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A HISTORY
OF
Central and Western
Texas
Compiled from Historical Data Supplied by Commercial
Clubs, Individuals, and Other Authentic Sou-rces,
Under the Editorial Supervision of
CAPTAIN B. B. PADDOCK
OF FORT WORTH
X
ILLUSTRATED,
VOL. I
V.I
THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
CHICAGO NEW YORK
1279731
PREFACE
The work undertaken in this publication is designed as a record of
progress of Central and Western Texas up to the close of the first decade
of the twentieth century. Introductory to the review of Central and
Western Texas as a distinct portion of the state, is a Brief History of
Texas, which, while being a complete and new version of narrative his-
tory, has been written primarily as a proper setting for the local history.
A large amount of material has been published which is chiefly interest-
ing as local history. Without burdening the general narrative, care has
been taken to preserve as much as possible of the history of towns, com-
munities and institutions, the result being a work of general information
upon the country described by the title. By means of a copious index, it
is behaved that all the information is readily available to those using the
volumes for reference.
The subject matter has been derived from the most reliable sources
available. The historical manuscript has been carefully revised, and in
every case the personal data has been submitted to those concerned.
CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER I
Exploration and Discovery — La Salle's Colony 3
CHAPTER n
Spanish Entradas — Establishment of Missions 10
CHAPTER HI
Permanent Occupation by Spain 14
CHAPTER IV
Founding of San Antonio — Missions and Presidios of the
Spanish Frontier 19
CHAPTER V
Texas During the Last Half of the Eighteenth Century. ... 27
CHAPTER VI
American and Spanish Civilizations Meet in Louisiana — First
Stages of the Inevitable Conflict 32
CHAPTER VII
Position of Texas at the Beginning of the Nineteenth
Century 37
CHAPTER VIII
The Revolt Against Spanish Despotism — The Burr Conspiracy 43
CHAPTER IX
The First Decade of the Nineteenth Century 52
CHAPTER X
Revolutionary Movements in Texas, 1810-1820 56
CHAPTER XI
The Republic of Mexico — Austin's Colony 68
vi CONTENTS
PAGE
CHAPTER XII
Colonies Under the Empresario System 78
CHAPTER XIII
Relations with Mexico — The Fredonian War 83
CHAPTER XIV
The Texas Colonies Under Federal Regulation 89
CHAPTER XV
The Conventions of 1832 and 1833 95
CHAPTER XVI
Events Leading to the Revolution 102
CHAPTER XVII
The Campaign of 1835 112
CHAPTER XVIII
The General Consultation and Provisional Government 118
CHAPTER XIX
Alamo and Goliad 122
CHAPTER XX
The Constitutional Convention and Declaration of Inde-
pendence 129
CHAPTER XXI
The Winning of Independence — San Jacinto 132
CHAPTER XXII
Texas as a Republic 141
CHAPTER XXIII
The Annexation of Texas 158
CHAPTER XXIV
The State of Texas^ 1845 to 1861 164
CONTENTS vii
PAGE
CHAPTER XXV
The Civil War Period 177
CHAPTER XXVI
Reconstruction 185
Central and Western Texas 191-202
The Live Stock Industry 203-236
A Brief History of Railroad Construction 237-261
CENTR.'SiL AND WESTERN TexaS CoUNTIES 262-882
BRIEF HISTORY OF TEXAS
CHAPTER I
Exploration and Discovery — La Salle's Colony
The story of Texas begins with the time when the first civihzed man
beheld its low-lying shores from the waters of the gulf, or in exploration
or quest of settlement set foot upon its soil. It is true, for centuries
before the caravels of Columbus sailed to the unknown Occident, the
wild native tribes passed and repassed over what we now know as Texas.
They set up their huts on the broad prairies or in the shelter of the
woodlands, they sometimes planted and harvested scanty crops of vege-
tables and grain, more often they hunted the bufifalo with bow and arrow
and netted or speared the fish of the rivers, and they marauded and
made war. They had their joys and sorrows, their loves and hates ;
among them were degrees of skill and stupidity; they recognized that
some must command and the rest obey ; and mingling with the few
realities was the thread of the mysterious, the awe and terror of the
elements about them, and a certain faith or superstition of their fate
after death.
The Indians existed, but the day circumscribed all their acts and
purposes. Institutions they had not, the fabric of organized society
showed only the most primitive patterns. They were in the various stages
of barbarism. At the beginning of the sixteenth century these creatures
of the forest and plain had not reached the state of mental and social
development which had been attained by races on the far-away plains of
Mesopotamia and in the Nile valley three thousand years before.
The places inhabited by these red men were as they had been for
ages. Their abodes and their society were swept away in the same
hour which noted their own departure — no architecture, no art, no indus-
tries, no laws descend from the aborigines of Texas as a heritage of
humanity. The Indian in early American history had a status not unlike
that of the wild animal — something to be reckoned with by civilized
3
4 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
men as an element of danger or assistance, but not as a fellow being
nor yet as a foundation for a stable society and system of institutions
Indeed, as will be noticed hereafter, every attempt by the Spanish
or the French to impose the civilization and government of Europe upon
the Indian tribes of America found the barbarians unequal to such respoiv
sibilities, and all such Utopias and American empires were from the first
doomed to failure. The Indians could not amalgamate with or form a
part of new world civilization, and even now after centuries of association
and training accommodate themselves imperfectly to citizenship.
Therefore, despite the presence of the Indian tribes, Texas was,
from the standpoint of historical narrative, one vast barren at the begin-
ning of the sixteenth century. And even after the advent of the first
European to the gulf coast, two centuries passed before the region was
sought for purpose of occupation and settlement. Knowledge of the
Texas country had progressed so little that during the last years of the
seventeenth century the impression prevailed among such eminent French-
men as La Salle that the Red river was the northern boundary of Mexico,
thus entirely eliminating from the geography of the time the vast terri-
tory from the Rio Grande to Red river.
In a very vague and general way the land bordering the Gulf of
Mexico became known to Europeans in the sixteenth century. By the
discoveries of Ponce de Leon and others all this country was claimed
by Spain and was known by the name of Florida, comprising all the
region westward from the present state of that name to Mexico, and
including the portion since called Texas, but which at that time was
almost a terra incognita, without name and boundaries.
The first well authenticated visit of Europeans to Texas is that of
the Panfilo de Narvaez expedition, which set out to explore the gulf
coast from Florida. The enterprise met with disaster. Among those
thrown upon the shores was Cabeza de Vaca, who with several com-
panions endeavored to find his way overland into Mexico. The route
of his wandering journey, as studied from his testimony, probably began
at some point on the coast in southern Texas, and continued westerly
to the Rio Grande. His narrative of the wanderings are the first written
accounts of any portion of the Texas country, and the date of his ad-
ventures was about 1535.
About ten years later, Coronado, after his conquest of New Mexico,
in a fruitless expedition which led him as far north as Kansas, crossed
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 5
Northwest Texas, and his chronicler describes the buffaloes and the
Indian hunters of the Staked Plains. There is some reason to believe
that Hernando de Soto, on his ill-fated march from Florida to the Mis-
sissippi, also penetrated some portion of North Texas. The fact that
Spain was in actual possession of Florida from 1565 and much before
that time had conquered and established an empire in Mexico, makes it
reasonable to suppose that expeditions between the two seats of settle-
ment crossed the intervening country of Texas, though without adding
anything to our knowledge of this region.
Until the last years of the seventeenth century Texas is nearly bare
of annals. Spanish ambition and conquest were in the meantime pushing
north from the central kingdom of Mexico, and the expeditions of priest
and soldier added somewhat to the knowledge of the region to the east
of the pueblos and mines of New Mexico. Various adventurers, for their
personal fame or other designs, invented many stories concerning the
wealth, magnificence and civilization of the country northeast of Mexico.
A more truthful chronicler was Alonzo Paredes, who in 1686 rendered
a report, honest and fairly accurate, describing the status and geograhpy
of the country. He pronounced the wealthy kingdoms to be fiction, but
told of tribes of Indians living along the coast who subsisted by agri-
culture and were superior to the roaming tribes further west ; also speaks
of various rivers, although the many streams flowing toward the gulf
make such references in early Texas history confusing. Along certain
of these rivers, probably between the Colorado and the Trinity, mention
is made of a race of superior Indians, the Tejas.
This is the first occurrence of the name which subsequently was ap-
plied to the province, republic and state. Various interpretations of the
name and its origin have been assigned. Bancroft says-: "Tejas (Tehas)
was the name of one of the tribes in the south, as the Spaniards under-
stood it from their neighbors, rather than from the people themselves.
This word, or another of similar sound, was probably not the aboriginal
name of the tribe, or group of tribes, but a descriptive term in their
language or that of their neighbors. Indeed, there is some evidence
that the word meant 'friends.' The name was retained by the Spanish
and applied to the province. It was sometimes written in old-style Span-
ish, Texas (Tejas and Texas are both pronounced in Spanish, tay-liass),
and this form has been adopted in English with a corresponding change
in pronunciation."
6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The first definite and important event in the history of Texas is a
tragedy. Nearly two centuries passed after the journey of Cabeza de
Vaca before the first real occupation of Texan soil was attempted. And
as die story of this venture is in itself a drama, likewise is it the last act
in the tragic career of one who "without question was one of the most
remarkable explorers whose names live in history."
While, as we have seen, during all these years Texas was nominally
a possession of Spain, it was reserved for a party of men under the fleur
de its of France to plant the first settlement on its shores.
Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, known to history as La Salle,
had, during the last half of the seventeenth century, by exploration and
the planting in the western wilderness of fortified outposts, gained over
to France all the vast region bordering the Great Lakes and along the
eastern tributaries of the Mississippi, and had journeyed down to the
mouth of the Father of Waters itself. By building a fort on an im-
pregnable rock in the Illinois river he has given the French a com-
manding position as the center of a great Indian confederacy. Thence
he prepared to extend New France southward to the gulf. With the
French already in possession from the mouth of the St. Lawrence to the
headwaters of the Mississippi, it was his ambition to secure control of
the Mississippi from source to mouth, thus confining the English colo-
nies to the narrow Atlantic coast.
His scheme involved the placing of forts near the mouth of the river,
where he had already set up the French flag in 1682 and named the
country Louisiane in honor of his king. To get permission to carry
out these plans La Salle returned to France. His memorial to Louis XIV
described the advantages of possessing this western country, dwelling on
the possibilities of an invasion of Mexico with its rich mines of silver
and gold. His petition was granted in 1684, and the zealous explorer at
once made ready for the enterprise which was to crown all his past efforts
in the wilds of America.
The expedition which sailed from France in 1684 consisted of four
ships, the Joli, the Belle, the Aimable, and the St. Francis ; some three
hundred persons — a hundred soldiers recruited from the dregs of the
French populace ; some gentlemen volunteers, besides professed me-
chanics, laborers, some maidens who embarked with the hope of procur-
ing husbands, RecoUet friars, and three priests, one of whom was
Cavelier, La Salle's brother. Such a motley company, the counterpart
of many others sent out from Europe to America during the seventeenth
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 7
century, contained too little of moral character and hardy industry to
effect a permanent colony. All the stamina of this expedition was in the
leader, who was powerless to carry out his vast plans alone.
Embarrassments beset the enterprise from the first. Beaujeu, com-
mander of the fleet, was insubordinate and antagonized La Salle, whose
haughtiness and unwillingness to share his command with others finally
brought ruin both to himself and his undertaking. The first serious
misfortune was the loss of the store-ship St. Francis, which was cap-
tured by the Spaniards and gave the viceroy the first information of an
expedition to Spanish territory. Then, when the fleet reached San
Domingo, La Salle was stricken with fever, and during two months of
illness his followers pursued all manner of vice and dissipation on the
island. Finally La Salle on the Aimable, followed by the Joli and Belle,
headed for the mouth of the Mississippi. He was in uncharted waters,
and when land was sighted it lay far to the west of his goal. He coasted
the shore for some distance in search of the river, and finally entered
Matagorda bay, which he believed to be one of the mouths of the Missis-
sippi. Here came another disaster. The Aimable was wrecked in cross-
ing the bar, and all her stores and supplies were lost.
La Salle was convinced that he had reached the delta of the Mis-
sissippi, and a few weeks later Beaujeu, on the Joli, sailed for France,
leaving the bold explorer with one hundred and eighty persons and
the ship Belle to hold the outposts of French dominion on the gulf. He
was hundreds of miles distant from the Mississippi, with no possibility
of communication with the fort on the Illinois, and his colony had none
of the hardy pioneers needed for permanent settlement — a germ of
civilization destined to blight and decay and final annihilation.
A short distance up the La Vaca river a place was chosen for the
seat of settlement; where to the north lay alternate grassy prairies and
belts of woodland, and to the south the blue waters of the bay; the ver-
dure of a semi-tr epical climate surrounded them, and fruit, game and
fish abounded. A fort, called St. Louis, was constructed. Even in this
work appeared the unsubstantial character of the colony. "Carpenters
and other mechanics knew nothing of their pretended trades ; slight
attempts at agriculture were not successful. The vagabond soldiers and
settlers had no idea of discipline ; many of them were suffering from
deadly and loathsome diseases contracted in San Domingo ; and the
leading men were divided into hostile cliques, several minor conspiracies
being revealed. The leader showed unlimited courage, but became more
8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
haughty and unjust as difficulties multiplied, and was hated by many
in his company."*
La Salle made several expeditions in search of the Mississippi, but
each time returned unsuccessful, after having endured incredible hard-
ships in fording the swollen streams and marching under the southern
sun. The wreck of the Belle removed from the survivors the last means
of escaping the country by sea. At the beginning of 1687 hardly fifty
persons were alive at the fort, yet the iron heart of the leader was still
unsubdued.
The only remaining hope seemed to lie in the possibility of opening
communication with Canada or the brave Tonti at the fort of the Illinois.
Accordingly, in January, 1688, La Salle, taking about half the men at the
fort, bade farewell and set out to the northeast for Canada. The party
had reached the banks of the Neches, and in the vicinity of that river,
in an obscure spot that history can probably never mark, the first Texas
pioneer was struck down by his treacherous companions. The con-
spirators had contrived to separate the company and had first murdered
La Salle's nephew and two followers. They then lured the leader him-
self into an ambuscade and cowardly shot him.
Thus came to his end, on Texas soil, one of the foremost men of
early American history. Although his last resting place beside one of
the chief rivers cannot be definitely ascertained, his name must always
remain as the first on the Texas roil of fame. In the words of Parkman,
"he was a hero not of principle nor of faith, but simply of a fixed idea
and a determined purpose" ; in the end he had "attempted the impossible
and had grasped at what was too vast to hold."
Of the party which accompanied La Salle, the conspirators nearly
all met violent deaths, while the friends of the commander eventually
reached the Mississippi and rejoined their countrymen in Canada.
And lastly the little band at Fort St. Louis on the La Vaca passed
into oblivion. The story of their end reached the world through the
Indians and the Spaniards. Smallpox scourged the remnant of twenty
persons, and toward the end of 1688 the Indians fell upon them and with
arrows and knife dispatched all but four or five, who were carried into
captivity, and subsequently delivered to the Spaniards. "In ignominy and
darkness died the last embers of the doomed colonv of La Salle." When
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 9
the two or three cabins and fortified houses vv^ere finally discovered by
the soldiers from Mexico, they were deserted and going to decay, with
only a few broken guns and torn papers as evidence of the occupation
by civilized men.
CHAPTER II
Spanish Entradas — Establishment of Missions
In the meantime the capture of the store-ship St. Francis had
aroused the Spanish, who were extremely jealous of any invasion of
territory embraced in the limits of their world-wide claims. While the
French colony was still meagerly existing along the bay of Espiritu
Santo the ships of Spain were scouring the coast bent on its destruction.
At last, guided by one of La Salle's former followers, Alonzo de Leon
of Coahuila marched with a force of one hundred men across the rivers
of southern Texas, to which he gave their present names, and in April,
1689, arrived at Fort St. Louis. Here he found a scene of desolation.
With this evidence that the French settlement had come to destruction
through its own weakness and discord, he returned to Mexico.
The information by which Captain Leon had found Fort St. Louis
was supplied through Fray Damian Manzanet, a missionary friar in Coa-
huila, who had inquired among the Indian converts at the mission and
ascertained that the French were established among the northern Indians
along the coast. Friar Manzanet accompanied de Leon on his expedition
in 1689, as chaplain, and was diligent in his inquiries concerning the tribes
associated under the name Tejas. While the Tejas chief was being
entertained at the Spanish camp on the Guadalupe river, Manzanet urged
upon him the acceptance of Christianity for himself and people, and,
meeting with encouragement, promised to send priests to his villages.
Thus was conceived the Tejas mission.
The news about the Texan country, combined with rumors about
further attempts at occupation by the French, led the Spanish viceroy
of Mexico to send de Leon upon a second expedition. The arguments
of de Leon showing the value of occupying the region from a political
standpoint were reinforced by the accounts of Manzanet concerning the
splendid opportunities for advancing Christianity by establishing a mis-
sion among the tribes who had already declared their willingness to
accept conversion.
10
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. ii
This second expedition which set out from Coahuila, March 28,
1690, consisted of one hundred and ten soldiers, led by Captain Leon,
missionaries headed by Father Manzanet and three Franciscans. The
personnel of the company was little suited for the arduous work that
confronted them.
Stopping at the Guadalupe as before, a thorough search was made
for evidences of renewed activity on the part of the French, and the
dismantled fort on the bay of Espiritu Santo was burned to the ground.
The company then moved eastward to the country of the Tejas, or
Asinai, where they were received with much hospitality. A site for a
mission was chosen, and from the trees of the surrounding forest were
hewn the logs for the construction of the first church in Texas, it being
consecrated June i, 1690.
The village selected for the first missionary effort of Spain in Texas
was situated between the Trinity and Neches rivers, in East Texas.
The location has not been accurately determined, but it was south of Nac-
ogdoches, and perhaps nearer to Trinity bay. It was hundreds of miles
from the nearest Spanish tqwn, so that its isolation could hardly have
been more complete. And on the day after the consecration of the rude
little church. Captain Leon, leaving only three soldiers to protect the friars,
again plunged into the wilderness and marched back to Mexico. The
names of the three friars who thus endured the solitude and hardships
of the wilderness in their religious zeal deserve to be written ; they are,
Miguel Fontecuberta, Francisco de Jesus Maria, and Antonio Bordoy.
Father Manzanet returned with de Leon.
Left alone to maintain and spread the influence of the mission San
Francisco de los Tejas, the Friars had to contend with the difficulties
of their physical situation, with the indifference of the natives to their
teaching, with the aboriginal aversion to tribal consolidation and per-
manence of residence, and finally with pestilence. This last the Indian
medicine men were not slow to attribute to the baleful influence of the
new missionaries. During 1690-91 three thousand deaths occurred among
the tribes called Tejas. Father Fontecuberta himself fell a victim to
disease, and the other two had to bear increasing burdens and expose
themselves to increasing personal peril. The friars did all that human
effort could do. In June, 1690, a second mission had been built, probably
on the Neches river, being named Santisimo Nombre de Maria, and one
of the fathers gave his attention to the conversion of the tribes in this
vicinity.
12 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
After the establishment of the mission among the Tejas and the
return of the expedition, the royal authorities entered upon a plan for
extended occupation and Christianizing of Texas. Don Domingo Teran
de los Rios was appointed governor of Coahuila and Texas, and was in-
structed to organize an expedition by sea and by land, to explore the
region to the north of the Tejas and establish among the native tribes
eight missions.
The expedition, consisting of soldiers, friars and numerous attend-
ants, with droves of horses, pack animals and cattle, crossed the Rio
Grande on its northern march in the early summer of 1691. Teran was
military chief of the enterprise, while Father Manzanet was religious head
and also held the office of commissary. Their relations were not har-
monious, and the effectiveness of the expedition suffered from the dis-
cord. The failure of the forces that came by sea to effect a junction
with those on land at Espiritu Santo bay was another serious mis-
fortune.
When the governor arrived at San Francisco de los Tejas the account
given him of the past year was not encouraging. While the first governor
of Texas does not appear to have been a man of remarkable ability and
resourcefulness, he must also be judged by the almost insuperable diffi-
culties in the way of successful accomplishment of his enterprise. From
a military standpoint the undertaking was as yet little less than im-
possible, and the plans and ideals of the friars were impracticable.
After constituting the Tejas tribes a new province, and providing
for the protection and maintenance of missions. Governor Teran returned
to Espiritu Santo to meet the sea expedition. By the time this was done
and the mission again reached, it was the end of October, and on account
of the delays and the cross-purposes of the friars and the military much
of the spirit and energy was taken out of the enterprise. However, de-
spite the approach of cold weather, the governor determined to carry
out instructions for the exploration of the country of the Cadodachos.
With increasing hardships each day he continued north to the Red river,
which was reached late in November, and from that point, having accom-
plished only the most meagre results of exploration and treating with the
native tribes, he traced his way to the missions, where the wretched com-
pany arrived December 30th. A few days later they set out for Mexico.
From a military point of view the expedition was fruitless, and
scarcely more can be said for the missionary efforts. Not one of the
eight additional missions was established. In fact, the friars soon found
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 13
it impracticable to maintain the two original missions. The Indians were
giving trouble, the small guard of soldiers proved unruly, drouth blighted
the crops for two successive seasons, the cattle died of disease, and
Manzanet, after more than a year of unsuccessful effort, confessed to
the viceroy the impossibility of sustaining the establishment without
sufficient military protection. But with the fear of French aggression
allayed for the time, the government ceased to be concerned about Texas,
and on August 21, 1693, the priests were ordered to abandon the missions
and return to Mexico.
For twenty years thereafter Texas existed only in name, and over
the forts of the soldiers and the chapels of the priests the aboriginal
wilderness held sway as in the years before La Salle landed on the shores
of Espiritu Santo. The career of Texas contains many vicissitudes, and
by no means least interesting of her annals is the period beginning with
the advent of the indomitable Frenchman and closing with the withdrawal
of the Spanish missionaries — a drama played through all its scenes in less
than ten years.
As to the practical results of these first Spanish entradas, it is main-
tained''"' that these expeditions laid the foundations of experience on which
subsequent missionary enterprises were built. "That remote inland settle-
ments are difficult to establish, and more difficult to maintain ; that the
organization of an extensive system of missions must be the slow work
of years, and not the accomplishment of a summer campaign ; that the
conversion of even the most tractable of Indians must be a mingling of
force with persuasion ; and finally, that the mission could thrive only
when it existed side by side with the presidio, — these were the useful
deductions from Fray Damian Manzanet's costly experimenting." Fur-
thermore, through de Leon's and Teran's campaigns the geography and
physical nature of Texas first became a matter of accurate knowledge, a
knowledge that was available for all future expeditions.
* By Mr. E. C. Clark, in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. V, 201.
CHAPTER III
Permanent Occupation by Spain
As the colony of La Salle had first stimulated the Spanish to secure
Texas, so a second encroachment by the French led to the permanent
occupation of the region between the Rio Grande and the Sabine. The
Spaniards had little interest in extending their political dominion over
this territory, but their jealousy was quickly aroused by any intrusion
of other nations. Without such incentive to occupation, it is reasonable
to believe that Texas would have lain unoccupied throughout the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and would then have presented an
entirely open field to American enterprise and settlement.
Though the missions among the Tejas were abandoned in 1693, the
work of the friars in that quarter was not forgotten. The zeal of the
church to extend its work in this direction was much in advance of the
interest and plans of the government. A friar of Ouerataro, Francisco
Hidalgo, who had been with Manzanet among the Asinais, and in the
latter years of the century was in charge of the newly established mission
of San Juan Bautista, near the Rio Grande, all these years continued
his interest in his former converts. But for a long time missionary efifort
was confined south of the Rio Grande. Finally becoming discouraged,
Hidalgo set out alone to the Asinais and for several years labored among
them, hoping that his pioneer eflforts would be followed by some sub-
stantial aid from the south. Disappointed by Spain's policy of neglect
of Texas, he turned to the French of Louisiana.
At the opening of the eighteenth century, France had gained a strong
foothold at the mouth of the Mississippi. Fort Biloxi had been established
and the country north and along Red river was being exploited for
trade with the Indians. The extension of French influence was going
on rapidly and soon became a menace to Spanish influence in Mexico
and the Floridas. The French were much more enterprising and success-
ful in the Indian trade than the Spanish. In 1712 a monopoly of the
14
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 15
Louisiana trade for a period of fifteen years was granted to Antoine
Crozat, and he proceeded with much energy to occupy the field and
drew the trade of a broad territory toward the Mississippi. To further
his commercial schemes, he tried to negotiate some sort of trade agree-
ment with Mexico. The Spanish authorities at once took alarm and
declared a rigorous policy of "closed door" to all foreign nations. Thus
early did the Spanish exclusiveness assert itself in the conduct of the
American provinces.
But the opportunity came to the French from an unlooked for source.
His missionary zeal proving stronger than his patriotism, Hidalgo had,
in 171 1, written a letter to the governor of Louisiana, inviting his co-
operation in establishing a mission among the Asinais Indians. Here
was an excellent pretext for extending trade among the Texas tribes
and at the same time coming into relations with the Spanish that might
prove profitable from a commercial standpoint.
The outcome was that an expedition set out from Mobile in 1713,
its objects being stated in the passport dated September 12, 1713, as
follows : "The sieur de Saint Denis is to take twenty-four men and as
many Indians as necessary and with them go in search of the mission
of Fray Francisco Hidalgo in response to his letter of January 17, 171 1,
and there to purchase horses and cattle for the province of Louisiana."
Louis Juchereau de Saint Denis, the next important character in this
history, was an officer from Louisiana. In 1705 he is said to have trav-
ersed the countn,- from the Red river to the Rio Grande, and hi& long
familiarity with the Indian tribes and knowledge of their language gave
him eminent fitness for the leadership of this expedition.
The ostensible motives of the undertaking were thus two-fold, and
provided he conformed his actions to the instructions of his passport
his movements could hardly be interpreted as hostile to Spain. Arriving
at Natchitoches, the party built store-houses and left them under guard
as a base of supplies while they set out into Spanish territory. At the vil-
lage of the Asinais, where the old mission had been, they halted for six
months or more. There they were able to obtain horses and cattle in
great abundance, and this being the professed object of the expedition,
and not having found Hidalgo and hence unable to effect the restoration
of the mission, there was little reason for the continuance of the journey
inland. But Hidalgo had made himself much beloved by the Indians,
and they besought the help of St. Denis in efifecting his return to them.
Finallv, an Indian chief and some of his followers offering their services
i6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
as guides to the Spanish settlements, St. Denis set out for the Rio Grande.
The mission and presidio of San Juan Bautista, which was the north-
ermost Spanish post, located about two leagues south of the Rio Grande,
was then commanded by Captain Diego Ramon. Arriving there early in
1715, St. Denis gave the commander his passport and proposed the
establishment of trade relations between the Spanish and French.
The captain of the presidio received St. Denis kindly, but detained
him until he should receive instructions from the viceroy. In the mean-
time the Louisiana captain became enamoured of the commander's grand-
daughter, whom he afterward married. This may have influenced his
loyalty, for he is afterwards found acting, apparently, a double part.
With complete disinterest for his former employers, he advocated that
Spain should occupy Texas and pictured the many advantages that
would come through commerce and agriculture in that region. By the
viceroy's orders he was sent to Mexico, where he made a deposition of
all his purposes and plans in entering so boldly upon Spanish territory.
With the French firmly established on the lower courses of the
Mississippi, aggressively reaching out for commercial if not military con-
quest, and with one of their advance guards audaciously penetrating
Mexico and asking favors that Spanish policy had firmly forbidden, the
viceroy and his advisers felt that the need to occupy and protect the
northeastern border demanded immediate action.
During the summer of 1715 an expedition was organized. Domingo
Ramon was appointed its captain, and St. Denis himself was given a
salaried position in the company. Only a small body of regular soldiers
composed the military strength of the entrada, but to prevent the recur- .
rence of such evils as had undone the former invasions, only men of
family were sent along to accompany the priests, and the actual settlers
were equipped with agricultural implements and oxen. Padre Hidalgo,
who joined the company, now saw his hopes of many years about to be
realized. Early in 1716 the march was begun, and in April the band,
of sixty-five persons in all, with a great amount of baggage and live-stock,
left the Rio Grande under the guidance of St. Denis.
In June Captain Ramon arrived at the site of the abandoned mission
of San Francisco de los Tejas, and set to work re-establishing it. A new
site was selected about twelve miles away, and the building was soon
under way. Serving as the religious center for several tribes, it was
now named San Francisco de los Neches, with Hidalgo in charge. Among
the Asinais, nine leagues distant, was founded Purisima Concepcion; and
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 17
at the village of the Nacogdoches, the mission of Nuestra Senora de Gua-
dalupe, while some twenty miles away was mission San Jose. A little
later two other missions were established among the Adaes and Aes,
nearer Red river.
Thus, as a direct result of the bold incursion of St. Denis, which in
itself was but a part of the energetic movement of the French to occupy
Louisiana and extend the limits of New France deep into the western
wilderness, the Spaniards, in the year 1716, established a group of mis-
sions and military garrisons on the borders of East Texas, where for
more than a century the French, and later the Americans, were to con-
tend with the Spanish in a vain endeavor to maintain a boundary be-
tween two opposed types of civilization.
The real significance of the expedition of St. Denis is "that it deter-
mined the ownership of Texas. The Spanish established, by fact of
actual possession, their title to the lands east of the Rio Grande. The
entrada of Captain Ramon was followed by others till a line of missions
and presidios was established extending from the lands of the Aes and
Adaes to the Rio Grande ; and the western limit of Louisiana was fixed
at the Sabine. But for the menace of St. Denis' presence to arouse the
slow and indifferent Mexican government to action, it is probable that the
movement to occupy Texas would not have come till much later."*
The three instruments by which Spain endeavored to hold Te.xas
were : the mission, the presidio, and the pueblo. One of the chief objects
sought with more or less sincerity in Spanish colonization in America
was the Christianizing of the Indians, and the mission worked to this
end. The principal figures of the mission were the priests, who en-
deavored to instruct the natives in the arts of civilization and the Chris-
tian religion.
They also tried to induce the Indians to dwell in central communities
and villages, and depend for existence upon the settled pursuits of agri-
culture instead of roving from place to place, which always proved the
most embarrassing quality of the Indian character. This settlement of
Indians was known as the pueblo, and both pueblo and mission were com-
posite parts of the general scheme.
In addition, there was the presidio, or fortified stronghold garri-
soned with soldiers, which was especially necessary when the attempt
was made to plant the colony in a hostile country. Such a military post
• It. C. Clark, Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VI.
i8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
was usually placed within convenient distance of a group of several
missions.
It will be seen that this plan of colonization involved considering
the natives as factors and co-operators in the scheme, and the holding
of the Indians in such social and administrative ties as would form
a mixed community of white and red men. History has shown that this
was an impracticable ideal. The theory in practice was the weakness of
both Spanish and French civilization in America. On the other hand,
the English disregarded the red men altogether, and did not admit them
into their scheme of society at all; they put the red men on the same
plane with the wild beast of the forest, took his land by treaty or force,
and by their own hardihood and colonial enterprise founded a society
strong both within and without, and able, after establishing its own
boundaries, to push out and permanently conquer the western wilds.
In addition to this vital defect in her plan of Texan occupation,
Spain, partly from European wars and consequent weakness at home
and abroad, lacked the enterprise necessary to send strong and inde-
pendent colonies into Texas ; the few attempts she did make during the
eighteenth century were barely self-sustaining, and cannot be compared
with the pioneer movements that crossed the mountains from Virginia
into Kentucky and Tennessee.
CHAPTER IV
Founding of San Antonio — Missions and Presidios of the
Spanish Frontier
For some time the friars had been asking for the estabUshment of
a mission in the territory between the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers.
In 1716 the matter was laid before the viceroy, with the recommendation
that a mission which Padre Olivares had planned to establish on the San
Antonio river was, by all means, to be founded, since it could be used
to prevent invasion through Bahia del Espiritu Santo, and as a connecting
link between this bay and the country of the Tejas. Following this
recommendation orders were issued for the establishment of one or more
missions between the San Antonio and Guadalupe rivers. In locating
these missions and the Indian settlements connected with them, space
should be left for the founding of two cities or villas, which, as time
passed, would be needed as capitals of the province.
In May, 1718, Father Antonio de Buenaventura y Olivares, in pur-
suance of the viceroy's orders, removed "the Xumanes Indians and
everything belonging to the mission of San Francisco Solano," on the
Rio Grande, to the San Antonio river, where he founded the mission of
San Antonio de Valero, named in honor of the patron saint and the vice-
roy, Marques de Valero. The mission was located on the right bank of
the San Pedro, about three quarters of a mile from the present cathedral
of San Fernando. There it remained until 1722, when it was removed,
with the presidio, to Military Plaza.
About the site of the old mission has since grown the city of San
Antonio. After the mission came the military garrison and civil settle-
ment. For a description of this we turn to an ancient chronicle, the
Compendium of the History of Texas, written by Bonilla in 1722:*
"The missionaries kept anxiously begging for San Denis, with a view
in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly,
20 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
to the subjection of the Indians, and clamoring for reinforcement of
people helpful in promoting their stability. But his excellency, the Mar-
ques de Valero, gave the appointment of governor of Coaguila and Texas
to Don Martin de Alarcon of the order of Santiago, with a salary of two
thousand and five hundred pesos a year." Alarcon was a soldier of for-
tune, yet high in favor with the government. His achievements in Texas
hardly justified his previous official record.
"This new governor," continues Bonilla, "was under orders to carry
fifty married soldiers, three master carpenters, a blacksmith, and a stone-
mason, to teach the Indians and put the settlement on a firm basis, each
one, like the soldiers, drawing a yearly salary of four hundred pesos.
These measures were approved in royal cedula of the nth of June, 1718.
"A year's salary was advanced to Alarcon, and at the beginning
of 1718 he entered the province of Texas. But, although he founded
the presidio of San Antonio de Vexar, the missionary fathers at once
made complaint that he had not brought the master mechanics, or filled
out the number of the [fifty] soldiers, and [that] those [he did bring
were] idle fellows, and very hurtful, on account of belonging, for the
greater part, to the most corrupt and worthless classes in all Nueva
Espafia ; and, finally, that his irregular measures endangered success in
the reduction of the heathen."
The settlement, containing about thirty families, the presidio of San
Antonio de Bexar, both founded by Alarcon, and the' mission- of San
Antonio de Valero, which had just previously been founded by Padre •
Olivares, were all placed near together. "Hitherto the Tejas country
had been the objective point of occupation. Now, Bexar, which was
to become the final rallying point of the Spaniards, begins to rise into
view ; while the eastern frontier becomes a secondary consideration, and
finally relatively unimportant. Bexar was at first founded to prevent
invasion through Bahia, while later the settlement at Bahia (Goliad)
was kept up as a means of protecting the more important stronghold
on the San Antonio river."=^
Resuming the quaint commentary of Bonilla, we read : "War having
broken out between Spain and France during the regency of the Duque
de Orleans, the French invaded the presidio of Panzacola, on the igth of
May, 1719; and on the same day in the month of June following, Don
Luis de San Denis took the opportunity to relieve his outraged feelings,
* Mattie Alice Austin, on the Municipal Government of San Fernando de Bexar,
in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VIII.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 21
by attacking, with the aid of the Indians of the north, the missions of
los Adaes and Texas and compeUing their inhabitants to retreat post-
haste to the presidio of San Antonio de Vexar."
This French invasion had the usual effect of stirring the Spaniards
to fervid, activity. Aiarcon having in the meantime resigned, the gov-
ernment of Texas and defense of its borders was intrusted to Mar-
ques de San Miguel de Aguayo, who started on his march to Texas
in the year 1720 "with five hundred dragoons which he had levied at his
own cost, and two companies of cavalry, paying all expenses occasioned
by this expedition. He came without opposition to the Adaes country,
as the French had retreated to their posts of Candodachos and Nachi-
toches, and the general convocation of Indians, which San Denis had
assem.bled, had disappeared.
"The king, being notified that this expedition had been prepared,
ordered that when the Province of Texas was once recovered, steps
should be taken to fortify it, and that the war should not be waged
against the French. Accordingly, all acts of hostility were suspended.
"The Marques de Aguayo re-established the old missions, founded
the rest which are now in existence, and the presidios of Nuestra Senora
del Pilar de los Adaes, Loreto or Bahia del Espiritu Santo, on the same
site where Roberto Cavalier de la Sala had put his fort, and that of los
Dolores, which today is the site of the abandoned Orcoquisac; he found
a better site for San Antonio de Bexar, locating it between the rivers
San Antonio and -San Pedro;. and finally, left the province garrisoned
with two hundred and sixty-eight soldiers,. .. .taking eighteen months
for the expedition."
Aguayo gave San Antonio another mission. San Jose de Aguayo,
the most beautiful of all the missions, even in its present ruins, was
"erected" (that is, authorized) in 1720; being denominated "de Aguayo"
in honor of the governor who came to the province in that year. It was
the first of the missions about San Antonio to be finished, on March 5,
1731 ; on the same date the three others missions south of the city were
begun.
"When the Marques de San Miguel de Aguayo retired from the
Province of Texas, in 1722, his lieutenant general, Don Fernando Peres
de Almazan, stayed as governor. In the time of the former the attacks
of the common and the most perfidious enemy of the Internal Provinces,
the Apache tribe, had begun to be experienced; afterwards they were
so often repeated and so cruel that they compelled the governor to ask
22 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
for permission to wage a vigorous war against the tribe if they did not
consummate the peace which they had promised."
Meanwhile the Padres prosecuted their labors under many disad-
vantages. Their requests for a larger number of actual settlers, whose
example would be beneficial to their proteges, met no response. In fact,
when, in 1727, Rivera made a general inspection of the province, "he
reduced the garrison of los Adaes to sixty troops, that of la Bahia del
Espiritu Santo to forty, and that of San Antonio deVexar to forty-three;
and he suppressed that of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores ; so that the
strength of these companies, which had consisted of two hundred and
sixty-eight men, remained, as a result of this revista, one hundred and
forty-three. Even this number of troops seemed to him too large."
The missions in northeast Texas were found to be without warrant
for existence, so few were their Indian converts. "Next to the presidio
of Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, he inspected the establishment of the
missions of Nuestra Sefiora de la Concepcion de los Asinais, San Fran-
cisco de los Neches, San Josef de los Nazones ; all without Indians, and
the missionaries with little hopes of collecting them. These missions,
however, were afterward removed to the vicinity of San Antonio de
Vcxar."
This removal, which was effected about 1730, brought to the capital
city of the province the three remaining missions whose ruins still form
such picturesque features of San Antonio. Mission of Nuestra Sefiora
de la Concepcion Purisima de Acuna was transferred to a point south
of the presidio and became the "first mission" as it is now called (referring
to its position, not to the date of its building). The foundation stone of
this mission was laid, as above stated, March 5, 1731, the same day on
which San Jose was completed. The building required twenty-one years,
being completed in 1752. Mission San Josef de los Nazones, when trans-
ferred to San Antonio, was re-dedicated as San Juan de Capistrano.
San Francisco de los Neches became San Francisco de la Espada. The
actual work of construction of each of these began in March, 1731.
The present city of San Antonio may be considered a whole body,
with, of course, many factors combining to make it a body politic
and social. One could not now consider the religious institutions in a
group apart from the city ; a comprehensive view of San Antonio would
embrace the churches as one of the prominent features of the city. And
the same is true- of all institutions, social groups, and commercial or
other interests located anywhere in the municipal limits.
ALAMO PLAZA, FIFTY YEAES AGO
24 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
But to understand the early history of the city, it is necessary to have
a clear conception of the three distinct and co-ordinate elements existing
side by side on the site of the present city, and from the aggregate of
which San Antonio is descended. These were, first, the mission San
Antonio de Valero, a religious establishment with priests, attendant
laborers and converted Indians; second, the presidio, or garrison of sol-
diers, whose primary object was to maintain the authority of Spain in
the land, at the same time furnishing protection to the missions ; and third,
the villa, or settlement, an organization separate from both the other two,
and whose local governing officers were responsible only to the governor
of the province or his superiors. Here, then, were three independent
institutions — military, political and religious — each containing social and
industrial elements to serve as the nucleus of a civic community; event-
ually their separate identities became merged under the one municipal
title of San Antonio.
The presidio, that is, the military post, of San Antonio de Bexar
was established in 1718. About the same time, and in the vicinity
of the garrison, was established the mission San Antonio de Valero.
Around, and, it might be said, under the auspices of these two establish-
ments, a number of persons located whose objects were permanent settle-
ment ; instead of working directly and exclusively for the welfare of the
mission, or acting in the capacity of soldiers, they built themselves
homes, put a certain amount of land in cultivation, grazed their small
flocks on the common pasture, and became bona fide colonists. It is
probable that some of the soldiers, their term of service over, were suffi-
ciently attached to the locality to remain as settlers. It is not known
how many of these independent settlers there were, but some years later
they asserted claim to being "the true and most ancient inhabitants and
conquerors of that territory."' This was the origin of the villa of San
Fernando, a civil community dififering materially from the missionary and
presidial establishments that were the principal instruments in the early
Spanish occupation of Texas.*
The colonization of the province being as much a part of the royal
plan as its military occupation and the conversion of the Indians, the au-
thorities soon found that emigration to this point did not proceed with
satisfactory volume. As a result, in 1722 a royal decree directed that four
hundred families from the Canary Islands should be brought to Texas
*Mr. I. J. Cox, "The Early Settlers of San Fernando," in Tex. Hist. Assn.
Quarterly, Vol. V.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 25
as settlers. None came in obedience to this order, and in 1729 it was
decreed that every vessel leaving the Canaries for Havana should carry
ten or twelve families to be sent on to Texas. The company of between
fifty and sixty persons that left Teneriffe in the following year became
the "Canary Islands" settlement of San Fernando, whose members and
descendants have since occupied so prominent a place in San Antonio
history.
Some information about San Antonio as it was just before the com-
ing of the Canary Islanders is supplied in the instructions to the governor,
Don Juan Antonio Bustillo. He was instructed "to go, as soon as the
families shall arrive, taking such persons of intelligence as may be
available, to- examine the site a gunshot's distance to the western side of
the presidio, where there is a slight elevation forming a plateau suitable
for founding a very fine settlement. On account of its location it will
have the purest air, and the freshest of waters flowing from two springs
or natural fountains situated on a small hill a short distance northeast
from the presidio of Bexar. From these are formed, on the east, the
San Antonio river, and, on the west, the small river called the Arroya. . . .
Between these two streams the presidio is built. East of the river is the
mission of San Antonio [the Alamo] ; while to the west of it is the mis-
sion of San Joseph, from which one can go to the presidio without cross-
ing the river, and since there is a church at the presidio which they can
visit for that purpose, until a church is built for them, these families may
attend the mass and other Catholic services [at that place] without the
trouble of crossing the river."
The colony arrived at Vera Cruz in June, 1730, and by slow stages
proceeded northward, arriving in San Antonio de Bexar, March 9, 1731.
All the expense of this long journey was borne by the royal treasury, and
the colony was supported for a year after its arrival. The experiment
was a costly one, and was not repeated by the government. And instead
of four hundred families proposed by the royal decree for the colonization
of the province, only sixteen actually came.
It is evident that by no means all the old families of San Antonio
trace their ancestry back to the Canary Islanders. The latter class, be-
cause of their importation as crown colonists, considered themselves
the aristocracy of the villa, but their claims to being "first settlers," and
their many pretentions to superior influence and rights in the colony,
were vigorously disputed. Discord soon appeared between the "hidalgos"
26 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
from the Canary Islands and the other citizens of San Fernando, nor
were the relations of villa, presidio and mission always harmonious.*
The villa of San Fernando was located between the San Antonio and
the San Pedro, the building lots being grouped for the most part around
the plaza just east of the presidial or military plaza; in other words, the
"Main Plaza," as known today, was the central point of old Fernando
villa. Besides a lot assigned for residence to each family, there were
common pasture lands and a labor for cultivation, irrigated from the
waters of the San Antonio or San Pedro. The pasture land lay both
north and south of the villa, between the two streams.
The San Fernando settlers, according to the testimony of De Croix
in 1778, "live miserably because of their laziness, captiousness and lack of
means of subsistence, which defects show themselves at first sight." Much
was due to the environment and the conditions under which the settle-
ment had been founded. There were no attempts at public education,
and there were no representatives of the learned professions, not even a
physician. The parish church, however, had been demanded almost at
the beginning, although the mission chapels were conveniently close to the
villa. The corner-stone of the San Feinando church was laid May 8,
1744, and was built largely by contributions from the royal treasury.
The church was used for a century and a quarter.
* In the dispute as to priority of settlement, a petition was presented to the
governor in 1787, -nhieh is of special interest becavise of the claim made that the
settlement of San Antonio was begun in 1715, or three years before the founding
of the presidio and mission. A part of the petition reads as follows: "It is certainly
evident and clear that the settlement of this province of Texas was begun in the
year 15 of our present century. The province was given this name by the captains
who made various expeditions into it in times past in obedience to superior orders.
In these [expeditions] they had only the satisfaction of reeounoiteiiiig tlic province,
but never the pleasure of settling it till the above mentioned year. Then, some bold
citizens, from the two neighboring provinces . . . wliich were at that time the
last and frontier provin jes of Xueva Espafia. desirous of renown or wishing to
advance their own private interests, had well authenticated and individual informa-
tion tliat the many gentile nations living in these two provinr-es and iu their principal
districts about this time were at peace. . . . conceived tlie idea [of settling in
Texas], and with manly courage set out to seek the famous and much lauded river
of San Antonio, on whose banks they formed a settlement very near the point at
which our villa San Fernando is planted today. They brought with them not only
their wives and children, but all their goods, cattle, horses, goats, sheep, and such
other things as they thought necessary ifor their sustenance, returning from time to
time to the presidio of San Juan Bauptista del Eio Grande for the comforts of
leligion. They had no troops for their defense except the guard they themselves
formed from their own number. There remains at this time only the memory of
their coming, of the names of the most prominent men among them, . . . and
of the survival and increase of the cattle they brought. This memory exists in
the minds of their descendants — our relatives, but it is not such as those men
deserve as first settlers. ' '
CHAPTER V
Texas During the Last Half of the Eighteenth Century
It required only a few brief paragraplis for Bonilla, wliose Brief
Compendium is dated 1772, to describe the province of Texas and the
status of its settlement at that time. The following is his "brief de-
scription of the province" :
"At the Medina river, where the government of Coaguila ends,
that of Texas begins ; it ends at the presidio of Nuestra Seiiora del Pilar
de los Adaes. Its length from south to north is estimated at two hun-
dred and forty leagues, and its width from east to west as eighty. To
the southeast it borders on the Gulf of Mexico, and to the east-northeast
on Luisiana.
"This very spacious region contains the Presidio of San Antonio de
Vexar, eight leagues distant from the Medina river and three hundred
and seventy from this capital [!\Iexico]. It has a garrison composed of
a captain, a lieutenant, an alfcrcz, a sergeant, two corporals and thirty-
nine soldiers. Under its protection are the Villa of San Fernando and
five missions, namely: San Antonio de Valero, La Purisima Concepcion,
Sefior San Josef, San Juan Capistrano, and San Francisco de la Espada.
Taking a southeasterly course, one finds at forty leagues' distance from
the said Presidio of \^exar that of Espiritu Santo, with the missions of
Nuestra Sefiora del Rosario and San Bernardo.
"The Presidio of Orcoquisac used to be situated in the center of the
province, and in its immediate neighborhood was the mission of Nuestra
Seiiora de la Luz [the latter having been founded on the lower Trinity,
about 1756]. Since it is at present abandoned, however, its garrison,
composed of a captain, a lieutenant, a sergeant and twenty-five soldiers,
is to be found in San Antonio de Vexar.
"At a distance of a little more than a hundred and twenty-six leagues
from the above-named mission of Nuestra Sefiora de la Luz are situated
those of Nacogdoches and los Ais.
27
28 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
"The Presidio of Nuestra Senora del Pilar de los Adaes is the most
remote settlement of the province. It has adjoining it the mission of the
same name. It is seven leagues distant from the Presidio of Nachitoches,
which belongs to the government of Luisiana, twenty from the mission
of los Ais, forty-seven from that of Nacogdoches, one hundred and fifty
from the Presidio of Orcoquisac, two hundred from that of la Bahia,
two hundred and forty from that of San Antonio de- Vexar, and six
hundred from this capital. Its force consists of a captain, — the governor
of the province holds that office, — a lieutenant, an alfercz, a sergeant, six
corporals, and forty-one soldiers.
"At present, therefore, the province contains four presidios, one
villa, and eleven missions, and has assigned for its defense one hundred
and sixty effective troops, including nine officers, whose salary and sti-
pend amount to eighty-eight thousand and ninety-six pesos a year."
These results seem very small when we consider the sacrifices of
blood, treasure and missionary zeal during the century since La Salle
arrived on Matagorda bay. From all the mass of details concerning expe-
ditions, Indian difficulties and changes of government administrations,
the fact of most importance is the obvious concentration of population,
missions and government at San Antonio. By the close of the century,
San Antonio was Texas, almost literally. It was the capital of the
province, contained most of the population, and possessed the only Span-
ish civilization that was destined to endure during the revolutionary, ■
changes of tlie following century.
In 1763 the treaty of Paris, following what is known in America
as the French and Indian war, had some important results on Texas.
France by that treaty surrendered all its territory east of the Mississippi-
to England ; all on the west, including Louisiana, was given to Spain.
The Mississippi was now the eastern boundary of the Spanish provinces,
instead of the Sabine, and the fear of aggression from the French of
Louisiana was removed. This fear had been the originating cause in
the colonizing efforts in Texas which have already been described. It
was now allayed, and instead of being a "buffer" province, to be garri-
soned against foreign invasion, Texas was now practically interior and
remote from encroachment. The English settlements were as yet far
east of the Mississippi, and the government anticipated no danger from
that source in the near future.
As a result of this treaty a new policy was soon inaugurated in
Texas occupation. A report, sent to the viceroy in 1767, by Marques
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 29
de Rubi, contended that Spain was spreading her forces of occupation
over too much ground, and thereby weakening the entire frontier. It
recommended a contraction of the line of defense and the forming of
a strong cordon of presidios across the northern border from the
Gulf of California on the west to the Bay of Espiritu Santo on
the east. As no further danger was apprehended from Louisiana, the
presidios in East Texas should be abandoned and their soldiers added
to the other garrisons. At that time the missions in this quarter were
practically without converts, and hence little reason to continue their
support. The settlers on the ranchos about the presidios should be
removed within the line of defense, and given homes at the villa of San
Fernando or in the neighborhood of some other presidio.
The plan here recommended received the approval of the king and
a roval order was issued in 1772 for the abandonment of the presidios,
missions and settlements north and east of Bahia and Bexar, and their
transfer within the new line of defense. The Presidio of Orcoquisac and
its neighboring mission of Nuestra Seiiora de la Luz (at the present site
of Liberty) had already been abandoned. In all the wide country north
and east of San Antonio and Bahia there was only the little group of
missions and presidio and ranches about Nacogdoches to be affected by
this order from the king.
Near the Presidio of Pilar de los Adaes was a considerable settle-
ment, composed of Spanish, Indians and French, who protested against
being removed to Bexar. The most influential man among them was
Gil Ybarbo, a shrewd and energetic leader, whose rancho was a principal
center of the settlements in this part of Texas. He was suspected, and
his subsequent activities justified the suspicion, of being in league with
the French traders of Louisiana, whose smuggling operations continued
throughout the years of this century, despite the laws for suppressing
this traffic. The opportunities of trade on the Louisiana border were
among the chief attractions of residence about Nacogdoches, and the
settlers were distressed no less by the thought of abandoning the profits
of this trade than by the loss of the homes where they had lived so long.
It is 'necessary to explain, in this connection, that while Louisiana was
now a Spanish province, its inhabitants were French, and the restrictions
on trade intercourse between the adjacent countries were as rigid as they
had been before 1763. However, an illicit trade had been carried on over
the border ever since St. Denis had made his notable excursion. There
were consequently a number of persons, on both sides of the frontier,
30 HISTORY OF .CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
interested in this business, and they were very loath to obey the king's
order to remove to San Antonio.
However, the removal was made, enforced by the military guard, and
a company of over two hundred made the long pilgrimage to Bexar, their
numbers being constantly thinned by desertions and by sickness and
deaths caused by the hardships of the way. Some contrived to remain
behind, so that this portion of Texas was never entirely depopulated.
After arriving at San Antonio, the enterprising Ybarbo at once
undertook the task of gaining permission to reoccupy that part of the
province. He finally succeeded in obtaining authority to establish a set-
tlement not nearer than one hundred leagues (pf Natchitoches, and with
many of his former companions found a new home on the banks of the
Trinity river. In honor of the viceroy the settlement was called Bucareli,
and was situated near the present site of Randolph (in Madison county).*
Ybarbo and his followers again resumed their relation with the French
traders of Louisiana. Bucareli had a brief existence, however. It was
raided by the Comanches on several occasions, and early in 1779 a flood
from the river caused the inhabitants to abandon the site. From Bucareli
the refugees, led by Ybarbo, returned to their former homes in the spring
of 1779. Instead of settling near the old Presidio of del Pilar, they chose
to locate at Nacogdoches. Their arrival there marks the beginning of
the history of the modern Nacogdoches. The removal to Nacogdoches,
though contrary to the royal orders of 1772, went unrebuked, and the
settlement continued to increase in importance until it attained a strategic
position as a Spanish outpost hardly second to the capital at San Antonio.
Ybarbo was given the official title of lieutenant-governor of the Pueblo
of Nacogdoches, and was the most influential Spaniard of that vicinity,
both among Indians and whites.
One of the principal reasons for the policy adopted in 1772 was the
increasing hostility of the Indians. These enemies became especially
active about the middle of the century, and constituted a graver source
of danger to the provinces than any that could come from foreign inva-
sion. The Apaches and the Comanches, from the north and northwest,
were a constant terror to both the settlers and the more peaceable natives.
One attempt was made to found a mission (San Saba) among the
Apaches, but the enterprise came to a disastrous end. The principal
wealth of the settlements consisted in the droves of stock, pastured on
* H. E. Bolton, "Spanish Abandonment and Eeoccupation of East Texas," in
Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. IX.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS 31
the commons about the missions and presidios, and these were the booty
most sought in these depredations. The garrisons were unable to prevent
these raids, nor strong enough to conduct a successful pursuit.
The remaining years of the century were a period of stagnation.
The colonies barely held their own, while the central government made
no serious attempt to extend the frontier beyond the line established early
in the century. Says Bancroft: "It was not a period of prosperity for
any Texas interests except so far as the officers, soldiers and settlers may
be said to have prospered in their great work of living with the least
possible exertion. Officials as a rule kept in view their own personal
profit in handling the presidio funds, rather than the welfare of the
province. The Franciscans were doubtless faithful as missionaries, but
their influence, even over the natives, was much less than in other mission
fields. The Texans never became neopliytes proper in regular mission
communities. It is evident that not one of the establishments was at any
time prosperous either from a material or a spiritual point of view. At
each mission there was a constant struggle to prevent excesses and out-
rages by the soldiers, to protect land and water from encroachment by
settlers, to guard mission live-stock from Apache raids, to keep the few
Indians from running away, and to watch for and counteract ruinous
changes projected from time to time by the secular authorities."
The mission Indians became more and more wretched with each year
to the'close of the century. Finally the royal treasury declined its further
support for the missions, and in 1794 the missions were turned over to
the secular clergy. The result of this measure was the distribution of
the mission lands and dispersion of the Indians, and the end of the labor
of the Franciscan friars.
There is no accurate information as to the condition, population and
industrial affairs of Texas at the close of the eighteenth century. There
were about a dozen missions in existence at the time of their seculariza-
tion. Around eight establishments in 1785 there were some four hundred
and sixty Indians. In 1782 the soldiers and settlers numbered about
twenty-five hundred. The Indians about the pueblos would hardly earn
their own subsistence, and the missions, with their beautiful adornments,
seemed to belong to a golden age of prosperity long past; the settlers
were little more energetic than the natives ; and the soldiers were sup-
ported by the government.
