therefore walked back to
Austin to give the alarm. When he reached town
the deed had been accomplished and he, with others,
pursued the party intrusted by Gen. Houston
with the task of removal and compelled it to return
the archives to their old place in the public build-
ings at the capital.
He was a busy, industrious, frugal man, pos-
MRS. WAHKENBERGER.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
437
sessed a warm heart and benevolent nature, and
many are the quiet and becoming charities that, in
his modest way, he dispensed.
He died March 9, 1864, on his farm, whither he
had retired with the hope of renewing his impaired
health.
Mrs. Wahrenberger took up the reins of business
and has distinguished herself in Austin for her
executive ability. She has done more in the way
of substantially building up the business streets of
Austin than any other woman, besides improving
some nice pieces of residence property. After the
death of her husband, she, with her family, so-
journed in Europe about four years for the pur-
pose, chiefly, of finishing the education of her chil-
dren. Her son, now a prosperous architect at San
Antonio, was graduated from a polytechnic insti-
tute at Carls Rhue, Baden, Germany, and the
daughters attended a private seminary at Zurich.
To Mr. and Mrs. Wahrenberger were born five
children : Elizabeth, deceased ; James, before men-
tioned ; Bertha, deceased ; Josephine, wife of
William CuUen ; and Mary, widow of the late
Ernest Leuferman.
Mrs. Wahrenberger has, to a very great extent,
carved out her own fortunes. She is possessed of
keen business discrimination and abilities and,
withal, finds time for much charitable and benevo-
lent work. She was one of the first promoters and
organizers of the German Relief Society and has
for many years served as its president and execu-
tive head. The benefactions of this organization
are legion and have had a wonderfully uplifting
influence in Austin among the poor.
Mrs. Wahrenberger is esteemed throughout the
community for her many excellent qualities.
She is rightfully regarded as one of the mothers
of Austin.
FELIX G. ROBERTS,
NAVASOTA,
Is a son of Elisha and Patsy (Gill) Roberts, the
former of whom was born on the Holston river in
East Tennessee in 1775 and the latter in Bedford
County, Va., some time near 1780. Both went to
Kentucky after attaining their majority and there
met and in 1800 were married. In 1801 Elisha
Roberts visited Texas, then a dependency of the
Spanish Crown, making his way as far as the Trinity
river. Returning to Kentucky he settled in Barren
County, where he lived until 1811, when he moved
to Washington Parish, La. There he resided until
1822, when becoming again smitten with the "Texas
fever," he came out and took a second look at the
country and this time decided to settle in it. He
prospected in the vicinity of Ayish bayou, in the
eastern part of the State, and, having purchased
what was known as an improvement from William
Elam, about four miles from San Augustine, moved
and settled there in 1823. As time passed he bought
other " improvements " as they were offered for
sale, and finally, when the lands came into market
under the Mexican colonization laws, located a
headright and established a considerable plantation,
for that day, four hundred acres being put under
cultivation. His house, fronting on the public
highway coming into Texas, was frequented by
many overland travelers, and was known far and
wide. He died there October 4, 1844, and his
widow in December, 1845. He never performed
any military service in Texas, but was a soldier in
the War of 1812-14, between the United States and
Great Britain ; held some minor civil ofllces while
residing in Louisiana and served for a number of
years as Alcalde under the Mexican government
after coming to Texas.
Nine children, six daughters and three sons, were
born to him and his beloved wife, viz. : Annie, who
married Bryan Daugherty and settled on Mill
creek, in Austin County, this State, where she
died and her descendants now live ; Elizabeth, who
married William D. Smith, settled in Sabine County
and died in the town of San Augustine ; Easter J.,
who married Philip A. Sublett, and lived in San
Augustine until the time of her death ; Matilda
F., who was three times married, her second hus-
band, Sam. T. Allen, was murdered by Indians in
the famous " Surveyors' Fight," in Navarro
County) ; William G., who died at Miami Univer-
sity, Oxford, Ohio, when a young man; Noel G.,
who settled six miles from San Augustine, where he
died; Mahala L., who married a Mr. Sharp and,
after his death, a Mr. Hall, and died in Houston
438
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
County; Felix G., the subject of this memoir, and
Margaret S., who married Alexander S. McDoland,
of Huntsville, and died in Houston of cholera.
Felix Grundy Roberts, the youngest but one and
now the only survivor of the above family, was
born in Washington Parish, La., August 23, 1818.
He was just five years old when his parents
moved to Texas ; remembers riding behind an elder
sister on horseback when the family crossed the
Sabine, and many other incidents of the journey.
He was chiefly reared at San Augustine. Attended
school in Kentucky and completed his education at
the University, at Lexington, in that State, where
he took a full law course, graduating in the class of
1842, of which the late Judge Thomas J. Devine
was also a member.
While at Lexington, Mr. Roberts met and
married Miss Elizabeth K. Layton, a native of
Kentucky, the marriage occurring August 2,
1842. Returning to Texas he abandoned the idea
of practicing law and devoted his attention to his
plantation, near San Augustine, until 1859, when he
moved to Washington County, where he had pur-
chased a farm, and there lived engaged in agricul-
tural pursuits, until his recent removal to Navasota,
in Grimes County, where he now resides.
August 5, 1894, Mr. Roberts lost his wife, after
a happy married life of fifty-two years. They
raised to maturity four sons: John Harrison,
Patrick Henry, Charles Morgan, and Jefferson
Davis, all of whom are married and either planters
or stockmen. Mr. Roberts has resided in Texas
for seventy-two years and has never seriously
thought of leaving the State but once, that being in
1849, when he went to California. After a resi-
dence of more than a year there, during which he
endured many hardships, he returned to Texas,
fully satisfied to make his home here for the rest of
his days. He was personally acquainted with Ellis
P. Bean (who stopped at his father's house near
San Augustine), Gen. Piedras, Col. Almonte, Gen.
Sam. Houston, Thomas J. Rusk, J. Pinkney Hen-
derson, David S. Kauffman, William B. Ochiltree,
and many other men who figure prominently on
the pages of Texas history.
Mr. Roberts has passed through many changing
scenes and trying vicissitudes, through all of which
he moved as a brave and true-hearted gentleman
and from which he emerged with untarnished honor.
He lived to see Texas transformed from a well-
nigh uninhabited wilderness to a well-settled and
prosperous State of the Union and now, in his old
age, enjoys the confidence and esteem of all who
knew him.
JOSEPH BROOKS,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch was a native of En-
gland, born in Greenwich, April 11, 1830. In 1852
he married Miss Mary Ann Farrar, of Greenwich,
and the following year came to Texas, settling in
the town of Old Washington. He resided there
until 1866, when he moved to Navasota, which place
he made his home until his death. During his forty-
odd years residence in Texas, Mr. Brooks was
actively engaged at his trade, embarking at Nava-
sota extensively in the coffin-manufacturing and
Undertaking business.
The present lumber establishment of Jesse
Youens & Company, at Navasota, one of the lar-
gest in the State, was founded by him. He was a
man of industrious habits, a skillfull workman,
possessed good business ability, and, as a result of
these qualities, accumulated a very handsome estate.
With the exception of the office of Alderman of
Navasota, he never filled any public position, but,
nevertheless, was a public-spirited citizen and dis-
charged his duties as such in every capacity.
He died December 1st, 1889. His widow and
one daughter, Mrs. Benjamin F. Salyer, survive
him and reside at Navasota.
^^M
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
439
THOMAS J. MORRIS,
Rev. Thomas J. Morris, the well-known farmer
and minister of the gospel of Colorado County, was
born in the State of Florida, December 30, 1843 ;
completed his education at the University of the
South ; served as a soldier in the Confederate army
in Company B., Eighth Florida Regiment, during
the war between the States, participating in the
battles of the Wilderness and Gettysburg (in both
■of which he was severely wounded), and in 1867
moved to Texas, and settled in Colorado County in
1874, where he has since resided. After coming to
Texas, he married Miss Mary B. Hunt, adopted
daughter of Capt. William Hunt. This union has
been blessed with six children: William Hunt,
Howard C, Mabel, Mary E., Thomas J., Jr., and
Francis Wilmans Morris.
Rev. Mr. Morris is one of the most progressive
and truly representative men of his county and
deservedly ranks high as a citizen and Christian
gentleman.
F. W. BROSIG,
NAVASOTA.
Ferdinand Wallace Brosig was born in Niesse,
Germany, October 31, 1842, and when seven years
of age came to America with his parents, Joseph
and Augusta Brosig, and other members of the
family, who landed at Galveston, 1849, and pro-
ceeded to Houston, where they made their home and
where the subject of this brief memoir passed his
boyhood and youth and learned the tinner's trade.
His father and mother died when he was a child.
When in his nineteenth year he enlisted in the Con-
federate army as a volunteer and was mustered into
service at San Antonio as a soldier in H. B.
Andrews' Regiment, and some time later was put in
charge of the mechanical department of the Trans-
Mississippi Department of the Confederate States
Army and stationed at Anderson, in Grimes County,
where he remained until the close of hostilities and
for a year thereafter, and then removed to Navasota,
where he passed the remaining years of his life.
July 2, 1867, he was united in marriage to Miss
Josephine Shafer, daughter of J. P. Shafer, a mer-
chant of Navasota. Her parents were natives of
Germany. They were pioneer settlers in the city
of Houston, where they located in 1848 and she was
born in 1849. Mr. Brosig clerked and worked at
his trade until 1871, and then purchased his father-
in-law's establishment and embarked in the hard-
ware and agricultural implement business. During
the time intervening between 1871 and 1886 he sus-
tained three serious business losses by fire, and
once the loss of his residence. Being a man of
great will-power and indomitable perseverance he
surmounted all such reverses and built anew upon
the ashes of his former fortunes. In 1886 he
erected the "Brosig Block" (a two-story brick
building, 58 by 14.5 feet, in the heart of the business
center of Navasota), which befitted up for the hard-
ware and crockery business and where he did
thereafter an extensive and successful business. It
was mainly through the efforts of Mr. Brosig that
the First National Bank of Navasota was organized
in 1890. He was elected president of the bank
upon its establishment and continued to serve as
such until the time of his death, which occurred at
11:30 p. m., the night of July 31, 1893, at his
home in Navasota, Texas. Aside from his mercan-
tile business, he owned valuable real estate interests
in and about Navasota.
Mr. Brosig's death was caused by a paralytic
stroke. His funeral was one of the most largely
attended ever witnessed in Navasota, of which place
he had been a citizen for twenty-nine years. The
religious services took place at St. Paul's Episcopal
Church, Rev. Dr. Dunn officiating. He was buried
in the Oakland Cemetery with Masonic honors.
Mr. Brosig had one brother, Hugo Brosig, now a
merchant at El Paso, who located at, lived in and
was for many years a prominent citizen of Galves-
ton, where he was for several years Justice of the
Peace of the city. Joseph, another brother, settled
in Mexico, where he distinguished himself as a
General in the Mexican army.
440
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Mr. Brosig left surviving him a widow and five
children, four daughters and one son, Annie, Elea-
nor, Joseph Wallace, Mattie, Nettie. The son has
charge of the hardware business and other property
interests left by his father, which he manages for
the benefit of the estate.
Mr. Brosig was a man of sterling traits of char-
acter. Possessed of keen business foresight and
strictest integrity, his judgment was consulted upon
quite all matters of local concern. His influence
was always exercised on the side of good morals,
for the maintenance and enforcement of the laws of
the land and for the promotion of all movements
looking to the welfare and advancement of his
home, city and county. He possessed the un-
bounded confidence of a wide business acquaintance
and a large circle of friends throughout Central
Texas. He left an honored name and fine estate
as legacies to his family.
His memory will be long kept fresh and green by
the many who knew and loved him for his genuine
manly worth.
J. E. DYER,
RICHMOND.
The late J. E Dyer, for so many years a promi-
nent figure in the section of the State in which he
lived, was born at Stafford's Point, in Fort Bend
County, Texas, July 11, 1832, and was reared and
educated in the town of Richmond, in that county,
to which place his parents moved when he was seven
years of age.
His father. Judge C. C. Dyer, came to Texas, in
1822, from Dyersburg, Tenn., and settled in what
is now Harris County, where he resided for a num-
ber of years. He then moved to Fort Bend County,
where he passed the remaining years of his life.
In journeying to Texas, Judge Dyer traveled in
company with Mr. William Stafford and family,
consisting of A. Stafford and Misses Sarah and
Mary Stafford. Acquaintance with Miss Stafford
ripened into love and they were married at Natchi-
toches, La., upon the arrival of the party at that
place. Her grandfather built and owned a place
in Tennessee called Stafford's Mills, which still
bears that name. Judge Dyer served as a member
of the First Commissioners' Court of Harris County
and later was elected County Judge of the county
and filled that office for a period of ten years.
Judge Dyer was in the famous battle of the " Horse-
Shoe," when quite a boy. He followed the occu-
pation of a trader for many years after coming to
Texas, bringing goods from Nachitoehes, La., to
the then sparsely settled Mexican province and was
absent from Texas on one of these trips when the
battle of San Jacinto was fought. He and his wife
died in Fort Bend County and are buried in the
family cemetery at Richmond. Mr. J. E. Dyer,
the subject of this memoir, was educated in private
schools at Richmond and upon reaching manhood
engaged in stock-raising and merchandising and in
the banking business at that place. He was a suc-
cessful business man and left at the time of his
death a considerable estate to his widow and
children.
He served as County Treasurer of Fort Bend
County, from 1852 to 1859, a period of seven years,
and at various times filled many positions of honor
and trust. An uncompromising Democrat, he did
much to promote the cause of good government in
his section of the State. Every worthy enterprise
found in him a liberal supporter. Enlightened,
liberal and public-spirited, he was a power for good
in his day and generation. The needy and friend-
less were often relieved by his bounty, and there
are very many who have reason to revere his mem-
ory. He served during the war between the States
as a soldier in Brown's Battalion, Waul's Legion,
and was stationed for a time at Matagorda, but saw
no field service, as the command, detailed, as it
was, for coast defense duty, was never in an
engagement.
He was a member of the " Temple of Honor,"
an old organization in Texas, but was connected
with no other secret or fraternal society. He was
united in marriage to Miss Isabella M. T. Heard,
at Woodville, Texas, January 4, 1859. Eight chil-
ren were born of this union, viz. : J. T. and H.
L. Dyer, who own the largest mercantile establish-
ment at Richmond ; Ray and Milton Dyer, who
are attending the Texas Military Academy at San
Antonio; C. C. and Reginald Dyer, who stay at
home on the ranch four miles from Richmond ;
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
441
Maud, wife of Mr. H. M. White, of Houston, and
Julia, wife of Mr. A. B. Heard, of Richmond, and
J. E. Dyer, Jr. Mr. Dyer died at Bourne, October
31, 1894, whither he had gone in the hope of res-
toration to health, and is buried in the family
cemetery at Eichmond. His death was a sad
bereavement to his family, to which he was
thoroughly devoted. His loss was also deeply
mourned by a wide circle of friends extending
throughout Texas.
Mrs. Dyer's parents, Mr. George L. and Mrs.
K. (Wright) Heard, were Georgians by birth and
came to Texas at an early day. Her mother's
father was Dr. Isaac Wright, of Tennessee.
Mrs. Dyer had four brothers who served in the
Confederate army during the late war. Of these
G. W. Heard died ten days after the battle of Cor-
inth, from wounds received at Oxford, Miss. ; W.
F. Heard, for years a banker at Cleburne, Texas,
died at that place a few years since ; J. F. Heard
lives at Woodville, Texas, and Heard died
soon after the war. Mrs. Dyer's mother and father
died at Woodville, and are buried there. The Dyer
and Heard families have been prominent in social,
business and political life in Texas, since settling in
this State, and representatives have distinguished
themselves in various professions, civil and mili-
tary, in other parts of the Union. J. A. Dyer, Jr.,
died July 25, 1895, aged twenty-one years. He
was educated at the University of Georgetown. He
was a young man of great promise and his death
was a sore affliction to his family and many friends.
WILLIAM M. KNIGHT,
MERIDIAN.
William M. Knight was born in New Hampshire
in 1855. His parents. Prof. Ephraim and Mrs.
Augusta B. (Grain) Knight, were natives of that
State, and scions of an old Colonial family of Scotch-
Irish descent. Prof. Ephraim Knight was one of
the founders of the New London Literary and
Scientific Academy (now Colby Academy), and
occupied the chair of mathematics in that institution
until 1876, when he retired after many years of
service. He died in 1878. His widow is still
living in New Hampshire.
William M. Knight graduated from Colby
Academy in 1873, and Brown University in 1877,
winning the degree of A. B. at the University;
went to Charleston, W. Va., in 1878 and entered
the law office of Smith & Knight (the latter gentle-
man an uncle), and was admitted to the bar in
1880, and shortly thereafter came to Texas and
located at Meridian, where he has since resided.
He has served three times as County Attorney of
Bosque County, twice by appointment and one full
term, from 1884 to 1886, by election.
December 3d, 1890, he was united in marriage to
Miss Mattie E. Farmer, a native of Virginia, but
then recently from Missouri. Mr. Knight is a
member of the Masonic fraternity ; a member of
the Blue Lodge and Chapter at Meridian and of
Cleburne Knight Templar Commandery No. 10,
and has served as master of the lodge and high
priest of the chapter at Meridian. He is an active
Democratic worker and has been a delegate to
various party conventions.
As a lawyer he ranks among the most skillful
practitioners of the Central Texas bar.
442
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JAMES R. MOSS,
LLANO.
James E. Moss, eldest son of Mathew W. and
Mary Moss, was born in Fayette County, Texas,
January 24, 1843, and was reared in Williamson
County, where his parents settled four years later.
eenth year, he entered the Confederate army as
a member of Company E., Seventeenth Texas
Infantry, McCulloeh's Brigade, with which he began
active service in Arkansas, and later took part in
JAMES R. MOSS AND WIFE.
His educational advantages vrere limited, the
neighborhood schools taught from three to four
months in the year, being the sole reliance of the
youth of his day for that mental training and
equipment now considered so essential to success in
life.
At the opening of the late war, then in his eight-
that series of brilliant military movements along
Red river incident to the Federal General Banks'
campaign in Arkansas and Louisiana. He was in-
jured by a fall the day before the battle of Mans-
field, which necessitated his transfer from the
infantry to the cavalry, in which branch he served
during the remainder of the war.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
443
After the surrender Mr. Moss engaged in the live
stock business in Llano County, which he has since
followed, having thus been identified with the cattle
industry nearly all his life and is familiar with all
its details and experiences. He is one of the oldest
stockmen of Llano County and has been one of the
most successful. He owns a ranch of about 9,000
acres located in the southern part of Llano County,
which he has stocked with a high grade of cattle.
Mentioning Mr. Moss' experiences on the frontier
brings to mind the fact that he took part in one of
the last Indian fights in Llano County, the " Pack
Saddle Fight." The incidents of that affair as
related to the writer by Mr. Moss were as fol-
lows:—
On the 4th of August, 1873, a party of redskins
supposed to be Comanches, made a raid into Llano
County, and stole a lot of horses, with which they
were making their escape out of the country, when
a company of eight, Dever Harrington, Robert
Brown, Eli Lloyd, Arch Martin, Pink Ayers, and
the Moss brothers, James R., William, and Stephen
D., was hurriedly organized and started in pursuit.
After following the trail perhaps a distatice of forty
miles, the rangers discovered the Indians about
noon on the following day in camp on the top of
Pack Saddle Moubtain. Concealing their move-
ments the pursuers carefully reconsidered the sit-
uation and discovered that the redskins had made
only a temporary halt to rest and refresh them-
selves. They had passed over an open space about
forty yards in width covered with grass and had
pitched their camp on the edge of the bluff beyond,
leaving their stock in the glade to graze. The
bluff where they halted was skirted below with a
sparse growth of stunted trees, which, with some
scrubby bushes growing adjacent, afforded them a
good camping ground. Some of the Indians had
lain down in the bushes to rest, while others
were roasting meat over a stick fire and eat-
ing. It was agreed among the rangers that
they would charge across the glade on horseback
and put themselves between the Indians and their
horses, then dismount and open fire. The charge
was made and all dismounted before firing, except
William Moss, who fired two shots from his horse.
Though surprised, the Indians gathered their guns
and returned the fire, forming, as they did so, in a
kind of battle line, in which manner they made two
separate charges, evidently intending, if possible,
to reach their horses. But they were repulsed each
time, and a third line was broken up before they
got well out of the timber, under cover of which it
was formed. One buck, bolder than the rest, ad-
vanced alone to some distance to the right of the
others, and without firing bis gun, which, however,
he held grasped in an upright position, seemed de-
termined to make his way to the horses. He came
to within a few feet of the rangers, some of them
firing at him, when suddenly he turned and, retreat-
ing to the edge of the timber, fell forward stone
dead, but, as was afterwards found, still tightly
grasping his gun. About this time three or four of
the Indians started up a chant and began to file off
under the bluff, the others followed suit, and al-
most in a twinkling, nothing more was seen of them.
On inspecting the battle-ground the rangers found
three bodies. Four of their own number were more
or less hurt, William Moss being shot in the right
arm and shoulder, the ball ranging through the
breast and coming out on the lef t'side ; Arch Mar-
tin shot in the left groin ; Eli Lloyd three slight
wounds in the arms, and Pink Ayers, two balls in the'
hips. It was estimated that there were twenty
Indians, seventeen bucks, two squaws and a boy.
All of the stock which these Indians had, twenty
head, together with some of their fire-arms, saddles
and accoutrements, fell into the hands of the ran-
gers. None of the wounds sustained by the pursu-
ers proved serious, except those of^^William Moss ;
he has always suffered more or less with his.
Though he has had considerable military expe-
rience, Mr. Moss has never been before the public in
any official capacity. His private affairs have en-
grossed his attention to the exclusion'of everything
else. He married Miss Delia Johnson, of Llano
County, in 1877, and has by this union a family of
eleven children.
444
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
C. T. MOSS,
LLANO COUNTY.
Cbarles Tate Moss, son of Matthew and Mary
Moss, was born in Travis County, Texas, Decem-
ber 28, 1845. He was reared in Williamson and
Llano counties, his parents residing successively in
these two counties during his boyhood and youth.
In 1863, then in his eighteenth year, he entered the
frontier service as a member of Capt. Bowling's
Company from Llano County, and served with this
and Capt. Irvin's Company from Blanco County till
the close of the war. Engaged in stock-raising on
the cessation of hostilities, and has foUovyed it with
a marked degree of success since. The firm o'f C.
T. & A. F. Moss, of which he is the senior member.
is one of the largest and best known in West Cen-
tral Texas, owning more than 30,000 acres of
grazing land lying in Llano and Gillespie counties,
on which is kept from 2,000 to 3,000 herd of cattle
the year round.
In 1882, Mr. Moss married Miss Sallie Ryfleld,
daughter of Holmes and Lucinda Ryfleld, and a
native of Goliad County, Texas, her parents being
early settlers of Texas, her father a veteran of the
Revolution of 1835-6. Mr. and Mrs. Moss have
three sons and one daughter: Holmes, Carlos,
Maud, and Cash.
SAM. S. SMITH,
SAN ANTONIO,
Was born at Boston, Mass., September 17th, 1810,
and died at San Antonio August 17th, 1882, in the
seventy-second year of his age. He came to Texas
in the memorable year 1836, just after the battle of
San Jacinto, and took part in several subsequent
campaigns, serving with gallantry and distinction.
He made his home in the city of Houston in 1837,
and in 1843 went to San Antonio, where he iden-
tified himself with the growth and progress of
Southwestern Texas, occupied several positions of
honor and trust and resided until the time of his
death. He served for twenty-three months as
Mayor of San Antonio in 1840-41 and later as
Alderman and City Treasurer. He was also a mem-
ber of the Secession Convention of Texas in 1861.
He was elected to the oflace of County Clerk of
Bexar County, August, 1850, and served the people
in that capacity continuously up to the reconstruc-
tion era. In 1873 he was elected District and County
Clerk and held that position until the two ofllces
were separated, after which he held that of County
Clerk of Bexar County until the time of his decease!
The long years he held so many positions of
trust and emoluments at the hands of a most
friendly and appreciative constituency fully attests
the universal esteem in which he was held. Char-
itable and kind in all his dealings with his fellow-
men, it has never been intimated that he willfully
erred either in word or deed. He, together with
his wife who survived him, was a member of the
Texas Veterans' Association, which historic organi-
zation passed a feeling tribute of respect to his
memory as, "An esteemed friend and comrade,
whose loss was deeply mourned."
The Express and other city papers contained
fitting obituary editorials. The members of the
Bexar County bar, through a committee appointed
for that purpose, passed and caused to be spread
upon the records of the court a tribute to his mem-
ory in which due appreciation of his exemplary life
aftd valuable services to his people were acknowl-
edged. The report declares, " that in the death of
Mr. Smith Bexar County lost an honored and trust-
worthy officer ; a polite, worthy and trusted citizen,
and a kind, true and generous friend to the poor
and needy, whose place in social and official life can
scarcely be filled from among the living." It
was signed by Wesley Ogden, Thos. J. Devine,
N. 0. Green, T. S. Harrison, T. G. Smith and
John E. Ochse.
Samuel S. Smith married Miss Sarah Brackett at
San Antonio, January 18th, 1854. Mrs. Smith has
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
445
four^cbildren r Oscar ; Thaddeus W., county clerk
of Bexar County; Georgia C, nOw Mrs. Joseph
Olivarri ; and Minnie, now Mrs. Edwin Flory.
Tliaddeus M.'^Wood, grandfather of Mrs. Sarah B.
Smith, was born at Lenox, Mass., in 1772; became
at first a practicing lawyer at Onondago in 1794
and was distinguished for his legal ability. He
was also widely known as a military man. He died
January 10th, 1836.
Her father, Oscar B. Brackett, a merchant,
native of the Empire State, came directly from
Syracuse, N. Y., to San Antonio, in 1844. He
brought with him his wife {nee Miss Emily Wood)
and four children, of whom Mrs. Smith was the
third born. Two sisters of Mrs. Smith are living :
Emily, widow of Chas. F. King, and Ella N., widow
of Simeon W. Cooley, of San Antonio. Mrs.
Smith's mother was a daughter of Gen. Wood, who
served with distinction during the War of 1812.
Mr. Oscar Brackett had a store on Main Plaza
at San Antonio. He died in 1857 and his wife in
1893. Both were highly respected and greatly
beloved and rest side by side in the cemetery at
the beautiful Alamo City.
CONSTANTIN HAERTER,
COMFORT,
A venerable old settler of Kendall County, Texas,
came to this country from his native home,
in 1850. He was born near Gotha, in Saxon-Co-
burg-Gotha, in 1819. Mr. Haerter came directly
to Fredericksburg, and lived there about five years,
since which time he has lived on and developed a
fine farm of one hundred and sixty-five acres, at
Comfort. He has never married. He is quiet and
unobtrusive in manner, and interests himself little
in matters outside of his own domains. He is the
president of the German Evangelical Church of
Comfort, established in the year 1891. It may be
truly said of him that he is a good citizen and
successful farmer.
L. W. CARR,
HEARNE,
Was born in Lenore County, N. C, February 7,
1824. His father was Matthew H. C!arr, a native
of Virginia, and paternal grandfather, Lawrence
Carr, a Virginian, who served on a patriot pri-
vateer during the Revolutionary War of 1776.
Lawrence Carr emigrated to North Carolina soon
after the close of the colonial struggle for inde-
pendence, and there his son, the father of the
subject of this sketch, was mainly reared ; married
Sallie Murphy, a native of that State, and, estab-
lishing himself as a planter, spent the greater part
of the remaining years of his life, dying at the
advanced age of eighty-seven years. Mrs. Mat-
thew Carr survived some years, dying at about
the same age. They had seven children who
reached maturity, of whom Lewis Whitfield, of
this article, was secjnd in age. Their eldest son,
Joshua Carr, died in Florida when a young man.
The others were Patsie, who was twice married,
and still lives in North Carolina ; James, who died
in North Carolina ; Susan, who was married to a
Mr. Cox, and is deceased ; Alexander, who died in
North Carolina ; Titus, who came to Texas and
died in Hill County ; and Matthew, who lives in
North Carolina. Three of these, James, Alexan-
der, and Titus, were in the Confederate service in
the late war. Lewis Whitfield Carr was reared in
North Carolina, and went to North Mississippi
when a young man (in 1847), when that section
was a comparatively unsettled portion of the State.
Married Mrs. Sidney A. Westbrook at West Point,
Miss., 1854 ; engaged in planting there until 1858 ;
446
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
in January of that year came to Texas ; stopped
for a time in Wasliington County, and in Decem-
ber, 1858, bought and settled on a tract of land in
the Brazos bottom, in Robertson County, about
eight miles south of the present town of Hearne.
Here he opened a plantation and engaged in farm-
ing, which he has since followed. Wheie be settled
there were about sixty acres in cultivation. He
immediately put in more, and has developed one
of the best plantations in the bottom. He now
owns two plantations, aggregating about 2,700
acres, most of which are in cultivation. He has
seen the country grow from almost a wilderness to
its present condition, and has been a leading factor
in its development. When he set' led in the bot-
tom, his tradiu;? place was Houston, one hundred
and twenty-five miles distant, and his post-offlce.
Wheeloek, seventeen miles distant. He helped to
build the Hearne & Brazos Valley Railway, of
which he is vice-president, and to organize the
First National Bank of Hearne, of which he is
vice-president. He was made a Free Mason at
"West Point, Miss., in 1849 ; has since been a mem-
ber of the order, and is the present Master of
Golden Circle Lodge No. 361, at Hearne.
His wife died in 1883. One daughter (widow
of B. W. Beckham), now residing at Hearne, was
born of this union. Mrs. Beckham has three chil-
dren, daughters : Misses Lee and Floy, and Beverly
Beckham. He has never been in public oflOiee, but
has served the public in other ways. For twenty
years he has been a member of the grand jury.
He is now the administrator of three large estates.
No man stands higher in Robertson County.
DR. ASA HOXEY,
INDEPENDENCE,
Was born in Savannah, Ga., February. 22d, 1800,
and received a good literary education in the select
schools in the town of Washington, Wilkes County,
in that State, whither his parents moved during his
youth. He graduated with honor at the University
of Georgia, in 1820. His medical education was
secured in the University of New York, from which
he graduated with distinction in 1822. He began
practice at Montgomery, Ala., aoout the year 1823
and resided there until 1833, when he moved to
Texas, bringing with him about thirty negroes and
$40,000 in money and located in "Cole's Settle-
ment," afterwards Independence, Washington
County, where he opened two large prairie plant-
ations and, later, two in the Brazos Bottom. The
latter he abandoned, however, on account of over-
flows, and confined his farming operations to his up-
land property. He also engaged in merchandising
at the town of Old Washington for a time with
Messrs. Bailey and Gay, under the firm name of
Bailey, Gay & Hoxey, but lost instead of made
money by the venture, from which he accordingly
withdrew. He was a prominent figure and active
participant in the political movements that led up
to the Texas revolution and in the revolution itself,
being a delegate to the convention that issued the
declaration of Texas Independence, to which his
name is aflSxed with that of the other patriots who
composed that historic body. He was for a while
medical censor of the RL-public of Texas during the
presidency of Gen. Sam Houston. He did not
practice medicine after coming to Texas, but never-
theless, at all times manifested a lively interest in
matters pertaining to the profession. He was a
staunch supporter in the cause of education and
contributed liberally to the support of Baylor Uni-
versity, during its early years at Independence, and
to other institutions of learning.
He owned one of the finest private libraries in
Texas and his home was a favorite resort of the
great men of the times. He was an omnivorous,
but discriminating reader, had an unusually reten-
tive memory and was a brilliant and delightful con-
versationalist. Of dignified and courtly presence,
possessed of an intellect of uncommon strength and
clearness, his society was sought by the able men
and true patriots that were his compeers, associates
and friends. Before leaving Alabama for Texas in
1833, he was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Bennett, a
New York lady, who accompanied him to his new
home, which she graced with her beauty, refinement
and noble matronly qualities for many years, dying
November 16, 1865. Two children were born of
this union, Thomas Robert Hoxey, who died of
yellow fever at Galveston, September 16th, 1864,
while a soldier in the Confederate army, and Mrs.
^*? %rWT.Baclw.BUyn-
t M.smhM^f)mn.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
447
Sarah Ann Williams, now residing at Independence,
Washington County, Texas. Dr. Hoxey died May
20, 1863.
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, join-
ing the first lodge organized at Independence, one
of the first established in Texas. As a Democrat he
belonged to the South Carolina school, and was a
warm and steadfast supporter of the political views
of John C. Calhoun. Dr. Hoxey belonged to a
race who studied deep tbe principles of civil gov-
ernment and to whom personal honor, human
libertj- and free institutions were dearer than life
itself.
He rests in peace with the spirits of Texas' great
departed and his name deserves a place beside theirs
in tbe annals of his country.
FRANKLIN W. SHAEFFER,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Born in the State of Ohio, August 4, 1825. Mar-
ried to Eowena Davidson, of Galveston, Texas,
August 7th, 1877. Died at San Diego, Duval
County, Texas, October 25th, 1886.
The progressive, energetic and successful citi-
zen, whose name appears at the head of this brief
biographv, was a type of the enterprising American,
who by industry, integrity and intelligence, achieves
success in life, and enjoys every hour of the years
allotted to him by his Creator.
Franklin Wingot Shaeffer came from that sturdy
stock that originally settled and peopled the State
of Pennsylvania. His father was Frederick W.
Shaeffer ; born in that State on the eighteenth day
of October, 1792. A trade was an honor as well
as promise of thrift in the period in which he grew
up ; and after a faithful apprenticeship, be became
master of his trade at nineteen ; married early
Mary Boose, a worthy and industrious helpmeet ;
and, lured by the promises of an extended sphere
for his business, went West, and settled permanently
in the town of Lancaster, Ohio, where to him were
born several children, and amongst others he, of
whom we write, Franklin W. Shaeffer.
The good and Christian mother lived long enough
to implant in the growth-structure of her children,
by teaching an example, a reverence for all sacred
things, high moral principles, and staunch integrity.
She died in the year 1844, when Franklin was about
nineteen years old. The father survived her for
many years afterwards, dying at the ripe age of over
eighty-six years, in the year 1879, honored and
loved by all who knew him or were his neighbors.
The subject of this notice was what may be
termed a self-educated man. True, he acquired a
common school education, a knowledge of the rudi-
ments as the period of his youth affo-'ded.
The same breadtli of desire to carve for himself,
as possessed by his father, was the inheritance of
Franklin W. Shaeffer. The discovery of gold in
California turned thither those in whom was fos-
tered a spirit of restlessness, and at the age of
twenty-four he was one of the "Argonauts," one
of the "Forty-niners," whom the pen and genius
of Joaquin Miller, and the original humor of Bret
Harte, have made historically famous.
Franklin made successfully the long, weary and
hazardous journey across the plains and over the
Rockies to the " El Dorado." Here he met with
all the kaleidoscopic changes that the drift of days
in that country afforded, learning day by day those
lessons of endurance and self-reliance so valuable
to him in after years. What little he accumulated,
he preferred to invest in something that had less of
the feverishness of gold-seeking, and for the few
years of his stay in the far West, he was alternately
engaged in mercantile pursuits, and in the manage-
ment and ownership of a transportation line, en-
gaged in the conveyance of mining machiner}' and
supplies from the immediate Pacific Coast, to the
mining camps in the interior.
Gradually, the aggregate of corporate wealth en-
croached upon his business, and having a favorable
opportunity to dispose of all bis interests, he did so
and came East, and for many years, in New York,
carried on a mercantile business. In 1857 there
was a tide of emigration to another land of golden
promise, the domain of Texas ; and the subject of
our memoir was amongst those who in good earnest
adopted the Lone Star State as home.
He located in a beautiful region, near Boerne.
He purchased lands and sheep, and entered into
the rearing and breeding of the latter, and the
growth of wool, and, with George Wilkins Kendall,
448
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was one of the pioneers of the sheep industry of
Western Texas. Finding the winters of that region
north of San Antonio less favorable to the increase
of his flocks than he had anticipated, and not free
from some of the contagious diseases that are seri-
ous to sheep, he made a personal visit to the section
of Texas further south, and with excellent judgment
settled upon the Agua Dulce (sweet water) valley,
as the field of his future operations ; and here he
settled permanently, beginning with his own pre-
emption, and gradually, by labor, economy and
thrift acquired by purchase the magnificent pasture
of seventy thousand acres, under one inclosure,
and now valued at half a million of dollars, that
bears his name.
Franklin Shaeffer was in all he essayed to do an
■exemplifier of the principle, that whatever is worth
■doing at all is worth doing well. He supplied the
natural deficit of the region an abundance of water
by an extensive and judiciously distributed system
of wells and windmills, the latter of the largest and
most approved pattern. These were supplemented
with tanks, some of which are veritable lakes. He
was one of the first to fence, thus reducing his losses
from straying flocks to the minimum, as well as
economize in employing a less number of shepherds.
From the close of the war up to 1880 he was
eminently successful, and not only amassed wealth,
but had the proud satisfaction of knowing that the
finest flocks of the West, and the best and highest
priced wool, were the products of his sheep ranch.
He led in the industry ; and the millions invested
by others marked them as but followers, encour-
aged and stimulated by his remarkable success and
prosperity.
With keen foresight as to the depreciation of
values in sheep, and a desire for a relief from the
attention to details in their management, requiring
constant personal labor, he gradually changed his
business from that of sheep-raising to the rearing
and breeding of cattle and fine horses. In this line
he was as markedly successful as in the sheep in-
dustry ; and in this pursuit he was engaged at the
time of his death. His death was the proximate
result of an accident, in which he was thrown from
his family carriage and one of his limbs broken,
and at which same time his wife was injured, but
subsequently recovered.
Franklin Shaeffer vfas a man of striking phy-
sique, and commanded attention wherever he went.
He was never ostentatious, and his manners were
winning, and there was a hearty, genial frankness
in them that brought him pleasant companionships,
and sincere and enduring friendships. He was
broad of heart and generous — often impulsively
so — and his charities were abundant, and well
bestowed.
As a citizen of this Commonwealth, he was an
exemplar. He was a model in the strictness of his
integrity and carefulness in business matters. He
was to the fore in support of the principles of law
and order, even in turbulent times.
In politics he was never a partisan, but a free-
thinker, and fearless in the open expressions of his
opinions, matured from a careful study of the prin-
ciples of our government, of political economy, and
the blended relations of capital and labor.
On national issues, he leaned to Republicanism,
but being an earnest believer in an intelligent suf-
frage, he voted as his reason dictated.
He is a subject of note in this volume because he
was of prominence in the region of Southwest Texas,
and established one of its leading industries. He
had the love and confidence of all those amongst
whom he lived, and had he been spared, and be-
come an octogenarian as did his father before him,
he would have been a patriarch, and lived to see
the land of promise he had loved and adopted,
fulfill all his predictions of its golden future.
His union with Miss Eowena Davidson was a
very happy one. She was the daughter of Capt.
John Davidson, a worthy pilot of the port of Gal-
veston, who lost his life in an heroic endeavor to
save the crew of a vessel, wrecked near that
place.
She is an accomplished and cultured lady ; and
since the death of her husband has managed the
large estate, left entirely to her disposal, with pru-
dence and business skill. She has devoted herself
to the education of her children, four of whom
survived their father. For several years she was
virtually compelled to live upon the ranch and
supervise its management ; but latterly she has been
enabled to place the same under lease, and with her
children and mother, has removed to San Antonio,
and purchased a residence there, pretty and com-
fortable in all its appointments, and in proximity
to the educational institute, where her daughters
can obtain its benefits.
Franklin Shaeffer came to Texas a compara-
tively poor man. When he settled in the Agua
Dulce Valley, the great Southwest was a primeval,
wilderness, subject to the incursions of hostile and
predatory Indians, and filled with a lawless element.
He established himself in that section, and did
much to redeem it and encourage peaceful pursuits
and industries, and render possible the civilization
of to-day that therein abounds.
He was successful in all that makes life desirable
and has left behind him a name that is a priceless
c^ LtT-iM^t^yi/W
y£eA/.
INDIAN WAHS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
449
legacy to his children, and will be to his children's
children. The beneficial effects of his life-work
will long be felt in that part of the State, with
whose growth and history it is identified. It affords
the writer genuine pleasure to accord to him a
place in this volume, the object of which is to
preserve in imperishable form, to coming genera-
tions, a brief recollection of the men who, amid
trials, perils and adversities, have accomplished
much for Texas.
AUGUSTA PERRY DRISCOLL,
NAVASOTA.
Few men were better known in Grimes County
than the late Capt. A. P. Driscoll. He was a
native of Arkansas and was born in 1829.
It is not known just when he first came to Texas,
but it is known that he located at Huntsville, in
Walker County, in the early 40's, and that he was
stage agent in early times along the route between
Shreveport, La., and EI Paso, on the Mexican
border. He was one of the first station agents for
the Houston & Texas Central Railway Co. at
■Cypress Station, in Harris County, and in 1867
was appointed station agent at Navasota, in Grimes
County, which position he filled for many years.
Upon the breaking out of the late war he organized
a company of soldiers and was elected their Cap-
tain. Owing to physical disabilities, however,
he resigned his commission and was made Commis-
:sary at Cypress Station, where he remained until
the close of hostilities in that capacity, and after-
ward as railway station agent and telegraph opera-
tor until he removed to Navasota, where he con-
tinued in the service of the H. & T. C. R. R. Co.
until 1879, having served this company for twenty
years. He died in 1880. He was married in
Harris County, Texas, in 1860, to Miss Lydia
Morton, of Louisiana, who with five daughters and
one son survive him. The children are: Bettie,
now Mrs. John Hamilton, of Navasota; Katie, now
Mrs. F. Chimene, of Houston ; Jennie, now Mrs.
Walker Humphries, of Pensacola, Florida ; Wave,
now Mrs. Max Otto, of Houston ; Eva, residing at
home with her mother and John W. Driscoll, of
. Capt. A. P. Driscoll served one term as
Mayor of Navasota and was honored and beloved
by all who knew him. He was the grandson of
Col. Martin Parmer.
JAMES M. WILLIAMS,
INDEPENDENCE.
Capt. James M. Williams was born in De Soto
Parish, Louisiana, March 28th, 1833. His father.
Rev. M. E. Williams, was a prominent Baptist
minister of Northern Louisiana.
The subject of this memoir completed his educa-
tion at McKinzie College, Clarksville, Texas, a
famous institution of learning presided over by Rev.
Dr. McKinzie, and was a fellow-student of Hon. J.
W. Herndon, of Tyler, for many years a member of
the United States Congress from Texas. At the be-
ginning of the war between the States, Capt. Williams
•unlisted as a private in Drew's battalion, the first
command organized in his native State ; served for
a time in Florida, and then, under Gen. J. Bankhead
Magruder, in Virginia, where he was transferred
to the Second Louisiana, commanded by his cousin
Col. (afterwards Brigadier General) Jesse Williams,
participating in the great battles fought in front of
Richmond and many minor engagements, in which
he bore himself with conspicuous gallantry. When
Gen. Magruder was sent to assume command of
the military district of Texas, Capt. Williams ac-
companied him, and was assigned to the transport-
ation department and stationed at Houston. He
450
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was subsequently promoted to the office of post
quartermaster, with the rank of Captain, and
stationed at Tyler, where he continued in charge
until the close of the war. When the war closed
he was serving as quartermaster at Brenham, under
Gen. Robertson.
July 16, 1864, he was united in marriage to Miss
Sallie A. Hubert, daughter of Dr. Asa Hoxey, an
early and distinguished Texas pioneer. Very soon
after Dr. Hoxey's death it became necessary for
Capt. Williams to administer on the large estate
left by deceased, which he did with marked ability
and entire satisfaction to all parties at interest.
His own affairs were managed in an equally system-
atic and skillful manner and he left a fine property
to his beloved wife.
He was kind, benevolent and helpful to those in
distress, a steadfast champion of temperance and
a consistent member of the Baptist Church. He
died at Burnett's Well, near the town of Luling,
Texas, September 11, 1881, where he had gone in
hope of restoration of health. He manifested a
deep interest in county, Slate and national affairs,
and all that pertained to the welfare of the country.
He was a delegate to the national convention held
at St. Louis, in 1876, which nominated Samuel J.
Tilden for President. He was a member of the
Masonic and Patrons of the Husbandry fraternities
and an active worker in both organizations. He
left four children : James Hozey ; Emma, wife of
E. Hoffman, of Brenham ; Nettie, wife of C. L.
Anderson, of Ardmore, I. T., and Asa M. Hoxey,
who is living with his mother at their home at
Independence.
THOMAS D. WILSON,
BRAZOS COUNTY.
Born in North Carolina, and partly reared there ;
ran away from home when a boy and went to Ten-
nessee, where he lived a number of years ; returned
to North Carolina, married, and engaged in mining
for gold ; again went to Tennessee, where he en-
gaged in planting ; then, after stopping a year or
two in Arkansas, came to Texas, locating in what
is now Harrison County, where he engaged in farm-
ing until the fall of 1851, when he removed to the
Brazos bottom, in Brazos County, then in the heart
of the wilderness, where he opened a plantation,
on which he employed his hundred or more negro
slaves profitably until the war between the States;
during the ' war hauled cotton to Mexico and
brought back merchandise, greatly adding to his
wealth ; continued to make his home on his plant-
aiion from 1865 to the time of his death in 1879,
at the age of seventy-eight years ; was four times
married, and raised eight children to maturity,
seven of whom, Laura, Ruth, Alfred F., Pattie,
now Mrs. M. W. Sims, Mary, Alice, and Thomas
D., were born in Texas of his marriage to Miss
Rachel Flournoy, a daughter of Dr. Alfred Flour-
noy, who fought in the battle of New Orleans
under Gen. Andrew Jackson ; was a man of strik-
ing appearance, being six feet, two inches in
height, and weighing 225 pounds ; had light hair,
fair complexion, and clear blue eyes, the steady
gaze of which was equaled by that of few men ;
was a man of marked individuality of character,,
reserved, strong willed, well informed, rather im-
perious, though courteous, in manner ; courageous
to a fault ; had devoted friends, and enemies too,
who both disliked and feared him ; in fact, was a
typical Southern planter of the old regime, widely
known and widely influential in his day. He was
a member of the Masonic fraternity from early
manhood. His son, Alfred F. Wilson, was born
in Harrison County, Texas, December 16, 1847;
was taken to Brazos County with his parents in
1851 ; has always lived in this State, and for many
years has been engaged in planting and stock-
raising ; now resides in Robertson County, Texas ;
married Miss Fannie Gleaves, daughter of Frank
Gleaves, Hermitage, Tenn., and has three children:
May Herbert, Alice Ray, and Thomas D. Wilson.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
451
WM. C. ROBERTS,
ALVIN.
Wm. C. Roberts was born in Matagorda County
in 1862. He is a son of Columbus W. Roberts,
deceased (also a native of the same county),
whose father, Ransome Roberts, deceased, was a
pioneer of 1836. Ransome Roberts located in
Matagorda County on coming to Texas, located on
Caney Creek, where he established himself as a
farmer and stock-raiser and raised a family of ten
children, three of whom survive and live at differ-
ent points in Texas. He was a native of Georgia.
Columbus W. Roberts, father of the subject of this
notice, married Miss Mollie Harris, a daughter of
Parson Harris, a widely known clergyman of the
M. E. Church South, and like his father, located
on Caney Creek. Here he reared a family of six
children, of whom Wm. C. Roberts is the oldest.
These are well settled in life in various parts of the
State and are useful and honored citizens of the
communities in which they reside. Mr. Roberts is
a contractor in Alvin, where he also conducts a
livery business. He married Miss Sallie O'Connor
in Houston, February 1st, 1888, and has one child,
a daughter named Flora. Mrs. Roberts is a native
of Mobile, Ala., and was born December 4, 1867.
She is a most estimable and accomplished lady.
Mr. Roberts is a pushing, clear-headed business
man, who has done much toward aiding in the up-
building of the thriving town of Alvin and the
development of the resources of the surrounding
country.
C. L. GOODMAN,
ORANGE.
Judge C. L. Goodman, of Orange, Texas, was
born January 12, 1854, in Choctaw County, Ala.,
and educated in the common schools of Texas, and
at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, N.
Y., graduating from the latter institution in No-
vember, 1876. He then returned to Orange,
Texas. He came to Texas in March, 1861, with
his parents, who located in Jasper County, Texas ;
resided first at Sabine Pass and later at Orange
until 1876 and then went to New York to school.
He returned to Orange in 1877 and began work
with the Tribune^ a weekly newspaper edited by
A. P. Harris, helping to get out the first issue of
tbC'paper.
On his way home from New York, he stopped at
St. Louis and was engaged for a time with Dr. W.
G. Kingsbury in Texas immigration work. His
connection with the Orange Tribune continued
until 1878. In 1879 he became partner with Dr.
Shalars, in the drug business at Orange, which he
continued until 1883. In 1884 he was elected to
the office of county and district clerk of Orange
County and was re-elected for four successive terms.
In 1894 he refused to again become a candidate
for the office. In his first election he defeated a
man who had been clerk for eighteen years, by a
large majority. After retiring from public life
he engaged in the milling business, which he has
since built up to large proportions. His bids fair
to be one of the largest and leading mills in
Southei'n Texas. His success in life has been due
to good management, the exercise of sound dis-
cretion and the possession of natural business
abilities of a very superior order. He owns con-
siderable realty in various parts of the State. He
is a member of the I. O. O. F. and Elks fraterni-
ties. June 22d, 1887, he was united in marriage
to Miss Beauregard Traylor, of Jackson County,
Texas. She was born in 1862, in Jasper County,
Texas, and is a daughter of J. C. Traylor, Esq.,
a prosperous stock-raiser of Jackson County.
Four children (all boys) have been born to them,
viz. : Charles Riviere, aged eight ; Josiah Traylor,
six ; John Willard, four, and Leland Keith, two
years old.
Mr. Goodman has a lovely home in Orange,
and is one of the most prominent and influential
citizens of that part of the State.
452
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
D. THEO. AYERS,
GALVESTON.
The subject of this memoir was born in Ithica,
N. y., July 21, 1828, and in April, 1834, left his
native State for Texas with his parents, David and
Ann M. Ayers, and other members of the house-
hold.
The party took passage in the brig " Asia."
The vessel was wrecked on St. Joseph's Island,
opposite Corpus Christi, and residents of the
country, Mexicans from San Patricio, learning of
the disaster, made their way to the island and con-
veyed the Ayers and other families in small boats
lip to the village of San Patricio. Mr. Davis Ayers
went ahead to the point of destination that he had
decided upon near Long Point in Washington
County, secured transportation for his household
■effects, returned to San Patricio and then, loading
Ms earthly possessions (family and chattels) upon
■wagons, set forth for the home he had selected,
•which in due time he reached in safety and without
adventure. He had previously come to Texas in
1832 and built what was known as "The Stone
House " at the point indicated.
The family consisted of the parents and six
children: The eldest, afterward Mrs. L. P. Moore,
who resided and died at Temple (her husband, a
participant in the battle of San Jacinto and in the
war between the United States and Mexico, survives
her and lives at Temple) ; Mrs. Rufus C. Camp-
bell, now living at Burton, Texas (her husband
■was also a soldier at San Jacinto and handcuffed
Santa Anna after his capture) ; Mrs. Eliza Alex-
ander, who died at Chappell Hill in 1873 (her
husband was the late lamented Rev. Robert Alex-
ander, a noted Texian pioneer) ; Mrs Sarah Park,
now living at Galveston (her husband, now
deceased, was a well-known merchant of that city) ;
Capt. F. H. Ayers and D. Theo. Ayers. Capt. F.
H. Ayers participated in the ill-fated Somervell
expedition, with a few of his comrades gallantly
effected their escape from their inhuman captors at
Mier, Mexico, and returned to Texas.
During the war between the States (1861-5) he
served a part of the time Quartermaster of Parson's
Regiment and in service in the open field signalized
himself for gallantry. He died at his home in
Temple, Texas, January 10th, 1891, after a suc-
cessful career as a civilian.
Of the parents, Mrs. Ann M. Ayers died in 1876
and David Ayers in 1878, at the home of their son.
D. Theo. Ayers, in the city of Galveston. Mr.
David Ayers being advanced in years and quite
deaf could not enter active service during the war
between the States and for these reasons consented
to become one of those detailed by the Confederate
government to remain at home and care for the fam-
ilies of the soldiers doing duty in the field. He was
the founder of St. James M. E. Church at Galveston.
Both Mr. and Mrs. Ayers were devout Christians
and greatly beloved by a wide circle of friends.
The Ayers family resided and prospered at their
home at Long Point until the advance of Santa
Anna's victorious army (more merciless than that of
Atilla or Hyder Ali), sweeping eastward like a besom
of destruction, compelled them and other settlers
to abandon all they had and fiee for life. They had
reached the Trinity river, on their way to Louisiana,
when they received news of the glorious and decisive
victory won by the Texian army at ever-memorable
San Jacinto. They thereupon returned to their
home and re-established themselves, to be no longer
agitated with fears of molestation by ruthless
Mexican invaders.
In 1836 Mr. David Ayers moved to the town of
Washington and thence in 1842 to Center Hill,
Austin County, where he was engaged in general
merchandise. During this time D. Theo. Ayers
was attending school at Rutersville, in Fayette
County, Texas.
In 1840 a band of Indians swept down upon and
burned the neighboring town of Linnville and mas-
sacred many of the inhabitants. A wave of indig-
nation swept through the settlement as news of this
act of fiendish atrocity traveled from house to house.
Volunteers were called for to take part in an expe-
dition against the savages and the subject of this
sketch and a number of other school boys, who
owned saddle horses, were among the first to re-
spond. The Indians were intercepted at High Hill,
in Gonzales County, and were severely punished in
the battle, known as the Plum Creek Fight, that
followed.
On another occasion hostile Indians, raiding
through the country, passed within four miles of
Rutersville, attacked a family, killing a young
man, Henry Earther, a member of the household"
All the school boys who had horses went out to
the residence and helped to bury the deceased,
and then followed fast upon the trail of Indians
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
453
for twenty- four hours under the leadership of Capt.
John H. Moore, when, not being supplied with
provisions, the pursuing party were compelled to
return to their homes.
From 1844 to 1847 young Ayers was employed
as a clerk in the general merchandising establish-
ment of Moses Park, at Independence, Texas,
where the Mexican War being in progress he en-
listed as a private soldier in Ben McCulloch's Com-
pany, Hay's Regiment, Taylor's Division, U. S. A.,
and served in the army for six months ; returned
to Independence at the expiration of that time and
clerked for Mr. Sparks for three or four months ;
went to Corpus Christi and dealt in live stock until
1849 ; moved to Goliad and engaged in stock-rais-
ing until 1854 ; then drove his stock out on the
Aransas and established a ranch, and sold out in
1855, and moved to Galveston. In 1865 he was
united in marriage to Miss Mary E. Hall, daughter
of Campbell Hall, a well-known pioneer then resid-
ing on the San Antonio river. Mr. Campbell Hall
came to Texas with Austin's colony about the
year 1828, and died at his home, ten miles below
Goliad, on the San Antonio river, in 1868. Mr.
and Mrs. Ayers have had eight children born to
them, three of whom, T. C, W. F., and Emily, are
now living, and have seven grandchildren. Mr.
Ayers embarked in the dry goods business at Gal-
veston during 1855, as a member of the firm of
Riddle & Ayers, a connection which continued for
twelve months, at the expiration of which time he
sold his interest to his partner and moved to La
Grange, where he formed a similar connection in
the same line with James A. Haynie, and eighteen
months later returned to Galveston and went into
the grocery business under the firm name of
Ayers & Perry, a partnership that continued until
1861, when Mr. Ayers sold out his interest and
moved to his father-in-law's place on the San
Antonio river, and farmed until the spring of 1864.
In the latter year he enlisted in the Confederate
army as a soldier, in Capt. A. C. Jones' Company, a
part of Col. John S. Ford's famous regiment, a
command that covered itself with glory on the Rio
Grande, during the fateful struggle made for the
Lost Cause. At the close of the campaign he par-
ticipated in the fight at Palmetto Ranch, the last of
the war, an engagement in which was fired the last
shot exchanged between the blue and the gray.
Throughout the campaign he won the confidence
and esteem of his comrades in arms, by his soldierly
qualities and intrepid gallantry. He returned to
Galveston during 1865 and went into the grocery
business, in which he was continuously engaged
until 1880, when he sold the business to Moore,
Stratton & Co., and engaged in the general com-
mission business in that city under the firm name
of G. B. Miller & Co. Mr. Miller sold his interest
to Mr. Ayers in 1891 and the business has since
been conducted by Ayers, Gardener & Co.
Mr. Ayers is a member of the Masonic fraternity
and Democratic party.
Having come to Texas when it was still a Mexi-
can province and since lived in the country under
all succeeding governments — Provisional, ad
interim, Republic of Texas, State of Texas, Con-
federate States, re-construction and State, he has
witnessed the many and strange vicissitudes to
which the Commonwealth has been exposed, and
through them all, seen the beloved lone star move
through light and shade from its nadir proudly up-
ward toward the zenith and the high destiny decreed
by Providence. Amid all these changing scenes
he has not been a passive and indifferent looker-
on, but a patriotic actor, his heart beating strong
and warm with affection for the land and its people.
Every worthy movement designed to pro-
mote the happiness or prosperity of his fellow-
citizens, has met with his hearty indorsement and
support. Having from the beginning to rely
solely upon his own resources, he has made a
success of life in a financial way and while that
is an end commendable in itself and that must
necessarily be accomplished as an aid to wider and
more unselfish ends, he has done far more, he has
preserved under all temptations and trials an un-
sullied integrity, an unpolluted mind and an un-
hardened heart. Now with a mind well trained in
scholastic lore, stored with the spoils of time that
literature has hoarded for those who will think and
read, and enriched and disciplined by experience
(mother of Wisdom) ; at the head of a leading
mercantile establishment of the Oleander City,
with his beloved life-companion still by his side
and surrounded by children and grandchildren,
looking back over his eventful career there must be
little, if anything, for him to regret. He is still
vigorous and actively engaged in business pursuits
and many years of active usefulness apparently
await him. A stalwart survivor of the early Tex-
ians (a band that would have graced the halcyon
days of the Roman Republic) he is honored by all
who know him and loved by a wide circle of friends
extending throughout the State.
454
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
LEVIN P. BAUGH,
BROWN COUNTY.
The subject of this sketch, while not a native
Texian, may virtually be considered as such, since he
has resided on Texas soil from early infancy and
developed in the conflicts of the Texas frontier the
qualities which characterize him as a man. Mr.
Baugh is descended from sturdy Scotch stock.
His first ancestors in this country settled in Vir-
ginia, whence some of them moved to Georgia,
probably about the beginning of the present cen-
turj'. His father, David Baugh, was born in
Georgia, as was also his mother, whose maiden
name was Pensej' Collins. These two as members
of their parents' families were early immigrants to
Mississippi, met and were married in Tippoo
County, that State, in 1832, and moved from there
in 1844 to Texas. The senior Mr. Baugh first set-
tled in Kaufman County on coming to Texas, but
moved from there in the early spring of 1868, and
settled in Brown County. At that time Brown
County was on the extreme western frontier of the
State, had only a little more than a year before
been created by act of the Legislature, and was as
yet unorganized. Mr. Baugh assisted in its organ-
ization in the summer of 1858, and became one of
its first commissioners. The population was very
sparse, being confined to a few settlements along
the streams, embracing those well-remembered
pioneers, W. W. Chandler, Ichabod Adams, T. D.
Harris, W. F. Brown, Archie Roberts, Moses
Anderson, William Council Brooks, "W. Lee, H. C.
Knight, Eichard Germany, the Hannas, and
possibly a few others whose names can not
HOW be recalled. Stock-raising was the only
industry, and it was the excellent range which
the country afforded at that time that induced
most of the settlers to take up their abode
in that section. The elder Mr. Baugh was engaged
in the stock business, and never found it necessary
afterwards to move, but made his home in Brown
County till his death, which occurred in 1867, in
the sixty-fifth year of his age. His widow survived
him a number of years, dying there in 1895, aged
sixtj'-seven.
Levin P. Baugh, of this article, was born in
Tippoo County, Miss., October 28, 1842, was the
fifth in age of his parents' seven sons and seven
daughters, being the baby of the family at the
time of the removal to Texas. He was in his six-
teenth year when his father settled in Brown
County. He received practically no education,
and what he has accomplished is to be attributed
solely to native energy, force of character, per-
,sisteDt industry and mother wit. Growing up on
the frontier he early became familiar with all its
ways, its perils and pleasures forming his chief
pursuits. He has gone through all the border
warfare in Brown County from the first
" brushes " with the Indians to the " fence-cutting
troubles " of later years, and it would probably
be no exaggeration to say that his experiences dur-
ing the thirty years' conflict from 1858 to 1888, when
the county was finally rid of such, troubles would
make a very respectable volume of itself, if given
in detail. An instance or two, only, will be men-
tioned. About a year after the Baughs had settled
in Brown County the Indians came into the com-
munity on one of their monthly raids. The family
was aroused one night by the barking of the dogs,
and Levin, knowing from the signs that Indians
were about, hastily took down his gun and disap-
peared through the back door in an opposite direc-
tion from where the redskins seemed to be. Circling
around he came upon the scene from the rear and
picking his way cautiously got within gunshot dis-
tance of the Indians without being discovered.
He singled out one whose general form he could see
fairly well by the starlight and drawing a bead on
him fired, at the same time yelling and dodging
through the brush on the lookout for others.
None, however, showed up close enough to be shot
at, though he could hear them scampering through
the thicket. He saw the Indian he fired on fall
and, returning to the place, found his body. Seiz-
ing the redskin by the leg he dragged him to the
house and threw the body over the yard fence
where he proceeded to examine it at his leisure, and
later removed the scalp. An examination next
morning showed that there were several Indians in
the party, and young Baugh could only account for
their flight by the supposition that they thought
themselves surrounded by several whites and ran
without waiting to find out how many whites there
were.
Again, in 1865, Mr. Baugh was cow hunting in
Comanche County, when word was received that
a family of movers had been murdered by the In-
dians in Hamilton County. A party of eleven
himself one of them, was hastily formed to go in
L. P. BAUGH.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
455
pursuit. The Indians were supposed to be Coman-
ches and were returning to their reservation on the
head-waters of the Brazos. Prominent geographi-
cal points by which they would direct their course
were watched and the intervening country surveyed
with field-glasses, from one elevation to another.
At last the rangers discovered the Indians some six
miles behind them. Taking the back track they
struck the trail about a mile in the rear, from which
point riding rapidly on they saw a short distance
ahead of them, emerging on to a prairie, two bucks
and a squaw, each well mounted. A considerable
ravine lay between the Indians and their pursuers
and not being able to pick their way in the charge,
all of the rangers' horses became for a minute or
two "ditched" except that of Mr. Baugh. He,
by accident, struck the ravine at a narrow place and
his horse jumped it. This threw him in advance of
his companions and his horse going at full speed
soon brought him up with the Indians. He was
armed with an Enfield rifle and a brace of pistols,
and having made the charge with his gun drawn,
be flred as soofl as he was within range, on the
old buck who was riding with the squaw and fanning
her with a fan made of cotton-wood leaves. The
ball struck the Indian at the base of the brain and
went entirely through his head. He fell instantly
from his horse and expired. Dismounting, Mr.
Baugh drew one of his pistols and opened fire on
the other buck. His first shot struck the Indian in
the shoulder, the second missed and the third took
effect in his hip. The Indian held on to his horse
which, taking fright, ran forward and carried his
rider out of range of pistol shot. Remounting,
Mr. Baugh unwound his lariat and took after the
squaw, intending to rope her, but at this juncture
the main body of the Indians, some twenty-five or
thirty, who were traveling in advance, having heard
the firing, turned about and appeared on the scene.
About the same time also the rangers came up, and for
a few seconds the indications pointed to what prom-
ised to be a lively fight ; but one of the white men
appearing on an eminence at some distance yelling,
gesticulating and waving his hat, led the Indians to
believe that there was a large body in pursuit, and
without waiting to assure themselves of the num-
ber by whom they were attacked they took to
their heels and were soon out of sight. Mr.
Baugh took possession of the accoutrements of
the Indian he had killed, which consisted of a
bow, a well tanned buck-skin arrow case, filled
with arrows, a raw-hide shield, a pair of silver
tweezers and a pocket-knife, which trophies he after-
wards gave away to a gentleman traveling through
the country, but would like very much now to have.
In 1868 Mr. Baugh married, and after that,
though a great deal on the range, he became more
cautious in his dealings with the Indians. After
the war, as is well known, the settlers along the
frontier were greatly annoyed by cattle and horse
thieves, and the people living in Brown County had
this very troublesome class to deal with for several
years. Mr. Baugh was a sufferer from their depre-
dations, and was frequently called on to run down
these lawless characters and recover property taken
by them. It is perhaps true, as claimed by old set-
tlers, that the law was not always the most effective
means to use in dealing with these characters ; at
any rate it was not in all cases called into requi-
sition, summary punishment being dealt out by the
citizens when there was a prospect of a defeat of
justice by the law's delay. Mr. Baugh, however,
always insisted on allowing the law to take its way
unless the personal security of a citizen was threat-
ened, but when this was the case he too became an
advocate of the use of those important adjuncts of
the courts, the rope and six-shooter. Being a large
landholder he was forced to take an especially
active part during the " fence-cuiting troubles."
His troubles with the fence-cutters began by their
posting the following notice in a conspicious place
on his ranch: " Mr. Baugh, take down this fence ;
if you don't we will cut it, and if we cut and a drop
of the cutter's blood is spilled, your life will pay
the penalty." He wrote underneath it: "You
cowardly cur ! This is my fence and you let it
alone." To which he signed his name. This was
equivalent to a declaration of hostilities on both
sides, and the war began. The fence was cut and
put up several times in succession till at last Mr.
Baugh caught the parties in the act. Being boys
he told their parents and offered not to prosecute,
provided the depredations ceased ; but he met with
no encouragement along this line, and he then
turned to the law. He applied to the local author-
ities but got verj' little satisfaction, and at last
adopted measures of his own, still, however, within
the law. He hired a man, a stranger in the com-
munity, to go live among the fence-cutters, furnish-
ing him with money to buy a small place and means
to live on, and instructed him to fully post himself
on all the doings of the gang and to keep him
(Baugh) advised of these. It took time to accom-
plish this, but it was done. Then when a list of the
fence-cutters had been obtained and a general raid
was being planned a company of rangers which had
been sent up from Austin by Gen. King, the Adju-
tant-General, with whom Mr. Baugh was in corre-
spondence, appeared on the scene and at an oppor-
tune time were turned loose on the fence-cutters,
456
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
■who were caught in the act of destroying long
strings of fences. A fierce fight followed and' sev-
eral of the cutters were killed or wounded, the rest
leaving the country, which finally put an end to
their depredations. The county was thus rid of
one of the worst troubles with which it had ever
been afflicted and all good citizens were heartily
glad of it. Such were afterwards permitted to enjoy
the fruits of their industry unmolested, and there
was a marked increase in the industrial growth of
the county as well as a change for the better in the
moral tone of the community.
Mr. Baugh abandoned stock-raising, after the
old style, when the country began to settle up,
and turned his attention to farming. He began
investing in land just after the war, and owns at
this time a ranch of 10,000 acres, all lying in one
body, about five miles north of Brownwood, nearly
half it valley land lying about Pecan Valley, all
of it under fence, 4,000 acres being surrounded
by a five-foot rock fence, making it the finest farm
in Brown County, and one of the finest in the State.
All of it is utilized for farming and stock-raising,
and is conducted according to modern methods.
To the task of acquiring, protecting and improving
this place, Mr. Baugh has devoted the best years
of his life, and is still following up his early labors
with the most persistent and arduous efforts. In-
cidentally, and in a general way, he has interested
himself in public matters in the community where
he resides, but has filled no oflSces, nor had other
pursuits than those mentioned. He has contrib-
uted to the upbuilding of some local enterprises,
helped to foster a spirit of industry, encouraged
the school interest, and lent his influence to every
thing of that nature calculated to benefit the coun-
try in which he lives.
On September 23, 1868, Mr. Baugh married Miss
Frances E. Moseley, a daughter of Capt. Daniel
H. Moseley, of Brownwood, Mrs. Baugh being
a native of Cherokee County, Texas, where her
father settled on first coming to the State at about
the age of eighteen. He was from Georgia, and
married in Cherokee County, Texas, residing there
some years. He was all over the frontier, traveling
as far as Arizona, but settled at Brownwood in
1862, and lived there the remainder of his life, his
death occurring in 1892. He filled the offices
of Sheriff and County Clerk of Brown County,
and both as an official and citizen was well
liked.
Mr. and Mrs. Baugh have six children living:
Arizona Isabelle, John Morgan, Mary Blain,
Frances E., Levin P., Jr., and Urolla.
E. IVI. SCARBROUGH,
AUSTIN.
E. M. Scarbrough, though still in the vigor of
mature manhood, may truthfully be called a Texas
pioneer. He comes of a pioneer stock — people who
cut their way through the cane-brakes of the South-
east and fought the savages in the early part of this
century. His father, Lemuel Scarbrough, died on his
old plantation, near White Plains, Calhoun County
Ala., in 1850, leaving a widow with the care of
twelve children — seven sons and five daughters.
E. M. was then four years old, there being one
younger boy. The mother, like the brave, strong
woman that she was, took up the affairs of her hus-
band and began the personal management of her
plantation and slaves. Her fortitude and good
sense bore her bravely and business prospered.
She saw her older children settled in life and her
younger bidding fair to enter manhood and woman-
hood as become the children of such a parentage.
But ten years of peaceful success had scarce passed
over her head when the guns that startled Fort
Sumpter called upon this widow to sacrifice her
sons to her country. Five of them went into early
Confederate regiments, leaving E. M. to care for
the home and do local military duty as occasion not
infrequently required. Even this degree of quiet
was soon broken in upon by a demand for the active
military services of this sixth son of his mother,
and in June, 1864, he was mustered as a volunteer
into the depleted ranks of the Fifty-first Alabama
Cavalry. He followed the fortunes of his regiment
through the closing scenes of the bitterest civil war
the world has ever known, remaining at his post of
duty until the final surrender. It may be remarked
here that this trait of standing by his duty is char-
acteristic of his entire career. When he knew
positively that this was a " lost cause" he turned
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
457
his face toward the old home. He did not even
wait for the formalities usually connected with such
events, but simply said to his comrades: "Boys,
come, go home with me," and rode away, in com-
pany with the Regimental Commander, Quarter-
master, other officers and sixty companions.
Of course he found the old farm a wreck and the
slaves gone, but he went to work and for two years
labored unceasingly, obeying the will and direc-
tions of his mother until he was twenty-one years
old. But in 1867 he decided to "go West," and
his home was soon made in Texas. Why should he
be called a pioneer ? Because he came to a country
devastated by war and her institutions in a worse
condition than if they had not existed.
Mr. Scarbrough's capital stock, on reaching this
State, consisted entirely of such assets as well-
planned determination, laudable ambition, well-
formed business habits and sterling integrity —
good bankable paper in those days. His first em-
ployment was as a salesman in the store of Hall &
Evans, at Bryant's Station, Milam County, and there
he remained until 1870, when the business of the
firm was transferred to Hearne, Mr. Scarbrough
remaining with the concern. Not long after this
removal he entered into a contract to supply the
H. & T. C. R. R. and International & Great
Northern R. R., which were being constructed
northward, with cross-ties and telegraph poles.
The terms of this contract were complied with
during the years 1872-3 and Mr. Scarbrough hav-
ing acquired the necessary means to enter into
business, in 1874 formed a copartnership at Rock-
dale with his former employers, and opened
business at Rockdale under the firm name of
Haskins & Co. This partnership continued until
the death of Gen. Hale in 1882. The affairs of
the old firm were then wound up and the firm of
Scarbrough & Hicks was formed. In this concern
Mr. Scarbrough was very active, as he was also in
the affairs of the town of Rockdale. He was a
moving spirit in the organization of what is now
the First National Bank of Rockdale and became
one of its directors. He was president of the
School Board and organized the free schools of
Rockdale. He entered readily and heartily into
every movement for the advancement of Rockdale's
interests. He was one of the earliest and most
active of the movers to secure the construction
of the Aransas Pass Railroad to Rockdale, and on
his own motion became one of four men to become
responsible for the required bonus of |10,000 while
the competing town of Taylor was circulating a
petition and speculating upon its influence. This
is a fair illustration of Mr. Scarbrough's business
methods. When he wants a thing he goes after it.
In 1889 Mr. Scarbrough moved with his family
to Austin, where he lived in comparative quiet for
a time, but his active mind could not allow him
such peace, and in 1890 he opened the mammoth
establishment of Scarbrough & Hicks, on Congress
avenue, which has in no way interfered with the
firm's business at Rockdale, His intention was
to have one of the largest, best stocked and
most completely appointed department stores in
the State, as it was the first in the city of
Austin. This store has a frontage of 110 feet
on Congress avenue, occupies two floors con-
nected by a passenger and freight elevator, and
demands the constant services of more than forty
people. It is not strange that such a man should
become identified with other interests ; so we find
him a director in the Austin National Bank, which
is one of the strongest institutions in the State.
Mr. Scarbrough, November 7th, 1877, was mar-
ried to Miss Ada R. Ledbetter, a daughter of Isaac
and Julia Ledbetter, who removed to Milam County
in 1853, her mother having died in 1864, after
which her home was with her sister, Mrs. Lizzie
Wilson, who gave her every possible advantage.
On the 23d of May, 1892, the happiness of the home
was broken into by death, who claimed Mrs Scar-
brough, leaving the husband to care for his five
children to whom the tender strength of his nature
has gone out in watchful love.
Mr. Scarbrough is a firm and unbending business
man, but is one of the most approachable of men,
which trait has gone far to make him popular as
well as respected. His word is his bond and through
all the ramifications of his business he will not tol-
erate the least misrepresentation or deception of any
kind.
58
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
CHARLES V. VAUGHAN,
NAVASOTA.
Was born in Amelia County, Va., January 3, 1844.
His father was Henderson F. Vaughan and his
mother bore the maiden name of Mollie B. Walthall.
Mr. Vaughan was reared in Amelia and Prince
Edward counties, Va., and in the schools of the
latter received' his education. In January, 1862,
he entered the Confederate army, enlisting in Com-
pany C, Eighteenth Virginia Infantry, Pickett's
Brigade, Longstreet's Corps. He took part in all
the stirring scenes about Richmond, and was in the
engagements at Williamsburg, Seven Pines, Gaines'
Mill, and at intermediate places, and was twice
wounded — by a shell explosion (taking effect in the
spine), at Seven Pines, by a gun-shot (shattering
his right arm) at Gaines' Mill, and surrendered at
Appomattox at the general armistice.
Returning home, Mr. Vaughan found everything
devastated and in ruins. He took up his residence
with his mother and step-father, his father having
died many years beforei and his mother having re-
married, and during the year of 1865 made a crop
with horses and on provisions furnished by the
general government. Concluding that there was
nothing in store for him in his native State, he left
it for Texas in December, 1866, and settled at Old
Washington, where until 1869 he alternately clerked
in a mercantile establishment and engaged in farm-
ing. He then moved to Navasota, where he contin-
ued in the mercantile business, first as clerk, and
later on his own account, until a comparatively
recent date.
In 1873 Mr. Vaughan married Miss Imogene C.
Cabler, a daughter of Edwin S. Cabler, an old
settler of Washington County.
THEODORE GERFERS,
KENDALIA.
One of the well-known pioneers of Comal County,
came to Texas from Dusseldorf on the Rhine, in
Prussia, where he was born February 1, 1809,
settled at New Braunfels, where he followed farm-
ing for about six years, and then moved to Bexar
County, where he established a farm on the Gibolo
and engaged in stock-raising until his death. He
brought his wife and five children with him to this
country, viz.: William, Agnes, Theo. W., Joseph,
and Frederick W.
Frederick, living four miles northwest of Ken-
dalia, born February 3, 1849, was an infant of five
weeks when his parents left Germany for America.
He grew up on his father's farm in Bexar
County and married in 1873 Miss Albertina Leisti-
kow.
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick Gerfers have two chil-
dren: Charles and Jennie. Mr. Gerfers has a
ranch of about 4,000 acres of farming and grazing
lands.
BROOK SMITH.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
459
JACOB THEIS,
BOERNE,
Was born in Nassua, Germany, October 22, 1831,
and in 1854 came to New Braunfels, Texas, where
he remained for two years and learned the black-
smith's trade. He worked in various towns in Texas
until 1868 and then opened a shop on his own
account at Boerue, and there followed his trade
until about the year 1875, when he bought 117
acres of land near town and engaged in farming.
To this property he has since added until he now
owns 25,000 acres. He spent the years 1862-3
working in the Confederate States Arsenal at San
Antonio and later went to Mexico and returned to
Boerne in 1865. Mr. Theis married Miss Minnie
Kass, at Boerne, in 1862. They have nine children.
Mr. Theis was a member of Col. Sansom's Texas
Rangers in 1858-9 and was in several Indian fights
about the head-waters of the Guadalupe. His farm
and dairy are among the best in Kendall County.
JACOB SCHMIDT,
FREDERICKSBURG,
A retired farmer and business man and esteemed
citizen of Fredericksburg, was born in Prussia,
December 14, 1825, and came to Texas in 1857
from Bremen and Galveston, and then making his
way overland to San Antonio and Fredericksburg.
By his first marriage he had one daughter, Katie,
born January 29, 1855, who became Mrs. August
Gamman and died, leaving one son and four daugh-
ters. By a second marriage Mr. Schmidt has the
following children : Mary, born June 25, 1857, mar-
ried to Fritz Karrier, of Kerrville ; Louise, born
January 3, 1860, married to Max Schultz, of El
Paso ; Ferdinand, born July 28, 1864, now in South
America; Hannah, born October 21, 1867, married
to Charles Gibert ; William, born October 20,
1869; and Frederick, born April 28, 1871. Mr.
Schmidt has been an industrious and law-abiding
citizen and reasonably successful in life.
BROOKE SMITH,
BROWNWOOD.
The brief biography here submitted is not based
on a political or military record, it is simply that
of a plain man of business. Yet it will not be
without significance in this work, not only as help-
ing to show the character of men who, since the
Civil War, have been chiefly instrumental in build-
ing up the State's commercial and financial interests,
but as an illustration of what in varying degrees of
success can always be accomplished by persistent
industry coupled with integrity and sound practical
sense.
Brooke Smith, who established the first bank in
West Central Texas and who has been longer and
more prominently connected with the banking busi-
ness in that section of the State than any one else,
is not, as this fact might seem to indicate, an old
man, for he was born in March, 1853, and is there-
fore still on the sunny side of fifty by several years.
He is a native of Hanover County, Va., and comes
of Virginia stock throughout, his ancestors on both
sides having settled in the "Old Dominion" in
early colonial days. His parents were John Snelson
460
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Smith (who is still living, being a resident of Auson,
Jones County, Texas), and Paulina T. (Doswell)
Smith, who died some years since (December 31,
1883), at Brownwood, in this State.
Very little of Brooke Smith's liffe was spent in his
native State, his parents moving from there when
he was about seven years old (1860) to Indiana,
settling in Marion County, near Indianapolis, and
from there ten years later (1870) to Texas, settling
in McLennan County, close to Waco. He was
brought up as a farm boy in the localities men-
tioned and received his education in the public
school of the same, no opportunities for distinction
in the higher branches of learning being open to
_him.
Mr. Smith's career has been strictly one of a
business nature and it began at the time at his loca-
tion in Brownwood, in 1876. Brownwood at that
time was a new place but had begun to attract the
attention of settlers and was one of the best towns
in Western Texas. It was the supply point for a
large area of country drawing trade for 150 miles
West, Northwest and Southwest and for about half
that distance in other directions. The cattle indus-
try was then yielding fair results and the business
being concentrated in the hands of a few large
dealers, made their patronage very profitable. The
firm of Smith & Steffens (Brooke Smith and Otto
W. Steffens), merchants, started in business at
Brownwood on the 4th of April, 1876. Their capi-
tal at that time consisted of about $4,000 invested of
course in their business. They soon began to
receive their share of the trade and before the
expiration of a year were doing the bulk of the
general mercantile business of the place. There
were no banks then in Brownwood and none nearer
than Ft. Worth, Waco and Austin, each distant
about 145 miles. In consequence there was very
little banking business done by the people of that
section, none in fact except what was done at the
places named. A local merchant might occasion-
ally cash a check or draft, but none of them
thought of taking deposits. Business ran along
this way for about two years after Smith &
Steffens located in Brownwood when, having
a number of cash balances standing on their
books to the credit of their customers who had
deposited checks, drafts and in some instances
cash, they thought it advisable as a security
against loss as well as to facilitate the conduct of
their business to establish a banking department.
The suggestion was made by Mr. Smith, who agreed
to take charge of that feature of the business, and
readily concurred in by Mr. Steffens, who was to
continue to give his attention to the mercantile
branch. An 8,500 pound safe was ordered from
the Diebold Safe & Lock Company, of Canton,
Ohio, which was shipped to Round Eock in Will-
iamson County, whence it was hauled with ox-
teams to Brownwood. The arrival of that safe in
Brownwood marked an era in the history of the
town. For days before it had been the chief topic
of conversation, and when it finally reached the
outskirts of the place it was met by about one-half
the population, who greeted it with a welcome that
made the traditional "welkin" ring. A proces-
sion in which the irrepressible small boy and the
ubiquitous village wit took a conspicuous part,
escorted the ponderous mass of iron and steel with
its dusty and leg- weary attendants into town, and
subsequently amidst much speculation and amateur
" bossing," saw it securely placed in the rear of
Smith-Steffens store. The safe was a good one,
being of fire and burglar proof construction, and
up to date in other respects. The other fixtures,
however, were not so pretentious, though answer-
ing in all essentials their purpose. These consisted
of a counter ten feet long and three feet four inches
high, made of lumber, along the top of which ran
a light wire netting, extending upright three
feet six inches, which, with a small door of the
same material opening against the wall, served
as a guard against intruders. Over the cashier's
window appeared the sign in cheap metal let-
ters: "Pecan Valley Bank." The cost of the
entire outfit exclusive of the safe not exceed-
ing fifty dollars. The bank was opened with-
out any preliminaries, Mr. Smith simply taking
his position at his desk and announcing ready for
business. This came at once and in very gratify-
ing quantities. Before the expiration of the first
year the deposits had reached $90,000, and increas-
ing from year to year ran as high as $250,000.
Discounting, buying and selling of exchange, col-
lections, etc., kept pace with the increase of depos-
its, and the Pecan Valley Bank rapidly developed
into one of the recognized financial institutions of
the country. In 1881 Messrs. Smith and Steffens
started a store and small banking business at
Buffalo Gap in Taylor County, but shortly after-
wards moved their establishment to Abilene, where,
the goods being disposed of, they with others organ-
ized the First National Bank of that place, since
continued under the management of Mr. Steffens.
The Pecan Valley Bank of Brownwood ran along
under the management of Mr. Smith until 1883,
when he, representing Smith & Steffens, associated
with himself J. L. Vaughn, J. C. Weakley and D.
H. Trent, and organized the First National Bank of
Brownwood on a capital of $75,000, increased a
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
461
year later to $100,000. This bank succeeded the
Pecan Valley Bank and, being placed in charge of
Mr. Smith as cashier, accumulated under his man-
agement during the next ten years a surplus of
$20,000, and paid its stockholders in cash dividends
$211,000. In 1894 Mr. Smith, having withdrawn
from this bank, associated with himself J. C.
Weakley, John G. Lee and his old partner, Mr.
Steffens, and started the private banking house of
Brooke Smith & Co., at Brownwood, of which he is
now the manager. There are at this writing four
banks in Brownwood, all presximably secure and
doing a satisfactory business. The following figures
taken from their last published reports, February
28, 1896, are inserted in this place, not for the
purpose of drawing any invidious comparisons, but
simply to show, in the most direct and practical
way, the standing, relative and absolute, of the bank
under consideration : —
Brooke Smith & Co. : Loans, discounts and secur-
ities, $162,226.75 ; capital, $200,000, since increased
to $260,000; deposits, $137,118.38.
The Brownwood National Bank: Loans and dis-
counts, $76,408.89; capital, $60,000; deposits,
$93,678.87.
The First National Bank: Loans and dis-
counts, $111,925.41; capital, $100,000; deposits,
$69,976.93.
The Merchants' National Bank: Loans and dis-
counts, $73,420.91; capital, $50,000; deposits,
$55,181.24.
Twenty years measures the time to date that Mr.
Smith has been connected with the banking busi-
ness of Brownwood and Western Texas. This is an
important period in the formative era of a new
country and perhaps in no respect has it been more
important in that section than in the banking busi-
ness. The entire business has grown up in this
time, and in its growth not only has this single in-
terest been developed, but a direction has been in-
cidentally imparted to latent energies and a cast and
coloring given to events that will survive through
this and perhaps many succeeding generations.
The three banks mentioned, the Pecan Valley, the
First National of Brownwood, and that of Brooke
Smith &Co., represent more largely the labors of
Mr. Smith than of any other man ; and as to what
these labors involve no adequate idea can be given
in a brief sketch like this ; for it is to be remembered
that the business was begun and for years carried
on under circumstances very different from those
now existing. Until 1887 Brownwood had no rail-
way connection with the outside world, nor any
telegraph or express facilities, all communication
being by stage-coach and slow-going ox-trains.
This rendered the task of ordering money and trans-
ferring balances especially difficult, and in the latter
case often hazardous. All sorts of uses had 'to
be resorted to to elude road agents and to in-
sure protection against possible dishonesty on the
part of carriers. Specie was usually shipped
as nails, axes, or other heavy merchandise,
and currency in the same manner, a few bars of
soap, or a bolt of cheap cloth being removed from a
box to make room for $10,000 or $20,000 in bills.
Once Mr. Smith was going to Ft. Worth, and wished
to take a considerable sum of money with him. He
constructed a small box with a false bottom ; put
the money in the bottom, filled the top space with
dirt in which he placed a geranium and thus carried
his valuable package on his lap, or in the seat by
his side. Sometimes in removing silver in large
amounts the weight of the metal made secrecy im-
possible, in which case more heroic methods had to
be adopted. He once hauled $16,000 dollars in
silver, weighing approximately one thousand pounds,
in a hack from Cisco, the then terminus of the rail-
way, to Brownwood, the guards being himself and
one other. It may be added, however, that the
weight of the money in cases like the last was no
small protection of itself.
In addition to having helped establish the banks
named, Mr. Smith has been a leading spirit in every
enterprise of consequence that has been set on foot
in Brownwood or Brown County since he settled
there. In 1885 he subscribed $10,000 to the Brown
County Milling Company, assisted in organizing the
company, and has since been connected with it as
director, secretary and treasurer. He helped to
organize the Brownwood Cotton Compress Com-
pany, with which he is still connected, and he was
a charter member of the Ft. Worth & Eio Grande
Railroad Company, of which he is now a director,
and for which, as well as for the Gulf, Colorado
and Santa Fe, at an earlier day he obtained, un-
aided and alone, the rights of way through Brown
County, donating his services and securing the
grants at a nominal cost to the companies. A few
years ago Mr. Smith owned 32,000 acres of land in
the vicinity of Brownwood. Seeing the necessity
for a larger farming population in that section he
cut these lands into tracts of 160 acres each, which
he began to sell to settlers and has, up to this time,
disposed of about 20,000 acres. His terms — one-
tenth down, and balance in ten equal annual in-
stallments with eight per cent interest on deferred
payments — are such that any one can comply with
them and thereby secure a home, and it is gratifying
to know that many are doing so. Such settlers add
materially to the taxable wealth of the State and
462
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
their presence in the comniunities where they
locate is in every way beneficial.
Mr. Smith has manifested an especially friendly
interest in popular education and in good local
government; and while he has differed widely at
times from some of his fellow-citizens as to how
these ends were best to be attained, occasionally
finding himself with the minority advocating un-
popular measures, his zeal has not on that account
known any abatement nor has the rectitude of his
motives ever been called in question. He has taken
scarcely any interest in partisan politics and has
held no offices except those of school trustee,
Alderman and Mayor of Brownwood. He prefers
to be known for the good he can do rather than for
accumulated public honors, and for this reason as
well as for the real pleasure it gives him to be help-
ful to others he has made it a point through life to
assist in a financial way and with advice young men
of his acquaintance, among whom he has thus
created enduring friendships. He belongs to the
Odd Fellows and Knights of Pythias, and is a mem-
ber of the Episcopal Church. St. John's Episcopal
Church at Brownwood, one of the handsomest and
costliest edifices in that diocese, was erected mainly
through his efforts and contributions. Benevolent
under the exercise of reason and sound judgment,
charitable without compromising his principles,
firm without obstinacy, and religious without big-
otry, he is a representative of that type of man-
hood most potential for good in this world and of
which, sad to say, it has all too much need.
On March 2, 1880, in Bourbon County, Ky. ,
Mr. Smith married Miss Juliet L. Sparks, daughter
of Lloyd W. and Elizabeth (Richardson) Sparks,
and the issue of this union has been three daughters
and a son, three of whom, Lola Dos well. Norma
Brooke and Brooke, Jr., are living, the eldest of
the number, a daughter, being deceased. Mr.
Smith has three brothers living : R. C. M. Smith,
of McCordsville, Ind., the only one of his father's
family who never came to Texas, Temple D. Smith,
engaged in the banking business at Fredericksburg,
Texas, and Frank M. Smith, a banker at Auson,
Jones County, this State, and three sisters, all
residents of Brownwood: Fannie Gwathmey, now
Mrs. A. P. Jones, Nannie Lee Smith, and Alice
Lewis, widow of J. J. Ramev.
ANSON RAINEY,
WAXAHACHIE.
Judge Anson Rainey was born in El Dorado,
Union County, Ark., March 1st, 1848. His father
was Christopher Columbus Rainey, a native of
Alabama, who died at El Dorado, Ark., in 1854,
when twenty-nine years of age. The Judge's
grandfather, Matthew F. Rainey, was, for many
years, a citizen of Green County, Ala., in which
county he held for years the office of Sheriff. He
also represented it in the lower House of the State
Legislature. He subsequentlymoved to Arkansas,
and at the time of his death was a State Senator.
The Judge's mother, nee Nancy Blake Baker, still
living, was a daughter of Zadok Baker, a primitive
Baptist preacher, who came from North Carolina
to Alabama, where he died at an advanced age.
The wife of Zadok Baker, nee Lucretia King, was
a cousin of Hon. William R. King, Vice-President
of the United States during Pierce's administration
and for twenty-five years United States Senator
from Alabama.
Judge Rainey is one of a family of four children
consisting of himself, a brother (Columbus) and
two sisters (Lee and Minnie B.). The brother
died in early manhood. In 1880 Miss Lee mar-
ried N. J. Nash, who died in October, 1881. She
now lives in Waxahachie, Texas. Miss Minnie
married E. F. Yrager, who died in 1890. She died
in 1893.
After the death of the Judge's father in 1854,
his mother returned to Mt. Hebron, Green County,
Ala., where the subject of this sketch was reared
to farm life and received a common school educa-
tion. At the age of fifteen years he entered the
Confederate service, enlisting in August, 1863, in
Company A., Sixteenth Confederate Cavalry, and
served until the close of the war. His command
operated principally in Georgia, Alabama and Mis-
sissippi. He was in every battle in which his
regiment participated until April 2d, 1865, when
Fort Blakely, opposite Mobile, Ala., was invested
by the Federals and he was wounded and perma-
nently disabled. When his command surrendered
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
463
in May of that year, he was at home on furlough
and remained there until January, 1867, when he
came to Texas, making his first stop at Crockett,
where he lived for two years, clerking for his
uncle. Dr. Frank Eainey, who was engaged in the
drug business.
In January, 1869, he went to Bryan, Texas, at
which place, and at Hearne, Texas, he clerked for
Tabor & Luce, until September of that year, when
he went to Delhi, La., at which place he engaged
in the mercantile business until the spring of 1871,
when his mercantile career ended. From early
youth his ambition was to become a lawyer, so,
when his mercantile career ended, he prosecuted
his legal studies under Capt. H. P. Wells, of Delhi.
July 6th, 1871, he obtained license from the
Supreme Court of Louisiana to practice law. He
immediately formed a partnership with Capt. Wells,
under the firm name of Wells & Eainey, and located
at Delta, Madison Parish, La., where he practiced
his profession until January, 1873, when he returned
to Texas and located at Waxahachie, Ellis County,
February 12 of that year. That place has been
his home ever since. He practiced in partnership
with his brother-in-law, N. J. Nash, at Waxahachie,
until in April, 1874, when he formed a partnership
with Judge J. Ferris, the firm name being Ferris &
Eainey. In 1880 he was elected to the State Senate,
the district being composed of Dallas and Ellis
counties, and served for one term, not appearing
for re-election at the end of that time. The firm of
Ferris & Eainey continued until November, 1883,
when it dissolved and Mr. Eainey associated with
him Mr. G. C. Grose, the firm being Eainey &
Grose, a connection that continued until July 6th,
1885, when Mr. Eainey was appointed, by Governor
Ireland, Judge of the Fourth Judicial District,
composed of the counties of Ellis, Kaufman and
Eockwalj. He was twice elected to this position
without opposition and was holding it when ap-
pointed by Governor Hogg, in 1893, Associate Jus-
tice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the Fifth
Supreme Judicial District of Texas, which position
he is now holding.
He is a member of the Christian Church and of
the Masonic fraternity, of which order in Texas he
was Grand Master in -1888. His political affiliation
has been with the Democratic party from his major-
ity to the present time.
He was married in Houston County, Texas, Feb-
ruary 17, 1874, to Miss Fannie Irene Merriwether,
who was born in Harrison County, this State, Sep-
tember 8th, 1848 ; a daughter of Dr. F. L. Merri-
wether, a native of Alabama. Her mother, nee
Edith Dunlap, was also a native of Alabama, a
daughter of Samuel Dunlap, a planter of that State.
Judge Eainey has two children, Frank M. and
Edna. The family are temporarily residing in Dal-
las, where the Judge's duties require his constant
attention.
O. H. P. TOWNSEN,
LAMPASAS.
Oliver Hazard Perry Townsen, or, as he was more
familiarly known, " Uncle Perry Townsen," was an
old settler of Lampasas County and, according to
general report, was for many years -one of that
county's best citizens. He was born in Carroll
County, Tenn., in 1826. His father was John
Townsen of Virginia, and his mother, before mar-
riage, Tamar Holt, of Kentucky. He was
descended from English ancestry on his father's
side. His mother was of German descent. His
patronymic was originally Townsend. The final d
in the name was dropped by the American repre-
sentatives of the family to distinguish them from
their relatives in the old country who were especially
active against the cdlonists in their struggles for
freedom. John Townsen and Tamar Holt were
married in Kentucky and moved thence some years
later to Tennessee, settling in Carroll County.
There most of their children, five in number, were
born, these being John Garrett, James Madison,
Stephen Copeland, Elizabeth, and Oliver Hazard
Perry. The mother died in Tennessee. When he
was advanced in years the father returned to Ken-
tucky, where he died. The subject was the young-
est of the family and was not grown at the time of
his parents' death. He left his native county when
about seventeen years of age and went to Missis-
sippi, where he worked as a farm hand and later
learned the milling business, on Cold Water Creek,
in De Soto County. While there he formed the
464
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
acquaintance of Dr. J. C. Nowlen, with whom he
entered into a partnership arrangement to engage
in the milling business, and in company with that
gentleman went to Missouri in the spring of 1853
in search of a locationr Not finding a place to suit
them they left Missouri a year later and came to
Texas and stopped at Gonzales. There Mr. Nowlen
located, but Mr. Townsen left that place in the
spring of 1855 and went to Lampasas County and
settled. He bought land about twenty miles north
of the present town of Lampasas and erected a
grist-mill, on the Lampasas river. A two years'
drought followed and he sold his mill machinery in
1857 to parties living in San Saba County, and
turned his attention to stock-raising. In the mean-
time his nephew, Lafayette Jasper Townsen,
had come to Texas and was residing in Smith
County. Mr. Townsen paid him a visit and induced
him to join in an enterprise to establish a ranch
in Lampasas County. The two put their fands
together and purchased some stock, with which they
began in a small way near where the senior Mr.
Townsen had first located. The country was very
sparsely settled at that time, and that portion of it
was subject to Indian depredations'; which, with the
hardships and privations otherwise connected with
the settlement of a new country, made the first few
years of their life in Texas anything but pleasant.
Still they bore it with fortitude, and applied them-
selves industriously to the task which they had set
before themselves. The war interfered very seri-
ously with their operations, but after the return of
peace, they gathered up the remnant of their cattle
and in 1866 moved to the vicinity of Fort Chadron,
where they hoped to enjoy for a number of years
an open range, and freedom from those annoyances
with which ranchmen have to contend in a rapidly
settling country. But in this they were disap-
pointed, for they had been there but a short while
when the Indians and United States soldiers began
making trouble, and after keeping up the unequal
struggle for some time, the Messrs. Townsen were
forced to abandon it, and returned to Lampasas
County. In 1868 they bought 640 acres of land on
the Lampasas river, where they had formerly lived
and, locating on that, began farming and stock-
raising on a limited scale. They had all their
property in joint ownership, but about this date
the farming and stock business was turned over to
Mr. J. L. Townsen, while Mr. Perry Townsen
again took up the milling business. He erected a
saw and grist mill on the Lampasas river in 1871,
and soon developed a large milling interest. The
saw mill part of it was never pushed to any great
extent, but the other was, and for a number of
years he manufactured a high grade of flour and
other mill products, for which he found a ready
sale throughout the surrounding country. He gave
his attention actively to this business until his
death, which occurred January 30, 1891, being
caused by an accident in the mill. He left a con-
siderable estate (consisting mostly of lands), and
a reputation of which any man might be proud.
His thorough-going business methods united with
sound habits, strict integrity and a reasonable
amount of public spirit won him the esteem and
friendship of all those with whom he came in con-
tact, and made him for more than thirty years one
of the leading citizens in the county where he lived.
He never held any public offices, but took more or
less interest in public matters and was very well
informed on public questions. In an earlier day
he was a Whig in politics, but after the war he
joined the Democratic party and always afterward
voted with that party. He was a high Mason and
made Masonry his religion.
Mr. Townsen was never married, though a man
of domestic habits and fond of children. He made
his home with his nephew, L. J. Townsen, whose
family looked upon him as a second father, and are
greatly devoted to his memory.
Lafayette Jasper Townsen, mentioned in the fore-
going memoir and whose life was so intimately con-
nected with that of his uncle, was also born in
Carroll County, Tenn., in 1833. His father was
John Garrett Townsen, eldest son of John and
Tamar Townsen, and his mother bore the maiden
name of Mary A. Mitchell. He was reared in
Tennessee, and came to Texas in 1856. Joining
his uncle the following year he went to Lampasas
County, which has practically been his home since
and with the history of which he has been connected
as an active, earnest, law-abiding citizen. As the
outcome of his early struggles along with his uncle
and good management in later years he has accu-
mulated an estate ample for his wants, and he is
spending his time now in the supervision of his prop-
erty and the rearing of his children. He married
Miss Mary A. Stanley, of Lampasas County, in
January, 1865, whose father, John Stanley, moved
from Mississippi to Texas, and settled in Lampasas
County in 1854, the issue of which union has been
seven sons and three daughters, all are living.
Both the gentlemen mentioned in this article had
many encounters with the Indians at an early day
in Lampasas County, and suffered the loss of a great
deal of property from Indian depredations, but their
experience in this respect was of that character
which fell to the lot of all the first settlers, a full
account of which will be found in the historical por-
tion of this work, illustrated at intervals with inci-
dents of blood, daring and personal heroism.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILLIAM HAUSSER,
EAGLE PASS,
Was born in Wurtemburg, Germany, May 24tb,
1847 ; the son of a vineyardist and gardener. He
learned the carpenter's trade in his native country;
came to America in 1867, and worlsed at his trade
in Louisville, Ky., until 1873, when he came to
Texas and continued his occupation at Fort Clark,
Texas, for two years, after which he went to Eagle
Pass and worked at his trade and as contractor until
1887. He bought, then, the lumber yards and
business of Martin & Schriever, at the latter place,
and has since continued the business with marked
success, shipping large quantities of building ma-
terial to Mexico. He is one of the solid men of
his town and greatly esteemed.
He married, in 1881, Miss Amelia Mayer, of
Eagle Pass. Six children, William, Albert, Amelia,
Frederick, Emma, and Charles, have been born of
this union.
LOUIS STEIN,
BULVERDE,
Is well known in Comal County, Texas, as a pio-
neer settler. He was born in Germany, April 2,
1833, where he learned the cooper's trade under his
father, and iollowed the same until 1869, when he
took passage for New York City, where he remained
for some time, after which he made a tour through
many of the Eastern and Middle States, and then,
in 1871, came to Texas. He settled first in Blanco
County, where he built a number of dwellings under
contract for various persons, and then, in 1889,
located on 200 acres of land near Bulverde, where
he now lives. He was united in marriage to Miss
Mary Otto, in 1873, and has seven children, viz. :
Louise, Dora, August, William, Ida, Clara, and
Bertha. Mr. Stein is advanced in years, but hale and
hearty, still possessing much of the vigor of youth.
CARL ROM PEL,
BULVERDE,
Was born in Prussia, January 24, 1836. His
father, Dr. Benjamin Rompel, came to America in
1846, and located at New Braunfels, where he
practiced medicine until 1852, and then secured
800 acres of land in Comal County, on the Bexar
County line, and established a farm, on which he
afterwards resided. Dr. Rompel brought seven
children with him to this country, viz. : Wilhemine,
Carl, Victor, Edward, Frank, Cha:rlotte, and Alvin.
Alvin, Frank and Victor are deceased. Alvin died
at New Orleans in 1863, while a soldier in the
Union army. Carl and Edward served for three
years in the First Texas Cavalry during the war
between the States. After the war, Carl Eompel,
subject of this notice, returned home, engaged in
farming, and in 1873 married Miss Pauline Wiel-
bacher, daughter of the late Christian Wielbacher,
of New Braunfels. Mr. and Mrs. Rompel have
six children: August, Lena, Freda, Julia, Emil,
and an infant. Mr. Rompel has a fine home, and
is a successful farmer.
466
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOSEPH C. WEAKLEY,
BROWNWOOD,
The subject of this sketch comes of pioneer an-
cestry. His father was John Weakley, and bis
mother bore the maiden name of Mary Williamson,
both of whom were natives of Kentucky, where
their parents, George and Mary Weakley, and
John and Ellen Williamson, were settlers in the
days of Daniel Boone. Both families were from
Virginia, and had been identified with the history
of that State from early Colonial days. John and
Ellen Williamson died in Kentucky, as did also
Mary Weakley, but George Weakley left there at
an advanced age and went to Indiana, and later to
Illinois, settling on the present site of Monmouth,
in the latter State, where he spent the closing years
of his life ; a type of his kind, full of the spirit of
the pioneer, impatient of the restraints of civiliza-
tion, and caring but little for wealth or the applause
of the world. His son, John, father of Joseph C,
was of much the same character. He moved from
Kentucky in the latter part of the 30's, and set-
tled in Tippecanoe County, Ind., near the fa-
mous battle field of Tippecanoe, where he died in
1841. Near that historic spot, Joseph C. of this
sketch, was born in 1839. He was the youngest of
a large family of children, the care and mainte-
nance of whom bore heavily on the widowed mother
in a new and unsettled country, the better to dis-
charge which duties she left Tippecanoe County
in 1846, and settled in Indianapolis, then a
town of some 2,000 inhabitants. In that town
the boyhood and youth of Joseph C. were
passed and in the public schools of the same he
received what education fell to his lot. He was
«arly apprenticed to the tra'le of a tinner, which he
mastered and followed in Indianapolis till the open-
ing of the Civil War. In 1861 he enlisted in the Union
army as a volunteer in the Thirty-ninth Indiana
Infantry, Col. John F. Harrison, with which he
served in the Army of the Cumberland for three
years. On the expiration of the term of his enlist-
ment he returned to Indianapolis and again taking
up his trade followed it there till the close of the
war. In 1866 he went West and for four years
worked at his trade as a journeyman in different
parts of the country, finally in 1871 coming to
Texas. After a residence of some eight months in
Galveston, three years in Waco, and a year in
Comanche, he settled April 15, 1876, at Brownwood,
which has since been his home. From the date of
his first settling at Brownwood, Mr. Weakley has
been actively identified with the history of the place,
and to-day perhaps has as large and diversified in-
terests in the town as any man living there. He
began business there on a capital of $1,000, opening
a small tin shop on the east side of the square.
His tinshop has expanded into a large hardware
establishment, where all kinds of metal manufac-
turing is done and all sorts of hardware, mill
machinery, implements and vehicles are sold.
The house is one of the largest in Western Texas,
doing an annual business of about $50,000. Mr.
Weakley has given this business almost his exclu-
sive attention, and it represents in the main the best
efforts of the last twenty years of his life. He has
considerable real estate investments in and around
Brownwood, and some interests represented by
local enterprises. In 1883 he assisted in organiz-
ing the First National Bank of Brownwood, of
which he then became vice-president and a
director and has been such since. In 1891 he
assisted in organizing the Brownwood National
Bank, of which he was made president, and holds
that position now. In 1894 he assisted in organ-
izing the banking business of Brooke Smith & Co.,
of Brownsvood, and is a member of the board of
directors of the same at this writing. In 1885 he
subscribed stock to the Brown County Milling
Company, which was organized that year and of
which he became president, and has held that posi-
tion since. And he is a stockholder and director
in the Brownwood Cotton Compress Company.
His subscription to the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe
Railway was $1,000 and to the Port Worth
& Rio Grande, $2,200 ; and he has contributed
to the two principal educational institutions
of Brownwood, Daniel Baker (Presbyterian)
College, and Howard Payne (Baptist) Col-
lege, over $3,000, all of which subscriptions and
contributions being matters of common knowl-
edge and falling within the scope of this article
are thus stated, but are to be taken as showing only
in part what Mr. Weakley has done for the com-
munity in which he resides. His sympathies and
personal efforts have gone forth on all proper occa-
sions and his private charities have been bestowed
with a liberal hand. Constantly absorbed with his
business interests, he has held aloof from politics,
taking only such part in public matters as has been
D. CALL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
467
■demanded of him as a citizen. He has served as a
member of the school board, and as Mayor of
Brownwood, but has allowed his name to be
used no further. He is a member of the Masonic
fraternity, Brownwood Lodge No. 41 and Brown-
wood Commandery No. 22 Knights Templ.-vr, and
of the Knights of Pytliias.
In 1872, while residing at Galveston, Mr. Weak-
ley married Miss Helen C. Colmer, then of that
place but a native of Cape Girardeau, Mo. This
lady died, leaving three children, Mary, now Mrs.
Lee Watson, of Brownwood, Alice, and Frank.
Mr. Weaklej^'s second marriage was to Miss
Helen Young, and the issue of this union has
been four children, Vivian, Itylene, Harry, and
Eugene.
DENNIS CALL,
ORANGE.
Mr. Webster in his memorable speech, delivered
in 1825 upon the occasion of the laying of the
corner-stone of the Bunker Hill monument, called
attention to the wonderful strides that the country
had made in material development during the half
century that had elapsed since that day in 1775,
when a few patriots under the leadership of the
lamented and immortal Warren consecrated their
devotion to the cause of liberty upon the first real
battle-field of the Revolution. In his still more
notable oration delivered in 1842, upon the com-
pletion and unveiling of ttie monument — an oration
that has never been surpassed for strength, breadth
■of sweep, stately eloquence or prophetic prescience
in ancient or modern times — he again called atten-
tion to the progress the country has made and in
•commenting upon that progress made a forecast for
the future which must have been listened to by his
more than fifty thousand auditors, with sentiments
-of admiration for the glowing colors and the grand
outlines of the picture drawn by the pencil of his
matchless fancy and of doubt as to whether it would
•ever be realized in those days that were to come
after them — when their hearts should be stilled in
•death, when their moldering forms should rest
beneath the "mossy marbles" of many church-
yards and when other generations should move
about in the marts of trade, the halls of legislation,
in the forum and through all the varied avenues of
social life, and when other hands should guide and
control the destinies of a Republic whose mighty
life should have grown richer and fuller and
stronger with the flight of years. Yet the picture
that Webster drew has fallen far short of what
has already come to pass.
The United States extend from ocean to ocean,
irom the British possessions on the north to the
Gulf of Mexico. Thousands of cities dot the hills
and valleys and plaits of this vast territorial ex-
panse. Thousands upon thousands of new indus-
tries have sprung into existence to furnish employ-
ment to a largely increased population. The
progress of the development of internal resources ;
the advances made in inventions, in the arts and
sciences and in the means and processes of popu-
lar education since 1842 have had no parallel in
preceding ages. In the past century has been
crowded more startling changes, more real and
permanent advancement along all lines than in all
the ones of prior times combined since the day-
dawn of the race. It has been an advancement
that has gathered dynamic force from year to
year, each result proving but a means for the ac-
complishment of still more wonderful and trans-
forming results. The past quarter of a century
has been a period of intense activity. The con-
ditions have been such as to offer unexampled
opportunities to men of superior abilities and
to stimulate and develop those abilities to the
full limits of their possibilities. They have been
such that timidity, incapacity, or even medi-
ocrity has had little to expect. This has been
especially true in the commercial world. A race
of financiers has been evolved, remarkable for their
sagacity, cool and daring judgment and the success
that they have achieved ; many of them building up
princely fortunes from the smallest of beginnings.
We do not refer to reckless speculators, but to
sound business men who have made their fortunes
by sound business methods and have benefited
and helped to build up every material interest of
the communities and States in which they live.
Among the best known members of the latter
class, can be truthfully numbered the subject of this
468
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
memoir, Mr. Dennis Call, Jr., now, and for many
years, a leading citizen of the thriving town of
Orange.
He is secretary and treasurer of the Orange
Terminal Eailroad ; vice-president of the Gulf &
North Western Eailroad, and president and treas-
urer of the Cow Creek Tram Company. He en-
tered the tram business in Salem, Newton County,
Texas, in 1890, and was then elected president and
treasurer, positions which he has since held. At
that time he owned one-third, and now owns one-
half, of the net capital ($178,350) of the company.
It owns over twenty miles of railroad, laid with
steel rails, fifty-four cars, three locomotives (the
road extending through Newton and Jasper Coun-
ties) and about 20,000 acres of long leaf yellow
pine timber, and at this time is furnishing three of
the saw-mills at Orange with their logs. The com-
pany is now (1895) building a double saw-mill on
their road, with a daily capacity of at least 125,-
000 feet, and hope to increase it to 150,000 feet.
The cost of the erection of this mill will be about
$50,000.00.
Mr. Call was born in Orange, Texas, September
20, 1855, attended local schools and, in 1874, en-
tered Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie,
N. Y., from which he graduated in 1875. He then
returned home and entered upon his business
career as junior member of the Arm of D. Call &
Son, his father (D. Call, Sr.), being the senior
member. In 1880 George Call was admitted as a
partner in the firm of D. Call & Son, and the firm
name changed to D. Call & Sons. After the death
of D. Call, Sr., the business was continued under
the same firm name under the management of the
surviving sons. The firm engaged in the regular
banking business in 1880, which continued without
change until the death of D. Call, Sr., October 17,
1883, after which the subject of this memoir
a,ssumed control. The firm, besides the banking
business, was also engaged in milling and steam-
boating and owned a line of schooners that ran
between Texas and Mexican ports. Mr. Call is a
member of the Orange Fire Department; Orange
board of trade ; Knights of Pythias, Legion
of Honor, Woodmen of the World, Elks, T.
P. A., Hoo-Hoo and Masonic fraternities,
of the latter for the past eighteen years, joining
Madison Lodge No. 126 at Orange, in 1877. He
has been a member of Orange Chapter No. 78, A.
F. & A. M., for fifteen years and was High Priest
for two years. He is also a member of Ruthven
Commandery No. 2, Knights Templar, of Houston.
He has been a staff officer of the Texas Volunteer
Guard for ten years and in 1889 distinguished
himself as a volunteer soldier by contesting for
and winning a gold medal, offered by the Belknap
Eifles, of San Antonio, to the best Adjutant. Mr.
Call's success in life has been due to honesty,
industry, close application to business and an ad-
herence to the principles instilled into his mind and
heart at his mother's knees.
He has long been a prominent man in his town and
section of the State, has aided with princely lib-
erality every worthy enterprise, has helped the
poor and needy and been a friend to the friendless,
is beloved and honored by all who know him and
is in every respect a model citizen and representa-
tive Texian. His parents were D. Call, Sr., and
Mrs. Marian (Jordan) Call.
D. Call, Sr. , was born in Ireland in 1825 and
was a merchant and banker — the first merchant of
any note in the city of Orange, commencing busi-
ness in 1845. He was a heavy loser by the war
between the States, but after the close of hostili-
ties resumed business, soon receiving merchandise
from New Orleans by the schooner load. During
the war period he came very near losing his life in
the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Yucatan. The
vessel in which he was a passenger was caught in a
terrible storm, during the progress of which he was
washed overboard. Although incumbered with a
heavy overcoat and a large money belt filled with
gold coin, he succeeded in maintaining himself
afloat for three-quarters of an hour, until rescued by
the ship's boats. A man less vigorous, less coura-
geous or cool would have inevitably perished. He was
a man of singular firmness of character and bravery
of spirit. These traits were dignified and adorned
by a sweetness of temper, kindliness and true
Christian charity that endeared him to all with whom
he came in contact. He was a member of Madison
Lodge No. 126 and Orange Chapter No. 78, A. F.
& A. M., and was one of the original signers of the
charter for the chapter.
He was married in 1852 to Miss Marian Jordan,
born in Alabama in 1836 and a daughter of Josiah
Jordan, who came to Texas in 1843, and was for
many years a prominent citizen of Orange. Seven
children were born to them, three of whom are still
living, viz: D. Call, Jr., a merchant at Orange ;^
George; and Lema Call, now the wife of J. A.
Eobinson, of Orange.
One daughter, Eliza, died at Boerue, Texas,
March 17, 1895. She was born February 3, 1868,
and graduated from Ward's Seminary, at Nashville,
Tenn., in 1885. Soon after returning home from
the institution of learning she went to the Boston
(Mass.) Conservatory of Music, where she com-
pleted her musical education.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
469
While at Boston she contracted a severe cold
which led to her death. She married Charles Hag-
gerty, of Michigan. One daughter, Hildegard, was
born of this union. Mrs. Haggerty. went to Boerne
in the hope of recovering her health. Her remains
were brought to Orange for interment. She was a
devout member of the Christian Church and a
most lovable and estimable lady.
Mrs. Call is still living and, although sixty years
of age, does not appear to be over forty-five or
fifty. Her hair is yet unsilvered by the snows of
age and she ia as cheerful, vivacious and enter-
taining as any of the younger ladies at social
gatherings.
Mr. D. Call, Jr., was united in marriage Febru-
ary 28, 1878, to Miss Ella C. Holland, of Brenham,
Texas, daughter of Dr. J. A. Holland, a physician
of Independence, and alumnus of the University of
Virginia. She is a niece of Dr. R. T. Flewellen, of
Houston, a gentleman prominent in the political
a:ffairs of the State, having represented the district
several times in the Legislature. ■
Mrs. Call completed her education at Baylor
College and, after graduation, was elected to a posi-
tion as teacher in the faculty and taught in the col-
lege for a number of years. She is an accomplished
musician, a charming conversationalist and a great
lover of the young people who spend many delight-
ful evenings at her palatial and hospitable home.
She and Mr. Call are favorite chaperons on sum-
mer outings and other similar occasions. A gra-
cious and queenly lady, she is beloved by young
and old, rich and poor, for herself and * for her
deeds of sweet charity. In the language of the
dear old Southern song, " None knew her, but to
love her."
Mr. Call has accumulated a fortune variously
estimated at from $150,000 to $200,000.
At the head of a number of important enter-
prises, in the full meridian of life and with many
years, in the course of nature, yet before him,
newer and brighter laurels await him in the field of
finance, and he will yet more deeply mark his
impress upon the times in which he lives.
GEORGE CALL,
ORANGE.
George Call was born in Orange, Texas, June
16th, 1859; was a pupil at local schools during
boyhood and completed his education by attending
Baylor University, Independence, Texas ; Roanoke
College, Salem, Va. ; the State Agricultural and
Mechanical College, at Bryan, Texas, and Soule
Business College, New Orleans, La.
Returning home he was, in 1880, admitted to a
partnership in the Arm of D. Call & Son. The firm
name was thereupon changed to D. Call & Sons,
and so continued until after the death of his father,
D. Call, Sr., which occurred October 17, 1883.
(A short outline of the life of Mr. D. Call, Sr., and
of the family's history, occurs in the memoir of
D. Call, Jr., that appears elsewhere in this volume. )
The business was discontinued in 1891 in order
that the assets of the estate might be divided
between the legal heirs.
Since that time Mr. George Call has been in
business upon his own account and is now one of
the most extensive wholesale dealers in grain and
feed-stuffs in the city of Orange.
He was married May 22, 1889, to Miss Eugenia
Sells, of Orange, Texas.
Mrs. Call is a most charming lady, possessed of
all the qualities that adorn matronhood, and make
home the most delightful and sacred spot of earth.
She has proven to be a wise counselor to Mr. Call
in his extensive business, and therein lies partially
the secret of the unusual success that has attended
his financial ventures.
Mr. Call was a charter member of the Board of
Trade, organized in Orange in 1890, was for three
years its secretary, and has at all times and in every
possible way labored for the upbuilding of his city
and section of the State.
Genial, kindly, hospitable and of high integrity,
he has a wide circle of friends throughout the State.
470
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
PAUL HANISCH,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Was born June 4, 1831, on the Isle of Rugen, one
of the most picturesque and beautiful spots on the
coast of Germany. After securing a good literary
education, he applied himself for ten years to the
study of pharmacy and kindred branches of science,
thus thoroughly equipping himself for the business
of an apothecary, which he has principally fol-
lowed. His father, Rev. Peter Hanisch, was an
able and zealous clergyman of the German Lutheran
Church.
The subject of this notice, Mr. Paul Hanisch,
came to America in 1856 and landed at Indianola,
Texas, on the 6th day of June of that year. He
proceeded in ox-teams from Indianola to New
Braunf els, San Antonio and Comfort. He remained
at the latter place until 1872 and then formed a co-
partnership with his pioneer friend, Emil Sergery
and opened a drug store in Fredericksburg, where
he has since continued in business and has accumu-
lated a competency.
December 18, 1878, he was united in marriage to
Miss Helen Siedsehlag, at Galveston, Texas.
They have three children, two daughters and one
son, viz: Helen, Elizabeth, and Frank.
C. H. SUELTENFUSS,
SCHILLER.
C. H. Sueltenfuss, Postmaster at Schiller, Kendall
County, Texas, was born in the Rhine district of
Prussia, April 15, 1844.
His father, John A. Sueltenfuss, came to the
United States in 1848 ; engaged in farming at
Schemannsville, near New Braunfels, Texas, for
one year and then located near San Antonio, where
he died in 1869, at sixty-two years of age, leaving
eight children.
C. H. Sueltenfuss, the eldest of the six children
of this family now living, reached Texas from Ger-
many on the first day of January, 1860 ; worked
for his father until 1863 ; went to Mexico ; clerked
in a store for a while, and then enlisted at Browns-
ville in Company C, First Regiment of Texas Rang-
ers, commanded by Col, Jack Hays, with which he
served for two years, when he was honorably dis-
charged at San Antonio at the close of the war.
In 1867, he located on his present home farm
consisting of 3,000 acres of good farming and
grazing land at Schiller, in Kendall County, and the
following year married Miss Anna Voelcker,
daughter of Eugene Voelcker, an early pioneer of
Comal County, now residing at New Braunfels.
They have nine children living: Paul, Charles,
Clara, Bruno, Emil, Mary, Louise, Alfred, and
Franz.
Mr. Sueltenfuss is a member of the Republican
party. He was appointed Postmaster at Schiller
in 1883.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
471
JULIUS VOELCKER,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Was a native of Germany and was born near the
shores of the Baltic Sea, March 2d, 1821. He
studied at Potsdam and Berlin, perfected himself
as an apothecary and was employed as such in
various establishments in the latter city ; came to
Texas as a colonist in 1846, received his apportion-
ment of land at New Braunfeis ; became a promi-
nent member of that thrifty community, engaged
first in farming and then, in 1868, in the drug
business in the town of New Braunfeis, in which he
continued until his death. Here in this beautiful
town he married Miss Louise Korbach, daughter of
David Korbach, deceased. Six children were born
to them, four of whom are living: Frank, the old-
est, now the San Antonio agent for the Southern
Pacific Ry. Co. ; Rudolph, a druggist at Temple,
Texas; Bruno E., a leading druggist at New
Braunfeis, and Emil, a furniture dealer at New
Braunfeis. A daughter, Emme, died in 1874 ;
another child, Otto, died in 1866.
Julius Voeleker was an esteemed citizen and an
active and enterprising businessman. He held the
oflice of Justice of the Peace at various times, and,
at the time of his death, which occurred in 1878, was
Mayor of the city of New Braunfeis. Bruno E.
Voeleker was born in New Braunfeis, June 4, 1857,
schooled in his home town, he studied chemistry
under his father and became an apothecary. He
later went to New Orleans, where he clerked in
various establishments, until the death of his father.
He then returned home and assumed charge of the
business he new owns and conducts. He owns the
handsome business block he occupies, besides other
valuable property. He married Miss Mary Brecher,
a daughter of Jacob Brecher, deceased, of New
Braunfeis. They have three children living:
Emma, Edwin, and Julius.
EMIL SERGER,
COIVIFORT,
Well-known throughout the western part of Central
Texas as a pioneer farmer, came to America January
4th, 1856, landed in New York, and proceeded
from that city by water direct to Galveston, and
from Galveston, via Indianola, New Braunfeis, and
San Antonio, to Comfort, where he now resides.
Mr. Serger is a native of Prussia, where he was
born March 27, 1831. Early in life he was ap-
prenticed to learn the trade of millwright. He
also studied architecture, in which he became pro-
ficient, but left his native country before securing
a diploma as an architect. In Texas he followed
the millwright's trade, and engaged more or less
in farming. Upon reaching Comfort, he located on
a spot where his typical old-time, yet comfortable,
home now stands, and where he has since con-
tinuously lived. When he first visited it, it was
covered with the tepes of Comanche Indians, but
they soon quietly moved on to give way to the
aggressive pioneer settlement. Mr. Serger here
developed a fertile tract of farming land, ranged
cattle in the open valleys and on the hills, and did
his full share as a member of the company, organ-
ized for the protection of the settlement from
Indian depredations. For a time during the Civil
War he was a frontier ranger, under Capt. Wein-
denfeld and Col. McAdoo, in the Confederate ser-
vice. He has never deeply interested himself in
politics, but has served as County Commissioner of
his county, and has exerted himself in every prac-
ticable way to promote the upbuilding of his sec-
tion of the State. In 1868 he returned to the
Fatherland and married Miss Marie Settel, a young
lady of domestic tastes and womanly qualities.
Mr. and Mrs. Serger have four children, three
sons and one daughter, viz. : Powell, Emil, Frank,
and Eliza. All have been given advantages of
excellent schooling.
Mr. Serger's landed interests comprise about
680 acres in Kendall and Kerr Counties.
472
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GABRIEL REMLER,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
A venerable pioneer, came to Texas in 1844
when about twenty-two years of age witii Prince
Solms. He was born in the south of Germany,
October 20, 1822. He lived at New Braunfels
until 1852 and then located on his present place on
the Guadalupe river in the vicinity on Smithson's
Valley, where he has developed a farm of one thou-
sand acres — one of the finest in Comal County.
He has a most hospitable and frugal wife, who has
borne him seven children, now all married, viz. :
Sophia, Pauline, AUena, Minnie, Peter J., Frederick
and William. They have fifteen grandchildren.
AUGUST G. STARTZ,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Born in Comal County, December 25, 1866, is a
son of the venerable pioneer, Henry Startz. His
father came to Texas in 1844 with the Prince Solms
Colony. The subject of this notice grew up at
the old homestead in Smithson's Valley in Comal
County and gained a thorough knowledge of the
stock-raising business, in which he is now exten-
sively engaged. He also owns a well stocked store
and cotton gin in Smithson's Vallej' and about 4,000
acres of grazing land in Comal County.
He married, December 25, 1879, Miss Emma,
daughter of Fritz Bartels. They have six children :
Teela, Olga, Walter, Ella, Charles, and Henry.
Mr. Startz has served eight years as Deputy
Sheriff of Comal County, and is now a member of
the County Commissioners' Court.
HERMAN E. FISCHER,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Hon. Herman E. Fischer, an active and influential
business man of New Braunfels, is a pioneer of
Texas of 1852, coming to the State December 6th
of that year. Upon landing at Galveston he pro-
ceeded directly to San Antonio and from that place
to New Braunfels, reaching the latter city about
December 20th. He is a native of Germany, born
in the village of Heersum, Province of Hanover,
February 8th, 1835. He was trained in boyhood
and youth for mercantile pursuits, but came to
Texas for the purpose of f aiming, which he en-
gaged in soon after his arrival and continued to fol-
low until 1859. He then accepted a position as a
clerk in a store in New Braunfels and remained an
employee in the establishment until the close of the
late war. In 1865 he received the appointment of
District Clerk and held the position until 1866. He
then engaged in merchandising on his own account
until 1870. In February of that year he entered
the County Clerk's office as Deputy Clerk of Comal
County and held the position until 1874. He was
then elected District and County Clerk and served
in that capacity ten years. In 1884 he was chosen
County Judge and served the people in a most ac
ceptable manner for two terms. He then, until
1889, engaged in the real estate business in New
Braunfels, when he established the present Comal
Lumber Company which he still owns and conducts.
During the discharge of his duties as County Judge
of Comal County, the Guadalupe bridge, one of the
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
473
finest highway bridges ia Southwest'ern Texas, was
built. The sale of the county's public school lands
was also inaugurated at the price of $5.00 per acre,
which sales have accumulated a school fund of about
$80,000.00 to date (1895). Judge Fischer has at
various times served on the Board of City Aldermen
and as School Trustee of the city. He married,
in 1865, Miss Mary Conring, a daughter of Dr. H.
Conring. They have eight children, seven of whom
are living. The names of these children are: Alex,
Carl (deceased), Hilmar, Hermina, Emil, Freda and
Erick.
Judge Fischer is highly esteemed for his broad
citizenship and his many excellent traits of char-
acter. He has ever been an effective worker
for the advancement of his city, county and State,
and has taken an active part in all movements in
that direction.
AUGUST KEONNECKE,
FREDERICKSBURG,
One of the first settlers of Gillespie County, was
born in Prussia, March 23, 1832, and came to
Texas in 1881. Landing at Indianola in December
of that year, be proceeded thence to San Antonio,
and from that place to Gillespie County, where he
pre-empted one hundred and sixty acres of land on
Cane creek, twelve miles northeast of Fredericks-
burg, in what is now the Keonnecke settlement.
To this he afterwards added until, he owned a
arm of two thousand acres, which he has appor-
tioned to his children. He married, in 1855, Miss
Charlotte Beams, daughter of Christian Beams, a
pioneer of 1853, who lived, during the later years
of his life, at Palo Alto. Mr. and Mrs. Keonnecke
have five children: Gaustav, Hermann, William,
Annie, and Otto. Annie married C. F. Lucken-
bach, of Fredericksburg ; Gustay married Miss
Albertine Kramer ; Hermann married Miss Emma
Hebenicht; and William married Miss Bertha
Hebenicht.
Mr. Keonnecke has served as Justice of the Peace
and County Commissioner of his county, and has
been an active and effective worker for the upbuild-
ing of his section of the State. His father, Fred-
erick Keonnecke (a weaver and owner of woolen
mills in Germany), and an uncle, Charles Keon-
necke, came to Texas in 1848, and were followed
in 1853 by William Keonnecke, another uncle of
the subject of this notice.
Frederick died of yellow fever at Indianola,
while there to meet his brother William, whose
arrival he expected in the country. Charles has
retired from active pursuits and lives in Fredericks-
burg.
William located in the Keonnecke settlement on
Cane creek, where he established a farm adjoining
that of his nephew, August Keonnecke, and resided
until the time of his death, which occurred June 9,
1894, in the seventy-third year of his age.
SIMON WIESS,
BEAUMONT.
The poetic fancy of the Greeks was not slow to
note the great dissimilarities that mark the desti-
nies of men ushered into being amid the same
environments — destinies, the general outlines and
ultimate ends of which seem to be beyond their
control — and they wove into the song and drama
and theology of those ancient days the idea of three
silent sisters, the Fates, sitting in the dark weaving
constantly at their looms the destinies of gods and
men. It was a beautiful conceit. The mind's- eye,
which needs no lamp to aid its vision, can almost
see the shutters flying back and forth, back and
474
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
forth, workingthreads, dark and bright, into the warp
and woof, controlled by an impulse flowing from
the unknowable center of the unknown. The same
idea has, in later times, found expression in the
-deeply pious predestinarianism of Calvinism, the
coldly callous indifference of fatalism, such popu-
lar expressions as " Man proposes and God dis-
poses," and the lines "There is a destiny that
shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may," and
in a thousand other mental conceptions and forms
of speech. To what extent each life is pre-ordered
and the limits within which free-agency operates,
we know not. We know, however, that the serf of
Kussia, until a few generations back, was born into
conditions that he could never hope to alter, and
that fixed, from its beginning, the general course
and tenor of his life; that every man, however
brilliant his inherited talents, however great the
wealth that descends to him, however exalted the
station into which he is introduced by the fact of
birth, however free he may imagine himself to be
to do as he pleases, is yet surrounded by limita.
tions that (although as invisible as the air
or thought itself) are, yet, as strong as forged
and tempered steel and. that he can by no possibil-
ity break through. The efforts of the bird that
beats its feeble wings against the bars of its cage
are not more futile. Two boys are playing upon
the village green. One will till the soil where his
eyes first beheld the light and, passing quietly
through the scenes of youth and manhood, descend
through an uneventful old age to his place in the
village church-yard where his dust and bones will
mingle with those of his fore-fathers of many
generations. The other will pass through many
strange scenes and thrilling experiences, perhaps,
by flood and field, and find his home and final life-
work and final resting-place, in a land of which he
has, as yet, not so much as heard the name.
Mrs. Hemans, in her poem "The Graves of a
Household," .thus beautifully expresses the
thought: —
They grew in beauty side by side,
They filled one home with glee,
Their graves are severed far and wide,
By mount, and stream and sea.
The same fond mother bent at night
O'er each fair sleeping brow,
She had each folded flower in sight —
Where are those dreamers now !
One, midst the forest of the West,
By a dark stream is laid,
The Indian knows his place of rest,
Far in the cedar-shade.
The sea, ttie blue lone sea hath one,
He lies where pearls lie deep;
He was the loved of all, yet none
O'er his low bed may weep.
One sleeps where Southern vines are dreat
Above the noble slain ;
He wrapt his colours round his breast
On a blood-red field of Spain.
And one, o'er her the myrtle showers
Its leaves by soft winds fanned;
She faded 'midst Italian flowers,
The last of that bright band.
And parted thus, they rest who played
Beneath the same green tree;
Whose voices mingled as they prayed
Around one parent knee.
The truth is that no man can tell what the future
has in store for him — what pleasures, what heart-
aches, what successes, what reverses, what triumphs,
what disasters, or how he shall fare him battling
amid the thousand and one cross-currents of cir-
cumstance. But of one thing there is a certainty
and that is, that the man who makes the voyage of
a long life, meets and overcomes its difficulties,
keeps heart, mind and hands undefiled and achieves
honorable success, has earned a patent of nobility
that belongs to him of divine right and that entitles
him to the confidence and esteem of his fellow-men
while living and his memory to preservation from
oblivion to which the undiscriminating hand of time
seeks to consign all transitory things.
In the early days of the present century there
lived in the little town of Lublin, Poland, a sturdy
lad, who, after years spent in travel upon three
continents, was to make his home in Texas, and
here exercise a wide and beneficent influence and
leave his impress upon the communities in which he
lived. We refer to the late lamented Simon Wiess,.
Sr., of Wiess' Bluff, Jasper County, Texas.
Mr. Wiess was born at Lublin, Poland, January
1, 1800, and remained there until sixteen years of
age when he started out in the world to try his
fortunes. The limits of this notice will not permit
a detailed account of his various adventures or
commercial experiences, but the following facts^
taken from his Masonic chart, will give some idea
of the extent of his travels and the high character
he acquired in early life and ever afterwards main-
tained. He was a Royal Arch Mason at Constanti-
nople, April 2, 1825, and went to Asia Minor th&
same year, where he held a prominent position
in the Masonic circles. He visited Mt. Leb-
anon Lodge, Boston, Mass., February 22, 1826^
which is the first we hear of him in the United
SIMON WIESS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
475
States. August 17th, 1828, he was in San Domingo
aild there participated with the Masonic fraternity.
He also visited Albion Lodge No. 333, at Barbadocs,
West Indies, and received the degree of Past
Master. On the ninth of May, 1829, he visited
Amity Lodge No. 277, at , on the registry of
the Right Worshipful G. L., of Ireland. May 11th,
1829, he visited Integrity Lodge, No. 259, at ,
and there received Mark Master degree; June 2,
1829, visited Union Lodge No. 462, at Georgetown,
Demerara, and we find that in 1840, he visited Gal-
veston and participated with Harmony Lodge, No.
6. In 1847, he met with DeWitt Clinton Lodge
No. 129, in Jasper County, Texas. Two years
later, April 17th, 1849, he met with the Woodville,
Texas, Lodge. There are few countries in Europe
that he did not visit. He lived at various times in
Turkey, Asia Minor, the West Indies, Central and
South America, and Mexico. He also traveled exten-
sively through the United States and lived for a time
in Louisiana before making his home in Texas.. He
could read, write and speak fluently seven languages.
In his young days before coming to America he
owned several sailing vessels and engaged in the
trade being carried on between New England and
the West Indies. In 1836 he was Deputy Collector
of Customs for the Republic of Texas at Camp
Sabine (now Sabine town) near the border-line be-
tween Texas and Louisiana. It was the military
post of the United States at that time. Gen. Gaines
was stationed there in command of four thousand
troops and, during the war for Texas Independence,
it was believed that he and Gen. Sam Houston
entered into an agreement under which the latter
was to retreat in a northeasterly direction before
the Mexican army, until it followed him across the
disputed boundary line between Texas and the
United States and then Gaines was to turn out with
his regulars, attack Santa Anna and follow him, if
necessary, to the Rio Grande and into Mexico. If
any such agreement was entered into, subsequent
events rendered the carrying out of its terms un-
necessary. The three divisions of the Mexican
army became separated and, marching through a
country incapable of supporting such a large
number of men, were worn down by days of
marching over roads that were almost impassable,
and thoroughly dispirited before the final blow of
the revolution was struck. Houston took advan-
tage of this combination of circumstances, joined
battle with Santa Anna at San Jacinto and, with
the unaided strength of the Texian arms, won one
of the most glorious and decisive victories recorded
in the annals of war — an achievement that justly
immortalized his name. Mr. Wiess was acquainted
with Gen. Houston and the other heroes, orators
and statesmen of the Republic, when in the prime
and zenith of their fame.
In January, 1836, he was united in marriage to
Miss Margaret Slurrock, at Natchitoches, La.
She was a daughter of Wm. and Ann Sturroek,
nee Miss Ann Swan, whose mother's maiden name
was Miss Agnes Kerr, all of Scottish lineage. The
Sturroek family came to America about 1830 and
settled on the Hudson, remained there about two
years and then went to New Orleans, from which
place they moved to Natciiitoches, La. In 1836
Mr. and Mrs. Wiess moved to Nacogdoches where
he engaged in merchandising, a part of the time
occupying the historic stone fort situated in that
place. In 1838 he left Nacogdoches with his
family and household effects aboard a keel-boat
loaded with the first cotton ever transported down
that stream to Sabine Pass, and disembarked at
Beaumont where, and at Grigsby's Bluff, he mer-
chandised until 1840, and then moved to Wiess'
Bluff, in Jasper County, where he remained until
his death, which occurred August 13, 1868. While
living at Wiess' Bluff he was also engaged in mer-
chandising, did a large receiving and forwarding
business, handling moat of the cotton raised in the
section, and was interested in steamboating on the
.Neches river. He left six children: Pauline,, who
married Abel Coffin (deceased), she is still liv-
ing at their old home in Jasper County ; Napo-
leon, deceased and buried at Wiess' Bluff ; Mark,
William and Valentine, prominent mill-men largely
interested in the Reliance Lumber Company, of
Beaumont ; and Massena, the youngest, who lives
at Round Rock in Williamson County.
In all his dealings with his fellow-men, whether
as a traveler or trader in the Orient, an owner of
vessels plying the pirate-infested waters of the
Spanish Main — on the steppes of Russia, in the
Indies, in Central and South America, in his
counting-room, ia Southern Texas — everywhere
and always, he manifested a just, generous and
manly spirit.
A favorite quotation of his was the following lines
of Philip Massinger : —
" Briefly thus, then
Since I must speak for all ; your tyranny
' Drew us from our obedience. Happy those times
When lords were styled fathers of families,
And not imperious masters! when they numbered
Their servants almost equal with their sons,
Or one degree beneath them! when their labors
Were cherished and rewarded, and a period
Set to their sufEerings; when they did not press
Their duties or their wills beyond their power
And strength of their performance, all things ordered
476
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEES OF TEXAS.
With such decorum as wise law-makers,
From each well governed private house derived
The perfect model of a commonwealth.
Humanity then lodged in the hearts of men,
And thankful masters carefully provided
For creatures wanting reason. The noble horse,
That, in his fiery youth, from his wide nostrils
Neighed courage to his rider, and brake through
Groves of opposed pikes, bearing his lord
Safe to triumphant victory; old or wounded.
Was set at liberty, and freed from service.
The Athenian mules, that from the quarry drew
Marble, hewed for the temples of the gods.
The great work ended, were dismissed, and fed
At the public cost; nay, faithful dogs have found
Their sepulchers ; but man to man more cruel.
Appoints no end to the sufferings of his slave."
His was the true patriot's heart. He had a deep
and intense love for the United States and free
institutions. He hated tyranny, oppression and
injustice in any form. He liberally rewarded those
who served him. He was generous and true to his
friends. His charity knew no fainting. He pos-
sessed none of that greedy and glutinous spirit that
enables its possessor to fare sumptuously and with
added zest unaffected by the starvation and the wails
of the distressed which are bourne to him upon every
breeze. He subordinated his desire for financial
independence to the dictates of honor. He was
true to every obligation as employer, citizen, hus-
band, father and friend, and left behind him an un-
tarnished name of which his descendants may feel
justly proud. He died full of years, loved by many,
respected by all. He sleeps with his fathers, a
sleep that is the reward of a well-spent life. Peace
to his ashes, and honor to the memory of his use-
fulness, kindliness and worth.
Mrs. Wiess, for so many years his beloved
counsellor, companion and helpmate, who cheered
and sustained him in many an hour of trial and
diflSculty, a truly noble womani died at Wiess'
Bluff, May 17, 1881. The following obituary,
written by E. L. Armstrong, of Irene, Hill County,
Texas, is a fitting testimonial to her many excel-
lencies of character.
" Wiess — Died at Wiess' Bluff, Jasper County,
Texas, May 17th, 1881, Mrs. Margaret Wiess.
She was born in Scotland, near Dundee, June 12,
1814. Was married to Simon Wiess at Nachi-
toches, La., January 6th, 1836, with whom she
lived happily until his death, which occurred in
August, 1868.
" She came to Texas during the struggle for in-
dependence, and was intimately acquainted with
Gen. Sam Houston, Rusk and other noted men of
the day.
"Forty-one years ago, she, with her husband,
settled at Wiess' Bluff, where she lived until re-
moved by ' relentless death.'
"She was the mother of six children, five of
whom still live ; the eldest died some years ago.
" She was a woman of extraordinary endow-
ments, possessing all the rare excellencies that
combine to make the true wife, the devoted mother
and a successful keeper of home and the affairs of
home.
" She was fully equal to the emergencies of life.
" As a mother she was the embodiment of kind-
ness, guiding her children by the law of love ; their
success in life is attributable to the care and culture
imparted at home.
" As a wife it was her chief joy to make her
husband happy — to this end she lent her energies
without stint, and her success was wonderful.
" As a friend she was true, devoted and obliging.
" She was truly benevolent to the poor and
needy — never turning them away empty-handed.
" Her great heart was touched when suffering
befell her kind, often giving to those that were
better able to help themselves.
" She was reared a Presbyterian, but never united
with the Church, not being situated so that she
could do so.
" She was a woman of prayer and loved her Bible.
" I met her twenty-eight years ago and our ac-
quaintance matured into mutual and abiding friend-
ship ; having speht many days and hours under her
hospitable roof.
" Last December I saw her for the last time on
earth — worn and emaciated by age and disease.
" She feared not the approach of death.
" At her request I read for and prayed with her,
and conversed with her in regard to the approach-
ing end ; she had no fears, but trusted in the atoning
blood.
" We are informed by her sons that her end was
peace.
" We are to hear no more the hearty welcome to
her home, nor note the many acts of kindness per-
formed to make the weary itinerant comfortable
and happy. But we will remember her through all
the days of our pilgrimage.
"We extend to her children our heartfelt sym-
pathy and invoke the blessings of heaven upon each
one of them.
" May they also be ready."
MRS. SIMON WIESS
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
477
EMIL KARGER,
COMFORT,
Was born January 1, 1851, in the kingdom of
Prussia, Germany, and came to this country with
his parents, who settled at Comfort and pursued
farming, to which calling he was reared. His
father, John Karger, is mentioned elsewhere in this
book, in the notice of Charles Karger. Mr. Karger
was married May 14th, 1876, to Miss Sarah Wille,
a daughter of Herman Wille, of Comfort, at which
place she was born January 16, 1859. Mr. Wille
died in 1877 at forty-one years of age. Mr.
and Mrs. Karger have seven children, viz. :
Hermann, Louise, Lena, Edward, Gustav, Mary
and Amelia.
Mr. Karger is a thorough business man, a suc-
cessful farmer, and is esteemed throughout his com-
munity for his excellent traits of character. He is
trustee of his school district, one of the three sur-
viving charter members of the Comfort Liedertafel,
the vocal musical organization of that town, and has
been for many years its leader.
He owns a well improved farm of 260 acres at
Comfort.
FRANZ SCHAEFER,
ANHALT,
A wealthy farmer and esteemed citizen of Comal
County, came to Texas with his parents in 1845,
when about eight years of age. His mother died
the year of their arrival in New Braunfels. His
father, Franz Schaefer, Sr. , was a cooper by trade,
but followed various occupations in New Braunfels,
Fredericksburg, Llano, and San Antonio, doing
contract work for the government at the latter
place. Mr. Franz Schaefer, Sr., never married
again after his wife's death, remaining true to her
memory until the time of his death, which occurred
in November, 1868, in San Antonio. He bought
160 acres of land near Anhalt before the war
between the States, and from time to time added
thereto until he now owned about 3,000 acres.
Franz Schaefer was the only child born to his
parents. He learned stone-cutting at Cincinnati,
Ohio, and worked at his trade in Texas until the
war broke out, and then enlisted in the Confed-
erate army, in which he served in Capt. Kemp-
mann's Company until the close of hostilities.
Since the war he has been engaged in farming on
the family estate at Anhalt. Mr. Schaefer mar-
ried in May, 1867, Miss Matilda Kaubert, daughter
of Lawrence Kaubert, of San Antonio. His farm is
highly improved, and consists of about 2,100 acres.
WILLIAM J. MOORE,
MYERS,
A large planter of Burleson County, Texas, was
born in Perry County, Ala., in August, 1845.