CHAPTER VI
American and Spanish Civilizations Meet in Louisiana — First
Stages of the Inevitable Conflict
American aggression and advance on Texas involves some of the
most interesting and at the same time perplexing features of American
history. With the events which open this part of the narrative many
familiar names are connected — Thomas Jefferson, the president ; Aaron
Burr, a former vice president and a consummate promoter and intriguer ;
General Andrew Jackson, already one of the influential figures of the
Mississippi valley ; General James Wilkinson, commander of the regular
army in Louisiana, and many other characters only less well known. Of
those named, Wilkinson became the chief actor in the initial disputes
between Spain and America on the borderland between Texas and Louis-
iana. But the other names indicate the great scope of the movement,
which not alone affected Texas, but also the destiny of the American
nation.
July 2, 1787, James Wilkinson, an e:^-brigadier general, who had
fought gallantly in the Revolution, arrived at New Orleans, having come
down the river from the Kentucky settlements with flat-boats of tobacco,
hemp and other merchandise. A man of restless energ>', ambitious for
his own advancement and not always scrupulous of means or careful of
steadfast loyalty, he was at this time in reduced circumstances, and since
his occupation as a soldier in the cause of independence was gone he
adventured in the settlements along the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and
sought to make his material fortune equal to his reputation as a soldier
and standing as a gentleman. With a mind eminently fitted for intrigue,
with a military and authoritative bearing, with a winning and convincing
address, these qualities were seemingly not combined with the poise of
character and stability of high purpose that would have insured him a
place of honor among the makers of the nation. Feeling that his advance-
ment had not been commensurate with his abilities, he now showed his
Z2
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 33
readiness to take part in enterprises of doubtful loyalty. His insight
into the future and at times statesmanlike understanding of the western
situation became a positive menace to the American republic, which was,
at the date mentioned, just being welded into unity by the framers of
the constitution. That his activities had a vital bearing on the early
American movement to Texas will appear in the course of this narrative.
Wilkinson's immediate objects at New Orleans were commercial
privileges; in fact, he made those negotiations a cloak for all his deeper
plans while there. To further his interests he took the oath of allegiance
to Spain on August 22, 1787.
At the treaty of 1783, the southwestern possessions of the United
States were bounded by the Mississippi river on the west and the thirty-
first parallel on the south. South of this parallel was the area called West
Florida, which was ceded to Spain. Thus the latter nation held both sides
of the Mississippi from the mouth of Red river to New Orleans, and
absolutely controlled the navigation of that waterway. This was the only
outlet for the products of the upper Mississippi and Ohio, and even so
early as 1787, as Wilkinson's visit with his flat-boats proves, it had
become a matter of pressing importance to the Kentucky settlers that no
restrictions should be laid on commerce at New Orleans. But Wilkinson
had deeper designs than the privileges of free trade, as is made clear in
his memorial to Governor Miro of the province of Louisiana.*
Wilkinson argues that the new American Republic's administration
was necessarily weak in the western frontier districts, that the political
welfare and commercial interests of Kentucky could not be properly pro-
moted by the federal government, and the inevitable result would be a
separate confederacy in the west, with the Mississippi river as the outlet
of their commerce and means of communication with the world. If this
new confederacy could not form an alliance with Spain, it would naturally
invite one with Great Britain. This would be clearly injurious to the
interests of Spain, if it would not actually threaten the overthrow of
Si)anish authority west of the Mississippi. Continuing, Wilkinson states
that he was urged to go to New Orleans by prominent fellow residents of
Kentucky, "in order to develop, if possible, the disposition of Spain toward
their country and to discover, if practicable, whether she would be willing
to open a negotiation for our admission to her protection as subjects,
with certain privileges in religious and political matters. . . ." Though
Kentucky still clings to her original allegiance, he is certain of the estab-
* Documents and discussion by W. E. Shepherd in Amer. Hist. Eeview, Vol. IX.
34 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
lishment of an independent state in the near future, and that this state
will apply to Spain for the privileges just mentioned. Should Spain
assent to his propositions, he would at once proceed to use his influence
to bring about the secession. In case the plan should be rejected by the
court, he trusts the minister "to bury these communications in eternal
oblivion," which, if divulged, would "destroy my fame and fortune for-
ever." That Wilkinson was sincerely committed to his plan, so preju-
dicial to the united interests of the colonies, receives strengthening proof
in his adroit advice that Spain should close the navigation of the lower
Mississippi to Americans, thus giving a powerful lever for the consum-
mation of his designs.
The reply from Madrid, though long in coming, was distinctly favor-
able to the general outlines of Wilkinson's schemes. But in the mean-
time the American states had inaugurated government under the new
constitution, with an enthusiasm and general unanimity that augured well
for the permanence of the republic. In a second memorial to Governor
Miro, dated September 17, 1789, Wilkinson, alluding to the altered state
of affairs since his first communication and Kentucky's increased loyalty
to the Union and Constitution, expresses his belief that it would be unwise
to attempt to win over the people of the west as subjects of Spain. But
separation from the Union should be promoted by every means, and, this
accomplished, a strong alliance should be cemented between Spain and
the new state or confederacy. He advised, in furtherance of this plan,
the encouragement of immigration into Louisiana, so that the people
and the interests on both sides of the Mississippi should be nearly iden-
tical. In order to attract "the interest and regard of the influential men
of the principal settlements," the governor should be authorized "to dis-
tribute pensions and rewards among the chief men in proportion to their
influence, ability or services rendered." This system of bribery would be
effective in securing separation when the time came, since such men of
influence would direct public opinion to the end sought, or at least would
prevent any hostile attitude toward Spain in the Louisiana and Mexican
provinces. Twenty or thirty thousand dollars, judiciously distributed
annually, might save the crown as many millions and vast territories, by
neutralizing the American expansion which Wilkinson saw, or professed
to see, would sweep over the Mississippi valley. It is impossible not to
admire the shrewdness of his argument, however his motives may be
interpreted. He pointed out to the governor that Congress would
endeavor to check emigration to Louisiana and attempt to win over the
1279751
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 35
prominent men of the western country to the interests of those of the
Alantic, "which is the greatest obstacle and danger that we can appre-
hend for the success of our idea." Spain should exert herself at this
opportune time, before it should be too late, for, — so he reasoned with
much foresight, — with the west solidly united to the east, its citizens,
instead of forming a barrier for Louisiana and Mexico, will conquer one
and attack the other — as the course of events finally brought to pass.
"Louisiana, important in itself when considered as a frontier of Mexico,
cannot be overestimated ; with this province lost to Spain, the Mexican
kingdom will be stirred to its very depths in less than fifty years." He
believes that Kentucky will incline to accept admission into the Union,
and he proposes to use all means to retain the status quo until the plans
for separation can be matured.
If dependence is to be placed in Wilkinson's boasts, it is evident that
the conspiracy included many influential men. Besides asking for him-
self liberal compensation and military rank in the Spanish army in return
for his services and sacrifices, Wilkinson designates, among those listed
for "pensions and rewards" to pledge their interest to Spain, an attor-
ney general, a lawyer, a member of Congress and a judge, all his personal
and confidential friends in Kentucky; besides other "notables" who
favored separation from the United States.
It is not the purpose to pursue the discussion of this so-called "Span-
ish Conspiracy" in detail ; but the general facts of the movement are
quite essential to a proper understanding of that period of Texas history
with which we are now dealing. Wilkinson called attention to
the increasing sentiment for the Union, and how necessary it
was that the Spaniards should act quickly if they would secure Ken-
tucky. Though a pensioner of Spain to the extent of thousands of dol-
lars, Wilkinson never succeeded in bringing the conspiracy to a successful
issue. Loyalty to the government which they had helped establish was
a stronger force than the tendency to Spanish alliance, though that loyalty
was tried to its utmost during the closing years of the century, under the
Federalist regime. Even had the west separated from the east, it is
unlikely that any enduring -friendship with Spain could have been created.
Antipathy to the Spanish people and their institutions, savoring so
strongly of monarchy and religion, was probably inherent in the demo-
cratic backwoodsmen who settled in the valleys of the Ohio and the
Cumberland. This antipathy became the bitterest hostility as soon as
Spain insisted on restricting the navigation of the Mississippi. The
36 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
climax was reached in 1795, when a treaty was about to be entered into
by the two nations, by which Federahst New England was to sacrifice
the welfare of the south and west and permanently close the Mississippi
to American commerce. Then it was that the secession of the west was
openly threatened, and no doubt would have taken place, had not the
treaty terms been changed so that the citizens of the United States not
only gained the free navigation of the river, but the "right of deposit"
at New Orleans — that is, the right to land their goods free of duty or
other payment while awaiting trans-shipment.
With this treaty the crisis was passed, Spain's intrigue with the
southern Indians and with the western settlers had accomplished no per-
manent results, except to deepen the American hatred of everything
Spanish. The political school of Jefiferson found its principal strength in
the west, and with the triumphant entry to power, in 1800, of the Jefifer-
sonian Republicans, the west became attached for all time to the Union,
at the same time dooming to certain failure every such enterprise as that
undertaken by Wilkinson.
But while the ties of loyalty to the Constitution and Union were
being strengthened beyond the power of men or events to sunder, the
progress of settlement was every day bringing the people of the Missis-
sippi basin nearer to a final issue with Spain. The hardy, self-reliant and
intensely democratic backwoodsmen of Kentucky and Tennessee could
never indulge any other feeling than conteinpt and distrust for those
who, as Spanish subjects, acknowledged the divine right of kings and
accepted without question the doctrines of the inquisition. The Spanish
policy of exclusiveness, of forbidding all aliens an entrance within the
royal provinces, was just the sort of barrier that American adventure and
hardihood would delight to break down and transgress. Thus early we
see the seeds sown that later bore fruit in frequent filibustering expeditions
within the Spanish and Mexican territory.
CHAPTER VII
Position of Texas at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
The dawn of the nineteenth century found Texas, as a province
together with Coahuila, subject to a commandant general and a military
and political governor sent from Alexico, from which distant source of
authority also the dispensing of final justice and the control of fiscal and
religious affairs were regulated ; a population, estimated in 1805 at about
seven thousand, besides the wild natives ; with the principal settlements
at San Antonio, with two thousand inhabitants ; at Goliad, with fourteen
hundred, and at Nacogdoches, with about five hundred. Laredo, on the
Rio Grande, was also a considerable settlement, but at that time was in
the province of Coahuila, the Medina river being the boundary line
between the two provinces. The Texans of that time were a people with
few of the refinements of civilization, and yet some degree of fashion
and elegance prevailed in the old city of San Antonio. The chief occu-
pations were pastoral, with some agriculture, and hunting. It was a
society with barely enough civic energy and industrial enterprise to sustain
itself. So much had Spain accomplished in more than a century.
By the treaty of Paris in 1763 France had ceded to Spain all the
vast territory between the ^lississippi and the Rocky mountains and north
of Texas. By the secret treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, Spain, under
pressure from Napoleon, gave it back to France. At that time Napoleon
included this region in his vast imperial designs. But in 1803 he saw
he was likely to have a war with England, and that it would be impos-
sible to protect such distant possessions. The result was the monumental
transaction known as the Louisiana purchase, by which Napoleon trans-
ferred the Louisiana Territory to the United States in consideration of
fifteen million dollars. Thus at one bound the American Republic was
extended from ihe ^ilississippi to the Rocky mountains, and another step
had been taken in the extension of Anglo-Saxon civilization. By con-
quest it had removed from its path the French dominions east of the
2,7
38 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Mississippi, and by diplomacy and far-sighted statecraft it made the
Louisiana purchase. Spain alone barred its progress to the western ocean.
And of this region of Spanish dominion, Texas was the threshold which
American enterprise would first cross.
The expansion of the American republic has often been explained by
the theory of "manifest destiny." Were not Texas and the territory
gained in the Mexican war, by the very philosophy of civilization, as it
were, and historical fate, a predestined outgrowth of the original Thir-
teen Colonies? — so questions the exponent of this theory. Westward
the course of empire takes its way ; and it has been a well observed fact
of territorial expansion and settlement, on the American continent at
least, that the trend of migration and occupation has been directly along
isothermal lines. Thus the Yankee element of- New England suffused itself
over the northern tier of states, and the tide of settlers from Virginiaand
the Carolinas seldom flowed north of Mason and Dixon's line. Accord-
ingly, with the source of the expansion movement extending along the
Atlantic from Maine to Georgia, and spreading always to the west, it
was inevitable that, unless permanently blocked, this pioneering advance
would in time reach to the Pacific, and as the course of history proves,
there was no power to check nor restrain this movement.
A few years later than this, De Tocqueville, in his essays on America,
declared : "It is not to be imagined that the impulse of the Anglo-Saxon
race can be arrested. Their continual progress towards the Rocky moun-
tains has the solemnity of a providential event. Tyrannical government
and consequent hostilities may retard this impulse, but cannot prevent it
from ultimately fulfilling the destinies for which that race is reserved.
. . Thus, in the midst of the uncertain future, one event is sure.
At a period which may be said to be near, the Anglo-Americans alone
will cover the immense space contained between the Polar Regions and
the Tropic, extending from the coast of the Atlantic to the shores of the
Pacific Ocean."
Aside from the hostility due to geographical position, Spain had not,
during her forty years' ownership of the Mississippi valley, administered
her authority in a way to please the western and southern Americans.
Owning New Orleans and the lands bordering the gulf south of the thirty-
first parallel, and thus controlling the navigation of the Mississippi, the
Spanish administration made itself obnoxious by restrictions on com-
merce and interference with what the Americans deemed an unimpeach-
able right of free trade. In 1795, by treaty, Spain recognized the claim
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 39
of the United States to free navigation of the Mississippi and granted,
under certain conditions, the privilege of depositing goods in New
Orleans.
But for more than a decade the relations between America and Spain
were such that several times war was hardly averted. Exclusion of
American traders and settlers, which was a policy of Spain and in part
of Mexico, aroused increasing bitterness and hatred, and when, in 1802,
Morales, the intendant of Louisiana, withdrew the right of deposit at
New Orleans, the entire country clamored for vindication by appeal to
arms. The developments of the following months removed for the time
the source of trouble and changed the locus of the difficulties. Hardly
had the transfer of Louisiana to France become known, than the French
became objects of invective just as the Spanish had previously been. It
seemed impolitic to allow a foreign nation to control the mouth of a
river which was the commercial route for the entire middle west. This
was a matter of vital importance to the people of the west and south, and
their urgent appeals to President Jefferson and Congress were an impor-
tant factor in bringing about the Louisiana purchase.
This was only a partial solution of the difficulties. The Floridas
remained to Spain. Because they bordered the southern settlements of
that time, they were the first to be invaded, and "the conquest of the
Floridas" was terminated by a treaty of purchase, by which Spain sur-
rendered all her territory east of the Mississippi.
With the acquisition of Louisiana, began the negotiations over the
boundaries between the United States and the Mexican provinces. The
decision of the question whether the western boundary of Louisiana was
the Arroyo Hondo, the Sabine or the Rio Grande involved a series of
armed conflicts, continued, with long intervals, over a period of nearly
half a century, the final result of which completed the extension of the
United States to the Pacific.
Though the American claim to the Sabine as the western boundary
may have lacked the support of convincing evidence, — not to mention the
pretensions to the country east of the Rio Grande, which were, indeed, of
flimsy character, — there is no doubting the temper of the American people
at that time concerning the matter. The decrees of the Spanish authori-
ties forbidding all intercourse between Spanish-America and Louisiana
only stimulated the spirit of adventure and enterprise among the daring
American traders and settlers. As pioneers, they had borne their type
of civilization across the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, and to delay
40 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
further advance because of the presence of a people they regarded as
miserable and unfit to possess and enjoy the boundless resources of the
new world, was hardly in keeping with the character of the Americans at
that time.
The beginnings of American influence in Texas are first seen defi-
nitely in the first years of the nineteenth century. Before this there was
a sprinkling of Americans in the population, but the inroads into the
province were only the results of private enterprise and had little political
significance. Some Americans had settled near Nacogdoches, along the
San Antonio road, but were allowed to remain undisturbed only because
they swore allegiance to the Spanish king.
Trade was a stronger incentive than settlement. Illicit trade between
Louisiana and the Mexican provinces dated from the French occupation
of the former country. Between 1763 and 1800 the authorities were
specially active in prohibiting this commerce, though they were not
entirely successful, as has been stated. Against Americans the regula-
tions were enforced more strictly than against the French. However,
some American traders gained the favor of the local officials and pursued
their vocations with Httle interruption.
One of these latter was Philip Nolan, born an Irishman, Celtic reck-
lessness characterizing his adventures, and perhaps in the end resulting
in his death. Since 1785 he had been engaged in trade between San
Antonio and Natchez.
That Philip Nolan was a man of more than common ability and
enterprise is shown by the fact that his adventures became known to
Thomas Jefferson and excited the curiosity of that eminently versatile
statesman, so that he took pains to ascertain the results of Nolan's dis-
coveries as a contribution to the history of the country and to natural
science. Writing to Nolan in June, 1798, Jefferson, whose interests in
the domain of knowledge seemed to extend to every subject, sought a
complete statement concerning the herds of wild horses in the country
west of the Mississippi, in the pursuit of which he knew Nolan to be
engaged. The letter did not reach Nolan, but an intimate friend of the
latter, Daniel Clark Jr., of New Orleans, who claimed a close acquaint-
ance with Nolai-'s activities, replied, in February, 1799, that "that extraor-
dinary and enterprising man is now and has been for some years past
employed ia the countries bordering on the kingdom of New Mexico
either in catching or pursuing wild horses, and [is] looked for on the
banks of the Mississippi at the fall of the waters with a thousand head.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 41
which he will in all probability drive into the United States." Also "after
his return ... I will be responsible for his giving you every infor-
mation he has collected, and it will require all the good opinion you may
have been led to entertain of his veracity not to have your belief staggered
with the accounts you will receive of the numbers and habits of the horses
of that country and the people who live in the neighborhood, whose cus-
toms and ideas are as different from ours as those of the hordes of Grand
Tartary."
Clark, in a letter to Jefferson, dated November 12, 1799, speaks of
Nolan's arrival at Natchez. "By a singular favor of providence," con-
tinues the letter, he "has escaped the snares which were laid for him —
Gayoso, the late governor of the province of Louisiana, a few months
before his death, wrote to the governor of Texas ... to arrest Nolan
on his return as a person who from the knowledge he had acquired of the
interior parts of the New Mexico might one day be of injury to the
Spanish monarchy. The thing would have been effected according to
his wish, and Nolan might probably have been confined for life on mere
suspicion, but fortunately the governor of Texas died a few days before
the letter reached San Antonio, the capital of his government. The per-
son exercising the office of governor pro tem., knowing that another
person had been appointed by the viceroy, refrained from opening the
letters . . . and during this interval Nolan, who was unconscious of
the machinations of his enemies, passed through the province, was treated
as usual with the utmost attention, and only learned the circumstances
from me a few days ago."
The fate of Nolan is told in a letter to Jeff'erson, then president,
written from Natchez, in August, 1801, a part of- which reads: "We
have lately been cut oft' from our usual communication with that country
[New Mexico] by the imprudence of Mr. Nolan, who persisted in hunt-
ing wild horses without a regular permission ; the consequence of which
has been that, a party being sent against him, he was the only man of his
company who was killed by a random shot. I am much concerned for
the loss of this man. Although his eccentricities were many and great,
yet he was not destitute of romantic principles of honor united to the
highest personal courage, with energy of mind not sufficiently cultivated
by education, but which under the guidance of a little more prudence
might have conducted him to enterprises of the first magnitude."
Despite the warning about the governor's instructions, Nolan had
organized his party and advanced into Spanish territory. Intimidating
42 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
by their strength one party of Spanish horsemen sent to intercept them,
thfey went on as' far as the Brazos, where they placed their camp and set
about accomplishing the object of their expedition. Here, on March 21,
1801, they were attacked, eighteen in number, against one hundred and
fifty Spaniards, led by Lieutenant Musquiz. Nolan was killed early in
the fight. Ellis P. Bean, who was historian of the expedition, then took
command. Driven from the log defenses to a ravine, they kept up stub-
born resistance nearly all day, but ammunition failing, they finally con-
sented to accompany Musquiz to Nacogdoches. Here they were detained
a month, awaiting Salcedo's order for their return to the United States.
But instead, they were brought in irons to San Antonio, and thence to
San Luis Potosi, where they experienced sixteen months' imprisonment.
Removed to Chihuahua, they were tried, and their sentence being referred
to the king, it was five years before the decision arrived from Madrid.
By this time there were nine left. By the royal order, every fifth man
was to be hanged, which meant that one of the number must be taken.
Blindfolded, the prisoners, probably little dreading the chance of death
after six years of imprisonment, threw dice on a drumhead to decide who
should die, death to go with the lowest number. Bean, the narrator of
the circumstances, threw the lowest number but one. A man named
Blackburn threw the fatal score. He was hanged in the presence of his
comrades the following day, November 11, 1807. The others continued
in captivity for varying lengths of time, some of them finally returning
to the United States.
The Nolan expedition is usually recognized as the first noteworthy
attempt of Americans to enter Texas. It was without special significance
except that it aroused definite interest in the regions west of the Missis-
sippi. Its incidents were very likely magnified in popular opinion and
added to the score which Americans believed they must soon settle with
the Spanish.
CHAPTER VIJl
The Revolt Against Spanish Despotism — The Burr Conspiracy
That the Texas struggle for independence in 1836 was a product of
the causes which led to the American revolution of 1776, is a proposition
supported by a very fascinating logic. Historians agree that the rebel-
Hon of the Thirteen Colonies was one phase of the greater struggle of
the entire English people for civic liberty and constitutional rights against
the waning power of monarchy and the "divine right of kings." The
ideas and principles thus fought for and established did not remain solely
the proud possession of English peoples. The French revolutionists
found inspiration and example in the American war for independence,
and similar ideals of liberty bound the two nations in bonds of active
sympathy.
Nor did the movement stop there. The first shots fired for liberty
were in truth heard "round the world," and the strongholds of despotism
were shaken as never before. Even in Spain, the home of the inquisition,
the current ideals of liberty found lodgment. Though such radical senti-
ments were sternly repressed at home, this once powerful nation found a
dire menace in the progress of republican doctrines in the foreign colonies,
where the most rigorous measures soon became unavailing against revo-
lutions. Spanish America, by its position as a neighbor to the United
States, was peculiarly open to the influence of the new political ideas.
Sufifering under greater wrongs than the Thirteen Colonies ever had to
endure, the colonies of Mexico and South America had every reason to
be dissatisfied with their lot. Of their internal conditions and relations
with the home government, a writer* of that period said : "that the
Spanish colonies supported the parent as Anchises of old was supported
by his children ; but that they had become tired of the weight and cared
not how soon the burden was shuffled off." A crisis had been reached in
* Quoted in ' ' The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, " by W. F. McCaleb.
43
44 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the long era of absolutism and oppression which had characterized Spain's
authority in the new world.
Coming back to the first link in this chain of argument, it is evident
that the people of the United States would watch with sympathy and inter-
est any movement to establish the civic ideals for which their own revolu-
tion was fought. And at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the
achievements for independence were still fresh in the minds of the people,
and the sentimentalism of patriotism was an influence not to be estimated
by the colder standards of a century later. The basic principles of democ-
racy were very dear to the people, and their sympathy was readily excited
by eflforts in other parts of the world to gain the same privileges. If,
during the French revolution, Americans lent something more than sym-
pathy to their fellow patriots across the water, what more natural than
that they should be ready to champion the cause of oppressed Mexico
when its people sought disunion with the mother country?
Though a proper understanding of this altitude of Americans to
Mexico is an essential point of view for regarding the events to be
described in the following pages, there was more than disinterested sym-
pathy that impelled the American advance into the Southwest. Desire to
assist the revolutionists was strongly alloyed with the selfishness that has
furnished the sinews of war to most of the revolution'; that have occurred
on the American continents during the past century. Only seldom in the
history of the world has one nation gone to the assistance of another with-
out a quid pro quo — a material reward that lends a practical aspect to
many a glorious campaign! At the beginning, the movement of the Amer-
icans against Spain had two impulses — the sentimentalism for freedom
and sympathy for those oppressed by monarchical despotism ; and a long-
ing for the material fruits of conquest.
It is a fact of much importance that American civilization came in
conflict with Spain in Louisiana just at the time when the Spanish-
American provinces were ripe for revolution. There can be no doubt that
the American invasion was accelerated by the political unrest and dis-
order in the royal provinces. And had Spain been able and wise enough
to maintain her American possessions in loyal unity, or had Mexican
independence been conclusively established and an effective central gov-
ernment attained, it is possible that American aggression beyond the
Sabine would have been repulsed, or at least the transfer of Texas to the
Union would have been long delayed.
As in Cuba in the closing vears of the centurv, so in Mexico at its
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 45
beginning, Spain outraged and humiliated beyond tolerance a people
whose natural attitude was almost servile loyalty. Hardly a pretense of
home government was granted. The Mexican born, though of pure
Spanish parentage, were excluded from the rights of citizenship in favor
of the "gachupines," or natives of Spain, who were granted the highest
offices of church and state and the most discriminating commercial mono-
polies. Such nepotism was productive of the bitterest jealousy on the
part of the native aristocracy, and hastened the consolidation of all grades
of Mexican races in opposition to the privileged Spaniards from over the
sea. These unjust distinctions had long borne heavily on the Spanish
Americans and were gradually neutralizing their inherent reverence for
his Most Catholic Majesty and his institutions.
But in addition to the tyrannical system that arrayed the laity against
the crown, a long period of exactions had alienated the great mass of the
clergy, who became the most eager agitators for revolution. The expul-
sion, in 1767, of the Jesuits, who had endeared themselves to the people,
was still a bitter memory. Impoverished by costly European wars, Spain
now resorted to measures that caused a general union of the clergy with
the forces of revolt. In December, 1804, by royal order, all real estate
and funds accumulated from loans on real estate belonging to the bene-
volent institutions were sequestered for the benefit of the royal revenues.
Moreover, a little later, the deposits of corporations, the domestic reve-
nues, and all available money wherever vested were demanded to rein-
force the failing national exchequer. These levies brought ruin to thou-
sands of all classes, but from the clergy in particular the protest was bitter
and unanimous.
Such were the principal influences in operation during the early years
of the nineteenth century to provoke revolt among the Spanish-American
colonies. That revolutionary agitators and liberators were prompt to take
up the cause of their oppressed people was a matter of course, since even
now, with much less real justification, revolutionary movements in the
Spanish-American republics are of such frequency as to be regarded
common defects of the national character. And that many revolutionary
conspiracies were fostered by sympathy and material support in the United
States needs no further proof than the following narrative.
Turning from Mexico to the United States, we find by 1805 many
developments which were soon to aiifect the status of Texas. December
17, 1803, William C. C. Claiborne had received possession of Louisiana
from the French agent, Laussat, and in the autumn of 1804 a territorial
46 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
government was organized with Claiborne as first governor. Already
American frontiersmen and settlers were pouring into the region, estab-
lishing homes, opening up new avenues of trade, and all the while extend-
ing their occupation to the west. Eager to prove the value and extent
of the purchased territory, Jefferson had authorized the Lewis and Clark
expedition, and those bold explorers were now pushing their way up
the JNJissouri, where white men had never set foot before. About the
same time Lieutenant Zebulon M. Pike was exploring the headwaters of
the Mississippi, and was soon to start on his journey of discovery along
the southwestern limits of Louisiana.
Hardly had the treaty for the Louisiana purchase been completed,
when the question of western boundaries came up. Before 1763 the line
of demarkation between New Spain and French Louisiana had never been
definitely determined. As a result of La Salle's settlement, the French
made claims to the country even as far as the Rio Grande. With the
transfer of all the Louisiana country to Spatn, the boundaries ceased to
be a matter of controversy until 1800. The limits of Louisiana as defined
in the treaty of San Ildefonso were indicated by this sentence : "The
colony or province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it now has in
the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it." Practically
the same language was used in the treaty negotiated by the American
ministers and Napoleon in 1803. As can be readily seen, this was a
very indefinite description of limits. Jefferson and his cabinet asserted
that the Rio Grande was the southwestern boundary, although it is clear
from their subsequent instructions to the Louisiana army of occupation
that they did not feel justified or consider it expedient to enforce this ex-
pansive claim. Certain it is that the shadow of the claim is thrown over
a long series of events from this time until the close of the Mexican
war in 1848.
With revolution threatening in Mexico, and with the spirit of ex-
pansion dominating government and people in the United States, there
comes upon the scene a new character — the first, and from many points
of view the most interesting, of the political and commercial adventurers
whose enterprises are intimately involved in the contest between the
Spanish and American civilizations.
Aaron Burr had served brilliantly in the Revolutionary war, winning
distinction in the futile campaign against Quebec and during the first
four years of the war rising from the ranks to the command of a regi-
ment. Then turning his attention to the law, he soon gained honors and
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 47
rank among the notable advocates and political leaders of New York. As
the political opponent of Hamilton's faction, he advanced from the attor-
ney-generalship of the state to a seat in the United States senate in 1791,
and in 1800, he and Jefferson receivmg an equal number of votes for
president, after a long contest in the house of representatives, he was
given second place, while Jefferson became president. As vice president,
his career was a stormy one. The object of bitterest hostility from Ham-
ilton and the Federalists, he soon alienated himself from the favor of his
own party, and at the close of his term was a political outcast, all his
versatile talents and experience being unavailing to reinstate him in power
in the east.
With intimate knowledge of international politics in general, and of
conditions in Mexico and the Spanish-American relations in the South-
west in particular. Burr directed his energies to schemes of imperial
aggrandizement in the west. It has never been conclusively proved that
he did not contemplate carrying out a plan for a western confederacy,
along similar lines to that projected by Wilkinson a few years before.
With some such thoughts in mind he made a tour of the west in 1805,
and with the prestige of his former office and reputation he found abundant
opportunities to sound and influence the opinions of all classes. In Wil-
kinson he found, at first, a ready coadjutor in his deepest designs. Wil-
kinson was now in command of the American army in the Mississippi
valley. That he gave willing ear to Burr's intrigues shows the duplicity
of his character; he was the same man who had sworn allegiance to
Spain in 1787 and had been given a pension and military rank by the
crown.
In Andrew Jackson, major general of the Tennessee militia and the
popular idol of the Cumberland, Burr found an honest, patriotic and
enthusiastic soul, in whom no hint of disaffection to the Union could har-
bor, but who became fired with ardor at the thought of leading a crusade
into Mexico. Whatever may have been Burr's original plans, this visit
to the west convinced him of the thorough loyalty of its citizens to the
federal government. But against Spain he found the people readily
hostile and many of them prepared to join an army of invasion. The
ultimate extent and object of Burr's schemings may perhaps never be
known. But his practicable enterprise soon reduced itself to an invasion
of Spanish territory, partaking largely of the character of a filibuster.
Understanding the discontent of Spanish-America, and relying
on the impulsive hatred of western Americans for all Spanish institutions,
48 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
he allowed his imagination to fancy a vast empire beyond the Mississippi
river, where he might become the dominant figure in its government in
recompense for his previous disappointments and failures.
In the net of his conspiracy Burr enmeshed a large number of
influential men. both in the east and in the west. At Harman Blenner-
hassett's island in the Ohio river the building of boats and other practical
preparations for the expedition were completed. Many persons through-
out the Louisiana territory, as also east of the Mississippi, were cognizant
of the plot and in more or less active sympathy with the movement. Presi-
dent Jefferson long refused to be disturbed by continued reports of the
conspiracy, and it was not until the latter part of November, 1806, that he
issued a proclamation warning all good citizens to desist from taking
part in the military enterprise which he understood was being directed
against the Spanish dominions. This proclamation did not reach the
authorities along the Mississippi until the first of the year. By this time
oiher causes had brought the expedition to verge of failure.
Burr's little fleet of boats had left Blennerhassett's island and with
only about one-tenth of the force that had been expected were coming
down the river to rendezvous at Natchez. In New Orleans, the French
and Spanish population, dissatisfied with the new government, were caus-
ing Governor Claiborne no end of anxiety, which was magnified by the
knowledge that the Burr conspirators were enlisting support in the city.
The Spanish authorities were hardly less well informed than the
Americans of Burr's movements. From disputing the American claim
to the Rio Grande by diplomatic means, they now seemed confronted with
the necessity of repelling actual armed invasion, whose object was less
that of territorial conquest than that of revolutionizing the entire Spanish-
American provinces. Thus a hurried movement of troops and colonists
was made into Texas, so that by June, 1806, over a thousand soldiers were
in that province, nearly seven hundred of them being stationed on the
frontier. Crossing the Sabine, they advanced into territory clearly in-
cluded in Louisiana, and from which by the instructions of the American
department of war they were to be rigidly excluded. The situation was
such that hostilities seemed unavoidable, and the prospect of war with
Spain gave the Burr expedition its strongest ground for success. Thou-
sands of settlers would have volunteered eagerly to annihilate Spanish
power in America, and the general opinion seemed to be that the war
would not cease with the driving of the enemy beyond the Sabine.
Wilkinson reached Natchitoches and took command of the American
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 49
forces on September 22, 1806. Up to this time, as many proofs go to
show, Burr and Wilkinson were acting in concert, and Wilkinson's attack
on the Spanish forces at the frontier was meant to be the opening engage-
ment in the general campaign against Mexico. With the first battle, the
Burr forces should be resolved into an army of invasion, whose progress
would not stop short of the conquest of Mexico.
But Wilkinson failed to carry out his part of the program, and thus
became the chief instrument in effecting the ruin of Burr's hopes. Though
Wilkinson's actions accorded with political wisdom and expediency, his
proved character for double-dealing and selfish intrigue only convinces us,
in this instance, of his skill as an opportunist and political trimmer. He
was uncertain of the success of the campaign. Reliable information showed
him the essential weakness of Burr's following. While, by quieting the
discontent in Louisiana and then throwing the weight of his authority
to crush the Burr conspiracy, he saw an opportunity to figure as the
savior of ihe west to the Union. His policy decided on, he proceeded to
carry it out in a manner that history can find little fault with, whatever
the motives behind his actions.
The Spanish troops, under Governor Cordero, were at Nacogdoches,
while Governor Herrera, with about four hundred men, was encamped at
Bayou Pierre, east of the Sabine. Immediately on his arrival at Natchi-
toches, Wilkinson opened negotiations with Cordero, calling attention to
the presence of Spanish troops on American soil and threatening to expel
them by force if not withdrawn at once. Cordero refused to act without
instructions from Captain-General Salcedo, but Herrera, in command of
the forces actually intruding on American territory, broke camp on Sep-
tember 27th and three days later took position on the west bank of the
Sabine. Thus the honor of American arms was vindicated and the integ-
rity of United States territory preserved, and, Herrera's retreat having
been approved by Salcedo, all pretexts for war were for the time removed.*
* Lieutenant Pike, who passed through Texas the following year, gives Herrera
credit for the outcome of this brief war: — "We owe it to Governor Herrera's
pruderce that we are not now engaged in a war with Spain. . . . When the
difficulti.'s commenced on the Sabine, the commandant-general and viceroy consulted
each iitlier, and mutually determined to maintain inviolate what they deemed the
dominions of Uieir master. The viceroy therefore ordered Herrera to join Cordero
with 1,300 men, and both the viceroy and Gen. Salcedo ordered Cordero to cause our
troops to be ottacked should they pass the Eio Oude [Hondo]. These orders were
positively reiterated to Herrera, the actual commanding officer of the Spanish army
on the frontiers, and gave rise to the many messages which he sent to Gen. Wilkin-
son when he was advancing with our troops. Finding they were not attended to,
he calleil a council of war on the question to attack or not, when it was given as
50 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
November 5, 1806, while their respective armies were encamped on
both sides of the Sabine, Wilkinson and Herrera concluded what is known
as the Neutral Ground treaty. In reality this was only an agreement
between two unaccredited agents of the two governments; but its provi-
sions were sanctioned by practical observance for a period of thirteen
years. This boundary compromise served for some time to arrest organ-
ized aggression from America, and is also in other ways an important
event of Texas history. It provided that the country lying between the
Arroyo Hondo on the east and the Sabine on the west should be con-
sidered a neutral ground between the two governments until a final settle-
ment should be efifected.
This Neutral Ground remained for some fifteen years a no-man's
land, and neither the United States nor Mexico exercised direct juris-
diction over it. It became a desperadoes' paradise. Its community of
thieves perfected an organization so strong that they overawed the
soldiery, and it eventually required a severe war of extermination to put
an end to their operations. They were a greater menace to travel and
commercial intercourse between the two nations, than all the legal restric-
tions enforced by Spain. Their regular business was the robbing of
traders who crossed the borders, and the latter were compelled to travel
in caravans under the protection of a strong military guard. These condi-
tions continued, with occasional attempts by the authorities on both sides
to suppress them, until 1819. In the treaty of that year, by which Spain
ceded Florida to the United States, the Texas-Louisiana boundary was
fixed at the Sabine and the state of Louisiana extended its jurisdiction
over the Neutral Ground.
The Neutral Ground treaty was the death-blow of Burr's hopes. Wil-
kinson having withdrawn his support from the cause by coming to an
agreement with Herrera, and also having turned state's evidence of the
conspiracy in its broadest conceivable proportions. Burr, far from leading
an army of invasion and conquest, was marked with the charge of treason,
and soon afterward was captured in the wilderness and taken to Rich-
mond, Virginia, to stand trial. Though acquitted of an overt act of trea-
son, Burr did not establish his innocence in such a way as to regain
tbeir opinion that they should immediately commence a predatory warfare, but
avoid a general engagement ; yet, notwithstanding the orders of the viceroy, the
commandant-general, Gov. Cordero's, and the opinion of his oflScers, he had the
firmness, or temerity, to enter into the agreement with Gen. Wilkinson which at
present exists relative to our boundaries on the frontier. ' '
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 51
[lopular favor, and for nearly a century his name was stained with the
blot of treason.
In recent years his actions have been viewed in a more favorable
perspective. McCaleb,* who has made the most logical and successful
defence of Burr's career, indicates the proper setting of Burr's enterprise
in American history in the following sentences : "If we return now [after
Burr's trial and disgrace] to the west, we shall discover that the passing
of Aaron Burr had not materially afifected the condition of afifairs. Pa-
triotism and honesty were no longer disputed characteristics of the fron-
tiersmen ; nor was their malignant hatred of Spain doubted. Moreover,
the same adventurous spirit that Burr had enlisted survived and was to
manifest itself for succeeding decades in filibustering enterprises, moving
ever westward — tidal waves of society beating down the barriers of an
opposing civilization. By the summer of 1808 the Neutral Ground was
filled with adventurers, who crossed the Sabine, bartered with the natives,
caught wild horses, and gave Nemecio de Salcedo no end of trouble. They
were recognized as Burr's legitimate successors."
For years the Burr conspiracy threatened the peace of mind of
Spanish governors and viceroys, who ascribed to that remarkable
schemer and adventurer the life and spirit of many movements undertaken
to overthrow Spanish authority from the direction of America. Through-
out the remainder of his life, says McCaleb, Burr continued to manifest
a deep interest in the affairs of the southwest, especially after Texas
began its struggle for independence. "One day, upon reading some
accounts from that quarter, he exclaimed, "There! you see? I was right!
I was only thirty years too soon. What was treason in me thirty years
ago, is patriotism now!''' Burr died September 14, 1836, some months
after Texas liberty was vindicated at San Jacinto.
* The Aaron Burr Conspiracy, by W. F. MtCaleb, 1903.
CHAPTER IX
The First Decade of the Nineteenth Century
Within the boundaries of the province of Texas there were few
developments worthy of notice during this decade. The governor from
November, 1808, to January, 1811, was Manuel de Salcedo. A descrip-
tion of the province, prepared by him in August, 1809, is valuable as an
official resume of Texas just previous to the beginning of the revolu-
tionary troubles that filled the following decade.
There were three presidios in the province — San Antonio de Bexar,
la Bahia del Espiritu Santo and los Adaes. The presidial system of gov-
ernment was in vogue until 1806, when the entrance of emigrants and the
introduction of troops on account of the boundary difficulties had brought
the province under a more active and efficient system of military occupa-
tion. The governor recommended the entire abolition of the presidial
system, which he asserted was responsible for the deplorable condition
of Texas politically as well as regards the military.
The population of the province was estimated as follows :
San Antonio and its j-urisdiction 1,700 souls
La Bahia and its jurisdiction 405 "
Villa de San Marcos de Neve and its jurisdiction 82 "
Villa de Trinidad and its jurisdiction 91 "
Nacogdoches and its jurisdiction 655 "
Bayou Pierre (Spanish, but on neutral ground east of Sabine) 189 "
3,122
"The inhabitants have no occupation ; they are without means. One
wonders how they cultivate the soil without implements ; the houses are
very rude."
"The Indians in this province present another subject that deserves
consideration. They are at peace at present," largely owing to the active
52
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 53
measures taken by Cordero since 1806, for up to that time they committed
frequent depredations at San Antonio and other settlements. "The king
should establish trading houses to forestall American traders."
The cession of Louisiana the governor regarded as "the most illegal
act possible," having been brought about "by certain Frenchmen and
enemies of Spain. Its acquisition is generally considered by Americans
as one of the most important negotiations for the United States ; it makes
them masters of the Nile of Western America, and affords them a south-
em outlet for the populous provinces of the west. A frivolous pretext
this ; they had a good market in New Orleans while Louisiana belonged to
Spain. What they desire is to approach closer and closer to the treasury
of Mexico. They will never be content to see the boundary fixed at tlie
Sabine or at the Rio Grande ; though if they wanted merely the navigation
of the Mississippi, why should they wish to encroach further? They are
ambitious, and Spain must defend her rights and fix the boundary where
it belongs. Troops for this purpose should be sent, the province settled
and fostered by opening a port. It is a mistake to depreciate the Amer-
icans. They are not to be despised as enemies ; they are naturally indus-
trious; hence they are robust, active, sober and courageous. The popu-
lation of the United States is over 7,000,000, and if that country does
not maintain a standing army above a certain number it is not because
it is unable to do so; it has a large body of good fighters at its disposal
continually. There are no natural barriers between the Spanish provinces
and the United States ; on the contrary, large rivers extend across the
boundaries, and there are well known roads. . . .The entrance of emigrants
from Louisiana is another subject that needs careful consideration, so as to
guard against the introduction of any seditious characters."*
The position of Texas and the imminent dangers to which it was
exposed from the United States could not have been better stated than in
this report of Governor Salcedo, and the desperate situation that he por-
trays might be employed to extenuate somewhat the severity of the
measures adopted by Spain and Mexico to avert the American con-
quest.
About this time there was published in the United States a journal
of exploration which brought to general knowledge a fund of new infor-
mation about the west and southwest bordering on the Spanish dominions.
In America the pathfinders have been quickly followed by the pioneers.
* Taken from a summary of the official report, preparer! by Mr. E. W. Winkler.
54 HISTORV^ OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The Lewis and Clark expedition resulted in the exploitation of the Louis-
iana territory and even to the far northwest, and similar results were to
follow from the explorations of Zebulon M. Pike in the southwest. The
account of his travels was published in book form after his return, and
presented to Americans the first reliable information concerning the
region of the Arkansas river valley, and also of the Spanish territory
about the Rio Grande and of the Texas province.
In the summer of 1807, this intrepid explorer, who in the previous
fall had discovered the peak which bears his name, and in the following
winter had been placed under arrest by the Spanish authorities and
, escorted to Chihuahua, was now returning, still under Spanish escort,
to Louisiana. From El Paso the party had journeyed down the Rio
Grande to the presidio Rio Grande, about forty miles below the present
Eagle Pass, and from there struck across the country by the old Spanish
trail between Coahuila and Texas.
June 7th the party crossed the Medina river, which was at that time
the boundary between Texas and Coahuila, and in the afternoon reached
San Antonio. "We were met out of San Antonio about three miles by
Governors Cordero and Herrera in a coach." They were entertained
most hospitably, and after supper attended a dance on the public square.
Pike and his companions remained a week in San Antonio, each day
being a festival occasion. He was delighted with the city, and his de-
scription and comments afford a pleasing picture in contrast with the
scenes of atrocity and bloodshed which were soon to be enacted in
this city.
The explorer conceived a great admiration for the local governors.
Though Pike's portrait of these officials may have been overdrawn, it is
difficult to reconcile their characters with those usually painted of the
ruling Spaniards of the time, or to believe that in the strife of the suc-
ceeding years humanity and justice were all on one side and bloodthirsty
cunning and barbarity on the other.
Don Antonio Cordero, to quote Pike's account, "was one of the select
officers who had been chosen by the court of Madrid to be sent to America
about thirty-five years since, to discipline and organize the Spanish pro-
vincials, and had been employed in all the various kingdoms and pro-
vinces of New Spain. Through the parts which we explored he was
universally beloved and respected ; and when I pronounce him by far the
most popular man in the internal provinces I risk nothing by the assertion
....His qualifications advanced him to the rank of colonel of cavalry,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 55
and governor of the provinces of Coahuila and Texas. . . .Since our taking
possession of Louisiana he had removed to San Antonio in order to be
nearer to the frontier, to be able to apply the remedy to any evil which
might arise from the collision of our lines." The excellences of Don Si-
mon de Herrera, governor of New Leon, whose seat of government was
at Monterey, were not less conspicuous in the eyes of Pike, who de-
scribes him as a man of wide knowledge and experience of the world and
"one of the most gallant and accomplished men" he ever knew.
The Texas population at the beginning of the century were much
devoted to the chase and the roving habits which this pursuit implies.
But Governor Cordero, among the other excellent accomplishments of
his administration mentioned by Lieut. Pike, "restricting by edicts the
buffalo hunts to certain seasons, and obliging every man of family
to cultivate so many acres of land, has in some degree checked the spirit
of hunting or wandering life which has been hitherto so very prevalent,
and has endeavored to introduce by his example and precepts a general
urbanity and suavity of manners which rendered San Antonio one of the
most agreeable places that we met with in the provinces."
CHAPTER X
Revolutionary Movements in Texas, 1810-1820
Spain's most brilliant era as a world power was in the sixteenth
century. Then her vast conquests in all seas and lands gave her posses-
sions which, had she retained, would still girdle the world with her
sovereignty. But the golden dream was dissipated with the crushing of
the Armada in 1588, and from that time Spanish glory rapidly declined.
Her weakness as a colonizer in Texas has been disclosed on former
pages, but with the increasing impotence of the mother country, she
imposed the heavier burdens on the provinces. In Mexico, the strongest
of Spain's colonies, a gradual amalgamation of conquerors and .natives
had been going on for centuries until there had resulted a truly Mexican
people, alien both to the pure-lDlooded Spaniards and to the natives. The
royal laws, however, discriminated in favor of native Spaniards, giving
them superior privileges and caste distinctions especially invidious to the
Mexican born.
The climax of these difficulties came in 18 10, when Hidalgo first
raised the standard of revolt. Morelos succeeded him as chief of the
revolutionary party, until the defeat of his army and his execution in 1817.
For several years the royalists were supreme, but in 1820, when Spain
herself was in the throes of revolt, the Mexicans seized the opportunity
to proclaim their own independence, overthrow the vice-regal govern-
ment, .and set up the republic which with so many vicissitudes has ex-
isted to the present time.
During all this turbulence and the varying fortunes of the Mexican
revolution, Texas suffered at the hands of royalist, revolutionist, Indians,
pirates and adventurers, and at the end few results remained of Spain's
colonial enterprise. Texas was essentially an agricultural country, and
Spanish conquest succeeded best in mining regions further south and
west. It was the policy of the Spanish to constitute themselves a ruling
class and leave to the conquered natives the labors of working the mines
56
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 57
and tilling the fields; but, as it turned out, the Indians of Texas could
not be brought under the pueblo system, and hence there was no success-
ful exploiting of native industry. This failing, only one motive remained
for the continued occupation of Texas — the fear of foreign encroach-
ment, the selfish desire for a thing which someone else wants. The poli-
tical and administrative measures which were the fruit of this policy had
produced very insubstantial results. The meager population and scattered
settlements could present no formidable front against invasion, and for
this reason the foreign incursions and revolutionary ventures in Texas
during this period had a larger degree of apparent success than the fact-
of the situation would justify. Because Texas was not yet a settled and
pennanent community, armed expeditions could only scatter the chaff-
like settlements, could tear down but not build up, nor even sustain what
was there. The basis of an independent and hardy farming and indus-
trial population had to be made before a political state could be made
of Texas.
The Mexican revolutionists of 1810 counted on the sympathy if not
the active support of the Americans. So, after the defeat and demorali-
zation of his forces, Hidalgo and a remnant of his followers started
north with the hope of strengthening their cause by alliance with Amer-
ican sympathizers. In March, 181 1, Jose Bernardo Gutierrez was com-
missioned agent of the revolutionary organization to solicit aid and
promote the cause of independence at Washington and among Amer-
ican citizens in general. He passed through San Antonio, which on Jan-
uary 22, 181 1, had fallen into the hands of the revolutionists. At Wash-
ington, Gutierrez failed to receive any official attention. His mission to
the general government having proved fruitless, he had then returned
to Natchitoches. There he found many willing spirits eager to help win
independence for any people, provided their thirst for adventure and active
military duty was satisfied. Augustus Magee, who as lieutenant in the
American army had just returned from a successful expedition against
the outlaws of the Neutral Ground, resigned his commission in the army
in order to join the filibuster, and began collecting recruits from among
the characters of the Neutral Ground.
Magee became the actual military leader, with the title of colonel,
while Gutierrez held the nominal position of general of the invading
army. The latter was an adroit promoter of his plans. That he was a
sincere patriot cannot be affirmed, but he willingly became a figure-head
58 HISTORY OF CExNTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of a movement the objects of which were to secure the independence
of the northern provinces from Spain.
The royalist governor, Salcedo (who had been restored to office after
the first uprising of 1811), had a clear apprehension of what the movement
meant, as the following letter, written August 17, 1812, to the viceroy,
explains: "With one thousand of the troops recently arrived from Spain
at Matagorda I shall free this kingdom within a month of a new and more
formidable insurrection than the past one. The people, incautious on the
one hand and hallucinated on the other, embrace with readiness the sedi-
tion. The Americans say they have not come to do harm to the inhabitants
of this kingdom, but to aid them in securing independence. Unfortunately
our people do not know the poison and hypocrisy of our enemies ; do not
realize that they are working, under the pretext of succoring them, to
conquer our provinces little by little. In the end, the natives cannot rid
themselves of the Americans. .. .While I am waiting for the reinforce-
ments I have asked, I shall do all in my power to expel the invaders,
if the troops of this garrison remain faithful."
In August, preparations having been completed by the revolutionists,
an advance was made from Natchitoches to the Sabine. The passage of
the river was disputed by the Spaniards under Montero, though they were
quickly outflanked and compelled to retreat to Nacogdoches.
The defense of Nacogdoches aroused no enthusiasm among the in-
habitants or soldiers, the former seeming to anticipate with gladness a
change of government, while the latter were indifferent. After over-
coming without difficulty the patrol at Atoyac, the invading forces ap-
proached Nacogdoches. On August 12th the garrison fled without pre-
tense of resistance, leaving all the territory between the Sabine and San
Antonio open to the foe. But, without following up this advantage,
the expedition remained some weeks at Nacogdoches, where recruiting
continued and proclamations and addresses were sent out from the revolu-
tionary headquarters, inciting the citizens of Texas to join the revolt and
assuring them that the primary purposes of the invasion were for the
independence of the province and the general welfare of its residents.
Natchitoches was in American territory, and that the expedition
could originate there and be organized for effective invasion was clearly
a violation of neutrality. But the protests of the Spanish authorities were
unavailing. It seems one of the wet^knesses of a great republic like the
United States, especially at that period of its history, that the laws of
nations cannot be enforced equally and quickly throughout all portions
PIISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
59
of the nation. A war with England engaged the attention of the central
government, and a frontier town like Natchitoches was, under best of con-
ditions, a quite safe place for revolutionary enterprise. The fact that
Magee did not join the expedition as active leader until Nacogdoches
became the headquarters is an evidence of some desire or perhaps policy
to observe nominally the treaty relations between Spain and the United
States.
"A letter from Natchitoches, dated September 5, says that five hun-
dred men, principally 'late' citizens of the United States, under Colonel
Magee, were in full march for the Spanish post of San Antonio in Mexico.
Their force was hourly increasing. .. .The governor of Louisiana, far
distant from the scene of action, had in vain attempted to prevent the
excursion."*
They pushed on to La Bahia (Goliad), the next most important post,
where Salcedo was awaiting in force. On the approach of the American
army the governor marched out to meet them on the Guadalupe, but was
outgeneraled by Magee, who crossed the river at a different' spot and
captured La Bahia with all its stores before Salcedo could come up. The
Americans were besieged for several months, and in the meantime Magee
died and the command devolved upon an another American named Kem-
per. As a result of the many losses inflicted by the unerring marksman-
ship of the Americans, Salcedo finally raised the siege and in March,
1813, retired towards San Antonio.
Colonel Kemper now took command of the revolutionists, with Cap-
tain Ross second in authority. A hundred and seventy volunteers arrived
from Nacogdoches, together with twenty-five East Texas Indians, and
with these reinforcements the army marched up the left bank of the San
Antonio river, and about the 28th of March reached Salado creek, about
nine miles below San Antonio. Their numbers were augmented by three
hundred Indian allies, and with eight hundred Americans under Kemper
and one hundred and eighty Mexicans from Nacogdoches under Man-
chaca, the "republican" army really presented a formidable front.
Meantime, Salcedo, having received additional troops from Mexico,
sent out his entire force of twenty-five hundred regulars and militia, with
a commander who pledged life and honor to defeat and capture the
entire revolutionary army. Marching south along the river, they took
position on a ridge of gentle slope dividing the waters of the San An-
tonio and the Salado, and there, in ambush, awaited the approach of the
* From Niles ' Register.
6o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Americans. Lying in the chapparal thickets that bordered the Salado,
they were undiscovered until the American riflemen were directly in front.
"The Indian auxiliaries," says Yoakum, "were placed in front of
the American lines to receive the charge of the Spanish cavalry, until
suitable dispositions could be made to charge in turn. At the first onset
they all fled, except the Cooshatties and a few others ; those withstood two
other charges in which they lost two killed and several wounded. By this
time the Americans had formed at the foot of the ridge, having placed the
baggage wagons in the rear, under the protection of the prisoners they
had taken at La Bahia. The charge was sounded, and orders given to ad-
vance within thirty yards of the Spanish line, fire three rounds, load the
fourth time, and charge along the whole line. The order was obeyed
in silence, and with a coolness so remarkable that it filled the Spaniards
with terror. The Americans had greatly the advantage in ascending the
hill, as the enemy overshot them. The Spaniards did not await the charge
of their adversaries, but gave way along the entire line, and then fled
in the direction of San Antonio. They were pursued and killed in great
numbers, and many who had surrendered were cruelly butchered by the
Indians. When the Spanish commander saw his army flying, and that
the day was lost, he turned his horse toward the American line, and
rushed into their ranks. He first attacked Major Ross, and then Colonel
Kemper ; and as his sword was raised to strike the latter he was shot
dead." This was the first important battle on Texas soil in which tiie
superior effectiveness of American frontier troops was proved against
Spanish mercenaries and raw militia. Nearly a thousand of the enemy
were slain and wounded, and many of the captured were inhumanly
slaughtered by the Indians.
The next day, on the approach of the American army, San Antonio
was surrendered. General Salcedo and his staff of thirteen officers,
together with the garrison and all the stores of the capital city, fell
into the hands of the revolutionists. Seventeen Americans, impris-
oned in the Alamo, were released and given places in the army. Spoils
were distributed, and for a brief time there was harmony. A
provisional government being formed, with Gutierrez as governor, the
latter, in the light of success, soon showed his unfitness to found a stable
government. The soldiers of the captured army were released, but the
disposition of Governor Salcedo and his staff produced much debate be-
tween the American and Mexican parties. Finally it was proposed to
escort them overland to Matagorda bay, and thence send them by vessel
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 6i
to New Orleans. Captain Delgado and a company of Mexicans were
appointed an escort, and at evening they and their prisoners started from
the city. A mile and a half below town, in the screen of woods, the
prisoners were stripped and tied, and then cruelly butchered by the guards,
who are said to have used dull camp knives in the decapitation. Besides
Governor Salcedo, who according to all estimates deserved his fate,
there perished the ex-governor, Herrera. Such bloody atrocity and treach-
ery were to blot the annals of Texas for twenty years to come, and later
victims were the Americans themselves. Even the most hardened Amer-
ican outlaws were revolted by this outrage. Many deserted, and the
subsequent conduct of the Americans was without enthusiasm. The
Mexicans leaders justified the execution of the officers on the principle
of retaliation. Delgado, who directed the butchery, had witnessed many
cruelties inflicted by order of Salcedo, and among them the beheading of
Delgado's father, at which his mother was also compelled to be present,
and by order of Salcedo the blood from the bleeding head of the father
was sprinkled over the unfortunate mother.*
Colonel Kemper returned to Louisiana, and the American volunteers
without danger or discipline to restrain them proved very troublesome
and dis.'-ipated neighbors for the peaceful citizens. At the same time they
held Gutierrez and his associates in the government in utter contempt.
This condition of affairs continued about two months, when the revo-
lutionists were aroused by the approach of another Spanish army, under
Don Y. Elisondo. With fifteen hundred regular soldiers, he had surprised
and killed a small outside guard before the garrison was aware of his
approach. Instead of making an immediate attack, however, he stopped
on the west side of the town and fortified his camp on Alazan creek. In
San Antonio the revolutionists were making hasty preparations for resist-
ance. Captain Perry was given actual command of the forces, Guti-
errez not being trusted for such a responsible post. "At ten o'clock at
night, June 4, the Americans marched out of the town. They moved
by file, and in the most profound silence until they approached sufficiently
near to hear the enemy's advanced guard. Here they sat down, with their
arms in their hands, until they heard the Spaniards at matins. Orders
were given that, on notice, the Americans should charge. The signal
was given, and they all marched forward with a firmness and regularity
becoming veteran .soldiers. The enemy's pickets were siu'prised and taken
• Niles' Register, May 21, ISl."!.
62 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
prisoners. The Americans advanced to tlie works, mounted them, Iiauled
down the Spanish flag, and ran up their own tricolor before they were
discovered by the Spanish camp. This was just at the dawn of day.
The Spaniards, thus aroused, fought gallantly, and drove the Americans
back from the works. The latter ralKed, retook them, and charged into the
Spanish camp, using only the bayonet and spear. The slaughter was ter-
rible. At length, after some hours of hard fighting, the Spaniards, fairly
pushed off the field, turned and fled, leaving a thousand dead, wounded
and prisoners. The Americans lost forty-seven killed, and as many more
wounded who afterwards died of their wounds."*
After this battle Gutierrez was deposed from the office of governor
and returned to Louisiana. Shortly after his departure there arrived
in San Antonio Jose Alvarez Toledo, a Cuban by birth, once high in Span-
ish-Mexican favor, but now a republican. He had been recruiting revolu-
tionists in Louisiana, and on his arrival at San Antonio was welcomed
and chosen commander of the army. A civil government was inaugu-
rated in the city. It endured scarcely a month, for the day of fate was
appointed for this rebellious city.
Arredondo, commander of the northeastern provinces, on learning
'the defeat of Elisondo, at once collected an army of about four thousand
men and in August crossed the Rio Grande. Arriving at the Medina river,
he fortified a position on the south bank, concealing the breastwork by
setting up chapparal bushes in front. Then he concealed a force of six
hundred along the road about a quarter of a mile in front of the ma-n
position. His arrangement was skilfully made, and the issue was equally
fortunate.
Toledo's force consisted of eight hundred and fifty Americans, and
about twice that number of ]\Iexicans. Made overconfident and im-
petuous as a result of their previous victories, they marched out to meet
the enemy in his chosen position and were easily led into the trap set
for them. The Spanish advance guard began retiring almost as soon as
attacked, and the Texas army, mistaking the movement for retreat,
hurried on, and had entered the open end of the V-shaped breastwork
before the ambuscade was suspected. Then from each side and in front
a ruthless fire of artillery and small arms was poured at them. The
order to retreat came too late, and only a part of the army obeyed it.
Nearly all the rest fell in the vain endeavor to take the enemy's works,
* TTiis is Yoakum 's description of the battle.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 63
and in a short time the repubhcan army was in complete defeat and
rout.
The revohitionary government and army were destroyed, and the
victorious royaUsts once more occupied San Antonio. General Toledo,
Colonel Perry and some sixty survivors of the battle at Medina river
reached Nacogdoches, and three hundred families were reported to be
fleeing from San Antonio and La Bahia to escape the bloody vengeance
of Arredondo.
Despite the fact that, according to a later report, Elisondo liberated
all Americans taken in the action, treating them with humanity and sup-
plying them with provisions for the home journey, the punishment in-
flicted by Arredondo on the rebellious citizens of Texas caused one of the
darkest periods in the history of the capital city. At San Antonio was
commenced, to quote Yoakum"s account, "a scene of barbarity which
that place had never before witnessed. Seven hundred of the peaceable
citizens were seized and imprisoned. Three hundred of them were con-
fined during the night of the 20th of August in one house, and during
the night eighteen of them died of sufifocation. From day to day the others
were shot, without any form of trial. The cruelty of the Spanish com-
mander went even further. He had a prison for females. It occupied
the site of the present postoffice* of San Antonio, and was tauntingly
called the Ouinta. Here were imprisoned five hundred of the wives,
daughters and other female relatives of the patriots ; and, for being such,
they were compelled daily to convert twenty-four bushels of Indian corn
into the Mexican cakes called iortUlas, for Arredondo's army. After
thus having satisfied his appetite for blood and revenge, the royalist com-
mander found an opportunity, about the first of September, to collect and
bury the bones of Salcedo and his staff." Nine years later the republicans
who fell at the Medina received the honor of burial. When Governor
Trespalacios, in 1822, passed the battlefield on his way to San Antonio,
he found the site still strewn with human bones. He had them collected
and buried with military honors, and placed a tablet with the inscription,
"Here lie the braves who, imitating the immortal example of Leonidas,
sacrificed their fortunes and lives, contending against tyrants."
During the retribution that followed the victory of Arredondo, the
vast territory from the Rio Grande to the Sabine was desolated and,
temporarily at least, almost depopulated. The royalists slaughtered with-
* This was written fifty years ago. The ' ' Quinta ' ' was an old rock house
fronting west on what is now Dwver avenue.
64 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
out mercy all connected with the revolutionary party. From San An-
tonio a force went devastating as far as the eastern boundary, took pos-
session of Nacogdoches, and proclaimed the authority of Spain throughout
the province. But it was an authority with little substantial basis. The
results of a century of colonization had been swept away in a few days;
nearly all the republican sympathizers of the eastern country had taken
refuge in Louisiana ; industry was paralyzed, crops were destroyed and
cattle driven off — leaving a wretched testimonial of Spanish inefficiency
and mismanagement.
During this period the Apache and Comanche Indians on the north
and northeast were a constant menace to the settlements. Their boldness
brought them even to San Antonio, where they robbed or levied tribute
almost at will. On the northeast border the desperadoes of the Neutral
Ground m.ade life and property unsafe, and formed a nursery for criminals
and adventurers of all classes. The gulf coast also came into notice
as the haunt of pirates, whose operations were a danger to the com-
merce of other nations than Spain.
Galveston island was the seat of the most flourishing of the piratical
enterprises. In 1813 a Mexican named Manuel Herrera had gone to
the LTnited States as minister of the revolutionary government, but
received no official recognition at Washington. Taking up residence at
New Orleans, he was one of the active spirits among the refugee Mexicans
there and also had considerable following of American adventurers.
Cloaking his enterprise in the guise of an attempt against the Spanish
royalists, and claiming to act under the fictitious authority of the Republic
of Mexico, in 1816 he led a fleet of vessels to Galveston island, which was
to be the stronghold of the revolutionary movement. A government was
set up. Louis de Aury was appointed governor, commander of fleet, and
judge of the court of admiralty — a sort of Pooh Bah of this pirate republic.
Founded ostensibly to combat Spanish authority in America, the principal
business of the organization was preying upon the merchant marine of
the gulf. Their prizes were not confined to Spanish merchantmen, and
among them were some slave-ships with cargoes of negroes for the West
Indies or the United States.
Through this source Texas got its first ill-fame in the slave trade.
There was, of course, no market on Galveston island for the captured
negroes, nor any demand for them in the Texas interior. To dispose of
them Aury's agents smuggled them across the boundary and sold them
more or less openly at New Orleans and other Louisiana points. Calves-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 65
ton island thus became a supply point for Louisiana in this traffic. A re-
port to the government at Washington in 1817 stated that the traffic was
carried on "by a motley mixture of freebooters and smugglers at Galves-
ton under the Mexican flag."
About this time Aury was attracted from the island to join a filibus-
tering expedition into Mexico. His place was soon taken by the most
famous and romantic of Texas pirates and buccaneers. Jean Lafitte, who
had previously carried on his operations with headquarters along the
Louisiana coast, from which he was expelled by the United States govern-
ment, in a short time organized a most complete and efficient pirate king-
dom at Galveston. According to his story, having been plundered of all
his wealth and outraged, some years before, by the captain of a Spanish
war vessel, Lafitte had sworn eternal enmity with Spain, and in his opera-
tions about the gulf he claimed that Spanish commerce was the only
object of his attack. Following his predecessor's example, he set up his
government in avowed allegiance to the Republic of Mexico. The pur-
poses of his enterprise were afterwards confessed by his judge of ad-
miralty to be "the capturing of Spanish property under what they called
the Mexican flag, but without any idea of aiding the revolution in Mexico
or that of any of the revolted Spanish colonies." As the establishment
increased and Lafitte's lieutenants in many cruisers scoured the gulf
waters, depredations were made on ships of other nations, and especially
on those of the United States. He was also a principal medium of the
slave traffic, and his operations prospered until he had a veritable kingdom
on Galveston island and rolled in wealth and spoils, with his town of Cam-
peachy as his capital. A fort was built at the east end of the island, and
the ruins of the old pirate stronghold were pointed out for many years
afterward. Among Lafitte's agents in disposing of the negroes in
Louisiana were the three Bowie brothers, Rezin P., James and John.*
Their profits in these transactions, from 1818 to 1820, were estimated by
John Bowie to have been $65,000.
Finally, in 1821, an expedition was sent to Galveston by the United
States government, and Lafitte was compelled to evacuate the island. He
paid off and dispersed his followers, and sailed away from the coast for-
ever. Though Spain had been the chief sufferer from his depredations,
her government had taken no effective steps to put an end to them. Never-
* Eugene C. Barker, ' ' The African Slave Trade in Texas, ' ' in Tex. Hist.
Assn. Quarterly, Vol. VI.
Vol. 1—5
66 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
theless her jealousy of any foreign interference in Texas had caused the
Spanish minister to protest whenever the United States proposed to sup-
press the estabhshment.
The romantically planned colony of the Champ d'Asile should also
be mentioned as having been undertaken about this time. The leader was
a French officer who had served under Napoleon, and his followers were
other expatriates who hoped to find a garden of plenty in Texas. The
site selected by them was on Trinity bay, about twelve miles from Galves-
ton. The enterprise was undertaken without authority from Spain, and
despite their bold beginning the colonists, on the approach of Spanish
troops, abandoned their site and found refuge in Galveston, where some
of them joined Lafitte's band.
The last invasion of Texas before the final overthrow of Spain in
the Mexican provinces was "Long's expedition." James Long had been
a surgeon in the army, and possessed many attractive personal qualities
and the courage and enthusiasm of a leader. He was in business at
Natchez for several years, and there loved and married the young girl
who has often been called "the mother of Texas." She was Jane Wilkin-
son, a niece of General James Wilkinson.
A great many people in the southwestern states were dissatisfied with
the treaty of 1819, which fixed the boundary between Spain and the United
States at the river Sabine. The Americans who had settled about Nacog-
doches and others who sought material interests in that region were nat-
urally disappointed when Spain's jurisdiction was ratified. Under these
conditions Long's expedition was projected, the plan being apparently to
set up an independent government in eastern Texas which would eventu-
ally be recognized and brought under the protection of the American
government, or would co-operate with the Mexican revolutionists and be
rewarded with substantial privileges in the event of independence.
Proceeding to Natchitoches, Long gathered a considerable force, and
in June, 1819, occupied Nacogdoches. Here a plan of government was
drawn up, and Texas was declared a free and independent republic. A
general council -was elected, with General Long as president. But the
hopeful republic was short-lived. While Long was away seeking the co-
operation of Lafitte at Galveston, the Spanish forces fell upon his outpost
at the Brazos, and then advanced rapidly towards Nacogdoches, which was
precipitately abandoned, and the republicans barely escaped to the eastern
bank of the Sabine. Long returned to find his soldiers and settlers flying
before the approaching Spaniards. His wife, who had loyally followed
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 67
him to Texas, was safe on the Louusiana side, but many of his followers,
among them his brother David, had been killed or captured.
After the failure of this invasion. Long went to New Orleans, where
he continued to plan a Texas republic. Among his advisers and asso-
ciates at this time was Col. Ben Milam. In 1821 he undertook another
invasion. Point Bolivar, opposite Galveston, had been designated as
the headquarters, where many of the survivors of the former expedition
and such new recruits as had been obtained were assembled. From there
Long led a force to La Bahia and took possession of the town in Oc-
tober, but soon afterwards was compelled to surrender to the troops sent
out from San Antonio. As he professed to be fighting for the independ-
ence of Mexico, he and his followers were treated with more than usual
consideration. Long himself was sent to Mexico, where he arrived soon
after the complete success of the revolution. He was released as a sup-
porter of independence, but was killed before leaving the city in what
was apparently a private altercation with a guard.
After the failure of Long's expedition the Spanish soldiers once
more harried eastern Texas. All American intruders were driven out
and buildings and improvements destroyed. In 1820 the population of
the province, exclusive of Indians, was estimated to be not more than four
thousand. San Antonio was the only settlement worthy of name which
survived the Indian depredations, filibuster invasions and successive
shocks of revolution. "Such was the miserable witness of the craft of
St. Denis, the patriotic work of Aguayo, the brave and patient self-
sacrifice of the missionaries, and the vast expenditure of treasure and
blood in the vain effort to plant Spanish civilization in Texas."
CHAPTER XI
The Republic of Mexico — Austin's Colony
The first revolution of Mexico was practically at an end by 1819,
when the royalist armies were everywhere triumphant and the few sur-
viving leaders of revolt were in hiding with their followers among the
mountains. In Spain, King Ferdinand VII, weakest of Spanish sover-
eigns, had been restored to his throne in 1814. With him the church had
resumed its powerful and pervasive influence, and the inquisition was re-
established. The despotism was short-lived. In 1820, beginning with an
uprising in the army, Spain was again in revolution. The republicans
forced upon the king a recognition of the constitution of 1812, with an
elected junta acting in conjunction with the crown.
Though the two active leaders in the first revolution, Hidalgo and
Morelos, were popular priests, the higher orders of clergy in Mexico
opposed the revolution, seeing in its success a greater danger to their
hierarchy than what they had already suffered from the exactions of the
Spanish crown. But with the republican restoration in 1820 and the re-
establishment of constitutional government in Spain, the supremacy of
the Catholic authority was threatened with increased restrictions and
burdens, so that the church, in order to preserve its spiritual despotism,
suddenly turned and gave its support to the cause of Mexican inde-
pendence. It is to be observed, however, in this apparent shift of
allegiance that the church was not supporting the cause of popular gov-
ernment, but hoped, in the establishment of an independent monarchy in
Mexico, to find a new home for the old Spanish political and ecclesiastical
system. The beginning of the second and final revolution of Mexico,
therefore, was not a popular movement, but originated among the higher
clergy and radical royalists.
Don Augustin Iturbide was the chief actor chosen to accomplish the
revolution. He had been successfully employed as a royalist officer in
the preceding campaigns. Having been appointed by the viceroy as com-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 69
mander of fifteen hundred troops to proceed against the scattered bands
of patriots in the mountains, instead of attacking them he united with
them, and thus precipitated the revolution. Thus the three classes —
clerg}', Spaniards and Mexicans — were all united temporarily against
the existing government.
At Iguala, February 22. 1821, Iturbide submitted to the allied armies
the plans of a new government, since called the "'Plan of Iguala," the
chief features of which were : Mexican independence of Spain ; the es-
tablishment of a congress and constitution and a limited monarchy, the
crown to be offered to Ferdinand or other members of the royal family
on condition of their residence in America and fealty to the constitution ;
full security for the Roman Catholic religion ; the admission of all classes
of inhabitants to equal citizenship. The plan was a compromise, hence
unsatisfactory to the radicals of all three parties, but was accepted in this
crisis of affairs, and the revolution proceeded on this platform of princi-
ples.
The revolution spread rapidly to all the provinces, and when a new
viceroy arrived from Spain he found only two or three cities still loyal.
Resistance being useless, a treaty was negotiated at Cordova, August
20, 1821, by which Spain was to recognize the independence of Mexico.
In the meantime, until February, 1822, a provisional junta and regency
directed the government, until the first constituent congress or cortes
assembled.
With the achievement of independence, the original elements of the
revolution were at once dissolved into three warring factions — the royal-
ist Spaniards, the republicans consisting chiefly of the native Mexicans
and those in favor of a free government, and the personal adherents of
Iturbide, who as commander of the army exercised a power dangerous
to any constituted government. Quarrels between Iturbide and the cortes
delayed the progress of constitution-making, until on May 19, 1822,
Iturbide was proclaimed by the army and the rabble of the capital as
"Augustin I, Emperor of Mexico."
This bold usurpation, and the increasing violence that marked the
succeeding months of his reign, soon alienated the majority of the peo-
ple, resulting in insurrections in many parts of the empire. In March,
1823. Iturbide was forced to abdicate, and was expelled from the country.
A provisional executive, composed of three revolutionary generals, admin-
istered the affairs of the country until a new constituent cortes assembled
in August, The latter tooV up the work of forming a constitution, which
yo HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
was promulgated January 31, 1824. and definitely sanctioned in the fol-
lowing October.
The Mexican constitution of 1824 was patterned after that of the
United States, but with certain limitations peculiar to the Spanish peo-
ple that afterward played no small part in Texas history. One of these
was the establishment of a national religion, the Roman Catholic Apos-
tolic, the exercise of any other whatever being prohibited.
May 7, 1824, the congress provided for the union of the former
provinces of Coahuila and Texas as one state, providing that when
Texas possessed the elements necessary to the formation of a separate
state, with the approval of the national congress, an independent state
should be created.
The important fact of Mexican history, during the subsequent period
in which Texas was concerned, may be stated briefly as follows : On the
formation of the Mexican republic two parties at once sprang up — con-
tending for principles somewhat similar to those upheld by the political
parties in the United States during the first decades ; namely, centraliza-
tion of government power, on the one hand, and, on the other, free de-
velopment of republican institutions with as little interference as possible
from the central authority. In Mexico, however, the political parties
were of a constituent character, both more volatile and restive than in
the United States. Under the control of self-seeking leaders, the minority
party, when defeated at the polls, did not submit gracefully to the will of
the majority, but too often sought to gain their ends by force. More-
over, one party seems no sooner to have established itself in power than
it began to overstep the limitations of the constitution of 1824. The
drift throughout these years was towards centralization of all power at
Mexico and the reduction of the states to departments of administration.
The annals of the time abound in revolution and counter-revolution,
which require only passing reference in the history of Texas. But the
preceding account of the establishment of the Republic of Mexico is a
necessary introduction to the story of American colonization in Texas,
which began in the same year that Mexico was declared free and inde-
pendent of Spain.
The story of the colonization of Texas has one great name, and the
Austins — father and son — are the founders and fathers of Texas as we
know it today. Moses Austin was born in Connecticut in 1764, was
married at the age of twenty, and soon afterward embarked in mercan-
STEPHEN F. AUSTIN
72 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
tile business at Richmond, Virginia, with his brother Stephen. They
also became interested in lead mining and smelting- in that state, and
were the first manufacturers of shot and sheet lead in the United States.
Financial reverses came, and to recoup his fortunes Moses Austin, in
1797, obtained a large grant of land in southern Missouri, then Louisiana
territory, where he became the pioneer in the lead mining of that district,
and laid the foundation of a prosperous colony and himself acquired
wealth and influence. The failure, in 1818, of the Bank of St. Louis, in
which he was a large stockholder, bankrupted him and he surrendered all
his property to his creditors. In his fifty-fifth year, he still possessed a
spirit undaunted by adversity and ready to endure the hardships of a
new field of enterprise.
By the treaty of 1819 the governments of Spain and the United
States had finally agreed upon the boundary line between Texas and
Louisiana. The possession of Texas being thus secure, Spain felt justi-
fied in relaxing somewhat her former exclusive policy against immigra-
tion. The necessity of colonizing and developing Texas was apparent,
and Spain having failed in her own efforts in that direction, it seemed
wise to allow foreign immigration with proper restrictions and safe-
guards.
Austin's idea of planting a large colony in Texas was conceived,
therefore, at an opportune time. He perfected his plans conjointly
with his son Stephen F. While the father went to San Antonio to gain
the proper authority for his enterprise, the son began assembling the
persons and means for carrying out the plan. It was in no spirit of the
filibusterer or adventurer that Moses Austin entered upon his under-
taking. As he meant his colony should contain the elements of perma-
nence and prosperity, so he desired it to have proper legal authority.
Early in December, 1820, he arrived in San Antonio. When he
sought audience with the governor, Martinez, he was rudely rebufifed,
and the governor refused to listen to any explanation and ordered him
to quit the province at once. Dejected by such a reception, he left the
governor's house Avith the intention of returning home at once. As he
was crossing the public square he unexpectedly met an old friend, the
Baron de Bastrop. The latter, though not a high official, possessed much
influence in the province and with the governor. When he learned of
Austin's mission and the apparent frustration of his plans, he at once
procured a second interview. Through Bastrop's influence the governor
entertained the proposal with more favor, and though it was not in his
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 73
power to grant the permission to establish a colony, he promised to send
the memorial, with his recommendation, to the commandant-general.
The first step of his undertaking having been taken, Austin set out
on his return to Missouri. The journey was a severe one, and the hard-
ships and exposure to which he was subjected so undermined his health
that in June, 1821, his dauntless spirit was calmed in death. Not, how-
ever, until his last great enterprise was in a fair way to accomplishment.
Just a few days before his death news had come that his plan had been
approved, and that commissioners would be sent to Louisiana to confer
with him on the establishment of the colony. The project for which the
father had given his life was to be carried out to full success by his
equally enterprising son.
In the meantime, Stephen F. Austin was at New Orleans arranging
the business details of the colony. Leaving that city in June, 182 1, he
arrived a few days later at Natchitoches, where he met the Spanish com-
missioner, Jose Erastus Seguin, who was appointed to conduct him to
San Antonio. The purpose of Austin's entrance at this time was to ex-
plore the Texas country and select a location for his settlers. On the
road between Natchitoches and Nacogdoches the son was informed of
his father's death, and just before reaching San Antonio, on August 12th,
the news came of the independence of Mexico. Austin found Nacog-
doches in ruins, with only the church and seven houses, including the
Stone House. He also describes La Bahia as a ruined settlement, so that
outside of San Antonio the entire region was practically unoccupied.
Six weeks were spent in exploration of the country about the Guadalupe
and Colorado rivers, and Austin then returned to Louisiana to lead the
settlers to the chosen land.
The plan which Moses Austin had submitted to the Spanish authori-
ties provided for the settlement of three hundred families ; each head of
family was to receive 640 acres, his wife 320 acres, 100 acres for each
child, and 80 acres for each slave; all settlers to accept the Catholic re-
ligion, to give allegiance to Spain, and to be of good moral character.
Another provision which Austin carefully considered with the governor
included the payment by each settler to Austin of twelve and a half cents
an acre for the homestead, a liberal time being allowed in which to com-
plete the payment. This was the only expense which the individual set-
tlers were to bear in the cost of the enterprise, and the only source of
compensation to Austin for his management of the colony. Besides the
long and hard traveling done by the two Austins in behalf of the colony.
74 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Austin had the heavy responsibility of managing the business aflfairs of
the colony and acting as its provisional governor until a civil organization
could be effected.
On his return to Louisiana, Austin published this plan of colonization,
including the terms by which each settler was to pay Austin for the land,
and made energetic preparations to introduce the first quota of settlers.
As agriculture was to be the foundation of the colony, the attractions of
the enterprise appealed to a more thrifty and stable class of people than
had taken part in previous expeditions, and the majority of settlers under
Austin's standard were of a representative grade of hardy colonizers.
Austin and his followers, coming from Natchitoches by the La Bahia
road, arrived at the Brazos in December, 1821. In November a schooner,
the Lively, had left New Orleans with supplies of all kinds and a small
body of colonists, intending to come up the Colorado river and form a
junction with those who went overland. The vessel never reached the
rendezvous, and the colonists were deprived of the implements and pro-
visions needed during the first months of their residence. It was with
difficulty that they managed to live for a time. Such hardships would
have been fatal to a colony of adventurers, but the followers of Austin
were of sterner stuff, and this germ of modern Texas was not to be
destroyed.
After the arrival of his colony it became necessary for Austin to
report to the governor at San Antonio. When he arrived there for that
purpose, in March, 1822, he found that the local government could no
longer treat with him under a contract made with Spain, and that his
colony must be legalized by the Mexican congress. The success of the
enterprise demanded an immediate journey to the capital, notwithstand-
ing the precarious situation of the settlers. It was characteristic of
Austin that he never avoided any duty demanded of his position as leader.
With only one companion he set out for the capital, journeying much of
the distance in disguise as poor pensioners in order to escape the banditti
of the road, and arrived in Mexico City the last of April. There he found
several other Americans petitioning for land grants similar to Austin's,
among them Green DeWitt and Haden Edwards.
For more than a year, during the turbulent period of Iturbide's
reign, Austin was detained in the capital seeking a confirmation of his
father's contract. On account of the presence of other petitioners, the
government chose to draw up a general law for colonization instead of
confirming Austin's individual contract. The first congress was at work
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 75
on such a law when Iturbide usurped the government as emperor, and
the work had to be done all over again by his council. The law was
finally drafted and received the approval of the emperor and his junta
on January 4, 1823. Under the provisions of this law, Austin's contract
was submitted to the government, and an imperial decree of February
18, 1823, confirmed the original contract with Moses Austin. His mis-
sion accomplished, Stephen Austin was preparing to return when the
imperial government was overthrown and all its acts annulled. With
admirable persistence, Austin now presented his cause before the pro-
visional government. The colonization law of January 4th was suspended,
but on April 14, 1823, the supreme executive power confirmed and sus-
tained the imperial concession to Austin of date of February i8th. There
seemed satisfactory assurance that the congress, when it assembled, would
confirm this act of the provisional government, so Austin felt that at last
his colony had legal sanction.
Austin may be said to have obtained a special charter for his first
colony, all other empresario contracts having been undertaken under the
general colonization laws of the republic and the state. Under this special
contract, the local government was committed to him until government
could be otherwise organized on constitutional lines. This provisional
government of the colony was not superseded until February i, 1828.
The original plan of Austin for the distribution of land to the set-
tlers was based on the American system of sections of 640 acres. But
the decree confirming his contract declared that he was not authorized
to assign the quantity of land to be given to each settler. It fixed the
quantity to be given to each head of family as one labor or one league,
the former quantity to the colonist whose purpose was solely agriculture,
and the latter to the colonist who intended to engage in stock-raising, but
it was also provided that to the colonist who followed both occupations
there might be granted "a league and a labor."*
The decree also provided that Austin, as contractor or empresario of
the colony, should receive a premium of fifteen leagues and two labores
for every two hundred families introduced. Each colonist had to culti-
vate or use his land within two years under penalty of forfeit, but when
this condition was complied with his title to the land was clear and abso-
lute.
* A labor, in Spanish land measure, is a tract of 1,000 varas square, or about
177 acres; a league is a tract .5,000 varas square, or approximately 4,428 English
acres.
76 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Another distinctive feature of Austin's original colony is that the
colonists were not restricted to definite limits in their settlement. Each
of the three hundred families belonged to the colony wherever its lands
were located. The result was that these original settlers were dispersed
from the east bank of the Lavaca to the east side of the San Jacinto,
and from the coast to the San Antonio road. In this area all the lands
not occupied by the three hundred colonists belonged to the government.
This wide distribution of the immigrants, while it exposed them to Indian
attacks, eventually proved advantageous in the development of the coun-
try, since those that came later were better served with supplies by means
of these scattered settlements than they could have been from one central
point.
When Austin returned to Texas in August, 1823, he found the colony
almost dissipated, and immigration had entirely ceased. Many of the new
settlers had stopped about Nacogdoches and in the vicinity of the Trinity
river, and thus began the settlement of East Texas. But Austin's success
in obtaining a confirmation of his contract and his energetic prosecution
of afifairs soon turned the tide in his favor, and by the following year
the stipulated number of three hundred families had arrived. He was
favored by the fact that, until after the general colonization law of the
state of Coahuila-Texas was passed in March, 1825, Austin was the only
empresario who had authority to settle families in Texas and secure them
valid titles to their lands. This not only resulted in the rapid completion
of the colony numbers, but also gave Austin opportunity to select his set-
tlers and reject unworthy applicants. Austin's management in this latter
particular was no doubt an important factor in the subsequent welfare
of all Texas.
The commissioner appointed by the governor to survey the lands was
Baron de Bastrop, who had been so instrumental in the beginning of the
colony. He was also instructed by the' governor, in a letter of July 26,
1823, to lay out the capital town of the colony, to which the governor
gave the name San Felipe de Austin.
Austin's position was no sinecure, even after he had settled all the
legal affairs of his colony. The government was practically in his hands
for the next five years, and the tact, ability and patience with which he
directed it confirm his right to the title of Father of Texas. His colonists
were in the main independent, aggressive, vigorous Americans, abiding
by the fundamental rules of law and society, but not submissive to any
restraints and quick to suspect imposition. Although in enrolling them-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 77
selves as settlers they had accepted the conditions which prescribed the
payment to Austin of twelve and a half cents an acre for their land,
when the time came to make payment the majority opposed the charge
and burdened their leader with much unmerited abuse, forgetting the
self-sacrificing hardships that Austin had undergone in the first stages
of the enterprise. They claimed that he was speculating on their efforts,
and furthermore that, when certain poorer settlers were given lands free,
he was discriminating. The result was that he had to forego his claim
to these fees, and from the sale of his premium lands received only a
small share of his original investment. But when finally relieved of the
active administration of the colony, after having borne with wonderful
patience the cabalous and open dissatisfaction of the settlers, he had on
the whole managed his enterprise with such wisdom that he retained the
respect and gratitude of his own colony and remained to the close of his
life the best loved man in Texas.
CHAPTER XII
Colonies Under the Empresario System
Austin's was the first permanently successful colony, and was the
central and strongest pillar which upheld the political and social structure
of Texas. But around it were built up, in the course of a few years, many
others, historically of less importance than the first, but each contributing
a portion of the citizenship which finally made Texas independent. These
colonies were the fruit of the general colonization system adopted by
the Mexican republic and the state of Coahuila-Texas.
As has been stated, Austin obtained a special grant for his colony,
but at the same time others were petitioning for privilege to make settle-
ments. No grants were made to these applicants, however, until the fed-
eral congress had formulated a general land law. On the theory that
the general government of a group of federated states should leave to
each individual state the widest possible regulation of its internal affairs,
the Mexican federal congress contented itself with a land law of very
general definition of principles.
This federal law, dated August i8, 1824, made the following rules
to govern the states in disposing of lands : No lands to be colonized with-
in twenty leagues of the boundaries of a foreign nation or within ten
leagues of the coast without permission of the federal executive ; admis-
sion of foreign colonists not to be prohibited until the year 1840 unless
circumstances "imperiously" demanded it; in the distribution of lands
preference to be given to Mexican citizens ; the limit of lands that could
be united in one individual ownership must not exceed eleven leagues.
The provisional congress of the state of Coahuila-Texas was organ-
ized in August, 1824, and while engaged in forming the state constitu-
tion passed the state colonization law under which Texas was settled.
This law, dated March 24, 1825, was designed to augment "by all possi-
78
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 79
ble means the population" of the state. Its provisions conformed, of
course, to the general rules imposed by the federal law above noted. All
foreigners must become Mexican citizens and accept the national re-
ligion. The quantity of land to be assigned to each foreign setttler was
fixed by this law as follows: To each married man or head of family,
one labor if an agriculturist, or one league if he combined agriculture and
stock-raising; to each single man, one-fourth of this quantity, to be in-
creased to the regular allotment when he married. Those who immi-
grated at their own expense and settled in a colony within six years
after its establishjnent received, if a married man. an additional labor,
or, if unmarried, a third instead of a fourth of the regular quantity.
Out of this system resulted the various quantities of land comprised
under the old Mexican titles, some titles covering a league and a labor,
others a single league, a third of a league, a quarter league, down to a
single labor and fractions thereof.
This law also provided for colonization by empresarios or contrac-
tors. Each empresario who undertook to introduce a hundred or more
families, on his proposal being approved by the government, should have
a definite tract of vacant lands assigned for the settlement of his colonists.
His premium for each hundred families that he colonized was fixed at
five leagues and five labores.
Immediately after the passage of this law, those who had been ap-
plicants during the pendency of this legislation presented their petitions
for empresario grants, and they were followed in the course of a few
years by others, until nearly all the available lands of Texas were assigned
among the various contractors. It is necessary to explain here that the
contractors had no proprietary rights in the lands thus assigned. A tract
was set aside to them, for a definite period of years, during which they
were privileged to introduce colonists, and the permission of the em-
presario was required before the government commissioner would survey
or issue a certificate of title to the settler. But the title was issued by the
government and not by the empresario, and the title of the individual set-
tler was unafifected by the subsequent failure of the empresario to com-
plete his contract with the state. The design of the law was that the sole
advantage to the empresario should consist in the premium lands granted
to him on condition that he introduce a hundred or more families. Never-
theless, through lack of perfect understanding of the relations of the
empresarios, some extensive frauds were committed in Europe and the
8o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
United States. The empresarios were represented as actual owners of
the lands, and "scrip" was sold to the extent of thousands of dollars to
unsuspecting purchasers. This "scrip" was, of course, worthless, and on
arriving in Texas its holders found that they could secure titles to land
only from the government and according to the provisions of the laws
above described.
Austin himself was one of the first to take advantage of the coloniza-
tion laws to introduce another colony in addition to the three hundred
families whom he had settled by 1824. He forwarded his first petition
to the general government in 1824, asking to introduce several hundred
families through Galveston as port of entry. His petition as finally ap-
proved by the state government and signed by Austin on June 4, 1825,
provided for the introduction of five hundred families, who were to be
located on the unoccupied lands within the limits of his first colony, the
contract being limited to six years from the date of signing. As the
limits of the first colony had never been officially designated, an order
dated March 7, 1827, described the boundaries of the colony as follows :
Beginning on the San Jacinto river, ten leagues from the coast, up the
river to its source and thence in a line to the Nacogdoches-San Antonio
road, this road being the northern boundary, and the western boundary
was the Lavaca river and a line from its source to the above named road.
On April 22, 1828, Austin was granted the right, by special consent
of the president of the republic, to colonize with three hundred families
the ten-league reserve on the coast, between the San Jacinto and Lavaca
rivers. This extended Austin's colonies from the San Antonio road to
the coast, comprising what is now the most populous portion of Southeast
Texas. Another contract undertaken by Austin, November 20, 1827,
was for the settlement of one hundred families on the east side of the
Colorado above the San Antonio road. A later contract, of Austin
and Williams, covered a portion of the other grants south of the San
Antonio road, and extended north of that road between the Colorado
river and the dividing ridge between the Brazos and Trinity to a line
above the present site of Waco.
One of the most important colonies outside of Austin's was DeWitt's.
Green DeWitt was at Mexico seeking a contract in 1822, when Austin
arrived at the capital. His application was delayed several years until
the general laws were enacted, his contract being granted April 15, 1825.
His assignment of lands lay on the southwest of Austin's, extending
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 8i
from the ten-league coast reserve with the Lavaca as its northeast
boundary, the San Antonio road on the northwest, and on the southwest
a line two leagues beyond and parallel with the Guadalupe river. In the
war for independence this colony was the most exposed to Mexican in-
vasion, Gonzales, the capital of the colony, being the first to suffer the
vengeance of Santa Anna after the fall of the Alamo.
DeWitt contracted to introduce four hundred families, but at the
time his contract expired in 1831 only 166 titles had been issued, and the
government refused to extend his contract.
Between DeWitt's grant and the coast, along the Guadalupe, was
the territory assigned to Martin de Leon, whose contract was made in
1825. A'ictoria was the principal center of this colony.
Haden Edwards had also been in Mexico at the time Austin was
there, and on April 18, 1825, he was given a contract to introduce eight
hundred families about Nacogdoches, his lands being comprised within
the territory between Austin's colony on the west, the ten-league coast
reserve on the south, the twenty-league reserve on the east, and on the
north was bounded by a line fifteen leagues north of the town of Nacog-
doches. A more complete account of this colony belongs in the following
chapter.
Other empresario contracts that should be mentioned chiefly because
of their relation to subsequent land litigation were :
Robert Leftwich obtained a contract April 15, 1825, for a tract on
the Navasota river, between the San Antonio road and the Brazos and
Colorado rivers. The contract was subsequently carried by Sterling
C. Robertson and Alex. Thompson, and the colony was known as the
Nashville or Robertson's colony.
James Power and James Hewitson, from Ireland, contracted June
II, 1828, to colonize the vicinity of Aransas bay; a second contract of
1830 covered a portion of the territory between the Nueces and Guadalupe
rivers. The first colony marked the beginning of Refugio county.
John J\Icj\Iullen and Patrick McGloin, also Irishmen, August 17,
1828, contracted for a settlement on the Nueces river, their enterprises
being commemorated in the present San Patricio county.
Lorenzo de Zavala was granted colonization rights, March 12, 1829,
to lands lying west of the Sabine between Nacogdoches and the coast.
Joseph Vehlein's contracts, dated December 22, 1826, and November
17, 1828, covered land in East Texas, lying partly in the Haden Edwards
tracr.
82 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
David G. Burnet's contract, December 22, 1826, was for settlement
along the Navasota and Trinity rivers and about the San Antonio road.
The last three mentioned contracts were assigned in 1830 to the
"Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company," a New York company who
issued large quantities of worthless "scrip" against the lands.
CHAPTER XIII
Relations with ^Iexico — The Fredonian War
After the vicissitudes of two centuries Texas was prospering and
growing. Great changes had taken place during the second decade of the
century as a result of the Hberal colonization policy. The agriculture,
stock-raising and commerce of that period were crude and primitive, but
at the same time gave a firm basis for a permanent population. The in-
crease of population during the first ten years was not phenomenal, the
number being estimated at ten thousand in 1827 and twenty thousand in
1830, but in the latter year it was four times what it had been when
Moses Austin journeyed across the desolated country in the fall of 1820.
The growth of an American civilization on the soil of and alongside
of a Latin-American nation could not take place without many possibili-
ties of danger. Racial characteristics cannot be changed. The oil and
the water of Mexican and American populations would not mix. It being
taken for granted that the two nationalities could not coalesce, there was
but one way to prevent the Americanization of Texas — by making Texas
an integral part of Mexico, completely systematized under Mexican laws
and institutions, and with the Mexican population greater in number
than that of all foreigners combined, and furthermore with a govern-
ment sufficiently strong to command the respect and obedience of all its
citizens. But Mexico was far from able to extend her authority and
population over Texas in this manner ; it was with difficulty that she,
during these years, could keep her ship of state clear from the rocks of
anarchy. The development of Texas went on with little more than
passive regulation from Mexico, and its people, though they paid nominal
loyalty to their adopted nation, were in all other respects foreign and
antagonistic to Mexican customs and institutions.
To represent the Mexican government always acting the part of the
oppressor and tyrant, and the Texas Americans as injured innocents, is
both unjust and unnecessary. Mexico cannot be said to have transcended
8.S
84 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
her national rights in regulating the settlement of foreigners. This much
at least is the prerogative of any nation, and had the government of
Mexico been in the hands of able and unselfish leaders it is reasonable
to assume that the separation of Texas would have been long delayed.
Among the American settlers, on the other hand, was much impa-
tience of restraint and the aggressive independence of the frontiersmen,
which have proved turbulent factors in every new state and territory of
the American Union. In this eager, restless throng of settlers, Austin's
steadiness, tact and patience and personal influence succeeded in pre-
serving order long enough to give stability to the colonies, and the value
of his services in this respect can hardly be overestimated. His own
testimony of the character of his colonists is an interesting light on this
subject :* "I have had a mixed multitude to deal with — collected from
all quarters, strangers to me, save from the testimonials of good charac-
ter which they are expected to bring with them — strangers to each other,
to the language, laws and customs of this country. They come here,
with all the feelings and ideas of Americans, unwilling to make allowance
for the peculiar state of things existing, and expecting to find all in sys-
tem, and harmony, and organization, as in the country they have left.
Amongst a certain class of Americans with whom I have had
to deal, independence means resistance and obstinacy, right or wrong ;
this is particularly the case with most fronfienucii ; and a violent course
with men of this cast would have kindled a fiame that might have con-
sumed the colony. For it was with the greatest difficulty, and after more
than eighteen months' solicitation, that I obtained the consent ■ of the
Mexican government to progress with the settlement, and the principal
objection expressed to my doing so was, that the Americans were consid-
ered in Mexico a turbulent and disorderly people, difficult to govern, and
predisposed to resist authority. This impression as to the American char-
acter it was not easy to remove ; and the least commotion among the set-
tlers, in the infancy of the colony, would have revived that impression
anew, and probably have proved fatal to all our hopes."
But as time went on, and the Texas colonies increased in numbers
and strength, and all the while the Mexican republic plunged deeper into
anarchy, the incompatibilities of the two peoples became more menacing.
The discontent of the Texans was based on a number of causes apart
from 'those more immediate ones that precipitated the revolution.
'Letter written in ]S2o to Benjamin W. Edwarrls.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 85
For one thing, there was a more or less distinct feeling on the part
of the Texas settlers and Americans in general that the United States
was still officially interested in the annexation of the southwest territory.
While the Sabine had been fixed as the boundary in the treaty of 1819,
the Mexican republic was not entirely relieved of its anxiety about
aggression from its neighbor. During 1825-27 certain diplomatic pro-
posals were made by the United States for the extension of the boundary
to the Rio Grande, or to the Colorado. The treaty of 1828, by which the
boundary of 1819 was reaffirmed, checked such negotiations for the time,
but it was not unnatural for the Mexican authorities to look upon the
American colonists as instruments by which the United States would
in time annex Texas.
It cannot be doubted that many of the Americans who settled in
Texas believed that annexation would follow sooner or later. When
Major Edwards visited Austin at San Felipe in 1825, they are said*
to have discussed this matter a number of times, and they concluded that
the collision with Mexico should be postponed as long as possible, until
the strength of the colonies should be sufficient to redeem them from
foreign rule.
The colonization laws of the republic and state, while in the main
very liberal and not inconsistent with a sovereign authority, contained
provisions that were contrary to American theories of liberty. One
of these was the obligation to profess the national religion, though this
caused little practical trouble. Another was the privilege given to native
Mexicans of priority in selection of land, though the Americans had little
competition in this respect in most parts of Texas.
Also, slavery played a part in the Mexico-Texas relations of this
period. The state constitution of Coahuila-Texas, adopted in 1827, de-
creed that "no one shall be born a slave in this state, and after six months
the introduction of slaves under any pretext shall not be permitted." This
prohibition affected Texas alone. The peculiar character of Mexican
society made slavery unnecessary. Among the semi-civilized Indians and
the lower classes of Mexicans was abundance of cheap labor. These
laborers contracted their services at an average price of fifty dollars a
year, a sum insufficient to support themselves and families. As a result
they were always in debt to their masters, who by law could compel them
to serve until the debt was discharged. This peonage system was in all
*Foote's "Texas and Texans," Vol. I, 226.
86 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
practical aspects virtual slavery, and at the same time the masters were
relieved of some of the responsibilities of the latter institution, since the
wretched peons had to live and die at their own expense.
The Texans soon found a technical method of escaping the anti-
slavery law, by introducing their slaves as indentured servants. Through
all the subsequent enactments concerning slavery, the purpose of the
government was plainly to obstruct American immigration into Texas.
Without slaves the colonists could have" made little progress in agricul-
ture, so that to prohibit the holding of slaves was equivalent to forbidding
Americans to enter the country. In 1829 the federal government issued
a more sweeping decree, abolishing slavery throughout the Republic of
Mexico. But the operation of this law was subsequently abated by a
general remonstrance from the colonists, showing how essential slavery
was to the continued prosperity of Texas.
The success and progress of the American settlers no doubt excited
the envy of their Mexican neighbors and provoked some of the measures
that displeased the Texans. The comparative freedom of the American
colonies from Indian depredations also caused distrust among Mexicans,
who believed the colonists were in league with the Indians. The truth
was that the settlers, after suffering these depredations during the first
few years, had afterwards organized an effective militia protection which
the Indians avoided, choosing rather to direct their raids upon the weaker
defenses of the Mexicans.
These causes, while they were destined eventually to produce con-
flict between the two countries, were latent for some years. The first
important collision was the insurrection on the eastern border known in
history as the Fredonian war. As mentioned in the preceding chapter,
Haden Edwards was one of the earliest Texas empresarios. Nacog-
doches, situated in the tract to be settled by him, was one of the three
points where Spanish colonization had gained a foothold. A number of
Mexicans lived in the vicinity, and derived considerable advantage in
trade and other ways from their location on the main road from Lxjuisiana
to interior Texas. The town was also on the border of what had formerly
been the "Neutral Ground," and that vicinity was still inhabited by some
of the ruffian element. Along Ayesh bayou, east of Nacogdoches, was a
considerable settlement of independent characters who were readily en-
listed in any enterprise of danger and adventure.
North of Nacogdoches were a large group of Indian tribes, the
Cherokees being the most influential. The half-breed chief of the latter
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 87
had petitioned, along with Edwards, Austin and others, a colony contract
from the Mexican republic, and had left the capital under the impression
that the lands would be granted. The promise, if made, was not carried
out, and the disappointed Indians, convinced of Mexican perfidy, were
ready to seize any opportunity to revenge thernselves on the government
or its citizens.
This was the nature of the population in the vicinity of the lands
where Edwards was to introduce his colonists. His contract stipulated,
of course, that he was to settle on vacant lands, and not dispossess any
previous claimants. He. was also to act jointly with the established au-
thorities of Nacogdoches. A man named Norris had been appointed
alcalde of that town, and, supported by the Mexicans and some of the
older settlers, administered al?airs with a high hand and was accused, by
the Edwards colonists, of arrogating an authority far in excess of the
constitutional limits of his office. The protests forwarded by Edwards to
the political chief at San Antonio were disregarded, and on the represen-
tations made by the alcalde the empresario's contract was annulled and
Edwards was ordered to leave the country.
In the meantime Haden Edwards had been succeeded by his brother.
Major Benjamin W. Edwards, who thereafter took the active leadership.
Major Edwards was a man of impressive dignity, an able leader, and
possessed a tact and balance of judgment that, had they been exercised
earlier, might have prevented the conflict between his brother and the
alcalde. But he arrived on the scene when the only alternatives were to
yield and forfeit the contract, or defend it by armed resistance. He
chose the latter, and proceeded with much energy to marshal his forces
and organize his Fredonian republic. He sought the alliance of the dis-
affected Indians on the north, and on December 21, 1826, the agents of
the white settlers and the agents of the Indians issued the Fredonian
declaration of independence at Nacogdoches, in which war was declared
against the government of the Mexican states for the independence of
both the Indian and white residents of Texas.
Copies of the declaration were sent to the Austin colonists, who, it
was hoped, would support the war, and emissaries were also sent into
Louisiana. In the meantime, on December i6th, Edwards, with fifteen
followers, marched into Nacogdoches and without opposition took pos-
session of the "stone house," which was the capitol of the short-lived
republic.
It was known that a detachment of Mexican troops was marching
88 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
towards Nacogdoches, and Edwards made valiant efforts to concentrate
his forces for resistance. But the enterprise was premature, and the
reputation borne by that vicinity and the fact that Indians were alhed in
the movement lessened the sympathy and support that might otherwise
have been enlisted. Austin called the Fredonians "mad men" and de-
nounced them as "no longer Americans" by reason of their unnatural
alliance with the Indians. He sent some of his colony militia along with
the government troops to assist in quelling the insurrection.
On January 4, 1827, when the Fredonian garrison consisted of only
eleven men, they were attacked by the alcalde Norris and a body of about
seventy Mexicans. The Fredonians, being reinforced by nine Cherokees,
scorned the protection of their stone fort and with reckless courage
charged the enemy as soon as they appeared, scattering them like chaff.
After this brief success the fortunes of the republic rapidly waned. No
aid came from the United States, and Mexican agents had succeeded in
drawing off most of the Indian allies. A party of Fredonians was cap-
tured by the advancing army, and the small remnant at Nacogdoches, in
the face of these discouragements, voted to abandon their position and
escape to Louisiana. When the government troops arrived, the "republic"
had dissolved, and the few prisoners taken were, by the intervention of
Austin, released. While the Edwards contract was annulled, the actual
settlers who remained were protected in the possession of their lands,
and the vacant portions of this region were afterwards covered by other
empresarios.
The Fredonian war was only a local disturbance, and is chiefly im-
portant because it increased the reputation of the Americans as trouble-
some subjects and caused Mexico to resort to the restrictive measures
which hastened the final destiny. The various seeds of discontent above
noted were growing, and the events of the next few years brought about
the first general reaction against the central government.
CHAPTER XIV
The Texas Colonies Under Feder-^l Regulation
In 1828 the term of the first president of the Mexican repubhc ex-
pired. Pedraza was elected his successor, but the charge of fraud was
raised, and General Santa Anna led the revolution to seat the defeated
candidate, Guerero. For four days the streets of the capital were the
scene of riot and bloodshed, ending in the triumph of the revolutionists.
In January, 1829, the congress declared Guerero president, and Busta-
mente vice president, the latter having been the candidate of the Pedraza
party for that office. In December, 1829, Guerero retired from office,
thus leaving Bustamente as chief executive.
Bustamente, as head of the government, soon proved a despot,
though he had begun as the defender of the constitution, which he claimed
to have been violated in the choice of Guerero over Pedraza. For a brief
term supported by the aristocracy, clergy and army, he ruled absolutely,
disregarded constitutional restraints, and made congress the instrument
of his arbitrary power.
From this time on until the government of Mexico ceases to exercise
a vital influence on Texas history, that government was a military des-
potism, though still adhering to republican forms. While Bustamente
and his associates were in power they alone were the responsible federal
authorities, and the constitution and representative government through
a popular congress were suspended. And the same condition prevailed
under the party that followed Bustamente.
In January, 1832, a counter movement began in the garrison at Vera
Cruz, in a protest by the officers against the violation of the constitution
by Bustamente and his ministers. This was the "plan of Vera Cruz."
It was inspired, no doubt, by Santa Anna, who had been in retirement
for some time, but now came forward and took the active direction of
this revolution "for constitutional liberty." The troops in all parts of the
republic rapidly fell into line and declared for the "plan of Vera Cruz."
90 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The revolution was accomplished with little bloodshed. In November,
1832, Bustamente, being deserted by the majority of his troops, resigned
his office and fled from the country.
Santa Anna, having avowed himself as the restorer of the constitu-
tion, and the success of his campaign being due to his pose in the charac-
ter, shrewdly chose a course of action that would not reveal his ulterior
designs. His first act was to recall Pedraza, who had been rightfully
elected president in 1828, and whose terrii would expire early in 1833.
This increased his esteem among the republicans. He then retired to his
estate. Early in 1833 occurred the elections for the third president of
the republic. Santa Anna was the unanimous choice of the delegates, and
entered office in the spring of' that year. So far his conduct was above
criticism, and he had gained the highest office of the republic with strict
regard for the letter of the constitution. Leaving him thus established as
president of the Republic of Me.xico, we may now resume the narrative
of events in Texas.
Hitherto the Texas colonies had been little concerned with the fac-
tional struggles between the centralists and federalists of the republic.
The colonization laws had been administered liberally. Referring par-
ticularly to his own colonies, Austin said, in November, 1829: "This
colony has received the most cordial and uninterrupted manifestations of
liberality, confidence and kindness from every superior officer, who has
governed the province of Texas or the state of Coahuila and Texas,
from its first commencement to the present time." Situated on the ex-
treme frontier, remote from both the federal capital and the seat of gov-
ernment of the state, the management of colonial affairs had necessarily
been left almost entirely in local hands. And owing to the natural genius
of Anglo-Saxons for self-government, this neglect had been little abused.
The freedom allowed the settlers had up to this time more than offset the
benefits of a strong and wisely administered central government.
No doubt, as a result of the liberality and loose administration of the
earlier years, the collection of taxes and federal regulation would have
provoked opposition among the Texans, even if the officials had exercised
tact and a due regard for law. The clamor of the colonists over the pay-
ment of twelve and a half cents an acre to Austin is evidence that the
Texans were not readily submissive to burdens of this kind.
In the first Austin contract, the colonists were freed from all duties
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 91
for six years, and were subject to only half the regular duties for the
following six years. The state colonization law provided that the colonies
should be exempt from taxation for ten years from the date of establish-
ment of the colony. Consequently, no general duties were levied on the
imports and exports of the colonies until after 1830.
The beginning of Mexican interference in Texas may be said to
date from the report made by Alaman to the federal government in 1829.
This federal commissioner charged the empresarios with numerous vio-
lations of their contracts, that settlers had located on lands in the border
reserves, and that the colonists paid little or no respect to the decrees of
republic and state. Aside from these irregularities, Alaman warned his
superiors that the settlement of Texas from the United States was the
first step in a design to wrest Texas from Mexico. The plot contem-
plated, first, a peaceful invasion and occupation of the desired country,
and, then, after Texas was filled with American settlers, diplomacy would
effect the transfer and annexation to the northern republic.
While Alaman's representations of the American policy were doubt-
less exaggerated, his report had the effect of renewing old fears, and
impelled the federal government to begin an active course of regulation
and restriction. With Bustamente as author and executor of this policy,
it is not surprising that its provisions were oppressive and peremptory
and exceedingly offensive to the Texans.
The federal decree of April 6, 1830, was the instrument with which
Bustamente sought to check the American influence and compel the
obedience of Texans to his despotic authority. The eleventh article of
this law was as follows : "In exercise of the right reserved to the gen-
eral congress by the seventh article of the law of August 18, 1824 [the
national colonization law], the citizens of foreign countries lying adjacent
to Mexico are prohibited from settling as colonists in the states or terri-
tories adjoining such countries. Those contracts of colonization, the
terms of which are opposed to the present article, and which are not yet
complied with, shall subsequently be suspended." . The law also pro-
hibited the importation of slaves, forbade intercourse across the border
without a Mexican passport, and provided for the collection of import
duties on Texas commerce.
This law in order to be effective had to provide for military occu-
pation of the affected territory. Up to this time few soldiers had been
quartered in Texas, and their presence had no suggestion of martial law.
For defense against the Indians the colonies had been compelled to rely
92 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
chiefly on their own militia. Consequently the introduction of soldiers
at this time was regarded by the colonists as an insult to their loyalty,
and seemed to be the first step in subjecting them to the restraints of a
military despotism. Besides the three points, San Antonio, San Felipe
and Nacogdoches, at which small garrisons had been maintained, four
new posts were established in Texas and occupied by garrisons early in
1831. Anahuac, on Galveston bay, was founded to guard this port of
entry, a fort was erected at the mouth of the Brazos, called Fort Velasco,
another garrison was placed at Tenoxtitlan, where the San Antonio road
crossed the Brazos, and Fort Teran was established about midway between
Nacogdoches and Anahuac. Custom houses were also opened at Galves-
ton, Velasco and Matagorda.