Son of Alfred and Martha (Hanna) Moore who
were natives of Spartanburg District, S. C,
and early immigrants to Alabama, where they
lived many years, the father dying there in 1854,
and the mother in 1863. One uncle of the subject
of this sketch, Thomas Moore, commanded a regi-
ment of troops at Charleston, S. C, in the
War of 1812 and another, A. B. Moore, was twice
478
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Governor of Alabama. His people, however,
were but little in public life, being mostly plant-
ers.
William J. was reared in Perrj' County, Ala. ;
there he enlisted in the Confederate army at the
age of sixteen, at the opening of the late war, join-
ing a company of cadets which became a part of the
Seventh Alabama Cavalry, with which he served
throughout the period of hostilities. During six-
teen or eighteen months of his service he was under
the celebrated cavalry commander. Gen. Forrest, and
took part in most of the operations in which Forrest
was concerned, in Western Kentucky, Middle Ten-
nessee,'Northern Alabama and Mississippi. He took
part in the battles at Columbia, Spring Hill, Frank-
lin, Nashville, Paris Landing, Johnstown, Pittsburg
Landing and many minor engagements. Served as
a private and was never captured or wounded.
Laid down his arms at Gainesville, Ala., at the close
of hostilities.
In March, 1866, Mr. Moore came to Texas and
settled in Brazos County, where he leased the Allen
farm, which he cultivated for two years. The un-
settled condition of affairs led him to sell
out at the end of that time and return
to Alabama, where he remained ;for four
years, when he came again to Texas, settling
this time in Burleson County. For twelve or four-
teen years he was engaged, alternately, in farming
and merchandising, when, in 1885, he purchased a
large body of Brazos bottom-land and embarked
extensively in cotton planting, which he has followed
steadily and successfully since. He owns 2,100
acres, 1,500 acres of which are in cultivation. He
raises from 600 to 700 bales of cotton annually,
besides considerable corn and other farm products;
is one of the largest planters in Burleson County
and has made every dollar he has within the past
fifteen years.
Has never married and has but few relatives, his
only sister, Mrs. James Garrity, of Corsicana, hav-
ing died in February, 1893, childless.
ROSWELL SKINNER,
LAWIPASSA COUNTY.
The action of the Texas Veterans' Association
making priority of residence and the performance
of some sort of civil or military service coaditions
of membership in their order, has given rise to an
opinion, more or less general, that only those who
meet these conditions are entitled to be called
pioneers and to share in the honors generally ac-
corded those so designated. But this is erroneous.
The conditions imposed by the association are per-
fectly proper so far as the objects of the association
are concerned, but, viewing the matter in a broader
light, there is a historical propriety in making the
terra "Pioneers" sufficiently comprehensive to
include those who arrived in the country during the
eight or ten years following annexation, many of
whom performed no public service of a civil or
military character, but were, nevertheless, impor-
tant factors in the settlement and development of
the communities where they located. The fact is
there were hundreds of men living in the older
States who took great interest in the struggle of the
colonists, lending material aid in numberless in-
stances, who intended all along to finally make their
homes in Texas, but who, for various reasons, did
not take up their abode here uniil the struggles
with Mexico, and, in a measure, those with the In-
dians, were substantially over. These were the
real builders of the commonwealth ; men of indus-
trious habits, possessing a thorough knowledge of
the arts of civilization, believers in the supremacy
of the law, and the maintenance of order and good
government ; lovers of their homes and advocates
of all the influences tending to elevate, improve and
adorn society.
Of this number is the subject of this sketch.
Eoswell Skinner was born in Nelson County, Va.,
February 1st, 1807. His father was Bird Skinner'
and his mother bore the maiden name of Nancy
Austin, both of whom were Virginians by birth.
The father died in his native State, after which the
widowed mother moved with her family to Ken-
tucky about 1814 or 1815, and settled in what
was then Washington, now Marion County. In
that county the boyhood and youth of the
subject of this article was passed. He grew
up on the farm, where he had but meager
educational advantages (none to speak of) but
received good moral training, and reached man-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
479
bood well prepared for the discharge of its
duties. Soon after attaining his majority, he
married a neighbor girl, Theodosia Dever, who
had been born in Virginia and taken to Ken-
tucky by her parents, John and Winnie Dever,
while she was still young. Settling on a small farm
in Marion County, Mr. Skinner devoted the next
twenty years of his life to making a home for himself
and those dependent upon him, and succeeded in
paying for and putting under cultivation a farm of
over 200 acres, but the steady advance of land
values in that State made the task of providing for
his children, seven in number, as he wished them
provided for, a very difficult one, and as the easiest
solution of the problem, he decided to move to
Texas, where land was cheaper, and conditions, in
general, more favorable. With his family, consist-
ing of his wife and five children, two daughters
having married, one of whom was deceased and the
other gone to make her home in Indiana, he left
Louisville the 2.'ith -of November, 1849, taking the
river route to New Orleans. From New Orleans he
went by sail vessel to Galveston, crossed the bay at
that point and reached the town of Liberty, his des-
tination, the 15th of December following. He had
friends residing at Liberty and partly through their
influence, anfl partly because he liked that section,
he settled there, buying a tract of land and open-
ing a farm four miles from the county seat. Mr.
Skinner was a resident of Liberty County for forty-
six years, only recently leaving there to make his
home in Lampasas County. During his long resi-
dence in old Liberty, he was honorably connected
with the county's history as an industrious, law-
abiding citizen, but was very little in public life.
He always felt that the deficiency of his education
disqualified him for holding public office and there-
fore persistently refused to allow his name to be
used in that connection, but was once induced to
accept the office of Treasurer of, Liberty County,
which he held for two years, resigning it at the end
of that time. His chief pursuits were those of
agriculture in which he met with a fair degree of
success. He was exempt, by reason of age, from
military duty during the late war, but furnished
three sons to the Confederate service and gave the
cause his active sympathy and support at home.
Mr. Skinner was a Whig in former years, having
cast his first vote for President for William
Henry Harrison in the famous " log cabin and hard
cider" campaign of 1840. He has been a member
of the Methodist Church for over sixty years and
has actively interested himself in all kinds of Church
work. His habits have been unexceptionable and
he is, perhaps, to day one of the best preserved men
of his age in the State. He will be ninety his next
birthday, yet his mind is clear and not only is his
memory good, but his reasoning is sound, and his
conversation, in general, spirited and entertaining,
full of interesting reminiscences and apposite allu-
sions, and, until he was injured by a fall from his
horse some ten or twelve years ago, he could get
around as well as men of half his age. Asked to
what he attributed his longevity and well-preserved
condition, he said, first to the sound constitution
which he inherited, and second to correct habits of
life. He never indulged in the ruinous pastimes of
youth and therefore reached and has enjoyed man-
hood in health.
He was never intoxicated but once, that being
when he was a boy, and, though he used tobacco
for nearly thirty years, he quit it when he found it
was injuring his health. In all the relations of life
he has endeavored to live along the lines of fair-
ness, sobriety and moral rectitude, seeking to do
what was right from a sense of justice and taking
every act and every motive before the tribunal of
conscience. He has not been one to cavil or com-
plain, but has accepted the good things of life with
gratitude and has borne its ills with resignation.
Petty bickerings and small quarrels he has known
nothing of, having always been self-respecting and
respected by others. The domestic virtues pre-
ponderate in him and his home circle before it was
broken up by death, and the marriage of his
children was charming and pleasant.
Mr. Skinner lost his wife in March, 1861, her
death occurring at the old homestead in Liberty
County. Of his three sons and four daughter, but
three are living, though all. became grown and were
married. The eldest, a daughter, Eliza Jane, was
married to Buford Brown and died many years ago
in Indiana. The eldest son, James D. Skinner, is
a prominent citizen of Galveston. The next, a
daughter, Cynthia Ann, was married to Anthony
Drane and died in Marion County, Ky., a short time
after her marriage. William P. Skinner, the
second son, died at Liberty, Texas, in 1864, from
disease contracted in the Confederate army. Julia
Ann was married to Aguilla J. Beard and died at
Liberty, Texas, in 1895. John F. Skinner, the
youngest son, is a citizen of Lampasas, and Sarah
A., the youngest daughter, is the wife of Wilson R.
Swinney and resides in Lampasas County. Mr.
Skinner has a large number of grandchildren and
great-grandchildren, his youngest son being nearly
sixty years old. It is estimated that his descend-
ants number between eighty and one hundred. All,
so far as they have assumed the duties of life, are
filling respectable places in society.
480
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
John F. Skinner, youngest son of Roswell and
Theodosia Skinner, was born In Marion County, Ky.,
February 16th, 1839; enlisted for six months in
Capt. James Wrigley's Company, Confederate
Slates service, in 1861 ; served the term of his en-
listment on Galveston Island, and then entered
Waul's Legion for three years or during the war;
served in that command until the fall of Vicksburg,
when he was paroled, returned to Texas, and
served again on Galveston Island and coast country
until the close of hostilities. After the war he en-
gaged in the mercantile business at Liberty, Texas,
which he followed at that place until 1883, when h©
moved to Lampasas, where he had previously be-
come interested in the stock business, and which
has since been his home. He is president of the
First National Bank of Lampasas and has ranching
interests in Lampasas County. November 7ih,
1871, at Liberty, Texas, Mr. Skinner married Miss
Nannie Hardin, a native of that place and a daugh-
ter of Frank Hardin. The issue of this union has
been five children: Helen, now Mrs. J. F. White,
John F., Jr., Christie O'Brien, Wickliffe and
Ruth.
B. E. HURLBUT,
BROWNWOOD.
B. E. Hurlbut, son of Eli D. and Emma E.
riurlbut, was born in Courtland County, N. Y.,
August 22, 1868, and was reared at Windsor,
Henry County, Miss., where his parents settled in
1864. He began his mercantile career in the hard-
ware house of Huey & Philip, of Dallas, Texas,
entering the employ of the firm at the age of
eighteen. Though the youngest employee of the
firm he soon developed a capacity for business and
earnest work that brought him continued and rapid
promotion, and won for him the position of con-
fidential clerk and buyer before he was twenty-one
years old. His health becoming impaired from
overwork, he resigned his position with Huey &
High to accept one with F. W. Carruthers of Cor-
sicana, at the same time receiving a substantial
increase in salary. In 1884 he formed a partner-
ship with Frank J. Semple under the firm name of
Hubert & Semple, and opened a hardware business
at Lampasas. The firm carried on a large and
profitable trade at that place as long as it continued
the western terminus of the Gulf, Colorado &
Santa Fe Railway. In 1888, after the road
extended Wcit, the business was moved to Brown-
wood where it has since continued, the partnership
terminating in 1894, at which time the present name,
the Hurlbut Hardware Company, was adopted.
Mr. Semple was never actively connected with the
management of the business, but received good
returns — four dollars for one — on the amount he
had invested in it. Mr. Hurlbut has, since the
reorganization, owned ninety per cent of the busi-
ness, and has at all times had full control of it.
This, as indicated by the name, was originally con-
fined to hardware but has grown to embrace
all kinds of merchandise except groceries, and
has two factories, one for making saddles and
harness, and the other for tin and sheet metal
goods. The Hurlbut Hardware Company occu-
pies commodious quarters in the center of busi-
ness at Brownwood, owning a two-story stone
block fronting a hundred feet on one of the main
thoroughfares and extending a hundred and twenty
feet to the rear, being divided into compartments,
each of which is especially fitted up for some
branch of business. A stock ranging from $85,-
000 to $90,000 is carried and an annual business of
$225,000 is done. The employees number from
twenty to twenty-seven, three traveling salesmen
being included in the list, and a territory embrac-
ing twenty-six counties is drawn on for trade. Mr.
Hurlbut gives this business his strict personal at-
tention, and while a liberal supporter of all public
enterprises and interested in everything affecting
the public good, he has never taken part in politics
nor suffered himself to be drawn'^^^into any schemes
of a speculative nature. He was the first president
of the Brownwood Board of Trade and has served
as trustee of the city schools. His establishment
has of itself helped to strengthen the commercial
credit of Brownwood in a marked degree besides
adding greatly to the taxable wealth of Brown
County.
Mr. Hurlbut has attained noteworthy success and
the secret of it lies near the surface. It is to be
found in his natural aptitude for business,^ in the
'''TBoihsr.EMyc.iTT
.EoKlQJIHLffiaiT.
J. S. CROSS.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
481
excellent business training which he enjoyed and
the adherence to practical methods in the conduct
of his business. His treatment of his employees as
friends and associates is especially worthy of men-
tion, since in this way he has helped to lay the
foundation of independent careers, and by selling
to them at different times a small interest in his
business has enlisted their best efforts in building
it up. He worked for others nearly eight years
himself during which tim6 in recognition of his
services he received each year an increase in wages
without asking it, of which fact he is prouder than
anything he has accomplished since he has been
engaged in business for himself.
On September 23, 3884, Mr. Hurlbut married
Miss Licia H. Brown, daughter of James S. and
Martha Brown, and a native of Owen County, Ky.,
Mr. and Mrs. Hurlbut having first met at Lampasas
where she was vibiting friends and relatives. The
issue of this union has been three sons and two
daughters. Mr. Hurlbut's parents reside in Brown-
wood and he has a sister, Mrs. W. W. Glover,
living in Sedalia, Mo., who, with those just men-
tioned, constitute all of his immediate relatives.
WILLIAM G. HUNT,
COLUMBUS.
Capt. William Gr. Hunt was born in Lunengburg
County, Va., September 5th, 1813, and came to
Texas in 1831. In those early pioneer days Indians
were often troublesome and he had numerous and
exciting brushes with the savages. Capt. Hunt
fought through the War of Texas Independence
from its inception to its close. He was a member
of the Spartan band that fired the first shots of the
revolution at Gonzales, the Texian Lexington, and
was one of the brave men who stepped forward at
San Antonio, when the immortal Ben Milam strode
to the center of the camp, waved liis hat, gave a
ringing huzza and shouted: " Who will follow old
Ben Milam into San Antonio? " and took part in the
assault and capture of that place.
Capt. Hunt served in Company C, Thirteenth
Texas Infantry, during the war between the States,
and rose to the rank of Captain in the Confederate
service. He is a prosperous farmer and now in his
old age is enjoying that ease which is the reward
of a well-spent life, in his comfortable home in the
town of Columbus. Such old heroes are the glory
and boast of Texas.
JOHN S. CROSS,
BROWNSVILLE.
There are few persons now living whose names
are more familiar and who have been more closely
identified with the history and development of
Southwest Texas than the subject of this memoir,
and nearly half a century has passed since he
linked his name with the history and destinies of
the Lone Star Slate. Mr. Cross was born in South
Carolina, August 16th, 1816.
His father, John Cross, was also a native of the
" Old Palmetto State " and was there reared. He
was by occupation a successful planter and was an
31
astute man of business. He married Miss Mar-
garet Joiner and they reared a family of seven
children. John S. Cross, the subject of this sketch,
was the third born of this family. He received
such education as the meager facilities of his State
and county afforded in those early days, grew up
on his father's plantation and finally went to Mis-
sissippi, where he took a position as overseer on a
large cotton plantation.
He remained in Mississippi until the year 1848,
and then came to Texas by way of New Orleans,.
482
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
landing at Galveston, which was then an unpreten-
tious little seaport town. He remained at Gal-
veston but a short time and, being restless and
anxious to accomplish something, started north on
a prospecting tour, and soon located about twenty
miles north of Galveston, in Brazoria County,
where he remained for about two years and then
sold his interests and, in about 1850, moved to
Brownsville.
The thrilling experiences of this old-time veteran,
with the redman and the marauding Mexican who
at once, and for years preyed upon and " ran off "
his stock, besides committing numerous other
depredations, would make most interesting reading.
It is safe to say that Mr. Cross has seen and ex-
perienced as much of the stern reality of border
life, as any other living Texian. He continued his
stock operations on the lower Rio Grande until
about the year 1859, when the unsettled condition
of affairs along the Mexican border, and finally the
breaking out of the great war between the States,
rendered the business so hazardous that he with-
drew from it and located with his family at
Matamoros, Mexico, and engaged in merchandising
on a modest scale. This was in the year 1862.
While the war was" in progress in the United States,
Matamoros was lively and business was good. Mr.
Cross therefore made money rapidly, and by his
straightforward business methods extended his
trade until his establishment became one of the
leading mercantile houses in the city. In 1880 Mr.
Cross admitted to partnership his eldest son,
Middleton H. Cross, forming the well-known firm
of J. S. & M. H. Cross, doubtless the strongest
in Eastern Mexico and Southwest Texas. Besides
their large wholesale and retail stores in Mata-
moros, the firm own and operate a bakery that
gives employment to a large number of people. In
1880 the firm opened a branch wholesale store in
Brownsville, Texas, where they carry a large and
complete line of dry goods, notions, etc. The
trade of these establishments extends far into the
interior of Southwest Texas and Mexico, and is an
important factor in the business history of that
section of country. Besides these important enter-
prises, the firm owns large tracts of fine agricultural
and pasture lands, all under fence, and have fine
and most substantial improvements thereon.
Mr. Cross, our subject, now well advanced in
years, while well preserved and in the enjoyment
of good health, is gradually relinquishing the cares
of business, and devotes his time chiefly to his ranch
interests near Brownsfield, while the entire manage-
me^t of their stores and bakery is intrusted to the
care of the junior member of the firm, Middleton
H. Cross, Esq. They each own and live in the
most complete, attractive and spacious homes in
the city of Matamoros. Mr. Cross is a typical old-
time Texian, of plain, unassuming and easy man-
ners and genuine Southern hospitality.
HENRY M. FIELD,
BROWNSVILLE.
The subject of this brief memoir is a well-known
citizen of Brownsville, Texas, a native of Southwick,
Mass., and was born September 1, 1842. The Fields
of New England and New York, of which family he
is a member, have descended from a long line of
ancient and honored ancestry dating in England as
far back as 1316 to Lord Robertus Field of Hard-
wick, and John Field, a lord of the township of
Cbelsham, Surrey.
Burke's History of the Commoners of England
(1833) gives evidence of the antiquity and promi-
nence of the family. It is said of Dr. Richard
Field that his family was of an ancient origin, early
emigrated to Massachusetts Colony and soon located
at Hartford, Conn. Our subject descends from
this gentleman, who was born in England in 1561
and served as Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth. From
that date down the march of time the name has
been a prominent one upon the pages of English
and American history and is to-day familiar to the
student of the religious, legal, scientific and finan-
cial history of our country. The family has been
established in America for a period covering more
than two hundred years. The American founder
of the family was Zechariah Field, who settled in
Massachusetts not more than a dozen years after
the pilgrims landed at Plymouth and was, himself,
a Puritan. Later, his brother Robert came to the
country. Cyrus W. Field, of New York, the pro-
jector of the great Atlantic cable, is an uncle of our
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
483
subject, Mr. Henry M. Field. His father, Mathew
D. Field, an older brother of Cyrug W. Field, was a
paper manufacturer for many years at Lee, Mass. ;
in 1843 removed to St. Louis, Mo., and for eleven
years resided in the West, where he did heavy con-
tract work upon railroads and constructed several
large suspension bridges, one of which, 1,956 feet
long, spans the Cumberland river at Nashville, Tenn.
He served in the Massachusetts Senate from Ham-
dem for several terms and was prominent in public
affairs wherever he resided.
Stephen J. Field, Justice of the United States
Supreme Court, is an uncle. The family throughout
is noted in legal circles and as financiers and mem-
bers of the Christian clergy.
Henry M. Field came to Brownsville with the
Federal troops in 1865, and upon being mustered
out of service, took up his residence in that
city.
He received his education in Massachusetts, his
native State, and, in 1862, entered a volunteer
regiment, which served in the Army of Virginia,
Army of West Virginia and Army of the James.
He then served as a commissioned officer in a regi-
ment of United States colored troops, which was
sent to Brownsville, after Appomattox, and was a
First Lieutenant and A. A. Engineer when mustered
out in 1866.
He occupied the office of Deputy Collector of
Customs and for several years was County Surveyor
for Cameron County, in both of which positions he
made excellent records. In 1879 he entered busi-
ness in Brownsville, and since that time has not
held any public office.
In 1871 he was the engineer that built the' Rio
Gr.ande Railroad from Brownsville to Point Isabel.
He deals in lumber and hardware, and is a large
buyer of hides, wool, cotton, bones, horns and
pelts of all descriptions, from the ranclieros of the
vicinity, shipping the articles to Eastern markets.
His establishment occupies nearly a block on
Eleventh street, between Jackson and Van Buren.
A disastrous fire occurred in 1890, destroying nearly
all of the buildings and their valuable contents.
The account books were burned, in spite of every
effort to save them, and Mr. Field was therefore
unable to fix his exact loss, and had infinite diffi-
culty in adjusting the multitude of o^utstanding ac-
counts. He rebuilt immediately on the same site,
taking the precaution to include a fire-proof vault in
his office arrangements.
Among other branches of business, Mr. Field was
associated at the time of the fire, with a skillful
taxidermist and enthusiastic naturalist, who had
collected over eight hundred species of birds, and a
large number of mammals and rodents pertaining to
the Brownsville section. This valuable collection
was fortunately unharmed.
About one mile from the city there is a large tract
of land owned by Mr. Field. A portion of the 2,685
acres has been laid out in lots and streets, and is
known as Field's Addition. Trees have been planted
on each side of the streets, and when Brownsville
rises from her long sleep and begins to stretch her-
self, there will be some splendid building lots all
ready, where handsome dwellings may be erected
on green lawns surrounded by beautiful shade trees.
The balance of the tract is partly under cultivation,
and partly pasture lands. A system of irrigation is
provided, which furnishes water for some of the
land, by means of a dam across the resaca (old
river bed) running through the place. Mr. Field
has taken the proper course to secure large crops
with certainty, for all the soil requires to make it
yield abundantly is a supply of water at the proper
time.
WILLIAM G. HUGHES,
HASTINGS,
Was born in London, England, May 29, 1859 ;
educated at Marlborough College ; came to Amer-
ica in 1878 and lived in Boston, Mass. (where his
father still resides), until the following year when,
owing to failing health, he came South in search of
a more genial climate. Visiting the picturesque
and salubrious mountain district of Kendall County,
he was so charmed with the country that he bought
and improved what is now known as the Hughes
Ranch. It is located in a romantic dell, three and
a half miles from Boerne. Among other springs
on the property are mineral springs that have be-
come famous for their medicinal virtues and are
annually attracting large numbers of health seek-
484
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ers. Mr. Hughes has fine herds of Jersey cattle,
half-bred Shetland ponies and Angora goats, and
conducts a dairy, whose output of from three to
four hundred pounds of butter per month is eagerly
sought and sells at the highest market prices. Mr.
Hughes was united in marriage to Miss Lucy
Stephenson at San Antonio, Texas, June 28, 1888.
She is a daughter of Mr. John Stephenson, an
English gentleman, who has been engaged in farm-
ing in Kendall County since 1872. Mr. and Mis.
Hughes are delightful entertainers, genial and cul-
tured, and have a wide circle of friends.
PEYTON W. NOWLIN,
AUSTIN.
One of the best known and most highly esteemed
of the Texas pioneers, is the lamented Peyton Wade
Nowlin, whose name was a synonym of honor
among the statesmen and heroes of former times,
who laid broad and deep the foundations for our
present prosperity, enlightenment and progressive
civilization.
He was born in Logan County, Ky., October
12th, 1802; lived there until sixteen years of age
and then moved with his parents to Missouri, where
he completed his education at Franklin College.
Reaching man's estate, he became a large shipper
of tobacco and successfully engaged in merchan-
dising and farming. October 28th, 1827, he was
united in marriage to Miss Martha M. PuUiam.
Mr. Nowlin came to Texas in 1847, and returned
to Missouri for his family, just prior to the per-
manent location of the State capitol at Austin, in
1848. He erected the first house built in the town
after Austin was decided upon as the seat of the
Government, and in this house his eldest daughter
(Mrs. Lucy A. Dancy) now resides.
Mr. Nowlin was elected in 1850 a delegate to
the first railroad convention held in the State ; was
an earnest advocate of the construction of a rail-
way to the Pacific Ocean and, possessed of unusual
breadth and strength of mind, liberal and public-
spirited in his views, he was an active promoter of
every enterprise that promised benefit to the State
of his adoption. He was a member of the Chris-
tian Church and stood high in the Masonic frater-
nity, by which order he was interred with befitting
honors after his death, which occurred at the old
family homestead at Austin, August 31, 1884.
He was a kind husband and father, generous neigh-
bor and friend, a patriot and citizen above re-
proach ; a man who is affectionately remembered
by the few old Texians who knew and still survive
him. His wife died at Austin, March 2, 1877, and
is interred beside him in the city cemetery. She
was a woman of literary tastes, shared her hus-
band's patriotism, and kept her nimble fingers ever
busy to cover the weary Confederate soldiers' feet ;
even a sick Federal was the recipient of her kind-
ness. Eight children were born to them, two sons
and six daughters. Five daughters survive, viz. -.
Lucy A., who married Col. J. W. Dancy; Susan
B., who married Hon. C. H. Randolph; Annie E.,
who married Col. E. M. Lesueur; MoUie, who
married Capt. J. H. Dinkins ; and Addle, who mar-
ried David N. Robinson ; Mattie and Peyton died
unmarried.
COL. J. W. DANCY,
LA GRANGE, TEXAS.
Col. J. W. Dancy, the lineal descendant of
Francis de Dance (a Castillian nobleman, who fled
with the Huguenots from persecution in France to
the freedom of America), was born in Virginia,
Greenville County, Septembers, 1810. His father.
William Dancy, who married Percilla Turner, of
Virginia, moved to Decatur, Ala., when their son,
John Winfleld, was quite small.
Col. Dancy received an excellent education,
studied law, science, language, and everything in
COL. J. W. UANCY
MRS. LUCY DANCY.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
485
his reach, graduating at the University of Ten-
nessee at Nashville. He received his license to
practice law from Judge Catron, of Tennessee,
afterwards Chief Justice of the United States Su-
preme Court. He married Miss Evalina Rhodes,
July, 1835, who lived only one year. Left a wid-
ower so early in life, he was attracted by the
sorrows of Texas to embrace her dangers, landing
at Velasco, December 28, 1836. The rough sea
voyage "made him sick unto despair," says the
Hon. F. R. Lubbock (ex-Governor and State
Treasurer of Texas), who came to this State in
company with Col. Dancy. DeterminedTto iden-
tify his every interest with Texas, he took, within
sixteen days, papers of citizenship (January 13,
1837), under District Judge R. M. Williamson,
also Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of
the Republic of Texas. He followed the practice
of his profession with distinction and marked
financial success at La Grange for many years,
taking a helpful interest in younger members of
the bar, and moved to the front, a recognized
leader. He was elected to the Congress of the
Republic of Texas in 1841 and 1842, there main-
taining the reputation he had previously earned,
as a man of great purity of character and purpose.
Col. Dancy participated in many exciting skir-
mishes with Indians, and received a severe wound
in the shoulder while pursuing the red-skinned
marauders out on the Medina. He served under
Capt. Jack Hays in 1842, in repelling Vasquez's
Mexican invasion.
With a prodigality of love for the beauty and
utility of nature, he immediately purchased a large
tract of land, establishing a plantation and stock
ranch thereon, near La Grange, his residence
overlooking the lovely fern-decorated banks of the
Colorado river. To this garden of Eden he brought
his queenly wife, Lucy Mowlin, of Austin, to
whom he was married, October 26, 1849. At this
place he planted the first hydraulic ram in Texas,
just beneath his magnificent spring, which abun-
dantly irrigated the finest berries, fruits and
flowers ever grown in the State. He was one of
a company to establish the first newspaper in
Fayette County (1850, The Texas Monument),
which he gratuitously edited, for the purpose of
raising funds to erect a monument over the re-
mains of the Mier prisoners and Dawson's men,
brought from Mexico and deposited in a vault on
Monument Bluff, just across the river from La
Grange.
Col. Dancy was one of the trustees who founded
a Military College at Rutersville, the first estab-
lished in Texas. The Galveston News in 1851,
speaking of Col. Dancy, says: " He is the noblest
work of God — a man incapable of a dishonorable
act, and a detester of meanness, a high-toned gen-
tleman, scholar, and critic; he has not a superior
in the State in a knowledge of parliamentary rules,
and makes a good presiding officer. His virtues,
public and private, are of the highest order."
Austin and San Antonio papers of 1853 said of
him: "Senator Dancy is madly in favor of the
Pacific Railway. It must pass through Texas
with a Mississippi terminus at New Orleans. He
would strain every nerve to secure its passage —
is body and soul an internal improvement man.
With strength of statistics, power of argument and
beauty of imagery, he portrayed the vast, almost
incomprehensible advantage of railroads to Texas.
He said ' Railroads are the only key to unlock her
casket of costly gems.' " His ideas of the tele-
graph and railroad were then laughed at and
derided, especially when he said ' ' We will be enabled
to get a dispatch from China the evening before it
was sent." They, however, were planted in good
soil, took root and later placed high on the list of
practical utility, finally being realized by his
children.
Col. Dancy, the "Father of Railroads in
Texas," lived only long enough to see two roads
commenced. He was the director of the first one
(which reached only to AUeyton), when he died,
February 13th, 1866, at La Grange, Texas. His
heart's desire is at last perfected, that road now
runs from New Orleans to San Francisco.
Though possessed of every Christian virtue, and
giving liberally to all denominations, he belonged
to none ; but praised God for a beautiful earth as
his birthright, and a glorious heaven his eternal
inheritance. Having lost a son and daughter quite
young, he left a widow with four girls to raise to
maturity, all ardent members of the Episcopal
Church, viz. : Evalina, who graduated at Carnatz
Institute, New Orleans, and married J. P. Ledbet-
ter, nOw an attorney of Coleman, Texas, possess-
ing the utmost confidence of his clients from all
parts of the United States ; Olivia, who completed
her education at Columbia, Tenn., and married J.
C. Brown, a very prominent and successful lawyer
of La Grange, Texas ; Ella, a girl of rare literary
ability and superior personal attractions, who mar-
ried quite young to Mr. Hall, and now lives in San
Antonio ; and Lucie Winnie, who was summoned by
the Death Angel when just blooming into woman-
hood, and a beloved student, at Columbia, Institute,
Tenn.
Mrs. Lucy Nowlin Dancy was born in Saline
CouDity, Mo., September 16, 1828, and married
486
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
in Austin, Texas, October 25, 1849, remaining all
her liusband's lifetime at Dancy Plantation, just
opposite La Grange. Rt. Kev. Alexander (Jregg,
Episcopal Bishop of Texas, appointed her president
of the first " Parochial Society " of La Grange.
She was elected several times president of the " La
Grange Cemetery Association" (the first one
formed in the State), was one of the organizers of
the Travis Chapter, Daughters of the Republic of
Texas, and has ever since been on the Committee of
Credentials. Mrs. Dancy is possessed of fine ex-
ecutive ability, is widely cultured and accom-
plished and is deservedly one of the most popular
of our noble matrons.
Peyton D. Nowlin, a lawyer by profession and a
brother of Mrs. Dancy, entered the Confederate
army soon after the commencement of the war be-
tween the States ; was captured at the fall of Ar-
kansas Post and was afterwards exchanged, after
which he served under Gen. Joseph E. John-
ston and Hood through the famous Tennessee and
Georgia campaign, taking part in the battles of
Chickamauga and Lookout Mountain and other im-
portant engagements, bearing himself with that
gallantry that characterizes the conduct only of the
bravest of the brave. He also saw hard service in
Virginia, and was severely wounded in the hip in
front of Richmond. At the close of the war he
came home and, having recovered from his wound,
went to Mexico with his sister, Mrs. Randolph,
and, returning, took, and died, of yellow fever at
the City of Tuxpan, May 26, 1866.
CHAS. OHLRICH,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Was born November 24, 1834, in the town of
Greifswald, North Germany ; came to Texas in
1854 with sixty other emigrants from the same
locality, rented a piece of land on Spring Branch
in Comal County ; and married ami purchased
land on the Guadalupe river, in that county, where
he lived six years. He started in 1863 and
taught until 1865 the first school in that locality
and then sold out and commenced life at his present
home in Smithson's Valley.
He started and taught the first school in the
valley in 1865, he building a log school-house on
land situated near his present residence and
owned by him. This modest structure now serves
as a corn-crib.
Mr. Ohlrich taught a private school until the
public school system was inaugurated and then
continued to train the young idea, under the new
system, for several years. He was made Post-
master at Smithson's Valley, in April, 1866, and
has held the position since that time, a period of
twenty-nine years. In 1870 lie was elected Justice
of the Peace and County Commissioner and still
holds the former office. Held the latter office for
about ten years. He engaged for a time in mer-
chandising but sold out his stock and devoted his
attention to agriculture, at which he met with
gratifying success, owing to his thrift, energy and
skill. Some years since he sold the greater part of
his farming interests to his son, retaining a com-
fortable home.
Mr. Ohlrich married in 1859 Miss Louise,
daughter of Joachim Pantermuehl, a pioneer of
Coma] County, further mention of whom is made
in this volume.
Mr. Ohlrich has two living children: Ernest,
born August 26th, 1864, and Clara, born March
16th, 1871. Ernest married Miss Martha, daughter
of Henry Startz, and has two children : a daughter,
Ada, and a son. Otto.
Clara is Mrs. Max Richter, of Kendall County
and has two sons, Arno and Harry.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
487
FELIX VANDERSTUCKEN,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Is one of Fredericksburg's most enterprising and
substantial business men. He came to Texas in
1857 and'located on a rancli in Mason County and
engaged in stock-raising for about seven years. In
1864 he closed out his stock interests and removed
to Fredericksburg and purchased the Fredericks-
burg Flour Mills. He operated these mills until
about 1889, when he renovated the entire outfits
transforming it into a complete roller mill of
seventy-five barrels capacity, the product of which
is the highest grade in quality and finds a ready
domestic market. Mr. Vanderstucken has been
twice married and has seven children. He has
taken an active part in local affairs, both business
and educational ; has served several years as
County Commissioner of Gillespie County ; was one
of the organizers and is now one of the Directors
of the Gillespie County Fair Association, and has
served a number of terms as Trustee of the Fred-
ericksburg Public Schools. A brother of Mr.
Vanderstucken, Frank Vanderstucken, was one of
the original Texas pioneers, coming to the country,
in company with De Castro, when a boy of only
fifteen years of age. He met Castro in Antwerp,
where his father, Frank Vanderstucken, Sr., then
lived, and where Frank Vanderstucken, Jr., was
born.
De Castro saw in the lad the elements of a
successful pioneer, the making of a man of great
enterprise, energy and daring, and, therefore, in-
sisted on bringing him to Texas where those manly
qualities could not fail to find full scope for devel-
opment. On reaching Texas, the spirit of improve-
ment and progress took full possession of the young
pioneer and he promptly engaged in various enter-
prises, such as the building of forts, etc., under
government contracts. At the opening of the war
between the States he, with Henry Runge, held
government freight contracts for the State of Texas.
He served four years in the First Texas Cavalry,
Confederate army, and distinguished himself as
the " Dutch Captain," being in command of a com
pany. He served with great bravery, taking part
in the memorable battles of Mansfield and Pleasant
Hill, Louisiana, and other engagements. After
the war he returned to Antwerp, his native city in
Belgium, and engaged in the milling business and
there attained a position of business, political and
local prominence and amassed a large fortune. He
married in Texas, Miss Sophia Scheonerwolf, of
Fredericksburg, and they have four children, all
born in Fredericksburg. One son, Frank, Jr., a
musical composer of world-wide celebrity, was re-
cently at the head of the Orion Club, of New York
City, but is now at the head of the profession in
Cincinnati, Ohio.
ANTONE KOCH,
BOERNE,
Was born in Baden, Germany, in 1835 ; worked in
a cloth-weaving mill in Germany when a boy ; came
to America; found employment in New York City
and later in Philadelphia, and in 1856 enlisted in
the regular army of the United States, with which
he served as a private soldier for five years, securing
an honorable discharge — in 1860. He then came
to Texas, "striking" San Antonio, where he
remained several months. He finally engaged in
farming sixteen miles east of San Antonio. He
spent the years 1861-5 in the service of the Southern
Confederacy and during that period aided in the
building of various fortifications in Texas.
He married Miss Gaild Schubert in San Antonio
in 1860. They have one son, Julius Koch. Mr.
Koch located in Boerne in 1862, where he has been
engaged in farming and gardening and has accumu-
lated a competency.
488
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ANDRAES WOLLSCHLAEGER,
BOERNE,
Was born in Prussia, August 25, 1818, where he
learned the shoemaker's trade, which he followed
until he left Germany for America, 1868. Landing
at Galveston in 1868, he took passage in another
ship for Indianola and from the latter place pro-
ceeded to San Antonio, where he resided for a short
time and then moved to Sisterdale, where he pur-
chased and improved a farm and engaged in raising
horses and cattle. After a residence of six years
at Sisterdale he sold out his property there and in
1874 located on the present family estate, near
Boerne.
He brought his wife and four children with
him to this country. He died July 28, 1894, at
seventy-flve years of age. His widow survives at
seventy years of age. The living children are
Andraes, Christian, Sophia, now Mrs. A. Behr, of
Sisterdale, and Gustav.
The farm consists of 420 acres of splendid farm-
ing and grazing lands.
HENRY BOERNER,
COMFORT,
Was born in Hanover, Germany, November 21,
1826, and came to Texas in 1850. Other members
of the family followed. The subject of this notice
first located at Horton Town, near New Braunfels,
where he remained for six years engaged in farming.
He later moved to his present home near Comfort.
His father, Henry Boerner, Sr., came from Germany
to Texas in 1854, and lived at New Braunfels,
where he died in 1886, at ninety-three years of age.
Henry Boerner, Jr., subject of this notice, had one
brother in Texas, who was killed by the Indians in
the historic Nueces Massacre. His name appears
on the monument erected to the memory of the
victims at Comfort, where their remains were in-
terred. Mr. Boerner has one brother in Germany
and two married sisters in Texas. He was married
July 11, 1852, to Miss Caroline Schultz, They have
six children : Johanna, now Mrs. Joseph Keiner of
Comfort; Frederick, Minnie, Lena, Augusta and
Dora. He served in the Home Guards during the
late war. Mr. Boerner is one of Comfort's most
highly esteemed citizens and prosperous farmers.
HERMAN KNIBBE,
SPANISH BRANCH,
A native of Comal County, Texas, born July 6th,
1850, is second son of Dietrich Knibbe, one of
Comal County's earliest and most prominent pio-
neers, and was reared on the old Knibbe estate in
that county. He is a successful farmer and stock-
raiser. December 7, 1874, he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Ottilie, a daughter of Philip Wagner.
She was a native of Texas and died in 1889, leaving
three children : Alice, Meta, and Alvin. A number
of years later Mr. Knibbe married Mrs. Minnie
Schultz, widow of the late Chas. Schultz, and by
this union has two children : Hilda and Dietrich.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
489
ERNST CORETH,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Ernst Coreth, one of the early pioneers Comal
County, Texas, was born in Vienna, Austria,
December 2d, 1803. Was educated in that city.
Enlisted in the Austrian army in 1820 and served as
an officer until 1830, when he retired and settled
on the estate, in Tyrol, inherited from his father,
who fell an officer in the Austrian army, in the
battle at Austerlitz, on the 2d of December, 1805.
In 1834 he married Miss Agnes Erler and in 1846
he came with his family to Comal County and im-
proved the estate near New Braunfels, now owned
by his son, Rudolph. The family then consisted
of six children and four were born afterward.
Three of the children are dead and seven survive
at this writing: —
Charles, born January 16th, 1837. married Miss
Hedwig Kapp and died in 1865, a soldier in the
Confederate army. His two sons died in early
childhood and his widow survives.
John, born February 22d, 1845, died a soldier
in the Confederate army in 1863 ; Amalia, born
June 22, 1840, married Dr. Goldman, in 1872,
and died in 1873 without issue. Ernst Coreth,
diei July 10th, 1881, and his wife died April 11,
1888.
The living children are: —
1. Agnes, born September 18th, 1835, now wife
of John O. Meusebaeh, of Loyd Valley, Texas.
2. Eudolph, born May 7th, 1838, is not married.
3. Franz, born October 29ih, 1846, at Houston,
Texas, married Miss Minna Zesch. His children
are: Agnes, born January 26th, 1884; Lina, born
May 29th, 1885 ; and Rudolph George Rochette,
born January 3d, 1892.
4. Mary, born November 25th, 1848, is not
married.
5. Anna, born February 27th, 1852, now wife
of Hans Marshall, of Mason County.
6. Joseph, born December 5th, 1854, married
Miss Mathilda Rudorf. His children are: Eliza-
beth, born September 26th, 1882 ; Ottilie, born,
March 15th, 1887 ; Veronica, born January 29th,
1889; and Arthur Leopold, born October 13th,
1891.
7. Ottillie, born April 16th, 1858, now wife of
Herman Altgelt, of Comal County.
RUDOLPH CARSTANJEN,
BOERNE,
A well-known and wealthy citizen of Boerne,
Kendal Countj', Texas, and a pioneer settler in the
State, came to Texas in 1850 and in November, 1855,
camped with seven other young men on the present
site of Boerne, up to that time unoccupied by a
human habitation. The surrounding country was
infested with Indians. The names of the party of
campers were as follows: Mr. Zoeller, of
Boerne, Dr. Cramer and Christian Flack, of Comfort,
Mr. Fredericks, J. Kiichler, Schulz, Adam
Vogt(the financial head of the expedition), and the
subject of this notice. The party of explorers built
a log-cabin on the spot and from this beginning the
town has grown to its present proportions. The
edifice now (1895) serves as the kitchen of the
residence of County Surveyor Croskey. These
seven men were bound together as a commune,
intending to locate and perpetuate a colony along
communistic lines. It is no surprise, however, to
state that, as such, it was a failure. Part of the
640 acres acquired by them has, in the course of
various subsequent transfers of ownership, become
the property of Mr. Croskey. Mr. Carstanjen
had no money invested or material interest in this
project. He was merely a traveler, who had joined
the idealists in search of health and pleasure.
It becoming evident to the little band of adventur-
ers that the scheme was impracticable, they dis-
banded and Mr. Carstanjen went to Sisterdale.
There he bought 320 acres of land upon which he
settled down to the quiet and independent life of
a farmer. In 1869 he married Miss Ottillie Von
490
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Werder, a granddaughter of Gen. Werder, a dis-
tinguished officer of the Prussian army, in the wars
with France, notably that of 1870. Mr. Carstan-
jen remained on and improved this land at Sis-
terdale until 1872, when he abandoned agricultural
pursuits and removed to Boerne, where he now lives
in ease. He possesses means (mostly invested
in Germany) that yield him an ample revenue and
enable him to lead a life free from business
cares. He has experienced hardships of pioneer
life inTexas and appreciates the privileges he enjoys.
He has spent liberally of his fortune in travel in
the United States and Europe for the edification
and culture of his children. During his pioneer
experience he had $1,000 worth of horses and
other stock stolen by the Indians. He " roughed
it" two years, without once sleeping in a house.
Mr. Carstanjen was born August 29, 1827, in Duis-
burg, on the Rhine, in Prussia. His father, Charles
Carstanjen, was a successful merchant and amassed
a fortune. The subject of this notice, Rudolph Car-
stanjen, was given a thorough German College edu-
cation and at twenty-one years of age went to Buenos
Ayres, South America. He traveled in various
portions of that interesting country and then out of
love for adventure came to Texas, where his de-
sires were fully gratified. Mrs. Carstanjen was born
in New Braunfels, Texas. Her father, Hans von
Werder, was a First Lieutenant in the Prussian
army. He came to New Braunfels in 1846, a com-
panion of Prince Solms, the distinguished German
colonist. He lived and died at Sisterdale, depart-
ing this life October 5, 1891.
Mr. and Mrs. Carstanjen have five interesting
children: Ida, Rudolph, Hedwig, Charles, and
Alvin.
FRITZ ADLER,
BOERNE,
An enterprising and prosperous German citizen
of Boerne, Kendall County, Texas, left Heider-
stoph, Germany, for America, in 1874 ; landed at
Baltimore, Md., traveled through the States, in
July of that year came to Texas, and the following
year located at Boerne with his wife and three
children and engaged in farming. He was born
June 27th, 1841. Mrs. Adler's maiden name was
Miss Julia Naikel. They have four children:
Anna, Fritz, Emma, Powell, and Ernst Henrick.
Mr. Adler's farm consists of 80 acres in a high state
of cultivation and is well improved.
FREDERICK LEASCH,
BULVERDE,
An energetic and thrifty farmer of Comal County,
Texas, came to America in 1860. He was born in
the little town of East-Sea, Germany, May 29, 1835.
His father, who also bore the name of Frederick,
came to this country in 1867, and died in 1889. He
had one other son, John, who, however, never came
to America, and two daughters, Mary, who is now
Mrs. William Edgar, of Comal County, and Lena,
widow of the late Hermann , of that county.
The subject of this memoir married Miss Rica
Kobbelmaker in 1860. Her father, John Kobbel-
maker, a carpenter by trade, and in later life a
farmer, came to Texas with Prince Solms in 1845
and died here in 1870. Her mother is still living,
as an honored and beloved member of the Leasch
household. Mr. and Mrs. Leasch have eleven
children: Louise, Henry, Frederick, Charles, Emil,
Sophia, Augusta, Mennie, Idelhite, Frederica, and
Robert, and nine grandchildren. Mr. Leasch has a
well improved farm of 400 acres.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
491
HENRY RICHTER,
SCHILLER,
Was born near Bremen, Germany, July 28, 1826 ;
came to America in 1852, as a passenger on the sail-
ing vessel, " Texas," on her trial trip, and after a
voyage of fourteen weeks, landed at Indianola,
from which place he went to New Braunfels and
from there to Jones Mills, at the junction of Curry's
creek and the Guadalupe river, in Kendall County,
where he worked at the mill for two years for Judge
Jones. He then pre-empted land and began farming,
in which he has since been engaged. He now owns a
well improved farm of seven hundred and twenty
acres.
He was united in marriage to Miss Mary Stende-
baok in 1856. They have eight children, viz. :
Paul, Emil, Norma, Mary, Otto, Minnie, Henry,
and Elvira.
CHARLES VOCES, JR.,
BULVERDE,
Is a son of the venerable and esteemed Harry
Voges.
Charles Voges was born in 1848. In January,
1874, he was united in marriage to Miss Amelia
Georg, daughter of Charles Georg. They have
seven children : Clara, now Mrs. Henry Ross ;
Matilda, Huldah, Oscar, Emil, Freda, and Meda.
Mr. Voges owns a considerable body of land, part
of which is under cultivation ; and is regarded as a
prosperous business man and substantial citizen of
Comal County.
ERNEST CRUENE, SR.,
GOODWIN,
An old and respected settler of New Braunfels,
came to America in 1845 and to New Braunfels in
1846. He was born in Hanover, Germany, July 6,
1819. He has two sons and one daughter. The
daughter, Johanna, is the wife of Mr. John Zipp, of
New Braunfels. The sons are well known and
prosperous business men of that place. Mr. and
Mrs. Gruene are members of the German Lutheran
Church of New Braunfels. They were members of
the first band of the Prince Solms colony.
492
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS
GOTTLIEB ELBEL,
SPRING BRANCH,
A Texian pioneer of 1849; came from Saxony,
where he was born March 2, 1827. His wife, nee
Miss Christina Zeh, who was then a single woman,
and to whom he was married in the fall of 1849,
came to Texas with him. They landed at Gal-
veston and proceeded thence to New Braunfels by
way of Port Lavaca. He remained at New Braun-
fels for a brief time and in 1852 located on his
present farm near Spring Branch, where he owns
about 1,900 acres of good farming and grazing
lands. His wife was born in Saxony. She died
March, 1862, and left eight children: Wilhelmina,
Augusta, Herman, Emma, Bertha, Ernst and Miry.
Mr. Elbel married again in 1867, bis second wife
being Mrs. Wehe, widow of Charles Wehe, of
Comal County. She has two children by her first
marriage : Caroline "Wehe, who married and lives in
New Braunfels, and Louise Wehe, who married
Charles Bierle and lives in New Braunfels. She
has borne Mr. Elbel three children : Albert, Frank-
lyn and Alma.
CHARLES LEISTIKOW,
KENDALIA,
One of the most prosperous and esteemed German
farmers of Comal County, came to America in
1851 from Labenz, Germany.
He was born August 6, 1824. He married in
1848 Miss Johanna Troga. She was born in the
town of Kissburg, Germany. Tliey came over in
the ship Franci'sa, sailing from Bremen to Galves-
ton. They came from the latter port to Indianola
and from thence to New Braunfels, where they
lived for a period of about ten years. Mr. Leisti-
kow worked out by the day three years and farmed
on rented land for about seven years, after which
he moved to the Piper settlement and there lived
until 1877, when he established himself on his pres-
ent place, which consists of 3,000 acres of farming
and grazing lands.
CHARLES KNIBBE,
SPRING BRANCH,
Fourth son of tbe late Deterich Koibbe, was born
June 16, 1860, at the old homestead in Comal
County, where he now resides. He was married
April 17, 1881, to Miss Pauline, daughter of Phillip
Wegner. Mrs. Knibbe was born at Anhalt, Comal
County, August 26, 1859. Tbey have four chil-
dren: Ella, Hermann, Henry, and Arno. Mr.
Knibbe owns several hundred acres of good farm-
ing and pasture lands and a cotton gin, located
near his home, and he is recognized as a substantial
business man.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBU OF TEXAS.
S. W. SHOLARS, M. D.,
ORANGE,
Physician. Born October 15, 1847, at Talladega,
Ala.
Father, Dr. R. P. Sholars, born in 1812, in the
State of Georgia — one of the prominent physicians
of that grand old commonwealth. Died in Jasper
County, Texas, in 1864.
Mother, Miss S. E. Wallace, born in Virginia,
August 24, 1820.
Dr. Sholars received his literary education in
the common schools of Texas and his medical edu-
cation at the University of Louisiana (now Tulane
University), attending that institution three years
in succession and graduating therefrom March 12,
1872. In 1886 he returned to the college for
review.
His parents moved from Alabama to North
Louisiana ; remained there about ten years and
then came to Texas and settled in Jasper County,
in November, 1858. The remained there until
1878, and then moved to Orange.
The subject of this notice began practicing medi-
cine in the winter of 1872 at his old home in Jasper
County and remained there the six succeeding
years. He moved to Orange April 16, 1878, where
he has since practiced his profession and for a num-
ber of years been engaged in the drug business.
He has met with excellent financial success.
He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1864, as
a private in Company I., Lane's (Texas) Regiment
of Cavalry, with which he served until the close of
the war. He then returned to his home in Jasper
County, Texas.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, in
which he has attained the Royal Arch degree, and
is also a member of the K. of P., and Elks frater-
nities.
April 18, 1874, he was united in marriage, at
Jasper, Texas, to Miss S. E. Miller, of Randolph
County, Ga. She died April 16, 1880, at Orange.
His second marriage was to Miss Odessa
Brockett, formerly of Alabama, June 22, 1887.
Four children were born to him by his first wife,
one of whom is dead, and two by his second wife,
one of whom is deceased.
Of these children, Arthur R. Sholars attended
Baylor University at Waco three years, going as
far as he could in civil engineering and acquiring
some knowledge of military tactics.
S. Wallace Sholars attended Baylor University
for three years and is now a student at the Univer-
sity of Texas, law department.
O. Louis Sholars is attending the public schools
of Orange, Texas ; and Theta Sholars is now five
years of age.
Dr. Sholars has been president of the Board of
Medical Examiners of the first district for the past
15 years, and is serving his second term as presi-
dent of the Southeast Texas Medical Society, head-
quarters at Beaumont. He was one of the first
aldermen of Orange, elected upon the incorporation
of the town under the general laws of the State.
He has been a member of the city school board
for the past eleven years and Captain of the Orange
Rifles for five years. He has held a commission as
Surgeon, with rank ol Captain, in the First Regiment
T. V. G., and was promoted to the oflBce of Medi-
cal Director of the First Brigade, with the rank of
Lieutenant-colonel.
He has been a member of the State Medical Asso-
ciation for a number of years.
Dr. Sholars is widely known and is respected by
all who know him as a leading and influential citizen.
WILLIAM VOGT,
BOERNE,
Was born in the kingdom of Prussia, Germany.
April 15, 1826, and was reared to the occupation of
a farmer. He came to America in 1852, landino- at
Indianola, Texas, in December of that year.
From Indianola he proceeded to Seguin, in
Guadalupe County, where he remained for four
years, engaged in farming and stock-raising. He,
however, lost all he had by Indian depredations
494
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEliS OF TEXAS.
and the vicissitudes of the war between the States.
He pioneered in Guadalupe County with ex-Gov-
ernor John Ireland, and at times shared the same bed
with him. Mr. Vogt aided in building the first
school-house erected in Seguin. He finally located
at Boerne, in Kendall County, where he has since
resided. He at first purchased four acres of land
on which his home now stands. To this he has
since added ninety-six acres, and now owns a well-
improved farm of one hundred acres.
In 1866-68 he served the people of Kendall
County as Assessor of Taxes and made an active,
efficient and acceptable official.
Mr. Vogt was united in marriage to Miss Anna
•Nesser in 1850. They have seven children : Joseph,
deceased ; Caroline, now Mrs. Ernst Pfifter ; August,
deceased ; Emma, now Mrs. Adam Phillip ; Pauline,
now Mrs. Charles Bergmann ; Wilhelmina, now
Mrs. Charles Eeinhardt ; and Bertha.
Two brothers of Mr. Vogt, Ferdinand and
August, also came to Texas. The latter died
at Spring creek, in Kendall County. Ferdi-
nand located in Cuero, where he engaged in
merchandising and resided until the time of his
death.
EWIN LACY,
BURNET COUNTY.
Ewin Lacy was born in Christian County, Ky.,
October, 1832, and is a son of George W.
and Sarah (Myers) Lacy, both of whom were also
natives of Kentucky. Mr. Lacy comes of Revolu-
tionary stock on both sides, both grandfathers,
Moses Lacy and John Myers, having served in the
Continental army. They subsequently settled in
Kentucky, where they helped to beat back the In-
dian?, fell the forests and lay the foundation of that
great commonwealth.
George W. Lacy and Sarah Myers were married
in Kentucky and moved thence to Missouri in 1842
and settled in Cedar County, where Mr. Lacy died
the same year and his wife ten years later. They
were the parents of eight sons and five daughters,
all of whom lived to maturity. One of the sons,
Zephaniah, died in Missouri, the others, seven in
number, came to Texas: George W., Ewin and
Jacob in 1858 ; John H. and Frank M. in 1860, and
Matthew and Milton in 1872. Most of these settled
in Burnet County, where they were for many years
residents, and where some of them, among the num-
ber the subject of this sketch, still reside. George
W. and Ewin stopped, on coming to the country,
at Rockvale on the Colorado, not far from the pres-
ent town of Marble Falls, and there put up a two-
story stone dwelling for Josiah Fowler, the first
building of that kind erected in that part of the
State. Jacob stopped at Smithwick Mills, further
down the river, and opened a blacksmith shop.
After the war the several brothers engaged in farm-
ing and stock-raising, at which they met with
success.
Ewin Lacy was a young man, unmarried, when
he came to the State. He worked at his trade
as a stone-mason until the opening of the war
between the States and then entered the Confed-
erate army as a member of Company B., Carter's
Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, Parson's Brigade, with
which he remained until the close of hostilities.
He saw service under each of those distinguished
commanders, Marmaduke,Tom Green, "Wharton and
Dick Taylor, and took part in most of the operations
in Southwest Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
He received a gun-shot wound and a saber wound
in the left wrist, a gun-shot wound in the left leg
and a saber cut on the head, but was never for any
considerable length of time out of the service and
was but once captured (at Lick Creek, Ark.), and
was then held only for a short time, his exchange
being effected within a few weeks. He returned to
Burnet County after the war and settled on a tract
of land near Marble Falls, which he first rented and
subsequently purchased and where he has since
lived engaged in farming and stock-raising, at both
of which occupations he has met with a full mea-
sure of success. He married Miss Kate Crownover
of Burnet County in October, 1868. She is a native
of Fayette County, Texas, and a daughter of Arter
Crownover, who came to Texas previous to the
revolution of 1835-6 and was for many years a
resident first of Fayette and later of Burnet County
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
495
where he died a few years since. Mr. and Mrs.
Lacy have had nine children born to them, seven
of whom are living: Oleva, Arter, Melissa, Mar-
shal Ney, John, Christian, and Ewin.
Mr. Lacy is a Democrat in politics and a mem-
ber of the Methodist Church. He has lived in
Burnet County since early Indian times and has
served as a ranger at irregular intervals as often as
the public safety demanded. On these expeditions
he has, on various occasions, ranged Northwest
Texas as far as the Concho, and tracked the " red
skins" to their haunts and helped to recapture
stolen property, but could never get close enough to
them to have an actual fight.
ERNEST DOSCH,
SAN ANTONIO.
Ernest Dosch, a well-known pioneer citizen of
San Antonio, one of the German colonists who
came to Texas in 1848, in his younger days saw
active service as a soldier and daring Indian
fighter. He is a native of Hessen, Darmstadt,
Germany, and was born May 3d, 1822 ; studied
forestry ; received a good education at the Uni-
versity of Giesen, from which he graduated in
1844, and, being of an enterprising and adven-
turous spirit, was attracted to the Texas Republic,
in 1848, as above stated, and located near New
Braunfels, where he engaged in farming. His
father was an eminent jurist in Germany, serving
acceptably a wealthy and influential constituency.
In 1857, Mr. Ernest Dosch, the subject of this
notice, moved to San Antonio, where he has since
resided, with the exception of the years 1865-6,
which he spent in Germany. He is a plain, unas-
suming, kind-hearted and genial man, and has
hosts of friends in the Alamo city, and throughout
Southwest Texas. He has labored upon all occa-
sions actively and efficiently, for the development
and general welfare of the section of the State in
which he has so long been a resident and a leading
citizen. He has repeatedly declined public office,
and although once elected Alderman from one of
the influential wards of San Antonio, declined to
serve.
A. L. STEEL,
HOUSTON.
Col. A. L. Steel was born in Oldham County,
Ky., October 14th, 1830. His father, William M.
Steel, was for years a prominent merchant of
Louisville, Ky. The maiden name of his mother
was Miss Lusatia Loughery. His paternal grand-
father, Judge Andrew Steel, a native of Virginia,
served throughout the Revolutionary War and emi-
grated to Oldham County, Ky., in 1785. His
maternal grandfather, Alexander Loughery, an
eminent surgeon in the Continental army, settled
and lived in Woodford County, Ky.
Col. Steel, when about nine years old, lost
his father, but remained at home until fifteen
years of age, when he joined a surveying
corps of the Louisville and Jeffersonville Ry.,
as rodman. In the following years he per-
fected himself in the knowledge of civil engi-
neering. In 1850 he came to Texas, dealt in lands
for a time, then accepted a position as Assistant
Civil Engineer under the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos &
Colorado Ry. Co., Mr. J. A. Williams holding the
position as chief engineer. The road was com-
pleted to Richmond in 1855 ; in the winter of
1855-6 was projected in the direction of Austin,
and was built to AUerton in 1860. Mr. Williams
in the meantime had been made the superintendent
of the completed portion of the road to Richmond,
and Col. Steel, chief engineer, west of the Brazos
496
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
river. Col. Steel located the road to Allerton,
and surveyed the line from that point to San
Antonio. He continued to fill the position until the
beginning of the war between the States, when
railroad building ceased.
He joined the Eighth Texas Cavalry (Terry's
Texas Rangers) as a private; became Quarter-
master of his regiment, and November 18th, 1862,
was promoted to the rank of Major of Engineers.
He remained in the service until the war closed,
participating in many hot engagements, and was
five times wounded. After the close of hostilities
he returned to Texas and located at Houston,
where he has since resided ; engaged first in the
real estate and later in the insurance business. He
is a member of the Masonic, I. O. O. F. and K. of
P. fraternities, and is one of the best known and
most highly respected citizens of Houston.
CHARLES GRIESENBECK,
SAN ANTONIO.
Charles Griesenbeck, well known in San Antonio
and Southwestern Texas because of his long connec-
tion with the banking and business interests of the
Alamo city, was born in Prussia, February 9th,
1829 ; attended local schools and took a collegiate
course in his native town ; afterwards accepted a
position as bookkeeper and librarian in a large
publishing house, with which he remained until
twenty years of age, and then, in 1849, came to
Texas, of which he had read so much that his am-
bition had become fired to succeed in a new and
prosperous country. He landed first at Galveston,
pioceeded from that place to New Braunfels, where
he stayed a short time, and then went to Gillespie
County, where he pursued farming for six months.
After leaving Blanco County he went to New Braun-
fels and Seguin, where he filled positions as clerk
and salesman in various stores. From 1856 to 1861
he sold dry goods in San Antonio and then went to
Mexico, where he remained until 1865. In the lat-
ter year he returned to San Antonio, where for
twenty-one years thereafter he kept books for and
acted as cashier of the bank of John Twohig. Dur-
ing the past five years he has been engaged in the
cotton buying and commission business at San
Antonio.
He married twice, having three sons — Louis,
Arthur and Charles F. , by his first marriage ; and
then married Miss Wilhelmine Boekel, of New
York, by whom he has five children — Hugo, Ber-
tha, Baldwin, Emily and Eugene. Mr. Griesen-
beck is a pronounced type of a thorough-going Ger-
man scion of a race that has done so much for the
development of Southwestern and Central Texas,
and a representative citizen of his section as
well.
ERNST BLUMBERG,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Ernst Blumberg, a well-known pioneer of New
Braunfels, Texas, came to America direct to
Fredericskburg, by way of Galveston, with his
parents in 1845. He soon, in 1846, settled on a
farm near New Braunfels with his father, Carl
Blumberg. Carl Blumberg was born near tJie town
of Kulm, in Prussia. He was an educated man, a
professional tutor, but as a colonist came to the
then new country to engage in agriculture, hoping to
better his fortunes. He located five miles below
New Braunfels, on the Guadalupe river. He brought
with him to this country a wife and eight children :
Ernst, whose name heads this sketch ; Frederick, a
citizen of Seguin, Texas; Julius, who resided at
San Francisco, Cal., until his death in 1893;
Betsy, who married in Texas and died some years
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
497
since ; Henrietta (now Mrs. Rev. Gust of EUey)
and Hulda (now Mrs. Michael Koepsel of Guada-
lupe Valley). Carl Blumberg lived on the farm
until his death, which occurred in 1856 of yellow
fever.
Ernst Blumberg pursued farming in its vari-
ous branches until recently, when he practically
retired from active business pursuits. He con-
tinues, however, to nominally act as the local agent
of the Lone Star Brewing Company. He married,
in 1859, Miss Margaret Zipp. She is a native of
Prussia and a daughter of John Zipp, who was a
New Braunfels pioneer in 1846. The family name
is a familiar one in the.community. Mr. and Mrs.
Blumberg have ten living children: Ernst, Jr.,
Martha, Henry, August, Matilda, William, Lydia,
Ferdinand, Olga, and Pauline.
Emma, a daughter, died some years ago. Mr.
Blumberg made his home permanently in New
Braunfels in 1891. He is a progressive and popu-
lar citizen and one who has done much for his
section and Southwest Texas.
FAYETTE SMITH,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch was born in Alabama,
January 22, 1832. His father was James W.
Smith, and his mother bore the maiden name of
Angeline D. Stamps. She was a daughter of
Elijah Stamps, of Talledega, Ala. His par-
ents were married in Alabama, and moved
•thence to Texas in February, 1837, his father stop-
ping for a while at San Felipe and the family
joining him in 1837 at Old Washington, on the
Brazos. In 1838, when the seat of government
was changed from Washington to Austin, they
-changed their abode to the latter place, and were
residing there in 1841 when the tragic death of the
father occurred, and the strange and thrilling
episode in the life of the son, the subject of this
sketch, took place. The main incidents connected
with the killing of his father and capture of himself,
as told by Mr. Smith to the writer, are as fol-
lows:—
" It occurred on January 22, 1841, the day I was
nine years old. My father was riding out on horse-
back close to Austin (only a little way from the
houses), and I accompanied him, riding behind.
We were suddenly surprised by five Comanche
Indians, who, coming out of the bushes, opened
fire with bows and arrows and a gun or two.
Almost the first missile, an arrow, struck my father's
left arm, breaking it, and glanced, striking me on
the forehead. The horse wheeled around and gave
a bound or two and became unmanageable. As he
dashed under a tree both my father and myself
were swept off by a limb, and my father was imme-
diately dispatched by the Indians and I was taken
captive. The Indians started at once in a north-
westerly direction, and joined a band of twenty
Indians the first night, with whom we journeyed
several days longer (probably a month), when we
fell in with the main body of the tribe. Our course
was still to the northwest, and after two or three
months of weary travel we came upon some
Mexican traders who, as I afterward learned, were
from Taos, New Mexico, and who could speak a
little English. The Indians sold me to these
Mexicans, and we started for Taos. I asked the
trader the question how far it was to where they
lived. They replied : ' About a hundred years'
travel.' I then asked them if they did not mean
one hundred days, and they said yes. At Taos I
was turned over to a man named John Eowland, an
American, who had married a Mexican woman and
settled at Taos, where he was engaged in trading
with the Mexicans and Indians. I gave Rowland
my mother's name and place of residence, and the
name and residence of my grandfather, Stamps,
but I do not think that he wrote to them, as there
were no mails between Taos and the States.
' ' I remained with him and made myself as useful
as possible awaiting developments. While there
the Santa Fe Expedition arrived, and I remember
seeing some of the members and of hearing about
Texas, but did not get any tidings from any of my
people. My uncle, William Smith, who was living
at Austin at the time of my father's murder and
my capture, soon after joined a party of Tonkaway
Indians and went direct to Santa Fe to effect my
release, supposing that I would be taken there by
the Indians or Mexicans for a ransom. He reached
that place, however, before I did, and went on
498-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
from there to St. Louis, where he hoped to get
track of me. My mother, as I afterward learned,
left Austin shortly after my father's death, and
returned to Washington. A place was secured for
me by Rowland in the first overland train that
started from Santa Fe to Missouri, and I accom-
panied it to Independence, its destination. My
uncle having gone to St. Louis, I missed him again,
but was put in care of Lewis Jones, at Independ-
ence, who wrote to my mother at Austin and to my
grandfather, Stamps, at Talledega, Ala. , and from
the latter received a reply that he would be on in
a few days for me. As soon as my grandfather
heard of me, he wrote to my mother to come on to
Alabama. He arrived, as promised, and I was
taken by him to his home in Talledega, which we
reached a few days before the arrival of my
mother. I returned to Texas with my mother and,
she having settled at Old Washington, there my
youthful lines were again cast under the single
star of the Eepublic of Texas. I had no more
experience with the Indians, and I do not want
any more, yet I hold no ill-will toward them, as
I think that they have been badly treated and
robbed of a country, the best for their purpose
in the world. They killed both my father and
my grandfather. Smith, near the same place and
date."
Young Smith became a clerk in the store of
Shackelford, Gould & Company, at Washington,
at about the age of seventeen years, and was in
their employ for several years, spending the spring
and summer behind the counter, and the fall and
winter traveling through the Central and Western
parts of the State, collecting for and looking after
the interests of their business.
In 1855 he married Miss Elizabeth A. Gresham,
a daughter of George M. Gresham, of Washington
County, and began business for himself as a mer-
chant and planter. He resided in Washington
County until 1888, when he moved to Navasota,.
Grimes County, where he now lives. During the
Mexican War he was a boy helping the sutler in
Twiggs' regiment, and during the late war was a
volunteer in the Confederate army, De Bray's-
regiment, serving in Texas and Louisiana, up to
the battle of Mansfield, where he was wounded and
disabled from further service. He has never held
an official position and does not care to. He has-
raised a family of two sons and three daughters,
all of whom remain with him, namely : Carrie,
Edith, Rowland, AngelineD., and Roger.
HENRY VOCES, JR.,
BULVERDE,
A successful farmer, was bora December 26,
1840, in Germany, and grew to manhood in Comal
County, where he has since resided. He is a son
of Henry Voges, Sr., the well-known Comal County
pioneer settler. Married June 26, 1868, Miss
Charlotte Langbein, a daughter of Andraes Lang-
bein, of Sisterdale, Kendall County. Mr. and Mrs^
Voges have eleven children: Ida (now Mrs^
August Wehe), Hermann (a prosperous business
man at Bulverde), Emilie (now Mrs. Louis Bart-
tels), Richard, Edmund, Adolph, August, Walter,
Bertha, Emma, and Arthur.
ROBERT A. ALLEN,
HEARNE,
A prominent merchant of Hearne, Robertson
County, was born in Cabarras County, N. C,
in 1840. His parents, Alexander and Serena
(Townsend) Allen, moved to Tennessee when he
was a child and there he was mainly reared. Dur-
ing the war between the States he served first in a
six months company, organized in Searcy, Ark.,
in the spring of 1861, and afterwards, in thfr
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
499
Eighth Arkansas, Army of Tennessee, participating
in the battles of Corinth, Chickamauga and Perry-
ville, and the one hundred days fighting of the
Georgia campaign from Dalton to Atlanta, and then
followed Hood on his return into Tennessee, taking
part in the battles at Franklin and Nashville.
Later he was with Johnston in the last fight at
Bentonville, N. C, and surrendered at Greens-
boro, in that State. He served a great part
of the time as a private, but held the rank of First
Sergeant at the time of the surrender. Although he
served continuously throughout the war he was
never captured or wounded. Mr. Allen's parents
having come to Texas during the war, he came out
immediately after the surrender and settled with
them at Lancaster, in Dallas County. He made a
crop there in 1866 and in the fall of that year went
to Millican, then the terminus of the Houston &
Texas Central Railway, and secured a clerkship ;
remained there a year or so and then went on with
the terminus (o Bryan, at which place he formed a
copartnership with W. R. King, under the Arm
name of Allen &King, and was engaged in business
until 1873, when he moved to Hearne, where he has
since been engaged in merchandizing and is now
the head of the firm of R. A. Allen & Son, dealers
in hardware, furniture and saddlery, and has one
of the ' largest establishments along the line
of the H. & T. C. R. R. between Dallas
and Houston. He has, as a matter of course,
interested himself in some outside enterprises,
taking stock in the Hearne & Brazos Valley Rail-
road. He is public-spirited, broad-minded and
generous with his means. He began without a cent,
a friend paying his way to the State and what he has
represents the results of his own labor. In 1889,
Mr. Allen married Miss, Alice Cyrus, of Bryan,
Texas, a native of the State and a daughter of J.
T. Cyrus, an old Texian. A son, Robert Cyrus
Allen, who is the junior member of the firm of R.
A. Allen & Son, was born of this union. Mr.
Allen had two brothers who came to Texas about
the time he did, namely, William C. Allen, now of
Thurber, this State, and Samuel Allen, who lives at
Dallas. Two other brothers, James and Marshall,
went to California at an early day and still reside
there. His father, Alexander Allen, died at Hearne
in 1890, at the advanced age of eighty-two. His
mother died at Austin in 1885 at the age of seventy-
five.
ROBERT SPENCE,
HEMPSTEAD,
A well-known and successful business man, of
Waller County, is an Englishman by birth ; came to
America in 1836, landing at New York City and
shortly thereafter located near Hamilton, Canada,
where he resided for two years. He heard much of
New Orleans, La., and the year 1838 found him in
that city, where he remained thirteen years as a
bookkeeper in a mercantile house. Ill-health ren-
dered a change of climate and business habits de-
sirable and. he accordingly moved to Illinois and
lived for a time in that State, ten miles east of St.
Louis, Mo., at the town of CoUinsville. From that
time until 1854, he pursued farming near CoUins-
ville and in Louisiana, spending several months of
each year in the city of New Orleans. In 1865 he
came to Texas and located in Houston, where he
clerked and kept books in a store for two years.
Here he met and married Mrs. Isaac Major, a lady
of English birth, who came to America when a child,
in 1850. Mr. and Mrs. Spence moved to Hempstead
in 1867, where he engaged in merchandising, at which
he has since prospered. He is now and has been
for many years one of the most substantial citizens
of that thrifty inland city. By a former marriage
Mr. Spence had one daughter, a devout Roman
Catholic, who became a sister of Charity and died
at Mobile, Ala. Mr. and Mrs. Spence have adopted
and reared two grandchildren, C. M. and W. S.
Close. Mr. Spence was born in Yorkshire, England,
October 9th, 1812. He was one of ten children.
One brother, William, came to Texas in 1840, lived
for several years at Hempstead but finally returned
to the mother country. Mr. Spence some years
since retired from business.
500
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
R. m. BOZMAN,
HEMPSTEAD,
Was born in Hempstead, Texas, August 10, 1869.
His father, Richard Morton Bozman, was born
in the town of Golconda, Polk County, III., and
was a son of Wesley Winfleld Bozman and Cor-
nelia (Pryor) Bozman. Cornelia Pryor was a
daughter of Gen. Pryor, a frontiersman in Illinois
and Iowa in the early days of the settlement of the
Mississippi valley, whose name has been perpetu-
ated in Pryor's Island, a prominent landmark in
the Mississippi river,
Richard Morton Bozman served with distinguished
gallantry in the Federal army during the war
between the States as Adjutant of Company F,
Twenty-ninth Illinois Infantry, and after the close of
that struggle came to Texas in 1865 and settled at
Hempstead, in Waller County, where for many years
he was a prominent farmer, merchant and citizen.
He married Miss Margaret Elizabeth Peebles, a
daughter of the lamented Dr. Richard Rogers
Peebles, one of the most widely known and beloved
of the early pioneers of Texas and a veteran of the
revolutionary war of 1835-6. Dr. Peebles first
settled at the town of Old Washington, in Washing-
ton County. His death occurred at the residence
of Mrs. Richard Morton Bozman (mother of the
subject of this sketch), at Gaylord. Mr. Richard
Morton Bozman died November 19th, 1876, and his
wife. May 10th, 1893, at their home, Gaylord, one
mile south of Hempstead, leaving one child, the
subject of this notice, Mr. R. M. Bozman, who
succeeded to his father's estate and is now a
leading citizen and one of the most considerate
farmers and merchants of Waller County. Mr.
R. M. Bozman married Miss Nina K., daughter
of E. O. Jones, of Hen>pstead. They have one
child, a daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Bozman,
MRS. MARY ELIZABETH DAWSON,
ALLEYTON.
Mrs. Dawson was born December 18, 1843, and
is a native Texian. Her parents were Abraham
and Nancy Alley. Her father was a brother of
Ross Alley, famous in Texas history. Abraham
Alley was married to Miss Nancy Miller, April 26,
1835, and in 1836, when Santa Anna's legions
were sweeping eastward across the country, moved
his family to the'Trinity, where thej' were encamped
when the engagement that won Texian independence
was fought. Mr. Alley and Dauiell Miller, a brother
of Mrs. Alley, left the family on the Trinity,
hurried to the front and took part in the battle of
San Jacinto. After the battle Mr. Alley moved to
Colorado County and settled on the east side of the
river. He died in 1862, respected and esteemed
by all who knew him. His wife, a noble Christian
lady, died in 1893. Mrs. Dawson married Mr. T.
C. Wright, in June, 1863. He died in June, 1874.
In the year 1883 she was united in marriage to Mr.
G. C. Dawson, who died in 1889. Mrs. Dawson has
been blessed with two children: Lula Wright (now
the wife of Dr. G. L. Davidson, of Wharton,
Texas) and William J. Wright, who is now married
and is living with his mother on the old home
place.
Mrs. Dawson has a fine farm and a beauti-
ful cottage home. Here she spends her days in
the loved society of her children and friends.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
501
CHARLES P. SALTER,
CALVERT,
Was born in Washington County, Ga., March
9th, 1830. Son of Zadoc and Nancy (Gainer)
Salter, both of whom were also natives of Georgia.
Parents died when Charles P. was about fifteen.
He went some three years later to Pike County.
Ala., where he subsequently married a daugh-
ter of James Talbot, in company with whom, in 1852
he came to Texas, stopping in Washington County.
He moved from that county in the fall of 1853 to
Robertson County, where he purchased and settled
on a tract of land about five miles from the
present town of Calvert, in the Brazos bottom,
and opened a farm. He was one of the first set-
tlers in that locality and resided there for thirty
years. Selling this place, he purchased another
and has for the past forty-odd years been identi-
fied with the agricultural interests of Robertson
County, and is now one of the wealthiest
planters of that county. Planting has been
his chief and almost exclusive pursuit,
though at intervals he has had some
mercantile interests and as contractor built
the Houston & Central Railroad from Bryan to
Calvert in 1868. He has also interested himself in
local enterprises, subscribing for stock in banks,
railroads and manufacturing industries, and has,
whenever and wherever occasion offered, stood
ready to help out with his means and personal efforts
every worthy measure. He was elected to the State
Legislature in 1873, from Robertson, Freestone
and Leon counties and served for a time as Alder-
man of the town of Calvert. Was made a Mason
at Old Sterling in Robertson County in the early
50's and is still a member of the order. Is also a
member of the Knights of Honor. Is a Democrat
in State and national politics and independent in
local matters. For his second wife Mr. Salter mar-
ried Miss Bertha Lovett, a native of Alabama and
a daughter of Thomas Lovett, who moved to Texas
in 1863. The issue of this union has been one
daughter, Charlie, now living. He is an active,
energetic, prosperous and popular gentleman of
Irish extraction and is possessed of a large vein of
Irish wit and good humor.
DR. JOHN A. McALPHINE,
WHITE HALL,
Was born in Ansen County, N. C, in 1842,
but was chiefly reared in Alabama, to which State
his parents moved when he was a child. His edu-
cation, begun at Glenville Military Institute,
Alabama, was interrupted by the war of 1861-5. He
entered the Confederate army in 1863 as a member
of the North Carolina Artillery, Webb's Battalion,
with which he served around Richmond and Peters-
burg from the date of his enlistment until the surren-
der as Quartermaster of the battalion. After the war
he went to Bozier Parish, La., whither his father
had in the meantime moved and where he had
died. There young McAlpine tried farming one
year, but, being unable to control negro labor gave
it up and began reading medicine with a view to
qualifying himself for practice. He entered on the
pursuit of his profession in Louisiana but shortly
after came to Texas and settled in Grimes Count}'.
There he took up the practice and has followed it
constantly and successfully since. The Doctor has
also acquired large landed interests in Grimes Coun-
ty and is a successful and extensive planter. He is
regarded as one of the men of solid means of his
county. He represented Grimes County in the
Eighteenth Legislature, being nominated and elected
on the Democrat ticket at a time when the election
of a Democrat was somewhat doubtful on account
of the large negro vote in the county. This was
due to his popularity with all classes and con-
ditions of people in the district. He made a very
acceptable representative, but, much to the regret
of his constituents, declined a second nomina-
tion.
He has always manifested a proper interest in
502
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
public affairs and has given his party the benefit
of his services when needed.
In 1873 Dr. McAlpine married Miss Willie Cam-
eron of Grimes County, a native of Louisiana and
daughter of John D. Cameron, who moved to that
county just after the war. Nine children have
been born of this union, to all of whom he has, or
is giving the best educational advantages that money
can secure. He is a firm believer in and friend of
education and religion.
ANDREW ElKEL,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Came to America in 1843 from Coblentz, Ger-
many. He spent his first year in this country at
New Orleans, and then (1844) joined the German
colony at New Braunfels, Texas. He was a wagon-
maker and wheelwright by trade and an enterpris-
ing and eminently successful business man. He
did a large business in his line at New Braunfels,
employing from time to time thirty to forty work-
men, and turning out a large number of durable
wagons, some of which may still be seen in service
on mountain farms in Central Texas. He continued
in this business until about 1875 and then retired,
and, to occupy his time agreeably, developed a
fruit farm near New Braunfels. April 20, 1847,
he was united in marriage to Miss Barbara Klein, a
daughter of the late Stephen Klein, who came to
Texas in 1845 and was a man of influence in his
day and generation, and whose children became
connected by marriage with several of the promi-
nent pioneer families of Central Texas. Mr. Eikel
died April 8, 1889. Mrs. Eikel survives him and
lives in retirement in New Braunfels. She had
seven children, five sons and two daughters, viz. :
Joseph and Walter, who are grocers in San Antonio ;
Albert and Frederick, who are hardware merchants
in Taylor ; Robert, who is a salesman in the large
wholesale and retail hardware establishment of
Walter Tipps, at Austin ; Bertha, wife of William
Smith, who conducts a blacksmithing and repair
shop at the old stand of Andrew Eikel ; and Anto-
nio, wife of Joseph Whittaker, of Seguin. One
daughter, Annie, died single at Austin in 1882.
The family is one of high moral, social and busi-
ness standing.
Y. GAINES LIPSCOMB,
HEMPSTEAD.
The late lamented Hon. Y. Gaines Lipscomb was
a native of Mobile, Ala., and was born in the year
1824. His father, A. S. Lipscomb, was an eminent
lawyer, at one time Chief Justice of Alabama. His
mother, whose maiden name was Miss Elizabeth
Gaines, was a daughter of Col. Young Gaines.
Chief Justice Lipscomb resigned his seat on the
Supreme Bench and came to Texas in 1842. Y. G.
Lipscomb, the subject of this sketch, was eighteen
years of age when he came to Texas. He received
his schooling chiefly at Bascomb College, in South-
ern Ohio. He started for Texas with others to join
the Somervell expedition, but was taken sick and
delayed on the way and reached Texas too late to
join the forces on the Rio Grande. This he deeply
regretted at the time, but it was really a stroke of
good fortune, as he would probably have taken part
in the fight at Mier and been captured there with
the other Texians, who were afterwards doomed to
years of imprisonment. On reaching the new Re-
public he joined the Texas Rangers under Col. Ed.
Burleson, and participated in a number of Indian
fights. He also served in the Mexican War and
was present and took part in the battle of Monterey.
Y. Gaines Lipscomb married in 1861 at Chappel
Hill, Texas, Mary, widow of Thoa. Bates, a dauo-h-
JOEL P. SMITH.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
503
ter of Maj. James Hartwell Cocke. The marriage
ceremony was performed at her father's house.
Mrs. Lipscomb survives, and is now (1895) resid-
ing at Hempstead. She was born December 23,
1840, at Old Point Comfort, Va. Maj. James H.
Cocke was a Federal military officer stationed at
Old Point Comfort. Later he lived at Mobile, Ala.,
as a civilian, and there speculated and accumulated
considerable property. He returned to Old Point
•Comfort in 1839, where he resided until 1840, when
he brought his familj^ to Galveston, where he
served the government as Collector of Customs.
His next oflScial position was that of United States
Marshal, with headquarters at Houston. He later
sold goods at Gay Hill and Independence, Wash-
ington County. Maj. Cocke lived a short time at
Chappel Hill, and then in 18 — located in the Brazos
Valley, near Hempstead, where he died.
Judge A. S. Lipscomb, as will be seen in his biog-
raphy in Bench and Bar, was one of the Chief
Justices of the Supreme Court of Texas with Hemp-
hill and Wheeler, and well known as such.
Judge A. G. Lipscomb, present Judge of Waller
County, living at Hempstead, is a son of the sub-
ject of this sketch. Other sons, J. C. Lipscomb
and Frank, also with the widowed mother, reside
there.
Judge A. G. Lipscomb was born in Waller
County ; there received his early schooling ; later
attended Baylor University, graduating therefrom
in 1878. He studied law under Judge T. S. Reese,
present Judge of the Twenty-third Judicial District
of Texas, and was admitted to the bar and com-
menced practice at Hempstead in 1880. He was
elected and filled with honor for ten years the office
of Prosecuting Attorney of Waller County, and is
now (1895) serving his third term as County Judge.
He was married in 1884 at Hempstead to Miss
Katie Bedell, and they have two daughters, Abbie
G. and Christiana.
JOEL P. SMITH,
MARBLE FALLS.
Joel P. Smith, an old settler and one of the lead-
ing cattle men of Blanco County, was born at
Nacogdoches, Texas, April 2, 1833. His parents
were Francis and Nancy Ann (Slaughter) Smith.
Francis Smith was a native of South Carolina and
his wife of North Carolina. Their parents were
early settlers of Mississippi. They moved from that
State to Texas in 1827, settling in Nacogdoches.
At that time they had a family of five children, and
seven more were born to them. Of these six are
now living: Mrs. Miranda Westfall ; Zachariah, of
Tom Green County ; Mrs. Sarah Smith, of Mason
County; Ruben B., of Blanco County; Mrs.
Amanda Reams, of Llano County, and Joel P., the
subject of this memoir. Mr. Francis Smith moved
in 1841 from Nacogdoches to Fayette County,
thence in 1847 to Burleson County and in 1856 to
Blanco County, where he died August 9th, 1867, at
the age of seventy years. His widow survived him
ten years, dying in Blanco County in 1877 at the
age of seventy-five. He was a farmer, a man of
moderate means and upright life.
Joel P. Smith was principally reared in Fayette and
Burleson counties, this State. His early life differed
but little from that of other youths of his time. He
was enabled to secure but a limited education, and at
the age of nineteen was thrown upon his own
resources. He has been a " cowman," all his life,
having grown up with the industry in the section
of the State in which he resides. His start was
made with a bunch of cattle consisting of ten cows
and their calves, which were turned loose upon the
open range. He has steadily prospered from the
beginning and now owns a ranch in the Northwest
corner of Blanco County, consisting of 13,000
acres, adjacent to which he has leased 5,000 acres,
all well equipped and stocked with about 2,000
head of cattle. Having given his attention very
closely to his own affairs, he has had very little
time to devote to public matters. Being on the
frontier, he was in the ranging service during the
late war and before that time and later, as long as
the country was subject to Indian raids, held him-
self in readiness to assist in the common defense.
In 1870 Mr. Smith married Miss Annie E. John-
son, then of Blanco County, Texas, but a
native of Columbia County, N. C, a daughter of
Duncan Johnson. Eight children were born to
them: Frances, who married Dr. Reed Yett and is
now deceased ; May, who died at about the age of
504
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
fifteen; Oscar H., died at eighteen; OUie, wife of
James C. Bacchus; and Maud, Sidney, Carl and
Joyce, the last four being still at home. Mrs.
Smith died in 1890. Two years later, in Septem-
ber, 1892, Mr. Smith married Miss Cynthia Hardin,
daughter of W. G. Hardin, of Blanco County.
One son has been born of this union, Damon Philip,
born June 2l8t, 1894. Mr. Smith is one of the
most highly respected and influential citizens of the
section of the State in which he resides and has
been an active promoter of every enterprise
inaugurated for its development.
JAMES O. LUBY,
SAN DIEGO.
Judge James O. Luby was born in London, En-
gland, June 14, 1846. His father, Daniel Luby, of
Cork, Ireland, died when he was an infant. In
1854 Mrs. Luby ( nee Miss Kate Smith) came to
New York City, where the subject of this sketch
received his education in the public schools.
In 1858 Mrs. Luby was united in marriage to
Mr. A. E. Feuille, and in 1860 went with him to Ha-
vana, Cuba. Judge Luby visited his mother at Ha-
vana in the early part of 1861, and in March of that
year took passage for New Orleans, where he entered
the Confederate army as a soldier in Company B.,
First Louisiana Infantry (Gladden's regiment) ; was
stationed at Warrington Navy Yard in 1861 and the
early part of 1862 participating in the attack on
Wilson's Camp at Santa Rosa Island, on the 8th of
October, 1861, and the bombardment at Fort Pick-
ens, November 22, and the engagement with the
Richmond and Niagara, Battery Lincoln and Fort
Pickens, January 1, 1862 ; was stationed with his
regiment at Corinth, Miss. , and belonged to the first
brigade, Wither's division of Bragg's corps at the
battle of Shiloh.
After the battle of Shiloh, having served out his
term of enlistment, he was discharged, went to New
Orleans and joined the Pickwick Rifles, Fourteenth
Louisiana Infantry; was at New Orleans during
the exciting period of the passing of Forts Jackson
and St. Philip by the Federal fleets ; was paroled
by Gen. B. F. Butler, and in September, 1862, went
to Brownsville, Texas, where he accepted a posi-
tion in the County Clerk's office. At the close of
hostilities Judge Luby served under Col. John S.
Ford and took part in the fight at Palmetto Ranch.
In 1866 he moved to San Diego, Duval County,
and clerked for N. G. Collins until 1869, when he
moved to Corpus Christi, and in 1870 merchandized
near Fort Ewell, in LaSalle County. From 1871
to 1876 he was Justice of the Peace and a mer-
chant at San Diego, where he has since resided.
He was the first postmaster appointed at San Diego,
and served as such continuously from 1867 to 1884 ;
was elected County Judge of Duval County in 1876
and filled that office until 1882 ; was Collector of
Customs for the district of Brazos Santiago in
1884-5, and County Judge of Duvall County from
1886 to 1890.
Judge Luby was admitted to the bar in 1879, and
enjoys an extensive practice, devoting himself
mainly to land law. He was married to Miss Mary
Hoffman in 1871. They have five children. Judge
Luby is a member of the Masonic fraternity — a
Select Master. He has taken an active part in
every movement having for its object the develop-
ment of Southwest Texas. Politically he is a mem-
ber of the Republican parly. He is one of the
leading men of his section — a representative citi-
zen of Southwest Texas.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
505
C. W. BOERNER,
COMFORT,
A typical German pioneer of the Guadalupe
Valley, came to Texas in 3851. He was boin in
Hanover, Germany, September 3, 1829. He first
landed on Texas soil at Galveston and proceeded
thence to the port of Indianola and overland to
New Braunfels, where he remained for about six
months, after which he went into the upper Guada-
lupe Valley and engaged in the manufacture of
cypress shingles, an important industry in those
days, affording, as it did, employment to many of
the pioneer families during the time they were pre-
paring their lands for the first planting. Mr.
Boerner asserts that, but for the cypress of the
Guadalupe Valley, it would not have been possible
for a large majority of the first settlers of that
portion of Texas to have maintained themselves
until they could obtain a foothold in the country.
The beautiful banks of the Guadalupe river were
dotted every three or four miles with shingle camps,
the products of which were shipped to Fredericks-
burg, San Antonio, New Braunfels and other points,
and exchanged for supplies. Mr. Boerner made
shingles about two years. He then engaged in
freighting with ox-teams, hauling timber and sup-
plies to Forts Mason, Concho and Clarke. He
also, from time to time, made trips to Indianola
and Port Lavaca on the coast. By industry and
economy he was ennbled to gradually work into
farming and stock raising eight miles northwest of
Comfort, where he has about nine hundred acres of
good farming and grazing lands.
Mr. Boerner's father, Christoph Boerner, came
from Hanover, Germany, in 1855, bringing one son
and three daughters, viz.: Louis; Lina, who
became Mrs. William Huermann ; Dorethea, now
Mrs. Charles Dinger, of Bourne ; and Minnie, who
married Fritz Saur. Christoph Boerner was a
shoemaker and followed his trade for many years
at Comfort. He died at San Antonio. His wife
died on the voyage to this country and was buried
at sea.
C. W. Boerner learned bis father's trade at home
in Germany, but did not follow it as a calling in
this country until the breaking out of the Civil
War, and then only to support the needs of bis
friends and neighbors on his farm. Shoemakers
being exempt from military duty, he escaped the
necessity of fighting for a cause with which he was
not thoroughly in sympathy. He married, in 1859,
Miss Minnie Shellhase. Her father was Gottlieb
Shellhase.
Mr. and Mrs. Boerner have five children :
Bertha, now Mrs. Julius Karger ; Helen, now Mrs.
E. Flasch ; Louise, now Mrs. Henry Spenrad ;
Lina, now Mrs. Ernest Karger, and William, who
is single and lives in the city of Austin.
D. C. REED.
RUNNELS COUNTY.
David Clark Reed, an early settler of Burnet
County and father of Mr. T. S. Reed of that
county, was born in the "lead mine district " of
Missouri, October 25, 1814. His parents were
Thomas and Rebecca Reed, who moved from Ten-
nessee to Missouri early in the present century,
whence, after a residence of some years, they moved
to Arkansas and settled in Hempstead County.
There David C. was principally reared and in 1847,
married Miss Elizabeth Howard Russell. After his
marriage Mr. Reed settled on a farm in Hempstead
County and resided there until March, 1854, when
he came to Texas. For a short time after coming
to this State he remained at Austin, and then settled
permanently in the eastern part of Burnet County,
where he made his home for about thirty years and
with the history of which locality he was identified
more or less prominently during that time. Mr.
Reed was one of the first settlers of Burnet County
and experienced many of the hardships incident to
the settling of a new country. With his family,
consisting of his wife and two sons, Albert S. and
Thomas S., the latter mere children, and his slaves,
he pitched his tent in the woods, some thirty-odd
miles from Austin, the nearest supply point, and
opened a primitive " patch " in the wilderness,
506
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
first constructing a corral for his cattle, in order to
keep them out of reach of the Indians, and after-
wards erecting a log cabin to house his family. He
arrived early enough to get in a crop, planting in
the woods without a fence. The Indians were a
source of annoyance from the start. They made
frequent raids into the country and committed many
depredations, the Comanches being especially
troublesome. Nearly every member of the com-
munity lost stock, and many their lives. One
familj' in the neighborhood, that of Wafford John-
son, was almost wiped out, only one, a little girl,
being spared.
With the gradual improvement of the country
Mr. Reed's fortunes improved until the opening of
the late war, when, as was the case with many
others, he lost a great deal, but these losses he
afterwards repaired in a considerable measure and
always lived in the enjoyment of plenty and gave
his family every advantage in the way of schools,
churches, good society, etc., within his reach. Mr.
Reed and his wife were among the first members of
the Methodist Church organized where they settled
(Hopewell Settlement) and was also a member of
the first Masonic Lodge in that communitj', Mt.
Horeb Lodge, Williamson County. He was a
zealous member of that order during the greater
part of his life, becoming a Royal Arch Mason.
He was also an Odd Fellow, joining the lodge at
Georgetown. He was County Commissioner of
Burnet County eight years and Postmaster at
Hopewell about the same length of time. He had
good educational advantages, being a graduate of
Kenyon College, Ohio, and was among the fore-
most in his community in all educational matters.
His sons, four in number, and a nephew and
niece, who were also members of his household,
were sent to the best schools in the State, and three
of them afterwards became teachers.
Mr. Reed was past the age for military service
during the late war and was also incapacitated by
physical infirmities, having had the misfortune to
lose an eye in early life, but he was a strong sym-
pathizer with the Confederacy and assisted in
caring for the families of soldiers at the front.
Mr. Reed died in Runnels County, Texas,
February 4, 1886, whither he had moved a few
years previous. Surviving he left a widow, who is
still living, and four sons: Albert S. Reed, now a
banker at Ft. Worth ; Thomas S. Reed, a merchant
and banker at Bertram and Marble Falls ; Theodore
Reed, a merchant of Haskell ; and James W. Reed,
a bookkeeper at Marble Falls. His nephew by
marriage, David Morgan, whom he raised as a
member of his family, resides in Ft. Worth, and his
niece, Nannie K. Reed, was married to Lon B.
Parks and is now deceased.
Mrs. Reed, the widow, was born in Tennessee.
Her parents were James and Elizabeth (Howard)
Russell, who died when Mrs. Reed was a child.
She was reared by her sister, Mrs. Morgan, in
Virginia, whose family she accompanied to Arkan-
sas, where she met and married Mr. Reed.
All of Mr. Reed's sons are doing well, showing
that the care which was bestowed upon them is bear-
ing good fruit.
CHARLES AMSLER,
HEMPSTEAD.
Born at Cat Springs in Austin County, July 12,
1836. Son of Charles Conrad Amsler and Mary
Lowenberger Amsler, who were natives of Switzer-
land and came to Texas in 1834. Subject of this
memoir was reared in Austin County. On JUI3' 1 1,
1861, married Miss Julia Meyer, duughter of J.
D. Meyer, an early settler of Fayette County.
Mrs. Amsler, was born in Houston, February
iiOth, 1844. Soon after his marriage Mr. Amsler
moved to Montgomery County, where he engaged
in the sawmill business until 1885, when he settled
in Hempstead, where he subsequently lived. At
Hempstead he built a cotton-seed oil mill which he
operated successfully until his death and which
still continues to do a large business. By industry
and good management he accumulated a consider-
able estate and left his family well provided for.
Surviving him he left a widow, two sons, John
C. and Louis D., and three daughters, Mrs. Theo-
dore Abrenback, Mrs. Penn B. Thornton, and
Miss Julia S. Amsler, all residents of Hemp-
stead, except Mrs. Ahrenback, who lives at
Hearne.
Mrs. Amsler's father, J. D. Meyer, was a native
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
507
of Strasburgh, bora December 15th, 1806. He
came to America in 1826 and, after two years' resi-
dence in New Yorlc, four in Mexico and twelve in
California, came to Houston, Texas, in 1843, from
which place he moved to Fayette County, where he
subsequently resided.
LOUIS T. FULLER,
CALVERT.
During and immediately following the days of re-
construction,Texas, with many othersof the late Con-
federate States, may, in a business sense at least, be
said tohave passed through her second pioneer period.
The flower of her niature manhood had been laid
on her country's altar, her government had been
disorganized, her finances exhausted, her once splen-
did system of local development disrupted. All was
chaos, and seldom, if ever, did a rising generation of
young men face a darker outlook, a more forbid-
ding prospect for future achievement, than did the
young men of the South, in those days. L. T.
Fuller, the subject of this brief sketch, was at this
time nearing manhood and coming on to the stage
of active life and responsibility. He was born May
3d, 1852, in the city of New Orleans. On the break-
ing out of the war between the States young Fuller,
then nine years of age, came with his widowed
mother and her father, Louis C. Trezevant, to Texas
from Memphis, Tenn. His father, James T. Fuller,
was by occupation a planter and engaged also in
various other lines of business. He was a military
man, a graduate of West Point Military Academy
and, upon the opening of hostilities, in 1861
promptly espoused the cause of the Confederacy,
but died before the close of the struggle between
the States. Mr. Fuller's mother, though advanced
in years, is living in the enjoyment of good health,
a beloved inmate of the home of her son.
Upon coming to Texas the family located at Cold
Springs, in Polk County, the grandfather engaging
in agriculture and young Fuller for a brief time
attending school, after which he sought and obtained
employment of the late venerable Samuel L. Allen,
of Houston, and William Pool, a Texas pioneer and
one of the first settlers of Galveston. He drove
cattle for the then widely known cattle firm of
Allen, Pool & Co., along the coast from the Trinity
River to Matagorda. This he continued for a pe-
riod of about eighteen months. Seeing in this
character of labor slim profits for financial advance-
ment he sought other employment and soon obtained
a situation with the firm of Bird & Harrell, of Bryan .
There in 1868 he learned the tinner's trade. He
next accepted a position as salesman in the hard-
ware store of Day & Burt, doing business at Bryan
and Calvert, and later at Marlin, Falls County.
He continued with Messrs. Day & Burt until 1873,
and the following year, 1874, formed a partnership
with Mr. James Connaughten, and engaged in the
tinner's and hardware business in Calvert. The
connection continued under the firm name of Fuller"
& Connaughten for about ten years (until 1884),
when Mr. Fuller purchased his partner's interest,
since which time he has developed the business into
one of the most extensive and successful of its
kind in Central Texas.
Viewing the fact that the material development
of the various resources of the State of Texas dates
from about the time that Mr. Fuller and others of
his day came on to the scene of action, he must be
classed among the successful pioneer business men
of this section of the State, having ever been one
of the chief promoters of its business interests.
He has done much for the upbuilding of Calvert,
which has become the center of a wide extent of
rapidly developing country. Anticipating the needs
of a growing inland city, Mr. Fuller has at various
times set about in a business-like and methodical
way to supply them. He was one of the chief pro-'
moters of the iron foundry established at Calvert
in 1879, put on foot as a stock company, but since
become his sole property, and now known as The
Fuller Engineering Company.
In 1880 he was active with his time, influence
and money in establishing the first cotton oil mill
at Calvert which was sold to the National Cotton
Oil Mills.
in 1887 Mr. Fuller inaugurated the movement
which has given his city its present efficient water
works system, of which he is the principal owner.
He was the moving spirit, and is half-owner in the
Calvert City Ice Factory, which has been in suc-
cessful operation since 1889. In 1892 he estab-
508
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
lished the electric light system in use in Calvert.
All of these enterprises have come to Calvert
almost in the nature of benefactions, as without
them, both singly and collectively, Calvert could
not have attained her present standing and repu-
tation as a prosperous, thrifty, pushing business
town.
Mr. Fuller married, January 24th, 1874, Miss
Mary J. Rice, daughter of Dr. U. A. Rice, for-
merly of Macon, Ga., and since 1884 a resident of
Marlin, Falls County, Texas.
Mr. and Mrs. Fuller have seven children : James
T., Louis H., Marion D., Margaret A., Mary F.,
Lucy T., and Mabel.
GEORGE L. PERRY,
COLORADO COUNTY.
George L. Perry was born in Franklin County,
N. C, February 22, 1825 ; moved to Tennessee with
his parents, John E. and Nancy Perry, in 1832, and
came to Texas in 1841 and settled in Colorado
' County, where he has since resided. November 16,
1855, he was united in marriage to Mrs. Mary Ann
Sapp. Four children have been born of this union :
Erastus, who died April 19, 1858; LuluV., now
Mrs. Charles Taylor, of Columbus ; John and Geor-
gie, now Mrs. J. W. Witington, of Yoakum. Mr.
Perry is a member of the Masonic fraternity.
He is one of Colorado County's wealthy farmers
and sterling citizens and a power for good in his
section.
GEORGE K. PROCTOR, M. D.,
CALVERT,
Was born September 8, 1851, near Centerville, in
Leon County, Texas, on his father's farm, and there
received the rudiments of a good education. He
studied medicine in New Orleans and St. Louis;
graduated at the St. Louis Medical College in 1875,
and located at Calvert in the same year and com-
menced the practice of his profession, but retired
from active practice, however, in 1877, and entered
the mercantile business, and in 1883 became junior
member of the well-known firm of Parish & Proc-
tor, in which he has since continued.
He was also from 1876 to 1881 a member of the
drug firm of McLendon & Proctor. Dr. Proctor
married, February 21, 1884, Miss Lou Ella Gardner,
daughter of Judge Alfred S. Gardner, a venerable
pioneer of Leon County, of whom further mention
is made elsewhere in this work.
Dr. and Mrs. Proctor have five children : George
A., Rector G., Jewell K. , Frank Cleveland, and an
infant not named.
Dr. Proctor's father was born in North Carolina ;
was early left an orphan and thrown upon his own
resources ; grew up in an humble way on a farm.
While a boy moved to Alabama, where he married
and engaged in farming ; emigrated to Texas in
1849 and purchased and settled on a farm in Leon
County with his family, consisting of a wife and
eight children, the subject of this sketch being the
youngest that lived to maturity ; was successful in
his agricultural pursuits and at his death in 1880
left a comfortable estate and an honorable record.
Dr. Proctor's mother died in 1877, full of years
and good works.
Dr. Proctor is a man of quiet and unassuming
manners, of sound learning and abilities and is
greatly esteemed.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
509
THOMAS J. MORRIS,
COLUMBUS.
Rev. Thomas J. Morris, the well-known farmer
and minister of the gospel, of Colorado County,
was born in the State of Florida, December 30,
1843 ; completed his education at the University of
the South; served as a soldier in the Confederate
army in Company B., Eighth Florida Kegiment,
during the war between the States, participating in
the battles of the Wilderness and Gettysburg, etc.
(in both of which he was severely wounded). In
1867 he moved to Texas, and settled in Colorado
County in 1874, where he has since resided. After
coming to Texas he married Miss MaTy B. Hunt,
adopted daughter of Capt. William G. Hunt. This
union has been blessed with six children : William
Hunt, Howard C, Mabel, Mary E., Thomas J.,
and Francis Wilmans Morris.
Rev. Mr. Morris is one of the most progressive
and truly representative men of his county, and
deservedly ranks high as a citizen and Christian
gentleman.
RICHARD KOTT,
COMFORT,
Was born February 12, 1846, in Saxe-Gotha, Ger-
many. His father, Ernest Kott, one of the early
German settlers of Texas, came to America in
1854, landing at Galveston inthatyear, from which
place he proceeded almost immediately to Freder-
icksburg, via Indianola, New Braunfels and San
Antonio. He was a bookbinder by trade and,
although the active years of his life were spent in
farming, did during the last ten years of his life
more or less work at his trade on his farm in
Gillespie County. He was born in Saxe-Gotha,
Germany, in 1816 ; followed his trade there, and
there married Miss Louise Deetzel. They brought
four children with them to this country, viz. : Her-
mann, who was a soldier in the Confederate army
and lost his life at the battle of Mansfield, Louisi-
ana, in 1863 ; Lena, Richard, and Julius. Erna,
Edward and Clara (the latter now deceased) were
born to them in this country.
Richard, the subject of this notice, was but
eight years of age when his parents reached Texas,
and had but meager schooling, and with bis father
waged the battle for bread on the family farm in
what was then a frontier country, and on the open
cattle range. He soon acquired a taste for and a
broad experience in the saddle, and recalls many
interesting experiences on the range and in pursuit
of Indians.
Mr. Kott has been an active and successful busi-
ness man, turning his attention, at various
times, to freighting, merchandising, speculat-
ing, etc. Some time since he built, and is
now running, the Kott Hotel, at Comfort. He
married, in 1869, Mrs. Johanna Heim, widow of
Antone Heim. Her maiden name was Miss Allar-
kamp. She had two daughters, Matilda and
Antone Heim, by her first marriage. She has
borne Mr. Kott three sons: Hermann, Ernest, and
Hugo. Mr. Kott is an enterprising, progressive
and intelligent citizen. He has given his children
excellent schooling privileges, and they are all well
settled in life.
510
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILLIAM ELLIOTT,
SAN ANTONIO.
William Elliott, a pioneer of Texas in 1839, and
well known in his day as aa energetic and success-
ful business man of San Antonio, was a native of
Ireland, born in the year 1799. His father was a
merchant in a small town and apprenticed him to a
seven 3'ears' service with a mercantile house in Dub-
lin. Here he received thorough disciplining in
and a thorough knowledge of business methods.
At twenty-one years of age (in 1820) he came to
America and engaged in merchandising and mining
in Mexico. It Is known that he was embarked in
business at Matamoros, Mexico, in 1836, and in
1839 came to Texas and located at San Antonio,
where he formed a copartnership with Edward
Dwyer and opened a mercantile establishment in a
storehouse situated on the site of the present How-
ard Block on Soledad street. This connection con-
tinued but a short time. Mr. Elliott remained suc-
cessfully engaged in trade until the time of his
death, which occurred in New Orleans while on a
trip, May 12th, 1847. He was a thrifty merchant,
and had business relations with both the Castro
and New Braunfels colonies.
He married Miss Eleanor Cornolly in New Or-
leans in 1835. She also was of Irish birth, and
at two years of age came to this country with her
parents. Her father was a well-known wholesale
merchant at New Orleans.
Mr. and Mrs. Elliott had three children : Will-
iam H. Elliott (deceased in 1889), who served as a
Captain in the Confederate army, and left a widow
and three children surviving him ; John B., also a
soldier in the Confederate army, who died at
Brownsville, Texas, in 1864 ; and Mrs. Mary Ell-
iott Howard, a most refined and cultured lady, who
resides at San Antonio.
Mrs. Elliott died at San Antonio, August 27th,
1885.
JAMES COLE,
BURNET.
James Cole, of Burnet, was born in Maury
County, Tenn., in 1828, and accompanied his
parents to Texas in 1845. His father was William
Cole, and his mother before marriage was a Miss
Joplin, the father being a native of Virginia and the
mother a native of Tennessee. William Cole was
in the War of 1812 ; settled in Tennessee in 1818 ;
moved thence to Mississippi and thence to Texas,
settling in Fayette County, where he died in 1860,
at the age of 65 years. His wife, mother of the
subject of this notice, had previously died in Mis-
sissippi. The father was accompanied to Texas by
his two sons, William and James, the former re-
turning to Mississippi soon after coming to this
State, and dying there.
James Cole was in his seventeenth year when he
came to Texas. His youth was spent in Fayette
County. In 1861 he enlisted in the Confederate
army as a soldier in the Sixteenth Texas Infantry
(Flornoy's Eegiment), McCulIoch's Brigade, and
served during the war in Arkansas and Louisiana,
taking part in most of the military operations in
that section, notably those incident to Banks' Eed
river campaign. His regiment was a part of
Walker's Division, which did such gallant service
at Mansfield, Pleasant Hill, Yellow Bayou and other
engagements. From 1865 to 1883 Mr. Cole farmed
in Fayette County. Then, on the recommendation
of his physician, he moved to Bryan County for his
health, making his home at the town of Burnet,
where he has since resided.
He married Miss Mariame, a daughter of David
Shelby, who came to Texas as one of Stephen F.
Austin's first three hundred colonists, and settled
at Richmond, in Fort Bend County. He was in the
frontier service for many years — in the army during
the early days of the revolution (1835-6), and was,
as long as he lived, a respected citizen of the
county, dying in Austin County in 1872, after
having passed the three-score years and ten allotted
«a-*<y(a2^
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
511
to man. Mrs. Cole was born in Austin County.
Her brother, James Shelby, was in the frontier ser-
vice of Texas and was murdered by Indians while
on the frontier some time during the " forties."
Mr. and Mrs. Cole have three daughters: Mrs.
Cora Hamill, Mrs. Lela Hill, and Thula, un-
married.
By industry and good management Mr. Cole has
accumulated a competency and is spending his
declining years in ease.
ISAAC VAN ZANDT,
MARSHALL.
The subject of this memoir was born in Frank-
lin County, Tenn., July 10, 1813. His parents
were Jacob and Mary Van Zandt. His father was
a native of North Carolina, the youngest son of
Jacob Van Zandt, who, about the beginning of this
century, moved out of the Moravian settlement in
that State, and established himself as an agricul-
turist in Franklin County, Tenn. His mother's
father, Samuel Isaacs, about the same time
migrated from South Carolina, and settled in Lin-
coln County, Tenn., an adjoining county to that
of Franklin. On both sides he came of revolution-
ary patriot ancestry. His grandfather Van Zandt
participated in several of the batles that won our
independence of the British Crown, and his grand-
father Isaacs, all through the war, was a zealous
and active follower of the fortunes of Marion in all
of his dashing and hazardous raids against the
English foemen, and their home allies, the traitor-
ous tories.
All through his boyhood and youth Isaac Van
Zandt was a victim of ill-health, and for this rea-
son his attendance at school was desultory, and not
as fruitful of educational benefit to him as it would
otherwise have been. But his enforced absence
from the school room gave him an opportunity to
indulge at his home his relish of good books. He
read with an ardent yearning to acquire a knowl-
edge of the subjects treated of in the volumes he
perused, and thus, perhaps, he fully compensated
himself for all the loss he sustained by being com-
pelled to forego scholastic instruction. With Eng-
lish literature and general history he became quite
conversant.
At the age of twenty he married Miss Fannie
Lipscomb, a relative of the late Chief Justice
Lipscomb, of Texas, and commenced merchandising
at Salem, in his native county, having his father
for a partner. This business, however, continued
only for a few months ; for, his father dying in
1834, the concern had to be wound up so as to
facilitate a speedy distribution of the paternal
estate among the heirs. As soon as this had been
effected, Isaac Van Zandt promptly sold for cash
his portion of the estate, consisting mainly of
land and negroes, and in 1835 went North and
invested the proceeds of his patrimony in a stock
of goods. This stock he shipped to Coffeeville,
Miss., and there resumed the mercantile bus-
iness, expecting to be a life-long merchant and
nothing else. This was the flush time in Missis-
sippi. Bank paper was abundant ; everything
vendible was bought and sold at high valuations ;
the credit system was in vogue and everybody went
deeply into debt. At length the bubble burst and
the culmination came in the shape of broken banks,
bankrupt tradesmen and a financially ruined people.
Having invested all he was worth in the Missis-
sippi mercantile adventure, when the crash came,
in 1837, Van Zandt found himself well-nigh penni-
less. He struggled for a time against the tide of
ill fortune, made every possible effort to collect the
debts due him, and pay off those he owed, but his
debtors, in most cases, neither by persuasion nor
court process could be induced to meet his de-
mands against them, and this failure to meet their
obligations to him made him impotent to meet his
creditors. Even bedding woven by the wife was
sold to meet the debts of the husband. As long as
he had anything that could be turned to the credit
side of his indebtedness, it took that direction and
he had the proud consciousness of knowing that he
had held back nothing to which, either by the law
of the land or that of moral obligation, his cred-
itors had a rightful claim. While residing at
Coffeeville, his talent for public speaking was first
developed. He became a member of a debating
club, consisting of the young lawyers and others of
the little town, and to his own surprise, as well as
that of others, he soon displayed a rare readiness
512
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
of speech and unusual aeuteness of argument in the
discussions that occurred. This almost purely
accidental discovery of a latent, and hitherto
unused talent, determined his future career in life,
for, shorn of all his property, he had no resource
but his native gift of intellect. He determined to
turn his attention to legal studies, took up the ele-
mentary books on English law, and by assiduous ap-
plication to a perusal of them, in somewhat less than
a year, so far mastered their contents as to obtain,
on due examination, admission to the bar. In this
manner his reverse of fortune proved to have been
a blessing in disguise, his commercial disaster
leading him to a pursuit for which his natural
abilities eminently fitted him. By this change of
vocation he speedily won back more than he had
lost pecuniarily as a merchant, and at the same
time achieved an honorable distinction among bis
fellow-men, far surpassing that which ordinarily
comes to the most successful follower of mere
trade. This success came to him in Texas, whither
he migrated, carrying with him his family, in 1838.
His first home in the young Eepublic was in Panola
County, at that time but lately organized and very
sparsely settled. An humble, lonely log cabin
there sheltered him and his loved ones for some
months. He did not locate himself in that county
with the intention of abiding there permanently,
but for economic reasons, and that, before offering
himself as a general practitioner of the law, he
might have a quiet retreat, where he might, by
private study, make himself familiar with the stat-
utes of the Republic, and the modes of procedure
in its courts. During their residence in that
-county, the hardships and privations of frontier
life in their sternest forms were the daily experi-
ence of himself and his family ; but his wife, who,
as well as he, had been nursed in the lap of plenty,
met the severe allotment with fortitude, and so
cheerfully bore herself through the ordeal of want
and discomfort, that no sense of discouragement
ever oppressed him. She was, verily, a helpmeet
to him in those days of adversity, and to her
unmurmuring accommodation of herself to her
<;hanged circumstances, and the words of cheer and
hope that came to him from her lips, he was greatly
indebted for the after success that crowned his
struggle with adverse fortune. Had a querulous,
discontented spirit influenced his life beneath that
lowly roof in Panola County, the energies of her
husband might have been sapped, and the outcome
of his career might have been very different from
what it was — an outcome that she now looks
back upon with just pride and pleasure. She
richly merits the quietude and affluence she now
enjoys in the evening of her days, underneath the
shade of the tree she helped her husband to plant,
during the dark time of their earlier Texian life.
In 1839 Isaac Van Zandt moved to Marshall and
engaged in the active practice of the law. Success
attended him from the start, and he rose rapidly
to the front among his legal competitors. Soon the
minds of the people around him turned upon him
as a suitable man to represent them in the Congress
of the Republic. To the sessions of 1840-41, with
great unanimit3' they sent him as their delegate to
the lower house of that legislative body, and the
zeal he manifested in this new sphere of action,
not only in behalf of the interests of his immediate
constituents, but of those of the people at large,
endeared him to the whole country, and the ability
he displayed in the committee rooms and on the
floor of the House, commanded the respect and ad-
miration of his co-legislators. He speedily became
a marked man both at the bar and in the halls of
legislation.
His next ofl9cial position was that of Charge
d'Affairs to the United States, which was conferred
upon him by President Houston, in 1842. During
the two years that he resided at Washington City,
as the diplomatic agent of the Republic, he labored
assiduously with the government to which he was
accredited, to bring about the annexation of Texas
to the United States, and when this measure had
become a certainty in the near future, he resigned
the oflSce and returned home.
In 1845 he was a delegate to the convention that
completed the work of annexation, and framed the
first constitution of the "Lone Star" State. In
that body there were many brilliant intellects, and
in the galaxy his was an orb of no mean magni-
tude. Some of the members were far older than he,
and among them, no doubt, could have been found
a profounder jurist than he as yet had had time to
become ; but on questions of State policy, and of
what was needful as component elements of the
organic law they were framing, he displayed a
wisdom that left its impress upon the instrument
that came from their hands, and won for him the
prestige of unusual statemanship.
In 1847 he was before the people of Texas as a
candidate for the office of Governor, and while
making an active, and what promised to be a suc-
cessful canvass of the State, he was stricken down
by yellow fever, at Houston, and died there on
the eleventh day of October. In fact, during the
canvass his election was recognized as a certainty.
His remains were transferred to Marshall, and by
loving hands laid in the city cemetery, where to his
memory they have reared a monument that will tell
■'--"• " *?■*'# -*i
MRS. ISAAC VAN ZANDT.
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
513
to the stranger where sleeps a man whom all Texians
of his day delighted to honor.
In person he was above the average stature, erect
and well proportioned. His head was covered with
abundant locks, that were as black as the raven's
plumage. His face was comely and attractive in a
marked degree ; his dark gray eyes sparkled with
intelligence, and his look habitually wore the im-
press of frankness and benignity. His carriage
was easy, graceful and dignified, and his manners
were urbane and courteous. In a word, none
could come near him and not feel that they were in
the presence of a true gentleman.
This sketch would be incomplete with no mention
of the fact that Isaac Van Zandt was a Christian.
From his early youth he had been a member of the
Baptist Church, and his exemplary walk in life
indicated that revealed truth had been heartily ac-
cepted by him, and been allowed to mould his
heart and character. The serene composure of his
dying hours, and the devout expressions of Chris-
tian hope and resignation that characterized them,
grandly witnessed that : —
" The chamber where the good man meets his fate,
Is privileged beyond the common walks
Of virtuous life — quite on the verge of Heaven."
MRS. F. C. VAN ZANDT,
FORT WORTH.
Mrs. F. C. Van Zandt was born in Louisa
County, Va., March 4th, 1816. Her parents,
William and Ann (Cooke) Lipscomb, were both
Virginians. In the fall of 1826 she, with the other
members of her father's family, moved to Franklin
County, Tenn. Her life here for the next
seven or eight years passed quietly and pleas-
antly. The State then afforded few opportunities
for the acquisition of that education acquired
through schools ; but, despite this disadvantage
the years of her girlhood, passed in the society of
a sainted mother, were by no means devoid of
broadening, educating influences. Even then she
began to evince that sweetness of disposition
and remarkable strength and force of character
that have all through life distinguished her ; that
rare blending of the clear foresight and cool judg-
ment of a man with the quick intuition and warm,
tender sympathy of a woman.
In December, 1833, she married Isaac Van Zandt,
afterwards such a prominent figure in Texas
history, and then barely upon the threshold of
manhood. Those older Texians now living who re-
member him, remember him as a man of noble and
commanding presence. Even as a youth his fine,
intellectual countenence, indicative of sensibility,
thought and purpose ; the grace and dignity of his
carriage and his polished and genial manners, gave
to him an air of distinctiou and inspired respect
and confidence.
Upon his death Mrs. Van Zandt was left with five
children, the oldest of them twelve years of age.
33
She had loved her husband with a strength and
depth of devotion that would have been impossible
in a woman of a less noble spirit ; but, now alone,
she calmly took up the work that the two had begun
and set herself first of all to the task of raising and
educating her children. The friend to whom she
looked for advice and help during the early years
of her widowhood was Mr., afterwards Colonel, J.
M. Clough, who had been her husband's partner,
and who later married her oldest daughter, Louisa.
Col. Clough relieved her as far as possible of all
business troubles and aided her no little in the
direction of her children. Mrs. Van Zandt had
joined the Primitive Baptist Church soon after her
marriage, but later became much interested in the
meetings of Alexander Campbell, and, convinced
that his views in regard to the Bible and the Church
were correct, in 1852, at the first opportunity
offered her, united with the Christian Church.
Four years later she took her younger children to
Tennessee to put them under the teaching of Mr.
Tolbert Fanning, at Franklin College. Her princi-
pal object in selecting this instructor and institu-
tion was to have them properly taught the Word of
God, for, above all things else, she desired them to
be Christian men and women. They returned to
Marshall when this school work was finished, and
there her children were married. To-day all of
them live in Fort Worth: Mrs. Clough, whose
husband, gallant Lieut. -Col. J. N. Clough, of the
Seventh Texas, was lulled at Fort Donelson ; Maj.
K. M. Van Zandt, Dr. I. L. Van Zindt, Mrs. E. J.
514
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Beall (with whom her mother makes her home),
and Mrs. J. J. Jarvis.
Mrs. Van Zandt is a woman remarkably
young for her years, which now number nearly
four score. She lives surrounded by her chil-
dren and her children's children, and finds re-
newed in them her own youth. An earnest, de-
voted Christian, one may see her in her accustomed
seat in church on almost every Sunday of the year.
Her faith is one of works, too, as well as prayer,
and all love her for the kind word and helping hand
so often given in time of trouble. Her only wish
has been realized — all of her children having grown
up to be active Christian men and women, honored
for their integrity and their adherence to what they
believe to be right. Their mother, with her un-
swerving faith in the Bible as an all-sufficient guide,
with her untiring earnestness in every good work;
and with her unfailing cheerfulness in every time of
trouble, is to them and their children a continual
inspiration to lead useful and worthy lives. Truly
that saying of her Master, than which there can be
no higher praise, maybe spoken of her also: "She
hath done what she could."
ALBERT E. DEVINE,
SAN ANTONIO.
Albert E. Devine, youngest son of the late Judge
Thomas J. Devine, was born March 28th, 1862, in
San Antonio, Texas, where he received his early
schooling. He took a literary course of study at
Rock Hill College, Maryland, and after making a
tour in South America and Africa attended Cum-
berland University, Tennessee, in 1883, from the
law department of vrhich he graduated the year fol-
lowing. He then visited the Paciflc Coast cities,
returned to San Antonio and engaged in stock rais-
ing in which he has excelled as a breeder of fine
registered and standard bred horses. At San
Antonio in 1882 was organized the banking firm of
Smith & Devine, of which he became a member.
He married, in 1890, Miss Bessie Weil, of San
Antonio, a daughter of Henry Weil, a well-known
stock-raiser of Southwestern Texas, long identified
with the best interests of that section.
One child has been born of this union. Mr.
Devine has never engaged in politics but under Gov-
ernor Culbertson served as a member of the Board
of Directors of the West Texas Insane Asylum.
He is a wide-awake, progressive and able man,
thoroughly in sympathy with all movements that
promise the promotion of the welfare of his people
and State.
JAMES H. ASTIN,
HEARNE,
James H. Astin was born in Marion County,
Ala., in November, 1833; came to Texas in 1854;
shortly thereafter went to California, where he fol-
lowed the life of a miner until 1859; returned to
Texas ; entered the Confederate army at the open-
ing of Ihe war between the States as a soldier in
Company I., Fourth Texas Cavalry, Hood's Brigade,
with which he served until severely wounded at the
battle of Chickamauga ; returned to Texas and settled
in Navarro County; in 1864 married Miss Celia
Allsbrook in that county, and a year later moved to
Bryan; followed various occupations for two or
three years and then rented a piece of land and
moved into the Brazos bottom; his sole earthly
possessions at that time were a wagon and a team
and ten dollars in money and a family consisting of
a wife and baby ; rented for ten years and then in
1877 made his first purchase ; has bought land from
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
515
time to time since and now owns 7,000 acres, 6,000
of which are under cultivation ; raises about 5,000
bales of cotton annually and is considered one
of the wealthiest planters in his section of the
State.
His wife died in December, 1874. She left him
four sons, James Robert, now an attorney at law at
Dallas ; William E. , a planter in Robertson County ;
John E. , on the farm with his father, and Joseph
P., bookkeeper in the Hearne National Bank.
In 1878 Mr. Astin married Miss Ona Ward, at
Bryan, Texas. The issue of this union has been
three children : Irwin, Daisy, and Roger Q. He is
a man of unbounded energy and exceptionally fine
judgment and is thorough-going in his business
methods. He has grown wealthy, as he expresses
it, "by hard knocks."
He is a representative of the Southern gentleman
and dispenses that hospitality which has rendered
his section famous from time immemorial.
While feeling a deep interest in the cause of
popular government and all that affects the destiny
of mankind, he has never sought nor desired, nor
would he accept, office. He is content to follow
out the lines of life that he has laid down for him-
self. He was one of the original projectors of the
Hearne & Brazos Valley Railroad, and is now a
stockholder in the company, Charitable, generous,
and public-spirited, he has been a potent factor for
good in his section of the State.
EMIL VOELCKER,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
A son of the late lamented pioneer, Julius Voelcker,
was born on his father's farm near New Braunfels,
July 24th, 1859 ; enjoyed the advantages of a good
business training ; pursued farming until 1890, and
then established himself in the furniture business
in New Braunfels, in which he has since continued.
He was elected to the City Council in 1893, and
re-elected in 1895.
He married, in 1872, Miss Caroline Zuehl, daugh-
ter of William Zuehl, a farmer of Guadalupe
County.
They have two children : Louise and Herbert.
DR. CHARLES T. SIMPSON,
TEMPLE,
Was born in Macon County, Ala., October 15,
1853. His parents were E. G. and A. W. Simp-
son, of Macon County, Ala. His father died at
the old home about eight years ago, and his
mother two years since (1893) at Temple, Texas.
They had four children, none of whom arrived at
maturity except Dr. Chas. T. Simpson, the subject
of this notice. Dr. Simpson completed his literary
education at the University of Georgia ; graduated
in medicine at the Alabama College, at Mobile,
Ala., in 1876 ; moved to Texas the following year
(1877), and settled in Bell County, near the pres-
ent site of Temple, where he has since made his
home, except during a period of three years, in
which he lived in San Antonio, where he moved on
account of ill-health in his family. He practiced
his profession while there, meeting with much suc-
cess.
After the inauguration of Hon. C. A. Cul-
berson as Governor of Texas, Dr. Simpson was
tendered and accepted the position of Superin-
tendent of the State Lunatic Asylum at Austin, an
office which be is filling in a manner worthy of his
high reputation as a physician. Dr. Simpson mar-
ried Miss Ida B. Williams, daughter of Dr. Duke
Williams, at Temple, Texas, in 1883. They have
516
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
three children: Edna, Kennedy, and Kate.
Learned in his profession, ripe in experience, firm
yet kind, and possessed of rare executive ability^
the Governor could have selected no better man
for Superintendent of the Lunatic Asylum, located
at the capital city.
HENRY D. GRUENE,
GOODWIN.
Born July 2.5th, 1850, in Comal County, Texas,
son of Ernest Gruene, a venerable Texian pioneer
still residentnear New Braunfels ; grew up to stock-
raising and trading, which he engaged in for several
years after reaching maturity, shipping large num-
bers of cattle to Kansas City and other Northern
markets.
In 1872 he married Miss Bertha, daughter of
F. Simon (deceased) a well-known pioneer who
came to New Braunfels in 1846. He has four
children, two sons and two daughters, viz. : Paula,
Otmar, Ella, and Max. Since going gyit of the
stock business he has resided near Goodwin, Comal
County. Has engaged at various times in milling,
merchandising and other enterprises and now owns
valuable property interests.
ALVIN MORGAN,
ALVIN.
Alvin Morgan, an estimable citizen of South-
eastern Texas, was born in Vermillion Parish,
La, July 15th, 1842 ; moved to Texas in 1855,
followed various occupations, and in 1879 was
employed by the railroad company to run the
pump at the water tank situated at the point on
the line where the thriving town of Alvin now
stands.
Impressed with the natural beauty and the rich-
ness of the soil of the surrounding country he, in
1882, purchased 1,280 acres of land from the State
and twelve acres from a non-resident owner. Upon
this tract the first part of the town of Alvin, named
in his honor, was built. Mr. Morgan was the first
Justice of the Peace for the place, and was for two
years engaged in merchandising. He married at
Victoria, Texas, Miss Sarah E. Hayes, daughter of
Rudolph Hayes, a stock-raiser of Brazoria County.
She died in 1861, leaving two children, Olivia and
Alvin Morgan, Jr. His second marriage was to
Miss Ecephaney Hoffpauer. They have one child,
a daughter, Mary Alice, now Mrs. T. M. Savell, of
Alvin.
Alvin has become famous as the center and ship-
ping point for the finest fruit-growing region of
Texas.
WESLEY OGDEN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
517
WESLEY OGDEN,
SAN ANTONIO.
The late Judge Wesley Ogden, deceased June
16th, 1896, was for many years a prominent figure
in Texas as pioneer, lawyer and judge. He was
born in Monroe County, N. Y., the year 1817,
and was the fifth child of Benjamin and Lucy
(Johnson) Ogden, both of Pennsylvania. His
paternal grandfather was William Ogden, also a
Pennsylvanian by birth, whose father was one of
two brothers who came from England and settled
in that State. The other brother located in New
York State, where he became the founder also of a
large and influential family. William Ogden was a
soldier of the Kevolutionary War, who finally located
a large tract of land in Pennsylvania at the head-
waters of the Ohio river. Judge Ogden's maternal
ancestors were of German descent. His maternal
grandfather, Moses Johnson, was born in Pennsyl-
vania.
Benjamin Ogden was married in Pennsylvania
and soon after settled in Monroe County, N. Y.,
then a new and almost uninhabited section of
the country. There he pioneered as a famer. He
served as an officer under Gen. Winfield Scott in
the War of 1812 and participated in the battle of
Luudy's Lane and other historic engagements. He
_died in the year 1833. His wife, Mrs. Lucy Ogden,
died while her son, Wesley, was yet an infant.
Born on what was then the Western frontier, of
thrifty, yet humble parents, reared in a wild
country as one of the common people, he proved,
however, to be of no common mould. He was
accorded and took full advantage of such schools
as the country' then afforded, after which he
attended the local district school, then took an
academic course of study, and later rounded off
his studies with a brief course at Brockport College,
N. Y.
He began life for himself as a school teacher in
Summit County, Ohio. Later he studied law at
Akron, Ohio, and was admitted to the bar of that
State in the year 1845. He soon thereafter returned
to New York and taught school in the city of
Rochester from 1845 to 1849.
Owing to poor health, he then, upon the advice
of a physician, sought a milder climate, and in so
doing landed at Port Lavaca, Texas, late in 1849.
The change proved most beneficial and he there
soon entered upon the practice of law. In 1866 he
was appointed United States District Attorney for
the Tenth Judicial District of Texas. He filled
that position for about one year and was then made
Judge of the District, the duties of which office he
most ably and acceptably discharged until the fall
of 1870.
The following January he was appointed an Asso-
ciate Judge of the Supreme Court of Texas by Gov-
ernor E. J. Davis. He sat on the Supreme Bench
four years, the last year as Presiding Justice.
He then retired from the bench and in 1874 loca-
ted at San Antonio and there successfully practiced
law until the year 1888 when he retired to the
shades of a quiet, peaceful and attractive home in
that city. Judge Ogden was twice married, first in
1845 to Miss Jane Church, of Albion, N. Y., a
sister of Hon. Sanford E. Church, for many years
the Chief Justice of the Court of Appeals of New
York. She died in Texas in the year 1853, leaving
three children, viz. : Helen, who is the wife of Hon.
Sam. M. Johnson, of San Antonio ; Henry, who died
in 1865, and Hon. Charles W. Ogden, an able mem-
ber of the Bexar County bar, resident at San
Antonio.
^ His second wife was Miss Elizabeth Chester, of
New York, whom he married in 1858. Of this
union five children were born, viz. : Lillian, who is
the wife of Mr. Edward F. Glaze, of San Antonio ;
Miss Mary S., who is living at home; Alma, who
is the wife of Lieut. Wm. Brooke, United States
army, a son of Gen. Brooke; Wm. B., in the
Government employ in the Alaska Sealing Service,
and Miss Ida, living at home. Judge Ogden was
a life-long and consistent Republican. His father
a member of the old Whig party, he imbibed its
doctrines and faithfully adhered to the main
features of its political faith to the last. He
began the practice of law with ample qualifications
and steadily advanced to the attainment of high
professional eminence. He was a lawyer of splen-
did abilities and a judge of clear and profound
discrimination.
518
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
CHARLES W. OGDEN,
SAN ANTONIO.
A leading member of the Bexar County bar, was
born in Calhoun County, Texas, April 6th, 1852,
and is a son of the late Judge Wesley Ogden, a
biography of whom appears elsewhere in this work.
Mr. Ogden completed his literary education at
the Tex:as Military Institute at Austin, afterwards
read law in his father's ofSce, and was admitted to
practice in 18 . He located in San Antonio in
18 , and is one of the foremost lawyers, of South-
west Texas. He is a Republican in politics and
one of the leaders of his party in the State.
Mr. Ogden was united in marriage to Miss Cora
Savage, a lady of domestic and social culture, who
presides over one of the finest homes in San
Antonio. They have two children, Ira Charles and
Herbert Savage.
No citizen of San Antonio is more highly re-
spected than Charles W. Ogden and his influence
in matters of public concern is always exerted in
the interests of good government and modern
advancement.
L. H., D. H., AND W. A. ROWAN,
BRAZORIA COUNTY.
Pleasant Bayou Rancho is situated in Brazoria
County, twenty-five miles southwest from the city
of Galveston, and fronts upon the bay. It is
bounded upon one side by Hall's bayou and on the
opposite side by Chocolate bayou, navigable for
twenty miles. Ten and one-half miles of the best
wire fence, running from Chocolate to Hall's
bayou, completes the inclosure, which embraces
31,540 acres of land, 3,000 of which are heavily
timbered. A number of never-failing streams
water the place, among the number Pleasant
bayou, from which it derives its name.
The line of the Mexican Central R. R. passes
directly through the estate, and a depot is situated
six miles distant from the dwelling house, which is
a typical and beautiful old-time Southern home.
The barns, sheds, corrals, cross-fencing and all
other appurtenances are fully up to the best
employed by the most scientific and progressive
stock-raisers in other sections of the country. The
land consists of a variety of soils, from sandy loam
to dark, rich, chocolate-colored alluvial soil,
adapted to the growth of sea-island cotton, corn,
oats and all kinds of grasses, grains, vegetables,
berries and fruits known to a semi-tropical clime.
Oranges, lemons and bananas could be grown.
Each month of the year could be made to yield its
delicious fruits.
The rancho is centrally situated in the famous
sugar-raising district of Texas, than which there is
none better in the Southern States. The topog-
raphy of the country is practically level, the ground
rising from the sea toward the interior with
a gentle slope. The drainage is superb, the
mean temperature about 68° and, in conse-
quence of these facts and there being no local
causes for disease, the rancho is considered one of
the most salubrious spots in the State. The nights
are alwaj's cool, and a grateful and refreshing
breeze throughout the warmest summer days blows
continuously from the Gulf of Mexico. Shell fish
and game are abundant. Boats land within a short
distance of the mansion house, and from the
balcony of its second story can be viewed wide ex-
panses of Galveston Bay, and the Gulf of Mexico
beyond, with ships passing and repassing, with
their snowy sails spread to favoring gales like the
wings of swift-flying and graceful birds.
The house is surrounded by a magniflcent grove
of fig trees that bear two crops a year. There are
about three thousand head of cattle on the place.
The rancho was established by Stephen F. Austin,
the father of Texas, and was purchased by the
present owners, Messrs. L. H., D. N. and W. A.
Rowan, from his heirs. He had all the country,
from Red river to the Gulf and from the Sabine to
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
519
the Rio Grande, to select from. He chose this fer-
tile and ideally romantic and beautiful spot in
preference to others, which he considered less at-
tractive.
The early Texians confined themselves mainly to
raising stock and such crops as were absolutelj' es-
sential for the subsistence of man and beast. They
little dreamed of the possibilities of the soil of the
section in which Pleasant Rancho is situated. It and
all the country contiguous to the town of Alvin has
developed within the past five years into'a horticul-
tural region more wonderfully prolific than any in
California. Thousands of dollars have been in-
vested, fortunes have been and are being
made in this line of industry, and it is probable
that the days of Pleasant Rancho as a stock farm
are numbered, as orchards, strawberry fields and
the establishments of florists who raise rare flowers
for Northern markets are encroaching upon it
from all sides except that laved by the languorous
waters of the Gulf. L. H., D. N. and W. A.
Rowan are sons of Mr. James and Mrs. Jane Rowan
(of Irish parentage and natives of Lisbon, St. Law-
rence County, New York), and were born respect-
ively in Newburg, Lenox and Adlington counties,
Canada. Mr. James Rowan was a member of the
Lisbon Rifles, and as such participated in the battle
of Ogdensburg during the War of 1812. He was for
a time the owner of a saw mill and flouring mill
plant and engaged in general merchandising in
Canada, and thereafter moved to New York, where
he engaged in the manufacture of lumber at Wood-
hull, Oneida County, and conducted a wholesale
and retail lumber business in the city of Brooklyn.
His wife's father was Maj. Armstrong, a gallant
soldier of the War of 1812, who, like himself, faced
the British and burnt gunpowder at the battle of
Ogdensburg. In 1876 D. N. Rowan, a lawyer in
the city of New York, where he still resides, visited
Texas and, seeing Pleasant Bayou Rancho, was
much pleased with its situation and various advan-
tages, and bought an interest in the property from
the heirs of Austin for himself and brothers L. H.
and W. A. Rowan, and later purchased the re-
mainder of the tract.
L. H. Rowan, also an able lawyer, came to Texas
in 1877, and so well pleased has he been with his
new home that, save for occasional trips to the
North, he has since remained here and practiced
his profession. His wife was a Miss Gray, of
Lisbon, N. Y. They have one child, a daugh-
ter, Mrs. G. B. Philhower, now living at Nutley,
N. J.
W. A. Rowan moved to Texas with his family in
1878 and has since made this State his home. He
has been twice married, first to Miss Golden, of
Virginia, by whom he had one child, a daughter,
who died in Alvin, Texas, in 1894 ; and second to
his present wife. Miss Ford, a native of Texas and
a daughter of Judge Spencer Ford, of Bryan. She
has borne him four children : Spencer Ford, Charles
Louis, Robert Livingston, and Archibald Hamilton
Rowan.
The Messrs. Rowan are wide-awake, progressive
men who are thoroughly in sympathy with all
movements designed for the upbuilding of the
country, and few gentlemen land-holders in South-
eastern Texas have a wider circle of friends.
ANDREW FISCHER,
COMFORT,
A well-known and esteemed citizen of Comfort, is a
son of Andrew Fischer, deceased, a native of Prus-
sia, who came to Texas in 1868, bringing with him
his wife and five children, viz. : Caroline, Frilz,
Dora, Amelia and Augusta. His other children,
William, Elizabeth, and Andrew, came in 1871.
William and Andrew (the latter the subject of this
sketch) were soldiers in the Prussian army, and
therefore could not come with the family in 1868.
The journey was made by sea froni Bremen to Gal-
veston and Indianola and overland to Sisterdale,
Texas. One year later the family moved to the
present Fischer home near Comfort. Andrew
Fischer, Sr., died in 1874, at about fifty-six, and
his wife in 1883, at sixty-three years of age. Caro-
line Fischer married Joseph Guissler. She is now
a widow and lives at Waring. Dora is Mrs. Charles
Ochse, of San Antonio ; Amelia is Mrs. Charles
Roggenbucke, of Comfort, and Elizabeth is Mrs.
Gottleib Fellbaum, of Comfort. Andrew Fischer,
Jr., was born June 27, 1848. He married, March
8, 1875, Miss Willhemina Boerner, daughter of
520
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Henry Boerner. She was born in Texas, February September 29, 1876 ; Lena, born March 3, 1880,
25, 1857. They have three sons and one daughter, and Alexander, born December 4, 1882. Mr.
viz. : William, born December 6, 1875 ; Henry, born .Fischer has a good farm of 145 acres.
WILLIAM DIETERT,
BOERNE.
The late William Dietert, of Boerne, was borne
June 21, 1830, in the province of Bradenburg,
Germany ; landed at Galveston in 1855, with his
brother. Christian, and at once proceeded from that
place to Comfort, in Kendall County, where they
found work as wheelwrights. Two years later Mr.
Dietert went to Boerne, where he established a saw-
mill and grist-mill, run at first by water power, which
he developed by the construction of dams across the
stream and later by steam. The mill burned some
years since. In his milling enterprise he was joined
by a younger brother, Henry, still a resident of
Boerne. The later years of Mr. Dietert' s life were
devoted to agriculture. His father was Frederick
Dietert, a wheelwright, who came to this country
from the Province of Bradenburg in 1856, bringing
with him four sons: Christian, now a resident of
Kerrville, in Kerr County; William, the subject of
this notice; Fritz, a citizen of Comfort, Henry,
a citizen of Boerne ; and a daughter, Lena, now
Mrs. Joe Wiedenhammer, of San Antonio, all born in
Germany.
William Dietert married, in 1860, Miss Rose Berg-
man, a daughter of Joseph Bergman, a deceased
pioneer of Kendall County, mentioned elsewhere in
this work. Mr. Dietert died in March, 1894, leav-
ing a wide circle of friends, a bereaved widow and
nine children to mourn his departure. His children
are: Theodore, Annite, Ida, Edward, Ernest, Olga,
Minnie, Alma, and Rosa, all born in Kendall
County, this State. Ida is the wife of Joe Dinger,
a merchant of Boerne.
FREDERICK HOLEKAMP,
COIVIFORT,
Came to Texas in 1845 as a passenger aboard the
'■' Johann Dethard" on her first voyage to this
country, with one of the first party of German colo-
nists who settled in Texas. The ship was laden with
two-hundred and twenty-eight passengers, gathered
from the kingdom of Hanover, and other portions of
Germany, by the German Emigration Company,
which was then under the direction of Prince Solms,
who accompanied the voyagers to their new homes.
Frederick Holekamp was born in Hanover, January
22,.1812. After completing his education at the Uni-
versity he engaged in the manufacture of brick, and
farming, in his native land. His father, Daniell
Holekamp, a builder and contractor, never came to
America. Frederick Holekamp, subject of this
notice, married, March 17, 1844, Miss Betty Wilheli-
mena Abbethern, a daughter of Henry Christian
Abbethern, who was a member of the household of
King Ernest August, then King of Hanover, holding
the position of Ministerial Accountant, which he
filled until the time of his death. Mr. and Mrs.
Holekamp set sail for America in the full glow of
youth and hope to make for themselves a home in
the new world. They landed at Galveston, Novem-
ber 24, 1844, and proceeded overland to New
Braunfels, where Mr. Holekamp was among the
first to have a head-right allotted to him by the
colony. Here he remained for about two years and
then went to Fredericksburg, where he also lived for
two years. He later lived for three years at Sister,
dale and still later for a time near San Antonio on
a farm. In 1854 he located with his famiy at
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
521
Comfort, which lias since been his home. During
•the late Civil War Mr. Holekamp served the Con-
federacy as a member of Capt. Kampman's Com-
pany and died in September, 1862, of wounds
received in the service. His remains were interred
near the camp ground where he expired. The
exact spot is now unknown. He left a widow and
seven children: George, Justice, Daniell, Dora,
Ernest, Johanna, and Bettie. George now lives at
Comfort and is one of Kendall County's most pros-
perous and influential farmers. He was born at
New Braunfels, Comal County, August 7, 1846;
married Miss Fannie, daughter of Oscar Von Rog-
genbuske in Kerr County, in 1871, and has eight
children: Ida, Dora, Fritz, Moritz, Elsie, Oscar,
Kurt, and Richard. Mr. Von Roggenbuske was an
early Texas pioneer and died in 1887.
Julius, the second oldest of the family, was born
at Sisterdale, June 10, 1849. He married Miss
Susan Fricke at Roundtop, Fayetteville, in 1 876 , and
has eight children: Paul, Bodo, Norman, Louis,
Ella, Alma, Erna, and an infant. He is a farmer
and lives at Comfort.
Daniell, a well-known and influential business
man at Comfort, was born at San Antonio, April
13, 1851. He married Miss Frames, a daughter
of Theodore Wiedenfeld, of Comfort, in 1884.