The garrisons and custom houses were of themselves sufficiently
obnoxious to the colonists, but the sudden prohibition against immigra-
tion from the United States and the suspension of the empresario con-
tracts threatened ruin to the continued prosperity of Texas. This por-
tion of the law was specially offensive because it discriminated against
the citizens of the United States alone, the inhabitants of all other for-
eign nations being still permitted to enter as colonists ; and, furthermore,
the enactment implied a suspicion of the Texans' fidelity to the Mexican
government. The strict enforcement of the law would in fact have
"paralyzed the advancement and prosperity of Texas," since the history
of the previous century had proved that Mexico was unable to colonize
Texas, and America alone could supply the pioneers for the permanent
occupation of this country. It is not to be supposed that a strict enforce-
ment of the law was possible. Immigrants came in by roundabout roads,
avoiding the military posts, and once settled could not be evicted. At the
same time the revenue laws were being evaded, and smuggling flourished
along the coast and across the border.
For two years after the passage of the odious law, no serious collision
occurred between the federal military and the colonists. The conserva-
tive Texans, like Austin, who forebore violent measures until all peaceful
resources were exhausted, were still in the majority, and were able to
restrain the more impetuous colonists, or at least prevent serious conse-
quences following their acts.
The hostility of the settlers found its first vent against the com-
mander of the troops at Anahuac. Davis Bradburn, a Kentuckian in the
service of the Mexican government, had been commissioned to establish
the post at that point. In his conduct he was insolent, and, in a position
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 93
requiring the utmost tact to overcome the natural animosity of the set-
tlers, he displayed a domineering temper quite inconsistent with his
proper authority. He first gave offense by his arrest of the state com-
missioner, Madero, who in 1831 had gone to issue titles to the lands of
the settlers between the San Jacinto and Sabine rivers. This region had
been occupied by a number of colonists, beginning in 182 1, but various
circumstances had prevented the settlement of their titles. The governor
had appomted Madero commissioner in 1830, and he began his work in
January of the following year. He had selected the capital of the colony
and named it Liberty, and established the ayuiitamiento or local govern-
ment there.
Bradburn, being apprised of this, proceeded to arrest the commis-
sioner for violating the law of April 6, 1830, and dissolved the ayun-
tamiento at Liberty. He then organized a local government at Anahuac
and attempted to extend its authority over the settlements of that vicin-
ity. In May, 1832, an outrage committed by a soldier of the garrison
caused a number of citizens of the neighborhood to assemble, and the
perpetrator was severely punished. Bradburn then arrested and impris-
oned several of the party, William B. Travis being among the number.
This act aroused the entire surrounding country, and the garrison was
quickly besieged by a body of armed settlers, demanding the release of
the prisoners. Bradburn agreed to surrender them in return for a few
cavalrymen captured by the Texans. The latter, in good faith, restored
the Mexicans, when Bradburn treacherously opened fire on the besiegers
and kept the prisoners.
The siege was renewed with vengeance. A reinforcement started
from Brazoria with some cannon, coming around by water. But when
they had brought their schooner to Fort Velasco at the mouth of the
Brazos, the commander of that post refused to allow them to pass.
But the colonists had already defied the federal authority and had gone
too far to stop at this obstacle. By a combined land and water attack,
against a desperate and brave resistance on the part of the garrison
under Colonel Llgartechea, after a number were killed on both sides,
the fort was taken on June 27th. In the meantime the commandant at
Nacogdoches had marched to relieve Anahuac, but on reaching there
had found the Texans too strong, and he accordingly agreed to remove
Bradburn from command and surrender the prisoners, which was done.
This attack on Velasco and Anahuac was clearly an act of rebellion
against the general government. It was, it is true, in the nature of a
94 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
local insurrection, and the local councils at San Felipe and Matagorda
passed resolutions reprehending the conduct of their neighbors. While
the conservatives were striving to avert from the colonies a general
retaliation for this impetuous uprising, there was suddenly presented an
opportunity, not to disavow the attacks as the work of a small minority
of the colonists, but to explain the entire proceedings on the ground of
highest patriotism.
This quick shift was made possible by the events then transpiring
in Mexico. Santa Anna's campaign against Bustamente had begun early
in the year. Many of the garrisons had enrolled under his standard,
and those that still held out were marked as enemies of the republic.
While the colonists engaged in besieging Anahuac were encamped await-
ing reinforcements at Turtle Bayou, six miles above Anahuac, they
adopted (June 13th) what were known as the "Turtle Bayou Resolu-
tions," in which they declared "as freemen devoted to a correct interpreta-
tion and enforcement of the constitution and laws according to their
true spirit, we pledge our lives and fortunes in support of the same."
Accordingly when, soon after the capitulation of Velasco and the
departure of Bradburn, Colonel Mexia, of the Santa Anna party, appeared
in Texas with a considerable force, he was met with flattering receptions
at Brazoria and other towns, the councils passed resolutions of loyalty
to Santa Anna as the champion of the constitution, and the attacks on
the forts were accounted for as part of the campaign against the Busta-
mente administration. Mexia, pleased with these proofs of allegiance,
after a brief stay, withdrew to Mexico. The colonists then proceeded
to expel the commandant at Nacogdoches, who still remained loyal to
Bustamente, and by August, 1832, Texas was entirely freed of the mili-
tary garrisons.
CHAPTER XV
The Conventions of 1832 and 1833
By a fortunate turn of affairs the calamity of invasion and war was
averted from Texas for three years. During this period the Texas colo-
nies were knit together in practical experience and sentiment, and thus
prepared for united resistance when the crisis came. Without this period
of preparation, during which the colonies became accustomed to assem-
bling in convention and acting in combination on matters affecting their
general welfare, it is doubtful if Texas could have presented an organ-
ized resistance to Santa Anna's armies, and the settlements would have
fallen one by one before an overwhelming force.
The first convention of the colonies to discuss and take measures
for their welfare met at San Felipe, October i, 1832. This meeting was
characteristically American, composed of delegates chosen by the local
districts. It was not "official" in the sense that it was a recognized part
of the machinery of government. The consent of the political chief at
San Antonio was not asked, nor was it considered necessary. But it
shows the contrast between the American and the Spanish-Mexican ideas
of democratic government that such a convention was strongly con-
demned by the Mexican authorities, not only on the ground of its pro-
ceedings being revolutionary and dangerous, but also because the prac-
tice itself was contrary to law and precedent.
This convention affords the first view of Texans consulting in dem-
ocratic organization. There were fifty-six delegates, representing most
of the American settlements in Texas at that time. The Mexican citi-
zens took no part in the convention, San Antonio sending no delegation
at all, though Goliad's delegates, chosen too late to be present, endorsed
the proceedings.* Stephen F. Austin was chosen president of the con-
* The delegates and the districts they represented were as follows:
District of San Felipe de Austin: Stephen F. Austin, Wyly Martin, Francis
W. Johnson, Luke Lesassier.
95
96 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
vention, over William H. Wharton. It is noteworthy that these two
men represented, respectively, the conservative and the radical elements
of the colonists. One was striving with all his power to develop Texas
in citizenship and resources to a point where it could demand its just
rights without inviting destruction from a superior force ; the other was
the impetuous patriot willing to risk all in a quick, decisive encounter.
On the assembling of the delegates, four general topics were pre-
sented for discussion, the first reason for the convention being stated
by John Austin as follows : "The revolution which commenced at Vera
Cruz, on the 2d of January last, under the command of General Santa
Anna, reached this remote section of the nation, and movements of a
warlike character have taken place — the consequence of which has been
that the military garrisons have all been compelled to quit the country.
These movements have been greatly misrepresented by the enemies of
Texas, and have been attributed to objects entirely different from the
true ones. It was, therefore, considered to be highly important to the
interest of Texas, and of the nation, to counteract these misrepresenta-
tions, by a plain statement of facts ; and that a decided declaration should
be made by the people of Texas, convened in general convention, of our
firm and unshaken adhesion to the Mexican confederation and constitu-
tion, and our readiness to do our duty as Mexican citizens."
The work of the convention is outlined in a letter written by Francis
W. Johnson, secretary of the convention, to the ayuntamiento of San
District of Victoria (really Brazoria) : George B. McKinstry, William H.
Wharton, John Austin, Charles D. Sayre.
District of Mina (or Bastrop) : Ira Ingram, Silas Dinsmore, Eli Mercer.
District of Hidalgo: Nestor Clay, Alexander Thompson.
District of San Jacinto : Archibald B. Dobson, George F. Eichardson, Eobert
Wilson.
District of Viesca: Jared E. Groce, William Eobinson, Joshua Hadly.
District of Alfred (parts of Fayette and Lavaca counties) : Samuel BrufiE,
David Wright, William D. Lacy, William R. Hensley, Jesse Burnham.
District of Lavaca: William Menifee, James Kerr, George Sutherland, Hugh
McGuflSn, Joseph K. Looney.
District of Gonzales: Henry S. Brown, C. Stinnett.
District of Mill Creek: John Connell, Samuel C. Douglass.
District of Nacogdoches: Charles S. Taylor, Thomas''Hastings.
District of Ayish Bayou: Philip Sublett, Donald McDonald, William McFar-
land, Wyatt Hanks, Jacob Garret.
District of Snow (Neches) Eiver: TTiomas D. Beauchamp, Elijah Isaacs,
Samuel Looney, James Looney.
District of Sabine: Benjimin Holt, Absalom Hier, Jesse Parker.
District of Tenaha (Shelby county) : William English, Frederick Foye, George
Butler, John M. Bradly, Jonas Harrison.
District of Liberty: Patrick C. Jack, Claiborn West, James Morgan.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 97
Antonio, subsequent to adjournment. "After full deliberation it was
concluded to represent to the congress, agreeably to article 2d of the
law of May 7, 1824, that Texas has the proper requisites to form singly
a state separate from Coahuila. It was further agreed to claim a reform
of the maritime tariff, and the abrogation of article nth of the law of
April 6, 1830, prohibiting the immigration of natives of the United
States of the north. A request was also made to the government to
appoint a commissioner for the settlement of land matters, and to estab-
lish an ayuntamiento between the San Jacinto and Sabine rivers; also
to grant certain lands to the ayuntamientos of Texas, by the sale whereof
they might raise the funds needed to erect schoolhouses and support
schools of the Spanish and American languages. In view of the exposed
situation of the country to Indian depredations, the convention agreed
upon framing a provincial regulation for the.militia. They also appointed
a standing, or central, committee in this town and subordinate commit-
tees in every section represented in the body. It was made the duty of
the central committee to correspond with the subordinate committees,
inform them concerning subjects of general interest, and, in case of
emergency, to call another general meeting or Texas convention."
The memorials drawn up by the convention and forwarded to Mex-
ico were unnoticed in the hurly-burly of the revolution. In Texas, the
convention, like American mass meetings in general, provided a vent for
the pent-up excitement attending the commotions of the time, and in so
far it tended to calm the people and enable them to resume their regu-
lar routine of life. Austin, replying to a letter from the political chief
at San Antonio, who condemned the convention and threatened punish-
ment to the colonists for such proceedings, declared that as a result of
the convention "already the public is better satisfied, and we have had
more quiet than we had some time anterior thereto." Continuing, he
said: "In times like the present, any measure is bad that tends to irri-
tate and produce excitement ; every measure is good that is calculated
to soothe, bind up and bring about tranquillity and good order."
As to the ultimate results, Austin's opinion, expressed in the same
letter, was gloomy. "I have but little hope of obtaining anything from
the government of Mexico. There is little probability that we shall
soon have a stable and peaceable order of public affairs; and I give it
as my deliberate judgment that Texas is lost if she take no measure of
her own for her welfare. I incline to the opinion that it is your duty,
as chief magistrate, to call a general convention to take into consideration
98 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the condition of the country. I do not know how the state or general
government can presume to say that the people of Texas have violated
the constitution, when the acts of both governments have long since killed
the constitution, and when the confederation itself has hardly any life
left. I cannot approve the assertion that the people have not the right to
assemble peaceably, and calmly and respectfully represent their wants.
In short, the condition of Texas is bad, but we may fear to see it still
worse."
The administration of aflfairs in Texas at that time required careful
handling, a fact that was understood by Santa Anna himself. His policy,
as revealed in a letter written to the minister of state under the reinstated
President Pedraza, was conciliatory and in pleasing contrast with the
harsh measures which he afterwards executed on the rebellious Texans.
He wrote : "Satisfied, as I am, that the foreigners who have introduced
themselves in that province have a strong tendency to declare themselves
independent of the republic ; and that all their remonstrances and com-
plaints are but disguised to that end, I think it to be of paramount impor-
tance that General Filisola should forthwith proceed to fulfil his mission,
having first been well supplied with good officers and the greatest num-
ber of troops possible, with instructions both to secure the integrity of
our territory and do justice to the colonists. The interest of the nation
requires a kind policy towards those people, for they have done us good
service, and, it must be confessed, they have not on all occasions been
treated with justice and liberality."
The petitions of the first conventions having effected nothing owing
to the revolution in Mexico, the central committee decided to call another
convention of delegates to meet in April, 1833. The election for these
members in the various districts and municipalities occurred in March.
The Mexican officials at Nacogdoches and other points offered ineffectual
opposition to these elections, the absence of troops except the citizen
militia making it impossible to enforce any orders contrary to public
opinion.
The convention that met at San Felipe, April i, 1833, was composed
of fifty-six delegates, a majority having been members of the previous
body. The work of the convention was a practical repetition of the
memorials and petitions drawn up before, except that in this case a state
constitution was formulated to be presented with the demand for a sepa-
rate state government. The chairman of the committee that drew up
this document was Sam Houston, a delegate from the Nacogdoches dis-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 99
trict, and now for the first time taking an active part in Texas affairs.
Some significance may be attached to the fact that WiUiam H. Wharton
was the successful candidate for president of the convention, and from
this and subsequent events it may be inferred that tlie "independence"
party in Texas was growing stronger. To conckide its program the
convention selected Stephen F. Austin and two others to carry the
memorials to Mexico and present the subject to the national congress.
It turned out that Austin went alone on this mission.
The points of the controversy that now ensued concerning the rights
and wrongs of Texas constitute one of the most complicated problems
of Texas history. For Mexico it could be claimed: i. As a sovereign
nation she possessed the right to exercise jurisdiction impartially through-
out her dominion, including the right to police the borders and compel
respect to her officials and laws, and to enforce the collection of the
national revenues. 2. The liberality of the republic and individual states
in disposing of the public lands deserved in recompense a proper loyalty
from the adopted citizens who had profited by this bounty, and a willing-
ness on their part to assume their share of national burdens and respon-
sibilities. 3. As to separate statehood for Texas, the granting of that
was entirely at the discretion of the national congress, though the right
of petition for statehood could not be denied the Texans. Moreover,
the congress could properly allege that Texas was not yet prepared, either
in population or revenues, to become a self-sustaining state.
Texas, on the other hand, had just grounds for grievance, i. The
union of the two former provinces of Coahuila and Texas as one state,
with the seat of government in the former, produced an inequality of
administration from which Texas suffered. Texas having a small minor-
ity of representation was powerless to obtain legislation specially adapted
to her needs. Though the state government was generally fair and lib-
eral, the entire dissimilarity of commercial and industrial interests in
the two provinces rendered almost inevitable a certain neglect of the
welfare of Texas. In 1834 a tardy law extended the jury system and a
distinct branch of the courts with district and appellate jurisdiction to
Texas, but previous to that time resort to litigation in any but the inferior
tribunals involved journeys to Monclova or Saltillo, a distance that prac-
tically prohibited the benefits of the courts except to the rich. 2. The
enforcement of the act of April 6, 1830, was offensive because of its dis-
crimination and would have proved a serious obstacle to the continued
advancement of Texas, though the right of a sovereign nation to prohibit
loo HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
immigration cannot be denied. 3. The Texans protested that the tariff
on many articles of necessity was so high as to prohibit importation. A
modification of the duty rates was doubtless imperative, and the collec-
tion of revenues at the various ports of entry should have been conducted
without harsh military measures.
The above may be considered the abstract principles of the contro-
versy. In the final result these were almost lost sight of in the more
immediate passions and violence that impelled both sides to armed
conflict.
Mexico, indeed, was no longer a constitutional republic, and was
daily losing the dignity of a sovereign nation. The government under
Santa Anna, while at first retaining a semblance of loyalty to the consti-
tution, soon developed into a complete dictatorship, with Santa Anna
supreme. From that time, he used this authority, supported by his
armies, to deprive the separate states of their independent powers of
government and to concentrate the sources of all legislation and adminis-
tration in himself. It became a question not merely of the preservation
of the individual state's rights, but of republican government itself. What-
ever may have been the original intentions of the dictator towards a
liberal and just administration of Texas affairs, it is evident that, when
Texas resisted his assumption of supreme power and annulment of the
constitution, he used the most harsh and despotic measures to subjugate
this rebellious people. After he had disclosed the full scope of his ambi-
tions and given free hand to the barbarous and vengeful means employed
to coerce his subjects, there was no course left to free and independent
men but resistance.
Amid the turmoil and anarchy caused by Santa Anna, the Texans
were prey to many opinions and influences. Public opinion was many
sided. One group of men sincerely believed that the welfare of Texas
lay in close union with the Mexican federation ; an opposite group agi-
tated entire independence. These were the two chief parties. In addi-
tion there were, unquestionably, a group of "jingoes" among the Texans,
few in number but noisy and active in their demonstrations. They were
principally speculators and adventurers, who had nothing to lose and
were willing to plunge the country into war for the chance of rich suc-
cess. The old filibuster spirit still survived to some degree, and any
scheme promising excitement and spoils would attract recruits from the
various settlements. The proof of this is found in several enterprises of
later date. The population of Texas at this period was assorted. The
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. loi
majority were the industrious class of pioneers, men "between the plow
handles," as Austin described them, and naturally conservative and law-
abiding. In the ranks of the minority were a more fickle and unruly ele-
ment, containing some who sought in Texas a safer field for their opera-
tions than had been allowed them in the United States.
A recognition of the existence of these different elements in the
population of that period is essential to a proper understanding of his-
tory. Many of the apparent inconsistencies in the events of these years
need no explanation when it is realized that the Texans were not a unit
in opinion, endeavor or character; that an act of rashness in one section
is not a basis of judgment against the whole people. In the shifting
uncertainties of the time, even the wisest were at loss, and many acts and
many opinions can with difficulty be harmonized with the stricter code of
right and patriotism. Later, when the revolution became inevitable, all
classes became united in the one purpose of independence and war against
despotism, and the principles of duty and patriotism became clearly
defined.
CHAPTER XVI
Events Leading to the Revolution
In April, 1833, Austin proceeded to Mexico alone as public agent of
the people for the purpose of securing the admission of Texas as a sepa-
rate state. lie found the capital still in turmoil. r\Ionths passed and
his petition slept in a committee of congress. In despair of obtaining
anything, he wrote to the people of Bexar recommending the organization
of a local state government, in the hope that the general congress would
eventually recognize and approve this dc facto organization. Finally,
after six months of well-nigh fruitless labors, he started home, in Decem-
ber. The letter he had written to Bexar having been sent to the federal
authorities, he was arrested, brought back to the capital and imprisoned
in the dungeon of the old Inquisition, charged with having promoted
treason against the nation. After three months of solitary confinement
he was transferred to another prison and the rigors of imprisonment
abated, but he was detained, practically a prisoner, in Mexico until the
summer of 1835. His trial was referred from one tribunal to another,
and in fact he was never tried. His detention appears to have been more
as a hostage for the good behavior of his fellow citizens, and when it
was thought that his conservative influence would be worth more to
Santa Anna if he were at home, he was released.
During his sta}- in Mexico, Austin evidently became convinced that
the best interests of Texas would be promoted by close political and com-
mercial union with the Mexican states, and as a result of the gracious
treatment he received from Santa Anna he was led to believe, for a time
at least, that Texas had a real friend in the dictator. The arguments by
which he reached the former conclusion are interesting. He states them
most succinctly in his "Prison Diary," under date of February 20, 1834,
where he answers his question, "What is the real interest of Texas?"
bv declaring that it is not in separation from Mexico. Nor is it to
the advantage of the United States to extend its territory over Texas.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 103
"All the rivers of Texas take their rise in Texas . . . and do not
enter the territories of the North, so as to form bonds of union, as does
the river Mississippi with Louisiana and other states adjacent. There
is no market in the north for the produce of Texas, and there is in
Mexico. ... As regards the commerce with Europe, the Mexican
flag is equal to that of the north. What, then, is the true interest of
Texas? It is to have a local government to cement and strengthen its
union with Mexico instead of weakening or breaking it. What Texas
wants is an organization of a local government, and it is of little conse-
quence whether it be a part of Coahuila or as a separate state or terri-
tory, provided the organization be a suitable one."
In October, 1834, a council was held by Santa Anna, at which Aus-
tin was present, to determine a policy concerning Texas. The result
was the suspension of the law of April 6, 1830, prohibiting immigration
from the L^nited States. Aside from this, the council gave only assur-
ances of the benevolent intentions of the general government respecting
Texas. It was decided that the time was not yet mature for the separa-
tion of Texas' from Coahuila. But of greatest importance to the destiny
of Texas was the decision that four thousand soldiers should be intro-
duced into Texas for the ostensible purpose of guarding the frontiers
against Indians and assisting in the collection of revenues.
In May, 1834, Santa Anna had dissolved the general congress, and
in January of next year convened a congress the majority of whose mem-
bers were favorable to his designs. The aristocratic and church parties
were largely represented, and politically the members were pronounced'
centralists. The congress ceased to be a popular branch of republican
government, and was merely a council to pass the decrees of the president-
dictator.
Among the first acts of this congress was a decree reducing the
militia of the different states to one for every five hundred population
and disarming the remainder. Compliance with this demand would
have left the citizens defenseless against the tyranny of military oppres-
sion. This measure alone was enough to provoke resistance from all
who were still loyal to republican principles.
The revolution in favor of centralism did not take place without
opposition. The federal party resisted Santa Anna's encroachments, and
the sharp division between centralists and federalists had important
results for Texas. In the State of Coahuila-Texas, in 1834, the regular
government, with capital at Monclova, was' federalist in sympathies and
I04 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
protested vigorously against tlie dissolution of the general congress and
the arbitrary administration of Santa Anna. The centralists in the state,
rallying at the former capital of Saltillo, then set up an opposition gov-
ernment, supporting Santa Anna and centralism. The result was civil
war, with rival legislatures and executives assuming to govern the state,
and each contending for recognition from the general government.
Towards the close of 1834 this quarrel was adjusted through the media-
tion of Santa Anna, who decided for the legitimacy of the Monclova
government. But in the meantime, while the state was under the dis-
puted authority of two governors, the period designated by law for hold-
ing the elections for governor and other state officials had expired, and
the state was thus disorganized. How this condition of affairs affected
Texas will be mentioned later, and attention will now be directed to the
progress of centralism in the republic and state.
To remedy the situation brought about by the civil war in the
state, Santa Anna ordered a special election for governor and legislature.
. These officials were not installed and the regular administration in oper-
ation until March, 1835. It is important to consider the work of this
legislature, the last legislature of the united state of Coahuila-Texas.
Notwithstanding Santa Anna's precautions, the governor, Augustin
Viesca, and a majority of the other officials were of strong republican
tendencies and showed no willingness to accept the unconstitutional
decrees of the central government. While thus opposed to Santa Anna
on the one hand, on the other they proved venal and extravagant in han-
dling the business of the state, particularly in their acts affecting Texas.
It is necessary to state briefly the results of these two attitudes taken
by the state government.
April 22, 1835, the governor and legislature addressed a petition to
the general congress "requesting that the federal constitution may not
be reformed except in the manner therein provided." It declared a firm
determination to sustain the constitution and an intention to recognize
no acts of the general government not consistent with that fundamental
law. It also demanded the repeal of the decree diminishing the civic
militia, the only available defense against Indians and the only force for
preserving law and order. In this latter request, the government of Coa-
huila-Texas was supporting the state of Zacatecas, which had forwarded
a similar protest.
The second point — the acts of the legislature of 1835 respecting
Texas — brings up the subject of land speculations as one of the con-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 105
tributing causes of the Texas revolution. An act of the legislature,
March 26, 1834, had superseded all previous colonization laws and pro-
vided for the sale of the vacant lands of the state "at public auction."
In response to this act, a large quantity of eleven-league tracts were sold
to both Mexicans and foreigners, at $250 a league. This method of dis-
posing of lands, unhampered by the requirements of the former coloniza-
tion contracts, had attracted a number of speculators, and when the new
legislature assembled in 1835 a committee from a company in the United
States were present to urge an even more liberal sale. The result was
the decree of March 14, 1835, permitting the governor to dispose of four
hundred leagues of vacant lands, "for attending to the present public
exigencies of the state." The "exigencies" were afterwards defined to
mean an empty treasury and the necessity of providing for the defense
of the frontier against Indians. The deal was at once closed between
the governor and the committee, the purchase price being $30,000 for
the four hundred leagues — hardly two cents an acre. A loud outcry was
at once raised against this wanton squandering of the public domain of
Texas, and this act more than any other disgusted the great body of
Texans with the state government. The effects of this transaction were
peculiar. While it rendered the Texans extremely hostile to the state
and revived the old agitation for separate statehood, the measure was
also opposed by the general congress, which passed a decree (April 25)
annulling the state law. And when Santa Anna sent his armies against
the rebel government of Coahuila-Texas, one of the reasons assigned
for this step was a purpose to punish the land speculators. The latter,
being thus disappointed in their plans, retired to Texas, where they
joined the war faction and at once became the most active agitators for
Texas independence. The presence of these men in Texas during the
revolutionary period should be remembered in connection with subse-
quent events.
After the convention of 1833, Texas remained for two years outside
the disturbances of revolution, though public opinion was in a continual
ferment. A great restraint was laid upon aggressive action because of
Austin's detention in Mexico, and his letters written from prison were
always in counsel of patience and non-interference with the troubles of
the federal government. After the repeal of the law against immigra-
tion, and in consequence of the favorable laws enacted by the state legis-
lature in 1834, there was comparative peace and the conservatives were
inclined to hope for better things under the rule of Santa Anna. The
io6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
extremists, however, continued the agitation for separate statehood and
were by no means willing to let matters rest, though whether from
motives of real patriotism or of self-interest, it is difficult to determine.
Soon after came the civil war in Coahuila, and that renewed the old
question of statehood. In October, 1834, a number of citizens of Coa-
huila met in council with citizens of San Antonio and issued an address
declaring that the state government had ceased to exist, the inhabitants
being under no obligation to obey either of the rival governors, and in
consequence they recommended that the people of Texas meet in con-
vention at San Antonio in November to deliberate on means to save the
country from, "such unparalleled anarchy and confusion." This letter
was followed by an appeal from the political chief of the department of
Brazos (Henry Smith) for the organization of a separate state govern-
ment so that Texas might be best prepared to meet any of the dangers
that threatened because of the disorganization in both the state and
republic. But this plan was denounced in a circular from the grand
central committee that had been appointed in the convention of 1833.
The committee, while admitting the inconveniences resulting from the
revolution, declared that Texas could not justify herself by adopting the
unconstitutional methods which she had all along so strongly opposed.
Furthermore, until Austin had exhausted all resources as representative
of the Texans, and had returned safe, it was necessary for the people to
exercise patience with the harassed general government and keep as free
from offense as possible.
The conservative influence still prevailed, and Texas acquiesced in
the reorganized state government so far as to send her representatives
to the legislature. Then, early in 1835, when the centralists in Mexico
gained full control and began putting their plan into effect by ordering
the disarmament of the militia and full submission to the decrees of the
central congress, events hastened rapidly to a crisis.
Several of the states raised feeble opposition to Santa Anna, but the
most stubborn opponents of his ambition were the states of Zacatecas
and Coahuila-Texas. The governor of Zacatecas, refusing to disarm
the militia, instead, called out the entire citizen soldiery in resistance.
Santa Anna brought a large force of his disciplined troops to the state,
and meeting the untrained Zacatecans on the plain of Guadalupe, in
May, 1835, in one brief struggle crushed all republican aspirations in that
state. In the meantime, General Cos, commandant general with head-
quarters as Matamo\as, was ordered to Monclova to compel the obedi-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 107
ence of the resisting legislature. The legislature escaped punishment
only by adjourning sine die, in April, 1835. The governor and his coun-
cil attempted to escape and remove the seat of government to San
Antonio, but were captured on the way and taken to Monterey. Santa
Anna then deposed all the state officials, and during the remainder of the
year the state was under an appointed governor and military authorities.
After the fall of Zacatecas and the expulsion of the Coahuila-Texas
legislature, Santa Anna turned his attention to perfecting the new plan
of government in Mexico and no attempt was made to invade Texas.
An answer to the question why he did not immediately proceed to the
subjugation of Texas is important only in a consideration of the moral
aspects of the relations between Mexico and Texas. If it be asserted
that there was no direct provocation for the invasion at that time, who
were responsible for the developments which called for invasion later
in the same year? If no reason existed for a military expedition to Texas
in ]\Iay, and there was such a reason in October, then it might appear
that the Texans had in the meantime committed aggressions demanding
punishing by the federal government. For the moment taking the
Mexican point of view, it is necessary to admit that causes had arisen
in the meanwhile demanding either a vigorous assumption of the federal
power over Texas or a complete surrender of that territory. Yet this
answer does not satisfy all the particulars of the case. Santa Anna was
in no hurry to extend his conquest to Texas. He still had Austin in
Mexico, and through him hoped to hold the Texans in check until he
could strengthen his organization in other parts of the republic. There
was no intention of allowing Texas to escape submission to the central
sovereignty, but pacific means were to be employed at first, and if these
failed the power of arms would be invoked.
In Texas the center of public opinion was shifting from the older
and less vital questions to the one problem, whether to submit to a
departmental administration imposed by Santa Anna, or to form an
independent government on the basis of the constitution of 1824. The
independents continued to inflame and agitate despite threats and reas-
surances from the federal authorities. The majority were willing to
await the coming crisis, advocated a policy of not stinging until trodden
upon, hoped for a fair solution of difficulties. But the agitators — many
of them refugee Mexican liberals, foes of centralism and Santa Anna — •
played on every string of race antipathy, pictured the threatening des-
potism, the certain dispossession of the settlers from their lands — and
io8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
thus the leaven of revolution worked until the whole body politic was
ripe for war.
Two events had already gone far to precipitate war. In 1834 the
collection of maritime revenues was resumed in Texas, the custom houses
at Anahuac and Matagorda being opened. Captain Tenorio with a com-
pany of soldiers was sent to Galveston bay to protect the collector. The
collection of the revenues was very irregular. Smuggling was a busi-
ness carried on with little concealment or dishonor. The position of
Captain Tenorio was an unenviable one at best. The embarrassments
that hampered his actions, as well as the inefficiency of his force, allowed
the dishonest traders to land their goods without payment, while the
honest merchants who complied with the customs regulations were thus
put at a decided disadvantage with their competitors. The office was
unpopular and badly managed, and the conduct of the citizens of the
vicinity was no less open to criticism. In April, 1835, the ayuntamiento
to Liberty issued an order, declaring it to be the duty of all citizens to
obey the laws of the nation, that the imposition of revenue duties was
an indisputable right of government, and calling upon all persons to
desist from violence, threats or illegal acts against the collector. In spite
of this advice a collision soon took place. In the latter part of June, as
the climax of the quarrel, a party of Texans, choosing W. B. Travis as
their leader, attacked the fort, compelled Captain Tenorio and his garri-
son to surrender, and sent the prisoners oil' to San Antonio. This pro-
ceeding was at once denounced by the majority of Texans, but it coi"-
promised them all because of their unwillingness to arrest and surrend.r
the perpetrators of the mischief.
When the report of this attack reached General Cos, he sent a vessel
under command of Captain Thompson, a renegade Englishman in the
Mexican service, to Anahuac. Thompson proved as insolent and bluster-
ing in his conduct as Bradburn had three years before, and went so far
as to attack and capture a vessel engaged in the Texas trade. The San
Felipe, which had been fitted out with cannon at New Orleans, gave fight
to the Mexican vessel while it still lingered on the coast. Thompson
was forced to surrender, and was then sent to New Orleans on charge of
piracy in interrupting trade between the United States and Mexico.
The Mexican government could not overlook these offenses. For
the first affairs it was necessary to inflict punishment either on those
actually engaged in the attack or on the whole body of Texans, pro-
vided the latter assumed to protect the perpetrators. The attack by the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 109
San Felipe involved the United States and increased the fear of Ameri-
cans which was always more or less present in the minds of the Mexicans.
Orders were soon issued from Mexico for the arrest of the actors in the
Anahuac affair, as well as for the apprehension of the principal men of
the deposed state government who had taken refuge in Texas, and the
execution of these orders was one of the purposes of the subsequent inva-
sion of Texas.
The summer of 1835 was marked by numerous meetings throughout
Texas. In May, committees "of safety and correspondence" were ap-
pointed by each of the three municipalities of Mina (Bastrop), Gonzales
and Viesca, and by July these committees were in existence in practically
all the settlements.
In July, Ugartechea arrived at San Antonio with five hundred
troops, these being the first considerable force introduced for the purpose
of military occupation. July 4th, General Cos issued a circular to the
inhabitants of Texas (supplemented by a letter from Ugartechea on the
15th), giving assurance that the military forces would be used only to
uphold the laws of the republic, but warning the people of the conse-
quences of improper zeal for the enemies of the government. "If the
Mexican government has cheerfully lavished upon the new settlers all
its worthiness of regard, it will likewise know how to repress with strong
arm all those who, forgetting their duties to the nation which has
adopted them as her children, are pushing forward with a desire to live
at their own option, without any subjection to the laws."
July 14th, at a meeting of the Austin colonists in San Felipe, it was
resolved that "an early consultation of the people of all Texas by their
chosen delegates is necessary to the attainment of union, concert of act
and determination of conduct in the protection and defense of our rights
and liberties."
Meanwhile General Cos had issued orders for the arrest of numer-
ous individuals in Texas, among them Lorenzo de Zavala, former adviser
and friend of Santa Anna, but now one of the latter's most active enemies.
The Texans showed no willingness to surrender any of these political
refugees, and for several reasons the commandant at Bexar deferred
sending troops to execute the orders.
The declarations published by the various committees and councils
indicated, in part, a firm determination to stand for constitutional rights
and resist invasion, and, in part, a desire to conciliate the federal govern-
ment and a purpose to abide by all reasonable measures for the enforce-
no HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ment of law and order and the collection of revenues. As Yoakum says,
there were three divisions in public sentiment, the first demanding imme-
diate war, the second being for orderly procedure until resistance was
compelled by the actions of the enemy, and the third opinion being held
by those who were willing to submit without protest to the central gov-
ernment. The presence among the first faction of some of the land
speculators and state officials who had contrived the unpopular land laws
prevented many citizens from lending their support to any plan of organ-
ized resistance.
However, the idea of a general convention to consider and provide
for the welfare of Texas had been growing in favor for a long time.
The subject was given definite form at the meeting at Columbia, August
15th, when it was resolved that "a consultation of all Texas" was indis-
pensable, and a committee was appointed to address and co-operate with
the other civic districts of Texas in calling such a consultation. The last
resolution of this meeting was in defiant tone — "we will not give up any
individuals to the military authorities." It was arranged among the
various committees that the election of delegates for the consultation
should take place on October 5th.
On the first of September, Stephen Austin arrived from Mexico.
As the most influential citizen of Texas, much depended on the part he
would choose to play in this critical stage of affairs. His first public
expression was a speech delivered at a dinner in Brazoria, in honor of
his return. He had returned, hoping, he said, to find Texas at peace, but
instead found "all disorganized, all in anarchy, and threatened with
immediate hostilities." As to affairs in Mexico, he said : "The revolu-
tion in Mexico is drawing to a close. The object is to change the form
of government, destroy the federal constitution of 1824, and establish
a central or consolidated government. The states are to be converted into
provinces. Whether the people of Texas ought or ought not to agree
to this change, and relinquish all or a part of their constitutional and
vested rights under the constitution of 1824, is a question of the most
vital importance, one that calls for the deliberate consideration of the
people, and can only be decided by them, fairly convened for the pur-
pose." He repeated Santa Anna's assurances of friendship for Texas
and a desire to promote her prosperity ; but he had warned the Mexican
officials against trying to coerce Texas by arms. "I gave it as my decided
opinion, that the inevitable consequence of sending an armed force to
this country would be war. I stated that there was a sound and correct
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. m
moral principle in the people of Texas that was abundantly sufficient to
restrain or put down all turbulent or seditious movements, but that this
moral principle could not and would not unite with any armed force
sent against this country ; on the contrary, it would resist and repel it,
and ought to do so."
During the month of September it became apparent that Mexico
would insist on the surrender of her political enemies and compel the
disarmament of the militia. The question of obeying or resisting these
two demands had to be answered either with war or submission. This
was the immediate problem confronting the Texas people. The solution
of this involved the greater but more remote subject of accepting or
rejecting the plan of a central government. It is important to remember
that in the first stage of hostilities, Texas was answering the immediate
question, and, because of a lack of unity in public opinion on the matters
of controversy, the campaigns had the character of a volunteer and
extempore effort.
The decision of the problem, and principles involved, were stated
in the circular of September 19th, sent out by the committee of safety
at San Felipe and signed by Austin as chairman. It recommended : That
the people should insist on their rights under the constitution, that every
district should participate in the general consultation, that the militia
should be organized and drilled ready for emergency. "This committee
deem it to be their duty to say that, in their opinion, all kind of concilia-
tory measures with General Cos and the military at Bexar are hopeless,
and that nothing but the ruin of Texas can be expected from any such
measures. They have already, and very properly, been resorted to with-
out effect. War is our only resource. There is no other remedy. We
must defend our rights, ourselves, and our country, by force of arms."
CHAPTER XVII
The Campaign of 1835
In Gonzales was a cannon which had been loaned the citizens for
protection against the Indians. The return of this was now demanded by
Colonel Ugartechea. This was a step in carrying out the decree of the
republic to disarm the people. The alcalde of Gonzales refused to comply
with the order. Word was sent to Bastrop for volunteers to assist in
repelling the attack which was certain to follow. The alarm spread
rapidly and volunteers hastened from all quarters to the scene of the
expected hostilities. As chairman of the committee at San Felipe, Austin
advised (September 29th) that the volunteer force should act entirely
on the defensive, retaining the cannon and protecting themselves on the
ground of constitutional rights. A troop of cavalry had been sent from
San Antonio to seize the cannon, but was prevented from crossing the
river by a small number of Gonzales citizens. Every possible means was
taken to delay the Mexicans until an adequate force could be assembled.
Then, on October ist, deeming it best to act on the offensive before
the enemy could be reinforced, the Texans crossed the river and early
in the morning of the next day attacked the Mexicans. Occupying a
conspicuous place in the foreground of the battle was the very cannon
in dispute, and before its fire, and the fusillade from the Texas riflemen,
the enemy were in flight before the morning mists had lifted from the
prairie.
Thus the die was cast, and there could be no more thought or
possibility of peace. A "defensive war" it was declared to be, but the
war spirit, once aroused by easy success, was not content while the enemy
held a single post in Texas. No doubt, the majority of discerning
men at that time foresaw that this movement would not cease until the
fragile bonds of federation and loyalty to the republic had been destroyed.
In the meantime, the diversion of the colonists at Gonzales had
enabled General Cos to land five hundred troops at Matagorda and with-
out hindrance reach San Antonio in October. On October 4th a circular
issued and signed by Austin illustrated the sudden concentration of pur-
112
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 113
poses under the influence of the victory at Gonzales. "War is declared
against military despotism. Public opinion has proclaimed it with one
united voice. The campaign has opened. The military at Bexar has
advanced upon Gonzales. General Cos has arrived and threatens to
overrun the country. But one spirit, one common purpose, animates
everyone in this department, which is to take Bexar, and drive all the
military out of Texas before the campaign closes."
It should not be forgotten that the appeals sent out for volunteers
to this campaign came from only semi-official committees. There was
as yet no organized government in Texas, no authority to command the
people to take up arms. The army that was now assembling at Gonzales
was, therefore, composed of "volunteers," it was altogether a volun-
tary organization acting in accord with the various committees of safety
but in no wise subject to their orders, and responsible only to its own
organic conscience and the spirit of patriotism in which it originated.
In the light of this consideration, the subsequent campaign becomes the
more admirable for its success, and the points of weakness in the army
are the more excusable.
The volunteers assembled at Gonzales to the number of several
hundred, and on October nth, they elected Austin as their commander
in chief. Two days later the march was begun for San Antonio. In
the meantime, cheering news came from Goliad, where, on October 9th,
Captain Collingsworth had surprised the Mexican garrison and, after
a brief struggle, forced it to capitulate. Thus a large store of arms
and supplies fell into the hands of the patriots, and this event had the
further effect of bringing to the support of the campaign many hesitating
Texans. Enthusiasm was also being aroused across the Louisiana border,
and two American companies soon came to the assistance of their former
fellow citizens. Without the resources of arms, supplies and volunteers
that came from the LTnited States, it is doubtful if this campaign could
have succeeded. Early in November the Mexican post at Lipantitlan, near
San Patricio, was captured by a company of Texans, and thus San
Antonio alone remained to the enemy.
From his camp on Salado creek, on October 27th, Austin sent Colonel
James Bowie and Captain James W. Fannin with ninety-two men to
reconnoiter in the vicinity of San Antonio. Bowie encamped for the
night near the old Mission Concepcion, and when day broke his position
was nearly surrounded by four hundred Mexicans. The Texans were
well sheltered by the river bluff, and the enemy's volley firing did no
114 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
harm, but the wonderful skill of the Texas riflemen wrought havoc
among the close ranks advancing against them. The Mexicans brought
forward a field-piece, but the Americans dropped the gunners as fast as
they stepped to their places, and the gun was fired only five times during
the engagement, being finally left in the hands of the victors. In this
battle of Concepcion only one Texan was killed, while the Mexican forces
were defeated and lost heavily in killed and wounded.
After this encouraging victory the volunteer army moved up to the
east side of San Antonio across the river, and laid siege to the town.
Their camp was north of the Alamo, in the vicinity of the river ford.
The majority of the men were eager to storm the place, but the forti-
fications were strong and there were no siege guns to reduce them, so
the officers hesitated to risk so many lives in an assault. The siege opera-
tions were continued for a month with no important result. Discontent
was brewing among the men, who wished for quick action that they
might return to their homes which needed them. The ranks were rapidly
thinning, though new recruits also kept arriving. Austin, having been
appointed commissioner to negotiate aid in the United States, resigned
the command in the latter part of November, and was succeeded by
Col. Edward Burleson.
Occasional skirm.ishes varied the monotony, among them the "grass
fight," in which the Texans again proved their superiority over greater
numbers. Cos and his army were quite efi^ectually cooped up, and supplies
were often interrupted by the vigilant besiegers. Reports of a large
body of troops marching from the south to raise the siege increased the
necessity of decisive action. Finally a general assault was ordered,
and then was countermanded, because the enemy were supposed to have
been informed, by a deserter, of the proposed attack. This augmented
the chafing of the patriots. Just then, however, information came that the
Mexican garrison was weaker than was supposed, and, taking advantage
of this opportune juncture. Col. Ben Milam dramatically appeared before
the soldiers and, waving his hat, called out, "Who will go with me into
San Antonio?" This appeal fired the enthusiasm of every volunteer,
and three hundred at once placed themselves at his command in readiness
to storm the town.
Early on December 5th the intrepid band forced its way into town, in
two divisions. To cover the movement, the attention of the enemy was
diverted by artillery fire directed at the Alamo, while the two attacking
columns advanced on the west side of the river among the brush and
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.Ii6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Mexican jacals loward the center of town. The first division of the
storming party, under the immediate command of Colonel Milam, took
possession of the house of Don Antonio de la Garza. The second
division, under Col. F. W. Johnson, took possession of the house of
Veremendi.* These positions were a block north of the Main Plaza,
the Veremendi house being on the east side of Soledad street, and the
Garza house one block west. "The last division was exposed for a short
time to a very heavy fire of grape and musketry from the whole of the
enemy's line of fortification, until the guns of the first division opened
their fire, when the enemy's attention was directed to both divisions.
At 7 o'clock a heavy cannonading from the town was seconded by a well
directed fire from the Alamo, which for a time prevented the possibility of
covering our lines, or effecting a safe communication between the two
divisions. In consequence of the i2-pounder having been dismounted,
and the want of proper cover for the other gun, little execution was done
by our artillery during the day." The night was spent in strengthening
the position and extending trenches. At dawn on the morning of the
6th, "the enemy were observed to have occupied the tops of the houses in
our front, where, under cover of breastworks, they opened through loop-
holes a very brisk fire of small-arms on our whole line, followed by a
steady cannonading from the town in front, and the Alamo on the left
flank." The first division advanced and occupied a house to the right
of the Garza house, and extended their trenches, but otherwise little
progress was made during the day.
"At daylight of the 7th, it was discovered that the enemy had opened
a trench on the Alamo side of the river, and on the left flank, as well as
strengthening their battery on the cross street leading to the Alamo."
Their fire from these positions was silenced about 11 o'clock. "About 12
o'clock, Henry Carnes of Captain York's company, exposed to a heavy
fire from the enemy, gallantly advanced to a house in front of the first
division, and with a crowbar forced an entrance, into which the whole
of the company immediately followed him, and made a secure lodgment."
"At half past three o'clock, as our gallant commander. Colonel Milam,
was passing into the yard of my position [Johnson's, in the Veramendi
house], he received a rifle shot in the head which caused his instant
death." Late in the evening the Texans forced their way into and "took
possession of the house of Don Antonio Navarro, an advanced and im-
portant position close to the square." At 9 o'clock on the following
* Eepovt of F. W. .Tnhnsoiu colonel in cnnimnnn ;iftor tlie death of Milam.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 117
morning another advance was made, into the "Zambrano row," at the
northeast corner of Military Plaza and a block west of the Main Plaza.
The party at this point was reinforced during the evening, and, news
of the arrival of Mexican reinforcements having been received, at half-
past ten in the evening "Captains Cook and Patton, with the company of
New Orleans Grays, and a company of Brazoria volunteers, forced their
way into the priest's house [on the north side of Main Plaza] although
exposed to the fire of a battery of three guns and a large body of
musketeers. . . . Immediately after we got possession of the priest's
house, the enemy opened a furious cannonade from all their batteries,
accompanied by an incessant volley of small-arms against every house in
our possession and every part of our lines, which continued unceasingly
until half-past six o'clock, a. m., of the 9th, when they sent a flag of truce,
with an intimation that they desired to capitulate."
The negotiations were conducted until early the following morning,
when the terms were signed. Cos was given a guard of soldiers and
ordered to take his convict troops beyond the Rio Grande, while the other
Mexican soldiers were allowed to keep their arms and remain in Texas or
return home, as they should choose.
In the storming of San Antonio fell two Texans, while twenty-six
were wounded. The Mexican loss was much larger. By the middle of
December Texas was again free from the Mexican military, the citizen
volunteers had dispersed to their homes, and only small garrisons
remained at the important outposts.
CHAPTER XVIII
The General Coxsultation axd Provisional Government.
The general consultation of Texas was delayed because of the
hostilities on the western frontier. The battle at Gonzales had occurred
before the election of delegates, and before the date fixed for their
assembling Goliad had been captured and the citizen army, including
many of the delegates, was on the march to San Antonio. October i6th
thirty-two delegates met in San Felipe, but on the next day, a quorum
being incomplete, adjournment was taken to November i. In the
meantime, a "general council," a sort of improvised, unofficial body,
made up of representatives from the various committees of safety, man-
aged affairs, and its acts were afterward sanctioned by the general con-
sultation. Besides assisting in procuring and forwarding supplies to the
army, the council assumed the responsibility of suspending the land offices,
of authorizing a loan of $100,000 in New Orleans, and commissioned
privateers to cruise for Mexican armed vessels.
The consultation did not get assembled for business until November
;v Branch T. Archer was chosen president. On the 6th a test was made
of the sentiment regarding independence. On the question of a pro-
visional government on the principles of the constitution of 1824, the
vote was ^^ to 14, but a succeeding motion to prepare a declaration of
complete independence was lost, 15 to 33. By this time a majority of
the leaders were in favor of independence. The Mexican residents were
almost unanimously opposed to separation from Mexico, and a con-
siderable portion of the American inhabitants were indifferent on the
question of political allegiance. But it was not so much for the purpose
■of conciliating these elements that the consultation voted against in-
dependence. Texas alone was unable to defy Santa Anna and protect
her borders. The colonists were poor, they were not organized on a
war footing, they lacked the munitions and resources for continued war,
and war is exf nsive. Two sources of aid were possible in this dilemma.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 119
One was the enlistment of the anti-centralists of Mexico in a general war
for the constitution. This failed, and the failure nearly involved Texas
in destruction. The other resource was the sympathy and material as-
sistance of the people of the United States. To recommend the cause
of Texas in the United States it was deemed best to adopt a policy of
defensive resistance to threatened despotism. For a handful of Texans to
have revolted and sought to set up an independent state of their own
would have appeared a desperate undertaking and not entirely justified
by circumstances. Americans are quick to lend aid in the resistance to
tyranny and oppression, and the Texan leaders recognized the importance
of emphasizing this feature of their struggle.
Hence, the "declaration of the people of Texas in general convention
assembled," adopted November 7th, declared that Santa Anna had by
force of arms overthrown the federal institutions of Mexico, and in
consequence the people of Texas had taken up arms in defense of their
rights and liberties and in defense of the republican principles of the
constitution of 1824. Though Texas was no longer bound by the compact
of union, yet her people offered their support to other Mexican states
against military despotism ; they refused to acknowledge the government
by the present authorities, and proposed to carry on war as long as the
troops were in the limits of Texas ; and, while establishing an independent
government during the reign of despotism, they were willing to con-
tinue faithful to the Mexican government as long as that nation was
governed by the constitution.
November 12th the consultation chose the officers of the provisional
government which was to act during the adjournment of the consulta-
tion or until another convention was assembled and another government
established. Two candidates were proposed for the office of governor,
Henry Smith receiving thirty-one votes and Stephen F. Austin, twenty-
two. J. W. Robinson was unanimously elected lieutenant governor. The
legislative branch was to consist of a "general council," each Texas muni-
cipality having one representative. The membership of this body was
constantly changing during its existence. The plan of provisional govern-
ment provided for the creation of a regular army, and Sam Houston was
appointed major general and the commander-in-chief of all the forces.
Three commissioners were also appointed to negotiate in the United
States for means to carry on the war, B. T. Archer, W. H. Wharton
and Stephen F. Austin being chosen for this important duty. The plan
of government was adopted and signed on November 13th, and the
120 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
following day the consultation adjourned until March ist. It was pro-
vided that the governor and council in the meantime might order another
election of delegates to supersede the old body.
Before adjourning, the consultation, having declared Texas the
champion of republican government, for all the states of Mexico, gave
approval to the schemes of tlie anti-centralists and especially of certain
exiled citizens of Coahuila, who desired, after the invaders had been
expelled from Texas, to lead the volunteer army across the Rio Grande
and co-operate with the ^Mexican republicans. This contemplated ex-
tension of the war was also for the not disinterested purpose of restoring
some large estates that had been confiscated by the Santa Anna party.
Even before the storming of Bexar, the volunteer army was almost
broken up by the leaders in this enterprise. After the success of the
Bexar campaign, a large force of soldiers was left without other occupa-
tion than guarding the frontier posts. In December it was reported that
about 750 men were in the army, the larger portion being at San Antonio.
Most of the citizen volunteers and actual Texas residents had returned to
their homes, and the regular force left in the field consisted chiefly of
those who had come to Texas from the United States, several states
besides Louisiana then being represented b>- companies in the Texan
service. These were restless and adventuresome spirits, willing to follow
leaders on any enterprise and disposed to chafe at the monotony of
post duty.
With the army thus disposed, the provisional government added its
sanction to the plan of taking the aggressive against Mexico. An excuse
for this was found in the declaration of the consultation that Texas was
making war in behalf of the constitution and offered support and assis-
tance to other members of the federation. In this war Texas was in-
volved in affairs outside of her own border. Instead of strengthening the
outposts and placing the frontier in a state of defense, the troops were
drawn off for the hazardous enterprise across the Rio Grande.
The general council passed a resolution, over Governor Smith's veto,
authorizing Colonel Fannin to collect an auxiliary force and lead an
expedition for the capture of Matamoras. It was argued that the pos-
session of this city would give Texas a key position in the war against
Mexico, and that its reduction would be followed by a general revolt
among the northern Mexican states against Santa Anna. The futility
of this plan was afterwards clearly shown. Earlier in the campaign the
attack might have succeeded, and was indeed advised by Austin and
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 121
others, but the fall of Bexar and the humiliation of Cos' army caused
the Mexican people, both centralists and republicans, to be united tem-
porarily in their hostility to Texas, and before the council passed its
resolution Matamoras had been fortified and strongly garrisoned by
Mexican troops.
This action of the general council gave an independent authority to
Colonel Fannin, in disregard of the law making General Houston
commander-in-chief of the entire Texas army. As a result, while volun-
teers were gathering under Fannin for the foreign expedition, General
Houston was left powerless to concentrate the army effectively against the
advancing forces of Santa Anna. Despite his protests the general coun-
cil ordered men withdrawn from the posts to join the Matamoras expedi-
tion, and by vesting command in other leaders practically superseded
Houston as head of the army.
This diversion of the army to Matamoras was the principal cause
of the quarrel between Governor Smith and the council. Until after the
fall of Bexar, the provisional government was conducted with a fair
degree of harmony, and gave such aid as was in its power to the volun-
teer force in the field. Beyond this, it is impossible to credit this govern-
ing body with a record of wisdom or efficiency. Any account short
of a detailed history would fail to characterize properly this remarkable
assemblage. Except for its active contribution to the lamentable events
of 1836, already alluded to, little need be said of the provisional govern-
ment. The resolution for the prosecution of the Matamoras expedition
was adopted by the council January 7th. Two days later the governor
replied with a hot and intemperate message denouncing this plan and
criticising the character and methods pursued by the council. January
nth, the council answered with equal vehemence and declared the gover-
nor deposed and the lieutenant governor his legal successor. After the i8th
of January the council was without a quorum for the transaction of
business, and thus continued until the provisional government was
succeeded by the convention on March ist.
Thus, with the governor and the council at cross purposes, with a
powerless commander in chief, citizens in a state of lethargy, and with
the military diverted to bootless filibuster, Texas lay dull and stupefied,
requiring the fearful sting of the Alamo massacre to rouse her into a
writhing r i^ony of action.
CHAPTER XIX
Alamo and Goliad
When the ordinary American speaks of the revolution, he usually
means the war in which the freedom of the American colonies from
Great Britain was won. But not so with the old-time Texan, who,
indeed, takes due pride in the war waged by his colonial forefathers, but
his revolution was the memorable struggle in which the yoke of Mexican
domination was removed and Texas became a free and sovereign nation.
The Texas revolution proper opens with two tragedies. In a broad
sense, the Texas revolution may be said to include all the events which
have been described in the two or three chapters preceding, and there
is a sequence in these events by which one leads to another up to the
declaration of independence and the final campaign. But, from another
point of view, there was, during the formation of the storm cloud and
before it broke, a change of spirit in Texas. Hitherto the fight had
been made, nominally at least, for the constitution of 1824. But with
the opening of the year 1836, and some weeks before the actual declara-
tion of independence, it became evident that all temporizing with Mexico
was useless and that Texas must either be defended and made independ-
ent or must be abandoned entirely to Santa Anna.
In Mexico, too, a different spirit animated the government. The
defeat of Cos at Bexar, the uncompromising attitude of Texans towards
Mexican political methods and institutions, the readiness with which the
people of the United States supported the rebellion of their fellow coun-
trymen, all conspired to change the Texas colonists into most dangerous
enemies of the Mexican government. It was no longer a question of
controlling the Texans — they had to be practically exterminated and the
border permanently closed against all American immigration and influ-
ence. Such was the substance of Santa Anna's determination Vv'hen he
set out on his campaign early in 1836, and looking at the situation from
his standpoint it seems that he had adopted the only practical course to
122
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 12.3
prevent the ultimate alienation of Texas from Mexico. The barbaric
cruelties to which he resorted in his campaign of conquest were repugnant
to all methods of civilized warfare in the nineteenth century, but the con-
quest of Texas was clearl_y a necessary part of his program to establish
and preserve a centralized empire.