They have five children: Otto, Edgar, Clara,
Agnes, and Daniell, Jr.
Dora was born August 9, 1864, in Nevr Braun-
fels. She married Paul Karger, a farmer living
near Comfort, and they have five children : Otto,
Elizabeth, Alfred, Bettie, and George.
Johanna, born at Comfort, August 21, 1856, is
now the widow of the late F. G. Harner, and lives
at Comfort. She has three children : Alex, Minnie,
and Chester.
Ernest is a merchant of Johnson City, Texas.
He was born at Comfort, March 2, 1859, and mar-
ried Miss Dora Muegge at San Antonio, in 1835.
They have four sons: Julius, Edwin, Walter, and
Conrad.
Bettie was born at Comfort, February 14, 1862,
and is now the widow of the late Henry Sehmelter.
She lives at Comfort and has two children : Matilda
and Mjrtha.
To Mrs. Frederick Holekamp belongs the dis-
tinction of having made the first American flag that
floated to the breezes at the old colonial town
of New Braunfels. It was made from the cloth of
various old garments of suitable colors, gathered
from settlers. It bore the lone star in the blue
fleld and wa? about two yards long and of propor-
tionate width. Its unfurling on the public square
gave offense to Prince Solms, the then governor
and dictator of the colony, indicating as it did the
appreciation of the fact by the immigrants that they
had found a home in a free and independent coun-
try.
Mrs. Holekamp still survives, a quiet old lady
whose life has been devoted to the welfare of her
children and grandchildren and crowned with their
love and veneration.
Her home is in the peaceful and romantic little
town of Comfort, where she has passed so many
years of a busy life. -
WILLIAM WEIDNER,
BULVERDE,
Is one of the substantial farmers of the moun-
tain district of Comal County. His father, Frede-
rick Weidner, came to Texas in 1854 from Saxony,
Germany, where he was born, reared and learned
the trade of a weaver of linen fabrics. After
coming to Texas he engaged in farming on rented
land near New Braunfels until 1858 and then pur-
chased 160 acres of land, a portion of the present
home of his son, Charles Weidner. Here the
family grew up. William Weidner, the subject of
this notice, had already attained manhood when his
parents came to Texas.
The names of the children of Frederick Weidner
(all born in Germany except Joseph, who was born
in New Braunfels), are as follows: William,
Christine Liberecht, Adolf, Charles, Emilie,
Auguste, and Joseph. Auguste died at twelve
years of age in 1856.
Frederick Weidner was twice married. William,
Christine Liberecht and Adolf are children by his
first wife, whose maiden name was Christine Waner.
She died in Germany in 1848. His second marriage
was to Miss Frederica Lombatch.
William Weidner was born in Saxony, April 20,
522
INDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
1835, and was over eighteen years of age when he
came to Texas with his father in 1854. After com-
ing to Texas he worked as a laborer on farms for a
time and later went to San Antonio, where he worked
for Herrmann Kampmann. He served as a soldier
in Capt. Kampmaun's Company from the fall of
1861 to 1865 during the war between the States,
spending one year in La Grange in a hat factory
established by the Confederate States government.
After the war he located in New Braunfels and
manufactured hats for a year, and later formed a
partnership with three others, for the manufacture
of sash, doors and blinds, a connection which lasted
for three years.
Mr. Weidner located on his present farm in 1871.
It now consists of 400 acres of good farming and
grazing lands. He had a fine home and an inter-
esting family. He has been for years trustee of
the public free schools and has served as County
Commissioner of Comal County,
Mr. Weidner has been twice married. His first
wife was Miss Cora Render, to whom he was mar-
ried in January, 1868. She died in November of
that year leaving him one child, Hermann Weidner,
as a pledge of her affection. He married his
second wife, Mrs. Marie Kram, widow of Henry
Kram, and a daughter of Andrees Langbeen, of
Sisterdale, in Kendal County, 1871. By this union
five children have been born: Clara, Natalie, Alvine,
Gustav, and Bertha. Three children are deceased.
JEROME C. KEARBY,
DALLAS.
Jerome C. Kearby, nominee of the People's party
for the oflice of Governor of Texas, was born in
Arkadelphia, Ark., on May 21st, 1848. His father.
Dr. E. P. Kearby, who now resides in Eains County,
moved to Texas in 1856, stopping first in Hunt
County and in 1857 located in Denton County,
where the subject of this brief sketch was reared.
His early boyhood was spent on a horse ranch.
At the age of thirteen years he entered the Con-
federate army, as a private in Capt. Otis G.
Welch's company. Cooper's regiment, which was
composed of two white and eight Indian companies.
He remained in this service one year. In 1862 his
company attached itself to the Twenty-ninth Texas
Cavalry, commanded by Charles De Morse as
Colonel, with Welsh as Lieutenant-Colonel, and the
late Judge Joe Carrol as Major. With this regi-
ment he served until the close of the war, in Com-
pany E., commanded by Capt. Matt Daughtery.
After the war he began the study of law at Mc-
Kinney, under Judge R. L. Waddill, and continued
under him until his death, which occurred in 1867.
He then continued his studies under Col. Otis G.
Welsh at Denton.
In 1869 he obtained license to practice law and
began the study of his profession in Van Zandt
County in that year. In June, 1875, he located
in Dallas, where he has since resided and prac-
ticed his profession.
As this book is being put to press, the campaign
of 1896 is at its hottest, and Mr. Kearby is en-
gaged in a canvass of the State, in which he is
bearing himself with his usual ability. Whatever
the outcome, he will have the satisfaction of know-
ing that he has discharged his every duty to the
party that honored him with the nomination as its
chief standard-bearer in Texas.
JEROME C. KEARBY.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
623
W. C. BURRIER,
FREDERICKSBURG.
Capt. W. C. Barrier was born in Fredericks
County, Md., January 1st, 1821, fought under Gen.
Zachary Taylor in the war between the United
States and Mexico and was severely wounded in the
hard-fought battle of Buena Vista, and in 1848 after
the close of the war, located near Red Rock, in
Bastrop County, Texas, where he followed farming
for many years.
He married Miss Mary Bell, daughter of Jesse
Bell (one of the first settlers of Bastrop County),
at Cedar creek, in 1847.
Four children were born of this union, viz. :
Richard M., a leading merchant and dealer in live-
stock at Fredericksburg, and John, James and
William, well-to-do farmers in Gillespie County.
Capt. Burrier joined Parson's Fourth Texas Cav-
alry at the beginning of the war between the States
and, after the expiration of the term for which he
first enlisted, re-enlisted in Grady's Company, with
which he served along the Gulf Coast until the close
of hostilities. He has been a resident of Fredericks-
burg, Gillespie County, for about thirteen years,
and no citizen of that part of the State is better
known or more highly respected. Richard M. Bur-
rier, eldest son of Capt. W. C. Burrier, was born
in Bastrop County, Texas, June 13th, 1849. He
was married to Miss Sarah Stevens in Caldwell
County, this State. They have eight children,
viz.: William R., Mary, John, Edward F., Elma,
Myrtle, Katy, and James.
HENRY BAUER,
SEQUIN,
Is a native of Wiesbaden, the capital city of the
formerly dukedom of Nassau, Germany. He came
to America in 1849 ; stopped for a short time at
New Braunfels and finally located about six miles
west of Seguin on the Guadalupe river, where he
erected a log house with the aid of his friend
August Dietz, who had come over from Germany
with him, and engaged in farming. Full of the
vigor of youth and possessed of a courageous spirit
they began their settlement by fencing and plowing
thirty acres of land surrounding their simple dwell-
ing. Mr. Bauer afterwards moved and improved
two other places, which he afterwards sold. Mr.
Dietz having sold the old place, Mr. Bauer repur-
chased it in 1876 and from that time has continu-
ously resided thereon, bringing it up to a perfect
state of improvement. Hardy for one of his age,
and healthy, he enjoys the pleasures of a quiet old
life, in the society of the family of his nephew, the
son of his beloved sister, who after a few years
sojourning with him, found her last resting-place
in the new land of their adoption.
FRITZ VOCES,
BULVERDE,
Son of Henry Voges, Sr., was born April 17,
1843, in Germany ; and is a thrifty and well-to-do
farmer of Voges' Valley, Comal County. He mar-
ried, July 31, 1869, Miss Sophia, a daughter of
Charles Koch, Esq., of Anhalt, and has three
children living, viz. : Otto, Louise, and Frederick.
Louise is now Mrs. Alfred Toepperwein, of Bexar
County. Otto married Augusta, a daughter of
Mr. L. Weidner, of Bulverde.
Mr. Voges has one of the finest vineyards in
Comal County and his elegant home at Voges
Valley is the seat of old-time hospitality.
524
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
AUGUST FALTIN,
COMFORT,
A representative citizen and business man of
Kendall County, for many years past a resident
and stocii-raiser at Comfort, was born in Prussia,
July 19, 1830. His father, Frederick Faltin, was a
merchant at Dantzig, Germany. August Faltin
was reared and disciplined in that calling, and
embarlied in business for himself at Leipsic. He
was married in Germany, in 1856, to Miss Clara
Below, a daughter of Edward Below, an officer of
ranit in the Prussian army, detailed at that time as
director of a government gun factory. Mrs. Faltin
was born in Leipsic, January 30, 1835.
Mr. and Mrs. Faltin touched American soil at
New Orleans, from which city they came to Gal-
veston, New Braunfels, and thence on to Comfort,
where he engaged in merchandising and stock-
raising for a period of about thirty-five years and
then, in 1889, retired from active business pursuits,
in which he has been succeeded by his sons,
Richard and August, under the firm name of
Faltin Bros. & Co.
Mr. and Mrs. Faltin have six children living, viz. .
Helen, who was born January 17, 1857, and mar-
ried Dan Holeckamp, and died in 1880, at twenty-
three years of age, leaving two sons and one
daughter ; Elise, who was born July 1st, 1859, is
now Mrs. Ernst Flach ; Jennie, who was born April
27, 1861, and is now Mrs. Otto Flach; Richard,
who was born June 23, 1863, and married Miss
Alvina Steves, of Comfort, Texas; August, who
was born September 2d, 1870, and married Miss
Erna Flato, of Flatonia, Texas ; and Mimi Emilia,
who was born March 7th, 1866.
Mr. Faltin has been one of the most successful
and enterprising business men In his part of the
State. For ten years (from 1870 to 1880) he was
a partner with Charles Schreiner in the mercantile
business at Kerrville and from 1880 to 1890 at the
head of the merchandising firm of Faltin &
Schreiner, of Junction City. He has also filled
large contracts for government supplies.
The Faltin mansion at Comfort is one of the
most luxurious and complete family residences in
that section of the country.
CHARLES FORDTRAN,
INDUSTRY.
Charles Fordtran was born in Westphalia, May
7, 1801. His father was John H. Fordtran, who
was a native of Schleilz, a province of Saxony.
The stock came originally from France, being
Huguenots who refugeed to Germany after the
revocation of the Edict of Nantz, in 1685. They
were a wealthy and intelligent class of people,
being manufacturers of soap, wax candles, and
perfumeries, etc., and carried the knowledge of
the production of these articles into Germany,
where it was kept in the family for generations.
The father of the subject of this sketch was en-
gaged in this business, and wished his son Charles
to follow it, but it was not to his liking, and as
soon as he was old enough he gave it up. Charles
got but little education, Europe during his early
youth being in the throes of the wars brought on
by Napoleon, in which every available man, whether
a member of a learned profession or not, was
forced into military service, teachers among the
rest. He was reared in Minden, and received ex-
cellent home training, and the benefit of good books
to read, which compensated in some measure for
lack of scholastic training.
He sailed from Hamburg for New York in 1830,
which place he reached in due course of time. At
New York he met a number of his countrymen,
and received valuable suggestions from them con-
cerning the new country. Among these was John
Jacob Astor, then engaged in laying the founda-
tion for that fortune which has since made his
name known everywhere.
Mr. Fordtran relates that he took a walk with
Mr. Astor one afternoon to what was then the out-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
425
skirts of the city, and in a conversation concerning
the city's growth, Mr. Astor said, that the metrop-
olis would soon cover the vast scope of country
then embraced in farms, and that there was the
place for young men to invest their earnings.
While in New York, and still undecided as to
where he would settle, Mr. Fordtran met the
former gardener of the Duke of Oldenburg, of his
native country, who, through some unfavorable
literature to change their destination to Texas,
and, accordingly, reached Austin's settlements on
the Brazos early in January, 1831.
There Mr. Fordtran met Padre Muldoon, Samuel
M. Williams and other men of local note, by whom
he was welcomed and soon made to feel at home.
Col. Williams gave him his first employment, name-
ly, making the boundary of the two leagues of land
which he (Williams) had secured as a grant from
CHARLES FORDTRAN.
turn of fortune, had been reduced to poverty, and
was anxious to go West and begin life anew. Mr.
Fordtran volunteered to help the gardener and his
good wife out, and as their guide and counselor
took passage on a ship bound for one of the South-
ern ports, whence the party designed going to the
then newly created State of Missouri. A^board the
ship they fell in with an enterprising Yankee who
had some interests in Texas and who was distrib-
uting literature, telling of the wonders of the coun-
try. They were induced by Mr. Yankee and his
Stephen F. Austin. Mr. Fordtran was given one
of these leagues for surveying and locating the
other.
After being in the country something over a year
he was stricken down with fever and becoming dis-
couraged determined to return North. He had im-
proved his land in the meantime and collected about
him some stock and implements of husbandry. He
offered all his possessions for $1,000, but could not
find a purchaser, and finally left what he had in the
hands of friends and started away in search of
526
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
health. He accepted an invitation from Capt.
Henry Austin and made a stay of about three weeks
at his house at Billiver Point, after which he went
to Mississippi in company with Nathaniel Townsend
to visit a brother of the latter, Judge Townsend, a
wealthy and hospitable gentleman of that State.
His stay in Mississippi resulted in making him a
number of warm, personal friends and in a complete
restorationof his health, and he returned toTexaswith
the determination of making it his home in the future.
He made a contract with Col. Samuel M. Williams to
bring in for Austin's colony 800 families, for which
he was to have liberal donations of land. He went
to New Orleans where large numbers of his country-
men and others were rendezvousing preparatory to
going to South America, where extensive coloniza-
tion schemes were then on foot, and there under-
took to secure settlers to carry out his contract with
Williams. But interested parties soon started the re-
port that the Texians were only beguiling the ignorant
foreigners to the Mexican provinces to sell them into
slavery and so strongly were the intending settlers
persuaded of this that they could not be induced
to come to the country. Mr. Fordtraa threw up
his contract in disgust, and returning to Texas
settled on a tract of land in what is now Austin,
County, where he began making permanent improve-
ments with the intention of thereafter making it his
home.
Shortly afterwards he became acquainted with
Miss Amelia Brookfield, whom he married in 1834,
and with whom he took up his abode on his home-
stead. She was born in Detroit, Mich., and was
a daughter of William and Lalliet Brookfield,
who emigrated from New York to Texas in 1831
and soon after coming to this State located in
what is now Fayette County. As a civil engineer
and Indian fighter William Brookfield had consider-
able to do with the early history of Austin's colony
and of Texas, and is remembered for his patriotic
services by the few of his old associates still living.
He was a man of wide learning, an orator of ability
and an author of some note, having published just
before his death in 1847, a book in the defense of
the Jews. He raised a family of four sons and two
daughters. His oldest son, Charles, served on the
side of the colonists in the revolution of 1835-6.
Charles, Frank and Walter were volunteers in the
Texas contingent of the United States army in the
war of 1846-8, with Mexico. Walter died in Mexico.
Charles is supposed to have been murdered by his
Mexican servant. Frank has also passed away
and now dwells above. Edward, the youngest of
the four brothers, was frequently in the ranging ser-
vice helping to keep back the marauding bands of
Mexicans and Indians until their final dispersion
and removal from the country. He also lies at
rest. The daughters of William Brookfield were
Mrs. Emma Evans, wife of Vincent Evans, and
Mrs. Amelia Fordtran, wife of Charles Fordtran.
Mr. Fordtran's home at the time of his marriage
was on the outskirts of civilization and he saw and
experienced all there was of frontier life. His nar-
ratives touching the ways of getting on in those
days, the long distances they went for supplies, the
dangers encountered, etc., are most interesting.
He was one of those who always held himself in
readiness to go to the relief of any section of the
country that was attacked or threatened by the
Indians, and for years after coming to the coun-
try he was in every campaign organized to repel
the redskins from Austin's colony, and was a
member of a number of rescuing parties. In the
vicinity of his own home he assisted in saving Mrs.
Williams and Mrs. Peltis from capture and helped
several times to drive off the Toncahuas, who car-
ried on an extensive scheme of stealing under the
direction of one Ross, a disreputable character.
On the occasion of the invasion of the country
under Santa Anna in 1835-36, Mr. Fordtran joined
Capt. Bird's company of the Spy Rangers and
assisted.in protecting the outlying settlements from
attack by Indians and in facilitating the escape of
those families who were in the path of the invaders.
The service so rendered was the only public service
ever performed by him. He has never cared for
ofllce and when urged in an earlier day to become
a candidate persistently refused to do so. He was
opposed to annexation and secession, but had four
sons in the Confederate army during the late war.
He brought up a family of nine children, viz. :
William, who died in Fayette County ; Portia wife
of Dr. G. C. McGregor, of Waco; Eugene H.,
Frank, who died in the Confederate army during
the war; Charles, Jr., of Waco; Louisa^ wife of
M. A. Healy, of Brenham ; Ann, who was married
to J. L. Hill, of Galveston, both of whom are
deceased; Josephine, wife of G. H. Mensing, of
Galveston ; and Sarah, wife of James B. Baker, of
Waco, and has more than sixty grandchildren. His
beloved wife died in November, 1888. Dur ng
slavery days Mr. Fordtran's was one of the best
known country p aces around, well furnished, open
to all, and abounding in all good things — good
society, good music, good cheer, etc., etc..
Asked to what he attributed his great age and
remarkable vitality (for he still goes about every
day, the same as for the past seventyr five years),
he said, to a naturally strong constitution and to
correct modes of living. He has always led an
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
527
active outdoor life and has been strictly temperate
in his habits. He is fond of good books, the
society of young people and good music and has
grown old gracefully.
He is a remarkable man — a veteran and citizen
whose life has been full of usefulness to those about
him and of honor to his country', to whose pros-
perity and glory he has so materially contributed.
CAPTAIN C. B. HOBRON,
BOERNE,
Was born in New London, Conn., January 23,
1830. Descended from an old Connecticut sea-
faring family. Capt. Hebron's early life was spent
at New London. He followed the sea from sixteen
years of age until about the year 1866, first in the
whale fishing service and later in the merchant
marine between New Orleans and New York. When
twenty- three years of age he became first officer of
the ^'■Samuel Russel," and later first officer of
" The David Brown," both clipper-built ships, ply-
ing between New York City and Chinese ports in
the tea trade. About 1860 he bought an interest
in the ship '■^ Indiana" and engaged in the New
Orleans cotton trade. The Civil War broke out
and practically destroyed the trade. When war
was declared his ship was anchored at New Orleans,
but he cleared for New York City with clearance
papers issued by the Confederate government and
made New York City in the marvelously quick time
of thirteen days.
February 3d, 1862, he married, in Philadelphia,
Pa., Miss Elizabeth Loosley, daughter of William
Loosley, an Englishman, who died when she was
very young. After his marriage Capt. Hebron and
wife made a voyage around the world, occupying
about three years, during which he visited the ports
of Australia, New Zealand, Peru, South America
and other countries, returning to New York via
Panama. The time intervening between his return
and the year 1877 he spent at various points in the
New England and other States, and then came to
Texas for the benefit of his health and that of Mrs.
Hobron, and purchased his present home, three
miles southeast of Boerne. He has made a specialty
of fine Merino sheep and Jersey cattle. Capt. and
Mrs. Hobron have one son, Charles L., born August
5, 1867, in Philadelphia, Pa. ; one daughter, Mat-
tie, was born in Melbourne, Australia, and died at
home near Boerne, 1880, at fifteen years of age.
She was a young lady of charming manners and
promising future. Capt. and Mrs. Hobron enjoy
the esteem of a wide circle of friends.
JOHN KLECK,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Came to Texas in 1845 from Prussia, landing in
this country at Galveston. He located and lived
at Victoria for one year and in 1846 moved to
Fredericksburg. There he erected the first black-
smith shop in the town and followed his trade for
about fifteen years, after which he engaged in farm-
ing-
He married Miss Victoria Failer, who bore
him twelve children, of whom three sons and six
daughters are living. Mr. Kleck died July 4, 1887.
John W. Kleck, a well-known citizen of Fredericks-
burg, the sixth (jhikl of John and Victoria Kleck,
was born November 29, 1856, in Fredericksburg,
and grew to manhood on his father's farm and
stock ranch on Grape creek, in Kendall County,
where his father lived for twenty-flve years. John
W. Kleck has later been engaged in farming, stock-
raising and speculating in real estate, and in 1883
528
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
laid Kleck's Addition to the town of ,San Angelo, in
Tom Green County. He married Miss Louise Fel-
ler, daughter of William Feller. She is a native of
Gillespie County. They have two children. John
W. Kleck later sold his San Angelo property and
removed to Fredericksburg, where he now lives,
and owns one of the best business houses on Main
street.
JOHN SCHNABEL,
BRAUNFELS,
A well-known early settler at New Braunfels, was
born in Prussia in the year 1831 ; came to America
in 1851, and located at New Braunfels. He spent
about two years in various employments and then
purchased land and engaged in farming, which he
continued until 1893. He married in 1857 Miss
Elizabeth Troeste. She died October 18, 1886,
leaving a family of eleven children, viz. : Dora,
Henry, Anton, Phillip, .John, Augusta, Annie,
Lina, Ida, Albert, and Ella, eight of whom are mar-
ried.
Dora married William Voigt and lives in
Gonzales County with her husband. Their children
are Olga, Wanda, Oscar and Hertha.
Henry married Miss Augusta Ebert. They live
in Gonzales County, where they own a large ranch.
Their children are: Hilda, Laura, Alice, and
Herbert.
Anton married Miss Annie Eeinhard, and is a
merchant at Belmont. His wife died August 11,
1895, leaving three children: Malinda, Eugene,
and an infant not named.
Phillip married Miss Lena Schultz. He is a mer-
chant at Belmont. They have one son, William.
.John married Miss Lizzie Hegemann and lives at
the old family home at First Santa Clara, Guada-
lupe County. They have one daughter, Josephine.
Augusta married William Hoeke, a farmer, resid-
ing near New Braunfels. They have three children :
Erna, Roma, and Martin.
Annie married Adolf Reinarz. She died June 3,
1895, leaving two children, Gilbert and Gerome.
Lena married Adolf Forshagen, a merchant of
Belmont.
The Schnabel home at First Santa Clara consists
of five hundred acres. Besides this homestead
Mr. Schnabel owns valuable property in New
Braunfels and a comfortable home, to which he
retired in 1893, with his three youngest children,
and lives at ease.
WILLIAM EDWARD MAYNARD,
BASTROP.
W. E. Maynard, member of the well-known firm
of Fowler & Maynard, at Bastrop, was born at
Lockhart, Texas, January 13, 1858. His parents
were C. B. Maynard (a prominent merchant) and
Mrs. Maggie M. Maynard — both deceased.
He attended the Waco University two years, and
completed his education by a two years' course at
Emory and Henry College, Washington County,
Virginia, after which he entered the office of Hon.
Joseph D. Sayers, under whom he read law for two
years. At the expiration of this time he read law
under Hon. J. P. Fowler for one year; was
admitted to the bar in 1878, and thereupon formed
a copartnership with Mr. Fowler, which has since
continued. Mr. Maynard is devoted to his profes-
sion, possesses a clear, searching and analytical
mind, and is an eloquent and persuasive speaker.
He has acquired a standing at the bar second to
that of no other advocate in his section of the state.
In January, 1880, he was united in marriage to
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
529
Miss Mollie A. Clements, of Virginia, and tias five
cliildren: Maud May, Powell Clements, Virgie
Deel, Nettie Gertrude, and William Edward.
He was appointed City Attorney of Bastrop in
January, 1879, and in November, 1880, was elected
County Attorney of Bastrop County. He was
re-elected County Attorney for five successive
terms and, finally, declined to again become a can-
didate for the office. In November, 1890, the Dis-
trict Attorney died, and the bar of the Twenty-
second District at once petitioned Governor Eoss
to appoint Mr. Maynard to fill the vacancy. The
petition met with a favorable reception, and he was
tendered and accepted the appointment, and has
since discharged the duties of the office, winning
golden encomiums from the press, his fellow-mem-
bers of the bar and from the people at large, by
whom he is held in high esteem as a man of high
integrity, and a capable, faithful and fearless
public official. Mr. Maynard has twice been
elected to the office of District Attorney of the
Twenty-first District, which is composed of the
counties of Bastrop, Washington, Lee and Burle-
son, and at present holds that position.
He is a Democrat of the strictest sect, a member
of the Methodist Church, and has represented his
home lodge of Odd Fellows in the Grand Lodge for
a number of years.
DAVID McFADDEN,
CRAWFORD.
David McFadden, of Crawford, McLennan
County, was born in Randolph County, Mo., Octo-
ber 14th, 1831 ; a son of Wyatt McFadden, a native
of Kentucky, who came to Missouri at an early day^
settling in Randolph County, where he was a prom-
inent farmer and married Miss Rebecca Hammitt, a
daughter of Pilijah Hammitt, also of Kentucky, and
a pioneer settler of Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Wyatt
McFadden reared a family of four children, namely :
Jonathan who came to Texas in 1849 and served as
a Stale ranger and also in the Confederate army
during the late war and is now living in Bosque
County ; Catherine, deceased, who married I.
Richardson, of McLennan County ; Sally, who died
in 1864 ; and David, our subject: The father came
to Texas in 1856, settling in_ McLennan County,
where he died in 1876.
The subject of this notice remained in his native
county until 1846, when he enlisted for the Mexi-
can War under Gen. Price. He served through that
struggle and was mustered out at Independence,
Mo., in 1848, after which he returned home. He
participated in the battle of Santa Cruz, took part
in all skirmishes of his command and was never
wounded.
With the earnings received from this service he
came to Texas in 1848, settling first at Austin, and
then at San Antonio. In 1850 and a part of 1851
he was a State ranger and during the latter year he
bought 320 acres of his present farm. He then
31
commenced the improvement of his land, built a
log cabin, and added to his original purchase until
he now owns 695 acres situated on Hog creek,
in the western part of McLennan County. This
log cabin was on the extreme frontier, there not
being a white settler west of him. He had consid-
erable trouble with raiding parties of Indians.
In 1862 Mr. McFadden enlisted in the Confeder-
ate army, served in Arkansas for a time, was dis-
charged and then came home and joined McCord's
frontier regiment. He participated in the Dove
creek fight with the Kickapoo Indians, was in many
skirmishes with the Indians and was at Camp Col-
orado at the time of the surrender. After he
returned home he resumed his farming operations,
erecting a large two-story frame dwelling, and
adding many other conveniences to his place until
he now has a home to be proud of. He has 135
acres of his farm in cultivation. The pasture part
he has always kept well stocked with horses and
cattle. When Mr. McFadden came to this State
his worldly possessions consisted of a horse, saddle
and bridle, and about $200.00 in money, and he can
truly be called a self-made man. He served seven
years as a soldier and defender of his country and
since his residence in McLennan County has taken
an active part in the development of that section of
the State.
Mr. McFadden was united in marriage, July 8th,
1852, to Miss Salena Harris, who was born in
530
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Randolph County, Mo., August 24, 1835, a daugh-
ter of David Harris, who came to Travis County,
this State, in 1847, and died there in 1849.
Mr. and Mrs. McFadden have had five children,
viz. : Bell, born September 2, 1853, first married
Wm. Ish, and after his death Dr. Boyett, now of
Waco ; Dink, born September 22, 1865, married to T.
Woodmansee, — both are now deceased — of which
union one child, Zo, now survives and resides with
her aunt at Waco ; Aribell, born in 1857, died in
1863 ; Emma, born March 18, 1860, married G. W.
Jones, a farmer of Bosque County ; and Ruva, born
December 8, 1868, married Dr. Thompson, of
Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County. Mr. McFadden
lost his first wife, October 8, 1893, and he was
married again October 25th, 1894, to Mrs.
M. E. Mevoney, of Crawford, McLennan County,
where they now reside. Mr. McFadden and his wife
are both members of the Missionary Baptist Church.
His first wife was also a member of that church.
He is a staunch Democrat in his political views.
He hates blue coats and brass buttons.
E. S. PETERS,
CALVERT,
Was born in Detroit, Mich., May 2, 1852. His
ancestors came to America as colonists in 1636,
and settled in Connecticut, where his father,
Samuel E. Peters, was born at the town of Litch-
field in 1818. Mr. Samuel E. Peters was an
active, progressive man, a pioneer real estate
dealer at Detroit, Mich., and accumulated a large
property.
The subject of this notice, E. S. Peters, was
educated in the public schools of Detroit ; studied
law in the office of Ward & Palmer for some time,
when, his health failing, he, in 1872, moved to
Texas and lived for a time with relatives at Cor-
sicana.
He was united in marriage in 1879 to Miss Moliie
Hannah, daughter of James S. Hannah, a pioneer
from Alabama, who settled in Robertson County in
1851. Mr. Peters embarked in the hardware bus-
iness at Corsicana in 1879, in partnership with
S. J. T. Johnson, a connection that continued
until 1882, after which Mr. Peters conducted the
business alone until 1885, when he sold it, and
engaged in ranching near Calvert, in which he has
since been eminently successful. His land-hold-
ings are among the largest in the Brazos Valley,
and embrace extensive tracts devoted chiefly to
the cultivation of cotton. He also owns valuable
Interests in Corsicana, Texas, and his native city,
Detroit, Mich.
He is Texas President of the American Cotton
Growers Association, and National Executive Com-
mittee of the Populist party, owner of the Weekly
Citizen Democrat, a well established and influential
newspaper published at Calvert, and has been, and
still is, active in all that pertains to the advance-
ment of his adopted city, county and State.
He has two children, a son and daughter, Eber
and Beulah Peters.
JAMES BIDDLE LANGHAM,
BEAUMONT,
Was born October 9, 1820, four miles from the
town of Summerville, in Fayette County, Tenn.
His parents were Thomas and Wilmuth (Lee)
Langham. His mother died in Jefferson County,
Texas, in November, 1855, and is buried near
Beaumont. His father died in Jefferson County in
1868. His parents came to Texas from Tennessee
in 1836, located at San Augustine, lived there
two years, then moved to Nachitoches, La ; lived
there four years (the mother and four sons);
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
531
removed to Tennessee, where they remained a year
and then again came to Texas. The subject of this
notice, Mr. James B. Langham, then a youth six-
teen years of age, left the family at San Augustine
and went to Montgomery County, where he worked
on a farm for eighteen months, receiving $20.00
per month for his services and talking horses for his
pay. He drove these horses to Beaumont and left
them, with the exception of one that he retained as
a saddle animal, with an uncle living at Grigsby's
Bluff.
He married Miss Sarah Jane Nettles, daughter of
James Nettles, of Jefferson County, Texas, May
T. D. Brooks, proceeded with it to a spot situated
near where the city of Dallas is now situated and
there erected a fort. He was with the company
something over three months.
At the breaking out of the war between the
States, being physically unable for active service in
the Confederate army, he promptly joined the
militia for home protection and was stationed at
Sabine Pass immediately after the capture of the
" Morning Light."
After his marriage Mr. Langham farmed two
years, then moved to Village Creek with his family
and remained there a year, then moved to Leon
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JAMES BIDDLE LANGHAM.
15, 1845, and settled about two miles from Beau-
mont on a tract of one hundred acres of land,
inherited by them from his wife's father, and
opened up a farm on it. They have had nine chil-
dren, seven of whom are living, viz. : Thomas, now
Sheriff of Jefferson County, an oflSce that he has
held for nineteen years ; William, City Marshal of
Beaumont ; Lizzie, wife of Frank Wilson, of Har-
risburg, Texas ; Biddle, a farmer of Orange County,
Texas; Victoria, wife of Charles Wakefield, of
Beaumont; Annie, who died August 20, 1882, at
the age of twenty-two years ; Nora, wife of Alex.
Broussard, of Beaumont; Cora, wife of Eichard
Garrett, of Beaumont, and one child who died in
infancy.
At an early day Mr. Langham joined, at Nacog-
doches', a ranger company, commanded by Capt.
County, and stayed there a year, then moved to New-
ton County, where he rented land and farmed one
year and then moved back to the house in which he
was married in Jefferson County, where all of his
children were born except two. Here he again
went to farming, at the time owning two negroes.
At the beginning of the late war he owned fourteen
slaves, and had acquired three leagues of valuable
land. In April, 1891, Mr. Langham was hurt by a
horse, which caught him by the coat collar and
jerked him backward, breaking his hip. When he
came to Beaumont he endured all of the hardships
incident to a pioneer life in Texas. He has pro-
vided a home for all of his children. He is one of
the well-to-do men of the town. His wife died
February 12, 1875, and is buried in the family
cemetery at the old homestead.
532
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
WILLIAM W. ALLEY,
COLORADO COUNTY.
William W. Alley, a prosperous farmer of Colo-
rado County, Texas, was born in that countj', Janu-
ary 3, 1849. His parents were Abraham and Nancy
Alley. His father and mother's brother, Daniel
Millar, were San Jacinto heroes. The Alleys have
been conspicuous in Texas history for patriotism
and valor. Many of them in the early days fought
for the defense of the frontier homes. John Alley,
an uncle of the subject of this notice, returning from
a scout after hostile Indians, attempted to cross the
Brazos river, then swollen by recent rains, and was
drowned, and another uncle, Tom Alley, was killed
by Indians.
Mr. William W. Alley is a useful and influential
citizen and a wide-awake, progressive and broadly
cultured farmer, one of the leading representative
men of Colorado County.
JOHN R. ALLEY,
NIGH.
John R. Alley, the popular and efficient postmas-
ter at Nigh, Colorado County, Texas, was born June
15, 1846, in that county. He is a son of Abraham
and Nancy Alley, a biographical notice of whom
appears elsewhere in this volume. Mr. Alley mar-
ried first in 1867 and again in 1878. He had two
children by his first wife, Lena and Mack, and five
by his second wife : Florence, Daniel, Peter, Ray,
and Shelly. He was a gallant Confederate soldier
during the war, serving in what was known as Henry
Johnson's Company, a part of Bates' regiment.
Besides being postmaster, Mr. Alley is also a ginner
and miller.
He owns a nice home in Nigh, takes an interest in
all public improvements, and is one of the solid men
of that county.
JOHN HARDAMAN OWEN,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch was born in Oglethorpe
County, Ga., October 10, 1823, was reared on a
farm in his native county, and after growing up
became a clerk in a mercantile establishment. He
married Miss Elizabeth Grier Fleming, a daughter
of Robert Fleming, at Newman, Ga., in 1845, and
engaged in business in that place. In 1851 he
came to Texas and settled near Piedmont Springs,
in Grimes County. Later he moved to Anderson,
and resided there until 1874, when he moved to
Navasota. He was engaged in various pursuits
and made considerable money, being energetic and
progressive and a man of good business ability an*
sterling integrity. He was never in public life, and
during the late war served only on detail duty, hi&
career being thus purely of a private nature, though
he was public- spirited. Mr. Owen's death occurred
in 1886 and he left surviving a widow and a
number of sons and daughters, most of whom
reside in Texas.
He was esteemed by all for his sterling traits of
character; beloved by many who found him a
friend in time of need, and had the confidence of
the people wherever he lived.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
533
JOHN B. BARNHILL,
FAYETTE COUNTY.
John B. Barnhill was born in Greenville District,
S. C, December 12tii, 1824; educated in Ten-
nessee and came to Texas in 1877 and settled
near Plum, Fayette Count}', wiiere he engaged in
farming, and two years later married Miss Florence
Bledsoe.
During the war between the States he enlisted
in Company I., Twenty-seventh Tennessee,
and afterwards served with Forest's cavalry and
participated in the battle of Pittsburg Landing,
Brice's Cross-roads, Fort Pillow and other engage-
ments, rising to the rank of First Lieutenant and
conducting himself with commendable gallantry.
He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, a sturdy
Democrat and a leading and influential citizen in
his section.
FREDERICK HAMPE,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Was born in Hanover, January 5, 1840, and emi-
grated from his native land to New Braunfels,
Texas, with his parents (Mr. and Mrs. Ernest
Hampe) and his brother, August (now deceased),
in 185.5. Frederick and his brother August enlisted
in Company F., Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, Capt.
Edgar Schramme, and fought for the Confederate
cause until the surrender in 1865. Frederick
Hampe enlisted as a private and served as such
until the end of the war. He was offered a com-
mission at various times and declined the honor,
but was finally induced to act as first sergeant of
his company. Even this position was not desired.
His services to the Confederacy were cheerfully
and faithfully rendered until he received an honor-
able discharge at New Braunfels, May 24, 1865,
when the battle-scarred veterans of the South were
at last compelled to stack their arms. October 9,
following, he formally turned over his rifle to Capt.
William Davis, of the Eighteenth New York Cavalry,
acting United States paroling officer, and received
his full reinstatement as a citizen of the United
States. After the war he worked as a salesman in
various establishments in New Braunfels, until 1869,
when he embarked in a modest way in business for
himself. He was appointed Clerk of the District
Court for Comal County, August 4, 1869, by Will-
iam E. Bainridge, Secretary of Civil Affairs, to
succeed Theodore Goldbeck, resigned. In 1873'
he was duly elected Chief Justice (or, as now
styled, County Judge) of Comal County as a
Democrat at a time when the county polled a
Republican majority. He received his certificate
of election from the Republican incumbent, Fred
Goldbeck, but possession of the ofllce was peremp-
torily denied him. During the period of recon-
struction the Republicans held the reins of State,
and in many instances, of county and municipal,
government ; but, when reconstruction was finally
accomplished and the country polled its full voting
strength, the Democratic party in Texas resumed
control. Thus Richard Coke, Democrat, was
elected Goveriior of Texas to succeed E. J. Davis,
Republican, after a bitter fight, in 1873. The
majority was overwhelming, but Davis declined
to surrender the office, because of the alleged
unconstitutionality of the new election laws, which
position, upon appeal, the State Supreme Court
upheld. It was upon this decision that Mr.
Hampe was denied the exercise of the duties of his
oflSoe. Prompt and vigorous legal measures were
taken, however, to enforce the expressed will of the
people of Comal County, and Mr. Hampe was duly
installed as Judge a short time before Governor
Coke took his seat as Governor of Texas. Judge
Hampe was elected for four years, but by the terms
of the subsequently adopted constitution of 1875,
his term as Judge was shortened to two years. He
retired from office at the end of that time. In
1875 he was elected County Assessor and served
until 1884. He has held a commission as Notary
Public under every Governor since 1874. He was
534
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
a member of the New Braunfels City Council soon
after the reconstruction era, when the duties of the
position were arduous, the city being heavily in
debt and its affairs generally unsettled. He has at
all times been a consistent and active Democrat and
has for several years held the chairmanship of the
County Executive Committee of his county.
Mr. Hampe married, in 1865, Miss Jacobine
Wolfshole, a daughter of August Wolfshole, who
came from Nassau, Germany, to Texas, in 1845,
and of whom further mention will be made else-
where in this volume. Mr. and Mrs. Hampe have
seven children: Johanna, wife of Charles Floege,
a merchant of New Braunfels ; Augusta ; Kate, wife
of Gustav Tolle; Lena, wife of C. F. Hoffman,
jeweler, of New Braunfels; Fritz, Alfred, and
Alfrida. The two latter are twins. The unmarried
children live under the old parental vine and fig
tree.
Judge Hampe is esteemed for his good citi-
zenship, for his enterprise and thrift as a busi-
ness man, and for his genial and courtly manners.
August Hampe, a brother of the subject of this
notice, served as a private in the same company as
his brother, Frederick, and after the war returned
home and married. He died in 1882 at thirty-eight
years of age. During his later years he held the
office of City Marshal of New Braunfels. He left
a widow, two daughters and four sons, all now
residing in Comal County. His widow remarried
in 1888. Mr. Hampe has served as a member of
the State Democratic Executive Committee, and
Chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee
of his Senatorial District.
JOHN WEINHEIMER,
FREDERICKSBURG.
Jacob Weinheimer, father of the subject of this
notice, was born in the town of Meunster, Prussia,
in 1797, and emigrated to America in 1845.
Landing with his wife and six children at Gal-
veston in October of that year, he proceeded to
Indianola, where he remained for about fifteen
months, and then, in 1847, moved to Fredericks-
burg, where he and his two sons each received
their allotment of two town lots and ten acres of
land adjoining the town. Jacob Weinheimer died
at Fredericksburg in 1887, aged eighty-nine years,
and his wife at the same place during the same
year, aged eighty-five years. The six children, all
of whom are living, are : George, who lives on a
farm five miles from Fredericksburg ; Antone, who
is a farmer near Fredericksburg; Elizabeth, who is
the wife of John Deitz, and resides near Fredericks-
burg; Sophia, wife of B. Meckel, a citizen of
Fredericksburg; Anna, wife of John Pelsch, a
farmer on Grape Creek, and John Weinheimer, of
Fredericksburg.
John Weinheimer was born in Meunster, Prussia,
March 23, 1833. He was united in marriage to
Miss Anna Merz, daughter of Mr. John Merz, of
Fredericksburg. They have ten children,' viz. :
John, Jacob, Anna, Otto, Mary, Henry, Ida,
Louise, Adolph, and Louis.
Mr. Weinheimer has pursued in a quiet and suc-
cessful way the occupation of a farmer and stock-
raiser. He is esteeemed wherever known.
FRITZ KOCH,
BULVERDE.
Fritz Koch is a son of Charles Koch, of Anhalt,
one of the leading pioneers of Comal County, a
sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this book.
Fritz Koch was born March 21, 1851, in Comal
County, Texas. He married Miss Wilhelmina
Voges, a daughter of Henry Voges, July 18, 1873.
They have five chileren : Emma, Bertha, Frederick,
Bruno, and Annie. Mr. Koch owns an excellent
farm of three hundred and sixty acres and is one
of the most enterprising farmers of Comal County.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
535
HENRY S. WILLIAMS,
COLUMBUS.
Henry S. Williatns was born in Obion County,
Tenn. , March 10th, 1854 ; came to Johnson County,
Texas, November 1, 1876, and in 1883 moved to
Columbus, in Colorado County, where he has since
resided. May 18th, 1884, he was married to Miss
Mattie Ramsey, of Columbus, and has six children :
Roy, Henry S., Sr., R. Q. Mills, Mattie, John and
Joe. He served an unexpired term as City Marshal
of Columbus and is now a member of the Board of
Aldermen.
He owns a large grocery, grain and feed business
in the town, and a fine farm in the country which he
has let to renters. When Mr. Williams first went
to Columbus he was an entire stranger to the peo-
ple and without money, or even cheering prospects.
He set to work, with a will, however, and conducted
himself in a manner that won for him the friendship
of the best people in the community. He was soon
on the high road to prosperity. He is one of those
bright, stirring, able self-made men who have won
their way to the front in Texas. Mr. Williams is a
member of the Masonic fraternity.
AUGUST KNIBBE,
KENDALIA,
Was born in New Braunfels in 1848. He is a son
of Detrich Knibbe, an early Texas pioneer and the
first settler at Spring Branch, in Comal County. In
1862 the subject of this notice, then fourteen years
of age, left the family at Spring Branch and went
to Curry's Creek, where he ran a flouring mill
until July, 1869, when it was washed away by a
flood.
He was united in marriage, March 25th, 1869, to
Miss Mary Gourley. They have thirteen children :
Donie (a daughter), Mary, Emma, Augusta,
William, Ida, Lafayette, Exer, Ora, Rosa, Felix,
RoUa, and Theodosia. Mr. Knibbe ran a shingle
manufactory from 1869 to 1886, and then embarked
in merchandising at Kendalia, in which he is still
engaged.
OTTO VOGEL,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY.
Otto Vogel, a successful business man, of Smith-
son's Valley, Comal County, has been a resident
of Texas since 1885. He was born in Rhineland,
Germany, February 17, 1863, add came to this
State with his brother, Fritz, now an engineer in
Mexico. He worked for about two years by the
month on a farm and commenced the well-boring
business, which he'has since followed. He mar-
ried, in 1888, Miss Laura Boltom, of Smithson's
Valley. They have three children : Bruno, Fred-
erick, and Otelia. Mr. Vogel is one of the most
enterprising men in Comal County, and by indus-
try and sagacity has become in a brief time inde-
pendent in money and property.
536
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
CHARLES KARGER,
COMFORT,
A well-known and prosperous farmer of Comfort,
Kendall County, Texas, was born in the town of
Falkenberg, Province of Schlussing, in North Ger-
many, March 24th, 1845, and came to Texas with
his father and mother (Mr. and Mrs. Karger) and
other members of the family, in 1860. They first
touched Texas soil at Galveston, disembarked at
Indianola a few days later and journeyed overland
in ox teams from that place to San Antonio. They
went almost immediately from San Antonio to Sis-
terdale, where they lived for about a year, and then
moved to Comfort. John Karger was a tanner and
did a prosperous business at his trade at Comfort
during the war between the States. He died in
1864, at forty-eight years of age, leaving a widow,
who survives at seventy-three years of age, and
eight children: Marie, Charles, Frederica (widow
of Fritz Dietert), Paul, Emil, Fritz, August and
Ernst, all living.
Charles Karger married Miss Alvina Weber, a
daughter of Henry Weber, of Comfort. They have
three daughters and two sons, viz. : Ida, Bertha,
Helen, Louis, and Adolf.
Mr. Karger has a good farm of seven hundred
and seventy-five acres.
He has served several years as Deputy Sheriff of
his county and Deputy Postmaster at Comfortf and
has held several mail contracts.
AUGUST PIEPER,
BULVERDE,
Is one of the original settlers of Comal County.
He was born in Hanover, Germany, June 13, 1824 ;
came to America with the Prince Solms colony in
1835 and located at New Braunfels, where he worked
at his trade (that of carpenter and joiner), for two
and a half years, and later followed the business
of contractor and builder for nine years. In 1850
he married Mrs. Johanna Kwamm, a daughter of
Conrad Kwamm, and in 1852 they became the first
white settlers of what has since been known as the
Pieper Settlement, a settlement situated in one of
the finest mountain districts of Comal County. Mr.
and Mrs. Pieper have seven children : Caroline, now
Mrs. Peter Lex ; Emma, now Mrs. Otto Wehe ;
Sophia, now Mrs. Gustav Ecker ; William, married
to Miss Minnie Reinhardt ; Frederick, married to
Miss Augusta Arns, and Herman, married to Miss
Helen Ecker.
CHRISTOPHER SCHMIDT,
KENDALIA,
Came to Texas in 1850 and located at New Braun-
fels, where he worked for James Furguson until
1855, when he took up land on the Little Blanco
river, where he was the first settler, and lived there
until 1878, when he moved to Kendalia. There he
purchased and developed a fine farm of about
800 acres, a portion of which his son Adolf now
owns.
Mr. Schmidt was born September 21, 1828, in
Saxony. He came to America by way of Bremen,
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
537
landed at Galveston and proceeded thence to
Indianola and New Braunfels. He was united in
marriage to Miss Mary Schalfer of Boerne, in 1859.
She was born in G-ermany in 1835. They have ten
children: Winnie, now Mrs. John Knepper, of
Kendalia; Herman, a citizen of Kendalia; Henry,
who lives at the head of the Little Blanco, four
miles from Kendalia; Christian, Jr., living at
Kendalia; Martin, Mary, Theresa, Emma . and
William, who are single and live at Kendalia, and
Adolf, who is married and lives near the old home.
Fivechidren are deceased.
ROMANUS TALBOT,
CALVERT,
Familiarly known as Roe Talbot, a well-to-do
planter of Robertson County, was born in Pike
County, Ala., in 1833. He accompanied his
parents, James and Hannah Talbot, to Texas, in
1852, and the following year settled on the farm
where he has continuously lived for the past forty-
two yfars. In 1858 he married Miss Nannie Wood,
daughter of Aaron Wood, who emigrated to Texas
from Aberdeen, Miss., where Mrs. Talbot was
born, and settled in Robertson County in 1851. In
January, 1862, Mr. Talbot entered the Confederate
army, enlisting in Capt. Johnson's Spy Company,
which was organized for service in Gen. Ben Mc-
Culloch's command and which for two years was
engaged in scouting and outpost duty in Arkansas.
At the time of the investment of Arkansas Post by
the Federals, Mr. Talbot was sent with fifteen others
to occupy outlying points and report the movements
of the enemy. He continued at this work, return-
ing messengers until only himself and one comrade
were left, when the final fall of the post occurred,
news of which reaching him, he made good his
escape and returned to Texas. Here he raised a
company of which he was elected First Lieutenant
and again entered the service, accompanying his
command to the forces then massing along the
Louisiana and Arkansas line to resist the invasion
of the Federal army under General Banks. He
took part in the series of engagements incident
to Banks' Red River campaign, commanding his
company most of the time, and surrendered at the
general armistice in May, 1865, having been in
active service foi three years without being cap-
tured or wounded.
After the war Mr. Talbot took up farming and,
though pursuing it under many disadvantages,
made good progress from year to year, and is to-
day one of the wealthy planters of Robertson
County, having in cultivation over 800 acres in the
Brazos Valley.
He represented Roberston County in the Twen-
ty-third Legislature, discharging acceptably the
duties imposed on him, and refused the position
a second time. He and his good wife have
raised four sons, all of whom were given educa-
tional advantages, and three of whom, Frank L,
Aaron and James R., are now living and occupy
positions of usefulness. Their second son, Joseph
W. , was accidentally killed on the railroad in June,
1894.
HENRY VOCES, SR.
BULVERDE,
One of the most prominent pioneers of the Comal
County mountain district and the worthy founder
of one of the most highly esteemed families in Cen-
tral Texas, was born in the town of Pina, near the
city of Brunswick, Germany, May 27, 1811. He
came from Bremen, Germany, to Galveston, in 1845,
bringing with him two sons and one daughter.
The latter is deceased. The two sons are Frederick
538
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and Henry, residents of Voges' Valley. From Gal-
veston they proceeded to Seguin, and later to New
Braunfels and in 1860 located in what is now known
as Voges' Valley, in Comal County, where he
reared his family and is now spending his declining
years in peace and quietude. From 1846 to 1852
located in the mountains of Bexar County, where he
lived until 1860 and then removed to his present
home. He has been twice married. By his last
marriage he has two sons and two daughters, all
single. He helped build the Catholic Church
at New Braunfels and has been active in good
he did whatever his hands found to do. He soon works.
JAMES TALBOT,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
James Talbot, deceased, for many years a resi-
dent of Robertson County, Texas, was born in
Morgan County, Ga., in 1805, and was a
descendant of that old Georgia family of Talbots
for whom Talbot County in that State was named.
His father was William Talbot, a well-to-do planter,
and was, it is believed, a native of Virginia, emi-
grating to Middle Georgia about the close of the
last century.
James Talbot was reared in his natiye State and
at about the age of twenty-one went to Alabama
and settled in Pike County. There he resided a
number of years and was twice married, moving
thence to Texas. He came to this State first in
1849, remaining only a short time. He moved out
and settled in 1852, stopping for a while in Wash-
ington County, and settling permanently in the
summer of 1853 in Robertson County, where he
had in the meantime purchased land. Though a
number of settlements had been made along the
Brazos where he bought, still but little improving
had been done, and he was one of the first to open
a plantation in that vicinity. The old Talbot home-
stead is about five miles from the present town of
Calvert, and there Mr. Talbot spent all his subse-
quent years in Texas. He was a plain farmer ;
but, with a fair degree of success as such, fulfilled
all the obligations of a good citizen, and left this
world somewhat the better for having lived in it.
He was for many years a member of the Missionary
Baptist Church, and a Mason, joining one of the
first Masonic Lodges organized in the county, that
at old Sterling.
Mr. Talbot was three times married, and the
father of four children. He first married Miss
Eliza Moore, of Pike County, Alabama, and after
her death, Miss Hannah Herring of the same
county. The issue of the former marriage was a
daughter, Eliza, and of the latter, a son, Romanus,
and a daughter, Ann. Eliza was twice married,
first to Dr. Jones, of Alabama, and after his
death to Dr. Ware, of Texas, and died in
Robertson County, this State. Romanus Talbot
lives on the old Talbot homestead in Robert-
son County. Ann was married to Charles
P. Salter, and is now deceased. Mrs. Hannah
Herring Talbot died January 1, 1855, andsomeyears
afterwards Mr. Talbot married his third and last
wife. Miss Mary Rucker. A daughter was born of
this union, Fannie P., now Mrs. John La Prelle,
of Austin. Mr. Talbot had four brothers,
Matthew, William, Greene and Hale, two of whom,
Matthew and Greene, were in Texas in an earlv
day, but never lived here. He also had two sisters,
Mrs. Nunnelly, who lived and died in Georgia, and
Mrs. John Harvey, who accompanied her husband
to Texas in 1835 and settled on what was then the
very outskirts of civilization, being a point near the
present Talbot homestead in Robertson County
where the same year the father, mother and a son
were murdered by the Indians, and a six -year-old
daughter was taken into captivity and held for a
number of years. The history of this captive child,
Ann Harvey, afterwards Mrs. S. Briggs, who lived
for many years in Robertson County, forms one of
those thrilUng episodes in which the early history
of Texas abounds.
James Talbot died in 1862.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
539
HENRY PANTERMUEHL,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Was born in the province of Pommeria, vicinity of
Koiteuhagen, March 19,1842. His father, Joachim
Pantermuehl, a farmer by occupation, emigrated to
America in 1854, with his seven sons (subject of
this notice) and two daughters. Of these daughters
Mary was at that time married to John Schultz, now
a prosperous farmer, who accompanied her to the
New World and now lives on the Guadalupe river, in
Comal County. Louise, the other daughter, is Mrs.
Chas. Ohlrich, of Smithson's Valley, in the same
county. A third daughter came to America a few
years later with her husband, Fritz Wunderhch, and
located at New Braunfels, where she died May 17th,
1878, leaving a son, Julius Wunderlich, now a
farmer living on the Guadalupe river in Comal
County, and a daughter, Augusta, who is the wife
of Benjamin E. Smithson, of Smithson's Valley.
The subject of this brief notice, Henry Pantermuehl,
was twelve years of age when he arrived in this
country. He lived on a farm during his earlier
years, acquiring a thorough knowledge of the busi-
ness and is now a prosperous farmer. He married.
May 20th, 1874, and has three living children .-
Herman, born June 12, 1876; Emilie, born July
16th, 1878, and Richard, born November 9th, 1879.
Mrs. Pantermuehl's maiden name Miss Pauline
Startz. She is the daughter of Henry Startz, and
was born January 9th 1856.
CHAS. GROSSGEBAUER,
GOODWIN, COMAL COUNTY,
Eesident near New Braunfels, farmer by occupa-
tion, came to Texas from the province and town of
Brunswick, Germany, in 1857. Was born in Zil-
feldt, Brunswick, November 7th, 1847. He was
accompanied to this country by his mother, then a
widow, who later married Henr}' Kellermann,
under whom this subject learned his trade. Em-
barked in business for himself in 1875 and has
since been quite successful. Married in 1874 Miss
Caroline Warnecke, and has three sons and three
daughters: Charles, Louise, Albert, Anna, Emma,
and Jerry.
BENJAMIN FRANKLIN SMITHSON,
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Is a Texas pioneer and was the first settler in
Smithson's Valley. He was born in Jefferson
County, Ala. , March 19, 1825. His father, William
Smithson, a native of Virginia, and soldier in the
War of 1812-14, came to Texas in 1837 from Ala-
bama with his wife and nine children and died in
1844. Of this old family three members only, the
subject of this sketch, Jane and Richard C, are
now (1895) living. B. F. Smithson removed to
Comal County in 1851 and located on his present
homestead, where he has since continuously resided.
In 1842 he was a member of Capt. Belting's
Company of Texas rangers, participated in the
battle of Salado and later took part in many other
skirmishes with the Mexicans and Indians. During
the Mexican War he was a member of Bell's Regi-
ment and was stationed on the Texas frontier. He
was the first postmaster of Smithson's Valley and
540
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
assisted in building the first school house in that
section of the country. He married, January 9,
1856, Miss Augusta Vogel, a daughter of Louis
Vogel, an early Texas pioneer. Mr. and Mrs.
Smithson have four children, all born inSmithaon's
Valley, viz.: Louise (wife of Mr. Henry Wezen,
of Smithson Valley), Sarah (wife of Theo. Bose, of
the same locality), Richard B. (who married Miss
Augusta Wonderlich), and Emma (Mrs. Adolf
Hofteing, residing near Burnet, in Kendall County).
ARMISTEAD E. WATSON,
MARLIN.
Armistead E. Watson was born January 28,
1834, in Prince Edward County, Va., the seventh
of ten children, whose parents were Joseph A. and
Jane (Bruce) Watson. Joseph A. Watson, also
born in Prince Edward County, was a son of Col.
Jesse Watson, who served with the rank of Captain
in the War of the Revolution and was subsequently
appointed Colonel of State troops. He was a son
of John Watson, who was a native of Virginia and
of Scotch ancestry, and was among the early
settlers in the colonies.
The worthy mother of Mr. Watson was the
daughter of Alex. Bruce, and was born in Lunen-
burg County, Va., as was her father, Alexander.
His ancestors were from Scotland.
Armistead E. Watson was reared on a plantation
and secured his education in the principal schools
of that day, which were of superior order. In 1856
he decided to leave the Old Commonwealth. His
course laj' through Montgomery and Mobile, Ala.,
by rail, and thence by steamer to Galveston, Texas,
via New Orleans. From Galveston he went to
Washington County, where he purchased a tract of
land, on which he settled. His slaves came by land
and were about three months on the road. There,
amidst new scenes, he commenced the building up
of a new home for himself and to do his part in
developing the grand resources of his adopted
State ; but he was not long to remain in those pur-
suits. The ominous war-cloud, long hovering over
the land, soon broke in savage fury. Responding
to a sense of duty, he promptly enlisted in Company
G., Fourth Texas Infantry, commanded by Colonel,
afterward General, Hood, took part in many of the
great battles of the war, and bore himself as became
a gallant soldier fighting in defense of his home and
country. Among the battles in which he partici-
pated may be mentioned Gaines' Mill, the Seven
Days' battle around Richmond, and Malvern Hill.
At the end of two years, spent in almost continu-
ous fighting, he was released from service on
account of failing health, and returned home to
Texas and again resumed his agricultural pursuits,
which he followed until January, 1868, when he
moved to Galveston and engaged in business as a
cotton buyer. In 1870 he made another change,
going to Falls County, where he engaged in plant-
ing. Subsequently he became engaged in raising
and dealing in stock, acquiring, from time to time,
land interests. In the spring of 1892, he assisted
in the organization and became president of the
First National Bank of Marlin.
Mr. Watson possesses admirable business quali-
ties and has been eminently successful in all his
operations, at the same time doing much towards
the development and growth of the country.
He was. married May 25, 1869, to Amanda,
daughter of the late Churchill Jones. To this
union three children were born : Irene, Clara, and
Armistead. Armistead, a bright and promising
youth of eighteen years and the idol of his father,
was untimely taken from this world by a stroke of
lightning whilst pursuing his studies at Roanoke
College, Va., June 27, 1892. This was a sad blow
to his devoted father, inflicting a wound from which
he will never recover.
His wife died June 8th, 1874, at the age of thirty
years. She was a member of the Baptist Church.
He was subsequently married, February 18lh, 1878,
to Xeminia C. Powers, daughter of Joseph and
Susan (Turner) Powers, who were among the old
and prominent families of Alabama. To them has
been born one child, Ximinia. Mrs. Watson is a
member of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
In 1884 Mr. Watson was elected by the Demo-
cratic party to the Nineteenth Legislature, and
filled that responsible position with credit to him-
self and satisfaction to his constituency.
A. E. WATSON.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
S41
RICHARD KIMBALL,
MERIDIAN,
Richard Kimball, a leading lawyer aud one of
the most extensive planters in Bosque County,
Texas, was born in New York City in 1845, the
eldest ■ of five children born to Richard B. and
Julia C. (Tomlinson) Kimball. The Kiraballs
were a very old English family, tracing their
genealogy back to remote times. The progenitor
of the American branch, Richard Kimball (a name
that has passed down from generation to generation
in the family), crossed the ocean and settled in
Massachusetts in 1635. The Tomlinsons were also
an ancient English family, representatives of which
came to America in colonial days. Both families
contributed gallant soldiers to the patriot armies of
the American Revolution and distinguished mem-
bers to the learned professions in America in the
earlier and later history of the country. The
father of the subject of this memoir graduated with
honors at Dartmouth College, studied law and
began practice at Waterford, N. Y. ; shortly there-
after moved to New York City, where he soon rose
to eminence and became attorney for various rail-
road corporations and financially interested in
railroad building ; in 1846 bought various tracts of
land in Texas, aggregating more than 100,000
acres, and about 1859 founded the town of Kim-
ball on the Brazos river, in Bosque County. It
was on the cattle trail and soon became a flourish-
ing place. Its prosperity continued until railroads
were built throughout the country and then, being
left inland, its fortunes declined. It is still a post-
offlce. He was the leading spirit in the Galveston,
Houston & Henderson Railway Co., organized
about the year 1853. The road was completed
from Galveston to Houston and he served as its
president until the war between the States. After
the war he disposed of his enterprises in Texas and
thereafter devoted his time to a large corporation
(principally railroad) practice in America and
Europe. He was a polished and educated gentle-
man of refined literary tastes and was the author
of several books. He died in 1892 in New York.
His wife had died in 1879.
The subject of this notice graduated at Dart-
mouth College in 1855 ; studied law at Poughkeep-
sie, N. Y., and was admitted to the bar in 1867,
and the following year came to Texas and located
on a fine estate on the Brazos river, some 3,000
acres, which he proceeded to improve. In 1888 he
moved to Meridian and engaged actively in the
general practice of his profession and is now con-
sidered one of the best lawyers in that section of
the State.
He has ever been an active working Democrat, is
chairman of the County Democratic Executive
Committee and has for years been a delegate to
the various party conventions.
In 1881 he married Miss Nannie A. Ogden, of
Missouri. They have five children : Richard Hunt-
ington, May, Julia, Harold Ogden, and Margaret C.
JOHN M. ZIPP,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Oldest son of a Texas pioneer of 1847, the late
John Jacob Zipp, was born in Germany and was
about seventeen years of age when he came to
Texas with his father and family.
He married in June, 1864, Miss Helen Hoffman,
daughter of a worthy Comal County pioneer. She
was born in 1839.
They have a family of six children. Mr. Zipp is
a prosperous farmer, a man of great thrift and in-
dustry, and a fair type of Comal County pioneer.
542
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS
THOMAS HARVEY PUCKETT,
KENEDY.
T. H. Puckett was born March 2, 1825, near
Terre Haute, Ind., where his parents, Isam and
Edith (Garrett) Puckett, natives of North Car-
olina, had settled at an early day. His mother
died twenty-four hours after his birth, and his
father April 7, 1835. In 1836, he, together with a
brother, Micajah, and a sister, Hannah Puckett,
were brought to Texas by a paternal uncle, Thomas
Puckett, who moved to the infant Republic with his
family in that year, and opened a small farm about
twelve miles distant from the present city of Austin,
which was founded and established as the seat of
government under the laws of the Republic of
Texas. Three years later, William Hornsby and
William Gilleland were the nearest neighbors of the
Pucketts. Gilleland was killed by the Indians
iibout the year 1841.
Travis County in 1836 was situated at the ex-
treme western limit of the settlements in the very
heart of the wilderness, and was subject to well-
nigh incessant Indian raids. Upon many occa-
sions the hardy pioneer family found it necessary
to light the savages in defense of home and life,
and met with the usual number of perilous adven-
tures.
Mr. Thomas Puckett drove a herd of cattle to
Coles County, 111., in 1858, and, owing to the
hardships and exposure incident to the trip, died
soon after reaching there, at the home of a married
daughter, who ministered to his last wants. He
left eight children, four boys and four girls.
The subject of this notice, T. H. Puckett, who
had then about reached manhood, went to Indiana
on a visit at the commencement of the war between
the United States and Mexico, and there met and
€nlisted under Capt. Black, who was raising a com-
pany for service in the United States army. Three
older brothers, William, Richard, and James P.
(who were afterwards killed at the battle of Buena
Vista), also went out with this company. T. H.
Puckett passed through the war without serious
mishap, and received his discharge at New Orleans
in 1847, and returned to his home in Travis County,
where he remained until 1849, when he accepted em-
ployment with a Mr. Ewing and drove a herd of cattle
overland with him to California, having numerou
sharp encounters with Indians along the route.
After remaining in California for more than a year,
Mr. Puckett and about twenty other young men
associated themselves together and went to Chili,
for the purpose of buying land and engaging in
raising wheat, flour then commanding about one
dollar a pound on the Pacific slope. After spend-
ing a few months in Chili, however, they abandoned
this purpose, made their way to the Amazon river,
and later after visiting a number of English and
French ports, landed at New York, from which city
Mr. Puckett proceeded to Texas by way of New
Orleans and settled on the San Antonio river. In
what was then (1852) a part of Goliad, but since
1853 a part of Karnes County. Here, near the
present town of Kenedy, he has since resided. He
has been twice married, first in Karnes County,
January 15, 1857, to Miss Elmira Archer, who bore
him eleven children (six boys and five girls) all of
whom are living and nine of whom are married, and
second, December 20, 1892, to Mrs. Hannah Cook.
There were no children by the second marriage.
Mrs. Elmira Puckett died August 27, 1886, and
Mrs. Hannah Puckett, September 3, 1894. Mr.
Puckett served in Company H., Twenty-fourth
Texas Regirhent, during the war between the States,
until captured at Arkansas Post, where he made '
his escape by swimming the Arkansas river, after
which he returned home and entered the frontier
service, in which he remained until the close of
hostilities.
His sister, Hannah Puckett, who married William
Rush, died without issue. His brother, Micajah,
was lost sight of in 1845 or 1846, and is supposed
to have fallen in the Mexican War, as did three
other brothers of the family.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
543
JOSEPH E. HERNDON,
CALVERT,
"Was born in Spottslyvania, Va., May 5, 1816. At
the age of eighteen, he went to Georgetown, Ky.,
where, December 17, 1840, he married Miss Mary
A. Briscoe, a native of Scott County (of which
Georgetown is the county seat), and lived there
until 1857, when he came to Texas and settled in
Robertson County. He lived there until his death,
June 27, 1881. He opened and successfully oper-
ated a large Brazos-bottom plantation, and was a
citizen above reproach and much admired for his
many virtues. His wife died November 19, 1877.
They had five children, only two of whom, however,
lived to maturity. A son, Jacob W. Herndon, who
entered the Confederate army at the opening of the
late war, enlisted in Company C. (Capt. Town-
send), Hood's Brigade, and was killed at the battle
of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863. A daughter, Lucy
G,, married Robert A. Brown, and is now a widow
residing in Calvert, Texas.
ROBERT A. BROWN,
CALVERT.
The late Robert A. Brown, of Calvert, was an
■esteemed Texas pioneer of 1851, and few men in
this State, in his day, led a more active life and
accomplished more as a business man. Coming to '
Texas at seventeen years of age, full of the vigor of
youth and just merging into manhood, the Lone
istar State had use for many young men of his stamp
in the development of its natural resources.
Mr. Brown was a native of Virginia, and was
born at Culpepper County, near Brandywine Sta-
tion, February 22, 1833. Upon coming to Texas
he located at Galveston, where he found employment
as a salesman in the mercantile establishment of
•Gen. Ebenezer Nichols.
At the commencement of the war between the
States he returned to his native State and county
and there volunteered in the defense of the cause of
the Confederate States as a member of the famous
Black-Horse Cavalry of Virginia, and as a soldier
served with distinguished bravery in the various
"thrilling engagements incident to the defense of the
•Confederate capital until his capture with many of
his comrades in the Valley of the Potomac in 1864.
He was confined as a prisoner of war, first at Fort
Delaware and afterwards at Washington, D. C,
■until the conflict ended, when he was released and
returned to Galveston.
At Galveston, in company with an uncle, John
Shackelford, he engaged in business as a cotton
factor and commission merchant under the firm
name of Shackelford & Brown, doing a successful
business.
Mr. Shackelford died in 1886 and Mr. Brown
continued the business with Mr. George Walshe
under the firm name of R. A. Brown & Co.,
with marked success until 1886 when he moved to
Robertson County, located at Calvert, invested
large amounts of money in Brazos Valley farming
lands and Calvert city realty and became one of the
most enterprising and progressive citizens of that
town. He, also, devoted a large share of his time
to farming.
Robert A. Brown was pre-eminently a business
man, in the strictest sense and use of the term. In
early life he received a good business education and
was an expert accountant. He early learned the
lesson of self-reliance, was fertile in resources and
was never lacking in the promptitude and energy
necessary to a successful business career.
Mr. Brown was known through his extensive
business relations in Galveston and later at Calvert,
as a social, genial gentleman and drew'about him a
host of warm personal friends. He was a man of
the strictest integrity, possessed a high sense of
honor and enjoyed the confidence of the entire
business public.
Mr. Brown married in 1867 Miss Lucy, daughter
of the late Col. Joseph E. Herndon, a Texas
544
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
pioneer of whom biographical mention is made
elsewhere in this volume. Mrs. Brown and eight
children survive him.
Eobert Herndon, the oldest son, engaged in the
stock business at Waco. The other children are :
Frederick Watts, actively engaged in farming near
Calvert ; Lucy Summerville, Herndon, Maud,
Nettie, and John Brown, all of whom reside at the
family home at Calvert.
Mr. Brown in his domestic relations and home-
life was a model husband, a kind and indulgent
father, and delighted in contributing to the happi-
ness and welfare of his family and friends.
He died at Bremond while on a visit to his
almost life-long and trusted friend, John C. Roberts.
His funeral obsequies were attended by a large
concourse of sorrowing friends. The banks and
business houses closed on the day of his burial as a
testimonial of the respect and esteem in which he
was universally held.
He left a large and valuable estate and an honor-
able name as a heritage to his familv.
HENRY BENDER,
SPRING BRANCH,
Owner of Spring Branch Ranch, one of the most
picturesque and valuable farm properties in Texas,
was born near the city of Worms, in Hesse-Darm-
stadt, Germany, February 15, 1842, and came to
America when about nineteen years of age, landing
at New York in May, 1861. From that city he
went West, where he enlisted in the Union army in
1864, at Wabash, lad., joining Company G., One
Hundred and Thirty-eighth Indiana Volunteer In-
fantry, which was immediately ordered to the
front ; joined Sherman and participated in the fa-
mous " march to the sea." After the close of the
war Mr. Bender returned to Wabash and resumed
his former position as clerk in a store. His health
failing, he came to Texas on a visit to his brother,
Charles Bender, now of Houston, but then residing
at New Braunfels, remained with him for a time
and then, later on, settled on his present place on
the Guadalupe river and engaged in farming. He
now owns 2,200 acres of the choicest farming and
grazing lands in the State. On the property is
located the famous head of Spring Branch, a spring
under the bluff in front of his residence, that gushes
forth several hundred thousand gallons of pure
cold water every hour. With its lovely valleys,
hills and lofty mountain peaks in the background,
sparkling springs and trout brooks, wonderful
growth of cypress and other shade trees, abundance
of timber and fertile soil. Spring Branch Ranch is,
without question, as valuable and attractive a piece
of property as can be found in Texas. Mr. Ben-
der has his entire estate under fence, several miles
of which is of solid stone; 115 acres are under
cultivation. Mr. Bender's father, Peter J. Ben-
der, was a farmer and wine grower in Germany,
sold his wine product to the royal family and no-
bility of the empire, enjoyed a handsome income,
and gave his ten sons and two daughters excellent
educational advantages. Mr. Bender married
Miss Harriet Sayers, daughter of Jacob Sayers, at
Wabash, Ind., August 10, 1865. Her father was
formerly a planter, merchant and mill-owner in
Virginia. Mr. and Mrs. Bender have four sons
and fourdaughers: Louis H. (deceased), Freder-
ick H., Mary Alice, Rose K., Henry P., John F.,
Lillie N., and Wm. M. Bender.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
bib
ALFRED S. GARDNER,
CALVERT.
Judge Alfred S. Gardner, the venerable subject
of this sketch, is a Texas pioneer of 1844, a Mexi-
can War veteran of 1846, and one of the oldest liv-
ing citizens of Robertson County. He is a native
of Hart County, Ky., born near Munfordsville, in
the year 1822, where he grew up and lived until
twenty-two years of age. Anticipating the war that
two years later broke out between the United States
and Mexico, he came to Texas as above stated and
almost immediately identified himself with military
movements that were being put on foot. He found
his way by degrees to Wheelock, now in Robertson
County, then in Old Leon County. Here he fell
in with Capts. Eli Chandler and Jack Hays and
engaged with them in skirmishing with the Indians
that were then more or less troublesome along the
Brazos River Valley.
Later, in 1846, he volunteered for the Mexican
War under Capt. James Gillespie, and served under
him a period of about seven months, or until the
war ended. He then returned to Leon County.
Judge Gardner in his youthful days worked in a
blacksmith shop and learned the trade in Texas,
which he followed with profit at the town of Leona.
He was later elected County Judge of Leon County
and held the office for six years.
Judge Gardner has been twice married. His first
wife was Martha Braden, by whom he had one
daughter, Martha Jane, now the wife of James
Nash, who resides in Louisiana.
His second marriage was to MiSs Martha Jane
Moore. A daughter by this union, Louella, is the
wife of George K. Proctor of Calvert. The other
two children are Samuel and Alfred, farmers in
Leon County.
Judge Gardner's father, Edmund Gardner, a
native of Spottsylvania County, Va., and a soldier
under Gen. Jackson, in 1815, was born in 1786.
He came to Kentucky in 1807, lived in Hardin
County, pursued farming, and there died in 1885,
at ninety-nine years and three months of age.
Judge Gardner's mother, Martha Shelton, was a
daughter of Capti Tom Shelton, of Spottsylvania
County, Va., and a Captain in the Continental army.
Judge Gardner now (1896) is spending his declin-
ing years at Calvert.
EMIL WARMUND,
FREDERICKSBURG.
Emil Warmund, Sr. , is a worthy representative
of one of the oldest and most prominent pioneer
families of Gillespie County, Texas. His parents
were Christian and Augusta Warmund, from
Nassau, Germany. They had four sons: Louis,
William, Emil, and Charles. The family came to
Texas in 1846, landing at Galveston in January
after a voyage of one hundred and twenty days on
a sailing vessel. From Galveston they went to
Indianola where they spent two weeks, and then
proceeded to Fredericksburg in wagons drawn by
ox-teams, the trip requiring four weeks. Emil
remained in New Braunfels with his brother William
(a clerk for the German Emigration Company) for
eighteen months, at the expiration of which time
they joined the family at Fredericksburg. There the
parents died, the mother in 1848 at forty-two 3'ears
of age and the father in 1872 at seventy-three years
of age. Louis died in 1884 and William in 1891.
Emil, the subject of this notice, located on Live
Oak creek, where he raised stock, farmed and made
money. Later he lived on Bear creek, nine miles
distant from Fredericksburg. In the fall of 1865
he located in Fredericksburg and engaged in mer-
chandising, at which he has been quite successful.
He is now one of the wealthiest citizens of his
countj'. He was a member of the local militia
during the war and did all he could to promote the
Southern cause.
He was married in Fredericksburg in 1847 to
Miss Augusta Sander. They have seven chil-
dren: Adolph, now deceased, who left a
646
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
widow and two sons; Emil, August, Louise, now
Mrs. William Basse ; Emma, now Mrs. Alba
Fatten ; Matilda, now Mrs. Henry Meckle ; and
Lena, now Mrs. Alfred Basse. They have twenty-
five living grandchildren.
The Warmund family has left its impress upon
local development and the history of that portion
of Texas in which its members have lived.
William Warmund, deceased, was a man of most
excellent character. He served several terms as
County Judge of Gillespie County and left a large
estate to his family and an honorable name.
JOSEPH BATES,
BRAZORIA.
Few men in Texas were better known or more
universally admired in their day and generation
than the subject of this memoir. Gen. Joseph Bates,
of Brazoria.
A writer in " Reminiscences of Public Men in
Alabama," an historical volume published in that
State, says of him: " Indeed, nature seemed to
have marked him for command. He was tall,
athletic, and of exact symmetry in his person, with
a head and face which a sculptor would delight to
copy as a master-piece. His mental powers were
not inferior to his physical. Though not a lawyer
by profession, he had all the readiness in thought
and language of a practiced speaker. He possessed
greater qualities still. When difficulties multiplied,
he rose with the occasion, and was always adequate
to the emergency, never at a loss, never taken by
surprise ; and his bearing always reminded me, in
conception, of a grand field-marshal of Napoleon
at the head of a column, advancing, while a hun-
dred pieces of artillery played upon him, until he
pierced the enemy's center, and decided the for-
tunes of the day. Never did I gaze upon a more
lofty man in his physical developments, coupled
with what I knew to be his intellectual qualities."
The following article, under date of February 27,
1888, appeared in the Galveston News of March 1,
of that year, announcing the close of his illustrious
career in death : —
" On the morning of the eighteenth instant, at
about 4 o'clock. Gen. Joseph Bates breathed his
last, at his residence in this county. For the past
few months the General had been growing feebler,
and to the anxious kinsmen and friends it was
plain to see that his life's course was nearing its'
close.
"Gen. Bates was born at Mobile, Ala., Jan-
uary 19, 1805, and had reached the eighty-third
year of his age. The General was not of a com-
municative turn of mind, especially touching his
personal history, and were it not that his name
figures conspicuously in the record of the legisla-
tive and political events of early times in Alabama,
the writer would not have much to say respecting
his early life. However, in 1829, we learn that he
was a member of the Lower House of the General
Assembly of that State. In 1835 he was taking an
active part in what is known as the Seminole Indian
War in Florida. In 1837, then being Major-general
of the Sixth Division of the State militia, he was
returned to the House of Representatives from
Mobile County and again, in 1840, we find him at
his old post of duty in the legislative halls of his
native State. During this long tenure of office he
is shown to have been ever vigilant in protecting
the rights of his constituency. And particularly
on the occasion of the passage in 1837 of what was
known as the State Cotton Agency Bill, he is repre-
sented as having done yeoman service in opposing
the bill. As the leader of the minority he made a
written protest against its passage, which, the
chronicler of those events tells us, ' is to be found
spread upon the journal of the House at page 202,
a monument of the faithfulness of a representative
in vindication of his constituents in the city of
Mobile.'
"He was a warm personal friend and politicaj
supporter of Hon. Henry Clay, and in 1844, when
that gentleman visited the city of Mobile, Gen.
Bates was his constant companion during his stay,
and one who saw them together and knew them
both remarked that ' a view of two such men side
by side, so peculiarly striking and so gifted, each
in his sphere, may never again be the privilege of
any spectator.'
" He came to Texas about 1845 and stopped in
Galveston, of which city he was Mayor for two
terms. While there he al^o held the position of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
oil
United States Marshal for the Eastern District of
Texas under President Fillmore's administration.
About 1854 he removed to and located in the west-
ern portion of the county, near the coast, where
we find him at the beginning of the late war,
engaged in the quiet occupation of farming and
stock-raising. But when the tocsin of war rang
its peal of alarm, and the war clouds gathered
dun and dim, he forsook these quiet pursuits, and
at his country's call, like the patriot that he was,
armed himself for the fray.
" He entered the service of the Confederacy as
a Colonel of the regiment he had succeeded in
raising and, under Gen. Macgruder, was assigned
to duty on the coast defenses of Texas. He estab-
lished his headquarters at Velasco, and was ever
vigilant and watchful of his charge. In recognition
of his services he was promoted from one degree
to another until his stately form was at last adorned
with the uniform of a General. And here, at this
post of duty, it was that those traits of character,
which marked him as one born to lead and com-
mand, shone forth with all their brilliancy. The
order was given to evacuate the coast defenses,
and, with that peculiar keenness of forethought,
which was his alone, he saw that disaster to the
country could but result from such a step, and, in
opposition to all who favored the move, he refused
to retreat, held his position, and thus, by the in-
terpid and determined efforts of this one brave
man, this, the fairest portion of our fair State, was
saved from the ruin and desolation that waits
attendance on an invading army, and this, alone,
is sufHcient to make his name loved and memory
dear to those who now enjoy the fruits of his
knightly conduct. After the war had closed and
the Confederacy had furled its flag and yielded it
to the victors, he in the turbulent time of recon-
struction bore himself with such moderation, dis-
cretion, and firmness, that his example and zealous
efforts went far towards bringing about a pacific
adjustment of our local affairs. The General had
three sons and two daughters living, and a host of
friends to mourn his loss. His love of home and
friends, his high sense of justice, unbending in-
tegrity and constancy of purpose, are all traits of
character which united in him, and gently blended
in such degree as to make him loved at home and
admired and respected abroad. With all the noble
traits of character possessed by this good old man,
it is needless to add that round the family fireside
the rosy light of love and peace at all times shed
its genial glow.
" Like us all: —
" ' He had some faults,
Bat these, in some way,
Have escaped my mind;
I only remember
The warm, feeling heart
That made him a friend
To all mankind.' "
LEOPOLD MILLER,
ORANGE.
Men of foreign birth have done much to develop
the resources of Texas, and form one of the most
progressive elements of its population. The man
who is slothful or timid or who bends himself easily
to existing conditions, never tries his fortune in a
strange and distant land. A majority of those who
have come to us from across the seas, represent the
best blood and intelligence of the countries of their
birth. They have the ambition and just pride to
wish for and labor with energy to accumulate a
competency, the power of mind to plan and execute,
the firmness and courage to dare and do upon life's
great field of action, and the love of liberty to
appreciate and help maintain the blessings to be
enjoyed under free institutions. The life of no
man whose name the writer can recall, more forcibly
illustrates the truth of these statements than that of
the subject of this memoir, Leopold Miller, the
well-known mill owner and merchant of Orange,
Texas.
Mr. Miller was born in Hamburg, Germany,
October 27, 1853. His father, A. Miller, for
many years a cigar manufacturer and enterprising
business man of Hamburg, was born at Weisen-
burg, Germany, in 1802, and died at Hamburg in
1886.
His mother, who bore the maiden name of Hen-
rietta Markus, was born at Hamburg in 1820. She
is still living in Hamburg and, although she has
passed the allotted span of three score years and
548
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ten, is in good health. Always of a cheerful and
happy mood, she is like a ray of sunshine in the
home and, beloved by children and grandchildren
and all who know her, the evening of her days is
bright and sunny. Of the eight children, four
sons and four daughters, born to her, all are now
living.
Mr. Leopold Miller left his native city for
America in 1869, when sixteen years of age, and
after an uneventful voyage reached his destination
at New Orleans. After working for four years in
a mercantile establishment in that city, he moved
to Mississippi, where he clerked in a store for
about eight years. He returned to New Orleans,
remained there for a period of eight months and
then, August 1, 1881, started for Texas, which has
since been his home and where he has acquired an
independent fortune. Upon his arrival in this
State he at once embarked in merchandising. In
1888 he became connected with the saw mill busi-
ness and now owns the largest shingle mill in the
South. His mercantile business has also grown
to large proportions. He is president of the
Orange Electric Light & Water Works Company,
was one of the organizers and is now one of the
directors of the First National Bank of Orange,
and is a member of the Board of Trade of Orange.
He has also served as a member of the Board of
Aldermen and School Board and has been an
active, untiring and progressive worker for the up-
building of the town and section of the State in which
he lives. He has given liberally of his time and
means to the promotion of every worthy enterprise,
is a member of the Legion of Honor, Knights of
Honor, Knights of Pythias, I. O. O. F. , and Masonic
fraternities, and has thoroughly identified himself
with the best interests (social, educational, moral
and commercial) of the State to whose develop-
ment he has so materially contributed. He is rated
as one of the wealthiest business men of Orange.
Starting in life a penniless young man, he has had
to make his own way in the world.
He was married in New Orleans, November 16,
1879, to Miss Camilla Kaiser, daughter of B.
Kaiser, a wholesale merchant of that city. She
was born in 1856, received an excellent education
and is a lady of rare accomplishments. An elegant
entertainer, her husband's home is famous for its
refined hospitality. Her father lost all of his
property during the war between the States. Even
his watch, chain and Masonic charm were taken from
him during the occupancy of the city by the Fed-
eral troops under Gen. Ben. Butler. The Masonic
charm was afterwards relurned to him. Mrs.
Miller is a sister of Mark Kaiser, the celebrated
violinist of New Orleans, who is conceded to be
the best in the South. When Mr. and Mrs. Miller
were married they had nothing, but shortly there-
after established a small business in Monticello,
Miss. After remaining there for sixteen months,
they returned to New Orleans, where he placed
all of his wares and merchandise aboard the
steamer " Katie Nye." The steamer, it afterwards
transpired, had been condemned by the board of
underwriters. Mr. Miller was not aware of this
fact, but, on the contrary, was under the impres-
sion that his commission merchant had taken out
insurance. Six hours after the vessel started she
was burned to the water's edge and his goods
destroyed. As they were uninsured his loss was
complete.
His faithful wife stood by him in this hour of
gloom and disaster without a complaint or murmur,
having confidence in his ability to surmount the
diflSculties that confronted them. Mr. Miller attrib-
utes all of his after success to her, saying that she
has sustained him with her unfaltering faith and
encouraged and urged him forward at all difficult
points they have encountered along their path-
way.
Four children have been born to them, three of
whom, Joe, fourteen, Morris, twelve, and Etta, ten
years of age, are now (1895) living at home and
are receiving that advice, attention and careful
rearing that give promise of useful lives when they
shall, in the years that are coming towards them,
leave the parental roof-tree to encounter the vicissi-
tudes, and strive for the honors of adult life.
Mr. Miller is still a young man. His powers
have been developed in the school of experience.
At the head of important enterprises, full of plans
for the future, with a large fortune at his command
and in the hey-day and prime of a vigorous man-
hood, it is to be expected that he has only fairly
entered upon liis achievements as a financier and
that he will make his influence still more powerfully
felt in the upbuilding of the commercial and other
interests of his adopted State.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
549
JOSEPH F. SMITH,
Joseph F. Smith, the subject of this imperfect
sketch, was born in Fulton County, Ky., in 1808.
He removed to Arkansas at an early day, where he
acquired considerable property in land and negroes.
He came to Texas in the early thirties, or perhaps
in the latter twenties, and entered into partnership
with his uncle, ex-Governor Henry Smith, in the
purchase of vast quantities of landscrip, which
Mr. Smith located, coming into what was then the
wild West for the purpose. The bulk of this land
was located in Eefugio and San Patricio counties,
over land previously illegally located, as Mr. Smith
claimed, and time and the law bore him out as being
correct in his conclusions. This, necessarily, in-
volved him in almost endless litigation, and he
studied law and was admitted to the bar solely for
the purpose of attending to his own large and
important land suits, for it was very seldom that he
ever attended to suits for other parties, and only
then, it is believed, where he had been concerned
in the location of the land in controversy, although
he was considered one of the best, if not the best,
land lawyers in Texas. In other suits, either civil
or criminal, he never engaged.
When quite young, he joined the ill-fated expedi-
tion from Texas, which fought the famous battle
of Mier, in which a little band of brave Texians
took the city, defended by a large body of Mexican
troops, killing several times their own number of
the enemy. But large reinforcements arriving,
they were offered terms by Gen. Ampudia, which
they were compelled to accept, and thus became the
famous Mier prisoners. The Mexicans after the
surrender, treated the prisoners with the usual
faith of the nation. In the fatal lottery that fol-
lowed the attempt to escape at the hacienda of
Salado Mr. Smith was so fortunate as to draw a
white bean, thereby winning one of the first prizes,
his life.
After regaining his liberty, he returned to Texas,
fixing his domicile at what was then known as Black
Point, on Aransas Bay, now St. Mary's. Mr.
Smith laid out and founded the town of St. Mary's
some years before the Civil War. Here he built a
fine and large stone house, from native quarries,
which he designed as a residence for his daughter,
who in the meantime had married, in Eastern
Texas, a Mr. Kennedy. He was anxious to have
his daughter and her children near him, as he
grew older, he having been, through force of cir-
cumstances, separated from her nearly all of his
life ; but, before the house was finished and
preparations completed, his daughter failed so much
in health, that the project for her removal was
abandoned. In a few years his own health failed
so materially that he thought himself compelled to
give up his own home and seek an even milder cli-
mate than Texas, and this he found in Tuxpan,
Mexico, where he removed, and bought the rancho
" Lapatal," consisting of some thirty thousand
acres of land. Here death claimed him, and he
died in this alien land, far from the country he
loved and from all his kindred, in 1878, his beloved
daughter having preceded him to the land of the
departed by some years. He left a will bequeath-
ing all of his possessions to his two granddaughters,
the Misses Mary Elizabeth and Lucy Jane Kennedy,
the former and elder having since married the Hon.
B. M. Sheldon, now mayor of Rockport, which
town, Mr. Smith, during the course of his useful
life, materially assisted in founding and also assisted
in carrying on to prosperity. The writer perhaps
knew Mr. Smith as well as any person now living,
but not sufficiently well to relate all the incidents
in his long and eventful life, which, if properly
collated and set down, would easily fill a large and
interesting book. Though very reticent — and
somewhat prone to speak over -little of incidents in
his own life, he was known as one of the early heroes
of Texas, an eminently just man, and one who
largely assisted in all the best enterprises that made
early Texas' history so glorious.
Never having seen his name in any hitherto
printed Texas history, it is a pleasure to the
author to accord him his rightful place in this
volume.
550
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
B. M. SHELDON,
ROCKPORT,
Hon. B. M. Sheldon came to Texas in 1875 from
New Orleans, where he was born August 12, 1862.
His father, Capt. Stephen Sheldon, a steamboat
owner who ran vessels on the Mississippi and Ohio
rivers for many years, was a native of Rhode
Island ; married Miss Georgiana Arnold, also a
native of that State, and died at New Orleans in
1869. Besides the subject of this memoir there
were two daughters and one son, viz.: Albert B.,
Fannie, and Georgiana. A. B. died at Corpus
Christi in 1884 at twenty years of age. Fannie is
the wife of Benjamin Sprague, of Providence, R. I.
When twelve years old B. M. Sheldon came to
Texas with his mother, worked on a farm for a few
months and then apprenticed himself and learned
the painters and 'signwriters trade, which he fol-
lowed for about twelve years at Corpus Christi.
He then went to Rockport to pursue the same busi-
ness. He married, February 3d, 1890, Miss Lizzie
Kennedy, an accomplished daughter of Prof. John
T. Kennedy, Professor of Mathematics, at Me-
Kenzie Institute, Clarksville, Texas, where Mrs.
Sheldon and her sister Janie were born. They
were reared and educated at Palestine, Texas.
Mrs. Sheldon is a lady of attainments and fine
domestic traits. Miss Janie Kennedy is a member
of the household and a lady of social and intel-
lectual culture. Mr. Sheldon engaged extensively
in contracting at Rockport for a time and has since
been engaged in the real estate business. He
served three years as Alderman of Rockport and is
now serving his second term as Mayor, and has
greatly assisted in bringing the city out of debt
and pushing its fortunes. Mr. and Mrs. Sheldon's
home is one of the handsomest and most luxuriously
appointed in the lovely seaside city. They have
two sons, Joseph Smith Sheldon and Arnold Ken-
nedy Sheldon, and a daughter, Constance Sheldon.
Maj. Sheldon is a wide-awake and progressive
public officer and citizen.
EDWARD Q. KREIGNER,
SPRING BRANCH,
One of the early settlers of Kendall County, was
born in Toeplitz, Germany, January 4, 1821 ; came
to Texas in 1846, and located at New Braunfels,
where he joined the United States army for the
Mexican War, enlisting as a private in Col. Jack
Hays' regiment of Texas rangers. The rangers
were detailed by Gen. Zacbary Taylor for scouting
service, and were often twenty-five or thirty miles
in advance of the main army. The names of Jack
Hays and his famous command are surrounded
with a halo of heroic tradition. An account of
their exploits would read more like a romance than
sober history. Leader and men were the bravest
of the brave and no enemy was ever known to with-
stand their fierce and deadly charge.
After the war Mr. Kreigner settled at the junc-
tion of Curry's creek and the Guadalupe river,
where he estatjlished a farm (nosy consisting of 600
acres) and has since resided. He married Miss
Wilhelmina Koether. Her parents came to Texas
in 1845. Mr. and Mrs. Kreigner have no chil-
dren.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
551
JOSEPH HEBERT,
BEAUMONT.
Was born in Lafayette Parish, La., in 1818; came
to Texas at twenty-four years of age and settled in
Jefferson County ; remained there three years,
wten he returned to Louisiana and married Miss
Melina Andrus, of St. Landry Parish and then re-
turned to Texas and engaged in the stocli business
near Beaumont, in which he accumulated a fortune
in cattle and land.
Nine children were born of this union, eight of
whom lived to maturity, viz. : Mary Azema, who
married first in 1866, Eloi Broussard of Vermillion
Parish, La., and after his death, Lovan Hampshire
of Jefferson County, Texas; J. M., a stock-raiser
and farmer residing at Beaumont ; B. C. , a stock-
raiser and farmer of Jefferson County; L. J., a
stock-raiser and real estate dealer at Beaumont;
"W. A., a stock-raiser and farmer at Beaumont;
Clara Silliman, wife of Sidney Arceneaux, of
Arcadia, La. ; Louise Cedelize, now deceased, wife
of Raymond Richard, of Arcadia Parish, and Lizzie,
now deceased, wife of J. B. Richard of Arcadia
Parish, La. Coralie, the fourth child, died in
childhood.
At the beginning of the war between the States,
Mr. Hebert raised the first company that was
organized in Beaumont for active service in the
Confederate army, but the company was disbanded,
after which he served as Captain in a military com-
pany, detailed as home guards at Houston, Texas.
He died at his home, in February, 1865, and is
buried in the family burying-ground, near his old
home.
His wife died in January, 1869, and is buried
beside him.
JOSEPH MARTIN HEBERT,
BEAUMONT,
Was born July. 2, 1847, in Jefferson County, Texas,
and educated in Beaumont aild Liberty counties.
He was a soldier in Company C, Madison's regi-
ment, Lane's brigade, in the Confederate army,
with which he served until the close of hostilities.
He then returned home and assumed charge of
his father's estate and soon thereafter engaged on
his own account in the stock business, which he
has followed ever since. He now owns a well-
stocked cattle ranch in Jefferson County, his
brother, L. J. Hebert, being associated with him.
He also engaged in the land business, with Judge
Chaison, of Beaumont.
Mr. Hebert married, in 1867, Miss Emilie Brous-
sard, daughter of Edward Broussard, of Vermillion
Parish, La. They have nine living children, viz. :
Cora, now wife of D. Bonnemaison, of Youngsville,
La. ; Jules, Felix, Numa, Seth, Louis, Clerfey,
Edward, and Eve, who live at the family home.
Joseph Hebert, Sr., was leader in all movements
inaugurated for the up-building of his section of
the country.
562
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
W. G. KINGSBURY, M. D.,
BOERNE.
The subject of this sketch was born in Booncilio,
Oneida County, N. Y., on the 6th of November,
1823, where his parents owned a small farm at
the time. His education was obtained in the dis-
trict school and at a Seminary at Cazanovia. He
then studied and perfected himself in the profes-
sion of dentistry under Dr. Lemon, the leading
dentist of the city of Baltimore. From Baltimore
he returned to his old home in York State and
attended school for a season, practicing among the
students and in the neighborhood, and earning
nearly enough money to pay expenses.
Determining to go West, he reached Texas, in
the beginning of the first month of the year 1846.
He soon got out his kit of tools and went to work
at his profession and, being the only dentist in
the country, got plenty of work and made money.
Among his first acquaintances was the noted Texian
ranger, Capt. Sam. Walker, who persuaded him to
go to the Mexican War with him. He did not enlist
as a regular soldier. Walker told him he could not
be a private soldier and be on equal terms with an
ofllcer and eat at the same table, so he went as a
friend and companion, taking his tools as a means
of living, knowing that he could make more money
than any soldier's wages. He followed Walker
through the various vicissitudes of the Mexican War,
was with him when he fell, as only fall the bravest
of the brave, was in every battle that was fought
when he was able to take part and left the country
with eighteen wounds, one being a bad saber stroke
upon his right cheek, which distinguishes him from
all other men.
Returning from the Mexican War, Dr. Kingsbury
practiced at many of the towns in Western Texas,
and finally settled inSan Antonio, where he occupied
one oflSce for twenty-five years, made money and
gained distinction in his profession.
In the fall of 1869 he was mainly instrumental in
getting up a fair, and was chosen president of the
association and then and consequently did much to
make known abroad the advantages Texas had to
offer.
Dr. Kingsbury's writings attracted the attention
of the Governor of the State, and he was appointed
Commissioner of Immigration, and as long as the
bureau of immigration existed, he was stationed in
St. Louis and by the dissemination of his writings,
thousands of people came to Texas as emigrants.
Later he represented various railroads as immi-
gration agent in Europe and maintained an oflSce
at London, England, from 1875 to 1884, during
which time he delivered speeches and wrote articles,
pamphlets and books, which with other suitable
matter were published in the language of nearly
every civilized country and were circulated broad-
cast over Europe, and sent tens of thousands of
desirable immigrants into Texas.
It is safe to say that no man ever worked harder
or more intelligently for the good of Texas than
the subject of this notice. It is also safe to
say that no man ever retired from a large business
leaving his affairs in better shape. He has three
sons to carry on the good work, a flourishing town
in Guadalupe County bears his name, and he has
thousands of friends to perpetuate his name.
JOHN WARREN, SR.
HOCKLEY,
An old settler of Harris County, residing at Hock-
ley, was born in Cumberland County, England, in
1822, and is the son of James and Jane Warren,
both also natives of Cumberland, in which county
his ancestors lived from time immemorial. The
subject of this notice was reared in his native place
(brought up on a farm) and there resided until
1851 or 1852, when he sailed for Texas, the soil of
which he first touched at Galveston. He had in-
tended to settle at Corpus Christi, but changed his
mind and took up his residence in the northwest
corner of Harris County, not far from the Mont-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
553
gomery County line, where he kept the stage stand.
Later he purchased land and engaged in farming
and stock-raising, which have been his chief pur-
suits since. Business took him back to England a
year or so after coming to this country and he
remained there until 1857, when he returned to
Texas. The Houston and Texas Central Kailroad
having in the meantime been built as far as Hock-
ley (about three miles from the place of his first
settlement), he located at that place and has there
resided since. He has purchased land from time to
time until his holdings at this writing aggregate
about 6,500 acres, lying in Harris, Montgomery
and Waller counties (mostly in Harris) all of
which he has stocked with cattle and horses. In
point of wealth, as well as in point of time of
residence, he is the first citizen of the locality
where he lives. He has followed a quiet and unos-
tentatious life, never having desired, sought nor held
a public office of any kind. Nevertheless he has at
all times manifested a commendable interest in all
that pertained to the public good and has aided
every worthy enterprise to the extent of his oppor-
tijnities and means. He has never sold a foot of
land since he came to the State, which will show
how much confidence he has at all times had in the
future of Texas. He thinks that Texas is as good
a country as there is in the world and does not see
why any man cannot become independent here if
he tries.
Mr. Warren married Miss Jane Maffat, of Cock-
ermouth, Cumberland, England, December 18, 1846.
She was a native of that place, and, like himself, of
old English ancestry. Six children have been born
of this union, three of whom are still living, viz. :
Jane Eliza, now Mrs. George Ellis, of Houston ;
Mary G., now Mrs. W. J. Peele, of Hockley,
Harris County ; and John, Jr., a ranchman in Harris
County.
Mr. Warren says he has never gone in debt for
anything in his life, never had a copartner, never
engaged in speculation in any form and never car-
ried a dollar's worth of insurance. He has paid
some security debts, however, sustained two losses
by fire and gone through with the usual number of
vicissitudes, privations and hardships that fall to the
lot of even the prudent. He has always met his
obligations of every kind promptly and honorably
and now, at the advanced age of seventy-three
years, enjoys an untarnished reputation, good
health and an abundance of good spirits. He has
great faith in his country and fellow-men and feels
that, all in all, time and fortune have dealt very
kindly with him.
GOTTLIEB OBST,
BULVERDE.
Gottlieb Obst was one of the pioneer settlers of
Bexar County, Texas. He was born in Germany,
January 25, 1817, and emigrated to America in
1847; and located in the vicinity of Bulverde,
where he developed a good farm and raised a
family. He married Miss Johanna Bunzel in
Bastrop, by whom he had five children, viz. : Her-
mann, born January 12, 1862 ; Gustav, born June
25, 1863 ; William, born October 23, 1864 ; Charles,
born September 26, 1866, and Emma, born Octo-
ber 5, 1869. Mrs. Johanna Obst was born Decem-
ber 15, 1827, and died February 2, 1882.
Mr. Obst died November 1st, 1888. He was an
honest and industrious man and highly esteemed.
William, Charlie and Emma, who are not married,
live on the old home place, emulating the example
and cherishing the memories of their departed
parents.
554
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
SEBASTIAN BEIERLE,
WESSON,
A Texas pioneer, born at Baden, Germany, Jan-
uary 20, ^827, came to Comal Couijty, Texas, in
1854. Lived in town for eight months and then
located on the Guadalupe river, where he purchased
land from the State, to which he has since added
until he now owns 1,542 acres.
Mr. Beierle brought his wife with him from Ger-
many. They have six children: Charles, Valen-
tine, Catherine, Christiana, Mary, and Emelie.
Mr. and Mrs. Beierle are venerable old people and
much esteemed for their many excellent traits of
character.
MAX WAHRMUND,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Well known throughout his native county of Gil-
lespie, and a leading citizen of Fredericksburg, at
which place he was born July 27, 1863 ; is a son of
the late Louis Wahrmund, who was born in West
Baden, Germany, Kingdom of Prussia, March 19,
1822. Of the coming of the family to this country
in 1846, something is said in the sketch of the life
of Emil Wahrmund, elsewhere in this work. Louis
Wahrmund followed freighting between Victoria
and Indianola, and interior points in Texas, up to
about 1860, after which he engaged for a time in
farming at Bear creek, and then moved to Fred-
ericksburg, where he engaged in business, which he
followed up to the time of his death in 1883. He
was united in marriage to Miss Susana Ressmann,
daughter of John Peter Ressmann. They have
eight children, viz. : Charles, Mina, now Mrs.
August Schmidt; Nellie, now Mrs. Charles
Jung; Ferdinand, Gustav, George, Edward, and
Max.
Max Wahrmund married Miss Sophia Weyrich,
daughter of Chas. Weyrich (a pioneer settler of
Fredericksburg), in 1884. They have four chil-
dren : Arno, Alma, Egon, and Kurt.
He was elected Treasurer of Gillespie County in
November, 1894, and is now (1895) the incumbent
of that office, which he is filling acceptably to the
people.
JOHN T. HART,
ORANGE.
Lawyer. Born June 18, 1854, at Mobile, Ala.,
and raised on his father's plantation near Demo-
polis, Ala. His father, James M. Hart, a well-
known Southern planter, was born in South
Carolina, April 4, 1802, and died May 4, 1864.
His mother, Sara J. (Turner) Hart, was born
near Althens, Ala., November 16, 1815, and died
October 30, 1893.
John T. Hart acquired his primary education in
private schools in Alabama, and completed it at
Springfield Hill College, Miss., attending the latter
institution during three sessions and graduating
therefrom in 1869 with high honors at the age of
seventeen. Came to Texas in April, 1872, and
located at Orange, where he has since resided.
He worked in a saw-mill for three or four
months, and then accepted a position in the mer-
cantile establishment of Mr. Henry Thompson, a
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
5S5
connection that continued nearly four years, dur-
ing which time he studied law at spare moments.
He then resigned his position and read law for
eighteen months in the office of Triplett & Talvey,
at Orange, and while absent on a visit to his old
home in Alabama was elected County Attorney
of Orange County before he was admitted to the
bar.
He was, however, granted temporary license by
the District Judge and sworn into office. He re-
ceived his permanent license at the following term
of court (in 1878). He was re-elected two years
later, served about half of the term, and then
resigned the position to devote his entire attention
to his growing practice.
Mr. Hart has been successful in many important
cases, both civil and criminal, and in but few cases
have judgments secured by him been reversed on
points of law. He was a prime factor in the organ-
ization of the city's government, drawing up all of
the first code of ordinances. He has been a mem-
ber of the local board of trade ever since it was
organized. He was elected a member of the first
board of Aldermen, selected by the people after
the incorporation of the town, did good service as
president of the school board, and in 1893 was
appointed Postmaster at Orange by President
Cleveland, a position that he now holds. Starting
in Orange with a capital of nine dollars he has
accumulated a competency. He owns considerable
property in Texas, a large tract of land in Ala-
bama, and the old family homestead in the latter
State.
He married, January 15, 1878, Miss Addie Good-
man, of Orange, daughter of Mr. C. G. Goodman,
of that city. Three children have been born to
them, two of whom are still living, viz.: Edna M.
Hart, aged sixteen years, now attending the North
Texas Female College, at Sherman, Texas, and
John W. Hart, living at home with his parents.
Mr. Hart is a member of the Knights of Honor
and Legion of Honor.
In politics he is a strong Democrat, and has
done good service for his party.
JAMES G. BROWNE,
BROWNSVILLE,
A well-known Texas pioneer, was born of Irish
parents in Manchester, England, January 1, 1820.
He was a carpenter by trade, a master of his call-
ing, and became a contractor for the government,
and, in the latter capacity, came to Texas and
erected barracks, soldiers' quarters, etc., at Point
Isabel, Texas, in 1848. Soon thereafter he engaged
in merchandising at Freeport, on the Rio Grande
river, which place was soon absorbed by the estab-
lishment and growth of Brownsville and finally
taken into that corporation. When Brownsville
commenced to grow in population and importance,
he moved there from Freeport and continued in
merchandising, meeting with gratifying success
until 1863, when he lost heavily by fire. He then
moved across the river to Matamoros, Mexico, and
engaged for a brief time in business there, after
which he removed to Camargo, Mexico, near the
Texas line, and opposite Rio Grande City. There
he remained in business until the close of the war
between the States. In 1865-6 he returned to
Brownsville to look after his extensive landed inter-
ests in Cameron County. He left his ranches well
stocked with cattle, sheep, horses, etc., all of
which were confiscated and utilized by the Confed-
erate government or stolen by marauding Indians
and Mexicans.
He set about the restoration of his estate to its
former condition, however, with his accustomed
energy, and made a large amount of money raising
stock. He married Miss Helen Kilvin in Mata-
moros, Mexico, daughter of one of the early settlers
of San Patricio County, Texas. Mr. and Mrs.
Browne had six children, four of whom survive:
Mary C, widow of the late Henry San Roman, of
Brownsville; James A., of Brownsville; William,
Assessor and Tax Collector of Cameron County,
and a prosperous farmer and stock-raiser of that
556
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
county, and Albert A., Chief Clerk in the United
States Customs Office at Brownsville.
James G. Browne was an industrious, useful and
frugal citizen. He was a well-informed man and
popular with the masses. He held the office of
Sheriff of Cameron County and also that of Tax
Collector many years. He left to his children an
honorable name and a handsome estate.
He died at his home in Brownsville, surrounded
by the members of his family.
The memory of his worth is preserved by many
loving; friends.
FRANCIS M. HENRY,
TEXARKANA.
Hon. F. M. Henry, ex-meraber of the State
Senate, a lawyer of distinction, and a Democrat
who has served his party with fidelity since old
enough to vote, was born November 11, 1832, in
Rhea County, Tenn., and has lived in Texas since
the late war ; during the last twenty years at
Texarkana.
His parents were Henry and Mrs. Jane (Mont-
gomery) Henry. His father was born and reared
in Sevier County and his mother in Ehea County,
Tenn.
The subject of this memoir received an excellent
education in Tennessee and Georgia. In 1860 he
was married to Miss Mary E. Taylor, born Feb-
ruary 18, 1838, in Clark County, Ark., and has five
children: Francis Beauregard, Stonewall Jackson,
Robtert Lee, Johanna M., and Patrick Gustavus, all
of whom are living, except Francis B., who died in
infancy. Stonewall J. is practicing law at Texar-
kana and Robert L. at "Waco.
Capt. Henry commanded Company D., Nine-
teenth Regiment of Arkansas Infantry, in the Con-
federate army, east of the Mississippi river, during
the early part of the war, and a company west of
the Mississippi river in 1863-4, and in that capacity
distinguished himself as a brave and capable officer
and won for himself the confidence and respect of
his men and superior officers. He has participated
prominently in public affairs in this State during his
residence here, but has never, of his own notion,
sought political preferment. In obedience to the
wishes of the Democracy of the district, he served
as Senator in the Texas Legislature in 1876-8, and
participated in the framing and enactment of much
of the important legislation accomplished during the
session. His soundness of judgment, his learning
as a lawyer, and his grace as a speaker, won for him
a prestige that caused him to rank among the fore-
most of his colleagues. He has been very success-
ful at the bar and has been engaged in the practice
of law and dealing in real estate for the last thirty
years.
W. W. DUNN,
FORT WORTH.
The subject of this sketch was born in Washing-
ton County, Va. , six miles west of King's Salt works,
near Dunn's Hill, May 6th, 1822.
His mother died February 4th, 1825, leaving five
children, three daughters and two sons. A year
later his father married a Miss Taylor, of Sullivan,
Tenn., a daughter of John Taylor. She bore
five children, three boys and two girls. In 1831,
the father sold his home with the intention of going
to Missouri, but through persuasion of his brother,
John Dunn, of Abingdon, located six miles west of
Abingdon, where he died, February 3d, 1836.
There being ten children to care for, in the winter
of 1837 the subject of this memoir, W. W. Dunn,
launched out for himself and hired to a hog-driver
at SlO.Op per month, to aid in moving about five
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
bbl
hundred hogs to Lynchburg, Va., a distance of two
hundred miles. All things moving slowly on for
two months, they landed the hogs at Lynchburg,
where they were sold for $10.00 per hundred, and
young Dunn set out on foot to return home, making
the trip in five and a half days.
Then he spent three months in Abingdon, going
to school,' after which he returned home and worked
on the farm until about the first of August, 1838,
when, with his sister and her husband, Stephen
Bray, he made his way to Scott County, and there
found his brother Jacob, who had preceded them
about one year. In Scott County he entered into a
contract with Hiram Cowden, living on Sinken
widowed Mrs. Cowden until he was twenty-two, all
of which he did not fail to do. At the age of twenty-
two he left the widow and located in Castlewoods,
Russell County. There he boarded with one Nath-
aniel Dickinson and went to school, working evenings
and mornings for his board. Spring time came,
the school was out, and all the boys and girls had
to go to work — the girls to spinning and weaving
flax; the boys to sowing, mowing and reaping, and
thus the summer was spent. By this method he
managed to earn sufficient to defray his modest
expenses during the succeeding winter. He left
Castlewoods and went to Lebanon, the county seat
of Russell County, and there engaged with Bone
^V. W. DUNN.
creek, the contract being to serve him until twenty-
one years old, for which young Dunn was to receive
necessary wearing apparel and have one year's
schooling, a horse, saddle and bridle, and last, but
not least, $50.00 in actual cash. This, the last
prize, caused him to bear his burdens cheerfully
and look forward with much pleasure, meditating
over what nice things he would get with the money.
All went smoothly ; but, alas, his good friend Cow-
den fell sick and died of consumption in the spring
of 1841, not, however, without providing for his
young employee by will, bequeathing to him all that
he had stipulated in the first part of the contract
and $100.00, the latter to be paid the grateful
devisee when twenty-one years of age, and one hun-
dred and fifty more, provided he remained with the
and George Gray, merchants of that place. He
was to cultivate a small farm and do such hauling
with a four-horse team as he could get about the
town. So he hauled wood, rock and charcoal and
broke lots and gardens for the good citizens of the
village during the summer. In the fall he gathered
his small effects together, procured a one-horse
peddling wagon, bought $84.00 worth of goods
and traveled across the mountains into Kentucky.
There he busied himself among the early settlers
of Letcher County for about three months, coming
out fifty dollars ahead. During one of his jour-
neys the following humorous incident occurred on
Millstone creek. His was the first wagon, per-
haps, that ever passed that way, or at least the
first that many of the younger children had ever
568
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
seen. The way was very rough and in driving over
roots and guUeys the curtains of his wagon came
loose, and hung down and flapped much like the
wings of a bird. He spied three boys in the road
ahead of him. They were running and hallooing
for life. For about a mile they ran. Arriving at
home, they reported the biggest thing they had
ever seen in life, flying up the branch with a man
ill its mouth and chasing a horse. He returned to
Scott County and followed peddling during tlffe
winter. ,
In the spring one Wm. E. Sutton (who was
a leather peddler) and Mr. Dunn joined their
wagons together and opened a small country store
and conducted a successful business until the next
winter, when Mr. Dunn sold out to Mr. Sutton and
later volunteered as a soldier in the United States
army for service in the Mexican War, which broke
out in the spring of 1846. The company raised
was not received by the government and the men
were disbanded the first of January, 1847. A.
McCorkel, Marian Hoozer and Mr. Dunn left
Abingdon on the 10th of January, by stage, for
Lynchburg, and proceeded thence by canal to
Richmond, Va., where they enlisted as volun-
teers in Company H., commanded by Capt.
E. G. Alburtis. A few days later they em-
barked on a steamer for Old Point Comfort, and
remained there for about one month and a half.
On the 22d of February, they sailed on the barque
'■'■Exact " and in due time landed at Point Isabel, six
miles below the moiith of the Rio Grande. On
March 9th they made their first march from that
point to the mouth of the river ; thence by boat to
Camargo, Mexico, and thence on foot to Monterey.
There they rested for about two months, spending
about one half of the time at Walnut springs, six
miles from the city. From this point they returned
to the city of Monterey, where Mr. Dunn's friend,
McKorkel, died. From Monterey they marched
and, after much fatigue, reached Saltillo, on
June 13th.
In that city and at Buena Vista they sojourned
until the 13th of June, 1848, when they set out for
the United States, landing at Old Point Comfort
about the first of August.
At that place they were honorably discharged.
Soon after they were discharged they scattered,
many of them to meet no more. It was a sad sep-
aration, although each and all were eager to see
their old homes and friends. His route was by
Richmond and Lynchburg to Abingdon, which he
reached without adventure. After remaining three
days at home, he engaged in mercantile pursuits
again, moving to Tazwell, where he did a fairly
good business for ten years.
November 3, 1851, he married Miss Emily Gil--
lespie, a daughter of Col. Robert Gillespie, of Taz-
well County. She died December 13, 1853, leaving
him one child, a little daughter, Emily Louisa Wid-
difleld, as a pledge of their affection. The child
was cared for by her aunt, grew up to womanhood
and was the idol of her father's heart. She was
united in marriage to Mr. Wm. S. Hartman, an ex-
cellent gentleman, and is now the mother of seven
children, four girls and three boys, viz. : Annie,
Bettie, Eva, Mary, Willie, Sammie, and Clinton
Hartman.
In December, 1862, Mr. Dunn was united in mar-
riage to the widow Senter, maiden name, Miss
Nannie Davis. She bore him two sons, Bascom
and William Dunn. She departed this life in the
summer of 1866. Her son William died in 1868.
In August, 1867, he was married to Mrs. Lina
Grant, his present wife. She had two children at
the time of their marriage, Josie and Ada. Josie
first married Dr. John Dunn and, after his death,
E. B. Strowd, of Hillsboro, Texas.
Ada married G. W. Hollingsworth, and lives in
Fort Worth. Bascom is married and has one child,
Florence. His wife's name was Martin. In
1869 Mr. Dunn located in Fort Worth and has
since made that city his home. He purchased of
E. M. Daggett the block of land he now lives on
for $350.00. The block is 200 by 200 feet, and is
now worth about $200,000.00. Mr. Dunn owns
five-eighths of the block yet, on which stands the
Mansion Hotel, a building that contains one hun-
dred and fifty rooms, all told.
He has a fine system of water works which he
operates in connection with the hotel. His well is
333 feet deep ; the water is pure and soft ; no
better bath water can be found, no better
drinking water in the world. The supply is
abundant. It is pumped into tanks, from which it
is conveyed to all parts of the house. The house
is three and four stories high, well ventilated, and
furnished with gas and electric lights.
Mr. Dunn has passed the seventy-fourth rung in
the ladder of life. He is strong and active. Now
in old age he has but little to reproach himself for,
and hopes to be as active during the remainder of
life as he has been in the past.
His religious belief is based on Christ's promise :
" I came to the world to redeem all mankind."
Mr. Dunn has been active in every good work,
and has thousands of sincere admirers throughout
Texas.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
559
WILLIAM KELLY,
BROWNSVILLE.
Capt. William Kelly, born in Belfast, Ireland,
April 2, 1840, is one of the most prominent and
influential citizens of Brownsville, and is highly
esteemed for his scholarly attainments, business
integrity and social qualities. He came to America
from Ireland, his native country, in 1861, when
twenty-one years of age, and at once enlisted in
the First New York Mounted Rifles, with which
regiment he served for three years and was then
mustered out as a First Lieutenant and brevet Cap-
tain. He was subsequently commissioned as first
Lieutenant, Eighth United States Colored Troops,
but was soon transferred to the Quartermaster's
Department and assigned to duty as a Brigade
Quartermaster. The close of the war found Mr.
Kelly in Texas, and he located in Brownsville in
1865. He began steamboating on the Rio Grande
in 1866, in the employ of King, Kenedy & Com-
pany, who then owned and navigated sixteen
good-sized steamboats, which carried an immense
amount of freight from Brazos, Santiago, to Browns-
ville and points on the upper river. At that time
there were frequently over fifty vessels of all
kinds, from 3,000-ton steamers to 1,000-ton
schooners, anchored in the harbor of Brazos, Santi-
ago, and off the mouth of the Rio Grande, all of
them engaged in a paying business.
Mr. Kelly succeeded to the business of King,
Kenedy & Company, in 1874, since which time he
has run the steamboating business on a constantly
descending scale. From a fleet of twelve steam-
boats on the lower river and four on the upper,
run constantly to their utmost capacity, the busi-
ness is now reduced to one small boat, the
" Bessie," 110 tons, making two trips a month
(when there is water enough to float her), from
Brownsville to Rio Grande City. The changes in
the Rio Grande river are remarkable and almost
unaccountable ; but the certainty of other means
of transportation being provided for, the freight
which now passes over that route makes it imprac-
ticable to attempt any improvement of river navi-
gation, and Mr. Kelly is prepared to abandon his
last steamboat.
There are few enterprises for benefiting his sec-
tion in which he is not personally and financially
interested.
He is a director of the Rio Grande Railroad,
vice-president and director of the First National
Bank, and one of the ioremost promoters of rail-
road construction to the frontiers of the United
States and Mexico with a view to connecting the
systems of those countries and opening the way for
trade and manufactures.
Educational matters have always received his
careful attention. He has been chairman of the
School Board for the past twelve years, and the
value of his services is attested by the fiourishing
condition of the public schools of the city and the
many improvements in accommodations and
methods within that period.
Mr. Kelly owns 6,000 acres of land below the
city and is interested in silver and lead mines in
Mexico.
He was married in 1870 at Brownsville, to Mrs.
Thornhan. They have five children, viz. : Louise
M. E. ; William, a graduate of West Point Mili-
tary Academy ; Mary G., Anna R. and John W.
A. W. TERRELL,
AUSTIN.
Leaving out of account all that part of the long
and uneventful period of Spanish and Mexican
domination that antedates the beginning of Anglo-
American colonization, the history of Texas covers
a period of time much shorter than that of any
other of the Southern States. Yet the State has a
history that in romance, depth of meaning and
value to the present and the future is second to
that of no other in the American Union. The
lessons taught by the immolation at the Alamo, the
560
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
massacre at Goliad and the victory at San Jacinto
will never be forgotten. These lessons are the her-
itage not alone of the English-speaking peoples, but
of mankind. The action of the Spartans at Ther-
mopylae and the united Greeks at Marathon and
Platea for many centuries had only to be recounted
to incite men, ripe for liberty, to fly to arms in re-
sistance of tyranny. Texas has added other and
equally glorious examples of what men should do
and can do if inspired by the spirit of freedom. Of
these examples every Texian is justly proud. It is
also a source of pride that valor in the field was
followed by wisdom in the Senate, that among the
first work done by the founders of the Republic
and subsequent State, they laid the foundation for
a system of popular education and made provision
for the establishment and maintenance of the insti-
tutions for the deaf and dumb, blind and insane,
and mapped out lines of public policy that evinced
a statesmanship at once wise, noble and unselfish —
a statesmanship in advance of the times in which
they lived and that entitles them to the veneration
of posterity. But the people, above all else, are
proud of the succession of great men who have in
an unbroken line appeared in the walks of public life
and by their abilities and virtues shed luster upon
the proud and heroic name of Texas. The roll of
honor is too long for recital here. The name of
Houston, dauntless in war, peerless as an orator,
with port and carriage that would have befitted a
curule Senator in the golden days of the Roman
Republic ; the name of Rusk, the idol of the people
and the most distinguished figure in the Senate of
the United States, up to the time of his menancholy
death, are enshrined in the heart and memory of
every man in every land where votaries are to be
found at the shrine of freedom. There were others
equally able, no less worthy, and scarcely less dis-
tinguished for their services, who were contempor-
aries of these men ; nor, since the fathers have com-
pleted their pilgrimage of life, have ihey been
without successors, worthy to receive upon their
shoulders the mantles which they let fall. It is a
lamentable fact, however, that of late years the
number has diminished and, instead of there being
many leaders of genuine statesmanship and patriotic
purpose whom the people can safely look to, to origi-
nate and push reforms and give sound counsel in
time of doubt or danger, there are all too few.
Among the brightest and best public men that
Texas can now boast is the subject of this brief
memoir, Hon. A. W.jjTerrell, the present Minister
Plenipotentiaryjfrom the United States to the Otto-
man fimpire. In looking back over his career,
extending as it does over a period of more than
forty-years, one is struck by the extent, variety
and value of his public services ; not only that, but,
what is more worthy of admiration, by the utter
disregard of self that he has manifested upon many
an occasion, when he deemed it necessary to speak
and act in defense of the interests of the country,
by his singular boldness and originality of thought
and the fearlessness he has displayed in the support
of convictions when those convictions were opposed
by a blind and senseless opposition due to the fact
that he was in advance of the immediate times
and blazing a way for the multitude to follow and the
multitude's ordinary leaders, with some of whom
patriotism is a trade, that they do not hesitate to
turn to profit. In point of sheer intellectual
strength he compares favorably with any of our
great men of former days, with any in the South
to-day, and is certainly without a superior in this
State. A learned lawyer, a sound and erudite
scholar and a magnetic, Ciceronian orator, he also
deserves the distinction of a statesman, using that
term in its proper signification. The deeper prob-
lems of life, as regards the race, the nation and
the individual, have been pondered over by him by
day and by the midnight lamp, and are ever upper-
most in his mind. It has never, at any time,
occurred to him to sacrifice principle for the sake
of personal aggrandizement. He has shown him-
self to be far above that vanity of little minds that
feeds upon applause. He has been actuated by
nobler motives, — the desire to do his duty fully,
the love of truth and justice, and a desire to con-
tribute his part toward the prosperity and glory of
the country and the welfare of his fellow citizens
and of the generations whose duty it will be to
perpetuate free institutions and the blessings that
are inseparable from the possession of liberty. He
was among the very first, if he was not the first,
to call attention to the necessity of abridging and
controlling corporate power, and the pack was in-
stantly in full cry at his heels, keeping always, how-
ever, at a safe distance, or receiving wounds that
no leech could cure. Now the country is thoroughly
aroused, and his views have been adopted not by a
few, but by the toiling milUons of the country. But
for him Texas would have no commission to-day to
regulate railway freight charges. He started the
movement that has eventuated in such a commis-
sion and at last, as a member of the House of
Representatives, perfected the railroad commis-
sion bill that became a law. This is his-
tory familiar to every man conversant with the
facts, it detracts nothing from the merit due
to others, and it deserves a lasting place
upon the pages of the State's history. That Texas
INDIAN WAUS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
661
has a university, a system of efficient and richly
endowed public free schools and eleemosynary in-
stitutions that are a credit to our enlightened civil-
ization is largely due to him. As a result of his
labors as a legislator, or his public spoken or
written utterances, many of the most salutary laws
upon our statute books were enacted. Prior to
1855 there were no party nominations in Texas.
In that year the American, or Know-nothing party,
a secret, oath-bound organization, out of touch
with the spirit of free institutions and based upon
passion and prejudice, placed a full State ticket in
the field. The Democracy, ever true to its tradi-
tions, only needed leadership to perfect organization
and offer battle, although the chances of its stem-
ing the tide successfully seemed poor indeed. At
this juncture, Judge Terrell and a few other leaders
held what was known as the " Bomb Shell " meet-
ing in the ciiy of Austin, that resulted in the call-
ing of a Democratic State Convention, that nomi-
nated candidates who, as the standard-bearers of
the party, canvassed the State and with the aid of
other Democratic speakers and workers, Judge
Terrell among the number, won a victory that gave
the coup de grace to the " Know-nothing " party in
Texas. He is entitled to the proud distinction, if
it is due to any living man, of being one of the
fathers of the Texas Democracy. He has been
true to the party's principles and colors and his
white plume has helped head the way for the Demo-
cratic hosts upon many hard-fought political fields
during many years. Party fealty has been some-
thing more with him than merely a blind worship
of an organization. He has considered party as
but a means to an end — good government — and
he has never hesitated to denounce wrong, labor
for the adoption of correct policies or to warn
against mistakes when they were about to be
committed. The people have grown more and
more to appreciate his true character, and when
President Cleveland conferred upon him the
honor of appointment as Minister to Turkey it
was a course of gratification to them that a Texian
should have been selected for that important mis-
sion at a time when affairs in the East rendered
it necessary that only a man of sound judgment,
skillful address and flrst-class abilities should be
sent to Constantinople. They knew that he would
bear himself creditably. He has more than met the
full measure of their expectations. His name has
become a household word, in every Christian home
throughout the world, and he has won for himself a
position that entitles him to honorable rank among
the trained diplomats of Europe, where diplomacy
has long been reduced to a fine art ; in fact, he has
accomplished more for the amelioration of the con-
dition of the Armenian Christians and for the pro-
tection of Christian missionaries in Armenia than
the representative of any other single power ; this,
too, without the aid of warships in the Dardanelles.
Of dignified and imposing presence, courtly in his
manners, just in the formation and frank in the
expression of his views, he soon came to enjoy not
only the respect but the friendship of the Sultan,
who is himself a learned and polished man of gen-
erous sentiments and who assured Judge Terrell
that he would take pleasure in granting any reason-
able request, a promise that was redeemed as far
as it lay in his power to do so. Judge Terrell upon
his recent return (in April, 1896), to his home in
Austin, Texas, on leave of absence, was received
by his fellow-citizens with every public and private
expression of respect and affectionate regard.
After a brief stay he will return to his post of duty
in Turkey.
He was born on the 3d day of Noveaober, 1828,
in Patrfe County, Va., finished his education in the
University of Missouri and was licensed as a lawyer
before he was twenty-one years of age. He was
elected City Attorney of St. Joseph, Mo., in 1849,
and removed to Austin in 1852 in search of a more
genial climate for his wife, formerly Miss Ann E.
Bouldin, who died in 1860 ; entered into a law part-
nership with Hon. W. S. Oldham in 1852 ; engaged
actively in practice and as counsel took part in the
trial of many of the leading cases known to the
courts.
In 1857 was elected District Judge and re-
mained on the bench in the Austin District until
1863, when he resigned and organized a reoiment
of cavalry for the Confederate service. He was in
command of his regiment until the close of the war,
leading it into action in the battles of Pleasant Hill,
Mansfield, and the various engagements fouv^ht
during the retreat of Banks down Red river. A
few weeks before the surrender of the Trans-Mis-
sissippi Department, in recognition of his capacity
as a commander, he was commissioned by Gen. E.
Kirby Smith as a Brigadier-General.
After the war he settled temporarily in Houston
to practice his profession, but the uncertain condi-
tion of the courts induced him to retire from pro-
fessional work for a time and he engaged in planting
on the Brazos, near Calvert, until the death of his
second wife, formerly Miss Sallie D. Mitchell, in
1871. He then returned to Austin, resumed prac-
tice and three years later was appointed Reporter
for the Supreme Court, which position he retained
for thirteen years. During the period of his re-
portership he published more volumes than have
562
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ever been reported by any other Supreme Court
Reporter in the United States.
Iq 1876 he was elected to the Senate without
opposition and was twice re-elected. During this
term of service he framed the present jury law
which was a great improvement upon that previously
in force and which no subsequent Legislature has
been able to improve. He was also champion of
the law that established the State University and
drew all the acts which gave it its permanent
endowment. He also framed the school law, while
chairman of the Committee on Education, that
established what was known as the "Community
System," which continued until the establishment
in recent years of the "District System." The
various measures for rebuilding and enlarging the
asylum for the insane, and the educational insti-
tutions for the deaf and dumb and for the blind,
were originated and pushed to enactment by him.
All the laws under which the Texas State Capitol
were erected were framed by Judge Terrell, and so
careful was the system of checks and supervision
provided by law, that the splendid granite capitbl
was finished complete under the original contracts,
without a deficiency. His influence was felt in
every direction and he left his impress upon very
nearly all of the important legislative work that
was accomplished. Judge Terrell was chairman
of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate for eight
years. After securing the passage of laws for the-
construction of the State capitol, Judge Terrell was
again elected to the State Senate, with the avowed
object of securing the establishment of a State
University. Its establishment had been required
in the constitution of the Republic of Texas and
of the State for over forty years, but the jealousy
of the different sections of so vast a State had
prevented its location. An inspection of the jour-
nals of the Senate show that the bill which finally
established the State University, was introduced
by Senator Buchanan of Eastern Texas. It was
almost the copy of a bill introduced formerly in
the House, by Representative, afterwards Congress-
man, Hutchison, of Houston, and may be regarded
as the joint work of O. H. Cooper, afterwards
State Superintendent of Education, Mr. Hutchison
and Judge Terrell. The original bill, which be-
came law, was in Judge Terrell's handwriting.
Senator Buchanan, as Judge Terrell's friend, in-
troduced the bill. At the close of his last term in
the Senate, Judge Terrell declined re-election, at a
time when he could have been returned without
opposition. In 1888 he was made Democratic
Elector for the State at large and did yeoman ser-
vice in unifying the party, in disseminating a
knowledge of fundamental principles and in secur-
ing an overwhelmning majority for the party's
nominees. In 1891 he was elected a member of
the House of Representatives, from Travis County,
without offering himself as a candidate, and after
his published declaration that he did not wish the
position and would not electioneer for it. The
majority accorded him was the largest ever re-
ceived by a candidate in Travis County. It was
at this session that he perfected the railroad com-
mission bill. He also aided in the passage of other
and much needed legislation.
In 1883 Judge Terrell was married to Mrs. Ann
H. Jones, formerly Miss Ann H. Holliday. He has
three living children : Mrs. Lilla Rector, and two
sons.
Judge Terrell delivered a speech at the laying of
the corner-stone of the magniflcient granite State
capitol, in 1886, and read a poem in Latin, that
was inscribed upon a bronze plate, which was de-
posited in the receptacle in the corner-stone. The
oration was a superb effort and well suited to the
occasion and the poem is said by competent Latin
scholars to be worthy of perpetuation for after-
times in a language that has been handed down to
us by the Immortal lyric strains of Ovid and Horace.
He has delivered by special request many ad-
dresses before colleges and literary and learned
societies, and delivered many speeches in the dis-
cussion of problems that confront the people or
that he knew would in the coming years demand
solution at their hands. There are many who re-
member his speech delivered many years awo, in
the Opera House at Austin, and published under
the title of "The Cormorant and the Commune."
No man who has a copy of it would part with it for
love or money. This was only one among many
equally striking utterances, the echoes of which
still reverberate through the land, or have grown
and deepened into the thunderous diapason of
popular demands that cannot and will not be
silensed until justice is done.
In every campaign, State and national, until his
appointment as Minister to Turkey, his views were
eagerly sought, and he was looked to as a leader.
His fame is national and international. His wisdom
and patriotism are approved. He has helped to
make a large and important part of the history of
Texas. The State is proud of it and. the nation's
representative at the most important court in the
East, and, when his term of service has expired,
will right gladly welcome him home again.
It is to be regretted that he has retired from
politics, and manifests no disposition to again enter
the arena.
liUFUS HARDY.
INDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
563
RUFUS HARDY,
CORSICANA.
Judge Rufus Hardy was born in Monroe County,
Miss., December 16, 1855.
His father, George Washington Hardy, was a
native of the same State and county, and was one
of a family of seven sons and seven daughters.
The family were, as their name implies, a hardy,
meritorious race. By their indomitable energy,
good judgment and sterling integrity, they all
became prosperous. Though none of them sought
any public position, they were all Democrats of
the old school, believing that every citizen should
stand on an equal footing before the law, asking
no favors, and demanding only an open field and
a fair chance in the race of life. Three of the
brothers came to Texas, and settled finally in
Brazos County, where they owned large estates in
land and negroes. These brothers were G. W.,
A. W. , and Henderson Hardy. G. W. Hardy was
the oldest and the wealthiest. He was a good
liver ; his home was the seat of hospitality before
the war, and in everything he was the typical
Southern gentleman and planter — proud, gener-
ous, patriotic, and devoted to his friends and
family. Being a cripple, VJesides being exempt on
account of his age, and the act exempting owners
of a certain number of slaves, he did not enter the
Confederate army, but his devotion to and zeal
for the cause of the South in her struggle for
a separate, independent government, was not sur-
passed by that of any soldier in the ranks, and all
during the war his cribs were open and free to the
wife or widow of any soldier who was fighting, or
had died for his country. His confidence in the
ultimate triumph of the South was supreme, and
caused him to invest, even in the last years of the
war, all that he had in negro property, so that
when the end came he was left without a dollar
and without even a home. He lived twelve years
after the war, with health and spirit greatly broken,
and died in 1877, leaving only a small property,
accumulated after the war between the States.
Judge Hardy's mother, prior to her marriage,
was Miss Pauline J. Whittaker, born and reared in
Maury County, Tenn. She, too, was one of a
family of seven sons and seven daughters. The
Whittakers were a prominent family in Middle
Tennessee. The old family home, a brick two-
story building, where the mother of JudgeHardy
spent her girlhood days, is still standing, but it
has passed into strangers' hands. Mrs. Hardy
(nee "Whittaker) is still living, and spends her
time with her four children.
Judge Hardy has one brother, D. W. Hardy, of
Navasota, who now owns, besides his home in that
place, valuable farms in the Brazos bottom, nearby.
Judge Hardy has two sisters, Mrs. T. J. Knox
and Mrs. S. Steele, who also live at Navasota. Mr.
Steele owns a very floe farm in the Brazos valley and
Mr. Knox a farm near Navasota.
The subject of this memoir received such educa-
tion as the private country schools in Texas afforded
in the old days, when the maxim " spare the rod and
spoil the child " was still held good. In his seven-
teenth year, partly with money earned by himself
and partly with money furnished by his elder brother,
D.W. Hardy, and his father, he was enabled to enter
Summerville Institute, a long-established private
school in Noxubee County, Miss., where he spent
one year, during the presidency of Thomas S. Gath-
right, afterwards the first president of the Texas
Agricultural and Mechanical College, at Bryan.
Later he spent two years at the j University of
Georgia, at Athens, one year In the collegiate depart-
ment and one year in the law department. He
returned home in June, 1875, and began the prac-
tice of law at Navasota, in January, 1876, when
less than twenty-one years of age. He moved
thence to Corsicana in February, 1878, and has
since resided in that city.
In February, 1881, he married Miss Felicia E.
Peck, daughter of Capt. Wm. M. and Mrs. Nancy
Forbes Peck, of FairQeld, Texas. Capt. Peck was
a Tennesseean by birth and his family have been
represented on the bench of the Supreme Court of
that State. Mrs. Peek (nee Forbes), came from a
fine old family of the good State of Alabama.
Capt. Peck bore the commission of Captain in the
Confederate army, having raised a company of
Freestone County boys in 1861 to fight for the
Southern cause. After the war he came home,
like thousands of others, to begin life, as it were,
anew. He was a man of exceptional energy
and capacity, of intellectual culture and natural
refinement, a polished gentleman of the old
school and successful in everything he undertook.
In November, 1880, Judge Hardy was elected
County Attorney of Navarro County, and was re-
elected in 1882. In 1884 the office of District
564
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Attorney for the Thirteenth Judicial District, com-
posed of Limestone, Freestone and Navarro coun-
ties, was created and he was elected to the position.
Two years later he was re-elected to the office. In
1888 he was elected District Judge and was re-
elected in 1892 and is now occupying the bench.
His term will expire in November, 1896. This year
(1896) he has not offered himself as a candidate
for judicial honors or for any public position, and,
after a service of sixteen years in office, will retire
to private life and resume the practice of bis pro-
fession. In all his official career, which has been
altogether connected with the administration of the
law, his endeavor has been to do justice without
fear or favor. As a successful prosecutor, his record
stands unsurpassed and as judge his re-election to
a second term without opposition, either inside or
outside of the Democratic party, attests how well
he has discharged his duties.
Judge Hardy has never failed to take a decided
stand on all political issues and hence has a multi-
tude of strong friends. While uncompromising in
his political action, he has been uniformly courteous
and fair in his treatment of those who have been
opposed to him and as a consequence has enjoyed
their respect and confidence.
When the idea of a railroad commission, with
confiscating powers, grew into a fever, he opposed
it and, though on the bench, attended the Demo-
cratic primaries to vote against the adoption of the
extreme views advocated by Governor Hogg and
others ; but, after the State Democratic convention
bad regularly nominated a State ticket, bowed to
the will of the party.
In 1894, when no Democrat in Texas seemed
willing to run for office and defend the national
Democratic administration. Judge Hardy, in April,
wrote a letter announcing himself as a candidate
for Congress from the Sixth Congressional District
and in a series of speeches, defended the financial
policy of Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle with
all the fervor of deep conviction and all the
ability he possessed. The discharge of his duties
as District Judge rendered it impossible for him
to make a complete canvass. In fact, he scarcely
made any canvass except in Ellis and Navarro coun-
ties, and these two counties, both holding Demo-
cratic primary elections, cast the majority of their
votes for sound money (Cleveland) candidates.
Judge Hardy does not assume all the credit for this,
result, because in that somewhat memorable cam-
paign, while three candidates in the field advocated
free-silver, Mr. W. Poindexter, of Cleburne, who-
was announced later, was an exponent of sound
money teachings and in Ellis, Johnson, Hill and
Bosque counties made a vigorous canvass. The
sound money fight for Congress was lost, mainly
for the reason that Dallas was given to a free sil-
verite because he was a home man, and without a
canvass or primary, but the counties of the district
brought up a handsome sound money majority in
the State Democratic Convention in August, 1894.
In May, 1895, Judge Hardy attended a conference
of sound money men, called to meet at Waco to
face the gathering free silver movement. The meet-
ing was called by Judge Alexander, Judge George
Clark, Gen. Felix Robertson, Dr. Moore and other
Democrats of Waco. Judge Hardy was called on
to preside and a series of resolutions were adopted,
which constituted the opening note of the sound
money forces in the battle now on for an " honest
dollar." Since that meeting a pretty thorough
organization of the sound money Democrats of
Texas has been perfected with Judge Eufus Hardy
as chairman of their executive committee. A mem-
orable State meeting was held at Galveston in Feb-
ruary, and another at Dallas on San Jacinto day
(April 21), and, altogether the year 1896 bids fair
to be long remembered in Texas politics.
As a public speaker, Judge Hardy is clear, log-
ical and eloquent, thoroughly exhausts the subjects
that he discusses, and carries conviction to the
hearts and minds of his auditors, where that is pos-
sible. His career as a prosecuting attorney was
marked by exceptional success and his name became
a terror to evil-doers. During his long service upon
the district bench he has made a record of which he
and his constituents have good reason to be proud.
Faithful to his convictions upon the great finan-
cial question, as well as upon all others, both in
public and private life, he does not believe in com-
promise and will never give his consent to the sacri-
fice of principle to expediency. He has given his
support to every worthy enterprise inaugurated for
the development of the section in which he resides,
and the State at large.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
565
ROBERT KIDD,
SEALY.
Occupation, farmer. Born in Amherst County,
Va., in 1776 ; received a good common school edu-
•cation ; came to Texas in 1849 or 1850 ; located on
Sabine Lake, at Auroria, Jefferson County, Texas :
remained there for two or three years, then moved
successively to Grisby's Bluff, Smith's Bluff, Beau-
mont, and San Felipe, residing at the latter place
from 1866 until 18 , when be moved to Sealy,
where he resided until his death in 1892. Owing to
bis great generosity of spirit, his success, in a
financial way, was limited, yet he maintained him-
self in independent circumstances, and had the
satisfaction of knowing that he bad done some
good and had lessened somewhat the load of human
misery.
In 1884, although one hundred and eight years
old, Mr. Kidd walked one mile to the polling place
to cast his vote for Hon. Grover Cleveland, thus
contributing his ballot to the re-establishment of
clean, honest, responsible. Democratic government.
The measure of success that he achieved in life
was attributed to his industry, honesty and
integrity.
He married Miss Rebecca Hitchcock, of North
Carolina, in 18 . Seven children were born to
them, four of whom are living: F. M. Kidd, of
Sealy, Texas, fifty-one years of age, engaged in
farming and stock-raising; G. W. Kidd, of Beau-
mont, Texas, forty-nine years of age, County Treas-
urer of Jefferson County ; Mrs. Anna Elizabeth
Caswell, of Beaumont (widow), a large stock-
holder in the Texas Tram & Lumber Co., of Beau-
mont, and Mrs. Mary E. Cook, wife of N. H. Cook,
Esq., of Sealy, a wealthy stock-raiser and farmer.
G. W. KIDD,
BEAUMONT,
Was born at Benton, Polk County, Tenn., Decem-
ber 7, 1846, and was brought to Texas in 1849 or
1850 by his parents, Robert and Rebecca Kidd, for
many years a resident at Sealy, this State. He
grew to manhood on his father's farm, where he
remained until 1868 and then accepted a position
as clerk and bookkeeper in a mercantile establish-
ment in Sealy, Texas, which he filled for fifteen
years, when he was elected County Treasurer of
Jefferson County, to which office he has since been
continuously re-elected ; often defeating rival can-
didates at the polls. His discharge of the duties of
the office has given universal satisfaction.
Mr. Kidd's chief pleasure during his father's life
was to care for him and see that his every want
was supplied. He has been a dutiful son, a faith-
ful public official and has faithfully discharged the
duties of every trust confided to him.
He enlisted in the Confederate army in 1864 and
served until the close of the struggle. He is a
member of the Masonic, Knights of Honor, K. of P.
and Elks fraternities.
566
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ERNST SCHERFF,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
Ernst Seherff, one of the leading citizens of New
Braunfels, was born in the town of Goettingen,
Hanover, Prussia, March 31st, 1826. His father,
Gottlieb Seherff, an expert mechanic and metal
worker and manufacturer of surgical instruments,
died in Germany, and his widow and her children,
William and Elise, came to America in 1859.
William entered the Confederate army as a private
in a cavalry regiment, but it becoming known that
he was a skillful worker in metals, was detailed for
service in the arsenal at San Antonio, where he
remained until the close of the war. After the
surrender he clerked in the store of his brother
Ernst for a time and finally engaged in merchan-
dising in San Antonio, where he died seventeen
years ago. Elise became Mrs. Schuenemann. Mr.
Schuenemann, now deceased, was a wheelwright,
and his widow and her daughter Sophie, who re-
sided with her brother at New Braunfels, died
some years after. The mother of the Seherff chil-
dren died in New Braunfels, in June, 1887, at the
age of eighty-four years.
Ernst Seherff' s business experience commenced
at the age of fourteen, as a clerk in a store in his
native land, and when twenty-two years old he
enlisted as a private in the Frei Corps under com-
mand of General von der Tann in the German-
Danish War in Schleswig-Holstein in the year 1848
to 1849, After the war he decided to go to Amer-
ica, and first landed in New York in the year 1849,
remained there two months and then proceeded to
Texas, thence to New Mexico and Arizona and in
the year 1855 he returned to Texas and located at
New Braunfels. He clerked there until 1861 and
then entered into business for himself. Being in
poor health he did not enter the Confederate army.
He conducted one of the two stores kept open in
New Braunfels during the war. He continued suc-
cessfully engaged in business until about 1887, and
then retired from active pursuits, and sold out his
business to his nephew, George Knoke and Mr.
George Eiband, both clerks of his business, who
continue the well-established and successful busi-
ness under the firm name of Knobe & Eiband.
In 1859 he married Miss Sophie Rick, a most esti-
mable and accomplished lady. During the war he
served eight years as Alderman of his town, but he
never sought or desired political honors.
G. W. DURANT,
ALVIN.
Maj. G. W. Durant, of Alvin, Texas, is a pioneer
of 1852, coming from Georgia. He is a native of
South Carolina, and was born at Georgetown, in that
State, October 25th, 1834. His ancestors, both on
the paternal and maternal side, were soldiers in the
war for American Independence, serving under
Gens. Washington and Green throughout the
struggle.
His father, F. H. Durant, was a planter, who had
three sons and one daughter, all of whom, except
the subject of this sketch, arc deceased.
His mother's maiden name was Miss Martha
Zewell.
Maj. Durant, at the age of twenty-one years, in
1855, was elected Surveyor of Brazoria County,
Texas, and held that office for several terms. In
1861 he enlisted as a private in the Magnolia ran-
gers ; served in the Trans-Mississippi Department,
was soon elected Captain of the company and later
was promoted to the rank of Major. He was
slightly wounded at Vadalia, La., where two horses
were shot from under him the same day and a third
wounded. After the close of the war between the
States, he spent a short time in Leon County where,
June 1st, 1865, he married Miss Emma L. Durant,
daughter of the State Senator, Hon. John w!
Durant. Shortly thereafter Maj. Durant engaged
in merchandising at Bryan and also in farming near
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
567
that place. la 1880 he purchased eighty-three
acres of land, upon which a portion of the prosper-
ous town of Alvln now stands.
He was mainly instrumental in securing the build-
ing of the Santa Fe from Houston to his town.
The Santa Fe Company had determined to build
from Hitchcock to Houston, but Maj. Durant, being
a practical engineer and having a thorough knowl-
edge of the topography of the country, made clear
to the railroad authorities that to build from the
town of Alvin instead would give a shorter line and
better grade and if they made the survey and if the
route was not adopted that he would pay for said
survey when it was made and the profiles, etcs
submitted. The Alvin route was adopted. Little
of importance in the way of local development has
been accomplished which he has not actively
promoted.
Maj. and Mrs. Durant are members of the Chris-
tian Church, the first built in the city. The
Major donated the ground on which it now stands
and all but $150 of the money used in erecting the
edifice.
They have one daughter, Virginia, Mrs. J. S-
Bering, of Alvin, and three grandchildren: May,
Emma, and Martha Bering.
Maj. Durant is broad-minded, liberal in his views
and has shown himself ready at all times to forward
any cause that gave promise of promoting the wel-
fare of his town and people.
FRANK THOMAS,
BURNET.
Frank Thomas, son of John A. Thomas, was
born in Wayne County, Ky. , in 1841. His father
died when Frank was small and the mother, accom-
panied by her five sons and one daughter, came to
Texas in 1855, settling in January of that year in
Burnet County, where she subsequently lived and
died, her death occurring in 1869 at the age of
fifty-seven years. The eldest son of the family,
James M., was in the Indian service when a young
man, quitting it to enter the Confederate army at
the opening of the late war, in which he died soon
afterwards while stationed as a member of Wilkes'
Battery at New Braunfels, in this State. The
second of the family was Frank, the subject of
this sketch; the third, Mary Jane, who was mar-
ried to Carter T. Dalton and died in Burnet County
in 1885; the fourth, William H., who died in
j'outh; the fifth, John A., who died at Fort Yuma,
Arizona, while on his way to California in 1869, and
the youngest was Marshall, who died at about the
age of eighteen.
Frank Thomas was reared in Burnet County from
the age of fourteen. He entered the ranging ser-
vice in 1859, as a member of Capt. Dalrymple's
■company and was in the service for nine months,
covering a large portion of Northwest Texas — from
Fort Worth to Wichita mountains. In February,
1862, he enlisted in the Confederate army as a
member of Capt. Wm. Rust's company, Company
B., Carter's Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, with which
he served in Louisiana, Arkansas and Missouri,
participating in fights at Fort Patterson, Mo., Cape
Girardeau, Mo., Crawley's Eidge, Ark., and the
operations around Helena, Ark. He was with this
historic command from February, 1862, to Decem-
ber, 1863, when he was honorably discharged on
account of sickness, and returned to Burnet
County, Texas, where he was elected Tax-assessor
in 1864 — an office he filled for two years, without
compensation, as State warrants, by a subsequent
act of the general government, were rendered
worthless. From 1864 to 1882 he was engaged in
farming and stock-raising in Burnet County. In
June of the latter year he embarked in merchan-
dising in the town of Burnet, to which he has since
chiefiy devoted his energies. He still retains, how-
ever, his farming and stock interests. He is a
liberal, public-spirited citizen and a successful man
of business, admired by a wide circle of friends.
He married, in Burnet County, in 1866, Miss
Elvira Rowntree, a native of Travis County, Texas,
and daughter of James L. Rowntree, who came to
this State at a comparatively early date and was for
many years a resident of Burnet County. Seven
children have been born of this union, six of whom
are living, namely : Marshall, Alice, Robert, Kate,
Frank, and Weesie.
Mr. Thomas is a member of the Independent
Order of Odd Fellows, belonging to Emanuel Samp-
son Lodge, No. 187, at Burnet.
568
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
AUGUST TOLLE,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
This esteemed citizen and prosperous druggist
of New Braunfels is a native of Germany. His
fattier, Fredericis Telle, a tanner by trade, came to
New Braunfels, Texas, in 1845, by way of Galves-
ton and Indianola, and located two miles west of
the present city, where he established a farm and
reared his family. Advanced in years, he finally
retired to New Braunfels, where he died in May,
1881, at eighty-four years of age. The mother
survived until 1885, when she died also at the age
of eighty-four years. Frederick Tolle and his good
wife were consistent Christians, and members of
the Lutheran Church.
The subject of this sketch, Mr. August Tolle,
was born August 10th, 1829. He secured a good
education in his native country. Upon coming to
Texas, being seventeen years of age, he associated
himself with Dr. Theodore Koester, a brother-in-
law, who was at that time a practicing physician,
and with him opened an apothecary shop in New
Braunfels, in 1858, under the firm name of Koester
& Tolle, a connection that continued until Dr.
Koester died in 1878, since which time Mr. Tolle
has owned and conducted the business alone.
E'rederick Tolle had four sons and two daughters,
all of whom, save one, are still living: Christopher
and August, residents of New Braunfels ; Harry, a
tanner, at San Antonio ; Frederick (deceased in
1875) ; Augusta, now Mrs. Herman Schimmelpfen-
ning, of San Antonio, and Mrs. Theodore Koester,
of Dallas.
He married, in 1861, Miss Caroline Messer, a
daughter of Michel Messer, an oflBcer of the
German army, and has five children: Edith (now
Mrs. George Stark, of Bastrop) ; Amelia (now
Mrs. Otto SchoU, of New Braunfels) ; Theodore
(married to Miss Ella Henne, of New Braunfels) ;
Clara and Alfred.
SIMON FEST, SR.
SAN ANTONIO,
A native of Alsace, France, born October 26th,
1823, was a son of Antone Fest and the youngest
of eight cliildren. Three of his brothers served in
the French army : Antone, Louis and Lawrence,
the latter dying in the French service in Africa.
Simon was reared in his native place to the age
of twenty, left Alsace in October, 1846, and
went to Antwerp, from which port he sailed for
Galveston, Texas, in company with several col-
onists bound for different parts of the State.
From Galveston he went to Indianola and from
thence by ox-teams to Castroville, which he
reached after a three weeks' journey, landing there
in February, 1847. He remained in Castroville
until the August following when, on account of
scarcity of work there, he went to San Antonio.
There he worked two months for the government
and then went to work for John Fries, a contractor
and builder. After earning money enough to buy
a yoke of oxen and a wagon, he went to the head
of the San Antonio river and spent the year of
1851 farming. In 1852 he moved to Atascosa
County and engaged in stock-raising, remaining
there until the close of the war between the States,
after which he returned to San Antonio and on
December 26lh, 1865, purchased and settled on a
tract of land on South Flores street, one and one-
fourth miles from Main Plaza, where he engaged
in gardening and the dairy business and whe°e°he
has since lived and followed these pursuits up to
1881. He has for a number of years lived at ease,
engaged in no active pursuit. His property has
become very valuable and he is now reckoned as one
of the large tax -payers of that portion of the city.
He married Mary Bil, a native of Alsace, France,
October 16th, 1823, just prior to sailing for Texas.
She was a daughter of Michael Bil, who accom-
panied his daughter and son-in-law to this State
and settled in Dennis colony. Of this union were
born seven children, six of whom reached years of
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
569
maturity, viz.: Simon Fest, Jr.j who died in San
Antonio, in 1893 ; Caroline, who married Fred
Miller and died in Elkho, Nevada ; Mary, who mar-
ried Henry Karm and resides in San Francisco,
California; Henry, now living in San Antonio,
Texas ; Edward, who died at the age of twenty-
three, and Louisa, who was married to Fred Kerbel
and died in 1886.
October 14th, 1886, Mr. Fest's wife died and in
1889 he married Mary Karm, then of San Antonio,
Texas, but a native of Alsace, France. After his
removal to Texas, Mr. Fest brought his mother and
two sisters from the old country, and his mother
died in San Antonio as did also his brother
Louis, who came over and settled in that city in
1852.
EDWARD EBELING,
ROUND MOUNTAIN,
An old settler of Blanco County, was born in
Hanover, Prussia, April 2, 1828, and was reared in
his native country and resided there till he was
thirt}' years old. Was brought up as an agricul-
turist and was superintendent of a large plantation
in the province of Hanover previous to his coming
to his country. He came to Texas in 1858 in com-
pany with Otto Markensen, one of his countrymen
who had been engaged for some years previous to
that lime in bringing out immigrants to this coun-
try. Made his first stop in Austin County, where he
secured employment as a farm hand at $7 per
month. Worked a year at this and then in
partnership with Markensen rented a farm for a
year.
In 1860 Mr. Ebeling settled in Blanco County
near the Burnet line, where he purchased a small
place and engaged in the sheep business. Was
successful at this and as his means continued to
accumulate he invested in more lands and sheep.
Prospered from year to year -until he is now one of
the wealthiest, probably the wealthiest man in
Blanco County. He owns a ranch of 14,000 acres,
well stocked with cattle (went out of the sheep
business before the "Dump") and has money
besides. Is a stockholder in the First National
Bank at Marble Falls and was chiefly instrumental
in setting that enterprise on foot. Has given his
time and attention wholly to his own affairs which,
with his industry and good business ability, accounts
for his success. Was in the irregular sort of
frontier service necessitated by the condition of
the country from 1860 to 1868, helping to run
down pillaging bands of Indians, but was never
under arms by rtgular enlistment nor has he ever
occupied any official position.
Has been twice married and has raised a family
of six sons and three daughters to each of whom he
has given proper educational advantages. These
are: Frank, Olto, Rudolph; Clara, now Mrs. Wade
Bader; Max; Hedwig, now Mrs. Herman Gisseke ;
Edmund, Louis, and Bartie.
JOSEPH HARLAN,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
Joseph Harlan, deceased, one of the pioneer
settlers of Robertson County, was born in Laurens
District^ S. C, in 1797, and was a son of Aaron
and Elizabeth Harlan, natives of North Carolina,
who settled in South Carolina a few years after the
American Revolution. Aaron Harlan took part in
the Colonial struggle for independence as a member
of Marion's command. Joseph Harlan, when about
sixteen years old, ran off and joined the army at
Charleston, S. C, for the War of 1812.
Joseph Harlan was reared in Lauren's District,
S. C, where he married Delilah Burke, June 14,
570
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
1825, also born in the district, and resided until his
removal to Texas. He came to Texas first in the
early spring of 1836 on a tour of inspection,
accompanied by a negro man and woman, making
a journey overland with a team and wagon. Reach-
ing Nacogdoches, he found the country in a great
state of excitement, rumors flying in every direction
of the approach of the Mexican army under Santa
Anna. He left his servants and team with a
younger brother, Isaiah (who had come to the
country a short time before, and was then stopping
at Nacogdoches) and enlisted in the patriot cause-
He reached Houston's army a few days after the
battle of San Jacinto, and remained at the front
until the following July, when, seeing but little
prospect of further trouble with the Mexicans and
being desirous of going back for his family, he pro-
cured a substitute to take his place in the ranks
and returned to South Carolina. Settling up his
affairs there, he moved to Texas with his family and
possessions in the winter of the following year,
reaching Old Wheelock, in Robertson County, on
the 14th of February, 1837. In November of the
same year he took a head-right between the Big
and Little Brazos rivers, about five miles south of
the presqnt town of Calvert, and there settled. All
that section of the country was then very sparsely
inhabited , his nearest and only neighbors for miles
being John D. Smith, Thomas and Jesse Webb, and
an old bachelor named Harden. The same winter,
however, J. R. Robertson, brother of Maj. Sterling
C. Robertson, the founder of the colony, brought
out some negroes and a number of young white
men and made a settlement in the same locality,
and others arrived and settled to the south and
east shortly thereafter. A few settlers also ventured
north into what is now Falls County about this titne,
but were subsequently driven back, and some of
them then killed by the Indians. Mr. Harlan
opened a farm where he settled, and divided his
time during the succeeding years, until his death,
between the labors of opening up a plantation in
the wilderness and keeping out marauding bands of
Indians who continued to harass the frontier until
after annexation. He died at his home in 1844, in
the prime of life, being in his forty-seventh year.
His wife, who accompanied him to Texas, survived
him many years, dying in 1884 in the eightieth year
of her life. He had been twice married and raised
a family of seven children : two, a son and daugh-
ter (William and Jane), by his first marriage^ and
five, three sons and three daughters (Martha, Eli-
phalet, Alpheus, Isaiah, Mary and Sarah) by his
last. The eldest of these, William, died in 1843,
at about the time of attaining his majority. Jane
is the wife of L. A. Stroud and now resides in
Limestone County, where she and her husband were
among the first settlers. Eliphalet resides at Cal-
vert, in Robertson County, and Alpheus at Port
Sullivan, in Milam County. Isaiah was killed at
New Hope Church, Ga., during the late war, while
a member of Hood's Brigade, and Mary and Sarab
were married, the former to John Patrick and the
latter to W. T. Stephens, and are both now deceased.
E. HARLAN,
CALVERT,
An old and esteemed settler of Robertson County,
residing at Calvert, son of Joseph and Delilah Har-
lan (mention of whom will be found elsewhere in
this work), is a native of Laurens District, S. C,
where he was born January 1, 1829. He was in
his ninth year when his parents came to Texas in
1837 and settled in the Brazos bottom, five miles
from where he now lives. He has resided in this
immediate locality for the past fifty-eight years.
Mr. Harlan is probably the oldest settler living in
the western part of Robertson County, and with
two or three exceptions, the oldest in the county.
That the great length of his residence has not be-
come better known, is due to the fact that he has-
always led a very quiet life and has concerned him-
self about very few things, except his own personal
affairs. He is a large planter, owning two large
plantations and having in cultivation between 1 ,500
and 1,600 acres, which, with his other interests,
occupy his time and attention to the exclusion of
other pursuits and those diversions (including poli-
tics) in which most men indulge themselves. He
has never held public office, except some local posi-
tions, such as every good citizen is expected to
take whencalled on to. do so by his fellow-citizens.
During the late war he helped procure supplies-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
571
for the soldiers at the front, and in this way lent
the cause of the Confederacy substantial assistance.
Mr. Harlan, on the 30th of May, 1854, married
Miss Bettie Jeffries, a daughter of James and
Rebecca Jeffries, who emigrated from Kentucky to
Texas and settled at Cameron, Milam County, in
1852. Mrs. Harlan was born in Glasgow, Ky., and
was a young lady when her parents came to this
State. Her mother died at Cameron in 1863 and
her father at Port Sullivan, Milam County, in 1871.
Mr. and Mrs. Harlan have had born to them two
daughters: Ella, who was married to Dr. Henry
Trollinger and is now deceased, and Maud, married
to John A. Green, Jr., an attorney at law, residing
at San Antonio, Texas. The religious connection
of Mr. Harlan's family is with the Baptist Church.
His wife's people belonged to the Church of the
Disciples, in which she has for many years held a
membership.
ALBERT KEIDEL,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Is known throughout the section of Texas in which
he lives as an able and successful physician. His
father, William Keidel, M. D., came from Hilde-
sheim, Hanover, to New Braunfels, Texas, via Gal-
veston, in 1845, and soon after located in Freder-
icksburg, where he engaged in the practice of his
profession. He was born at Hildesheim ; educated
at Goetingen ; married, in Fredericksburg, Mrs.
Albert! ne Kramer, a daughter of an early Texas
pioneer from Hanover ; and died of typhoid pneu-
monia in 1870, at Fredericksburg in this State.
Only one child (the subject of this notice) was born
of the marriage, the mother dying a few days after
giving birth to her child. Dr. Albert Keidel was
born in Fredericksburg, Texas, July 1, 1852 ; re-
ceived a good literary education in the Hildesheim
High Schools and perfected his medical studies at
the University at Goetingen in 1874-78. He was
married, in 1878, at Galveston, Texas, to Miss
Matilda Eisfeld, of Goetingen, Germany, and
immediately located in Fredericksburg, where they
have since lived and he has built up an extensive
and lucrative medical practice. They have four
children: Victor, Felix, Curt and Werner.
CHARLES SAXON,
ORANGE.
Farmer and stock-raiser. Born November 17,
1823, in Hinds County, Miss. His father, C.
H. Saxon, was one of Napoleon Bonaparte's
soldiers. His mother, Mary (Holmes) Saxon, was
born in South Carolina. Educated himself by
the old fire-place at the family home after
working on the farm during the day. Came
to Texas alone in December, 1842, and located in
Jasper County, where he remained until 1848, then
went to Brownsville on the Eio Grande ; lived there
two years and then settled at Orange, Texas, where
he has since resided. He was engaged for twenty
years in the lumber business in this State and then
embarked in farming and stock-raising, in which he
has been eminently successful, having acquired
large property interests. Enlisted in Company B. ,
Fourth Regiment, Confederate army, in 1861, and
served in Texas, New Mexico and Louisiana, par-
. ticipating in many skirmishes and important battles,
among others in those of Mansfield and Pleasant
Hill and Yellow Bayou in Louisiana, which prac-
tically put an end to Banks' raid up Red river.
He is a charter member of Madison Lodge No.
126, and Orange Chapter, No. 78, A. F. and A. M.,
and also a member of the Knights of Labor and
Farmer's Alliance Associations.
572
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
He has been a Royal Arch Mason since 1858.
Married three times. First in 1854 to Miss Delano,
of Orange. Next to Miss Sue Swaingain, of
Orange, in 1861, and third to Miss Elizabeth
Cooper, of Orange, November 20, 1878. Has four
children born to him, three of whom are now living,
one son and two daughters, viz. : Mary E. Saxon,
now wife of Thomas Andrews, of Orange ; C. H.
Saxon, who is now living at the family home, and
is a farmer and stock-raiser, and Abi Saxon, now
wife of Joseph Cooper, a farmer and stock-raiser of
Orange.
Mr. Saxon is as supple as many young men to-
day and, at his ripe old age, is in the enjoy-
ment of all his faculties. He is much esteemed in
the community in which he lives.
CHARLES SCHWOPE,
BOERNE.
One of Kendall County's prosperous farmers, was
born in Germany, June 27, 1851, and came to
Texas in 1857 with his parents (Mr. and Mrs. Chas.
Schwope) and Annie, Helen, Gottlieb, Julia, and
Louise, the other children constituting the family.
The father was born in Germany, April 9, 1816,
and died at Boerne, Texas, in 1889, at seventy-
three years of age. The mother was born in Ger-
many, November 19, 1824, and died at Boerne, in
1 884, at sixty years of age.
The family first located at Comfort but later on a
farm near Boerne in the same count3', where the sub-
ject of this notice grew to manhood. December 1,
1874, Mr. Chas. Schwope, Jr. , married Miss Matilda,
daughter of Chas. Adams, who came from Germany
and located two miles from Boerne and engaged in
farming. He came to this country single ; married,
and in 1879 died, aged forty-seven years. Mrs.
Adams died in 1887 when forty-seven years of age.
They left six children, viz. : William, who lives near
Boerne ; Matilda, who is the wife of the subject of
this sketch; Louise, now Mrs. Charles Eanselben,
of Fredericksburg; Anna, now Mrs. Helman
Ransloben, of Fredericksburg; Freda, now Mrs.
Christian Schader, of Boerne, and Hugo, a citizen
of Boerne.
Mrs. Schwope was born April 18, 1859. Mr. and
Mrs. Schwope have eight children ; viz. : Adolf,
Charles, Bertha, Julia, Freda, William, Hilmar and
Fritz.
J. D. SANER,
BOERNE.
Judge J. D. Saner was born in Davidson
County, N. C, March 28, 1822, moved to Tenne-
pec in 1832, with his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob
Saner, and came to Texas with them and their
other son, T. A. Saner, in 1849 ; located in Upshur '
County, and moved thence to San Marcos, Hays
County, and thence to Boerne in 1853, and
engaged in farming. Jacob Saner was a hatter,
and worked at his trade until he came to Texas.
His wife, whose maiden name was Miss Mary
Donthitt, was born near Salem, N. C. Jacob
Saner died in 1873, at eighty-four years of age.
1871, at eighty-two years of
and his wife
age.
Judge J. D. Saner, subject of this notice, located
near Boerne, in Kendall County, upon emigrating
to Texas ; rented land near that place and engaged
in farming, and, later, purchased an ox-team and
followed freighting between Boerne and San
Antonio. In 1856 he was elected Constable of the
Boerne precinct of Comal' County; 1857 was
elected County and District Clerk of Bandera
County; filled the latter position from 1858 to
1865, and then returned to Boerne, where he was
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
57S
elected County Judge of Kendall County for four
successive terms. He was followed by a succes-
sor for two terms, and then again elected to the
office in 1888, and filled it until 1890. In 1892
he was appointed Justice of the Peace, and served
in that capacity for two years.
In April, 1894, he was appointed Postmaster at
Boerne, and now (1895) holds that position. He
was married in 1849 to Miss Elizabeth Maness.
She died in 1863, leaving four children: James M.,
a Deputy Sheriff of Kendall County for ten years
past; Rosilla, now Mrs. Judge W. K. Jones, of
Del Rio; John J., a school teacher of Blanco,
Texas, and Thomas A., deceased. Judge Saner
married, in 1873, Mrs, Sarah Davis, widow of the
late James Davis. Her maiden name was Miss
Sarah Butler; she died in 1888. One child, Lizzie
M., was born of this union. Judge Saner owns
the old family homestead established by his parents
on their settlement in the town of Boerne, 1853.
M. S. MUNSON,
BRAZORIA COUNTY.
It is to be doubted whether there is another man
in the State who has lived in Texas anything like
so long as the subject of this memoir. Col. M. S.
Munson, of Brazoria County. He was born near
Liberty, Liberty County, in this State, at his par-
ents' home on the banks of the Trinity river, April
24th, 1825. His father, Henry "W. Munson, a
Mississippian by birth and a planter by occupation,
died in 1833 and is buried at Peach Point, on Gulf
Prairie. His mother, whose maiden name was Ann
B. Pierce, was born in Georgia. After the death
of her husband she, in about the year 1835, mar-
ried, at Gulf Prairie, James P. Caldwell, of Ken-
tucky, and moved to near San Marcos, where she
died a number of years thereafter.
M. S. Munson took a primary course at Hopkins-
ville, Ky., and then went to Rutersville, Fayette
County, Texas, where, as he says, he did little
except hunt Indians on the frontier for two or three
years. The capture of San Antonio by the Mexi-
can General, Adrian Woll, in 1842, was followed by
his defeat at the battle of Salado and retreat from
the country, and the subsequent organization of
what is known as the Somervell expedition, designed
for a descent into Mexico for the purpose of
making reprisals. In this expedition the sub-
ject of this notice participated. The command
marched into and took possession of Laredo
without the necessity of a gun being fired, camped
at a point three miles below town and then
moved six or seven miles and camped at a
water-holfe. The remaining five hundred bore down
the country until they came to the mouth of the
Salado river, opposite and six miles from Guerrero.
This was on the 14th of December, 1842, a clear
but cold day. A crossing was speedily effected by
means of flat-boats found there. Gen. Canales,
with seven hundred rancheros, appeared on the
neighboring hills t)ut manifested no disposition to
fight. The command camped that night in an
abandoned Carrizzo village. The Alcalde of Guer-
rero, accompanied by a Frenchman who spoke En-
glish, appeared in camp and tendered the surrender
of the town, but begged that the Texians would
camp outside its limits, where he would furnish
food, blankets, shoes and other things for which the
troops were suffering. To all this Gen. Somervell
agreed, and during the afternoon of the 15th moved
up and camped on a hill-side, near the town, per-
fectly commanded by surrounding hills. During
the day a scanty supply of flour, a few refuse old
blankets and a dozen or two pairs of shoes were
sent to camp. Late in the day they were counter-
marched and recrossed the river into Texas. The
17th and 18th were spent in this position, sufficient
catt'le being found to furnish meat for all. On the
succeeding morning, December 19th, an order was
read directing all to prepare for a return home.
Three hundred men made their way down the river,
their horses being driven down overland ; subse-
quently penetrated into Mexico, engaged in the fight
at Mier, surrendered at last as prisoners of war to the
treacherous Mexicans and were thrown into prisons.
Their subsequent fate is well known to all readers
of Texian history and need not be recounted here.
The other two hundred (among the number
the subject of this notice) marched toward San
Antonio with Somervell. Capt. Flaco, the gallant
Lipan chief, an old deaf-mute of his tribe, the other
Lipans, Rivas, a Mexican companion, and an Apache,
574
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Luis, who had co-operated with the Texians, having
confiscated a herd of Mexican horses, had already
started in that direction. Somervell and his com-
panions had great difficulty in making their way
through the chaparral and consumed a number of
days in reaching the Nueces river. They found
that stream much swollen, but crossed it on the
morning of January 1st, 1843. Many of the horses
stuck in the bog and died from excessive cold dur-
ing the night. Some of the party who had gone on
ahead reached San Antonio and sent back beeves
and other supplies to their companions who were in
a well-nigh starving condition. The main body
then proceeded to San Antonio, from whence the
men dispersed for their respective homes. A
number of horses were left behind on the march
and some of the men made a contract with Capt.
Flaco for him to ge back over the road and gather
up these animals and keep them until they were
able to be driven into San Antonio, promising to
pay him liberally for his trouble. After Somer-
vell's command arrived at San Antonio and were
encamped in the vicinity, Flaco and the mute were
basely murdered by Rivas and the Mexican, who
drove the horses into Eastern Texas and Louisiana
and sold them. The act caused a thrill of horror
throughout the country, but the confusion of the
times prevented pursuit. Flaco and the Lipans
had always been friendly to the whites. They sup-
posed the murder to have been committed by some
of Somervell's men, retreated into Mexico, became
the implacable enemies of their former allies and
subsequently committed many killings and depre-
dations on the Western frontier.
After returning from the Somervell expedition.
Col. Munson went to La Grange College, North
Alabama, spent two years there, returned home on
a short visit and then entered the University at
Lexington, Ky., where he graduated with the first
honors of his class. After leaving Lexington he
studied law under Judge BuUard, president of the
law school at New Orleans. Returning to Texas
and securing admission to the bar he practiced his
profession for about thirty years in Brazoria and
adjoining counties under the firm name of Munson
& Lathrop and later of Munson & Garnett, ranking
as one of the most learned and successful practi-
tioners in that section of the State. He is now
retired from business, has a large plantation and
stock-ranch and is in very comfortable circum-
stances. During the war between the States (1861-
5), he served first in a command on Galveston
Island under Gen. De Bray and then in Gen.
Waul's command, as a member of which he served
during the siege of Vicksburg and participated in
various engagements up to the close of hostilities.
He was married on February 6th, 1850, to Miss
Sarah K. Armour, of Tennessee, and has eight
children: Henry W. and Geo. C, who are farming
in Brazoria County; J. W., an attornej' at law at
Columbus, Texas; Walter B., practicing law at
Houston ; Hillan Armour, manager of his planta-
tion; M. S., Jr., practicing law at Brazoria; Emma,
wife of Rev. J. L. Murray, who resides near Angle-
ton, Brazoria County; and Sarah, wife of Walter
Kennedy, of Brazoria County. Mrs. Munson died
at twelve o'clock the night of January 31, 1887.
She is buried in the family tomb at her home in
Brazoria County. Mr. Munson has always been a
staunch Democrat and served during three sessions
of the Legislature as representative from his dis-
trict with that ability, fidelity and patriotism that
has distinguished him through life. He has for many
years been a member of the M. E. Church South
and of the Masonic Fraternity. An enterprising
citizen and thoroughly identified with the soil, he
has contributed liberally in time, influence and
money to the upbuilding of his section of the
State.
No old Texian is better known.
SAMUEL FOSSETT,
IWERIDIAN.
Samuel Fossett was born in the State of Maine
in 1831 ; came to Texas in 1856 ; made his way to
Bosque County ; shortly thereafter joined the
ranger service ; followed that calling for several
years as a private, part of the time under Col.
" Rip " Ford, and before he left the service com-
manded a company of his own ; leaving the rangers,
he engaged in the grocery business at Meridian
until 1862, when he entered the Confederate army
as a volunteer in Capt. Ryan's Company (Com-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
bib
pany E.), Fourth Texas Infantry, Hood's Brigade,
and participated in nearly all of the important
battles fought by Lee's army after that date; was
severely wounded in the battle of the Wilderness ; was
in Lee's array at the surrender in 1865 ; went to
Richmond, and thence to Galveston and on to his
home at Meridian, where he at once engaged in
general merchandising and stock-raising which he
followed successfully during the following fifteen
years, and in 1870 was elected Sheriff and served
one term and made an able and acceptable public
officer. He is still engaged in the stock business,
principally raising horses. His ranch, consisting
of seventeen hundred acres of good land, part of
it under cultivation, is situated seven miles from
town.
He was united in marriage to Mrs. Eliza Fuller
in 1870. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. frat-
ernity and Democratic party. A gallant ranger,
brave soldier, capable county officer, for many
years a leading merchant of Meridian, and now
thoroughly identified with the best interests of
Bosque County, he is an honored and truly repre-
sentative citizen of his section. He has witnessed
many stirring scenes and encountered many vicissi-
tudes and doubtless now enjoys the retired and
peaceful life that his active labors in other years
has made possible.
PUTNAM B. CURRY,
ORANGE.
Merchant and [engaged in the general insurance
business. Born September 16, 1835, at Owego,
Tioga County, N. Y. Father, Col. B. B. Curry,
born 1799 at Sugar Loaf, Orange County, N. Y.
Died in 1875, at Baileville, N. J. Mother, maiden
name, Arminda Totten, of Owego, N. Y., born
1801 ; died in 1842. Parents were married in 1820
and had ten children,, six girls and four boys, six of
whom are still living. Putnam B. Curry was edu-
cated in the public schools of Owego, N. Y. ; came
to Texas in January, 1860, reaching Galveston
on the 3d of July of that year ; left Galveston in
1867, and went to Navarro Landing, Leon County,
where he engaged in the mercantile business and
remained until 1870, and then moved to Orange,
Orange County, Texas, and engaged in merchan-
dising, in which he has since continued and pros-
pered. From 187S to 1890 he was proprietor ,of
the leading hotel in Orange.
Enlisted in Company B., First Texas Regiment
of Heavy Artillery of the Confederate States' army,
in 1861, under Col. J. J. Cook, and participated in
the battle of Galveston, January 1st, 1863. A
portion of this company were employed sharp-
shooters and the rest were in charge of the twenty-
two-inch rifled gun on the bow of the gun-boat,
" JSayoM City." At the third shot the gun exploded,
killing Capt. A. R. Wier and three privates. Mr.
Curry was among the foremost in capturing the
Federal steamer, " Harriett Lane."
He was later transferred from Galveston to Sabine
Pass as purser of the gun-boat " Clifton" and after-
wards to the " Sachem " and to the '■'■ J. H. Bell."
He remained in the gun-boat service until the close
of the war, when he received his discharge from the
Confederate army. He claims to have received the
last official act of the Confederates in Houston just
before the " break-up."
He was sent to Matagorda with important mes-
sages, and on his return to Houston found the Con-
federacy broken up and the soldiers returning to
their homes. After considerable searching he found
Capt. J. J. Taylor, A. D. C, who then gave him
his discharge, signing Maj.-Gen. J. Bankhead Ma-
gruder's name, saying it was his last official act as
an officer of the Confederate government.
He is Past High Priest of Orange Chapter, No.
78, R, A. M., P. M. of Madison Lodge, No. 126,
A. F. & A. M., and commander of A. L. of H.
Married June 14th, 1868, to Miss Eliza A. Ochil-
tree, eldest daughter of Col. Hugh Ochiltree, who
came to Texas in 1842, and was a soldier in Col.
T. C. Wheeler's Company of Texas Volunteers in
the Mexican War. She was born in San Augustine,
Texas, December 10th, 1845.
They have four children, two girls and two boys,
viz.: Maggie A. Curry, now wife of W. O. Brice,
of Orange ; OUie J. Curry, now wife of J. B. Brooks,
of San Antonio ; Hugh B. Curry, bookkeeper in
the First National Bank of Orange; and P. B.
Curry, Jr., bookkeeper for the Orange Ice, Light
& Water Works Co., of Orange.
576
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Mr. P. B. Curry, Sr., is at present (1896), vice-
president, secretary and treasurer of the Ice, Light
& Water Works Co., of Orange.
Upon the organization of the Citizens' Committee
in 1887, he was elected president and served for
two years. In 1889 the Board of Trade of Orange
was organized with Mr. Curry as president. He
was re-elected five successive years, and was again
re-elected president, January, 1896, of that body.
He was the owner and publisher of the Orange
Leader from 1892 to 1895.
It seems impossible that any man could have been
of more worth to a city than has Mr. Curry to
Orange. He has labored unceasingly to promote
its growth and prosperity.
Although he is not a member of any church, Mr.
Curry contributes largely and freely to benevolent
causes.
JOHN C. CARPENTER,
SHERMAN,
Eev. John C. Carpenter, a well-known minister
of the Baptist Church, and Eight Eminent Sir
Knight, Grand Prelate of Texas, of the order of
Knights Templar, a man well known as a Christian
worlier and in Masonry, was born in Canandagua,
N. Y., November 4, 1816. He left New York
State while yet a child and moved to Tennessee in
1836 and from that place went to Jackson, Miss.,
where he was engaged for several years in general
merchandising and also served as secretary and
treasurer of the Board of Trustees of the State
Insane Asylum. It was here he fitted himself in
part for entering the ministry of the Baptist Church.
In 1859 he moved to New Orleans and was regu-
larly ordained. He immediately entered upon
what he intended should be his life work, but, in
1879, owing to a throat trouble, his speech failed
him and he embarked in the insurance business, in
which he is engaged at the present time. He
moved to Sherman in February, 1875, and has
since made that pleasant little city his home. For
the past twenty years, as was recently remarked by
one of the local pastors in a sermon delivered to a
large congregation, he has been loved and respected
by all members of the community, both high and
low, both rich and poor. No meritorious person
ever applied to him for relief and was turned away
without being given assistance. His Masonic life
began with his initiation into Jackson Ledge in
1842. He received the Chapter degrees in Jackson
Chapter and took the Royal Arch degree at Jack-
son, Miss., in 1842. He received the orders of the
Temple in Jackson Commandery in 1843, at which
meeting Albert Pike, Sovereign Grand Inspector-
General of the Thirty-third Degree, Ancient and
Accepted ^Scottish Rite for the Southern Masonic
Jurisdiction of the United States, presided. At
New Orleans he was elected prelate of Indivisible
Friends' Commandery No. 1, located in that city,
and filled that oflSce for a number of years. In
1865 he was elected Grand Prelate of the Grand Com-
mandery of Louisiana and continued as such until
he moved to Texas in 1875. He was also Grand
Chaplain of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch
Masons and Grand Chaplain of the Grand Lodge of
Louisiana of Free and Accepted Masons, and is at
present Grand Representative of the Grand Com-
mandery of Louisiana.
In 1878 he was elected Grand Prelate of the
Grand Commandery of Texas, an office that he has
since filled. Indivisible Friends' Commandery, No.
13, was instituted under dispensation on the second
day of February, 1877. Sir Knight J. C. Carpenter
was the First Eminent Commander, and on the
fifteenth day of March, 1877, the Commandery was
duly organized under a charter from the Grand Com-
mandery of Texas and he was installed in that
position, a position to which he was elected for
three years in succession. His connection with
this Commandery extended over a period of nine-
teen years. His Masonic life covers a period of
fifty-four years. He has probably delivered more
speeches and addresses on important Masonic oc-
casions than any other man in the fraternity in
Texas.
If it is true that every man is a missionary
to the future, the influence of his life will be pro-
ductive of great good long after this generation
has passed away, a generation with which he has
labored and that he has sought to benefit by every
means within his power and by the example of a,
truly noble Christian life.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
oil
GEORGE C. PENDLETON,
BELTON.
Hon. George Casity Pendleton, ex- member of
the Texas Legislature, ex-Lieutenant-Governor
and ex-member of Congress, was born April 23d,
1845, in Coffee County, Tenn. His mother was a
daughter of Gen. William Smartt, a soldier of the
War of 1812. The entire family came to Texas and
settled in Ellis County when George C. Pendleton
was twelve years of age. The ambition of his early
life was to enter the legal profession. The war
between the States first interfered with this purpose.
He entered the Confederate army at seventeen and
served the Trans-Mississippi Department as a soldier
in the Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, commanded by
Col. D. W. Watson. At the close of the struggle
he returned home and entered college at Waxaha-
chie, intending to graduate, secure admission to
the Tjar and practice law ; but this time, ill-health
compelled him to forego his purpose, and to seek
some employment that would furnish an abundance
of outdoor exercise, and he, therefore, for ten years
followed the migratory life of a commercial traveler
with beneficial results. In 1870, Mr. Pendleton
married Miss Helen Embree, daughter of Elisha
Embree, Esq., of Bell County, Texas, and for a
number of years thereafter was engaged in country
merchandising, farming and stock-raising, in which
pursuits he accumulated a competency. His politi-
cal career began with his election to represent Bell
County in the Eighteenth Legislature. He was re-
elected to the Nineteenth and Twentieth Legisla-
tures and was chosen Speaker of the House in the
latter body without opposition. He was nominated
for Lieutenant-Governor by the Democratic Con-
vention at San Antonio in 1890, and elected in
November of that year. His previous experience
as a presiding officer enabled him to discharge his
duties as President of the Senate in a manner that
won the praise of that body. Later he was elected
to and served two terms in the House of Repre-
sentatives of the Congress of the United States.
In each instance he made a brilliant canvass
before the people and carried the district over
strong and determined anti-Democratic opposi-
tion.
EUGENE PILLOT,
HOUSTON,
Now, and for many years, a prominent citizen of
Harris County, Texas, was born in the Department
de la Haute, Saone, France, February 10th, 1820 ;
came to Texas with his parents, Claude Nicholas
and Jeanne (Loiseley) Pillot, in 1837, who located
a headright and engaged in farming on Willow
Creek, twenty-six miles north of Houston ; learned
his father's trade (carpentering and joining) which
he followed for a short time ; engaged successfully
in the timber business and later in farming, and for
twenty- five years was one of the leading planters of
Harris County ; again engaged in the timber busi-
ness, which he followed until 1867, at which time he
sold out his sawmill interests, and on January 1st,
1868, moved to Houston, where he already owned
considerable real estate to the improvement of which
and to other private interests he devoted his atten-
37
tion. He is at this writing one of Houston's
largest property owners, and has also large hold-
ings in the city of Galveston, owning the Treraont
Opera House and other equally valuable propert3\
His city holdings are what real estate men call
" inside property," and are very valuable. He has
served as a member of the City Council, Board of
Public Works, and Treasurer of Harris County and
has filled many positions of honor and trust, and
has at all times been an active and intelligent
worker for the upbuilding of the city and section
of the State in which he lives.
On January 7th, 1845, Mr. Pillot married Miss
Zeolis Sellers, daughter of Achille Sellers, and a
native of Lafayette Parish, La. They are the
parents of twelve children, six sons and six daugh-
ters (all well established in life and prominent cit-
578
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
izens of the communities in which they live) and
have twenty-two grandchildren, and four great-
grandchildren.
When Mr. Pillot came to Texas he was the only
one of the family who landed at Galveston. There
he met Col. Manard, founder of the city. There
was then only one house on the island.
Mr. Pillot volunteered for service in the expedi-
tion formed under Gen. Somervell to drive the
Mexican invader, WoU, from the country, but the
expedition coming to an end loefore he could reach
the Texian forces he returned home. He was
intimately acquainted with and a warm personal
friend of Gen. Houston. He also knew and was
more or less intimately associated with the other
prominent men who figured in the early history of
Texas.
When eleven years old (1831) he was a drummer
in the National Guards of France under the
King Louis Phillipe. His parents came to the
United States in 1832 ; lived in New York City and
State for five years, and came to Texas in 1837,
touched at Galveston, and twenty-four hours later
proceeded to Houston, where his father followed
the occupation of carpentering and joining, until he
moved to Willow creek and engaged in farming.
His father died in New Orleans in 1863, while re-
turning homeward from France, and his mother
three years later atthe homestead in Harris County,
leaving five children, of whom only one, the subject
of this notice, is now living. The family only had
forty dollars when it arrived in Texas. Mr. Pillot
is essentially a self-made man. He is a leading
and representative citizen of Houston.
FREDERICK PERNER,
COMFORT,
Arrived at Galveston from Saxony, May 23, 1849,
where he was born July 19th, 1827 ; from Galves-
ton went to Indianola and purchased an ox-team,
with which, a month later, he reached New Braun-
fels ; from New Braunfels went to Sisterdale and
lived there until 1858, when he located on his pres-
ent homestead, near Comfort, one of the best farms
' in Kendall County, and in 1854 married Mrs. Frid-
ena Miller, widow of Charles Miller, by whom he
had two children (daughters), Ernestine, who mar-
ried Frederick Meyer, and Minnie, who married
Edward Schmidt. To the latter were born Edward,
William and Bertha (now Mrs. John Marquardt),
Richard and Amelia (now Mrs. Fred VoUmessing,
of Kerrville). Mrs. Perner died August 15th,
1873.
For a second wife Mr. Perner married Mrs.
Dorothea Schultz, an estimable widow lady. She
died December 5, 1893, without issue.
Steps are being taken to secure to Mr. Perner a
large amount of money said to be due to him from
an estate in Germany, left by wealthy ancestors.
MILTON PARKER,
BRYAN.
Samuel Parker was a native of King and Queen's
•County, Va., born in the year 1797. At about the
age of twenty-five, he married Mary Dunn, a native
•of King and Queen's County, and settled in Lincoln
■County, Tenn. Having been well educated and
being a skillful accountant, he engaged for a num-
■her of years in teaching and in clerical pursuits.
until, seeing a considerable family of children
growing up around him, he thought it desirable to
move to a new country, and, accordingly, in 1852,
started to Texas. His wife died on the way, at
Arkadelphia, Ark., but he came on with his five sons
and one daughter and settled in Burleson County,
where he purchased land and entered on what, for
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
579
him, was the new life of a farmer. By industry
and good management in his early years, he had
saved some means which enabled him to comforta-
bly settle himself and children and make an auspi-
cious start in his new home. Being a man of quiet
habits, with no inclination for public affairs, he
was not extensively known, but was highly esteemed
by those who enjoyed his acquaintance, and was
really a valued and important accession to the com-
munity where he settled. In the few years that he
was a citizen of this State, he laid the foundation
of a handsome fortune which, subsequently descend-
ing to his children, helped them far along in the race
of life.
Mr. Parker married a second time in 1856, his
wife being Mrs. Eliza Montgomery, of Brazos
County, widow of S. W. Montgomery and sister of
Col. Harvey Mitchell, one of the oldest settlers of
that county. He died the following year, leaving no
issue of this marriage. The six children of his
former marriage, John, Andrew, Samuel, Milton,
Benjamin and Fannie (afterwards Mrs. Elijah
James Chance), all of whom grew to maturity,
most of them marrying and having families. Only
one of them, Milton, is now living.
Milton, almost universally known as " Mit "
Parker, was born in Lincoln County, Tenn., Octo-
ber 28, 1840. He was in his twelfth year when he
came to Texas. ' His youth was spent in Burleson
County, where, in fact, nearly all his maturer years
have been passed. He entered the Confederate
army at the opening of the late war as a member of
the Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col.
W. P. Kogers. With this command he took part
in all the operations of the army in Western Ten-
nessee and Northern Mississippi, including the en-
gagements at Shiloh, Farmington, luka, Corinth,
and the siege of Vicksburg. He was wounded at
Vicksburg and, on the surrender of that place, was
captured. Being subsequently paroled, he returned
to Texas, and from that time on until the close of
the war, engaged in trading operations between
points in the interior of Texas and Mexico. He,
with others of his regiment, did some valiant fight-
ing for the Southern cause and he suffered many
close escapes from the deadly fire of the enemy.
After the war Mr. Parker embarked in the com-
mission business at Galveston as a member of the
firm of Johnson, Parker & Co., and was so engaged
for three years. He then moved to Bryan, where
he formed a partnership with W. H. Flipper and,
under the firm name of Parker & Flipper, followed
the mercantile and banking business for ten years.
Disposing of these interests at the end of that time
he turned his attention to planting, which, asso-
ciated with some real estate operations, has since
occupied his time. Mr. Parker is regarded as one
of the heaviest property owners n Brazos or Bur-
leson counties. His holdings in the latter county
amount to about 6,500 acres, more than three-
fourths of which are under cultivation, producing
abundantly of cotton and corn, the staple products
of the Brazos valley. His investments in Bryan
are in local enterprises, being such as are designed
to stimulate industry and foster a spirit of progress.
In 1864, Mr. Parker married Miss Mary Jane
Johnson, of Burleson County, a native of Virginia,
then resident of Bloomington, Illinois, daughter of
Capt. George Johnson, who was born in Virginia and
was for many years a steamboat captain on the Mis-
sissippi river, coming to Texas in 1859, where he
subsequently lived and died.
The issue of this marriage has been seven chil-
dren: George S., John K., Mary W. (now Mrs.
Allen B. Carr, Jr.), Katie B., Winnie L., Fannie
and Milton B.
AUGUST RUST
SMITHSON'S VALLEY,
Came to Texas in 1855 from Hanover, Germany,
with his father, mother and other members of the
household, who located near New Brauufels and
later moved into the vicinity of Smithson's Valley,
in 1864, and lives there now. The mother died in
1893, at seventy-five years of age. The father,
Frederick Rust, is living near Boerne, in Kendall
County, with his son, Louis. August, the subject
of this notice, was the oldest of a family of twelve
children. He was born August 19, 1840, in Han-
over, Germany, and reared to his father's callino-,
that of a distiller of malt liquors, but abandoned
it to engage in farming in the New World in which
he has accumulated a handsome competency. He
580.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
married, in 1869, Johanna Guer. Mr. and Mrs.
Eust have had thirteen children : Otto, Emil, Louis
(deceased), Bertha, Louise, Alvina, Albert, Will-
iam, Emily, Frieda, Alfred, Henry and Herbert.
Mrs. Rust is a native of Comal County, Texas,
born at Four-Mile Creek, near New Bcaunfels.
REFUGIO SAN MIGUEL,
EAGLE PASS.
In Southwest Texas there were few men better
known in his time and none were more enterprising
and active than Refugio San Miguel. A man of
great energy and perseverence, he forged his way
from obscurity and poverty to a position of local
prominence and influence. He was a native of
Mexico and was born at Matamoros about the year
1828 and grew to manhood in Mexico.
His father, Pablo San Miguel, was a stockman
of that country and raised his sons to the business.
When our subject arrived at his majority he left
home and went to Santa Rosa, Mexico, to seek em-
ployment. The opportunities in Mexico for young
men to advance were not good and, being ambitious
to accomplish something in the world, young San
Miguel became restless and decided to try his
fortune in Texas and, accordingly, went to Eagle
Pass about the year 1851. There he found em-
ployment, saved his earnings and was soon enabled
to commence business for himself. He engaged in
raising cattle and sheep on a small scale and, by
close attention, his stock prospered and increased.
He also engaged in freighting and this branch of
business finally grew to large proportions, extend-
ing to towns far distant into the interior of Texas
and Mexico.
Mr. San Miguel's stock business prospered, and
in the spring of 1863 he located lands and opened
one of the largest stock ranches, at that time, in
his section of the State. This was situated about
fifteen miles above Eagle Pass on the Bruckett
road. Indians at that time were roaming at large
in that portion of Texas and were'troublesome and
sometimes hostile; so much so, that it was difficult
to find men who eared to risk their lives in herding
stock. For their retreat and better security Mr.
San Miguel built a rock fort on the ranch, which
afforded them protection and answered the purpose,
also, of a ranch house. This structure still (1896)
stands. It not only served the purpose for which
it was built but was also utilized, or visited at
times, by the United States troops^ during the late
war between the States. When the war broke out
Mr. San Miguel allied himself with the cause of
the new Confederate States and served as an en-
listed soldier in his own locality.
In 1855 Mr. San Miguel married, at Eagle Pass,
Miss Rita Alderate, a daughter of Miguel Alderate,
an esteemed citizen of Eagle Pass.- She was born
at Santa Rosa, in the State of Coahuila, Mexico,
January 8th, 1842, and still survives in the prime
of vigorous womanhood. She was a most faithful
and dutiful wife, and is the mother of six children,
all living at Eagle Pass. Mr. San Miguel was yet a
poor man when they were married, having only an
ox and a flint-lock musket. The latter he traded
for another ox, and bought a cart and ran in debt
for another ox. His success in -life is in a great
measure due to the support, encouragement and
fortitude of his estimable wife. Mr. San Miguel
met a sad and untimely death at the hands of a
murderous Mexican employee who, for some imag-
inary wrong, laid in ambush and shot him dead, on
the Brackett road, about five miles north of Eagle
Pass, while on his way home from his ranch, Sep-
tember 8th, 1863. He owned at the time of his
death 3,000 head of cattle, about 600 being work-
oxen. He also owned 9,000 head of sheep, and
horses enough to handle the extensive business of
his ranch. Mrs. San Miguel was made administra-
trix of the estate, and the admirable manner in which
she managed its affairs shows her to be a woman of
great executive ability. Refugio San Miguel was
essentially a self-made man. He cared nothing for
public affairs and devoted all of his time and ener-
gies to his business. He was a kind and consider-
ate husband and father and was always loyal to his
friends. He was a'man of the strictest integrity
and had the full confidence and esteem of all who
knew him. The children of Mr. and Mrs. San
Miguel live at Eagle Pass and are, in order of their
respective births : Jesua, now Mrs. Francis Garza ;
Trinidad, who married Angeleta Diaz; Martha, now
Mrs. Miguel Falcon; Refugio, now Mrs. Jesus
^''^f-^iyy^TBM'-^vlfl^-'-r'^'^'
r
17
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
581
Gelan ; Nicholas, now Mrs. Trinidad Herrera ; and
Miguel, who married Miss Refugio Galan. Trini-
dad San Miguel is the oldest son and the leading
business man of Eagle Pass. He has inherited the
excellent business, moral and social traits of his
father. He was born August 5th, 1859, and was a
lad when his father died ; but, being matured in
mind for one of his years, he soon relieved his
mother of many of the cares and burdens of busi-
ness and also became practically the head of the
family. He received a good business education at
San Antonio and has put it to a most satisfactory
use. He took charge of the ranch and stock inter-
ests when a youth and conducted the business suc-
cessfully. He now, with a younger brother as
partner, owns a fine stock ranch near Eagle Pass
upon which they range 2,500 head of cattle, and
Mr. San Miguel himself has paying wine rooms,
of the best class and finest equipped, in Eagle Pass,
Texas, and Porfirio Diaz, Mexico. He has held the
oflSce of State Stock Inspector at Eagle Pass for a
number of j'ears. He was United States Inspector
of Customs at Eagle Pass during the presidential
term of Benjamin Harrison, and performed the
duties of the office with credit to himself and the
entire satisfaction of the government authorities.
Mr. San Miguel also served four years on the
Board of School Trustees of this city and declined
thereafter re-election.
He is a cool, conservative and valuable citizen and
successful business man. He is popular with the
public, and has the bearing and address of a courtly
and affable man of affairs. Refugio San Miguel
died without leaving a picture and the publishers are
therefore pleased to present an engraving of Trini-
dad San Miguel, as representing the family. He
is said to bear a strong resemblance to his father ;
has inherited his talents and is one of the leading
citizens of the section of the State in which he
resides.
ROBERT DALZELL,
BROWNSVILLE.
The subject of this sketch was born in County
Down, Ireland, in 1830, of Huguenot stock, his
ancestors having fled from France during the per-
secutions of 1685 and settled, with many other emi-
gres, in the province of Ulster, between Newry and
Belfast, where they laid the foundations of the flax
and linen industry for which that section of the
country became so famous.
Varying fortunes attended the exiles in their new
home, and in the early part of this century they had
become so identified with the native race that little
except their names remained to show the country
of their origin, and La Belle France was more a
tradition than a remembrance. Yet the spirit of
liberty remained and the old yearning of the French
Covenantors for freedom of thought and speech and
conscience was strong in their Irish descendants.
In 1838 Stewart DaJzell with his family emigrated
from their home in the shadow of the Mourne
mountains to the United States, and settled near
Pittsburg, Pa. After receiving a common school
education there, Robert Dalzell, the fifth son,
pushed further west in search of fortune, and the
latter part of 1847 found him in St. Louis, Mo.
The Mexican War was then in progress and he, a
lad of seventeen, with many other adventurous
spirits, volunteered for service on the Rio Grande.
The war coming to a sudden termination, he entered
the transport service on the river, and continued
in government employment as pilot, mate and cap-
tain of steamboats until 1852, when he was offered
a position on the steamers of M. Kenedy and Richard
King, who afterwards became the " cattle kings "
of West Texas. In 1861, he won and wedded the
accomplished stepdaughter of the senior partner.
Miss Louisa C. Vidal, and two sons and six charm-
ing daughters have blessed the happy union, of
whom five children survive: During the war
between the States Capt. Dalzall and the late
Joseph Cooper, as partners, operated and owned
steamboats and lighters on the Rio Grande, upon
their own account, with great success; and in 1866,
when the old firm of M. Kenedy & Co. was reorgan-
ized as King, Kenedy & Co., with a capital of
1250,000.00, Richard King owned one-quarter, M.
Kenedy one-quarter, and Dalzell and Cooper one-
quarter of the concern, the remaining fourth being
divided among the principal merchants of Browns-
ville, Texas, and Matamoros, Mexico. Capt. M.
Kenedy, who was general manager of the new con-
582
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
cern, turned his attention to stock-raising early in
1867, and then relinquished the management to his
son-in-law, Capt. Eobert Dalzell, who continued to
conduct its vast interests until the dissolution of
the company in 1874. Shortly after, Capt. Dalzell
practically retired from active business and settled
down to enjoy the abundant fruits of an upright,
industrious and successful career.
Few men are better known on the lower Rio
Grande, none are more respected or beloved.
Open-handed, just and generous, no worthy object
ever appealed to his charity in vain ; active in every
movement for the improvement of his section,
trusted, popular and influential, but seeking no
oflSce of emolument, he pursues the even tenor of
his way, a model citizen, husband and father, and
recognized by all as the ideal type of the courteous
and perfect gentleman.
SAMUEL E. WATSON,
CLARKSVILLE.
Samuel E. Watson, of Clarksville, one of the
wealthiest and best known planters in Bed River
County, Texas, was born on the 21st of June, 1847,
attended a private school at New Orleans, eon-
ducted by C. M. Saunders, a graduate of Harvard
College ; took the Harvard course, and completed
his education by graduating from the High School
of Nashville, Tenn., and attendance at Sycamore
Intitute, while that institution was under the presi-
dency of Prof. Charles D. Lawrence. After
returning home from school he, in 1867, at the
request of his father, proceeded to Red River
County, Texas, where he assumed charge of his
father's plantation, one of the largest in the State.
He has lived upon this property. Pecan Point,
almost continuously since that time.
His parents were Matthew and Rebecca (AUi-
bone) Watson, the former a native of Rhode
Island and the latter of Chillicothe, Ohio. His
mother's nephew, Samuel Austin AUibone, is the
well-known compiler and publisher of the "Dic-
tionary of Authors," a work upon which he and
his wife were engaged for twenty years. His father's
brother, Samuel Watson, was one of the trustees
of the Peabody fund in Tennessee, president of the
Old State Bank of Tennessee, and is now deceased.
Mrs. Rebecca Watson was a niece of Susan AUi-
bone, of Philadelphia, one of the distinguished
women of that city. A memoir of her life has
been published and widely circulated.
Mr. Matthew Watson about the year 1823 pur-
chased a stock of $20,000 worth of goods and
moved to Nashville and a few years afterwards, in
1825, married Miss Rebecca Allibone. Their mar-
ried life continued for fifty years, Mr. Watson
dying in 1884 and his wife in 1886. Both are buried
at Mt. Olivet, near Nashville. They left two
children: Mrs. Jennie H. LaPice, of St. James
Parish, La., and S. E. Watson, the subject of this
notice. Mr. Matthew Watson was engaged in the
dry goods business in Nashville, in which he con-
tinued for about ten years. He then helped
organize the Planters Bank of Nashville. Later he
drew $30,000 in a lottery, which fixed him for life.
Just before the Federal troops captured Nashville,
he moved with his family to Lauderdale, in St.
James Parish, La., a fine plantation owned by bim.
A paternal uncle of our subject served during
part of the war as a soldier in the Twenty-first
Texas Cavalry, commanded by the late lamented
veteran editor, Col. Charles DeMorse, of Clarksville,
and died at Clarksville from an illness brought on
by exposure in the army.
Samuel E. Watson was married to Miss Maggie
Latimer Bagby, daughter of Mr. George Bagby, of
Red River County. They have five children:
Matthew, Jennie, Harry, Samuel, and Maggie.
Mr. Bagby was a paymaster in the Confederate
army and in 1863 went through the Indian Terri-
tory to pay off the soldiers in Arkansas. Return-
ing he was ambushed and assassinated by Indians.
A party of Confederate soldiers, who greatly loved
him, quietly made their way into the Territory and
captured his murderers and took them to Clarks-
ville, where the citizens hanged them to a tree near
the town.
Mr. Watson lost his wife January 11, 1886. She
is buried in the cemetery at Clarksville. She was
a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
and a devout, loving and lovable Christian woman.
She was related to Governor Arthur P. Bagby, one
of the early governors of Georgia.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
583
July 29, 1895, Governor Culberson appointed
Mr. Watson one of the delegates selected by him
to represent the State of Texas at the Farmers'
National Congress, held at Atlanta, Ga., October
12-15 of that year. Mr. "Watson was one of the
commissioners to the World's Fair appointed by
the County Judge of Red River County, and was
also a delegate to the meeting held at Fort Worth
for the purpose of organizing a committee to which
was intrusted the duty of seeing that Texas was
properly represented at the Fair. Mr. Watson and
Capt. A. P. Corley were in charge of the Red
River County exhibit at the Dallas State Fair.
The exhibit contained numerous interesting relics
of mound builders and specimens of curious woods
collected by Mr. Watson on his plantation ; also a
bale of cotton of his, which was awarded the State
premium.
He is a member of the Episcopal Church and a
representative farmer and citizen. An uncle of his,
Thomas Washington, of Nashville, Tenn., and his
father were interested in the "Tennessee Colony "
which was established in Texas about the year 18 —
and which has since grown and prospered. Will-
iam T. Watson, a cousin of the subject of this
notice, is Surveyor- General of the State of Wash-
ington, having been appointed to that office by
President Cleveland.
J. JACOB WEBER,
FREDERICKSBURG,
A venerable and highly esteemed citizen of Gillespie
County, lives on the Kerville road, about seven
miles out from Fredericksburg. He came with his
father and two brothers to Texas in 1846, under
the auspices of the German Emigration Company.
He was born in the Rhine Province of Prussia,
October 16th, 1831. His brothers, Nicliolas and
Henry P., now own farms in Gillespie County ad-
joining his. The father, who also bore the name
of Jacob, followed farming until the time of his
death, which occurred at New Braunfels in 1847.
After his death the family moved to Fredericksburg
and soon thereafter out on the Perdenales and com-
menced the development of their future home.
The mother died August 7th, 1878, aged seventy-
six years.
Mr. J. Jacob Weber, subject of this notice,
married Miss Matilda Schlandt, in 1853. Her
father, a pioneer settler, came to Texas in 1845
from Nassau, Germany, where she was born. Mr.
and Mrs, Weber have nine children and thirty-seven
grandchildren living.
Mr. Weber is one of the most substantial and
prosperous citizens of Gillespie County.
W. R. MILLER,
JACKSONVILLE.
Capt. W. R. Miller, a well-known citizen and
financier of Jacksonvile, Texas, was born in Jeffer-
son County, Ala., November 27, 1825, and re-
ceived a good academic education in that State and
completed his studies by a course at Cumberland
University, Lebanon, Tenn.
His parents were Samuel and Martha Seman Mil-
ler, both natives of Alabama, and connected with
some of the best families of that grand old com-
monwealth. His father was born in 1798, removed
to Texas, and died in Anderson County, this State,
in November, 1856. His mother was also born in
1798, and died at the family homestead in Ander-
son County in 1871.
Capt. W. R. Miller, the subject of this notice, is
a retired merchant. His first business experience
was at Three Creeks, Ark., where he established a
store and dealt in general merchandise for four
58i
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
years, after which (in 1853) he came to Texas
and located near Klckapoo, in the northeastern
portion of Anderson County, where he engaged in
the same line of business until 1858, when he re-
tired from it until after the close of the war between
the States. In the early part of 1861 he enlisted
in the Confederate army as a soldier in Company
H., commanded by Capt. Rainey, and remained
with the company until the fall, when he was sent
home on account of sickness. He afterwards be-
came a Captain in the State troops and served in
that capacity and as an officer in the commissary
department of the army until the close of hostilities.
The war over, he resumed merchandising and
continued therein until 1887, when failing health
compelled him to retire and engage in less confining
pursuits. In 1886 the business men of Jackson-
ville, by unanimous consent, called upon Capt. Mil-
ler to establish and operate a banking house in the
town for them ; but, still being in feeble health, he
was compelled to decline the flattering invitation.
He, however, moved to Jacksonville in 1888 and
has since resided there. When he located at that
place he had $75,000 in cash, to which he has since
considerably added. His ample means are princi-
pally invested in county. State and United States
bonds.
He has been a member of the Masonic fraternity
for nearly fifty years, and now holds the R. A. M.
degrefe.
He has been a member of the M. E. Church South
for forty years, and has been a liberal contributor
to the Church financially and an active worker
spiritually, as well.
In February, 1854, he was married to Miss Susan
Moore, of Arkansas. She was born in Alabama in
1833 and is still living, the loved companion of her
husband's declining years. She is a member of the
M. E. Church South, an excellent and widely
accomplished Christian lady.
They have had one child, a daughter. Miss Alice
Jane Miller, born in Arkansas in 1854, and now
deceased. She married Mr. William P. Devereaux,
a druggist at Jacksonville, and died at that place in
1895.
Capt. Miller started in life without the aid of
money or powerful friends and, notwithstanding
the reverses that he sustained by the war, which
swept away nearly all the fruits of his labors, gar-
nered prior to that disastrous event, has met with
an almost unbroken series of successes as a finan-
cier and is now regarded as one of the wealthy men
of the county in which he lives.
HUMPHREY E. WOODHOUSE,
BROWNSViLLE.
Mr. Woodhouse was born in Wethersfleld, Conn.,
in 1822. His father, Humphrey Woodhouse, a
seafaring man, native of Wethersfleld, was the
pilot of the first steamboat that navigated the
Connecticut river, and the grandson of Humphrey
Woodhouse, whose father was of the first English
settlers in Connecticut. The Woodhouse family
became numerous and influential throughout the
New England States as men of sterling integrity,
great force of character and enterprise.
Mr. Woodhouse received a good rudimentary
education in his native town, and early exhibited
an aptitude for a business rather than a professional
career. Upon his own responsibility, he at about
fourteen years of age went to New York City and
obtained a position in a large wholesale and retail
house in South street, that dealt extensively in
shipping supplies to foreign countries. He re-
mained with his employers continuously for about
six years and, during that period, was advanced to
a responsible position. In consequence of over-
work and failing health he went to Brazos Santiago,
Texas, in 1847, as supercargo of a merchant
vessel, laden with valuable merchandise, which he
was commissioned to dispose of in that vicinity.
He lightered his cargo at Pt. Isabel, and proceeded
with it to what is now the outskirts of Brownsville,
and there made satisfactory sales. August 24th,
1848, he located in Brownsville and built the first
frame building in the town for a store, and placed
therein a stock of merchandise for Charles Stillman
& Bro. , and sold at wholesale the first goods to
leave the place for Mexico. In 1854 he entered
into partnership with Mr. Charles Stillman, and
the firm built up an extensive business in general
merchandise, which not only supplied a vast
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
585
amount of goods to local merchants, but extended
its trade far into the interior of Mexico. In 1859
Mr. Woodhouse withdrew from the firm of Chas.
Stillman & Co., and continued importing and ex-
porting in his name alone. He established a
line of packet ships between Brazos Santiago,
Texas, and New York City. These ships were
constructed in the ship yards of Fair Haven,
Conn., and in many instances designed and
built by a brother, James Woodhouse, who was
a master shipbuilder. In all there were from
time to time about fifty ships of various classes and
tonnage mostly designed and built by them espe-
ciallly for the New York City and Brazos trade.
The vessels were staunchly built, some of them
spread about 4,000 yards of canvas and were there-
fore of great speed. One of these ships, the ^^ Flora
Woodhouse," without ballast carried a cargo of un-
compressed cotton from Matamoros to Liverpool,
England, without disaster or difficulty as to sea-
worthiness. On arrival of the '■'■Flora Woodhouse" at
the port of Liverpool, she was visited by many
interested business men of the city to see the
Yankee schooner from Texas, loaded as she was
with cotton in bales that had not been compressed
but were direct from the gin. The cargo was
bulky and its safe delivery on the Liverpool dock
was looked upon as a feat in marine transportation
and was viewed also in the light of an innovation.
This was during the progress of the great Civil War
and, owing to marine complications and restrictions,
Mr. Woodhouse, as a precaution against further
trouble, changed her name to Flora, simply,
registered her under the British flag and sent her on
her mission, which on the whole proved a success.
Mr. Woodhouse prospered in business and at this
time had extensive interests in New York, Mata-
moros and Brownsville, but, during the progress of
the war between the States, his operations were
chiefly confined to Matamoros. After the close of
the conflict he reopened his business at Browns-
ville, at the same time opening branch offices in
New Orleans and New York City, and extended his
shipping interests, but with the building of rail-
roads and the diversion thereby of trade into
interior towns of Texas and Mexico, with also the
change and obstruction of Brazos and Harbor Bar,
shipping suffered a decline and Mr. Woodhouse
sold his vessels, and gradually withdrew from the
transportation business. In 1865 he married Miss
Mary Belknap, a near relative of Secretary of War
Belknap, a member of President Garfield's and
later President Arthur's Cabinet. They have five
sons and two daughters, all of whom are finely
educated and amply qualified for the duties of life.
The Woodhouse family home is one of the most
spacious, elegant and attractive in the city of
Brownsville.
Mr. Woodhouse has doubtless transacted more
business, handled more money, and been as impor-
tant a factor in the history and development of the
border country of Texas as any other citizen of
Brownsville.
As years advance he is gradually withdrawing
from business pursuits. He is now principally
engaged in quietly looking after his property inter-
ests in Brownsville and Matamoros, and his ranch,
which is a fine piece of property lying in the interior
of Cameron County, and upon which he has fine
stock in cattle, horses and sheep.
B. F. PRITCHETT,
JACKSONVILLE.
B. F. Piitchett, one of the most influential farm-'
ers and citizens of Cherokee County, Texas, of
which he has been a resident since 1870, was born
December 18, 1832, at Sontown, Newton County,
Ga. His parents were William E. and Mary E.
(Greer) Pritchett. His father was born in Butler
County, Ga. , about the year 1804, and died in 1862
at Dadeville, Ala. His mother was a daughter of
Col. Benjamin Greer, of South Carolina. His
father was a well-to-do farmer, and both of his
parents connected with some of the best families in
the South. Mr. B. F. Pritchett was educated in
Atlanta, Ga., in the academic school located at that
place, and lived on his father's farm until the com-
mencement of the war between the States. At the
beginning of the struggle, he enlisted in the Con-
federate army as a soldier in Company H. (com-
manded by Capt. John Thompson), First Alabama
Battalion of Cavalry, commanded by Maj. T. C.
Bell. In 1862 the company was united with three
586
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Mississippi companies to form the Eighth Missis-
sippi. After participating in a number of minor
engagements, some of which were fierce and san-
guinary enough in their way, he had the pleasure
of sharing the glory with which his command cov-
ered itself at Shiloh, one of the greatest pitched
battles of the war and one hallowed in the memories
of Southern men and women by the fact that the
heroic Albert Sydney Johnston there laid down his
noble life, a life which he had consecrated to the
cause of civil liberty and constitutional freedom
many years before upon the plains of Mexico and
Texas. After further service, Mr. Pritchett was
captured by the Federals at Murfreesboro and taken
to Louisville, Ky., and from thence to Camp Mor-
ton, Indianapolis, Ind., where he remained until
the close of the war. He was wounded at Mur-
freesboro in the head and knee, honorable wounds
that testify to the fact that he was a good and
faithful soldier.
Mr. Pritchett moved to Texas in the fall of 1869,
and located in Rusk County, where he remained
four years and then moved to Cherokee County,
where he has since resided. His well-improved
farm, consisting of 200 acres in cultivation and 300
well clothed with timber, is situated six and a half
miles distant from the pleasant town of Jacksonville.
Mr. Pritchett has been a very successful farmer ;
has been enabled to care well for his family and
has given his children all social and educational
advantages and now, in his old age, possesses a
competency.
He was married in October, 1857, to Miss
Lurana Murphey, daughter of Wiley and Luzina
Murphey, of Alabama. She was born Decem.ber
9th, 1837, and is a most refined and accomplished
lady.
They have had ten children, five of whom
are now living: L. A. Pritchett, a farmer and
ginner, living four miles from Jacksonville ; M. E.,
now wife of W. B. Clayborn, a farmer living seven
miles from Jacksonville; Martha E., wife of E. M.
Eoundtree, a farmer living six miles from Jackson-
ville ; W. L. and MissEula Delle, living at home.
FELIX JOHNSON McCORD,
TYLER.
There are few better known, abler or more highly
esteemed lawyers and occupants of the district
bench, than the subject of this notice. Judge F. J.
McCord. He was born in Tichimingo County,
Miss., and was educated in the Schools at Corinth.
His father, C.W. McCord and mother, Mrs. Hannah
McCord, were natives of and died in Mississippi.
Judge McCord came to Texas in 1869 and settled
in Upshur County, where he worked upon farms and
in saw-mills as a laborer until 1872 and then went to
Jefferson, where he entered the oiHce of Hon. D. B.
Culberson and began the study of law. A year
later he was admitted to the bar after standing an
exceptionally creditable examination and moved to
Longview, where he engaged in the practice, and in
1877 formed a connection with Hon. John M. Dun- '
can, now General Attorney of the I. & G. N. Rail-
way, under the firm name of McCord & Duncan, a
copartnership that continued until 1879, when
Governor O. M. Roberts appointed the subject of
this notice District Attorney of the Seventh Judicial
District, an oflSce that he held until 1880, when
he was defeated by Hon. James S. Hogg, after-
wards Governor of Texas. Later, Judge McCord
was nominated and elected by the Democracy of
Smith and Gregg counties to the Seventeenth Legisla-
ture and, while a member of that body, introduced
and secured the enactment of a bill reducing rail-
way passenger fare from five to three cents per
mile and took an active part in all legislation of the
session. He declined renomination and, August
17th, 1883, was appointed by Governor Ireland
Judge for the Seventh Judicial District, to succeed
Hon. J. C. Robertson, resigned. He has since
been re-elected at three successive popular elec-
tions and is now the incumbent of the office.
In 1894 he was a candidate for the Democratic
nomination for Congress and led all competitors
for six thousand ballots, one of the longest dead-
locks ever known to the political history of Texas,
and then withdrew his name from before the. con-
vention. Had he remained in the race for the
nomination, no nomination could have possibly
been made as he was the strongest man before the
convention. He desired party success more than
personal aggrandizement and was determined that
^"f-t\''WTB^-iJ:h,;i, J-iMyn,^^^-
^^ STCOt^E.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
587
the convention should not adjourn before selecting
a standard bearer to lead the opposition to the
enemy. He moved to Tyler November 24, 1885.
In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss Ga-
briella Fuller, daughter of Dr. J. A. Fuller, of
Paris, Texas.
WILLIAM STONE,
EAGLE PASS.
Judge Stone was one of the pioneers of Texas, a
veteran of the Mexican War, an influential and
wealthy citizen, and a man of great enterprise. He
was a native of the city of New Orleans. He spent
his youth in and about New Orleans, acquired a
liberal education and in 1847, when a young man,
came to Texas. He was]of an adventurous disposi-
tion, and upon learning of the war between the
United States and Mexico, joined Walker's expedi-
tion and started with it for Mexico. The horrible
fate of this expedition near Rio Grande City is
already recorded in the published works of Col.
John Henry Brown. Young Stone only escaped
being massacred with the other members by mak-
ing his escape through a hole in the stockade or
corral, where they were confined. He and one
other were the only two who escaped being shot to
death. After his escape he proceeded into the
interior of Mexico where, in a short time, he made
the favorable acquaintance of the now venerable
Gregory Devine of San Antonio. Mr. Devine was
a wealthy man and sent young Stone and Henry P.
Adams to San Antonio to clerk in his store. This
was about the year 1850 or 1852. Mr. Stone later
clerked for Maj. Colquehon, in San Antonio, and
finally at Fort Duncan, now Camp Eagle Pass.
Soon thereafter he secured a contract from the
United States government for the delivery of a
large quantity of hay and wool, and on this con-
tract first made his financial start 'and commenced
his first investments in lands, sheep and cattle. In
the meantime he made the acquaintance of Gover-
nor Madero, an ex-Mexican oiBcial, a man of
influence, and they engaged together in trade
between the United States and Mexico. They
bought goods in the United States and traded them
in Mexico for horses and mules and, returning with
the latter, sold them in this country. About this
time they opened a store in Eagle Pass and built up
an extensive business. At one time they brought
seven hundred head of horses and mules over from
Mexico and started with them for St. Louis, Mo.,
but the war between the States had just broken out
and they stopped at Austin, Texas, traded them for
cotton and freighted the cotton into Mexico. He
about this time, took up land near Eagle Pass and
engaged in sheep-raising on quite an extended scale.
They continued in the cotton business during the war
period, from 1861 to 1865, and made money rapidly.
He also imported about seventy-five fine graded
Merino bucks from the East, and placed them with
his sheep on the range he had just previously
opened. These are said to be the first high-grade
sheep shipped into the State. He brought them to
Texas at great expense. During the war between
the States he held a commission from the Confed-
erate government as Provost Marshal. His sym-
pathies were strongly with the Southern cause, in so
far as the issues of secession and States' rights were
involved. He said little upon the absorbing ques-
tion of slavery, however. He never owned slaves,
but did not favor emancipation without compensat-
ing to their owners by the government.
In 1872 Mr. Stone was elected Justice of the
Peace and when the State constitution was changed,
providing for the election of and defining the juris-
diction and duties of county judge he was, in 1875,
elected to that responsible office in his county and
presided with dignity, impartiality and with entire
satisfaction to his people. Judge Stone was a use-
ful and valuable citizen and enjoyed the unbounded
confidence and esteem of all classes, whose trusted
friend and confidential adviser he was. It was not
an uncommon thing for him to be chosen by parties,
involved in disputes and disagreements, to settle
their differences as sole arbiter. In all such matters
he was a good and patient listener and invariably
adjusted them in some equitable way, to the satis-
faction of all concerned. Thus, he was a peace-
maker, and the Lord has said " blessed are the
peacemakers."
He was a man of fine social qualities and keen
sensibilities, open-hearted, generous and consider-
ate to the poor and unfortunate, and on all occa-
588
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
sions liberal to a fault. In all his dealings and
intercourse with his fellow- men he was never known
to take undue advantage or overreach.
Judge Stone was a good man for his State, his
county and his home city. He foresaw the future
development of Eagle Pass and prophesied the build-
ing of railroads and the effects that their coming
would have upon the growth of the country, this,
too, at a time when the people of his section regarded
such predictions as absurd. While he did not live
to see the iron-horse roll nto Eagle Pass, and his
prophecy consummated in full, the railroad was in
course of construction at the time of his death and
reached the Rio Grande river soon thereafter.
Judge Stone possessed a discriminating business
mind and held pronounced views upon all questions
agitated in his day. He was not given to aggres-
sive argument, but was always ready to state his
position, give his reasons therefor, and there will-
ing to let argument end, according others the
privileges of mental freedom that he claimed for
himself.
Judge Stone married Senorita Josepha Martinez,
a daughter of Don Severo Martinez, of Eagle Pass.
She was born in Rio Grande, Mexico. Judge Stone
loved his wife and his children, lavishly provided
them with all that heart could wish, and sent his
children away for the best of school advantages.
At the time of his death he was a very wealthy man,
owning upwards of 100,000 acres of land and 30,000
head of sheep, besides a large quantity of real and
personal property in Eagle Pass.
His acquaintance extended throughout Southwest
Texas and Eastern and Central Mexico, and his
death was widely mourned.
Judge and Mrs. Stone had four children. Of
these, James, born March 14th, 1865, married Miss
Susie, daughter of Judge James T. Burks, of Eagle
Pass, and has four children : Josephine, Elvira,
James, Jr., and Lucretia.
Griffith, born December 14th, 1872, married Miss
Martha, daughter of Theodor Gonzales, of Rio
Grande; William, born April 15th, 1874, married
Miss Stella Burni, daughter of A. Burni, of San
Antonio; and Richard born April 24th, 1877,
remains single.
All of Judge Stone's large estate was left to his
wife and children, with the invaluable inheri-
tance to the latter of an honored and honorable
name.
JOHN SCHANDNA,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Is a well-known and prosperous merchant of the
historic town of Fredericksburg, Texas, where he
was born September 10, 1851.
His father, Peter Schandna, was born in Prussia,
July 20, 1816, and at this writing is seventy-nine
years of age, but, notwithstanding the fact that he
is somewhat physically infirm, has a keen, un-
clouded intellect and takes great interest in all that
surrounds him. Peter Schandna and his young
wife and daughter, Margaret, now deceased, sailed
from Bremen for Texas in 1845, aboard the '■'■Wash-
ington " with the first party of immigrants sent out
by the German Emigration Company, at that time
under the direction of Prince Solms; landed in
Galveston in the fall of 1845 ; proceeded thence in
another vessel to Indianola; and from the latter
place overland in ox-wagons to New Braunfels and
his destination at Fredericksburg, reaching the
latter place in the early part of 1846. In Freder-
icksburg he found steady employment at his trade
that of a carpenter, which he continued to follow
during his active life. Eight children were borne
him at Fredericksburg by his first wife, only three
of whom (John, the subject of this brief sketch),
Joseph and Henry, are now living. No children were
borne him by his second or third wife.
John Schandna learned the carpenter trade under
his father during his boyhood and the tinner trade
in 1883 and in the latter year embarked in the
hardware business upon his own account, suc-
ceeding his brother in that line. He now controls
a large hardware, tinware and sheet-iron jobbing
trade, in connection with his flourishing retail busi-
ness. In 1884 he married Miss Bertha Kline (a
daughter of Christian Kline) born in Gillespie
County, Texas, an estimable and lovable lady.
Mr. and Mrs. Schandna have six children born to
them : Olga, Alfred, and Amelia now living, and
Ida, an infant (not named) and Charles, now
deceased.
Eng'^bvHd-C.Koe- oeis.N:;
P J Willi
>j.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
589
P. J. WILLIS,
GALVESTON.
This old and respected citizen was born in Caro-
line County, Md., March 26th, 1815, where he
spent his boyhood days. His father was Short
A. Willis, a native of Edinburgh, Scotland, who
was brought to this country by his parents before
the struggle of the colonies for independence.
Several members of the family took part in the
revolution against the English Crown, two of his
brothers yielding up their lives on the battle-field
of Brandywine. Short A. Willis settled on the
eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay, in Maryland,
and began the battle of life, stern and rugged as it
was in those earlj' days, in what was almost a wil-
derness. There his five sons were born and were
chiefly reared, the eldest, Arthur J., passing his
entire life there, dying March 27th, 1889. The
four younger sons came to Texas, with the history
of which they became connected, and here spent
their subsequent lives. The first of the four who
came was Peter J., who made his advent into the
State in January, 1836. He remained in the coun-
try until the following June, when he returned to
Maryland. In October, 1837, accompanied by his
two younger brothers, William H. and Richard S.,
he came back, and the three settling on Buffalo
Bayou, near the then newly laid out town of Hous-
ton, there bravely began the battle of life with no
capital but indomitable will and the buoyancy of
youth. They early displayed those characteristics
which, in the harvest of years that followed, reaped
them such handsome returns. Their early labors
were of the character incident to aggressive pio-
neering in a new country, and by industry and
strict economy they saved, in a short time, suffi-
cient means to purchase a tract of land known
as the " Ringold Farm," lying on the road from
Navasota to Washington, and there they settled
themselves to agricultural pursuits. After a year
or two of hard labor at farming Peter J. made his
first entry into the mercantile world, buying a
stock of goods and opening a store at Washington.
The other two brothers remained on the farm until
the death of Will'am H., when Richard S. joined
Peter J. in business, the brothers locating their
joint mercantile venture at Montgomery. The
enterprise was successful and a branch establish-
ment was afterwards started at Anderson in Grimes
County in partnership with E. W. Cawthon, a
brother-in-law, under the firm name of Cawthon,
Willis & Bro. Their business steadily prospered
and about 1853 the Willis Brothers formed a part-
nership with S. K. Mcllheny and opened a store in
Houston under the firm name of Mcllheny, Willis
& Bro. This soon grew to be one of the largest
houses in the State, and continued active and suc-
cessful operations throughout the entire period of
the war.
On the close of hostilities in 1865 Mr. Mcllheny
went to Laredo, Mexico, where he died, after which
■the Willis brothers purchased his interest and,
changing the name of the firm to that of P. J.
Willis & Bro., concentrated all their interests at
Houston, and in 1808 at Galveston purchasing
property on the corner of Strand and Twenty-
fourth street, where they established quarters suf-
ficient for the business then in contemplation. To
Peter J. the outside management of their affairs
was mainly intrusted and by his untiring industry
and ceaseless villgance he made himself master of
their large and ever-growing interests. Broad in
his views and liberal in his methods, he was con-
stantly widening their sphere of activity and ex-
tending their patronage. Mr. Willis possessed
many of the elements 'of popularity and easily won
and readily retained the friendship of those with
whom he came in contact. He was genial by
nature, kind in disposition and easily ap-
proached. He cherished an especially warm feel-
ing for his associates of early days and was fond
of recounting with them- his early experiences
in Texas. He was devoted to the State of his
adoption and to all of its interests and institutions
and lost no opportunity to show his attachment.
He was not a member of any church but was a
liberal contributor to all, owned pews in all the
churches in the city and, in fact, gave of his ample
means to all worthy purposes. He never held a
public office but lent his name and the aid of a
strong personal example to the side of the law, order
and good government, and occupied a number of
positions in connection with the business interests
of the several localities of the State in which he was
at one time and another a resident.
In December, 1844, at Montgomery, Texas, Mr.
Willis married Miss Caroline Womack, a native of
Alabama, born July 18th, 1828 ; and a daughter of
John Womack, at one time a wealthy planter of
Montgomery. The issue of this union was six chil-
590
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
dren: William H., who was born at Montgomery,
December 7th, 1845, and died at Galveston, May
16th, 1888 ; Peter J. Ella, wife of Joseph G. Gold-
thwaite ; Tabitha, who died in childhood ; Magnolia,
wife of George Sealy ; and Carolina, wife of W. F.
Ladd ; the four that are living being residents of
Galveston.
Mr. Willis died November 25th, 1873, at Kansas
City, Mo., his death occurring during his temporary
absence from home on business. His remains rest
in the family vault at Galveston. Mrs. Willis died
September 19th, 1883. She was a woman of most
exemplary character, and not a little of the success
which her husband achieved was attributable to the
inspiration that emanated from her noble life. Mr.
Willis' second wife was Miss Harriet E. Aiken, of
New York. She still survives— a resident of
Westchester County, that State.
CHARLES J. H. MEYER,
COLORADO COUNTY.
Charles J. H. Meyer is a native Texian, born in
Fayette County, November 5th, 1854. His parents,
JohnH. and Dora Meyer, emigrated from Germany
to the United States a number of years prior to his
birth. His father died March 20th, 1892. His
mother, aged sixty years, is still living. Mr. Meyer
received an excellent education, attending a Catho-
lic institution for two years, and completing his
studies by a two years' course at the Military
Academy at Austin. October 27th, 1874, he was
married to Miss Elizabeth Ehllinger, daughter of
Charles Ehllinger, for whom the thriving town of
EUinger is named, and has five children: Elo,
Adita, Lizzie, Henry and Hattie. Mr. Meyer was
elected a County Commissioner of Colorado County
in 1890, and in 1892 was elected to the State Legis-
lature, in which he made an enviable record, both in
the committee rooms and on the floor of the House.
He owns a fine bottom farm in Colorado County,
which he has stocked with thoroughbred Jerseys
and other fine cattle. He is also engaged in mer-
chandising at'the town of EUinger.
ALEXANDER FITZGERALD,
COLORADO COUNTY.
Alexander Fitzgerald, a prosperous farmer of
Southwestern Texas, was born in Madison County,
Ala., May 22d, 1822, moved to La Grange, Texas,
■with his parents in 1838, and in 1841 located in
Colorado County, where he has since resided. In
1850 he was married to Miss Flora A. Mums and
has four children: Anna E., wife of W. H. Griffin,
of Eagle Lake, Texas; Carrie, Edward, and Dr.
Howard Fitzgerald, also of Eagle Lake. He served
in the Texas ranger force for a time; September
19th, 1842, participated in the fight known to history
as the "Dawson Massacre" and eight days later
helped to gather together and bury the bones of the
dead, and during the war between the United States
and Mexico was a soldier inMcCuUoch's command,
participating in a number of engagements.
His farm consists of somewhat more than one
thousand acres of good land. He is comfortably
fixed in his old age and surrounded by loving
children, grandchildren and friends.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
591
HENRY LUDWIG,
NEW BRAUNFELS,
Came to America with his brother in January, 1855,
landing at the port of Galveston and proceeding
from thence almost immediately to Indianola. His
father, Julius Ludwig, a farmer by profession,
brought five children with him to this country, of
whom the subject of this sketch is the oldest now
living. Fritz, the second born, died of fever about
two weeks after their arrival in Texas ; Minnie,
who married Henry Hartz, resides about two miles
from New Braunfels ; Christiana, who married Fer-
dinand Dirks, resides about two miles south of
New Braunfels ; and William is a citizen of New
Braunfels. The parents of Mr. Ludwig were
both born in Hanover, Germany. The father
was born July 23d, 1806, and died in New
Braunfels, June 20th, 1869. The mother was born
July 6th, 1815, and died February 17th, 1886.
Mr. Ludwig, the subject of this sketch, was born in
Hanover, Germany, November 27th, 1886, and has
devoted his energies chiefly to farming, the manu-
facture of lime, and contract work. His industry,
thrift and economy have secured for him a comfort-
able property and he is regarded as one of the
solid citizens of New Braunfels.
October 1st, 1865, he married Miss Matilda Con-
fad. She was born in Germany, January 6th,
1843.
Mr. and Mrs. Ludwig have one adopted daugh-
ter, Ida, born May 5th, 1876. She is married and
lives in New Braunfels.
FRANK B. ARMSTRONG,
BROWNSVILLE,
Was born in St. Johns, New Brunswick, May 10th,
1863. His father, Eichard Sands Armstrong, was
for many years a prominent citizen of St. Johns,
and died there in the year 1868. The following is
from one of the leading newspapers of St. Johns : —
" E. Sands Armstrong, Esq., who has been for
many' years clerk in the Mayor's office, died last
evening after a short illness. Mr. Armstrong was a
barrister of many years standing and was for along
time County Auditor. A man of unobtrusive dis-
position, a devoted florist, a reader of many books,
he interfered little with active affairs and was
liked by all who came in contact with him, officially
or personally. The flag on the city building is at
half-mast to-day out of respect to his memory.
Mr. Armstrong leaves a large family. He studied
law under the late Hon. E. L. Hazen and was
admitted to the bar on June 10th, 1847. Mr.
Armstrong retired from active practice several years
ago. While clerk in the Mayor's office he dis-
charged the duties of that position most efficiently
and acceptably. He once came forward into pub-
lic life, having been elected to fill the seat in the
House of Assembly for this city and county, which
the elevation of Hon. W. J. Richie to the bench of
the Supreme Court left vacant. His competitor
for the seat was J. W. Cudlip. Mr. Armstrong did
not, however, offer at the next general election and
never again appeared as a candidate for public
honors."
Upon the death of the father, the family removed
to Medford, Mass., where the children attended
school as circumstances permitted, and attained
high standing in their studies, and fitted themselves
for honorable positions in educational and business
circles. Mr. Armstrong, of whom we here write,
inherited the taste for the study of Natural History
that his father cherished, and studied taxidermy
two years at Boston, Mass., with the eminent Prof.
C. J. Maynard, and mastered all of the details of
that art.
A Brownsville paper says: —
The geographical position of this section,
bordering closely upon the torrid zone, makes it
the place of sojourn for feathered tribes from both
American continents, besides its being the perma-
nent home of a very large variety of birds.
Over eight hundred different specimens have
592
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
been collected in this vicinity by Mr. Frank B.
Armstrong, a well-known naturalist, who has con-
tributed thousands of valuable and interesting spec-
imens to the museums of this country and Europe,
and furnished many extremely rare products to
private collectors.
Mr. Armstrong has been in business here for
several years. He began the study of Natural
History at his home in Boston, where he made his
first essays in the interesting branches of that sub-
ject which have become his specialties, viz. :
Ornithology, mammology and oology. He left
Boston when a very young man, and after an
extensive tour through Mexico, during which he
made a complete collection of birds and animals of
that country, he settled in Laredo, Texas, where
he began a systematic search for specimens in this
border section. In pursuance of the latter under-
taking he came to Brownsville in Marcli, 1890, and
finding it an excellent point for securing the services
of hunters and trappers, as well as for his personal
excursions, he located his business here and married
the following year, 1891, April 2d.
His establishment at the corner of Washington
and Eleventh streets is crowded with specimens of
natural history, and is well worth the careful atten-
tion and examination which the courteous propri-
etor freely accords to all who visit it.
The price list of birds' skins bears the names of
275 different species, which he constantly carries
in stock and furnishes to naturalists, scientists and
dealers.
The proprietor is a skillful taxidermist himself
and employs four assistants, all of them constantly
employed in selecting and properly treating the
numerous subjects found in this vicinity.
The birds of this section are more numerous
than those in any other known to Mr. Armstrong.
It is owing to that fact that he has found such en-
couragement in his chosen field.
He married Miss Marie Isabel Schodts, a daugh-
ter of the lamented Michael Schodts, a portrait and
biography of whom appears in this volume. Mrs.
Armstrong is a lady of superior educational attain-
ments and rare social accomplishments.
Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have two little daugh-
ters, Sylvia, age 4 years, 6 months, and Jennie, age
2 years and four months. One daughter, Susie, is
deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong have one of
the most spacious and luxurious homes in the city
of Brownsville and a summer seaside home at
Point Isabel.
Mr. Armstrong is thoroughly identified with the
interests of Brownsville and Southwest Texas, and
is highly esteemed by a wide circle of friends
throughout all parts of Texas.
CHARLES B. COMBE, M. D.,
BROWNSVILLE,
Is a native of Kentucky, born near the city of
Owensboro, in Daviess County, October 1st, 1836.
His father, John Combe, was a planter by occupa-
tion, and successful business man ; his mother (nee
Helen Berthoud) was of French descent, a native
of the Isle of St. Thomas, and a lady of domestic
culture and many feminine graces. Dr. Combe
received his early education at St. Joseph's Col-
lege, Bardstown, Ky., one of the leading educa-
tional institutions of that day. He there nearly
ended bis classical course in the year 1854, when,
owing to the untimely death of his father, he re-
linquished his studies. Soon after he took up the
study of medicine under Dr. Louis Eogers, an
eminent physician of Louisville, Ky., with whom
he remained nearly three years, at the same time
attending lectures at the Louisville University.
Dr. Rogers then sent him to the Charity Hospital
at New Orleans, that he might get the clinical ad-
vantages which that institution afforded. He then
went to the Jefferson College of Medicine at
Philadelphia, from which celebrated university he
was graduated in the year 1858. The following
year he came to Texas and engaged in the practice
of his profession at Brownsville, which has since
been his home, with exception of a few years resi-
dence in the border city of Matamoros, Mexico,
and the time he was absent from Texas, on several
prolonged visits to different parts of the United
States and Mexico. Dr. Combe has seen much of
pioneer life on the Mexican border, and experienced
many of its dangers and vicissitudes. He accom-
panied Col. John S. Ford on his advance against
Juan N. Cortina in 1859-RO. He also served as a
DR. CHAS. B. COMBE.
HARVEY MITCHELL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
693
surgeon in the Confederate army during the war
between the States, when Gen. Magruder com-
manded in Texas. Among other signal services to
the Confederate cause he aided in passing large
quantities of arms, ammunition and much needed
medical stores into the country.
In the Diaz Revolution in 1876, he espoused that
cause, and was a staunch supporter and friend of
Gen. Diaz. He was commissioned a surgeon in
the Mexican army, and served as chief surgeon of
the Military Hospital at Matamoros from 1878 to
1882, under Gen. Servando Canales. During this
period he rendered important quarantine services
to both the United States and Mexico. He has
served Texas as a State health officer, and has also
been an officer of the National Board of Health.
His eminent and faithful public services ended in
1882, since which time he has quietly practiced his
profession, and devoted much of his time to the
care of his landed and stock interests.
Dr. Combe is president of the Medical Examin-
ing Board of his district, has been president of the
Brownsville and Matamoros Medical Association,
once an important, useful and prosperous organiza-
tion, and has served his city as a member of its
board of Aldermen.
He married, May 15th, 1865, Miss K. M. Impey,
a step-daughter of the Hon. Stephen Powers of
Brownsville.
She was a lady of broad intellectual culture and
social accomplishments. She was a daughter of
Frederick Impey, a merchant of New Orleans,
where she was born. Five sons have been born of
this union, viz.: Frederick J. Combe, M. D.,
Charles B., Jr.; Frank B., Dr. Joseph K, and
Emile B. Combe.
The life of Dr. Combe has been a busy and use-
ful one and connected with many incidents that
have largely made up the most thrilling part of the
history of the southwestern portion of the State.
He is quiet and unassuming in manner and is
esteemed as one of Brownsville's most worthy
citizens. During the yellow fever epidemic of
1882, Dr. Combe distinguished himself by the
promptitude with which hediagnosed the early cases,
and his heroic conduct generally throughout the
epidemic. He was in constant communication with
Surgeon-Gen. J. B. Hamilton, of the United States
Marine Hospital Service, Washington, D. C, who
complimented him for his services. Dr. Combe
enjoys not only the confidence and esteem of his
fellow-citizens of Brownsville and the members
of his profession, but has thousands of friends and
admirers throughout Texas and Mexico.
HARVEY MITCHELL,
. BRYAN,
Was born April 9tb, 1821, near Cornersville, Mid-
dle Tennessee, and was brought up on a farm. His
education was limited to a common school course,
as his father was not able to send him off to college.
At the age of eighteen he joined a company of
young men and came to Texas overland with emi-
grant wagons, reaching old Tinninville, Robertson
County, in the fall of 1839, where he j jined Capt.
Eli Chandler's company of " Minute Men " and
remained in the frontier military service under
Capls. Chandler and Wm. M. Love, until January
1st, 1842.
When not in the woods on duty during this
period, he was employed by the few families at
Tinninville, to teach school during 1840, and was
similarly employed by Maj. Eli Seales and neighbors
on Cedar creek (now Brazos County), during 1841.
Tinninville at that time was headquarters for
all military operations between the Trinity and
Brazos rivers, and, being on the extreme northern
boundary of the settlements, there was not a single
civilized human habitation north of it in Texas. It
was the place of rendezvous and starting-point for
all the company's expeditions. The service of the
company to which Mr. Mitchell belonged consisted
in periodical excursions from river to river in search
of Indian marauders and in the pursuit of them
when they succeeded in getting into the settlements
and stealing horses, which they frequently did,
sometimes killing and scalping a lone roan and
carrying off his wife and children.
In this service the company had numerous skir-
mishes, but no pitched battle of note.
Brazos County having been created and organized
by invitation Mr. Mitchell moved his residence to
old Boonville, January 1st, 1812, to take charge of
3S
59t
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the Counly Clerk's office as deputy and act as
amanuensis, and do all the office work for all the
county officials.
This was a necessity at that time, as the perqui-
sites of ail the offices were not sufficient to support
one man, and no one could be found willing to
leave their farms and move to town to fill an office,
and to save the county organization from disso-
lution this plan was adopted, and to augment his
earnings Mr. Mitchell hired out to the Carter
family to teach school at $20.00 per month and
board, attending to all official duties at leisure hours
(at night, evenings, mornings, etc.).
In 1845 he turned over the school to Miss Carter,
whom he had educated, and he engaged in
merchandising and, there being no other stores in
the county, and having the confidence and patron-
age of the people, he was successful and prosperous.
Having fallen desperately in love with Miss A.
J. Foley, who had finished her education in 1847,
under the tutelage of the Hon. John Sayles, at
Brenham, Texas, and finding that his affections
were reciprocated, they were married April 6th,
1848, and being Clerk of the County Court at that
time, he had to issue his own marriage license — a
rare occurence, it is to be presumed.
He continued selling goods, trading in land and
stock, and running all the county offices until
1853 — when others became eligible and willing to
take his place, and in 1855 he moved to "Red
Top" (now Beuchly) and engaged extensively in
the land business and merchandising. Being per-
sonally familiar with all the original surveys in
Brazos and with many in Robertson County, and
also with most of the non-resident owners, he suc-
ceeded in acquiring a large landed property ; but,
having been appointed Assessor of Confederate
State Taxes for Brazos County, for convenience
he moved back to Boonville in 1863, and after the
close of the war built a new and beautiful home a
mile out of town, where he lived until 1879, in which
year, having previously voluntarily surrendered all
the earnings of his forty years' life of toil to the
creditors of friends, so-called, in whom he had
misplaced confidence, not reserving even his beauti-
ful homestead, he bought a cheap shanty in Bryan
on credit, and, disposing of surplus furniture,
moved into it and hired out his baby boy, James B.
Mitchell, now of Fort Worth, Texas, to a jeweler
in Bryan at $10.00 per month, to aid in making a
new start. His other living children, Jefferson P.
Mitchell, Mrs. R. L. Weddington and Mrs. Wm.
H. Dean, now of Bryan, and Mrs. E. R. Nash,
now of Waco, were all grown and providing for
themselves, but were not able at that time
to aid him financially. In 1880 be bought a
small farm on the Navasota river and, with the
assistance of friends, mainly Guy M. Bryan, Jr.,
purchased other adjoining lands, and improved
them and now has a farm of 1,000 acres, well im-
proved and stocked, under cultivation, but resides
at his home in the town of Bryan. But he is now
old and feeble and realizes that his life-work is
about finished. His time is mainly spent now in
reviewing the past, in which he finds some comfort.
His living children are all engaged in useful pur-
suits and are well thought of by the people who
know them and are kind to him, and he feels some
pride in the consciousness of having been efficient
in helping to convert what was an unbroken wil-
derness in 1841, with isolated settlements at long
distances apart and without any of the luxuries
and conveniences of enlightened civilization, into
one among, the most prosperous and populous
counties in Texas ; that his own beloved county
(Brazos) to-day abounds in churches and schools;
is the home of the A. and M. College of Texas,
has railroads, commodious and substantial build-
ings, good highways, a number of factories and
many palatial residences, and possesses a large and
prosperous population engaged in commercial and
agricultural pursuits. As a soldier, he did his full
share toward its protection while it needed protec-
tion as a border county. The duty was assigned
to him to build three of the courthouses the county
has had, the first in 1846 ("the Board Shanty
Court House") ; the second in 1853, a more pre-
tentious structure, and the third, the " brick court-
house " in Bryan, in 1878. He served, either un-
der commission or an amanuensis, in all the county
offices for a term of years when no other plan could
preserve the county's autonomy. He never sought
any office, but was elected at different times to that
of Chief Justice, County Clerk and County Sur-
veyor as the occasion required for the public good,
and from 1842 until 1853 had the custody and con-
trol of all the archives of the county and, there
being no resident lawyer in the county, was the
man upon whom the people depended to write
deeds, bonds, contracts, petitions and reports for
administrators and guardians, and to officiate as
preacher at weddings, etc., all of which he did
gratuitously. He built the Methodist Church now
in Bryan, donating $500 of its cost and lending
$500 more to finish and seat it. He built Alexan"-
der Chapel (the first church edifice ever built in the
county) for the Methodists and Union Chapel for
the Presbyterians, and donated liberally to all the
churches in Bryan when first built, and also to other
public buildings as well. But his crowning joy is
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
595
over his successful effort in securing the location
in his county of the Agricultural and Mechanical
College of Texas. It was the highest ambition of
his life. He was fully impressed with its impor-
tance as a source of revenue to his people, for all
time to come, as thousands of dollars would annu-
ally be brought into the country and disbursed
among the people for labor and supplies.
The commissioners authorized by law to select
and secure a suitable location for this institution,
had visited and examined many competing points
in the State, that offered by Brazos County among
the rest, and advertised for bids, in the way of bo-
nuses, to be opened and the location awarded on a
given day in Houston. The State Senator from
the district in which Brazos County is situated,
Hon. W. A. Saylor, Judge Spencer Ford and Mr.
Mitchell, were selected at a large mass meeting
held in Bryan to meet the commissioners on the
day fixed and, if possible, secure the award. Ac-
cordingly Senator Saylor and Mr. Mitchell went
down to Houston a few days in advance. Judge
Ford did not go and Mr. Saylor went on to Galves-
ton, leaving Mr. Mitchell alone to wrestle with
powerful competitors for the award — San Antonio,
Austin, Waco and other prominent and wealthy
points.
But he managed to learn what bonus his people
would have to raise to secure the prize, which was
so great that he feared it was beyond their reach.
He wired Mayor Downward for instructions, and
waited for a reply, but none came ; and, nerved
with the excitement of desperation, he resolved to
act on his own responsibility, and proceeded to
write out a bid offering the necessary bonus, which
was accepted on condition that be would have per-
fect titles to the land (2250 acres which he had pre-
viously shown them) presented within forty-eight
hours.
He was then en route for New York to spend the
summer, but boarded the first train back to Bryan,
reported what he had done and, with the help of
other citizens, mainly that of Hon. John N. Hen-
derson, flow Associate Justice of the Supreme
Court, and M. W. McCraw, now deceased, the
money was raised, the lands bought and deeds to
same secured and delivered to the commissioners
within the time specified, and he resumed his
journey to the northern cities, the proudest man in
America.
In this transaction he felt, and still feels, that,
while it brought a paramount blessing to his county,
he also rendered good service to the State. The
position selected for the site of the college being
central, healthy and attractive, and a great trunk
line (the H. & T. C. ) railroad running through the
grounds, which, with its various branches and
multitudinous connections, affords convenient access
to all parts of the State, make it an eminently fitting
location for this great institution.
These services have secured for him many flatter-
ing soubriquets, such as "Father of the County,"
etc., etc.
But his reminiscences are not all of a happy
character. He has had many sad and sorrowful
experiences. He was at one time, most unexpect-
edly, reduced from comparative affluence to a con-
dition bordering on destitution and dependence,
while powerless to prevent it. He was made to
witness the death of his aged father and mother
and the passing away of a beloved sister and two
brothers, who had left happy homes to follow and
be with him in Texas. He was called upon to con-
sign to their little graves four bright, loving and
promising children within one short week. He has
been separated by death from the large majority of
loved ones and intimate friends of the long, long
ago, and is to-day one of the only two living men
who were citizens of Brazos County when it was
organized in 1841. But the supreme, heartrending
grief of his life, was the surrender of his ever
faithful, loving, angelic wife, to the cold. embrace
of death on the 3d day of June, 1885.
It brought a shivering, ponderous darkness to
his soul, from which he shall never be released in
this life, and now, as the thickening and lengthen-
ing shadows of life's evening gather around him,
his chief consolation is that, if it be true that there
is a blissful haven in the great beyond for the
souls of the pure and good of earth's children, she
is surely among the blest, and that ere long he will
be with her, and all the loved ones that have pre-
ceded him and are yet to follow.
596
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN T. MILLER,
AUSTIN.
The subject ol this memoir was in his day one of
Austin's most active, useful and esteemed citizens
and, as such, was known throughout Central Texas.
He was a native of Indiana and was born on the
Wabash near Logansport, in Cass County, April
4th, 1820. His father, John Miller, was a farmer
by occupation, late in life removed to and located
at Fayetteville, "Washington County, Ark., and
there died in 1875 at ninety years of age. He was
an honest and pious man, raised a family of thirteen
children and left them the inheritance of an honor-
able name.
John T. Miller, of whom we write, grew up on the
farm and acquired a thorough knowledge of all the
details of intelligent agriculture, which for several
vears he pursued. He located with his father near
Fayetteville, Ark., and there married Miss Francis
Cone, who bore him two children : Amanda, born
May 22, 1841, now wife of M. M. Long, a farmer
who lives near Austin, and Jefferson J. Miller, born
January 22d, 1843, who married Hattie Spencer;
both of these are dead and left no children. Mrs.
Miller died in 1843. March 4th, 1845, he married
Miss Eliza Ann, eldest daughter of Rev. Wm. O.
Spencer, at Fayetteville, Ark., and they embarked
in life together by soon thereafter, in 1847, coming
to Texas. They located at Bastrop, where he en-
gaged in the livery business. They soon, however,
in consequence of Mr. Miller's ill-health, paid their
Arkansas home a protracted visit and returned to
Bastrop in 1849. They there remained and Mr.
Miller prospered in business until 1855, when he
transferred his business to and took up his resi-
dence in Austin, where he was soon recognized as a
safe and conservative, but enterprising business
man. He opened and conducted business for many
years at the Southwest corner of Congress avenue
and Bois d'Arc, or Seventh street.
He soon purchased this and adjoining property,
and, as the demands of business warranted, erected
a substantial business block on the site of his stables
and removed his business to the present location of
the extensive establishment of his son, Monroe
Miller, to whom he finally sold in 1874 and practi-
cally retired from aggressive business life, only,
from that time, looking after his property interests.
John T. Miller was a man of unpretentious ways
and in his own quiet manner diligently planned
and labored to accomplish a desired end. He was
aggressive in money-making, but was not avari-
cious. He only sought in his business to supply a.
public necessity and reap a legitimate profit thereby^
He came to Austin when the growing seat of gov-
ernment had the greatest need for a man of his-
stamp. He was a fair type of a successful early-
day business man. He came to Texas with ayoung^
wife and four children, and absolutely without,
means. His sterling traits of character, his natural
business tendencies and his inflexible honor, won.
for him the admiration and confidence of all with
whom he was brought in contact, and were really,,
with bis great industry, the foundation upon which
his successful career in life was based. He saw in
Austin the nucleus of the beautiful city that during
his lifetime it became, and practically evinced his
faith in and materially contributed to her growth
by the investment of his surplus means in substan-
tial business blocks and other property.
He possessed a warm and loyal heart, yet an in-
tensely practical mind, and dealt in a very practi-
cal way with the problems of life as they presented
themselves to him from day to day. Mr. Miller,,
aside from the untimely death of his first wife, was
very fortunate in his domestic relations, receiving
as he did the loving counsel, and sympathetic-
encouragement of his wife, who was to him a true-
helpmeet, ever at his side in times of adversity,,
such as always must mar, at intervals, the career
of even the most successful men. She was ever
ready to applaud and enjoy with him his achieve-
ments and successes. This union was blessed with,
a family of seven children, a brief record of whom,
is herewith given in the order of their biith:
First. Eliza, born June 20th, 1847, married "W.
H. Millican. She died October 8, 1882, leaving^
three children, Minnie, Lilla and "Willie. Minnie
is Mrs. J. D. Randolph, of Travis County.
Second. Monroe, born Jan. 1st, 1850, married for
his first wife. Miss Eliza Stringer, who died without
issue in 1882. His second marriage was to Miss-
Mollie Randle, a daughter of the late Senator Ed.
Randle, and of the present Mrs. T. C. "Westbrook,
of Hearne. They have three children : Monroe, Jr. ,
Nelleen and Randle. He has by purchase suc-
ceeded to and extended the business established by
his father, maintaining in every way its honor and
usefulness, and holds a big position in the business
world.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
397
Third. Miles, born August 22d, 1852, married
Miss Imogene Coulson. Tliey have one son, John
T. He is a successful farmer in Travis County.
Fourth. Emma, born April 1st, 1860, married
Mr. George B. Westlake. She died September 22,
1890, leaving one orphan daughter, Lila May,
whose home is with her parental grandparents at
£1 Paso, Texas.
Fifth. Wallace R., born July 8th, 1862; unmar-
ried. He is a farmer.
Sixth. Ella, born December 29th, 1865, married
Mr. John Whites, of Austin, an accountant in the
Pirst National Bank. Thej' have two children,
Bessie and Eleanor.
Seventh. Clara, born November 29, 1869, mar-
lied Mr. Joseph Shumate, of Austin, a member of
the mercantile firm of Teagarden & Shumate. Mr.
and Mrs. Shumate have one son, Harold.
Mr. Miller was a model husband and father. He
was a member of fraternal societies, but was for
many years a consistent and devout member of the
Baptist Church. He left the impress upon society
•of a busy, honorable career and a valuable estate
to his family.
He died at his home in Austin, February 18th,
1882. Mrs. Miller, still in the vigor of advanced
years, lives at the family home, corner of Seventh
and Brazos streets, in the city of Austin. Her
children, all within easy calling distance, hold
honorable positions in the business and social
world.
Her father, the venerable Rev. W. O. Spencer,
lives at Liberty Hill, in Williamson County, Texas.
He is one of the pioneers of that county, having
come to Texas in 1847, from Fayetteville, Am.
He was born in Illinois, about two miles from Vin-
cennes, Ind., September 10, 1809; a son of Wm.
Spencer. He inherited mechanical genius, and,
before reaching his majority, became a skillful car-
penter and, later, a blacksmith, which occupation
he followed for several years. Upon his arrival in
Texas, he first lived at Bastrop. He has followed
farming as his chief means of livelihood in Texas,
however.
He has been twice married: first, in July, 1829,
to Miss Amy Willcoxon, who died in 1852, leaving
four children, of whom Eliza Ann (Mrs. Miller) was
tlie eldest. Mrs. Spencer was born in Ash County,
N. C, in 1810. For a second wife, Mr.
Spencer married a widow Spencer, whose maiden
name was Margaret C. Smilie. She bore him three
children, having, also, four children by her former
marriage. Mr. Spencer has served in the itinerant
Baptist ministry nearly all of his mature life; has
never engaged in politics to the extent of holding
office ; is a member of the order of Ancient, Free
and Accepted Masons, and is an Andrew Jackson
Democrat, firmly grounded in the faith. During
the years 1861 to 1865 Indians became troublesome
in Williamson and adjoining counties, and Mr.
Spencer served as Captain of a minute company and
ranged the country, holding the marauding Indians
in check during that period. Mr. Spencer lives at
his old home during his declining years, enjoying
the esteem and respect of a wide-extended acquaint-
ance, the affectionate regard of an appreciative
community, and the love of his children and of his
grandchildren, of whom there are fifteen.
JOHN A. MICHEL,
BROWNSVILLE,
Escaped from New Orleans, where he was a pris-
oner of war in May, 1863, and came to Brownsville,
having been promised a position on his staff by
Oen. Magruder, whom he had known in Virginia.
Is a son of Edward A. Michel, a native of Charles-
ton, S. C, who came to New Orleans in 1810 at
the age of ten years, and although but a boy, par-
ticipated in the battle of New Orleans, January
«th, 1815.
Edward A. Michel was of French descent, his
father, Lazarus Michel, having been a Lieutenant in
the French navy under Napoleon the First. Ed-
ward A. Micliel married Miss Sulamite Benit, a
daughter of Capt. J. B. Benit, who commanded a
military com|)any at the battle of New Orleans,
where he lost his life.
Hon. John A. Michel is the fourth-born of a fam-
ily of seven children. Upon coming to Texas he
identified himself with the material and political
interests of Cameron County and soon became an
influential and popular citizen. In past years he
has held the office of Assessor of Cameron County
598
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
two terms ; has served as City Tax Collector of
Brownsville one year ; served as Alderman of the
city of Brownsville several terms and served as act-
ing Mayor of Brownsville one year. He has been
an active worker in the development of the excel-
lent school system which Brownsville possesses.
He now holds the responsible position of Collector
of United States Customs at Brownsville, the du-
ties of which office he has shown himself well
qualified to discharge.
Mr. Michel married, in 1857, Miss Louise Des-
forges, a native of New Orleans, a member of one
of the oldest families of the Crescent City. Her
grandfather, Adolphe Desforges, served as a soldier
at the battle of New Orleans, where he was severely
wounded.
Mr. and Mrs. Michel have four children — three
daughters and one son.
Mr. Michel is one of Brownsville's most highly
respected citizens.
B. H. NORSWORTHY,
ORANGE.
Occupation, farmer. Born November 26th, 1838,
in Alabama. Father, E. Norsworthy, of North
Carolina. Mother, Kebecca (Hargrave) Nors-
worthy, of Alabama. Educated at Tuscaloosa
College, Ala.
Came to Texas in April, 1860 ; located first at
Jasper, Jasper County ; left Jasper in January,
1868, and went to Morehouse Parish, La. ;
remained there until 1873 and then came to Orange,
where he has since resided. While at Jasper he was
engaged in merchandising, and while in Louisiana
in raising cotton principally. Upon locating in
Orange he embarked in merchandising, which he
continued to follow until 1892, when he engaged in
rice-farming, three miles from the city, which has
proven a very profitable business. At the beginning
of the war between the States, in 1861, he organized a
cavalry company in Jasper County known as the
Lone Star Eifles and reported to Gen. Ben McCul-
locb about the 15th of August, 1861, in North
Arkansas and was thereupon attached to Whitfield's
Battalion. Tiie company took part in the battle of
Elk Horn the following April and was then trans-
ferred to the branch of the army east of the Missis-
sippi river, with which it served during the remain-
der of the war, and participated in many hard
fought battles, among the number, those at Corinth,
luka, Thompson's Station, Franklin and the heavy
fighting around Atlanta, during the latter being
sixty-four days under fire and wounded four times.
Three of these wounds were received at Thompson's
Station.
He had thrilling experiences while on picket duty
just south of Atlanta on the Chattahoochie river,
riding very unexpectedly upon two companies of
Federals, who ordered him to halt. His horse was
shot from under him, his coat perforated with
seven bullet holes, but he succeeded in making good
his escape. He was promoted to Major later on,
near the close of the war, was promoted to Lieu-
tenant-Colonel of Whitfield's Legion.
Maj. Norsworthy has now in his possession the
battle-flag of Whitfield's Legion. Although tat-
tered and torn by shot and shell it is still the pride
of his heart.
He is a member of the Baptist Church and
Masonic fraternity, holding the Royal Arch degree
in the latter. Married, May 9th, 1866, to Miss
Mattie Wingate, in Newton County, Texas. He
was elected Mayor of Orange in 1880 and served
until 1884, his administration meeting with the
hearty approval of his fellow-citizens.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
599
WILLLIAM NEALE,
BROWNSVILLE.
The Hon. William Neale is now eighty-five years
of age, but with the exception of a partial loss of
vision, retains the powers of vigorous manhood.
He sits now in his arm-chair, surrounded with
every comfort, attended by relatives, gazing with
dim eyes at the well-filled book cases lining the
walls and containing those friends, the books, over
which he once burned the midnight oil ; but they
are silent now, forever, and he turns inward to his
wonderful memory for solace in his declining years.
Mr. Neale is the acknowledged oldest inhabitant of
Brownsville, and possesses the faculties of the
chronologist and narrator in an eminent degree,
coupled with a most engaging manner.
Mr. Neale is an Englishmaa, and calls himself a
cockney, from the fact of his having passed his
youth in London, where he was " raised " accord-
ing to Yankee parlance. He ran away from home
and went to sea when quite a lad, but he had already
acquired such stability of character that he at once
began the keeping of a diary, and continued the
habit throughout his rambles over the world. He
had in this manner amassed a fund of information
which would have been of infinite value to posterity,
had it not been destroyed by the insatiable Cortina,
when that much dreaded chieftain drove Mr. Neale
and his family from their home and burned it to the
ground.
Mr. Neale's career on this side of the Atlantic
began with his service on board the first frigate in
the Mexican navy of 1821. The vessel was pur-
chased in England, the ammunitions of war and arm-
ament being placed on board secretly. The boxes
that apparently contained dry-goods were opened
after putting to sea, and found to contain cannon-
ades and other articles for fitting out a warlike
expedition. The ship was run into a convenient
but isolated harbor, where she was pierced for forty-
four guns, and in a short time set sail for Mexico.
The frigate captured Castle Ulloa, a Spanish for-
tress guarding the harbor of Vera Cruz and per-
formed good service in the cause of Mexican
independence.
After the country had passed from under its 300
years of Spanish rule Mr. Neale traveled extensively
through Mexico and met and formed the acquaint-
ance of many prominent men of the time, which
outlasted all the political convulsions through which
the country passed.
Upon completing his travels in Mexico he settled
in New Orleans, where he learned the trade of
house, sign and ornamental painter, pursued the
business there for several years and then in 1834,
went to Matamoros, Mexico, established only a few
years previous.
At that time there was not a habitation of any
kind on the present site of Brownsville, and when
Gen. Taylor occupied the point in 1846, there were
not more than a dozen Jacals (huts) scattered
about the vicinity among the fields of cotton and
corn. Wild horses and cattle roamed over the
whole country, and hostile Indians were numerous.
Mr. Neale met men who were conspicuous as leaders
in the Texas Revolution and being a British subject
was enabled to befriend some of them. Mr. Neale
lived at Matamoros for seven years. Barney
Blannerhassett — a young man of excellent family,
who had strayed into the Southwest in the train of
Aaron Burr, not getting fight enough in the corn-
pan}' of that individual, had sought greater excite-
ment on the border, was indebted to Mr. Neale for
saving his life at a critical moment. Young Blan-
nerhassett had been seized bj'' the Mexicans and
was pretty roughly handled, when Mr. Neale passed
the spot. Blannerhassett was tightlj' bound and
threatened with speedy death and begged Neale for
laudanum, in order that he might cheat his captors;
but, instead of giving him the drug, Mr. Neale
interceded for him with the officials, and secured
his release.
A few years after the Texas Revolution, and
before the Mexican War, Mr. Neale established a
line of stages from Matamoros to Point Isabel,
starting from the present location of Brownsville.
Mr. Neale's stages were pressed into service by
Gen. Taylor as ambulances, were cap'ured and it
was in his attempt to recover them that he first met
the General and had an interview with him. These
events occurred after the bombardment of Fort
Brown, which Mr. Neale witnessed from the top of
a windmill that stood between the two Mexican
forts built by Gen. Ampudia, for the defense of
Matamoros, on the right bank of the Rio Grande,
one at Santa Cruz Point, called Fort Conejo, and
the other at the upper extremity of the city, called
Fort Paredes. From his elevated position Mr.
Neale could plainly trace the shells as they sailed
through the air, and had a bird's eye view of the
600
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
battle waged between Fort Brown and the Mexican
forces, in the early days of May, 1846.
After the Mexican War Mr. Neale estal)lished
his stage line and did a good business for a number
of years. He had been identified with the route for
, twenty years, when he was forced to abandon it by
the unsettled state of the border. There was a
marked contrast between the early days of his stag-
ing and those near the close. He carried a great
deal of silver coin, having sometimes a hundred
thousand dollars on a single wagon. The money
was packed on open-work bags made of grass and
the metal glittered in the sunlight or reflected the
rays of the moon, as the case might be, but he was
never attacked for the treasure and did not lose a
single dollar by theft, although he would frequently
miss buckles and parts of harness. The bad state
of the "roads sometimes compelled him to pile up
thousands of dollars on the wayside and leave it
until the next day, when he would And it as he left it.
Smuggling was carried on most openly in the
early forties. Vessels would arrive off the bar,
without any manifest or clearance papers whatever,
and from that vantage ground the owners of the
goods would bargain for the best figures. The
merchants soon got rich. Mr. Neale built a house
in Matamoros in which the nails cost him fifty cents
a pound. At the same time you could buy a good
mule for $10.00, a cow and calf for $1.50, and mares
for $1.50 each. When the English offered a dollar
a piece for hides, it was considered such a good
price that guns were brought into service to slaugh-
ter the animals, and beef, or jerked meat, was such
a drug in the market, that, when a customer asked
for a picayune's worth, he was handed a knife and
told to help himself. Up to 1852 there had not been
a pound of butter made in the country, and many
of the inhabitants had never seen any. In 1852
Mr. Neale took up a ranch at Santa Maria, twenty-
five miles up the river from Brownsville. During
Cortina's raid, Mr. Neale was forced to abandon a
large amount of live stock, a store filled witli valu-
able goods, and a furnished house, fleeing with his
famil3' to save their lives. A little later his son was
one of Cortina's victims in the Brownsville raid.
Mr. Neale then settled in Brownsville, and was there
at the outbreak of the war between the States.
In November, 1863, he went with his family to
Matamoros, after narrowly escaping the machina-
tions of Gen. Cabos ; remained there a short
time, sent his family back to Brownsville, and, later,
returned there himself. Since the summerof 1865,
Mr. Neale has lived in Brownsville, in peace and
quietude. He is now enjoying the confidence and
high esteem of four generations who surround him
with well merited honors.
FERDINAND HARZ,
BOERNE,
A well- to-do farmer living at Boerne, Kendall
County, Texas, came to America in December,
1852, landing at Galveston, January 1st, 1853,
accompanied by a friend, Otto Frederich ; went
from Galveston to New Braunfels via Indianola,
spent two months at New Braunfels and one year
in San Antonio, where he worked at gardening and
then, in 1854-6, served as wagon-master from Port
Lavaca to El Paso, making occasional trips into the
mining districts of Arizona. In 1861-4 he served
the Confederacy as a ranger on the Texas frontier
under Col. Jones. He was married ,1861, to Miss
Mary Beyer, of Bexar County. They have three
children: Clara, now Mrs. Henry Clemmens;
Bertha, now Mrs Adolph Weyrick, of Boerne, and
Adolph, who married Miss Ida Phillip, of Boerne.
Mr. Harz was born October 22, 1824, in Saxony.
Mrs. Harz' father, Antone Beyer, a German by
birth, came to America in 1844 from Bohemia,
where he owned a woolen factory. He devoted his
attention to farming after coming to America.
Mrs. Harz was born in Bohemia, February 5, 1844,
and was two and one-half years of age when her
family reached this country.
INDIAN }VARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
601
JOHN YORK.
This gallant pioneer, whose name was long fa-
miliar in every cabin in tlie land, was an early set-
tler and ever ready to meet a public enemy, whether
Indian or Mexican. He was, physically, a man of
portly and commanding presence, a pure, blue-
eyed blonde, with a native suavity and dignity
deemed by book worms and cloistered scholars un-
attainable attributes to men of cabin and forest
life — a complacent assumption disproven by many
of the early and bnckskin-attired defenders of in-
fant Texas.
Capt. York was one of two brothers (Allison
York being the other), besides several sisters,
who first settled on the Lavaca and afterwards
west of the Brazos in Austin County. He partici-
pated in numerous expeditions against the Indians
and always exhibited the ability to lead. In com-
mand of a company in the citizen army before
Bexar in 1835 he and all his men volunteered to
follow the intrepid Milam in storming that strongly
fortified place, defended by Gen. Cos and about
1,.500 Mexicans. The contest lasted from the 5th
to the lOtli of December, though Milam fell on the
8th, and terminated in the capitulation of Cos to
his tliree hundred assailants. No royal insignia of
merit or valor bestowed ever conferred greater
honor on a body of men than was won by the citi-
zen heroes who triumphed at Bexar, and none of
that gallant band exhibited more determined cour-
age than Capt. John York.
In 1846 he removed to the Colleto creek, in De-
Witt, where the pretty village of Yorktown per-
petuates his name.
His death, in command of a company west of
the San Antonio river, in 1848, in a contest with
ambushed Indians, is elsewhere narrated.
JAMES H. CALLAHAN'S FIGHT IN MEXICO.
This modest but gallant man was a volunteer
from Georgia and one of those who escaped slaugh-
ter in the Fannin massacre in March, 1836. He
long lived at the exposed frontier village of Seguin
and from 1838 to 1855 was in most of the expedi-
tions from that section against both Indians and
Mexicans, frequently serving as commander of a
company or detachment. In March, 1842, he com-
manded a company in the retreat from iSan Antonio
before the Mexican column of Vasquez, the writer
of this being a subordinate officer under him. He
also commanded a company in the battle of Salado,
September 18th, 1842.
As senior officer of three small volunteer com-
panies, in 1855 he pursued a party of Lipan and
Kickapoo Indians across the Rio Grande to their
chief encampment near San Fernando, twenty-
seven miles inside of Mexico and there had a
bloody fight. He was soon confronted by over-
whelming odds, including large numbers of Mexi-
can outlaws, and was compelled to retreat, but in
doing so displayed such admirable tact and courage
as to not only preserve the utmost coolness among
his followers, but to repulse the frequent attacks of
his pursuers. His wounded, including little B.
Eustace Benton, whose brains were oozing through
a bullet-hole in his eye, were successfully brought
away. This heroic youth, now of Pine Bluff,
Ark., was carried for that long dista^ice by Capt.
Wm. A. Pitts, of Austin, who placed the wounded
and unconscious boy in his saddle and rode behind
him on the same horse, tenderly holding his little
friend in his arms. This scene with bullets whiz-
zing from a relentless foe, and the father (Col. Nat.
Benton) wrought almost into frenzy by what he
considered the death wound of his only child,
involuntarily recalls the legend of Damon and
Pythias. Another youth, Willis, the son of the
Hon. William E. Jones, wag left dead on the field.
The enemy expected to greatly cripple Callahan's
force while recrossing the Rio Grande at Eagle
Pass, but in this they were disappointed by the
602
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
timely action of the United States commander,
Capt. Burbank, of Fort Duncan, on tiie Texas
bank, who turned his guns so as to rake the west-
ern bank and by this ocular demonstration said to
the pursuers: "If you attack my countrymen
while the}' are crossing the river, I shall pour shot
and shell into your ranks." The admonition had
the desired effect and unquestionably saved many
lives. It won the heart of Texas to that gallant
officer, who hazarded his commission in the cause
of humanity, as did his second in command, Capt.
John G. Walker, afterwards a Confederate Major-
General.
Capt. Cillahan about this time settled on the Rio
Blanco, in Hays County, and soon afterwards fell
a victim to assassination, regretted by all who
knew his worth and his services to the country. It
was the privilege of the writer, joyfully exercised
in the Legislature of 1857-8, to name the county
of Callahan as a tribute to bis memory.
MRS. ANGELINA BELLE EBERLY,
To dwell on the characters of the early pioneers
and portray their courage and virtue has ever been
a sad pleasure to the author, the more so because of
the oft-repeated and unpardonable falsehood that
Texas was originally settled by refugees from jus-
tice, and outlaws from the United States — a more
infamous slander than which never fell from human
lips or pen. In the plenitude of His mercy the
God of our fathers and our God never allotted to
the wilderness of any country, as its pioneers, a
grander or purer-hearted people than those who
first settled the colonies of Austin, DeWitt, Robert-
son, De Leon, Powers and Hewitson and MoMuUen
and McGloin in Texas. They were neither outlaws
nor refugees from justice, but fathers and mothers
who came here, under the enticing colonial laws of
Mexico, in search of lands so munificently tendered
that they hoped to be able to give to. each son and
daughter, as he or she married, a landed home of
his or her own, rather than to have them become
tenants to some rich landholders, as in the older
States and in all old countries. To even do this
required a courage, morally and physically, worthy
of the highest commendation, for this country was
then a vast wilderness in the possession of roving
bands of treacherous, bloodthirsty and hostile sav-
ages. There was no field for robbers, for there was
nothing to rob. There was no field for murderers,
for love and mutual affection and dependence per-
vaded every household. There were no drunken rows,
for whisky was unknown in the great bulk of the
country. Peace, harmony, mutual dependence and
mutual regard pervaded every cabin from the Trin-
ity to the San Antonio. The only murder ever
committed for robbery in colonial Texas, from 1821
to the Republic in 1839, was by one stranger upon
another — by the son of an ex-Governor of Ken-
tucky. The murderer was arrested, tried, and
sentenced to be hung, but died in prison before the
day of execution. Can the world surpass such
facts in the settlement of any wilderness country?
But in the comparison, remember that Texas was a
foreign and a wilderness country, settled by for-
eigners, born to the use of the pistol and rifle, and
then the comparison more distinctly stands forth in
vindication of the early pioneers of Texas. No
man who has lived fifty or sixty years in Texas can
make the comparison to-day of the " then " and the
" now " without a sense of pain. I speak for my
fellow-men and women, as one who has seen, has
been a part of and lived through both eras of our
civilization.
It is a solemn and indisputable fact that among
the earliest pioneers of Texas there was an extraor-
dinary per cent of the purest, most refined and lov-
able women, and in this and succeeding chapters I
desire to speak of a few of them as fair representa-
tives of the class to which they belonged.
The first to be mentioned was Angelina Belle
Peyton, born in Tennessee, the daughter of an early
Virginia surveyor located in that then new State,
and a sister of the long -noted Bailie Peyton. She
married her cousin, Jonathan C. Peyton, and as a
young bride landed at the mouth of the Colorado,
on Matagorda Bay, in one of the first schooner-
loads of immigrants (both arriving at the same time)
in February, 1822.
This young couple, in due time, settled at the
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
603
new towa of San Felipe, on the Brazos. Two chil-
dren were born to them — Alexander G. Peyton
and Mag, who became a pet child of Travis, Bowie,
the Wharton brothers, the Jack brothers, Lesas-
sure, Stephen F. Austin, R. M. Williamson, and all
the prominent men of that day. She was a beauti-
ful child. Mr. Peyton died before the revolution,
leaving these two little children. Mrs. Peyton,
with a few household servants, thrown upon her
own resources, opened a hotel in San Felipe, wh'ch
became the headquarters of the most distinguished
men of Texas. When the revolution broke out in
1835, and San Felipe was the virtual capital of the
country, she was thus occupied, and was known
throughout Texas, not only as a devoted patriot,
but as one of the handsomest and most queenly
women ever born in the valley of the Mississippi.
In his celebrated and only speech before the coun-
cil, in December, 1835 (of which an account has
been elsewhere given), Col. James Bowie, while
appealing for active service and justice, said: —
" My attendants are encamped under a tree, my
horses are shivering on the prairie as the sleet falls,
and I am a guest on the bounty of that grandest of
American women in this country, Mrs. Angelina B.
Peyton."
At the close of the revolution Mrs. Peyton mar-
ried Capt. Jacob Eberly, who was in the ranging
service, and when Austin was founded in the
autumn of 1839, she built, opened and kept the
Eberly house in that place. In the dismal periods
of 1843, connected with what is historically known
as the Archive war, her son, Alexander G. Peyton,
was murdered in the streets of Austin. Capt.
Eberly died not far from the same time and this
early pioneer mother found herself again alone,
with only little Ma^, the early pet of San Felipe,
left to her. The virtual desolation of Austin from
1842 to 1844 swept away her available property
values. So about 1848, with her only remaining tie
to earth, little Mag, she removed to Matagorda
Bay — first to Lavaca and then to Indianola. Mag
married a noble young lawyer and ex-soldier in
Ben McCuUoch's company in the Mexican War,
named James T. Lytle. In October, 1850, she
gave birth to a son, Peyton Bell Lytle, and died,
leaving the little innocent but a few days old. This
child's history would furnish material for a thrill-
ing novel, in which the name of the Hon. Fletcher
S. Stockdale (his secondary father) would be hon-
ored among the pure and just. But I cannot dwell
upon those delicate and heart-stirring facts. Time
passed. Mrs. Eberly visited Lexington, Ky., and
was clasped by the hand of Henry Clay, as one of
the historic and lovable women of the Southwest,
and the sister of his life-long friends. Bailie, Holmes
and William R. Peyton.
A little later this queenly daughter of Tennessee
and Texas died. Despite her sorrows, she left a
handsome and landed estate, and her memory was
revered by Houston, Burnet, Lamar, Jones, Burle-
son, Bee, Sherman and all the then prominent
survivors of the Texas revolutionary and ante-
revolutionary days of Texas.
RANDALL JONES.
Among the very earliest defenders of Texas
was Capt. Randall Jones, who was born in
Columbus, Ga., on the 19th of August, 1786.
In 1810 he removed to Wilkinson County, Miss.
In 1812 he became a Captain of United States
Volunteers and on the 12th of November, 1813,
commanded in the celebrated "Canoe Fight,"
on the Alabama river, in which nine Creek war-
riors were killed. Pickett's history of Alabama
omits mention of Capt. Jones in this affair, award-
ing the credit to Jere Austill, Samuel Dale, Mr.
Smith and others. Many years later Dale waslionized
as the hero of the occasion, the real commander
having soon left that country and, having "no
friend at court," to guard his laurels — a fate that
has befallen numerous early heroes of Texas, whose
merits, after their death, have been overlooked and
sometimes awarded to others. In the instance re-
ferred to Capt. Jones, in command of sixty volun-
teers, marched from Fort Madison for the Alabama
river, on the 11th of November, 1813, and on the
12th fell in with and defeated two parties of Creeks,
the second being the canoe party. The facts written
in the detachment itself, from the east bank of the
€04
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Alabama, on the 25th of November, were published
in the Washington (Mississippi) Republican, on
the 23d of December, 1813. The writer said:
" Capt. Jones and his party deserve the greatest
praise and honor for the handsome manner in which
the enterprise was conducted."
In the fall of 1814, Capt. Jones visited the Sabine
river. In 1815 again he entered Texas with goods
and traded with the Indians. In 1816 he opened a
store at Nacogdoches and visited Lafitte on Galves-
ton Island to buy negroes, but whether he succeeded
or not cannot be stated. He was hospitably enter-
tained, however, and found in the famous buccaneer
a man of external polish and winning address. He
temporarily allied himself with the first scheme of
Long, in 1819, and in command of a small party
near where Washington is on the Brazos, he was
driven, along with all of Long's followers, from the
country, by Spanish troops from Mexico.
Early in 1822 he permanently settled, as an Amer-
ican colonist, on the Brazos, in Fort Bend County,
and thenceforward, till age asserted its supremacy,
was all that patriotism and good citizenship imply,
his courage and experience in Indian warfare ren-
dering him doubly useful. In September, 1824, he
commanded in a severe but unsuccessful engagement
with tbe Carancahua Indians on a creek in Brazoria
County, from which the stream has ever since been
known as "Jones' creek." In this fight fifteen
Indians were killed, and three white men, viz. :
Spencer, Singer and Bailey.
Capt. Jones reared a highly respectable family,
served in the Consultation, the first revolutionary
convention, in November, 1835, and continued to
reside on his original Brazos home till a short time
before his death. Losing his eyesight he removed
to Hodston, where he died in June, 1873.
JOHN AUSTIN.
The early death of the sterling patriot, Capt.
John Austin — dying before the revolution began in
1835 — has been the cause (as is true of a number
of other gallant and conspicuous men in the earliest
trials of Texas, who died prior to the same period),
of his name not being familiar to the people of the
present time. Yet he is justly entitled to be ranked
among the foremost and most valuable men of the
colonial period of our history and, as will be seen,
somewhat before that period was inaugurated.
John Austin was born and reared in Connecticut,
but was not of the family of Moses Austin, a native
of the same State, who, in 1821, received the first
permission ever granted under the authorities of
Spain to form an American settlement in Texas.
When quite young John Austin drifted to the
Southwest, in various ways developing nerve, intel-
ligence, love of adventure and capacity to lead. In
1819 he left New Orleans under the auspices of
Capt. Long's second expedition into Texas, then
announced as in aid of the patriot cause in the
Mexican revolution against Spain. (Long's first
expedition, a few months before, avowed the pur-
pose and actually inaugurated at Nacogdoches, on
paper, the form of an independent Republic, but
his divided force of about three hundred men was
speedily driven from the country by Spanish troops. )
This second expedition avowed a different purpose
and was joined by a number of exiled Mexican
patriots, the chief of whom was Don Felix de Tres-
palacios. The expedition rendezvoused on the
barren island of Galveston and Bolivar Point on the
mainland. Trespalacios, accompanied by the in-
trepid Kentuckian, Col. Ben. R. Milam, Col.
Christy, of New Orleans, and others, sailed down
the coast and effected a landing somewhere north
of Vera Cruz and formed a junction with patriots
in the country. Long, with only fifty-two men, by
an understanding with Trespalacios, sailed down
the coast into Matagorda Bay, thence into the bay
of Espiritu Santa and up the Guadalupe river a
few miles, where he landed and marched upon La
Bahia, now known as Goliad. John Austin was
one of his chief lieutenants. La Bahia was sur-
prised and easily captured. A few days later a
Spanish force from San Antonio appeared and hos-
tilities began, lasting two or three days, when Long
was seduced by Spanish cunning into a capitula-
tion, under the absurd pretense that his assailants
were also patriots and had been fighting under a
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
60&
misapprehension, and a promise that their arms
should be restored as soon as the alarm of the cit-
izens subsided, and that they should be treated as
brother patriots. As soon as disarmed, however,
they were harshly treated as prisoners and sent to
San Antonio and next to Monterey. Omitting de-
tails, it so happened that about this time news
spread all over Northern Mexico that the revolution
had triumphed and a new order of things had been
inaugurated in the capitol. Then Long and his
men -were released and considered as brethren.
Long, with John Austin and Maj. Byrne, was al-
lowed to proceed to the city of Mexico, where
they were hailed as friends and co-workers in the
great cause of Mexican independence. Time hur-
ries. Trespalacios, Milam and Christy had also
reached the capitol. Trespalacios was announced
as prospective Governor of Texas. Long was
basely assassinated. His countrymen there be-
lieved Trespalacios, through jealousy or some other
cause, instigated the murder. They (Milam, Aus-
tin and Christy) hastened back to their fifty friends
in Monterey and arranged a plan to wreak vengeance
on Trespalacios on his way to Texas. They were
betrayed by two of their own number and sent to
the capitol as prisoners, where they remained some
months, till late in 1822, when, through the inter-
cession of Joel R. Poinsett, Commissioner from the
United States, they were released and through
him sent from Tampico to the United States on the
sioop-of-war, '■'■John Adams." John Austin and
others were landed at Norfolk, Va., and a few pro-
ceeded from Havana to New Orleans.
In the meantime, under the inspiration of the
then deceased Moses Austin, but under the leader-
ship of his son, Stephen F. , American settlements
were beginning in Texas. Ere long John Austin
cast his lot with them, and thenceforward was a
pillar of strength to the settlements on the lower
Brazos. A man of sound mind, conservative and
courageous, he was a safe counselor and a recog-
nized leader. Yet, for several years, nothing oc-
curred to distinguish him from other intelligent and
conscientious men. He married and lived happily.
When all of Austin's colony constituted one mu-
nicipality, entitled to a first and second Alcalde, the
year 1832 marked the era — Horatio Chriesman
being first and John Austin second Alcalde, cover-
ing what now constitutes about twelve important
counties. Chriesman lived in what is now Wash-
ington County and Austin in Brazoria, San Felipe
being the seat of justice.
In the early part of 1832 began the first hostile
troubles between the Americans in Texas and the
Mexican government, inaugurated by a decree of
April 6, 1880, promulgated by that rare combina-
tion of demagoguery, political ignorance, tyranny
and stupidity, Anastasio Bustamente, self- constitu-
ted President of the Republic. That arbitrary de-
cree— the keynote to the downfall of Mexican,
power in Texas — forbade the further immigration
of Americans into Texas. Its direct effect, if tol-
erated, was to sever hundreds of husbands, then in
Texas erecting homes, from their families in the
United States, expEcting soon to follow them.
More remotely it burst into atoms the plans and
prospective intentions of vast numbers of kindred
and neighbors in the United States, represented in
their several special plans by some trusted friend
or agent already in Texas. It was a barbaroua
and senseless decree, issued in utter ignorance of
the Anglo-Saxon character. But in co-ordination
with this exsrcise of power came the establishment
of custom houses and military garrisons, utterly un-
necessary to the enforcement of the revenue laws
and designed only to "harass the people and eat up
their substance." Without going into detail, it is
enough to say that the commander at Anahuaa
(mouth of the Trinity), who, we blush to say, was
a Kentuckian by birth, but in nothing else, so out-
raged the people by his brutal and despotic acts^
that the countrj' rose almost en masse, resolved to
drive the Mexican soldiery from the country. John
Austin stood forth as a leader in that crisis. The
events belong to our general history and cannot be
detailed here. The matters at Anahuac were over-
come without serious bloodshed. But at Velasco,
at the mouth of the Brazos, a bloody battle was
fought on the 26th of June, 1832. John Austin
was the commander, supported by a company under
Capt. Henry S. Brown, co-operating with him on
the shore and an armed schooner in the river,
under Capt. William J. Russell. This force —
forty-seven each under Austin and Brown and
eighteen under Russell — fought 130 Mexicans, in
a strong earthen fort, for nine hours and compelled
them to surrender after two-thirds of their number
had been killed or wounded — the Texians losing
seven in killed and twenty-seven wounded. It was^
the first battle between the colonists of Texas and
the Mexican soldiery — a soldiery not of the Re-
publican but of the Reactionary party in Mexico.
It was a victory heroically won under the leader-
ship of John Austin, and entitles his memory to a
warm place in the heart of every child of Texas,^
now and hereafter.