In command of the garrison at San Antonio at the beginning of
1836 was Colonel Neill. His force had been reduced, and many neces-
sary supplies taken, by Doctor Grant, the citizen of Coahuila who had
been so prominent in arousing interest in the campaign across the Rio
Grande. There were hardly enough soldiers to guard the town. It was
known that Cos and his defeated troops had joined another force under
General Sesma, south of the Rio Grande, and that a general advance
into Texas would occur early in the year. Appeals went to Houston for
reinforcements, but that general's hands were tied by the actions of the
provisional government. It is notable that among the Texans themselves
was little eagerness to enlist. This was due to several causes, their false
sense of security and contempt of the enemy, and also probably their
distrust of the movements against Matam.oras. About the middle of
January, Houston sent instructions to Neill to destroy the fortifications
and retire with the artillery. But there were no means of transporting
the cannon, so the commander chose to remain, though with hardly eighty
men in the garrison. Governor Smith later sent Colonel Travis with an
additional force, and on the departure of Neill, Travis assumed com-
mand, having not more than one hundred and fifty men under him.
February 23d Santa Anna arrived at the head of his army and the
same day entered the town. Travis withdrew his men across the river
and took his final stand in the old Alamo mission, on the walls of which
he hoisted the tri-colored Mexican flag, "with two stars designated to
represent Coahuila and Texas." Thus Travis and his men fought for
the constitution of 1824, though the declaration of independence had been
signed four days before the flag fell from the walls.
The place known as the Alamo contained the usual buildings of a
mission. The building familiarly called the Alamo is the old mission
church, and was only one feature of the group of buildings and enclosures
which composed the Alamo mission. To the north of the church was
the walled convent yard, on the west side of which was situated the
convent itself, a long and narrow, two-storied building, divided by par-
titions into rooms which were used for barracks. To the west of the
124 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
convent, and also extending some distance north and south, was the
square or plaza of the mission, rectangular in shape and enclosed with
walls of masonry several feet thick. From the southeast corner of this
square ran a diagonal stockade to connect with the church.
This was the scene of the Alamo siege. It was invested by the army
of Santa Anna on February 23, and for a week was bombarded without
effect, the Texans using their limited supply of ammunition only when
the enemy came in range. On March i thirty-two men under Captain
J. W. Smith made their way through the enemy's lines into the fort.
Thus, there were, according to the best estimates, one hundred and
eighty-three men to hold this fortress, against five thousand Mexicans.
Among the heroes destined to shed their life-blood in this place were the
well-known names of Travis, who had been throughout one of the most
eager and consistent advocates of Texas independence; Col. James
Bowie, a veteran of many frontier battles ; Davy Crockett, pioneer
statesman, hunter and soldier; and J. B. Bonham, of South Carolina,
besides many others of not less dauntless courage.
At the beginning of the siege, Travis sent a letter to his fellow
citizens which shows the spirit that animated the patriots. The letter,
written February 24. was addressd to "the people of Texas and all
Americans in the world," and was as follows:
Fellow Citizens and Compatriots — I am besieged by a thousand or
more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual
bombardment and cannonade for twenty-four hours and have not lost a
man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the
garrison are to be put to the sword if the fort is taken. I have answered
the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the
walls. / shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name
of Liberty, of patriotism and everything dear to the American character,
to come to our aid with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforce-
ments daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four
or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself
as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due
to his own honor and that of his country. Victory or Death.
For a week the siege went on, each day the position of the garrison
becoming more critical. Three days before the end Travis sent to the
president of the convention, then meeting in Washington, the last official
report of the siege. Since the 25th, he said, the enemy had continued
the bombardment from their battery on the opposite side of the river in
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 125
the town. They had also encircled the Alamo with entrenched encamp-
ments, at the La \'illeta on the south, at the powder-house on the south-
east, at the ditch on the northeast, and at the old mill on the north.
Yet up to that time not a man of the garrison had been killed. "The
power of .Santa Anna is to be met here, or in the colonies ; we had better
meet them here, than to suffer a war of desolation to rage in the settle-
ments. A blood-red banner waves from the church in Bexar, and in
the camp above us, in token that the war is one of vengeance against
rebels. . . . Their threats have had no influence on me, or my men,
but to make all fight with desperation, and that high-souled courage
which characterizes the patriot, who is willing to die in defense of his
country's liberty and his own honor."
After the ineffectual bombardment Santa Anna called a council of
war and determined to carry the walls by general assault. Sunday,
March 6th, was the fateful day of the fall of the Alamo. Twenty-five
hundred Mexicans were arranged in four columns on all sides of the
fort, and at daybreak hurled their strength against the walls so weakly
manned as to numbers. But the calm courage of the Texans, their
unerring marksmanship, and the hail of lead from their cannon, twice
brought the assailants" lines to halt and repulse. Then came the final
charge. The columns were deployed to the north wall of the square and
to the stockade on the south, and, driven on by their officers, the Mex-
icans crowded up under the walls below the cannon, rushed through the
breaches or climbed over by ladders, and brought the conflict into a
melee of hand-to-hand struggle. Travis was shot down while working
a cannon, Crockett fell near the stockade, and Bowie, too ill to rise from
his bed, was found and bayonetted, but not till he had dispatched several
of the enemy with his pistols. From the plaza and stockade the heroes
retired to the convent, where in final desperation they held each room
until overpowered by the superior forces, and the fight to death went
on in close quarters, where man touched man, clubbed with his musket,
and slashed right and left with his knife, dying with the ferocity of the
cornered wild beast. The church was the last point taken, and within
an hour after the first assault the Alamo tragedy was over and its
defenders had breathed their last. The few who did not fall fighting
were butchered in cold blood by the ruthless order of Santa Anna, and
of all who had been in the beleaguered fort but six lives (three women
and three children) were spared, including the wife of Lieutenant Dick-
126 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
inson and her infant daughter. She was supplied with a horse and
allowed to depart, bearing a proclamation from Santa Anna and the
tale of the Alamo massacre to the colonists. Upon the heaped-up bodies
of the Texans was piled brush and wood, and on this funeral pyre was
soon consumed all that was mortal of the Texas patriots. But their spirit
and the memory of their sacrifice were destined to survive all time and
awake a vengeance from which was born the Texas republic.
In the meantime, across the country in the vicinity of Goliad, were
being enacted other scenes of blood and treachery, so that henceforth
the name of Goliad was spoken with only less inspiration to patriotism
and retaliation than the Alamo. General Houston had succeeded in per-
suading most of the citizen volunteers not to participate in the Mata-
moras expedition. After the volunteers left, the force contained mainly
the soldiers from the United States and the revolutionary Mexicans,
and when news came that Matamoras was being strongly reinforced by
Santa Anna the principal object of the undertaking was given up entirely.
Two of the leaders, however, continued with a small force on toward
the Rio Grande, but at San Patricio they separated, and shortly afterward
each detachment fell prey to Mexican vengeance and hardly a man
escaped the slaughter which characterized the Mexican policy throughout
this war.
Colonel Fannin, after the failure of the expedition, marched to
Goliad and took up his position there, where he built his Fort Defiance.
He had altogether something over four hundred men, and his force was
now recognized as a part of the general Texas army under General
Houston. The latter deemed it wise for Fannin to abandon Goliad and
sent orders for him to retire to Victoria. But Fannin had sent a detach-
ment under Captain King to protect the Refugio mission, and later
reinforced him with additional troops under Lieutenant-Colonel Ward.
General Urrea, with the eastern division of the invading army, had
arrived in the vicinity of the Irish settlements on the Nueces. Colonel
Ward made his first stand in the old Refugio mission, on March 14th,
but being short of ammunition and unable to defend the position, he
retreated to Victoria, where on the 21st he surrendered to the enemy
as prisoners of war. Captain King, having left Refugio with a small
party to reconnoitre, found his return cut ofif and then attempted to join
Fannin at Goliad, but was surrounded and forced to surrender. A few
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 127
hours later he and his followers were shot and their bodies left by the
roadside.
Fannin had delayed his retreat from Goliad that King and Ward
might rejoin him or that he might learn something of their fate. His
delay was fatal, and before he began the movement from Goliad the
enemy had come up. He proceeded so leisurely to the north that he
was overtaken and completely surrounded in the afternoon of the same
day, when near the Coleto river. He had to draw his men up in a
depression on the prairie, forming them into a hollow square. The
enemy made three assaults during the day, and each time were repulsed
by the terrific artillery and rifle fire of the Texans, who were plentifully
supplied with guns and ammunition. Notwithstanding the heavy slaughter
of the Mexicans, they were in such force that the Texans had no show of
escape, and besides were without water to relieve the wounded or
swathe out their cannon. It seemed best, therefore, on the following
morning, to treat for surrender, and a capitulation was arranged on the
understanding that the Texans were to be treated as prisoners of war.
The doomed men were brought back to Goliad, and a few days later
Ward's men were also added to the band. On the evening of the 26th
it is said the prisoners were in good spirits, certain of their eanly
release. Several were playing on their flutes the strains of "Home,
Sweet Home." The following day was Palm Sunday. Early in the
morning the captives were formed into three columns, and with a line
of guards on each side were marched from the town in different direc-
tions. They had gone but a short distance when the guards suddenly
stepped into single line, and with the muzzles of their guns almost touch-
ing the Texans, fired point-blank one withering volley after another
until the dreadful execution was complete. Over three hundred were
thus massacred, twenty-seven managing to escape in the confusion.
The responsibility for this deed has been fixed upon Santa Anna,
and his officers claimed to have been shocked by its ruthlessness. The
one excuse that could be offered was that the prisoners were mostly
inhabitants of the United States and by strict construction filibusters,
who by a decree issued in 1835 were to be treated as pirates and shown
no mercy. However, the affair on the whole was in keeping with the
barbaric character of Mexican warfare. In the light of such atrocities,
both the previous and subsequent forbearance and freedom from the
spirit of mean revenge in the Texans is one of the remarkable and
praiseworthy qualities of their character as a people.
128 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
But the men of the Alamo and Goliad were not to have died in vain.
The indignation kindled by their death more than any other cause gave
principle and unity to the Texas revolution. Against such an implacable
despot as these acts proved Santa Anna to be, unconquerable resistance
was henceforth the only hope, and war under such circumstances became
the highest and noblest duty of men born to liberty and political equality.
CHAPTER XX
The Constitutional Convention and Declaration of Independence
In Washington on the Brazos, in a half-finished building hastily con-
structed for a convention hall, was assembled on March i, 1836, the con-
vention of delegates from the various municipalities, superseding the
provisional government which had been the source of so much discord
and detriment to the country. The delegates had been apportioned as
far as possible on a basis of population, and thus this convention was
more nearly representative than the former consultation. Though there
had been spirited rivalry in some of the municipalities in the election of
delegates, in which the war and peace factions had contended, the prog-
ress of events since the election on February ist had brought about an
almost unanimous agreement among the delegates when they assembled
that Texas must declare for absolute independence of Mexico. Early
in December of the previous year a resolution for independence had
been adopted by many of the Brazoria citizens. A number of Goliad
citizens had adopted on December 20th what is known as the "Goliad
declaration of independence," though it was considered premature at
the time. In January, Austin had written from New Orleans that imme-
diate declaration of independence was necessary.
Accordingly, immediately after the organization of the convention,
a committee of five was appointed to draft a declaration of principles.
On the following day, George C. Childress, as chairman, reported "The
unanimous declaration of Independence made by the delegates of the
people of Texas, in general convention at the town of Washington, on
the 2d of March, 1836," which was adopted and signed by fifty-eight
delegates. The declaration recited the duplicity and broken pledges of
the Mexican government; its failure to maintain constitutional liberty
and a republican form of government; the despotic changes made by
Santa Anna, the establishment of military rule, the dissolution of the
129
130 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
state government, the delays of the law, the denial of religious freedom,
and the general ineptitude and weakness of the Mexican system.
"These, and other grievances, were patiently borne by the people of
Texas, until they reached that point at which forbearance ceases to be a
virtue. We then took up arms in defense of the national constitution.
We appealed to our Mexican brethren for assistance : our appeal has been
made in vain ; though months have elapsed, no sympathetic voice has yet
been heard from the interior. We are, therefore, forced to the melancholy
conclusion, that the Mexican people have acquiesced in the destruction of
their liberty, and the substitution therefor of a military government ; that
they are unfit to be free, and incapable of self-government.
"The necessity of self-preservation, therefore, now decrees our eternal
political separation.
"We, therefore, the delegates, with plenary powers, of the people of
Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for
the necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our
political connection with the JMexican nation has forever ended, and that
the people of Texas do now constitute a free, sovereign and independent
republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which
properly belong to independent nations ; and, conscious of the rectitude
of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the
supreme Arbiter of the destinies of nations."
This done, the next action was to provide for the immediate necessi-
ties of the infant nation. The most important of these was to repel Santa
Anna's invasion, and on the 4th General Houston was appointed com-
mander in chief of the armies, both volunteer and regular, with entire
authority over their operations. Male citizens between seventeen and
fifty were made subject to military duty, and generous land grants were
oflfered for service in the army. On the 15th General Houston's report
of the fall of the Alamo was read in the convention, and the announce-
ment urged the convention to a quick completion of its work.
The constitutional committee had reported on March 9th. On the
i6th an "executive ordinance" was passed, establishing a "government,
ad interim, for the protection of Texas," which was to have all the powers
granted under the constitution except legislative and judicial, and was
to administer the afifairs of the nation until the provisions of the consti-
tution could be put into execution. The personnel of this government
was to consist of a president, vice president, secretaries for the depart-
ments of state, war, navy and treasury, and an attorney general. These
officers were appointed before the adjournment of the convention, David
G. Burnet being chosen first "President of the Republic of Texas." and
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 131
Lorenzo de Zavala vice president. Also, the government was authorized
to borrow a million dollars and pledge the faith and credit of the republic
for its payment.
On the 17th the constitution was formally adopted and signed, and
the convention then adjourned sine die. This constitution of the Repub-
lic of Texas was modeled after the constitution of the United States,
with its provisions, of course, conforming to the requirements of a
single sovereign state. By statute the common law was to be made
applicable to cases not covered by constitutional or legislative enactment.
There were the three usual departments of government. A system of
education was to he established as soon as feasible. All connection
between the civil government and religion was guarded against by making
priests and ministers of the gospel ineligible to congress or the presi-
dency. The distribution of lands, which had been subject of extensive
frauds, was regulated, and the extensive land grants made by the Coa-
huila-Texas legislature in 1834 and 1835 were annulled. Each head of
a family was to have a league and a labor, and a single man over seven-
teen years of age a third of a league. As to slaves, congress had no power
to manumit them, nor could a slaveowner free them without consent of
congress; free negroes could not reside in the state without congres-
sional consent. The foreign slave importation was declared piracy, and
slaves could be introduced only from the United States.
CHAPTER XXI
The Winning of Independence — San Jacinto
The actual winning of Texas independence was consummated during
one short campaign lasting hardly six weeks. Within three months
after the fall of the Alamo and the massacre at Goliad the Mexican
forces were retreating to the Rio Grande, and domination from the south
was never again seriously threatened.
Throughout the session of the convention there were alarms of
invasion, the hostile army was known to be on Texas soil, the letters of
Travis from the Alamo told the condition of the siege at that place,
although the news of the fall did not reach the town of Washington until
the 15th. Immediately on his reappointment as commander in chief,
Houston set to the work of preparation for war, sending orders to Fannin
to join him that he might march to the relief of Travis. But the impos-
sibility of getting an adequate army together prevented any aggressive
movements, and Houston was still at the headquarters in Gonzales when
the calamity of the Alamo was reported. He had arrived at Gonzales
on March nth and taken command of "three hundred and seventy-four
eitective men, without two days' provisions, many without arms, and
others without any ammunition" — according to his own report.
Rumors of the fall of the Alamo having reached Gonzales, on tlie
13th Houston sent out Deaf Smith, Henry Karnes and R. E. Handy to
discover the exact fate of Travis and his command. About twenty miles
from Gonzales they met Mrs. Dickinson, who, besides confirming the
worst fears concerning the Alamo, reported that a division of the Mex-
ican forces under General Sesma was already marching eastward. The
return of the scouts, with Mrs. Dickinson, created consternation at Gon-
zales. The families of the thirty-two patriots, who a short time before
had joined the Alamo garrison, were frantic with grief over their loss,
while the approach of Sesma's forces threatened all the survivors with
a similar fate. Aware that his force was too small to resist, Houston
132
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 133
at once prepared to retreat. The baggage was thrown away, the only
cannon were cast into the river, and by midnight inhabitants and soldiers
were hastening to the Colorado on the first stage of the "runaway scrape,"
the burning buildings of the town lighting up the sky in their wake.
Leaving Gonzales on the 13th of March, the army moved eastward
to the Colorado, where it arrived, in the vicinity of the present town of
Columbus, on the 17th. By this time the force had increased to six
hundred men. Two days were spent at Burnham's on the west side of
the river, when a crossing was effected and the Texans moved around
the bend to Season's ford. Hardly had this position been taken when
a division of the Mexican army under General Sesma arrived on the
opposite side of the river.
After the fall of the Alamo and the successful operations of his forces
in the vicinity of Goliad, Santa Anna underestimated the remaining
strength of the rebellion. The retreat of the Texan army and the hasty
evacuation of the country by the settlers certainly confirmed his opinion.
Thus deceived, he gave his attention to occupying the country at the key
positions, for this purpose dividing his army into several divisions.
General Gaona was ordered to march up the San Antonio road to
Nacogdoches, Generals Sesma and Woll toward San Felipe and thence to
Harrisburg, while General Urrea was to advance along the coast. Santa
Anna himself was preparing to return to Mexico, when he was informed
of the concentration of Houston's forces at the Colorado. He then or-
dered Gaona, after crossing the Colorado at Bastrop, to direct his course
toward San Felipe, and Urrea to proceed to Matagorda and thence to
Brazoria. Santa Anna and Filisola, with their staffs, left San Antonio on
March 31st, and on the 5th joined Sesma's division at the Colorado.
Houston and his army remained on the east side of the Colorado
a week. Volunteers arrived until his force was between twelve and
fourteen hundred. The number of Mexicans opposed to him were no
greater. This seemed a most opportune time to deal the invaders a
crushing blow, and why Houston did not take advantage of the occasion
does not seem ever to have been explained satisfactorily, unless he had
mapped out a general plan to withdraw into eastern Texas and engage the
enemy when at a distance from supplies and when overconfident with
previous success. From this point on to the final overthrow at San Jac-
into every detail of the campaign became a theme of subsequent contro-
versy. While the debate has clouded the glory of individual actors, the
134
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
actual performances cannot be disputed, and later generations are prob-
ably disposed to accept the facts and let the credit go.
There was a burst of indignation on the part of the Texans when,
on the 26th, continued retreat to the Brazos was ordered. The movement
left the settlements unprotected, and several hundred of the volunteers
left the army either from dissatisfaction with the policy of the commander
or for the purpose of aiding their families in what had now become a
general exodus to the eastern frontier. On March 28th the army reached
San Felipe, and the next day proceeded up the west bank of the Brazos,
on the 31st camping in the timber opposite Groce's landing, a few miles
south of Washington. Here was the steamboat Yellowstone, the pos-
session of which gave the army means of crossing the river. Mosely
Baker, with his company, remained at San Felipe to dispute the enemy's
passage there, while Wiley Martin guarded the crossing at Old Fort
(now Richmond). On the 29th the reported approach of the enemy
caused a rapid withdrawal from San Felipe, and the town was burned
by the retreating Texans.
Meanwhile the retreat of the army and the removal of the seat of
government from Washington to Harrisburg threw the country into
panic. After the atrocities committed by the Mexicans in the west, the
settlers could hope for no mercy from the invaders. Every family, there-
fore, taking only such property as the limited means of transportation
could convey, hurried across the country, and crowded the passages over
the swollen streams which every few miles opposed their progress. Before
the victorious advance of the invaders, with Houston apparently indis-
posed to take any aggressive action, it is not suprising that many Texans
were among the fugitives, who, under dififerent circumstances, would
have been in the army.
Houston's army lay encamped in the Brazos bottoms at Groce's
nearly two weeks. In the meantime, on April 5th, Santa Anna had taken
command of Sesma's troops on the Colorado, and then advanced to San
Felipe on the 7th. Though the town was in ruins, the crossing was still
guarded by Baker's company. Being impatient to end the campaign,
Santa Anna, with part of his army, marched down to Fort Bend. Keep-
ing Martin's company engaged in defending the upper crossing, he suc-
ceeded in gaining the lower ferry and putting his troops on the east side
of the river. Here he was joined by Sesma on the 13th, and on the
following day set out for Harrisburg, thirty-five miles away, where he
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 135
arrived on the 15th. Under his immediate command Santa Anna had
only about 700 men. Sesma was left at Fort Bend with about 1,000;
Filisola was between San Felipe and Fort Bend with 1,800; Urrea was
at Matagorda, with 1,200; and Gaona was between Bastrop and San
Felipe with 725 troops. This distribution of the troops in such a manner
that concentration was impossible short of several days' time was the
most important fact in the campaign and proved the salvation of Texas.
On April 12th the Texas army began crossing the Brazos. General
Rusk, secretary of war, had arrived from Harrisburg to urge upon Hous-
ton the necessity of decisive action. The latter still kept his plans to
himself. Perhaps no campaign policy has been subjected to more thor-
ough scrutiny than his, and yet it is involved in uncertainty. There is
some reason to believe that he planned to retreat as far as Nacogdoches,
where he would make a final stand, and in case of defeat be able to
withdraw in safety beyond the Sabine under the protection of the Amer-
ican forces. It is known that General Gaines, the American commander,
was eager to assist the independence cause, and held his forces on the
east bank of the Sabine in readiness to attack should there occur an open
violation of neutrality. But no plausible pretext for intervention arose.
Chafing under the delay and uncertainty, many of the Texans threatened
to depose their commander in case he should continue the retreat to East
Texas.
On the 14th the army left Groce's, going south. Three miles fur-
ther, at Donohue's, was a fork in the roads, the left leading toward
Nacogdoches and the right to Harrisburg. Not until the Nacogdoches road
was passed were the soldiers fully convinced that the retreat was ended
and the advance upon the enemy begun. After heavy marching over the
rain-soaked ground the army arrived, on the i8th, at the bayou opposite
Harrisburg. The town had been deserted by its inhabitants on the 14th,
Santa Anna had taken possession on the 15th. and after tarrying awhile
and setting fire to the houses, proceeded down the bayou to Lynchburg
and thence to New Washington (Morgan's Point). Bafified in the pur-
suit of the government ofificials, who had. fled to Galveston, he then turned
back with the evident intention of crossing at Lynch's and carrying the
campaign into East Texas.
The Texars were apprized of these movements on their arrival at
Harrisburg, and then also received definite information that Santa Anna
was with this division of the invading army. On the 19th Houston and
I3C HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Rusk addressed the troops and gave them assurance that the decisive
battle was to be fought and that the Alamo and Goliad were at last to
be avenged. The baggage and a guard for the sick and disabled were
left at Harrisburg, while an army of 783 men marched down below
the mouth of Sims' bayou, where they crossed in boats to the right side
of Buffalo bayou, and then followed the route taken by the Mexicans,
across Vince's bridge, and with only a few hours' rest, between midnight
and daybreak, arrived at Lynch's ferry early in the forenoon of the 20th.
The site of the San Jacinto battleground is the margin of an ex-
tensive prairie that lies in the angle formed by the Buffalo bayou at its
junction with the San Jacinto river. It was in the semicircular bend of
the bayou about half a mile from the junction that the Texas army
encamped on the 20th. The banks of the bayou at this point are high,
and well screened with timber, the fringe of trees following the bayou
off to the southwest. On the left of this position the ground descends
to marshy levels along the river, on the opposite side of which lies the
village of Lynchburg, reached by Lynch's ferry. From the high ground
near the bayou the prairie has an easy descent to a "draw" about two
hundred yards to the south, followed by an equally gentle rise to the
crest of the prairie about a quarter of a mile distant. At the border of
this latter elevation, near the river, is a grove, but with this exception
the space before the Texas camp was almost uninterrupted prairie to
the south and southwest.
Santa Anna coming up the road along the San Jacinto bay and
river toward Lynch's, found, on arriving about noon of the 20th, the
position already occupied by the Texans. He accordingly halted his
army on the high ground in front of the Texas camp, his right wing
being partly protected by the woods near the river, and the rest of his
forces being drawn out across the ridge, with his cannon in the center.
The Mexicans had one cannon, while the Texans had received, just
before leaving the Brazos, two six-pounders, called the "Twin Sisters,"
which had been presented to Texas by the people of Cincinnati.
Early in the afternoon Santa Anna advanced his cannon, under cover
of the cavalry, to a little clump of trees somewhat to the right of the
Texas position, and opened fire, which was returned by the Twin Sisters.
In this artillery duel Colonel Neill was wounded, this being the first
casualty among the Texans. Later in the day Colonel Sherman obtained
permission to advance with mounted volunteers and dislodge the enemy
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 137
from this position. As soon as Sherman started the Mexicans withdrew
their cannon, but when he continued on towards the enemy's left he
was met by their cavalry. A lively skirmish ensued in which two Texans
were wounded, and Sherman retired without having effected any im-
portant advantage.
During the remainder of the day the Texas army obtained refresh-
ment and rest from their strenuous march of the preceding two days.
The Mexicans were engaged in strengthening their line by constructing
of packs and baggage a fortification about five feet high across the
ridge, their artillery being placed at an opening in the center and their
cavalry on the left wing. On the morning of the 21st Santa Anna was
reinforced by the arrival of some four hundred men under General Cos,
so that his total force on the day of the battle was about twelve hun-
dred. "This gave the latter considerable advantage over Houston,
and the Texans became apprehensive that in consequence their general
would again try to avoid battle and continue the retreat across the
San Jacinto. As time passed and no preparation was made to attack,
their fears, they thought, were justified, and the old question of deposing
the commander-in-chief was revived."*
The situation was such that all hope of success for the Texans
depended upon an immediate attack, while Santa Anna could very well
afford to delay action for several days until his armies could be better
concentrated. The Texans had no reserves that could be ordered up,
and with the exception of a few scattered volunteer companies still en
route to headquarters, the sole defenders of the Texas cause were the
less than eight hundred men encamped on Buffalo bayou. The arrival
of Cos in the morning was a warning that other Mexican troops were
probably on the way, so that, barring the impossible alternative of
retreat, the only resource was to check the approach of more reinforce-
ments and to crush the enemy where they lay. It was in view of these
circumstances that the destruction of Vince's bridge became an im-
portant piece of strategy. Though the removal of the bridge was not a
permanent obstacle to communication, it did serve to delay any force
that might attempt to cross the stream at that point, and had Santa An-
na's army been able to retreat in good order or had reinforcements ap-
proached before the conclusion of the battle, this delay would have
proved a decisive advantage to the Texans. As it was, the destruction
* Eugene C. Barker in Tex. Hist. Assn. Quarterly, Vol. IV.
138 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of the bridge by Deaf Smith and his two companions on the morning
of the 2 1 St had no bearing on the issue of the battle.*
A council of war was held about noon, and the decision taken
to make an attack on the morning following. The announcement was
sullenly received. It was then determined to get the opinion of the sol-
diers themselves. Going around from mess to mess the captains put
the question of fighting at once or on the morrow, and the eager and
almost unanimous answer was for immediate attack. The individual
soldiers were in command at San Jacinto, and the rank and file won the
victory the laurels of which were subsequently contested among so many
of the nominal leaders.
At half past three the officers were ordered to parade their com-
mands. The troops displayed alacrity and spirit and were anxious for
the contest. t The conscious disparity of number seemed only to in-
crease their enthusiasm and confidence, and heighten their eagerness
for the conflict.
The situation of the camp partly screened by woods made it possible
to make arrangements for battle without exposing the designs to the
enemy. The first regiment, commanded by Colonel Burleson, was as-
signed the center. The second regiment, under command of Colonel
Sherman, formed the left wing. The artillery was placed on the right
of the first regiment, and the cavalry, under Mirabeau B. Lamar, was the
extreme right. The first movement was to dispatch the cavalry toward
the enemy's left, followed by the entire line in rapid advance. The
Texans charged out of the timber so quickly that they had reached the
little valley and were pressing up the slope toward the Mexican breast-
works before the enemy realized what was taking place. Santa Anna
was asleep and. most of his followers were resting in their quarters.
From their camp the Mexicans could not see the Texans in the low
ground, and were apprized of their approach by the firing from the
breastworks and the loud battle-cry of "Remember the Alamo" which
* The statements frequently found that Vince 's bayou presented the only
obstacles between the San .Taointo and the Brazos seem to overlook the existence of
Sims' and Bray's bayou, both of which are southern branches of Buffalo Bayou
and, at the present time, much more formidable streams than Vince 's. Alphonso
Steele, the larit survivor of the battle, is authority for the statement that at that
time the road between Harrisburg and Lynch 's ferry followed Buffalo bayou more
closely than the modern highway, and that Vince 's, where it was bridged, was a
boggy, treacherous plnce, with high banks, so that the removal of the bridge would
have made a wide detour necessary to get over.
t Following Houston 's report of the battle.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 139
came up from below. The action was commenced by Sherman's on-
slaught upon the enemy in the woods near the river, quickly followed by
the assault of the whole front on the line of fortification. According
to Houston's report, the conflict lasted about eighteen minutes from the
time of close action until the Texans were in possession of the enemy's
encampment. "The conflict in the breastworks lasted but a few minutes;
many of the troops encountered hand to hand, and, not having the ad-
vantage of bayonets on our side, our riflemen used their pieces as war-
clubs, breaking many of them off at the breech. The rout commenced at
half past four, and the pursuit by the main arm\- continued until twilight.
A guard was then left in charge of the enemy's encampment, and our
army returned with the killed and wounded. In the battle our loss was
two killed and twenty-three wounded, si.x of whom mortally." No ac-
curate report of the Mexican losses could be made, though more than
half of their army were either killed or wounded. Many of the fugitives
were overtaken in the marshes at the rear of the battlefield and were shot
down or slaughtered with the bowie-knife.
As a mere military achievement, San Jacinto has a place among bat-
tles that are won by impetuosity of attack and individual gallantry over su-
perior numbers that are perhaps better disciplined but lacking in morale
and individual effectiveness. In its results this battle was decisive. It
marked the triumph of American expansion over the Southwest, and the
subsequent war which extended the dominion from the Rocky mountains
to the Pacific was, in many respects, a consequence of San Jacinto. From
this point, the results of the brief engagement in which the whole number
of contestants were little more than two full regiments have continued as
active forces through every epoch of American history and affecting every
department of national life.
On the following day, near Vince's bridge, while trying to make his
escape to the Brazos, Santa Anna was captured, in disguise as a common
soldier, and was taken to the Texas camp, where he was soon identified
as the dictator and author of all the calamities of Texas. It was with
difficulty that the Texans were restrained from hanging him at once, and
during his subsequent captivity in Texas he was saved from vengeance
only by the vigilance of the authorities. An armistice was soon arranged
providing for a cessation of hostilities until a permanent peace could be
negotiated, and in the meantime the Mexican troops on the Brazos and
vicinity were to be withdrawn.
Soon after the battle Santa Anna was taken to the temporary capital
140 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
at Galveston island, whence the government, with the illustrious prisoner,
moved to Velasco. Here, on May 14th, Santa Anna signed two treaties,
one of them being a secret agreement, according to which he was to send
the Mexican forces out of Texas and to lend his aid in securing the rec-
ognition of the independence of Texas. The public treaty was forwarded
to General Filisola, chief in command of the remaining Mexican troops in
Texas, and was ratified by him toward the end of May.
The forces under Filisola were at the Brazos when the news of the
overthrow of Santa Anna came, and he at once began concentrating the
different divisions and retreated to the Colorado. The Mexicans were al-
most without provisions and had suffered severely from the long cam-
paign across the abandoned country. The way to the Colorado was one
scene of hardships owing to the heavy floods and scarcity of food, and it
was an emaciated and worn-out army that reached Victoria about the mid-
dle of May. Here the troops that had been stationed at San Antonio
joined in the retreat. In the meantime the Mexican government had
learned of the disastrous ending of the invasion. Instructions were at
once forwarded to Filisola to hold the territory already gained, and that,
as the treaty with Santa Anna had been signed while he was a prisoner,
it was annulled, and that the independence of the revolting state should
not be recognized. But these orders from the central government did riot
reach Filisola until his troops had crossed the Nueces on the route to Mata-
moros, and at a consultation of the officers it was decided that, owing to
the destitute condition of the army and the treaty already approved by
Filisola, the retreat should continue. By the middle of June, therefore,
the Mexican forces, once so brilliantly arrayed and well equipped but now
so gaunt and disorganized, had crossed the Rio Grande, within less than
four months after Travis had sent out final appeals for help from the
Alamo.
Santa Anna was detained in Texas, at Velasco and Columbia, for
several months, finally being sent to Washington in the United States, and
thence returned to Mexico, where he had been previously defeated for the
office of president. Mexico by no means resigned her Texas province
ungrudgingly, and the treaty of Santa Anna was never ratified. Prepara-
tions were begun for another invasion, but owing to political troubles at
home the troops at Matamoros never crossed the Rio Grande. The in-
dependence of Texas existed in fact from the victory at San Jacinto, and
the subsequent expeditions across the borders of the two countries are
hardly to be regarded as part of the war for Texas independence.
CHAPTER XXII
Texas as a Republic
The Republic of Texas existed as a unit in the family of nations
nearly ten years, or from the declaration of independence on March 2,
1836, until February 19, 1846, when President Jones surrendered the
executive authority to the newly elected governor of the state.
In exercise of the powers conferred by the constitution, in September,
1836, occurred an election for the offices of president, vice president, and
senators and representatives to congress. Stephen F. Austin and the late
governor, Henry Smith, were the first presidential candidates to be put
forward. They represented the political factions in Texas before the
revolution. Two weeks before the election, meetings at Columbia and
elsewhere proposed the candidacy of General Houston. Houston's ex-
altation in the minds of the people after his successful campaign is shown
by the fact that he was chosen by a large majority over Stephen F. Aus-
tin, whose noble and consistent patriotism was for the time dimmed by
the military glory of the former. Mirabeau B. Lamar was elected vice
president. The appointment of Austin to the office of secretary of state
and Smith as secretary of war was the result of Houston's determination
to harmonize the political factions and secure unity of action for the wel-
fare of the republic.
At the same time with the election of the new government, the peo-
ple gave unanimous approval of the constitution, and also practically the
total vote in favor of annexation of Texas to the United States. By
provision of the constitution Houston was not to enter office until the
following December, while congress assembled on the first of October.
By mutual agreement, the president and vice president of the provisional
government retired from office on October 22d, and on the same day
Houston was inaugurated, this irregularity being sanctioned by congress.
Excepting the Indians the total population of Texas at this time was
estimated at 38,500*, including 5,000 negroes and about 3,500 Mexicans.
* Morfit 's report.
141
142 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
This population, slightly more than one-third of the present population of
Houston, was dispersed in isolated cabins or small villages from the coast
to the San Antonio road, from the Sabine to the Nueces. Their actual
resources were little more than the soil and season's bounty of crops could
supply. Even the bare necessities of life were difficult to obtain, and the
arrival of vessels from New Orleans and the occasional capture, by the
Texas navy, of a Mexican supply ship, kept army and citizens from starva-
tion. Enthusiasm and hope were unbounded, and it was on the credit
of the future that Texas began her independent existence.
Upon the leaders of such a population, with such poverty of means,
devolved the task of establishing a national government. Mexico threat-
ened war, and on the frontier the Indians made repeated incursions. So
an army and navy were necessary to maintain national existence. Nothing
is more costly than provision for war, and the republic had no money and
few citizens to spare for this purpose. Had it not been for the many
American volunteers coming into the country, it would have been very
difficult to maintain any military organization. Aside from a few vessels,
most of them fitted out at private expense and commissioned as privateers,
the Texas navy during the revolution was of Httle importance, and for two
years following there was practically no navy. After this a few ships
were maintained which were finally consolidated with the United States
navy.
One of the first acts of congress was to issue bonds, with the public
lands as security. But the capital of America and Europe was unwilling
to invest in them. Furthermore, the paper notes and scrip of different
kinds issued by the government depreciated rapidly. For thirty thousand
people to tax themselves for the support of a national government,
especially in a new and undeveloped country, seems nothing less than
impossible. Though in 1837 the Texas cotton crop was valued at two
million dollars, that was the chief item of her productive resources. Mean-
while the public debt at the beginning of the first session of congress was
estimated at a million and a quarter dollars. The sale of scrip receivable
for public lands had proved unremunerative. Thus it began to appear
that the expense of maintaining an independent government was more
than the republic could bear, and bankruptcy became a more formidable
enemy than Mexico or the Indians.
The first session of congress met at Columbia. The numerous pro-
visions for national and local civil government were made, a postoffice de-
partment was created, the courts were organized. The boundary between
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 143
Mexico and Texas as claimed by this congress was declared to extend
from the mouth of the Rio Grande to its source, thus including a large
part of what is now New Mexico. A national seal and a standard were
adopted. The former was much like the present state seal in general de-
sign, while the first flag was an azure ground upon the center of which
was a golden star. This was later changed to a tricolor, with a blue ver-
tical field next to the staff and upon it the Lone Star, and two horizontal
stripes, the white above the red.
Only a few weeks after the first congress of the republic assembled,
Texas lost two of her greatest citizens, Lorenzo de Zavala and Stephen F.
Austin. The latter will always be revered as the founder of modern
Texas and the most powerful of the steadying influences which preserved
the country during its most trying crisis.
The first congress adjourned from Columbia to meet in the temporary
capital at the new town of Houston. There were two sessions of the con-
gress in 1837. The most important work undertaken was the settlement
of the land question. The land offices had been suspended by the general
consultation in November, 1835, ^"d up to this time it had not been
deemed prudent to open them. In less than half a century three suc-
cessive national governments had controlled the public domain of Texas,
so that the titles to lands in the older parts of Texas exhibit a remark-
able complexity of origin. As soon as Texas was freed from the Coa-
huila-Texas state, the provisional government was very generous in its
land bounties to the volunteers during the war for independence, as also
in its inducements to colonists later. The loose system which had pre-
vailed during the Mexican regime gave opportunities for extensive frauds.
Soldiers' headrights were bought and sold by speculators. Old grants
were revived, and forged or fictitious claims were not infrequently sold
to investors and immigrants. Toward the end of 1837 a general land law
was finally passed, which, though defective and not preventing all the
frauds, provided the best system available at the time, which while dealing
justly with past claims would also give generous opportunities to new
claimants.
The Texans inaugurated their national housekeeping with greater
liberality than conditions would warrant, and they were compelled to suf-
fer the usual penalty of extravagance. Despite Houston's economy the
public debt at the end of 1838 was nearly two million dollars, and the
republic's credit was nearly exhausted. The various efforts to raise mone'-
had met with only partial success, and Texas paper was below par on all
144 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
foreign exchanges and the decline still continuing. The commerce of the
country was not large, and, except cotton, there was little production be-
yond home consumption. At this time therefore the prosperity of Texas
was more in prospect than in actuality, and despite the encouraging signs
there were many problems for the inexperienced government to solve.
The constitution provided that the first president was to hold office
two years, and thereafter the term was to be three years; and that the
incumbent was not eligible to a successive term. Houston's first term
expired in December, 1838, and the preceding September Mirabeau B.
Lamar was almost unanimously chosen president, with David G. Burnet
vice president.
Lamar's administration, which lasted from December, 1838, to the
corresponding month in 1841, was in many respects a reversal of Hous-
ton's, and the republic suffered more from change in presidential policies
than from any other one cause. In his first message to congress, Lamar
indicated his aversion to annexation to the United States, his advocacy
of a definite and progressive educational system, a retaliatory and ex-
terminative warfare against the Indians in contrast with the previous
conciliatory treatment, and a progressive building up and strengthening
of the national bulwarks and powers.
Problems of finance offered the greatest difficulty, and that they were
not well solved is shown by the fact that during this administration the
public debt increased from two million to seven and a half million dollars,
while the public credit became exhausted, and Texas securities were worth
only a few cents on the dollar and were scarcely negotiable anywhere.
The land tax and the various tariff laws were of necessity continued, al-
though free trade was the goal to be early sought. Lamar proposed the
founding of a national bank, but congress refused to sanction such a
plan. The establishment and purchase of a navy drew heavily upon the
credit of the government, as also an adequate system of frontier defense.
The bond issues of this period, though backed by the strongest pledges
of the republic and secured by the public domain and offered at high
rates of interest, went begging in the United States because of the wari-
ness of financiers who had lately passed through a panic ; while a quarrel
between a hotelkeeper and the French minister to Texas caused a suspen-
sion of the negotiations for a bond sale which had been nearly arranged
between French bankers and the Texas commissioner. Similar negotia-
tions in England also failed. The treasury notes of the republic were
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 145
unredeemed and had to be accepted on pure faith. During this period the
excess of imports over exports was in the ratio of seven to one.
These facts and other unsuccessful measures of administration made
Lamar so unpopular that he retired from the active duties of the presi-
dency and during the last year of his term Vice President Burnet was
acting president. But, admitting a lack of executive ability for the crisis
then confronting Texas, and that Lamar was visionary and intemperate
in many of his acts, it remains to be said that the exigencies from within
and the troubles threatening from without were most trying and prob-
ably could not have been satisfactorily dealt with by any president.
No state in the Union has suffered more continuously and severely
from the Indians than Texas. From the days of LaSalle until their last
depredations, only a few years ago, they were a constant menace to ail
efforts at civilization and permanent growth. For more than fifty years
after the American occupation the Apaches and Comanches harried the
frotiliers and sometimes carried their warfare to the heart of the settle-
ments. During Houston's administration a spirit of conciliation had
marked the dealings with the Indian tribes, and there can be no doubt
that the failure of his successor and the people in general to observe the
proper diplomacy toward the Indians resulted in vast loss of life and
property.
It was during Lamar's administration that the famous organization
known as the Texas Rangers had its origin. For hardihood, reckless
daring, ability to undergo hardship, and individual shiftiness and skill,
these men have never been surpassed. This splendid body of men has
been a permanent feature of the military defense of Texas from the re-
public to the present time, and, while in some degree resembling the militia
of other states, their almost constant service and their effectiveness under
all conditions make them unique among the police organizations of states
and nations. They could live in the saddle, and while, for the most part,
pursuing the ordinary occupations of their neighbors, they were ready
at a moment's notice to fly to the danger point to meet an Indian raid or
to avenge the depredations of outlaws. During the early part of Lamar's
term several large appropriations were voted to support some twelve hun-
dred of these mounted volunteers for frontier service, each term of en-
listment to be for six months.
These Rangers as well as private citizens were kept busy durir-.g these
years. Immigrants came in rapidly after the cessation of hostilities be-
tween Texas and Mexico. Both speculators and settlers found the lands
146 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
occupied by the Indians, especially in northeast Texas, the most desir-
able for their purposes. The Indians of Texas, especially the Comanches,
were never reconciled to this invasion of their hunting grounds. Hence,
with the progress of settlement, there ensued a war for possession between
the two races. It was inevitable that the whites should win, but at the
expense of many scenes of bloody and relentless warfare.
As has been mentioned, the Mexican government, impotent itself to
prosecute an active war against Texas, resorted to underhanded methods
in fostering rebellion and discontent among the inhabitants. In 1838
there occurred what is known as the Nacogdoches rebellion, in which
the Mexican population about Nacogdoches and a number of Indians dis-
claimed their allegiance to Texas, but before the army of the republic
could reach them they had dispersed. This was probably part of the
movement in which Mexico tried to arouse the natives against the Texans.
Shortly aftt-rward Manuel Flores, bearing dispatches from the Mexican
government to the northeastern Indians, was pursued and attacked near
Austin, was killed, and the papers he carried revealed the plot.
The Cherokees, living north of Nacogdoches, who had been concerned
in the Fredonian war, were ready for rebellion. They lived on lands
that were among the richest of Texas and consequently much coveted by
settlers 'and speculators. They claimed possession of these lands through
an unratified agreement with the Mexican government, and resented all
encroachments from white settlers. Perhaps the danger from these In-
dians and the actual hostilities to which they had been provoked
were magnified to suit the purpose of those who wanted their lands.
The authorities determined to remove the Cherokees beyond the settle-
ments, and when negotiations for removal had failed General Douglass
moved against them with five hundred troops, in two engagements killed
over a hundred of the tribe, and drove the rest from their homes.
The fiercest and most troublesome Indians of this period were the
Comanches, to the north and west of San Antonio. Matters came to a
crisis with them in 1840. Showing a disposition to make peace, twelve of
their chiefs came to San Antonio and met in council the Texas commis-
sioners. Some captives which it was known were still held were de-
manded, and when the chiefs refused to comply with this order soldiers
were introduced into the council chamber and the chiefs were threatened
with imprisonment until the prisoners were returned. Then ensued a
desperate fight both in the court house and between the Indians and citi-
zens outside. The twelve chiefs were killed and but few of their fol-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 147
lowers escaped. A war of retaliation followed. Two attacks were made
on Victoria, the town of Linnville on the coast was burned, and after
killing a number of persons and gathering large number of stock the
Comanches set out for their homes. The Texans quickly organized in
pursuit and overtook the enemy a short distance from Gonzales. In the
battle the Indians were routed and most of their spoils recovered. A
little later Colonel Moore, with about one hundred Texans and Lipan In-
dians, followed the trail of the Comanches to their village, where he at-
tacked and nearly exterminated the entire population.
During Lamar's term the Mexican federalists endeavored to secure
the co-operation of the Texans in a revolution against the central govern-
ment with the design of forming a separate federation among some of
the northern states. This was but one of the phase.", of the revolutionary
struggles then convulsing the entire Mexican republic. Texas was not
officially concerned in these movements except so far as her citizens vol-
unteered for service in the campaigns. A number of restless spirits, be-
ing without military occupation at home, sought adventure and otTier re-
wards across the borders. The "Republic of the Rio Grande," as the pro-
posed federal government was named, was short-lived mainly because
of the fickleness and treachery of the Mexican leaders. The Americans
who served in the campaigns displayed their characteristic bravery and
defiance of overwhelming numbers, and, when deserted by their federalist
allies, they oil several occasions defeated superior forces and fought their
way to safety on their own side of the Rio Grande.
One other military expedition of this period is worthy of note. The
Texas congress of 1836 claimed as the southwestern boundary the Rio
Grande from the gulf to its source. Within this territory lies Santa Fe
and a large part of New Mexico. It wa^ proposed to open commercial
relations with this rich city and extend the authority of Texas over that
ancient seat of Spanish civilization. The enterprise failed to receive the
sanction of congress, but some of the officials, including President Lamar,
were interested in it, and the affair was conducted without any conceal-
ment. The expedition, consisting of about three hundred soldiers, set out
from Austin in June, 1841. It was a thousand miles to Santa Fe, and
the way was beset by dangers and privations. There was an insufficient
supply of provisions, the desert had little water or grass, and watchful
Indians lay in wait for all stragglers from the main company.
General Hugh McLeod was the leader, and others in the company
were Colonel William G. Cooke, Major George T. Howard, Captain Cald-
148 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
well, Captain Sutton, Captain W. P. Lewis, Lieutenants Lubbock, Miin-
son. Brown and Seavy, Dr. Brashear, the surgeon, Dr. Richard F. Bren-
ham, Jose Antonio Navarro, George Wilkins Kendall, editor of the New
Orleans Picayune, George P. Van Ness and others well known in Texas.
The commissioners appointed to arrange trade relations were Cooke,
Navarro and Brenham. After proceeding in the generally northwestern
direction until reaching the Llano Estacado west of Palo Duro, the ex-
pedition divided, one party going north and the other to the northwest
towards the town of San Miguel. On the way several members of the
latter company died, and all were exposed to innumerable hardships
and fiahts with the Indians.
When near San Miguel, on September 14, a detachment was sent
forward with letters to the alcalde, expressing the pacific intent'ons
of the expedition and asking permission to purchase provisions. Pro-
clamations were also sent ahead, stating that the Texans had come to
establish trade relations, and that if the inhabitants of New Me.xico weie
not disposed to join, peacefully, the Texas government, the visitors would
retire immediately.
After proceeding some distance the advance guard were suddenly
surrounded by a hundred or more Mexicans, armed with lances, swords,
bows and arrows and old-fashioned carbines, under the leadership nf
Dimisio Salazar, who addressed them as ainigos. He then informed
the party that it was contrary to law for foreigners to enter the province
with arms, and requested that all weapons be given into his safekeeping.
Hardly had this request been acceded to when the friendly attitude of the
captors changed, and had it not been for the interference of one of the
Mexicans, who maintained that the prisoners had a right to see the
governor before their cases were acted upon, all undoubtedly would
have been shot down. As it was, they were taken into San Miguel and
placed in prison The next day they were taken out to meet Governor
Armijo, who also greeted them as friends, and informed them that
he was an honorable man and not an assassin and, moreover, a great
warrior.
While the advance guard were being held at San Miguel, the
governor aroused the inhabitants by exaggerated reports as to the inten-
tions of the invaders, and made preparations to capture the main body
of the Texans. On September 17th, Colonel Cooke and his men sur-
rendered at Anton Chico, having been betrayed to the enemy by William
P. Lewis, a member of the expedition. Three days later they set out,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 149
under guard, on their long march to the city of Mexico. On October
I2th the other division of the Texans, more than one hundred and fifty
in number, who had been captured in Colorado, were marched into the
plaza of. San Miguel, and it soon became understood that all the cap-
tives were to be sent to the city of Mexico. Armijo released four of
the prisoners, but the remainder were started on their long journey to
the capital. In several divisions, the prisoners arrived in the spring of
1842. In April some of them were released, at the intercession of for-
eign ministers, on the plea that they were not Texans and had joined
the expedition without being aware of any hostile motives of the leaders.
The remainder, after being confined a few weeks in various Mexican
prisons, some of them being compelled to work upon the public highways
in chains, were released by order of General Santa Anna, June 13, 1842.
The only exception was Navarro, Mexican by birth and member of a
distinguished family, who was condemned to death. He escaped from
prison, however, and ultimately returned to Texas.
This first Santa Fe expedition was not undertaken altogether for
the purpose of developing closer trade relations between Texas and
Santa Fe and securing a share of the commerce which passed over the
Santa Fe trail to the Missouri river. The military character of the enter-
prise and the well-known desires of the Texans were sufficient warrant
for the assertion that the plans also contemplated the acquisition of this
rich territory of Texas, with the incidental rewards of the spoils of con-
quest for the individual members of the expedition.
During this administration the independence of Texas was recog-
nized by foreign nations. This formal act of according the privileges
due to an independent nation was performed for Texas by the United
States in 1837. The inclination of Texas to a free-trade policy gained
her favor in England, resulting in the negotiation of a commercial treaty
in 1838, and recognition of her independence was extended in 1842, al-
though not without much opposition from the anti-slavery element of
England. In 1839 a treaty was signed between France and Texas, al-
though diplomatic relations were later severed for a time, as already
mentioned. And in 1840 Holland and Belgium held out the hand of
fellowship to the new republic.
While Lamar was president the perm.anent location of the Texas
capital was decided. Since the beginning of American settlement many
towns had the honor of being the seat of official business. San Felipe
from its founding in 1824 until 1835 was the official center of the Amer-
I50 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ican colonies, corresponding roughly to the modern county seat, and in
1835, through the meeting of the general consultation and the provi-
sional government, became in fact the first capital. From March i to
17, 1836, Washington on the Brazos entertained the constitutional con-
vention and provisional government. From Washington President Bur-
net and his cabinet moved to Harrisburg. The last official transaction
there was on April 14th, the day before Santa Anna arrived. Several
days later the members of the government assembled on Galveston
island. The island was entirely wanting in any accommodation and
served only as a place of refuge until after the battle of San Jacinto.
TEXAS CAPITOL B
\T COLUMBIA
On May 8th the government moved to Velasco, which at that time had
some reputation as a summer resort and contained houses for the offi-
cials. President Burnet resided at Velasco during the summer, and this
was the capital till the latter part of September. On July 23rd the
president had designated Columbia as the place for the assembling of
the first congress, which met there October 3d. Within a few weeks
agitation began for the removal of the government, fifteen towns or
townsites being applicants for the honor. The vote on the question was
taken on November 30th, when Houston, which did not at that time have
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 151
a single permanent habitation, was chosen by a bare majority as the
capital until the end of the session of the congress beginning in 1840.
The first congress adjourned at Columbia December 22, and about the
end of the following April the president and other government officials
arrived in Houston, and congress assembled at the new location on
May 1st.
Though the location of Houston was designed to be temporary, efforts
were made to remove the government to a permanent capital before the
expiration of the period assigned for its seat at Houston. A commis-
sion of five members was appointed in October, 1837, to consider sites
for the capital. Bastrop, Washington, Nashville and several other places
were oftered. The first commission was succeeded in the same year by
another commission, which reported in April, 1838, and offered for the
consideration of congress a number of sites on the Brazos and Colorado
rivers. A vote was taken in joint session, the ballots being distributed
among a dozen situations. Eblin's league on the Colorado, adjoining
^he present town of LaGrange, received 27 out of 42 votes. May 22d,
President Houston vetoed the bill on the ground that the cong^^ess then
in session was not empowered to decide the matter of permanent loca-
tion, and that subsequent congresses up to 1840 might repeal the act.
Another reason, assigned by the citizens of Fayette county, was that the
president desired to protect himself and other investors who had bought
Houston town lots with the promise that the capital should remain there
until 1840. The house of representatives sustained the veto.
The location of the capital became an issue in the campaign of 1838,
creating a somewhat sectional feeling between what was then east and
west Texas. January 14, 1839, President Lamar approved a bill creating
a commission with mo -e extended powers than were possessed by the
former bodies. The commission was restricted in its selection to the ter-
ritory north of the San Antonio road and between the Trinity and Colo-
rado rivers, but had authority to make a final selection without reference
to congress or the people. The five commissioners made their report on
April 13, 1839. The sites of Bastrop and Waterloo were the only ones
considered in the final vote of the commissioners, and Waterloo was
adopted. The site contained 7735 acres, and was purchased for the sum
of about $21,000. The settlement at Waterloo had been begun only a
few months before, on the edge of the frontier between the white
settlements and the Indian domain, so that the transfer of this tract of
wild land to the government at a price of nearly three dollars an acre
152 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
was a not unprofitable transaction for the original owners. By the terms
of the act the capital was to be knowns as the city of Austin, a name
henceforth substituted for the original Waterloo.
Edwin Waller was the government agent appointed to lay off the
new city and provide buildings for the government. He arrived on the
site in May, and the following August the first sale of lots was held,
the aggregate sales amounting to $300,000, a sum that was applied to
the construction of the first houses of government. Mr. Waller dis-
played such energy in laying out the city and providing accommodations
that the capital was ready for the reception of the government by the
following October, and his enterprise checkmated all the plans of the
opposition to prevent the removal to Austin. An act supplementary to
the act providing for the permanent location of the capital directed that
the government should be transferred to the new site before October i,
1839, and congress was to assemble there in the following November.
The removal of the archives from Houston took place in the latter part
of September, and President Lamar and cabinet reached Austin October
17th. At the close of the year a bill was introduced to reopen the ques-
tion of capital location, but was decisively defeated, thus confirming
Austin as the permanent capital.
General Houston was one of the active opponents of the location at
Austin, and in 1842, during his second term as president, and when
an invasion from Mexico was threatened, he called the special session
of congress in June to meet at the town of Houston. The regular session
of December following met at Washington on the Brazos. The citizens
of Austin were very much exasperated at this action, and determined
that wherever the government might go the archives should remain at
the place officially designated as the capital. This gave rise to what was
known as the Archive war. Li December Houston sent a company of
soldiers to bring the most necessary state papers to Washington. The
captain in command succeeded in loading three wagons with documents
and conducted them out of town, where the guard camped for the night.
On the following morning a loaded cannon barred the way and the reso-
lute citizens of Austin compelled the return of the archives to their
proper home. During the remaining years of the republic's existence
the congress met at Washington — without the archives — , but the con-
vention to consider annexation to the United States assembled in Austin,
which has since been the capital of Texas.
At the general election of September, 1841, Sam Houston once more
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 153
was the favorite of the people, receiving twice as many votes as his op-
ponent, David G. Burnet. Edward Burleson was elected vice president.
On his entrance to the presidential office Houston at once showed a dispo-
sition to administer the affairs of the republic very differently from his
predecessor. His policy in dealing with the Indians was to make treaties
which should be strictly observed by the whites, and to establish trading
posts all along the frontier, each with a small garrison, to prevent en-
croachment on the territory of the settlers and to maintain strict neu-
trality.
Houston introduced a system of severe economy in the management
of the republic. As mentioned in his first message, the nation was "not
only without money, but without credit, and, for want of punctuality, with-
out character." The exchequer bills, which were issued, as fiat money, at
the beginning of his term, in the course of a year depreciated to twenty-
five cents on the dollar, as had been the case with the former treasury
notes. Further borrowing was hardly possible, and the only resource in
this financial crisis was to cut down expenses. Accordingly, retrenchment
was not only the policy but a necessity for this administration. With a
white population in the republic of something like one hundred thousand,
the salaries paid, in 1840, to the officers of the government amounted to
$174,000, nearly two dollars per capita in a country whose resources were
just beginning to be developed, and already taxed to the utmost by rev-
olution and Indian wars. What a scaling down of salaries and elimination
of officers were effected during Houston's term may be imagined by the
amount of the government pay roll in 1842, which showed an aggregate
expenditure of less than $33,000. While Lamar's administration cost
five million dollars, Houston's three years made a total of barely half a
million. The result, while in the main wholesome, necessarily weakened
the effectiveness of the government especially in frontier defense. The
Ranger service was seriously crippled during these years, and the advance
guard of settlement at some points, noticeably along the Brazos in Milam
and adjoining counties, was compelled to withdraw, and development
in these sections was not resumed until after annexation.
In this period Texas had her war of the Regulators and Moderators,
which began in 1842. The scene of this was the old Neutral Ground in
East Texas, which was still the abode of many ill-assorted characters. The
war was really a contest between rival land claimants, and was due to
land frauds. Forged headright certificates were in the hands of many,
and the character of the men on both sides was such that the settlement
154 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of differences was more often through force and armed display than bv
court process. Finally a defeated candidate for congress expressed his
disappointment by exposing the land frauds, and then gathered a party
of Regulators for the purpose of regulating the troubles according to his
own prejudices. Their regulation was naturally often irregular, and an
opposition society sprang up with the name Moderators. This brought-
on a kind of vendetta warfare, which lasted several years, until a serious
civil war was threatened and the two parties drew up in battle array.
Before that juncture, however. President Houston had interfered and sent
General Smith with five hundred troops to put an end to the affair. By
his mediation the factions composed their immediate differences, and the
thunder of actual war died away in echoes of feudism and scattered
murders.
The most serious foreign complications of this period were with
Mexico. That country was employing all its political craft as well as its
feeble military forces to regain dominion in Texas. Although nearly six
years passed after the battle of San Jacinto without effective effort to in-
vade Texas, that government continually refused any sign of recognition
of independence, an attitude that served to delay formal recognition on
the part of other foreign countries.
The first actual renewal of hostilities from Mexico was in 1842. In
March General Vasquez suddenly appeared at San Antonio with five hun-
dred men, and, with no opposition from the small Texas force stationed
there, took possession of the city, declared the authority of Mexico, and
two days later departed. Goliad and Refugio were served in the same
manner by other Mexican troops, but the entire invasion was a mere
demonstration on the part of Mexico. In Texas the result was to arouse
the old fears that had been almost allayed by six years of peace. President
Houston issued a proclamation for the people to hold themselves ready to
repel invasion, while congress passed a bill for the prosecution of an of-
fensive war. This was for the time a popular measure, and the presi-
dent's veto aroused much indignation. In July there was a severe en-
gagement on the Nueces in which a large force of Mexicans was re-
pulsed by two hundred volunteers.
Then, on September nth, General Woll led a second expedition into
San Antonio. District court was in session, all the activities of this
frontier town on such a day were in progress, and no thought of an
enemy's approach was entertained by anyone. It was a complete sur-
prise. Nevertheless, the citizens did not surrender without a valiant re-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 155
sistance. Some of them took refuge on a roof overlooking Main plaza and
defended themselves for a number of hours. Finally realizing the pres-
ence of overpowering numbers, they surrendered. The number of pris-
oners was fifty-two, including the district judge, several lawyers, physi-
cians and other prominent citizens.
News of the capture of San Antonio soon spread to the surrounding
country. Col. Matthew Caldwell, with a force of over two hundred, col-
lected largely from Gonzales, took up a position in the Salado bottom about
six miles east of town. By a ruse he succeded in drawing out the Mexi-
cans to his well protected position, and in the battle that followed the
latter lost heavily. But at the same time a reinforcement, consisting
of fifty-three men raised in Fayette county and commanded by Captain
Dawson, in attempting to join the main body under Caldwell, were sur-
rounded by the enemy and after two-thirds of them were slain the rest
were cut down in pursuit, only two succeeding in making their escape.
On September 20, General Woll, after having been in possession of San
Antonio a little more than a week, again withdrew beyond the Rio
Grande, sending his prisoners on foot to the City of Mexico.
This second invasion, following so closely upon the first, threw Texas
into a ferment of military preparation. Volunteers were ordered to
rendezvous at San Antonio for an invasion of Mexico, and General Som-
ervell was directed to take command. But as the Santa Fe expedition
and other previous attempts had proved, Texas was unable to carry on a
successful war beyond her borders. The government only reluctantly
yielded to the popular clamor for war. The army was badly equipped,
and the whole aiifair degenerated into nothing more than a retaliatory raid
across the Rio Grande. The volunteers wanted General Burleson as their
commander instead of Somervell, and this contention also contributed to
defeat the undertaking. Somervell, on arriving at Columbus on the Col-
orado and finding some two or three hundred men collected and awaiting
Burleson, disbanded them and himself returned to Matagorda. In October
he was again ordered to take command of the army assembled at San
Antonio, and when he arrived he found about twelve hundred volunteers,
ill disciplined and poorly equipped, but most of them eager to cross the
frontier and carry war into Mexico. Somervell displayed no enthusiasm
and, perhaps acting under orders from Houston, made little progress
toward actual invasion. Consequently many deserted at San Antonio,
while the remainder, about seven hundred and fifty in number, set out and
reached Laredo on the Rio Grande early in December.
156 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
A few days later, permission was granted to those who desired to
return home, and about two hundred left and returned to the settlements.
Somervell then continued down the Texas side of the river to a point
opposite the town of Guerrero, when he crossed and occupied that place.
The following day, the command having been brought back to the east
side of the river, Somervell ordered his troops to set out on the return to
Gonzales. Two hundred chose to obey their commander, but the re-
maining three hundred were not content with such an ending to the cam-
paign. Refusing to follow, they proceeded to organize an independent
expedition against Mexico, William S. Fisher being elected their colonel.
These three hundred composed what is known as the Mier expedition,
which, though in a sense a branch of the army of invasion ordered against
Mexico by the Texas government, was in fact a self-constituted organiza-
tion, similar to the Santa Fe expedition.
They descended the river to Alier, and after making a requisition on
the alcalde for provisions and wating in the vicinity several days, a large
Mexican force came up and entered the town. On the 25th of December
the Americans crossed the river and engaged them. The enemy were
several times more numerous, but were well matched by the intrepid at-
tack of the invaders. During the night the Texans occupied the outskirts
of the town, and in the morning advanced toward the plaza, which was
protected by artillery. For several hours the battle was waged, then there
was a parley. The Texans were promised the consideration due to pris-
oners of war on condition that they surrender, and owing to their dan-
gerous position and small supply of ammunition the majority voted to ac-
cept the terms. Two hundred and sixty-one Texans had engaged against
more than two thousand Mexicans. The wounded were left at Mier, and
the rest, about two hundred, were started to Mexico, being joined at
Saltillo by a few of the prisoners taken by Woll at the capture of San
Antonio.
When they arrived at the hacienda del Salado, they were placed in a
large corral. Their plan having been carefully matured, by a sudden rush
they overpowered their guards, seized the arms stacked in the court-yard,
and with a fierce charge scattered the cavalry and other guards at the
gates, and in a few minutes were masters of the situation. Leaving the
wounded to be cared for according to mutual agreement, the Texans be-
gan their retreat. Some days later, fearing capture, they left the regular
roads and entered the mountains. For a number of days they endured the
toil of mountain travel. Their only food was such as could be found
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 157
in the uninhabited region they were traversing. Weakened by hunger
and worn out by their fruitless wanderings, they surrendered without re-
sistance to a cavalry force that came across their way, and were taKen
back to Salado.
Here occurred the famous bean lottery. Santa Anna had issued an
order for decimation of the prisoners, and the order was carried out in
characteristic Mexican fashion. In the bottom of a jar were placed
159 white beans, seventeen black beans being thrown on top without
shaking. An officer held the jar up so that the beans could not be seen.
The prisoners stepped forward one after another, each drawing one
bean. The white bean was life and the black bean was death. The
prisoners calmly performed this lottery of life and death, those who drew
the fatal prize even joking over their fate. At sunset of the same day the
seventeen were seated upon a log, with their backs to the file of soldiers,
and volley after volley poured upon them until all were dead. Those
who drew the white beans had no joy in their fortune. They were sent
on to Mexico, where they endured untold sufferings in the castle of
Perote. Several eft'ected their escape by tunneling out, and those who
had not in the meantime died were released in September, 1844.
The remaining troubles with Mexico were complicated with the
causes leading up to annexation. In 1843 England used her influence
with Santa Anna so successfully that a cessation of hostilities was agreed
upon, and commissioners from Mexico and Texas were to arrange terms
of peace. As result, in February, 1844, an armistice was agreed upon
until a permanent peace could be made. Houston refused to accept the
armistice because it referred to Texas as a department of Mexico. On
June 1 6th Santa Anna declared a renewal of hostilities, though without
any actual consequences of war. Thus, at the close of the republic's
existence, it was in a nominal state of war with Mexico.
CHAPTER XXIII
The Annexation of Texas
The interests and natural sympathies of Texas, after American
colonization had become the predominant factor in her growth, were
closely akin to, if not identical with, those of the United States. If the
republic of Texas had existed to the present time, the two nations would
have been so united in spirit that the bonds between them would be
hardly less binding than those of to-day. During the early years of the
republic, the Texans celebrated the independence day of the United
States with hardly less enthusiasm than their own, and in all essential
respects manifested the same qualities of Americanism that characterized
the citizens of the "states." Texas was an outgrowth of the United
States, an extension of its people upon foreign territory, a colonization
just as much as the settlement of New England was two centuries
before. Independence established, it was natural that the colony would
prefer the protection and federal benefits of the older government rather
than the isolation of an independent nation. Annexation, therefore, was a
natural, if not inevitable, sequence of independence. The achievement
of this end was delayed by many causes, some of them of practical and
detail nature, others complicated with some of the large problems of na-
tional and international politics. /
American sympathy with the cause of the revolutionists had proved
indispensable, both in the moral and material assistance extended, during
1835 and 1836. The Texan commissioners aroused interest wherever
they went, and the contributions of money and supplies and volunteer
companies proved the strongest assurance to the Texas cause.
One of the first acts of the Texas government after the battle of San
Jacinto was to send commissioners to Washington to obtain recognition
of independence. Nothing in this direction was immediately accom-
plished, although President Jackson and other officials expressed them-
selves in favor of such recognition as soon as possible. Though the
government moved in this matter with becoming dignity, the popular
158
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 159
feeling for the infant republic was so strongly manifested as to give
grounds for Mexico to protest a violation of the laws of neutrality,
and in October, 1836, diplomatic relations were broken off between the
United States and Mexico on this account. The facts of this matter
were that General Gaines, of the United States army, had been stationed
at the Sabine with instructions to preserve neutrality and to guard
against the incursions of Indians or Mexicans into Louisiana. In May,
1836, an attack by Indians on a small settlement at the headquarters
of the Navasota, and also news of another invasion from Mexico, in-
duced Gaines to send a detachment of his troops to occupy Nacogdoches.
This invasion was afterwards justified as an exercise of police powers
in restraining the Indians and guarding the American borders, but in
a strict sense it was a violation of neutrality and was so regarded by
Mexico. But the latter's protest seems disingenuous. It is evidence
that Mexico was grasping, while in the whirlpool of political ruin, at
every straw for retaining her weakened hold on Texas.
One of the questions submitted to the people at the first general
election after the winning of independence was whether annexation to
the Llnited States was desirable. An almost unanimous vote was cast
in favor of such a result. Houston referred to its early execution in
his inaugural address. November 16, 1836, William H. Wharton was
appointed by the president, under congressional authority, as commis-
sioner to negotiate with the government at Washington for the recogni-
tion of independence and also for annexation. In his message to congress
of the following December, President Jackson said : "Prudence, there-
fore, seems to dictate that we should stand aloof and maintain our pres-
ent attitude, if not until Mexico itself or one of the great foreign powers
shall recognize the -independence of the new government, at least until
the lapse of tmie or the course of events shall have proved, beyond cavil
or dispute, the ability of the people of that country to maintain their
separate sovereignty and to uphold the government constituted by them."
In the following March the independence of Texas was formally recog-
nized by the senate. Yet on the subject of annexation the secretary of
state replied to the proposals of the Texas envoy as follows : "Although
all you say may be true, and all the advantages to be derived from the
annexation of Texas to the United States certain to follow, yet this
government will not further listen to or consider the subject." After
being thus rejected, Texas did not ardently press her suit again, and
i6o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
awaited the deliberate action of public opinion in the United States to
accomplish the result.
At Washington the annexation question was seldom discussed on
its own merits, but as a phase of one or both of the two great problems
then absorbing the attention of the American nation. On one side,
annexation was regarded in its probable effects on the doctrine of pro-
tection and free trade, and also on the then recent JMonroe doctrine of
non-interference in America by foreign powers. From the other point
of view, annexation involved the issue between the antagonists and pro-
tagonists of slavery. These questions were then vital among the Amer-
ican people, and were comprehensive enough to involve the matter of
annexation.
However, the solution of the larger issues which hindered or pro-
moted annexation only remotely concerned the Texans themselves. Dur-
ing these years they were busied with their industrial and political prob-
lems ; the representatives were endeavoring to constitute a self-sustaining
and self-protecting state, while the citizens were bending every effort
to repairing the wastes caused by war, to making homes in the wilder-
ness, and to building up trade and industry and the social community.
Nearly all desired the security and prestige and opportunity that would
result from closer relations with the United States, but were little con-
cerned about what commercial or political advantage would result to
one or another party in the United States from annexation. Texas was
working out her own destiny as best she could, and when, through a
combination of circumstances, the opportunity came for admission to
the Union that lot was gladly accepted.
When the annexation question was brought before the people of
the United States the lines of difference on the slavery problem were
already tightly drawn, and the struggle which culminated in civil war
was already being waged in the houses of Congress and by the press
and public opinion. The policy had been established of balancing free
state against slave state, and thus keeping both sides equally represented
in the national senate. This rivalry resulted in a determined struggle
on each side for new territory, and the application of Texas for admis-
sion to the Union was considered most opportune to the southern party.
At the same time the antagonists of slavery were aligned against Texas.
As all treaties, according to precedent, had to be approved by a two-
thirds vote of the senate, and as the balance of power was so carefully
preserved in the upper house, it seemed doubtful if Texas could be ad-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. i6i
mitted as long as this situation continued. While, on other grounds,
Texas might have been admitted soon after the recognition of inde-
pendence, the movement was checked until arguments from another
point of view pushed the slavery question to the background and allowed
the annexationists to have their will.
The republic of Texas was committed to the principle of free trade.
At that time the United States was building its tariiif wall, and the policy
of protecting home industries had made considerable progress. As an
independent nation, Texas promised a large market to foreign, and
especially English, manufactures, which were kept out of the United
States by the high import duties. The conclusion seemed to be that
Texas, notwithstanding the close affiliation with the United States, would
establish trade relations with those nations that could offer reciprocal
advantages. England especially coveted the cotton crops of Texas, and
under free trade the Texas product would have an obvious advantage
over the cotton of the United States. This commercial reason proved a
strong argument for the annexationists. On the other hand it was seen
that, if Texas was admitted, the anti-tariff party would thereby be aug-
mented so that the protective policy would be in danger. Thus the Texas
question was involved in the economic as well as the social problems of
the United States.
When President Lamar delivered his inaugural address in 1838 he
declared himself averse to annexation, which he believed would ruin
the republic's hopes of greatness. But in the course of his term many
reasons appeared to modify the enthusiasm for an independent national
existence. The subject, however, did not assume much importance dur-
ing this term since the people were so busy with more immediate con-
cerns. Then, too, the Van Buren administration was reluctant to inter-
fere in the situation as long as Mexico refused to recognize the new
repubHc and kept up a show of war for its recovery.
During the greater part of Houston's second term active hostilities
were in progress between Texas and Mexico, so that the cause of an-
nexation halted. But in tht mediation between Santa Anna and the
republic, which was brought about largely by England's influence in 1843,
the annexation movement entered upon its final stage. England saw in
Texas a great field for the exploitation of her own manufactures, for
which she would gain an almost unlimited supply of raw material, especi-
ally cotton. Mainly for this reason England readily extended assistance
in obtaining recognition from Mexico. The activity of the British and
i62 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
French in behalf of Texas was alleged to be a violation of the Monroe
doctrine. And the fear of a commercial alliance between Texas and
Europe which might be a formidable rival of American trade was a
powerful argument for annexation. These reasons combined with the
natural S3mpathy of Americans for their Texas countrymen to make
annexation popular among the great majority of citizens in the United
States.
President Tyler was avowedly in favor of annexation. In his mes-
sage of December, 1843, '^^ declared it was to the immediate interest of
the United States that hostilities cease between Texas and Mexico, and
that America could not permit foreign interference in Texas or see the
sacred principle of the Monroe doctrine in any manner contravened. It
was also asserted, though with slight reason, that it was the intention
of England to abolish slavery in Texas, thus forcing the southern free-
traders into line for annexation.
In September, 1844, Anson Jones was elected president of Texas.
Annexation was an issue in the campaign, and while the majority
of Texans favored it they elected a president whose attitude to the
subject was rather neutral if not hostile. It was supposed that the in-
corporation of Texas in the Union would be deferred for some years to
come. In the previous June the United States senate had rejected an
annexation treaty by more than two to one. The situation was a peculiar
one, and four nations were concerned in the status of Texas. Mexico
threatened war against the United States if Texas was annexed. Eng-
land was asserting her diplomacy to keep Texas free politically with a
view to intimate commercial relations, while France had similar designs.
But in the United States annexation became an issue of the campaign
of 1844. James K. Polk was nominated for president by the Democrats
over Van Buren mainly because he advocated bringing Texas into the
Union. Henry Clay, the popular idol and the candidate of the Whigs,
took an attitude to the Texas question which was unfortunate to his
success. The election of Polk was a clear evidence of the popular will
regarding Texas.
So quickly did Congress respond to the opinion expressed in the
recent election, that not Polk but Tyler, who had been an ardent advo-
cate of annexation, gained the honor of approving the bill for admission
of the new state. The previous attempts to add Texas to the United
States had been by annexation treaty, which was regarded as the regular
constitutional means of accomplishing that end. As such a treaty re-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 163
quired a two-thirds vote of the senate, and a similar one had been rejected
only a short timfe before, a new plan was adopted. In February, 1845,
a joint resolution was introduced into the two houses of Congress in
favor of incorporating Texas in the nation, and received a majority in
both bodies, the vote being 27 to 25 in the senate. In some quarters the
act was held to be unconstitutional, but its tacit approval by people and
courts gave it the character of supreme law. On March ist, three days
before resigning office to Mr. Polk, President Tyler signed this measure,
and it thus remained for Texas to make the final decision either for
federate statehood or national independence.
On May 5th President Jones issued a call for the election of dele-
gates to a general convention to consider the proposition from the United
States. The convention met at Austin on July 4th, and approved the
ordinance of annexation with only one dissenting vote — that of Richard
Bache, a grandson of Benjamin Franklin. This ordinance, and a new
constitution, adopted by the convention, were submitted to the people
and almost unanimously ratified in October. In December following
President Polk signed the bill extending the authority of the United
States over Texas, and on February 19, 1846, the new system went into
effect. President Jones surrendering his office to the newly elected state
governor, J. Pinckney Henderson.
CHAPTER XXIV
The State of Texas^ 1845 to 1861
For fifteen years after annexation Texas remained under the stars
and stripes of the United States of America, and these were years of
plenty, progress, and broad increase for the commonwealth. Texas
gained much by surrendering her sovereignty, for henceforth vexatious
foreign affairs form no part of her history.
The population of Texas at the time of incorporation into the Un^on
was about one hundred thousand Americans, with a comparatively small
number of Mexicans, besides the Indian tribes. The production of cot-
ton, corn and sugar cane and the raising of cattle and horses and hogs
were the principal industries, and, notwithstanding that the inhabitants
were, during the first few years, mainly engaged in providing for their
immediate necessities, by the time Texas became a state the exports al-
most equaled in value the imports, and the country had already assumed
importance in the markets of the world.
By the new state constitution the governor was elected for a term
of two years and was re-eligible. J. Pinckney Henderson, the first gov-
ernor, was inaugurated in February, 1846. It was during his administra-
tion that the war between the United States and Mexico was fought.
Mexico had never ceased to claim Texas, by all the legal and logical
devices of which her astute statesmen were capable, although she had
never succeeded in putting a sufficient force into the field to compel
allegiance. But when the annexation resolution was passed by Congress,
the time of protest and diplomacy had passed and Mexico had to take
effective measures or surrender her former possession forever.
.'\t the time, the war with Mexico was regarded with favor by the
majority of American people. The judgment of posterity has justified
the results, without attempting sanction of its ethical causes. Two gen-
eral causes have been assigned for the aggressive war. One "was the
desire on the part of the slave-holding states to add new territory to the
Union out of which other slave-holding states could be constituted."
164
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 165
This was the same motive that produced the contest for Kansas, and the
rivalry between the two sides in the issue actuated most of the territorial
expansion before the Civil war.
The other cause for American encroachment in the southwest was
the same which had caused the original movement across the Sabine
into Texas, the "westward expansion," which brought Americans into
conflict with the Spanish races for the possession of territory which the
former claimed both by theoretical and practical right.
This defines the generally hostile attitude of the nation toward the
Spanish-American possessions. The actual impetus to war was fur-
nished by more immediate cause or pretext (according to the manner
in which it is interpreted). Texas, having won independence in 1836,
claimed the Rio Grande as her southwestern boundary. During the Coa-
huila-Texas union, the Medina and Nueces rivers were the boundaries
between the two provinces. So far as Alexico had been willing to dis-
cuss the boundary question at all, she insisted upon the Nueces as the
southern limits of Texas. A very generous interpretation of old terri-
torial claims is necessary to concede the Rio Grande border to Texas,
and the claim set up by the first congress was a bold assertion that in the
ordinary course of events would have required the power of battles to
support it. As a matter of fact, neither Texas nor Mexico made any
serious attempt to occupy and defend this desolate border country, which
remained as a buffer between the two nations.
Beginning with the overthrow of the dictator Santa Anna by the
revolution of 1845, the Mexican government, under the leadership of
President Herrera, was disposed to treat with the republic of Texas
more according to international usages. But it was too late, since the
election of Polk as president of the United States had decided the matter
of annexation, and, no longer a nation, Texas could make no response
to the conciliatory advances of Mexico.
Accordingly, Mexico's hostility to Texas was now directed a2:ainst
the larger nation in which the republic had been absorbed. So aggrieved
did that nation become that her minister at Washington demanded his
passports as soon as the annexation resolution was passed, and returned
home. The minister of the United States at Mexico likewise left his post,
and all diplomatic intercourse was thus broken ofif. Shortly afterward
President Polk appointed Alexander Slidell as minister plenipotentiary
to Mexico to discuss and negotiate the subject under dispute. On his
arrival Slidell, it seems, failed to use proper tact in dealing with the dis-
i66 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
quieted Mexicans, and was refused recognition by the government alto-
gether.
The subject of annexation, the disputed boundary hne, the rejection
of the minister, and the additional failure of Mexico to settle certain
claims due to American citizens, all acutely aggravated the war situa-
tion. By dispatching General Zachary Taj'lor with three thousand sol-
diers to take possession of the country between the Nueces and the Rio
Grande and guard the latter as the southwestern boundary, President
Polk gave the provocation to the brief war between the United States
and Mexico.
Opposite Matamoros General Taylor fortified Fort Brown, his com-
munication with the gulf being through Point Isabel. A Mexican army,
crossing the Rio Grande, moved to the north of Fort Brown with the
intention of cutting the line of conmiunication and dislodging the Amer-
icans from their position. The two armies first collided north of Browns-
ville at a water hole, since famous under the name of Palo Alto. In a
short conflict the Mexicans were driven back, and at nightfall retreated
to Resaca de la Palma. Here the second battle of the war took place.
Another decisive victory for Taylor's troops resulted in the withdrawal
of the enemy to the other side of the Rio Grande. These were the only
battles of the war fought on Texas soil, and at their conclusion the chief
objects of the United States had been accomplished, the Rio Grande
having been established, temporarily at least, as the Texas boundary.
But the news ef these initial engagements brought from President
Polk his famous assertion — "War exists, and, notwithstanding all our
efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself." Congress
accepted the declaration that "war exists" and voted money and volun-
teers to carry the war to a satisfactory conclusion. Fifty thousand volun-
teers were called for. An Army of the West was directed to be formed
under the command of Colonel Stephen W. Kearney, which was to take
possession of New Mexico and proceed thence to California. An Army
of the center, under General John B. Wool, was ordered to assemble at
San Antonio and march into Coahuila and Chihuahua. General Taylor
was directed to proceed against the northern and eastern states of Mexico.
The naval forces under Commodores Stockton and Sloat on the Pacific,
and Commodore Conner qn the Gulf of Mexico, were ordered to co-
operate with the land forces and to do all in their power to aid in the
subjugation and capture of Mexican property and territory.
The Americans were victorious on all occasions, and in a short time
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 167
General Taylor was conqueror of all northern Mexico ; Kearney was in
possession of New Mexico; Fremont occupied California; and General
Scott completed the campaign by fighting his way from Vera Cruz to
the city of Mexico, which was captured in September, 1847.
In this war Governor Henderson took command of the Texas volun-
teers, about eight thousand having responded for service from the state.
The Texans displayed unexampled bravery wherever there was a difficult
position to be stormed or the brunt of an assault to be sustained, and the
Texas Rangers especially won lasting renown and respect for their
dashing courage. "The efficiency of these mounted troopers was marked
wherever the army advanced. Serving equally as well on foot as on
horseback, they would storm a height or charge the enemy's cavalry
with the same indifference, intrepidity and success. On the road they
were the terror of the guerilla bands, and in the towns objects of dread
to antagonists, and of awe to non-combatants. Their uncouth, wild and
fierce appearance, their strange garb, and their reputation for contempt
of every form of danger, gained for them in Mexico the belief that they
were more than human — that they were beings intermediate between
man and devil."
The second governor of Texas, who took office in December, 1847,
was George T. Wood, with lieutenant governor John A. Greer. In 1849
P. Hansborough Bell was elected governor, and re-elected in 185 1. The
office was filled in 1853 by the election of Elisha M. Pease, with David
C. Dickson lieutenant governor, and by re-election Pease served to 1857.
The most noteworthy events of state history during these administra-
tions were those relating to the settlement of the western boundaries, to
the state debt, and to the Indians.
The boundary affair and the adjustment of the state debt went to-
gether in their eventual settlement. The boundary trouble was a result
of the claim of Texas to the territory east of the upper courses of the Rio
Grande, including a large part of what is now New Mexico. It would
be difficult to show the adequacy of Texas's claims to all this region,
but the pretensions were vig;3rously contested. By the treaty of Guada-
lupe Hidalgo in 1848, New Mexico was a part of the vast territory sur-
rendered bv Mexico. In the same year the Texas legislature passed an
act extending its jurisdiction as far as the Rio Grande in this territory.
But when a Texas judge endeavored to hold court in the territory he
came into direct <:onflict with the federal authorities, and for a time
i68 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
it looked as if the two sides might resort to arms. The rivalry of authori-
ties continued into the administration of Governor Bell.
When Texas surrendered her nationality she likewise turned over to
the federal revenue department the customs and other general revenues.
But all the loans of the republic had been based on these revenue receipts
as security, and the bondholders at once applied to the United States
to guarantee the bonds. The question whether the federal government
should be responsible for these obligations was discussed in both houses
of Congress. The boundary matter became involved in the same dis-
cussion.
The complex nature of the problem, involving, as it did before
final settlement, many considerations apparently remote from the real
issues, is well stated in a review published at the time. After referring
to the failure of Texas to determine her western boundary, the writer
says: "A portion of the disputed ground, the tract lying between the
Nueces and the Rio Grande, as it is of little value to either claimant,
and can never support a population large enough to support a state by
itself, will probably be abandoned to Texas without controversy. Not so
with the Santa Fe district and the other portions of New Mexico lying
on the east bank of the upper Rio Grande. The native inhabitants of this
region cherish sentiments of bitter hostility towards the Texans, who now
threaten to extend their disputed dominion over them by force. A border
warfare must ensue if Congress does not intervene. Slavery cannot be
introduced into this region, which is too elevated, too barren, and situated
too far north to recompense any other than free labor ; but if the laws of
Texas are extended over it, it becomes a portion of a slave state, and
whatever political power it may subsequently obtain will be lost to the
cause of freedom. Both humanity and policy require, therefore, that the
north should submit to any reasonable sacrifice for the purpose of sever-
ing this region from Texas and adding it to the free territory of New
Mexico. Now, by the terms of the proposed compromise the sacrifice
required is a very trifling one. Texas is willing to sell her claim to the
disputed region for what she calls a fair price — a few millions of dollars ;
and the United States are bound in equity to cause the creditors of Texas
to be paid a sum at least equal to this price, because the revenue from
the customs of Texas, which is now paid into our national treasury, was
formally and solemnly pledged to these creditors as a security for their
debt. Having taken away the security, our government is bound to see
that the debt is paid, and it can be paid with the price of the claim to the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 169
disputed region. The south makes no objection to this arrangement;
Texas, as we have said, consents to it, and the north ought to be satis-
fied with it, because, first, it will preserve the national faith, and, sec-
ondly, it will rescue a large tract of country from the dominion of a slave
state and by joining it to New Mexico add it to the 'area of freedom.' "
The compromise outlined above was part of the great compromise
measures, under the authorship of the venerable Henry Clay, which af-
forded the last breathing spell for the two sections of the nation hurrying
on to inevitable conflict. The great battle of politics had reached its
height at Washington early in 1850, and by the influence of Mr. Clay
the opposing factions were brought together in the compromises which
were enacted into law the following September.
The essential points of the compromise were as follows : The admis-
sion of California as a free state. The organization of two new terri-
tories — Utah, including Nevada, and New Mexico, including Arizona —
without the Wilmot proviso, that is, with no conditions prohibiting slav-
ery. The slave trade was abolished in the District of Columbia, and, in
return, a stringent law was passed for the arrest of fugitive slaves in
northern states. Involved in these acts was the provision that Texas
should be paid $10,000,000 for surrendering her claim to the territory
east of the upper Rio Grande.
The measure, known as the Boundary Act, after passing the two
houses and being signed by the president, was submitted to the Texas
government. Great opposition was presented to the act, but towards
the end of November its propositions were accepted. The provisions
of this act settled — with the recent exception of Greer county — the
permanent boundaries of Texas as we know them today. The east and
northeastern boundaries were fixed by the treaty with Spain in 1819. By
the act of 1850 the present northernmost limit of the state — the top of
the Panhandle — was to run along the parallel of 36 degrees and 30 min-
utes north, from the looth to the 103d meridian west. This is an exten-
sion of the old Missouri Compromise line. From the latter point of
intersection the boundary was made to run due south to the 32d degree
of north latitude, and thence run west to the course of the Rio Grande,
which, thence to its mouth, formed the southern and southwestern line
of the state.
Outside of these limits Texas was to surrender all claims to terri-
torial possessions, and also to relinquish her claims upon the United
States for settlement of the outstanding debts of the old republic. The
I70 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
United States, on the other hand and in return for this rehnquishment,
agreed to. pay Texas ten million dollars in five-percent bonds. Not more
than five million dollars of this amount was to be issued until the creditors
of the state had filed at the United States treasury releases for all claims
on account of the bonds of the Texas republic — a provision for insuring
proper use of the money which caused much dissatisfaction in Texas.
The first payment of five million dollars was accordingly made to Texas
in February, 1852.
But with the boundary question at rest, the settlement of the debt
continued to vex the state government for several years. The bonds of
the republic had been sold to investors at far below their guaranteed
face value. Their redemption at less than par could not be accomplished,
according to modern commercial practice, except as a result of com-
promise between the two parties in interest. Nevertheless, the Texas
legislature undertook to classify these liabilities and to scale down the
payment to correspond proportionately with the actual amount received
from the bonds at their sale. The entire liabilities of this class as calcu-
lated in 1 85 1 amounted to more than twelve million dollars, but by the
scaling process this amount was reduced to about seven millions. Over
the governor's veto the legislature finally determined to settle the debt on
that basis at half the par value of the bonds. This law, as passed in Janu-
ary, 1852, did not offer terms satisfactory to the bondholders, and few
of the claims had been liquidated up to 1855. During the administration
of Governor Pease the matter was finally adjusted.
In the meantime Texas had produced another claim against the
federal government. It was alleged that over half of the first payment
of five million dollars had been expended for protection against the in-
cursions of Indians from Mexico. The expense of Indian defense, it was
argued, should no longer be a burden on the state but on the general gov-
ernment. While the bondholders were appealing to the United States
against the repudiation measures of the Texas legislature, the latter was
filing the bill of costs of Indian protection.
Under these circumstances Congress interfered, set aside the scale
of reductions as adopted by the legislature, and, adding $2,750,000 to the
five millions retained in the treasury, apportioned the entire sum, pro
rata, among the creditors ; refunding, however, to Texas all claims previ-
ously paid by the state, and providing that Texas should finally relinquish
all claims upon the federal government. Against much opposition this
arrangement was accepted by Texas, and the matter finally adjusted.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 17s.
The first payment of five million dollars from the national treasury was
a Godsend to the young state government, and was advantageously em-
ployed not only in meeting the old obligations of the republic, but in
paying the immediate running expenses of the state government, so that
taxes were for several years remitted to the respective counties to be
used for the erection of court houses and for other local improvements.
During this period, the Comanches had proved the most troublesome
of the Indian tribes. Their depredations were usually committed during
the course of an extended raid into Mexico, which was their favorite field
of operations. As the settlements of northern Texas made considerable
progress during the fifties, they were exposed to the raids from the
tribes across Red river in the Indian Territory.
The Texas Indians were being crowded from their homes. The set-
tlers were rapidly taking possession of all the region east of the high
western plains of the state, and when the whites came the Indians had to
depart. In the fifties the Texas government undertook, as the national
government had done some years before, to colonize the tribes on reser-
vations. Two reservations were set apart in Young county near Fort
Belknap. At first the colonies seemed to be in a prosperous condition,
agriculture flourished, and the agents reported that the residents were
well behaved. But in two or three years the white settlements had sur-
rounded the reservations, and the melancholy story of the Indian was re-
peated. A number of white ruffians leagued themselves with the Indian
renegades, and depredations among the surrounding settlements became
so frequent that retaliation soon followed. The blame was placed without
discrimination on the Indians of the reservation, and the innocent and
guilty alike were compelled to suffer the expatriation which has been the
doom of their race. In December, 1858, a number of Indians were
massacred on the Brazos. Although this atrocity was denounced by the
governor, race hatred had been kindled to a point where the only remedy
was the removal or extermination of the red men. The settlers were col-
lecting under arms, and neither the agents nor United States troops could
afford security to the inhabitants of the reserves. The result was the
decision to remove the Indians altogether beyond the settlements. In
August, 1859, the Indians to the number of about fifteen hundred were
exiled, under guard of the United States regulars, across the Red river.
So sudden was their departure that they were not given time to gather
their crops nor collect their cattle.
Indian troubles continued unabated after the removal of the tribes
172 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
into Indian Territory, and the federal troops and the rangers had all
they could do to protect the wide extent of frontier. The attacks were
so sudden and unexpected, were made by such small parties and in such
widely separated localities, that permanent relief from this danger was
never secured until settlement had grown so compact that neither white
nor Indian desperado could with impunity continue his crimes.
Texas politics assumed a new phase during the fifties. Strict party
lines were not drawn in Texas until during Pease's administration. Up
to that time personal popularity had been the deciding factor in the elec-
tions, and it was several years after annexation when party alignment,
so closely observed in the nation, became a feature of the political life of
the new state. Texas being admitted under Democratic rule, and the
majority of the people being of southern origin, the political sentiments
of the state are easily accounted for. But party politics was of somewhat
later origin. About 1854, after the wreck of the Whig party and while
the elements of the Republican party were slowly coalescing, a wave of
Know-nothingism passed over Texas. It was a political excrescence,
having at its root the old "native" party, whose one definite principle
was to keep naturalized foreigners from holding office. This fundamental
doctrine was now enlarged to include a proscription of Roman Catholics.
The entire movement became a cult rather than a political faction, having
many mysterious rites and promulgating principles, it was claimed, con-
trary to the federal constitution. Its lodges became numerous and its
influence in elections for a time was serious. In 1855 this party suc-
ceeded in electing a congressman, but failed to elect a governor, and
after this defeat the organization and its power rapidly faded from Texas
politics.
During this period occurred what is designated in Texas annals as
the Cart War. As may be supposed, the feelings of the Americans toward
the Mexicans in Texas were not yet freed from the animosity of revo-
lutionary times. It was inevitable that the latter people should suffer
discrimination if not actual outrage in their competition for the ordinary
occupations of life. Moreover, the Mexicans in Texas were mainly of
the lower orders, many of them peons, who readily associated with the
negro slaves. In 1856 a conspiracy was discovered in Colorado county
by which was contemplated a general insurrection of the negroes and a
massacre of the whites. This was put down with great severity, and,
on the ground that the Mexican population were implicated in the affair,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 173
the latter were ordered to leave the country on pain of death. This was
the first open rupture between the two races, but the antagonism in-
creased.
The Mexican population in Texas in 1856 was estimated by Olmsted
as 25,000. Of the status and pursuits of the Mexicans the same writer
said : "The Mexicans appear to have almost no other business than that
of carting goods. Almost the entire transportation of the country is
carried on by them, with oxen and two-wheeled carts. Some of them
have small shops, for the supply of their own countrymen, and some live
upon the produce of farms and cattle ranches in the neighborhood. Their
livelihood is for the most part exceedingly meager, made up chiefly of
corn and beans. . . . The old Mexican wheel of hewn blocks of
wood is still constantly in use, though supplanted to some extent by
Yankee wheels, sent in pairs from New York. The carts are always
hewn of heavy wood, and are covered with white cotton, stretched over
hoops. In these they live, on the road, as independently as in their own
house. The cattle are yoked by the horns, with rawhide thongs, of
which they make a great use."
In July, 1857, Charles G. Edwards, who kept a small store and a
mill on the San Antonio river, was attacked near Goliad by a party of
seventeen men and dangerously wounded. At the time he was in charge
of a small train of carts transporting merchandise from the coast. The
assault was charged to the guerillas conducting the predatory campaign
against Mexican cartmen. The sentiment of the people of San Antonio,
as voiced in the Daily Herald, branded the entire movement as outlawry,
the expressions of abhorrence at the outrage being concluded as follows :
"Persons here in whose judgment we have confidence recommend a call
for volunteers from among us, and the formation of a body of citizens
sufficiently large to repair to the scene of conflict and chastise the mis-
creants in a summary and effective manner. The whole subject is full
of difficulty ; but of one thing there can hardly be a doubt — inaction will
never stop the outrages. ... To admit that our people will ever give
up the employment of Mexican carts and Mexican cartmen would be
equivalent to signing the death warrant to the prosperity of San An-
tonio."
Opinions as to the causes of this so-called Cart War were divided.
It was said that the opposition to the cartmen was caused in consequence
of their hauling at lower rates than American and German wagoners
174 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
would. Yet for the preceding ten years, it was asserted as another rea-
son, the citizens on the Goliad road had complained of the thieving of
cartmen upon their stock, and the citizens had long threatened they
would not submit to it.
A wordy war was carried on between Goliad (in which vicinity
many of the outrages occurred) and San Antonio. Citizens of the latter
place alleged that the warfare was conducted with the practical con-
nivance of Goliad authorities ; while the people of Goliad replied that
outlaws from San Antonio were taking a leading part in the hostilities
against legitimate carting and also in the thieving itself.
It was charged that the teamsters with "four-wheeled carts" (Amer-
icans) were endeavoring to supplant the "two-wheeled cart owners," and
such a distinction must have had a conveniently invidious force in such a
contest. Undoubtedly race antipathies were complicated in the hostilities,
and those actively concerned in the attacks excused their actions with
this prejudice.
The conflict, whatever may have been its causes, resulted in much
economic loss and interruption to business. For a time it was found
necessary to provide military escorts for wagon trains between Lavaca
and the inland towns. Commenting on the serious aspects of the problem
the Austin Intelligencer said (September, 1857) : "The subject affects
not that place (San Antonio) alone. The driving of the Mexican carts
out of the trade has already withdrawn a portion of the teamsters accus-
tomed to deliver freights at Austin from this trade; and as a conse-
quence, our merchants are paying an increased price of 33 cents on their
freights. The rise is attributed by the Lavaca forwarding merchants
alone to these cart difficulties. Consumers are thus enormously taxed
for the benefit of the selfish, murderous butchers who are making an
exterminating war upon cheap labor. It is useless to disguise the mat-
ter. This is the sole cause of the war. It has been gaining ground in all
the western counties ever since the short-sighted movements here in 1853
(referring to attempts to drive out the Mexican population). It has
been excused under the various pretexts which lawless violence always
assumes."
Eventually Governor Pease called out the militia to put a stop to the
outrages, and thereby, according to some accounts, aggravated the ten-
sion between the two parties. The governor in his special message to the
legislature on this subject enclosed some documents from the secretary of
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 175
war at Washington, showing that the matter had assumed a national im-
portance. The secretary's letter refers to protests from the Mexican
minister in relation to "an organized system of persecution, violence, ex-
pulsion and even murder, which it is alleged is directed against peace-
able Mexican citizens resorting to Texas in the prosecution of their lawful
business." The Mexican minister's letter reads, in part, as follows ;
'Tt is averred that in the neighborhood of San Antonio de Bexar commit-
tees of armed men have been organized for the exclusive purpose of hunt-
ing down Mexicans on the highway, spoiling them of their property and
putting them to death. It is stated, moreover, that the number of victims
is rising of seventy-five ; whilst it is also affirmed that from the neighbor-
hood of San Antonio de Bexar the residents of Mexican origin have been
expelled. . . . Sundry families, the victims of these persecutions,
had commenced reaching the Mexican territory in utter destitution."
Somewhat later, beginning with 1859, the Rio Grande border became
a scene of conflict between the settled communities and an army of
desperadoes. Cortina was a Mexican who, while confining himself to
civilized pursuits, was a stockman, but, finding that occupation desultory,
he turned cattle thief and bandit, gathered a crowd of similarly-minded
ruffians about him, and later, under the guise of carrying on a war for
the defense of his Mexican kindred oppressed by American rivalry, led
his forces against the armed soldiery and set law and order at defiance.
In his role as protector and champion of his people during the Cart war.
he gave greater dignity to his predatory operations than they deserve
so that the hostilities under his leadership have been distinguished as
"Cortina's rebellion."
In July, 1859, Cortina and some of his followers got into trouble
at Brownsville, and in September he led an attack against the town, took
possession, killed one or two men, terrorized the inhabitants, and then
retired. He issued a proclamation of his purposes in engaging in hostili-
ties against the Americans, and declared he would relieve the state of all
enemies of the Mexican inhabitants. A little later his lieutenant was cap-
tured by the Texans and hanged, an act that aroused the bandit leader to
vengeance. Towards the latter part of October the American troops,
reinforced by a Mexican company from Matamoras, attacked Cortina.
but were discomfited. This was followed by an ambuscade of an Amer-
ican company, and for a time the Mexican seemed to be master of the
situation. In the latter part of November another ill-organized attack
176 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of the Americans failed, and Cortina's forces rapidly increased. But in
December a company of United States regulars and a troop of Texas
Rangers captured one of Cortina's camps, and then rapidly followed him
to the vicinity of Rio Grande City, where he was completely defeated and
driven out of the state. This was not accomplished, however, until a
large area of country had been devastated and many lives lost.
CHAPTER XXV
The Civil War Period
It was the happy lot of Texas that she lay outside the main path of
destruction wrought by the Civil war. The lives of thousands of her
sons and the resources of the new but vast empire were offered for the
southern cause. While the youth of the state were in camp and fortress
in other states, the aged and weak, with the women and children, were
engaged in the equally important task of protecting the homes and in-
stitutions of the state and producing the bread and clothing and equip-
ment so much needed in other parts of the Confederacy. The borders
of the state were blockaded and harassed by contending armies, but the
mighty battles of the war and the desolating invasions of hostile troops
were outside of Texas. For this reason Texas recuperated more rapidly
than the states which were the main theatre of the war. At the sam.e
time the scourge fell heavily here, and if enterprise was not entirely de-
stroyed as in other states, it was at least paralyzed for years, so that the
eiifects of the war can be traced in every locality and in every social
activity.
Texas was a logical slave state. Her geographical latitude, her
climate, her industrial opportunities aligned her among those divisions
of the world which were the last to break away from an institution that
had been fastened upon both barbarism and civilization from times un-
recorded. The institution had its roots in the past, tradition sanctioned
it ; to the southern people it was regarded as an indispensable condition
of industry. Its abolition by a part of the nation which had only the-
oretical interest in the subject was a violation of local privileges and
pride which could never be tolerated. Thus the sectional issue, originat-
ing in the slavery questions, reached its crisis under a quite different
form, namely, whether the individual states might dissolve the federal
compact and by seceding regain their original sovereign powers.
When it came to deciding whether a long-established institution in
"^17
178 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the commonwealth should have its foundations threatened by the general
government, and whether the rights and powers of a state over its internal
affairs should be subordinated to the will of the federal union, the previ-
ous history of Texas indicates her natural attitude to the issue. Twenty-
five years before, the war of independence had been fought against the
despotism of a too strongly centralized government. Those who fought
at San Jacinto would naturally resent what they regarded as undue'
usurpation of authority by the government at Washington. Te.xas on
becoming a nation legalized slavery. Having voluntarily surrendered
her national powers on entering the Union, she had accepted statehood
with an implied guarantee of the institution of slavery. Hence it ap-
peared that Texas, of all the southern states, was most justified in re-
nouncing the act of union when the privileges and guarantees accompany-
ing that act were about to be withdrawn.
The election of Hardin R. Runnels, the Democratic candidate, over
Sam Houston, in 1857, by a majority of about nine thousand, was the
first definite sign of the approaching conflict in Texas. In 1820 Henry
Clay's Missouri Compromise had forbidden slavery north of latitude 36
degrees and 30 minutes — the southern boundary of Missouri. In 1846
the doctrine was promulgated in the Wilmot Proviso that slavery should
not be extended into the territory annexed from Mexico. In 1850 the
venerable Clay again compromised so that California might be admitted
a free state and the organization of the other territory south of the orig-
inal compromise line might be effected without restrictions as to slavery.
Then in 1854 came Senator Douglas with his famous "squatter sov-
ereignty," which practically annulled the Missouri Compromise and ap-
plied, in the organization of the territories of Kansas and Nebraska, the
doctrine of local option as to slavery. About the same time was issued
the decision in the Dred Scott case by which slaves were declared to be
the same class of property as horses or cattle and therefore could be
taken from slave into free states without losing their character of slaves.
Following the squatter sovereignty enactment ensued the contest be-
tween the slave and anti-slave elements for the possession of Kansas,
with all the bloody and disgraceful border warfare which eventuated in
that territory entering the Union as a free state.
As a result of the Kansas controversy, Texas first expressed an
official attitude toward the great sectional issues. Governor Runnels,
and advocated the doctrine of secession. A state Democratic convention
in his message of January, 1858, described the state of affairs in Kansas
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 179
about the same time proposed an election of delegates to a convention of
the southern states, and declared that the rights of individual states were
being threatened by the federal government. Februar)- 16, 1858, a joint
resolution of the legislature, which recited the great danger threatened
by the Kansas situation, provided for the appointment of delegates by the
governor to a convention of the southern states whenever a majority
of said states should decide that the crisis demanded such a conven-
tion.
The Runnels administration represented the extremes of slavery ex-
tension in Texas, and many of its supporters favored a resumption of the
slave trade. This radical element did not compose a majority in the
state, and in the following election in 1859 the conservative party rallied
around Houston — who had been previously defeated largely because of
his opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska bill — and elected him by a large
majority to the office of governor.
By the time Houston was inaugurated the north and the south were
so embittered that compromise and peace were no longer possible. Kan-
sas had come into the Union as a slave state, John Brown's raid had pro-
voked indignation throughout the south, and in December, 1859, South
Carolina's legislature affirmed the right of any state to secede from the
federation of states, and issued a call for a convention of the slavehold-
ing states.
In his message to the legislature concerning these South Carolina
resolutions, Houston argued vehemently against nullification and seces-
sion, asserting that separation from the Union would not cure the evils
from which the south suffered, and remonstrated against sending dele-
gates to the proposed convention. The debate over this message resulted
in two sets of resolutions, which expressed the divergent courses of gen-
eral opinion in Texas before the war. The majority resolutions declared
that the Union should be preserved but that federal aggression on the sep-
arate states was intolerable ; deprecated the black abolition movement in
the north which might, by obtaining control of the government, use federal
laws for the abolition of slavery ; and that, if necessary, organized resist-
ance among the southern states should combat northern aggression. The
minority resolutions opposed premature action among the southern states ;
believing that the north had not as yet violated any of the constitutional
rights of the southern states ; and asserted the principle that only when
the federal government should prove unable to protect the individual
i8o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
states in their inlierent rights would there be cause for the dissolution of
the Union.
In i860, by the disruption of the Democratic party, Abraham Lincoln
was elected president, and politically the north became dominant in the
nation. The secession tide running so strong in the south, now reached
its flood. Extreme radicalism and disunionism, hitherto a strong minority
only, now gathered strength and attracted the support of all the elements
except the stanchest conservatives and unionists of Houston's stamp.
Within two months after the national election all the southern states east
of Texas, South Carolina leading the way, had seceded.
It was Houston's opposition that delayed the secession movement in
Texas. The legislature was not in session, and the governor persistently
refused to call it together. In the absence of the legislature the chief
executive was practically the entire state government, and he used his
position to combat the approaching crisis as long as he could. Finally,
in December, by extra-legal means, the people were asked to elect dele-
gates to a state convention to meet at Austin, January 28, 1861. Though
this convention was constituted in an informal manner, it was clearly
a popular measure. Under these circumstances Houston yielded to the
importunities of the political leaders and called a session of the legislature
to meet one week before the convention assembled. The legislature when
it met disregarded Houston's counsel for moderation, and sanctioned the
calling of the convention, declaring it to be empowered to act for thd
people.
On Februarj' ist, the convention passed an ordinance of secession,
by a vote of 166 to 7, and referred the measure to a general election for
approval. February 23d the ordinance was accepted by the people in a
vote of forty-four thousand to thirteen thousand. The vote was counted
in the legislature on the same day that Lincoln was inaugurated presi-
dent. The convention also appointed a committee of safety and delegates
to the Confederate convention at Montgomery, Alabama.
Houston was throughout consistently opposed to all these steps. A
few days before the secession ordinance was submitted to the vote of the
state, he delivered a speech in Galveston in which he pictured the horrors
of civil war and the ultimate triumph of the north over the south, but in
his peroration expressed his determination to stand by "my state, right
or wrong." That he could thus talk directly in the face of such a storm
of secession shows the esteem in which he was held by the people, who
could tolerate his candor and integrity even in the heat of their contrary
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. i8i
passions. On Alarch i6th Houston was summoned before the convention
to take the oath of allegiance to the Confederate government, and on
his refusal the office of governor was declared vacant, and the lieutenant
governor, Edward Clark, installed in his stead. Houston protested to the
legislature and the people, but the former sanctioned his removal. He
acquiesced in this judgment and remained in retirement until his death,
which occurred in 1863.
Thus Texas was aligned with the states that withdrew entirely from
the federal Union, and for over four years her troops bore a gallant
share in the strife that all but wrecked the nation. Resources and men
were sacrificed without stint, Texas furnishing the names of many illus-
trious leaders and organizations to the annals of this war. The broad
track of the war was down the east side of the Mississippi, across the
center of the Confederacy to the sea, and in the Virginias. Texas was
not in this path. No northern invasion of her territory was permanently
effective. During most of the war this state was the one reliable source
of communication and of supplies for the entire south. The federal
squadrons soon had the Atlantic and gulf ports of the other states thor-
oughly blockaded and all commerce cut off, while the armies ravaged and
desolated inland from river to sea. But the long line of Texas coast
and the numerous harbors could not be effectively guarded. Blockade
runners were constantly slipping in with provisions or out with loads of
cotton and other products. Nothing could prevent the trade across the
Rio Grande with the states of Mexico, although the width of the frontier
presented an obstacle to this traffic. Except in the few places where the
enemy secured a foothold, Texas experienced little of the ruinous havoc
of battle and invasion, though the people endured the other hardships and
poverty in common with the rest of the south.
Before the actual outbreak of hostilities, the committee of safety
had conferred with General Twiggs, who was in command of the federal
forces of the state, but was a southern sympathizer. He indicated his
willingness to surrender his post at San Antonio provided a show of force
was made. Col. Ben McCulloch, therefore, on being assigned to com-
mand at San Antonio, collected a volunteer force, appeared before the
city, and received the surrender of the garrison. Over a million dollars'
worth of property and munitions were thus delivered into the hands of
the Confederates. All the other forts in Texas were similarly sur-
rendered or abandoned. Colonel Ford taking possession of Fort Brown
opposite Matamoras, commanding the Rio Grande border. By Novem-
i82 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND \\ESTERN TEXAS.
ber, 1 86 1, fifteen thousand soldiers had been enrolled in Texas for service
in the war.
The governors of Texas during the Civil war were Francis R.
Lubbock, who was elected in 1861, and Pendleton JNIurrah, elected in
1863.
In the summer of 1861 Texas troops took a prominent part in the
movement to gain New Mexico for the Confederacy. Lieut. Col. John R.
Baylor crossed the Rio Grande into the territory and captured a force
of seven hundred federals. In the following February General Sibley,
commanding the Confederate army, met and defeated the Union troops
under General Canby at Val Verde. Santa Fe and Albuquerque then fell
into the possession of the former. But the invasion as a whole was un-
successful, and the battle at Apache Canyon repulsed the aggressive char-
acter of the movement. The Confederates then retreated down the Rio
Grande, and by July, 1862, the territory was entirely abandoned, after
many Texans had lost their lives in the campaign.
The border defenses of Texas were as a rule too strong for the fed-
eral armies to penetrate. In September, 1862, a naval force captured
Corpus Christi, but occupied it only a brief time. In October of the same
year the port of Galveston was captured by the federal squadron. During
the rest of the war the island was almost depopulated, most of the in-
habitants seeking shelter on the mainland. On New Year's day of 1863
General McGruder, by a combined land and sea attack, destroyed or cap-
tured three of the vessels in the harbor, drove the others out to sea,
and by a successful assault on the fort compelled the surrender of the
garrison. For the rest of the war Galveston remained in the possession
of the Confederates, although the port was closely blockaded.