Almost at the same instant in Mexico, Santa
Anna, as the champion of liberty, lose up and drove
the tyrant from power. Texas rejoiced and hailed
him as a deliverer. Still, grave questions needed
606
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
adjustment and the people of Texas earnestly de-
sired to explain their grievances to the new govern-
ment of Mexico and to ask simply to be let alone
and live in peace. To accomplish this purpose
Horatio Chriesman and John Austin, first and sec-
ond Alcaldes, called a convention of chosen dele-
gates from all the districts in Texas, to meet at San
Felipe on the 1st of October, 1832. Fifty-eight
duly elected delegates assembled. John Austin
was himself a member, and for himself and associ-
ate Alcalde called the convention to order and in a
most lucid and concise manner explained both the
reason for calling and the material objects of the
convention. Stephen F. Austin was elected presi-
dent, and Francis W. Johnson, secretary. Among
the members were William H. Wharton, Luke
Lesassier, James Kerr, Henry S. Brown, Nestor
Clay, Charles S. Taylor, Patrick C. Jack and
William R. Hensley.
The convention sat six days and formulated a
series of measures which, being followed up by the
convention of April 1, 1833, of which William H.
Wharton was president, finally led to the revolution
of 1835 and the independence of Texas. Even at
that early date the sense of the convention was taken
for and against asking that Texas be erected into a
State distinct from Goahuila. Thirty-tsix votes
were cast in favor of, and twelve against, the meas-
ure. This convention, so strangely overlooked by
historians, caused infinitely more agitation among
the Mexican officials than did that of 1833, so often
mentioned, and which sent Stephen F. Austin to
Mexico to ask for the admission of Texas as a State
of the Mexican union, resulting in his dastardly
imprisonment in that country. The result was that
by the ignorant, jealousy-inspired conduct of the
then rulers of Mexico, instead of becoming a happy,
prosperous and contented State of Mexico and a
bulwark to her people against hostile savages,
Texas, within less than three years, threw off the
Mexican yoke and became an independent Republic.
Full many high-spirited youth, in this land of ours,
have been virtually driven from home by similar
parental tyranny, some to ruin, as illustrated in the
Central American States, others to happiness and
prosperity, as in Texas, and, in a qualified sense,
Chili and Venezuela.
In all these years John Austin was a true and
wise citizen, with promise of increasing usefulness,
but a few months after this convention, in the sum-
mer of 1833, the grim messenger, stalking under
the insignia of Asiatic cholera, paused sufficiently
long in Brazoria to strike down not only him, but
D. W. Anthony, a pioneer editor, and other valued
citizens. He left a widow, but no children. The
city of Houston stands on land granted to him.
Neither county, town nor street perpetuates his
name, because appropriated to one more conspicu-
ously identified with colonial affairs. Yet, while
this is so, it seems meet and eminently just that, in
some way, the distinctive names of both Moses and
John Austin should be engraved on the map of
Texas.
William T. Austin, a younger brother of John,
came to Texas in 1830, served in the armies of
1835-6, and died in Galveston in 187^. A third
brother, named Willis Austin, never in Texas, in
1870 resided in Norwich, Conn.
J. E. MOORE,
TEMPLE.
Jonathan Ewing Moore, one of the founders of
Temple, has been a resident of Bell County since
1859, and of the Lone Star State for more than
four decades. He was born in Marion County,
Ala., in 1840, and is a son of Jesse W. and Dezina
(Fitzgerald) Moore, natives of South Carolina and
Alabama respectively. Jesse W. Moore removed
to Texas in 1851, arriving in Bastrop County on the
first day of that year. He purchased land on which
he made his home until 1859, and then moved to
Bell County and settled on Elm creek. There he
opened up a large tract of land with his brother,
James W. His death occurred in 1864, and that
of his wife in 1853. Both were worthy members
of the Baptist Church. After the death of his first
wife, Mr. Moore married a second time, and his
widow now resides on the old homestead in Bell
County.
J. E. Moore acquired an education in the com-
mon schools of Bastrop County. He came to Bell
County with his father, and engaged in farming and
stock-raising. In 1871 he bought a tract of 350
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
607
acres of land, to which he added other tracts, lying
on the wild prairie, and opened a fine farm. Ten
years later the Santa Fe Railroad was built through
the section and the company bought 200 acres of
Mr, Moore's farm for a town site,. The place was
named Temple in honor of B. M. Temple, Chief
Engineer of the Santa Fe Road. Mr. Moore at
once laid out a portion of his remaining land in
town lots, and entered into the real estate business.
He made six individual additions to the place,
called Moore's Addition, Moore's Park Addition,
Moore's Railroad Addition, Moore's Knight Addi-
tion, Moore's Hargrove Addition and Moore's
Crawford Addition. He, also, in copartnership
with others laid out the Jones & Moore and Moore
& Cole Additions. He is also a director of Free-
man Heights Addition. Besides attending to his
large real estate interests, he has assisted in form-
ing some of the most important corporations doing
business in the town. He aided in the organization
of the Compress, Oil Mills and Water Works com-
panies, is a stockholder in the Temple Building
and Loan Association and the Temple National
Bank, is a director in the Temple City Company,
is president of the Temple Hotel Company, and
has an interest in the plow factory. He owns some
valuable real estate in Temple and elsewhere, and
his familiarity with the soil, climate and resources
of Texas is equaled by that of few men in the State.
In 1868 Mr. Moore married Miss Martha V. Free-
man, daughter of John T. Freeman, a native of
Georgia, who came to Texas in 1866. Six children
have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Moore : Dura
Estelle, Jodie E., Jesse Freeman, Mary E., Willie,
and Thomas Edgar, the latter of whom died at two
years of age. The family are members of the
Baptist Church. Mr. Moore is a Knight Templar
and is a member of the Knights of Honor, the
Knights of Pythias, the A. O. U. W., the United
Friends of Temperance and the Grange.
HENRY J. HAMILTON, M. D.,
LAREDO.
Dr. H. J. Hamilton, of Laredo, Texas, was born
in 1864, in Bairie, Canada. The present Countess
of Dufferin and Lord Claud Hamilton of Scotland
are cousins of the Doctor's grandfather, Alexander
Hamilton, Esq., one of the York pioneers and
founders of Toronto, Canada. Dr. Hamilton re-
ceived his preparatory education at Barrie High
School, and graduated at Hamilton Collegiate
Institute in 1880, and then came to Texas, his
parents having moved to this State in 1874. In
1883 he commenced the study of medicine under
Dr. A. E. Spohn, at Corpus ChristI, and graduated
at Louisville, Ky., in 1888, receiving the Regent and
three other gold medals. For three years thereafter
he practiced his profession in Mexico, spent one
winter in New York, and another in Philadelphia,
during which time he still further perfected his
knowledge of the science of medicine and surgery,
and, returning to Texas, associated himself with
Dr. Spohn, at Corpus Christi, where they estab-
lished Bay View Infirmary, for the treatment of
diseases of women. In December, 1893, he moved
to Laredo, and a year later, in that city, married a
daughter of Capt. and Mrs. C. Benavldes. Dr.
Hamilton is United States Pension Examining Sur-
geon for the Laredo District, has recently been
elected a member of the Texas Academy of Science,
and Is one of the most popular citizens of the
section in which he lives.
608
INDIAN WARS AND I'lONEEllS OF TEXAS.
THE POET RANCHMAN,
WILLIAM LAWRENCE CHITTENDEN,
JONES COUNTY.
Larry Chittenden, the "Poet Ranehmaa of
Texas," was born in 1862, in Montclair, N: J., tlie
beautiful suberb of New York. Fond of athletic
sports, hunting, swimming and fishing, when a boy,
he became famous before attaining manhood as a
rider, swimmer and diver, and in the summer of
1891, distinguished himself at Spring Lake Beach,
N. J., by bis daring rescue of two young women
from drowning in the surf, at the risk of his life.
several years in Texas as a salesman for that popu-
lar New York house, and in 1886 moved to this
State and engaged in ranching with his uncle, Mr.
S. B. Chittenden, of Brooklyn, near Anson, in
Jones County, where, as a bachelor, he now resides.
As to the Chittendens, the family has an un-
broken record in this country for thrift and culture,
extending as far back as 1639, when Maj. William
Chittenden settled and established the family at
LARRY CHITTENDEN.
He also early showed an inclination for study and
literature, acquired a good education, possessed
himself of a wide knowledge of the English classics
and laid the foundation, undesignedly at the time,
for the career upon which he has entered in the
realm of poesy. The man whose claim to recogni-
tion is based solely upon ancestry finds a cold wel-
come awaiting him in Texas, but, when personal
merit is added, and the man is admirable and lov-
ing in himself, the people are quick to admire and
to admit him to their heart of hearts.
When very young he entered the wholesale dry
goods business of his father and uncle, and later
withTefft, Weller & Co., in New York, traveled
Guilford, Conn., on the estate now known as
Mapleside, which is still owned by his descendants.
"It was from this hardy old pioneer ancestor,"
says Mr. Clarence Ousley, of Galveston, in The
Illustrated American, " that the poet received his
first name, his second coming from his maternal
grandmother, who belonged to the distinguished
Lawrence family. His maternal grandfather was
Maj.- Daniel Gano, a gentleman of the old school
noted in the South and West for his great learning,
literary talents and courtly manners. Maj. Gano
was himself a poet, and a member of the famous
Kentucky pioneer family of that name. His daugh-
ter, Mrs. Heniietta Gano Chittenden, is the poet's
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
609
mother, and some one has aptly said that Chitten-
den is a rare combination of Northern force and
Southern Are — the Puritan and the Cavalier."
Mr. F. S. Brittain in the Abilene, Texas, Reporter,
thus describes his personal appearance : —
" When the people who do not know Chittenden
see a slight, well-built, active, youngish man, with
a well-shaped head of wavy, glossy black hair, with
black mustache, a face browned by out-of-door life,
with a nose that seems as sensitively full of life as
that of a well-bred terrier, and a mouth both strong
and sensitive, the whole lit up by a pair of change-
able eyes, now gray, now blue, ever moving and full
of interest ; if the man is dressed in fine raiment
which does not appear fine, and which half pro-
claims the ranchman, half the man of the world,
with a dash of the yachtsman and a soupcon of
Bohemianism — that's Larry, God bless him."
Mr. Gr. Herbert Brown, in writing about our poet
in the Galveston News, says of him: —
" The manner of man he is is best made known by
the statement that ten minutes after an introduc-
tion you are calling him ' Larry.' ' Mr. Chitten-
den' seems distant and foreign. His is a warm,
jovial, sympathetic nature — you want to sit down in
a big easy chair and talk with him between whiffs
of smoke ; you forget about dollars and financial
planks and politics and go off into the sweet realms
of fancy. ' The Poet Eanchman of Texas ' — a Bos-
ton man would at once picture him as a strapping
big fellow, with flannel shirt open at a hairy throat,
big, drooping mustache, sombrero, boots, belt, pis-
tols, knives — the typical Texas ranchman of the
comic papers and melodrama. Whatever Larry
may wear on his ranch he doesn't make up anj^ such
patent medicinal fakir fashion in town. He wears
the clothes of a citizen of the world, wears them i
such a manner that you don't notice them at all.
His face is bronzed by the sun, but it is neither
burned nor swarthy. And he has a charm of man-
ner, an ease of address that captivates men and
women alike." He has traveled over a greater part
of the United States and much of Europe, as well,
with an eye ever alert to detect, a soul ever ready
to absorb, and an imagination ever ready to drape
in the robes of poetic fancy the majesty and beauty
and witchery of all that the treasuries of art and
nature disclose to the observant and appreciative
traveler.
His first efforts in the field of letters were con-
fined to literary and reportorial work for New York
newspapers and magazines. His first poems ap-
peared in the New York Mail and Express and the
Galveston-Dallas (Texas) Daily News. The broad
prairies, the mountains, the pure, fresh air, the
39
songs of the birds and the wild, free life of his
Western home have furnished the immediate inspir-
ation for " Eanch Verses," published by G. P. Put-
nam's Sons, New York, which have now run through
four editions and which have met with a reception
accorded to the verses of few American poets in the
latter part of the nineteenth century.
This is what some of the leading papers say of
" Ranch Verses:" —
"Chittenden's poems have a swing about them
which is very attractive. He gives us Flemish pic-
tures of Texas life, the realism of which is never
vulgar and the habit of which is rich, rare and
racy." — Chicago Post.
" A volume of poems which will fully entertain
lovers of song. It is in great variety and capitally
rendered. Mr. Chittenden is a born poet." —
Chicago Inter- Ocean.
" ' Ranch Verses' are tuneful, manly in sentiment
and musical in flow — full of spirit and vivacity." —
London Saturday Review.
" Curious and entertaining. A volume that is
sure to become a favorite." — Glasgow, Scotland,
Herald.
" There is originality and spontaneity of inspira-
tion in ' Ranch Verses.' " — London Times.
"Have a catching cheerfulness. They are all
bright, fluent and readable." — Edinburgh Scotch-
man.
"The ballads and character sketches have the
genuine ring. They are worthy of a place beside
those of Riley, Field, Harte and Miller." —
Review of Reviews.
" Will win from readers old and young unstinted
praise and warm eulogy. The bold intellect of the
author, tempered by culture and refinement, has
produced a volume that must bring him fame." —
Public Opinion.
" One of the most interesting and readable books
of poetry ever published."^ ^. T. Press.
" Contains most genial information about Texas
and the cowboys. One must really attach value to
this hook." — N. Y. Evening Post.
" A most charming book of poetry. Mr. Chit-
tenden is a genuine poet." — Boston Traveller.
"Bright and entertaining from cover to cover.
A book that one may open at random and be sure
to find something interesting and entertaining." —
American Bookseller. ■
" Texas has a poet of whom she may well feel
proud. The muses were dispensing their best gifts
when they threw their spell on ' Larry ' Chitten-
den."— Peck's Sun.
These selections of press notices are only a few
of the many thousands that have been printed in
610
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
praise of "Ranch Verses " in our own country and
Great Britain.
Ttie following extracts from his poems will give
the reader some idea of the merits and charm of his
verse: —
FROM " THE cowboys' CHKISTMAS BALL."
The leader was a feller that came from Swenson's Ranch,
They called him " Windy Billy," from "little Deadman's
Branch."
His rig was " kinder keeiless," big spurs and high-heeled
boots;
He had the reputation that comes when " fellers shoots."
His voice was like a bugle upon the mountain's height;
His feet were animated, an' a mighty moviri' sight,
When he commenced to holler, "Neow fellers, stake yer
pen!
" Lock horns ter all them heifers, an' russel 'em like men.
" Salootyer lovely critters; neow swing an' let'em go,
"Climb the grape vine 'round 'em — all hands do-ce-do!
"You Mavericks, jine the round-up — Jest skip her
waterfall,"
Huh! hit wuz gettin' active, " The Cowboys" Christmas
Ball!"
The boys were tolerable skittish, the ladies powerful
neat,
That old bass viol's music jms« got there with both feet!
That wailin', frisky fiddle, I never shall forget;
And Windy kept a singin' — I think I here Mm yet —
*' O Xes, chase your squirrels, an' cut 'em to one side,
" Spur Treadwell to the centre, with Cross P Charley's
bride,
" Doc. Hollis down the middle, an' twine the ladies'
chain,
-" Varn Andrews pen the fillies in big T Diamond's train.
" All pull yer freight tergether, neow swallow fork an'
change
" ' Big Boston' lead the trail-herd, through little Pitch-
fork's range
Purr 'round yer gentle pussies neow rope 'em! Balance
all! "
Huh! hit wuz getting active — " The Cowboys' Christ-
mas Ball!"
The dust rlz fast an' furious, we all just galloped 'round.
Till the scenery got so giddy, that Z Bar Dick was
downed.
We buckled to our partners, an' told 'em to hold on,
Then shook our hoofs like lightning, until the early
dawn.
Don't tell me 'bout cotillons, or germans. No sir 'ee!
That whirl at Anson city just takes the cake with me.
I'm sick of lazy shufflin's, of them I've had my fill,
Give me a frontier break-down, backed up by Windy
Bill.
McAllister ain't nowhar! when Windy leads the show,
I've seen 'em both in harness, and so I sorter know —
■Oh, Bill, I sha'n't forget yer, and I'll oftentimes recall.
That lively gaited sworray — "The Cowboys' Christmas
Ball."
— {From " Sanch yerses.'"'j
HIDDEN.
Afar on the pathless prairies
The rarest of flowers abound ;
And in the dark caves of the valleys
There is wealth that will never be found;
So there are sweet songs in the silence
That never will melt into sound.
The twilight illumines her banners
With colors no artist can teach;
And aloft in the sky there are sermons
Too mighty for mortals to preach ;
So life has Its lovely ideals
Too lofty for language to reach.
Afar on the sea there's a music
That the shore never knows in its rest;
And in the green depths of the forest
There are choirs that carol unblest;
So, deep in the heart, there's a music
And a cadence that's never expressed.
Neptune's steeds.
Hark to the wild nor'easter!
That long, long booming roar.
When the storm king breathes his thunder
Along the shuddering shore.
The shivering air re-echoes
The ocean's weird refrain,
For the wild white steeds of Neptune
Are coming home again.
No hand nor voice can check them,
These stern steeds of the sea,
They were not born for bondage.
They are forever free.
With arched crests proudly waving.
Too strong for human rein,
The wild white steeds of Neptune
Are coming home again.
With rolling emerald chariots
They charge the stalwart strand,
They gallop o'er the ledges
And leap along the land;
With deep chests breathing thunder
Across the quivering plain.
The wild white steeds of Neptuae
Are coming home again.
Not with the trill of bugles,
Bat roar of muffled drums.
And shrouded sea weed banners.
That mighty army comes.
The harbor bars are moaning
A wail of death and pain,
For the wild white steeds of Neptune
Are coming home again.
Well may the sailor women
Look out to scan the lee,
And long for absent lovers.
Their lovers on the sea.
Well may the harbored seamen
Neglect the sails and seine.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
611
When the wild white steeds of Neptune
Are coming home again.
How sad their mournful neighing,
That wailing, haunting sound;
It is the song of sorrow,
A dirge for dead men drowned.
Though we must all go seaward,
Though our watchers wait in vain.
The wild white steeds of Neptune,
Will homeward come again.
TKXAS TYPES — THE SHERIFF.
He's a quiet, easy fellow, with his pants tucked in his
boots,
And he wears a big revolver, which he seldom ever
shoots ;
He^has served his time as ranger on the reckless Rio
Grande,
And he has the reputation for great marksmanship and
sand;
He.has strung up several horse thieves in the rustler days
gone by,
And although he seems so pleasant there's a devil in his
eye.
When he goes to take a prisoner he calls him by his
name,
In that confidential manner that suggests the bunco
game;
If the culprit is not willing, takes exception to the plan.
Our sheriff gets the drop, sir, and he likewise- gets his
man;
Oh, it's " powerful persuadin'," is a pistol 'neath your
nose,
"Hands up, you've got to go, Sam," and Sam he ups and
goes.
In the fall at " county 'lections " when candidates appear.
The sheriff's awful friendly, for he loves to " 'lectioneer ; "
Then he takes the honest granger and ye stockman by
the hand.
And he augers them for votes, sir, in a manner smooth
and bland;
He is generous, brave and courtly, but a dangerous man
to sass.
^or his manner is suggestive of the sign — " Keep off
the grass."
His poems descriptive of ranch life have given
him his distinctive fame, but his marine verses are
equally good, if not superior. Frank Doremus,
his friend, and veteran editor of the Dallas News,
in writing of him, says: —
"Our poet is also a singer. For 'tis under the
inspiration of the moon and stars, by the dying
embers of the camp fire in the lonely hours on the
trail, that Larry has most endeared himself to his
Texas cowboy friends. With one accord they
listen to his sweet, musical tenor voice. His songs
are original verses modestly sung in minor-key
melodies of his own composition. Some are gay
and rollicking, but most of them are sad. ' Gwine
Back to Texas' and 'The Cowboy's Dream,' and
' Remembrance,' — the last 'dedicated to an unknown
divinity,' — are the most popular and best known."
It would be diflScult to find in the language a
poem capable of provoking a broader smile than
"Brer Brown's Collection," lines more instinct with
the joy of life and motion than the "Ranchman's
Ride" or the "Round-up," anything containing a
finer vein of melancholy than the "Dying Scout,"
anything more delightfully Western than " The
Majah Green," "Maverick Bill," the "Pai:son
Pickax Gray," and " Texas Types," or anything
breathing a more cheerful or manly spirit than
"The Cynic and the Poet," "Never Despair,"
and similar poems in " Ranch Verses " — the book
is full of the choicest pabulum suited to almost any
unvitiated taste.
The Chittenden ranch comprises 10,000 acres of
rich land, 200 acres of which are in a high state of
cultivation, is all under fence, and is stocked with
a large herd of high-grade Polled' Angus, Here-
ford and native cattle, and something like 200 head
of horses and mules. The ranch house is a com-
fortable frame structure, with a broad gallery, or
porch, running along the entire front of it, and on
the roof of the gallery is a neat little sign, " Chit-
tenden Ranch," surmounted by the head of a
buffalo. ■ The house sits back from the yard fience,
and in front of it are a few nicely kept beds of
flowers. From the front of the house you have a
view of the east end of the pasture and the rich
valley farm. From the window, near the poet's
writing desk, there is a fine view of the Skinout
Mountains, on the west. His life at the ranch is
an ideal one. His den is a cosy little southeast
room, simply, but nicely, furnished. The walls are
covered with rare pictures and photographs of
admiring friends from all parts of the world. His
library contains over 900 volumes of carefully
selected books by the best writers. It is here that
he sits and writes those verses which are read and
praised throughout the civilized world.
The Poet Ranchman possesses a versatility of
genius that gives him a wide range of power. His
love sonnets (all poets have a weakness for lustrous
eyes and crinoline) are true love sonnets, his humor
is fresh and true, his pathos is sweet and unaffected,
and his descriptions of his life in his ranch house
by the blazing winter fire are so vivid that, with
slight effort, we can see "Larry, God bless him,"
sitting in his easy chair penning his lines and ever
and anon raising his head to listen to the distant,
lonely hoot of the owl, or the nearer and lonelier
howl of the coyote, pausing for a moment in the
moonlight outside the cabin door.
612
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JAMES H. DURST,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
Born at Nacogdoches, Texas, about the year 1818,
and is said to have been the first white child born
in Eastern Texas. He grew up in his native county
and was an intimate friend of Gen. Sam Houston,
Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, and other leading patriots
of his time. He was an aggressive Indian fighter,
and did much to help subdue the Cherokee Indians,
who for a time terrorized that section of the coun-
try. He lived at San Augustine, Texas, for sev-
eral years, and about the close of the Mexican "War
located at Rio Grande City, on the Rio Grande
frontier, where he engaged in merchandising for
two years and became a prominent and influential
citizen of Starr County. In the year 1852 he oc-
cupied a seat in the Texas State Senate and took
an active part in shaping legislation.
Later he was appointed to and most accept-
ably filled the position of Collector of Customs
of the District of Brazos Santiago until the year
1857.
He married Miss Mary Josephine Atwood in
1854 at Austin, at the home of Maj. James H.
Raymond. She was a daughter of William At-
wood, a Texas pioneer, who resided near Manor, in
Travis County, engaged in stock-raising. The At-
wcods were people of prominence, members of an
old and aristocratic family. Mr. Atwood married
MaryNealy, a relative of Gen. Nealy, of Confeder-
ate fame. In 1852 Maj. Durst purchased twenty-
one leagues of the Barreta land grant, located in
Cameron County, and granted to Francisco Balli,
of Reynosa, in 1804, by the King of Spain.
Fourteen leagues of this grant belonged to Maj.
Durst at the time of his death, in 1858, and were
left by will to his wife and three children.
James W. Durst, of Corpus Christi, was born
March 28, 1857, at Brownsville, Texas, which was
for a few years the home of the family, and was
only one year old when his father died.
Under the guidance of his widowed mother he
was given careful moral training and a good Eng-
lish education, which was completed at Roanoke
College, Roanoke, Virginia. He then accepted a
position as railroad accountant, remained so em-
ployed until 1882, and then returned to Texas, re-
joined his mother and lived for a time with her at
Austin. In 1883 he moved to his present ranch in
Cameron County. The estate has been partitioned
among the heirs. Mr. Durst owns a large tract of
land, embracing about thirty thousand acres, front-
ing on the Laguna Madre, improved and stocked
with cattle.
ROBERT J. SLEDGE,
KYLE.
Col. Robert J. Sledge, one of the best known
stock-raisers and planters in the State of Texas and
a man who has contributed much to the advance-
ment of the portion of the State in which he resides,
was born in Warren County, N. C, on the 31st of
July, 1840, and was educated at the celebrated
private school of Ebenezer Crocker, at Whitis
Creek Spring, near Nashville, Tenn. His parents
were Robert and Frances Sledge. His mother's
maiden name was Miss Frances O'Briwn. She was
a granddaughter of the O'Briwn who led the Irish
rebellion of 1798.
Col. Sledge came to Texas in 1865 and located at
Chappel Hill, and for two years was employed on
the H. & T. C. Railroad and engaged in farming
near that point. He soon perceived that he could
enlarge the scope of his operations by resigning this
position and moving further into the interior. This
he did and in 1875 purchased 10,000 acres in Hays
County, on which he established a ranch, whose
area he has since somewhat curtailed. It is known
as Pecan Spring Ranch. He has devoted his atten-
tion principally to raising horses and mules on this
property. He ako owns herds of fine imported
cattle.
During the war between the States he served in
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
613
the Confederate army as a soldier under Generals
Polk and Cheatham.
On the 25th of July, 1877; he married a daughter
of Col. Terrell Jackson, of Washington County,
Texas. For more than ten years he has been the
Texas representative in the Farmers' National Con-
gress, a body composed of the wealthiest and most
intelligent farmers living in the various sections of
the Union. He is also a member of the Board of
the National and State Alliance and contributed a
majority of the stock necessary for the establish-
ment of the Economic Publishing Company, of
Washington, D. C. He is president of the com-
pany. He was also one of the three members who
composed the National Cotton Committee and was
one of the organizers and promoters of the New
Orleans Exposition. A man of wide and varied
information, a graceful and pleasing conversation-
alist, and an excellent public speaker, he has
wielded a powerful influence in every assemblage of
which he has been a member. Conversant with the
pursuit which he has chosen for his life work, he
has no desire for political preferment. He is a fine
type of the elegant country gentleman and is a man
thoroughly representative of the section in which
he resides."
SANTOS BENAVIDES,
LAREDO.
It is doubtful if there is a city of its size in Texas
that has counted, in time past, in its citizenship, a
larger number of worthy pioneers and successful
men than the city of Laredo. As a class they were
of the true pioneer type and suited in every way to
frontier life. Col. Santos Benavides, an eminent
soldier and citizen, was one of this class and a fit-
ting representative of an old and prominent family.
His father, Jose Maria Benavides, was a Captain
in the Mexican army and came to Laredo in com-
mand of his company. Here he met and married
Dona Marguerita Ramon, a granddaughter of Don
Tom as Sanchez, the founder of Laredo. By this
marriage he had two sons, Refugio, a resident of
Laredo, and Santos, the subject of this memoir.
He suffered the loss of his first wife and at a later
period married Dona Tomasa Cameras, who bore
him four children: Eulelaio, Christobal, Juliana de
Lyendicker and Francisca de Farias.
The father died in the year 1846 in Laredo.
Santos Benavides grew up with other members of
the family in Laredo, attended schools at home and
abroad and acquired a thorough knowledge of
stock-raising in all of its details. He also served
as salesman in a store in Laredo, where he acquired
a technical knowledge of merchandising. As a
young man he possessed a somewhat restless and
altogether daring and fearless nature. Among his
first military services he raised a company of State
troops for the protection of the Southwestern fron-
tier against marauding Lidians. At the beginning
of the great war between the States, the State
troops were reorganized and his regiment was
mustered into the Confederate States' service under
Col. Duff, and he was advanced to the rank of
Major, his brother, Christobal Benavides, assuming
command of his company. As the organization of
the Confederate army progressed Maj. Benavides
was promoted to the rank of Colonel, and from
that time on his regiment was known in military
circles as Benavides' Regiment. He served at the
head of his command until the close of the war,
mainly on the Rio Grande frontier, holding in check
the Indians from the north and repelling marauding
Mexicans from across the river. His campaigns
were at times characterized by thrilling incidents,
making, as he did, many aggressive raids and often
pursuing lawless Mexicans into their own country.
The Confederate army contained no braver or more
loyal and efficient officer than Col. Benavides,
and, as a graceful and just acknowledgment of his
almost invaluable services to his State and the Con-
federate cause, the Texas Legislature in 1864 in
joint session passed the following resolution of
thanks: —
"Be it resolved by the Legislature of the State
of Texas, that whereas in the autumn of the past
year, our enemy was invading the State from many
directions and was exultant in the prospect of
success by overpowering armies, by insidious
policies, by aid of traitors in our midst, by deser-
tions from our army and by fears of the weak in
faith, and at times which tried men's souls, when
unwavering patriotism and true courage were more
614
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
than ever to be appreciated, the people of this
State witnessed with admiration the attitude of
Col. Santos Benavides and his handful of men
who dared to dispute and did successfully main-
tain the possession of an extensive tract of our
frontier.
" 2d. That the thanljs of this people are due and
are hereby tendered to Col. Santos Benavides and
the officers and men under his command for their
steadfast opposition to the enemy in the field and
the zeal they have shown in the service of their
country.
" 3d. That the Governor of this State be requested
to transmit a copy of these resolutions to Col.
Benavides and that they be read to his regiment on
dress parade.
" Approved May 24th, 1864.
" P. MUEKAH,
" Governor.
" M. D. K. Taylor,
" Speaker of the House of Representatives.
" F. S. Stockdale,
" President of the Senate."
During the last days of the war, Col. Benavides
was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General, but
the war closed before he assumed command in that
capacity. Col. Benavides was in poor health dur-
ing the latter part of the war, but remained in the
service until the final surrender and then returned
to his home in Laredo. There he regained in a
measure his health and almost immediately entered
business as a merchant, taking as a copartner his
brother, Capt. Christobal Benavides, under the
firm name of S. Benavides & Brother. They did a
large retail and wholesale business, the latter ex-
tending far into the interior of Mexico. The firm
continued business for several years and was then,
by mutual consent, dissolved, and Col. Benavides
entered trade alone at a stand opposite the city hall
and market, continuing therein up to the time of
his death, which occurred November 9th, 1891.
In civil life he was a polished and courteous gentle-
man of plain and easy manners.
In military life he was an aggressive, gallant and
skillful officer. Under all circumstances and at all
times he exhibited a kindness of heart and consider-
ation for the rights and feelings of others that en-
deared him to his comrades in aims and to bis
thousands of other friends.
He was always cool and deliberate in the forma-
tion and expression of his opinions. He fully ac-
cepted the verdict of the Civil War and gave his best
counsel and influence to the cause of reconstruction
and, with great hope for and faith in the future.
set vigorously about the building up of his impaired
business and estate. He was not a politician in the
usual acceptation of the term, and was never an
office-seeker ; but, at the urgent solicitation of his
people and in accordance with what he believed to
be the duty of a citizen, served the public in vari-
ous important capacities, notably as Mayor of
Laredo, in 1856, and three terms in the Texas State
Legislature, during the sessions of which he was a
member of various Important committees and made
his influence felt in the shaping of important legis-
lation. He did not speak or write the English lan-
guage sufficiently to address that body in the
vernacular, and his public utterances were all in-
terpreted by a private secretary, who was ever at
his side, and was noted for his directness of state-
ment, clear and sound logic, and broad statesman-
ship. He was a commissioner from Texas to the
World's Cotton Exposition at New Orleans in 1884 ;
he was ever a safe and ready champion of the doc-
trine of popular rights and government, therefore
at the time of the French invasion of Mexico his
influence, which was far-reaching in the border
Mexican States, was thrown on the side of the lib-
eral party and at critical times and under permissi-
ble circumstances he did not fail to exercise it and
from the time that Gen. Gonzales and Gen. Diaz
were put in power he was a friend and supporter of
their government.
Col. Benavides married, in 1842, Dona Augustine
Vallareal, a native of Laredo. They had no chil-
dren of theirown, but adopted and liberally educated
four. Of these, Augustina, an acccomplished lady,
became the wife of Gen. Garza Ayala, of Monterey,
Mexico, once General of Mexican Artillery and ex-
Governor of the Mexican State of Nuevo Leon, an
intrepid military officer, an able statesman, and
eminent lawyer. Dona Augustina died at Mata-
moros, Mexico, in 1882. She bore one son. Dr.
Frank Garza Benavides.
Santos Benavides, the second of the adopted
children, died in 1883, at nineteen years of age, at
Monterey, Nuevo Leon.
Juan V. Benavides, the orly surviving child, a
well-known member of the Webb County bar, lives
at Laredo, where he practices law and manages the
Santos Benavides estate. He married, in 1877,
Miss Laura, daughter of Thomas Allan. She was
born in Ohio, but was reared at Corpus Christi,
Texas, where her parents for many years resided.
Dr. Frank Garza Benavides, of Monterey, son of
Gen. Garza Ayala, before mentioned, is their third
adopted son. He was born at Monterey, July 14th,
1874, was educated in his native city under private
tutorship, took a commercial course of study at St.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
615
Louis, Mo., later attended Princeton University,
N. J., and graduated in medicine at the University
of Philadelphia, Pa., taking the degree of M. D.
He married, February 6th, 1895, Miss Lila,
daughter of Don Christobal Benavides, of Laredo,
Texas.
H. M. COOK,
BELTON.
Henry Mansfield Cook was born in Upson County,
Ga., December 29, 1825. His parents were Arthur
B. and Mary Cook, early and highly respected pio-
neers in that State. In 1840 his father moved to
Alabama and in 1844 to Lowndes County, Miss.,
near the town of Columbus, on the Tombigbee
river, where he continued farming.
was elected Lieutenant-Colonel and W. P. Kogers,
of Aberdeen, was elected Captain in bis stead.
The regiment participated in many engagements
and took part in the storming. and capture of Mon-
terey. After the close of the war Mr. Cook re-
turned to Mississippi, attended school for a short
time, after which he taught a few sessions (intend-
H. M. COOK.
In 1846 the subject of this notice walked thirty
miles to Columbus to join a company which was
being organized for the Mexican War, by the cele-
brated Alex. K. McClung. The company was
known as the Tombigbee Volunteers and, when
completed, was marched to Vicksburg, where it
was incorporated in the First Mississippi Regiment,
more familiarly known as the Mississippi Rifles.
This was commanded by the illustrious and gallant
Col. Jefferson Davis and covered itself with glory
upon the field of Buena Vista. Capt. McClung
ing to thereafter take a thorough collegiate course),
but found it necessary to abandon the latter pur-
pose.
In August, 1852, he was united in marriage to
Miss Margaret E., daughter of Thomas and Mahala
Carr, of Oktibbeha County, Miss. Still having his
eyes fixed in a westerly direction, he, with his
father-in-law and family, took up the line of march
in the spring of 1855 for the Lone Star State and
settled in the western portion of Leon County, on
the Navssota river, where he opened a farm, built
616
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
a gin-house and blacksmith shop, and, together
with stock-raising, entered heartily into agricultural
pursuits. But he had not more than gotten the
rough places made smooth when he was called upon
by the citizens to give a portion of his time to the
public weal, and was elected Justice of the Peace
and made a member of the County Court, which
positions, though unsought (for he always con-
tended that the office should seek the man), were
filled with credit to himself and satisfaction to his
constituents. When the war between the States
burst upon the country' and a regiment was organized
in his military district, he was elected Lieutenant-
Colonel ; but, as the regiment was not called to the
front as soon as he expected, he became impatient,
and, fearing that the war would end before he
could take a hand, resigned his offices, went to
Louisiana, and entered the army as a private, join-
ing Carrington's company, in Baylor's cavalry
regiment. In a short time he was elected Orderly
Sergeant, and subsequently, by gradations, filled
the positions of Third, Second and First Lieuten-
ants, and rose to the command of the company
during the last year of the war.
With that gallant regiment he assisted in escort-
ing Banks' army from Brashear City (now Morgan
City) up through Louisiana to Mansfield. There
the Confederates fell short of provisions and con-
cluded to utilize Banks' commissary stores — and
sent him back to New Orleans. After the war he
continued farming up to 1869, and then went into
the mercantile business at Centerville and soon
built up a good trade. He continued business at
this point until 1876, and then, in connection with
others, started a new town on the International &
Great Northern Railroad at a point between Jewett
and Oakwood, which they called Buffalo, because
of its proximity to Buffalo creek. He continued to
do business at that place until 1884, when his
accumulated capital necessitated his removal to a
point offering better facilities for mercantile enter-
prise and investments. Consequently he wound up
his business at Buffalo and moved to Belton, where
he continued the mercantile business on a larger
scale. About this time, however, his health failed
suddenly, and, having made his son, T. A. Cook,
and a son-in-law, T. W. Cochran, equal partners
with himself, he turned the management over to
them and retired from active business pursuits.
Mr. Cook always conducted his business on a
straightforward, conscientious basis, and, although
he started with a small capital and a very limited
experience, was successful from the beginning,
accumulated a handsome fortune and never com-
promised a debt for less than one hundred cents on
the dollar. Four children were born to Mr. and
Mrs. Cook. Two of them are married and have
families and are prosperous associates with him in
his mercantile pursuits. Mr. and Mrs. Cook are
members of the Presbyterian Church. Mr. Cook
has been an active worker for the upbuilding of
the city in which he has so long resided and enjoys
the respect and confidence of his fellow-citizens of
all classes. He has passed his three score years
and ten, man's allotted time here, and is patiently
awaiting the summons to come up higher and rejoin
his sainted wife in the Glory-land, who walked with
him along life's rugged pathway as his solace and
comforter forty-two years. She departed this life
February 6, 1893.
J. A. BONNET,
EAGLE PASS.
The subject of this brief memoir is a Texas
pioneer in all that the term implies.
His advent to the Lone Star State dates back to
December 31st, 1845. He came from Scharlotten-
burg, 'Dukedom of Nassau, Germany, with his
father's family (P. D. Bonnet) and was then about
seven years of age, the youngest of a family of
five children. They came as members of the
Meusebach colony, landing at Galveston, where
they remained for several months with other immi-
grants, housed in what was called " dos Verins
Haus," a large, barn-like structure, built for the
protection of the colony-immigrants upon their ar-
rival, and they were crowded therein to the number
of from three to five hundred.
The Bonnet family, with others, finally left Gal-
veston by sail-vessel for Indian Point (later known
as Indianola), Texas. Although the distance was
comparatively short, they encountered a storm,
drifted far out into the Gulf and nine days were
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
617
consumed before they reached their destination.
They remained at Indian Point a few months, when
a malignant fever broke out, which, in a majority of
cases, proved fatal. P. D. Bonnet, our subject's
father, having a little means, secured transportation
by ox-team to New Braunfels, where they safely
landed after a tiresome trip of about three weeks.
The now lovely little German cit3' of New Braun-
fels then contained but one house, an old log-cabin
which stood on the hill overlooking the valley, and
was used as a commisary.
They remained at New Braunfels until the fall
of 1846 and then removed to San Antonio. Through
the kindness of some person they were loaned two
tents which they pitched on the river bank on the
present site of the Sullivan Banking House. The
father and the daughter were taken sick and the
oldest son, Charles, had joined Col. Jack Hays'
Regiment and gone to Mexico, and the support of
the family was thrown upon the mother. She
sought and found employment in a boarding-house
and from the remnants left at the table supplied the
family with food, until the sick recovered and the
father with his eldest remaining son, Peter, obtained
work from the United States Government. This
was in the year 1847. San Antonio then contained
about 3,000 inhabitants, mostly Mexicans. The
marauding Indian was decidedly in evidence in
those days and it was by no means safe to venture
outside the city limits without protection. The
grounds of Fort Sam. Houston were then covered
with a fine growth of live oaks and the sportsman
could there take his choice of shooting deer, turkeys
or Indians. P. D. Bonnet was a miner by trade.
He engaged in freighting and accumulated some
property. He owned the property where Turner
Hall now stands and in his declining years lived on
the income derived from his rents. He died about
the year 1886.
Our subject after many vicissitudes, secured a
position in the printing office of the San Antonio
Ledger, leVned the printer's trade, and later
worked in other printing offices in the city. He
followed this busine.ss until 1859, and then went to
Savannah, Ga., from which place he proceeded to
Waresboro, Ga. , where he enlisted in the Con-
federate army, April 18, 1861. He was mustered
into the Twenty-sixth Georgia Infantry and fought
under Gen. Stonewall Jackson. • He was wounded
in the leg at Cold Harbor, in the side at Antietam,
and again at Spottsylvania Court House, where he
suffered the loss of one eye. These wounds were
all very severe. He participated in all of the
battles fought by Lee's armj% was advanced to the
rank of Sergeant-Major and served as such until
finally, on account of disabilities, he received an
honorable discharge. He returned to San Antonio
in 1868, suffering intensely from his wounds. He
states that he found it " uphill business " to get
employment, and was virtually ostracised because
of his having been a "rebel" soldier. He em-
barked in several enterprises to gain a livelihood,
but met with such indifferent success, that he
went to Austin in 1870, but returned to San An-
tonio to act as tax collector of Bexar County
under his brother Daniel, who was sheriff in 1872.
He went to Eagle Pass in 1877, and embarked in
merchandising on a modest scale, and in due time
developed a profitable business. Later he opened
a private bank, which he subsequently merged into
the Bank of Eagle Pass, with E. L. Walkins as
partner. In September, 1888, the institution was
reorganized as the Maverick County Bank with
a capital of $30,000. As an outgrowth of this
enterprise the present First National Bank of
Eagle Pass was organized, with a cash capital of
150,000. Mr. Bonnet served as president of the
latter institution until he resigned the position in
1895.
He was elected County Judge of Maverick
County and served two terms. He has always
worked and voted with the Democratic party, but
could not indorse the tariff policy of the Cleve-
land administration, and has of late years voted
with the Republicans. Judge Bonnet has been an
active, enterprising and useful citizen. Viewing
the adverse circumstances under which he came
to this country, the difficulties that he had to over-
come as a boy and young man, and considering the
fact that he came out of the war ruined in health
and pocket, too much credit cannot be given him
for the prominent position he has attained in the
professional and business world. As a soldier he
did his full duty; as the incumbent of a respon-
sible office in San Antonio he acquitted himself
with credit and superior ability ; as a merchant and
"business man he attained prominence and success ;
as County Judge he was impartial, and served his
people with fidelity ; and as a citizen he is highly
esteemed. He was born at Scharlottenburg, Ger-
many, March 23, 1838, and married in Georgia.
His wife died in 1875 in San Antonio, leaving four
children. He married again in 1877, wedding, in
San Antonio, Mrs. Gesell Alejandro, a widow.
618
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GUSTAV SCHMIDT,
BULVERDE.
One of the well-known pioneers of Comal County,
was born September 20tb, 1839, on a farm in
Nassay, Germany. His father and mother, Mr.
and Mrs. Jacob Schmidt, and their children, three
in number, came to America in 1845, with a por-
tion of the Prince Solms' Colony, and located near
New Braunfels in the latter part of the year and
engaged in farming. At twenty-one years of age
Gustav married Miss Caroline TJclier, daughter of
William Ucker, of New Braunfels. They have nine
children: William, Emma, Edna, Anna, Gustav,
Henry, Theresa, Edward, and Otto.
Mr. Schmidt, subject of this notice, settled
upon his present farm very near Bulverde in
1875 ; but, has however, lived in the moun-
tain district of Comal County since 1859.
Mr. Schmidt's sympathies were with the Union
cause during the war between the States. He
went to Mexico shortly after the beginning of
hostilities and remained there until 1863. He then
went to New Orleans, where he enlisted in the
Federal army, August 8th of that year, as a soldier
in the First Texas Cavalry, with which he served
until honorably discharged, October 31, 1865. He
was with Gen. Banks and took part in the battles of
Brownsville, Sabine Pass and Mobile.
CHARLES L. McGEHEE, SR.,
SAN MARCOS.
Mr. McGehee, the subject of this brief memoir,
is one of the well-known citizens of San Marcos,
and a son of one of Texas' early pioneers, his
father also, Charles L. McGehee, having come to
the State as early as 1836. He was an Alabamian
and was born at McDavid's Mills in the year 1810.
He married Miss Sarah Vance Acklin, a member of
one of the oldest and most noted families of
Huntsville, Ala. He was an ambitious and
enterprising man and engaged extensively and
successfully in the local stone trade, in Alabama
and adjoining States, accumulating thereby a large
fortune. He lived in the meantime at Yazoo, on
the Mississippi river, and also engaged in the
steamboat business, owning several steamers.
Besides, he owned and conducted several planta-
tions. He met with business reverses and, coming
to Texas, cast his fortunes with those of the Lone
Star commonwealth. His first trip was a prelim-
inary one and he returned East, settled up his
business and with his family located near Bastrop
on the east bank of the Colorado river about 1843.
He possessed great industry and mechanical genius
and, besides farming, owned and conducted a
wagon shop. He also traded in stock and lands
and made a second comfortable fortune. In 1851
he secured a contract with the State of Texas for
the construction of a capitol building at Austin
and entered upon the prosecution of the work.
He did not live to fiuish the structure, however,
and Q. J. Nichols completed the contract. He
died in 1852. He left two daughters and one son ;
of these, Mary, married D. A. Wood and located
in Guadalupe County, and Sarah, married C. H.
Wood, a brother of D. A. Wood, located in Hays
County and died in 1894.
Mr. McGehee was a man of strict integrity, a
consistent member of the Methodist Church in
later years and left an honorable name and an
estate valued at about $40,000 as an inheritance to
his surviving family.
Charles L. McGehee, the subject of this sketch
was the only son. He inherited from his father a
natural love of adventure. He was born in Ala-
bama, December 21st, 1837, and was brought to
Texas upon his father's second trip with the family,
being then about six years of age. He spent his
childhood and youth, up to about fourteen years of
age, on the farm in Bastrop County. Farm life
was, however, too tame for him and, after traveling
for about a couple of years, he went to San Marcos
and offered his services to Maj. Ed. Burleson, who
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
619
was recruiting a company of Texas rangers for
operations against the Indians. McGehee being
only seventeen years of age, Maj. Burleson informed
him that he was too young, by law, to draw pay.
Thereupon, McGehee informed him that pay was
no object and that he owned his own horse and gun
and wanted to go to the frontier. The Major ad-
mired the boy's pluck and enthusiasm and admitted
him to membership and made special provisions for
the payment of his salary. He served as a ranger
about one year, rendezvousing at Hi Smith's camp
in Gillespie County, making also a raid into Mexico
with Capt. Callahan. After a campaign of one year,
Mr. McGehee went to Austin and became inter-
ested in a farm near that city. In 1858 he mar-
ried Miss Sarah, a daughter of Joseph Humphreys,
Esq. She is a native of Texas and was reared in
Caldwell County, on the San Marcos river. After
marriage Mr. McGehee pursued farming and spec-
ulating in cattle, horses and mules and dealt in
lands. He has become one of the most substantial
property owners in Hays County. He owns a val-
uable estate at San Marcos, fronting for a mile and
a half on the San Marcos river, and a chartered
water power. He has splendid improvements
thereon and an excellent irrigating system that he
is developing.
Mr. and Mrs. McGehee have five sons : Walter
A., Hugh W., Charles L., Jr., Miles H., and
Wade B.
At the breaking out of the war between the States
Mr. McGehee enlisted in Col. Wood's regiment at
San Marcos; but, having served as a ranger, the
discipline of the army was not satisfactory and he
secured a transfer to Capt. Carrington's independ-
ent company of Texas rangers and served on the
Mexican frontier in the Rio Grande Valley about
fourteen months and then returned to his home.
A. J. HAMILTON,
AUSTIN.
The late ex-Governor A. J. Hamilton, of Texas,
was born in Madison County, Ala., on the 28th of
January, 1815, and was admitted to the bar of that
State in 1841.
In 1846 he emigrated to Texas and located at La
Grange. In 1849 he was appointed, by Governor
Bell, Attorney-General of the State, and from that
time made Austin his permanent home. He served
as a representative from Travis County in the Leg-
islature in 1851 and again in 1853. In 1856 he teas
a presidential elector on the Buchanan ticket and in
1859 was elected to a seat in the United States Con-
gress, as an independent candidate, in opposition to
Gen. T. N. Waul, the regular nominee of the Demo-
cratic party. He was a strenuous opponent of the
policy of secession and retained his seat in Congress
after the other members from the seceding States
had returned to their constituencies. He returned
to Austin in the latter part of 1861 and was made
the Union candidate for the State Senate, to which
he was elected, but Texas had now cast her lot with
the Confederacy and he declined to take the required
oath of office.
In 1862, being still opposed to the purposes and
progress of the war on the part of the South, he left
the State and, making his way through Mexico, re-
paired to the city of Washington and was immedi-
ately appointed Brigadier-General of the Texas
troops in the Union service.
In 1865 he was made provisional Governor of
Texas by President Johnson, as the most suitable
person he could iind in the State to effect his con-
servative plan of reconstruction. In this position
he greatly endeared himself to the people of the
State irrespective of party affiliations. Crushed
down in the dust of defeat and disfranchised they
had reason to expect that they would be subjected
to misgovernment and to such outrages as a knowl-
edge of history taught them that a conquered people
might expect. Some remarks contained in a speech
delivered by Mr. Hamilton on landing in Galveston
still further intensified their apprehensions, but to
their surprise and to his lasting honor, he seemed to
lose sight, upon assuming the duties of the Gover-
nor's office, of the fact that he had been compelled
to leave the State for oninion's sake and only to re-
member that he had sworn to faithfully discharge
the duties of the trust confided to him and to
as speedily as possible bring about the complete
rehabilitation of Texas as a State of the
American Union. His administration was charac-
terized by honesty, ability and patriotism, and even
620
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
those who found it necessary, on political grounds,
to differ with him in nearly every essential particu-
lar, have united in bearing testimony to his rectitude
and purity of purpose and they would be among
the first to resent any effort to cast a stain upon his
honor as an official or as a private citizen. In 1866
he was appointed as Associate Justice of the Su-
preme Court, and was a prominent member of the
reconstruction convention of 1868 — in which he
was the author and chief promoter of the Electoral
Bill and Franchise measures, which were engrafted
in the new constitution. In 1870 he was the Con-
servative candidate for Governor, but was defeated
by ¥j. J. Davis, the Republican nominee, in a con-
test so close as to give excuse for the intervention
of and decision by the military authorities. Re-
turning now to the seclusion of private life he
eschewed any further active participation in the
political events of the period and, falling into a de-
cline of health, died in Austin during the month of
April, 1875.
Governor Hamilton's decisions as a Judge
of the Supreme Court, while comparatively few,
are noted for learning, dignity and force. Chief
among these is his opinion on ab initio rendered
in 1868 in the case of Luter v. Hunter, 30
Texas, 690, and in Culbreath v. Hunter, 30 Texas,
712, known as the Sequestration cases, in which he
held that the States composing the Confederacy
occupied a higher ground than the Confederate
government, having been in their origin peaceful,
legitimate and constitutional ; that they continued
to exist, notwithstanding the war, without a hiatus
or interregnum, and that the United States govern-
ment had not interfered with the mere civil laws of
the States, whether enacted before or during the
war, except as to such laws as naturally resulted
from the war, and such as were unconstitutional or
in hostility to the United States. It would have been
well indeed if the doctrine enunciated in these cases
had been accepted by the dominant party ; the
hostility of the heart would have ceased with the
hostility of the sword.
SANTIAGO SANCHEZ,
LAREDO.
All history is centered in the lives and characters
and the personal achievements of the people. No
State in the American Union has furnished the his-
torian a more prolific field for the employment of
his pen than the Lone Star State, and the Rio
Grande Valley has provided him with some of his
most prominent historical subjects. The venerable
Don Santiago Sanchez, the subject of this brief
memoir, is a fine type of the successful Texas-Mex-
ican pioneer and one of the most prominent and
wealthy ranchers of Southwestern Texas. He is a
native of the city of Laredo, where he was reared
and has Hved for over half a century. He was
born December 31st, 1838, and is a son of Don
Antonio and Dona Juana Mendiola Sanchez. The
Sanchez name is one of the very oldest in Laredo's
history. Captain Tomas Sanchez, the founder of
the city, was also the founder of the family in
Texas, and was a grandfather of Don Santiago
Sanchez, our subject. Himself conspicuous in his
day, his descendants have, several of them, held
prominent positions of local trust, and have per-
petuated and held in sacred honor the family name.
Our subject spent his boyhood and youth in
Laredo. He early formed those habits of thrift
and industry that have ever since characterized his
life and have had so much to do with shaping his
destiny. He attended the local schools of Laredo,
and later pursued a course of study in the city of
Monterey, Mexico, which was, however, interrupted
by revolutionary movements of a serious character,
in that country. From that time up to the year
1863 he was employed in various capacities, and
by industry and the careful husbanding of his re-
sources he was enabfed to enter business. He
formed a copartnership with a friend, Don Ese-
bano Salinas, and they entered merchandising
in the town of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, the style of
the firm being Sanchez & Salinas. The venture
proved a most successful one, the house became
widely known, its business covered a broad extent
of country, and the firm gained an almost unlim-
ited credit in the great commercial centers of the
United States and Mexico, and ranked as the lead-
ing mercantile house In the Eio Grande Valley.
Sanchez & Salinas continued in business until 1877,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
621
when Don Estabano died, and the affairs of
the firm were wound up. Don Santiago then
turned his attention to stoclt-raising on an
extensive scale. He purchased lands in Ta-
maulipas and Texas and stocked them with
cattle and so successful has he been that he now
leads in that most important industry in the Laredo
country. His progressive ideas, put into practical
execution, have gained for him a wide reputation.
He owns about 200,000 acres of land, a greater por-
tion of which is in Mexico, and his ranch. La Jarita
Sanchez, and Las Crevas are among the largest and
most modernly equipped in Western Tamaulipas.
H^e raises horses, cattle and sheep. He is one of
the pioneers of the cotton-raising industry of Ta-
maulipas and was the first to introduce the cotton-
gin and corn-mill into that State. Don Santiago is
typically a business man and has never allowed
politics or any other side issue to divert his attention
from his calling, his chief ambition having always
been to attain success in his chosen occupation.
He did, however, serve for about eleven years as
Mayor of Laredo, giving to his people an honest and
successful administration. Don Santiago early
learned the lesson of personal independence and
self-reliance. He never received financial aid from
any source and entered business on capital of his own
acquisition. He is therefore a self-made man and
the great success he has attained and the elevated
position he has acquired in the business world and in
the estimation of his legion of friends is entirely
due to his tireless energy and industry, his thrift
and keen business foresight, his unswerving in-
tegrity and his honorable business methods.
He married, September 10th, 1863, Dona Macaria,
a daughter of Don Juan and Dona Tiburcia (Gon-
zales) Ramos. Her father was then Collector of
Customs at the city of Neuvo Laredo, and an influ-
ential citizen. The issue of this happy union is
three sons and six daughters. . The Sanchez family
mansion in Laredo is architecturally one of the
most beautiful and imposing homes in the Rio
Grande Valley. It is perfect in its appointments
and exemplifies the fine discrimination and domestic
tastes of its owner.
W. A. SHAW,
CLARKSVILLE.
Col. W. A. Shaw was born in Green County,
Ala., the 15th day of April, 1827. His father was
James Shaw, a native of North Carolina, and
his mother, nee Miss Carolina Elliot, a native of
Virginia. After their marriage they moved to
Tennessee, then to Alabama, from there to Missis-
sippi, and in 1852 to Kaufman County, Texas,
where some of their children had preceded them.
A majority of the others soon followed. The
father, mother, and three daughters are buried in
Kaufman County, Texas. One son, killed in
battle, is buried in Louisiana. The oldest still lives
in Mississippi. The youngest, Capt. E. B. Shaw,
a farmer, merchant and stock-raiser, lives at Kemp,
in Kaufman County, Texas.
Col. W. A. Shaw received the rudiments of an
education in the old-field schools in Monroe and
Chickasaw counties, Miss., prepared for college
at Aberdeen, Miss., under Prof. Reuben Nason
and Richard Gladney, and entered the Fresh-
man class at Dickson College, Carlisle, Penn.,
where he spent the Freshman and Sophomore
years. About that time a Mr. Kennedy, a citizen
of Maryland, came to Carlisle to claim a runaway
slave. The court awarded him his slave, but as
the master attempted to start home, an abolitionist
mob rescued the slave and killed the master. One
of the professors of the college. Rev. I. D. Mc-
Clintock, was charged with being the instigator of
the mob. While the college was in the North a
majority of the students were from the South. The
students called an indignation meeting to condemn
the professor for his conduct. Prof. McClintock
was very popular with the students — such students
as J. A. C. Creswell, a member of Gen. Grant's
Cabinet, and Barnes Compton, at present a mem-
ber of Congress from Maryland, espoused the
professor's cause and the meeting failed to pass
the resolutions. But W. A. Shaw and a few other
students from the far South took an active part
against the professor and voted to condemn him.
For this action, the subject of this sketch came to
the conclusion that the faculty of the college became
prejudiced against him and he left the institution
622
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
and entered Princeton College, New Jersey, where
he spent his Junior and Senior years and gradu-
ated in the class of 1850. After graduation he
read law in the office of Lindsay & Copp, at Aber-
deen, Miss., and was granted license to practice by
Judge John Watts, of the Fourth Judicial District
of Mississippi.
As he returned home from college, he came
through Washington City and spent ten days there.
Congress was in session. The agitation of the
slavery question was at its height owing to the
recent acquisition of territory from Mexico, as a
result of the Mexican War. The Nashville con-
vention had been called. Daniel Webster had just
Col. Shaw heard Clay read his report and listened
to the speeches of these giant intellects for ten
days. He then made up his mind to support the
compromise and the Union and fought secession
and disunion in every shape it afterwards assumed.
The Mississippi Senators, Foote and Jefferson
Davis, took opposite sides of the question and the
next year became opposing candidates for Gover-
nor of Mississippi. Col. Shaw took the stump for
Foote against Davis. Foote was elected by nine
hundred and ninetj-nine votes, and from that can-
vass in Mississippi, the first after he returned from
college, to the last in Texas, Col. Shaw has been
an active participant in every political contest th^t
W. A. SilAW,
delivered his great 7th of March speech and Foote,
one of the Mississippi Senators, had moved the
formation of a committee of thirteen to prepare a
plan for the compromise of all questions between
the sections. The committee was composed of
thirteen of as able and patriotic men as ever lived
before or since in the United States. Henry Clay,
who was no longer a party man, was chairman and
had declared that he knew, " No North, no Syuth,
no East, no West" The balance of the committee
was made up of Daniel Webster, of Massachusetts ;
Dickerson, of New York ; Phelps, of Vermont ;
John Bell, of Tennessee; Cass, of Michigan ; Ber-
rien, of Georgia ; Cooper, of Pennsylvania ; Downs,
of Louisiana; King, of Alabama; Mangum, of
North Carolina ; Mason, of Virginia ; and Bright,
of Indiana.
has been waged. He was a candidate for elector
on the Filmore ticket jn 1856 and also on the Bell
and Everett ticket in 1860. Col. J. A. Orr was
his opponent in 1856 and Dr. Richard Harrison,
brother of Gen. Tom. Harrison, of Waco, Texas,
his opponent in 1860. He opposed the secession
of Mississippi in 1861. He took the position in
the canvass that disunion would sound the death-
knell of the institution of slavery ; that, were it
possible to divide the Union and set up a sep-
arate Confederacy without the firing of a gun,
the institution of slavery would die a hundred
years sooner than it would if the South remained
in the Union with the protection and guarantees
of the constitution, and that, were he an aboli-
tionist and wished to abolish slavery, he would
advocate disunion as a means to accomplish it. He
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
623
was a planter on the Mississippi river when the war
commenced. In 1863 he moved to Texas with his
family and lived near Chatfield Point, in Navarro
County, until the close of hostilities. After the
close of the war, the levees on the Mississippi river
having been cut and his plantation there being subject
to the overflows every year, he never returned to
it, but rented land and became a tenant on Red
river, in Bowie County, and continued to plant
there until he bought his landlord's plantation,
which he now owns.
He moved his family to Clarksville, Red River
County, in 1879, where he still lives. He was
elected to the Thirteenth Legislature at the general
election in 1872, from the district then composed of
what is now the counties of Red River, Franklin,
Titus and Morris, and was made chairman of the
Committee on Enrolled Bills and was a member of the
Committee on Internal Improvements, Public Lands
aad Counties and County Boundaries, and took an
active part in all the legislation of the session. He
favored every measure providing for- internal
improvements presented to the Legislature, favored
exempting factories from taxation for a term of
years and advocated a liberal policy toward rail-
roads and aiding them by the donation of public
lands. He has never been a candidate for any
office since, but has been a delegate to every Demo-
cratic State convention from 1874 to the Dallas
convention of 1894, and is still a strong advocate
of the "dollars of the daddies," and believes with
Senator Carlisle when he said: " According to my
■view of the subject, the conspiracy which seems to
have been formed here and in Europe to destroy
by legislation, and otherwise, from three-sevenths
to one-half the metallic money of the world, is the
most gigantic crime of this, or any other age."
Col. Shaw has been twice married. He first mar-
ried Miss May Kate Shannon, of Pontotoc County,
Miss., in the year 1857, by whom he had five
children, three of whom died in infancy. His
eldest son, Dr. Thad Shaw, died in Bowie County.
The only surviving son of this union, the Hon. Gus
Shaw, lives at Clarksville, Texas.
His second marriage was to Mrs. C. A, Fain,
whose maiden name was Miss Caladone A. Corne-
lius, in 1867, in Bowie County, Texas, by whom he
had one son, Dr. R. L. Shaw, who died at DeKalb,
Texas. Col. Shaw gave all his sons good literary
and professional educations.
Col. Shaw belongs to the Methodist Church and
takes an active interest in its work and welfare.
He is possessed of an ample income. He and his
wife have more than a thousand acres of Red river
land in cultivation, besides some real estate in the
town of Clarksville, enough to keep the wolf from
the door.
He possesses a good library of some 150 or 200
volumes, consisting of miscellaneous, historical,
political and religious works, which he puts to good
use. While Col. Shaw is a Methodist in his religious
beliefs, and belongs to that Church, one could never
tell from the collection of religious books in his
library to what Church he belongs.
No citizen of Red River Countj- is more generally
and highly esteemed, and he deserves the regard of
his fellow-citizens, for his life has been full of activ-
ity and good works.
E. TOM COX,
BRUCEVILLE.
A prominent farmer and stock -raiser in McLennan
■County, was born in Tennessee, October 2, 1829,
the fourth of ten children born to James and Eliza-
beth (Green) Cox, natives of North Carolina.
They went as colonists to Tennessee before mar-
riage, locating in Carroll County. The father was
a successful farmer in that State until his death,
which occurred in 1853. The mother died in 1877,
aged seventy-nine years.
E. Tom Cox at the age of eighteen years com-
menced life for himself. In 1849 he began farm-
ing in Marshall County, Miss., two years later went
to Dallas County, Ark., and during the following
two years lived ia various places in the southern
portion of the State, principally engaged in raft-
ing; in 1853 traveled with a friend into Texas as
far west as the Brazos river; then returned to
Tennessee, but the following year came to Texas
and engaged in farming and stock-raising in Bell
County. In 1861 Mr. Cox located in McLennan
County, where he purchased several acres of unim-
proved land and opened a farm. He has added to
624
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
this place until he now owns one thousand acres
under cultivation and a large body of pasture and
timbered lands. In the last eighteen years he has
been engaged in the ginning business, having erected
the first gin erected in the portion of the country in
which he lives, in 1867 or 1868. During the war,
he was a soldier in Smith's Battalion, stationed at
Houston, but participated in no engagement. He
was elected Lieutenant of the second company
in Bell County, but was exempted from active duty
on account of being a cripple After the close of
hostilities, he found himself worth only about one-
half of what he was at the beginning of the war
and immediately resumed farming and stock-raising,
at which he has since greatly prospered. He was
appointed the second postmaster at Martensville,
now Bruceville, the name of the town having been
changed after the completion of the Mississippi,
Kansas and Texas Railroad.
Mr. Cox was married in 1856 to Mrs. Mary C.
Harris, a daughter of H. H. and Mary J. (Tubb)
Holcorab. Her first husband died September 1,
1855, leaving one child, G. B. Harris, now a prac-
ticing physician, born February 4, 1856. Eleven
children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Cox, viz. :
R. M., a railroad agent at Morgan; Bettie G.,
wife of li. G. Fields, a merchant at Waco ; George
F., a physician and merchant at Bruceville ; Mattie
B., William R., Zella P., Mary T., and five who
died in infancy.
Mr. and Mrs. Cox are members of the Methodist
Episcopal Church South. He is a member of Belton
Lodge, Independent Order of Odd Fellows. He
served as Justice of the Peace of his precinct for
one term and also served as County Commissioner
for two years. He is a member of the Peoples
Party. He is an active, progressive and sub-
stantial farmer and a citizen thoroughly represen-
tative of the best interests of his section of the
State.
ROBERT SNEAD KIMBROUGH,
MESQUITE.
Robert S. Kirabrough was born near Madison-
ville. East Tennessee, September 19, 1851.
He came to Texas in 1874 and first settled in
Clay County, but eighteen months later moved to
Mesquite, in Dallas County. Mr. Kimbrough is a
member of the Baptist Church, and Knights of
Honor. In 1873 he was united in marriage to Miss
Fannie Wesson, at Little Rock, Ark. His wife
lived only a short time, and in 1878 he married
Miss Jennie Curtis. In 1881 he established the Mes-
quiter, and it wielded a potent influence in local
and general politics during the four years he con-
ducted its columns.
He was elected to represent Dallas County in the
Nineteenth Legislature, by 1,111 majority over his
colleague, and two other opponents. In that body
he made a good record, and on November 4th,
1888, was elected to the State Senate (long term)
from the Sixteenth District. In the latter body he
was Chairman of the Committee on Roads and
Bridges.
Mr. Kimbrough was a member of the sub-
committee of the Senate Committee on Internal
Improvements, to which was assigned the duty of
framing a Railroad Commission Bill. He intro-
duced, among others, a bill to amend the law as to
attachment and garnishment, so as to allow any, or
all, creditors to intervene in attachment suits,
prove their claims, and get a pro rata share of the
assets of debtors. He is a clear reasoner, a good
speaker, and was one of the ablest men in the
Senate. He took an active part in the canvass
against the constitutional prohibition in 1887 ; and
in 1890 was one of the leaders in the fight for the
nomination of James S. Hogg, by the Democratic
party, for Governor, and the adoption of the
amendment to the constitution that provides for a
State Railroad Commisson. Senator Kimbrough
was the author of the " dirt road " amendment to
the constitution, which was adopted by the people
at the general election in 1890. He made a strong
fight in the Senate against State uniformity of
text-books, holding that State uniformity was im-
practicable, and a species of governmental tyranny
that should not be tolerated in any country where
the doctrine of local self-government prevails.
Mr. Kimbrough is a Democrat true and tried and
has done loyal service.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
625
THOMAS J. OLIVER,
DALLAS.
Thomas J. Oliver was born in Hardeman County,
Tenn., September 15, 1834.
His parents were Roderick and Temperance
(Darley) Oliver, the former a native of North Car-
olina and the latter of Kentucky. They came to
Texas in 1846 with their family, consisting of eight
children (four boys and four girls), and located in
Limestone County where they tliereafter resided.
The mother died in 1853, and the father in 1867,
and are buried at Fairfield, Texas. The children
were: Narcissa, Ellen, Rosina, Jolm E., F. C, W.
W. and T. J., all of whom are deceased except
Ellen, widow of M. M. Miller, of Limestone County ;
Narcissa, widow of M. Stroud, of Hillsboro ; F. C,
engaged in the hardware business at Groesbeck,
and Thomas J., the subject of this brief sketch.
Mr. Roderick Oliver opened the first farm" in what
is now Freestone County, Texas, and put in a cot-
ton gin there in 1847. The Indians at that time
and for years subsequent thereto committed numer-
ous minor depredations, but the settlers had no
serious trouble with them.
Thomas J. Oliver had but limited educational
advantages, was reared on his father's farm until
twenty years of age ; clerked in his brother's store
for ayear ; worked in the district land office as a clerk
under Jesse J. Cunningham, until 1856, and was
then elected and served as Surveyor of the Robert-
son land district for two years, after which he and
his brothers, John E. and W. W., engaged in mer-
chandise and stock-raising until the beginning of
the war between the States, and then entered the
Confederate army. He took twenty-nine men to
Milligan to organize them into a company, but they
became dissatisfied and went on to Houston and
enlisted in Terry's Texas rangers. He did not
enlist, but accompanied Company C. of that regi-
ment, as a volunteer. After the battle of Fort
Donaldson he was detailed by Gen. Johnston to
return to Texas and make arrangements for cloth-
ing and arms for certain Texas troops who had
escaped from Fort Donaldson and some of whom
were in the hospital. He remained in Texas about
two weeks and 'returned to the army just in time
to participate in the battle of Shiloh. Among
many other battles, he took part in those of
Chickamaugua, Dalton and on to Atlanta. After
Hood assumed command, he was detailed as
one of the scouts under Capt. Shannon. The
40
Shannon scouts were to report at head-quar-
ters every day. After the fall of Atlanta, Gen.
Hood wheeled down toward Newman, and Shan-
non was ordered to Stone Mountain on the left
wing of the Federal army to report the movements
of the enemy in that direction, got lost, hovered
around Sherman's forces until after the Federal
army reached Savannah and then rejoined the Con-
federate army and reported to Gen. Wheeler, who
had assumed command. The Shannon scouts
continued actively employed until the final sur-
render.
Mr. Oliver had three horses shot from under him
and many perilous adventures and narrow escapes,
but was never captured or wounded.
His brother, W. W., died in February, 1865,
shortly before the close of the war. T. J. Oliver
reached home July 22, 1865 ; engaged in merchan-
dising and stock-raising and the land business with
his brother, John E., at Springfield, and in Septem-
ber of that year was married to Miss Alice Peeples,
daughter of R. D. Peeples, of Limestone County.
They have six children, viz. : Mattie, widow of the
late J. W. Webb, of Dallas; Lila, Kate, Emily,
Dick and Fannie. The brothers moved their busi-
ness to Weatherford In 1870. The following year
John E. died in that place and the survivor sold out
the stock and returned to Springfield in 1872,
and shortly thereafter established a private bank
in Mexia, in copartnership with a Mr. Griggs,
under the firm name of Oliver & Griggs, and
built up a prosperous business, which they sold in
1883 to Frendergast & Smith, and moving to Dallas
purchased a private banking business at that place,
which they conducted until 1887, and then merged
into the Fourth National Bank, organized by them-
selves and others with a capital of $200,000. Mr.
Griggs was elected president but died in November
of that year, and Mr. Oliver was elected to and
filled the position for one year. Thereafter, while
he remained a large stockholder, he did not devote
much attention to the institution until 1890, when
he was elected its cashier, an office that he filled
until 1891. In 1892 he took charge of another
national bank as president, but found its affairs in
bad condition and resigned in October.
Mr. Oliver is one of the leading and most pro-
gressive men in the section of the State in which he
resides.
626
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN W. CRANFORD,
SULPHUR SPRINGS.
John W. Ci-anford, president pro tempore of the
Senate of the Twenty-second Legislature, and
chairman of the Committee on Finance in that
body, although then scarcely more than thirty-one
years of age, ranked as one of the most popular
speakers and influential members of the Senate. In
1888 be was nominated and elected by the Democ-
racy of the Fifth District (composed of the counties
of Hunt, Hopkins, Delta, Franklin and Camp) to
serve in the Twenty-flrst and Twenty-second Legis-
latures. In the Twenty-flrst Legislature he was
chairman of the Senate Committees on State Affairs
and Engrossed Bills.
This year he was nominated for election to
the House of Eepresentatives of the United States
Congress by the Democracy of the District so long
represented by Hon. D. B. Culberson, and will be
elected, no doubt, by one of the largest majorities
ever given a candidate in that district.
In 1865 he came from Alabama to Texas with his
father, who settled in Hopkins County, and soon
thereafter died, leaving him, at a tender age, an
orphan. Early compelled to encounter the stern
realities of life, he bent himself to the task of
preparation for future usefulness, with a hopeful
and courageous lieart, and did well whatever his
hands could find to do. As a consequence he had,
ia due time, both work and friends, and out of his
earnings succeeded in securing a thorough classical
education. An opportunity offering for him to
study law, he left school before completing the
regular curriculum of the graduating class, obtained
license, opened a law office in Sulphur Springs
(where he still lives), and by devotion to his pro-
fession and a determination to fight to the front,
has succeeded in building up a fine law practice.
He is considered a tower of Democratic strength in
North Texas. He gratefully attributes his success
in life to his noble and accomplished wife, nee Miss
Medora Ury, of Sulphur Springs, to whom he was
married in 1880.
In the Twenty-second Legislature he resigned the
chairmanship of the Committee on Finance to accept
the chairmanship of the Committee on Apportion-
ment. He took a prominent part in the debates on
the Railway Commission Bill, and other important
measures, and added new and brighter laurels to
his fame. He favored' uniformity of text- books,
and in a speech strongly advocated the use of
Southern histories in the public schools of Texas.
He received requests from all over the country for
copies of his speech. Mr. Cranford was one of the
foremost members of that galaxy of talent that
adorned the Senate of the Twenty-second Legis-
lature, and in the broader fleld upon which he is
about to enter will no doubt soon take rank among
the foremost of his colleagues.
In 1896 he received the nomination for Congress
and was elected by a large majority over his oppo-
nent.
JAMES W. SWAYNE,
FORT WORTH.
James W. Swayne was born at Lexington, Tenn.,
October 6th, 1855. His mother's maiden name was
Miss Amanda J. Henry. His father, James W.
Swayne, was an eminent lawyer and amassed a flne
fortune during his years of practice at Lexington
and Jackson, Tenn. He died at the latter place in
1856, and Mrs. Swayne moved back to Lexington
"with her family, where she died the following year.
The subject of this biography was educated at the
Kentucky Military Institute, and, in 1877, also
graduated at the Lebanon (Tenn.) Law School,
and was admitted to the bar. He returned to Lex-
ington, Tenn., and had a settlement with his
guardian. That gentleman, before the war and
during the early part of the struggle, loaned large
sums of money belonging to the estate, was com-
pelled to receive payment in Confederate money,
and little was left of the fortune bequeathed by Mr.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
627
^Wayne's parents to their children. Although the
share secured by Mr. Swayne proved barely ade-
quate to pay the expenses incurred in securing an-
education, he refused to hold his guardian respon-
sible for the losses sustained, and in January, 1878,
went to Fort Worth, Texas, where he located, and
commenced, without a dollar, the practice of his
profession.
He was elected City Attorney of Fort Worth, and
served during the years 1883, 1884 and 1885, and
in 1890 was elected to the Twenty-second Legisla-
ture from the Thirty- fourth Representative District,
Tarrant County. He conceived the idea of build-
ing a magnificent natatorium in Fort Worth, and
owing to his efforts one was constructed, at a cost
of $100,000, that is an ornament to the city and a
credit to the State. He subscribed liberally in dona-
tions to every railroad secured by Fort Worth, gave
large amounts to and took stock in every valuable
enterprise for years until financial reverses that no
foresight could guard against befell him during the
commercial panic of a few years since.
Thirteen years ago Mr. Swayne landed in this
State without a dollar, and with no hope of financial
assistance. He determined to push his way to the
front, and with a buoyant, hopeful spirit at once
started about the work of making his life honored
and successful. He is engaged in practice with his
cousin, ex-Congressman John M. Taylor, of Ten-
nessee, under the firm name of Taylor & Swayne.
Mr. Swayne was married to Miss Josie B.
Latham, at Terrell, Texas, October 6th, 1887.
Richard Philip Latham, her father, was an A. M.
of the University of Virginia, and president of the
Tuscaloosa College until the beginning of the war,
and then entered the Confederate army as a member
of a civil engineering corps. He remained in this
service until his death, occasioned by pneumonia,
•brought on by exposure. Her grandfather. Rev.
Joel S. Bacon, was president of Madison College,
New York, and afterward, up to the time of his
death, president of the Columbian College, Wash-
ington City. Mrs. Swayne was a student at Vassar,
and afterwards graduated with honor at the Uni-
versity of Missouri. Governor Crittenden witnessed
the commencement exercises, and Professor Fisher
introduced her to him, saying that Miss Josie
Latham was the best Latin scholar who ever gradu-
ated from the University of Missouri — a high and
well deserved compliment. She is one of the most
accomplished ladies of Texas. Mr. and Mrs.
Swayne have one child, a daughter, Ida Lloyd
Swayne. Judge Noah H. Swayne, for years one of
the judges of the United States Supreme Court, was
an uncle of Mr. Swayne and Wagner Swayne (a
member of the law firm of Dillon & Swayne, long
chief solicitors for Jay Gould in his corporation
properties) is a cousin.
Mr. Swayne is a Master Mason, Past Chancellor
of the Knights of Pythias, and a thorough-going
Democrat ; one of the men to whose efforts is due
Tarrant County's freedom from "dark lantern"
rule.
In 1888 Isaac Duke Parker was nominated and
elected to the Twenty -first Legislature on the Demo-
cratic ticket. In 1890 we find Mr. Parker running
on the Independent ticket (put forward by a branch
of the Farmers' Alliance) against the regular Dem-
ocratic nominee, Mr. James W. Swayne, who defeated
him in Tarrant County by a majority of 3,000 votes.
In the prime of vigorous manhood, what Mr. Swayne
has already accomplished has but tested his mettle
and well breathed him for life's race, and no man
can tell what goals he will touch before the coming
of Nature's distant bed-time. He is one of the men
whom difficulties can not discourage and who make
their way to and maintain themselves at the
front.
P. L. DOWNS,
TEMPLE.
The name of P. L. Downs is closely associated
'With the history of the founding and growth of
Temple. He located there soon after the establish-
ment of the town ; but, not being able to get a
building erected earlier, it was in February, 1882,
-when he and his brother, F. F. Downs, opened the
first bank in the then straggling village. The bank
was known as the " Bell County Bank" — Downs
Bros., proprietors. In connection with banking
they also conducted an insurance, real estate, loan
and rental business, and when, in 1884, the bank
was nationalized, P. L. Downs personally assumed
628
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the management of the insurance, real estate, loan
and rental departments and operated the "Down
Bros. Agency," which he conducted for a number
of years and placed in the front rank of similar
institutions in the State. He had not, however,
surrendered his financial interests, or ceased his
active connection with the bank as a stockholder
and director, so when, several years later, the bank
demanded his services, he surrendered the active
charge of the insurance, real estate, loan and rental
business to others, to take the cashiership of the
First National Bank, which position he continues to
fill with ability, and with credit and profit to the
institution.
The Church finds in him a liberal contributor and
staunch friend. As trustee, steward and com-
mitteeman, and in other positions, he has been an
earnest, religious worker.
While quite prominent in the Grand Lodges of
Ancient Order of United Workmen, Knights of
Honor, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks
and other fraternal societies, in the Knights of
Pythias, especially, he has always been a leading
spirit.
In addition to enjoying all the honors the local
lodge could bestow, he has for five successive years
been Grand Master of the Exchequer of the Grand
Lodge, then served a term as Grand Vice-Chancel-
lor, then as Grand Chancellor. He is now (1896)
Past Grand Chancellor, and a regular attendant
upon the biennial sessions of the Supreme Lodge.
He also bears a commission as Colonel of the Uni-
form Rank K. of P. His administration of these
ofiSces marked an epoch in the history of Pythian-
ism in Texas and the growth of the order, and the
reforms and new ideas promulgated have given him
■ a position as a Knight that will live as long as the
order survives in Texas.
The local fire department, as well as the State
Firemen's Association, owes much to his gener-
osity and services.
As a member, officer or director of the Texas
Life Insurance Company, Texas Real Estate Asso-
ciation, Texas Bankers' Association, Texas Fire
Underwriters' Association, and as a member of
many other State organizations, he has ever been a
strong supporter of home enterprises and local
development. As an Alumnus of the State A. &M.
College, he has been an industrious advocate of
home education. He has at all times been one of
Temple's most valuable citizens and a prime mover
in legitimate enterprises looking to the advance-
ment of the town's interests — a tireless and enthu-
siastic worker. It is a well-known fact that this
young man of affairs is one of the busiest men in
the town, and contributes more of his time and
abilities to the public weal and to the many insti-
tutions and enterprises with which he is associated,
than any other citizen of the place. He is a leading
stockholder, director, or officer, in nearly every
corporation or worthy enterprise in the city. Every
enterprise ever inaugurated in Temple that has
promised benefit to the town has received his sup-
port. But, while he has occupied such an impor-
tant place in the business progress of Temple, he
has no less won for himself an enviable position in
the estimation of the people of the State, as he has
been identified with a number of movements look-
ing toward the development of its resources and its
upbuilding in various ways.
L. H. PARRISH,
CALVERT.
The Brazos Valley enjoys an almost world-wide
reputation for the fertility of its soil and the extent
and variety of its agricultural resources. The
town of Calvert, county seat of Robertson County,
is centrally located in this favored region, and by
virtue of its fortunate situation and the enterprise
and push of its leading business men has become
one of the most prosperous inland towns in the
State. There are few of its citizens, if any, who
have done more for its upbuilding than L. H. Par-
ish, the subject of this brief memoir. He was
scarcely eight years of age when his parents lo-
cated in Texas, and his life has since been spent
here. He is a native of Tennessee, born near the
town of Dresden, in Weekly County, that State,
October 27, 1846.
His father, Isham Parish, was a North Carolin-
ian, born near the city of Raleigh, and a farmer by
occupation, who removed to and located in Weekly
County, Tenn., where he followed farming until
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
629
1854, when he moved with bis family to Texas, and
located six miles east of Calvert, in Robertson
County. Mr. Isham Harris brought with him a
family of seven children, to whom four others were
afterward added. He was a man of the old-school
type, plain and conservative. He was a successful
farmer, an upright and highly esteemed citizen,
and one of the founders and chief supporters of the
Methodist Episcopal Church in his locality. He
relinquished the cares of business and spent the
later years of his life in comparative retirement in
Calvert. He died full of years and good works at
his home in that place, in 1887, at sixty-eight
years of age. His wife, whose maiden name was
Frances Baxter, also a native of North Carolina,
died a year later (in 1888), at sixty-flve years of
age. Of the eleven children born to them eight
are now living, of whom L. H. Parish is the oldest.
Few men in Texas have lived a more active, frugal
and industrious life than L. H. Parish. In boy-
hood, as the oldest son of a pioneer farmer, he
learned some of the valuable and practical lessons
of life. He was a beardless youth of fifteen years
at the beginning of the late war between
the States, but was among the first who
responded to bis country's call. He joined
the Confederate army as a private in the Second
Texas Infantry, -Company E., and was elected Ser-
geant. His regiment was called to the front and
engaged in some of the hardest fought battles of
the war, notably the battles of Shiloh, Corinth,
Chickasaw Bayou and hundreds of other minor
engagements and skirmishes incident to a four
years' service. He was at the long and fearful
siege of Vicksburg, where his division of the Con-
federate army was disbanded. During his four
years of continuous service he received only a few
slight wounds and between the ages of eighteen and
nineteen years he returned to Texas, still full of
energy, courage and hope for the future and in the
enjoyment of comparatively good health. He
located at Marshall, in Harrison County, there
engaged for five years in farming and then, in 1873,
returned to Robertson County.
Since 1882 he has been the senior partner in the
well-known firm of Parish & Proctor, doing an
extensive and successful merchandising and cotton-
shipping business at Calvert. During Mr. Parish's
continuous twenty-four years business connection
at Calvert he has identified himself with every
movement tending to the development and advance-
ment of the city and county, giving liberally of his
time and means.
He is a stockholder and director in the Calvert
Compress Company, President of the Farmers'
Cotton Company, and a stockholder in the First
National Bank of Calvert. Essentially a business
man, he has never taken an aggressive intesest or
part in politics. Once, somewhat contrary to his
wishes and tastes, he consented to serve a term
as a member of the Board of Aldermen of his
town.
Mr. Parish married, January 23, 1871, Miss
Mattie Wilder, daughter of Judge Wilder, of Rich-
mond, Ark. They have one son, S. W. Parish,
born at Marshall, Texas, in 1872, and now a mem-
ber of the firm of Parish & Proctor and also the
owner of one of the best appointed thoroughbred
Jersey ranches and dairies in Central Texas, sit-
uated one mile east of Calvert.
Mr. Parish, as his father was before him, is a
man of quiet and unobtrusive manners and enjoys
the confidence and esteem of a wide circle of
friends, acquaintances and business associates.
CHARLES M. ROSSER, M. D.
TERRELL.
Dr. Charles M. Rosser, of Terrell, Texas, was
born in Randolph County, Ga., December 22, 1862.
His parents were Dr. M. F. and Mrs. Julia A.
(Smith) Rosser. His mother is a sister of Senator
Hampton A. Smith, of Valdoster, Ga. His father
was, in early life, a practicing physician, but later
devoted his time and energies to the ministry of
the Methodist Episcopal Church, doing active work
in this field in Georgia and Texas for forty years,
about ten years of this time serving as President of
the Northeast Texas Conference. During the war
he was Chaplain-Captain of the Georgia Forty-first
Infantry for four years. He was taken prisoner at
Vicksburg, but was subsequently exchanged. He
is now, as he has been for twenty-seven years, an
honored resident of Camp County, Texas. He is
630
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fifty-nine and his wife fifty-eight years of age.
Of their eight children, the subject of this notice
was the fifth born. Four others are still living.
Dr. Charles M. Rosser received a liberal educa-
tion under that distinguished educator, Maj. John
M. Eichardson, rector of the East Texas Academic
Institute. For several years he was engaged in
teaching school, and at the same time studied med-
icine under the direction of Dr. E. P. Becton, now
Superintendent of the State Institution of the Blind
at Austin. He attended the medical college at
Louisville, Ky., first in 1884-85 and graduated
there in 1888, at which time he was awarded Whit-
sett Gold Medal by the faculty. Previous to his
graduation he was engaged in practice for three
years at Lone Oajj, in Hunt County, and at Waxa-
hachie, Texas. He went to Dallas in March, 1889,
and has since been identified with the medical pro-
fession in that city. The first year of his residence
at Dallas he was editor of the Courier Record of
Medicine at Dallas, and the third year served as
health oflBcer of the city. He is a member of the
Dallas County Medical Association, the Northern
Texas Medical Association, the Central Texas
Medical Association, and the Texas State Medical
Association. As a member of the latter, he was
elected secretary of the section of practice in 1891,
and chairman of the section of State medicine in
1892. Dr. Rosser married, September 11, 1889,
Miss Elma Curtice, daughter of Mr. John Curtice,
of Louisville, Ky. They have two children,
Curtice and Elma. Both he and his wife are
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church South.
He is also a member of the Knights of Pythias
fraternity. Politically, he has always been an
active Democrat. He was appointed, by Governor
C. A. Culberson, Superintendent of the State
Asylum for the Insane, located at Terrell, a grace-
ful recognition of his abilities and services as a
physician, appreciated by himself and by his wide
circle of friends in the learned profession of which
he is a member.
H. M. HITCHCOCK.
GALVESTON.
Capt. S. M. Hitchcock first came to the island
with his father, Capt. S. M. Hitchcock, who com-
manded the brig " Potomac," in the year 1828, when
there was nothing on the island except an old
barge which was used as a Mexican custom-house.
He and his father had to move their tent out to the
sand hills to procure fresh water by digging.
He returned North with his father in that year
and fitted out the schooner '■'■Brutus "for the Texas
navy, returned with her to Galveston and remained
on her as an officer until 1837, when he resigned
from the navy, went to Connecticut, where he was
married to Miss E. Clifford, and then returned to
the island, where he followed the profession of a
pilot on Galveston bar until the time of his death,
which occurred on the 28th of February, 1869. He
was the first American custom-house officer at Gal-
veston, served as Harbor Master at various limes,
and more than once was elected Mayor of Gal-
veston. Besides following his calling as a sea
pilot and connection with other business enter-
prises during his long residence on the island, he
owned stock in a number of the banking and insur-
ance companies of the city and the Brazos Naviga-
tion Company.
He was the father of four children, two boys and
two girls, of *hom the only one now living is L. M.
Hitchcock, a prominent business man and highly
respected citizen of Galveston. This gentleman
still owns the old home, where his father and
mother spent so many pleasant hours together, and
around which clusters so many sacred memories.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
G31
M. LASKER,
GALVESTON.
Morris Lasker was born February 19th, 1840, at
a small town called Jarocin, Province of Posen, in
Prussia. His parents were Daniel and Rebecca
Lasker, both of whom died in their native country.
Morris Lasker was eighteen months old at the time
of his mother's death and lost his father during the
cholera epidemic of 1852. He attended school
until he was fifteen years old and at the age of six-
teen emigrated to America on a sailing vessel bound
for New York. The ship, after encountering storms
and adverse winds, arrived at Fortress Monroe,
Va., thirteen weeks after she left Hamburg, having
been compelled to enter that port to obtain sup-
plies, after her commissary was entirely completed.
After disembarking he secured employment as a
clerk in a store at Portsmouth, Va., where he re-
mained four months, then went from that place to
New York. He earned a livelihood there as best he
could up to 1857. In the financial panic of that
year all of his little earnings were swept away. He
was then induced by a distant relative, whom he
met, to go to Florida and, after living a few months
in Florida, he went to Georgia, where he carried on
a mercantile business for three years. Not meeting
with any extraordinary success and learning of the
possibilities offered in Texas, he concluded to come
to this State and arrived at Weatherford in the early
part of 1860. At that time Weatherford was an
extreme frontier town furnishing ample opportuni-
ties for adventure, and there he engaged as a clerk
in a dry goods store and participated in various
expeditions against the Indians. He cast his first
vote at Weatherford, against secession; but, after
the State was carried for secession, joined a com-
pany of rangers raised by Capt. Hamner to serve
in Col. John G. Ford's regiment, which, with
others, was raised under orders of the secession
convention. These regiments first entered into the
State service for frontier protection, but were soon
mustered into the Confederate army at San Antonio.
He participated in the battles which resulted in the
recapture of Galveston and Sabine Pass from the
Federals and in the breaking up of the blockade at
both of these ports.
He also participated under Gen. Majors in the
subsequent engagements in which his regiment took
part during the campaign in Louisiana that resulted
in the defeat of Banks' army.
At the close of the war he embarked in
mercantile pursuits, comparatively penniless,
at Millican, where he later formed a busi-
ness connection with Sanger Bros., who are
now carrying on dry goods business at Dallas
and Waco. When the Central Road was extending
towards Dallas he entered business at Bryan and
subsequently at Calvert, where he remained several
years, doing a fairly successful business. He was
then taken in as a partner by the wholesale grocery
firm of Marx & Kempner, at Galveston, which firm
he remained with but one year, entering in July,
1873, into business with Louis Le Gierse, under the
firm name of Le Gierse & Co., a firm which for
years, and until the winding up of the business,
carried on one of the most successful grocery busi-
nesses in the city of Galveston and in the State. At
the present time Mr. Lasker is president of the
Island City Savings Bank, vice-president of the
First National Bank, president of the Lasker Real
Estate Association, president of the Galveston and
Houston Investment Company, and president of
the Citizens' Loan Company. In 1876 he married
Miss Nettie Davis, from Albany, N. Y., who came
to Galveston, on a visit to her uncles, the Messrs.
Heidenheimer. The marriage resulted in the birth
of seven children, six of whom are living now, to
wit: Edward, aged nineteen; Albert, sixteen;
Harry, fourteen ; Fiorina, twelve ; Etta, eleven ; and
Loula, nine.
Mr. Lasker was elected to fill an unexpired term
in the State Senate in 1895. He introduced and
pushed through the Senate the bills' regulating fish
and oyster culture in this State, and also the bill
known as the Drainage Bill. He was one of the
chief supporters of Governor Culberson in the extra
session called by him to suppress prize-fighting.
He ranks as one of the leading and representative
citizens of Galveston, and is considered one of the
most thorough and successful financiers in the
South. He has always believed in the future of
Galveston, and few have done as much toward the
upbuilding of that important port and Texa= i
large.
632
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT,
SAN AUGUSTINE.
It is a source of real pleasure to the author to
preserve in this volume, containing as it does so
many memorials of honored Texians who have
passed away, his estimate of the services and worth
of Matthew Cartwright, whose memory is revered
bj' thousands of the older people of the State who
knew and esteemed him. Texas never had a more
upright or useful citizen.
He was born in Wilson County, Tenn., Novem-
ber 11th, 1807, and removed to Texas with his
parents in 1825. They settled on a farm four miles
east of the present site of San Augustine, and there
he grew to manhood and engaged in farming and
merchandising until 1833 or 1834.
In 1835 Col. Isaac Holman, with his family,
moved from Lincoln County, Tenn., and settled
three miles northwest of San Augustine. His fam-
ily consisted of himself, his wife, five sons, and Ave
daughters. During the year Matthew Cartwright
became a frequent visitor at the Holman home and
on the 18th daj' of October, 1836, he and Miss
Amanda Holman were united in marriage and
settled in San Augustine. She was a faithful help-
meet and assistant in building up their fortunes
and in raising an intelligent family, all of whom
(except A. P. Cartwright, who died in 1873) are
still living and are useful and respected citizens of
Texas.
After his marriage, Mr. Cartwright embarked in
merchandising at San Augustine in copartnership
with his father, later bought his father's interest
and thereafter conducted the business in his own
name until about the year 1847, meeting with
marked success and accumulating large property.
From 1847 to 1860 he was actively engaged in
locating and dealing in Texas lands, riding horse-
back through the State, looking out good locations,
and selling in small tracts to actual settlers on most
favorable terras — frequently granting extensions
covering a score of years to enable purchasers to
secure their homes, and in many instances of death
before completion of payment would make title to
widow or children without further consideration.
Thus he assisted in building up many happy homes
and in settling the country with worthy and pros-
perous people, a man's character for industry and
integrity having great weight with him in control-
ling sales.
In the fall of 1865 he once more engaged in mer-
chandising, taking into the business his sons, A. P.
and Leohidas Cartwright, in order to afford them
business training. His landed interests in about
three years began to demand all of his attention,
but the mercantile business was continued by his
sons until 1870. April 2d of that year his long
and useful career was closed in death. Besides his
many friends, he left his wife, four sons and two
daughters to mourn his loss.
Mrs. Amanda Cartwright survived her husband
twenty-four years, dying at San Augustine in her
seventy-seventh year. After the death of her
husband she resided at the old family homestead,
with her son, Leonidas, who acted as her business
manager until the time of her death. Mr. and
Mrs. Cartwright were beloved by all who knew
them and numbered among their friends all of the
old settlers in San Augustine and adjoining coun-
ties. Columbus Cartwright, the eldest son, was
born in San Augustine August 23, 1837, and still
resides at the old home. He is engaged in the
real estate business, is a very worthy and highly
respected citizen, and is beloved by those among
whom he has so long resided.
A. P. Cartwright, the second son, born March
27, 1840, was a merchant and dealer in real estate
and a fine business man, but was cut short in his
career by the fatal disease, black jaundice, August
11, 1873, at the age of thirty-three years. He was
one of nature's noblemen, honored by all who
knew him, and his death cast a gloom over the
town in which he lived.
Leonidas, Cartwright, the third son, born No-
vember 27, 1842, at San Augustine, was engaged
in the mercantile business with his father and
brother, A. P. Cartwirght, from 1865 to
1869, but in 1870 devoted himself to farming, his
health having become impaired under confinement
in the store. After the death of his father, he
became business manager for his mother in con-
nection with the management of his own real estate
interests and resided at San Augustine until 1895,
when, in April of that year, he removed to Terrell,
Texas, where he has since continued in the real
estate business and is interested to some extent
in live stock, raising fine horses and cattle.
Columbus, A. P., and Leonidas Cartwright were
all in the Confederate army, the former in the
Trans-Mississippi Department under Gen. E. Kirby
MATTHKW CARTWRIGHT.
MRS. MATTHEW CARTWRIGHT.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
633
Smith. A. P. Cartwright served ia the Missouri
campaign under Gens. Ben McCulloch and Ster-
ling Price— in 1861 and 1862, until after the battle
of Elk Horn, when the Third Texas Cavalry was
transferred to Mississippi. He was First Lieuten-
ant of Company E., in that regiment, but resigned
in the spring of 1862 and served during the re-
mainder of the war in Louisiana and Texas in Gen.
Major's Brigade. Leonidas Cartwright was a
member of Company E.,Tliird Texas Cavalry, and
served through the war with it, first under Gens.
McCulloch and Price in Missouri and afterwards in
Mississippi, Tennessee and Georgia under the
several commanders who succeeded Gen. A. S.
Johnson in command of the army of Tennessee, viz. :
Beauregard, 'Bragg, Joseph E. Johnson, and Hood.
Matthew Cartwright, their fourth and youngest
son, born August 11, 1855, resides at Terrell,
Texas, where he is engaged in the real estate and
live stocli business, is president of the First National
Bank, and is Mayor of the city. He has lived in
Terrell since 1875 and is highly respected (in fact
is beloved by all who know him), being of that
generous and warm-hearted nature that wins the
affections of those who come in contact with him in
a social or business way. He has been very suc-
cessful in business, and for years has worked as few
citizens of that place have worked in the upbuild-
ing of the best interests of Terrell.
Mrs. Anna W. Roberts, a daughter of Mr-
Matthew and Mrs. Amanda Cartwright, was born
April 6th, 1844, and resided at San Augustine until
1888, when she moved to Terrell, Texas; after the
death of her late husband, B. T. Roberts, by whom
she had seven children, all living and three of them
grown to man's estate, active business men and
useful citizens of Terrell. She is one of those
lovable women who live to do good and to train
and teach the members of their families to be
ambitious, to excel in the faithful discharge of the
duties of citizenship.
Mrs. Mary C. Ingram, the second daughter, wife
of Capt. J. M. Ingram, now resides at Sexton,
Sabine County, Texas, on Capt. Ingram's father's
old homestead, but is building a residence at Ter-
rell, intending to make that place their future
home. She was born October 18, 1845, at San
Augustine. After her marriage she resided near
Opelousas, La., until 1870, when they removed to
San Augustine and thence from which place they
moved in 1873 to their present home. She will be
missed in her old home where, by her noble Chris-
tian example, she has won the affections of her
neighbors, and will leave many warm friends to
regret that she saw fit to leave them. But, too,
warm hearts will give her and hers a hearty welcome
to Terrell.
W. U. C. HILL,
DALLAS.
W. M. C. Hill, the efficient postmaster at Dallas
and also a prosperous and progressive farmer and
stock-raiser in Dallas County, was born in Franklin,
Simpson County, Ky., April 5th, 1846, the sixth
of a family of ten children born to Isaac and
Pauline (Carter) Hill, natives of Virginia and Ten-
nessee. The father, a mechanic by trade, was
married in Tennessee and at an early date located
at Franklin, Ky. In 1861 he started for Texas and
died en route at Shreveport, La., in September, and
the mother and youngest daughter, Amanda, also
died about the same time from fever contracted on
the 'journey. Our subject and his sister, now Mrs.
C. G. Gracey, were thus left alone, but were taken
care of by their brother-in-law, J. P. Goodnight.
In 1862, Mr. Hill enlisted, in Dallas County, in Com-
pany K., Nineteenth Texas Cavalry, for three years,
or during the war, and served principally in Arkan-
sas and Mississippi. He was also in the Red River
campaign in Louisiana and at the close of the war
returned to Dallas County and followed freighting
for four years. In 1871 he engaged as clerk for
Uhlman & Co., with whom he remained for four
3'ears. In May, 1875, he engaged in the wholesale
and retail grocery business. In November, 1882,
he was elected County Clerk of Dallas County and
served until 1888, since which time be has been
engaged in breeding fine stock. He has a large
stock ranch of 3,000 acres in Dallas County, where
he is principally engaged in breeding mules and
trotting horses, and raising graded short-horn
cattle. He has opened up Fairview Addition to
634
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the city of Dallas, has made many profitable in-
vestments in land in Dallas, and is one of the
directors of the American National Bank of that
city. In August, 1885, Mr. Hill bought a lot and
built a fine residence on G-aston avenue, where he
now resides. Politically, he votes with the Demo-
cratic party and in 1877 was elected an Alderman
of the city, which position he resigned after one
year. He is a member of Tannehill Lodge, A. F.
& A. M., has passed all the chairs of Dallas Chap-
ter No. 47, R. A. M., is a member of Dallas Com-
mandery No. 6, and of K. of P. Coeur de Lion
Lodge No. 70. Both Mr. and Mrs. Hill are mem-
bers of the East Dallas Baptist Church.
Mr. Hill was married in Ellis County, Texas, in
July, 1875, to Lena Bullard, a native of Missouri,
and daughter of John Bullard, a native of Ten-
nessee. Mrs. Hill's mother, nee Parmelia Hodges,
was born in Tennessee and died about 1858 in
Missouri.
The father afterwards emigrated with his slaves
to Ellis County, settling first near the Louisiana
line in Texas and later near Waxahachie, where he
bought land. He died at the home of Mr. Hill in
Dallas, in October, 1876. Our subject's father
was prominent in politics in Kentucky for many
years. He was a member of the Church and was
well and favorably known. His wife was a Church
member from her girlhood days and was an excellent
and pious woman.
Mr. Hill was appointed Postmaster at Dallas by
President Cleveland and has discharged the duties
of that position in such a manner as to win the
highest encomiums from the department and to give
entire satisfaction to the people. Dallas has no
worthier or more popular citizen.
SAMUEL D. HARLAN,
AUSTIN.
The subject of this brief memoir, Capt. Harlan,
was an early navigator of Galveston Bay, Buffalo
Bayou, the Brazos and the Trinity.
Capt. Harlan was about twenty years of age
when he embarked at Pittsburg, Pa., on the steam-
boat" Washington," forTexas. The " Washington"
had been built at Pittsburg for the Texas trade and
made her voyage safely. He landed at Galveston
and in time became one of the originators and pro-
moters of the Houston Direct Navigation Company
and one of its most influential stockholders. This
company has done more for the advancement and
growth of the city of Houston and the develop-
ment of its contiguous territory than any other one
business enterprise. At the beginning of the late
war he promptly identified himself with the South-
ern Confederacy and, upon offering his services to
the government, was detailed as a purchasing
agent. He served as such in Texas during the
conflict, devoting the greater part of his time to
buying mules and horses for the service. After the
war he returned to Galveston and engaged in the
cotton trade. He also acquired business interests
at Leadville, Colo., and Chicago, 111. From over-
work and exposure he contracted disabilities which
resulted in a gradual decline in health. He located
in Austin in 1887, which was thereafter, to the time
of his death, August 14th, 1889, his home. He
died at Waukesha, Wis.
Capt. Harlan married at Washington, on the
Brazos, Miss Martha, a daughter of B. McGregor,
a Texas pioneer of 1844. Capt. Harlan was unob-
trusive in manner. He was a man of strict integ-
rity, social and affable and of noble and generous
impulses.
He left a wide circle of friends and a valuable
estate.
Mrs. Harlan and five children survive. The
children are: Mrs. Mary E., widow of Sam J.
Doggett, of Chicago ; Samuel D. Harlan, of Austin ;
and Ada, Lillie and Robert.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEUS OF TEXAS.
636
THOMAS J. RUSK,
NACOGDOCHES,
Was born in Pendleton District, S. C, Decem-
ber 5th, 1803. He early attracted the atten-
tion of John C. Calhoun, under whose counsels he
was educated and studied law. He then settled in
Georgia, rose rapidly at the bar, married an ac-
complished daughter of Gen. Cleveland and moved
to Nacogdoches, Texas, in the winter of 1834-35.
In personal appearance he was of tall and com-
manding presence, bad a dark, ruddy complexion.
Nacogdoches and his name is affixed to the declara-
tion. Thence till his death in 1857, his history
formed a large and inseparable part of that of
Texas.
By David G. Burnet, the President ad interim
from March to October, 1836, he was made Secre-
tary of War, and later was sent forward to the
army and was a leading actor at the battle of San
Jacinto. When Gen. Houston retired early in May
THOMAS J. RUSK.
deep set and benevolent eyes, and kindly and en-
gaging features instinct with sensibility and reflect-
ing the noble soul within. A single glance won
every heart, and the whole people took him on
trust. Without desire or effort upon his part, he
became the leader of the people of the old munici-
pality of Nacogdoches in the first faint stirrings of
a bloody revolution.
The convention which declared Texas an inde-
pendent Republic met at Washington, on the Brazos,
March 1, 1836. Rusk was there as a delegate from
in search of medical treatment in New Orleans
Rusk was made Commander-in-Chief of the army,
and, at its head, followed the retreating Mexicans
to Goliad. There he called a halt, caused the bones
of Fannin's four hundred and eighty massacred
men to be collected and interred, and over the
remains of the martyred dead delivered an address
that moistened the cheeks of every man in the motley
group of half-naked, half-starved and illy-armed
volunteer soldiery, who with him performed these
last sad rites. For a few months he remained in
636
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
command of the army ; then returned to his home
in Nacogdoches, where he was elected to the first
Congress of the Republic. By that body he was
elected a Brigadier-General of the Republic and as
such in October, 1838, fought and defeated a large
body of Indians at the Kickapoo village in East
Texas.
In July, 1839, he commanded a portion of the
troops in the Cherokee battles of July 16 and
17. In the same year he was elected by Con-
gress, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the
Republic, and held the first term at Austin in the
winter of 1839-40. Under the Republic the
Chief Justice and the District Judges composed
the Supreme Court. He held the position for a
time, then resigned it and devoted himself to the
practice of law, in which he had but a single rival
in East Texas, in the person of his friend. Gen. J.
Pinckney Henderson. He loved the freedom of
retirement and had no taste for office-seeking or
ofHce-holding. However, in 1845, when a conven-
tion was called to form a constitution for Texas as
a proposed State of the Union, he was unanimously
elected a delegate from Nacogdoches. When the
convention assembled on the fourth of July, he was
unanimously elected its president, and when the
Legislature, under its new constitution, assembled
on the 16th of February, 1846, he was elected
by the unanimous vote, of both the Senate and
House, to be one of the two first Senators from the
State of Texas to the Congress of the United States,
his colleague being Gen. Sam. Houston. In 1843
he had been elected Major-General of the Re-
public.
Together, they took their seats in March, 1846 —
together, by the re-election of each, they sat eleven
years, till the melancholy death of Rusk in 1857.
Together, they represented the sovereignty arid
defended the rights of Texas — together, they shed
luster on their State — together, they sustained
President Polk in the prosecution of the Mexican
War — together, they, each for himself, declined a
proffered Major-Generalship in the army of inva-
sion in Mexico — together, they labored to give
Texas the full benefit of her mergence into the
Union in regard to mail routes, frontier protection
and custom house facilities — together, they labored
in behalf of the compromises of 1850, the adjust-
ment of the boundary of Texas and sale (as a peace
offering), of our Northwest Territory to the United
States — and together, they sought to encourage the
construction of a transcontinental railway, on the
parallel of thirty-two degrees north latitude from
the Mississippi river and the Gulf of Mexico,
through Texas, to the Pacific Ocean, an achieve-
ment that found its final accomplishment Decem-
ber 1, 1881, twenty-four years after the death of
Rusk.
For several years Gen. Rusk was elected to
the honorable position of president pro tern, of the
United States Senate and presided with a dignity
and impartiality that commanded the respect and
esteem of every member of that body.
In 1854, with a select band of friends, he
traversed Texas from east to west on the parallel of
thirty-two degrees to see for himself the prac-
ticability of a railway route, and became thor-
oughly satisfied of its feasibility and cheap-
ness. He was a wise man in his day and
generation, a just man in all the relations of life,
a true patriot, a husband and father tender to
weakness, a friend guileless and true, an orator
persuasive and convincing, a soldier from a sense
of duty, in battle fearless as a tiger, in peace
gentle as a dove ; ambitious only for an honorable
name, honorably won, and regarded as dross the
tinsel, display and pomp of ephemeral splendor.
In a word, Thomas J. Rusk was a marked mani-
festation of nature's goodness in the creation of
one of her noblest handiworks. When he died
Texas mourned from hut to palace, for the whole
people, even the slaves, wherever known to them,
loved him.
Would that I could reproduce a few sentences
from the eulogy upon him by that peerless son of
Texas, the late Thomas M. Jack, before a weeping
audience in Galveston. But my copy of it is
among the treasures lost in the late war.
Fidelity to truth bids the statement — so painful
to a whole commonwealth — that this noble citizen,
patriot and statesman, died by his own hand, at
his own home, in Nacogdoches, in the summer of
1857.
His cherished and adored wife, to whom he was
not only attached with rare devotion, but for whom
he had a reverence as remarkable as beautiful, had
died a little before. His grief, quiet but unap-
peasable, superinduced melancholy. A ravenous
carbuncle at the base of the skull racked his brain,
and, in a moment of temporary aberration, he took
his own life, by shooting himself with a gun, and
his soul went hence to a merciful God.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
637
JOHN H. SEARS, M. D.,
WACO.
Dr. Sears is known throughout the State as one
of the pioneers of the medical profession in Texas.
Born in what was at the time Prince Edward, but
now Appomattox, County, Virginia, October 9th,
1826, he was reared under the stable and staid
influence of one of the most historic and patriotic
communities of the Old Dominion. His father,
John Sears, was a thrifty and successful planter
who lived near Appomattox Court House, and the
history of his antecedents, both paternal and
attended a course of medical lectures. Later he
studied medicine at the South Carolina Medical
College, at Charleston, graduating and receiving
his diploma therefrom in the year 1852. He had
visited Texas in 1848, and shortly after the com-
pletion of his medical studies moved to Texas,
influenced in so doing, perhaps, by an elder brother
who had located and become fairly established as a
farmer in Brazoria County. After a brief visit to
his brother. Dr. Sears located for a short time at
JOHN H. SEARS, M. D.
maternal, for generations, dates back to the early
days of Virginia's history. His father was born in
Prince Edward County in 1798 and died in 1890, at
ninety-one years of age.
Dr. Sears' boyhood and youth were spent on the
old homestead where he, with other members of the
family, enjoyed the privileges of good society, good
schooling and a careful and judicious home train-
ing.
After receiving preliminary instruction at Davis
Academy, where he took a special course of study
embracing Greek, Latin and mathematics, he
entered the University of Virginia, where lie
Port Sullivan, where he remained until 1854, and
then moved to Waco, which has ever since been his
home. What is now the beautiful, bustling city of
Waco was then a frontier trading-post, consisting
of one general store and three houses, one of which
was a public stopping-place. Here Dr. Sears " put
out his shingle" and entered upon the practice of
his profession with that vigor and conscientious
devotion to duty that has ever characterized his
professional life. His practice extended over a
wide scope of country, covering the surrounding
counties of Bosque, Hill, Navarro, Limestone, Falls,
Bell, Coiyeli, and adjacent territory.
€38
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
There are probably few, if any, physicians in
Texas who have seen more of pioneer life and had
wider experience as a frontier physician than the
subject of this memoir. As the country became
settled and Waco developed, Dr. Sears' profes-
sional labors were contracted to his home city and
its environs.
Dr. Sears married October 12th, 1854, Mrs.
Angie Amelia Downs, nee Gurley. She was born
in Alabama ; a daughter of Davis Gurley.
Dr. and Mrs. Sears have two daughters and one
son, viz. . Sallie, wife of Mr. J. W. Taylor, the
present efficient District Attorney of McLennan
County ; Mary, wife of Jesse N. Gallagher, of
Waco and candidate for election to the office of
County Judge of McLennan County this year,
1896, and John Sears, a candidate for District Clerk
of McLennan County.
When the clouds of war lowered over the coun-
try. Dr. Sears aligned himself with the cause of
the Confederate States and in 1862 joined the
Thirty-second Texas Cavalry and served as its sur-
geon during the conflict between the States. His
regiment became attached to the army brigade
under command of Gen. Gano, and Dr. Sears was
promoted to the position of Division Surgeon with
the ranli of Major.
When the war closed he returned to his home
and resumed his medical practice. Successful in
all that he attempts, his life and best energies have
been faithfully devoted to his professional labors.
He has long counted among his patients many of
the leading men and women of Central Texas, and
from the time of his arrival in that section has dis-
tinguished himself as a physician and surgeon.
Lofty-minded strength of purpose and a scrupulous
regard for the ethics of the profession are qualities
that have marked his career. He is physically and
mentally well preserved, although in his seventieth
year, and apparently many years of usefulness yet
await him.
ROBERT CALVERT,
ROBERTSON COUNTY.
The subject of this sketch, Judge Robert Calvert,
was born near Wartrace, Tenn., February 9, 1802,
and came of pioneer stock, his parents and grand-
parents being among the early settlers of the trans-
AUeghany country.
His father was William Calvert and his mother,
before marriage, was Lucy Rogers, both reared in
Tennessee, and the latter a native of that State.
His ancestry on his father's side is traced to Ire-
land and on his mother's side to England. His
parental grandfather emigrated from Ireland to
America towards the close of the last century and
settled in Winchester, Va., wlienee he moved at a
later date to Tennessee. He was a Scotch-Irish
Presbyterian and was amply endowed with the
rugged virtues and strict religious views for which
his people were distinguished. Robert was reared
to the practice of these virtues and schooled in the
same religio.us faith, never departing from them in
after life. He grew up in Tennessee and North
Alabama, his parents moving to the latter State
during his boyhood. In Bibb County, Ala., on the
28th of August, 1823, he married Miss Mary
Keesee and, settling on a farm, resided there until
1838. He then moved to Saline County, Ark.,
whence in 1850 he came to Texas and settled in
Robertson County.
In Alabama, Arkansas and Texas, Judge Cal-
vert was engaged in agricultural pursuits, in which
he met with noteworthy success. His plantation in
the Brazos Bottoms was not only the first opened
in that section of Robertson County, but was for
years one of the best equipped and best conducted,
and from its fruitful Belds was annually gathered a
wealth of cotton and corn, then, as now, the
sovereign products of that valley. In a rapidly
settling country, such as Texas was during the early
years of Judge Calvert's residence here, there was a
constant demand for corn and bacon to supply the
incoming settlers, and these commodities he always
had in abundance and sold at reasonable prices.
He was engrossed almost entirely with his farm-
ing operations, but interested himself in a general
way in everything going on around him and was a
firm friend to all sorts of public improvements.
He advocated the extension of the Houston &
Texas Central Railway, through Robertson County,
and, as contractor in connection with Judge William
EOBT. CALVERT.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
639
Davis and Maj. William Hanna, he graded several
miles of that road.
He was past the age for military service during
the late war, but was a friend of the South and gave
the cause of the Confederacy very substantial aid,
fitting the wagon-trains and supplying the soldiers
with horses and equipments. His only son, William
Calvert, was suffering from disease contracted in
the Mexican War and was also unQt for service, but
a grandson, Robert Calvert, then in his eighteenth
year, enlisted and died in the army.
After the war Judge Calvert set himself to work
to repair his wasted fortunes, and during the time
he lived he succeeded admirably with the task. He
was a man of fine business qualifications, had an
extensive acquaintance with the leading men of
Texas, and took up the problems of peace in 1865
with much better prospects of success than did any
of his associates, but unfortunately his life was not
spared to carry forward the work of adjustment
thus begun.
Judge Calvert's only public service in Texas was
as a Eepresentative from Robertson County to the
State Legislature for several terms between 1853
and 1860. During that time he made a creditable
record and strengthened the confidence of the peo-
ple in his honor and ability. In Arkansas he had
been for several terms County Judge of the county
in which he lived, and both there and in Texas he
was active in local politics. He had an acquisitive
mind, was a constant reader, and in those matters
with which he concerned himself he was a sound
thinker. His judgment always commanded re-
spect. He was slow to form conclusions, but he
rarely ever receded from a position when once he
had taken it. He was a man of benevolent dispo-
sition, and his ample means enabled him to give
practical force and meaning to this trait of his
character, nor was he content with merely giving,
but exerted himself personally and assisted others
with his counsel and advice. Knowing that misfor-
tunes would overtake men in spite of the exercise
of good judgment, and, knowing especially, from
experience, the difficulties under which young men
labor in beginning life, he took a pride and pleasure
in aiding such, and in this way created enduring
friendships among his neighbors and those with
whom he was associated. Judge Calvert was for
thirty-five years a ruling elder in the Presbyterian
Church, to the support of which he was a liberal
contributor. He was made a Mason late in life,
but such was the interest he took in the work that
he rose rapidly in the order, becoming a Knight
Templar.
During the prevalence of the yellow fever epi-
demic in Texas in 1867 Judge Calvert was taken
with the disease and died on the 20th of Septem-
ber of that year. His wife survived him till 1873
(December 16), when she, too, passed away. The
issue of their union was the son, William, already
mentioned, who died in Robertson County in 1864
from disease contracted in the Mexican War, and
three daughters, the eldest of whom, Lucy, was
married to George W. Rutherford and died in
Saline County, Ark., in 1851 ; the second, PauUne
J., was married to J. Tom Garrett, and resides at
Calvert, and the youngest, Mary, was married to
Dr. Peter Smith, and died at Waxahachie, Texas,
in 1889. The descendants of Judge Calvert are
not numerous, but wherever found occupy honorable
positions in society and maintain the high standard
of citizenship set up by him in his own career.
SAM. HOUSTON,
HUNTSVILLE,
Was born in Rockbridge County, Va., on the 2d
day of March, 1793. In childhood he was left
fatherless and his mother moved to East Tennessee
adjoining the Cherokee Indians, where he grew to
manhood, familiar with that tribe and much attached
to them and they to him.
He fought as an Ensign under Gen. Andrew Jack-
son and was wounded, a wound that never healed,
at the Horse-Shoe, in the Creek War. He afterward
studied law, was admitted to the bar, served as Gen-
eral of Militia and was elected to Congress in 1823
and 1825. After these terms in Congress he was
elected Governor of Tennessee. While in this posi-
tion he married a lady of beauty and accomplish-
ments. From motives and for causes never made
known, he resigned his high position, withdrew from
his wife, and took up his abode with his old friends,
the Cherokees, then living west of Arkansas.
640
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Tbere he remained until December, 1832, and tJien
entered Texas and located at Nacogdoches and San
Augustine. He was without means. In 1833 he
was a member of the Provincial Convention held at
San Felipe. In 1835 he served as a delegate to the
Kevolutionary ^Consultation, which created a pro-
visional Government and made him Commander-in-
Chief of the army it provided for. In March fol-
lowing, he sat in the convention which declared
independence, adopted a constitution, and estab-
lished an independent Republic and by that body
was re-appointed Commander-in-Chief. After receiv-
ing the tidings at Gonzales of the fall of the Alamo,
he retreated slowly to the Colorado, the Brazos,
and finally to San Jacinto, and there, April 21st,
1836, fought and won the decisive battle that scored
Texian Independence. He showed great bravery
and was severely wounded in the engagement.
Leaving the army he repaired to New Orleans for
medical treatment and remained there for some
time. In August, 1836, with slight opposition, he
was elected the first President of the Eepublic of
Texas. By the constitution he was ineligible for
re-election, and was succeeded, at the close of 1838,
by Gen. Lamar, the former Vice-president, for a full
term of three years. In 1839 and 1840 he was
elected to Congress from San Augustine and took a
leading position on all the great questions, and they
were numerous, in that body. His influence was
never greater. In the prime of life, his great
powers of oratory and reason were used with
signal effect. It was then, at the session of
1839-40, that the compiler of this memoir first
saw and heard him in debate, and his youth-
ful mind was struck with surprise and admiration
at his magnificent person and magnetic power.
Neither before nor since has he ever beheld a finer
specimen of physical manhood. Standing about six
feet two inches, with large and perfectly formed
frame, erect as possible for man to be, dressed in
excellent taste, grace in every movement and a voice
as deliberate as melodious, he seemed the embodi.
ment of nature's handiwork in preparing a leader
for the people. Occasional outbursts carried every
auditor with irresistible force. When aroused, in
repelling attack, his shafts of sarcasm and defiance
struck wherever aimed with the precision of a gladia-
tor. His services at this time were greatly appreci-
ated by the people and in 1841 he was returned to
the presidential chair by a large majority. His sec-
ond term covered three eventful and portentous
years in our history, covering three Mexican invas-
ions of the frontier, a continued border warfare,
the temporary removal of the seat of government,
treaties with some of the wild tribes — negotiations
with Great Britain touching the integrity of the
Republic and our relations with Mexico, and the
earlier negotiations with the United States in relation
to the annexation of Texas to that country, besides
many other grave matters of deep import to the
country. That he rose equal to every emergency
and displayed the highest order of executive ability
and statesmanship, is conceded even by those who
then or since differed from him on questions of
policy. He retired from the presidency at the close
of 1844 on the eve of the proposition made in March
following by the United States for our annexation,
which was peacefully and happily consummated in
the succeeding February.
In 1845 Gen. Houston was elected to the conven-
tion which framed our first State constitution, but
he hurried to attend the dying bed of his life-
long friend and patron, Gen. Andrew Jackson, and
did not, in consequence, sit in that one of the ablest
of the many able assemblages which have made
constitutions and laws for Texas.
One of the first acts of the first Legislature which
assembled in February, 1846, was almost unani-
mously to elect Gen. Houston and his friend, Gen.
Thomas J. Rusk, to the United States Senate, where
they both remained, Gen. Rusk until his death in
1857, and Gen. Houston for about twelve years.
Prior to this, on the 9th day of May, 1840, Geu.
Houston wedded Miss Margaret M. Lea, of Ala-
bama, a lady eminently fitted by sound judgment,
the most substantial graces, quiet but sincere affec-
tions, aversion to pomp, and of the strongest domes-
tic attachments, to fill the void which must have
existed in the recesses of his heart in former years.
The union proved most happy until severed by
death and was blessed, as will hereafter be seen, by
the birth of four sons and four daughters. Mrs.
Houston was a consistent Christian woman, and a
member of the Baptist Church. A few years later
her husband joined the same body of Christians,
and both died in its faith.
When Gen. Houston entered the United States
Senate, in March, 1846, he was regarded with
more interest, real as well as romantic, than
any man who ever entered that august body.
Twenty years before he had left the House of Rep-
resentatives with a brilliant reputation. His career
since, in its vicissitudes, alternating between exile
in the wilderness and the highest positions, both
civil and military, was without a parallel in Ameri-
can history and had thrown a halo around his name
which interested and captivated wherever his
stately form was seen. In the Senate he was
warmly greeted by Clay, Calhoun, Webster, Ben-
ton and other eminent men who were in Congress
SAM HOUSTON,
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
641
during his service so long before. The respect
shown him by such men, irrespective of political
divisions, must have been touchingly grateful to
him and was hailed by the people of Texas with
both pride and gratulation. It was a scene worthy
of the master hand of Rafael.
His long service in the Senate, during which
occurred the Mexican War, the sectional strife fol-
lowing the acquisition of California, the compro-
mise measures of 1850, the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise, and the enactment of the Kansas-
Nebraska Bill, of 1854, was characterized by great
moderation and a sincere desire to heal and avoid
sectional irritation as the means of preserving har-
mony in the Union and perpetuating its blessings
to posterit5'. His utterances breathed a lofty spirit
of patriotism and commanded universal respect,
including as well those who differed from him on
any given question. He retired from the Senate
with a name unsullied, and worthy of an American
Senator in our best days.
In 1857, a year or two before the expiration of
Gen. Houston's term in the Senate, his friends
placed him in the field as a candidate for Governor,
against Hardin E. Runnels, the Democratic nom-
inee. The vote stood, for Runnels, 32,552 ; for
Houston, 23,628; Runnels' majority, 8,924 — total
vote, 56,180.
In 1859, Gen. Houston was elected Governor
over Mr. Runnels by about six thousand majority.
To some extent sectional issues influenced the can-
vass, but the question of protection to our frontier
against the wild Indians did more than any one
thing to secure his triumph before the people. It
overshadowed all other issues, with several thou-
sand exposed people, dissatisfied with the existing
state of things, and who yielded him almost their
unanimous suffrage.
The historic canvass of 1860, crowned with the
election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidency, followed.
The history of those days is fresh in the public
mind and need only be referred to in so far as to
state correctly the position of Governor Houston,
about which, in some respects, there is diversity of
opinion and certainly some misconception. That
he was opposed to secession and desired the pres-
ervation of the Union in its original spirit, there
can be no division of opinion. He regarded seces-
sion by separate State action as calculated to inter-
pose insuperable obstacles to final reconciliation
and used his influence to prevent it. He thought a
fraternal consultation through commissioners from
all the Southern States should precede final and
distinct action by either r and trusted that such a
convocation would lead to peaceful measures of
i\
adjustment and preserve the Union intact. As a
last resort, should secession occur, there is reason
to believe that he preferred that Texas should
remain alone, assume her position as an independent
Republic, and await the developments of time and
providence — mayhap it might thus become her
mission to be the means of ultimate reconciliation.
His messages to the Legislature, his public addresses
and other utterances, which were numerous and
elaborate, will furnish the key to his true position
at that momentous period of our history, while
secession was yet an open question. With an im-
mense majority, about three-fourths of the people,
as subsequently shown, manifestly in favor of a
different course — of secession by separate State
action — both the Legislature artd convention being
in session — the bearing of Gen. Houston was
worthy of his great name.
He declined calling a convention of the people,
as had been done in most of the other Southern
States ; but convened the Legislature in extraor-
dinary session. Under recommendations from the
Lieutenant-Governor and other public functiona-
ries, besides a considerable number of representa-
tive men, a convention was chosen and assembled
in Austin on the 27th of January, while the Legis-
lature was in session.
The secessionists in the Legislature and conven-
tion, were resolved that Texas should link her
destiny with her sister Southern States. The ordi-
nance of secession was passed February 1st, the
convention adjourned and the ordinance was sub-
mitted to and adopted by the people by an over-
whelming vote. The convention reassembled on
the 2d of March. Houston advised Texas to resume
her former position as a Republic. The conven-
tion, however, passed an ordinance uniting it with
the Southern Confederacy. All State officers were
required to take the oath to support the new gov-
ernment. This he and his secretary of State, Mr.
Cave, refused to do, were displaced from office and
Lieut.-Gov. Edward Clark inaugurated as Gover-
nor.
While Houston published an address to the
people of Texas protesting against this action, he
offered no serious opposition and quietly retired to
private life. Thrall says:. "In Houston's retire-
ment, he was not happy. He looked upon seces-
sion as an accomplished fact: he viewed with
inexpressible grief the war measures adopted by
both contending armies ; he feared that Republican
institutions would be superseded by two centralized
despotisms in which the liberties of the people
would be swept away ; and the prospect saddened
him. His last appearance before a public audience
642
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was in the city of Houston, on the 18th of March,
1863."
His address on that occasion was one of the
most touching and splendid orations ever delivered
on American soil.
He died on the 26th of July, 1863, and his
remains are interred at the city of Huntsville. His
life found its close while the clouds of war lowered
over the country.
Ex-President Anson Jones and some others of
less note severely criticised Gen. Houston for not
offering battle to Santa Anna at the Colorado,
checking him there and preventing the laying waste
of the settled part of Texas lying east of that
stream ; and still others have charged that he
deserved no credit for, but was compelled by those
serving under him to fight the battle of San Jacinto ;
but these aspersions have been time and again dis-
proved and one of the strongest evidences of their
falsity is the fact that Gen. Thomas J. Rusk, the
Texian Secretary of War, in his official report of the
battle of San Jacinto, gives Houston full credit for
that engagement, and testifies to the personal hero-
ism that he displayed on the field, and the further
fact that at no other time during the campaign and
at no other spot and under no other circumstances
could such a decisive and crushing defeat have been
infiicted upon the enemy. That single battle won
for Texas her independence. No engagements with
Santa Anna troops on the Colorado could have done
so. If other testimony were needed, it would be
only necessary to call attention to the fact that the
verdict of his countrymen and of the world during
his lifetime recognized that he had justly won the
laurels that clustered upon hia brow. Furthermore,
there is not an old Texian living to-day who would
not hasten to speak up in his defense should an
effort be made to blacken his memory.
Dueling was in vogue in Gen. Houston's day.
The only rencontre of the kind to which he was a
party, took place while he was a member of Con-
gress from Tennessee. One of his constituents
complained that he had not received garden seed
which Houston said he had sent him from Washing-
ton. Gen. Houston stated his belief that the fail-
ure was due to the local postmaster, and criticised
that individual severely. The result was a chal-
lenge which Gen. Houston declined, under the code,
declaring that the postmaster was not his equal.
The bearer of the challenge sneeringly remarked
that he believed that Houston would not fight any-
toody, or under any circumstances, to which Hous-
ton replied, " Suppose you try me." The gentle-
man at once challenged Houston, the challenge was
promptly accepted, and at the meeting Houston
severely wounded his antagonist at the first fire. In
Texas, Gen. Houston was challenged a number of
times, but in each instance declined the field and
that very properly. At the Horse Shoe, at San
Jacinto and on the so-called field of honor itself,
and in a thousand ways he had abundantly proven
his intrepidity. His bold and aggressive course in
public life necessarily made for him hundreds of
enemies and, had he accepted one of these chal-
lenges, scores of others would have been presented
to him, as his enemies would have been delighted
at an opportunity to sacrifice his valuable life. He
was too great a man and his services were too
greatly needed by the country for him to have been
made a victim of a desperado's bullet under the
barbarous code duello.
He was for a time the leader of the Know-
Nothing party in^ Texas, and this, to some extent,
alienated a large number of his friends ; but no
man doubted his purity of purpose or devotion to
what he considered the best interests of his country.
It is a fact not generally known that — before the
Democratic convention of 1860 split — and put two
tickets in the field, he came very near receiving the
nomination of the united Democracy for the office
of President of the United States. Had he received
the nomination and the entire Democratic vote of
the country been cast for one set of candidates,
Mr. Lincoln would have been defeated, the war
between the States at least been postponed, and, pos-
sibly, some compromise been effected that would
have harmonized the differences existing between
the Northern and Southern States. The ambition
of his life was to be the President of two republics,
and at one time it looked as if that ambition was to
be gratified. His biographers, on the one hand, have
committed the error of representing him as a man
entirely without faults, and on the other of dealing
almost solely in detraction. The truth is, that all
men, both small and great — the greatest that have
trod the world's stage of action not excepted —
have had their defects ; but, in such instances as
his, these infirmities have but served to bring out
in stronger relief their nobility of mind and charac-
ter, and to intensify the brilliancy of their achieve-
ments. He was truly a great man and Texas owes
him a debt of undying gratitude that posterity, like
the Texians of this generation, will never cease to
acknowledge.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
643
WILSON I. RIDDLE,
SAN ANTONIO.
Wilson Irwia Riddle, a pioneer Texian of San
Antonio, now deceased, was born near Dublin, Ire-
land, in 1811, and at the age of eight years was
brought to America by his parents, who settled
in Howard County, Penn., where his boyhood
and youth were chiefly spent. At about the age of
twenty he went to Nashville, Tenn., where he
became a clerk in the mercantile house of Robinson,
■Gibson & Co. From that city he went to Pulaski,
Tenn., where he was in business for himself for
about five years. From that place he went to New
Orleans and there, in 1839, joined Fisher & Miller's
colony and moved to Texas, coming direct to San
Antonio, where he took up his residence and at
once embarked in merchandising. Mr. Riddle was
successfully engaged in business at this place until
the capture of San Antonio in the spring of 1842
by Vaaquez. In the meantime he paid two visits to
Tennessee, one in 1840 and another in 1841. On
the occasion of his last visit he married (April 26,
1841) Miss Elizabeth Menefee, of Pulaski, Tenn.,
and immediately brought his bride out to
Texas. This lady, now Mrs. Canterberry, is still
living in San Antonio, and is one of the oldest
American residents of the place — a lady of intelli-
gence, with a memory richly stored with reminis-
cences of early days in Texas. She is a native
•of Culpepper County, Va. , and a daughter of
John and Elizabeth Menefee, also of Virginia
birth, who, about the close of the first quarter of
this century, moved to Middle Tennessee, where
their daughter was reared, her education, which
was ample, being obtained in Nashville.
Mrs. Canterberry gave the writer an interesting
account of her bridal trip to Texas. The journey
was made by the river route from Nashville to New
Orleans, thence by the gulf to Houston, and thence
to San Antonio by private conveyance, her husband
having arranged for his servants to meet them at
that point with a carriage and baggage-wagon and
necessary camping outfit. The time consumed in
jnaking the journey from her old home in Tennes-
see to her new home in Texas was one month, lack-
ing two days.
On the occasion of the Mexican raid under Vas-
quez, in the spring of 1842, Mr. Riddle was among
the last Americans to leave the city. There had
been so many rumors of invasions that he had come
to distrust such reports, and it was not until he was
shown a letter from Mexico by one of the local
priests, Padre Calvo, that he finally became con-
vinced. As£oon as he was satisfied that the Mexi-
cans were coming, he rolled what powder he had on
hand — . six kegs — into the river so as to prevent its
falling into the hands of the enemy, and, abandon-
ing the rest of his goods and household effects,
took his family to Gonzales for safety.
Mr. and Mrs. Riddle's only child, now Mrs.
Sarah E. Eagar, was then an infant ten days old.
All of Mr. Riddle's property fell into the hands of
the raiders, and all of it, except a piano, which had
been hastily boxed up, was either appropriated to
their use or destroyed.
In the fall of 1842 he returned to San Antonio to
attend court, and was taken prisoner when the city
was captured by Adrian Woll. The District Court
was in session, and the judge and lawyers in at-
tendance were captured. He was chained to one
of the attorneys, William E. Jones, and taken to
Mexico, where he was imprisoned at Perote for
eleven months, at the end of which time he was re-
leased and returned to San Antonio. His wife had
in the meantime (October, 1842) returned to the
city and was occupying their property on Com-
merce street, and looking after her husband's inter-
ests as best she could in the then unsettled condi-
tion of affairs. She was residing in San Antonio
when the Somervell expedition was organized at
that place, and knew Gen. Somervell well, he being
a warm personal friend of her brother. Judge
George Menefee, of Indianola, Texas. In passing,
it may be mentioned that she met, at one time or
another, a majority of the men who figured in the
history of those times, many of them having been
guests at her home.
After Mr. Riddle's release from Perote and re-
turn to San Antonio he settled on a ranch eighteen
miles distant from the city, where, a few years later,
September 12, 1847, he died, his death resulting
from the exposure and hardships endured by him
during his imprisonment in Mexico. His widow
subsequently married Mr. Harvey Canterberry,
from Greenup County, Ky., whom she now
survives. His death occurred December 21,
1859.
By her marriage with Mr. Riddle Mrs. Canter-
berry had two children — Sarah Elizabeth, now
Mrs. Eagar, of San Antonio, and James Wilson
644
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Elddle, recently deceased, who was for many years
a I'esident of Eagle Pass, Texas.
By her second marriage Mrs. Canterberry has
two children — John Warner Canterberry, of Mon-
terey, Mexico, and Mrs. Mildred Lee Watkins, of
Eagle Pass, Texas. She has a number of grand-
children and four great-grandchildren. Her eld-
est born, Sarah Elizabeth, was married to Robert
Eagar in 1866. Mr. Eagar was ■born in Nova
Scotia, and came to Texas in 1850, at which date
he settled in San Antonio. He was for a number
of years a merchant in that city, and died there
February 1, 1883.
To Mr. and Mrs. Eagar three children were
born — Florence (single), Blanche, who was mar-
ried to F. J. Badger, December 17, 1890, and
Fannie, who was married to E. J. McCulloch, Jan-
uary 16, 1890.
SAM. M. JOHNSON,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
S. M. Johnson, a well-known citizen and lawyer
of Southwest Texas, and ex-Postmaster of San
Antonio, now residing at Corpus Christi, was born
in Austin, Texas, September 10th, 1841. His
father, Moses Johnson, was a native of Eastern
New York, born about the year 1808. Moses
Johnson was reared on a farm, but inclined to
books and professional life and studied medicine.
He went West, located near Knoxville, in Knox
County, Illinois, practiced his profession, bought
large tracts of land and made money, but suffered
some financial reverses during the panic year of
1837. He married, at Knoxville, Miss Olivia
Higgins, a daughter of David Higgins. Mr. John-
son after marriage completed his studies at Jeffer-
son Medical College, at Philadelphia, Penn. He
moved from Knoxville to Texas in 1837. Proceed-
ing from Velasco to Washington on the Brazos,
then the capital of Texas. He remained there
until the seat of government was changed to Inde-
pendence, and then moved to that place. He fol-
lowed the final removal of the capital to Austin,
and served by appointment under President Anson
Jones as Treasurer of the Republic of Texas, and
was afterward elected to the oiHce. He was Sur-
veyor of the Port of Lavaca in 1848, and died at
Lavaca in 1852. His wife died three years later.
They left three children.
S. M. Johnson, subject of this notice, lived with
his parents at Lavaca until 1854, and that year was
sent to school at Peoria, 111., and later completed
his education at Wheaton College, near Chicago.
In 1861 he enlisted in the Union army as a member
of the Peoria Battery, attached to the Thirteenth
Army Corps and served for three years, the period
of his enlistment, during which time he took part
in the battles of Prairie Grove, Pea Ridge, Port
Gibson, Champion Hill, Magnolia Grove, Jackson
(Miss.), Black River, and the sieges of Vicksburg
and of Jackson, Miss., and in 1864 was honorably
discharged from the service. After the war he
came South to his old home at Port Lavaca, and
engaged in shipping produce, wool and cotton to
New York, in which business he continued until
1873. He was elected a member of the Constitu
tional Convention of 1867 and took an active part
in the deliberations and work of that body. There-
after he went to Austin, Texas, where he served as
Assistant Clerk of the Supreme Court for about a
year, and in the summer of 1874 went to San
Antonio, where he was appointed Deputy Collector
of Customs for the District of Saluria, Texas,
under C. R. Prouty, Collector.
In 1878 he was appointed by the President, Col-
lector of United States Customs for the Corpus
Christi District, which office he filled for four years
under the administration of President Hayes. He
had in the meantime studied law, and in 1878 went
to San Antonio and entered the office of Judge
Wesley Ogden and, his son, C. W. Ogden, and was
admitted to practice in 1883. Mr. Johnson was
appointed Postmaster at San Antonio in 1890 by
President Harrison, and filled the office for four
years with marked satisfaction to the people. Later
he organized the Laguna Madre Horticultural Com-
pany and is now its general manager. The com-
pany owns a large tract of good land fifteen miles
below Corpus Christi, on the coast of Corpus Christi
Bay, and raises choice table grapes for early spring
delivery in Northern markets. The enterprise is
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
645
on a fine financial footing, and bids fair to be a
source of great profit to those who inaugurated
it.
Mr. Johnson married, at Port Lavaca, Miss
Helen, the accomplished daughter of Judge Wesley
Ogden, ex-Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
Texas (from 1870 to 1872), and Mrs. Jane (Church)
Ogden, whose brother was a Chief Justice of the
Court of Appeals of New York. Mrs. Johnson is a
lady of rare literary and domestic attainments. She
was born at Rochester, N. Y. Mr. and Mrs. John-
son have two children, Ogden C. and Ethel.
MRS. M. W. PETERS,
BEEVILLE.
The following is from an obituary notice an-
nouncing the death of this excellent lady : —
"After a prolonged illness of several months,
Mrs. Margaret Williams Peters, wife of Maj. Stephen
Peters, died at the residence of her son-in-law, Mr.
A. P. Eachal, in this city, last Tuesday morning, at
3 o'clock, July 3d, 1894, and her remains were in-
terred at the Beeville Cemetery the following even-
ing, attended by a large number of friends of her
daughter, with whom she and her venerable hus-
band made their home for a number of years.
"Few citizens, other than natives, are credited
with a longer residence in Texas than the deceased.
Of her seventy-six years, sixty-four were spent in
Texas, she having emigrated from Tennessee in
1830 with her parents, who settled near where the
city of Paris now stands. While a resident of that
part of the State she was united in marriage to
Maj. Stephen Peters, himself a pioneer, and who, a
decade past the scriptural allotment of three score
and ten years, still survives her. Their wedlock
was also blessed with more than the usual allotment
of years, their married life having extended over a
period of fifty-six years.
"Since 1859 Mrs. Peters was a resident of this
section of the State. Early in life she joined and
ever after remained a devout and consistent member
of the Methodist Church. Three of eight children
survive her."
STEPHEN PETERS,
BEEVILLE.
The following is an extract from a notice pub-
lished at the time of Maj. Peters' death: —
"Maj. Stephen Peters, an old citizen of South-
west Texas, died at the residence of his son-in-law,
Mr. A. P. Rachal, in Beeville, Wednesday after-
noon, August 7th, 1895, and was buried the follow-
ing morning at 10 o'clock with Masonic honors.
"The deceased had led an eventful life, and
notwithstanding the hardships incident to the resi-
dence of a pioneer in the West, survived to the ripe
old age of eighty-four. He was born in the State
of Tennessee in 1812, when that State was regarded
as the frontier of American civilization.
"He removed to Texas early in the 30's with one
of the colonies that were induced by the infiuence
of such prominent Tennesseeans as Crockett to cast
their fortunes with the nucleus of Americans who
had already settled in Texas, and had begun a revolt
against the authority of the Mexican autocracy.
Settling in that portion of the State which is now
known as Lamar County, he assisted in laying out
the town of Paris, which of late years has become
a prosperous city. As a natural consequence, life
in Texas at that time was fraught with exciting
incidents, and Maj. Peters experienced his share
of the hardships incident to repelling the Indians
from the young colony of which he was a member.
' ' On the declaration of war between Mexico and
646
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the United States over the admission of the young
Republic to the Union, he joined a company of vol-
.unteers and rose to the rank of Major under Gen.
Rusk, serving throughout the entire campaign.
" At the close of the war he settled in Grayson
County, shortly after which he was attracted to
California by the discovery of gold in that section.
Returning to Texas he went to Madson County
where he resided until 1859 and then removed to
St. Mary's, then a prosperous shipping point on the
coast, and has since resided in this section of the
State. Maj. Peters was married in 1837 to Miss-
Margaret Williams, whom he survived but little
more than a year.
"During his years of active life, Maj. Peters^
was a man of strong individuality. Having lived
through and observed the making of the greater
part of the political history of the country, he
always took a lively interest in public affairs and,
though an invalid for the past few years, he always
exercised the privilege of voting when his health
permitted of his reaching the polls."
DANIEL MURPHY,
TAYLOR.
The subject of this brief memoir was a pioneer
settler in the now thriving town of Taylor, Texas,
one of its most enterprising and successful business
men, and one of its mosthighly esteemed citizens. He
was a native of Ireland and was born of humble but
respected parents. His father died about one month
before Daniel's birth. When our subject was about
two years old, his widowed mother came with her
infant son and daughter to America. At an early
age he was by force of circumstances thrown upon
his own resources and drifted into railroad work.
He was a partner of Mr. Burkitt, of Palestine, Texas
(a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this volume)
for about twenty-flve years. His early struggles in
Texas were manfully made and from the beginning
his sterling character and great business sagacity
rendered it certain that he would carve out for him-
self a successful career. A man of great ambition
and tenacity of purpose, he pursued his business
with a method and determination that brought to him
his financial success. He foresaw the possibili-
ties of Texas in the line of material development and
thoroughly identified himself with the work of build-
ing up the waste places of the State.
He and his partner, Mr. Burkitt, as contractors,
were active factors in the building of the M., K. &
T., and International & Great Northern railways,
and built almost entirely the Austin & Northwestern
road-bed. Upon the dissolution of the firm of
Burkitt & Murphey, Mr. Murphey located at Taylor
and laid the foundation for the fortune which, by
business tact and enterprise, he has amassed. More
than any other citizen of Taylor he aided in inaug-
urating useful enterprises and local improvements
and, when his tragic and untimely death occurred,
was Taylor's foremost business citizen. He owned
a half interest in the Taylor Ice & Water Company,
was a stockholder and director in the Taylor Inter-
national Bank, owned the La Grande Hotel Block,
besides much other valuable property in and about
the city, and valuable mining properties in Mexico.
He was a man of domestic tastes. Mr. Murphey
married at Austin, Texas, January 9th, 1877, in St.
Mary's Church, Mrs. Hanna Boyle, widow of Mr.
Michael Boyle. She proved a most affectionate
and faithful wife and helpmeet, sharing with
him with great fortitude, all of his cares and
reverses and, with great pleasure and gratification,
his many and signal successes. As a widow she
brought to the household one infant daughter, Miss
Grace, now grown and finely educated. Later,
two sons were born to the happy union, viz. : Daniel
George, born in Houston, January 29th, 1878, and
Joseph, born in Palestine, October 26th, 1880.
George is now (1896) eighteen years of age, has
been given excellent educational advantages and,
having also been schooled by his father in business
matters, is practically the manager of the Taylor
Ice and Water Company. Joseph, too, is a young
man of fine business judgment and has given some
attention to his father's mining interests in Mexico.
Mr. Murphey' s death occurred at the Pacific Hotel
in Waco, Texas, Sunday, September 13th, 1896.
The remains were brought to Taylor for interment,
and it is said to have been the largest funeral in
the history of Taylor.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
647
WILLIAM M. HARRISON,
FORT WORTH.
Col. William M. Harrison was born in Bourbon
County, Ky., April 26, 1819. His grandfather,
James Harrison, immigrated in an early day from
Ireland to Pennsylvania, and settled near Philadel-
phia, and there married a Miss Carlysle, an English
lady of fine educational accomplishments, by whom
he had ten children, in the order named, viz. :
Hugh, James, William, Hettie, John, Mary, Eobert,
Carlysle, Joseph, and Thomas.
John moved to Kentucky, where he married-Eliz-
abeth, daughter of William and Elizabeth (wee
the education in tlie countr3' schools of that county.
At sixteen he started out for himself, leaving Mis-
souri for Arkansas, and engaged as a clerk in his
brother James' store, in Washington, Hempstead
County, in 1835. After remaining in this position
eighteen months, upon a moderate salary, he went,
in the fall of 1836, to Jonesboro, then in Miller
County, Ark., now Eed Eiver County, Texas, where
he commenced mercantile business on his own
account, on a capital of about $1,500 and credit for
any amount he wanted. He left Jonesboro and
WILLIAM M. IIAREISON.
Newman) McClanahan, both of whom were natives
of Virginia, where they were married before their
advent into Kentucky. After his marriage John
Harrison, in consequence of his limited means,
engaged in various kinds of manual labor, one of
which was the building of post and rail fences.
After accumulating some means he engaged in dis-
tilling. In 1819 he moved to Howard County,
Mo., and settled near where Glasgow now stands.
Col. Harrison's mother died in the year 1845,
about sixty years of age. His brothers, of whom
the late well-known James Harrison, of St. Louis,
was one, all became wealthy. He was raised to
farm life in Howard County, Mo., and received all
went to Clarksville in 1844, where he continued
merchandising until the breaking out of the war.
He purchased a plantation of 1500 acres (600 in
cultivation) in Red Eiver County in 1849, com-
menced planting and continued this business, in
connection with his mercantile operations, during
the same period, when the mercantile business was
discontinued, but the planting continued until the
surrender. After having served as Quartermaster
in the Confederate army, with the rank of Captain,
about eighteen months, he returned from Corinth,
where he had been stationed, and was elected to
the Legislature from Eed Eiver County, serving one
term.
6t8
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The accumulations of his life, up to the begin-
ning of the war, which were not less than $150,000,
consisting largely in negro property and assets due
in mercantile pursuits, were swept away by the
results of the struggle. After the surrender he sold
his plantation for ten thousand dollars in gold (not
half its real value prior to the war), and on this
capital and twenty thousand dollars, which he bor-
rowed, commenced the warehouse, wholesale gro-
cery and commission business' at Jefferson, Texas,
as partner in the firm of Wright, Harrison & Co.
Afterwards Mr. Wright retired, having sold out his
interest to his partners, when the style of the firm
was changed to J. W. & J. R. Russell & Co. In
this company and business he continued until the
partnership was dissolved by the death of J. W.
Russell. After the firm's dissolution Col. Harrison
became one of the original charter members of the
First National Bank of Jefferson, which began
business in March, 1871, and was elected its first
president, a position that he continued to fill until
he removed to Fort Worth. He was one of the
projectors of the East Line and Red River Railway,
now extending from Jefferson to McKinney, which,
after languishing for several years as a corporation
in name only, was taken in hand by him, and
mainly by his efforts pushed to successful comple-
tion. Desiring a more extended field of operations,
he moved to Fort Worth in 1884, where he estab-
lished the State National Bank. He was president
of the State National Bank at the time of his death.
The estate he left to his widow and children was
estimated at $500,000.
Co). Harrison became a mason in 1842, in Friend-
ship Lodge, No. 16, Clarksville, and afterwards
took the Chapter and other degrees. He was also
a member of the Legion of Honor.
He was raised an ardent Henry Clay Whig, but
acted with the Democratic party after the sur-
render. He was opposed to secession, but went
with his people, feeling it his duty to aid them,
both by contributions and service.
He first married, in Clarksville, Texas, July 1,
1845, Miss Elizabeth Shields, who was born in
Giles County, Tenn., September 7, 1829, daughter
of William Shields, a farmer, and niece of Col.
Ebenezer J. Shields, at one time a member of
Congress from Tennessee. She died September 11,
1853. By this marriage, Col. Harrison had three
children, all born in Red River County, Texas:
Medora, born September 12, 1848, died September
17, 1864; Mary E., born December 20, 1850, died
October 25, 1851; and Elizabeth Louise, born
October 17, 1852, still living.
Col. Harrison married, in Clarksville, Texas,
January 18, 1855, Miss Elizabeth Ann Epperson, a
native of Tennessee, born October 11, 1835, daugh-
ter of Cairo Epperson, a planter, and a scion of a
South Carolina family. By this marriage Col.
Harrison had six children, all born in Clarksville,
viz. ; Mary, born March 19, 1856 ; William B., born
January 13, 1858; John C, born June 25, 1859;
Sally (now Mrs. Gov. C. A. Culberson), born July
25, 1861 ; James, born September 17, 1863, and
Amanda, born September 28, 1865, the latter of
whom died June 21, 1866.
Col. Harrison was a member of the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church.
He was one of the clearest-headed and ablest
financiers ever in the State; enterprising, public-
spirited, and generous in his support of every
worthy cause. He is remembered lovingly by
thousands of friends and admirers.
CONRAD MEULY,
CORPUS CHRIST!.
It is doubtful if Texas ever had a more brave,
loyal and patriotic pioneer than the late Conrad
Meuly, whose home during a greater portion of his
life was at or in the vicinity of Corpus Christi.
He was born in Canton Graubunten, Switzer-
land, April 12, 1812, and there lived until twenty-
one years of age and then came to America. His
father was an oflSce-holder, a man of affairs and a
well-to-do citizen. Conrad, with others of the
family, grew up under good business and social
influences and was accorded a good education.
Upon coming to America he landed at New York
City, and at once set about the study of the English
language, which in a short time he so far mastered
as to speak and write it with intelligence and
fluency.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
649
In New York he heard of the wonderful resources
of Texas and the opportunities offered there to
young men to make fortunes ; purchased a stock of
silk dress-goods and laces and started with them
for the Lone Star Republic. He reached Texas
just in time to join the Santa Fe expedition, taking
along with him his stock of merchandise, which
was valued at $1,600, and upon which he sus-
tained a total loss. The outcome of the ill-fated
expedition is well known to the readers of Texas
history.
Mr. Meuly was among those who marched on foot
to Mexico as prisoners, condemned to be shot for
intriguing against the Mexican government, and
required to draw beans in the lottery of death that
decided who were and who were not to be executed.
He drew a white bean and escaped with his life.
Those who drew black beans were shot. Upon be-
ing released from imprisonment he started for
Texas with John Rahm, and, after suffering almost
indescribable hardships, reached San Antonio.
From San Antonio he went to Houston, where he
met and made the favorable acquaintance of the
late T. W. House, whose confidence he gained and
whose aid he secured in opening a bakery and con-
fectionery business. The business prospered, and
Mr. House was ever after his staunch friend.
Mr. Meuly married, in New Orleans, June 19, 1847,
Miss Margaret Rahm, sister of his friend John,
German by birth, and a lady of superior intelli-
gence and education. The year following they
located in Corpus Christi, where they embarked in
the bakery and confectionery business on Water
street. When Gen. Taylor's army was on Its way
South Mr. Meuly furnished him quantities of the
product of the bakery, for which Gen. Taylor paid
him well.
His business increased ; to his stock were added
groceries and dry goods, and he continued there
until 1862. Mr. Meuly was a brave and patriotic
man and made no concealment of his pronounced
loyalty to the Union and, when the war between the
States broke out, he openly predicted failure for
the Confederacy, and for this he was unpopular and
made to suffer in various ways ; but even threats
of hanging and the confiscation of his property
failed to intimidate him and he continued in trade
until the bombardment of Corpus Christi in Aug-
ust, 1862, and then moved to his ranch, twenty-five
miles distant in the country. He is said to have
owned 15,000 head of cattle on this ranch. Many
were confiscated by tlie Confederacy, however.
Mr. Meuly, later, near the close of tlie war, con-
tracted under the United States Government to
deliver supplies and, while on one of his business
trips, died in Brownsville of yellow fever, July 10,
1865. He left a large estate in lands, stock and
property in Corpus Christi to his widow and family.
Mrs. Meuly still survives, lives at the old home in
Corpus Christi, and of her twelve children, six are
still living, viz.-; Herman, Charles A., Alexander
H., Margaret, Amelia A. and Mary E., the latter
of whom is now Mrs. Charles F. H. Blucher.
Ursula, the eldest, married William H. Daim-
wood. She died May 14th, 1895, leaving five
children.
Mr. Meuly was a kind-hearted and benevolent
man, always in sympathy with the worthy poor.
He was honest and upright in all his dealings
and was highly respected by ail who knew him.
JAMES LAWLOR,
HOUSTON.
Capt. James Lawlor was born in the city of
Limerick, Ireland, November 1st, 1855. Spent
his early boyhood days in Clontarf, Dublin, and
came to America in 1870, landing at Boston, Mass.,
where he remained for a short time ; then proceeded
west to Chicago, and from that city on to Colorado,
where he worked as a miner and engaged in various
business pursuits. From Colorado he went to St.
Louis, Mo., where he engaged in the hotel business.
About ten years ago Capt. Lawlor moved to
Houston, Texas, where lie is the proprietor of the
Lawlor Hotel, and has identified himself with the
business and social interests of that city.
Always deeply interested in the movement being
made in this country in behalf of Irish self-govern-
ment, Capt. Lawlor's name, at ever}' stage of his
busy life, has been associated with those of the men
who have done most in behalf of down-trodden and
misgoverned Ireland. Pressing business engage-
ments, however, kept Capt. Lawlor from the New
650
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Movement Convention, recently held at Chicago,
but his genial friend, Mr. Patrick Barry, of Galves-
ton, Texas, suggested his name as a member of the
Executive Board of Nine, and he was unanimously
elected to that position by the convention.
Capt. Lawlor is in command of the Emmet Rifles,
a crack company of the Texas Volunteer Guard,
and is also president of the Emmet Council and
Benevolent Association, of Houston, Texas. He is
an exemplary citizen, a steadfast Irish Nationalist,
a friend of the oppressed of all countries, a
man of commanding appearance ; whole-souled,
generous and genial, and has many thousands of
friends throughout Texas.
Before leaving Colorado Capt. Lawlor married
Miss Anne McNally, a resident of St. Louis, but
claiming Ireland as her native land, and with his
handsome wife and a lovely daughter, just growing
into young womanhood, Capt. Lawlor's domestic
life leaves nothing to be desired.
GREEN A. RABB,
CORPUS CHRISTI.
It is seldom, if ever, that the writer of local his-
tory has occasion to chronicle the life of a more
successful and popular citizen than that of the sub-
ject of this brief memoir.
A member of one of Texas' oldest and most
respected families, a great-grandson- of a member of
the first colony of American settlers of the State,
his life reflected those strong traits that have char-
acterized his ancestors wherever known. Prior to
the year 1819 data concerning the Rabb family is
quite meager, and to various pioneers of Texas and
also to old records and published documents the
writer is indebted for the following briefly stated
facts touching this pioneer family: —
The founder of the Rabb family in Texas was
Wm. Rabb, who was a Pennsylvanian by birth and
of Dutch descent. His family lived at the time of
his birth in Fayette County. They later came West
and located in Illinois on the Mississippi river,
nearly opposite St. Louis, Mo. There Mr. Rabb
erected a water-mill for grinding flour, operated it
successfully for a time, sold out, and with his fam-
ily removed to Washington, Ark., where he resided
until the year 1819. He then, with a son, Thos. J.
Rabb (known as Capt. Rabb), made a prospecting
trip to Texas, exploring quite an extent of country,
including the Colorado and Guadalupe valleys. In
1821 they put in a crop of corn on land included in
what is familiarly known as Rabb's Prairie. This
is conceded to be the first corn raised by an Amer-
ican in all that region of country. Returning to his
home and family in Arkansas they prepared to take
up their journey to their newly selected home in
Texas, and joined Austin's first colony of 300,
arriving in December, 1821. Early in 1822 Wm.
Rabb crossed the Colorado river at the present loca-
tion of the city of La Grange and erected one of the
first block-houses in that section.
It was located on what is known as Indian Hill,
about four miles east of West Point, Fayette
County, and the entire neighborhood took part in its
building. In 1823 the Indians raided the country and
the settlers took refuge in this fort, from which they
successfully, for three days, defended themselves,
suffering only the loss of some stock, killed
and "stolen. Following the occurrence Mr. Rabb
moved with his family and belongings to Wharton
County, where two sons, Thomas and Andrew, had
previously located. There he pursued stock-raising
until 1829, and then returned to his former place
and settled on Rabb's Prairie, where he extensively
engaged in stock-raising. In 1831 he erected a
grist mill on the Colorado river at Rabb's Prairie,
getting the greater part of the material at New
Orleans. He imported the mill stones, or burrs,
from Scotland. They were landed at Matagorda.
There were no wagons in the country in those days
and how to transport the ponderous stones from
the coast to the point of destination became a
question. Mr. Rabb's ingenuity was equal to the
emergency, however, and he made a wooden axle,
attached thereto a tongue, used the mill stones for
wheels and, with several yoke of oxen brought
them to the site of the mill over some two hundred
miles of rough roads in a new country. For the
construction of this mill, the Mexican government
granted him three leagues of land which he located
on Rabb's Prairie — said to have been the richest
bottom lands along the Rio Grande.
During the construction of this mill, Mr. Rabb,
GRKEN A. IIABB.
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
651
owing to the infirmities of advancing years and ex-
posure to tlie rigors of frontier life, was tal^en sick
and died (in 1832) at about sixty years of age.
He was a man of great energy and strict integrity,
and his name as a pioneer and the founder of a
large and influential family deserves a place upon
the pages of Texas history. Mr. Rabb was mar-
ried to Miss Mary Smalley in Illinois. She proved
to him an ever faithful wife and sympathizer in all
of his ambitions. She bore him five children, viz. :
Rachel, who became the wife of A. M. Newman ;
Andrew, John, Thomas (who was known as Capt.
Rabb), and Ulysses. John Rabb, the father
of Green A. Rabb, the subject of this sketch, was
a son of Andrew Rabb. He was a successful
farmer and stock-raiser, came to Southwest Texas
and engaged in stock-raising. He served as an
officer, doing gallant service for the Southern Con-
federacy in the Rio Grande river country, during
the war between the States. He also helped Texas
gain her independence from Mexico. He was born
August 16th, 1825, and was married May 25, 1848,
to Miss Martha Regan, who bore him seven chil-
dren.
Green A. Rabb, subject of this .sketch, was born
at Yorktown, Texas, August 29th, 1854, and mar-
ried, November 21st, 1883, Miss Cora B. Oppelt, a
daughter of Judge Benjamin Oppelt, of Kemper
County, Miss., a lawyer by profession, and Judge
of the District Court.
Mr. Rabb was educated at Corpus Christi. He
early engaged in stock-raising in which he was very
successful. He was a kind, genial and popular
citizen and of the strictest integrity. He had
legions of friends. He left a large estate to his
bereaved widow, who survives him. He died at
Corpus Christi, September 8th, 1894.
He was a man of fine appearance and address,
and one of the most influential men of the section
of the State in which he resided.
ROBERT G. BLOSSMAN,
CORPUS CHRISTI,
Is a son of the late Richard D. Blossman, one of
Texas' early pioneers. He was born in New Or-
leans, La., January 26th, 1851. In 1857 his father
moved to Fort Lavaca, Texas, and entered mer-
chandising. Robert G. Blossman spent his youth
at Port Lavaca, and in 1867 went to Parral, Mexico,
where he worked as commissary for a mining com-
pany for two years. He then returned to Texas,
and clerked for seven years at Indianola for a mer-
cantile establishment. He went to Corpus Christi
in 1877 and remained there in the same capacity
until 1885. He then embarked in trade for himself
in gents' furnishing goods. He continued in this
line for three years, and was then elected District
and County Clerk of Nueces County, and served
one term, giving eminent satisfaction to his constit-
uents. He then entered the grocery business, and
after conducting it one year alone, took as his part-
ner James B. Thompson, Esq., organizing the firm
of R. G. Blossman & Co., which is now one of the
strongest and most prosperous mercantile firms in
Corpus Christi. Mr. Blossman married, in 1879,
Miss Ella Sallean, at Corpus Christi. She was
born in New Orleans, La. They have four chil-
dren, viz. : Laura R., Robert G., Jr., Elenita S.,
and Joseph F. Mr. Blossman's high position in
business and social circles is due entirely to his
own personal exertions.
652
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
MICAJAH H. BONNER,
TYLER.
Judge Mieajah Hubbard Bonner was born near
Greenville, Butler County, Ala., January 25th,
1828. His father, William N. Bonner, a minister
of the Methodist Church, was born in Hancock
County, Ga., in 1806. His paternal grandfather,
Hubbard Bonner, of English descent, was a native
of Maryland, and married Rachel McGee, in 1798.
The mother of M. H. Bonner was Martha Ellen
Wade, who was born in Hancock County, Ga. ,
April 28th, 1808. She was the daughter of Mieajah
Wade and granddaughter of James McCormick, a
gallant Revolutionary soldier, who fought through-
out the seven years war for the liberty of the
Colonies.
From Butler County, Ala., William N. Bonner
removed with his family to Holmes County, Miss. ,
in 1835.
His son, M. H. Bonner, completed his education
in La Grange, Ky., and having carefully prepared
himself by laborious study, obtained license, De-
cember 5tb, 1848, in Lexington, Holmes County,
Miss., to practice law. He emigrated to Texas in
1849, and soon evinced that capacity which ad-
vanced him to the front rank in his profession as
an accomplished and conscientious lawyer. He was
married at Marshall, Texas, July 15th, 1849, to
Miss Elizabeth P. Taylor, whose virtues and accom-
plishments he appreciated with rare devotion. After
his marriage he located in Rusk, Cherokee County,
Texas, where, as a partner of J. Pinkney Hender-
son, and, after his election to Congress, as a mem-
ber of the law firm of Bonner & Bonner, he practiced
his profession until 1873, when he removed to Tyler,
Smith County, Texas. The other members of the
firm of Bonner & Bonner were F. W. Bonner, Col.
Thomas R. Bonner, who was Speaker of the House
of Representatives of the Fifteenth Legislature,
and William Hubbard Bonner, now deceased, son
of M. H. Bonner.
The subject of this sketch was, on the unanimous
recommendation of the lawyers of the Tenth Judi-
cial District, appointed Judge of that district in
May, 1873. It is but proper to state that he was
not at that time a resident of that district, a fact
that evinces the high regard in which he was held
by his professional brethren. On the 16th of Feb-
ruary, 1874, he was appointed by Governor Coke
to the Judgeship of the Tenth District, a position
which he held until 1876, when, after a change of
the State constitution, Tie was elected Judge of the
Seventh District.
On the first day of October, 1878, he was ap-
pointed by Governor Hubbard an Associate Justice
of the Supreme Court, to fill the vacancy caused by
the resignation of Judge Moore, and in November,
1878, was elected by the people to the same posi-
tion, by a very large majority. His term of service
extended from 1878 to 18 — , when he resumed the
practice of his profession at Tyler.
Judge Bonner's career in Texas illustrates more
forcibly than that of almost any other prominent
man how the highest success may be obtained in
the profession of law by one who exemplifies in his
daily walk the life of a Christian gentleman. Dur-
ing his whole professional career he was a devout
member of the Methodist Church, always taking an
active interest in whatever pertained to the cause
of religion. No press of ofHcial or professional
business ever induced him to regret the self-
imposed duties connected with his Church member-
ship.
Although always a' consistent Democrat, he never
figured before the people as a politician. This may
be attributed quite as much to his retiring disposi-
tion as to his fondness for the laborious study and
practice of his profession. Few men ever estab-
lished a more enviable reputation as a District
Judge. His duties on the supreme bench, while
extending the sphere of his usefulness, were so
performed as to secure the unqualified approval of
the profession. Patient and laborious while inves-
tigating a cause, his opinions contain a clear ex-
position of his conclusions and compare favorably
with those of the ablest judges.
Judge Bonner died at his home in Tyler on the
28th day of November, 1883. Of his family his
wife and the following children survive: Charles
T. Bonner, John T. Bonner, Mrs. Annie R. Mc-
Clendon, Mrs. Elizabeth Smith and Mrs. Irvine
Pope, all of whom reside in Tyler.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
653
S. A. EASLEY,
CIRCLEVILLE,
Came to Texas in 1852. He was born about seven
miles from Greenville, S. C, just over the county
line, in Pickens County, August 26, 1826. His
parents were John and Elizabeth (King) Easley.
His mother was of Spartanburg, S. C. His father
was born in Virginia, where his grandfather, Robert,
was born, and lived until removing to South Carolina,
just prior to the close of the Revolutionary war. The
Easley family is a family of planters and Col. S. A.
Easley was reared to that pursuit, acquainting him-
self thoroughly with all of its details. He married,
in 1848, Miss Elizabeth Sloan. His parents were
people of property ; but, of a proud and independ-
ent spirit, the idea of receiving their aid was dis-
tasteful to him, and he and his young wife, who was
in full accord with him, moved to Texas, expecting
to locate in Kaufman County. They visited Kauf-
man and, hearing that a fine tract of land on the
San Gabriel river in Williamson County was for
sale at a bargain, he visited the spot and purchased
the property, buying -it from William Ashworth, a
mulatto free negro who had fought in the Texas
army, and by a special act of the Texas Congress,
had been made owner of the land as a reward for
his services. Col. Easley paid $1.50 per acre for
this league of as fine land as there is in the State.
It was uninclosed and stock roamed at will over
that entire section of the country.
Col. Easley commenced farming, however, rais-
ing wheat, corn and cotton and some stock. He
built on his farm the second cotton gin in the
county, and fenced, improved and developed one of
the finest farming properties in that part of the
State.
A man of broad intelligence and information,
he was elected to represent his district in the
Legislature during Governor Coke's administration.
Aside from this service he never aspired to or filled
a political office. He has practically retired from
active business life to his elegant home, where he is
pleasantly spending his remaining years in the
society of his beloved wife and surrounded by their
six living children, all of whom are grown and com-
fortably settled in life. The children are : Mamie,
now Mrs. Daniel Wilcox, of Georgetown ; Samuel,
whose farm adjoins the old homestead; Nannie,
. now Mrs. Bonnell, of Taylor ; Lizzie, now Mrs.
Fred. Turner, of Austin ; Southie, now Mrs. J. L.
Root, of Williamson County ; and Florence, now
Mrs. Harry Derrett, of Wichita Falls. During the
war between the States Col. Easley served in the
Confederate army as Captain of a company of cav-
alry in Mann's Regiment for two years in the De-
partment of the Gulf.
In 1861, by order of the Governor, all men over
eighteen and under forty-five in Williamson County
were organized into a regiment and Col. Easley
was elected Colonel of the same, hence his title of
Colohel.
His soldierly bearing greatly endeared him to his
comrades in arms and his sterling traits of character
and useful and honorable career have won for him
a wide-spread popularity among his fellow-citizens
of Texas.
CHARLES KLEMME,
HASTINGS,
One of the early settlers of Kendall County, was
born in Germany in 1822, learned the brick and
stone mason's trade in his native land ; came from
Germany to San Antonio, Texas, in 1848, via Gal-
veston, Indianola and Victoria, and there worked at
his trade for a time. Mr. Klemme located on his
present home in 1872, and has developed one of the
best farms in Kendall County. He was married to
Miss Johanna Michel, a daughter of Thomas Michel,
at New Braunfels, in 1853. She was born in Sax-
ony. Mr. and Mrs. Klemme have seven children,
Adeline, now Mrs. Christian Anderson ; Texanna,
now Mrs. Tobias Freilweh ; Laura, John, Edward,
Amelia, and Caroline. The Klemme ranch is beau-
654
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
tif ully located in the mountains four and a half miles
from Boerne, and affords a quiet summer retreat
for invalids and people from San Antonio and other
cities, tired of the heat, dust and noise incident to
plain, unswerving and faithful to his family and
friends. His sons and daughters were given good
educational advantages. His sons have excellent
social and business qualities, and his daughters fine
town life. Mr. Klemme is a typical old-timer, domestic tastes and physical and mental graces.
SAM BELL MAXEY,
PARIS.
Hon. S. B. Maxey, long a distinguished figure in
public life in Texas, and eminent as United States
Senator from this State, is well remembered and his
memory will ever be honored by the people of
Texas, in whose interest he spent the best years of
his life and who, with their descendants, will long
continue to enjoy the fruits of his patriotic labors.
In preparing a brief memoir of his life, liberal ex-
tracts are made from an article written by Col. Wm.
Preston Johnson and published in the New York
World.
"The Maxey family are of Huguenot descent,
having settled on the James river soon after the
revocation of the edict of Nantes. His great
grandfather, Kadford Maxey, became a tobacco
planter in Halifax County, Va., and his grand-
father, William Maxey, removed to Kentucky in the
last century. His father. Rice Maxey, was born
in Barren County, Ky., in the year 1800, and was
a lawyer by profession. His mother was the
daughter of Samuel Bell, a native of Albermarle
County, Va. , but resident in Richmond.
" Samuel Bell Maxey was born at Tompkins-
ville, Monroe County, Ky., March 30tb, 1825. His
father removed, in 1834, to Clinton County, where
he was clerk of the circuit and county courts. In
1857 he immigrated to Texas and settled at Paris.
Samuel was educated at the best schools, studying
Latin, Greek and mathematics, until he was ap-
pointed a cadet in the Military Academy at West
Point. He was graduated there in 1846, and
assigned to the Seventh Infantry as a Brevet Second
Lieutenant. That fall he went to Mexico. He first
joined Taylor at Monterey, and when Scott organ-
ized a new offensive line from Vera Cruz, Maxey
went in Twiggs' coluoin to Tampico. He shared in
the siege of Vera Cruz, and was with Harvey's
.brigade at the battle of Cerro Gordo. He was
brevetted on the battlefield a First Lieutenant for
gallant conduct at the battles of Contreras and
Cherubusco, and was also engaged at Molino del
Rey and in the engagement which resulted in the
capture of the city of Mexico. After the city fell
into his hands. Gen. Scott organized a battalion of
five companies of picked men, under Col. Charles
F. Smith, as a city guard. Maxey was assigned to
the command of one of these companies, and
he was thus provost of one of the five districts
of the city. Maxey had learned French at West
Point. While in Mexico he became familiar with
the Spanish tongue, which subsequently proved
useful to him in the practice of law in Texas. He
returned to the United States from Mexico in the
summer of 1848, and was stationed at Jefferson
Barracks. Restless in intellect, and unwilling to
become one of the cankers of a long peace, he
amused himself for a while by the study of law,
and finally resigned, September 17, 1849. His only,
brother, a prominent young lawyer, had gone to
Mexico as a Captain of volunteers, and had lost his
life there. Maxey returned to his father's home,
studied law, and in 1850 began the practice at Al-
bany, Clinton County, Ky. On July 19, 1853, he
was married to Miss Marilda Cassa Denton, the
daughter of a farmer and grand-daughter of a Bap-
tist preacher famed for his eloquence, who attained
the age of eighty years. When Gen. Maxey cele-
brated his silver wedding, in 1878, in Paris, his
own father, his wife's father, the minister who mar-
ried him, and several witnesses of the ceremony
were present. In 1857 he located at Paris, a
promising town in Northeastern Texas. He pur-
chased five acres of land in the open prairie. It is
now a beautiful, tasteful home, surrounded by trees
and flowers. We lament the subjugation of nature
by the hand of civilization, but it is a false senti-
ment. The displacement of the savage by the
white man, the desert blossoming as the rose, Is
the order of development towards higher and bet-
ter things. Maxey practiced law until 1861. He
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
655
had been brought up a Whig, but the movement of
events brought him into the Democratic party. He
voted for Breckenridge and favored the secession of
the State from the Union. In 1861 he was elected
to the State Senate by a large majority, but the
war coming on, he declined to follow the peaceful
walks of life when needed in the field of danger ;
his aged father was elected to take his place, and
he joined the army. He raised the Ninth Texas
ized a considerable force in East Tennessee, and
through the agency of Col. A. M. Lea, a valuable
engineer officer, prepared a military map of East
Tennessee, which afterwards proved of great use.
"After the battle of Shiloh, Gen. Maxey was
sent back to the army at Corinth, and remained
with it until Bragg led it to Chattanooga again.
Here he was put in command of a corps of observ-
ation on the Tennessee river, fronting Buell's army.
GEN. SAM B.'MAXEY.
Infantry for the army under Gen. Albert Sidney
Johnston. In December, 1861, it marched by
land, and reached Memphis to join the army at
Corinth. In the meantime Maxey had been pro-
moted to be a Brigadier-General. He joined Gen.
Johnston at Decatur, and was sent by him to Chat-
tanooga to collect and re-organize troops there.
Gen. 'Johnston attached importance to this point,
and wished to place an officer of some military ex-
perience there, in view of the possibility of Buell
sending an expedition against it. Maxey organ-
When Buell withdrew Maxey at once advised Bragg
by telegraph. He also assailed the Federal rear
guard, and drove it out of Bridgeport, Battle Creek
and Stevenson, capturing all its stores, horses,
maps, headquarters, papers, etc.
" Gen. Maxey's services in the army were many
and important. He was at the first siege of Port
Hudson, in which the enemy were repulsed. He
afterwards joined Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in the
Big Black campaign, and was at the siege of Cor-
inth. On the direct application of Gen. E. Kirby
656
INDIAN WAR8 AND PIONEERS OF TE^AS.
Smith, then in command of the Trans-Mississippi
Department, President Davis, in the fall of 1863,
ordered Gen. Maxey to take command of the Indian
Territory. Everything there was in terrible con-
fusion, and some ten or twelve thousand friendly
Indians were in a state of great destitution.
Maxey, with very little aid from headquarters, or-
ganized everything and put eight or ten thousand
troops under arms. In the spring of 1864 he kept
himself fully informed of the Federal movements.
He advised Gen. Smith of Steele's advance, and
moved into Arkansas, where he joined Price and
shared in his fight at Prairie d' Anne to check the
enemy. He fought Steele at Poison Springs, April
18, 1864, and captured his entire train of 227
wagons. The loss of his transportation compelled
Steele to retire. For his conduct on this occasion
Maxey was made a Major-General.
' ' During this campaign he acted as Superintendent
of Indian Affairs, and was very successful in his
management of these brave but troublesome alUes.
The gallant Gen. Stan Watie, a Cherokee, under his
orders, managed to capture a steamboat with
$100,000 worth of stores on board, which were dis-
tributed among the Indians. In September, 1864,
he organized a command, under Gens. Gano and
Stan Watie, to ford the Arkansas river, and catch
a wagon train from Fort Scott to Fort Gibson.
They captured 260 wagons, 200 of which they
brought in. They secured clothing for 2,000 men.
They also captured 200 cavalry, with their trans-
portation and mules, near Fort Smith. This cam-
paign was made on grass. In the spring of 1865
he was put in the command of a cavalry division,
but the war was drawing to a close, and it was dis-
banded by orders. May 29, 1865.
" Gen. Maxey returned to his home and devoted
himself to the practice of law, which soon proved
laborious and lucrative. He was appointed Judge,
but declined. In 1874 he was elected to the United
States Senate, and took his seat March 5, 1875. At
first Gen. Maxey was placed on the Committee on
Territories, but was transferred the same year
(1875) to that on military affairs. He served con-
tinuously on the committees on labor and educa-
tion, and on postofflces, of which latter he was
chairman, until he retired from the Senate. He
had more than ordinary success in practical legisla-
tion. He never made a report from any committee
which was not sustained. The postofflce committee
is a very important one to a frontier State. Gen.
Maxey aided greatly in increasing the postal facil-
ities of Texas. Gen. Maxey's success at the bar
and in political life was due in part to his oratori-
cal powers. His idea of the management of a case
was to attend to the important points and let the
rest go. His memory was quite remarkable and he
was never at a loss for a date. In the conduct of
the most protracted trial he could recall the entire
evidence without notes, and he cited his authori-
ties, case, volume, and page, with unerring accur-
acy. His remarkable memory was inherited from
his mother, who could quote page after page of her
favorite poets, such as Byron and Campbell.
" Gen. Maxey was a member of the Baptist
Church, to which his family has belonged for four
or five generations. He was a gallant, genial gen-
tleman, and a hard-working, useful Senator. Very
few Senators enjoyed so generally the affection and
esteem of their colleagues."
In January, 1881, Gen. Maxey was re-elected to
the United States Senate by the Legislature of
Texas for a second term of six years, from March,
1881, to March, 1887, on the first ballot, by the
following vote:^ — -
In the Senate: Maxey, 22; Throckmorton, 8;
Davis, 1. In the House: Maxey, 51; Throck-
morton, 34 ; Davis, 6 ; Reagan, 1.
Upon the expiration of his term he was suc-
ceeded by Hon. John H. Reagan, and thereafter
devoted himself to his law practice at Paris, Texas.
Gen. Maxey died at Eureka Springs, Ark., August
16, 1895, and was buried in Evergreen Cemetery,
Paris, Texas, August 18, 1895.
RUFUS C. BURLESON,
WACO.
Rufus C. Burleson, D. D., LL.D., president period than any similar position has been held by
of the Baylor University, Waco, Texas, is one of anyone in the United States, except Dr. Eliphalet
the most successful educators in the South. He Nott and Dr. Francis Wayland. He has instructed
has held his office for forty-five years, a longer over 8,000 young men and women, many of whom
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
657
are among the most prominent citizens of Texas
and the South. Their influence is powerfully felt
in every profession, every occupation, and every
political, educational and religious movement in
Texas. Some one has said that man is greatest
whose influence enters as a constructive power into
the life and character of other men. Measured by
this standard, few men are entitled to a higher
rank than Dr. Burleson. He was born near
Decatur, Ala., August 7, 1823. He entered Nash-
ville University in 1840, and was licensed to preach
by the First Baptist Church the same year. He
was married to Miss Georgia Jenkins, at Independ-
ence, Texas, January 2, 1853.
At seventeen years of age Dr. Burleson decided
to devote his life to preaching the gospel and edu-
cating the Baptists, especially the Baptist ministry,
to a higher plane of zeal and intelligence, and that
he might be fully prepared for his life work he
spent seven years in arduous study, first in Nash-
ville University, then as a teacher in Mississippi,
and then in the Literary and Theological Institute,
at Covington, Ky. He graduated in 1847. He
then wrote down in his note-book the outline of the
work which he has now most successfully and zeal-
ously pursued for forty-nine years. Thus fully
equipped, he entered Texas in 1848, and three
years and a half after his arrival, became president
and organized the first college classes in Baylor
University, which now, after the many years of his
management, has the finest buildings and the most
beautiful campus in the South. It employs twenty-
six able, efficient, professional teachers, and matric-
ulated, in 1892, eight hundred and sixty-nine
students. It is the pioneer co-educational university
in the South, the second in America, and the third
in the world, and one hundred and ninety of the
greatest institutions in America and Europe have
followed its example in adopting co-education, so
much ridiculed thirty years ago. Dr. Burleson has
been equally successful as a preacher. He has
preached in every town, except new railroad
stations, in the Empire State of Texas. He
baptized the heroine of the Alamo and the hero of
San Jacinto ; such eminent men as Judges A. S.
Lipscomb, W. E. Donley, Gen. James Davis, Judge
William E. Davis, Col. James W. Anderson, and
scores of others, not only among the great and
learned, but among the most humble of all
classes. In addition to his great work as a
teacher and preacher, Dr. Burleson has been
a leading and influentiai advocate of railroads,
prohibition, and everything looking to the material
growth of Texas. He never forgets his duty
as a citizen on the day of election. He votes
invariably for every officer from Constable to Presi-
dent.
Though an ardent Southerner and a former slave-
holder, he is a devoted lover of the Union. In
the stormiest days of secession he often said: " I
would gladly wrap myself in the Stars and Stripes,
and lay my head on the executioner's block and die
to perpetuate the Union of the States as founded by
Washington, Jefferson, Adams, and our Revolu-
tionary fathers." Though an ardent Baptist, he is
a sincere lover of all Christians. He has never
used tobacco or intoxicating drinks, was never seen
in a ball room, a theater, nor on a race track,
knows nothing of cards, billiards or chess, and
never swore but one oath in his life. His habits of
temperance have given him his remarkable health
and vigor of mind and body. He toils daily from
7 o'clock in the morning to 12 at night, reserving
only thirty minutes for each meal, interspersed
with good jokes and hearty laughter, and another
thirty minutes for an afternoon siesta, and he will
keep on working to the end. He confidently hopes
to live to see Texas the grandest State between the
oceans, and the greatest Baptist State in the world.
He will then be able to say, like old Simeon, "Now,
Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace, for mine
eyes have seen Thy salvation." His early thorough
preparation, and undying devotion for over fifty
years to one great life purpose, presents a grand
model for all young men who desire great and hon-
orable success.
L. A. ABERCROMBIE,
HUNTSVILLE.
The late lamented L. A. Abercrombie was a
native of Alabama, born in Montgomery County in
December, 1832. His father, Milo B. Abercrom-
bie, was a Georgian, descended from the Aber-
42
crombies of England. His mother, whose maiden
name was Sarah L. Haden, was a daughter of
Robert G. Haden, of North Carolina, and a niece
of Hon. Albert Fisher, of Florida.
658
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The subject of this memoir completed his educa-
tion in Alexandria, Va., and read law under
Judge William P. Chilton (whose daughter he
afterwards married) and Hon. David Clopton,
in Tuskegee, Macon County, Ala. He was
admitted to the bar before the Supreme Court of
Alabama, in 1854, and moved immediately to
Madison County, Texas. Here he formed a part-
nership with Messrs. Yoakum (the historian) and
Branch, with whom he practiced law about eighteen
months. In the fall of 1856 he moved to Hunts-
ville, where he afterwards resided until the time of
his death. His practice grew upon him with the
extension of his acquaintance and experience, until
his business circuit embraced not only Walker, but
the adjoining counties.
In 1860 he was elected Prosecuting Attorney .for
the district composed of Walker, Grimes, Harris,
Montgomery and Galveston counties, J<ftd in the
same year he was chosen a delegate to the seces-
sion convention that met at Austin. In 1861 he
resigned his office and entered the Confederate
army, enlisting in Gillespie's company of Nichol's
regiment, and served throughout the war. In 1862
be was made Lieutenant-Colonel of Elmore's regi-
ment, and held that position until the close of the
conflict. He commanded the regiment in the siege
and recapture of Galveston, Col. Elmore being
absent on furlough, but the regiment, being
infantry, was not actively engaged in the fight,
which was conducted by the artillery.
He was a Master Mason. In politics he was a
thorough-going Democrat, and several times repre-
sented his county in the State conventions of his
party. He conducted his business affairs with
prudence, industry and economy, and acquired a
large and valuable estate. His record as a lawyer
and citizen is without a blemish. By his profes-
sional brethren he was beloved and honored. One
of them, his esteemed friend. Judge Norman G.
Kittrell, has furnished the writer with the following
concerning him : —
" He came to Texas in 1853, and entered upon
the practice of law in 1855, and the year following
moved to Huntsville. He was elected a member
of the secession convention, and also District
Attorney of the district, which then included Harris
and Galveston counties, and resigned the latter
office to enter the Confederate army, in which he
served as Lieutenant-Colonel. After the war,
poor, burdened with debt, and witLi only a local
reputation as a lawyer, he set about overcoming the
ditflculties that surrounded him and emerged witli
a competency, his debts discharged and with a
reputation as a lawyer among the profession co-
extensive with the limits of the State. As a civil
pleader, his work was as near proof against suc-
cessful assault as that of any lawyer in Texas, and
as an • all around lawyer,' in large cases and small,
civil and criminal, as they came in the course of a
miscellaneous nisi prius practice, he had few, if
any, superiors at the bar in the State.
"He had but little confidence in what men call
genius, and never depended for success upon the
inspiration of the moment. Work, work unceas-
ing, was the touchstone of his success. He was
a born fighter. He asked no favor for himself from
either court or counsel, while his courtesy to both
was uniform and unfailing.
" No development in the course of a trial, how-
ever unexpected, or however much it militated
against him, ever disconcerted him. No temporary
defeat discouraged him. He prepared at every
step for future battle, and fought on with dogged
persistence, and, if he finally lost, which in pro-
portion to the extent of his practice was an exceed-
ingly rare occurrence, his adversary felt that he had
indeed won at the ' very end of the law.'
" As a Senator from the Ninth District he was a
statesman in wisdom and counsel. In sunshine and
storm he was safe to trust. As a jurist he was
learned and patient, a lover of justice, absolutely
fearless in the discharge of duty, and without re-
proach ; a patriot in whose heart a love of country
reigned supreme, and who counted no sacrifice too
great for the welfare of his State and country."
Col. Abercrombie was married at Tuskegee,
Macon County, Ga., January 1st, 1860, to Miss
Lavinia Chilton, daughter of the Hon. Wm. P.
Chilton, who for fourteen years served as a member
of the Supreme Court of the State of Alabama,
and as CLief Justice for a number of years. He
was also a member of the Confederate Congress,
first at Montgomery and afterwards at Richmond.
The Chilton family have furnished some of the
most distinguished men known to our national
history. She was the first graduate of the East
Alabama College. In her education she received
the most careful training. A most accomplished
lady, she was a leader of the best society, and
made a model wife and mother. The Abercrombie
home at Huntsville has been long famous for its
hospitality. The following children were born of
the marriage, all born in Walker County, viz. :
Mary, widow of Henry Finch, a prominent lawyer
of Fort Worth ; Lavinia, wife of Robert 8. Lovett,
a leading railroad attorney at Houston ; Ella Haden,
wife of John H. Lewis, of North Texas ; Francis
A. ; William Chilton, who is now at Harvard Uni-
versity studying law ; Leonard A., also studying at
Erigrave-i'l-v 'T T Bather
MDEKT HMULAMIOo,. .-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
659
tiarvard University ; Corinne R. , who is attending Col. Abercrombie died at the University Hospital,
Wellesly College. Philadelphia, on the 23d of December, 1891, and
Col. Abercrombie died at Philadelphia, Decem- his remains were brought to Huntsville, where they
ber 23d, 1891, and is buried at Huntsville. now rest.
JOHN IRELAND,
SEGUIN.
The most distinguishing characteristic of Gover-
nor John Ireland was his uncompromising devotion
to duty, private or public. That was the guiding
star of his life, and he steered his course in all the
relations of life by that Polar Star. It gave him a
most exalted appreciation of justice, and no man
can complain that he was ever unjust in any of his
transactions. This may not have been a difficult
task for him, as his principles were fixed and of a
high standard, and his temperament was serene.
He had, therefore, a perfect control over himself,
and when a man attains that power over self and he
is conscientious, as he was, he will rarely err in his
decisions of what is just.
Governor Ireland's mind was singularly free
from the embarrassments of any kind of environ-
ment ; emergencies that always arise in the life of
a professional or public man found him equal to
them, and well may it be said of him that he had a
mind and character equal to any emergency. He
was by no means a brilliant man ; everything that
he attained he worked for with unrelenting assidu-
ity. There was no problem, either of law or states-
manship, that appalled him. He knew his powers
and he had them at his command. John Ireland
was the architect of his own fortunes, or, according
to the popular expression, he was a self-made man.
He did not come from the poorer class of society
that has furnished so many eminent men to this
country, but his father was a Kentucky farmer of
limited means, and educational facilities were not
then what they are now in that part of the State of
which he was a native and in which he was reared.
He obtained at the old field schools of his native
county the rudiments of an English education, and,
early in life, appreciating the importance of an edu-
cation, he made that more accurate than his fellows,
with the same opportunities, for he was an earnest
boy as he was an earnest man.
He went through the best kind of training for the
profession of law, which he early, chose for a life
occupation, and the first office he held was that of
Constable. While in this way he became, through
the discharge of his duties in this inferior ofllce,
familiar with writs and court papers, at the same
time he was at night digging into the mine of legal
wealth that any country lawyer's office then
afforded of the most profound legal writers. He
worked earnestly and hard, and while he was stor-
ing away the great principles of the Common Law
the mental exercise strengthened and enlarged his
intellectual perceptions. It might have seemed
from his practical association with statutory law
that he would have become a " case lawyer," but
he was not ; he was a broad-gauged lawyer, built
upon the strictest logical reasoning; nothing was
valuable to him that had no reason for it. He had
no respect for a decision of a Supreme Court unless
it was based upon reason and bolstered by the clear-
est logical reasoning.
The life of John Ireland, however, was not des-
tined to be confined to the practice of law. There
was too much of that old Roman virtue of integrity
and patriotism about him not to have been appre-
ciated by his fellow-ciiizens and his services were
demanded by them in the legislative halls, in the
Judiciary, and the highest executive ofiice of the
State of Texas.
He came to Texas while a j'oung man, he was in
fact a pioneer, and became intimately associated
with those great men who molded the organic law
of the State, and who endured the hardships of
an unequal warfare to establish and maintain a
separate nationality as the "Lone Star State," and
from them he caught the spirit of the institutions of
the State and brought his strong mind to bear upon
its development.
It would be impossible in such a brief sketch as
this to follow John Ireland through the detail of
his legislative, judicial and executive career. He
first settled in Seguin and after that place had ad-
vanced to the dignity of an incorporated town he
660
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
was chosen Mayor, the duties of which he executed
with all the care and conscientiousness that he
brought to bear on the weightier offices that meet
him later in life.
James D. Lynch, of the Bench and Bar of
Texas, has given the following brief resume of Gov-
ernor Ireland's career: — ,
" At the approach of the foreboding clouds of
the Civil War he ardently espoused the cause of
his section and the State, and favored the prompt
resumption of sovereignty by the latter, and its
withdrawal from the Union. He was a member of
the Constitutional Convention of 1861, and as soon
as the status of political affairs was settled in his
State, he enlisted as a private in the volunteer
army of the Confederacy. The same purpose and
devotion to duty which characterized his profes-
sional career marked him as an efficient soldier and
invited promotion. He was made successively
Captain, Major and Lieutenant-Colonel. His services
extended through the campaigns in the Trans-
Mississippi Department, and at the close of the war
he returned to the practice of law at Seguin. In
1866 he was a member of the convention assembled
to form a constitution for the State in conformity
with the Johnson policy of reconstruction, and was
soon after elected Judge of his judicial district, but
was removed on the usurpation of military power in
1867. In 1873 he served as a member of the House
in the Thirteenth Legislature, and in the Four-
teenth he was a member of the Senate, and was
elected and served as president jpro tern of that
body. In 1875 he was elected Associate Justice of
the Supreme Court. He was retired by the new
constitution of 1876, which required the court to
consist of only three judges. His decisions are
found in the forty-fourth and forty-fifth volumes of
Texas Eeports. His assiduous habits and fond-
ness for close analytical investigation, his natural
inquisitiveness of mind, firm and well grounded
' convictions, thorough legal training, and ample
resources of both principle and precedent made
him an excellent Supreme Judge, and his decisions
manifest a steady and profound search for truth
and justice. So confirmed and justly recognized
was his character for integrity, executive ability
and perfect devotion to the interests of his State,
that in 1882 he was nominated by the Democracy
and in November of that year elected Governor of
Texas by more than 100,000 majority of the popu-
lar vote. His advent to the executive office was at
a period of comparative prosperity, when the spirit
and pride of the people were ardently enlisted for
the advancement of the various public Institutions
of the State, in which he also shared. The suc-
ceeding legislature made large appropriations for
that purpose, which he indorsed and carried out.
" The so-called free grass system in the State,
had resulted in the enclosure of large bodies of
land by the leading stock men of the State, and in
often surrounding and shutting in the smaller
herdsmen and excluding them from the use of
water-courses. This produced an alarming system
of " fence cutting," which was extended to lawful
owners as well as to intruders upon the public
lands, and so outrageous and universal had this
evil grown, that the Governor convened an extra
session of the legislature in January, 1884, to
devise a remedy for this species of lawlessness.
Stringent and efficient laws were enacted for its
suppression, which the Governor executed with his
characteristic promptness and vigor. This was
sought to be used to his prejudice and to impair his
popularity, but the innate justice of the people ap-
proved and appreciated alike his motives and
his official acts, and at the Houston Convention in
August, 1884, he was unanimously renominated
without call of the roll, and by acclamation. Later
he was re-elected by a majority vote of more than
100,000. During his administration important
measures were enacted for the promotion of the
cause of education. The office of State Superin-
tendent of Public Instructions was created. The
permanent school fund was safely invested in bonds
at six per cent rate of interest, and the sale of
school lands at the exceedingly low rate of fifty
cents per acre was prohibited. He was the first
Governor of Texas who attempted to make anything
out of the wild lands of the State. Not one foot of
university or any other public lands were sold
except for good prices ; generally more than the law
demanded. The sales notes are bringing good inter-
est. The surplus proceeds were well invested,
instead of allowing them to remain in the treasury
to boast of as a cash surplus. Taxes under his
administration were reduced to the lowest possible
point. All the State institutions were left in a
splendid condition. The new Insane Asj'Ium was
erected and put in successful operation at Terrell.
The laws were well executed and the State left in a
prosperous condition at the end of Governor Ire-
land's administration.
" Governor Ireland never once swerved from his
principles or the line of his conscientious rectitude
to conciliate his enemies or soften opposition. He
at all times boldly proclaimed his views and fear-
lessly followed the dictates of his judgment. His
career was characterized by incessant labor; at
the bar he sedulously pursued the interests of his
clients, giving all his cases thorough preparation.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
661
He had an abiding faith and a lofty pride in the
great destiny of his State, and as Governor, he
fought to harmonize the varied and often conflicting
interests of the great commonwealth over which he
presided. Governor Ireland was a life-long Dem-
ocrat'of, the'Jeffersonian school.
" He was a'man who cared little for external ap-
pearances, show, or ceremonious effect, and at his
second inauguration, his address, which he read
from a smairsheet of paper, was in dignified and
modest contrastwith the vain display which modern
usage ^has introduced into inaugural exercises.
Texas had no statesman of sounder judgment, or
of more approved fidelity in thapromotion and pro-
tection of its interests and rights.
"As a public speaker. Gov. Ireland was forcible
and argumentative rather than fluent and eloquent.
His illustrations were plain and practical, his figures
of speech, apt and striking. In manner he was quiet
and rather reserved, but genial to those who knew
him intimately. As a citizen, he was ever temper-
ate in his habits of life, moral in his convictions,
just in his judgments and liberal in his views."
Governor Ireland's policy in the matter of the
great railroad strike of 1887 and the manner of its
prompt and vigorous suppression, was characteristic
of the man, and at the time attracted wide attention
and received the highest commendation and indorse-
ment of the press and the people throughout the
country. This great strike, owing to the heavy
railroad interests at Fort "Worth, seemed to have
established its base of operations in this State at
that point, and all lines running in and out of that
city were tied up. The strikers were belligerent,
business paralyzed, and life and property were in
jeopardy. The status of affairs was wired to the
Governor at Austin, soliciting the protection of the
State government, and the dispatch found him tem-
porarily at Seguin. He returned immediately to
Austin, and with a detachment of State troops pro-
ceeded forthwith to the scene of the difficulty. In
the Governor's arrival the strike leaders found
cause for reflection, which speedily resulted in
overtures to him for a settlement. They were, in
unmistakable terms, advised that all disorderly
strikers must promptly disperse, return to work, or
peaceably allow others to take their places, and
that trafBc must resume before any terms of settle-
ment could be discussed ; that unless they immedi-
ately complied and ceased to unlawfully block the
wheels of business and avenues of trade, he would
open fire on them and that no blank cartridges
would be used. The Governor's action had the
desired effect ; order was restored ; in three hours'
time the strike was at an end and trains were run-
ning. It was but a short time later that Governor
Eusk, of Wisconsin, emulated Governor Ireland's
example in subduing the strikers and mobs, in Mil-
waukee, in precisely the same way. In November,
1885, another diflSculty of almost a precise nature
arose at Galveston, and the Governor's interven-
tion was solicited. He responded with a charac-
teristic disapproval of the policy pursued, and a
proposition to defend the laws and maintain the
peace and dignity of the State even by force of
arms. The following communication in this con-
nection is significant : —
" Galveston, Texas, Nov. 8th, 1885.
" Hon. John Ireland,
' ' Governor of Texas.
' ' Dear Sir : Your telegram of last night received .
I beg to state that the vessels with cargoes, wharves
and other property of this company (Galveston
Direct Navigation Co.), were voluntarily abandoned
at noon to-day, by those who had forcibly held
them until that time. The result, I believe, is at-
tributable to the prompt and emphatic assurances
given by you, that the law should be vindicated and
the rights of property maintained in this Stkte. I
respectfully tender you, in behalf of this Company,
its thanks for the protection thus afforded it, and
through it, the commerce of Texas.
" Respectfully yours,
"J. J. Atkinson,
"Supt."
In other matters, notably that of the selection of
stone for the exterior walls of the new State capitol.
Governor Ireland's discriminating sense of justice,
pride of State and excellent backbone did his peo-
ple of the Commonwealth a lasting and invaluable
service. It was in 1885 the foundation for the
structure had been laid, according to terms of the
contract, of Texas limestone. The contractors were
under bond to furnish, at their own expense, the very
best material for the entire structure. A sentiment
had been created, in certain circles, strongly favor-
ing granite in lieu of limestone as the best material.
The Governor, hearing rumors of a change of the
material decided upon, called a meeting of the
capitol board. The contractors here affirmed that
the crying demand for granite would be gratified,
if the commission desired it and the State would pay
for it. This, the Governor saw, contemplated an
extra appropriation of one million dollars, whereas
if granite was the best material, the contractors
were under bond to furnish it at their own expense.
The controversy shaped itself into a demand
for Indiana limestone, and in this the alert
662
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
executive saw a job, and promptly put his
stamp of disapproval upon it. After much con-
tention, the contractors and jobbers on one side,
the Governor on the defensive, Texas granite of a
fine color was decided upon, and as an additional
compensation, convict labor was supplied the con-
tractors to work in the quarries. The Indiana
limestone scheme fell flat. The settlement of the
much agitated question was received with great
satisfaction throughout the State, and the following
paragraphs from the San Antonio Times of July
the 19th, 1885, voiced the sentiment of columns
of comments that appeared in the leading journals
of the State: " The action is a complete backdown
on the part of the contractors. They ' bucked '
against Texas material long enough to learn that
Governor Ireland would not submit to their arro-
gance. They even stated that if Indiana limestone
was rejected, they would throw up their contract.
This the Governor had possibly anticipated, as in a
previous interview he had said : ' The State has a
good contract, and all it has to do is to stand on it
and let them build the house, or quit. Thus far it
is well done, and would stand there fifty years and
be in perfect order, and we can sell the lands, com-
plete the building and have money left. There
would then be a chance to break up the land
monopoly created by this contract.' " The Times
article further says: " But the Governor stood firm
as a rock. He held them to their contract, and
intimated that if they did not carry it out there was
a legal means of getting even with them. Seeing
that they could not be moved, that even a majority
of the board could not change his wise and patri-
otic determination, the millionaire syndicate was
forced to take ' back water.' To Governor Ireland's
patriotism and fidelity the triumph is due, and the
Times rejoices in knowing that when a question of
State pride and State interests comes to be decided
upon, we have a man in the executive chair who
first, last and all the time stands up for the State's
rights and can neither be coaxed, bulldozed or
driven into any other line of policy."
Governor Ireland was at various times solicited to
become a candidate for the United States Senate. In
1886, when a successor to Hon. S. B. Maxey was
to be elected, the demand for Governor Ireland to
become a candidate seemed to be peremptory from
all sections of the State. During the resulting
campaign the following appeared in the St. Louis
Post- Dispatch : —
"The campaign for United States Senator, in
which Governor Ireland is supposed to have an in-
terest, and for which position the solid thinkers of the
State are urging him to offer, fails utterly to dis-
tract his attention from the legitimate routine of
his official business. While others are sending out
printed speeches, essays, and so forth, as an earnest
of their ability for the transaction of Senatorial
work, and are making speeches for the same pur-
pose, all more or less imbued with the idea of their
importance to the State, Governor Ireland remains
passive and unmoved amid it all, and continues to
ply bis pen in its regular channel."
Governor Ireland never was a candidate for any
office from an announcement of the fact by himself.
Official honors came to him unsolicited.
Governor Ireland died at San Antonio, Texas, at
11:55 a. m., March 15, 1896, of neuralgia of the
heart, after a brief illness. Mr. and Mrs. E. S.
Carpenter, of Seguin, and Mr. and Mrs. J. W.
Graves, of Houston, his sons-in-law and daughters,
were at his bedside during his last moments. Mrs.
Ireland was prevented by sickness from being pres-
ent. The remains were subsequently brought to
Austin, and after lying in State at the Capitol were
interred in the State cemetery, where sleep Texas'
most distinguished dead. The services were of the
most impressive character. The Bar Association
of Austin met and passed resolutions of respect.
The funeral cortege was one of the largest ever
known in the history of Austin. No mark of honor
to the memory of the dead that his eminent and
patriotic services deserved or that a grateful peo-
ple could pay was omitted.
The following editorial from the pen of his
friend. Col. Joel H. B. Miller, editor of the Austin
Daily Statesman, published in the issue of that
paper of March 18, 1896, is a just tribute to the
worth of the deceased, and is inserted here as a
part of this biographical notice : —
"the late JOHN IRELAND.
"Ex-Governor John Ireland, or all that remains of
him, was buried in the State Cemetery in this city
yesterday. While Governor Ireland was respected
forhisability wherever he was known, he was person-
ally very popular in this city, where he has resided
officially off and on for a number of years. The
citizens of Austin not only had a full appreciation
for his sound sense and large acquirements, but for
his gentleness and suavity of manner to all he came
in contact with. He was by no means a demon-
strative or ostentatious man. Quite the contrary,
he was reserved, even with his most intimate asso-
ciates, and modest to timidity in the presence of
strangers and public crowds.
"He was a man of many sturdy qualities of head
and heart. According to our conception of his
general character, his highest capacity consisted in
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
663
sound common sense, well cultivated by mingling
in the current of private and public life and
strengthened by a judicious course of reading. He
was an eminently just man. No self-interests or
political policy could swerve him from fair treat-
ment and the use of just means, even with his com-
petitors. While he was always apparently calm
and unexcited, he had great force of character, but
he was a man who had such control of himself
that his determination or will could only be dis-
covered by a manifest persistency that at last
made itself fell whenever that force of character
was needed, but he did not permit himself to be
disturbed by small things, over which he never
worried.
" Endowed with a strong mind, with no violent
passions to throw him off of his course and nothing
more attractive than duty, he built himself up by
unceasing application, and with his eye fixed on the
goal of success, he never permitted himself to be
jostled out of his course. He dug and dug hard
and deep for every mental accomplishment and
when he found it he held on to it. "What he knew
he knew thoroughly and he could use all he acquired
to the very best advantage. He gave one the im-
pression of possessing a mental method by which
he labelled useful knowledge and laid it away on a
shelf convenient to be taken down and used at any
emergency.
"John Ireland was a representative American
citizen, illustrating the advantages that a free and
equal form of government affords to every boy
child born under its protecting flag. The public
school system had not been organized in Kentucky
when John Ireland wrung his education out of ad-
verse circumstances. His parents were not able to
educate him and he worked with his hands by day
and studied unaided by teacher or professor by
night to accomplish himself for the profession to
which his ambition directed him. He metaphoric-
ally dug into the ground with his nails and fingers
for all the learning he obtained in his youth, and
he never for a moment flinched from his task.
Bright young men and women swept past him on
gala days and holidays, but he crushed back the
social impulses of his nature and grasped the fleet-
ing hours to weave into the woof of his life some-
thing nobler and better than the passing smiles of
beauty and he passed on and on until he won
honors, representative in the Legislature of his
adopted State, judge of the courts, and Governor,
then it was that beauty and talent came to do him
reverence. He had won the goal, but it was with
scarred feet he stood upon the pedestal of fame.
He got there over rough roads, but he got there.
Any young man of such earnest purpose as he had,
can get there.
"Go to, thou sluggard, drop a flower on his
grave and turn away determined to be a man and
not a mere butterfly of fashion, an honorable and
useful man, a man whom the country in which he
lives would delight to honor and shed a tear on his
grave as this community did yesterday on the grave
of John Ireland."
He died an honored ex-Governor of Texas, an
eminent statesman and a distinguished jurist,
whose name is intimately associated with the
judicial and political history of Texas. He came
to this State in 1853, being then twenty-six years
of age. His arrival was opportune, as the then
newly constituted State was in need of men of his
quality — young men of sterling character, stout
hearts, intellectual endowments and practical zeal.
He was a native of Kentucky, and was born at
Millerstown, on the banks of the Nolyn river, in
Hart County, January 1, 1827. His father, Patrick
Ireland, was a well-to-do farmer, native of Ken-
tucky. His mother, whose maiden name was
Eachel Newton, was born and reared in the same
State.
Governor Ireland's boyhood and early youth
were spent at home on the farm, where he received
such schooling as his home county afforded in those
days. When about eighteen years old, through the
agency of the business men of Munfordsville, Ky.,
he was declared of age by special act of the State
Legislature to enable him to qualify as Constable,
which oflfiee he fllled for several years. He also
held the office of Deputy Sheriff of Hart County.
He was early possessed of an ambition which had
developed into a fixed purpose to achieve an honor-
able place among men. In the performance of his
official duties he acquired a practical knowledge of
process and legal methods which turned his atten-
tion to the law. In 1851 he entered the law offices
of Murray & Wood, of Munfordsville. By studious
application and patient industry he had, in the
space of one year, so thoroughly mastered the
principles of common law, that he was admitted to
practice. The opportunities there offered for
future advancement did not, however, seem to him
promising, and, in casting about for broader fields,
his attention was directed to the Lone Star State,
and he located at Seguin in 1853, as before men-
tioned, and thereafter made that place his unofficial
home. There he entered upon the practice of the
{)rofession in which he afterwards so greatly dis-
tinguished himself. He brought with him to Seguin
naught but a clear head, a well-stored intellect,
honesty and tenacity of purpose, and an irrepressible
664
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
determination to succeed. He drew around him a
large circle of friends and soon built up a lucrative
practice.
Governor Ireland was twice married. His first
wife was Mrs. Faircloth, whose maiden name was
Matilda Wicks. She was a sister of John Wicks,
an extensive planter in Guadalupe County, and of
Col. Moses Wicks, formerly a banker of Memphis,
Tenn. She died in 1856, leaving one daughter,
Matilda, born in Seguin, August 6, 1855, who was
educated at Stauuton, Va., and married E. S.
Carpenter, a prosperous planter and business man
of Seguin, further mention of whom is made else-
where in this volume. Governor Ireland's second
marriage occurred in Fayette County, Texas, and
was to Miss Anna M. Penn. Four children were
born of this union, viz.: Mary F., born in Fayette
County, educated at San Marcos, taking the first
prize for scholarship ; she married J. W. Graves,
a druggist of Seguin, Texas ; Katie Penn, Rosalie
and Alva — all born in Seguin, none of whom
survive their father.
EVAN SHELBY CARPENTER,
SEGUIN,
Is a native of Kentucky, and was born in Lincoln
County, of that State, April 27th, 1843. His
father, William Carpenter, moved from Kentucky
to Guadalupe County, Texas, in 1852, and lived
near Seguin until the close of the war between the
States, and then returned with his family to the old
Kentucky home, Carpenter Station, an historic land-
mark of Lincoln County. In 1874 they returned to
Texas, the father dying in Bandera County, at
seventy-five years of age. Evan Shelby Carpen-
ter's mother was Miss Judith Shelby, a grand-
daughter of Gen. Isaac Shelby, of Revolutionary
fame, and the first Governor of Kentucky, an old
hero whose patriotic public career and romantic
life have furnished subjects for some of the most
thrilling stories of early Kentucky life.
Mr. Carpenter was about nine years of age when
his parents located at Seguin, where he spent his
early youth. Eight years later the great war be-
tween the States burst upon the country and he
joined the Confederate army as a private in Com-
pany B., Carter's Regiment, Twenty-first Texas
Cavalry, and remained continuously in active
service until the close of the conflict. In 1865 he
made a business trip into Mexico, thence to Mis-
souri, Kentucky and Michigan ; but, his health
requiring such a balmy climate as that of Texas, he
located at Seguin in 1870, and has since resided
there.
In October, 1876, Mr. Carpenter married Miss
Matilda, oldest daughter of Governer John and
Mrs. Matilda Wicks Ireland, of Seguin. Mr. Car-
penter is well known as a successful business man.
During Governor Ireland's incumbency of the
gubernatorial office Mr. Carpenter served as his
Private Secretary, and as such made many warm
personal friends. Mrs. Carpenter was also called
upon to assist in the honors of the Governor's
household, for which duties her personal graces and
social accomplishments eminently qualified her.
Mr. Carpenter returned to Seguin at the close of
Governor Ireland's administration, and with Mr.
J. W. Graves, a brother-in-law, entered the drug
business. Since the dissolution of this firm, in
1894, Mr. Carpenter has occupied his time .in at-
tending to his own and Governor Ireland's large
farming and landed interests. Mr. and Mrs. Car-
penter have three children : Patrick, born February
19th, 1880, who, having been adopted by his grand-
father, Governor Ireland, has had his name trans-
posed to Patrick Carpenter Ireland; Emma Lee,
and George Jarvis.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
665
J. W. GRAVES,
SEGUIN,
A prominent druggist of Texas, is the son of the
Rev. H. A. Graves, one of tbe pioneer ministers of
tlie Lone Star State.
Mr. Graves was born in Nashville, Tenn., in
1857 ; came in early infancy to Texas, and grew
to manhood here and has become fully identified
with Texas interests.
When the war between the States ended it left
Mr. Graves' father, like all Southern men, to face
the reverses of fortune. J. W. Graves was an
ambitious boy. By his own efforts he soon
acquired such a common school education as the
State afforded at that time ; not long thereafter
graduated in pharmacy, acquired the confidence of
the people by his studious habits and business
qualifications, and established himself successfully
in the drug business in Seguin.
In 1881 he married Miss Mollie, second daughter
of Hon. John Ireland, who died in 1891. After
his wife's death Mr. Graves sold his interests in
Seguin and identified himself with a large business
house in New Orleans, for which he traveled
through Texas.
Later he became a stockholder and worker for
the Houston Drug Company, which place he
retained until the death of Governor Ireland, of
whose large estate he was made one of the execu-
tors, and in the interest of which he now spends
most of his time in San Antonio.
Mr. Graves has one child, a bright boy of eleven
years, whose name is Ireland Graves.
JOHN O. DEWEES,
SAN ANTONIO.
John O. Dewees, fpr many years identified with
the history of Southwestern Texas, and a leading
citizen and stockman of that part of the State, was
born in Putnam County, III., where the town of
Greencastle now stands, on the 30th day of De-
cember, 1828. His parents were Thomas and
America Dewees, natives of Kentucky, respectively
of Welsh and English and German and English
descent.
His father was a farmer and stock-raiser, and
died on his farm, near Hallettsville, in Lavaca
County, Texas, in 1864. His mother died at San
Marcos, Hays County, Texas, May 5th, 1889.
Mr. Dewees came to Texas with his parents in
1849. During the war between the States he joined
Company B. , Thirty-second Texas Cavalry, and as
a soldier in the Confederate army participated in
the fight at Blair's Landing and the twenty-five or
thirty severe skirmishes, including the battle of
Yellow Bayou, that marked the retreat of Banks'
army to Lower Louisiana. He has resided in San
Antonio for a number of years past. He has been
engaged in the cattle business from early youth,
and from a small beginning has built up an estate
valued, at a low estimate, from $140,000 to $200,-
000. He is regarded as one of the leading stock-
raisers and financiers in the section of the State in
which he resides.
February 12th, 1873, he was married to Miss
Anna Irvin at the home of her mother in Guadalupe
County. They have one child, a daughter. Miss
Alice A. Dewees. Mr. Dewees is a fit representa-
tive of the men who have done so much toward the
development of the varied resources of South-
western Texas, one of the fairest portions of the
State.
666
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOSEPH BLAND,
ORANGE,
Was born in Vermillion Parish, La., June 8, 1832,
and came to Texas in 1835 with his parents, who
settled in what is now Orange County. His father
was a farmer and stock-raiser by occupation, which
he continued until his death.
His mother is still living, and resides in Orange
County, twelve miles west of the town of Orange.
Mr. Joseph Bland went into business for himself
at nineteen years of age, and two years later he
married Miss Martha Ann Thomas, daughter of L.
R. and Annie Thomas, of Orange County.
He is County Surveyor of Orange, and is also
engaged in farming. During the war he served as
Sheriff of the county by election of the people, and
after the war was appointed Sheriff by Governor E.
J. Davis, notwithstanding the fact that he was a well-
known Democrat. He has seven living children,
viz. : Henry W. , Constable of Orange ; Clara, wife
of D. W. Stakes, of Orange ; Flavia, wife of A.
Prajan, of Orange; J. D., Sheriff of Orange;
Maiony, wife of E. C. Hall, of Orange County ;
Margaret, wife of G. S. Russell, of Orange,
and George W., who lives at Johnson's Bayou,
La.
His mother now has eighty-five descendants —
children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
He is a Mason of forty-two years standing, and Las
held the Royal Arch degree since 1863.
WILLIAM R. HAYES,
BEEVILLE.
From the time of the establishment of the first
white settlements in America until the evolution of
conditions that approximate those that have so long
prevailed in Europe, the history of this country pre-
sents an almost unbroken record of romantic inci-
dents, the like of which can never occur in this
prosaic age. The race has not reached, however,
in its destiny a region of cloudless days. There is
many a storm for it yet to weather, but the strug-
gles of the future are to be those of a highlj' devel-
oped industrial and commercial civilization. The
man who has lived through the past half century
and honorably met the responsibilities that dis-
tinguish it from all the other half centuries known
to human history, has had a schooling that no other
man can ever have again, and has a store of mem-
ories that no later soul that shall ever come from
out the infinite can possess though it should abide
upon this ancient earth a thousand years. The sub-
ject of this memoir, Judge William R. Hayes, was
born in 1835 (the 30th day of December), in Hick-
ory County, Mo., and like most young men of tal-
ent, courage, and possessed of a taste for adventure
who grew up in the West sixty years ago, was an
active participant in many stirring events. His
forefathers, on his father's side, came from England
to Virginia about the time of the establishment of
the settlement at Jamestown, and afterwards moved
to and lived in the Carolinas. His great-grand-
mother on his mother's side, named Young, came
from Ireland. In 1846 his father, Joseph Hayes,
sold his farm in Missouri and started for Texas,
but stopped in Sevier County, Ark., until 1854,
when he moved to Medina County, Texas.
The subject of this sketch, desiring to try his
fortunes in the West, in March, 1854, shipped with
Jim Sparks as conductor of a prairie schooner from
Fort Smith to California.
Reaching Salt Lake City late in August, too late
to cross the Sierras, the train went into winter quar-
ters there, and in the spring of 1855 he went with
a portion of Col. Steptoe's government train, via
Fremont's route, to California, and engaged in
raining there until December, 1858. Having made
a trip to Frazier river, in the British possessions, he
then came to San Antonio, via Tehuantepec and
New Orleans. He went to Bee County in April,
1859, bought land, and is living on the same place
now, engaged in farming and stock-raising.
He was married, in 1861, to Miss Amanda Fuller.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
667
He served during the war between the States for
three years, in Col. Hobby's regiment, and then
transferred to Edward's company, Pyron's cav-
alry, just before the close of the war. He was
appointed Treasurer of Bee County, in 1870, and
continued to fill that office, being re-elected, until
April, 1876, when he was elected County Judge,
which office he filled for eight terms until November,
1892.
At the age of eighteen, as previously stated, Mr.
Hayes made a trip to California, and for many
years " roughed it," as he expressed it, in his
younger days chasing buffaloes on the plains, skir-
mishing with the Indians often, and hunting elk in
the mountains near Salt Lake City. He also
worked in the mines in California. During all of
this time he was blessed with remarkable health,
and in these extensive travels on mountain and
plain never missed a guard duty. The same may
be said of his service during the war ; in the three
years he was never on the sick list nor reported
absent without leave. During the eighteen years
and six months he served as County Judge he held
one hundred and sixty-three terms of the Commis-
sioners' Court, and was never absent a day. Of
terms of the County Court during that time there
were one hundred and eighty-five, and he was
absent only one day.
He is a believer in the Christian, or Campbellite
Church.
Mr. Hayes has managed to accumulate a com-
petency, and owns a pleasant home in one of the
fairest parts of the State. He is engaged exten-
sively in raising improved stock, horses and cattle,
and in farming.
He has eight children, to wit: Fannie, Mary,
Horace, Lucy, Homer, Annie, Travis, and Vivian.
Judge Hayes takes an active interest in public
affairs, and has been a conspicuous worker in
every enterprise which has been inaugurated for
the benefit of the section of the State in which he
resides. With J. W. Flournoy he was on a com-
mittee to negotiate for the extension of the Aran-
sas Pass Railroad to Beeville, and closed the trade
with President Lott that resulted in the building of
the road to that point. He contributed $500.00 of
the bonus given to that road, and to the Southern
Pacific $100.00 to build to Beeville. He has been
instrumental also in causing the erection of numer-
ous churches in his county during the past twenty
years, contributing liberally of his means to that
end. Indeed, we may say that his liberality to
schools, churches, and all charitable purposes has
been one of his distinguishing characteristics.
While serving as County Judge and ex-ofHcio
Superintendent of Schools of his county, he took
an active interest in his duties, and each year met
the teachers of the State at the annual meetings of
the State Teachers Association.
When the County Judges' Association was or-
ganized, he was elected Treasurer and served as
such and met with them each year until he retired
from office, having then served longer than any
other County Judge in the State.
He is universally respected by all who know him,
as an honest man, upright and impartial judge,
public-spirited citizen, and Christian gentleman;
moreover, he is a man of fine, decidedly martial,
appearance, being six feet in height and as straight
as an arrow, and, though somewhat advanced in
years, he moves with a soldierly step and bearing.
He weighs 175 pounds, has a fair complexion and
has blue eyes. Affable and genial, easily ap-
proached by those even of the most humble station,
he has many devoted admirers and friends.
Judge Haj'es has an excellent library and spends
many hours in the society of his books. He has
not, however, lost interest in the events that are
transpiring about him. On the contrary, he is as
deeply attached to the cause of good government
as at any former period of his life, and is active
with voice and pen in every campaign in which im-
portant issues are submitted to the hazard of the
ballot. His greatest pleasures are found, however,
within the limits of his delightful home circle and
in the companionship of his numerous friends.
Still in the full vigor of mental and physical
strength, and thoroughly interested in the drama of
life, through so many scenes of which he has al-
ready passed, he is still an active and progressive
worker, and has many plans that he hopes to ac-
complish before the coming of Nature's bed-time.
Strong, vigorous and manly ; patriotic and unselfish,
he is a fine representative of the men who have
made our present civilization possible, and it is to be
hoped that many years of usefulness yet await him.
668
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER,
PALO PINTO COUNTY,
Was a native of Lawrence County, Miss., his
birth occurring May 10, 1811. William Slaughter,
his father, was a Virginian, born in 1781, his death
occurring in Sabine County, Texas, in 1851. The
elder Mr. Slaughter was a farmer and had seen
service in the war of 1812, fighting under Jackson
at New Orleans. He married Miss Nancy Moore,
of South Carolina, and was the father of eight
children, four of them boys. In 1821 the family
moved to Copiah County, Miss., and four years
later started to Texas, but stopped for a time in
with headquarters at Nacogdoches. He was a man
of narrow and decided views and but poorly qual-
ified to exercise authority over a people reared in
the enjoyment of American liberty. There was no
tolerance of religious belief beyond a blind adher-
ence to the Catholic Church, and the arrest by Col.
Piedras of several Protestant clergymen, who had
attempted to hold services in the colony, precipi-
tated one of the first conflicts between the colonists
and the Mexican government. Gr. W. Slaughter,
then a boy of nineteen or twenty, took an active
MES. GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER.
Louisiana, and it was while living in the latter State
that George Webb Slaughter received the only
schooling (three weeks in all) which he ever had an
opportunity to obtain. In 1830 the Slaughter
family crossed the Sabine river and settled in what
was then the Mexican State of Coahuila and Texas.
At that tioae the country east of Austin was divided
into municipalities governed principally by military
laws. Petty officers were in charge at the different
points and alcaldes, or magistrates, were appointed
by them, while all matters of importance were re-
ferred to the District Commandant. Col. Piedras
was in charge of the country along the Sabine,
part in the armed resistance to this act of tyranny,
and his relation of the events which followed is
vivid and interesting. A commissioner, sent to
Col. Piedras to intercede for the prisoners' release,
was treated with contempt, and Col. Bean Andrews,
who repaired to the city of Mexico on the same
errand, was thrown into prison. Despairing of
obtaining recognition and relief through pacific
methods, the colonists held a mass meeting at San
Augustine about June 1, 1832, and resolved to take
matters into their own hands and release the pris-
oners, if need be, through force of arms. Prep-
arations for this decisive step went quietly on, and
COL. GEORGE WEBB SLAUGHTER.
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
669
in a short time 500 armed men met within two miles
of Nacogdoches and sent to Col. Piedras, under a
flag of truce, a demand for the prisoners' liberation.
In reply a company of cavalry came out with a
counter demand for the surrender of the whole
party. Immediate hostilities followed. The Mex-
icans were driven baclc to town after one or two
ineffectual stands, and eventually forced to evacu-
ate the fort and seek safety in flight. Quite a num-
ber of Mexicans were killed, but only three Ameri-
cans, one of whom was G. P. Smith, an uncle of
G. W. Slaughter. At that time the Angelina river
was swollen with recent rains, its bottom lands
flooded and impassable except at one point, some
eighteen miles from the fort, where a bridge had
been built. Here all the men who were provided
with horses were directed to hasten and stop the
retreat of the panic-striken Mexicans, while the
remainder of the force followed on, thus bringing
the enemy betwgen two fires and compelling the
entire command to surrender. Col. Piedras was
allowed to return to Mexico under promise of ex-
cusing the colonist's acts and interceding for their
pardon, but he proved false to his trust and his
report of the affair at Nacogdoches only still further
incensed the government. Mr. Slaughter was under
fire for the first time in this skirmish or battle.
During the temporary lull which followed previous
to the general outbreak of war, he was occupied, in
freighting between Louisiana and Texas points, and
one of his loads — perhaps the most valuable of
them all — consisted of the legal library of Sam.
Houston, which he hauled to Nacogdoches in
1833. He had previously met Houston while
attending court at Natchitoches, La., and he men-
tions the fact that upon this occasion the future
President of the Texas Republic was dressed in
Indian garments and decked out in all the glory of
scalp-lock, feathers and silver ornaments. Mr.
Slaughter was an earnest admirer of Houston and
was more than pleased when the latter assumed con-
trol of the Texian forces. The company in which he
' enlisted reported to Houston for duty at San
Antonio, and was in several of the engagements
which immediately followed, among others the
famous " Grass Fight," one of the hottest of the
war. Houston then advanced toward Mexico, but
halted near Goliad upon intelligence that Santa
Anna was approaching with an army of 15,000 men.
Col. Fannin with the forces under his command was
encamped in a strong position in a bend of the
river below Goliad. Travis was in the Alamo with
those gallant spirits who were to remain with him
faithful and uncomplaining until death. Houston,
safe in the consciousness that on the open prairie
lay perfect safety from beleaguerment, watched the
approach of the Mexican army and pleaded with
Fannin and Travis to abandon the fortifications
and join him. Mr. Slaughter served as a courier,
making several trips to Fannin and Travis in the
Alamo. On one of the latter, in obedience to in-
structions from Gen. Houston, he delivered into the
hands of Col. Travis an order to retreat. After
reading it, Travis consulted with his brother officers,
acquainted his men with the contents of the mes-
sage, and then drew a line in the sand with his
sword and called upon all who were willing to re-
main with him and fight, if need be, to the death,
to cross it. The decision was practically unanimous
to defend the fort to the last extremity. Only one
of the little band chose to make his way to the main
army ; he was let down from the walls and effected
his escape. Travis hoped for reinforcements that
would enable him to inflict upon Santa Anna a
bloody and decisive repulse that would check him
on the outskirts of the settlements, or, failing in
this, detain his army a sufficient length of time to
enable the colonists to mass an adequate force to
meet him successfully in the open field. He fully
realized the peril of his situation and concealed
nothing from his comrades. They determined to
stake their lives upon the hazard and were immo-
lated upon the altar of their country.
Mr. Slaughter returned to headquarters and re-
ported the result of his mission. Later while on a
hazardous trip to the Alamo, then known to be
invested with Santa Anna's army, he encountered
Mrs. Dickinson and her negro slave, survivors of
the massacre, who liad been released by the Mexi-
can commandant and instructed to proceed to Gen.
Houston with tidings of Travis' fate. The butchery
of Fannin and his men followed shortly after, and
Santa Anna pressed on after Gen. Houston, who
had retreated to the east side of the Brazos.
Meantime Mr. Slaughter was employed in carrying
messages and in procuring subsistence for the
army, accepting many dangerous missions and
performing them all to the satisfaction of his com-
manding officer. History relates how Houston
retreated and how the Mexican army followed until
they were led into the trap at San Jacinto, where
the tables were turned and Santa Anna defeated
and captured ; his troops slaughtered, and his inva-
sion brought to an ignominious end. The victory at
San Jacinto was not the end of hostilities ; but, fol-
lowing it, there came a breathing spell, of which
Mr. Slaughter hastened to take advantage. Gain-
ing a leave of absence, under promise of returning
at once in case he was needed, he hastened to his
home, and on the 12th day of the following October
670
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
he was married to Miss Sarah Mason, to whom he
had been engaged for some time. The ceremony
was only deferred to this date because under the
disorganized state of the country there was no
officer with legal authority to perform it. The
marriage of Mr. Slaughter was the first ceremony
of the kind under the sanction of the Republic
which he had been instrumental in establishing.
The newly wedded couple settled in Sabine County,
and Mr. Slaughter resumed freighting for a liveli-
hood, engaging in the employ of the new govern-
ment.
At the time of the Cherokee troubles, in 1839,
the eastern counties organized companies in pur-
fork of the Trinity, three or four days march, by
companies of Capts. Slaughter and Todd.
The need which had prompted the organization
of an armed force now no longer existing, the men
disbanded, and Mr. Slaughter returned to the
labors and attendant comforts of home life. In
1852 he moved to Freestone County, intending to
turn his attention to stock-raising. He brought
with him ninety-two head of cattle and established
a ranch near the old town of Butler, and in the five
years he resided there increased his herd to 600
head. Mr. Slaughter believed there were better
opportunities to be gained by removal further west,
and in 1857 drove his herds to Palo Pinto County,
COL. C. C. SLAUGHTER.
suance of President Houston's orders, and Mr.
Slaughter was elected Captain of the company
organized in Sabine. The newly recruited forces
assembled at Nacogdoches, and in a body marched
to reinforce Gen. Rusk, who was stationed wilh a
small force on the Neches river, near where Chief
Bowles was encamped with 1,600 Cherokees. Two
days were spent in an ineffectual attempt to arrange
a treaty and the Indians dropped back from their
position, but were followed and a fight ensued in
which the Cherokees lost eleven killed and the
whites only three, though fourteen of their number
were wounded. The Indians again retreated and
the following day there was a general battle ; Chief
Bowles was killed, with several hundred of his fol-
lowers, while the remainder of the Cherokees fled
to the westward, being followed to the Bois d'Arc
locating five miles north of the town of that name,
at that time known as Golconda. He bought here
2,000 acres of land and located by certificate 960
acres more, and the ranch located at that time was
thereafter his home, though his residence at this
point was not continuous. In 1858-59 Mr.
Slaughter was occupied in raising stock and running
a small farm, but the following year moved his
stock to Young County, at a point near the Ross
Indian Reservation. He had then 1,200 head of
cattle and a small bunch of horses, but lost forty
head of the latter through theft by Indians in 1860,
and for these and other property stolen, he later
filed claims against the government aggregatini^
$6,500.
Mr. Slaughter's holdings of cattle had increased
in 1867-68 to such an extent that he decided to sell
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
671
the greater portion of them, and he accordingly dis-
posed of 12,000 to James Loving and Charles
Elvers at a uniform price of $6.00. Rivers was
afterwards killed by Indians while in camp in Jack-
son County, in June, 1871. Following the sale of
his cattle, Mr. Slaughter formed a partnership with
his son, C. C. Slaughter, and began driving cattle
through to Kansas. The first drove only consisted
of 800 head, but they brought the neat little sum
of $32,000. For the seven years up to and includ-
ing 1875, the herds of Slaughter & Son were driven
to Kansas points and from thence shipped to St.
Louis and Chicago. The drove in 1870 was proba-
bly the largest, numbering 3,000 head, and the
C. C.,' taking into business with him another son,
Peter, and in 1878 they sold and shipped 4,000
cattle. Six years later, on account of declining
health, Mr. Slaughter disposed of his cattle inter-
ests and afterwards devoted his time to the care of
his ranch and other property. He had at his Palo
Pinto ranch 1,280 acres of land, and owned 1,300
acres in other portions of the State, besides town
property in Mineral Wells. Securing his land when
nearly the entire country was open for selection, Mr.
Slaughter had one of the most desirable locations
in the country, and prized it more highly in remem-
brance of the hardships and dangers attendant upon
its settlement. During the first few years of his
.^ .
MKS. C. C. SLAUGHTER.
returns from this herd footed up $105,000. In
1870 Mr. Slaughter moved his family to Emporia,
Kan., in order that his children might have the
advantage of the superior educational facilities at
that point, but in 1875 he returned to Texas and
resumed operations on his old ranch in Palo Pinto
County. The number of cattle handled and the
money received from their sale can be expressed in
round figures, as follows: —
1868, 800 head, $32,000.00; 1869, 2,000 head,
$90,000.00; 1870,3,000 head, $105,000; 1871,2,000
head, $66,000.00; 1873,2,000 head, $66,000.00;
1874, 2,000 head, $60,000.00; 1865, 1,000 head,
$45,000.00. Such figures as these go a long way
toward impressing the reader with the importance
of the cattle business twenty years ago. In 1876
Mr. Slaughter dissolved partnership with his son.
residence in Palo Pinto County the Indians were
very troublesome, and Mr. Slaughter could
relate many incidents of border warfare from
the standpoint of an eye-witness and partic-
ipant. In 1864 he hail a skirmish with seven
Indians on Cedar creek, in Palo Pinto County,
several shots were exchanged, but the Indians were
finally frightened away. Three years later the In-
dians made a raid on his ranch and stole all the
horses, and John Slaughter, a son, received a
bullet wound in the breast. Skirmishes with the
red-skins were then of too common occurrence to
attract much attention beyond the immediate
neighborhood. The entire Texas border was a
battle-field, and those who lived on the Upper
Brazos had to guard themselves as best they could.
In 1866 Mr. Slaughter was driving a small bunch
672
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
of cattle on Dry creek, near Graham, when he was
attacked by thirteen Indians, but his carbine and
revolver proved too much for their courage, and
they retreated after he had wounded one of their
number. In the month of Apiil, 18fi9, a bunch of
Indians surrounded and massacred thirteen gov-
ernment teamsters near Flat Top Mountain, in
Young County. Mr. Slaughter was within two
miles of this place, camped with fourteen men,
holding 800 head of cattle which he had gathered.
The Indians attacked them, and they only escaped
through strategy. Six of the men were sent with
the cattle in the direction of Sand creek, and the
remainder of them, including Mr. Slaughter and
his son C. C, made a breastwork of the horses and
awaited an attack. Profiting by a deep ravine at
hand, some of the men crept cautiously away, and
suddenly appearing at another point, made a charge
upon the Indians, who supposed there were re-in-
forcements coming, and beat a retreat.
Mr. Slaughter was an earnest worker all his life,
and few men proved themselves so useful in so many
and varied capacities. He was for many years a
minister of the Baptist Church. During his minis-
try he baptized over 3,000 persons and helped to
ordain more preachers and organize more churches
than any other person in the State of Texas. When
Rev. Mr. Slaughter first came to Palo Pinto County,
in starting out to fill his appointments as minister,
he would saddle his horse, fill his saddle bags with
provisions, take along his picket rope and arm
himself with two six-shooters and his trusty carbine.
The distance between the places where he preached
being sometimes as great as sixty miles, it was
often necessary for him to camp over night by him-
self. Twice he was attacked by Indians, but es-
caped uninjured. On one occasion, while he was
preaching in the village of Palo Pinto, the county
was 80 filled with hostile Indians and wrought up
to such a pitch that Mr. Slaughter kept his six-
shooter and his carbine at his side during the ser-
mon, and every member of his congregation
was likewise armed. He never permitted busi-
ness or fear of the Indians to interfere with his
pastoral work, and always made it a point to keep
his engagements.
He first united with the Methodist Church in
1831, but in 1842 joined ^the Baptist Church and in
1844 was ordained to preach. He studied and
practiced medicine, and was for a number of years
the only physician in Palo Pinto County. It would
be impossible to overrate his usefulness during
those long years, when the citizens of the north-
western counties were practically isolated from the
world and dependent upon each other for comfort
and aid in times of extremity. Ever thoughtful
and kind, Mr. Slaughter gave freely of his time
and money to the poor of his community.
Eleven children were born to Mr. and Mrs.
Slaughter, six boys and five girls. Seven of them
are still living, as follows: —
C. C, Peter E., J. B., W. B., Fannie, Sarah
Jane, and Millie. Mrs. Slaughter died on the 6th
of January, 1894.
He died at his home, six miles north of Palo
Pinto, Texas, at 11 p. m., March 19, 1895. Dur-
ing his last illness he had the consolation of hav-
ing with him his three sons, C. C, J. B., and
W. B. Slaughter; his three daughters, Mrs. Jennie
Harris, Mrs. Millie Dalton, and Miss Fannie
Slaughter, and also his long-cherished friend, Eev.
Eufus C. Burleson, of Waco, and a number of
neighbors and other friends. His end was peace-
ful and in keeping with his Christian life. Just
before he died, he expressed his willingness to obey
the summons, his trust in God, and his belief in a
happy immortality.
ISAAC PARKS,
ANDERSON,
A native of Georgia and for many years a promi-
nent citizen of Chambers County, Ala., came to
Texas in 1853, and located two miles east of Ander-
son, in Giimes County, where he continued plant-
ing in, which he had been formerly engaged. He
married first, on April 1st, 1834, Miss Lucinda
Cbipman, and after her death married, on January
16th, 1844, Miss Martha S. Stoneham, daughter of
Joseph Stoneham, and a niece of the venerable
Bryant Stoneham, of Stoneham Station, Grimes
County, Texas. He brought to Texas with him a
family of six children, four of whom were by his
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
673
first wife and two by his second. Of these children
three were daughters, all of whom married. They
are all deceased. A son, W. H. Parka, D. D., is
a clergyman of the Baptist Church, stationed at
Ennis, Texas. The Stonehams were among the
earliest settlers on Grimes Prairie, in Grimes
County.
By Mr. Parks' second marriage, there were six
sons and two daughters. Two sons, Eldridge and
Terrill, are deceased. The four surviving sons are :
Joseph F., of Bryan; Erastus, of Anderson;
Charles, of Brenham ; and Edwin L., of Stoneham,
Texas. The two daughters are : Carrie, now Mrs.
W. G. Hatfield, of Ennis ; and Laura, wife of L. S.
Coffey, of Navasota. Mr. Parks died June 14,
1877, at sixty-eight years of age, and Mrs. Parks
in 1884, at fifty-eight years of age, both at Ander-
son.
Joseph F. Parks is one of Bryan's successful
business men. He was born at Oak Boivery,
Chambers County, Ala., February 17, 1846. He
was reared on his father's farm and resided there
until 1869. He spent two years in the Confederate
army as a member of Chisholm's regiment, in
Major's brigade of Texas cavalry, and was attached
to Green's division in the Trans- Mississippi Depart-
ment. He was later transferred to Walker's divis-
ion (infantry), and was finally detailed as a clerk
in the commissary department of his ( Waterhouse's)
brigade and served in that capacity until the end of
the war, when he returned to Anderson, where he
was employed for two years as manager of his
father's farm. In September, 1869, he married
Miss Helen Garrett, a daughter of Judge O. H. P.
Garrett, one of the original settlers of the historic
old county of Washington. He farmed during the
year of 1870 in Washington County. Late in that
year he engaged in the livery business, which he
has since followed, first in Navasota, then in Bren-
ham and, since 1885, in Bryan. Mr. and Mrs.
Parks have five children, viz.: Ernest F., Joseph
F. , Eugene, Lilian, and Nannie.
G. W. GAYLE,
COLUMBIA,
Was born in Dallas County, Ala., in 1840. He
received his education at Auburn, Ala., and came
to Texas in 1860. He returned shortly afterward
to his native State, however, and enlisted for the
war in the Third Alabama Regiment. He served
through the war and surrendered with Gen. Lee's
• army. In 1866 he returned to Texas and engaged
in steamboating on the Trinity river. This busi-
ness was followed with gratifying financial success
during those exciting and troublesome times, when
transportation facilities were so meager in Texas.
In 1873 he settled in Brazoria County, and steam-
boat navigation on the Brazos engaged his atten-
tion for quite a while. In 1888 he was elected
County Clerk of his county, and his great popu-
larity is attested by the fact that he has been re-
elected at each succeeding election. He lived in
Columbia and has a most interesting family. He
has been an indefatigable worker for the upbuild-
ing of the section of the State in which he resides,
and few of his fellow-citizens are more widely
useful or influential.
WILEY MANGUM IMBODEN,
RUSK,
Was born in Louisiana, in 1861, and in 1863 was
brought to Texas with his parents, who located in
Cherokee County, Texas. He received the benefit
of a thorough education in the primary and acade-
mic schools of Texas and then read law and was
admitted to the bar. For a number of years he
was actively identified with Texas journalism as a
newspaper owner and an editorial writer of rare
force and elegance. He was then, as he has since
been, a prominent figure and gallant and effective
43
674
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
fighter in the political arena, contending against
all comers for the continued ascendency of the
Democratic party in this State and the establish-
ment and maintenance of good government. He
was elected and served as Journal Clerk of the
Texas Senate of the Nineteenth and Twentieth
Legislatures and upon the assembling of the Twen-
tieth-first Legislature was elected Chief Clerk of
the House of Eepresentatives of that body. In
the years that have followed he has been repeatedly
elected a member of the Legislature, serving with
distinction both in the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives, For the past decade or more, he has
taken an active and influential part in the counsels
of his party, has filled positions of honor in its
ranks and has done yeoman service ; he is recog-
nized as one of the brightest and truest blades that
Texas Democracy can boast. This year (1896) he
was nominated, and has just been elected a presi-
dential elector upon the Bryan and Sewall ticket
and will have the pleasure of voting for the re-
establishment of this government as a government
of the people. He has inherited the stature and
features of his illustrious ancestor, Wiley P.
Mangum, for a long time Senator of the United
States from North Carolina.
GEORGE T. JESTER,
CORSICANA.
Hon. George T. Jester, ex-member of the State
Legislature, in which he made an unusually brilliant
record, and now Lieutenant-Governor of the State
of Texas, was born in Macoupin County, 111.,
August 23, 1847. His father died in 1858, leaving
the mother and six children a small amount of prop-
erty that served to support the family until Charles
W. and George T. Jester were old enough to con-
tribute to the maintenance of the family.
Hampton McKinney, related to the Hamptons
of South Carolina and maternal grandfather of the
subject of this memoir, moved to Texas in 1847 and
built the first house — a log cabin — on the site
now occupied by the thriving city of Corsicana.
On the death of his father in 1858, his mother and
six children made their way to McKinney's home,
traveling the long distance from Macoupin County,
111. , to Cor&icana, in a two-horse wagon. Soon after
their arrival the county commenced the construction
of a courthouse, the first brick building erected in
that part of the State. George T. Jester and his
elder brother, Charles W., secured employment, at
fifty cents a day, and earned a support for their
mother and sisters.
At seventeen years of age he began reading law,
but abandoned its study, and the following year
(the fourth of the war) joined Hood's Fourth Texas
Regiment. Before it reached Richmond, however,
Lee had surrendered. Returning home, the neces-
sities of the family were such that he could not
prosecute his studies to admission to the bar. He
worked hard and earned money enough to purchase
a wagon and horses and for two years followed
trading and buying hides on a small scale.
He next secured a position in a dry goods store
in Corsicana at twenty dollars per month and clerked
three years, his salary being increased until it
reached one hundred and twenty-five dollars per
month.
He then began business on his own account and
merchandised from 1870 to 1880, meeting with suc-
cess. During five years of this time he was engaged
in buying cotton from farmers and shipping it direct
to spinners, the system now in vogue, and which he
has the honor of having introduced into Texas. In
1881 he retired from merchandising and cotton-
buying and embarked in the banking business with
his brothers, C. W. and L. L. Jester, under the firm
name of Jester Brothers. In 1887 the bank was
converted into the Corsicana National Bank, with a
capital and surplus of $125,000.00. Hon. George
T. Jester is president and manager of this institu-
tion.
He is as largely (perhaps more largely) inter-
ested in farming and stock-raising than in bank-
ing. The breeding and introduction of fine stock
and scientific farming is a passion with him. The
most highly enjoyed of his leisure hours are spent
at his pleasant country home.
He has been twice married : in 1871 to Miss Alice
Bates, who died in 1875, leaving two children (a
son, Claude "W., and a daughter, named for her
mother, Alice Bates Jester) ; and in 1880, five years
after the death of his first wife, to Miss Fannie P.
VHaC.Ko^-vciowNf'^' '"
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
675
Gordon, by whom he has one child, Charles G.
Jester.
Mr. Jester is a member of the Methodist Episco-
pal Church South and has been sent as a lay-dele-
gate to several important sessions of the General
Conference, the highest body known to that church.
He is a director and treasurer of the Navarro
Bible Society, a member of the Corsicana Relief
Association, Navarro County Fair Association and
Corsicana Board of Trade, and is a stockholder in
the Corsicana Street Railway Company and Corsi-
cana Manufacturing Company.
In 1890 he was nominated by acclamation by the
Democratic Convention of the Sixtieth District,
and, at the ensuing election, in November, was
elected to the House of Representatives of the
Twenty-second Legislature, without opposition.
In that body he served as a member of several im-
portant committees, helped frame and assisted in
passing the Railroad Commission Bill, introduced
several measures of far-reaching importance, took
an active part in the legislation of the session, won
the confidence and esteem of his fellow-members
and earned a State-wide reputation as a man of
uncommon ability and a faithful servant of the
people.
In 1892 he was nominated and elected State Sen-
ator and served as Chairman of the Finance
Committee of the Senate of the Twenty-third Legis-
lature. The reputation that he earned in the
Legislature led to his nomination and election two
years later by the Democracy of the State of Texas
to the high and important office of Lieutenant-
Governor, which he now (1896) holds and so well
adorns. At the recent Democratic Convention he
was renominated for and at the approaching elec-
tion will be re-elected to the office of Lieutenant-
Governor.
He is truly a representative man of the people,
having worked his way, through many difficulties,
to the place he now occupies in the social, political
and business world.
C. R. COX,
HINKLE'S FERRY.
Christopher Randolph Cox, one of the best known
and most highly respected of the old Texais veterans
who still abides with us, was born in the town of
Bowling Green, Warren County, Ky., August 31,
1828. His parents emigrated to Texas in Decem-
ber, 1829, and settled in the town of Brazoria, now
in Brazoria County. His father, a physician by
profession, and a leading citizen in that section,
died in August, 1833, and his mother in November,
1841,
Mr. Cox has lived in Brazoria County continu-
ously since 1829, with the exception of four years
spent in Houston and one year in Matagorda
County. It has been sixty-seven years since he
landed in Texas by schooner from New Orleans,
and during all that time, through the many changes
he has witnessed and through the many vicissitudes
of circumstance and fortune that he has been called
upon to encounter, he has come fully and squarely
up to the stature of good citizenship, and enjoyed
the confidence and esteem of the people among
whom he has dwelt.
In 1846 he joined Capt. Ballowe's company,
Hays' regiment, and served during the Mexican
War under Gen. Zachary Taylor. He partici-
pated in the battle of Monterey, was at the storm-
ing of the Bishop's Palace and other Mexican
strongholds in and around the city, and was in all
the engagements in wliich his command took part,
bearing himself with the gallantry of a true soldier.
The war over, he returned to his home, and in 1856
was elected County Clerk of Brazoria County, and
was re-elected in 1858 and 1860. In 1862 he was
elected County Judge and in 1864 was re-elected to
that office. In 1866 he was elected Tax Assessor
and Collector of that county ; was appointed Sheriff
and Tax Collector in April, 1877, and filled that
office until December 1, 1878. He was elected
County Commissioner in 1882 and resigned that
position in October, 1883, since which time he has
held no public office.
Although in his sixtj-- ninth year, Mr. Cox is still
as vigorous, mentally, as in his prime, and his
physical health is such as to justify his friends in
the hope that he will be spared to them for many
years to come.
676
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
A. T. ROSE,
SUPERINTENDENT OF THE TEXAS SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.
Hon. A. T. Rose, the efiicieat superintendent of
the Texas School for the Deaf and Dumb, is
well known throughout the State as a financier and
leading promoter of many useful public and private
enterprises in the section of the State in which he
for so many years made his unofficial home. He
was born in McLennan County, Texas, in June,
1858. When a boy he attended a preparatory
school at home and then entered the Texas Mili-
tary Institute at Austin, where he graduated in
1877. He married Miss Lillie Thomas, a young
lady of Austin, in 1878, and settled upon a farm at
his old home near Waco. In 1887 he moved to
Hillsboro, where he went into the real estate busi-
ness. By dint of energy, careful business habits
and superior financial ability, he rapidly enlarged
his interests, and took position as one of the most
effective workers for the upbuilding of Hillsboro
and the section tributary to it. He is now the
vice-president of the Hillsboro Investment and
IClectric Light Co., and president of Rose Hill
Improvement Co., which owns and controls a large
addition to the city of Hillsboro. He also owns
other property in Hill and McLennan counties.
His married life has been blessed with four chil-
dren, the oldest seventeen years of age and the
youngest eleven. His wife has many friends in
Austin who grew up from childhood with her, and
is a social favorite. The superintendency of this
State institution came to Mr. Rose without his
seeking. When it was first tendered to him in
January, 1895, he hesitated to accept, as by doing
so his varied interests might have to suffer, but it
was his wife's wish to move back to Austin, and he
yielded to her desire. He has now been at the
head of the institution for hearly two years, and it
has prospered greatly under his management, and
the wisdom of his appointment by the Governor
has been fully justified by results. This eleemosy-
nary institution is second in importance to none
maintained by the State, and requires for its
proper administration, qualities of heart and mind
of the highest order, and these the present super-
intendent has shown himself to possess in full
measure, and it is to be hoped, in the interest of
the unfortunates now in his charge, that he will
remain at its head for many years to come. His
energies and brain could not be employed in a
nobler cause than that in which they are now
enlisted — a life-work worthy to become the life-
work of any man whose ambition is of that high
order that animates to noble deeds in the ser-
vice of others, and in the interest of a broad
humanity.
JOSE MARIA RODRIGUEZ,
LAREDO.
Jose Maria Rodriguez was born in Sau Antonio,
Texas, October 29th, 1829, of pure Spanish lineage.
He is the son of the late Ambrosio Rodriguez.
His mother, before marriage, was Miss Ma J.
Olivarri. She is still living in San Antonio.
The father of the subject of this sketch was born
in San Antonio, in 1807, was First Lieutenant in
Gen. Houston's army and participated in the deci-
sive battle of San Jacinto.
Jose Maria sprang from a warlike family on both
sides. His maternal grandfather, Andres Cour-
biere, was a sergeant in the Spanish army that
occupied San Antonio at an early date. He re-
tired from the army and married at San Antonio,
and his descendants are scattered throughout the
State of Texas.
Jose Maria, when quite a boy, witnessed a fight
in the county courthouse of Bexar County, in
which his fatlier was a participant, between Texians
and Comanche Indians, a full account of which is
to be found under the proper heading elsewhere
in this work.
Jose Maria Rodriguez was educated in Texas and
New Orleans, La., and in addition to the English
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
677
language became also proficient in Spanish and
French, the two foreign languages generally in use
in the locality of his residence at that time. He
lived in San Antonio until 1861 and then moved to
Laredo, where he still resides, engaged in raising
stock — sheep, horses and cattle — on his ranch in
Encinal County, Texas. His ranch at present is
one of the largest and finest in that county.
Mr. Eodriguez married Feliz Benavides, a daugh-
ter of Basilic Benavides, who was one of the public-
spirited and wealthy citizens of Southwest Texas,
and who represented his district in the Constitu-
tional Convention of 1859-60. They have had two
children : Natalie and Jose Ambrosio. Natalie,
the daughter, received a fine education at San An-
tonio, and the son, Jose Ambrosio, was educated
at St. Mary's University, at Galveston, Texas.
Mr. Rodriguez has been an active Democrat and
participant in political affairs. He was Assessor
and Collector of Taxes for Bexar County, and Alder-
man for San Antonio in 1857-8. Removing lo Webb
County he commenced the study of law, was ad-
mitted to practice in the District Court in 1864, and
in 1879 was elected County Judge. He is a man
of fine intelligence and business habits, and the
fact that for years he was elected to the important
position of County Judge of his county, is the very
best evidence that his fellow-citizens have the
highest confidence in his integrity and ability.
Judge Rodriguez is a true and exemplary Catholic
and consistent Christian gentleman.
He has been a public-spirited man, ever ready to
unite with his fellow-citizens in improving the local-
ity of his home city.
GEN. THOMAS N. WAUL,
GALVESTON.
Gen. Thomas Neville Waul, of Galveston, one of
the most distinguished citizens of the common-
wealth of Texas, was born near Statesburg, S. C,
January 5th, 1813, and is the last living descendant
of the Wauls of that State.
His ancestors at an early day emigrated to Vir-
ginia, and their children scattered thence through
New Jersey and the Carolinas, and were among the
early settlers of the Western States. His great-
grandfather settled on the Yadkin and Pedee rivers
in the southeastern portion of South Carolina, and
his grandfather on the Santee river.
His father, Thomas Waul, was married to Miss
Annie Mulcahay, daughter of a leading citizen of
South Carolina.
The grandfathers of Gen. Waul, on both sides,
were active Whigs and soldiers in the Revolutionary
struggle that achieved independence for the Ameri-
can colonies, and at its close settled in South Caro-
lina near their comrade in arms, the gallant and
illustrious Gen. Sumpter, " The Gamecock of the
South."
With such a lineage, rich in such memories and
reared in such an atmosphere, it is not surprising
that genius, courage and patriotism are distinguish-
ing characteristics of Gen. Thomas N. Waul. At
an- early age -he entered the University of South
Carolina, at Columbia, but left it in 1832 without
graduating, owing to feeble health, straitened
means and the death of his father. He had early
lost his sainted mother. He generously gave his
stepmother, as a recognition of her affection for
him, his interest in the small estate left by his
father. Having determined upon the study and
practice of law at the age of seventeen, he mounted
his horse and, with no other possessions than the
contents of his valise and testimonials as to his
scholarship, capacity and integrity, set forth sus-
tained by a courageous spirit, to find or make for
himself a place in the world. Turning his horse's
head westward, he stopped at Florence, Ala., in-
tending only to make a short stay, to recuperate
his strength. A vacancy occurring, upon his
application, he was elected principal of the
male academy situated at that place. Here
he taught one session but, becoming im-
patient to take definite steps to enter his
chosen profession, relinquished the position as
principal and with high testimonials from the
trustees of the academy, proceeded to
Vicksburg, Miss., where he formed the acquaint-
ance of S. S. Prentiss. Prentiss at that time,
though a young man, had already exhibited much
of that capacity which afterwards made him so fa--
mous; for his brilliant genius, even then, had won
for him a commanding position at the local bar.
678
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Naturally, young Waul was captivated by his mag-
netic power and engaging eloquence. The esteem
was mutual, and at the invitation of Prentiss the
young aspirant for legal knowledge became a stu-
dent in his office, received the advantage of his
training and enjoyed the friendship of that illus-
trious man throughout his life. The eager student
made rapid progress, and in 1835 was licensed to
practice by the Supreme Court of Mississippi. He
home. He followed his profession with such ardor
and success that in a few years he was able to aban-
don the general practice and confine himself to busi-
ness in the Federal, Chancery and Court of Appeals,
and to special engagements in important cases. Hav-
ing by his exertions acquired a sufficient fortune to
justify some degree of respite from toil, he, in
December, 1850, removed to Texas and established
a plantation on the Guadalupe river, in Gonzales
GEN. THOMAS N. WAUL.
was previous thereto appointed District Attorney
for the wealthy and influential river district, includ-
ing within its limits the towns of Vicksburg and
Natchez and the counties on the Mississippi river.
He resided a short time in Yazoo Citv, and thence
removed to Grenada. In 1836 he married Miss
America Simmons, a highly cultured and accom-
plished young lady of Georgia, descended from one
of the leading families of that State. She now pre-
sides with elegance and grace over his hospitable
County. Having still interests in Mississippi, he
opened a law office in New Orleans, and for a few
winters practiced in important cases in the higher
courts of Louisiana.
When the Know-Nothing party threatened to ob-
tain control of the country he found much of the
ability and many of the leaders of the Democratic
party the strongest supporters of the new mpvement,
at the head of which, in Texas, was the great name
of Houston. He attacked the principles and prac-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
679
tices of the Know-Nothing organization, sought its
champions upon every battle-ground, and invited
controversy upon the hustings with all who upheld
its dangerous doctrines.
Though never in his long career a seeker for
political office, the people called him from his
retirement on the Guadalupe in 1859 as the proper
champion of Democratic principles and put him for-
ward as a candidate for Congress.
Though the party was defeated and the Hon. A.
J. Hamilton (the opposition nominee) elected, the
character and eloquence of Gen. Waul shone with
unabated brilliancy in the midst of party defeat.
Afterwards, in 1860, Gen. Waul was selected as
one of the electors of the State at large on the
Breckenridge and Lane ticket and in the historic
canvas that followed, delivered some of the ablest
speeches of his life. An eye and ear witness re-
lates that during the delivery of one of these
speeches at Seguin, somebody in the audience
called out: "But, Gen. Waul, suppose that Lin-
coln should be elected, what would you do then.?"
Without a moment's hesitation, he replied: " God
Almighty grant that that day will never come, yet
should that evil day arrive, then, as under all
other circumstances, I shall remember that I am a
native son of the South, and shall say to her as
Ruth said to Naomi, ' Whither thou goest I will go,
and where thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people
shall be my people and thy God my God. Where
thou diest I will die, and there will I be buried :
the Lord do so to me and more also, if aught but
death part thee and me.' " The crowd was elec-
trified, shouts rent the air, tears moistened hundreds
of cheeks and the gathered thousands saw in him
the embodiment of chivalric and manly grace, sin-
cere devotion to country and magnetic oratory.
He demonstrated the importance of a united
South as the only hope of averting impending war.
As to secession, he said that, as to some of the
States, it could not be averted and in case of
attempted coercion, Texas could not remain inac-
tive against a united and aggressive North. Con-
tinuing, he argued that there was a hope that this
aggression might be obviated by the display of a
united South. He therefore invoked this union as
a measure of patriotism, disregarding on his part,
and asking others to sink all party issues. Subse-
quent events rendered war inevitable, but it was
doubtless owing to these masterly appeals that the
great majority of the bitter opponents of secession
took arms for the South when coercion was
attempted.
The State having seceded, Gen. Waul was sent
to the Provisional Congress at Montgomery and,
with his usual sagacity, urged upon that body
the necessity of adequate preparations for a
struggle, as the most effective method of se-
curing a satisfactory arrangement between the
sections or, if necessary, to fight for an hon-
orable peace. Before his term of service ex-
pired it was obvious that an amicable adjustment
was impossible. He declined re-election, being
resolved to take the field. He succeeded in raising
over two thousand troops. They were organized as
" Waul' s Legion," went into camp in Washington
County and proceeded thence to Vicksburg and
Corinth, where Federal and Confederate troops were
being concentrated. At Holly Springs he heard
of the defeat of the Confederate forces, and was
ordered to the front to protect and cover their re-
treat. Thenceforth, the Legion under the command
of Gen. Waul was actively engaged in hard service.
Its valor and discipline made its name a household
word in Southern homes never to be forgotten.
Gen. Waul knew perfectly the topography of Mis-
sissippi and by virtue of this knowledge and his
ability as a commander, was assigned to the per-
formance of arduous and responsible duties in de-
fense of the State. He urged the importance of
defending Yazoo Pass and, though engineers had
reported that entrance- through that channel was
impossible, his dissenting views were adopted by
the government and, at the instance of the Presi-
dent, by Gen. Pemberton, he was ordered to the
defense of the Yazoo and Tallahatchie river. The
Commanding General requested him to make his
selection of troops in the field to aid the Legion in
this responsible undertaking. His choice fell upon
the gallant Second Texas, commanded by that brave
old soldier. Col. Ashbel Smith, whose efficiency and
gallantry had been demonstrated in many en-
gagements.
He proceeded to a strategic point near the con-
fluence of the Yalobusha and Tallahatchie rivers and
promptly commenced the erection of a fortification
of cotton bales. The Federal General, Ross, with
troops and gun-boats, had already entered the river
and was approaching with a well-appointed land and
naval force. But the narrowness of the river and
the want of knowledge of the channel somewhat re-
tarded the Federal advance, and utilizing this slight
delay, the Confederates toiled all through the night
in the mud to complete their works. Simultane-
ously with the dawn of morning the Federal fieet
appeared and the fortification received its last and
only large gun.
Notwithstanding the heavy armament and supe-
rior force of the Federals, they were driven back
and for a time Vicksburg and the Mississippi were
680
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
saved to the Confederacy. Gen. Loring arrived
on the eve of the engagement, but his report of
the battle truthfully gave the credit for the victory
to the brave Texians and their commander. At the
siege of Vicksburg Gen. Waul's command did
active service in the reserve, their presence being
required to repel every attack along the lines, and
it suffered greatly in loss of officers and men.
After the surrender of Vicksburg he was ordered
to Richmond and there promoted for gallant service
in the field to the rank of Brigadier-General. He
was then sent to Texas to recruit his Legion and
increase his battalions to the full complement of
regiments and to organize the command into a
brigade of cavalry and report for duty in the Cis-
Mississippi Department. Before the orders could
be executed, Gen. Banks appeared with a force to
invade Texas, and Gen. E. Kirby Smith, com-
manding the Trans-Mississippi Department, offered
Gen. Waul the command of one of his best brig-
ades. He accepted and led it in the battles of
Mansfield and Pleasant Hill, in both of which he
bore an active and conspicuous part. When the
Division Commander, Gen. Walker, was wounded,
Gen. Waul was placed in command of the division
and was subsequently placed in command of the
field by Gen. Taylor for personal gallantry and
military skill displayed in the successful massing of
the troops. The reputation earned by him on pre-
vious fields was more than sustained at the battle
of Saline, or Jenkins' Ferry, which, on account of
the mud rendering the use of the artillery impossi-
ble, was fought exclusively with muskets and bay-
onets. The Federals were driven from the field
with great slaughter. On the Confederate side the
heaviest losses were suffered by the Texas troops.
Of their three generals two were killed and Gen.
Waul severely wounded.
After the close of the war he returned to his
home on the Guadalupe and, against his protest,
was elected to the first reconstruction convention.
In obedience solely to a sense of duty, he accepted
the position, and having done so employed every
infiuence that he could command to secure a con-
stitutional recognition of the rights of the people
of Texas and to allay sectional animosities. His
course in the convention, brave and wise, was
warmly supported by friends and respected by
political foes. He urged reciprocal compromises
and the guarantee of the inalienable rights of the
vanquished in justifiable war as the only means of
establishing sectional peace and national prosperity.
The effect of his councils and presence in that body
cannot be overestimated. Having lost his material
possessions by the war, he removed from the Gua-
dalupe to Galveston and resumed the practice of
law. His talent and devotion to business secured
for him a lucrative practice and placed him in the
front rank of active practitioners. He was soon
called by the profession to the presidency of the
Bar Association, over which he has since presided.
His practice is chiefly in commercial, corporation,
and admiralty matters, and in the Federal and
Supreme Courts, in cases involving large transac-
tions ; he is intimately acquainted with the princi-
ples and practice of all branches of the law. His
broad capacity of mind, intuitive good judgment,
and the untiring labor bestowed upon his cases suf-
ficiently account for his success during the various
epochs of his professional life. Though devoted to
the law, he has found time to cultivate amenities
of literature, as well as make researches in the
domains of science and philosophy. He is partic-
ularly partial to botanical studies and devoted to
the cause of popular education. For intellectual
accomplishments and breadth of culture, he is with-
out a superior in the State. He has aided, to the
full extent of his means and opportunities, every
commendable enterprise, and has contributed more
than his distributive share to the development of
the resources and institutions of Texas and the
Southwest.
His personal, like his mental, characteristics are
strongly defined. With every attribute of moral
and physical courage, of the most undaunted char-
acter, is mingled justice and generosity. A mem-
ber of the Baptist Church, and seeking to be a true
Christian, his highest ambition is under all circum-
stances to do his whole duty to God and to his
fellow-men.
He is one of the noblest surviving representatives
of a race that has shed undying luster upon the
Southern name, and is a citizen of whom Texas is
justly proud.
Since writing the foregoing we have learned that
Gen. Waul has retired from the practice of his pro-
fession, and removed from Galveston to a farm he
established some years since in Hunt County where,
after sixty years of married life, he and his wife
look for that rest and quiet so well suited to their
advanced years.
Born and reared in Southern plantation homes,
they return to their love of country life, surrounded
by orchard and vineyard, amid their flocks and
herds, they hope to approximate as near as the
changed conditions will permit, the open hospitality
of the "Old South," and with doors widespread
they will give a hearty welcome to all visitors. In
pleasant companionship reviving agreeable remin-
iscences, with ill-will towards none and kindness
to all, with well-founded hopes for the future, they
prepare to receive their last summons.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
681
JOHN P. COLE,
WASHINGTON COUNTY.
John P. Cole, one of the first settlers of Texas,
was born in Rowan County, N. C, in 1793, where
he was reared to the age of eighteen, when he went
to Georgia. There he married Miss Mary E.
Owen, of Jasper County, and a year later moved to
Texas, coming overland by way of Arkansas,
where he made a crop, reaching the Brazos bottom
la the vicinity of what is now Washington, in the
spring of 1822. He was the third man to cross the
Brazos, and took up his abode on the west side of
that stream. He located half his headright in that
vicinity and half in the vicinity of what is now
Independence, then known as Cole's Settlement.
This was in the year 1828. Mr. Cole put in the
first grist mill, and saw mill, and gin, in that part
of the country. He was a prominent man in
an early day and of great service to the
country. He held a number of public posi-
tions, and was known far and wide for his public
spirit and hospitality. During the revolution of
183.5-36 he offered himself for service in the cause
of the colonists, but on account of a failure of eye-
sight was incapacitated for active duty. He
removed his family, for greater safety, to Bever-
ley's settlement beyond the Neches, but returned
immediately after the battle of San Jacinto. He
was made the first Chief Justice of Washington
County, and later represented that county in the
Congress of the Republic. He was always a
planter, and acquired a considerable amount of
property, mostly in land. His death occurred
Japuary 18, 1847, and that of his wife in February,
1874.
They were the parents of a large number of
children, only six of whom, however, five daughters
and one son, became grown. The son, William H.,
died at about the age of twenty-one in the Confed-
erate army. The daughters were married. Four
are still living. Of these, Mary E. married
Thomas L. Scott, is a widow, and resides at Inde-
pendence ; Eliza M. was married to Andrew B.
Shelburne, and resides with her husband at Bryan ;
Victoria C. married Moses B. Hairston, and resides
with her husband at Bartlett, Williamson County ;
and Medora L. is the widow of John A. McCrock-
lin, and lives at Independence. Still another
daughter, Maria L., the first female white child
born west of the Brazos, was married to W. W.
Hill, and died shortly after her father, in January,
1847, in Burleson County.
This pioneer of Texas, John P. Cole, has but
few descendants now living.
GEORGE W. WOODMAN,
LAREDO.
George W. Woodman, deceased, a well-remem-
bered Texas pioneer, came to the State at about
seventeen years of age.
He was a native of New Orleans, La., where he
was born December 31st, 1832. He was the sec-
ond son of a successful building contractor of that
city, who died, leaving an estate valued at about
$60,000.00, which was equally divided between
these two sons, his only children.
George W., the subject of this sketch, upon
coming to Texas, located at Indianola, where,
though yet a very young man, he entered exten-
sively into the wholesaling and retailing of wines,
liquors and groceries at the upper, or earliest,
settlement of that historical old point. Partially
owing to inexperience and a combination of un-
foreseen circumstances, the venture was unsuccess-
ful. He subsequently served, by appointment, as
Deputy District Clerk, of Calhoun County, and
later by election he filled the same office for a
period in all of about twelve years. He there mar-
ried, April 2, 1856, Miss Ella C, daughter of Col.
Henry White, a Texas pioneer.
Mr. and Mrs. Woodman lived at Indianola from
1856 to 1872, and then moved to Corpus Christi,
where he worked as an accountant for leading busi-
682
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ness houses until 1880, when they moved to Laredo,
where the older son had embarked in business. In
Laredo Mr. Woodman found employment as an
accountant, and died there in November, 1890.
Two sons, George C. and Albert V. (who now
compose the well-known hardware firm of George
C. Woodman & Brother, at Laredo) and Mrs.
Woodman still survive.
Mrs. Woodman's father. Col. White, came to
Texas as early as 1842 from Louisville, Ky., bring-
ing with him his family and a large amount of
money, made in the wholesale and retail dry goods
business in that city, where he owned at one time
three establishments.
He was a native of London, England, was
reared to the mercantile business, and came to
America when about twenty-two years of age and
located in New York City, where he engaged
in business as a broker and speculator, and
there met and married Miss Eliza Lackman, a
native of Buttermilk Falls, Westchester County,
N. Y.
Owing to poor health, Col. White came West, as
before stated, and for similar reasons left Louis-
ville, where he had accumulated a fortune, and
where his children were born, and came to Gal-
veston, Texas.
He, soon purchased land and at a large expense
developed a country home near Morgan's Point in
Galveston County, on Galveston Bay. Unused to
country life and rural pursuits he sold his property
at Morgan's Point and located with his family in
Galveston, and there engaged for a time in the
merchandise brokerage and auction business.
Upon the discovery of gold in 1849, he was one
of the first to go to California, taking with him a
stock of goods. He engaged in merchandising at
Sacramento for a period of about six years, and
then returned to his family at Galveston, and took
them to St. Louis, Mo., where he followed the dry
goods business until the war broke out.
His three sons joined the Confederate army, and
he served the Southern Confederacy as a clerk in
the Quartermaster's department during the con-
flict. He died while on a trip to New Orleans, in
1865, and his widow a short time later, the same
year, at the home of her daughter, in Indianola,
Texas. Mrs. Woodman and an older sister, Mrs.
Harriett Merriman, are the only surviving members
of the familj' of seven children.
EPHRIAM M. DAGGETT,
FORT WORTH.
No one among the pioneers of Tarrant County
made a deeper impress or left behind him a mem-
ory that will longer endure in the respect and affec-
tion of the people than the late Capt. Ephriam M.
Daggett. As one of his eulogists has said of him :
"He was born great in stature, mind and soul,"
and his extraordinary individuality made him easily
a leader in every company in which he found him-
self. He was born in Canada, eight miles from
Niagara Falls, June 3, 1810. His father, who was
a Vermonter by birth, espoused the American cause
in the War of 1812, and after the war the gov-
ernment, in recognition of his services, made him a
grant of land in Indiana, where the city of Terre
Haute now stands. There the Daggett family, in-
cluding the subject of this sketch, who was then
ten years old, removed in 1820. He grew up on a
farm, and in 1833 went to Chicago, where he was
engaged for several years trading with the Indians.
About this time his father was seized with the Texas
fever, and the whole family, including Ephriam,
came South, landing at Shreveport, La., and from
there went to Shelby County, in Eastern Texas,
where they located. This was in April, 1840, and
there the Daggetts remained, engaged in cultivating
the soil. What is known as the Shelby War soon
broke out, and the community was divided into
two factions, one known as the Regulators and the
other as the Moderators. It seems to have been a
conflict between the law-abiding and the lawless
classes, and Ephriam Daggett, with his father and
brothers, did yeoman service with the former.
When the Mexican War broke out in 1846, Shelby
County raised two companies of troops, and in one
of these E. M. Daggett and his brother Charles en-
listed. He went in as a Lieutenant, and was soon pro-
moted to a Captaincy in the celebrated regiment of
Texas rangers commanded by Col. Jack Hays.
His career during the war was one of splendid
courage and daring achievements, and he was con-
■-^Sv
^" I I L.
John H.Wood
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
683
spicuous for personal gallantry in many emergen-
cies. After the war he returned to Shelby County,
and the fact that he twice represented the county
in the Legislature is sufficient evidence of his recog-
nized leadership among those people. He made his
first trip to Western Texas in 1849, the same ^ear
that his brother Henry located there, but he did
not finally move his family West until 1854. His first
marriage occurred in Indiana in 1834, and his wife
bore him one son — Ephriam B. Daggett — who still
survived. His second marriage tooli place in
Shelby County, in 1841, and his wife was Mrs.
Caroline AdaTns, from South Carolina. She and
his only son, Ephriam, went with him to Fort
Worth in 1854, and she died there in 1869. When
Capt. Daggett reached Fort Worth, his brother
Charles and sister Helen came with the family, his
brother Henry being already a resident there.
Capt. Daggett at once went into the general mer-
cantile business, as a member of the firm of Turner
& Daggett, and began the accumulation of a for-
tune. He was soon a man of commanding influence
and his personal efforts were largely instrumental
in getting the county seat removed from Birdville
and permanently located at Fort Worth. He did
not go into field service during the Civil War, being
past the age fixed by law, and after the war con-
tinued in the mercantile business at Fort Worth.
He had meanwhile acquired large landed interests
in and around Fort Worth and was also heavily
interested in cattle. In 1872 he was one of the
leading men to welcome the Texas and Pacific Eail-
road magnates to Fort Worth, and as an induce-
ment for the company to build its line there,
donated nearly one hundred acres of land, and
upon part of it the Union Depot stands to-day.
He retired from merchandising and at once
launched into a career of enterprise and speculation
which made him a veritable giant in the great worh:
of building a city. His name is indissolubly asso-
ciated with those times, and his fellow citizens
pointed with pride to the stalwart old man as an
example of the class that was compassing big enter-
prises and carrying Fort Worth to metropolitan
greatness. He was a keen, broad, original thinker,
bold in execution, scrupulously honest and just,
and very charitable to the deserving poor. In relig-
ion he was more nearly allied to the Universalist
faith than any other, and in politics he acted with
the Democrats until 1878, when he espoused the
Greenback cause and was an unsuccessful candidate
for Congress on that ticket. He died in Fort
Worth, April 19th, 1883, and his death carried sor-
row to every home in the city as though it were a
personal bereavement. All classes and colors
mourned his loss and a vast concourse attended his
funeral.
He left a large estate and only one child,
Ephriam B. Daggett, long a prominent citizen of
Fort Worth.
JOHN H. WOOD,
ST. MARYS.
John H. Wood was born September 6, 1816, at
the family home, situated between Poughkeepsie
and Hyde Park, in the State of New York, and for
a brief time during boyhood attended local schools.
His parents were Humphrey and Maria Wood. His
mother, who died when he was eleven years of age,
was a daughter of Richard DeCantillon and nearly
related to the Stoughtenburgs and Tailors, repre-
sentatives of the fine old patroon families whose
spacious manors in New York rivaled in extent and
the elegancies of social life the domains of their
progenitors in the Old World. Humphrey Wood
was of excellent Puritan stock. His ancestors were
sea-faring men, and in early life he became one of
the " toilers of the deep " and soon rose to the rank
of Captain of a vessel. Later he abandoned the
sea, engaged in farming, and established a pleasant
home upon the banks of the Hudson, between
Poughkeepsie and Hyde Park. He lived to the
advanced age of 103 years, dying at Genoa, N. Y. ,
in 1873.
After the death of his mother the subject of this
sketch, Maj. John H. Wood, went to the city of
New York, where he spent a j'ear or more with an
aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Stoughtenburg. At
the expiration of that time he returned to the fam-
ily homestead, attended school for a short time, and
then returned to New York City, where during the
succeeding three years he clerked first in a drj'
goods establishment and then in a grocery store.
684
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
His experience in the grocery store, which was
owned and conducted by a man of mean and over-
bearing spirit, thoroughly disgusted him. He
determined to never again stand behind a counter
as an employe, and, acting upon this resolution,
resigned his position, bound himself as an appren-
tice and began to learn the painter's trade.
The unjust treatment of her Anglo- American col-
onists by Mexico and the spirited action of the
Texans at Velasco, Anahuac, and other places,
excited the attention and aroused the sympathy of
people living in all parts of the United States. The
expulsion of Bradburn from his stronghold, the
entire evacuation of Texas by Mexican forces, the
overthrow of the despotism of Bustamante, and
Santa Anna's pledges to be governed by and enforce
in its true spirit the Mexican constitution of 1824,
seemed to mark a happy ending of existing diffi-
culties, and popular excitement in the United States
was in a measure allayed. It was but the lull, how-
ever, before the storm. Santa Anna soon gave
unmistakable evidences of his intention to reduce
the people of Texas to a condition little better than
slavery, depriving them of nearly all their rights
and subjecting them to absolute dependence upon
his will. The colonists were not slow in organiz-
ing for resistance.
Freemen with arms in their hands were apt to be
hard to deal with and in pursuance of the plans of
the central executive authority Ugartechea pi'o-
ceeded with a Mexican force to Gonzales to demand
a cannon in the possession of the people of that
place and convey it to San Antonio. A small Texian
force was quickly assembled, his demand was
answered with defiance, a sharp skirmish ensued
and the first volley of the Texian revolution (as
fateful as that which greeted the British regulars at
Lexington) whistled through the air. Ugartechea
was defeated and driven back to Bexar and war
formally inaugurated.
News of this event spread rapidly, and was
answered in the States by a patriotic thrill in the
hearts of hundreds of young men who longed to
draw their swords in the cause of liberty. Texian
agents met with little difficulty in procuring volun-
teers. Stanley and Morehouse, acting as emis-
saries of the provisional government of Texas,
were in New York recruiting for the service.
John H. Wood, having procured permission from
the painter to whom he had apprenticed himself,
called upon Stanley and Morehouse and enrolled
his named. One hundred and eighty- four men
(whom the agents represented as emigrants) having
been secured, Stanley and Morehouse chartered a
vessel, the Matawomkeg, and in the night of
November 25, 1835, slipped out of New York har-
bor. Arriving off Sandy Hook the vessel encoun-
tered a terrific storm, and for a time it seemed
certain that she would go to the bottom.
This night, which marked the commencement of
a nevs epoch in the life of Maj. Wood, was also
made memorable by the great fire that reduced
Wall street and contiguous parts of New York
City to ashes.
The ship safely weathered the storm, resumed
the voyage, drifted somewhat out of her course and,
after a rough passage, reached the Island of
Eleuthera, one of the Bahama group, and anchored
off the coast for a number of days. Members of
the crew and many of the passengers went ashore.
A number of the volunteers were roughs from such
unsavory purlieus of New York City as the " Five
Points," and through force of habit, perhaps, com-
mitted petty thefts and were guilty of outrageous
conduct that soon earned for them unenviable repu-
tations. The Captain, having taken aboard water
and ship supplies, compelled these men to return all
stolen articles, where that was possible, made ample
compensation for other losses, bestowed liberal
presents upon all injured persons who had preferred
complaints, and set sail for the Balize. A fisher-
man named Knowles, a man of low character, who
lived on that part of the coast of Eleuthera where
the vessel had anchored, hurried to Nassau, in the
Island of New Providence, and notified the British
authorities that a pirate was hovering in those seas
and had already ravished women and been guilty of
pillage. He represented himself as one of the
victims who had suffered most from the incursion,
his object being to put in a claim for heavy
damages.
According to his reckoning the Matawomkeg
would have time to get well out of the Bahamas
before pursuit could be attempted. His calculation
was at fault. The British brig-of-war Serpent and
another vessel loaded with marines at once gave
chase and soon overhauled and captured the ship
and conveyed her to Nassau, where all aboard were
imprisoned and detained in the barracks for sixty
days. While thus confined the Americans resorted
to various expedients to relieve the tedium of
prison life. Canvas was stretched on a large arch
in the center of the room and on this they, painted a
representation of the battle of New Orleans, and
offered their production for exhibition January 8th,
the anniversary of that engagement, The younger
British officers and their wives visited the barracks
and examined and passed good-humored criticisms
on the picture. The old colonel of the regiment
however, had participated in the battle of New
■"S- tyrt.aC.K.o=v™Ls Ne-''*""*-
:rs. John H.Wood.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
685
Orleans, and no doubt received his share of the
drubbing administered to the redcoats by Gen.
Jackson on that ^occasion, and he was much
incensed and afterward proved one of the most
determined enemies of the embryo Texian patriots.
They cared little for him or his opinions, however,
and passed the time as satisfactorily to themselves
as circumstances would permit.
The Bahamas were inhabited mainly by negroes
who had been but recently manumitted by the
English Government. The troops stationed at
Nassau consisted of negro soldiers. For these sable
sons of Mars the prisoners manifested the utmost
contempt. There were no sentry boxes about the
barracks, and one tempestuous night the guards en-
tered the building to seek protection from the storm.
They were promptly and indignantly driven out and
compelled to pace their rounds amid the wind and
rain. To amuse themselves the prisoners would
occasionally gather up handfuls of the pebbles with
which the courtyard was thickly strewn and throw
them on the roof of the barrack, greatly terrifying
the soldiers, who thought this rattle of missiles a
signal for an uprising of the bold and hardy
Americans.
At last the grand jury assembled and Knowles
was called before them. Having examined him,
that body was satisfied that the charge of piracy
was unfounded, and ordered the release of all the
Americans, except a few against whom indictments
were preferred for theft. These men were promptly
tried, and the evidence showing that payment had
been made by the captain for all articles taken,
they were acquitted. While under arrest the Amer-
icans had been insulted by sailors from an English
ship lying in the harbor. These sailors had boasted
of what they would have done had they been a part
of the crew of the Serpent or aboard the transport
when the Matawomkeg was captured, and said that
tliey would have cleaned out the Yankees in short
order. The Americans determined not to leave the
port until they had settled their score with these
braggadocio tars, and shortly before embarking an
opportunity offered itself. A collision took place.
The native inhabitants of the place did not like the
English, and a number of mulatto and negro shop
keepers and others joined sides with the Americans
in the melee and the English seamen were soon
ingloriously routed and driven from the streets.
No lives were lost in the riot and the Americans
were allowed to go aboard their ship without suffer-
ing further molestation. After narrowly escaping
being wrecked on the coast of the Cuba, the Mata-
womkeg put into Matanzas, a port on that island,
and from that point proceeded to the mouth of the
Mississippi, where she waited sometime for supplies.
During this period of delay the better class of men
among the volunteers determined to rid themselves
of the company of the roughs who had accompanied
them thus far on the voyage. The quondam deni-
zens of the " Five Points " and Bowery heroes had
been carrying matters with a high hand, brow-beat-
ing and fist-beating those of their comrades who
would submit to such treatment. Their conduct,
long obnoxious, had now become unbearable and
the gentlemen of the party banded themselves to-
gether and soundly thrashed the roughs and drove
them from the vessel with orders not to return.
The commander of the Texian man-of-war, Brutus
(anchored near at hand), cleared her decks as if
for action, sent an armed force aboard anddemanded
that the expelled men be allowed to return to the
Matawomkeg. Acquiescence was stoutly refused.
The remaining volunteers stated that not having been
mustered into the service they were not as yet Texian
soldiers and the commander of the Brutus had no
right to interfere with their affairs. The Texian
commander upon inveStigatioh acknowledged the
justness of their position, the propriety of the course
they had pursued with reference to the expulsion
of the rough characters who had been a source of
so much trouble and annoyance, and in due time
the two vessels proceeded to Pass Caballo, where
the volunteers disembarked March 1, 1836, acknowl-
edged the leadership of Morehouse and marched to
Matagorda. William Loring, a distingushed gen-
eral in the Confederate army during the war between
the States and later a general in the Egyptian
army ; Charles DeMorse, for many years editor of
the Clarksville Standard and a journalist of more
than State-wide reputation ; Lewis P. Cook, after-
ward Secretary ot State of the Republic of Texas ;
Captain William Gillam, afterward one of the most
efHcient officers of the regular army of the Eepub-
lic; the late Charles Ogsbury, of Cuero, and other
men of brilliant talents and high ability were
members of this party.
At Matagorda the volunteers were formally mus-
tered into service.
At this time the Alamo had fallen, the horrible
massacre of Fannin and his command at Goliad
had taken place, and Santa Anna was sweeping
eastward with his victorious columns. Morehouse
and his companions pushed forward, intending to
join General Houston's retreating army, but at
Casey's Ferry, on the Colorado, he was met by a
courier, who delivered orders from headquarters,
commanding him to gather together and protect the
families west of the Brazos river, and assist them
in their efforts to leave the country. The labor
686
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
assigned was efficiently performed, many of the
families being placed aboard a steamer at Colum-
bus, and sent to Galveston, and a few days before
the battle of San Jacinto, Morehouse and his men,
about 175 in number, including citizens and sol-
diers, found themselves encamped near Bingham's
plantation, situated at the head of Oyster Creek,
on the east side of the Brazos river. They pre-
pared to march up the river to Stafford's Point, on
the road from Houston to Eichmond, and attack
Cos, who had encamped there with 600 or 700 men.
Cos had pitched his camp in an open place with a
bayou on one side and so environed by timber as
to offer every opportunity for a successful surprise.
The night preceding the morning of the proposed
assault, however, he left a few men to keep up the
sentry fires and marched away with his force to
join Santa Anna. The Texian force halted at a
designated point and sent forward scouts to recon-
noitre. It was agreed that they should await the
return of this small advance body, resume the
march, take position in the timber and as soon as
it was light enough to see the sights of their
guns open the engagement". Shortly after day-
light the scouts returned with the unwelcome
news that the enemy had folded his tents like
the Arab and silently stolen away.
Alter the decisive battle of San Jacinto, Major
Wood served as one of the soldiers in the mounted
force that, under the leadership of General Rusk,
followed as far as Goliad the retreating army of
General Filisola as it marched toward the Rio
Grande to evacuate Texas according to the terms
of the agreement entered into between General
Houston and Santa Anna.
At Goliad, Major Wood assisted in the burial of
the charred remains of Fannin's men, and listened
to the eloquent oration pronounced by General
Rusk at the edge of the pit in which they were
interred. The remains consisted of skulls, bits
of bone and blackened viscera. Long after the
performance of these affecting funeral rites, he
found in the thickets near by the scene of the holo-
caust a number of skeletons supposed to be those
of members of Fannin's command, who attempted
on the day of the butchery to make their escape
and were overtaken and cut down by the Mexican
soldiery.
After the war he went to Victoria and took
charge of the horses in the quartermaster's depart-
ment and held the position for about six months.
According to a law enacted by the Texas Congress
the horses and cattle of all Mexicans who had
adhered to the cause of the enemy, and abandoned
the country during the war, were declared govern-
ment property and under this act it was the duty of
the quartermaster to collect and corral such stock.
Major Wood, as pay for his services, was given by
the quartermaster. Colonel Caldwell, an order for
cattle and began stock raising near Victoria.
Later he established himself on the Lavaca river,
in Lavaca County, near where the town of Edna
now stands. In the fall of 1845 he went to Corpus
Christi and had a conference with General Zachary
Taylor (then preparing to occupy the Rio Grande
frontier), in which he said that it was his desire to
move his cattle to the Nueces river, in what is now
San Patricio County, if General Taylor would
promise to furnish, as far as might be in his power,
protection from raiding Indians and Mexicans.
The promise was readily given, and early in the
year 1846 Major Wood located on the Nueces. In
August, 1849, he moved to Refugio County and
established a home at St. Marys, on Copano bay,
where he has since continuously resided.
At that early day Southwest Texas was infested
with bands of hostile Indians. He witnessed many
of their shocking atrocities, and on several occa-
sions was a member of pursuing parties that sought
to wreak vengeance upon the treacherous and
blood-thirsty savages, who, at short intervals,
swept through the country, committing murder and
other crimes too horrible to mention, pillaging
hamlets and driving off stock.
While living in San Patricio County, he and other
pioneers were notified by a courier, who rode in
hot haste from the settlement (consisting of two
families, the Egrys and Waelders), situated near
where St. Marys now stands, of an Indian outrage
perpetrated at that place.
Jacob Craing, a little orphan boy employed by
the Waelders, went out to a corn field (located on
the side of a gully, distant only a few hundred yards
from where Major Wood's palatial home is now
situated), to stake his horse and was captured by a
party of prowling Comanches. Major Wood and
companions knew that it was useless to strike the
trail of the Indians and attempt pursuit and accord-
ingly cut-in to the Tuscoosa, sixty miles distant,
intending to attack the Indians at a crossing, sit-
uated at a point on the stream in the present
county of Live Oak. The men were on a knoll
when, toward the middle of the afternoon, they saw
the Indians advancing. The Texians numbered
eleven men; the Indians probably a few more.
The two parties were nearly evenly matched and
the Texians would have intercepted and charged the
Indians in the open country had it not been that a
number of the men had neglected to fix their guns
and some delay was caused in getting ready for the
INDIAN WAES AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
687
attack. The Indians succeeded in making their
way into a dense thicket and separated in parties
of two and three. Everything having quickly been
placed in readiness, the Texians dashed into the
mesquite and chaparral. Major "Wood, as the party
charged by, called to Jacob Craing: " Stay with
the horses! Stay with the horses!" The little
fellow obeyed and stayed with the loose horses at
the edge of the timber. Major Wood came upon
two Indians in the brush and, when at close quar-
ters,' they opened on him a hot fire with their bows
and arrows, to which he replied by impartially be-
stowing upon each of them a load of buckshot from
his double-barrel gun. Although badly wounded
they continued to fire at Mm. His gun, like all the
fire-arms of that period, was a muzzle-loader and
he had no time in which to recharge the piece. He
drew one of his holster pistols, intending to fire
again, but knowing that the trigger was out of fix
and that he would probably miss his aim and the
Indians escape, he called to a companion who was
passing and the man quickly dispatched the sav-
ages. Three Indians were killed in the fight, sev-
eral were wounded and forty or fifty stolen horses
were recaptured. Two of the Texians were wounded
and two of their horses were killed. The Texians
who were wounded w§re in the rear of Major Wood.