A few weeks later the blockade of Sabine Pass was temporarily
raised as a result of the capture of two L'nion vessels by two Confederate
boats after a hot conflict, and thereafter Sabine City was protected by a
strong fort. In the latter part of 1863 General Banks undertook to carry
out his plan for the conquest of Texas. The expedition was to land at
Sabine Pass and carry on operations from that point. On the morning
of September 8th the gunboats attacked the fort. Then ensued the battle
of Sabine Pass. Two of the gunboats were destroyed, over a hundred
men killed and many more captured, while the garrison of two hundred
Texans, only forty-two of whom participated in the battle, came out
almost unscathed. The transports then returned to New Orleans and
the expedition was abandoned.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 183
Late in 1863 General Banks directed a large naval and land expedi-
tion against the Texas coast and got control of nearly the entire line
except at Galveston and the mouth of the Brazos. This occupation lasted
only a few months, the blockade by sea continuing as the only restriction
on the activities of the coast.
In March, 1864, General Banks and General Steele co-operated in
Virhat is known as the Red River Expedition with the intention of captur-
ing Shreveport and entering Texas from the northeast. But their army
met a decisive defeat at Sabine Crossroads, and their advance was effect-
ually checked. This was the last considerable campaign against Te.xas
during the war. In the battle of Sabine Crossroads and in the following
federal victories at Pleasant Grove and Pleasant Hill, the Texans played a
prominent part. It was at Pleasant Hill that Sweitzer's regiment of Texas
cavalry, to the number of four hundred, hurled themselves desperately
against the enemy's line, and hardly more than ten of them escaped death
or wounds.
There befell Texas and her people the usual train of evils resulting
from war. Loyalty was the prevailing feeling through the state, and
those who gave active opposition to the war were comparatively few. It
was a conflict that aroused the bitterest animosities among those who
differed in opinion. That was true in the north wherever southern
sympathizers secretly or openly espoused their anti-union convictions;
doublv rancorous was the enmity in the border states where former neigh-
bors and friends ranged themselves on opposite sides; and likewise in
Texas, the conservative unionists who did not actively support the Con-
federacy had to endure opprobrium, to escape which many voluntarily
left the state.
Many who voted against secession afterwards gave their active
service in behalf of their state. Yet there remained, especially in south-
west Texas, a considerable element of Union men. Along the Rio Grande,
in and around the towns of San Antonio, Austin and Fredericksburg,
and in the counties of Austin, Fayette and Colorado, the Union senti-
ment was very strong. In 1862 was organized the First Texas (Union)
Cavalry, of which E. J. Davis was colonel. This regiment operated along
the Mexican border and at the mouth of the Rio Grande, and on several
occasions came in conflict with the Confederate forces.
The loyalty of the Texans was severely tested by the exigencies of
war. With certain classes excepted, all able-bodied males from eighteen
to forty-five years were liable to military service, and as the war pro-
i84 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
gressed and the resources of the south became taxed to the utmost, con-
scription was employed to renew the depleted ranks. In November,
1863, the governor reported that ninety thousand Texans were in the
Confederate service, and when it is recalled that the number of voters
at any one election had never equaled seventy thousand the sacrifice and
devotion of Texas to the southern cause can be better understood. The
state being the great supply center of the Confederacy, not only was the
tax upon all exports very high but large amounts of cotton had to be
exchanged for state bonds and thus go directly to the support of the
government. And so, though the year 1863 was a banner year in the
production of corn and cotton, practically all the surplus went to keep
alive the waning vitality of other sections.
With other southern states, Texas suffered from monetary deprecia-
tion, the Confederate notes becoming almost worthless before the close
of the war. The most strenuous efforts of the state government failed
to keep the paper issues at par, and trade as far as possible was carried
on by the old methods of barter and exchange.
In the meantime the war was approaching its end. The armies of
Grant and Sherman had broken the back of the Confederacy by their
wide sweep down the Mississippi valley and through the center of the
south, and eventually came the fall of the capital of Richmond, the sur-
render of Lee and Johnston, and the final quenchings of the flames of civil
strife. Of interest is the fact that Texas was the last skirmish ground
in the great struggle. General Kirby Smith continued the resistance in
Texas for a month after the eastern armies had surrendered. General
Sheridan was sent at the head of a large division of the federal army to
subdue this last stronghold of the Confederacy, but before he reached the
state Smith surrendered, on May 26th, to General Canby. On May 13th
was fired the last shot of the war. Curiously enough, the engagement
took place at the old battlefield of Palo Alto, where Taylor won his victory
over the Mexicans. The conflict, which only deserves the name of a
skirmish, ended in a reverse for the federals, so that the first and last
battles of the war were Confederate victories. And also, as was the case
in the war of 1812, the final engagement was fought after the virtual con-
clusion of hostilities. But happily for all concerned, peace came, and in
the months that followed the veterans came home from the east to take
up the heavy responsibilities involved in the restoration of industry and
oolitical reconstruction.
CHAPTER XXVI
Reconstruction
On the final triumph of Union arms, Governor Murrah retired to
Mexico, and General Granger of the United States army became military
commander of the state. In the meantime A. J. Hamilton was appointed
by the president as provisional governor. On j\Iay 29, 1865, a general
amnesty was granted, with certain exceptions, to all persons who had
taken part in the war. Boards were appointed by the provisional gov-
ernor to register all loyal voters and thus put the political machinery of
the state in operation. Governor Hamilton showed much generosity
toward former political offenders, and pursued the policy of reconstruc-
tion approved by President Johnson.
Then followed the unfortunate conflict in the national government
between the president and congress. In the bitterness engendered by
the struggle between the executive and the legislative branch, the meas-
ures for reconstruction of the south became characterized by increasing
harshness, prejudice, and the blindness of political theorizing. By the
thirteenth amendment, nearly four hundred thousand ignorant and help-
less, though politically free, negroes were added to Texas citizenship.
For several years this element, controlled by carpetbag politicians, to-
gether with the least respectable of the white citizens, ruled the state.
Although Texas did not suffer the same organized political plundering
as some other southern states, yet the course of events following the war
was so exasperating and the progress of reconstruction was so slow that
of the ten seceding states Texas was the last to be readmitted.
January 8, 1866, were elected delegates to a state constitutional con-
vention. By April the labors of this convention were completed and the
constitution was ratified by the people on June 25. The constitution
was largely a duplication of the organic law adopted when Texas became
a state, with such changes and amendments as the results of the war
made necessary. It recognized the abolition of slavery, extending civil
185
i86 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
and political privileges to the freed-men, declared the principle of seces-
sion obsolete, repudiated the southern war debt, and assumed the proper
share of United States taxes levied since the date of secession. With
the ratification of the constitution, J. W. Throckmorton was elected to
the office of governor.
The first session of the legislature took up the question of approving
the fourteenth amendment to the federal constitution. The third section
of this amendment, by its exclusion from state and national offices of all
persons who had before the war taken the oath of office and subse-
quently engaged in rebellion, would have operated to keep, for years to
come, the best citizens of the state from the direction of its affairs. The
amendment was accordingly almost unanimously rejected in Texas, as it
was by most of the other southern states, although it was approved and
became part of the constitution through adoption by the northern states.
This legislature also resolved that the presence of United States troops
was no longer needed in the interior of the state, and should be with-
drawn for the protection of the frontier against the Indians or entirely
removed from the state.
Thus Texas seemed to be restored to her place in the Union. But
Congress decided that the president's plan of reconstruction was too
liberal, and by three acts of 1867 provided for a "more efficient govern-
ment of the rebel states." Five military districts were created, Texas
and Louisiana forming the fifth and General Sheridan being appointed
commander of the district. It was resolved that the Confederate states
should not participate in the national government until each adopted the
fourteenth amendment and allowed the negroes full share in the re-
organization of government — from which reorganization, however, many
of the best white citizens were excluded by the third section of the four-
teenth amendment.
The alleged disloyalty of the south now brought a train of oppres-
sive evils. The "ironclad oath" of allegiance, which was required of all
who sought the exercise of civic rights, was an intolerable condition, and
rather than accept it thousands voluntarily disfranchised themselves.
General Sheridan removed Governor Throckmorton for the reason that
he was "an impediment to reconstruction," former Governor Pease being
appointed in his stead. The few men who held the offices were not repre-
sentative, had no sympathy with Texans. and too often were actuated
by personal greed. The Freedman's Bureau, organized to assist the
freed negroes, by lack of tact, ignorance and undue ii7*-erference in be-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 187
half of the blacks, helped to widen the breach between the southerners
and the negroes, akhough the industrial prosperity of the country mani-
festly depended upon harmonious co-operation between the two races.
During the reconstruction period the fifth military district had sev-
eral commanders. After Sheridan's removal, General Hancock was
placed in command, but his leniency was as displeasing to Congress as
his predecessor's harshness was to President Johnson, and he was dis-
placed by General Reynolds, and the latter in turn by General Canby.
After the registration of the qualified voters had been completed as
directed by the commander of the district, the election of a new constitu-
tional convention was held. This convention met at Austin in June,
1868. Owing to the factional character of the body, it was only after
protracted debate and much wrangling that the scheme of government
was drafted. One party in the convention wished the constitution of
1866 and all acts of the legislature subsequent to the act of secession to be
considered nullified, ab initio, and thus that faction was named the "Ab
Initios." The liberal and the radical factions also disagreed as to whether
the franchise should extend to those who had sustained the Confederate
cause. The liberals finally triumphed, but the convention ended in ex-
treme disorder, without formal adjournment, and the completed draft
of the constitution was drawn up after the convention had dissolved and
at the order of General Canby.
This new constitution was finally submitted to the people in Novem-
ber, 1869, and adopted by a large majority. At the same time state offi-
cers and congressmen were elected, Edmund J. Davis being chosen gov-
ernor and entering office the following January. The legislature con-
vened February 8, 1870, and at once ratified the thirteenth and fourteenth
amendments to the federal constitution and elected United States sena-
tors. Reconstruction was now complete, and on March 30, 1870, Presi-
dent Grant signed the act readmitting Texas to the Union, and on the
following day her senators and representatives took their seats in Con-
gress. A few days later the powers lodged with the military officials
were remitted to the civil authorities, all but several small garrisons of
federal troops were withdrawn from the state, and Governor Davis, who
had previously acted only in a provisional capacity, became the actual
executive of the state — thus concluding the reconstruction movement.
Several years passed, however, before political power was restored
to its proper owners. During the early seventies, the minority Republican
party controlled the state. There was a Republican governor, Repub-
i88 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
licans held the majority of offices, and the better classes of citizenship
were not represented in the government. But the coercion of reconstruc-
tion times was now past, and at the next election the natural strength of
the Democratic party asserted itself. In November, 1872, the Democrats
secured control of the legislature and elected all the congressmen, but
the governor, having been chosen for four years, continued in office till
1873-
The new legislature at once instituted some desired reforms, and by
passing a measure for the reapportionment of state representation it
brought about a special state election for 1873. At this election the
Democrats were everywhere triumphant, Richard Coke being the vic-
torious candidate for governor. Mr. Davis, the incumbent of the office,
charged that the law under which the election had been held was un-
constitutional, and refused to surrender his office.
In January, 1874, the legislature met and formally inaugurated Gov-
ernor Coke. While the Davis government held the lower floor of the
capitol, the new legislature took possession of the upper part of the state
house. The Travis Rifles guarded the legislature, while the Davis party
had a company of negro soldiers. For a time the two parties contested
the possession of the capitol, and fighting and bloodshed were only averted
by the discretion of the Democratic leaders, who used every effort to
avoid a repetition of the military regime in Texas. President Grant re-
fused to lend the aid of the military in supporting the Davis administra-
tion, and as it was hopeless to resist popular opinion without federal
backing Davis soon gave up the fight and turned over the records of his
office to Coke.
The last stigma of the reconstruction period was removed by the
adoption of the constitution of 1876. The constitution of i86g was de-
fective, and its unpopularity was further increased by the fact that it was
largely a product of the reconstructionists. Accordingly, in ]\Iarch,
1875, the legislature ordered the question of calling a constitutional con-
vention to be submitted to the people, who returned a large majority in
its favor. The delegates completed the new constitution in November,
and in February, 1876, it was ratified by the people. At the general elec-
tion held on the same day Richard Coke was re-elected governor. The
new constitution was purged of all the restrictions and references to the
past which had marked the former document, and with the adoption of
this organic law Texas began its modern era of political progress.
CENTRAL AND WESTERN
TEXAS
Central and Western Texas, the region which extends from the up-
per Brazos valley country across the uplands to the limits of the Staked
Plains, has a history that is none the less remarkable, because it has been
made within the last quarter of a century. Within the easy memory of
men now living, the upper Brazos valley was the advanced line of settle-
ment. The city of Waco was a frontier village without a railroad less
than forty years ago; just thirty years have passed since the Texas &
Pacific railroad operated its trains as far west as Weatherford. West
of these points a few cattlemen and sheepmen had ventured, but the
greater part of the ranges was still a feeding ground for the bufifalo.
Railroads, modern stock farming, towns and cities and the institutions
and facilities of advanced civilization are all the products of a quarter
century.
However, in central Texas, especially in the counties adjacent to the
Brazos river, the pioneers had built their homes at a period which is now
comparatively ancient. Central Texas comprises a few of the counties
which were in the fringe of settlement made while Texas was a republic.
During that epoch several enterprising colonizers had attempted to found
settlements on what was somewhat indefinitely called "The Upper
Brazos," comprising the region of Milam, Robertson, Falls, and McLen-
nan counties. Sterling C. Robertson's Nashville colony, described on
other pages, partly occupied this country at the time of the Texas revo-
lution, in 1836. The "Falls of the Brazos," in Falls county, was often
referred to in the current news of the time, although it was recognized as
being on the extreme frontier, far distant from the principal towns and
habitations that composed the true colonial Texas. The vicissitudes ex-
perienced by the early settlers in this locality are detailed in connection
with the individual sketches of the counties above named.
The beginnings of permanent settlement of central Texas were almost
coincident with the admission of Texas to the Union in 1846. Indian
hostilities, which the poverty of the Texas republic had been powerless
to prevent, had again and again interfered with the frontier settlers. An-
191
192 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
other cause that delayed immigration was the htigation over land titles
in a large portion of the Brazos valley. Most of these contests were ad-
justed about 1850, so that Milam and other counties began to receive their
proper share of immigrants.
Under the federal government military posts were established at
various points along the frontier. Fort Graham on the Brazos in what
is now Hill county. Fort Worth on one of the forks of the Trinity, and
Fort Alason and other garrisons on the western courses of the Colorado
-
,
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formed the cordon of protection which the United States interposed be-
tween civilization and barbarism. These posts, together with the State
Rangers and the militia composed of the settlers, gave a degree of security
which was more favorable to permanent occupation. Under these condi-
tions the counties of the Brazos valley were settled, and most of them
organized' before the period of the Civil war.
In 1846 there were very few settlements north of ^Nlilam and Robert-
son counties. The town of Dallas had received its first pioneers, and a
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 193
few families were living among the cross timbers in this region of north-
ern Texas. But Dallas was isolated by many miles of uninhabited Trinity
valley from the settlements to the south.
The progress of settlement is illustrated in the successive organization
of county governments. A great number of the counties of Texas were
formed, as to boundaries and name, by the legislature some years before
a sufficient population had settled to justify the organization of local gov-
ernment. The extreme western portion of the state was blocked off into
county areas many years ago, though in a few cases the counties are un-
organized at the present time. The organization of a county usually
proves the existence of a group of permanent settlers at the time, so that
it is possible to follow the progress of settlement by observing the time
of organization in the various counties.
The first of the counties imder consideration to possess local gov-
ernment were Milam and Robertson. As explained elsewhere, Milam
originally comprised a vast region now apportioned among a dozen or
more central Texas counties. It is usually named as one of the original
Texas counties, brought into existence at the close of the revolution, al-
though its organization was not maintained continuously through the
troublous period from 1836 to 1845. Robertson county was organized in
1838, having been formerly a part of Milam county. These were the only
counties in the central Texas region to be organized while Texas was a
republic.
Beginning with 1S46, the first year Texas was a state, county organi-
zations followed rapidly, and in fifteen years the territory of the Brazos
and Colorado valleys was permanently occupied and divided into counties
with separate local governments. The successive dates of organization
of county government in this region are given as follows:
Navarro county — ^July 13, 1846.
Limestone county — August 18, 1846.
Williamson county — August 7, 1848.
Bell county — August i, 1850.
Falls county — August 5, 1850.
McLennan county — August 5, 1850.
Tarrant county — August 5, 1850.
Hill county — May 14, 1853.
Coryell county — March 4, 1854.
Johnson county — August 7, 1854.
194 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Burnet county — August 7, 1854.
Bosque county — August 7, 1854.
Parker county — March i, 1856.
Lampasas county — March 10, 1856.
Comanche county — March 17, 1856.
San Saba county — May 3, 1856.
Llano county — August 4, 1856.
Erath county— August 4, 1856.
Brown county — March 2, 1857.
Palo Pinto county — April 27, 1857. ■
Mason county — August 2, 1858.
Hamilton county — August 2, 1858.
These twenty odd counties comprise that portion of central Texas
that was permanently settled before the Civil war. Several counties of
later organization were included in the original area of those named
above.
The population and degree of development varied in these counties,
and those on the western frontier, Palo Pinto, Erath, Comanche, Brown,
San Saba and Mason, were very sparsely inhabited, living conditions
were primitive, industry was pastoral rather than agricultural, and for
the greater part of two decades following the country and the people were
able to accomplish little more than maintain their precarious foothold
on the western frontier.
The counties of central and western Texas organized since those
above named are as follows :
Coleman county — October 6, 1864.
Hood county — December 25, 1866.
Menard county — May 8, 1871.
Pecos county— June 13, 1872.
Shackelford county — September 12, 1874.
Tom Green county — January 5, 1875.
Somervell county — April 12, 1875.
Stephens county — 1876.
McCulloch county — 1876.
Callahan county — July 3, 1877.
Taylor county — July 3, 1878.
Concho county — ^larch 11, 1879.
Runnels county — February 16, 1880.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 195
Mitchell county — January 10, 1881.
Nolan count}' — June 10, 1881.
Jones county — June 13, 188 1.
Howard county — June 15, 1882.
Scurry county — ^June 28, 1S84.
Martin count}- — November 4, 1884.
Reeves county — November 4, 1884.
Midland county— June 15, 1885.
Fisher county — April 27, 1886.
Mills county — September 12, 1887.
Irion county — April 16, 1889. j
Coke county — April 23, 1889.
Ector county — January 6, 1891.
Borden county — March 17, 189 1. •
I Sterling county — June 3, 1891.
Crockett county — July 14, 1891.
Ward county — March 29, 1892.
Glasscock county — March 28, 1893.
Schleicher county — July 9, 1901.
Reagan county — April 20, 1903.
Dawson county — 1905.
The decades of the seventies and eighties witnessed the real settle-
ment of western Texas. During the seventies the buffalo were finally
hunted from the plains, and quickly following them came the great herds
of domestic stock and the old-time stockmen. For a few years these lat-
ter were supreme lords of the domain of grass-covered prairies.
Not far behind was another instrument of progress — the railroad —
which invaded the cattlemen's country and, while co-operating with the
stock industry, it also served to introduce the permanent settlers. More
than any other factor, the railroad has made west Texas a home for peo-
ple. Where the railroad has penetrated counties have been organized,
towns have been built, fences have divided the prairie from the sown
fields. In the regions untouched by railroads lie the few unorganized
counties of the state. Along the Texas & Pacific, which was constructed
in 1880-81 ; along the G., C. & S. F., which reached San Angelo in 1888,
are the counties which were first and most substantially developed in this
western region. Wherever new railroads have been built, or are now
under construction, they are the means of transforming the plains into
196 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
farms and bringing workers and home-builders to dwell in this once
isolated part of the world.
What the railroad has done for the country, and how, in turn, the
railroad has benefited by growth of population and industry, is illustrated
in an interesting way by some comparative statistics concerning the Texas
& Pacific. On the eastern division of this road, from Shreveport to Fort
Worth, the gross earnings of traffic increased from $3,000,000 in 1892 to
$5,200,000 in 1909, or about 75 per cent. But on the Rio Grande division,
from Forth Worth to El Paso, the increase of gross earnings was from
$1,700,000 in 1892 to $5,250,000 in 1909, or more than 300 per cent.
Thus, measured by railroad traffic, the west Texas region traversed by the
T. & P. Railroad has developed four times faster in the same period of
time than the eastern tributary country.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 197
Twenty years ago the principal tonnage carried out of west Texas
consisted of live stock. The production of the great staples of corn,
wheat and cotton was then relatively insignificant. Perhaps the most
noteworthy fact in the history of western Texas is the manner in which
its inhabitants have adapted the soil and climate to the production of the
standard crops. West of the Brazos valley cotton growing was hardly
attempted until within the last quarter of a century. Callahan county
only twenty years ago began contributing a few bales to the state's crop,
but in 1903 raised about 12,500 bales. Cotton is now a crop practically
throughout western Texas. Corn, wheat, vegetables and fruits have a
similar history. Years of effort have demonstrated that by proper culti-
vation, selection of crops and Conservation of soil moisture these lands,
once deemed arid, have tremendous possibilities of production and value.
Equally remarkable is the record of west Texas in the upbuilding
of towns and the acquisition of the modern facilities of business and
domestic welfare. The slow stages of growth and improvement which
characterize the towns and cities with half a century or more of history
did not occur here. A west Texas city that was founded in the last quar-
ter century often is more progressive, better improved, than some of the
cities of similar size in the oldest portions of the state. Brownwood,
Abilene, San Angelo and other conspicuous examples have water works,
electric lighting, paved streets, efficient municipal organizations, schools
and other institutions as good as are found elsewhere in the state.
In recent years the business leaders of the larger towns have united
their endeavors and ideas under the plan of commercial clubs, and the
work of some of these has been particularly efficient. The governing ideal
of the commercial club is to promote the prosperity of its community and
the state in general, and labors for this end along the concrete lines of
producing wealth, either by stimulating home industry and capital or by
inducing the immigration of settlers and the investment of outside capital,
and by promoting the building of railroads and the establishment of other
large industrial agencies. Often due to the work of these commercial
bodies, individual cities have expanded trade facilities, secured new trans-
portation lines, led the way in municipal improvement, and, as a special
feature of commercial club activity, have brought the advantages of par-
ticular cities and localities to the knowledge and attention of the world
at large.
The figures of the last census permit an interesting study to be made
of the movement of population over the central and west Texas region.
198 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
It is apparent that this portion of Texas is in a transition period. Under
the economic conditions which still prevail to a large degree, the limit
of population is soon reached, and the overplus of growth and immigra-
tion spread out into the yet unoccupied areas. Thus it is that the older
counties of the central Texas region have during the last decade gained
very little in population and in some cases show an actual decrease. At
the same time the west Texas counties have exhibited all the characteristics
of a newly discovered country. In most of them, at least every other
inhabitant has come in during the last decade, and in some of them the
residents who were counted there at the preceding census are in the
scantiest minority. The railroads, the towns, the activities are all as new
as the people, and are often equal or superior to the similar facilities of
the older regions.
In the development of a new country, population figures are reliable
data of progress. A^ithout people no country becomes a factor in eco-
nomic production, and hence has little relation to the welfare of the world
in general. But once a region is "settled up" — that is, possesses a popu-
lation averaging in number that of similar localities elsewhere — its pros-
perity depends on other factors than mere numbers. An ancient philoso-
pher stated the matter concisely, as follows, using the word city in the
sense of any political community: "They judge of the size of a city by
the number of its inhabitants ; whereas they ought to regard not their
number but their power. A city, too, like an individual, has a work to do ;
and that city which is to be adapted to the fulfillment of its work is to
be deemed greatest."
Applying these generalizations, it will be found that some of the cen-
tral Texas counties that have remained stationary in population have
nevertheless advanced remarkably in wealth, in diversification of indus-
try, in improvement of living conditions. Bell county, whose population
increase of only 8 per cent was more than absorbed by the two largest
towns, presents one of the fairest and most productive fields of rural im-
provement and prosperity in the state. The new era of intensive rather
than extensive enterprise has only recently begun in this and adjacent
counties, and during the next decade the results will be apparent not
only in an enormous increase of wealth and living facilities but also in
growth pf population, for it is the function of such progress to enable
more people to-enjoy its advantages.
Following is a tabulated statement showing the population of the
various central and west Texas counties during the past decades :
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 199
Counties. 1910. 1900. 1890. 1880. 1870. i860.
Andrews 975 87 24
Bell 49,186 45,535 ^1.7,77 20,518 9,771 4,799
Borden 1.386 776 222 35
Bosque 19,013 17.390 14.224 11,217 4.98i 2,005
Brown 22,935 16,019 11.421 8,414 544 244
Burnet 10,755 10,528 10,747 6,855 3.f'i88 2,487
Callahan 12,973 8-768 5.457 3.453
Childress 9.538 2,138 1,175 25
Coke 6,412 3,430 2,059
Coleman 22,618 10,077 6,112 3.603 347
Comanche 27,186 23,009 15,608 8,608 i,ooi 709
Concho 6,654 1,427 1,065 800
Coryell 21,703 21,308 16,873 10,924 4.124 2,666
Crane 331 51 15
Dawson 2,320 2,7 29 24 281
Eastland 23,421 17,971 10,373 4,855 88 99
Ector 1,178 381 224
Erath 32,095 29,966 21,594 11,796 1,801 2,425
Falls 35.649 ii'iA2 20,706 16,240 9,851 3,614
Fisher 12,596 3,708 2,996 136
Floyd 4,638 2,020 529 3
Foard 5.726 1,568
Freestone 20,557 18,910 15.987 14,921 8,139 6,881
Gaines 1,255 55 68 8
Glasscock 1,143 286 208
Hamilton 15,315 13,520 9,313 6,365 733 489
Hill 46.760 41.355 27,583 16,554 7,453 3,653
Hockley 137 44
Hood 10,008 9.146 7.614 6,125 2,585
Howard 8.881 2,528 1,210 50
Irion 1,283 848 870
Johnson 34-460 33.819 22,313 17,911 4,923 4,305
Jones 24,299 7,053, 3,797 546
Knox 9,625 2,322 1,134 77 '
Lampasas 9,532 8,625 7,584 5,421 1,344 1,028
Limestone 34,621 32,573 21,678 16,246 8,591 4,537
Llano 6,520 7,301 6,772 4,962 1,379 i.ioi
Loving 249 33 3
Lynn 1,713 17 24 9
200 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Counties. 1910. 1900. 1890. 1880. 1870. i860.
McCiilloch 13,405 3,960 3,217 1,533 1^73
McLennan 73.25° 59-772 39,204 26,934 13,500 6,206
Martin 1,549 332 264 12
Mason 5,683 5,573 5,180 2,655 67S 630
Menard 2,707 2,011 1,215 1.239 667
Midland 3,464 1,741 1,033
Milam 36,780 39.666 24,773 18,659 8,984 5,175
Mills 9,694 7,851 5,493
Mitchell 8,956 2,855 2,059 "7
Navarro 47,o7o 43,374 26,373 21,702 8,879 5>996
Nolan 11,999 2,611 1,573 640
Palo Pinto 19,506 12,291 8,320 5,885 1,524
Parker 26,331 25,823 21,682 15,870 4,186 4,213
Pecos 2,071 2,360 1,326 1,807
Reagan 392
Reeves 4,392 1,847 ■ 1.247
Robertson 27,454 31,480 26,506 22,383 9,990 4,997
Runnels 20,858 5.379 3.193 980
San Saba 11,245 7.569 6,641 5.324 1,425 913
Scurry 10,924 4,158 1.415 102
Shackelford 4,201 2,461 2.012 2,037 455 44
Somervell 3,931 3.498 3-419 2,649
Stephens 7,980 6,466 4,926 4,725 330 230
Sterling 1,493 1.127
Tarrant 108,572 52,376 41.142 24,671 5,788 6,020
Taylor 26,293 10,499 6.957 1.736
Tom Green 17,882 6,804 5,152 3,615
Upton 501 48 52
Ward 2,289 1.451 77
Williamson 42,228 38,072 25,909 15.155 6,368 4,529
Winkler 442 60 18
In this area these counties show a decrease of population during
the last decade :
Per cent.
Milam 7-3
Robertson 12.4
Llano 10.7
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 201
The following counties of the central region show a percentage of in-
crease less than that of the whole state (27.8 per cent) :
Per cent. Per cent.
Bell 8.0 Bosque 9.3
Williamson 10.9 Hamilton 13.2
Falls 6.9 Mills 23.4
Limestone 6.3 Johnson i .9
Burnet 2.0 Somervell 12.3
Mason 2.0 Hood 9.4
McLennan 22.5 Erath 7.1
Coryell 1.9 Comanche 18.I
Lampasas 10.5 Parker 2.0
Navarro S.e, Stephens 23.4
Hill 13.1
The counties, all lying west of the above, that have grown more rap-
idly than the whole state but have added less than 50 per cent to the figures
for 1900 are :
Per cent. Per cent.
San Saba 47.2 Eastland 36.0
Menard 34.6 Callahan 47.9
Brown 43.2 Sterling 31.6
The population of the following counties has nearly doubled in the
last decade, increasing between 50 and 100 per cent :
Per cent. Per cent.
Palo Pinto 58.7 Coke 84.3
Shackelford 70.7 Irion 51.3
Borden 79.9 Ward 57.7
Those countries whose increase has been more than double are princi-
pally in the region where new railroads have been built or where the
former cattle ranges have been occupied by farmers, all in west Texas.
The exception is Tarrant county, with an increase of 107.3-per cent, due,
however, to the remarkable growth of its central city. The other counties
in this class are as follows :
202 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Per cent.
McCulloch 238.5
Coleman 1 14.5
Concho 366.4
Runnels 287.7
Taylor 150.4
Jones 244.5
Tom Green 162.8
Nolan 359.5
Fisher 239.7
Mitchell 213.7
Scurry 162.7
Glasscock 300.0
Per cent.
Howard 251.3
Upton 943-S
Midland 989.7
Martin 366.6
Dawson 618.7
Crane 549-0
Ector 209.2
Andrews 1,020.7
Gaines 2,181.8
Winkler 636.8
Eoving 654.5
Reeves 137.3
THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY.
There occurs nowhere in literature a happier description of the posi-
tion of the range cattle business in the history of our country than in
the following terse and characteristically vivid words, of Alfred H.
Lewis :
"With a civilized people extending themselves over new lands, cat-
tle form ever the advance guard. Then come the farms. This is the
procession of a civilized, peaceful invasion ; thus is the column marshaled.
First, the pastoral ; ne.xt, the agricultural ; third and last, the manufac-
turing; — and per consequence, the big cities, where the treasure chests
of a race are kept. Blood and bone and muscle and heart are to the
front : and the money that steadies and stays and protects and repays
them and their efforts, to the rear. Forty years ago about all that took
place west of the Mississippi of a money-making character was born of
cattle. The cattle were worked in huge herds and, like the buffalo sup-
planted by them, roamed in unnumbered thousands. Cattle find a natural
theatre of existence on the plains. There, likewise, flourishes the pas-
toral man, But cattle herding, confined to the plains, gives way before
the westward creep of agriculture. Each year beholds more western
acres broken by the plough ; each year witnesses a diminution of the cat-
tle ranges and cattle herding. This need ring no bell of alarm concern-
ing a future barren of a beef supply. More cattle are the product of
the farm regions than of the ranges. That ground, once range and now
farm, raises more cattle now than then. Texas is a great cattle state.
Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Missouri are first states of agriculture.
The area of Texas is about even with the collected area of the other
five. Yet one finds double the number of cattle in Ohio, Indiana, Illi-
nois, Iowa and Missouri than in Texas, to say nothing of ten-fold the
sheep and hogs. But while the farms in their westward pushing do not
diminish the cattle, they reduce the cattleman and pinch off much that
is romantic and picturesque. Between the farm and the wire fence,
203
204 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the cowboy, as once he flourished, has been modified, subdued, and made
partially to disappear."
Perhaps it is unnecessary to repeat the well known aphorism that
the welfare of a state rests upon the basic art of agriculture. With the
realization of the proper possibilities of agriculture in the western coun-
ties and the extension of railroads and a farming population into those
regions, has resulted the development of a splendid empire which it is
the province of this work to describe. The range stock industry naturally
rested upon the surface, was not anchored in the soil, and, like the
picturesque "tumbleweed" of the plains, it was moved hither and thither
by the natural influences of the seasons and topography. While the
vast ranges were free, when nature without effort provided her native
grasses, the stockman could herd his cattle on the free pastures and, on
similar terms with the gold miner, could reap the profits produced by
nature's own bounty. For twenty years West Texas has been under-
going the changes incident to the forward march of agriculture and the
breaking up of the free range, and the range cattle industry is now prac-
tically a thing of the past. Modern stock farming, which is still the
main source of wealth in West Texas, is a very different business from
the range industry, which forms the principal subject of this chapter.
The range industry preceded the railroad epoch and in a sense was hostile
to the approach of civilization ; the modern live-stock ranching is co-
efficient with the tilling of the soil, and both are phases of the present
era of industrialism.
The settlers who came in from the border states during the forties
and fifties, bringing with them at least a small capital of live stock, car-
ried on their farming and stock raising in co-operation. There is no
definite time to be set when the stock industry became independent of
farming and was engaged in as a great enterprise requiring altogether
different methods of management.
In the early years there was little market for cattle outside of supply-
ing the local demand, and therefore no special incentive to engage in a
business which in its palmy days depended altogether on the eastern mar-
kets. It has been well said that the world had to be educated to eat beef,
and it is only as a great want has arisen through that process of dietary
training that the supplying of the world with fresh beef has become one
of the largest and most systematically organized industries. A writer in
describing the region about Fort Belknap and Camp Cooper about 1847
states that cattle were raised in considerable numbers in that vicinity,
but that the onlv market was afforded bv the Indian agency and the mili-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 205
tary post, the prices which he quoted per head being, according to mod-
ern standards, ridiculously low. New . Orleans was the principal cattle
market before the war, but it is not likely that any large number of West
Texas cattle found their way thither.
In view of the fact that the movement of cattle to market has so gen-
erally taken an easterly direction, the west supplying the east with meat,
it is an interesting piece of information that during the years immedi-
ately following the great gold discovery in California, thousands of beef
cattle were driven from Texas and IMississippi valley points across the
plains to feed the hordes of gold seekers and the population that followed
in their wake. During the brief period of the existence of this demand
many herds passed through El Paso, encountering the frightful difficul-
ties of the trail and the worse dangers from the Indians, and seldom did a
party on this long drive escape the attack of Indians, and, too often, the
loss of most of their stock.
Although the range cattle business had attained sufficient importance
by the middle of the century to give Texas a reputation as a great cattle
state, the operations were still confined to the eastern and southern parts
of the state. The driving of cattle to the northern markets, which until
less than twenty years ago was the most picturesque feature of the Texas
cattle business, was inaugurated about 1856, when several large herds
were trailed into Missouri, some being taken to the St. Louis markets.
During the remaining years before the war, St. Louis and Memphis re-
ceived large quantities of Texas cattle, most of them from the northeast-
ern part of the state.
The commencement of hostilities broke all commercial relations be-
tween the North and the South. The drives across the country stopped
while the blockade of the gulf ports ended exportation to foreign markets.
Before the capture of Mcksburg in 1863 and the interposing of that river
as a federal barrier between the east and the west Confederacy, there had
been only a moderate demand for Texas cattle in the states east of the
Mississippi, and as, in the latter half of the war food supplies of all kinds
became scarcer, so also to transport them from the west through the fed-
eral lines became an increasingly difficult task.
The paralysis of the cattle business during the war was coincident
with that which befell all other activities. Not only were the avenues of
trade blocked, but also the former active participants in the business were
now for the most part in the service of their country as soldiers. De-
structive drouths were also a feature of this period, and all conditions
seemed to conjoin in throttling the life out of the young industry of
2o6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
stock raising. These conditions caused at least one very noteworthy con-
sequence. By stress of circumstances many stock owners had been com-
pelled to abandon their herds, and from lack of sufficient guarding many
cattle had wandered away from their regular range. At the close of the
war therefore many thousands of half-wild range cattle were shifting for
themselves in the remote districts. Incursions of Indian and wild beast
had made them almost intractable and had increased the qualities of rangi-
ness and nimbleness of hoof to a point where they were more than ever
able to take care of themselves. When settled conditions once more came
upon the country, it is said that more than one poor but enterprising
cowman got his start by rounding up and branding these "mavericks,"*
and from the herd thus acquired built up a business equal to that of many
who in the beginning had been more fortunately circumstanced.
The revival of the cattle business after the close of the war was
swifter than that which followed in other industries ; and perhaps for the
reason based upon facts already presented: Given a good range on the
one hand and an attractive market on the other, the principal conditions
of a prosperous range stock business are satisfied and the industry will
spring into large proportions in a short time. The reopening of the mar-
kets of the North for southern cattle, and the fact that war-time prices for
beef prevailed in those markets for some time after the war, gave a de-
cided impetus to Texas stock-faising. To supply this northern demand
a large number of cattle were collected in the spring of 1866 and driven
across the Red river to principal shipping points. The Dallas Herald in
April of that year estimates that from twelve to fifteen thousand beef
'Edward King gives this version of the Maverick story: "Colonel Maverick,
an old and wealthy citizen of San Antonio, once placed a small herd of cattle on
an island in Matagorda bay, and having too many other things to think of, soon
forgot all about them. After a lapse of several years some fishermen sent the
Colonel word that his cattle had increased alarmingly, and that there was not
enough grass on the island to maintain them. So he sent men to bring them off.
There is probably nothing more sublimely awful in the whole history of cattle-
raising than the story of those beasts, from the time they were driven from the
island until they were scattered to the four corners of western Texas. Among
these Matagordian cattle which had run wild for years were eight hundred noble
and ferocious bulls ; and wherever they went they found the country vacant before
them. It was as if a menagerie of lions had broken loose in a village. Mr.
Maverick never succeeded in keeping any of the herd together; they all ran
madly whenever a man came in sight; and for many a day after, whenever any
unbranded and unusually wild cattle were seen about the ranges they were called
' Mavericks. ' ' '
HISTORY OF CENTRAI, AND WESTERN TEXAS. 207
cattle had crossed the Trinit}' within the past month or six weeks, bound
for the North.
The general qnaht}- of these herds was greatly inferior even to
the general run of the old-time "Texas longhorn." In fact, many of
the cattle driven north in 1866 were recruited from the herds of wild
cattle then wandering in great numbers over the state. The presence of
these wild animals in the drove gave the cowboys no end of trouble, for
the least untoward event would set the suspicious brutes on the stampede,
every such occasion meaning the loss of hundreds of dollars to the owner
of the herd. Then, there were other gauntlets of danger and difficulty to
be run by these drovers. The "Texas fever" was the hctc noir of cattle-
men, not so much because of the actual destruction wrought among the
cattle by the disease, as by the general apprehension excited in the public
mind that all Texas beef was fever-tainted and that Texas cattle were
carriers of the disease among northern stock, all this operating for some
time as an almost effectual bar against the sale of cattle from south of the
Red river. To resist this invasion of disease, some of the inhabitants of
Kansas and Missouri whose farms were along the general route of the
Texas drives took exceedingly rigorous methods of stopping the passage
of Texas drovers through their neighborhoods. Instances are known in
which Texans were severely punished by lashing or other maltreatment
and their cattle scattered through the woods and ravines beyond all hope
of recovery. Originating in an honest desire to protect their live stock
against imported disease, this hostility to Texas cattlemen became a cloak
for the operations of gangs of blackmailers and outlaws such as would
put to shame the banditti of the middle ages. Says one who wrote of that
period from knowledge at first hand : "The bright visions of great profits
and sudden wealth that had shimmered before the imagination of the
drover were shocked, if not blasted, by the unexpected reception given
him in southern Kansas and Missouri by a determined, organized, armed
mob, more lawless, insolent and imperious than a band of wild savages.
Could the prairies of southeast Kansas and southwest Missouri talk, they
could tell many a thrilling, blood-curdling story of carnage, wrong, out-
rage, robbery and revenge, not excelled in the history of any banditti or
the annals of the most bloody savages." It became necessary for the
drovers to avoid these danger-infested regions, and instead of going di-
rectly to the nearest shipping point — which was then Sedalia, Mo. — they
detoured to the north or the south, reaching the railroad either at St. Jo-
seph or at St. Louis.
The prejudices against Texas cattle and the dangers of the trail
2o8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
gradually subsided, though not till many a cattleman had gone bankrupt
or suffered worse injury. In 1867, however, a new status was given the
cattle traffic. Up to that time the Missouri river had furnished the near-
est and most convenient shipping points for the Texas cattleman, and the
trails thither were long and, as we have seen, often dangerous. It was
to relieve these conditions that, in the year 1867, Joseph G. McCoy se-
lected, along the route of the newly built Kansas Pacific Railroad, the
embryo town and station of Abilene as the point to which all the cattle
trails from the south and southwest should converge and disgorge the
long-traveled herds into waiting cars, thence to be hurried away over the
steel rails to the abattoirs and packing houses of the East. Abilene was no
more than a name at the time, and McCoy and his assistants set about
the building of immense cattle pens and the equipments essential to a
shipping point. These were completed in time for the fall drive, and Abi-
lene was thus launched upon its famous and infamous career as "the wick-
edest and most God-forsaken place on the continent," a detailed descrip-
tion of which is, happily, no part of this history.
By proper advertising of its advantages as the nearest and most con-
venient railroad station for Texas shippers, by the year following its es-
tablishment all the trail-herds were pointed toward Abilene as their desti-
nation. There the buyers would meet the drovers, who, having disposed
of their cattle to best advantage, would usually turn their steps to the
flaunting dens that offered iniquity in every conceivable earthly form. It
is estimated that 75,000 Texan cattle were marketed at Abilene in 186S,
and in the following year twice that number.
As is well known, the Texas "longhorn" of those days had charac-
teristics of figure, proportion and disposition which were of equal fame
with his value as beef. Texas fever or almost any evil imputation could
more easily lodge against this animal than against the more sleek and
docile appearing "farmer cattle," so that it is not strange that on the cattle
exchanges "Texans" were usually quoted distinct and at marked disparity
of price compared with those brought by other grades. The process of
grading which worked out from Texas herds this longhorn breed was a
long time in accomplishment, and in time practically covers the epoch of
the range cattle industry as distinct from modern cattle ranching. Though
the Texan cattle thus labored against adverse influences both at the hands
of the buyer and of the consumer, none the less the range business, both
through the profits to be derived and through the nature of the enterprise,
attracted thousands of energetic men to its pursuit as long as the condi-
tions necessary to its continuance existed.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 209
The decade of the seventies was marked with many developments in
the cattle industry. Prices were up, the demand for cattle from Texas
was not so critical, and it is estimated that 300,000 head were driven out
of the state to Kansas points in the year 1870. Another factor that made
the cattle traffic for that year profitable was a "freight war" between the
trunk lines reaching to the Atlantic, the reduction in freight rates simply
adding so much extra profit to the cattle shipper.
In 1871, as a consequence of the prosperity of the preceding year,
the trails leading to the north were thronged with cattle, and the constant
clouds of dust that hung daily along the trail, the ponderous tread of
countless hoofs, and the tossing, glistening current of longhorns, pre-
sented a spectacle the like of which will never be seen again. Six hundred
thousand head of Texas cattle went into Kansas in 1871, and these num-
bers were swelled by contributions from the other range states. But the
drovers were not met by the eager buyers of the year before ; corn-fed
beef from the middle states had already partly satisfied the market ; the
economic and financial conditions of the country were not so good as in
the year before ; railroad rates were again normal — and as a result half
of the Texas drive had to be turned on to the winter range in' Kansas.
A rigorous winter, with much snow following, and much of the pastur-
age having already been close-cropped, thousands of cattle perished, and
the year goes down in Texas cattle history as almost calamitous.
About this time the railroads were extending their lines to absorb the
increasing cattle traffic, and several roads penetrating the cattle regions
caused a change of base with regard to the movements of cattle. The
Santa Fe reached the Colorado line late in 1872, and about the same time
the M. K. & T. reached the Red river, furnishing a shipping point for
Texas cattle at Denison. With the year 1872 the town of Abilene begins
to lose its lurid reputation, its business advantages as well as its sins be-
ing transferred to other railroad points ; the extension of the railroads
had much to do with this, but in the winter of 1871-72 there had also
been a determined revolt on the part of the better element of citizenship,
with the result that Abilene became a comparatively "straight" town and
what it lost as a cattle center was recompensed by substantial business
prosperity.
The year 1872 saw only about half the number of cattle in the pre-
ceding year driven north, although better prices prevailed and the average
quality of the stock was better. About this time Texas stockmen began
the practice of transferring their cattle to the northern ranges for fatten-
Vol. 1—14
210 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ing, a method which soon became one of the important features of the
business.
Practically all the activities of North Texas came to an abrupt pause
as a result of the panic of 1873, ^"d the cattle business, being more "im-
mediate" in its workings, suffered more severely than others. The pall of
depression hung over the business world even before the colossal failure
of Jay Cooke in September, so that the 400,000 Texas cattle that were
driven north found the buyers apathetic to say the least. Many held ofif
for better prices in the fall, only to be met with overwhelming disappoint-
ment when the crash came. Naturally, the range cattle fared worse in
competition with the farm cattle, which was nearly equal to the market
demand. Everywhere there was oversupply and glutting of the mar-
kets. Many Texans were in debt for money advanced by banks in pre-
ceding seasons, and as no extensions of credit could be made there were
hundreds of enterprising cowmen in Texas in that year who faced com-
plete defeat, although Texas pluck and persistence saved them from anni-
hilation. To such straits did the business come in that year that a consid-
erable proportion of the cattle were sold to rendering plants, which were
set up in various parts of the state as a direct result of the depression;
the hides, horns, hoofs and tallow were more profitable for a time than
the beef. Conditions warranted these operations only a short time, and
since then there has been no slaughtering of range cattle as a business
proposition merely for the by-products.
To quote from a recent publication: "The period from 1865 to the
close of 1873 was one of ups and downs in the live-stock industry on the
plains; yet, notwithstanding the intervening misfortunes, and the actual
disasters of 1873, the net results were represented by a great advance as
to territory occupied and an immense increase in the number of animals
that were eating the free grass of the ranges."
The cattle trade, said King Edward in 1S73, might be called "an in-
dolent industry — for it accomplishes great results in a lazy, disorderly
way; and makes men millionaires before they have had time to arouse
themselves and go to work. Cattle trading is a grand pastime with hun-
dreds of Texans. They like the grandiloquent sound of a 'purchase of
sixty thousand head.' There is something at once princely and patriarchal
about it. They enjoy the adventurous life on the great grazing plains,
the freedom of the ranch, the possibility of an Indian incursion, the
swift coursing on horseback over the great stretches, the romance of
the road. Nearly all the immense region from the Colorado to the Rio
Grande is given up to stock-raising. The mesquite grass carpets the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 211
plains from end to end, and the horses, cattle and sheep luxuriate in it.
The mountainous regions around San Antonio offer superb facilities
for sheep husbandry ; and the valleys along the streams are fertile enough
for the most exacting farmer. There are millions of cattle now scattered
over the plains between San Antonio and the Rio Grande, and the num-
ber is steadily increasing. * * * -phe cattle interest is rather heavily
taxed for transportation, and suffers in consequence. In 1872 there were
450,000 cattle driven overland from western Texas to Kansas, through
the Indian territory, by Bluff Creek and Caldwell, up the famous 'Chis-
holm' trail. In 1871 as many as seven hundred thousand were driven
across. But few cattle are transported by sea ; the outlet for the trade
by way of Indianola has never been very successful. The Morgan steam-
ships carry perhaps 40,000 beeves yearly that way. The two great
shipping points in 1872-73 were Wichita, on the A., T. & S. F. R. R.,
and Ellsworth, on the Kansas Pacific R. R."
Much interest attaches to the series of developments by which the
Texas cattle industry grew in importance during the years before 1873,
and how from a limited and unprofitable market at the gulf ports the
tide of cattle was turned to the north and was even then being directed
toward new shipping centers with almost each succeeding year. New
Orleans and the lower Mississippi points were the destinations for the
earliest cattlemen. Then Memphis and St. Louis received the bulk of
the trade ; still later, Sedalia and Kansas City ; Abilene had its infamous
"boom" as a cowtown, and, later. Junction City, Wichita, Fort Dodge,
and other railroad points in southern Kansas ; but coincident with the
construction of the M., K. & T. Railroad south through Indian terri-
tory to Denison, which remained its terminal point for several years,
the trail-herds of \\'est and Southwest Texas were directed in an ever-
increasing stream toward this part of North Texas. Nevertheless, the
railroad mentioned must not be credited with establishing this general
route for the drives : although it was a positive influence to this end,
and the Denison terminal was a shipping point of more than ordinary
magnitude, it remains true that a great part, perhaps a majority, of the
cattle were driven past this point and on to the popular herding grounds
in southeastern Kansas. The true explanation seems to be that this
"Baxter Springs Trail," as it was long known, and which even in the
sixties had become, much of the way, a well worn road, was a logical
route to the northern markets ; that the railroad, in following its gen-
eral course, merely supplied an iron highway instead of the already
favorite trail ; and that the convergence of the cattle routes through
212 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Fort Worth, whicli began to attract marked notice in 1874, and the
subsequent extension of the railroad facilities from the Red river to that
point, were a series of events, based in the first instance on natural
causes, that have raised Fort Worth to its pre-eminence as the cattle
market of the Southwest.
It seems proper at this point, since we have adverted to the "Bax-
ter Springs Trail," to note with some degree of particularity the other
famous cattle trails with which every old-time cattleman is familiar, but
which, being in the same historic category with the well-nigh forgotten
stage routes, find' little place in the general thought of the present gen-
eration.
^^'hile Abilene held the center of the stage as a shipping point, the
"Shawnee Trail" came into general use. This took its course through
a more westerly part of the territory than the Baxter Springs route,
crossing the Arkansas river near Fort Gibson, thence through the Osage
Indian reservation to the Kansas line, and thence north to Abilene. The
promoters of Abilene, in 1868, had this route shortened by surveying
a direct trail south to the present cit}' of Wichita, marking the course by
small mounds of earth ; this being the only instance when a cattle trail
was located with anything like mathematical precision. The southern
end of this trail, terminating at Wichita, was long used after Abilene
ceased to be a shipping point.
There is a distinction to be drawn between the trails that were
followed primarily as a route to market and those which were estab-
lished as a highway of communication between the southern and the
northern ranges. The "Baxter Springs Trail" seems to have combined
both these features; while the "Shawnee Trail" was principally used as
the most convenient way to reach the railroad. Further to the west
than either of these was the famous "Chisholm" or "Chisum" trail,
which took its name from Jesse Chisholm, a half-breed Indian, and one
of the earliest stockmen of the territory. This trail came into promi-
nence after the custom had been established of transferring the south-
ern cattle to the northern ranges, there to be held and fattened for
market. Beginning at the Red river, it crossed the western portion of
the present Oklahoma into Kansas, and during the seventies so many
cattle were driven this way that it presented the appearance of a wide,
beaten highway, stretching for miles across the country.
The other trail that deserves mention was the "Panhandle Trail,"
whose location is explained by the name, and which was likewise used
HISTORY OF CENTRAL A\D V/ESTERN TEXAS. 2X3
principally for the transfer of Texas cattle to the ranges in Colorado or
more northern states.
These trails, which were so called with laudable exactness of defini-
tion, though leading with sufficient accuracy to certain destinations,
were as sinuous in their smaller lengths as the proverbially crooked cow-
path. This was especially true of the more westerly routes, where it
was necessary for the drover to direct his herds so that a sufficient
water and grass supply was each day accessible, these prime considera-
tions making a meandering course the only feasible one in the plains
country.
Notwithstanding that the years immediately following the panic
of 1873 was a time of depression in the cattle business as well as other
industries, there was a realignment of forces going on in Texas which
was to make its influence felt when the time of prosperity again arrived.
The natural economic resources which had lain dormant during the war
and reconstruction period were just beginning to be touched by the
wand of enterprise when the panic came, and though this cause op-
erated as a serious check, it was only temporary, and when stability was
once more restored to financial affairs Texas literally bounded forward
along every line of progress. This fact is well stated in the following
newspaper comment which appeared in April, 1875: "But a very few
years ago the traffic in Texas cattle with the North was a very small
affair. The first herds were driven into Kansas about eight years ago.
Nearly every succeeding year witnessed an increased number until the
aggregate of one season amounted to over six hundred thousand, and
when estimated in dollars the aggregate for the past eight years will
reach eighty millions. The peculiar condition of our state and people
during the eight years in question, immediately succeeding the close of
the war, rendered it necessary to expend the greater part of this sum
in breadstuffs, clothing, wagons, agricultural implements, etc., so that
very little of the money found its way back into Texas. A different
state of affairs is manifest today, and the balance of trade is slowly
swinging in our favor, being assisted by the increase in home manu-
factures."
Also, about that time the movement became definite which has re-
sulted in the extinction of tlie longhorn range cattle, so that at this
writing one of the old-time "Texas steers" is a distinguished rarity in
the markets. The prophecy of this modern state of affairs was thus
couched in a Fort Worth Democrat editorial during the spring of 1874:
"Several hundred head of blooded cattle have been imported into this
214 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
county (Tarrant) the past twelvemonth. These will," the editor states,
"in a few years greatly improve the grade of cattle in the county. Stock-
raising in considerable quantities will soon become obsolete in this
section, and fewer numbers, of much finer grades, will be raised. It is
conceded by stock-raisers of Kentucky, Illinois and Missouri that more
money is realized by raising a few good cattle than from large numbers
of ordinary breeds. Our farmers are beginning to appreciate this fact."
The prices for range stock during 1874 and 1875 remained very low,
seldom rising above two dollars per hundred. This continued disparity
HEREFOEDS AND A I
of the Texas cattle in competition with other grades was no doubt a prin-
cipal factor in convincing the Texas stockman of the necessity of improv-
ing his breeds.
■ About this time there occurred a change in the meat products busi-
ness which amounted to a revolution and which alone made possible the
development of the industry to its present status. This revolution in
processes is well described in "Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Indus-
try" (Denver and Kansas City, 1905), probably the most complete and
authentic work of the kind yet published. Relative to this subject we
quote :
"The principal influence that was at work indirectly in behalf of
western cattlemen at that time was the development of new features and
new methods in the packing house industry. Theretofore the markets for
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 215
fresh beef from these concerns had been, in the main, local in extent, and
much of their beef output was in the form of salt-cured products. Ex-
portation of beef on the hoof slowly but steadily was attaining greater
magnitude at that time, but it was so hampered by foreign real or pre-
tended fears of various alleged infections being introduced into Europe by
American cattle, and also by agitation there in favor of home production,
that it became necessary for our people to devise other ways and means
of getting American beef into European markets. In this case the pack-
ing house interests quickly solved the problem by sending the foreigners
prime dressed beef carcasses that were above suspicion, criticism or ob-
jection ; and with these went canned beef, and, as the new methods fur-
ther were developed, a variety of other canned and potted beef products.
New vehicles of transportation having been required for the dressed beef
trade, they came forth without delay in the form of refrigerator cars on
the railroads and refrigerator apartments in the ships. With these the
packers at Chicago, Kansas City and other great market centers were en-
abled to deliver beef carcasses on the farther side of the Atlantic in as
perfect condition as that in which they were placed upon the blocks of re-
tailers within sight of the packing houses ; and with these cars to extend
their home trade in dressed beef to every part of the country accessible
by railroad. This new branch of the packing house industry, which with-
in a few years became the larger part of it, made its influence felt strongly
in 1S76, and in 1877 had risen to greater proportions. Its magnitude
in 1878 was reflected in the fact that nearly forty per cent of all the live
stock marketed in Chicago during the year, or about 500,000 head, went
to consumers in the form of dressed beef from the packing houses of
Chicago. At Kansas City and other packing house centers the dressed
beef business held about the same ratio to the total number of cattle put
upon the market."
The beginning of meat refrigeration and transportation is described
in the issue of the Texas Almanac of 1870 : —
The San Marcos Pioneer publishes a letter from General D. A. Maury, of
New Orleans, to Hon. S. F. Stockdale, of Indianola. in which it is stated that the
plan of Messrs. Howard, Bray & Co., for transporting Texas beef, "killed on its
native grasses, to any port of the world, without salting it, and without taint
or damage, is generally admitted to be an established success"; and that these
gentlemen are preparing to resume in the fall their operations on a very large
scale. It is also stated that a cargo of fresh beef, killed and dressed near Indianola,
and taken some weeks ago to New Orleans, was pronounced by all who saw
and tasted it the best beef ever brought into the market. General Maury visited
2i6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the Mareliouse of tlie above named company in New Orleans some weeks ago,
and saw several thousand pounds of beef hanging in quarters, which had been
slaughtered near Tndianola nine days previously, and which was then free of any
evidence of taint or sourness, and was as fresh and sweet as if it had just been
killed. The temperature in the coolest place outside the warehouse was 90°; inside
the warehouse it was 35°. We quote the concluding paragraphs of General Maury's
letter :
' ' One can hardly doubt the complete success of this invention and its appli-
cation, nor too highly estimate the magnitude of its results.