One of them had his arm pinned to his side by an
arrow and the other was shot in the leg and crippled
for life. Jacolb Craing, although a boy eleven or
twelve years of age, had suffered so intensely from
terror while a captive of the Indians that when res-
cued he seemed to have forgotten his knowledge of
English and only responded with a dazed stare when
addressed in that language. When, however,
Captain Snively spoke to him in German his face
lit up with intelligence and he burst into tears and
sobs. The strain on his nervous system had been
too much for the little fellow and when the tension
was relaxed he became so ill that it was feared he
would die on the road to San Patricio. With the
exception of those mounted by Major Wood and
the boy, the horses of the Texians were broken
down with travel and could proceed but slowly and
after consulting with Captain Snively Major Wood
determined to push on with the lad to town, where
medical assistance could be procured. Turning to
Jacob, he said: "Whip up your horse, my little
man, and let's ride to San Patricio." The boy
obeyed. The excitement of fast riding revived him
and in a few hours he had completely recovered
from his indisposition. He is now living in Bee
County, where he has accumulated a competency
and raised a family.
During the war between Mexico and the United
States Major Wood made frequent trips to Browns-
ville for supplies and more than once witnessed the
robbing of wagon trains by the soldier-banditti that
infested the roads. These men did not hesitate to
swoop down on unprotected trains and appropriate
horses, wagons and goods, in fact, anything that
excited their cupidity, aften despoiling the owners
of their entire cargoes. Although he often came
in contact with these bands and had experiences
more interesting than amusing he was never se-
riously molested.
During the war between the States he entered the
Confederate army as a volunteer and served in
Texas as a soldier and Major, in the coast guards.
In politics Major Wood is a Democrat, but has
never been a politician in any sense of the word.
For fifteen or twenty years he served the people of
Eef ugio as a member of the County Commissioners'
Court, and made a faithful and efficient public
officer. A few years since he became a member of
the Catholic Church. He has donated to Nazareth
Convent at Victoria 900 acres of valuable land ad-
joining that town.
In Victoria, February 1, 1842, he was united in
marriage to Miss Nancy Clark, a noble Christian
lady, who, for nearly half a century, was his loved
counsellor, friend, companion and devoted wife —
rendering his home the abode of domestic happi-
ness and love, lightening all his cares and filling his
days and years with perennial sunshine.
In March, 1891, she died of heart failure at the
residence of her daughter, Mrs. Maria Carroll, at
Victoria. Her death was a sad blow to her hus-
band and children. Her memory is enshrined in
the heart of him whose every thought during all
their life-journey concentrated around the desire to
render her happy, and it will live and glow with fire
supernal as long as the spark of life lingers in his
breast and until the golden links of the severed
chain are reunited on the shores of the ever beauti-
ful river.
Maj. and Mrs. Wood had twelve children : Maria,
Catherine, Richard H., Agnes, James, Cora, Tobias
D., Ida, John, Willie, Julia and Marian.
Catherine, who was the wife of Henry Sullivan,
of San Patricio, died in New Jersey, where she had
gone in search of health, in July, 1867.
Marian, who was a nun of the order of the In-
carnate Word in the convent at Victoria, died in
February, 1890.
James died at G-oliad, March 15, 1875, leaving a
widow (wee Miss Mary Wilder) and one child.
Agnes is the wife of Albert J. Kennedy of Bee-
ville.
Maria is the wife of W. C. Carroll of Victoria.
688
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Cora is the wife of Peter Mahon of Victoria.
Julia is tiie wife of William C. George of Bee-
ville.
Ida is a nun of the order of the Incarnate Word
in the convent at Victoria.
Eichard H. married Miss Cannie Howard at St.
Mary's, and is now living at Rockport.
Tobias D., married Miss Mary Mahon of Victo-
ria, and is living at that place.
John, living at Beeville, married Miss Milly Sul-
livan, of San Patricio, who died in February, 1891.
Willie married Miss Nellie Bowlen, of Victoria,
and now resides in that place.
Maj. Wood has twenty-five grandchildren.
By his fine business ability Maj. Wood accumu-
lated an immense fortune, the bulk of which he has
divided among his children, giving them fine starts
in the race of life. His remaining estate consists
of 35,000 acres of fine land in Southwest Texas,
7,000 cattle, 600 or 700 head of horses, a number
of fine mules, and valuable real estate in other
parts of Texas. His elegant home fronts upon
Copano Bay, affording a view unsurpassed in
beauty, and is situated somewhat more than a mile
from the quaint, sleepy, little fishing village of St.
Marys. It is fitted with every modern convenience,
and here, surrounded by an excellent library, and
receiving every attention from devoted domestics,
he spends the greater part of the time during the
autumn and winter months enjoying delightful
quietude and in the summer months surrounded by
a bevy of welcome guests.
He often visits the homes of his children, where
the place of honor is always reserved for him by
loving hands and where, seated by the ingleside,
prattling grandchildren play about his knees.
He is a man of high intellectual force and a gen-
tleman of that superb old school that has few
representatives left. He reminds the visitor at his
hospitable mansion of the Louisiana planters of the
olden time — Chesterfieldian, generous, hospitable
and brave.
As a young man he started without adventitious
aids and has succeeded in all those objects, the at-
tainment of which are worthy of ambition. He
has manfully and successfully run life's race and
now, surrounded by loving children and grand-
children and hosts of friends and respected for his
virtues by all who know him, he is enjoying in ease
the calm evening of a useful and well spent life.
B. A. SHEPHERD,
HOUSTON.
The subject of this sketch, Benjamin Armistead
Shepherd, was born May 14th, 1814, in Fluvanna
County, Va., at the old home place established by
his forefathers in the early days of the settlement
of this country.
He passed his youth on the paternal estate, in
the meantime acquiring the elements of an educa-
tion, till at the age of sixteen he entered a country
store as clerk, laying the foundation of that busi-
ness knowledge which was afterwards to make him
an accomplished merchant and banker. At the
age of nineteen, in order to widen his sphere of ex-
perience and usefulness, and to give scope to his
budding ambition, he left the paternal home, and
mounting horse, made his way to Nashville, Tenn.,
to seek employment in a new field.
He found a place in the establishment of Samuel
Morgan & Co. , and by close application and great
industry succeeded in giving entire satisfaction to
his employers. As a token of their esteem, when a
few years later he left them, they presented him
with a fine gold watch which he carried till his
death, often referring to the gift with the fond con-
sciousness that he had, in his early days, as indeed
ever after, performed the full measure of his duty.
From Nashville, in 1837, he moved to New Or-
leans, where he obtained employment in a large
commission house as bookkeeper, and here he
remained till 1839.
During these years of commercial distress and
ruin to the whole country, when credit was utterly
destroyed, Mr. Shepherd gained an experience
which made a deep impression on his mind, and
which he never forgot. It made a naturally cautious
and conservative temperament doubly cautious and
prudent. When, in after years, tempting opportu-
nities of speculative ventures presented themselves,
his mind reverted to the events of the " panic of
'37," when old-established and wealthy houses
went down before the hurricane of financial disas-
^c^-^A
INDIAN WAttS AND PIONE^BS OF TEXAS.
689
ter, and he chose the safer and surer course of
buildiug up his fortunes.
Removing to Galveston in 1839, he engaged in
business with A. C. Crawford, under the firm name
of Crawford & Shepherd, and this continued till
1841, when he moved to Houston, where he founded
a business for himself, soon after admitting into
partnership Mr. J. A. Burke. Under the firm
name of B. A. Shepherd & Burke he continued in
the mercantile business till 1855, when, disposing
of his interest to his partner, he embarked in the
banking business exclusively, thus founding the
first house devoted solely to banking in the State.
He bent his energy and ability to building up and
extending this business from the period of its incep-
tion to the breaking out of the war, when, inviting
his customers to withdraw their deposits, he retired
from active pursuits until the war should end. But
he had not confined his attention to his bank alone.
He Was largely interested in, and president of, a
Hnfe of steamboats plying between Houston and
Galveston before a railway was thought of between
the two cities, and he was one of the projectors of
the Houston & Texas Central Railwa,y, and a mem-
ber of its first Board of Directors. He also organ-
ized a company for the purpose of building a plank
Jroad on the old Washington stage road, which had
graded some distance when the Central Railroad
acquired it and used it as its road-bed.
During the war, Mr. Shepherd's sympathies were
■aroused and sustained in behalf of the families of
the Confederate soldiers left in needy circum-
^stances, and he contributed liberally of his means
to such as he found most needy and deserving.
The fact that his oldest son, the only one who was
'of age to join the army, had enlisted in the Fifth
Texas Regiment (Hood's Brigade) strengthened
his natural sympathy for the Southern cause, and
he availed himself of every opportunity to exhibit
it. He used to say that he had no heart to engage
In business enterprises while his country was going
through that terrible ordeal.
In 1866 he re-established his bank, under the firm
Wame of B. A. Shepherd & Co., having admitted
into the partnership A. Wattermack, who had been
Ifor many years his confidential clerk, and J. A.
Shepherd, a nephew. In 1867, having acquired a
l&,rge interest in the First National Bank of Houston,
he merged the business of his private bank into that
Of the National Bank, and became its president, in
Which position he continued for the remainder of
his life. But, notwithstanding this merge, the
institution Was known popularly as " Shepherd's
Bank," and this name still clings to it atnongst the
older residents. Under his able management the
First National Bank of Houston grew and prospered,
and was recognized as an important factor in build-
ing up the business of Houston. The bank was
B. A. Shepherd, and enjoyed the confidence and
respect of the public, both at home and abroad. At
his death the property passed to his family, who
almost entirely own it and continue its successful
management.
Besides the bank Mr. Shepherd acquired a large
fortune, which he enjoyed modestly and sensibly,
without the least ostentation. He was proud of his
success in life, but not unduly so, attributing it to
the interposition of Providence with becoming thank-
fulness. In fact, long before he became a member
of the Church he manifested characteristics which
are commonly called Christian. Said a partner of
his in early days : " Shepherd was the best natural
Christian I ever met."
After a long, useful, and honorable life, he died
December 24th, 1891, in the seventy-eighth year of
his age.
Like the great majority of the pioneers of Texas,
Mr. Shepherd was a man of strong character and
individuality. Such qualities are necessary to those
who, breaking away from the conventionalities of
older civilizations, go forth to establish and build
upon new foundations.
Perhaps the most pronounced trait of Mr. Shep-
herd's character was his independence. He valued
his fortune chiefly because it enabled him to feel
and be independent. Having decided upon a course
of action, because primarily it was right, he per-
mitted the interference of no motives of policy in
the attainment of the object in view. He pursued
his aim careless of what others thought. He was
accustomed to do what to him seemed right, or to
avoid doing what to him seemed wrong, regardless
of adverse criticism. A marked instance of this
trait was his refusal to engage in the liquor traffic
as a part of his business, when it was the universal
custom of merchants in those early days to do so.
Though large profits resulted from that character of
trade, he was unwilling to avail himself of them.
It was not in accordance with his conception of
right.
Of his private charities many of the living can,
and many of the dead, if living, could, bear witness.
He was accustomed to subscribe liberally to all
charitable objects which appealed to his generosity.
On his seventy-fifth birthday he endowed a fund,
named the B. A. Shepherd Charity Fund, with $20,-
000, the interest on which is to be used for the
benefit of the poor of Houston.
His integrity was unquestioned ; it was prover-
bial. It is believed that no man who knew him or
a
690
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
knew of him ever said that his word was not as
good as his bond. He was upright and just, and
his life was pure and clean. He used to say that
he was prouder of his good name than of any suc-
cess which he had achieved in other directions.
He was married in Galveston, October 29th,
1840, to Mary Hobson, who was born in Nashville,
Tenn., February 28th, 1821, and died in Houston,
February 20th, 1888.
The surviving children are: Mrs. A. P. Boot,
Mrs. O. L. Cochran, Mrs. W. H. Palmer, Mrs. M.
L. Roberts, and Frank T Shepherd.
JOHN W. DARLINGTON,
TAYLOR.
One of the very few who participated in the stir-
ring events of the Texas Revolution and the period
of the Republic of Texas — one of the noblest of
the veterans who remain among us — was born in
what was then Harrison, Va., but is now Marion
County,WestVa., February 5th, 1821, of respected
parents. He was the second child and only son of
John W. Darlington, an Irishman, who came to
Virginia from his native country when very young ;
became an expert penman and successful school-
teacher; was a soldier in the War of 1812-15;
fought in the battle of New Orleans, and died in
the prime of life. The wife of John "W. Darling-
ton, Sr., was Henrietta Lang, a daughter of Stan-
bury Lang, a private in the Continental army
during the Revolutionary War, and Lady Lang, a
Scottish lady of respectable lineage. Mrs. Dar-
lington was left a widow without means, and the
little son was by custom and law bound out to earn
his livelihood and make his own way in the world.
His master, an avaricious man, imposed heavy
tasks upon the somewhat freil youth and in various
ways persecuted him. Young Darlington's proud
spirit rebelled, and he left his master, and heard of
and started for Texas. Carrying out the purpose
he had formed, he traveled sixty miles into West
Virginia, where he earned for a time his own living ;
but being a minor, the law required that a guardian
be appointed for him, and having met Mr. John
Webster, he prevailed upon that gentleman to take
him to Texas, and in return for that service sold
his time to Webster until the expense incurred was
repaid. They landed at Matagorda January 14,
1838. Webster located in Travis County, on Gille-
land creek, fourteen miles south of Austin, and was
two years later killed by the Indians. Young Dar-
lington worked out his debt. After getting his
freedom he worked for a time as a laborer in the
construction of the first Texas capitol and the de-
partment log-houses in Austin, and remained around
Austin until January, 1840. He saved some
money, but by misplaced confidence lost it all. He
took part in many Indian expeditions, was in the
battle of Plum Creek, in 1840, was in the expedition
against Vasquez in 1842, and also participated in
the battle of Salado, near San Antonio, in the fall
of 1842, the Mexican General, Adrian Woll, hav-
ing invaded Texas and captured the city of San
Antonio. Mr. Darlington lived in Travis County
until 1873, since which time he has resided in Will-
iamson County.
He married, in 1843, Miss Ellen Love, in Rusk
County, Texas. She is still the loved companion
of his declining years. They have eight children.
Mr. Darlington has passed twenty-three years in
Williamson County and is now retired from active
pursuits and living in the pleasant little city of
Taylor. Successful in his financial affairs, he has
aided all of his children to a start in life.
He is one of the venerated and loved citizens of
his locality. He knew Gen. Sam Houston, Col.
Brown and all of the leading men of early days
A member of the Texas Veterans' Association, it
is a pleasure to him to meet at the annual reunions
those who remain of his friends of the loved long
ago.
May he and others like him be long spared
to a grateful country.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
691
SAM. BRONSON COOPER,
WOODVILLE.
S. B. Cooper was born in Caldwell County, Ky,,
May 30th, 1850.- His parents, Eev. A. H. and
Mrs. Elizabeth Cooper, came to Texas in Decem-
ber, 1850, and located at Woodville. His mother
is still living. Mr. Cooper attended local schools
and secured a common English education. •
His father died in 1853, and the subject of this
sketch was reared by an uncle, Sam. S. Prazer, who
was very kind to him.
At sixteen years of age Mr. Cooper secured a
clerkship in a general store at Woodville, and soon
displayed those qualities that have since made his
life honored and successful. The war left his uncle
old and without means. Mr. Cooper, out of his
earnings, supported his uncle and mother. He
read law at night for a number of years, was ad-
mitted to the bar in January, 1872, and became a
member of the law firm of Nicks, Hobby & Cooper.
He was a member of this firm until 1876. In 1884
he formed a copartnership with John H. Kirby,
now of Houston, Texas, and July, 1890, formed a
copartnership with J. A. Mooney, with whom he
is now associated in the practice of law at Wood-
ville, under the firm name of Cooper & Mooney.
November 15th, 1873, Mr. Cooper was united in
marriage to Miss Phoebe Young. They have four
children: Willie C, Maggie H., Bird B., and Sam.
Bronson Cooper, Jr.
Mr. Cooper was elected County Attorney of Ty-
ler County in 1876, and was re-elected in 1878, and
in 1880 was elected to the State Senate and re-
elected in 1882, from the First District, Tyler
County. He was elected president pro tern, of the
Senate at the end of the Eighteenth Legislature.
He was appointed by President Cleveland Col-
lector of Internal Revenue for the First Texas
District, with headquarters at Galveston. He held
this oflSce until 1887, when his district was consoli-
dated with the Third District, and the senior Col-
lector (Collector for the Third District) succeeded
to the office.
Mr. Cooper is the author of the bill, passed by
the Seventeenth Legislature, giving Confederate
veterans 1,280 acres of land. He gave special
attention to legislation affecting the disposition of
the public lands. He advocated sales to actual set-
tlers only ; the leasing of grazing lands for short
terms, and sales of timber for cash, holding the fee
in the State. He introduced and advocated a bill
embodying these views, and the main features of
his measure were enacted into a law.
Senator Cooper took an active and prominent
part in all the legislation enacted by the Seven-
teenth and Eighteenth Legislatures, and was con-
sidered one of the brainiest men in those bodies.
The reputation earned in the Legislature led to his
nomination and election to the United States Con-
gress in 1892. He was renominated and elected in
1894, and this year (1896) has been again honored
by renomination and will undoubtedly be re-elected
by his Democratic constituents. He has made a
splendid record in Congress. Each new session
has added to his laurels. His district (the Second)
and the State of Texas have reason to be proud of
him. He is a Democrat who has stumped his sec-
tion of the State in every campaign for years past.
He is a Royal Arch Mason. Mr. Cooper is consid-
ered one of the best lawyers at the bar in this
State, is in the prime of a vigorous manhood, and
will make his influence still more widely felt in the
coming sessions of Congress, at which so much legis-
lation in the interest of the people is to be enacted.
WILLIAM THOMAS HUDGINS,
TEXARKANA.
Mr. Hudgins was born in Northumberland
County, Va., on January 15th, 1859. He comes
from Revolutionary families of that State. His
grandfather. Col. Thomas Hudgins, of Matth-
ews County, commanded the defense of the Vir-
ginia Peninsula during the War of 1812. His
maternal grandfather. Dr. William Heath Kirk, of
Lancaster County, was a Baptist minister of great
692
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ability, known and loved throughout Virginia and
neighboring States. His father, William Philip
Hudgins (now of San Antonio, Texas), is a grad-
uate of Bethany College and of the University of
Virginia, and while a young Sergeant in the Fortieth
Virginia Volunteers, was seriously wounded at
Gaines' Mill, in 1862. He moved his family to
Texas in 1865, and settled at Marshall, in Harrison
County, where the subject of this sketch was
reared.
Mr. W. T. Hudgins became a telegraph operator
in 1873, and held a lucrative position with the
Texas & Pacific Railway Company in 1875, when
he resigned, at the age of sixteen, and matriculated
as a student at Richmond College, Richmond, Va.,
from which institution he graduated as Master of
Arts, with highest honors, in 1879. Upon his mak-
ing a public address at the commencement exer-
cises of the College that year. Dr. J. L. M. Curry,
then Professor of Moral Philosophy, afterwards
president of the College, manager of the Peabody
Fund, and United States Minister to Spain, wrote
him a personal letter in which on behalf of the
faculty of the College, he said: "All of us look
forward with hopeful anticipations to your future
career. You have wonderful powers of concentra-
tion, a quick intellect, and a philosophic mind."
Mr. Hudgins returned to Texas in 1879, and
studied law in the office of his cousin, Hon. Geo. T.
Todd, of Jefferson, Texas. He received his license
to practice from Judge R. R. Gaines, now Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, in 1880.
He moved to Texarkana, Texas, in 1881, and there
established a law partnership with Hon. Chas. S.
Todd, which continued twelve years. In 1882 he
was elected County Attorney of Bowie County. In
1886 he was elected a Democratic member of the
Texas Legislature from the Seventeenth District,
then composed of the counties o:^ Bowie, Cass,
Marion, and Morris. He served with distinction in
the regular and special sessions of the Twentieth
Legislature, after which he voluntarily retired from
politics, and traveled in Europe in 1889. While in
the Legislature he was Chairman of the Committee
on Enrolled Bills, and a member of the Judiciary
Committee, and the Committees on Towns and City
Corporations, and Counties and County Boundaries.
He was the special champion of the interests of the
University of Texas, in the House, and by his elo-
quent persistency, against great opposition, secured
the appropriations for erecting the main building of
that institution.
In 1891 he married Mrs. Sallie Norris Taylor, of
Red River County, and has since continued the
practice of law in Texarkana and the adjacent
country in Texas and Arkansas. He has been
identified with the most important cases, both civil
and criminal, in that territory. He is now General
Attorney and Second Vice-President of the Texar-
kana & Fort Smith Railway Company, to accept
which position, in 1893, he severed his connection
with the well-known law firm of Todd, Hudgins &
Rodgers.
He was an alternate delegate from Texas to the
"National Democratic Convention of 1884, which
first nominated President Cleveland. During the
political campaign of 1896 he was an ardent
sound money, or gold standard, advocate, was a
prominent member of the State Convention at
Waco, and a delegate from Texas to the Indianap-
olis Convention which nominated Generals Palmer
and Buckner for President and Vice-President. In
the final election he accepted the suggestion of Gen.
Palmer, and, for the first time, voted the straight
Republican ticket. Though not a candidate for any
office, he made strong speeches during the cam-
paign opposing free silver, but insisting upon fair
elections and a reasonable tariff for protection of
domestic products.
Mr. Hudgins is one of our broad-minded, pro
gressive business men, who are doing great work in
advancing the development of Texas.
C. POTTER
COOKE COUNTY.
Capt. C. Potter, one of the most widely known County, Texas, in 1858, and settled sixteen miles
of the early pioneers who settled in Northwest northwest of Gainesville, then the extreme outpost
Texas and reclaimed that section to civilization, along the frontier of white settlements in that direc-
moved from the State of Mississippi to Cooke tion.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
693
He, like many others who pushed into the Far
West, expected the country to rapidly fill up with
immigrants and the frontier to recede with the in-
coming waves of the human tide that has since
swept across the continent to the Pacific Ocean, but
his calculation did not take into account the great
Civil War of 1861-5. This event brought a sudden
stop to the movement of population into Texas
and, during that struggle, the few people who re-
sided in the frontier settlements were subjected to
a continuous Indian warfare that taxed their en-
were killed. The Indians were everywhere com-
mitting depredations, and the Confederate govern-
ment, finding itself unable to furnish troops to
protect the frontier settlements, authorized the
State to organize State troops for tliat purpose, and
Capt. Potter was placed in command of five com-
panies and served with these until the end of the
war, holding the Indians in check, or where that
was impossible, pursuing them and inflicting bloody
chastisements upon them.
His three sons, C. C. Potter, J. M. Potter and
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C. POTTEE.
durance and resources to the utmost. During this
trying period he proved himself to be a natural
leader, rich in resource and dauntless in spirit, and
rendered valuable service to the State. In Decem-
ber, 1863, the Indians, about two hundred and fifty
strong, burned his dwelling-house and all its con-
tents. This loss, coming at the time it did, forced
his family to endure many privations, but he had
no thought of leaving the country, on the contrary
he determined to hold his ground and stand by his
neighbors and friends until the dawning of happier
and more prosperous days. In a battle near his
house, at one time, in which his eldest son was
wounded, several Indians and three white settlers
C. L. Potter, live in Gainesville ; of his daughters,
Mrs. W. A. Lanier lives at Sulphur Springs, Texas ;
Mrs. L. K. Evans, at Nocona, Texas ; Mrs. W. C.
Weeks, at Arlington, Texas, and Mrs. L. H. Mathis,
at Wichata Falls, Texas. His sons occupy honor-
able positions in business and professional circles,
Hon. C. C. Potter having represented his district
in the Legislature a number of times and won a
State-wide reputation in that body. His daughters
are among the brightest social ornaments of the
communities in which they reside. All the de-
scendants of this noble old pioneer have proven
worthy of their parentage, and have contributed
their part toward making the Texas of to-day.
694
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
A. FORCKE,
NEW BRAUNFELS.
For more than fifty years the subject of this
memoir has been a citizen of Texas. Coming to
this country a man of superior education and
attainments, he has been an intelligent observer and
eye-witness of the multifarious changes that have
transpired since he took up his residence at New
Braunfels, and few of the old pioneers of Texas
have a mind so well stored with interesting and
instructive reminiscences, or are more entertaining
conversationalists.
Mr. Forcke was born in Hildesheim, Germany,
April 21st, 1814, and was educated in local schools
at Hildesheim and Jena, and secured his -diploma
as an apothecary and followed that avocation in his
native town. His parents were J. G. and Mrs. A.
M. J. (Grossman) Forcke, both of whom are dead,
his father dying in 1862 and his mother in 1868, at
Hildesheim. His father was a joiner by trade, and
a man much respected in the community in which
he spent his long and useful life. The subject of
this notice and his family left his home in the
Fatherland for Texas in 1845, and in talking with
him he gave the writer the following account of his
coming to and settlement in this country: —
" After having joined the Fuersten-Verein, we
departed for Bremen on the 14th of November,
1845, and arrived at New Braunfels on the I4th of
July, 1846, after a voyage lasting eight months.
We suffered greatly from adverse weather and were
shipwrecked in the channel during a terrific storm,
but were happily driven to the mouth of the River
Weser after we had drifted about some four weeks.
Here a pilot came to meet us, risking his life, as
the weather was stormy, and called out to lower the
anchors. Fortunately the pumps were in order
and the vessel was kept afloat by them, going day
and night. The pilot, who was taken aboard with
much difficulty, guided the ship back to Bremer-
haven. It was nearly a total wreck and our Jug-
gage was rained for the greater part.
" My brother, who was a strong young fellow of
twenty-four, was stricken with typhus three days
later and died.
'' As our ship was utterly useless, we were fur-
nished another one, the " Creole,'\ a strong vessel
which had just completed a voyage under Capt.
Dannemann, a very able seaman. A part of the
passengers, however, refused to continue their trip
and returned home.
"Some three weeks later, after everything had
been washed and cleaned as well as could be done,
we set sail and in time came to Dover, where we
dropped anchor. Here we had a singular expe-
rience. The ship, which had been secured by cables
and chains, keeled over partially when the tide went
out, but was kept from entirely capsizing by the
cables, which held it. Still, the damage was suffi-
cient to spring a leak, and so we were forced to sail
for Cowes (Isle of Wight) to have the vessel calked
and its bottom coppered. This delayed us three
weeks, after which we again set sail and as we
struck the trade winds everybody rejoiced, for the
favorable current brought us nearer our destination
by a good many miles every day.
' ' However, we were not so lucky as to retain
favorable winds and after a short while we struck a
dead calm. In fact, the captain declared that he had
never before made a voyage under such untoward
circumstances. Several weeks later we encountered
a number of whales, there must have been a dozen
of them, and several icebergs were passed at a
respectful distance.
" Through the carelessness of the first mate we
came near colliding with a French frigate and, but
for the dexterity of the captain, both vessels might
have gone down. We now neared the West Indian
Archipelago and encountered daily storms until we
landed at Galveston, about the beginning of May,
Here we remained for several weeks and were then
transferred by schooners to Indianola, where we
were received by the physician of the society with
the words : ' I am awfully glad you have come, as
I will now have some/ assistance, everybody has the
cholera.'
" Of course we helped, and for the three weeks
we remained there, the sick were provided with
suitable medicine. On account of the very un-
favorable weather, cold and dampness, and lack of
care and attention, a great number of the patients
died, who could have been saved if it had been pos-
sible to take them to New Braunfels.
" The only obtainable vehicle for the continua-
tion of our journey was an ox-cart and a pair of
oxen, by which method two families were finally
brought to New Braunfels, where I was engaged by
the society as apothecary."
Mr. Forcke prospered in business at New Braun-
fels as an apothecary (in which he has since been
COL. A. J. ROSE.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
695
engaged ) and soon came to take an active part in
the affairs of the community, of which he has been
a leading citizen from the beginning, working
always for the promotion of the best interests of
the town and for the upbuilding of the section in
which it is situated. No man in that part of the
State is more generally and justly esteemed for pur-
ity of character and services rendered.
He married, in 1848, at New Braunfels, Texas,
Miss Sophia Fricke, an estimable young lady of
that place, who has borne him three children : G.
H. Forcke, Mrs. Joseph Faust and Charles Forcke,
the latter of whom is deceased. Mr. Forcke has
served as a member of the Board of Aldermen of
the city of New Braunfels and of the Board of
School Trustees, in both of which positions he has
been an active worker for the best interests of the
city of his residence.
A. J. ROSE,
SALADO.
What Texas is to-day and what she may in the
future hope to be is founded upon the broad, liberal
and far-sighted wisdom and the stability of her
pioneers. The pioneers of Texas, as a rule, were
not adventurers as in most countries they usually
were, but were men of resolute and well defined
purpose who came hither to aid in the building up
of a free and independent government and iden-
tify themselves with the development of a new and
promising commonwealth and to establish homes.
They were mostly young people with their lives
before them and with a strong determination and
willing hands to develop the country. The subject
of this brief memoir was one of that class and it is
doubtful if there is to-day a pioneer who has been
more closely identified with the material growth of
Texas than he, and the authgr's aim in publishing
this work would not be accomplished without making
a becoming record of bis long and useful career.
Mr. Rose is a native of North Carolina and was
born in Caswell County, September 3d, 1830. His
father, H. S. Rose, was a farmer whose ancestors
were among the first settlers of North Carolina.
Mr. Rose's mother was Mary Durham, her family
likewise being pioneers of North Carolina. In the
early days of that State H. S. Rose removed with
his family onto the frontier in Missouri, lived in
Howard and Randolph counties, and in the year
1836 or 1837 removed to Macon County. Our sub-
ject was then a small boy of about six years, still
he vividly remembers the skeleton Indian tepes lo-
cated on the old homestead that had been but
recently abandoned when the family located there-
on. The father secured land from the government,
developed a pioneer home and there lived until his
death in 1846. He was an active and enterprising
man, a typical pioneer and delighted in frontier life
and took a prominent part in opening up the Macon
County country. He erected the first saw and grist
mill in that section of the State, which proved a
great boon to the settlers of that and adjacent
counties. Of his eight children five grew to maturity
and our subject was of these the oldest. He spent
his youth on his father's farm and in the mill. He
was ambitious to make a start for himself in the
world and upon the discovery of gold in California in
1849 went overland in company with seven others
to the gold diggings with ox teams and wagons, con-
suming 134 days en route. This was a hazardous
and difHcult undertaking in those days. He re-
mained in California until 1853, during which time
he engaged in mining and freighting, meeting, on
the whole, with fair success. He left Sacramento
City on the 23d of May^ 1853, for his home in Mis-
souri, making the journey on a mule in sixty-six
days. After his return home Maj. Rose purchased
a farm and engaged in agricultural pursuits in
Macon County until 1857, when he sold his farm
and moved overland to Texas with a mule team,
bringing with him his young wife and two children.
They located in Travis County and he engaged in
raising stock, chiefly horses. He there remained
until 1860, when he removed to San Saba County,
where he had purchased a fine location for a home,
about fifteen miles west of the town of San Saba,
on the San Saba river, irrigating his farm from a
bold spring upon it. With his accustomed energy
he soon opened up a fine farm.
The war came on and every available white man
enlisted, but owing to the monthly visits of the red
man to steal and kill, all heads of families were re-
tained for the protection of the women and children,
696
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
as the Indians not only became more troublesome
in their depredating expeditions but even more hos-
tile and murderous.
Maj. Eose was a duly accredited officer of the
Confederate army, served on the Indian frontier
first as Lieutenant and later as Major, and took
active part in numerous thrilling scenes and inci-
dents, doing his country valiant service. He also,
in the meantime, pushed his farm operations, and
raised quantities of corn and potatoes and farm
produce, which he distributed generously and with
an open hand to the needy families of soldiers who
were at the front. He also erected, at his home, a
grist and saw mill. He also erected a schoolhouse
on his premises and employed a teacher, receiving the
hearty co-operation of his neighbors in this good
work of schooling the children. He thus started
the nucleus for a thriving community, but owing to
the too frequent raids and the deadly hostility of
the Indians and lack of proper frontier protection,
he finally disposed of his holdings, and in February,
1868, located in Bell County. For two years he
lived near Belton, and in 1870 moved to Salado,
which is now (1896) his unofficial home.
Maj. Rose was married June 18, 1854, to Miss
Sallie A. Austin, of Missouri, daughter of Walker
and Eupham McKinney Austin. The McKinney
family were among the earliest settlers of Texas.
Thomas F. McKinney, uncle of Mrs. Rose, came
to Texas in 1834, was one of the old Santa Fe
traders, and was instrumental in selecting the site
of Austin. Following are the names of the chil-
dren born to Maj. and Mrs. Rose: Alice E., wife
of T. R. Russell, of Bell County; Mary H., wife
of A. J. Mackey ; W. S. , a farmer of Bell County ;
Beatrice, wife of Levi Anderson, of Bell County ;
Sallie A., wife of George W. Perry, of Macon
County, Mo; Callie M. ; A. Johnson, Jr., and
Louselle are at home with their parents.
Maj. Rose joined the Missionary Baptist Church
in 1861, in San Saba, and is now deacon and treas-
urer of Salado Baptist Church at Salado, Bell
County, Texas.
In October, 1861, Maj. Rose was initiated into
the mysteries of Freemasonry in San Saba Lodge
No. 225. In December, 1862, he was elected its
Senior Warden, and in 1863 its Master, which posi-
tion he filled consecutively until he removed to
Bell County in 1868. Affiliating with the Belton
Lodge No. 166, December, 1868, was elected Mas-
ter of this Lodge. In 1863 he received the Royal
Arch and appendant degrees in Mt. Horeb Chap-
ter, No. 57, in Williamson County. In 1864 he
received the Council degrees in the city of Austin,
and in 1872 the Knight Templar degrees in Colorado
Commandery No. 4. He was a charter member
of San Saba Chapter and served as High Priest
for several years. He also served as High Priest
of Belton Chapter No. 76. He was a charter mem-
ber of Salado Chapter No. 107, organized in 1873,
and filled the office of High Priest consecutively for
twenty-one years. He served as Master of Salado
Lodge No. 296, and was its secretary for four
years.
In 1882 he was elected R. W. Grand Junior War-
den of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas ;
also Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master,
and Grand Master of Masons in Texas in 1887.
Being a farmer himself, he very naturally sym-
pathizes with any legitimate movement to improve
the farmer's condition. Hence we find him figuring
conspicuously in the Grange, a farmer's organiza-
tion. In 1873 he was admitted a member of the
first subordinate Grange organized in Texas. In
December, of the same year, he was elected its
Master, to which position he was elected annually
for six years. In 1875 he was elected Lecturer of
the State Grange of Texas, and in 1877 was elected
Overseer. In 1881 he became Worthy Master of
the State Grange, which position he held consecu-
tively for eleven years. He served as secretary
for two years, and now, 1896, is chairman of the
executive committee.
It will be seen from the foregoing that Maj. Rose
has spent about one-half of his life as a pioneer on
the frontiers of Missouri, California and Texas.
His father dying when our subject was yet a youth
in school, his cherished hope of securing a thorough
education was necessarily abandoned, and he
became practically the head of a large family.
Feeling keenly the loss of his father, and greatly
disappointed in the disarrangement of his school
plans, he bravely buckled on the armor of respon-
sibility and courageously met the grave duties and
cares of life. His successful career is conclusive
proof that he possessed the ambition, the nerve,
the fortitude, and the stability to turn to use the
misfortunes that would have discouraged and
crowded down the young man of common mold.
He has always been aggressive in forwarding the
cause of education, and one of the most hearty
indorsers and promoters of the general free school
system for which Texas is to-day famous. Having
served efficiently for more than twenty years on
school and college boards, Salado College, Salado
public school, Baylor Female College, he was
appointed by Governor Ross, in 1887, a member of
the Board of Directors of the State Agricultural
and Mechanical College, near Bryan, and was, in
1889, elected president of the Board. This not
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
697
only involved the administration of the affairs of
the Agricultural and Mechanical College but also
of the Prairie View State Normal School. During
President Rose's administration of the affairs of
these institutions the Board was liberally supplied
with money by the State for their extension and
development, and these funds have been most wisely
spent in building dormitories, professors' resi-
dences, steam laundry, electric light plant, and
other essential buildings. All this has drawn
largely upon Maj. Eose's time and energy,
and the great value of his services to the State
and the cause of education is inestimable. He
is still retained in that position to the present
time.
In 1895 Mr. Rose was appointed by Governor
Culberson Commissioner of Agriculture, Insurance,
Statistics and History, a position which involves
great responsibility and labor.
Maj. Rose is strictly a thorough-going man of
affairs, and has filled the numerous positions of
trust that have been thrust upon him with marked
fidelity to duty in the broad sense that he has ever
interpreted it. While he is a Democrat, he has
never pursued politics as an occupation, never
sought office, but has responded to the call of pub-
He trust from a sense of duty, and has performed
these duties of office in every instance with credit
to himself and satisfaction to the public. His name
will live prominently in the history of Texas as that
of a public benefactor who filled his mission in life
faithfully and with honor to himself and his people.
Maj. Rose still continues bis farming operations at
his home, Salado.
N. L. NORTON,
AUSTIN.
Col. Norton came to Texas when the State was in
the throes of reconstruction, and when her whole
people were in mourning for their dead on a hun-
dred fields. He soon became known as a potent
factor in the material development of the common-
wealth, and a staunch defender of the natural and
constitutional rights of the people and of the cause
of honest, accountable government.
N. L. Norton was born near Carlisle, Nicholas
County, Ky., April 18th, 1830. His father was
Hiram Norton, a successful business man, whose
father, John Norton, was the son of a retired Brit-
ish naval officer who had settled in Virginia prior
to the War for Independence, and at the outbreak
of hostilities equipped his five sons for the service
of the colonies. One of these sons died on the
English prison-ship stationed in Charleston harbor.
Another was a sergeant in Washington's body-guard
and stood near his chief at the surrender of Corn-
wallis at Yorktown. He was afterwards a field
officer in the several Indian campaigns of Harmer,
St. Clair, Clark and Wayne. His nephew, Capt.
James Norton, oldest brother of Hiram, the father
of Col. N. L. Norton, was killed at the battle of
Tippecanoe, while serving under Gen . Harrison.
Col. Norton's mother was a Miss Spencer, a
daughter of a Revolutionary sire, and a grand-
daughter of Thomas Spencer, who commanded a
brigade of Scottish rebels at the disastrous battle
of Culloden in 1746, in which he was wounded and
captured. He barely escaped the block, to which he
had been condemned, through the connivance of
British officials. Fleeing to America he settled in
Virginia, and subsequently removed to Bourbon,
now Clark, County, Ky.
Col. Norton took the log school house course
near the old home and, later, attended Fredonia
Academy, in Western New York, and the Military
Institute, in Kentucky.
He was married in 1853 to Miss Mary C. Hall, a
daughter of John Hall, an honored citizen of the
same county. The young couple moved to
Missouri, where they encountered many of the
inconveniences and trials incident to farm life in
that State nearly half a century ago. When the
war between the States became inevitable, the
young farmer recognized that it was the citizen's
duty to maintain his allegiance to the State which
guaranteed his civil rights ; and, although strongly
opposed to secession, denied even more bitterly the
right of coercion and promptly obeyed the call of
the legally elected Governor, and organized one of
the first companies raised north of the Missouri
river for the defense of the State. He served in
various capacities and grades of rank, and enjoyed
the special confidence of his Commander, Gen.
698
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Sterling Price. As an evidence of his popularity
with the army and people, he was chosen, almost
unanimously, over three competitors as Representa-
tive in the Confederate Congress in May, 1864.
He is the youngest living member of that now his-
toric body.
In the field his duties were mainly those of staff
officer, but he was assigned to much special ser-
vice, and often of the most perilous nature, in
which he had many adventures and not a few very
narrow escapes. Gen. Price said of him, "He
is infinite in resource." In Congress he was faith-
ful and true, giving the best energies of his soul to
the support of a government which, like the tower
of Ushur, was already tottering to its fall. When
the end came, he took up life and business anew.
Unwilling to renew the struggle for subsistence in
the rigorous climate of Northern Missouri, he came
to Southern Texas, securing a home on the Lavaca
river. Here he introduced many improved farm
implements, blooded stock, and improved methods
of agriculture, of incalculable value to that section.
Energetic and progressive, he took an active,
almost initiative, interest in the formation of agri-
cultural societies in Several counties, from which
beginning some of the most successful annual
county fair associations in Texas date their begin-
ning. Through his generous sympathies and active
efforts in behalf of a war-worn section and people,
he soon obtained an extensive acquaintance, and a
large circle of friends.
He was selected by Governor Roberts to make
the initial move that resulted in the great granite
capitol, that stands at the head of Congress avenue,
in the city of Austin.
The constitution of 1876 provided for the erec-
tion of a new State capitol and set aside 3,000,000
acres of public land for that purpose. The loca-
tion and survey of so large a section became a
matter of importance, and required special abili-
ties. The trust was confided to Col. Norton, who,
accompanied by the surveyors and a small detail
from the frontier battalion of rangers, made sur-
veys embracing nearly all the vacant and unappro-
priated public domain in the counties of Dallam,
Hartley, Oldham, Deaf Smith, Palmer, and Castro,
as well as a large portion of Bailey, Lamb, and
Hockley. Prior to this examination and survey the
Llano Estacado, or "staked plains," were gener-
ally accepted at the estimate placed on them by
geographers, viz., as "The Great American Des-
ert," a region unsuited for civilized habitation and
valueless except as territorial expanse.
Col. Norton took a different view, and in his re-
port to Governor Roberts placed a high estimate
upon the capabilities of the soil, and expressed a
belief that enterprise and energy would there
achieve good results at no distant day. Time has
already more than justified these statements and
opinions.
The plains are being settled and cultivated, and
many stock men regard them as among the best
grazing grounds in the State. Aside from the in-
telligent observation evinced in this really able re-
port, the faithful labor shown in the long tabulated
annex, giving number of leagues, location, descrip-
tion, topography, adaptation, etc., was especially
gratifying to the authorities and the public. The
law providing a Capitol Board and Building Com-
missioners named the Governor, Comptroller,
Treasurer, Commissioner of the General Land Office
and the Attorney-General as the members who
should compose the former, and this board elected
the Hon. Joseph Lee and N. L. Norton as the men
to compose the latter. The relations of Judge Lee
and Col. Norton were ever of the most pleasant and
fraternal character, and the survivor, Col. Norton,
speaks of his friend and fellow-worker in terms of
tenderest regard. The board had executive and
discretionary powers, while the commissioners were
to be guided solely by the law and the contracts
made thereunder ; yet, upon all deliberative ques-
tions they practically constituted one body, and the
freest discussions and exchange of views prevailed
among them, and, as an example of their joint
labor, this entire body held a continuous session of
thirty-five days in preparing and adopting the form
of contract and detailed specifications under which
the work was finally done. Much of this time the
designing architect was also present aiding and
consulting. Plans having been solicited, a selec-
tion was made upon the advice of Mr. N. Lebrun,
a distinguished architect of New York City, ap-
pointed by the Governor upon the authority of the
Legislature. Pending the usual notice to bidders,
the commissioners began the search for material
suitable for construction. From their first prelim-
inary report on the subject, dated June 1st, 1881,
it is clear that they already realized that this was a
difficult and responsible task. They had found
stone in abundance, sound and strong ; but stone
sound, strong and durable, of uniform color and
texture (such as filled the requirements of both the
law and the contract), of proper thickness of strata
for the massive building blocks and heavy columns
and pilasters in sufficient amount, had not been
found. The following is from the eighteenth sec-
tion of the enabling act: "The interior and ex-
terior walls of the capitol shall be of the most
durable rock accessible, which shall sustain a
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
699
pressure at least equal to that used in the construc-
tion of the Travis County Courthouse." The
Travis County Courthouse is limestone, and none
other had hitherto been deemed " accessible."
The report contained the following on this subject:
" There are reasons to cause us to doubt the pro-
priety of adopting any ordinary material for an
extraordinary structure. It will be time to con-
front the difficult problem of constructing a first-
class house with second-class material when all
hope of procuring the best shall have been aban-
doned." It was argued that the limestone used in
the Travis County Courthouse was the standard
created by law and, therefore, its use in the capitol
by the Commissioners was an imperative duty.
This view was irreconcilable with the spirit of the
law, which demanded that the "best accessible"
material should be used, and in a later paper, July
18th, they reported an extended examination, in-
cluding several counties, and presented eighteen
different samples of stone. Among them was red
granite from Burnet County. Some of these
samples, marble and limestone, as well as gran-
ite, on being subjected to mechanical and chem-
ical tests at the Smithsonian Institute, were
indorsed as suitable. Such indorsement was
deemed sufficient and the contract was let,
the contractors taking the risk of a supply of
the standard shown in the Travis County Court-
house. The quarries at Oatmanville were selected
by them as sufficient for all demands, and indeed
there could be no doubt of its fitness for founda-
tion and other unexposed work. Its character had
been established by mechanical tests at the Eock
Island arsenal and chemical analysis by Prof. Mal-
lett, of the Texas University. The Commissioners,
however, said as follows : "Experience, acquired
through means of extensive labor and observation,
shows a marked lack of uniformity in most, if not
all, the deposits of stratified rocks in this country,
and the quarry at Oatmanville is no exception to
the general rule. These variations include color,
texture and quality. The texture usually differs
with each separate stratum, while the color often
changes in the same stratum when no variation of
texture or quality is perceptible." They reported
the impracticability of literal compliance with the
clause in the contract stipulating that the stone
should in " no respect differ from the sample." The
board declined to consider the matter except in its
relation to the foundation and basement wall. For
this purpose only the Commissiopers were author-
ized to accept such dimension stone as, after satis-
factory test, should prove " not inferior in quality
to the sample." The delicacy of the situation was
apparent. The contractors, evidently believing
their quarry capable of meeting all the varied re-
quirements of the contract, had, at much expense,
built a railway connection thereto, while the repre-
sentatives of the State could not see their way clear
except through a substantial compliance with the
contract, which required uniformity of quality, tex-
ture, color, etc. The work was completed to the
grade hne above which covers the five-feet belt-
course, or water table, prescribed in the plans by
the architect and already covered by the contract.
This stone was furnished free of charge to the con-
tractors by Messrs. Westfall, Lacy and Norton,
who had previously purchased the Granite Moun-
tain property in Burnet County. The basement
story thus completed was pronounced by the Com-
missioners "entirely sufficient," and lasting for
any kind of material that may be used above.
What that material should be was unsettled and
the same old embarrassing conditions still existed.
Nothing meeting all the requirements or proving
satisfactory to all concerned had been found.
There was an evident indisposition on the part of
the board to be unjust to the contractors or force
them to unreasonable costs, but quite a strong
purpose to secure the " best accessible " material.
Work was temporarily suspended, but interest in
and discussion of the situation continued. The
contract was, as has been shown, ona limestonebasis.
The contractors expressed a willingness, even an anx-
iety, to use the best of that class and asked only to be
shown such as would be satisfactory. At this
juncture the second biennial report of the Commis-
sioners was submitted, which had the effect of prac-
tically eliminating native limestone from further
consideration and convinced all parties that granite
was the only Texas material fit for the great struc-
ture. The following is taken from this report : —
"In this connection the offer made before the
inception of this work is renewed as follows: —
" Austin, Texas, November 6, 1884.
"We, the undersigned, owners of Survey No.
18, in Burnet County, Texas, and known as the
William Slaughter east half-league, upon which is
the granite deposit whence the material for the
water-table of the new State capitol was recently
taken, hereby tender to the people of the State of
Texas, free of all or any charge, all the granite
stone required to complete the entire superstructure
of the building.
" Witness:
" John Hancock, G. W. Lacey,
"O. M, BopERTS, W. H. Westfall,
"N. L. NOKTON.
700
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
" It will be seen that one of the Commissioners
is joint owner in the above property and an equal
associate in the proposed donation.
" Although this is an absolute gratuity, and not
an effort to sell or otherwise speculate on the State,
yet, to avoid all doubt of the propriety of such con-
tribution from a public servant, he prefers to sever
all connection with the work. If the proposition to
give this material shall incite others to greater lib-
erality, by which the State may be more benefited,
it will be more gratifying to none than to those
who make the offer, their sole purpose being to
secure for Texas at a minimum expense a monu-
mental Capitol, worthy of her resources and her
people."
Thus closes the report, and soon after Col. Nor-
ton's connection with the work of building the
capitol ended.
Happily, through mutual concessions, a satisfac-
tory solution of a vexed question was arrived at,
and a new contract, providing for the use of granite
and a modification of the exterior of the building
to equitably compensate the contractors for the
extra cost entailed upon them by the change, was
entered into, and the noble edifice subsequently
constructed of Texas granite.
The Granite Mountain property has passed into
other hands and the old company, so liberal and
loyal to Texas, has been dissolved ; but, while a
pillar of the capitol stands, or a notch in an ashlar
remains, their names and generosity will be indis-
solubly associated therewith. Soon after the dedi-
cation of the new capitol the Texas Legislature
gracefully acknowledged their services to the State
by a formal vote of thanks, and, at a subsequent
session, the same body set apart for their use and
occupancy during life one of the rooms of the great
building. A distinguished State officer, long a
member of the capitol board, referring in conver-
sation with the writer of this article to the building
of the State House, said : —
" Col, Norton's services were invaluable. His
discharge of the duties of commissioner was
marked by zeal, fidelity and ability and his reports
were models of their kind."
Dr. Westfall, of Burnet, who from the inception
of this enterprise took a most active interest and
rendered every practical aid, in a paper, now be-
fore the writer, says it was Col. Norton who first
suggested the use of granite for the capitol.
" One main purpose of the purchase of the gran-
ite mountain by Westfall, Lacey and Norton was
that the State of Texas might be assured in advance
of a home material for this building, of the very best
quality, and that without cost. No other consider-
ation was ever brought to bear on their action and
they never received or desired to receive any other
compensation. While Governor Ireland and the
capitol board are justly entitled to the credit of the
final contract, modifying the design and substi-
tuting granite, to Col. Norton more than any other
person, Texas is indebted for the magnificent
structure that adorns capitol hill."
Col. Norton is still a very busy man and, when
not actively engaged with his farming interests in
the country, he may be found at his elegant home
in the city of Austin and generally at his desk. He
has written much for the press but his chief pleas-
ure is found in books and in correspondence with
the friends of " auld lang syne." His family con-
sists of his wife, his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Annie
Lee Norton, and her child, little Onida, of whom he
is very fond, his only children, Mrs. Katie Spencer
Adair and Hiram Price Norton, having both died
within a few years.
He has been a mason since May, 1851, and is
now a member of Colorado Encampment Knights
Templar and Ben Hur Temple of the Ancient Arabic
Order of the Mystic Shrine. He is plain, without
pretense or self-assertion, a man of broad and lib-
eral views and of the tenderest sympathies. He
has a profound respect and toleration for the
opinions and faiths of others and is most charitable
in his estimate of his fellowmen.
WILLIAM HADEN THOMAS,
DALLAS.
W. H. Thomas, president of the American Na-
tional Bank, of Dallas, and for many years past a
leading financier and prominent citizen of that
place, was born in Allen County, Ky., on the 11th
day of March, 1829, and received a good country
school education for that day and time, which he
has since enlarged by study and observation until
he is now considered one of the best informed and
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
701
most accomplished gentlemen in Texas. He came
to this State in the fall of 1852, making the jour-
ney on horseback, and located in Dallas County.
September 29th, in the following year, he was
united in marriage to Miss Mary Skiles, daughter
of J. C. Skiles. She was born and reared in War-
ren County, Ky., in which members of her family
have long been prominent.
Mr. Thomas secured a position with Gold & Don-
aldson, merchants at Dallas, and continued with
them until the fall of 1855, and then, on account
of failing health, settled on a tract of land on
& Co., the first banking institution established in
Dallas, composed of T. C. Jordan, J. P. Thomas,
and W. H. Thomas.
In 1872 he and W. H. Gaston organized the
banking firm of Gaston & Thomas at Dallas. In
1878 Gaston & Thomas bought the stock of the
Exchange Bank, chartered under State law, and
merged their bank into the Exchange Bank of Dal-
las. He was elected president, and held that posi-
tion until 1883 and then sold his stock.
In 1884 he, with others, organized the American
National Bank of Dallas. He was elected presi-
WILLIAM HADEN THOMAS.
Duck creek, Dallas County, and opened a small
farm.
In 1858 he was elected County Surveyor of Dal-
las County and was continued in that position by
successive re-elections, with the exception of the
period spent by him in the army, until removed by
Governor E. J. Davis in 1866 as an impediment to
reconstruction. He enlisted in the Confederate
army as a private in Company I., Thirtieth Texas
Cavalry, and was transferred to the Brigade Com-
missary Department in the field in the Trans-Mis-
sissippi Department, and so continued until the end
of the war.
In 1871 he was one of the firm of T. C. Jordan
dent of the institution, and has been continued in
that position by successive annual re-elections to
the present time.
His wife died November 13, 1887. They reared
two children, a daughter, May, who married F. A.
Miller, and a son, Robert B., who married Miss
Eula Hatcher.
Mr. Thomas is not a member of any church, but
is an ardent believer in Christianity and has always
been a moral man. He has attended strictly to his
business interests, and by careful management has
accumulated a good estate, and has made the bank-
ing institution he controls one of the most success-
ful in the South.
702
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
ROBERT N. WHITE,
CORSICANA.
The subject of this sketch was born in South
Carolina, in December, 1810. When he was a
child his parents moved to Green County, Ala.,
where they resided a few years. He then moved to
Chickasaw County, Miss., from whence, in the
year 1845, he moved with his family to Texas, first
locating at Dresden. A short time after, in 1847,
the town of Corsicana was located and again the
family moved, taking up their residence at that
place.
Robert N. White was married in 1840, in Ala-
bama, to Miss Juliet Means, a native of South
Carolina. He followed farming after settling at
Corsicana. When the county of Norman was
organized, in 1847, he was elected County Clerk
and held the office for a period of ten years. At
the expiration of his term of office he retired from
active business, having accumulated a comfortable
fortune through his farming and other financial
operations.
He died May 25th, 1891, leaving a wife and six
children, all of whom are living. The children are
all married, except one son, who is now living with
his mother at the old homestead. No. 208, Third
Avenue, in the town of Corsicana.
The remaining children, with the exception of one
son residing and in business in the Indian Territory,
are living in Texas.
Mr. White was never a politician, but was
trusted and honored by his fellow-citizens, as is
shown by the fact of his having been elected to fill
the important office of County Clerk for such a long
period of time. His death was deeply mourned by
his surviving family and acquaintances.
THOMAS HENRY MATHIS,
ROCKPORT.
No one who has been at all conversant with the
southern coast of Texas for the past twenty-five
years, can have failed to hear the name of Thomas
Henry Mathis. His manly form, well chiseled
features and vigorous step, form a fitting index to
the volume of his good deeds. Under any circum-
stances he must have been prominent, and, indeed,
the sequel to this narrative will show that he has
developed a fine character, not under the favor of
plain sailing, but despite the buffetings of Dame
Fortune. Such a success as he has achieved could
not have been accidental. Accidents do not occur
on such a colossal scale.
He was born in Stewart County, July 14th, 1834.
His parents were James and Isabella Mathis, the
former of whom died in 1864, and the latter in 1876.
They were both highly esteemed for their sterling
religious character. Thomas received his early
education in the country schools of Tennessee and
Kentucky, and, being raised on a farm, he was
taught the value of a dollar by digging for it early
and late. As a boy he was proud to " hoe his own
row," and as a youth to swing his scythe with the
foremost. At the age of nineteen he resolved to
strive for higher education, and this marks a turn-
ing point in his life, as he was thenceforth thrown
entirely on his own resources. Ardently as his
father longed to encourage his aspirations, he
could not do so in justice to his other children.
But nothing daunted, Thomas left the paternal roof
to enter the school of Dr. J. T. Mathis in Southern
Arkansas. At the end of the second session here
he negotiated a loan of $1,000 from his father, to
be paid back by him, or deducted from the estate
on final settlement of the same. With this aid he
continued another session at school. At the expir-
ation of this time he took a school at Warren, Brad-
ley County, Ark. In conjunction with a lady
teacher, he conducted his school successfully one
year, and then went to Bethel College, where he
finished his education, in 1857. In 1858 he
removed to Murray, Ky., where he assisted Dr. J.
T. Mathis in teaching one session.
In 1859 he went to Southwest Texas, where his
'^d-^y KP-CKvoevodl"^ '^'"'-'^
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Mary Nold Mathi's .
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
703
career as a business man commenced. His very
flirst enterprise was fraught with extreme peril,
from which men of less courage shrank. It was
on the 3d of February, 1859, that he left Gonzales,
Texas, with a party of eighteen, to make a trading
tour into Mexico.
Any one familiar with border troubles and border
characters, even at this late day, can have some
conception of the hazards of this trip in the next
decade after the Mexican War. On reaching Bio
Grande City the party was Informed that it was out
of the question to think of crossing over into
Mexico, as the country was full of robbers and
brigands. Of the party of eighteen, only T. H.
Mathis and his cousin, J. M. Mathis, had the nerve
to cross the Rio Grande. Two young Alabamians,
who were not of the original party, also crossed
with them into the kingdom of the Montezumas,
together with a Mexican guide. As they lay in
camp on San Juan river, at China, the first night
after reaching Mexico, the custom-house oflScer
demanded of them a duty of six per cent of all
their money on the penalty of being imprisoned
and having all they had confiscated. They sent
their interpreter to tell the ofHcer that they were
buying stock in his country, and would leave all
their money there ; but that if he persisted in de-
manding the six per cent he mignt come and get
it, that there were four of them well armed with
shotguns and six-shooters, and that many of the
Mexicans would bite the dust in the attempted rob-
bery. It is needless to say that Mathis and his
party were left unmolested. They remained in the
country six weeks, camping at night and throwing
out pickets like a regular army. But for this, they
would doubtless have been robbed or murdered.
Though this trip was quite successful, it was never
deemed prudent to repeat it. After making an-
other business trip to the Texas side of the Eio
Grande, Mathis temporarily left the stock business
and opened a five-mouths school in Gonzales
County in the spring of 1861. In the summer of
that year he removed to Victoria and extended the
scope of his business transactions, but was com-
pelled to close his business in the fall of that year,
on account of the closing of the Gulf ports at the
outbreak of the great Civil War. He then went to
Kentucky and Tennessee and bought a large lot of
tobacco, the price of which was rapidly rising in
Texas. He barely succeeded in getting out with this
commodity from Paris, Tenn., before the town fell
into the hands of the Federal troops. He shipped
this tobacco to Alexandria, La., and to it added
another lot purchased in New Orleans. Meantime
he sold the whole in Texas for one dollar a pound.
in Confederate money. In the spring and summer
of 1862 he was busily engaged in forwarding sup-
plies from Texas to the Confederate soldiers of the
Trans-Mississippi Department. In the fall of the
same year he joined Duff's regiment. Company E.,
and fought for the Confederac}' till the close of the
war. He is not ashamed of the cause he espoused,
nor of the part he played in it. Yet when the flag
of the Confederacy was furled, he realized that the
war was over indeed. The same magnanimous
spirit with which he now treats the " boys who
wore the blue " enabled him to speedily forget the
bitterness of the struggle and, though with reduced
resources, to recommence his business career. He
again engaged in the tobacco trade between Ten-
nessee and Texas, in which he continued a year.
In February, 1867, he settled on Aransas Bay, and
selected the site on which the thriving little city of
Rockport now stands. The firm of J. M. & T. H.
Mathis built the first wharf which was established
there, and chartered the first steamship, " The
Prince Albert," that ever entered Aransas Bay for
commercial purposes. After this was lost at sea,
they induced the Morgan line to run their ships to
Eockport, and became their agents. This part of
our narrative deserves to be emphasized. The sub-
ject of this sketch was the founder of Eockport in
a sense in which no one else can claim that honor.
In 1869 the Mathis firm expended $5,500 for the
improvement of Aransas bar, thus blazing the way,
like hardy pioneers, of the future highway of com-
merce. It was about the same time that they
built the Orleans Hotel, and erected a number of
other buildings in Eockport. They also built
bridges, made good county roads, and aided in
securing many other public improvements. Later
on, T. H. Mathis contributed liberally toward
bringing the Union telegraph to Rockport, and to
the building of the first telephone line to that part
of the State. He was also a liberal contributor to
the establishment of the first cold storage meat
refrigerating plant in Texas. He was also one of
the first men in the State to introduce blooded
cattle and horses into Southwest Texas, and he is
said to possess the banner ranch of his portion of
the State, with regard to the quality of his stock.
When the Aransas Pass Railroad was built into
Eockport, in 1888, he was one of the principal pro-
moters of the enterprise, and it is one of the best
additions to the city which bears this name.
When, in 1872, the firm of J. M. & T. H.
Mathis was enlarged to that of Coleman, Mathis &
Fulton, again the progressive spirit of the subject
of this narrative was felt when the firm of which he
was from the beginning a member, built the first
704
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXA&.
large pasture that was ever established in the State.
In 1870 this firm was dissolved, and J. M. & T. H.
Mathis were the following year again associated in
business by themselves. Since that time T. H.
Mathis has been doing business on his own account,
with the exception of the purchase of a one-half
interest in about 24,000 acres of fine agricultural
landin Wharton County, which he subsequently sold.
He now owns about 24,000 acres of fine agricultural
land in San Patricio County, on the Nueces river,
well fenced and stocked with fine horses and cattle.
On the same estate are several farms, orchards and
vineyards. The town of "Mathis" is named for
him, and is a portion of his original ranch. The
growth of a town so near the body of his ranch can-
not fail to appreciate the value of every acre of it.
Even at the present low prices of land, this is a
princely estate, while its prospective value is very
considerable indeed. Mr. Mathis possesses an
ordinary fortune, entirely aside from these fine
lands. He owns one of the best homes in Roekport,
besides thousands of dollars' worth of realty in
different portions of that city. He is liberally in-
sured, to the amount of $60,000 in old line com-
panies. He is a principal stockholder in the First
National Bank of Roekport, of which institution he
is also president. Such is an imperfect statement
of the material results attending a successful busi-
ness career. But no correct inventory of Mr.
Mathis' wealth can be made that does not include
his character as the main part. He has not achieved
financial success at the expense of character, which
is -too often done. He was well-equipped for his
career, both by nature and acquirements, and hence
had no occasion to resort to dishonest methods.
His experience in the school room made an in-
delible impression on his life. Possibly he would
have made as much money without it, but he would
not otherwise have held money in as strict subjec-
tion to higher ends as he now does. Without such
culture he might have been made the slave instead
of the master of his large possessions. He is
a Democrat of the Jefferson-Jackson-Cleveland
type.
He is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church.
Religiously, as otherwise, his professions are not
loud, and need not be. It would be hard to find a
beneficent institution near him that has not been
helped by him or that might not have been for the
mere asking. He was married twice. In 1869 to
Mrs. Cora C. Caldwell, of Gonzales County, Texas,
who died two months afterwards, and in 1875 to
his present wife {nee Miss Mary J. Nold), in Mur-
ray, Ky. She was born in Goliad, Texas, July 15,
1856, and educated in Kentucky. Her parents
were Henry and Mrs. E. M. Nold. Her father, an
eminent educator, died at Murray, Ky., November
2, 1886. Her mother is still living. Mr. Mathis is
the father of eight children: Walter N., Henry,
May, Thomas E., Edgar, Arthur, Lizzie Belle, and
AUie. Until a few months since it was an unbroken
family, when little AUie, aged seventeen months and
thirteen days, was taken from the bosom of the
family, demonstrating that " our life is even a
vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then
vanisheth away."
JOHN PRIESS,
FREDERICKSBURG,
Was born in Grosenbergan, Prussia, July 30, 1817,
and came to America in 1846, as a member of the
second company of emigrants sent out to Texas by
the German Emigration Company. The party
landed at Galveston and were almost immediately
transferred to Indianola, reaching the latter port
during the night of December 25, 1846.
Mr. Priess proceeded from Indianola to New
Braunfels, and soon after, upon the platting of the
town, moved to Fredericksburg, where he ever after
resided.
He married Miss Elise Vogel, at Fredericksburg,
February 13, 1848. They had five children, viz. :
Carl F., a resident of Fredericksburg, and dealer
in live stock ; Louis, a prosperous merchant of Fred-
ericksburg; Bertha, wife of Henry Pfeister, a
farmer living on Bear creek, in Gillespie County ;
Amelia, wife of Edward Kott, a farmer on Bear
creek ; and George, a farmer on Bear creek. Mr.
John Priess died at his home, in Fredericksburg,
in June, 1882. His wife is still living at that
place.
Louis Priess was born in Fredericksburg, Texas,
January 20, 1852, and was reared upon his father's
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
705
farm until about twenty-one years of age, when he
went to Austin, where he clerked in a wholesale
grocery store until 1876. He then formed a co-
partnership with his brother, C. F. Priess, under
the firm name of C. F. Priess & Bro., and engaged
in merchandising, a connection that continued until
1887, when he withdrew from active business pur-
suits for a time.
In 1888 he commenced business in his own name,
and in 1895 he formed a copartnership with Mr.
W. J. Moore, under the firm name of Priess &
Moore, and continued in merchandising in his native
town.
Mr. Louis Priess married Miss Anna Schoene-
wolf, at Fredericksburg, January, 1893. She is
a native of that place and a daughter of August
Schoenewolf, a gentleman well known throughout
Gillespie and adjoining counties. Mr. and Mrs.
Priess have five children : Erwin, Alice, Hugo, Ed-
mund, and Olga.
F. V. BLESSE,
EAGLE PASS.
F. V. Blesse, a leading citizen of Eagle Pass, and
president of the First National Bank of that city,
is a native of St. Louis, Mo. ; was born August
16th, 1855. His father, August F. Blesse, was a
stock-dealer and a successful business man. Mr.
Blesse received his preliminary education in his
native city, and later served as an accountant and
clerk in the Union Savings Bank at St. Charles,
Mo. He then attended school at the Westminster
College, at Fulton, Mo., for three years, after
which he returned to St. Louis, and soon thereafter
came, in 1881, to San Antonio, Texas. He trav-
eled over the State for about six months, and then
went to Eagle Pass and entered' the bank of S. P.
Simpson & Co. as accountant and cashier, remain-
ing in their employ for about five years, during the
latter year of which time he secured a partnership
in the business. He withdrew his interest in 1888,
and in September of that year, with the co-opera-
tion of leading capitalists of that city, organized
the Maverick County Bank of Eagle Pass, cash
capital $30,000.00. His partners were L. DeBona,
Wm. Nagley and J. A. Bonnet. This arrangement
continued for about three years, and in 1891 the
First National Bank of Eagle Pass, cash capital
$50,000.00, was organized, absorbing the capital of
the old institution. The First National Bank's cap-
ital has since increased to $60,000.00. Its officers
are : F. V. Blesse, president ; Wm. Hollis, vice-
president, and W. A. Bonnet, cashier. Directors :
F. V. Blesse, Wm. Hollis, W. A. Bonnet, L.
DeBona, Wm. Nagley, W. Kelso, and Dr. A. H.
Evans. The institution does a general banking
business, and is one of the solid financial houses of
Southwest Texas.
Mr. Blesse married, at Eagle Pass, Miss Nita,
daughter of J. M. Gibbs, and niece of Col. C. C.
Gibbs, of San Antonio. She was born at Nava-
sota, Texas, and is a lady of refinement and excel-
lent domestic and social accomplishments. They
have one son, Frederick.
Mr. and Mrs. Blesse affiliate with the Church of
the Redeemer (Episcopalian), of which he is a ves-
tryman. Mr. Blesse is a sound money Repub-
lican. He is considered one of the substantial and
enterprising citizens of the town. He eschews pol-
itics as a business ; but, as a citizen, is interested
in political movements in so far as they promise to
affect the well-being of his adopted city, county
and State, and the country at large.
45
706
INDIAN WARS ^ND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
M. BUTLER,
AUSTIN.
Michael Butler, one of Austin's leading business
men, is a native of Ireland, born near the city of
Limerick, February 17th, 1844, where his father,
John Butler, at that time lived.
John Butler owned farms, was a contractor in
the construction of public pikes, or roads, and was
regarded as a substantial, well-to-do citizen. Our
subject was the second youngest of five brothers ;
received the rudiments of a good common school
education in Limerick, and acquired good business
habits and an irrepressible longing to accomplish
something for himself in the business world. The
opportunities offered there for advancement were
not promising, and he, therefore, at the age of
twenty-one, left his native home and sailed for New
York, landing there in the spring of 1865. He
remained in New York but a short time and, in
harmony with the advice so freely given by Horace
Greeley to young men of those days, went West,
developed into a successful business man, and, in
1874, came to Austin, Texas, with a cash capital of
about $10,000.00. He came to Austin to continue
the contracting business. He found here a great
need for brick to take the place, at least for some
special purposes, of the native rock so generally in
use, and in his usually thorough manner explored
the country for a suitable clay possessing the neces-
sary ingredients from which a good quality and
color of brick could be produced. He soon accom-
plished the object of his search, and opened his
first brickyard in Austin. The brick theretofore
used had been of poor quality, and were shipped
from abroad and were expensive. His first efforts
were experimental, and his methods of manufac-
ture necessarily somewhat crude, but he had in-
formed himself thoroughly in the matter of clays
and, being of a naturally mechanical turn of mind,
soon constructed the necessary appliances, and
gratified his desire to show the people of Central
Texas what a good and sound brick looked like.
He then entered into the enterprise with his accus-
tomed energy and push, and the result is that
Austin has one of the finest brick yards in the
State. Houston has another which Mr. Butler
established in 1893. Both are doing a. large busi-
ness, employ a large force of men, and annually
distribute large sums of money broadcast in these
communities. The results of Mr. Butler's work do
not stop here, however. His brick have so far taken
the place of stone in building, that the public
streets are now bordered with handsome brick
blocks and beautiful architectural residences, a
happy result that could have never been otherwise
obtained.
Mr. Butler also established a brickyard at Dallas
in about the year 1882, built up a fine trade and
disposed of it to a brother, Patrick Butler, who still
owns it. Mr. Butler is a thorough-going business
man, broad in his views, and public-spirited. He
is a self-made man in everything that the term im-
plies. His success in life has been phenomenal and
he has accumulated a splendid fortune. He is a
tliorough and firm believer in Texas' and Austin's
future, and has practically demonstrated his faith
by liberally investing his means in Austin realty and
her business enterprises, until he is regarded as one
of her most substantial property owners.
Mr. Butler is prominently identified with the
banking interests of Austin as one of the promoters
of and a stockholder and director of the American
National Bank of that city, one of the strongest
financial institutions in the State.
He married, in 1878, Miss Mary Jane, a daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. Francis Kelly, of Austin. The
union has been a most fortunate and happy one.
They have two sons and one daughter, viz. :
John Francis, Margaret Emma, and Thomas
James. ,
The family mansion is one of the most elegant in
proportions and architecture, and most complete in
its arrangements and furnishings, in Austin, and
occupies a commanding position, overlooking large
portions of the city. Mr. Butler and his family are
members of the Roman Catholic Church.
WM. A. WORTH A.M.
MRS. W. A. WORrHAM.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
107
WILLIAM A. WORTHAM,
SULPHUR SPRINGS.
W. A. Worlham, Superintendent of the State
Orphans' Asylum, situated near Corsicana, was
born in Maurj' County, Tenn., November 3, 1830,
and came to Texas in 1842, with his widowed
mother, who settled in Harrison County. He was
principally educated at Marshall. Desiring to be
a printer, he placed himself in a printing office as a
bound apprentice and served three years, at the
end of which time he was an experienced journey-
man printer. On the 11th day of June, 1852, he
was united in marriage to Miss Adeline E. Ashcroft,
daughter of Dr. Levy and Elizabeth Ashcroft, of
Tyler, Texas, and in 1854 settled in Sulphur Springs,
where he now claims his home. They have five
children: William B. (State Treasurer) ; Louis J.,
Albert A., Thomas, James, and Levy D. Wortham.
Col. Wortham has been a member of the M. E.
Church South thirty-eight years, and his consis-
tent deportment during the dark days of war, and
since, is ample proof of his faith in the promises of
God. As a sofdier he was kind to all in distress
with whom he came in contact, and on one occasion
he stopped for a moment, in the midst of battle in
August, and gave to a wounded and dying Federal
soldier the last drop of water in his canteen, not
knowing when or where he would get any more.
The greater part of Col. Wortham' s life has been
spent as a newspaper publisher and editor. In
December, 1861, he was a volunteer in the Con-
federate army.
At the organization of his company he was
elected First Lieutenant and was attached to
Crump's_ First Texas Battalion. The battalion,
was afterward attached to Ector's Brigade. At
the close of the war he was Lieutenant-Colonel
commanding the Thirty-fourth Texas Cavalry. He
participated in many of the bloody engagements of
the war — Elk Horn, Richmond (Ky.), Perryville,
Murfreesboro, Jackson, Mansfield, Pleasant Hill,
Yellow Bayou, and many other engagements or
skirmishes of less note.
He has served as Justice of the Peace and Dis-
trict Clerk; represented Hopkins County three
times in the House of Representatives of the Texas
Legislature; represented his district during one
term in the State Senate, and in 1891 was appointed
by Governor James S. Hogg superintendent of the
State Orphans' Asylum at Corsicana.
Col. Wortham is one of the oldest, most widely
known and ablest editorial writers in Texas.
During the dark days that marked the recon-
struction era he fought fearlessly, through the
columns of his paper, the cause of civil liberty and
honest government, while being daily threatened
with incarceration in the Federal barracks, in Sul-
phur Springs, where he was editing The Gazette, if
he did not withhold his caustic criticisms of the
conduct of those in authority.
He has always been a Democrat — taking the
extreme Southern view of the rights of the States
as enunciated by Thomas Jefferson and advocated
by the great Southern leaders in 1860 and 1861,
and never abandoned that doctrine until it was set-
tled by the arbitrament of the sword. When that
was a fixed fact he counseled obedience to the
altered condition of affairs, and earnestly desired
to witness a complete reconciliation between the
States.
He has taken part, on the hustings, in many cam-
paigns. He has no patience with the so-called
" independentism " — another name, viewed in the
most charitable light, for a want of settled con-
victions, and, in the true light, for demagogy and
a want of principle. The kind of independentism
he has followed throughout his long career as a
newspaper man, has been to freely criticise Demo-
cratic leaders, when criticism was necessary to the
preservation of party integrity, and its adoption of
correct lines of pubUc policy. Thus, helping to
keep the grand old ship true to her course, he has
been among the foremost when the enemy was to be
met and victory won or defeat sustained. Believ-
ing ardently that upon the ultimate triumph of the
principles of political economy, that forms Demo-
cratic faith, depends the preservation of a truly
Republican government, and the protection of the
rights, liberties and happiness of all the people, he
has devoted himself with unselfish, patriotic zeal,
to the cause of Democracy throughout his long,
useful and honored life. As a member of the
House and Senate of the Texas Legislature, he
served on many important committees, took an
active part in legislation, and made an excellent
record. His discharge of the duties of his position
as superintendent of the State Orphans' Asylum
has been characterized by great ability, and he has
708
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
made the asylum what it was designed to be, one
of the noblest and most useful of the State's insti-
tutions. He attributes his success in the conduct
of the asylum more to his estimable wife than to his
own management. They have labored together to
make it as near a model home for the State's help-
less orphan children as possible. Every child
seems contented and happy. Col. Wortham and
wife feel that they are most happily rounding off
their long and useful lives in the care of helpless
children and stimulating them with just pride
to become useful men and women and to love
God, themselves, Texas, and their whole coun-
try.
JOSEPHUS CUMMINGS, M. D.
AUSTIN.
The late Dr. Cummings was one of the leading
physicians of the State, and an honored and useful
citizen of Austin.
His father, Stephen Cummings, was a native of
Maryland and his mother, Nancy G. (Rowe) Cum-
mings, a native of North Carolina.
His father was a Texas pioneer, resident at
Austin as early as 1840. Dr. Cummings was a
native of Austin and was born November 30, 1849.
During boyhood and youth he led an active outdoor
life, which gave him a robust physique and he ab-
sorbed the spirit of patriotism and valor that per-
meated the atmosphere during these exciting days
of struggle between the founders of Austin and
hostile Indians. He attended the schools of his
native city, took a course of study at Round Rock
(Texas) Academy, was an apt and thorough stu-
dent, and at the age of twenty years (1869) entered
Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, Pa.,
and graduated from that institution with the high-
est honors of a large class in 1871. August 5th,
1872, he married Miss Texas, daughter of Thomas
Glasscock, one of the bravest and most chivalrous
defenders of the cause of the " Lone Star Repub-
lic " in her struggle for independence. More ex-
tended mention is made of Mr. Glasscock elsewhere
in this volume. Mrs. Cummings, like her husband,
was born and grew up in Austin, and she there re-
ceived an excellent education. She seems to have
inherited from her parents that love of country, that
zeal and patriotism which finally secured to the
founders of this great commonwealth their rights,
viz., their liberty and their happiness, and there are
very few, if any, who hold in more grateful remem-
brance the glorious and heroic deeds of her imme-
diate ancestors and their allies, than does Mrs.
Cummings. She lives, in the prime of womanhood,
at her home in Austin, with a beautiful and accom-
plished daughter. Miss Penina Browning Cummings,
and a promising son, Josephus, in the enjoyment of
a comfortable competency.
Dr. Cummings immediately after his return to
Austin in 1872 entered upon the practice of his
profession. He paid especial attention to surgery
and was called to perform many difficult and won-
derful operations and so phenomenal was his success
in surgery that reports of his skillful work have been
recorded in the works of medical science and will
live in history to instruct these who seek to attain
perfection in the science of surgery.
He, therefore, became prominent and essentially
a leader of the profession in his section of the State,
and later in the State at large. He was for three
years secretary of the Travis County Medical Soci-
ety, and afterwards president of the same. He
was also a valuable and influential member of the
Austin District Medical Society, and the Texas
State Medical Association, before which latter body
he read several valuable papers on surgical science.
He held the responsible office of city and county
physician, and it was mainly due to his influence
that the spacious and comfortable city hospital was
built. He was a busy man, with active brain and
willing and ready hands. Aside from his various
contributions to the medical journals of his day and
papers read before the various medical associations
of which he was a member, he was at the period
of his untimely death collecting data and compil-
ing material for a contemplated work on surgery,
selections from which appeared from time to time
in the St. Louis Courier Medical Journal. Few
men took greater interest in the benevolent and
fraternal interests of his city and State than he
did, and he gave much of his valuable time to such
organizations. He was a charter member of the
orders of Knights of Honor and Knights and La-
A. L. MATLOCK.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
709
dies of Honor ; held the oflace of Deputy Grand
Dictator of the former, and at the time of his death
was active in these societies. He was also an active
member of the Ancient Order of Working Men, the
Good Fellows, Knights of Dixie, Select Knights,
and Lake City Camp, Woodmen of the World.
Provisional Head Sovereign Frost, of Atlanta, Ga.,
in a communication to Lake City Camp, at Austin,
said : " Woodcraft has lost a great sovereign and
Austin a good man."
The Texas Sanitarian, a medical periodical pub-
lished at Austin, his native city, refers to him in
a published sketch as strictly ethical in all of his
professional relations, and also paid him the most
graceful of all tributes in saying that " he was a
friend to the poor."
Dr. Cummings was, withal, a practical and suc-
cessful man of affairs. He eschewed polities as a
means of self-aggrandizement, or profit ; but, as a
loyal Democrat and a patriotic citizen, his vote, his
good counsel, and wide influence could always be
obtained, and, when given, was found to be on the
side of good government. He was for a time
United States Pension Examiner, served several
terms as city and county physician, and was sev-
eral times Alderman (when very young), and in that
position was the promoter of nearly all of the early
sanitary means adopted by the city. Dr. Cummings
was a man of strong intellect, splendid physique and
presence, and great personal magnetism, and was
bound by ties of lasting endearment to his thou-
sands of loyal and admiring friends, embracing not
only members of his profession, but men in nearly
every other walk of life.
JOHN T. CRADDOCK,
GREENVILLE,
John T. Craddock was born in Henry County,
Ala., December 14, 1855. His parents were Hin-
ton and Elizabeth Craddock, He was reared in
Wood County, Texas ; received his preliminary
education in the common schools of that county
and for about two years attended Mansfield Col-
lege, in Tarrant County; six years was County
Clerk of Wood County ; read law under Judge L.
W. Crow, of Quitman, Texas, where he was
licensed to practice ; served in 1889 and 1890 as
assistant to Attorney-General Hogg in the Attorney-
General's office ; has resided at Greenville, Texas,
since April, 1891, since which date he has been
General Attorney of the East Line & Eed River
Railroad Company, now known as the Sherman,
Shreveport & Houston Railroad Company ;
married Miss Sarah Hart, daughter of V.
T. Hart, of Mineola, Texas, February 22, 1882 ;
is a lawyer of distinction and is widely known
to the members of his profession and men who
take an interest in public affairs throughout the
State.
A. L. MATLOCK,
FORT WORTH.
Hon. A. L. Matlock, one of the brightest orna-
ments of the Texas bar and a political leader,
whose white plume has led the way in more than
one hotly-contested political campaign, was born
in Eoane County, Tenn., on the 23d of April, 1852.
His parents were Col. A. and Mrs. Margaret (Rus-
sell) Matlock, who were also born in East Tennessee.
The former was a son of Jason Matlock, of Welsh
and Scotch descent, a pioneer of that State. Rep-
resentatives of the family formed a settlement in
America at an early day. The mother of Mr. Mat-
lock was a daughter of William Russell, of Irish
descent, also a decendant of a pioneer family of
Tennessee.
710
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The childhood and youth of A. L. Matlock were
passed in Blount County, Tenn. , to which county
his parents moved during his infancy. He grew
up on a farm ; attended school and completed his
education at Ewing and Jefferson College, Tenn.,
from which institution he graduated with the class
of 1870. Desiring to qualify himself for the bar,
he prosecuted the study of the law under Judges
Green and Carruthers at the law school at Leba-
non, Tenn., from which he graduated with distinc-
tion in 1872. In the same year he was admitted to
practice, being at that time twenty years of age,
and located in Loudon, Tenn., where be opened an
office and pursued his profession until the fall of
1873, and then moved to Texas and settled at Mon-
tague, where he soonbuilt up a large and paying prac-
tice and gave evidence of those superior qualities of
mind and that thorough grounding in the principles
and practice of law which have sine? enabled him to
achieve eminence in the profession. Mr. Matlock
continued to reside in Montague until 1889, and
then moved to Fort Worth, where he has since been
successfully engaged in practice, winning with the
passage of each year brighter laurels. He has had
to meet the best forensic talent in the legal arena,
but the most redoubtable have found him a foeman
worthy of their steel. He is considered a conscien-
tious, painstaking, learned and able lawyer.
In 1876 Mr. Matlock was united in marriage
to Miss Annie Herbert, of Denton, Texas,
daughter of Dr. C. L. Herbert, a native of Ten-
nessee. She died a year later and in 1879 Mr.
Matlock married Miss Alice Hyatt,born in Missouri,
a daughter of Mr. Smith and Mrs. Clara (Weaver)
Hyatt, who came to Texas in 1878. Mrs. Matlock
is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian
Church, and is a lady of many social and Christian
graces, and admired by a wide circle of friends, in
the city of Fort Worth and throughout Texas.
Mr. Matlock served as County Attorney of
Montague County from 1876 to 1878, during which
time he made a State reputation as a fearless and
successful prosecuting attorney. It was during
this time that many of the most notorious murder
cases in the State were tried and convictions
secured, notably the Krebs, Preston and Brown
cases.
In 1880 Mr. Matlock was elected to the State
Legislature from the district comprising Wise
County, and a contiguous section north of the
Texas and Pacific Railway. In that body he
served as Chairman of the House Committee on
Public Lands and Land Office, and succeeded in
securing the passage of several bills relating to the
public domain, that have resulted in great benefit
to that section of the State. In 1882 he was elected
to the State Senate, and served in that body for a
period of»two years. In 1884 he was nominated by
the Democracy, made an active canvass, and was
elected a presidential elector and cast his vote for
Grover Cleveland. The Clark and Hogg guberna-
torial campaign was one of the most hotly con-
tested that has been fought in Texas since its
existence as a State. Both sides selected their
best men to lead in and manage the battle. Mr.
Matlock was selected as the chairman of the Clark
Democracy, and managed the forces at his dis-
posal with a skill and brilliancy that gained him a
national reputation as a political leader. Since
1887 he has represented the Capital Syndicate and
other large interests, and now enjoys a large and
lucrative practice. As a lawyer he has few equals
at the Texas bar. In social life he is genial and
engaging, and as a citizen he has sought to do his
duty faithfully and fearlessly as he has seen it, and
it is not surprising that he should occupy a place
among the foremost Texians of to-day-. This suc-
cess has come to him as a result of correct living
and unremitting labor, and is well worth what it
has cost in self-denial and time expended.
W. L. DAVIDSON,
GEORGETOWN.
Hon. W. L. Davidson, Associate Justice of the
State Court of Criminal Appeals, and a jurist whose
labors have done much to cause the Texas reports
to take higher rank in other States, is a native of
Mississippi. He was born at Grenada, in that
State, November 5, 1845 ; moved to Texas in 1851
with his parents. Rev. Asbury and Mrs. Mary M.
Davidson, who settled at Gonzales ; was educated
at Gonzales College and Stonewall Institute, and
was admitted to the bar in 1871. December 22
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OP TEXAS.
711
1870, he was united in marriage to Miss Susan B.
Howard. They have five children, viz. : Nellie B.,
Katie H., William Howard, Thomas Pope and
Frank Ross Davidson. In January, 1887, Judge
Davidson moved to Georgetown, in Williamson
County, which remains his non-oflflcial home. He
was Assistant Attorney-General for four years,
from February 4=th, 1887 (Governor L. S. Ross'
administration), until February 2, 1891, when he
was appointed by Governor James S. Hogg an As-
sociate Justice of the Court of Criminal Appeals to
fill a vacancy caused by the resignation of Judge
Sam. A. Wilson. During the war between the
States he served in the Confederate army as a
soldier in Company B., Thirty-second Regiment of
Texas Cavalry, and was with Taylor's army during
the Louisiana campaign in 1864, that was so brill-
iantly signalized by the battles of Mansfield,-
Pleasant Hill and Yellow Bayou, and resulted in
driving Banks back to Lower Louisiana. Judge
Davidson has always been a Democrat, and has
done good work for the party. He is a member of
the Methodist Episcopal Church South, and Ma-
sonic fraternity. As a practitioner at the bar he
won deserved renown, not only as an able lawyer,
but as a forcible speaker, and as a lawyer whose
hands were clean, whose heart was pure and who
never deserted his clients. The writer of this
article remembers a dramatic scene in which Judge
Davidson was one of the principal actors. He was
employed in a case in which he felt no personal,
but certainly a deep professional, interest. The
defendants were charged with murder. The kill-
ing for which they were arraigned took place under
circumstances that aroused the greatest public in-
dignation. The town and county were in a wild
state of excitement, and threats of mob violence
were openly made. The occasion to which I
refer was the taking of evidence in the Dis-
trict Court upon an application that he had
made for bail under habeas corpus proceedings.
The court-room was packed with eager spectators
and listeners who glared at the defendants like so
many hungry tigers. There was not a friendly
face in the courtroom. The least mistake upon the
part of the counsel would have precipitated blood-
shed. Judge Davidson, while perfectly cool, stood
firmly up for the rights of his clients. His per-
sonal bearing and the skill with which he managed
his side of the case, won for him the admiration of
the court, local members of the bar, and even the
hostile crowd by which he was surrounded upon all
sides and which at the beginning felt for him very
little less animosity than it did for the men whom
he was defending. After court adjourned, at the
close of the proceedings, such remarks as the fol-
lowing were to be heard upon the streets: " Judge
Davidson was more than a match for all the lawyers
that were pitted against him. I tell you, he is a
mighty fine lawyer. Did you notice how cool he
was, how he stood up for the rights of his clients
and how he took advantage of every mistake of the
other side, while he was gentlemanly and courteous
throughout; they couldn't bulldoze him worth a
cent. He is the man, if I were in trouble, that I
would wantto employ." Judge Davidson's appoint-
ment to the bench of the Criminal Court of Appeals
met with the hearty approbation of his brother
members of the legal profession and of the people
of Texas, and he has since been nominated and
elected to that position practically without opposi-
tion. He possesses an essentially judicial mind.
A man of tender sensibilities, he nevertheless pos-
sesses the power of laying sentiment entirely aside
and looking exclusively at the law of the case in
passing upon a question submitted to the court upon
appeal, and guiding his course solely by the pole-
star of duty. He possesses the rare faculty of
looking at both sides of an issue, and giving full
weight and credit to the authorities and arguments
submitted in support of each side, and forming a
correct decision. As a result it is not strange that
he should have been elected to the position that he
now holds and that while holding it he reflects
honor upon himself, and credit upon the State and
the high court of which he is a member.
W. H. FORD,
BEAUMONT.
Judge W. H. Ford was born in Newton County,
Texas, August 13th, 1843. Parents, David and
Mariah V. Ford.
His father was one of the pioneer ministers of
the M. E. Church South, in Texas.
Judge Ford acquired a good literary education in
712
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the common schools of his native county and at
McKenzie College, at Clarksville, Texas.
From 1862 to 1865 he served in the Confederate
army as a member of Whitfield's Legion, Ross
Brigade, and participated in all the battles in which
that famous brigade was engaged.
In 1872-73 he served as Sheriff of Newton
County, studied law at leisure moments, and when
he retired from the office attended the law school at
Lebanon, Tenn., from which he graduated.
In 1875 he moved to Jasper, Jasper County, and
formed a law partnership with his brother, which
continued until 1880.
In 1878 he was appointed District Attorney of
the First Judicial District of Texas by Governor O.
M. Eoberts, and two years later was elected Dis-
trict Judge of the district, which position he filled
until 1893.
He is a member of the M. E. Church South, and
Masonic fraternity, in the latter of which he has
taken the Royal Arch degree.
His first wife was Miss Octavia Coleman, of Sa-
bine County, Texas. There was no issue by
this marriage. She died at Beaumont, April 6,
1893.
Later he married Miss Evalyn Thompson, of
Beaumont, by whom he has one child.
Judge Ford is a member of the firm of Ford &
Jones, at Beaumont.
As an ex-District Judge, lawyer and citizen.
Judge Ford stands deservedly high for his very
superior abilities, learning and probity. He has
taken an active interest in every movement designed
for the promotion of the best interests of the section
of the State in which he lives.
J. M. BROWN,
GALVESTON.
What a truly noble and praiseworthy achievement
it is to live an upright and useful life, to surmount
the numberless obstacles and dangers that obstruct
the way that leads from youth to old age and, at
last, to stand forth, honored and beloved, a victor
in the great struggle, and, surrounded by dear ones
and friends, to enjoy in the calm evening-time the
fruits of well directed efforts.
A successful life — a truly successful life — how
very much those words imply can only be fully ap-
preciated when we stop to consider how much it
takes to make up such a life and call to mind the
fact that to one such there are ten thousand total or
partial failures — due to energies wasted, talents
misapplied, judgments gone astray, the pursuit of
selfish and ignoble ends, idleness, want of mental
strength, fixedness of purpose and personal honor,
surrender to the allurements of vice and the world.
He who sails the ocean of this life must needs steer
his barque, not like the fabled Ulysses, between one
Scylla and Charybdis, but among many, and resist
charms of song more potent than those that lured
the unwary mariners of Grecian myth to ship-
wreck and death when they thought to find repose.
The successful voyager must be stout and true and
brave; success must have no power to spoil him,
danger no power to daunt, and disaster no power
to chill. He must toil in the sunshine and the rain
and in the winter's blasts, not only for himself, but
for all about him ; not only for those of his own
generation but, as far as in him lies, for mankind
in all time to come. There is a nobility that no
king, though an autocrat, can confer. The patent
is issued by the Almighty and it is conferred alone
as a reward of right living, of work well and ably
done — of true merit, whose truth has been tested
by trial.
While we are subject to misapprehensions with
reference to those who surround us in the land of
the living, we are enabled, in a measure at least, to
construct a connected history and fathom the mean-
ing of a life that has been lived. If there were
more real biography there would be more real his-
tory, for such history as we have is a patchwork,
poorly put together, made up of parts of many
lives. And when we speak of history it is well to
reflect and ask ourselves "What is the utility of
history? " Its true oflftce is not merely to inform
us of what has happened nor why it has ha];Tpened,
but to bequeath to us that wisdom that is to
be gathered alone from the dust of ages, that
wisdom which teaches men and nations how to
avoid mistakes and to live nobly, to catch up the
threads that lead through the labyrinth and advance
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
713
along paths that lead to the highest good ; to in-
struct the individual soul, in order that, according
to its capacity, it may best perform its part here in
this work-a-day world, and fit itself for whatever
higher destiny it is, by its inherent composition,
capable of attaining under the general plan of
being.
This office of history of which I speak is mainly
to be accomplished through biography.
The life and character of the subject of this
memoir, the late Col. J. M. Brown, of Galveston,
are replete with useful lessons. Starting without
the aid of powerful friends or means, his life was
a successful one in the highest and truest sense,
and he has left to his descendants a heritage that
they prize more than the ample fortune that came
to him as a partial reward of his efforts and that
he has bequeathed to them.
The Galveston Daily News, of Thursday, Decem-
ber 26, 1895, says of him in its editorial columns: —
"In the death of Col. J. M. Brown, which oc-
curred last Tuesday night, Galveston lost one of
her most successful and influential business men
and Texas one of her most enterprising citizens.
Scarcely an enterprise of importance has been in-
augurated in Galveston during the past forty-odd
years that has not been assisted to success through
the splendid business judgment and executive ability
of Col. Brown." « « *
Col. Brown was born in New York City on the
, 22d day of September, 1821, and was one of a
family of sixteen children, all of whom preceded
him to the grave. His parents, John M. and
Hannah (Kroutz) Brown were natives of Holland.
They were well-to-do and bestowed upon him
every care that affection could dictate, but, while
he returned their love, he was eager to push out
into the busy world, and this spirit of adventure
becoming too strong for him to control, he, at
twelve years of age, left home without their knowl-
edge, and it was more than two years before they
located him and brought him back. He remained
wfw his parents for a time, and then again left,
going to the western portion of the State, where he
secured employment driving a canal-boat along the
Erie canal. During those days he had Charley
Mallory, afterwards of the famous Mallory Steam-
ship Line, as a copartner in driving canal-boats.
After his desire for adventure had been partly
appeased, his father put him at the brick-mason's
trade, at which he served a full term of appren-
ticeship. He also acquired considerable ability as
an architect, and in furnishing estimates on work.
Thus equipped, he started South, and the diary
of his travels shows that at different points south of
the Ohio river, he engaged in courthouse, cistern
and jail work, taking contracts, and furnishing
estimates. He arrived in Galveston in 1842 or
1843. He erected the first brick jail on Galveston
Island. Other monuments of his architectural and
mechanical skill are the old market house, the
cathedral, and the home in which he died, on the
northeast corner of Twenty-fourth street and
Broadway, that being, it is said, the first brick
residence erected in this State. He built it in 1859,
and some of the parlor furniture is the same that
he selected in New York, after completing his new
home. Some time before the war he formed a
copartnership with Mr. Stephen Kirkland and
engaged in the hardware business under the firm
name of Brown & Kirkland. Col. Brown was a
member of the first fire company organized in the
city, and his partner, Mr. Kirkland, built the first
hook and ladder truck used in the State. Col.
Brown held the position as foreman in the com-
pany for many years.
After the war, Col. Brown continued in the hard-
ware business under the firm name of Brown &
Lang, and after the death of Mr. Lang, his busi-
ness was incorporated into a stock company, known
as the J. S. Brown Hardware Companj', which is
to-day the largest wholesale establishment of the
kind in the South.
Almost from the beginning Col. Brown took a
prominent place among the inhabitants of his new
home, and but a few years lapsed before he was
recognized as a powerful and leading spirit in the
promotion of every enterprise designed to benefit
the city, and as an effective worker for the up-
building of the commercial interests of Galveston.
He became interested in the Galveston, Houston &
Henderson Railroad, and during a period of four
years, embracing the latter part of the Civil War,
was president of the road. By his orders a portion
of Gen. Magruder's command was transported from
Houston to Galveston over the road when the city
was besieged by the enemy. It was then that Gen.
Magruder conferred upon him the title of Colonel.
During his term as president of the road he paid
off the fioating indebtedness and declared monthly
dividends, an evidence of good management that
was very gratifying to the stockholders. Col.
Brown made money rapidly, but lost heavily as a
result of the war, all of his slaves being set free.
Not at all disheartened he furnished his ex-slaves
with comfortable homes and set to work with
redoubled zeal. As a consequence prosperity
attended him, his power for usefulness increased,
he became the promoter and head of many great
enterprises and was enabled to accomplish an im-
714
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
mense amount of good before the summons came
for him to cease his labors.
Col. Brown was debarred from active military
service during the war by reason of the fact that he
was purchasing agent in Mexico for the Confeder-
ate States government and the further fact that he
was president of an important railway line. Dur-
ing the E. J. Davis reconstruction period he, with
other well-known and influential businessmen, com-
posed the Board of Aldermen of Galveston, ap-
pointed by the Governor. Out of their private
funds they bridged the city over and placed it in a
condition to recover the ground it had lost by rea-
son of a siege of disaster.
Later business enterprises inaugurated by Col.
Brown embraced the First National Bank of Gal-
veston, of which he was president for many years.
He planned the bank building and superintended
its erection.
About ten years ago he was elected president of
the Galveston Wharf Company. Years prior to that
time he became identified with the interests of the
company, and his keen business judgment pointed
out to him certain improvements which he thought
the business of the company required, and which
would be a paying investment. He agitated, and
recommended, and contended for the improvements,
which have since been made along the wharf
proper, but he failed to enlist the enterprise of his
associates with his line of thought, and then, it is
said, his enthusiasm reached such a pitch that he
proposed to lease the entire property at an annual
rental to be fixed by a board of appraisers for a
term of fifty or one hundred years, and during that
time he proposed to put into effect his plans, which
subsequently were given effect. When he became
president of the company he secured sufficient infiii-
ence to carry out his ideas and to inaugurate the
system of improvements he had so long contended
for, and Galveston is now said to have as fine
wharf improvements as are to be found anywhere
in this country.
He was a moving spirit in the Galveston Gas
Company, the Galveston Electric Light Company,
the bagging factory, and he filled the position of
chairman of the construction committee which had
in hand the difficult task of bringing to perfection
the splendid system of waterworks of Galveston.
In business Col. Brown displayed splendid execu-
tive force. He was a good judge of human nature,
and rarely made a mistake in selecting his lieuten-
ants for business undertakings. His judgment was
quick and unerring, going into the most minute de-
tails of an enterprise.
Personally he was a man of strong likes and dis-
likes. He often said that he did not make money
to hoard it, but desired to surround his family with
comforts and advantages, and at the same time do
all in his power to make those around and about
him happy. He never turned his back on the needy.
His private charities will never be known. It is
said that he contributed at one time |5,000 for the
relief of the distressed after the great fire in Gal-
veston, but at the time nothing was known about
it, and perhaps this is the first time his contribution
has seen the light of public print. Many families
will miss his gifts this Christmas, and many will
drop a silent tear when they learn that their erst-
while benefactor is no more. His contributions to
charity, it is said, are known only to his youngest
daughter. Miss Bettie, who shared his confidence to
a degree that marked the most tende* companion-
ship between father and daughter. * * *
"Socially, Col. Brown was a gentleman of the
old Southern type. He was warm-hearted, cour-
teous and chivalrous. While his life was devoted
to business, in any social gathering he was always
at ease, and at his own home his hospitality was
unbounded. His love of home and family was a
strong trait in his character. For several years
five generations of the family have met in his home
at Christmas time and welded closer the sacred ties
of relationship, but all was changed on the eve of
the happy reunion which was looked forward to
again this j'ear. The hand that had so often ex-
tended the greeting of welcome was stricken pulse-
less in death. He was the oldest living member of
the Knights Templar in Galveston, and he was an
early member of the Odd Fellows.
"His extensive relations in New York and his
successful business enterprises widened the scope
of his acquaintance and brought him in touch witli
many leading men of the country. During the life
of A. T. Stewart he never went to New York with-
out calling on the merchant-prince, with whom he
enjoyed an intimate acquaintance.
"For over a year past Col. Brown's health had
been failing, and last February he left with his
daughter, Miss Bettie, and his son. Dr. M. R.
Brown, hoping to stay the disease. He returned
last October, and since then had been confined to
his home. He passed away peacefully, surrounded
by members of his immediate family.
" The funeral will take place from Trinity Church
at 11 a. m. to-day. The following pall-bearers are
requested to meet at the family residence : George
Sealy, Leon Blum, W. L. Moody, Nicholas Weeks,
W. S. Davis, George E. Mann, Charles L. Beiss-
ner, C. O. C. Count, of New York, T. A. Stod-
dard, of St. Louis, J. Fullar, of New York, O. G.
INDIAN WAMS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
715
Murray, of Cincinnati, John D. Rogers, J. H.
Hutchings, B. F. Yokum, J. E. Baily, Henry
Range, B. Adoue, T. E. Tliompson, L. C. Hirscli-
berger, Wm. M. Rice, of Houston, and J. D. Skin-
ner.
' ' After the services at Trinity Church the Knights
Templar will take charge of the remains and pro-
ceed to the cemetery, where the impressive burial
services of the order will be held."
Col. Brown was not only an exceedingly able,
but what is of far more importance, a really good
and sincerely pious man, loving and reverencing
God, loving and helping his fellow-man, and loving
and tenderly caring for the members of his imme-
diate household. He has left his impress strong
and deep upon the history of Galveston. The
influence of his thousands of good deeds, flowing
through countless unseen channels, will be felt for
many years to come. Col. Brown was married in
Galveston, Texas, in 1846, to Miss Rebecca Ashton
Stoddart, a beautiful young lady to whom he had
become deeply attached. From that time forward
until his death she was the companion of his joys
and sorrows, his successes and reverses. He at-
tributed much of his success in life to her wise
counsels and ever-cheerful aid. She and five chil-
dren survive. The children are : J. S. Brown and
C. R. Brown, of Galveston ; Dr. M. R. Brown, of Chi-
cago ; Matilda E. Brown and Miss R. A. (known as
Miss Bettie) Brown, of Galveston. Miss Bettie
Brown is well known in the world of art as a
painter.
EMILIO C. FORTO,
BROWNSVILLE.
It is written that " a prophet is not without
honor, save in his own country," but this does not
hold good with reference to the subject of this
sketch. The Laredo Times, in a review of
Brownsville and Cameron County, in 1889, said:
"Judge Forto has contributed over his signature
articles relating to his county to Texas periodicals
and is thoroughly familiar with everything that
pertains to it. He is a fine specimen of the edu-
cated Spanish gentleman. He left his native coun-
try, Spain, when quite a boy, and came here when
about seventeen years of age. He possesses one of
the most comfortable homes in Brownsville."
He was then County Judge of Cameron County,
which position he held for several years, and con-
tinued on the bench until the fall of 1892, when he
was elected Sheriff. In the latter position he has
developed a promptness and skill in dealing with
law-breakers which insures to the people a continu-
ation of peace and quiet.
Sailing from his home in Spain, he landed in the
city of New Orleans, La., in" 1867, when sixteen
years of age, and while in the Crescent City se-
cured a position in a prominent commercial house
at Matamoros, Mexico, and reached the latter place
and entered upon the discharge of his duties in
1868, and, at the end of 1869, located in Browns-
ville, Texas, where he occupied the position of
bookkeeper in the house of Don Antonio Yznaga
for two years, after which he started in business for
himself as a commission merchant and custom-
house broker. Upon the completion of the rail-
road between Laredo aad Monterey, the foreign
trade being then diverted from Brownsville, he de-
voted himself to the study of law and was admitted
to the bar in 1884. He has been in public life since
1876 and has held many important positions. For
twelve years in succession he served as a City Alder-
man, as Justice of the Peace for three years, as
District Clerk for two years, as County Judge eight
years, and at present holds the otfice of Secretary
of the Board of Public Education of the city of
Brownsville, and is Sheriff of the county of Cam-
eron. He has been a member of the Board of
Public Education since 1880 and Sheriff since
1892.
716
[NDIAN WAB8 AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
A, HARRIS,
DALLAS.
Adolph Harris was born in Prussia, Germany,
March 7th, 1842. In 1859 (June) he left the
scenes of his native land and came direct to Texas.
From 1859 to 1863 he attended the public schools
of Limestone County ; going from Limestone
Mr. Jake Harris, in 1886. In 1887 the firm then
became Fellman, Grumbach & Harris, of Dallas.
Mr. Harris was the only member of the firm who
resided in Dallas. This copartnership was formed
for five years. At the end of that time.Mr. Harris
A. HARRIS.
County to Houston, where he formed a partnership
with a Mr. Fox, and engaged in the wholesale dry
goods business under the firm name of Harris &
Fox. This firm continued until 1878, when it was
reorganized ; Mr. Fox withdrawing, and Mr. Harris
took his brother, Jake Harris, in as a partner. The
firm of Harris Bros, continued until the death of
bought out his partners' interest, and took his
nephew, Mr. S. Marcus, in as a partner. They
have built up a business that few firms in the South
enjoy.
Mr. Harris is now in the prime of his manhood,
and by close attention to business has amassed a
large competency. Surrounded with an interesting
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
717
family, his home is one of the most beautiful in
Dallas, and noted for the hospitality there dis-
pensed. While not a native of this State, his whole
energy has been directed to building up Texas. He
is a liberal contributor to every worthy enterprise
that tends to the advancement of Dallas.
On December 4, 1878, he was married to Miss
Fannie Grumbach, of Galveston, a sister of Mrs.
Sylvian Blum, of Galveston. They have four
children: Arthur, Leon, Camille and Marcelle.
Arthur, the oldest son, is now a student under Prof .
W. E. Abbott, of Belleville, Va.
Mr. Harris has a large and influential connection
in New York. Soon after Mr. Harris arrived in
this State, his father died in Germany, and his
mother followed the fortunes of her son to Amer-
ica. The venerable mother, now in her declining
years, is still a member of his household.
ROBERT BOWDRE SAVAGE FOSTER,
NAVASOTA.
The subject of this sketch is a native of Augusta,
Ga., born March 22, 1817. His father was Collier
Foster, who was a native of Columbia County,
Ga., and was a son of John Foster. John Foster
was a planter and prominent State politician in
Georgia, being elected eighteen out of the twenty-
one times that he was a candidate for the State
Legislature.
The mother of the subject of this sketch bore
the maiden name of Lucinda Bowdre, and was a
native of Columbia County, Ga. , and a daughter
of Robert Bowdre, of French descent, though him-
self a native of Georgia.
The subject of this sketch is one of eighteen chil-
dren born to his parents, and the only one living.
Subject was chiefly reared in Monroe County, Ga.
Received an academic education at Jackson Insti-
tute and his medical education at Transylvania
University, at Lexington, Ky., from which he
graduated in 1838. He began the practice of his
profession at Brownsville, Ga., but remained there
only a short time, when he moved to Forsyth, the
county seat. He subsequently moved to Alabama,
and thence in 1845 to Texas, settling in Washing-
ton County, near the old town of that name. He
brought with him to this State a considerable num-
ber of slaves and some ready money, and, pur-
chasing, land, was soon engaged in planting and
the practice of medicine, which he followed with
equal success until the war. Dr. Foster was op-
posed to slavery on principle, and foresaw that as
an institution it was destined to give way before
the onward march of civilization, and, for his part,
favored surrendering the slaves for a money con-
sideration such as he believed the Government
would pay and such as was talked of at the time ;
and he opposed secession because he thought it un"
wise and unnecessary. But when Texas went out
of the Union he contributed of his means to sup-
port the families of Confederate soldiers at the
front and gave them his professional services with-
out pay, or the expectation of it, and in other
ways did what he could to promote the success of
the Southern cause.
In 1862 Dr. Foster moved to Grimes County,
locating on Roan Prairie, where he lived for twenty
years, when he settled at his present place of resi-
dence, three miles east of Navasota. He has been
engaged all these years, until a comparatively re-
cent date, in planting, and the practice of medicine,
but is now retired from both. He has lived a half
century in Texas, and has seen a great deal of ser-
vice in the practice of his profession, the circuit of
his calls in former days covering four counties, and
remaining large even up to the date of his retire-
ment.
He has had but little to do with politics, though
always an interested spectator in all political con-
tests. He is a veteran of the Seminole War of
1836, and draws a pension from the general gov-
ernment for services rendered in that war.
Dr. Foster married Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Pine-
kard, in Monroe Countj', Ga. , in 1838. She was born
in that county July 5, 1819, and was a daughter of
Thomas and Sarah Pinekard, natives of Virginia.
The issue of this union was six children, who lived
to maturity: Thomas C, a physician and farmer;
Sarah Lucinda, who married Robert Blackshear ;
William J. ; Georgie E., who married William O.
Edwards ; Robert Bowdre Savage, and John Frank-
lin, all, except Mrs. Edwards (who is deceased),
residents of Grimes County, the sons being among
718
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
the foremost men in the county, and all well-to-do.
Mrs. Foster died December 1, 1882.
Thomas C. Foster, A. M., M. D., eldest son of
the preceding, was born in Forsyth, Ga., February
7, 1839. He was brought by his parents to Texas
in 1845, and reared and educated in Washington
County, where he attended Soule University and
Baylor College. His medical education was se-
cured at the new school of medicine at New Or-
leans, La., which institution he was attending at
the opening of the war. He entered the Confeder-
ate army on the commencement of hostilities as a
private in the Tenth Texas Infantry, commanded
by Col. Roger Q. Mills, but was soon made Assist-
ant Surgeon of the regiment, and served as such
until the general surrender, when he returned to
Texas and engaged in the practice of his profession
and in farming and the stock business, gradually
relinquishing medicine and giving more and more
attention to farming and stock-raising, until these
pursuits have come to occupy his entire time and
attention. He has greatly prospered at both. A
staunch Democrat, he takes great interest in polit-
ical matters. Has served as Chairman of the
County Democratic Executive Committee and as a
member and Corresponding Secretary of the Na-
tional Democratic Committee. He has attended all
of the county conventions and most of the Con-
gressional and State conventions for the past twelve
or fifteen years.
In June, 1865, he was united in marriage to Miss
Annie Blackshear, a daughter of Gen. Thomas ■
Blackshear.
H. M. GARWOOD,
BASTROP.
Hon. H. M. Garwood was born in Bastrop, Texas,
January 11th, 1864, and is the son of C. B. and
Mrs. F. B. Garwood. He received a thorough
education at the University of the South, at Sewa-
nee, Tenn., graduating with the class of 1883.
After leaving college he selected the practice of
law as his profession, and under the guidance of
Hon. Joseph D. Sayers, Congressman from the
Tenth District, prepared himself for the bar, to
which he was admitted in November, 1885. He
at once began to practice in Bastrop, has since re-
sided there and now enjoys a lucrative practice and
occupies a position in the front rank of the legal
profession in Texas. He was elected to the House
of Eepresentatives of the Twentieth Legislature,
and although the youngest member of that body,
took a prominent part in the legislation enacted, and
won for himself not only the confidence and high
regard of his fellow-members but a State-wide rep-
utation. In the Twentieth Legislature he was a
member of Judiciary Committee No. 2, the Com-
mittee on Constitutional Amendments and, as a
special trust, was put on the special committee to
which all the educational bills of the House were
referred. In 1888 Mr. Garwood was elected
County Judge of Bastrop County and a member of
the State Democratic Executive Committee. In
1890 he was nominated by the Democracy and
elected to the Senate of the Twenty-second Legisla-
ture from the Thirteenth District, composed of the
counties of Fayette, Bastrop and Lea.
He was chairman of the Senate Committee on
Public Buildings and Grounds, and although it is
generally conceded that in no previous Texas Senate
(for many years) were there so many men of brill-
iant talents and superior mental strength, he was
considered the peer of the most intellectual and in-
fluential of his colleagues. He is a member of the
Episcopal Church, Knights Templar Degree in Ma-
sonry, and Independent Order of Odd-Fellows. At
the dedication of the State capitol he was chosen to
deliver the Masonic address, a duty which he dis-
charged in a manner that fully sustained his repu-
tation as a finished, forcible and eloquent speaker.
His talents are recognized on every occasion and he
is put forward as a representative man of his sec-
tion and people. In the Twentieth Legislature he,
was a leading advocate of the creation of a railroad
, commission (a pioneer worker in that direction) and
in the Twenty-second Legislature he introduced a
bill providing for the creation of a commission to
regulate the freight and passenger charges of rail-
ways in this State and exercise general supervision
over those corporations. From this bill and the
one introduced by Senator Cone Johnson the Sub-
committee on Internal Improvements prepared the
H. M. GARWOOD.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
719
measure which was favorably reported to the Senate.
Among other important bills, of which he was the
author in this body, was one requiring every county
in the State to conform as to public schools to what
is known as the district system.
August 9th, 1890, Mr. Garwood was married to
Miss Hattie Page, daughter of Col. Page, a promi-
nent lawyer of Bryan, Texas.
Mr. Garwood is one of the most promising of the
able young men that the South can boast. The
future holds for him many bright possibilities and he
can rise to nearly any eminence, either in his chosen
profession or in the walks of public life, that he
may desire. He commands the unbounded confi-
dence of the people of his section and of the
Democracy of Texas.
CHARLES ESSER, SR.,
WESSON,
Was born on the Ehine, in Germany, May 1st,
1827, and emigrated to America in 1849, when
twenty- two years of age. Landing at New York
City he proceeded West, and for about two and a
half years lived on a farm at Burlington, near
Racine, Wis. He also lived for a time in the city
of Milwaukee. He left Chicago, January 1st, 1853,
for Missouri, and from that State came to Texas in
1854, and drove a team in the first government
train-load of supplies sent from San Antonio to Fort
Belknap. Later he worked for two years for B. F.
Smithson, herding cattle in the Smithson's Valley
country. In the fall of 1857 he bought 207 acres
of mountain farm lands, and the following year
married Miss Henrietta Knetch. They have seven
sons and two daughters, viz. : William, Hermann,
Minnie, Paul, Clara, Henry, Charles, Jr., George,
and Richard. He now owns 400 acres of good
land.
Charles Esser, Jr., was born on the home farm,
January 6th, 1871, and married Miss Amelia,
daughter of John Krauser, of Kendalia, Kendall
County, Texas. They have one child, Cora, born
December 20th, 1894.
WILLIAM B. EDGE,
KENDALIA,
Was born in Madison County, Ala., April 13th,
1825, and reared in Georgia, where his father,
Thomas Edge, was a well-known and prosperous
farmer. The subject of this notice followed farm-
ing in Georgia until 1854 ; then came to Texas and,
after a brief sojourn, went to Arkansas, where he
lived until 1861, when he bought land from a Mr.
Pruett and opened a farm near Kendalia, in Ken-
dall County, Texas, where he has since resided.
He now owns 3,000 acres of fine farming, grazing
and timbered land. He married Miss Josah C.
Carter, a daughter of Paul Carter, in Oglethorpe
County, Ga., in 1850. Mrs. Edge was born in
that county, February 12th, 1833. They have four
children : William T. , George W. , Francis M. , and
Elizabeth, now Mrs. Charles Dessler.
720
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
BARNETT GIBBS,
DALLAS.
Hon. Barnett Gibbs, ex-Lieutenant-Governor of
Texas, ex-member of the State Senate and now,
and for many years, a prominent figure in public
life in Texas, was born in Yazoo City, Miss., May
19, 1851. His parents were Judge D. D. and Mrs.
Sallie Dorsey Gibbs, of that State. He fs a grand-
son of Gen. George W. Gibbs, of Tennessee. He
received his literary education at Spring Hill
College, Mobile, Ala., and at the University of
Virginia, and his professional education at the Law
School at Lebanon, Tenn. He came to Texas in
1873, and located at Dallas, his present home. The
citizens of Dallas early showed their appreciation
of Mr. Gibbs' legal talent by electing him City
Attorney. This position he held during a period of
six years. He was then elected to the State Senate,
made a splendid record, and was later nominated
by the Democracy and elected to the position of
Lieutenant-Governor. This office he filled from
1882 to 1886, during Ireland's administration.
Col. Gibbs is the youngest Lieutenant-Governor
Texas ever had, the youngest acting Governor, the
youngest Senator, and represented the largest sen-
atorial district in the State. His friends, recogniz-
ing in him the requisite qualities to represent the
State with creditable ability, brought him out for
Congress, and he made the race for the Democratic
nomination against Hon. Olin Wellborn. The con-
test resulted in locking the convention, and, as
usual, a compromise was effected by bringing in
the traditional "dark horse," named by Gibbs,
who withdrew in favor of Hon. Jo Abbott, who
received the nomination.
Col. Gibbs is a prominent Odd Fellow, being
Past Grand Master of the order in Texas.
His wife was Miss Sallie Haynes, a daughter of
the late J. W. Haynes. He was one of the princi-
pal and most effective workers in the movements
that resulted in Deep-Water conventions being held
in Fort Worth, Denver, Topeka and elsewhere, and
the Federal Congress making suitable appropria-
tions for securing deep-water harbors on the Texas
coast. He has been a liberal contributor to rail-
roads and every worthy enterprise designed for the
upbuilding of his section and the State at large.
As a lawyer, he stands deservedly high, and through
his practice and good financiering, he has accumu-
lated a comfortable fortune.
Enjoying a large personal and political following,
possessed of remarkable qualities as a statesman
and politician and being a powerful and magnetic
speaker and a polished and trenchant writer, he
has wielded a wide infiuence in shaping the course
of public -events in Texas. He has at all times
shown himself a friend of the people and a champion
of the cause of good government.
DAVID M. LEVEL,
LAREDO.
The subject of this brief memoir is one of the
few Texas veterans who still survive to relate to
the historian for the benefit of coming generations
the experiences of pioneer life on the Southwestern
frontier. With the rapid flight of years they have
one by one been passing away and if the story is
not gleaned now it will soon pass out of human
memory. Col. Level came to Texas at a time
when there was great need for young men of his
stamp. He is a native of the Old Dominion (State
of Virginia) and was born at White Sulphur
Springs, in a portion of the State since set off as
West Virginia, January 1st, 1824.
His father, James Level, was a mason by trade,
a native of County Down, Ireland, and came to
America at about twenty-one years of age a single
man and located in Virginia. He married Miss
Nancy McClure, a daughter of David McClure, at
her father's house in Green Briar County, where
she was born in the year 1798.
Mr. and Mrs. Level had two sons and two daugh-
ters, of whom the subject of this notice was the
DAVID M. LEVEL.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
721
second born. Margaret was the eldest. She mar-
ried Robert Patten, and they located in Green
Briar County, Va. , where she reared a large family
and there died. George was the third born. He
located in Calloway County, Mo., where he mar-
ried and reared a family of children. He served in
the Mexican War in 1846 as a volunteer from White
Sulphur Springs, Va., under Capt. Caldwell,
landing at Vera Cruz, and marching to the city of
Mexico under Gen. Winfield Scott. He re-
ceived a wound at National Bridge which resulted
in the loss of his left eye. He draws a Mexican
veteran's pension of $25.00 per month. Elizabeth
was the youngest of the family. She married
Washington Black, and located with him in Kan-
sas, near Council Grove, where they reared a fam-
ily of twelve children.
Col. Level lived at and in the vicinity of his
native home until 1846, when he came to Texas
on a prospecting tour. He found the country in
an unsettled condition, and in active preparation
for war with Mexico. He immediately identified
himself with the cause of its people and volunteered
for service against Mexico as a soldier in Capt.
Wilder' s company. Col. Wood's regiment, which
was known as the Eastern Eegiment of the Texas
Mounted Rangers. The regiment immediately
proceeded to the front, crossing on their way to
join Gen. Taylor the ground of the recently fought
battle of Palo Alto on the Resaca, in what is now
Cameron County, Texas, where, Col. Level relates,
the partially decomposed bodies of dead Mexican
soldiers lay in large numbers.
The rangers crossed the Rio Grande, joined Tay-
lor's forces at Marine, Mexico, and advanced to and
took part in the storming and capture of Monterey.
Col. Level served through his term of enlistment, a
period of six months, and received an honorable
discharge from the service. Col. M. B. Lamar was
recruiting a company of picked men from the dis-
charged men at Monterey for one year and in the
spring of 1847 was ordered to Beuna Vista ; but,
owing to sickness. Col. Level did not go. After
leaving the army he went to Washington County)
Texas, and there spent one year raising cotton.
When the gold excitement of 1849 broke out in
California, Col. Level prepared to go to the gold
fields and proceeded as far as San Marcos, Texas,
and there, owing to business miscarriages, abandoned
16
his purpose. In the fall of that year he rejoined
the ranger service, enlisting under Col. Rip Ford,
and spent three years in active campaigning along
the Rio Grande frontier, participating in numerous
Indian fights and skirmishes. Col. Level was
wounded in a fight with Comanche Indians and
also had his horse twice shot from under him at a
point about forty miles east of Corpus Christi.
After a continuous service of three years. Col. Level
tried farming on the Rio Grande above Laredo,
with indifferent success, however, owing to over-
flows of the river which ruined his crops, and the
theft of his stock by Indians. He next worked one
year for Chas. Webb, who had a contract for fur-
nishing the United States garrison at Fort Ewell
with supplies. About the year 1856 he received the
appointment of mounted inspector of United States
customs at Laredo, at the hands of his former ac-
quaintance, Hon. E. J. Davis (later Governor of
Texas) and held the position until 1861. The war
between the States then broke out and he served on
the Rio Grande until late in 1863 and then opened
a wagon-making shop in Laredo and conducted it
successfully for a period of about twelve months,
when he sold out and successfully associated himself
with Thomas Ryan in the ranch business, raising
sheep and cattle, in which business he is still
engaged.
Col. Level has never married. His life has been
one of continued activity. As a soldier he was
brave and aggressive and was a stranger to fear.
The State never had a more genial, courtly and
respected citizen. Now in the sunset of an active
and successful career, the writer finds him at old
Monterey, Mexico, surveying the scenes of his old
stamping ground where, a full fifty years ago, he
fought for and materially contributed to the defeat
of his country's enemies. Col. Level is a venerable
lookingman of stalwart and erect physique and bears
with becoming grace and fortitude the slight in-
firmities that have come to him with the advancing
years. He has the esteem and full confidence of a
wide circle of old-time acquaintances who are ever
delighted to meet him and recount the experiences
of by-gone days. He is a splendid type of the
Texas veteran and the author takes pleasure in
presenting herewith a life-like portrait of one whom
all Texian and Mexican War veterans delight to
honor.
722
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JOHN HOWELL,
BOERNE,
A thrifty and enterprising farmer of Kendall County,
was born InKerr County, Texas, November 16, 1855,
and was reared to farming and stock-raising near the
town of Waring. His father, Levi W. Howell, was
born in Wales, led a sea-faring life for five years,
and then, in 1848, when twenty-two years of age,
located on the Texas coast in Goliad County and
engaged in stock-raising. He married, in 1853,
Miss Sarah E. Nichols, daughter of George Nichols,
then of Kerr, and now of Kendall County. They
had two children : John, the subject of this notice,
and Mattie, widow of Charles Bierschwald. She
lives at Waring.
Mr. John Howell was united in marriage to Miss
America J. Layton, in 1875. They have six chil-
dren : Monroe, Thomas Levi, John Murry, Minnie,
Elton Ray, and Henry.
Mr. Howell's mother died in 1886 at forty-eight
years of age.
LAWRENCE J. HYNES,
BROWNSVILLE,
Is a well-known and substantial citizen of the city
of Brownsville, and one of the pioneers of Cameron
County. He came to Texas at a time when the re-
sources of the country were undeveloped and when
Cameron County was in the infancy of its material
growth.
Mr. Hynes was born in Philipstown, County Kings,
Ireland, May 15th, 1842. His father, Thomas
Hynes, was a well-to-do farmer, who reared a fam-
ily of ten children, of whom the subject of this
sketch is the youngest. Lawrence Hynes came to
America with a sister in 1850 and went to Utiea,
N. Y., where two brothers, who had preceded them
to this country, had located. Here he spent his
boyhood and youth, and learned the carpenter's
trade with one F. D. Fish, for whom he worked a
considerable time. From Utica he went to Mis-
souri, and there worked at his trade. Later he
went to Mississippi, and pursued his calling in the
erection of cotton-gins. He went to Matamoros,
Mexico, and Brownsville, Texas, in the year 1864,
to erect houses that had been manufactured in and
shipped from the East. After completing this con-
tract and doing other contract work for a time, he,
in 1869, engaged in ranching, stock-raising and
merchandising at Santa Maria, where he continued
extensively and successfully building up a large
business until 1893, when he sold his mercantile in-
terests and a portion of his ranching interests, and
has since lived a comparatively retired life at his
elegant home in the city of Brownsville. Mr. Hynes
is a practical and successful man of business. He
is self-educated, well-read and well-informed upon
all of the important issues of the times. He owns
and occupies one of the most commodious, attract-
ive and completely equipped homes in the city, and
is a genial and hospitable gentleman, who delights
in entertaining his friends. Mr. Hynes has always
led a quiet and unostentatious life, and has never
sought political honors or dabbled in politics, and
has strictly at all times confined himself to his own
personal affairs.
His standing as a citizen is of the highest
order.
MICHAEL SCHODTZ.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF I'EXAS.
723
JAMES B. THOMPSON,
CORPUS CHRISTI,
Has for over forty years been a resident of the
Lone Star State. He came to Texas in 1853 from
Louisville, Ky., where he was born July 23d, 1837.
His parents were Capt. James and Mrs. Nancy
(Baird) Thompson. Capt. James Thompson was a
native of Brimiield, Mass., and came West when a
youth, and pioneered as a steamboatman on the
Ohio and Mississippi rivers. His wife, nee Miss
Nancy Baird, was of Scoth antecedents and born in
Pennsylvania. Our subject was about sixteen
years of age when he came to Texas. He was rest-
less and ambitious to accomplish something for,
himself in the world, and landing at Port Lavaca,
entered the commission business at that place as a
partner with S. J. Lee, and remained there until the
war between the States, when he learned of the or-
ganization of Walker's Battalion at Hempstead, in
Waller County, Texas, and made his way to that
point and enlisted in the battalion. Thereafter he
served three years in the Confederate army in
Louisiana and Arlsansas, during which time he par-
ticipated in the series of brilliant engagements that
characterized the Red River campaign and resulted
in the defeat and rout of Banks' army. After the
war Mr. Thompson returned to Fort Lavaca and
associated himself in business with R. D. Biossman,
a Texas pioneer of prominence in his day, of whom
mention is made elsewhere in this volume. The
new firm did business at Port Lavaca until 1871
when they removed to Indianola. About this time
the present branch of the Southern Pacific Railway
was being built, and the firm opened an establish-
ment at Victoria, and as the road progressed, they,
in 1873, went to Cuero.
In 1875 the firm of Biossman & Thompson was
dissolved, and Mr. Thompson went to Galveston
where he formed a copartnership with W. S. Ly-
brook, with whom he embarked in the cotton trade.
In 1878 he returned to Cuero and was there ex-
tensively engaged in merchandising until 1889
when he came to Corpus Christi, and became a
member of the present well-known firm of R. 6.
Biossman & Co.
In 1860 Mr. Thompson married Miss Rosalie, the
second oldest child of R. D. Biossman. She died
in 1879, leaving three daughters, viz. : Elanita, who
is now Mrs. Melvin Kirkpatrick, of Paris, Texas ;
Nancy M. , deceased in 1896, and Miss Mary Lee,
unmarried.
There are few more active and energetic old-time
Texians than Mr. James B. Thompson. He is
essentially a business man, has never aspired to
political prominence or official honors, and his suc-
cess in life is entirely due to his energy, aggressive
enterprise and integrity. His firm leads in its line
of trade in Corpus Christi, and has the confidence
and esteem of a very extensive circle of friends and
patrons.
MICHEL SCHODTS,
BROWNSVILLE.
Michel Schodts was born in Antwerp, Belgium,
May 30, 1836, and came to this country during the
war between the States, spent some time in New
Orleans as accountant, and then located in Mata-
moros, in 1862, where he became a clerk and after-
wards a partner in a large impoiting house. In
1866 he married Miss Susan Diaz, at Matamoros,
Mexico. She died three years later, leaving one
little daughter, Marie Isabel, who now survives
them and is now married. Some time after he re-
moved to Brownsville, where he for many years
carried on a very successful trade in lumber and
other articles. There he built up a considerable
fortune, and won numerous warm friends by his good
qualities of mind and heart. He was highly es-
teemed as a business man, and generally respected
as a worthy citizen. The universal regret ex-
pressed at his untimely end by the people of
Brownsville proved the high regard in which he was
held.
724
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The night of Friday, February 23, 1896, about ten
minutes before ten o'clock, two pistol-shots startled
the citizens of Brownsville living near the corner of
Washington and Eleventh streets. People imme-
diately rushed toward the spot, and there found the
body of Michel Schodts weltering in his life-blood
and already stiffening in death. Mr. Schodts had
been passing the evening with a few friends at Ce-
lestin Jagou's, and was on his way home, having
walked as far as the corner of Washington and
Twelfth streets with his friend, Adolph Bollack,
standing there and chatting with him before saying
good-night. His home was but a block further up
Washington street. Strolling along through the
beautiful moonlight, which was flooding the earth
like a silver stream, in the best of humor and prob-
ably musing on the pleasantries exchanged between
himself and friends, fearing no harm, suspecting
nothing, he was shot down in cold blood, within a
few yards of his own door, by the hand of an assas-
sin. There were none near enough to see the deed
in time to give warning to the unsuspecting man,
but there were people within half a block who heard
the shots, saw the victim fall and heard his death-
cry. They also saw the assassin flee, pistol in
hand, down Eleventh street toward the river, but
none of these could say who it was that did the
deed. The man had evidently followed Mr. Schodts
down the street, watching his opportunity.
Two weeks before, while walking home with a
friend, the subject of carrying arms came up, and
Mr. Schodts remarked: "I never carry any
weapon. I have never wronged anyone, and don't
feel afraid that anyone will wrong me."
A local paper contained the following the suc-
ceeding morning : —
" Our little city was shocked from center to cir-
cumference, as the direful news sped swiftly from
lip to lip, and at every turn was heard the question :
' Who did it? ' Michel Schodts was a man without
an enemy, so far as he or his friends knew. Who
could have been guilty of his murder? From all
accounts, the assassin was a Mexican and a
stranger in Brownsville. Shortly before Mr.
Schodts left Jagou's, where he with several others
was sitting in a rear room playing a social game, a
Mexican came into the saloon and asked for a pack-
age of cigarettes. The porter handed him a pack
and informed him that they were ten cents. The
man handed them back, saying, ' Muy caro ' (too
dear), walked back to the rear and looked through
the lattice partition at the party in the back room
and then left the saloon, but returned in a short
while and asked for a match and again walked
back to the lattice, looking at those in the other
room. After this he left and was seen to cross the
street and stop in front of Bloomberg & Raphael's.
The porter who waited on the man had never seen
him before, and says that he was a strange Mexi-
can, rather short in stature, heavily built, appar-
ently of middle age, and wore dark trousers, with
a striped, coffee-colored coat and soft hat. This
man, it is supposed, was the murderer. He was
not seen or noticed any further, and has not been
seen since, but the man who was seen running down
Eleventh street with his pistol, just after the mur-
der, is similarly described. He was seen by Fred.
, I. Hicks and J. D. Anderson running past the
National Bank. J. P. Putegnat, who was standing
near Dr. Putegnat's, ran toward the bank and fol-
lowed the fleeing murderer down Eleventh street as
far as the Woodhouse store, from which place he
saw the man disappear in the canebrake near the
river.
" Afterwards oflScers were stationed on the river
bank to patrol it, but probably too late to prevent
the murderer from crossing to Mexico. Parties
claim to have seen a man crossing the river from
Freeport to the Mexican side shortly after the
murder occurred.
"The Matamoros authorities were at once notified
to be on the lookout, and a report this afternoon
said that a man had been arrested on suspicion on
the Mexican side, but no particulars could^ be
learned."
The funeral took place the afternoon of February
24th, 1896, at half-past four, from the residence of
the deceased, the remains being taken to the Catholic
Church for the funeral ceremony. The pall- bearers
were: G. Follain, E. Bennevendo, Chris Hess,
Adolph Bollock, Celestin Jagou, Miguel Fernandez,
Louis Sauder, and Louis Wise. The remains were
encased in a fine metallic casket, which was covered
with handsome floral tributes. The cortege was one
of the largest and most imposing ever seen in
Brownsville. Many sorrowing friends followed the
body of their old friend to the grave and dropped
a tear upon the last earthly resting place of this
good man and true. His daughter offers a large
reward for the arrest and conviction of his as-
sassin.
" One daughter, Mrs. Frank B. Armstrong, of
Brownsville, and his son-in-law, Frank B. Arm-
strong, and two grandchildren, Marie-Sylvia and
Jennie Isabel Armstrong, also a brother, Ferdinand
Schodts, in Belgium, and a number of nephews and
nieces and other relatives in New York and Bel-
gium, survive the deceased."
M. W. SHAW.
MRS. SHAW.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
725
MICHAEL W. SHAW,
GALVESTON,
For many years an influential citizen of Galveston,
was born November 28, 1833, in Lambentheim, on
the Rhine, Hesse Darmstadt, Germany. His father
was a musician. By industry and economy he
managed to support his large family. Thinking to
improve his condition in the New World, he left
Germany in the fall of 1846, and in December of
that year landed with his family at Galveston,
Texas. Here he met with fair success, and might
have accomplished his purpose of preparing com-
forts for his declining years, but in 1847, at the
age of forty-seven, he was stricken with yellow
fever and died, leaving his wife and six children in
somewhat straitened circumstances. The vs^idow
whom he left was his second wife.
Michael's mother died in Germany when he was
but three years of "age. The children left at the
father's death had quite a struggle for a subsist-
ence until they grew to manhood and womanhood.
Michael's school opportunities were very limited.
His early education was much neglected, but hav-
ing a disposition to read and inform himself, he
has acquired a general knowledge of current litera-
ture.
His sister, Mary, married Daniel H. Pallais, a
-watchmaker, of Galveston, and a master of his pro-
fession. In 1848 Michael went to Jive with his
brother-in-law, who taught him the jeweler's trade,
and he remained with Mr. Pallais until 1856.
Having acquired proficiency in the trade, he began
business on his own account in the latter year, and
met with cordial encouragement. His business
was rapidly extending, and he was in a fair way to
achieve financial success when the late war com-
menced.
In 1862 he enlisted in the Confederate army as a
private in De Bray's cavalry regiment. The ser-
vice was to him particularly arduous, as the pre-
vious fourteen years of his life had been spent
under shelter, either at the bench or behind the
counter. The hardships of the military life soon
began to tell upon even his robust constitution,
and in 1864 he was discharged on account of disa-
bility. In 1865, having partially recruited his
health, he again entered the army, enlisting in
the Second Texas Infantry, commanded by Col.
Moore, and remained with that regiment until the
final surrender.
The war which prostrated the South also swept
away nearly all of Mr. Shaw's means. He lost his
slaves and other property to such an extent that
when peace came he had but little left with which
to begin the battle of life anew. He had, however,
with a thorough knowledge of his business, youth,
energy and a little money, and with this capital he
went to work not only to retrieve what he had lost,
but to accumulate still more. In 1866 he again
opened an establishment in old Moro Castle, and
made money rapidly. In 1869 he experienced a
second misfortune in the destruction of his estab-
lishment by fire, in the great conflagration of that
year. He then moved into a house he owned on
Tremont street, where a third time he began busi-
ness. In 1872 he bought and moved into the build-
ing in which his business is at present conducted
on the corner of Tremont and Market streets. This
building was almost totally destroyed by fire on the
30th of January, 1880,lbuthas been elegantly refitted,
and is now one of the substantial business houses
of Galveston. He was well and favorably known
throughout the State when he commenced business
in 1865, and this formed no inconsiderable part of
the capital with which he resumed business after
the surrender. His name is now very widely known
in the Southwest, and his trade extends through-
out Texas and into Mexico on the West and Louis-
iana on the East. In addition to what he manu-
factures, he imports fancy goods directly through
the custom house from Paris, France, and buys
large quantities of domestic goods in New York and
Philadelphia.
Mr. Shaw is now reckoned among the " solid
men" of Galveston. He owns a handsome resi-
dence on the corner of Fifteenth and Winnie streets,
and business houses in the city, which he rents. He
is a stockholder in the Montezuma Mines in New
Mexico, holding 1,600 shares of the stock.
Mr. Shaw is a public-spirited citizen, investing
his money in enterprises looking to the growth and
prosperity of Galveston, and lending his experience
and energy to the public institutions which adorn
the city. He is a member in good standing of the
Catholic Church.
In character he is above reproach ; as a citizen,
highly esteemed ; as the head of a .family, affec-
tionate and devoted. He is endowed with great
powers of endurance and is capable of long-contin-
ued exertion. He was married, in 1878, to Miss
726
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Annie Meyer, who was born in Houston in 1856,
and educated in that city. Her father died when
she was seven years old, and her mother when she
was ten. Left alone at so tender an age, she be-
came a member of the family of Dr. C. R. Nutt, an
eminent physician and scientist, of Houston.
Mr. and Mrs. Shaw have nine children. Ada, a
daughter of Mr. Shaw's by a former marriage, was
born March 15, 1858, in Chambers County, Texas,
and educated in Galveston and at St. Joseph Acad-
emy, Emmitsburg, Maryland, and is a thoroughly
accomplished young lady. She is the wife of Guido
Ruhl, managing clerk of the grocery department of
Kaufman & Rungy's store at Galveston. She has
two sons — Willie and Bernhardt.
The children born to Mr. Shaw by his present
wife are: Katherine Margaret, a daughter, born
March 22, 1879; Marshall William, born July 25,
1880; Charles Leonard, born July 22, 1882, died
March 8, 1894; William Austin, born June 13,
1884; Hazel Phillepina, born October 29, 1887;
Annie Grace, born July 30, 1888 ; Chas. Trueheart,
born March 26, 1890 ; Viola Hildegard, born Jan-
uary 8, 1892, died April 2, 1894, and Bessie Graf-
ton, born July 30, 1893.
With laudable pride Mr. Shaw attributes his suc-
cess in life to industry, economy and fair dealing.
He has always been attentive to business. He
has never given a promissory note since he be-
gan operating for himself. His credit, wherever he
is known, is unlimited, and whatever he contracts
to do, he does, and does in the time, manner and
form promised.
He is a strong, independent and useful citizen —
one of the class of self-made men upon whom the
stability of the social fabric so largely depends,
and by whom cities and nations are made prosper
ous and enduring.
JOHN M. DUNCAN,
TYLER.
Hon. John M. Duncan was born in Lawrence
County, Tenn., February 7th, 1851. His parents
were W. F. and M. C. Duncan, who came to Texas
in 1858 and 1859, respectively, Mrs. Duncan join-
ing her husband (who had found employment at
the Nash Iron Works, in Marion County), in the
latter year. Mr. W. F. Duncan was for many years
a respected citizen of Marion and Cass counties,
dying in Marion County a number of years since.
John M. Duncan, the subject of this memoir,
received a good common school education and
then, having learned the trade of a brickmason, by
means of which he could support himself, deter-
mined to undertake the study of law, procured the
necessary text-books from Hon. John C. Stallcup,
of Jefferson, read under him the course prescribed
by the rules of court, and was then admitted to
the bar at Jefferson in 1872. He soon found that
the briefless young lawyer's license by no means
constitutes a talisman, whose magic influence will,
in every instance, bring immediate recognition
of abilities, and supply even modest wants. His
experience was no worse than that of many other
men, but the fortitude and determination that he
displayed under adversity were remarkable. He
bad something more than genius, he possessed in
addition thereto the other qualities that compe-
success. He very soon had to take down his shin-
gle and resume the trowel. He had no idea of
permanently giving up the practice of law. He
simply saw that he must supply himself with fur-
ther means with which to again make a start.
Going to Longview be found no difficulty in secur-
ing employment, and helped to erect many of the
brick storehouses now used in that town. In the
intervals snatched from toil he kept up his studies,
and four years after he had secured his license we
find him, after a number of futile attempts, well
established in the practice of his profession. To-
day he is a lawyer second to no practitioner at the
Texas bar, and as a public speaker has no superior
in the State, either in the forum or upon the hust-
ings. His talents are of the highest order and
have been improved by cultivation. He was elected
County Attorney of Gregg County in 1876, but
resigned the office twelve months later, owing to
the fact that his growing practice demanded all of
his attention. From 1878 to 1882 he represented
the counties of Smith, Gregg, Upshur and Camp in
the State Senate, and made a brilliant record. In
1884 he was elected County Judge of Smith
County, and at the expiration of his term of office
^fl^^^^^^^^^^P W
J|nH
1
1 -:
if "
>
JOHN M. DUNCAN.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
727
refused renomination and devoted himself entirely
to his professional duties.
In January, 1884, he moved to Tyler and formed
a law partnership with Hon. James S. Hogg, after-
ward Attorney-General and Governor of Texas,
under the firm name of Duncan & Hogg.
This professional connection continued until Mr.
Hogg was elected Attorney-General. Mr. Duncan
and Hon. Horace Chilton, now United States Sena-
tor from Texas, were appointed general attorneys
for the receivers of the International & Great
Northern Kailroad in February, 1889. Mr. Chilton
resigned, June lOlh, 1891, leaving Mr. Duncan sole
attorney, a position which he has held since the re-
organization of the corporation, and in which he has
been leading counsel in some of the most celebrated
law cases known to the judicial history of this
country. His power and fame as a lawyer have
grown steadily with the passage of years, and he
now ranks among the ablest advocates that the
South can boast.
He was united in marriage to Miss Allie Davis,
of Longview, in 1876. She died at Tyler, in July,
1886, leaving no children. In January, 1890, he
married his present wife, nee Miss Eddie
Louise House, at Tyler. He is a member of the
Methodist Church, Knights of Pythias, and Inde-
pendent Order of Odd Fellows.
He has been at all times an earnest Democratic
worker, and has done as much, perhaps, as any
other single individual in Texas to influence the
political fortunes of men who have risen to promi-
nence in this State in recent years, and in shaping
the drift of public policies. He has also done his
full share, when hot campaigns were on, toward
securing party triumphs. He is well known to every
Texian, and contrary to the old saying that
" Prophets are without honor in their own country,"
his services and abilities are generally recognized
and appreciated.
He is warm in his personal attachments, unos-
tentatious in manner, plain and straightforward,
and, as a lawyer, is one of the brightest ornaments
of the Texas bar.
O. CANUTESON,
WACO.
Ole Canuteson, a prominent manufacturer of
Waco, Texas, is a native of Norway, where he was
born September 4th, 1832, and is the son of Canute-
son Canuteson and Carina Oleson. His grandfather
was a watchmaker by trade and his father a black-
smith, chiefly engaged in the manufacture of tools.
His father was born in Norway in 1802, and died in
Bosque County, Texas, in 1888. His mother died
in LaSalle County, in 1850. Ole Canuteson was
reared to blacksmithing and also acquired a good
general knowledge of mechanics. He came to the
United States with his parents in 1850. The family
located for a time in Illinois, where two uncles had
preceded them. Land at that time was worth from
$15 to $20 per acre, and to purchase a farm there
at that rate, with the additional expense of a house,
outbuildings, fences and farm implements, was
beyond the means of the Canuteson exchequer. To
go farther west, to Iowa, where land was cheaper,
was suggested and was very nearly being acted
upon, but the plan was changed. Mr. Cleny Pur-
son, a Norse emigration agent who came to the
United States in 1820, and who had established set-
tlements for his countrymen in New York, Illinois,
Iowa and Missouri, had made a tour of investiga-
tion into Texas and had just returned with very
flattering accounts of the State, of its mild climate,
its fertile soil and vast resources. He reported
that good land could be bought there for fifty cents
per acre from families who had secured tracts of
640 acres under the State homestead law, and, after
duly weighing the advantages and drawbacks that
might follow, it was decided by the family to go to
Texas, and thither they started. The party con-
sisted of the subject of this sketch, his new-made
wife, his aged father and young brother Andrew,
and Mr. Parson, with a few single persons. The
route was by the Mississippi to New Orleans, thence
up Ked river to Shreveport, and from there overland
by wagon to Dallas, where the party arrived just
before Christmas, and shortly thereafter the Canute-
sons bought and improved 320 acres of land, paying
|3 per acre.
In 1853 the subject of this notice and Mr. P.
Bryant, acting for themselves and a party of immi.
grants who had come over from Norway, and who
728
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
desired to find and locate upon unappropriated
public land under the land law of that year (giving
to each head of a family of actual settlers 320 acres
of land), visited Waco, then a little village, to con-
sult with the old pioneer and surveyor, Maj. George
B. Erath, in regard to land matters on the Bosque.
This gentleman, who had for years made surveys
all over that section of the State, took at once a
friendly interest in him and his companion, showing
him on his maps where vacant land was to be had.
Later Maj. Erath, with Neil and Duncan McLen-
nan, went with Mr. Canuteson, made the surveys
and field notes for a large tract of land, and thus
about fifteen families were established on Neill and
own doors, but later on, when a grist-mill was
started at Waco, it was hauled there by ox-
wagons and sold from $1.25 to $1.50 per bushel.
Corn at that period did not do well. The cultiva-
tion of cotton was not thought of by settlers, the
impression being that the soil was not adapted to
it ; that it was too black and sticky. Subsequently
this idea was proven to be erroneous. Good crops
of cotton are now raised on these farms. Attention
was also given to stock-raising, as grass was
abundant, both summer and winter. After a mail
route was established from Fort Worth to George-
town a post office was given to Norman Hill, and
Mr. Canuteson was made Postmaster, which posi-
O. CANUTESON.
Meridian creeks, and the Norwegian settlement in
Bosque County started.
Mr. Canuteson selected for his farm 302 acres in
the valley of Neill's creek, near the center of which
rises a high peak, and on this elevation he built his
house, which was afterward known as Norman Hill.
Nearly all kinds of wild game were in great abun-
dance, and the newcomers felt that they had come
to a land of plenty, indeed. Being outside of the
line of forts, the new settlement was often exposed
to Indian raids. The settlement grew apace, the
county was organized and things became more
comfortable all around. Wheat was the only money
crop made for a long time. They had been used
to raising the smaller grains in the old country,
and hence knew how to cultivate the wheat. Most
of the grain raised found a ready market at their
tion he filled to the satifaction of the people up to
the beginning of the late war. He was given the
same position under the Confederacy, and when that
government collapsed he was again appointed by
the United States government to his old position.
This position he held until his removal to Waco.
Mr. Canuteson, as an inventive genius, was
booked to supply the wants of the community so
far as machinery was concerned, and built several
reapers and threshers. The first reaper that
he constructed did not contain a pound of iron
castings, as the nearest foundry was at Houston,
250 miles distant. The cutting blade was made
from an old cross-cut saw. Notwitstanding these
disadvantages the machine worked excellently and,
although for twenty-five years past he has had the
leading and alnjost the only machine shop in WaQo
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
729
and has constructed engines, cotton gins, cotton
presses and machinery of all kinds against competi-
tion from other cities, he looks back with pride to
his " rawhide reaper" job as he called it, as being
the most successful of his mechanical undertakings,
considering all the circumstances under which he
built it. Later he went to Houston for castings
and other material and tools, and built five more
reapers and two complete threshing machines, which
were run by horse-power and carried the grain into
the sack ready for the mill.
During the war he was exempt from military ser-
vice on account of physical disability, but through
his machines he was able to do much toward supply-
ing the army with grain. After the war he opened
a general store and was building up a business
which promised fair for the future, but engaged in
an unlucky speculation in cattle by which he lost
most of his accumulations. He spent the winter
partly in Chicago and partly with his uncles in La
Salle County, 111. While in Chicago awaiting re-
turns from New York he came across the Walter A.
Wood's self-raking reaper and the Collins cast steel
plow, the agency of which he secured for his sec-
tion of the State of Texas and handled them with
success for many years.
Becoming convinced finally that the bent of his
mind was largely in favor of mechanical pursuits,
he decided to move to Waco, secured a good loca-
tion, and began the improvements necessary for a
foundry and machine shop and now has one of the
largest and most complete establishments for
machine, foundry, implement and general mechan-
ical work in Central Texas. He is largely engaged
in the manufacture of fronts for buildings and other
structural castings, which he supplies not only to
Waco, but to the surrounding towns. Eecently he
has begun the manufacture of cotton presses and
intends in the near future to add the manufacture
of other cotton machinery. At various times he
has engaged in other business enterprises that have
met with a fair degree of financial success and that
have made his name familiar to the people of
Central Texas.
He was married in September, 1850, to Miss Ellen
M. Gunderson, a lady who came with his family to
the United States. To them have been born five
children : Caroline, now Mrs. F. W. Knight ; Mary,
who was married to D. F. Durie ; Lizzie, now
Mrs. S. J. Smith ; Oscar, who assists his father
in his business ; and Cora. In 1884 Mr. Canut-
eson revisited his native land. He has con-
ducted his business with a constant increase for
over a quarter of a century without change of place
or firm name. The success he has met with is the
natural reward that follows honesty of character,
integrity of purpose, and a thorough knowledge of
the occupation pursued. He is a citizen of sterling
worth, a member of the Masonic fraternity and is
highly respected by all who know him.
MOSES AND STEPHEN FULLER AUSTIN,
GALVESTON.
Moses Austin was a native of Connecticut.
When but a youth he left the parental roof to seek
his fortune in Philadelphia, and there, at the age
of twenty, he married Miss Maria Brown. Shortly
thereafter, in conjunction with his brother, Stephen,
he established a commercial bouse in Kicbmond,
Va., a branch of the importing house in Philadel-
phia, of which the former was the head. The op-
erations of the brothers were doubtless remunera-
tive. Ere long they purchased the lead mines
called " Chissel's Mines," on New river, Wythe
County, Va. Moses, the younger brother, was
placed in charge and at once commenced extensive
mining and smelting operations.
Around the mines quite a village sprung up,
which was named Austinville, and there, November
3, 1793, was born Stephen Fuller Austin, the cel-
ebrated Texian empresario and patriot. The Phil-
adelphia and Eichmond houses failed and the
mining speculation was abandoned.
Hearing flattering accounts of the lead mines of
upper Louisiana (now Missouri), Moses Austin
procured the necessary passports from the Spanish
Minister, visited that region, was highly pleased
with it, and obtained in 1797, from Baron de Car-
ondelet. Governor of the Provinces of Louisiana
and Florida, a grant of one league of land,
including the Mine-a-Burton, forty miles west of
St. Genevieve. Closing all of his affairs in the
United States, he removed his family, with a num-
730
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEEBS OF TEXAS.
ber of others, from Wythe County, in 1799, to his
new grant, and there in the wilderness laid the
foundation of the settlement in what is now Wash-
ington County, Mo. The early settlers of that
county have borne ample testimony to his enter-
prise, public spirit and unbounded hospitality.
These admirable qualities are rarely found united
with great prudence and sound judgment in
financial matters ; nor were they in the case of
Moses Austin, the failure of the Bank of Missouri
causing him serious pecuniary embarrassment.
Once more he became involved, and, surrendering
his property to his creditors, he turned with una-
bated ardor, in the decline of life, to a new and
hazardous undertaking in the wilds of Texas.
In 1803 Louisiana was ceded by Spain to France,
and, in the same year, by the latter to the United
States, which government revived the old French
claim of the RioGrande as a boundary. But by the De
Onis treaty in 1819 the question was settled, and the
Sabine was made the boundary, and it was then
that Moses Austin arranged his plans for an appli-
cation to the government of Spain for a grant of
land in Texas on which to locate a colony of Ameri-
cans. As it was contemplated to bring the settlers
through Arkansas Territory, Moses Austin so far
anticipated matters as to send his son, Stephen,
with some hands, to Long Prairie, near Red river,
to open a farm there which might serve as a resting-
place and provision depot for his trains of
immigrants.
Having been told that the best way to lay his
petition before the home government would be
through the authorities of New Spain, as Mexico
was then called, the elder Austin at once started
for Bexar (now San Antonio), the capital of the
Province gf Texas.
But, before starting, it had been decided to aban-
don the scheme of a farm at Long Prairie and to
adopt for the future colonists the route through
New Orleans by water to Texas. Accordingly,
Stephen F. Austin, proceeded to that city to perfect
arrangements for transportation, supplies, etc.,
while his father started, on horseback, on his tire-
some and perilous journey across the vast prairies
of Texas. It was early in December, 1820, that
the elder Austin arrived in Bexar, the capital of
Texas. On presenting himself to the Governor, he
was not even allowed to explain the object of his
visit, but was peremptorily ordered to leave the
capital instantly, and the province as soon as he
could get out of it, the Governor being very angry
that he had violated the well-known Spanish law
excluding foreigners, without specific passports,
from Spanish territory in the New World,
There was nothing left but to obey, and Austin,
much dejected, withdrew, with as good grace as
possible under the circumstances, from the Gov-
ernor's mansion to prepare for his return home,
when, in crossing the plaza, he had the good luck
to meet the Baron de Bastrop, with whom many
years previous he had become acquainted in Lower
Louisiana. The Baron recognized his old friend,
cordially embraced him, took him home with him,
and was soon informed of all Austin's plans and
troubles. It was the turning-point in the fortunes
of the Austins ; and that chance meeting on the
plaza was pregnant with great events.
Baron de Bastrop was a gentleman of culture and
refinement, and in high favor with the Governor;
and on the morrow, when he laid before that irate
functionary the documentary proof that Austin had
become a regularly naturalized Spanish subject in
Lower Louisiana, in 1799, and stated that he was
now lying in bed very ill from the effects of his pro-
tracted journey, the order for his departure was
countermanded and his memorial received. In a
few days, thanks to the kind ofiSces of De Bastrop,
the intelligence and the pleasing address of Austin,
the memorial asking permission to settle 300 fam-
ilies in Texas was forwarded to the superior gov-
ernment of the eastern internal provinces, in whose
jurisdiction Texas was, strongly recommended by
the local authorities of this province. Austin left
Bexar in January, 1821, anxious to get home and
complete his arrangements for moving to Texas as
soon as he could hear of the success of his applica-
tion. The journey was one which few would have
ventured upon at that season of the year. Over
the dreary wastes of the trackless prairie he took
his course. Losing his way at times, swimming the
creeks now swollen by the winter rains, rafting
himself and horse across the rivers which he met,
and suffering greatljj^ from exposure and want of
provisions, Austin, some time in the spring, reached
the town of Nachitoches, La. From thence he pro-
ceeded at once to Missouri, where he died soon
after his arrival, his health having been completely
shattered by the hardships undergone on his Texas
trip. His last request was that his son, Stephen,
should prosecute the enterprise which had been
commenced at so costly a sacrifice. And never did
filial piety execute more faithfully the dying injunc-
tion of a revered parent.
The memorial of Moses Austin was approved by
the supreme government of the eastern internal
provinces of New Spain, at Monterey, on the 17th
of January, 1821, and the Governor of Texas was
at once informed of it. He thereupon dispatched
Don Erasmo Seguin (after whom the present town
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
731
of Seguin is named), an influential citizen of Bexar,
to the United States as a special commissioner for
the purpose of communicating to Mr. Austin the
result of his application, and of conducting the
proposed immigrants into the country in a legal
manner. Heaving of the arrival of the commissioner
at Nachitoches, Stephen F. Austin hastened from
New Orleans to that point, and soon after reaching
it, learned for the first time of his father's death.
Thus, in the twenty-eighth year of his age, the
son, unknown, with limited means, with a heart
crushed by a sore affliction, found resting upon him
the weighty responsibility of an enterprise which
nothing but the resources and influence of a pow-
erful government seemed adequate to carry to a
successful issue. Was he fitted for the task? Let
the testimony of that sturdy band which followed
him into the wilderness reply. Did he meet his
responsibilities in full? History has answered that
question by inscribing upon its immortal pages as the
unanimous verdict of his compeers : " Stephen F.
Austin was the father of Texas." He who was to
be the founder of a great State was no mere adven-
turer, with rude manners and uneducated mind. On
the contrary, he was cultivated and polished to a
degree rarely seen in the Southwest in those days.
When but eleven years old his father placed him at
one of the best academies in Connecticut to be pre-
pared for college ; and in his fifteenth year he was
duly matriculated as a student in Transylvania
University, Lexington, Ky., an institution then of
high reputation. Here he remained for several
years and was distinguished among his fellow-
students for his gentlemanly deportment, applica-
tion and progress in studies. The next we bear of
young Austin is in the year 1813, when we find
him, at the age of twenty, representing Washington
County in the Territorial Legislature of Missouri
(where he met Thomas H. Benton, whose friendship
he retained through life), a position to which he was
regularly returned until 1819, when he left the ter-
ritory to open a farm at Long Prairie. He resided
in the territory of Arkansas the greater portion of
the years 1819-20, and while there was honored
with the appointment of Circuit Judge. Thus he
was unconsciously being prepared by a special
training for the great work, which, all unknown to
him, the future had in store.
Having resolved to accept the important trust
which his dying father had bequeathed him, Austin,
with seventeen companions, and accompanied by
the Spanish Commissioner, set out on horseback
for Bexar, where they arrived August 10, 1821. He
was duly recognized as the legal representative of
bis father by the Governor, Don Antoino Martinez,
who received him most cordially. With the Gov-
ernor's permission he explored a large section of
country on the lower Guadalupe, Colorado and
Brazos rivers, and determined to locate his colony
between the last two rivers. At the suggestion of
the Governor, Austin now drew up the following
plan for the distribution of land among the settlers :
Each head of a family, and each single man, over
age, was to receive 640 acres, 320 acres in addition
for the wife, should there be one, and 80 acres ad-
ditional for each slave. This plan was approved by
Governor Martinez, who commissioned Austin to
take absolute control of the local government of
the colony.
Austin now returned to New Orleans, and ad-
dressed himself earnestly to the work of procuring
colonists. Advertisements widely scattered made
the public acquainted with his project and attracted
universal attention.
Applications to join the colony came in rapidly,
but how was Austin, broken in fortune, to procure
the means of transportation ? Among the influential
citizens of New Orleans was Joseph Hawkins, a
lawyer, who came forward promptly and advanced
the greater part of the needed funds for fitting out
a vessel. He had confidence in the success of the
enterprise because he had confidence in its head.
Many years before the two men had been class-
mates and fast friends at Transylvania University,
and the friendship then formed endured through
life. With the generous assistance of Hawkins a
small schooner, the " Lively," was dispatched in
November for Matagorda Bay. She had on board
eighteen men and the provisions, arms, ammunition,
farming implements, etc., necessary for the estab-
lishment of an outpostin a new and savage country.
But, as if some evil influence hovered around the
fatal shores of the bay where perished, in 1698, the
ill-starred colony of La Salle, the '■'■Lively " failed to
reach her destination, and was never heard of more.
Another cargo sent by Hawkins, in 1822, was
landed on the beach at the mouth of the Colorado,
were it was plundered by the Carancahua Indians,
and four men murdered. In the meantime, how-
ever, Austin had arrived by land on the Brazos, in
the last days of December, 1821, with the first immi-
grants, and the new settlement was begun in what
was then an entire wilderness. Accessions to the
body of colonists followed ; the seed of a new civil-
ization was newly planted, and notwithstanding its
many mishaps, the settlement began to wear a thrifty
aspect. It had been a terrible struggle, though, with
the colonists. They suffered great privations, were
without bread and salt, and were forced to subsist
on wild game and wild horses, the latter the best
732
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
food, being fat and very abundant. The Indians
annoyed and robbed them and the settlers dared not
punish their crimes nor their insolence.
It will be remembered that Moses Austin's grant
had been made by the Spanish Government in Mex-
ico. But on the 24th of February, 1821, the cele-
brated "Plan of Iguala " was promulgated by
Iturbide. It declared the independence of Mexico
and was confirmed by the Mexican cortes ; so that
the ofiScial acts of Martinez relative to the new
settlement, dated August, 182 1 , were from a Gov-
ernor of the independent Mexican nation, and not
from a Spanish oflficial. Hence it came about that
when Stephen F. Austin arrived at Bexar in the
spring of 1822, to make his report to the Governor
of the condition of the colony, he was informed by
the latter that it was necessary for him to at once
proceed to the city of Mexico .and procure from
the Congress, then in session, a confirmation of his
father's grant, together with special instructions as
to the distribution of land, issuing of titles, etc.
Here was an embarrassing dilemma. His absence
at this critical period was certain to cripple his col-
ony— might destroy it ; but were he to remain, he
and his men would be without titles to their homes,
which, with so much toil and suffering, they had
won from the wilderness.
Austin's sense of duty quickly decided his
course. Placing Mr. Josiah Barbell in charge of
the colony, he started at once for Mexico, with one
companion. After a perilous land journey of 1,200
miles, a great portion of it made on foot and dis-
guised as a beggar, in ragged clothes and blankets,
on account of the numer?5us banditti, he arrived
safely in the capital on the 29th of April.
Owing to the revolutionary changes which rap-
idly succeeded to each other, it was necessary for
Austin to remain for more than a year in Mexico
before the government became sufficiently stable to
resume its legislative functions. The time, how-
ever, lost was not lost to him, as it enabled him to
form many valuable friendships and acquaintances ;
to perfect himself in the Spanish language, which
he could not speak when he left Bexar ; and to lay
the foundation of that great influence which he ever
exerted over the Mexican officials. Finally, on the
14th of April, 1823, the supreme executive power
issued a decree confirming in full the previous grant
to Austin, and on the 28th of the same month he
set out for Texas.
Eeaching Monterey, the capital of the eastern
internal province, he presented a copy of his decree
to the Commandant, Don Felipe de la Garza, and
requested special instructions for the local govern-
ment of the colony committed to his charge.
The provisional deputation of Nueva Leon, Coa-
huila and Texas, was then in session ; and the mat-
ter being referred to it, it was decreed that
Austin's authority, under the decree of the central
government, was full and ample as to the admin-
istration of justice and of the civil local
government of the colony and the command
of militia; that his grade as a militia officer
should be Lieutenaut-Colonel ; that he could
make war on the Indian tribes which were hostile,
that he could introduce, by the harbor of Galves-
ton, provisions, munitions, etc., needed for the
infant settlement ; in short, that he should preserve
good order and govern the colony in all civil, judi-
cial and military matters, according to the best of
his abilities and as justice might require, until the
government was otherwise organized. Never,
before or since, in the history of this country, were
such extensive powers conferred upon an Ameri-
ican, and never has despotic power been less abused
or used for less selfish purposes. Austin's civil
administration of his colony is the brightest chaplet
in his wreath of fame. It was not until July that
the weary traveler reached his little colony on the
Brazos, where he was welcomed with every demon-
stration of joy.
The colony had suffered sadly in his absence-
Discontent bred disorders which scattered the col-
onists. Some had left for the States, others moved
into Eastern Texas, and many immigrants on the
way to join the colony, frightened by the reports
which reached them of Austin's failure to secure
lands for his colonists, settled on the Sabine. His
return and the happy issue of his mission restored
at once life and confidence to the settlement.
Don Luciano Garcia was now Governor of Texas,
and on the 16th of July he appointed Moses Aus-
tin's old friend, the Baron de Bastrop, to act as
commissioner on the part of the government to
take the necessary steps, in conjunction with
Stephen F. Austin, to put the settlers in possession
of their lands. On the 26th of the same month,
the Governor, by an official act, gave the name of
San Felipe de Austin to the town which was to be
laid off as the capital of the new colonv, saying
that he wished to show his respect for Col. Austin
by uniting his name with the name of his own
patron saint, San Felipe. Time has given the saint
a decided advantage, for to-day that town bears
the name of San Felipe only. Austin used jocu-
larly to complain that he was near losing his right-
ful name of Stephen in consequence of Don
Luciano's compliment, for many persons supposed
that the town had been called after the Colonel
and, therefore, concluded that his name was Philip
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
733
(Felipe), and he frequently received letters thus
addressed.
Austin and Bastrop now commenced the dis-
tribution of lands and the issuance of titles. The
return of the Colonel had so strengthened the en-
terprise that the three hundred families authorized
were duly settled. Upon the payment of the fees
established by the Mexican Commissioner, titles
were issued to the settlers. The whole expense on
a league of land only amounted to $165. The
lands selected were among the most productive in
the State, the immigrants being scattered from the
east banjj of the Lavaca to the ridge dividing the
waters of the San Jacinto and Trinity rivers, and
from the old San Antonio road to the Gulf.
The greatest care was tal^en by Austin that the
titles for all his settlers should be duly perfected
under the Mexican law, and where immigrants were
too poor to pay the legal fees he generally paid
them himself, or procured credit for them from the
government. Without compensation, and with much
labor he, in conjunction with Mr. Samuel M. Will-
iams, whom he had appointed his private secretary,
in 1824, copied into a large bound register or rec-
ord book the land documents, title deeds, and de-
crees relating to the colony. This record book,
together with his land papers, are now in the land
office at Austin. Austin's private papers, jour-
nals, etc., a most valuable collection of historic
documents, are now in the possession of his nephew,
Hon. Guy M. Bryan, of Galveston. The machinery
for the civil government of the settlement was very
simple. By consent of the Governor, the colony
was divided into districts, each presided over by an
alcalde, or justice, elected by the settlers. To
these alcaldes Austin gave jurisdiction to $200,
with an appeal to him as judge of the colony on all
sums over $25. A code of provisional regulations
in civil and criminal matters was also drawn up by
him and approved by the Governor.
Stephen F. Austin was the first who ever ob-
tained permission to settle a colony in Texas ; and,
in the language of President Burnet, he was " the
only empresario who fully carried out his con-
tracts with Mexico, and he labored sedulously in
doing so."
The colonization law of the State of Texas and
Coahuila, passed in 1825 in conformity with the
enactments of the national colonization law of 1824,
opened the vacant lands of Texas to all persons
who were desirous of becoming empresarios, or
contractors, for the settlement of bodies of immi-
grants, and who would comply with the require-
ments of the law. Under this general act grants
were made to many persons, among them Hayden,
Edwards, Leftwich, DeWitt, Milam, Burnet, and
Vehlein. Colonies were thus started in various
parts of the State (but few of them introduced set-
tlers, and none of them completed their contracts
except DeWitt), and the Anglo-American popula-
tion increased. But Austin was not idle.
In 1825 he contracted to bring in 500 families, in
1827 one hundred families more, and in 1828 signed
a contract for three hundred families. By the gen-
eral act referred to above, all settlers who were
farmers were entitled to a labor of land, one hun-
dred and seventy-seven acres ; all stock-raisers a
sitio, or square league ; and the empressarios were
to receive as compensation, for each one hundred
families, five leagues and five labors.
The letter of the law required that "the new
settlers who present themselves for admission must
prove their Christianity, morality and good habits
by a certificate from the authorities where they
formerly resided." The State required for each
sitio or pasture land a payment of thirty dollars,
and for each labor two and a half or three and a
half dollars, according as the land was or was not
capable of irrigation. Unmarried men were only
allowed one fourth as much as married men were,
but at marriage their full share was made up to
them. And so as to encourage the more intimate
fusion of the new element with the old, the adven-
turous foreigner who would wed a senorita of the
Mexican blood was compensated with an extra
fourth. Austin's last contract was made in the
name of Austin and Williams, in 1831, and embraced
eight hundred families.
The foundations of a great State were now laid,
and the career of the colony was one of uninter-
rupted growth and prosperity in spite of the out-
breaks in 1827 and 1832. In 1827, in consequence
of what is known as the Fredonian War, the inhab-
itants of Eastern Texas would have been expelled
from the country but for the earnest intervention of
Austin in their behalf, with the political chief,
Saucedo, who, after their leaders had retired beyond
the Sabine, permitted them to remain undisturbed
in their rights of person and property. In 1831
bodies of Mexican troops had been established at
several points in Texas, and Col. Bradburn, at
Anahuac (mouth of the Trinity), had arbitrarily
displaced civil authorities and appointed others,
and had imprisoned prominent citizens of that sec-
tion, threatening to send them to Mexico for trial.
This aroused the colonists, who captured all the
posts and soldiers east of San Antonio. Santa Anna
promptly dispatched Gen. Mexia with five armed ves-
sels and troops to " suppress the rebellion." Austin
was then attending the Legislature of Coahuila and
734
INDIAN WAUS AND PIONEERS OP TEXAS.
Texas at Saltillo as member from Texas. When he
heard what had taken place in Texas, he hastened
to Matamoras, joined Gen. Mexia, with whom he
was well acquainted, and sailed with him to the
mouth of the Brazos for the express purpose of
effecting some amicable settlement of the whole
affair. He now assumed the friendly office of
mediator between the contending parties, and they,
(the colonist) thus extricated themselves from
the impending ruin by receiving the olive branch
obtained by the influence, and passed to them
through the hands, of Stephen F. Austin. Austin
was welcomed back by the people with every
demonstration of joy, with balls, speeches, firing of
cannons, etc., at the mouth of the Brazos, Brazoria
and especially at San Felipe. Six miles below the
latter place he was met by a military company
under Lieut. Day, and escorted into town, where
he was received and addressed by "William H. Jack
in behalf of his fellow-citizens.
Austin replied in a happy speech, and was then
received by the Mexican soldiers, who had surren-
dered at Velasco. Austin addressed them in Span-
ish, embraced the officers, who then fraternized with
the colonists, and all sat down to a sumptuous
banquet. Speeches were delivered, toasts drunk,
cannon fired, and there was every demonstration of
joy. Immediately after the expulsion of the Mexi-
can soldiery, political leaders began to excite the
people on the question of separation of Texas from
Coahuila. They held that Texas was entitled to a
separate State government ; they made speeches and
published articles in the newspapers on this subject,
producing much excitement and discussion through-
out the colonies.
He became a member of the convention which
met at San Felipe on the Ist of April, 1833. In
spite of his original views, in opposition to the ma-
jority, he was selected by the convention as com-
missioner to bear the memorial and constitution
adopted by the convention to the national authorities
at the City of ' Mexico, to obtain the admission of
Texas as a State into the union of Mexican States.
When he arrived at the capital he found that he
had no easy task before him. " While all parties
were willing to trust the Commissioner, they dis-
trusted his constituents, and were unwilling to let
them have a government of their own and in their
own hands." He defeated the project to make a
territorial government for Texas, which would have
placed Texas immediately under the authorities at
the City of Mexico, and put all of the public do-
main of Texas on the market for sale to a foreign
company of speculators. He obtained a repeal of
the odious law of the 6th of April, 1830, which for-
bade the immigration of North Americans into
Texas (except to his own colonies or existing con-
tracts), and also secured the establishment of mail
routes from the capital (Mexico) through Texas to
Nachitoches, in Louisiana.
On the 10th of December, 1833, he left for Texas,
after haying exhausted all his means to obtain the
admission of Texas as a State. He was overtaken
and arrested at Saltillo, carried back to the City of
Mexico, and thrown into a dark, damp, stone dun-
geon, where he was deprived of light, books, paper,
ink, and society. The imprisonment of Austin
produced a profound impression in Texas. The
ayuntamientos of Texas prepared and sent to Mex-
ico long memorials praying for his release. Peter
W. Grayson and Spencer H. Jack were selected to
bear these petitions to Mexico ; they did not secure
Austin's release, but they afforded him great com-
fort, as they showed that he was not forgotten by
the people of Texas, for whom he had suffered and
was suffering in mind and body, and spending his
private means. On the 12th of June, 1834, Austin
was transferred to the State prison, where his
quarters were more comfortable. Now there was
some talk of trying him for treason — a trial Austin
earnestly desired — but the judges of all the courts
refused to have anything to do with the case, for
they knew there were no real charges against him,
and that his imprisonment was wholly unwarranted.
Finally, after an absence of two years and four
months, under a general amnesty law, Austin was
permitted to return to Texas. He landed at the
mouth of the Brazos on September 1st, 1835.
On the 8th of September, 1835, Austin ad-
dressed a large concourse of citizens, in which he
detailed with great particularity the existing condi-
tion of Mexico, the progress of the revolution then
going on, the probable result of the struggle, and
the changes he thought would be made in the fun-
damental law of that government. He advised that
a general consultation of the people of Texas be
held as speedily as possible, and decide what rep-
resentations ought to be made to the General Gov-
ernment, and what ought to be done in the future.
Austin proceeded immediately )to San Felipe,
and was placed at the head of the Central Com-
mittee of Safety of that jurisdiction.
He labored day and night with his two secreta-
ries, Gail Borden, Jr., and Moses Austin Bryan,
sending out circulars giving information, and pre-
paring Texas for the great crisis so near at hand.
While these events were passing in Texas, the de-
struction of the Mexican Constitution was beinc
consummated in Mexico; the State Legislatures
were abolished, the citizens disarmed, and the
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
735
States practically made military departments.
Through The Telegraph and Texas Register Austin
sent forth addresses to the colonists, which per-
vaded every part of Texas, and reached the United
States. He soon saw the necessity for and coun-
seled armed resistance, and although in feeble
health, as soon as he could respond to the call from
the army after the affair with Ugarte Chea, left for
Gonzales, where he was chosen Commander-in-Chief
of the volunteer forces in the field.
On the 12th of October Austin completed his
staff appointments and crossed over the River
Guadalupe. On the same day he was also informed
of the capture of Goliad. On the 13th their or-
ganization was completed by the election of John
H. Moore, Colonel; Edward Burleson, Lieutenant-
Colonel, and Alexander Somervell, Major of the
regiment. Patrick C. Jack was appointed Quarter-
master ; William T. Austin, Second Aide, and
William H. Wharton, Judge Advocate. On the
18th Col. William H. Jack was appointed Brigade
Inspector. On the 14th Capt. Milam, in command
of a spy company, was ordered in advance of the
army to obtain information.
The army advanced, driving the Mexicans before
it, and on the 20th of October encamped on the
Salado, within five miles of San Antonio.
The fight by the men under Bowie at Mission
Concepcion and further operations of the army
while under Austin, and the storming and capture
of San Antonio by columns under Milam and
Johnson, after Buileson succeeded to the command,
are familiar matters of history and need not be
recorded here.
Austin took leave of the army on the morning of
November 25, 1836, and, during the last days of
December, sailed for New Orleans to act as one of
the commissioners (Messrs, Wharton and Archer
being his colleagues) sent from Texas to procure
aid for the Texian cause in the United States.
Up to the time of his arrival in New Orleans, he
had favored Texas fighting for her rights merely as
a Mexican State, but, on reaching that city and
finding that Texas could expect but little help in
the way of money or volunteers from the United
States unless a declaration of independence was
issued to the world, he wrote a strong letter advo-
cating such a declaration.
This action upon his part removed the last
vestige of opposition, and a few days later the
declaration was adopted by the plenary convention
that had assembled, and a government ad interim
was established, with David G. Burnet as President
and Lorenzo de Zavala as Vice-President.
The commissioners visited separately or together
the largest cities, spoke and conferred with leading
men, and all who wished to obtain information or
bestow aid. They raised men and money and re-
ceived donations for the cause of Texas. Austin
visited Washington City and conferred with bis old
friends there, notably, Thomas H. Benton, John J.
Crittenden and others. He had repeated interviews
with the President, and ascertained that the most
friendly feeling prevailed for Texas, and that after
her adoption of the constitution and establishment
of a permanent government, she would be recog-
nized, etc.
Gen. Austin was particularly successful ; his
long services in Texas, and his known truthfulness
and simplicity of character gave weight to what he
said. His address at Louisville, which was widely
published, presented the claims of Texas upon the
civilized world for sympathy and aid in such a
manner as to bring her both. Austin landed on his
return to Texas at Velasco (temporary capital of
the Republic), at the mouth of the Brazos, June
27, 1836. On the 23d of July, President Burnet
issued his proclamation for an election for Presi-
dent and Vice-President and representatives to the
first Congress of Texas under the constitu-
tion, and also to decide upon the adoption
or rejection of the constitution, and on the
question of the annexation of Texas to the
United States. The election was ordered to take
place on the first Monday of the following Septem-
ber, and the new government to meet at Columbia
on the first Monday in October. Upon a call made
on Austin to become a candidate he said: " Influ-
enced by the great governing principle that has
regulated my actions since I came to Texas, which
is to serve this country in any capacity in which the
people may think proper to employ me, I shall not
decline the highly responsible and difficult one now
proposed, should the majority of my fellow-citizens
elect me."
Ex-Governor Henry Smith and Sam Houston
were also candidates. It was soon seen that the
army, now composed of volunteers from the United
States, and the newcomers, favored Houston, and
so did many of the citizens of Eastern Texas ; they
formed a majority of the voters, and Austin's
friends saw before the election that Houston's elec-
tion was a foregone conclusion. Houston was
elected, and offered to Austin the positions of
Secretary of State or Minister to the United States.
His great desire was to attend to his health and to
his private business, which had been neglected
entirely since he left for Mexico in 1833, and to
close up his colonial land matters. But prominent
men and all classes of his old friends, especially
736
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
his colonists, urged upon him for their sakes and
for the good of Texas to take the position of Sec-
retary of State, in order that his valuable ser-
vices could be given to Texas. He permitted
himself to be persuaded, when his own judgment
told him his health required repose and building
up.
Having passed through the dark and stormy times
of the revolution, in which he took an active part, and
which he was largely instrumental in bringing to a
successful issue, he was nowfast approaching his end.
The immediate occasion of his last sickness was
three days and nights of continuous labor in an un-
comfortable room without fire, during a norther,
where he was preparing instructions on the great
question of annexation and other subjects for the
new Minister, Hon. William H. Wharton, to the
United States.
He was attacked with a severe cold, which
assumed the form of pneumonia, and in a short
time terminated his useful, eventful and valuable
life, in the forty-fifth year of his age. His death
was regarded as a national calamity, and as such
was mourned throughout the Republic. As a tes-
timonial of respect the government issued the fol-
lowing general order: —
" Wak Depaetment, Columbia, )
" December 27, 1836. j
" The father of Texas is no more.
" The first pioneer of the wilderness has departed.
Gen. Stephen F. Austin, Secretary of State, ex-
pired this day at half-past twelve o'clock, at
Columbia.
" As a testimony of respect to his high standing,
undeviating moral rectitude, and as a mark of the
nation's gratitude for his untiring zeal and inval-
uable services, all oflScers, civil and military, are
requested to wear crape on the right arm for the
space of thirty days. All ofldcers commanding posts,
garrisons or detachments, will, as soon as informa-
tion is received of the melancholy event, cause
thirty-three guns to be fired, with an interval of five
minutes between each, and also have the garrison
and regimental colors hung with black during the
space of mourning for the illustrious dead.
" By order of the President.
" William S. Fisher,
" Secretary of War."
HENRY W. LIGHTFOOT,
PARIS.
Henry William Lightfoot, now Chief Justice of the
Court of Civil Appeals for the Fifth Supreme Judi-
cial District of the State of Texas, was born on the
old family homestead plantation, in Lawrence
County, Ala., December 29th, 1846. His paternal
grandfather. Dr. Thomas Lightfoot, a native of
Virginia, was a physician, and became one of the
early settlers of North Alabama. His father was
John F. Lightfoot and mother Malena J. Lightfoot,
nee McKissack.
He attended country schools until twelve years
of age, and then the academy at Tuscumbia, Ala.,
until sixteen years of age, when he joined the
Confederate army as a volunteer in the Eleventh
Alabama Cavalry and served as a soldier until the
war closed. In the fall of 1866 he visited Texas
and returned, determined to complete his educa-
tion and then make Texas his future home. The
property of his family being almost entirely swept
away by the war, he went to work as a field hand
upon the farm and saved enough money to enable
him to again attend school. He entered Cumberland
University at Lebanon, Tenn., in the fall of 1867,
and graduated from the Law Department in June,
1869, with high honors. His graduation speech
possessed unusual merit, gave promise of a suc-
cessful career that he has since carved out for him-
self at the bar, and was favorably commented upon
in the leading Tennessee and Alabama papers. He
entered upon the practice of his profession in his
native county, in the latter part of 1869, and, after
two years and six months of successful practice at
the bar there, moved to Sherman, Texas, in January
1872.
At the spring term of the District Court at
Bonham, in 1872, he met Gen. Sam. Bell Maxey.
They occupied the same room at the hotel, became
well acquainted, formed a partnership to practice
law together, and Mr. Lightfoot moved to Paris,
Texas, Gen. Maxey's home, in June following.
The partnership continued for more than twenty
years, the firm building up one of the largest and
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
737
most lucrative practices enjoyed by any firm in
Texas.
After Mr. Lightfoot's removal to Texas, in Jan-
uary, 1872, he received an unsolicited appointment
from Hon. Robert Lindsay, Governor of Alabama
(who had not heard of his removal), as one of the
Directors of the Agricultural and Mechanical Col-
lege of Alabama, which, of course, was declined,
although considered quite an honor for a young
man of twenty-five years.
Gen. Maxey having been elected to the United
States Senate, in 1874, the responsibilities of a
large and increasing law practice at the Paris bar,
St. Louis, and took a prominent part in the exciting
and memorable campaign that followed. Actively
engaged in the practice of law, he nevertheless
found time to take part as a Democratic champion
in the contests in the political arena, but sought no
office. He was nominated, however, and elected to
the State Senate without opposition in 1880, which
position he held for two years, and then voluntarily
retired to attend the pressing demands of his law
practice. In 1888 he was elected by the State
Democratic Convention a delegate to the National
Convention at St. Louis that nominated Cleveland
and Thurman, and was selected by the Texas
HENRY W. LIGHTFOOT.
which was not excelled by any in the State, fell
upon Judge Lightfoot.
On November 3d, 1874, he was united in mar-
riage to Miss Dora Bell Maxey (an adopted daugh-
ter of Gen. and Mrs. S. B. Maxey), who died in
June, 1884, leaving two children : Sallie Lee, who
was born June 8th, 1878, and Thomas Chenoweth,
who was born August 12th, 1880, their eldest son,
Maxey Bell Lightfoot, having died November 15th,
1876.
Judge Lightfoot was elected by the Democratic
State Convention, which met at Galveston, January
5th, 1876, a delegate to the National Convention, at
St. Louis, which nominated Tilden and Hendricks.
Alter the adjournment of the Convention, he ad-
dressed a large and enthusiastic mass meeting in
delegation to second the nomination of Mr.
Cleveland, which he did in a short and felic-
itous address that met with favor, both in the con-
vention and at home. July 11th, 1889, he was
elected president of the State Bar Association, suc-
ceeding Hon. F. Chas. Hume, which position was
accepted as a distinguished honor at the hands of
his brother lawyers. In his annual address to the
association, delivered August 6th, 1890, which was
published in the proceedings of that body, he dis-
cussed the Railroad Commission amendment to the
State constitution to be voted upon in November
following. Subsequent adjudications under that
amendment, before the Supreme Court of the
United States, have proven the correctness of the
views then expressed by him.
738
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
December 5th, 1889, Judge Lightfoot was mar-
ried to Miss Etta I. Wooten, daughter of Dr. and
Mrs. Thos. D. Wooten, of Austin, who is now the
mother of two boys : Wooten, born on the 2d day
of October) 1890, and William Henry, born on the
23d day of August, 1892.
In 1893 Judge Lightfoot was counsel for the Hon.
W. L. McGauhey, Commissioner of the General
Land Office of Texas, in his celebrated State trial,
on impeachment before the State Senate, and was
selected by the eminent counsel engaged in the
defense to open the case on argument of the demur-
rers and present the principles of law relied upon,
a duty that he discharged in a manner that fully
sustained his high reputation as a sound lawyer and
clear logical and trenchant speaker. After one of
the most interesting and important trials ever held
in the State, his client was honorably discharged.
August 9th, 1893, Judge Lightfoot was appointed
Chief Justice of the Court of Civil Appeals for the
Fifth Supreme Judicial District of Texas, by Gov.
James Hogg, an office that had been recently
created by the Legislature. Hon. N. W. Finley
and Hon. Anson Eainey were appointed as Associate
Justices and the court was organized at Dallas,
Texas, and began its labors in September following.
At the general election of 1894 Judge Lightfoot was
nominated and elected to the position of Chief
Justice, without opposition, as were also his asso-
ciates. Justices Finley and Eainey.
Judg^' Lightfoot has been a member of the
Methodist Church for more than twenty-five years.
His high character, purity of private and public life,
eminent services, solid learning as a lawyer and
capability as a judge of a court of last resort, are
well known to the people of Texas, and they could
have given no higher testimonial of their apprecia-
tion of his worth than they have by continuing him
in the position he now holds, which they have done
without a dissenting voice.
THOMAS GLASCOCK,
AUSTIN.
The subject of this brief memoir lived at a time
when Texas bad greatest need for young men of
his mettle and daring, and it is to him and those
living and laboring contemporaneously with him
that the present generation owes so much : the sub-
jugation of the Indians in Texas and the establish-
ment of a splendid civilization. He seemed especi-
ally fitted for the life and duties of a pioneer on the
frontier of a new and promising country, and, as
such, few men were better known in his day
throughout Central Texas. He came to Texas in
the fall of 1837. The battle of San Jacinto had
been fought in April of the previous year and
Texas' independence secured.
The country was in an unsettled and chaotic con-
dition. He was a native of Virginia, and was born
near Culpepper Court House in 1818. His father,
a farmer, died when Thomas was a small boy, and
he therefore spent his boyhood and youth with an
uncle, Dr. Harper Glascock, an infiuential citizen,
physician and planter of Virginia. By this uncle
he was accorded the advantages of excellent school-
ing and social privileges. He possessed an inher-
ent desire and ambition to accomplish something
for himself, and to get on in the world, and he left
his Virginia home and friends to seek his fortunes
in the then new State of Alabama. There he met
and married Miss Fancy Chamles and they soon
thereafter came to Texas. Mrs. Glascock remained
here but a short time, however, returning to her
home in Alabama, where she not long thereafter
died, leaving two daughters: Sarah, who lived until
her ninth year, and Mary, who is the wife of Will-
iam Patton, a resident of Austin, Texas. In 1344
Mr. Glascock married Miss Mary Philian Brown-
ing, a daughter of Christopher Columbus Brown-
ing, a Texas veteran and pioneer, more concernino-
whom is related further on in this article.
Upon locating in Texas Mr. Glascock settled
upon and operated what has for years been known
as the Oliver farm, about five miles west of Bas-
trop. He there remained for about five years, and
then removed to Austin, which was ever after his
home. He was known throughout Texas as one of
Austin's most active and influential citizens, and
as an aggressive Indian fighter. In the latter role,
his promptitude, intrepid zeal and relentless war-
fare upon the red savages, won for him the admira-
tion and gratitude of the people of his day. By
those who knew him it is said that Thomas Glas-
C. C. BROWNING.
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FRANCIS DlPyPRlCH.
INDIAN WABS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
739
dock knew not fear. Fired by the reports of the
wonderful discoveries of gold in California in 1849
he saddled his mule and made the trip overland to
the gold diggings alone, through a trackless wilder-
ness inhabited only by savage Indians. He spent
two years in California, meeting with indifferent
success in his mining ventures.
Upon his return to Texas, he was unanimously
and almost immediately elected Tax- Assessor and
Collector for Travis County, a position for which
he was eminently qualified. He held the office
until his death, which occurred at Austin, Novem-
ber 22, 1853.
He was a man of strict integrity, fine education,
and great -personal pride, and possessed a loyal
heart and business attainments of a high order.
The days in which he lived were the most troublous
and critical of any known to Texas history, and he
interested himself vitally in all issues involving the
good of his adopted country, and in all matters
pertaining to the safety of the young and growing
seat of government he was foremost. He figured
actively in what is known in history as the ' ' Archive
War," the circumstances of which are set forth in
detail in the two-volume history of Texas by Col.
John Henry Brown, and need not be recounted
here. He, with Col. Brown, participated in the
historic Plum Creek fight in 1840, the last of the
noted Indian encounters which settled the conquest
of civilization in Texas.
Mrs. Mary Philian Browning Glascock, his de-
voted wife, still survives and is well known and
highly esteemed in the city of Austin, her life-long
home. There is much in the life and character of
this venerable and estimable lady that would grace
the pages of history. There are few living to-day
who have passed through the hazardous, trying
and exciting experiences that Mrs. Glascock has.
Her father, Capt. C. C. Browning, before men-
tioned, came to Texas as early as the fall of 1836,
his family following in the spring of 1837. He
was a native of Greene County, Ga., and was born
February 9th, 1812, on a farm.
He came to Texas with, or at the same time, as
did his father, Daniel Browning, and they rented
land and pursued farming near Old Independence,
in Washington County, for one year, and later pur-
chased land and lived for three years near Gay
Hill, in the same county. In 1840 he removed to
Austin, and cleared and improved what has for
years been known as the old Goodrich place, near
Barton Springs.
He was reared in Alabama, and there met and
married Miss Penina Gunter, of Gunter's Landing.
Capt. Browning was one of the most intrepid and
daring of Indian fighters, and for years served in the
ranger service under Capt. D. C. Cady and later
under Capt- "Hi" Smith, in which he ranked as
Lieutenant of mounted rangers, and was in his sad-
dle almost constantly for years. He owned a horse
that seemed as aggressive and as much absorbed iri
the warfare against the Indians as its owner, and
never flinched when duty demanded action. It is
said to have been the only horse in all the surround-
ing country that would allow the lifeless form of a
man to be laid across its back, and one year Capt.
Browning brought into the town of Austin on the
back of this faithful steed, from various localities,
no less than eighteen victims of the Indian's deadly
arrows or bullets. He lived an active and self-
sacrificing life and died at his home, near Austin,
March 3d, 1871. Mrs. Penina Browning, his faith-
ful and devoted spouse, survived him for several
years. A lady of most excellent traits of character,
she possessed those qualities of mind and heart that
greatly endeared her to the whole community in
which she so long lived. With Christian fortitude
she patiently endured the many hardships incident
to pioneer life at Austin, having been several times
driven by the Indians from home. On one occa-
sion she was pursued, with her girl baby in her
arms; hid out of doors over night, and barely
escaped capture, which in those days proved inevi-
tably far worse than death. Hiding, however, her
child in a vacant house, she evaded capture and
returned at break of day to find her infant girl
safe and sound. This occurred at Austin, in 1846,
when her husband was away from home on ranging
duty.
Mrs. Penina Browning led a spotless life, well
worthy of emulation. She was for many years a
devout and consistent member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, upon which she left the impress
of her many charitable deeds.
A noble woman — she quietly passed to the life
beyond the tomb, November 13, 1882.
She had but two children, both daughters, who
survive her, viz. : Mrs. Glascock, before mentioned,
and Mrs. Sarah Elizabeth, widow of the late Eev.
J. M. Whipple, both of Austin.
It is fitting that in these memoirs some mention
be made of Capt. McLusky, the venerable step-
father of Mrs. Penina Browning. He wa,s a native
of Tennessee, and performed the part of a gallant
and efficient officer throughout the Creek War under
Gen. Jackson. After coming to Texas his advanced
age did not prevent him from incurring the dangers
and hardships of aggressive Indian warfare in de-
fense of Austin and surrounding settlements, when
the removal of the seat of government and other
740
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
causes left them daily exposed to assaults. In fact,
the best energies of his life were ever given to the
service of his country. He lived to be sixty-nine
years of age, and died the death of a hero and
patriot at Austin.
To those who knew him best, and notably his
two surviving granddaughters, Mrs. Glascock and
Mrs. Whipple, he is held in loving remembrance "as
a true friend and faithful protector.
Mrs. Whipple was born in Lowndes County, Ala.,
in 1832, and recalls with feelings of both pleasure
and regret the many scenes of her girlhood, inci-
dent to the early settlement of her (now beautiful)
" city of the hills."
June 17, 1847, she wedded Mr. Francis Dietrich,
who for many years was one of the leading mer-
chants of Austin. He was a native of Germany,
and was born at Cassel, February 2, 1815. He
was sent to America in 1831 to be educated in New
York City. He became so interested in the strug-
gle for Texas Independence that he abandoned the
dea of schooling and joined the revolutionary forces
in 1835, and bore a valiant part in the sanguinary
struggle. He participated in the battle of Eefugio,
in March, 1836, and later was captured with Fan-
nin and his men, but escaped massacre because of
his foreign birth. He engaged in business and
acquired property at Victoria, but lost it by fire
at the hands of Mexican invaders. He was
one of the first to engage in merchandising
at Austin, but left there on account of hostile In-
dians and sold goods at Washington on the Brazos
until the seat of government was located at Austin,
when he returned and was there actively engaged in
business until his death, May 31st, 1860.
Francis Dietrich was a good man and stood high
in business, political and social circles. He never
lost sight of the guiding star of right and justice.
He was an influential member of the Methodist
Episcopal Church and at times held the oflSce of
steward. He was successful in business, erected
substantial business blocks and left a handsome
estate. He was three times married. By his first
union to (Miss Bessie Eeed) he had one son, James
Dietrich, living in Travis County. His second wife,
Miss Martha Brown, lived only about one year and
died without issue. June 17, 1847, he married Miss
Sarah E. Browning, of whom mention has above
been made, and she has one son, Thomas Dietrich,
of Austin.
January 1st, 1863, Mrs. Dietrich married Rev.
Dr. J. W. Whipple, an esteemed and able member
of the Methodist clergy, well remembered for the
life-long and faithful service that he rendered to the
cause he espoused.
Dr. Whipple died May 10, 1895. Mrs. Whipple
lives in retirement on her handsome estate near and
overlooking the city of Austin. She is a lady of
refined and artistic tastes and gracious manner,
and, as such, is widely known.
ELIJAH B. THOMAS,
ALVIN.
Elijah B. Thomas is a native of Louisiana, born
on Johnson Bayou, in Clarke's Parish, November
2nd, 1842. His father, "Elisha Thomas, was a
stock-raiser and farmer, who came to Texas in early
times, where he followed the stock business. Serv-
ing as a boy in the transportation department, he
enrolled as one of the Texian saldiers of 1836. He
died in Victoria County. A twin brother of Mr.
Elisha Thomas, also named Elisha, located near
San Antonio, pursued stock-raising, and there died.
The mother of the subject of this notice dying, his
father was twice married thereafter, by the first of
which later unions were born seven sons and three
daughters ; by the other six children, two of whom
are living in Texas. Elijah B. Thomas, the sub-
ject of this sketch, was, like his father, a twin, and
his twin brother, named Elisha, with whom he en-
listed in the Confederate army at Houston, Septem-
ber 10th, 1861, as soldiers in Company B.
(commanded by Capt. John A. Wharton), Terry's
Eighth Texas rangers.
Elisha served during the entire confiict with the
rangers, and survived the war only to lose his
life by accident on the railroad, near Galveston.
Elijah B. Thomas served about one year. In
1865 he married Miss Mary Jane Garrett, daugh-
ter of Wilboan Garrett, a stock-raiser, and an early
Texian. The marriage took place in Houston.
The same year (1865) he located in Brazoria
County on Clear creek, and oneyear later on Choc-
olate bayou. He now lives on Mustang slough,
where his father located on the R. L. Ware head-
a--
C. C. CULBERSON.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
741
right in 1848. His maternal grandfather, Hayes,
was one of the earliest settlers at St. Louis, Mo.,
and once owned and lived upon the ground now
covered by the famous St Louis stock-yards.
Mr. Thomas has six children living, and is a well
and favorably known citizen. He has for years
acted as Deputy Sheriff and Hide and Animal In-
spector of Brazoria County.
CHARLES A. CULBERSON,
DALLAS.
Charles A. Culberson, Governor of Texas, was
born at Dadeville, Tallapoosa County, Ala., and is
about thirty-eight years of age. He is a son of
Hon. D. B. Culberson, ex-Congressman from the
Fourth Texas District, and has inherited the intel-
lectual strength and forensic genius of his distin-
guished father. His mother is a lady of rare
intelligence and is a daughter of Dr. Allen Kimbal,
of Alabama. His parents removed from Alabama
to Gilmer, Texas, in 1858, and from that place, in
1861, to Jefferson, where they have since resided.
The subject of this sketch attended the common
schools in Jefferson, the high school of Prof.
Morgan H.'Looney, at Gilmer, and in 1870 entered
the Virginia Military Institute, at Lexington, Va.,
from which he graduated in the class of 1874.
Until 1876 he studied law in his father's office and
then entered the law department of the University
of Virginia, where he remained a year. He was
chosen Judge of the moot court, the highest honor
of the law class, and in 1877 was selected as the
final orator of the Jefferson Literary Society. In
1878 he was admitted to the bar and soon partici-
pated in the trial of a number of important cases,
acquitting himself in a manner that gave him a high
character at the bar. In 1882 he defended Le
Grand (charged with murder and indicted under
the ku-klux law) in the Federal District Court at
Jefferson. Le Grand was convicted and the case
was appealed to the Circuit Court. Culberson
attacked the constitutionality of the ku-klux law ;
contended that the Federal courts had no jurisdic-
tion to tryLe Grand, and supported his views with
tuch learning and logic that Justice Woods, who
presided over the Circuit Court, agreed with him,
reversed the verdict and sentence rendered below,
ordered that the defendant be discharged from
custody and declared the ku-klux law unconstitu-
tional.
The United States Supreme Court afterward, in
other cases, passed upon the ku-klux law and
followed the decision of Justice Woods, fully
concurring with him. This was quite a victory for
the young attorney, and he pushed on with
redoubled zeal toward a place in the front ranks of
his profession.
While not disregardful of social duties, he never
abandoned the habit of study that he had acquired
at college, continued to burn the midnight lamp,
and dug deeper into the rich mine of the law,
gathering into the well ordered storehouse of his
disciplined mind its priceless treasures. He was
elected County Attorney of Marion County in 1880,
but his professional engagements multiplied so
rapidly that he resigned the office after discharging
its duties for a short time. He was nominated for
the Legislature by the Democracy of that county
in 1882, but declined to accept the honor and con-
tinued to build up a lucrative practice. Four
years since he removed to Dallas, where he is a
member of the well-known law firm of Bookhout &
Culbertson. At the Democratic State Convention
held in San Antonia in 1890 he was nominated for
Attorney-General by acclamation, a fitting recogni-
tion of his services to the party and his great
abilities. His wife is a daughter of Col. W. W.
Harrison, of Fort Worth. He has the easy port
and bearing of a polished gentleman, and in social
intercourse is affable and engaging. It is a need-
less assurance to say that he made one of the ablest
Attorney-Generals who has ever guarded the inter-
ests of Texas.
Mr. Culberson was nominated for Governor by
tiie Democratic State Convention at Dallas in
August, 1894. He was elected by a handsome
majority. Two years later, at Fort Worth, he was
renominated for the same office, and again elected
by over 60,000 majority in face of a most pow-
erfully organized fusion movement, which grew out
of the free-silver sound money contest, that
formed the leading issue in the Presidential cam-
paign of 1896.
742
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
JAMES S. HOGG,
AUSTIN.
John Hogg, the great-grandfather of Governor
James S. Hogg, when a mere boy was left an orphan
In Virginia, his parents having died soon after their
emigration from Ireland. After arriving at man-
hood he removed to South Carolina and settled in
Newberry District, where he married and raised a
family of seven children, the oldest of whom was
Thomas Hogg, the grandfather of Governor Hogg.
From Georgia, in 1818, the family moved to Tusca-
loosa County, Ala., where Joseph Lewis Hogg was
reared. In that county in 1833 he married Lucanda
McMath, daughter of Elisba McMath, a well-to-do
planter in Eoupes Valley. Moving to Texas in
1840, he settled first at Nacogdoches, and finally at
Rusk, in Cherokee Connty, where he raised a family.
He represented his district (including Nacogdoches
JAMES S. HOGG,
The old family in South Carolina took part against
England in the war that secured American independ-
ence. One of the brothers, James, was killed ;
another, Lewis, was wounded, and Thomas escaped
unhurt.
Thomas Hogg, grandfather of the subject of this
sketch, married Martha Chandler, da,ughter of John
Chandler, of Newberry District, after the Revolu-
tion and moved to Georgia, where Joseph Lewis
Hogg^, the father of Governor Hogg, was born.
County) in the Congress of the Republic; was a
member of the Constitutional Convention of 1845 ;
was in the first State Senate ; resigned his position
in the latter body and entered the United States
army and fought through the war with Mexico and
returned home after the war was over, and was re-
elected to the State Senate, where he served the
people for many years. He was a lawyer by pro-
fession, but relied mostly op his plantation for sup-
port. He was elected and served as a member of
INDIAN WAB^ AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
743
the secession convention. In 1861 he received a
commission from President Davis as Brigadier-
General and entered the Confederate army, where
he died at Corinth at the head of his brigade in
May, 1862. His father and mother lived with him
at Rusls, where they died . and were buried in
1848-9.
He had a sister and two brothers (Thomas and
Stephen), all of whom raised families and died in
Mississippi, and left surviving him his wife, who
died in 1863, and two daughters (Mrs. Fannie Davis
and Mrs. Julia McDougal), and five sons — Thomas,
John, James S., Lewis and Richard. The latter
two died while boys ; Thomas served through the
war, married, raised a family and died at Denton,
Texas, in 1880 ; John lives with his family in Wise
County, and is a worthy and prosperous farmer, of
fine education and intelligence.
Ex-Gov. James S. Hogg was born on the " Moun-
tain Home" near Rusk, in Cherokee County, March
24, 1851. He was left an orphan at twelve years
of age.
The property of the family .was swept away by
the war, and the boy was compelled to, unaided,
take his part in that struggle for existence in which
"if the race is not always to the swift, the battle
is assuredly with the strong." He- disdained no
honest employment and did any work his hands
could find to do. To secure a practical education
he entered a newspaper office as printer's devil, and
worked his way until he owned and edited a paper,
the Longview News, which was subsequently re-
moved to Quitman, Wood County, Texas, and the
name changed to Quitman News. He read law four
j-ears while residing at the towns of Tyler, Long-
view and Quitman ; was admitted to the bar in 1875 ;
after three years successful practice w.is elected
County Attorney of Wood County, and after filling
that office for. two years, was elected District At-
torney for the Seventh Judicial District, a position
that he held for four years. On the close of his
official term as District Attorney, he settled at Ty-
ler, where he secured a fine paying practice.
April 22, 1874 (before he was admitted to the
bar), he was united in marriage to Miss Sallie Stin-.
son, daughter of Col. James A. Stinson, an intelli-
gent and highly respected farmer, in Wood County.
They have four children — William C. , sixteen ;
Ima, eight; Mike, five, and Tom, three years
old.
Governor Hogg was nominated by the State con-
vention of 1886, over three opponents, for Attorney-
General, and was elected in November of that year,
and in 1888 he was renominated without lopposition
and re-elected. In accepting his second nomina-
tion to the office of Attorney-General he spoke as
follows : —
' ' Mr, President and Gentlemen op the Conven-
tion:— For this, the second expression of confi-
dence in me by the Democracy of Texas, I am
weighed down with renewed gratitude. To dis-
charge the welcome obligation by a continued faith-
ful adherence to duty certainly now is my highest
ambition. In the past the t!&lisman of my life has
been that palladium of a Republic's safety, the con-
stitution. Its majesty has ever commanded my
most devout reverence, and within its shadow I
shall, if your action is confirmed at the polls, con-
tinue two years longer to stand at the post of official
trust.
' ' The department over which your partiality has
placed and proposes to continue me for another
term is one of no mean importance. Upon it is
frequently imposed demands of the State of the
most vital concern. Without action from there the
avenues of justice would be stified and the statutes
in many material particulars might remain untested
— their usefulness unfelt and unknown. Not ob-
structing, but opening the way, now and then with-
out a precedent, I have attempted to serve the
constitutional purpose of the office so that the laws
should take the place of those evils which are a
menance to Republican institutions. How far this
course has been successful must be determined by
those who shall do me the honor to investigate the
records of the department and the courts. To them
I refer and by them I stand, under the pardonable
consciousness that the action which I took in their
making was never inspired nor accelerated by
motives of policy at the expense of duty or
principle. With an eye single to the law and a
heart Set upon duty, I have done some work in hith-
erto unexplored regions that were bewildered by
ominous and apparently insuperable obstacles.
Failure meant professional ruin ; success
vouchsafed the establishment of public rights
upon well defined but latent principle. Re-
sults so far are satisfactory, notwithstanding
that the efforts have been declared by critics to
have grown out of mistaken zeal and to have proved a
wicked bopmerang. Throughout the undertaking I
have had the good-will, cordial encouragement and
hearty support of my brethren at the bar all over
the State. This alone is highly gratifying. To
them I tender my special acknowledgments in these
times of an unreasonable and relentless crusade
against their profession. At no time in the history
of this grand' profession have its members failed to
respond to their country's call nor to defend the
liberties of the. people. They can and will do so
744
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
in the face of blind malice that seeks to scythe them
to the ground. The spirit of patriotism will ever
enshrine them and form a magnetic segis that will
repel the malignant vituperation so commonly and
indiscriminately hurled at them on account of their
occupation. With but few exceptions and without
political distinction the lawyers have stood with me
in each round I have taken in support of the law.
Concurring with theih was the great conservative
press and masses composing the bulk of the Demo-
cratic party. This generous support has ever
cheered me on in the belief that I was right
and that justice would finally prevail. These
grand people, without distinction as to class,
occupation or financial standing, make up
to-day our party of the government, that occupies
a position between two powerful contending forces
that threaten the demolition of all. On the one
extreme stands an organized class whose purpose
seems to be to remodel society by regulating prop-
erty upon new theories,- limiting modes of industry,
prescribing the sources of livelihood, changing
domestic relations and governing the social morals
of mankind. On the other is to be seen a federa-
tion of voracious individuals whose insatiate avarice
leads them on to feast indiscriminately upon the
vital substance of every ckss within their way,
without respect to the comfort or welfare of society
at all.
-" The first has for its chief weapon of success the
terror of force, propelled by inflamed passion under
the guidance of distempered reason. The second
holds within its grasp the power of wealth as the
means of its triumph, fostered by that vicious
spirit which blinds the glutton to the wails of the
hungry crowd around him. The former means
destruction by blunt coercion ; the latter intends it
by insidious absorption. The encroachments of the
one are as dangerous as the stealth of the other.
Subject to. the incursions of both is that great con-
servative class who compose a Eepublic's life.
However, at the command of it, for use in defense
or aggression, to protect the cherished institutions
of our government from wreck and ruin by the col-
lision of these two contending extremes, is the law !
[Prolonged applause.] Let it impartially but stub-
bornly prevail. Stand beneath the waves of its
banner, planted upon judicial temples for the
country's good. Both the cormorant and the com-
mune fear it. To each let it be applied, and in due
season the causes for their existence will cease and
their practices and principles will forever disappear
under the withering influence of patriots' frowns,
showered upon them in the forums of justice.
[Applause.] The Democratic party has enacted
and sustained wholesome laws and has provided
pure tribunals for their enforcement. To them all
citizens should bow and welcome their supremacy.
Efforts to enforce them should be upheld and de-
fended. From Constable to the highest officer in
the land attention to them should be impartially,
zealously, fearlessly given without a question as to
policy or probable results. When they are passed
they should be given life by conscientious officials'
action.
" In the future as in the past the Democratic party
will make the laws for Texas, and will indorse her
servants who with fidelity enforce them. [Ap-
plause.]
" Not wishing to claim your valuable time longer,
I again beg to thank you for this high compliment
you have just paid me, and here in the presence of
this vast assemblage of the Democracy's repre-
sentatives I pledge to the people of Texas a record
two years from now that can be read in the light of
law undimmed by the work of passion or prejudice,
and unhurt by foul schemes or considerations of
policy. [Applause.] "
At the Democratic State Convention held in San
Antonio, August, 1890, he was nominated for Gov-
ernor on the first ballot, amid the wildest enthus-
iasm, having swept all opposition from the field
long before the assembling of that body. Ex-
Lieutenant-Governor Wheeler was the only one of
his five opponents who stayed in the race to the
end, and he received only seventeen out of the nine
hundred votes cast by the delegates.
Governor Hogg's record as Attorney-General was
of such a character as to win the admiration of the
profession and masses, and he was called to the
gubernatorial office more nearly by the will of the
whole people than perhaps any man ever elected to
the Governorship in Texas. While Attorney-Gen-
eral he forced the " Texas Traffic Association " to
dissolve and compelled certain railway corporations
to re-establish their general offices and headquar-
ters in the State, as required by the constitution.
Acting under the constitution, without precedent,
in the face of formidable opposition, he enjoined
and finally succeeded in dissolving and bj-eaking up
that association. Following its destruction was the
organization of the International Traffic Associa-
tion, with headquarters out of the State, having like
purposes in view, and also the International Weigh-
ers' Association, located in Texas, intending to op-
crate in disguise to regulate the traffic of the country.
Each of these he succeeded in dissolving by the
power and effect of the decree entered in the first
instance. Following up these precedents and the
law that was passed subsequent to their establish-
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
745
ment, he compelled the removal of the headquarters,
general offices and shops of every railroad in this
State, which were located in foreign cities and
States, back upon the line of their respecitve roads.
The roads were compelled to bring them back to
San Antonio, to Houston, to Galveston, to Dallas,
to Fort Worth, to El Paso, to Denison, toTexar-
kana, to Tyler, and to other places where they
belonged under the terms of the charters of the
railways.
The very section of the constitution which creates
the office of Attorney- General requires him to look
after private corporations : It says :
" He shall especially inquire into the charter
rights of all private corporations, and from time to
time, in the name of the State, take such action in
the courts as may be proper and necessary to pre-
vent any private corporation from exercising any
power
not authorized by law."
Within forty days after he qualified he took
action under this provision of the constitution, and
continued to operate under it actively and effect-
ively. His first work under it was against illegal
fire and life insurance companies, generally called
" wild-cat " concerns. Then there were about forty
of them operating in Texas in violation of law. By
the aid of an efficient and faithful commissioner of
insurance, through the courts, he effected the ex-
termination of every one of them within twelve
months. It is said many good men were innocently
in the service of those companies. Some of them
may yet regret the loss of lucrative positions by the
rigid enforcement of the law, but they all ought to
be, and doubtless are, patriotic enough to rejoice
at the general public good effected as the general
result. By this work the commissioner says the
people have been saved at least $250,000 per year.
The railroad from Sabine Pass to Beaumont had
ceased to operate. For months no trains of any
character were run between the two points, a dis-
tance of thirty miles. It was the only road
to the Pass and the company refused to
operate it down there. Complaint was made
to the Attorney-General and he brought action
against it and forced it to reconstruct, equip
and operate the road. Since that time it has been
doing its duty to the public without complaint.
Without entering into further details of the
services he performed as Attorney-General, it is
enough to state that by suits and official action duly
taken, he compelled most of the railroads in Texas,
so far as the law would warrant, to decently repair,
equip and operate their roads, to cease discrimina-
tion in many instances between shippers, to con-
struct and keep in proper order suitable depot
buildings, and to otherwise perform their duties to
the public. In the same way he compelled the
dissolution of many unlawful combinations within
the State that had been for a long time operating
in defiance of law. Included within these were
the express association, insutance underwriters,
coffin combine, tobacco trust and others. He also
represented the State in numbers of cases in the
Supreme and District Courts against defaulting
sheriffs and tax-collectors, delinquent land lessees
and others, who were due the State or sought
to recover from it sums of money. He stirred up,
through the efficient district and county attorneys,
delinquent taxpayers and many others who refused
to perform their legal obligations to the govern-
ment. By proceedings in the nature of quo war-
ranto he procured a forfeiture of the charter of the
East Line and Red River Railway on account of
the failure of that corporation to comply with its
stipulations. He instituted actions to recover lands
illegally acquired by railroads and filed a large
number of other important suits.
In the Twenty-first Legislature a strong effort
was made to pass a bill providing for a commission
to regulate and control the rates of railway traffic
having its origin and destination within the State,
but it failed of passage, mainly because a large
number of members of that body considered such a
law in confiict with the constitution. As a com-
promise and to determine the popular will, the
Twenty-first Legislature submitted, for adoption or
rejection by the people, a constitutional amendment
providing expressly for the creation of such a com-
mission. Other important amendments Were sub-
mitted at the same time, but the one relating to rail-
ways overshadowed in prominence all others, and it
constituted the main issue of the gubernatorial
campaign. While the passage of a commission bill
through the Legislature had been attempted and its
provisions, constitutionality and expediency were
discussed in the debates attending the effort, yet a
great majority of the people had no clear concep-
tion of the fundamental principles involved, the
extent of the evils to be remedied and the rights
and powers of the State and roads in the premises,
until Governor Hogg's great opening speech was
delivered at Rusk. Before the campaign opened
the public mind was in a state well-nigh bordering
upon indifference. His speech at Rusk, April 19,
1890, however, was like the blast of a bugle in
some enchanted hall filled with sleeping men at
arms, who, at the martial sound, leap to their feet,
clash their weapons and sally out in full array of
battle, ready and eager for ■ the fray. The
Galveston-Dallas News published the speech in full
746
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
next morning, introduced by tiie following comment
of their reporter : —
" Attorney-General Hogg made his speech here
to-day in his native place, the first he has made in
the campaign. Many distinguished men were here
from over the State, all told 3,000 people. Hogg
clubs from Smith and Wood counties were here in
good numbers. The Campbell Guards from Long-
view and brass bands of Jacksonville and Tyler
were here in full uniform. Mr. Hogg spoke three
hours and his effort is pronounced a masterpiece
and was well received by the people."
The paths of men make many turnings. Some
move with an onward sweep, recrossing at no im-
portant point, and the great events of life are like
resting-places along a dusty roadside. This is not
true of others. One man finds himself, after many
years, drawn by a combination of powerful circum-
stances to a spot rendered sacred by some hour of
sorrow and trial, through whose travail he came
forth a truer, nobler man, or to which memory has
often fondly turned from far distant lands ; and
another, while bearing the heat and burden of some
great contest, on whose successful issue depend
his fortunes, gathers courage and inspiration from
the spot that knew his childhood. So it was with
Governor Hogg. His was not a childhood whose
happy way lay through banks of flowers, but a child-
hood that called for fortitude and toil. "With his hon-
ors, won as Attorney- General of Texas, fresh upon
him, and about to give the signal for a tremendous
conflict, he selected his birthplace as the scene, and
April 19, 1890, delivered an address whose every
word reverberated throughout the confines of the
State. In beginning that speech he said: —
"Fellow-Citizens — Acting on the invitation of
a committee from Busk, and in obedience to nat-
ural impulses, I am here, where I was born, at the
playground of my childhood, to begin among my
life-long friends and associates a formal canvass of
the State as a candidate for Governor. Just after
the war, when merely a boy, many of you will re-
member that I left these familiar scenes and gener-
ous people to cast my lot among strangers in
another county. How they have trusted and treated
me, ask them. Look among this vast concourse
and you will see many of those good people, a hun-
dred miles away from their homes, taking part in
this demonstration. They have been drawn here
by ties of affection that are too strong for dissolu-
tion, too pure for others than friends to bear. To
them I direct you for an account of myself in all
the walks of life since I left you so many years ago.
As a day laborer and a penniless printer they re-
ceived me to their firesides and cheered me on. In
the journalistic field they gave me a generous, lib-
eral support, and made my paper a success. They
trusted me with positions of Eoad Overseer, Jus-
tice of the Peace, and County Attorney; they
joined with five other counties in making me their
District Attorney, and afterward they generously
contributed their full strength in electing me Attor-
ney-General, the oflflce I now hold."
This speech inaugurated a most remarkable and
important campaign. The merits and demerits of
a railway commission were exhaustively discussed
through the columns of the press and from the ros-
trum. The opposition to Governor Hogg and the
amendment was not slow to effect thorough organ-
ization, and numbered in its ranlis many men of
great experience in politics and whose civic virtues
commanded respect. J. W. Throckmorton, Gus-
tave Cook, H. D. McDonald, T. B. Wheeler and
R. M. Hall were respectively (although not in the
order named) selected as standard-bearers by mem-
bers of the party opposed to a commission. As the
battle progressed and county after county instructed
for Hogg, they one by one retired from the race,
leaving Hon. T. B. Wheeler to alone go before the
Democratic convention at San Antonio and contest
with Gen. Hogg for the nomination. Not only was
Gen. Hogg nominated for Governor on the first bal-
lot, practically without opposition, but the amend-
ment was also unqualifiedly indorsed. It was a
famous victory.
Governor Hogg's message, sent to the Legislature
the day following his inauguration, was a state
paper that fully met the just expectations of his
friends. Every question of public policy was ex-
haustively discussed and proper legislation recom-
mended. No stronger document has ever eman-
ated from the Governor's office in this State.
Governor J. S. Hogg is a very tall and large man,
measuring six feet and two inches in height and
weighing 285 pounds. His success in life is to be
attributed to his own unaided efforts, a faith-
fulness to duty, and unshakable steadiness of pur-
pose.
He served as Governor a second term, having
been renominated at Houston in 1892. In this
campaign the Democracy of Texas divided in the
famous Hogg-Clark contest. Governor Hogg made
a most remarkable canvass and beat the Clark fol-
lowing and the most able and popular Populist
candidate for Governor Texas ever had (Judge T.
L. Nugent) by nearly 60,000 plurality.
R. M. SWEAKINGKX.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
747
R. M. SWEARINGEN,
AUSTIN.
Dr. Richard M. Swearingen was born in Noxubu
County, Miss., on the 26th day of September, 1838.
He is the lineal descendant of Garrett Van Swear-
ingen, who emigrated from Holland to Maryland in
1645, and the son of Dr. E. J. Swearingen and
Margaret M. Swearingen, who settled in Washington
County, Texas, in 1848.
His father was a pioneer in the cause of educa-
tion, and was the projector of the splendid schools
that, in ante-bellum days, made Chappel Hill
famous throughout the State. His mother was the
daughter of Maj. Boley Conner, of Irish descent,
who was an officer under Jackson in the War of
1812. She was a lady of gentle manners, marlied
individuality and deep piety. In the new town,
made by their efforts and a few congenial friends a
center of wealth, culture and refinement, their
children, Sarah Frances, Patrick Henry, Helen
Marr, Richard Montgomery, John Thomas, and
Mary Gertrude, were raised and educated.
R. M. Swearingen was growing into manhood
when the political excitement of 1860-61 began to
shake the foundation of the government. Fiery
denunciation of Northern aggression and stormy
oratory was the order of the day. Reason gave way
to passion, and men seemed driven by inexorable
forces on to an inevitable destiny.
The voice of Sam Houston rang through the land
like an inspired prophet, but was drowned in the
whirlwind that heralded the impending war.
The subject of this sketch, nearly thirty years
after the guns of Fort Sumpter sounded the death
knell of peace, with satisfaction records the fact
that he was one among the few who stood with the
immortal Houston in opposing and voting against
the ordinance of secession. When, however, his
State, by an overwhelming majority, went out of the
Union, he felt in duty bound to give his allegiance
to her, and responded to the first call ever made
for troops.
On the 28th day of February, 1861, he embarked
at Galveston, under Gen. McLeod's command, for
the lower Rio Grande. After a six months' cam-
paign in the regiment of that well-known and gal-
lant old frontiersman, Col. JohnS. Ford, the young
soldier returned to his home in Chappel Hill. After
resting a few days, information having been re-
ceived that his younger brother, J. T. Swearingen,
was sick at Cumberland Gap, Tenn., he started for
that place.
J. T. Swearingen had left the State some months
before, with troops bound for Virginia, but having
been refused enrollment on account of extreme
youth, left them at Knoxville, Tenn., and volun-
teered in Brazelton's battalion of Tennessee cav-
alry. The brave boy had served under the ill-fated
Zollicoffer, in Kentucky, and had won the admira-
tion of his comrades, but the rough campaign had
too severely taxed his physical powers, and rest
was imperatively demanded. The ordinary methods
to secure his discharge having failed, the older
brother took his place in the ranks, and for the
second time donned the uniform of a Confederate
soldier.
The new company joined was commanded bj''
Capt. A. M. Gofarth, who, a few months later, was
promoted Major of the regiment, and who fell at
its head, sword in hand, leading a desperate
charge.
About two months after the brothers had changed
places, the company was reorganized, and the gen-
erous Tennesseeans elected the only Texian in the
company their First Lieutenant, and in less than
six months promoted him to the Captaincy. For
nearly three years he commanded this noted com-
pany ; noted, not only for faithful and arduous
services rendered during the war, but for the brill-
iant successes made by some of its members after
the war had closed. Pryor Gammon, of Waxa-
hachie, Texas, was First Lieutenant ; George Moore,
Louisiana, was second ; and Sam. M. Inman, of
■Atlanta, Ga., was third. Mr. D. C. Williams, of
Collinsville, Ala., and James Swann, of the firm of
Inman, Swann & Co., of New York, and Sam.
Dick, of the firm of S. M. Inman & Co., were Ser-
geants. John H. Inman, of New York, now one of
the railway kings of this continent, was a member
of the company. The firms of Inman, Swann & Co.,
and S. M. Inman & Co., rank high among the'great
business housesof the world, and he who commanded
the men who made those houses great, through per-
haps the stormiest periods of their lives, gives to
history this testimony, "that fame and fortune,
for once, found men worthy of their richest offer-
ings."
During the occupation of Cumberland Gap, while
748
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
on a scout in the mountains of East Tennessee,
Private Swearingen was prostrated with pneumonia,
and left in Sneedville, at the house of Mr. Lee
Jessee. This trifling episode would not be worthy
of record, bat for the fact that Mr. Jessee had an
accomplished daughter, named Jennie, who was
very kind to him while sick, and who won his life-
long gratitude and affection. During the subsequent
years of the war, neither distance nor danger de-
terred him from seeing that genial, happy family,
whenever it was possible to do so. On the 12th
day of September, after a rough and perilous
journey over the mountains from Sneedville (then
within the enemy's lines) to Jonesville, Va., Miss
Jennie Jessee, in the presence of her brave, sweet
sister, Sallie, was married to Richard M. Swearin-
gen.
Ten days after the marriage, upon a dark night,
Capt. Swearingen ventured into Sneedville, to tell
his wife and the family good-bye, but before the
words were spoken, the house was surrounded
by a company of mountain bushmen, and he
was forced to surrender. For two weeks he was
in the hands of these hard men, suffering all kinds
of cruelties and indignities. Once he was tied,
apparently for prompt execution, and would cer-
tainly have been killed, but for the interference of
one Joab Buttry, who had once been the recipient
of some kindness from Mr. Jessee, his wife's
father. Buttry was the chief of the band, and his
hands were stained by the blood of many Confed-
erates. He had seen his own brother shot down in
cold blood by a scouting party of Confederate
soldiers, and the bold mountaineer, then a quiet
citizen, hoisted a black flag and enlisted for the
war.
During the days of imprisonment, the young wife
and her friends were not idle. A written proposi-
tion from Gen. John C. Breckenridge, commanding
the department, "that he would give the bushmen
any three men that they might name, then in Con-
federate prisons, in exchange for their prisoner,"
was accepted. That same day the chief of the
band, alone, took his captive to the north bank of
Clinch river, and released him, with expressions of
good will.
Joab Buttry seemed made of iron, but through
the dark metal would shine the gold of a noble
manhood, that desperate deeds and a desperate life
had not altogether obliterated.
After his fortunate escape, Capt. Swearingen
started on a long hunt in search of his lost com-
pany, and found it not a great distance south of
Ealeigh, N. C. The space allotted him in this vol-
ume of biographies will not permit even a casual
notice of the incidents and experiences of those
eventful years. Th'e company participated in many
engagements ; was with Bragg in Tennessee, Kirby
Smith in Kentucky, Joseph E. Johnston in the
retreat through Georgia, with John H. Morgan
when he was killed, with Hood at Atlanta, and
again with Joseph E. Johnston in South and North
Carolina. To enable the reader to form some esti-
mate of the hardships of the Confederate service,
the statement is here made that this company, the
last year of the war, did not possess a tent or
wagon, or anything in the shape of a cooking
vessel. Their rations of meat were broiled upon
coals of fire, and the cornmeal cooked in the same
primitive fashion. Notwithstanding these depriva-
tions, the men, as a rule, were happy, buoyant,
capable of great physical endurance, and they
wept like children when, among the tall pines of
Carolina, their flag went down forever. In obedi-
ience to the cartel of surrender, Capt. Swearingen
marched the company back to Tennessee, before
disbanding it.
That last roll-call and parting scene on the banks
of the French Broad river is one of those clearly
defined memory-pictures that possibly live with our
souls in higher forms of existence.
For three years those men had shared each
other's dangers, and under the shadow of a com-
mon sorrow, the humiliation of a hopeless defeat,
they were to look for the last time upon each other.
The commanding officer, whose route at that point
diverged from the one to be taken by the company,
fronted them into line and tried to call the roll, but
failed to do so. He then moved around by the
roadside and they filed by, one at a time, and shook
his hand. There was a profound silence ; no one
attempted to speak a word, and every eye was filled
with tears, as the curtain rolled slowly down upon the
saddest act in that long and weli-jDlayed drama of
war.
Capt. Swearingen, a few weeks later, assisted by
his wife, was teaching a country school at the foot
of the Cumberland Mountains in Lee County.
In the autumn of 1865, information having
reached him of a requisition from Governor Brown-
low, of Tennessee, upon Governor Pierrepont, of
Virginia, for his arrest and return to Sneedville,
the newly-installed teacher abruptly closed his
prosperous school.
Capt. Swearingen was confronted with an indict-
ment for some unknown offense, and the trial of
Confederates in East Tennessee, at that time, was
on the style of drumhead courtmartials, with ver-
dicts prepared in advance. To remain there, only
twenty miles from Sneedville, was not to be thought
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
749
of; to go elsewhere for safety, and leave his
wife without a protector and without money, was
another dilemma equally as painful as the first.
About 10 o'clock, the first night after closing the
school, while the husband and wife were discuss-
ing the situation, a rap upon the door, and an
unforgotlen voice, announced the arrival of the
young brother, who four years before had been
found at Cumberland Gap, only a few miles from
the place of their second meeting. J. T. Swear-
ingen had heard of his brother's dangerous sur-
roundings, and, selling about all of his earthly pos-
sessions to get funds for the trip, went to his relief.
The next morning R. M. Swearingen left his
wife in safe hands and started for Texas. At
Huntsville, Ala., he awaited (as had been previously
planned) the arrival of those left in Virginia, and
with bright faces they journeyed on to Alta Vista,
where the best of all good sisters, Mrs. Helen M.
Kirby, received them with open arms.
The State was then going through the agonies of
reconstruction, and the machinery of the govern-
ment was virtually in the hands of military rulers
and reckless adventurers. Old customs and sys-*
terns, and ties, and hopes, and fortunes, were lost
forever, but the old South, crushed to earth, with
vandals on her prostrate form, and bayonets at her
breast, bravely staggered to her feet and faced a
glorious future. The courts were closed, or only
opened to make a burlesque of justice and a
mockery of law.
In such a reign of anarchy, the profession of
medicine was the only one of the learned professions
that offered any promise of immediate success, and
Capt. Swearingen selected it for his life work. He
at once commenced the study, and graduated iff the
school of medicine, New Orleans, March, 1867, de-
livering the valedictory, and located in Chappell
Hill. The friends of his parents, and the friends of
his youth, received him with great kindness, and
when the yellow fever epidemic of that year deso-
lated the town, he was conspicuous as a tireless
worker among all classes, and was rewarded with a
patronage both gratifying and remunerative. His
wife, as courageous as when tried in the furnace of
war, would not leave her husband, although urged
by him to do so, rendered faithful services to the
sick, and survived the epidemic, but her only child,
beautiful little Helen, was taken from her.
In 1875 Dr. Swearingen removed to Austini
where he still resides, and where a clientelle has
been secured that satisfied his ambition, and enabled
him to provide comfortably for those dependent on
him. His family consists of wife, one daughter
(Bird), now happily married to E. B. Eobinson,
their baby (winsome Jennie), and his wife's niece,
Miss Lulu Bewley. When the yellow fever epi-
demic of 1878 made such fearful ravages in the
Mississippi Valley, he responded to an appeal for
medical assistance made by the relief committee of
Memphis, Tenn., and with his friend. Dr. T. D.
Manning, reached that city the 3d day of Septem-
ber. From there they were transferred by the
relief committee to Holly Springs, Miss., where
they organized a hospital service that did effective
work until the close of the pestilence.
The good accomplished, however, viewed through
the dim lights of human understanding, seemed
dearly bought, for in less than two weeks after they
had entered that valley of death, a thousand hearts
were sorrowing for the young, gifted and dauntless
Manning. The great loss of life, and the destruc-
tion of property caused by that wide-spread epi-
demic, induced the Congress of the United States
to enact a law, authorizing the President to appoint
a board of experts upon contagious diseases, con-
sisting of nine men, and directed them to prepare a
report upon the causes of epidemics, and also to
suggest some plan of defense against subsequent
invasions, for the consideration of that honorable
body. Dr. Swearingen was a member of that board,
and the bill creating the National Board of Health
was drawn in accordance with the plan presented to
Congress by that board of experts.
January, 1881, Governor O. M. Roberts ap-
pointed Dr. Swearingen "State Health Oflflcer,"
and in 1883 Governor John Ireland reappointed
him to the same position. Under the guidance of
those two distinguished executives, he controlled
the health department of the State for six consecu-
tive years. He has always been a zealous friend of
public schools, and has been a member of the board
of trustees of Austin City schools since the free
school system was inaugurated. He is a member
of the American Public Health Association, and the
president of the State Medical Association, num-
bering more than 500 active, progressive physicians.
In January, 1891, Governor James S. Hogg ten-
dered Dr. Swearingen the office of State Health
Officer, and that gentleman accepted the honor and
entered upon the duties of the position.
By his friends he is classed among conservatives,
but is positive in his convictions, and was never
a neutral upon any great moral or political ques-
tion.
He has made some reputation as a speaker, but
has no aspirations in that line. His last effort, un-
dertaken at the earnest solicitation of old Confed-
erate soldiers, was made in the House of Repre-
sentatives, December 11, 1889, to an audience of
750
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
two thousand people. The occasion was the mem-
orial service in honor of Jefferson Davis.
It is Dr. Swearingen's wish to have the address
appended to his biography, not on accoiintof any
special merit claimed for it, but to perpetuate, and,
if possible, to make imperishable some evidence of
his love and admiration for a pure, a good and
great man.
' ' MEMOKIAL ADDRESS . ' '
"Me. Chairman, Ladies akd Gentlemen — The
unsuccessful leaders of great revolutions loom up
along the shores of time as do lighthouses upon
stormy coasts, all of them brilliant and shining afar
off like stars ! But few of these men have left be-
hind them substantial evidences of their greatness,
or monuments of their works. Their names are not
often wreathed in the marble flowers that glisten
upon splendid mausoleums. Tradition tells no
story of loving hands having planted above them
the myrtle and the rose, and of manly eyes paying
to their memories the tribute of tears. History
can now write another chapter. Last Friday, when
the wires flashed the news to the uttermost borders
of civilization that the ex-President of the Confed-
erate States was dead, a wave of sorrow swept over
the fairest portion of the earth. The soldiers of the
dead Confederacy were bowed down in grief, and
men and women, from the Potomac to the Rio
Grande, talked in low, tremulous tones of their old
chief, and the glorious record he had made.
"This occasion will not permit even of a brief re-
view of his illustrious life, nor an analysis of the
' why ' he formed a new republic, nor the ' how '
that young republic, after a colossal struggle, went
down beneatl^the tread of a million men.
" Jefferson Davis was the ideal Southerner — the
highest type of American manhood.
"For four consecutive years he was the central
figure in the stormiest era in the world's history.
Around him gathered the hopes of a nation, and
upon his shoulders rested her destinies. At his
■word legions sprang to arms, and his name was
shouted by dying lips upon every field of battle.
' ' Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since
the last shell exploded over the contending armies.
Green forests have grown up in the rifle pits and
in the trenches. An universal charity has thrown
a white mantle of forgiveness over the men who
fought beneath the stars and stripes, and over thai
gallant few who followed to the death the waning
fortunes of that ' bonnie blue flag ' we loved so well.
" Through all these years the dark-robed reaper
has been busy at his work, striking with impartial
hand the fearless hearts that formed the lines, and
the lofty plumes that led the van.
"Lincoln, Grant, Sheridan, Thomas, Albert Sid-
ney Johnston, Lee, Jackson and Bragg have long
since passed to the other shore, and to-day the mar-
tial form of Jefferson Davis, clothed in the uniform
of gray, is consigned to mother earth.
' ' Death never gathered to her cold embrace a
purer Christian ; the cradle of childhood never
rocked to sleep a gentler heart ; the fires of martyr-
dom never blazed around a more heroic soul ; the
Roman eagles, the lilies of France nor the Lion of
St. George never waved above a braver, truer sol-
dier.
" On the field of Monterey, wounded and almost
dying, he bore through fire and smoke the victor's
wreath ! In the counsels of State he wore the in-
signia of a leader, and when his ofBcial light went
out forever, he won the glory of a martyr. Crushed
down by defeat, cast into the dungeons of Fortress
Monroe, unawed by manacles, unterrified by a fel-
on's death that seemed inevitable, this ideal South-
erner, this leader of the lost cause, was still true to
his people, and rose above the gloom of his sur-
roundings, tall, majestic and eternal as the pyra-
mids that look down upon Sahara. As bold Sir
Belvidere said of kingly Arthur, ' The like of him
will never more be seen on earth.'
"Farewell, my peerless, unconquered old chief.
" Your fame will go down the ages as the purest
and grandest of mortals ; and I do pray that your
mighty spirit has found some beautiful spot on the
ever shining river, where no beat of drum nor clank
of chains shall mar the melody of golden harps
when swept by angel fiagers ; where no prison walls
can hide the light of the throne, and where the
smile of a loving God will fall around you for-
ever."
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
751
THE HOUSTON AND TEXAS CENTRAL RAILROAD.
The Houston & Texas Central Eailvoad is
known throughout Texas and the whole United
States as the pioneer railroad line of Texas. It was
founded by men who took part in the early develop-
ment of the State, and they gave to the location of
this great line the results of their knowledge of its
agricultural capacities, and the lay of the land
affecting the movement of products toward the
proposed line.
They planted this railroad at the head of tide-
water on Buffalo bayou, at the city whose name is
linked in song and story with that immortal day at
San Jacinto, when the Lone Star of Texas rose
resplendent over the ever glorious field of San
Jacinto — Houston.
Here, where the flow of the Gulf of Mexico rests
against the alluvial deposits from the great prairies
on the divide between the Brazos and the San
Jacinto rivers, was started, in 1853, that great rail-
road which, in every stage of the development of
Texas, since its first fifty miles was built, has dem-
onstrated the wisdom of its route and its hold on
the business of the State. It has the open sea at
its base of operations, and the goodly land of Texas
on each side to give it sustenance. The Trinity
lies about sixty miles to the eastward, and the
Colorado about 100 miles to the westward. It
commands the rich lands of the Brazos for- about
160 miles, and thence almost due north to Denison,
making a total distance from Houston of 338 miles.
As it leaves the waters of the Brazos, the Trinity,
which has been on a line almost parallel to the east,
now bears to the westward, and the road is soon
among its tributaries. Then, touching the main
stream at Dallas, it continues through a region thus
watered, until it reaches the tributaries of the Red
river, near its terminal point. These contiguous
water-courses give the drainage and moisture that
insure growth and constant sustenance to the crops.
The bottoms of the rivers and creeks are subject to
but occasional overflows, have rich alluvial, while
the uplands of prairie and timber have a great
depth_ of fertile soil, varying according to the
peculiar features of the region, its elevation and
geological formation. The trade of the prosperous
cities on its line from Houston to Denison, and its
close connections with Galveston, have made the
cross lines, which have been built by other interests,
feeders to an extent which more than overcomes
competition.
At Austin the Houston & Texas Central connects
with one of the new lines working harmoniously
with its system, the Austin & Northwestern Rail-
road. This line penetrates the great county of
Williamson, and thence through Burnet and Llano
counties to its present terminus among the Granite
Hills, fronl whence come the thousands of tons of
rock for the Galveston jetties.
At Garrett, on its main line, 234 miles from
Houston, another of its feeders, the Central Texas &
Northwestern Railway, and Fort Worth & New
Orleans Railway, pour into its lap the business of
those rich counties, which lie between the main line
and the famed city of Fort Worth, and the business
which flows from and through to the Gulf.
The Lancaster Branch from Hutchins gives to
the enterprising town of Lancaster, in Dallas
County, an independent connection.
The Houston Direct Navigation Company, which
carries out to the Gulf over 400,000 bales of cotton
via the Houston Ship Channel, is one of the prin-
cipal connections of Houston.
The lines of the Houston & Texas Central cover
the richest agricultural region of Texas, embracing
the timbered and rolling prairie region from 100
to 700 feet above the Gulf, resting upon the "Timber
Belt" beds of sandstone and limestone, which al-
ready are quarried to a considerable extent. The
soils are red clay, red sand or mulatto, just as they
are underlaid by sands or clays respectively. On
many of the uplands there is a gray sandy soil,
grading down into a red subsoil, which is especially
adapted to the growth of fruit. This whole area
from Houston to the Red river will compare favor-
able with any region of the world in its combination
of rich soil.
The controlling interest of this great line is princi-
pally in the hands of capitalists connected with the
Southern Pacific Company, and although under a
separate management, it is operated in harmony
with the great Southern Pacific system of railways
and steamships.
Since the Houston & Texas Central Railroad was
completed in 1876, a number of new and important
lines have been constructed, affecting, in part, the
territory from which its main business comes, yet
its advantageous position continues to assert itself.
It carries to tide water annually about one-fourth
of the entire cotton crop of Texas.
762
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
The traveler cannot see Texas without journey-
ing over the line of the Houston & Texas Central
Railroad. Galveston is but fifty miles distant upon
the Gulf. Houston, Austin, Piano, McKinncy,
Corsieana, Ennis, Dallas, Sherman, Denison, Wax-
ahachie and Fort Worth are directly on its lines.
On every side, as its trains course through the land,
are to be seen fields heavy with the reward of the
farmer ; town after town evidences the thrift and
progress that has followed its construction and
sustains its fortunes.
The Houston & Texas Central Railroad, which
has it southern terminus in Houston, has its prin-
cipal repair shops there, valued at about $250,000.
The Southern Pacific Company also has its principal
repair shops there, valued at $650,000. In the
shops of these two companies, 1875 skilled laborers
are given constant employment, and the monthly
pay-roll of those two companies, in the shops alone,
amounts to about $56,000. The Houston & Texas
Central also has at Houston one of the finest and
most complete depot buildings in the South, with
such splendid facilities that most of the other roads
depot with it.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
753
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754
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
J. P. SMITH.
FORT WORTH.
A perusal of this work will disclose many native
Kentuckians who have settled in Texas and made
successes of life, but we doubt if any of the sons
of the "blue grass" region have made a more
remarkable success than Col. J. P. Smith, of Fort
Worth. Owen County, Kentucky, is his birth-
place, and September 16, 1831, the date. His
father, Samuel Smith, was also a Kentuckian,
having been horn at Ghent, in Carroll County, in
1798. He was married to Miss Polly Bond, of
Owen County, the same Stale, in 1828. Miss Bond
was born in Scott County in 1808. They resided
in Owen County until 1838, when they removed to
Ohio County, near Hartford, where they both died
in 1844, leaving six sons, as follows: H. G.,
Louis, R. T., J. H., Samuel and J. P., our subject.
Col. J. P. Smith was born and raised on a farm,
and after the death of his parents he took up his
residence with his cousin, W. H. Garnett, of Owen
County, whom he selected as his guardian. He
worked on his cousin's farm, attending the best
schools during the winter months. He kept this up
until 1849, when he entered Franklin College, Indi-
ana, where he remained ten months. In September,
1850, he entered Bethany College, Virginia, where he
t)ok first honors in his classes of ancient languages
and mathematics, graduating from this institution
in 1853. Having finished his studies, in Novem-
ber, 1853, he left Kentucky for Texas, and in De-
cember of the same year reached Fort Worth. He
opened the first school ever taught in Fort Worth.
The close confinement of the school-room so seri-
ously impaired his health, however, that he was
forced to close bis school, after a short session of
three months. He devoted his time and attention
to surveying, which occupation he followed at inter-
vals until the year 18fiO. While engaged in survey-
ing he read law with A. Y. Fowler, of Fort Worth,
and without attending a law school, was admitted to
the bar in 1858, since which time he has practiced
in the State and Federal courts. He was distinctly
opposed to secession and voted against it in 1861.
When war broke out, however, he gave his services
to his State and assisted in raising a company of 120
men, with whom, as Company K, Seventh Texas Cav-
alry, he was mustered into service at San Antonio,
under Col. Wm. Steel, Sibley's brigade. This brig-
ade served principally in New Mexico, Arizona and
Western Louisiana. He was at the recapture of
Galveston from the Federals, January 1, 1863, was
severely wounded on June 23, 1863, near Donald-
sonville, and slightly wounded at the battle of
Mansfield, Louisiana. In 1864 he was promoted to
Colonel of his regiment, which he disbanded on the
Trinity river, in Navarro County, Texas, May 18,
1865. The regiment then numbered something like
600 well armed and thoroughly equipped men, and
at the time of disbandment was on the march from
Louisiana to Texas. The Colonel, in 1865, returned
to Fort Worth and resumed his law practice, buy-
ing and selling real estate on the outside.
He was married in Tarrant County, Texas, on
October 16, 1867, to Mrs. Mary E. P'ox, widow of
Dr. F. A. Fox, of Mississippi. Mrs. Smith was
born in Carroll County, Miss., of English-American
parentage. Of this union there are five children :
James Young, born October 15, 1869; Peter, born
May 19, 1873; Florence, born November 14, 1875,
William Bealle, born December 8, 1878, and
Samuel C, born June 15, 1885. Mrs. Smith is an
unassuming, domestic lady, a charming conversa-
tionalist and a most popular member of society.
Col. Smith has the distinction of being an original
charter member of the Masonic Lodge established
in Fort Worth in 1854. In 1858 he became a
Royal Arch Mason, and served two years as High
Priest of the Chapter.
Col. Smith has always been an earnest Democrat.
He is very often referred to by the older residents
as "the father of Fort Worth.'' He was elected
Mayor of the ciiy in April, 1882. Some idea of
the benefits accruing to Fort Worth during Col.
Smith's term of office may be had when it is known
that the city did not have a paved street at his
inauguration. Col. Smith was elected to a second
term as Mayor, and before the expiration of his
second term was urged all over the State to accept
the nomination of Governor, but prefeering not to
sacrifice his extensive private interests, which the
acceptance of this nomination would have entailed,
he declined. Nearly, if not all, of the large cattle
companies of Northwest Texas are under more or
less obligation to the enterprising ability of Col.
Smith for their organization.
On August 12, 1890, Col. Smith was again
almost unanimously elected Mayor of Fort Worth.
He is universally liked and esteemed for his noble
character, generous disposition and impartiality of
opinion, and Fort Worth points with pride to his
name on her list of honored citizens.
^i*irHttitalsJli»,S'T.
W. H. GEPZENDAUER.
r''
MES. GETZENDAUER.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Ibb
W. H. GETZENDANER,
WAXAHACHIE.
W. H. Getzendaner was born May 14, 1834, ia
Frederick County, Maryland. His father, Abram
Getzendaner, was a farmer, as were his thrifty
Swiss ancesters for several generations before him.
The family settled in Maryland in 1730, when it
was a wild and sparsely inhabited conntry. His
mother, Mary, was born in Frederick City, Mary-
land, in 1814, and was the daughter of Peter Buckey,
a tanner and farmer. Her mother's maiden name
was Mary Salmon, whose father was an officer in
the Revolutionary army, though before the war
began he was a retired officer of the British
army.
W. H. Getzendaner was reared on the farm until
he was nineteen, when he attended Frederick Acad-
emy for two years. In 1855 he was sent to Dick-
inson College, Carlisle, Pa., to complete his educa-
tion, and graduated in that institution with the
degree of bachelor of arts in 1858. During the
senior year of bis collegiate course he pursued the
study of law, which he more fully mastered in the
office of W. J. Ross, in Frederick City. Thus pre-
pared to enter upon the practice of his profession,
he went to Huntsville, Texas, in the latter part of
1858, where he remained six months. In 1859 he
removed to Waxahachie.
In the latter year he was admitted to the bar at
Tyler, and practiced in Waxahachie from 1859 to
1875, except during the Civil War and two years
following. The latter period he devoted to improv-
ing and cultivating his farm. His practice was re-
munerative from the beginning, and he acquired a
high character as a lawyer and advocate.
In 1861 he recruited and organized Company E,
Twelfth Texas Cavalry, for the Confederate army.
In this company he was a Lieutenant ; but after the
fighting was over he was assigned to duty as Quar-
termaster of the regiment, with the rank and pay of
Captain. He was also for a time Adjutant-General
of Parson's cavalry brigade. During the war he
was in more than thirty engagements, and was
wounded both at Cloutierville and Yellow Bayou.
After the war he turned his attention somewhat to
agriculture, but in 1867 returned to Waxahachie.
In 1872, at the solicitation of his fellow-citizens,
he accepted the office of Mayor of the city, organ-
ized the corporation, drafted the ordinances and
set in motion the municipal machinery. After one
year's service he retired, his health, from overwork,
having partially failed.
July 1, 1868, the firm of Ferris & Getzendaner,
composed of .J. W. Ferris and W. H. Getzendaner,
opened a private banking house in Waxahachie,
Continuing also their business as lawyers. This
partnership continued for eight years. In 1876
Capt. Getzendaner withdrew from the law firm and
Judge Ferris from the banking house, the latter
leaving his son. Royal A. Ferris, in charge of his
banking interests. The firm name they changed to
Getzendaner & Ferris. This bank was established
on a capital of $6,000 ; but in twelve years, so
greatly had the operations of the bank increased,
the capital had grown to $100,000. It has for cor-
respondents S. M. Swenson & Son, New York ;
Ball, Hutchings & Co., Galveston; Louisiana Na-
tional Bank, New Orleans ; Continental Bank, St.
Louis; First National Bank of Houston, and the
City National Bank of Dallas. The partnership
and individual property of this banking house
amounts to about $200,000. It is, therefore, on a
safe basis and enjoys the confidence of the business
men of Texas.
He is a Master Mason and a communicant of the
Episcopal Church. Up to the war he was an " Old
Line" Whig, but since that time has voted and
acted with the Democrats. He voted for the ordi-
nance of secession after his return from the expedi^
tion in Clay, Archer and Jack Counties against the
Comanches in 1860-61.
Capt. Getzendaner was married, in Ellis County,
Texas, August 2, 1865, to Mrs. Willie Neel, widow
of Hon. T. C. Neel, formerly State Senator, who
died in 1862. She was born in Hancock County,
Ga., August 29, 1832, and is the daughter of John
B. Latimer, a large planter and slaveholder. She
is the granddaughter of Maj. Gonder, of Georgia,
and related by marjiage to Judge Thomas Linton
Stephens, and other distinguished families of that
State. Her brother, Mark Latimer, was formerly
a banker at Ennis, Texas. By her first husband
she has one daughter, Mattie, born in Hancock,
Ga., educated at Emmetsburg, Md., in St. Joseph's
Academy, and married to Frank Templeton, for-
merly editor of the Waxahachie Argus, and now a
farmer in Ellis County. Mrs. Getzendaner is a
member of the Baptist Church.
756
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Partly as revealing a prominent ciiaracteristic of
the man and partly as a lesson to young men who
may read this biography, it may be stated that
when Capt. Getzendaner arrived in Waxahachie he
had but five dollars and was forty dollars in debt.
He at once went to work, in no way disheartened
by his impecunious condition, and by diligence,
study, application and economy, dealing fairly and
honorably with all men and thereby gaining their
confidence, he attained success in his profession
and accumulated property. He is now owner of
a residence and several business houses and lots
in town, a farm of 1,400 acres in Ellis County,
9,000 acres of unimproved land in Ellis and
other counties, besides his bank stock, bonds and
notes.
In appearance Capt. Getzendaner is rather pre-
possessing, standing five feet eight inches in height,
with blue eyes and prominent features, and weigh-
ing 155 pounds. In form he is broad, muscular
and strong, the physical corresponding with the
intellectual man. His manners are retiring, but he
is an active and energetic business man.
He is a man growing in the estimation of the
people and rising to prominence. As a business
man, he is a success, making money rapidly by his
energy, tact and capacity. His moral worth is un-
excelled. He is social and companionable, but his
principal characteristics are firmness, pride of
opinion and financial ability. He is an independent
thinker, and does not always follow a beaten track.
He is grateful to those who have done him a favor,
and is a liberal and chai'itable citizen.
Mr. Getzendaner represented his district in the
State Senate from 1882 to 1884, and since then has
often been urged to canvass the State for Gover-
nor, but having no taste for politics he refused all
importunities, preferring the enjoyment of the
fruits of his well-spent life around his fireside with
his family.
JOSEPH CHRISTOPHER TERRELL,
FORT WORTH.
Joseph Christopher Terrell was born in Sumner
County, Tenn., October 29, 1831, while his father's
family were en route from Virginia to Missouri to
make a new home. His paternal grandfather was a
Virginian, and his grandmother, whose maiden
name was Johnson, was of the same State. They
were Quakers, and when they died left two chil-
dren. Dr. C. J. Terrell, the elder, was a graduate
of Jefferson Medical College at Philadelphia, emi-
grated and settled in Boonville, Mo., in 1831, and
died there in 1832, leaving a large estate to his
three children. These children were : A. W. Ter-
rell, now State Senator, and formerly Judge of the
Capital District at Austin, Texas ; Dr. John J.
Terrell, of Campbell County, Va., and Joseph C.
Terrell, the subject of this sketch.
Joseph C; was reared on the farm near Boonville,
TMo., left by his father as part of his estate. Hav-
ing wealth, and, therefore, no necessity to work,
his boyhood was spent in idleness and in doing what-
-ever his fancy dictated. He had no taste for books
and despised study, a disposition which contrasts
strangely with his subsequent application and stu-
dious habits. Notwithstanding his antipathy to the
acquisition of knowledge, he was sent to school, his
teacher being Prof. F. T. Kemper, of Boonville, one
of the most finished scholars, strictest disciplina-
rians and accomplished instructors in the West —
accurate, methodic and energetic. From his teacher,
therefore, young Terrell learned useful lessons in
system and order, which he has appropriated and
made useful in his later life. Although his educa-
tion thus forced upon him had little effect at the
time, yet Prof. Kemper, who is still (1881) teaching
in Boonville has influenced his entire life. Though
considered "wild" in his youth, the young man
was never led into the dissipation that usually ac-
companies such a life, but studiouly advoided gam-
bling and the use of intoxicants.
Leaving the Kemper school, he began the study
of law in the office of his brother, A. W. Terrell, and
after two years' reading was admitted to the bar at
St. Joseph, Mo., in 1852. Immediately after re-
ceiving his license, he set out on a visit to the Pa-
cific Coast. In 1853-54 he practiced law in Santa
Clara, Cal., and in Monterey in the same State in
1854-55. But he had as yet no fixed purpose in life
and was rather drifting on the surface of occasion.
He had gone to the West rather for adventure than
for work, and steady employment in a fixed place
-^■^^Jjy.R D-udeuS^g.^
^^.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
757
was exceedingly distasteful to him. In 1855-56 he
wandered in Oregon, and, though he could scarcely
be said to have had a habitation there, he occasionally
practiced his profession there, and now and then
picked up a stray fee. He returned to " the
Slates " in 1856, and spent some months in Virginia
visiting relatives and friends. In 1857 he visited
his brother, Judge Terrell, at Austin, Texas, and
thence set out to return overland to California.
He reached Fort Worth in February, 1857, where
he met his old school-mate, D. C. Dade, who was
then practicing law in that place. He was per-
suaded to pitch his tent in Fort Worth and form a
partnership with his old schoolfellow. This part-
nership was continued several years and until the
Civil War began. Mr. Terrell opposed secession
and concurred with Gen. Houston in his plan to
effect the co-operation of Texas with the North-
ern border States in an armed neutrality. When
the war could no longer be avoided, he recruited a
company in Tarrant County for the Confederate
service and joined Waller's battalion in Greer's
Cavalry Brigade. He took part in the battles of
Yellow Bayou, Camp Bisland, Foedoche, etc., and
was present at the capture of the gunboat " Diana "
and when Col. Waller received her surrender.
When the war closed, he returned to Fort Worth
and resumed the practice of law among a people
impoverished by the war, and there and in the sur-
rounding country he has continued to pursue his
profession ever since. Twenty-four years have
thus elapsed since he first opened an office in Fort
Worth, and during all that time his place of busi-
ness has always been on the same street.
In May, 1871, Capt. Terrell was married to Miss
Mary V. Lawrence of Hill County, Texas. She is
the daughter of David T. Lawrence, formerly of
Tennessee, a successful farmer and large land-
holder, who died in 1867, leaving four daughters
and several sons. Her family relatives are very
numerous and most of them reside in Dallas
County. Mrs. Terrell was born February 28, 1842,
in Marshall County, Tenn., and was the eldest
daughter of D. T. and Anna B. Lawrence. She
was educated in the common schools of the coun-
try, but having from childhood a taste for learning
and books, she has been a close student and a
reader of general literature. At the age of eighteen
she taught the village school of Covington, Texas,
where she grew to womanhood. She continued to
alternately teach and attend school for a period of
five years. Privately she was pursuing the study
of the higher branches. She was for three years
first assistant in the female department of the Port
Sullivan School, and for two years first assistant in
Waco Female College. While at Covington teach-
ing and attending school, she took a thorough
course in Latin and higher mathematics, besides
giving considerable attention to French, Spanish
and Greek. Her education has been both classical
and practical, and as her disposition has always
been retiring, her ambition is to embellish home
and perform home duties, rearing her family in such
manner as to make them worthy of the coun-
try in which they live and an ornament to the
society in which they move. She is regarded as one
of the best educated women in Texas. Reared in
the cross-timbers, and self-educated, she is devot-
ing herself to training her children for usefulness
in the world, and at the same time cultivating in
them a taste for the true, the beautiful and the
good. In solid scholarship, dignity and grace,
this noble lady is the peer of the highest, and is at
once the delight of her social circle and the pride
of the city of her residence.
Capt. Terrell and wife have five children : Sue
A., born May 13, 1872; John Lawrence, born
August 1, 1873 ; Joe C, born May 31, 1875 ; Mary
v., born January 12, 1877, and Alexander W.,
born December 26, 1878.
In politics, Capt. Terrell was originally an old
line Whig, voted against secession and since the
war has had nothing to do with politics, but has
voted an independent ticket, generally, however,
with the Democrats. He is not a Church member,
though he recognizes the influence an early Chris-
tian training has had upon his life and character,
and contributes liberally to all benevolent objects,
and to the support of ministers and Church enter-
prises. Mrs. Terrell is a member of the Methodist
Church. Capt. Terrell is a Mason and has taken
the council degrees.
He always made money, but had no disposition
to amass wealth until after his marriage. He is
now the owner of six brick storehouses, four resi-
dences, two frame storehouses, several unimi^roved
blocks in the city, and about four hundred acres of
wild lands in Tarrant and Johnson counties.
Probably the value of his city property and lands
is $25,000. He owes his success to promptness in
business matters. He is orderly and systematic in
all his affairs. For many years he has been a hard
student and his books have engaged much of his
attention. He stands well in the community as an
honorable man in all his dealings. He is a safe,
reliable business man, but his practice has been
that of an office, rather than a courthouse
lawyer. He is even-tempered, jovial and social,
and probably the most systematic business man in
his city.
758
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
In person he is five feet and eight and a half
inches in height, weighs one hundred and eighty-
five pounds, is portly and muscular, with clear
complexion, blue eyes and a generally healthy
and robust appearance. His brain is large and
intellectuality is unusually well developed. He
is vivacious and affable, but is fond of a quiet
life."
ACCOMMODATIONS AND TRAIN SERVICE BETWEEN
TEXAS, ST. LOUIS AND THE NORTH,
EAST AND WEST.
The Iron Mountain Route is the short line
between all important points in Texas and Little
Rock, Memphis and St. Louis, having three daily
trains in both directions between Texas points and
St. Louis. All these trains enter the magnificent
new Union Station at St. Louis, where direct con-
nections are made for the East, North and South,
with all outgoing and incoming trains. The Texas
special, with through Pullman Buffet Sleeping cars
between Laredo, San Antonio, Galveston, Fort
Worth, Dallas, and St. Louis, has long been the
favorite train between Texas, St. Louis and the
North and East. The schedule of this train is
very fast, and the equipment is the most modern,
being vestibuled throughout, and lighted by the
famous Pintsch Gas Light System.
The other trains that are scheduled for the per-
formance of first-class passenger duty between
Texarkana, Little Rock, Memphis and St. Louis
are the Forth Worth & Dallas Express, and the
California, El Paso and Texas Express. The
former carries a complement of Chair Cars and
Day Coaches to Memphis, arriving at the lower
Mississippi River Gateway for breakfast, while the
latter train with similar equipment enters the Ten-
nessee City in the evening, thus opening up a most
admirable route to the Southeast and to the lower
Atlantic Seaboard. Pullman Buffet Sleeping Cars
and Reclining Chair Cars (in which the seats are
free) are also run through to St. Louis, these same
trains performing the service.
As a highway from Eastern and Southern Texas
to the trade centers between the Alleghenies and
the Rockies, this popular route offers diverse
avenues, either of which are at once acceptable
when their advantages are known. The line via
Memphis is the best for all points in the Southeast,
and the one via St. Louis is the shortest, quickest
and best equipped for the North, East and West,
and the one via Little Rock, known locally as
" The Wagoner Route," for the great West and
Northwest.
The Texas Fast Mail, which carries the through
Pullman Sleeping Cars between St. Louis, El
Paso and California points, has revolutionized the
Government mail service between the East, North
and the Great Southwest by placing Texas in
closer communication with the business interests of
the far North and East by from eight to fifteen
hours. A visit to the immense train sheds of the
Union Station, St. Louis, during the morning or
evening will disclose as fine equipped trains as can
be found anywhere, well filled with passengers to
or from Texas, which in itself is a commendation
of the Iron Mountain Route's claim as a superior
line, whose motto is " Texas to the World. "
J. p. KELSEY.
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
759
JOHN PETER KELSEY,
RIO GRANDE CITY.
The Hon. John P. Kelsey is a natiye of the
Empire State, having been born in the now city of
Poughkeepsie, Duchess County, N. Y., January 11,
1818. His father, James Kelsey, was a master-
mechanic and an architect and builder, and also
perfected himself as a general carpenter, joiner
and ship- carpenter. He married Rachel Dubois.
They reared a family of ten children, only the
youngest of whom was a daughter.
John Peter Kelsey, of whom we here write, was
the fourth born of nine sons and, like his elder and
younger brothers, learned his father's trade and
became a master-mechanic. Our subject was an
ambitious and restless youth of twenty years when
he left the parental roof, and was possessed more
or less of the spirit of adventure and a burning
desire to see and " get on " in the world. Accord-
ingly, in January, 1838, he packed his tools, bid
adieu to home and friends, and went to Bingham-
ton, in Broome County, N. Y., where he worked for
five months at his trade. Later he pursued his
trade in Brooklyn, New York City, and Charles-
ton, S. C. In 1839 he came to Texas as mas-
ter-mechanic under contract with Messrs. A. H.
Southwick & Bros., of New York, who were en
route for Galveston, which our subject reached in
December of that year, with a cargo of building
material and supplies. He remained in Galveston
about eight months, in the meantime engaging in
speculation and merchandising. In 1840 he went
to Corpus Christi with a stock of arms, ammunition
and supplies, which he, in company with the late
and well-known Paul Bremond, had purchased with
a view to selling and delivering to General Canales.
The contemplated sale and delivery was success-
fully accomplished, and they afterwards left Cor-
pus Christi with the revolutionary party, which
consisted of about 120 Texas mounted volunteers,
and 160 mounted Mexican renegades. The whole
affair, as a revolutionary movement, proved a roar-
ing farce and a clever subtif uge to cross into Mexico
a lot of merchandise and munitions free of duty, as
no sooner had Canales reached Mexico than he
went through the form of a surrender to the author-
ities at Camargo and joined in a celebration of the
event.
The Texas contingent was sent by a different and
longer route to Mexico than that taken by the Mexi-
cans themselves and upon their arrival some days
later, learned to their dismay and chagrin of the
clever practical joke of which they had been
made the victim. They, of course, having scanty
supplies and little ammunition, disbanded, some
returning to Corpus Christi. The field officers and
merchants, upon invitation of the Mexican author-
ities, went immediately to Camargo, ostensibly to
receive pay for their trouble. Our subject accom-
panied them, but having no faith in the promises of
the Mexicans to pay, he promptly sought and found
employment at his trade, making the favorable ac-
quaintance of Don Mateas Ramirez, a wealthy and
influential Spanish gentleman, receiving from him
profitable employment and many social and bus-
iness courtesies. Through this distinguished friend
he made the acquaintance also of Gen. Arista,
who soon made a transfer of bis troops from Cam-
argo to Matamoros and cordially invited our
subject to accompany- them, which invitation he
accepted, and at Matamoros, with other Texian
comrades, embarked, via Brazos Santiago, on the
schooner Watchman for New Orleans, in March,
1841, and from that city returned to Galveston,
during the same month. There he met a brother
and others of the family, who had come to Texas
in the meantime. "With money advanced by this
brother, Mr. Kelsey purchased an assorted stock
of merchandise and sailed again for Corpus Christi,
up to that time, however, known as Aubury and
Kinney Ranche. There Mr. Kelsey commenced
selling goods in a canvas tent near the beach,
finally replacing it with a frame biiilding about
twenty feet square, in which he continued to do
business until September, 1842. Then, owing to
the extremely unsettled condition of affairs on the
frontier of Texas, trade had so far declined as to
make his stay unprofitable and he migrated once
more to the city of New Orleans. It is of interest
here to state that while located on Corpus Christi
bay, Mr. Kelsey ordered his not inconsiderable
mail addressed to Corpus Christi, there being no
land point on the maps indicating as to where he
was located. The mail coming by vessels and
schooners, he was therefore easily located by them
and his mail faithfully delivered. It is from this
fact and incident that the present promising city
of Corpus Christi derived its name.
In New Orleans, Mr. Kelsey again resumed work
at his trade, opening a house and ship-carpenter-
ing shop in Tehopitoulas street. This move was
not profitable and he, after making a business trip
to New York, returned to New Orleans, purchased
another stock of goods, and December 1st, 1843,
found him once more in business at his old store at
Corpus Christi. The following March he took in a
partner, one Richard H. Leach, and enlarged the
business, and up to May, 1845, had disposed of a
large quantity of goods at very satisfactory profits.
Our subject then left his partner with their Cor-
pus Christi store and, in company with a party of
fourteen Mexican traders, made a trip to Camargo,
760
INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Mexico. The journey was not made without
encounters with Indians in Mexico and incidents
characterized by more or less excitement and peril.
While at Camargo, he learned through the friendly
confidence of two of his former Mexican friends,
that a party of marauding Mexicans were there;
organizing to march upon Corpus Christi to massa-
cre the people and pillage and burn the town. Upon
learning of this contemplated raid upon the town,
Mr. Kelsey set out immediately for home and arrived
there in time to prepare the people for the recep-
tion of the party. Mr. Kelsey thereafter re-
mained at Corpus Christi until 1848, when he
moved to Rio Grande City and engaged in mer-
chandising. In 1856 he was elected Chief Justice
(now styled County Judge) of Starr County. In
1859 he was examined and admitted to practice
law in the courts of the State.
Judge Kelsey' s extensive and growing business
interests have ever precluded even a thought of
practicing law, even in the local courts, although
often pressed to do so. Up to 1860 he pursued the
even tenor of his occupation as merchant, attending
quietly also to his official duties at Rio Grande City.
Although a life-long and loyal Democrat, he had
been reared in the Jacksonian school of his party
and was unalterably opposed to the promulgated
doctrine of secession, upon the firm conviction that
it was wrong and would bring disaster and deso-
lation upon the country. He assumed, therefore, a
neutral attitude, and when Texas left the Union,
he left the State, transferring his mercantile opera-
tions to Camargo, Mexico, where he did an exten-
sive and profitable business until 1879, a period of
about eighteen years, and then returned to Rio
Grande City and resumed business at his old stand.
In 1882 he was again elected County Judge of
Starr County. He was re-elected in 1886 andl888.
Mr. Kelsey married, in October, 1847, Miss
Amanda Brooks, of Corpus Christi, and formerly
of Marietta, Ohio. She is a lady of many charming
qualities of mind and heart and has, for nearly half
a century, shared with him the pleasures of a
uniformly happy domestic life. They have one
daughter, Anna.
In what may be termed the evening of life, still in
full possession of all his faculties and blessed with
a vigorous constitution, he leads the quiet and
peaceful business life that becomes " the sage of
the Rio Grande Valley."
D. R. WINGATE,
ORANGE.
Judge D. R. Wingate, of Orange, Texas, was
born February 20th, 1819, in Darlington District,
South Carolina. His father, Robert P. Wingate,
was born in North Carolina, and his mother, Phar-
aba (Kelly) Wingate, in South Carolina. He was
educated in the public schools of Mississippi, walk-
ing three miies to the school house. He came to
Texas in 1845 with Judge Martin Fard and W. F.
Sparks, remained in the State about a month and
tlien returned to Mississippi. In April, 1852, he
returned to Texas, locating at Belgrade in Newton
County, where he remained until 1858, and then
moved to Sabine Pass, where he engaged in the
milling business and owned the largest mill in the
South. He remained at Sabine Pass until during
the war between the States, then removed to New-
ton County, where he remained until 1874, and then
went to Orange and again engaged in the lumber
business, building the first improved mill erected
at that place. Later, after suffering heavily from
two large fires, he formed and organized a stock
company and built the mill which he is now oper-
ating and which now has the lai'gest capacity of
any in the town. His first commercial ventures
were in stock-raising and milling in Louisiana in
1846. His success in life is to be attributed to
energy, strict integrity, capacity to plap and exe-
cute, and untiring attention to business. Starting
from the lowest rung, when mills were only sup-
plied with the old whip-saw, Mr. Wingate has
steadily made his way upward to his present posi-
tion as one of the leading mill-owners and financiers
in the South. He is a leading authority on all
matters pertaining to saw-milling, having been en-
gaged in the business during the greater part of
fifty years. Notwithstanding the fact that during
this time he has lost over half a million dollars by
fire, his perseverance and business abilities have
placed him again in the lead, and prosperity now
crowns his efforts. One of the noticeable features
of his career is that he has always taken advantage
of the opportunities that are incident to the open-
ing up and development of new countries. During
the late war, being too old for active service in the
field, he stayed at home and helped protect and
support the wives and children of Confederate
soldiers at the front.
At the beginning of the war he was appointed
Marshal of Southern Texas by Gen. Eber, and
intrusted with the duty of examining people coming
into and going out of the country. In 1863 he was
elected County Judge of Newton County, and
served as such until 1867, in that capacity render-
ing the country valuable service. He was consid-
ered one of the ablest County Judges in the State.
Hs is a Royal Arch Mason, and has been a member
of the fraternity for over fifty years.
Judge Wingate was married, September 19, 1839,
to Miss Caroline Morgan, of Mississippi, who died
February 4, 1890, at Orange, Texas. Seven chil-
dren were born to them, four of whom are living,
viz.: Mittie E., wife of Maj. B. H. Norsworthy,
of Orange ; Robert P. , a farmer living near Orange ;
W. J., a lawyer at Ballinger, Texas, and cashier
of the Ballinger National Bank ; and D. R. Win-
gate, Jr., a lumberman, at Uvalde, Texas. Judge
Wingate owns a large rice farm about six miles
from Orange, where he spends a part of his time
in recuperating his health. He is as supple as
many men of forty or fifty years of age, his mind
being as clear and vigorous as at any time in earlier
days.
JUDGE D. R. WINGATE.
I NDEX.
HISTORICAL.
PAGE.
Introduction 5
Mrs. JaneLong at Bolivar Point — 1820 9
The Cherokee Indians and their Twelve Asso-
ciate Bauds, etc 10
Cherokeeand Tehuacano Fight — 1830 13
First Settlement in Gonzales in 1825 — Attack
by Indians in 1826 — Battle of San Marcos,
etc 14
The Early Days of Harris County — 1824 to
1838 17
Fight of the Bowies with the Indians on the
San Saba, 1831 19
The Scalping of Willbarger and Death of
Christian and Strother, 1833 23
, Events in 1833 and 1835 — Campaigns of Old-
ham, Coleman, John H. Moore, Williamson,
Burleson and Coheen — Fate of Canoma —
Choctaw Tom — The Toncahuas 25
Attempted Settlement of Beales' Rio Grande
Colony, 1834 ; Failure and Sad Fate of
Some of ftie Colonists — Mrs. Horn and Sons
and Mrs. Harris Carried into Captivity 27
Heroic Taylor Family 38
Fall of Parker's Fort in, 1836— Van Dorn's
Victory, 1858 — Recovery of Cynthia Ann
Parker — Quanah Parker, the Comanche
Chief 39
Break-up in Bell County, 1836 — Death of
Davidson and Crouch, etc 43
Murder of the Douglas and Dougherty Families 45
Erath's Fight, January 7, 1837 46
Surveyor's Fight in Navarro County, October,
1838 47
Karnes' Fight on the Arroyo Seco, August 10,
1838 50
Captivity of the Putnam and Lockhart Chil-
dren 51
Texas Independence — Glimpse at the First
Capitals, Harrisburg, Galveston, Velasco,
Columbia — The First Real Capital, Hous-
ton, and Austin, the First Permanent Cap-
ital ' 53
PAGE.
Tragedies in Houston and Anderson Coun-
ties— Cordova's Rebellion, Battle of Kick-
apoo — Cremation at John Eden's House,
and Butchery of the Campbell Family 55
First Anniversary Ball in the Republic 58
Death of Capt. Robert M. Coleman and Mur-
der of Mrs. Coleman and Her Heroic Boy —
Battle of Brushy, 1839 61
Cordova's Rebellion, 1838-9 — Rusk's Defeat
of the Kickapoos — Burleson's Defeat of
Cordova — Rice's Defeat of Flores — Death
of Flores and Cordova — Capt. Matthew
Caldwell 62
Expulsion of the Cherokees from Texas, U839 66
Col. Burleson's Christmas Fight, 1839 — Death
of Chiefs John Bowles and the " Egg " 69
Bird's Victory and Death, 1839 70
Ben. McCuUoch's Peach Creek Fight, 1839.... 73
Moore's Defeat on the San Saba, 1839 75
Famous Council House Fight, San Antonio,
March 19, 1840 — Bloody Tragedy, Official
Details 76
Great Indian Raid of 1840 — Attack on Vic-
toria — Sacking and Burning of Linnville —
Skirmish at Casa Blanca Creek — Overthrow
of Indians at Plum Creek 78
Moore's Great Victory on the Upper Colorado,
1840 , 83
Raid into Gonzales and Pursuit of Indians by
Ben. McCulloch, 1841 84
Red River and Trinity Events, 1841 — Yeary
and Ripley Families — Skirmish on Village
Creek and Death of Denton — Expeditions
of Gens. Smith and Tarrant 85
Death of McSherry, Stinnett, Hibbins and
Creath — Capture of Mrs. Hibbins and Chil-
dren, 1842. .„ 88
Snively Expedition Against the Mexican Santa
Fe Traders, 1843 91
Thrilling Mission of Commissioner Joseph C.
Eldridge to Wild Tribes in 1843, by Older
of President Houston — The Treatv — Ham-
"(757)
768
INDEX.
PAGE.
ilton P. Bee, Thomas Torrey, the Three
Delawares, Jim Shaw, John Connor and Jim
Second Eye , 93
Murder of Mrs. Hunter, Daughter and Servant 100
Captivity of Simpson Children, Murder of
Emma and the Eeeovery of Thomas, 1844... 101
Brief History of Castro' s Colony 102
Chihuahua El Paso Pioneer Expedition, 1848.. 104
Bloody Days of Bastrop 106
Eaid into Gonzales and De Witt Counties,
1848 — Death of Dr. Barnett, Capt. John
York and Others— Death in 1850 of Maj.
C. G.Bryant 107
Southwest Coast in 1850 — Henry McCulIoch's
Fight on the San Saba, 1851 109
Governor Fitzhugh Lee's hand-to-hand Fight
with an Indian Warrior, 1855 Ill
PAGE.
Van Dorn's Fight at the Wichita's Village,
Oct. 1, 1858 1^2
A Story of Gen. Lee — His Attack of Savages
in 1860, on His Way to the Eio Grande 113
Raid in Burnet County, 1861 — Death of
James Gracey — George Baker and Family's
Escape — Escape of John H. Stockman, a
Boy 114
Raid into Cooke County, December, 1863 115
Murder of Mrs. Hamleton and Children, Tar-
rant County, April, 1867 118
Bloody Raid into Cooke County, 1868 119
Indian Massacres in Parker County, 1858-1873 121
Heroism of Dillard Boys, 1873 123
Don Lorenzo De Zavala 124
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
A. PAGE.
Abercrombie, L. A .-. , 657
Adler, Fritz 490
Ahrenbeck, B. H 433
Aiken, W.B 221
Allen, Samuel L 864
Allen, Augustus C 357
Allen, Robert A., 498
Alley, Wm. W 532
Alley, John R 532
Aldredge, George N 258
Amsler, Charles 506
Armistead, W. T 361
Armstrong, Frank B 591
Astin, James H 514
Austin, John 604
Austin, Moses, and Stephen Fuller 729
Ayers, D. Theo 452
B.
Ball, George 155
Baker, Waller S 361
Ballinger, Wm. Pitt 376
Bates, Joseph 546
Baugh, Levin P 454
Bauer, Henry 523
Barnes, A. H 423
Barnhill, John B 533
Beaton, Alexander j... 250
Becton, E. P 212
Benavides, Santos 613
Bender, Henry 544
Beierle, Sebastian 554
Bland, J 666
Blake, Bennett 298
Blesse, F. V 705
PAGE.
Blum, Leon 281
Blumberg, Ernst 496
Blossman, E. G 651
Boerner, Henry 488
Boerner, C. W 505
Bozman, R. W 500
Bonham, J. B 131
Boone, H. H 363
Bonner, M. H...' 652.
Bonner, George S 411
Bonnet, J. A 616
Bowie, Rezin P. and James 134
Braches, Mrs. Sarah Ann 246
Briscoe, Andrew 237
Briscoe, Mrs. Mary Jane 168
Brown, J.M 712
Brown, R. A 543
Browne, James G 555
Brooks, Joseph 438
Brosig, F. W 439
Bryan, Moses Austin 168
Burkitt, George W 387
Burleson, R. C 656
Burnet, David G 128
Burnett, J. H 33,5
Burvier, W. C 523
Butler, M 706
C.
Cabell, Wm.L 254
Call, Dennis 467
Call, George 469
Callahan's Fight in Mexico 601
Caldwell, John 225
INDEX.
759
PAGE.
Calvert, E 638
CanutesoD, 0 727
Carr, L. W ...".". 4.4,^
Carpenter, E. S 664
Carpenter, John C 576
Carstanjen, Rudolph 4S9
Carson, Thomas 410
Carr Family of Bryan 193
Cartwright, M 632
Christian, Ed 422
Chittenden, Wm. L 608
Clark, George 187
Clemens, Wm 330
Cole, James 510
Cole, J. P .■.■.;; 681
Cole Family of Bryan 199
Combe, Chas. B 592
Connor, Orange C 222
Cook, H. M 615
Cooper,S. B 691
Coreth, Ernst 489
Cox, E. Tom 623
Cox, C. R 675
Coyner, C. L 368
Cranford, J. W 626
Craddock, J. T 709
Croft, William 211
Cross, John S 481
Cummings, Joseph 708
Culberson, Chas. A 741
Curry, Putnam B 575
D.
Daggett, E. M , 682
Dancy, J. W 484
Dalzell, Robert 681
Darlington, J. W , 690
Davidson, W. L 710
Davis, John H. P 312
Davis, Wm. Kinchin , 308
Dawson, Mrs. Mary E 500
De Bona, L 426
Devine, Albert E .. 514
Devine, Thomas J , 220
Dewees, J. 0 665
Dletert, William 520
Dignowity, Mrs. A. J 243
Dignowity, A. M , 241
Doscb, Ernest 495
Downs, P. L 627
Driscoll, A. P 449
Dudley, James G 251
Duncan, J. M 726
Dunn, George H 432
Dunn, W. W 556
Durant, G. W 566
Durst, J. H 612
Dyer, J. E 440
E.
Easley, S. A 653
Easterwood, H. B 417
Ebeling, Edward 569
Eberly, Mrs. Angelina Belle 602
PAGE.
Eckhardt Family, The 338
Edge, Wm. B 719
Eikel, Andrew 502
Elbel, Gottlieb 492
Elmendorf, Henry 326
Elliott, William 510
Ennis, Cornelius and Wife 324
Esser, Chas 719
Evans, Andrew H 400
F.
Faltin, August 524
Fenn, John Rutherford 301
Ferris, Justus W 372
Fest, Sr., Simon 568
Field, Henry M 482
Finley, Newton W 419
Fischer, Andrew 519
Fischer, Herman E 472
Fisher, Wm. S 140
Fitzgerald. Alexander 690
Ford, W. H 711
Fordtran, Chas 524
Forcke, A 694
Forto, E. C 715
Foster, R.B. S -. 717
Fossett, Samuel 574
Fowler, Chas 178
Fuller, Louis T 507
G.
Gardner, Alfred S 545
Garrity, James 319
Gayle, G. W 673
Garwood, H. M 718
Gerfers, Theodore 458
Getzendaner, W. H 755
Gibbs, Barnett 720
Giddings, J. D 209
Giddings, De Witt Clinton 385
Gilmer, Alexander 195
Glascock, Thomas 738
Glasscock, Sr., G. W 273
Glasscock, Jr., G. W 274
Gonzales, Francis De Paul 389
Gonzales, Thomas 297
Goodman, C. L 451
Goodrich, L. W 345
Gordon, Isabella H 2O6
Gray, Edgar P 425
Graves, F. R 365
Graves, J. W 665
Gregg, Elbert L 344
Green, Edward H. R 424
Gresham, W 349
Groos, J. J 222
Groos, Charles 288
Grossgebauer, Chas 539
Griffith, L. E 400
Griesenbeck, Chas 496
Gruene, Sr., Ernest 491
Gruene, Henry D 616
Guenther, Carl H 216
Guinn^ J. D ^263
760
INDEX.
H. PAGE.
Haerter, Constantln 445
Hamilton, H.J 607
Hamilton, A. J 619
Harlan, E 570
Harlan, S. D 634
Harlan, Joseph 569
Hardy, Kufus 563
Hart, JohnT 554
Hardeman, William P 396
Harris, A 716
Harris, J. R 236
Harris, Andrew J 320
Hartley, O. C 186
Hancock, George 253
Harrison, William M 647
Hardins, The 413
Hanisch, Paul 470
Hampe, Frederick 533
Hayes, William R 666
Harz, Ferdinand 600
Hausser, William 465
Hearne, H. R 264
Helton, J. K 427
Henderson, Robert M 359
Henry, Francis M 556
Herring, M. D 350
Herndon, J. E 543
Hebert, Joseph 551
Hebert, Joseph M 551
Higgins, JacobC 323
Hill, W. M. C 633
Hirsch, David 412
Hitchcock, H. M 630
Hobron, C. B 627
Hobbs, George 362
Hodges, J. C 391
Hogg, James S 742
Holekamp, Frederick 520
Holland, Sam. E 304
Horlock, Robt. A 431
House, T. W 321
Houston, Sam 639
Houston & T. C. R. R 761
Hoxcy, Asa v446
Howard, H. C 360
Howell, John 722
Hudgins, W. T.., 691
Hughes, Wm. G 483
Hume, Francis C 327
Hunt, Wm. G 481
Hurlbut, B. E 480
Hutchings, John H 152
Hynes, L. J 722
I.
Imboden, W. M 673
Ireland, John 659
J.
Jagou, Celestin 223
Jackson, James 421
Jarvis, J. J 268
Jeanings, Thomas J ,..,, 370
PAGE.
Jester, G. T 674
Johnson, Jefferson 390
Johnson, S. M 644
Jones, Henry 311
Jones, H. K 328
Jones, John Maxwell 331
Jones, Randall 603
Jones, Wiley 314
K.
Karger, Emil 477
Karger, Chas «..■■ 536
Kalteyer, Fred 272
Kearby, J. C 522
Keidel, Albert 571
Kelly, Wm 559
Kelsey, John Peter 759
Kempner, H 278
Kenedy, Mifflin 229
Kenedv, Mrs. P. V 232
Kenedy, John G 232
Keonnecke, August -. 473
Kerr, James 139
Kidd, Robert 565
Kidd, G. W 565
Kimbrough, R. S 624
Kimball, R 541
King, Richard 269
Kingsbury, W. G 552
Kleck, John 627
Klemme, Chas 653
Knibbe,Chas 492
Knibbe, August 535
Knibbe, Herman 488
Knight, Wm. M 441
Kleberg, R. J 289
Koch, Fritz 534
Koch, Antone 487
Kopperl, Moritz 295
Kott, Richard 509
Kreigner, Ed. R 650
L.
Lacy, Ewin 494
Langham, J. B 530
Landa, Joseph 270
Landes, Daniel 352
Landes, H. A 353
Lawler, James 549
Level, D. M 720
Lewis, I. R X72
Lewis, Chas 330
Leasch, Fred 490
Leistikow, Chas 492
Lasker, M 53^
Lightfoot, H. W 73(3
Lipscomb, Y. Gaines 502
Lott, Robt. A 430
Loughery, R. W jgO
Luby, James 0 504
Ludwig, Henry 59^
Lumpkin, J.J 425
Lumpkin, Simon H 412
Jjutcher, Henry J , ,.., j64
INDEX.
761
M.
PAGE.
Marx, Marx 279
Markward, John 234
Mathis, T. H 702
Matlock, A. L 709
Masterson, J. R 303
Maxey, S. B 655
Maynard, W. E 528
Meuly, Conrad 648
Meyer, C. J. H 590
Metcalf, J. N 409
McAlpine, J. A 501
McCord^ Felix J 586
McFadden, David 529
McFadden, Wm 337
McGeehee, Sr,, C. L 618
McLean, Wm. P 344
Milam, Ben. R 132
Miller, JohnT 596
Miller, W. R 583
Miller, Leopold 547
Michel, John A 597
Mitchell, J. H 287
Mitchell, Harvey.. 593
Moody, W. L 38L
Morgan, Alvin 516
Moore, J. E 606
Moore, William J 477
Moore, Thomas 395
Morris, T. J 439
Moss, C. T 444
Moss, James R 442
Moye, Albert 224
Munson, M. S 573
Murphy, Daniel 646
N.
Neale, William 699
Nimitz, Sr.,C. H 418
Norsworthy, B. H 598
Nowlin, Peyton W 484
Norton, N. L 697
O.
Obst, Gottlieb 553
O'Brien, G. W 266
Ogden, Charles W 518
Ogden, Wesley 517
Ohlrich, Charles 486
Oliver, T.J 625
Oppenheimer, M. L 396
Owen, John H 532
P.
Padgitt, Mrs. Kate Ross 318
Parker, Milton 578
Parks, Isaac 672
Pantermuehl, Henry 539
Parrish, L. H 628
Parrott, R. B ■ 348
Pease, E. M 201
Pendleton, G. C 577
PAGE.
Perner, Fred ^78
Perry, G. L 508
Peters, E. S 5S0
Peters, Stephen 645
Peters, Mrs. M. W 645
Pieper, August 536
Pillot, Eugene 577
Policy, J. B 219
Potter, C 692
Prendergast, D. M 256
Priess, John 704
Pritchett, B. F 585
Proctor, Geo. K ■■• 508
Puckett, T. H 542
R.
Rabb, G. A 650
Rabb, John 391
Rainey, Anson 462
Raymond, J. H 166
Read, D. C 505
Remler, Gabriel 472
Richter, Henry 491
Richardson, Willard 190
Riddle, W. 1 643
Roberts, F. G 437
Roberts, Wm. C 451
Robertson, S. C 392
Robertson, James H 286
Robertson, James M..... 428
Rodriguez, J. M 676
Roman, Richard 142
Rompel, Carl 465
Rose, A. T 676
Rose, A. J 695
Ross, L. S 317
Ross, S. P 315
Rosser, Chas. M 629
Rosenberg, H 143
Rosenberg, W. von 388
Rosenberg, Wm. von 283
Rowan, L. H., D. H., and W. A 518
Runge, Julius 312
Rusk, J.J 635
Rust, August 579
Ryon, William 309
S.
Sanchez, Santiago 620
Sanger, Samuel 307
Sanger, Philip 305
San Miguel, R 580
Saner, J. D 572
Salter, Chas. P 501
Saunders, X. B 342
Saxon, Chas .' 571
Scarborough, E. M 456
Schmidt, Gustav 618
Schmidt, Jacob 459
Schmidt, Christopher 536
Scherff, Ernst 566
Schodts, M 723
762
INDEX.
PAGE.
Schwope, Charles 572
Schandna, John 588
Schnabel, John 528
Schaeffer, Franz 477
Schumacher,H 416
Sealy, John 149
Sealy, George 159
Sears, J, H 637
Serger, Emil 471
Shaw, M. W 725
Shaw, W. A 621
Shaeffer, Franklin W 447
Sheldon, B.M 550
Shepherd, B. A 688
Slaughter, G. W 668
Slaughter, C. C 670
Slaughter, Mrs. C. C 671
Sledge, E. J 612
Sholars,S. W 493
Simpson, Chas. T 515
Silliman, Chas. H 429
Simkins, E. J 313
Skinner, Roswell 478
Slayden, S. W 277
Smith, Fayette 497
Smith, Joel P 503
Smith, John P 754
Smith, Joseph F 649
Smith, Sara. S 444
Smith, Brooke 459
Smith, S. H 403
Smithson, B. F 539
Spence, Robert 499
Stafford, John 260
Standefers, The 384
Startz, A. G 472
Stein, Louis 465
Steel, A. L 495
Stone, William 587
Stonehams 217
Sueltenfuss, C. H 470
Swayne, J. W 626
Swearingen, R. M 747
T.
Talbot, James 538
Talbot, Romanus 537
Taylor, M. A 275
Terrell, E. H 377
Terrell, A. W 559
Terrell, J. C 756
Theis, Jacob 459
Thomas, E. B 740
Thomas, Frank 567
Thomas, W. H 700
Thompson, J. B 723
Tidwell, C. W 428
Tivy, J. A 264
Tolle, August 568
Townsen, O. H. P 463
Traylor, J. H 346
Trent, D. H 401
Trueheart, H. M 258
V.
PAGE.
Vanderstucken, F 487
Van Zandt, Isaac 511
Van Zandt, Mrs. F. C 513
Vaughn, Chas. V 458
Voges, Sr., Henry 537
Voges, Jr., Henry 498
Voges, Jr., Charles 491
Voges, Fritz 523
Vogel, Otto 535
Vogt, William 493
Voeicker, Julius 471
Voelcker, Emil 515
W.
Wahrenberger, J 436
Wahrmund, Max 554
Wallis, J. E 366
Walton, Geo. S 286
Wahrmund, Emil 545
Warren, Sr., John 552
Watson, S. E , 582
Watson, A. E 540
Ward, J. C 390
Waul, T. N 677
Weakley, J. C 466
Weidner, Wm , 521
Weinheimer, John 534
Weber, J. J 583
West, Chas. S 189
Westfall, Wm. H 196
Westbrook, T. C 207
Wheelock, E. L. R 271
White, H. K 420
White.R. N 702
Willie, A. H 332
Willis, R. S 374
Willis, P. J 589
Wilson, L. J 434
Wilson, N. C 435
Wilson, T. D 450
Williamson, R. M 404
Williams, J. M 449
Williams, Henry S 535
Wiess, Simon 473
Wingate, D. R 760
Wood, J. H ',\\'\ 683
Woodman, G. W 681
Woodhouse, H. E 534
WoUschlaeger, Andraes 438
Wortham, Wm. A 707
Wynne, R. M \\\\\ 261
Y.
Yarborough, James Quincy 433
York, John * ggi
Z.
Zimpelman, G. B 394
Zipp, John M 541
m.
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