' ' Henceforth, instead of dri\'ing your emaciated, foot-sore, and perhaps dis-
eased cattle to an unfavorable and uncertain market, thousands of miles away, you
may establish your slaughter-house in Indianola, kill and dress your beeves with
all their juices and freshness in them, hang them in your great refrigerative ships,
and send them in perfect preservation to New Orleans, Liverpool, coast of Guinea,
or Ceylon.
' ■■ There will be but little necessity for hard salt junk, and the consequent
scurvy for sailors, and every man may breakfast daily on his tenderloin steak,
whether his keel cleaves the Indian Ocean or the Arctic seas; and with due
energy and judgment, you gentlemen of Texas may find your cattle, before twelve
months have passed, independent of the malign legislation of the northern states,
and once more a great staple production used by civilized men all over the world.
"There are many beneficial applications of the patent owned by these gen-
tlemen, but the first, and the greatest, is the free exportation of your millions of
cattle, and the way, too, that seems to have been surely opened to you. ' '
The refrigerator car as an element in the cattle business of Texas re-
ceives notice in May. 1877, in the following paragraph from the Fort
Worth Democrat: "The first carload of fifty beeves in quarters, in a Tif-
fany refrigerator car, which is just now coming into general use, was
shipped yesterday from Fort Worth to St. Louis. Some two years ago
a company was formed at Denison for shipping beef in refrigerator cars,
but proved a failure. Tiffany has since improved the cars to commercial
efficiency, and has provided ventilation so thorough and adapted to both
summer and winter use as will enable meats to be carried almost any
distance without taint or loss of flavor." xA-nother issue of the same pa-
per, commenting on this "wonderful discovery," goes on to assert that
"so soon as the various railroad lines can supply their roads with these
cars, beef and other meats will be slaughtered in the localities where
raised and will be sent to market in dressed form, saving transporta-
tion fees on offal and useless matter."
Quoting again from "Prose and Poetry of the Live Stock Industry":
"In 1876 there were probably not 3,000 white people in the whole region
between the Eastland- Young-Archer-Wichita tier of counties and the
eastern line of New Mexico, with the Panhandle thrown in. These later
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 217
westward movements had located herds of cattle along many of the water
courses, and there were some sheep scattered here and there on the drier
uplands, where there was a shorter growth of herbage ; the sheepmen,
however, being so few in number, and the abundance of grass and water
so plethoric, that their near presence was tolerated by the cattlemen, and
therefore the two usually hostile interests got along together with but little
friction for several years. The Texas cattle ranges, generally speak-
ing, had hitherto been within the eastern and southern two-fifths of the
state, for in 1876 there were not more than thirty or thirty-five cattle
ranches that were conspicuous as to size in the central, northern and
western parts of the state ; an area, thus roughly defined, that contained
upwards of 130,000 square miles, and which now embraces some ninety
counties. Most of these larger ranches had been located pretty well
toward the western side of the state, but many miles apart. Chisum's old
ranch on the Concho river near Fort Concho was one of the very large
ones; but there were four — the Townsend, the Hittson, the Black, and
the Lynch outfits — in the section of which Eastland county is a part, for
which 'range rights' were claimed over a scope of country close to one
hundred miles square — an area nearly equal to that of the states of Massa-
chusetts and Delaware combined. Fenced ranges were unknown there,
and the supply of free grass was practically unlimited. Ranch supplies for
most of the outfits had to be hauled by wagons hundreds of miles, com-
munications with the outside world were infrequent, mail was received
at long intervals, and the greater part of the market stock was driven
northward."
But the climax of the range cattle business was now approaching.
Not only were the farmer settlers crowding the cattlemen west, but the
stock industry itself was proving so attractive that during the early
eighties practically every square mile of the range country was utilized
to the point of crowding. The rush to the range cattle country during
those years was quite comparable to a mining rush, in the splendid visions
of sudden wealth that actuated the participants, as also in the later failure
and disappointment that swept into oblivion the majority of such fortune
hunters. The glamour of romance and the gleam of riches had been
thrown over the cattle range. Its stern aspects, its hardships, its sacri-
ficing toil, were subordinated to its picturesque features, which many an
old cattleman will dispute ever having existed elsewhere than on the pages
of romance. The titles "cattle king" and "cattle baron," coined probably
by some zealous newspaper man, sounded impressive to the uninitiated and
were often an all-sufficient stimulus to the ambition of an easterner plod-
2i8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ding the slow road to prosperity. As one miraculous cure will establish
the world-wide fame of a relic which thousands of other worshipers have
adored in vain, likewise a few examples of success in cattle ranching gave
dazzling promise to all who would undertake its pursuit. The glowing-
reports of the western cattle industry that found current in all parts of the
world resulted in a large immigration to the range country, and the mania
for investment in cattle and for booming every department of the business
stimulated a false prosperity that could have but one end. Values rose
beyond all precedent, and those who marketed their stock during the first
two or three years of the "boom" realized profits that, had they then
withdrawn from the business, would have left them well within the
realms of wealth. But the contagion of the enterprise seemed to infect
the experienced cattleman as well as the tyro. The season's drive ended,
the accruing profits were reinvested, and thus the bubble expanded till
it burst.
To properly understand the culmination of the conditions which
brought the range cattle industry to its climax in the '80s, it is necessary
to go back to the origin of the industry and state the "rules of the game"
which had obained as unwritten law as long as free range lasted.
"For a decade or two after the close of the Civil war the range coun-
try of Texas was open and free to whosoever might go in and occupy
parts of it and nature provided food for the cattle without labor, without
money and without price from their owners. The cattlemen of that period
thought they 'had struck it rich,' as indeed they had, so far as free grass
and a range that appeared to be unlimited and inexhaustible could help
them on to fortune. They had also thought that they had a perpetual
possession in which these conditions would continue, but little, if any,
disturbed, and that their business would go on indefinitely independent of
most of the trammels and restraints to which men were subject in the
settled parts .of the country. The country appeared so endlessly big and
its grazing resources seemed so great that it was hard for any man to
foresee its 'crowded' occupation by range cattle far within the period of
his own lifetime, to say nothing of serious encroachments upon it by
tillers of the soil. In these years the methods and practices of the western
stockmen as they advanced into the range country were much the same
wherever they went.
"The first impulse of a pioneer cattleman who had entered a virgin
district with his herd and established his headquarters there, was mentally
to claim everything within sight and for a long distance beyond. But
when the second one appeared with his stock the two would divide the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 219
district, and each keep on his side of the division line as agreed upon.
As others came in, the district would be still further divided, until, ac-
cording to the ver_v broad views our pioneer friends held as to the length
and breadth of land each should have for 'elbow room,' it had become
fully occupied. There W£ts nothing to prevent them from appropriating
the country in this manner and arbitrarily defining the boundaries of their
respective ranges, and with this practice there developed the theory of
'range rights" — that is, of a man's right to his range in consequence of
priority of occupation and continuous possession, although none asserted
actual ownership of the range land, nor did any of them really own as
much as a square yard of it. Still, under the circumstances, the theory
of 'range rights' was not an unreasonable proposition.
"For a district to become 'fully occupied' did not at that time impiy
that the cattle outfits in it were near neighbors. In making claim to a
range each stockman kept far over on the safe side by taking to himself
a-plenty, and therefore their ranch buildings were anywhere from fifteen
to thirty miles apart, and sometimes even farther. As a common lule each
man recognized and respected the range rights of his neighbors in good
faith, but occasionally there were conflicts."*
Such were the conditions up to the time of the boom. Tlien, in con-
sequence of the immigration of farmers and the many new aspirants for
success in the range business, the old cattlemen became generally appre-
hensive for the future of their business. It seemed that even the vast
range country, much of which, indeed, has since been proved agricul-
turally valuable, might at no distant day be filled up by the land-owning,
fence-building and generally troublesome farmer, not to mention the re-
strictions of range freedom that were being set by the greater r^umbers of
cattlemen. Therefore the majority decided to make their shortening days
of grace strenuous ones, and to this end began the practice of stocking
their ranges to the very limit. Where the long-horn had hitherto grazed
the grass from twenty-five or more acres, he was now often limited to ten.
This practice of overstocking the ranges became increasingly general, and
the several inevitable results were not long in precipitating widespread
calamity.
The practice led first of all to an abnormal demand for stock cattle.
Prices quickly rose from $7 to $8 a head to $10 and $12, and large ship-
ments were even sent from the middle states to form the basis for the
range herds. Of course this inflation of values deepened the veneer of
* ' ' Prose and Poetry of Cattle Industry. ' '
220 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
prosperity which gilded the entire business and increased the recklessness
of those who hoped to catch the golden bubble before it burst. The beef-
cattle market continued strong. Some Texas "grass-fed" steers selling in
Chicago in May, 1S82, at $6.80 a hundred, and upwards of $6 being
offered in the corresponding month of the next year. But the ranges were
not capable of supporting the great herds of hungry cattle that cropped
their grasses so close and in many cases so trampled them that their pro-
ductiveness was permanently impaired. A rainy season and an open
winter alone could maintain the cattle industry at the high pressure at
which it was being driven, and those conditions could not be depended
upon. In the hard winter of 1882-83 cattle died by the thousands, and
those that were not ruined by nature's penalties did not have long to wait
for the economic overthrow. Prices for market stock remained high
throughout 1883 and the early months of 1884, but in the fall of that year
the decline began and by the middle of 1885 range cattle sold high at
ten dollars a head and thousands went for less. The delusive value of
"range rights" and "free grass," so often estimated as assets, could not
be realized on, and the unfortunate stockmen found the returns from
their herds to give them a mere pittance compared with the original invest-
ments. A case is recorded in which a Texas cattleman, who in 1883 had
refused $1,500,000 for his cattle, ranch outfit and range rights, sold them
all in 1886 for $245,000.
With the collapse of the great boom of the eighties, it may be said
that the doom of the range-cattle industry was sounded, and since then a
complete rearrangement has been taking place by which modern condi-
tions have been ushered in. The fiction of "range rights" gave place to
the purchase outright or the leasing of tracts of range land. The intro-
duction of wire fences into general use set definite boundaries to each
cattleman's possessions and largely did away with the "open range."
Railroads went west and south, and were intersected by cross lines, which,
more than any other influence, caused the breaking up of the range into
ranches and stock farms. The improvement of the grades of cattle, and
the gradual elimination of the long-horns, the beginnings of which we
have already noted, have been steadily working the transformation which
is now so complete that only the older stockmen have any knowledge of
the conditions that we have just described. The stock industry is now a
business, almost a science, and is conducted along the same systematic
lines with other departments of modern industrialism. Cattlemen no
longer pursue their calling outside the borders of the permanent settle-
ments, receding before the whistle of the locomotive; they build their
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 221
ranch houses alonq the hues of steel, and their inckistry has become an
organic factor in the world's activities.
During the si.xties and early seventies Mr. J. F. Glidden, at his home
in DeKalb, Illinois, had been conducting the experiments which resulted
in the production of barb-wire, and it is worth while to turn aside and
give in some detail the history of the invention which has meant so much
in Te.xas, The first patent covering his invention was secured and bore
date November 24, 1874. Smooth wire had already been used to a con-
siderable extent for fencing purposes. It was cheap and answered the
purpose to a certain extent, but it was by no means proof against cattle,
and in consequence smooth-wire fences were constantly in need of repair.
It was while replacing wires that had been torn from the posts by cattle
that Mr. Glidden noticed some staples hanging to the wires, and from this
conceived the idea of attaching barbs or points firmly to the wire at reg-
ular intervals, in this way preventing cattle from exerting pressure on the
fence. It was at first only an idea, and there were many things to over-
come in perfecting it, but it continued prominent in Mr. Glidden's mind,
and after considerable thought he began e.xperiments in perfecting a style
of barb and firmly attaching it to the wire. He made his first perfected
coil barb by the use of an old-fashioned coffee mill, of which he turned
the crank by hand. Later on he devised better and more substantial ma-
chinery for this purpose, and would then string a number of barbs on a
wire, placing them at regular intervals, and laying another wire without
barb by its side, twist the two together by the use of an old horse-power.
Thus by the twisting of the wires the barbs were permanently held in
place, and the result obtained in this primitive way was sufficiently satis-
factory to convince him of the ultimate success of his invention. In the
fall of 1874 Mr. Glidden gave, for a nominal sum, a half interest in his
patent to Mr. I. L. Ellwood, of DeKalb, and a factory was erected in that
city for the manufacture of the new wire. Machinery was designed with
which the barbs were attached to a single wire and then a smooth wire
twisted with it, to a length of 150 feet; this length was then wound on a
reel and the process continued until the reel was filled. Soon afterward a
machine was made which coiled the barbs upon one wire, twisted them
together and wound the finished wire upon the reels ready for shipment,
each machine having a capacity of twenty reels daily.
Such was the inventing and manufacturing side of it. But, as has
been the case again and again in the history of machinery, a really excel-
lent device may be lost to the world because sufficient aggressiveness has
not been employed in its introduction to the public. The man selected by
222 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Mr. Glidden to show up the merits of his barb-wire was Mr. Henry B.
Sanborn (now one of the best known cattlemen of Texas, the founder of
Amarillo in the Panhandle). The latter was already prosperously started
in business with Mr. Warner, and it required a great deal of persistent
urging on the part of the inventor to get him to enter upon this new
enterprise. However, he finally became convinced of its worth and possi-
bilities and he and his partner made a contract with Glidden & Ellwood
by which Sanborn and Warner were, for a period of two years, to intro-
duce and sell exclusively the entire barb-wire product of the factory. Late
in the fall of 1874 Mr. Sanborn started out with a sample panel of barb-
wire fence to introduce the invention to the hardware trade, first in the
towns adjacent to DeKalb. Conservatism, if not prejudice, worked
against the first sale of this article, only two or three reels being sold at
Rochelle. Illinois, and some small orders coming during the following
months. In the spring of 1875 Mr. Sanborn and Mr. Warner both set
out to introduce the wire into the southwestern and western states, where
its field of greatest usefulness lay. In the meantime a half interest in the
DeKalb plant was transferred to the well known wire manufacturers,
Washburn and Moen Manufacturing Company of Worcester, Massachu-
setts, the contract with Sanborn and Warner being reaffirmed by the new
partnership.
In September, 1875, Mr. Sanborn made his first invasion of Texas
territory in the interest of the barb-wire industry. He soon found out
that fencing material was much needed in this great cattle country, but
the prejudice against the use of barb-wire seemed to be very strong. As
a sample of the objections, one large cattle owner told Mr. Sanborn that
the barb-wire fence would never do ; that the cattle would run into it and
cut themselves, thus causing endless trouble from the screw worm, which
invariably attacks cattle in Texas when blood is drawn. But Mr. Sanborn
was proof against all such discouraging sentiments, and he knew that,
once get a wedge of sales entered, the entire people would be in time
brought over to the new fence. He had a carload of the wire shipped to
various points in the state, had Mr. Warner to come on and help him, and
then took the field in the country for the purpose of introducing it to the
actual consumers. At Gainesville he sold the first ten reels of barb-wire
ever sold in the state. Thence he went to other towns, and during a trip
of eleven days in a buggy he sold sixty reels ; Mr. \\'arner was at the
same time in the country west of Dallas and selling as much or more. At
Austin Mr. Warner sold to a firm of ranchmen for their own use the first
carload sold to consumers. The aggressive work of the partners soon
HISTORY OF CEMTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 223
introduced the invention to many towns and outlying districts, and after a
montli or so of effective drumming and advertising they returned to the
north. In January, 1877, they made a new contract with Washburn and
Moen Manufacturing Company for the exclusive sale of the Glidden barb-
wire in the state of Texas, and established their office and headquarters at
Houston.
By this time barb-wire had reached the importance of an issue among
the people of Texas. Its sincere friends were many and daily increasing,
but many more from self-interest as well as conservatism opposed it most
vehemently. The lumbermen were unfavorable because its introduction
would mean a decrease of the use of wood material for fencing purposes,
and the railroads allied themselves with the lumbermen whose shipments
would thereby be diminished. Injury to stock was common ground for
opposition, and bills were even introduced into the legislature prohibiting
its use, but happily a rallying of the friends of barb-wire defeated the
inimical measures, and the entire agitation worked for the welfare of the
wire fence movement. In a few years the barb-wire sales of Sanborn and
Warner in this state ran well up toward the million dollar mark. Messrs.
Sanborn and Warner continued their partnership until 1883, when the
former purchased the latter's interest, the name of Sanborn and Warner,
however, being still retained. The contract with the Washburn and Moen
Company continued until the expiration of the original Glidden patent
in 1 89 1, since which time the company has continued its Texas business
from their branch office at Houston. Long before this, however, the work
of introduction, so thoroughly undertaken by Mr. Sanborn, was complete
and the trade built up to a steady and permanent demand.
Light on the troubles between the range cattlemen, the small farrjier,
the fence cutters and other parties to the contest is shown by the follow-
ing extracts from newspapers in the fall of 1883. The Austin Sentinel
put the case in the form of a query :
"What is to be done for the man who owns 640 acres, with a little
farm on it, depending on the grass on the unfenced portion for maintain-
ing his 25 head of stock, while the big stock-raiser grazes his stock on the
outside of his own pasture, saving the grass on the inside for the drouth
or winter season, while his thousand cattle destroy every blade of grass
which the man referred to depends on to keep his milch cows and work
animals alive?"
"It appears to us" — the Bandera Enterprise about the same date —
"that it is high time some effective steps were being taken to settle the
224 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
troubles between tlie pasture men and their enemies. . . . Consider-
able blood has already been shed, and dangerous sentiments are rapidly
assuming such proportions as to become a rational source of alarm for the
character of our great state and peace and security of the lives and prop-
erty of her citizens. . . . We think the ofifering of a reward of $30
by the governor for the arrest and conviction of the fence cutters is totally
inadequate to meet the emergencies of the case."
The principal factors that brought the cattle industry to its present
orderly and substantial basis were, improved stock, provident manage-
ment, and individual control of more or less of the land upon which each
stockman operated, accompanied by the use of fences. The first attempts
to introduce better blood into the rough range stock were made in Texas
about 1875, although all that was done in this direction before 1885 was
experimental and had little efifect in raising the general grade. In fact,
there was some prejudice in those days against the heavy farm cattle,
which, it was believed, would not thrive under range conditions nor have
the hardihood to withstand the hardships of winter and drouth. But after
1885, "a large item in the expense account of every ranchman whose
operations were of considerable magnitude represented his outlay for
high-grade and "registered bulls, high-bred breeding stock was brought
into the range country in numbers that aggregated thousands of head and
that, it is no exaggeration to say, cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
These bulls came not only from the stock farms of the East, but from
England, Scotland, and continental Europe. Quality was bred into the
herds, and the range beef steer was raised to a high plane of excellence."
Continuing, the History of the Live Stock Industry previously re-
ferred to says : "The best and therefore the high-priced beef lies along the
animal's back, and anyone can understand that a broad-backed steer that
has utilized its food in increasing its aggregate of sirloin and porterhouse
parts, is far more valuable than the narrow-backed, slab-sided animal,
perhaps of nearly the same gross weight, but which has utilized most of
its food in the production of tallow. The western cattlemen saw this,
and began to produce, with the same amount of food, beeves that yielded
the high-priced steaks, worth from 15 to 25 cents a pound in a normal
retail market, instead of tallow and medium or low-grade meats, worth
whatever the buyer could be persuaded to pay for them.
"So the process of improving and upbuilding the range herds through
the introduction of better stock and by selective breeding was undertaken
and soon became general. The long-horn and all its kindred were rapidly
eliminated. These slender, long-legged, narrow-faced, slabby, nervous
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 225
animals, that could run like a deer, that were subject to panic whenever
they saw a man not on horseback, and that had horns reaching far ouf
from their heads, within a few years practically became extinct creatures.
Their places became more than filled by broad-backed, thick-loined, wide-
shouldered cattle that in many instances yielded the largest possible
amount of beef from the least possible amount of food, that topped the
market, and that were as easy to manage as so many barn-yard heifers ; the
short-horned and the no-horned, the red-bodied and white-faced, and the
black and the mixed-hued, the short-legged and the medium-legged — but
all fine beefers."
Instead of depending entirely upon having their cattle "rustle" a
living from the pastures the twelvemonth through, under any and all con-
ditions, the stockmen began providing a reserve supply of forage with
which to tide over the hard spells of weather. The pastures still remain
the chief dependence, and ordinarily the stock gets along very well upon
them; but the West Texas cattlemen have discovered that the soil will
produce more than the native grasses. With the breaking up of the
ranges, some portion of each ranch is devoted to the production of Kaffir
corn, milo maize, and other non-saccharine sorghum plants, with which
the cattle are fattened at home, instead of the old way of driving them
from the range to the northern feeding grounds. Instead of being left
standing till the cattle cropped them, the tall and succulent grasses are
now cut with mowing machines and stacked for the winter's use. Fur-
thermore, the modern stockman will not hesitate to import winter feed
for his cattle, although such providence in caring for the stock would
have been considered folly by the old-timers in the business.
Ranch management in all its details is being systematized. Instead
of driving his herds from place to place in search of grass and water, the
cattleman of to-day is fencing in small areas, driving wells and building
dams and reservoirs, and raising the food for his cattle, feeding them with
his own hands, watering them and looking after them closely, which
would have been considered absurd and effeminate a few years ago. The
"water holes" and surface streams that formerly furnished all the water
for stock are now supplemented by wells. Twenty-five years ago the
average cattleman would have ridiculed the idea that he was driving his
herds over a vast lake of pure water or that it would be easier to tap the
supply and draw it to the surface than to continue to drive his cattle to a
stagnant pool ten miles away. But the underground lake exists, as the
plainsman finally realized, and he has since been working out the prob-
226 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
lem of getting the water to the surface. For this purpose windmills have
been generally employed, and the traveler through the plains country
finds the numerous windmills the most impressive feature of the land-
scape, Midland and other towns being worthy the name of "windmill
cities."
The Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas.
The Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas was organized February,
1S77, at the town of Graham, Young county, Texas. Col. C. L. Carter
of Palo Pinto county was elected its first president, and was elected each
succeeding year, except one, to the time of his death in July, 1888. The
term which he did not serve he was nominated, but requested that he be
allowed to retire from his office on account of his age, and that it be
filled by a younger and more active member. Col. C. C. Slaughter was
elected to take his place in March, 1885, and served one year with honor
to himself and satisfaction to the membership. At the annual meeting
in 1886, Col. Carter was again chosen President by acclamation, without
a dissenting voice, and was President when he died. Col. Carter was
a pioneer cattle and frontiersman, liaving settled in Palo Pinto county in
1885, on the place where he died. He experienced many trials and trou-
bles with hostile Indians ; in addition to the heavy loss of property at the
hands of these savages, he lost his oldest son, a bright and promising
young man, just as he was growing into manhood, while on a cow
hunt on his range. It was the good fortune of most of the older mem-
bers of the association to have known Col. Carter for many years
prior to his death. They are all of the opinion "that no better man
ever lived or died; that he possessed many, if not all, of the qualities
necessary to make a good man."
After the death of the lamented President Carter, Mr. A. P. Bush,
Jr., of Colorado, Texas, was elected each year to fill the position of
president up to March, 1899, which he filled with credit to himself and
to the entire satisfaction of the members.
At the annual meeting in March, 1899, Mr. Bush declined to be
an applicant for the position of president, and nominated Mr. R. J.
Kleberg, of Alice, Texas, as his successor. Mr. Kleberg was elected
without opposition, the vote being unanimous. At the annual meeting in
March, 1900, R. J. Kleberg was re-elected to the office of President
without opposition, and served the Association two years, the limit under
the present by-laws, with honor to himself and to the satisfaction of
the members. At the annual meeting in March, 1901, Mr. Murdo Mac-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN, TEXAS. .227
kenzie was elected president without opposition. At the anijual meet-
ing in March, 1902, Mr. Murdo Mackenzie was re-elected president
without opposition and served the Association two years, the limit pre-
scribed by the by-laws, with credit to himself, and his administration
unanimously endorsed by the Association.
At the annual meeting in March, 1905, Mr. W. W. Turney was re-
elected president without opposition. Ike T. Pryor has been president
since 1906.
Mr. J. D. Smith was the first vice-president, holding the position
for one term. Messrs. J. B. Mathews and J- R- Stephens were the
two vice-presidents selected at the second annual convention. Mr.
Stephens was chosen each year for a number of years thereafter, till he
would no longer serve, and was then elected an honorary member for
life. The other vice-presidents have been Messrs. C. C. Slaughter, J.
M. Lindsay, Jno. F. Evans, W. S. Ikard, A. P. Bush, Jr., J. W. Bust6r,
Murdo Mackenzie, Dr. J. B. Taylor, S. B. Burnett, R. J. Kleberg, A.
.,G. Boyce, L. F. Wilson, W. W. Turney, John T. Lytle, I. T. Pryor and
Richard Walsh. The last two were re-elected at the annual meeting in
March, 1905.
J. C. Loving, of Jack county, was elected secretary at the organ-
ization of the association, and was re-elected each succeeding year to the
time of his death. In 1879 he was also elected treasurer, and filled both
positions to March, 1893, when E. B. Harrold was elected treasurer,
which position he held until March, 1900, when S. B. Burnett was
elected treasurer, and has been re-elected each succeeding year since.
J. C. Loving also filled the position of general manager of the associa-
tion from 1884 to the time of his death, November 24, 1902, when J. W.
Colston was chosen, by the executive committee, as assistant secretary,
to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Loving.
After a service of nearly twenty-six years as secretary of the associa-
tion, and eighteen years as general manager, J. C. Loving expired Novem-
ber 24, 1902, at his home in Fort Worth. To him, more than any one
man, is due the success of the association, and to his memory will be
erected a monument by the association, as a token of appreciation of the
man and his valuable services.
At the annual meeting in March, 1905, Captain John T. Lytle was
re-elected secretary and general manager, a position he held until his
death in 1906.
The association keeps cattle inspectors at the principal markets,
shipping points, on trails leading out of the state; also looks after the
228 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
range depredations, and gives more and better protection to cattle
growers than can be obtained from all other sources combined ; has
brdken up more organized bands of thieves and sent more of them to
the penitentiary than could have been done by any other power. This
department of the association is under the management of an executive
committee, chosen at each annual meeting.
'In the beginning of the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas the
scope of its operations geographically were limited. The objects of the
association as formed almost thirty years ago were limited to the interests
which presented themselves. Conditions have constantly changed, and
with the changing conditions the association has adapted itself, its
purposes, objects and aims to the necessities which have arisen from
time to time.
The protective and detective features were the prime objects of
the association's efforts at first, and while these are still insisted upon
they are less important now than other questions to which the associa-
tion has devoted itself to solve. This is an age of combination, and
what individual effort is impotent to effect an organization of many
whose interests run together has great power to direct to the accom-
plishment of any wholesome purpose. So it is that the Cattle Raisers'
Association of Texas has been foremost in agitating the question of
governmental regulation of railroad rates and suppression of rebates
and similar practices that now are admittedly the pre-eminent politico-
economic questions before the American people for solution. In fact,
the association, through its officers, is now credited as an influence of
national importance in getting these matters before Congress and in
advocating a just and equitable control upon the railroad interests.
In an interview published in the Texas Stockman-Journal, in 1907,
Mr. Pryor, president of the association, said : "Those veteran cowmen
who organized the first Cattle Raisers' Association in Texas at the old
town of Graham in the year 1877 did not at that time have the faintest
idea they were laying the foundation for what is now one of the greatest
and most influential organizations of its kind in the country. This small
beginning, the seed of which was planted at Graham in 1877, has grown
and spread until its membership is about 2,000 individuals, and it carries
on its assessment rolls nearly two million cattle, and, I dare say, controls
as many as 5,000,000 head. The membership includes all the prominent
cattlemen of Texas, a great many prominent live stock producers from
New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indian Territory and Kansas, and quite a
number of cattlemen from Colorado.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 229
"The prime object of this organization at its birth was solely a pro-
tective and detective association. Nearly all of its members were raising
cattle on open range, which created an inviting field for cattle rustlers
and brand defacers. Through this organization and its methods of
protection, it was enabled to render the sheriffs of the counties embraced
within the territory of this association great service, and the efifective
work done by this organization in bringing to justice those unlawfully
handling cattle and defacing brands resulted in great benefits of the
cattle raisers in general.
"One of the first rules of this association was to jnit as many
inspectors in the field as its finances would admit. These inspectors in
many cases were officers of the law. Where they were not they did
great service in helping officers in discovering depredations upon cattle
belonging to the members of the association.
"In the evolution of time open ranges disappeared ami the invention
of barbed wire and the practical use of same by the cattlemen resulted
in the open ranges merging into large pastures. This method of course
made depredations by thieves more difficult. Nevertheless, this did
not in any way prevent or diminish the ardor Vvfith which these veteran
cowmen, who organized this association and who are entitled to great
credit, pushed this organization and increased its membership and
usefulness each year.
"It soon became necessary to place inspectors at all the market
centers in order to protect the membership from losing cattle that might
have been shipped to the market centers, some by intention and others
by mistake.
"As the necessity for ranch protection diminished it became apparent
to the members of this great organization that other and equally as
important matters should claim their attention, until in recent years they
have become a large factor in shaping such legislation, both state and
national, as is of vital importance to the live stock interests of the entire
country.
"It is due as much or more to the Cattle Raisers' Association of
Texas that the railway rate bill was finally passed by the United States
Congress. The president of the Cattle Raisers" Association was chair-
man of the Live Stock Transportation Association and an ex-president
of the Cattle Raisers' Association was chairman of the executive com-
mittee of said Live Stock Transportation Association, and it is due to
this association that the twenty-eight hour limit in which stock should
230 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
remain on the cars was extended to thirty-six hours by the National
Cong-ress.
"The Cattle Raisers' Association took an active interest and did as
much or more than any other organization in the country towards defeat-
ing a clause in the meat inspection bill compelling packers to pay for the
inspection instead of the government. Had it not been for the Cattle
Raisers' Association and the active interest it took this measure would
no doubt have passed as originally introduced, and the live stock interests
would have indirectly been made to pay for the inspection.
"We must not overlook the fact, however, in these great services
performed by the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas, we have been
ably and enthusiastically supported in every instance by the National
American Live Stock Association. It has joined with us and we have
joined with it in every undertaking, and it is indeed gratifying to observe
the harmony with which these two organizations work together for the
mutual benefit of all.
"I mention these facts to show what a benefit the Cattle Raisers'
Association has been to all live stock JDroducers, whether they are mem-
bers of its organization or not, and it is the duty of those who are not
members to join and contribute their part towards the great work being
performed by this organization. I could enumerate many benefits the
Cattle Raisers' Association has been directly and indirectly instrumental
in bringing about that have resulted in great good to the live stock
industry.
"Our experience and success attained in securing beneficial National
legislation for the interest we represent should encourage us to proceed
by the same methods to secure still more benefits, the principal one of
which is the extension of our foreign trade in live stock and its products,
which should mean better prices, a more stable condition of our markets
and permanent prosperity to the great West.
"In this movement we should avoid partisan politics, making such
demands as will command the favorable attention of both political parties,
thus securing the undivided support of this entire western country."
A writer in Texas Stockman-Journal, in 1907, speaks of the future
prospects of stock farming as follows: "While there is a great deal of
talk concerning the passing of the big ranches and the decadence of
the cattle industry in this state, the real facts in the case do not warrant
any siich conclusions. It is true the big ranches are passing — that
hundreds of the large pastures in the state have been sold and cut up
into small tracts during the past year, but that does not signify that
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 231
Texas is preparing to go out of the cattle business. Any man who
takes the trouble to figure the least bit on the situation must realize
that Texas must always remain a great cattle producing state. No
other state in the Union is so well adapted to the production of good
cattle, and the time will never come when Texas will not be engaged in
turning out just as good stuff as can be found in the Union.
"The big ranches are going, that is true, but in lieu of the single
■ ranch owners, the land affected is passing into the hands of many. It
is simply the natural evolution that accompanies the growth and devel-
opment of the country, and instead of one man owning many cattle, we
are going to see many men owning a few cattle. By the term a few
cattle is meant smaller numbers in comparison with the former large
herds held by individual ownership. There will be just as many cattle
and there will be more owners. That will be about the only change.
"One well informed cowman was discussing this point with the
writer only a few days ago. He has been identified with the range
country sections of Texas for more than a quarter of a century, and
still owns large ranch and cattle interests in that section, steadfastly
resisting all temptations to sell. He gave it as his opinion that the
time was near at hand when Texas must produce more cattle than ever
before. He said as the West settled and developed every man who made
his home in that section must gather about him a small bunch of good
cattle. As feed crops flourish throughout that portion of the state, they
will continue to be cultivated, and the man who produces feed crops
must have stock to feed it to. Good stock must always command good
prices, and so long as good prices prevail men will continue to produce
good stock. As one man succeeds others will feel incited to follow the
example, and he believes the cattle business in Texas is just now on the
eve of its greatest development.
"Another thing that is going to stimulate the renewed production of
cattle in Texas is the general improvement in conditions. Prices this
spring are highly suggestive of the good old days embraced in the boom
period, and when prices show this stiffening tendency the man who has
been sitting back waiting for the return of prosperity invariably proceeds
to get busy. It may be that the days of large cattle speculation are gone
in Texas, for the business is getting on a dift'erent basis, but there need
be no apprehension as to the future production of cattle in this state.
Opportunity is at hand and Texas cattlemen have not been slow in the
past to take advantage of opportunity.
"There is not much real difference after all between ranching and
232 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
stock farming. The stock farm is simply an evolution of the ranch. The
demand was first made for improved cattle, and when these were provided
it was discovered the provision did not go far enough. Improved cattle
involved improved methods, including protection and feed. It was found
that feed was cheaper when produced on the ranch than when hauled
from the feed store, and the ranches began to produce feed. In contra-
distinction to the practice of agriculture, this was dubbed stock farming,
and stock farming it will always remain. The ranchman could never
consent to become a straight agriculturist, for consistency is one of his
virtues. But it does not hurt very deep to call him a stock-farmer, and
he is content to let it go at that. It may be he feels a mistake has been
made in the cutting up of the old range and would be glad to see a return
to old conditions. But the thinking stockman of the day realizes these
things are impossible. The man who would stay in the procession is
compelled to get in line with those who are traveling in that direction,
and this is just exactly what the great majority of the cattlemen of Texas
are now doing."
Sheep Husbandry and Wool Business.
It is recorded that a home market for wool was established, the
fir.'^t wool bought and warehoused in San Antonio in April, 1859. Pre-
vious to that time George Wilkins Kendall had established his sheep
ranch above New Braunfels and had published his successful results with
sheep husbandry. From this time the sheep industry assumed increasing
importance in Southwest Texas. The vast ranges were occupied by
sheepmen and cattlemen alike, and though their relations were not always
harmonious, they recognized that they stood in close relation to each
other as concerned outside dangers that threatened their occupation.
The position of San Antonio as a wool market is still well remem-
bered, for until a few years ago it boasted the high honor of being one of
the largest and most important wool markets in the world. The rapid
rise of the wool market was noted over thirty years ago, when the total
wool brought into the city for the year 1874 was 400,000 pounds, and
the total for 1875 was 600,000 ; the price of the latter year ranging from
28 cents for the best grade to 17 cents for the poorer Mexican grade.
In short, San Antonio soon became the market center for one of the great-
est wool-producing countries of the world, and continued as such until
the reduction of the high protective tariffs during Cleveland's second
administration. This was a blow to the city's commercial prosperity and
to the prosperity of Southwest Texas as well, the full results of which
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 233
it would be difficult to estimate. Suffice it to say that hundreds of sheep-
raisers were forced out of the business ; that one of the greatest sources
of commercial profit was taken from San Antonio ; and that the sheep
industry has never since attained the proportions that it had before the
lowering of the tarilT wall. The last result, it should be stated, has been
partly due to changing conditions in Southwest Texas during the period
since 1S95.
Perhaps the most interesting phase of the wool business, aside from
its general features, was the part it played in politics during the early
eighties. The discussions attendant upon free trade are very illuminating
SHEEP GRAZING
of the conditions of the sheep industry at that time. It is especially
noteworthy that here, in the Democratic state of Texas, the principles
of high protection found some of their stanchest allies and defenders in
the persons of the wool growers.
The depth of the sentiment for protection among the sheepmen
and their influence with the great body of live-stock producers, is illus-
trated in the remarks of the president of the Stock Raisers' Association
in his annual address in January, 1882. He said :
We are naturally interested — that which conduces to the prosperity of the
grower, breeder, and dealer of sheep in one section of the state, either directly or
indirectly, aids the sheep men of every section. United we are a power to accom-
plish any desired worthy purpose we may elect, whether it be in the enactment of
234 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
lans for our protection and development, the enforcement of lans already in
existence, or as benefactors to our race in our state and nation. We have reason
for gratitude because our efforts as growers of wool and breeders of sheep have
been so signally blessed during the past few years.
That our climate, soil and grasses are not excelled for the production of
superior sheep for both wool and mutton has been fully proven. Though the prices
paid for our wools have generally been satisfactory, yet the attempts of inter-
meddlers to tamper with and reduce the import duties has at various times de-
pressed the markets, lessened the prices of wools and produced uncertainty, both
to the manufacturer and producer. It is not the expectancy or desire of the wool-
growers of the United States to build up and protect their own industry at the
expense or injury of other vocations, bnt they believe (and the results of a wise
protective system in the past proves this belief to be the correct one) that by
placing themselves on a firm foundation with other producers and with the manu-
facturers every class of laborers will be the beneficiaries, and capital will find
ready and profitable investments.
The great tariff convention recently held in New York, where all the indus-
tries of the nation were represented, has spoken and given no uncertain sound.
Congress is asked to legislate for the protection of home, not foreign industries.
It now seems quite certain that the tariff laws are to be acted upon in a manner
that will put them to rest for many years to come.
If a just and equitable protective tariff and revenue laws are made permanent,
the future of the woolgrowers of the United States will be as bright and certain
as the past few years have been prosperous and progressive. I suggest that this
association take such action as shall make known to our representatives in Congress
our desires, and also provide our quota of means to aid the executive board of the
National Woolgrowers ' Association in bringing the woolgrowers ' interests promi-
nently forward at Washington at the proper time.
Some of our sheep men insist that our state legislators have enacted laws
discriminating against woolgrowers, and saj- "it is time we should let them know
just what we want. ' '
The protection interests won, for the time, and with their victory
the wool business continued to flourish and expand in Texas and else-
where. In 1882 and 1883, just after the subsiding of the cattle boom,
the people of Texas went wild over sheep. Men who had never owned
a sheep bought flocks, and men who owned thousands bought more.
They figured out enormous profits, but in the end it came to them as
a losing truth that while figures cannot lie, liars can figure. The figuring
went on this way: Start in with a flock of 100 ewes, 80 per cent of
which will drop lambs, and half of the lambs will be ewes. At the end of
a year the flock is increased to 140 ewes and 40 rams (or wethers). The
wool averages 8 pounds, worth 25 cents a pound, or $2 a head, a total of
$200 for the old sheep and about half as much for the lambs. The
wethers can be sold for $3 or $4 a head, say $140 for the 40. making a
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 235
total income of $440. That wasn't much for the first year, but it was
supposed the man who was doing this had started in on a small scale and
was going to build up a large flock. So he estimated that he would begin
his second year with 140 bearing sheep, which in turn would yield him
80 per cent lambs, or 112 head, half being ewes. He was supposed to clear
up about $600 the second year, and start in the third year with 196 head,
and at this rate in five or six years he would have two or three thousand
head, bringing in from their wool and their increase a comfortable income
of $5,000 to $6,000 a year.
roX WAITING TO BE GINNED
No account was taken of the cost of keeping the sheep. That was
the day of free grass, when millions of acres were free to the appropriator
of the pasturage. And no account was taken of losses, which were
bound to be heavy, where no provision was made for protection or
subsistence through the winter except that offered by the open prairie.
Some of the investors in sheep — a great many of them, in fact — found at
the end of the second winter that instead of an 80 per cent increase, they
had an 80 per cent death loss.
In 1884 Texas had more than 9,000,000 sheep. The number in the
state in 1909, as rendered by the assessors, was about -1,500,000.
The chief end of the sheep in Texas has been the production of
wool. When the price of wool went down from 25 or 30 cents a pound
236 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
to lO or 12 cents, the wool-producing sheep ceased to be profitable, and
being no longer a source of profit, then owners began getting rid of them.
In that way the 9,000,000 and odd head were reduced to a million and
a half.
The tide has had its ebb and the flow has set in. Sheep are worth
as much now as they were in 1883, or more. Wool is bringing good
prices. Having become a money-maker again, the sheep will become as
popular as he was before and many will begin to raise sheep, and count
their profits before the shearing is done.
"A discouraging feature of the existing condition," writes a close
student of the business, "is the lack of quality in our sheep. Our cattle
raisers have, in the two decades since 1883, bred up their herds until
the old long-horn is a rare animal. The average herd of Texas cattle
now weighs fully 50 per cent more than the average herd of like age
did in 1883. Good breeding has done it. Our sheep weigh no more
and produce no more wool per head than they did then. There are
exceptions, but we speak of ruling conditions. Men who have bred good
sheep have found always a good market for them and for their wool."
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RAILROAD CONSTRUCTION.
Every important town and city of Texas, with its adjacent country,
owes a large share of its growth and prosperity to the railroad. A rail-
way station was the point of beginning for many flourishing towns, and
in the case of those centers of population that were founded before the
railroad era, the subsequent fate of such places has usually depended on
their success in obtaining railroad communication. Some of the old towns
of the state have long since been decadent merely because the railroads
passed them by. Not only have the railroads exercised such influence over
centers of business and population, but also have changed or given new
direction to all the industrial activities. The development of certain
localities has been delayed, while that of other places has been corre-
spondingly advanced, by the necessary inequality of progress in railroad
building. These general assertions are so abundantly proved in the his-
tory of the different localities contained in this work, and in every county
the railroad has been such an important factor, that a brief history of
railroad building in Texas needs no further apology in these pages.
From 1850 to the Civil W.\r
In 1850 Texas had not a mile of railroad track, engine nor cars.
Fourteen years before, December 16. 1836, the first railroad charter had
been granted in the republic, but this, with many others, had been for-
feited.
The first Texas railroad originated at Harrisburg, and was the Buf-
falo Bayou, Brazos & Colorado Railway, which was incorporated by the
act of February 11, 1850. Harrisburg was the center of railroad enter-
prise for many years. In 1840 some citizens undertook the construction
of what was known as the Harrisburg & Brazos Railroad, and an item
in the Houston Star (May 16, 1840) says: "Laborers are said to be grad-
ing and preparing for laying of rails." This road was chartered (Janu-
237
238 HISIORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ary 9, 1841) as the Harrisburg Railroad & Trading Company. Some
grading was actually done, but as the work depended on local capital, it
being impossible to secure outside capital as long as the existence of the
republic was threatened, the undertaking failed.
Harrisburg offered its unsold lots as a bonus for the railroad, and
General Sidney Sherman and associates finally arranged with eastern
capital and secured the charter of 1850 under which the first successful
railroad enterprise of Texas was begun.
Under the supervision of General Sherman, construction commenced
at Harrisburg in 185 1. In 1852 the first engine was brought to Texas
and placed on the track, its weight being about one-tenth that of a modern
locomotive. The first passenger coaches had been used as street cars in
the east, and had only four wheels to each car. In August, 1853, the road
was completed twenty miles, to Stafford's Point, in Brazoria county,
where a barbecue celebrated the event. In 1854 the road reached what
is now Sugarland, and by December, 1855, the track terminated on the
east bank of the Brazos opposite Richmond. The bridge over the river
here was a temporary wooden structure, with center spans that, for
allowing the passage of boats, were carried to one side on flat-boats. By
the fall of 1859 the terminus was at Eagle Lake, and a year later at
Alleyton, on the east side of the Colorado, about two miles from Co-
lumbus.
The gauge adopted for this road was four feet eight and a half
inches. At that time there was no uniformity of gauge among American
railways, and consequently little interchange of rolling stock. A carload
of freight could not be switched from one road to another, unless the
gauges happened to be the same. Eventually, when the majority of roads
adopted what is known as the "standard gauge," the width was the same
as that originally determined upon by the B. B., B. & C. Another fact of
interest about this pioneer Texas road was that no practicable telegraph
was used in connection with operation of trains until 1868, more than
twenty years after the invention was first put to use.
The total receipts of this road, eighty miles in length, for the year
ending April 30, i860, were $132,477. Twenty percent of this was from
passengers, 35 percent from merchandise, and 33 percent from cotton.
Cotton was then the largest single commodity, and at that time the road
tapped the richest cotton region of Texas.
The second railroad to be commenced in this decade was the Houston
& Texas Central. The original charter of this road is the oldest in Texas,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 239
that is, was the first of many similar charters that was fulfilled by actual
railroad construction. The Galveston & Red River Railroad was char-
tered by act of March 11, 1848 (two years before the incorporation of the
B. B., B. & C. Ry.). In 1850 an extension of time for beginning con-
struction was granted. Two years later the legislature gave another ex-
tension, and at the same time legalized the commencement of the road
at Houston instead of Galveston. Another amendment (January, 1856)
allowed the company until July 31, 1856, to complete the first twenty-five
miles. The concession by which the company was permitted to begin
building at Houston instead of Galveston was one of the causes that
made the former city the railroad center of South Texas. September i,
1856, another amendment to the charter permitted a change of the original
name to "Houston & Texas Central Railway Company."
Some construction work on this line was begun at Houston in 1853,
but only two miles was constructed in the next two years. The first
locomotive was placed on this short track January 22, 1856. The first
25-mile section, to Cypress, was completed July 27, 1856, and ten miles
further, to Hockley, May 11, 1857. The original gauge of this road was
five feet six inches. The iron T-rails weighed 54 pounds to the yard.
In 1857 the equipment consisted of two locomotives (rather larger than
the first one of the B. B., B. & C. Ry.), three passenger cars, ten box
cars, ten platform cars. In 1858 construction was continued to Hemp-
stead, and in January, i860, cars began taking freight to Courtney and
Navasota, and in March of the same year to Millican, eighty miles from
Houston.
The energy with which Houston originated railroad enterprises
which were actually carried out, and also turned to the advantage of the
city railroads which originated elsewhere, was the conspicuous feature of
this decade of railroad construction in Texas. Other Texas cities have
since become great railroad centers, but Houston was first in the field
and for half a century has enjoyed the commercial supremacy founded
by the enterprising citizens of the fifties.
As soon as General Sherman and his associates had completed the
Harrisburg road to Richmond, Houston citizens undertook the building
of a tap line, over which a large share of the commerce of the Brazos
valley might be diverted to the Bayou City. The Houston Tap Railroad
was chartered January 26, 1856. For the construction of the road the
city was authorized to levy a tax on property of one percent, and a license
tax was also voted unanimously. The construction of the seven miles
240 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of the road, to Pierce Junction, was begun in March, 1856, and was com-
pleted at a cost of $120,000, a schedule of trains being put in operation
October ist. One locomotive was used, while the "passenger coach" was
not unloaded at the dock for several weeks after the road began opera-
tion. The schedule announced that cars left Houston daily except Tues-
days and Thursdays at 8 a. m., returning in time for the mail steamer
to Galveston. According to a report in the Telegraph, "the cars run, all
things considered, with very little jar."
September i, 1856, a charter was granted for the Houston Tap &
Brazoria Railway Company. Nominally this was a separate corporation,
but the object was really an extension of the Houston Tap beyond the
Harrisburg road into the rich plantation district of Brazoria county. A
company was organized under the charter in July, 1857, the first president
being J. D. Waters. The seven miles of the Houston Tap was purchased,
and construction work was commenced toward Columbia on the Brazos.
An official report, dated August, 1859, stated that thirty-five miles from
Houston was in operation, and the line was finished to Columbia by the
end of the year. It was planned to continue the road into Matagorda and
Wharton counties, and some grading was done west of the Brazos. The
war proved a permanent interruption, and the terminus still remains
where it was fifty years ago.
This road was constructed by the enterprise of Houston merchants
and the planters along the line. It was formerly called the "sugar road"
from the fact that a chief object of its construction was the transporta-
tion of sugar from Brazoria and adjoining counties to Houston. The
crushing blow to the plantation industry given by the war, and the sub-
sequent decline of sugar growing in the "sugar bowl" district, account
for the long period of adversity endured by this road.
The Texas & New Orleans Railroad was chartered under the name
of the Sabine & Galveston Bay Railroad & Lumber Company, September
I, 1856 (the name being changed to the one in present use, December
24, 1859). By the charter, construction had to begin within one year.
The following item from the Houston Telegraph of September 2, 1857,
relates how the charter was saved from forfeit : "Some twenty-five or
thirty of our leading citizens repaired to the point where the line strikes
the eastern boundary of our city, about two miles from the bayou, and,
armed with spades and pickaxes, under the direction of the engineer,
formally broke ground on this great enterprise. First in the work wa?
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 241
the treasurer of the company, Dr. I. S. Roberts, and after him followed
all who were present."
Col. A. M. Gentry of Houston was president of the company, and
the principal ofifices were located at Houston. The road was planned
from Houston through Liberty and Beaumont to Madison (now Orange)
on the Sabine, there to connect with a road chartered by Louisiana to
extend to Berwick's Bay, then the western terminus of the New Orleans
& Opelousas Railroad — making a trunk line connecting the Texas rail-
roads centering at Houston with the eastern lines at New Orleans.
The gauge of this road was five and one-half feet, so that when this
line was consolidated with the Southern Pacific system it became neces-
sary to reduce the width to the standard gauge. The work of construc-
tion began in earnest in the spring of 1858, when the line was partially
graded between Houston and Liberty. In 1859 work progressed at other
points, and in August, i860, one of the contractors reported track laid
from Orange to Liberty, a distance of sixty-six miles. The company
owned a steamer for transporting rails, machinery and other supplies for
the Texas division, and until the opening of the Louisiana division it was
planned to use a steamer from Sabine bay to New Orleans. By the be-
ginning of 1861 the Texas division was ready for operation.
The Eastern Texas Railroad also belongs in this period. A charter
was granted in 1852 to the Henderson & Burkville Railroad. Permission
was afterwards given to begin construction on the coast, and in 1856 the
name was changed to the Mexican Gulf & Henderson Railroad. The fol-
lowing year some clearing was done a few miles north of Beaumont, but
in 1858 the plans were surrendered to a new corporation, the Eastern
Texas Railroad Company. During the next two years about thirty miles
were graded northward from Sabine Pass, and during i860 twenty-five
miles were equipped with rolling stock.
The first railroad connecting Galveston island with the interior of
Texas was the Galveston. Houston & Henderson. It was designed as an
air line from Galveston to Henderson, and was chartered February 7,
1853. Several extensions of time were granted for the completion of the
first forty miles. In December, 1855, fourteen schooner loads of timber
for construction, brought from Florida and rafted from Galveston to
Virginia Point, were swept away by a storm and very little recovered.
This was one of many difficulties in the progress of the road. Grading
began at Virginia Point in 1856. At Clear creek, where the first large
embankment was required, a gang of negroes furnished from a Brazos
242 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
plantation carried the dirt in pans borne on their heads to make the fill.
In March, 1857, track-laying began at Virginia Point. The editor of the
Texas Almanac, writing at the close of 1858, said: "We learn that the
forty miles required by law to be completed by the first of November were
finally finished and ready for the locomotive on October 23, and that the
two and one-half miles more to reach Main street in Houston will be
completed in a few days."
A steam ferry was to operate between Virginia Point and Galveston
until the completion of the bridge and track on the island. In 1857 Gal-
veston, by an almost unanimous vote, authorized the expenditure of $100,-
000 for the construction of a bridge over the bay. The city was to pay
for the bridge, one-half in bonds and one-half in cash, and the railroad
company was to pay interest on bonds and the principal at maturity, when
the ownership of the bridge would pass to the railroad company. Con-
struction of the bridge began in the latter part of 1858 and was finished
in 1859. Until the road was completed to Houston in 1858 all hauling
over the tracks was done by ox or horse traction. The "Perseverance"
and the "Brazos" were the first locomotives, and in 1859 trains began
running from Galveston to Houston.
The Galveston bridge was destroyed by storm, October 3, 1867. It
was reconstructed and opened June 25, 1868. At that time the rail-
road property was in receivership, and the reorganized G., H. & H.
R. R. Co., to which it was sold in 1871, was said to be dominated by Jay
Gould. In 1883 the G., H. & H. was leased for ninety-nine years to the
1. & G. N. as its Galveston outlet, but in 1895 the lease was surrendered
and the road leased, on equal terms, to the I. & G. N. and the M., K. & T.
for forty years.
The Washington County Railroad was a short line built before the
war, and owed its origin to the enterprise of the citizens of Washington
county, who, when the H. & T. C. was extended up the east side of the
Brazos, undertook the construction of a branch from Hempstead as an
outlet for the crops of their county. The charter was granted February
2, 1856, the road to run from any point on the H. & T. C. to Brenham,
county seat of Washington county, and construction to begin before
July I, 1858.
The first officers of the company were: J. D. Giddings, president;
A. G. Compton. secretary-treasurer, and C. A. Haskins, engineer and
superintendent. The secretary's report, September, i860, stated that the
first section of eleven and one-half miles to near Chappel Hill was finished
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 243
in May, 1859, and trains were operated from Hempstead to the Brazos
river beginning February 22, i860. The total income for transporta-
tion during i860 was about $2,500. The road was opened to Brenham
(twenty-five miles) October i, i860.
The San Antonio & Mexican Gulf Railroad Company was chartered
September 5, 1850, to build a line from some point on the gulf between
Corpus Christi and Galveston to San Antonio. Extensions of time were
necessary, as construction did not begin at Port Lavaca until 1856. The
state engineer's report on the road in 1858 stated that the five miles nec-
essary to prevent forfeiture of the charter were completed and in run-
ning order previous to January 31, 1858. The engineer said: "The
remarkable fact may be stated that this five miles of road, terminating in
the open prairie, at a point remote from any settlement or public high-
way, has not only been of vast service to the people of western Texas,
but has actually overpaid running expenses. I not only learn this from
the officers and agents of the company, but witnessed myself the immense
business it was doing ; the noise a'nd bustle ; the hundreds of wagons
and teams and teamsters drawn to its present terminus or station in the
prairie." The original gauge of this road was five and one-half feet.
The first officers and directors of the road were composed of residents
along the proposed route, most of them from San Antonio. W. J. Clarke,
the president, and S. A. Maverick, the treasurer, were from San Antonio,
and William J. Keen, secretary, was a Lavaca resident. After the grad-
ing was completed nearly to Victoria, operations were suspended until
L A. Paschal of San Antonio procured additional capital from Europe.
The road was open for traffic to Viatoria (twenty-eight miles) in
April, 1861.
January 21, 1858, the Lidianola Railroad Company was chartered
to construct a road from Indianola on Powderhorn bayou to a connec-
tion with the S. A. & M. G. not more than five miles from Lavaca. A
few miles were graded, but in i860 the road was absorbed by the
S. A. & M. G.
Another transportation enterprise had its beginning at Aransas Pass.
By act of February 14, 1852, the legislature chartered the Aransas Road
Company, the ostensible object being to construct a causeway and turn-
pike from the Aransas Pass across the peninsula to the mainland, and
thence to Goliad, a supplemental act allowing the company to improve
navigation over the bar and construct a drawbridge. Another amend-
ment (February 16, 1858) gave the right to substitute a railroad for
244 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
turnpike, and to build the line to the Rio Grande. The plan was to
build a Texas railroad to connect with a coordinate enterprise in Mexico,
giving a trunk line to the Pacific at Mazatlan. Internal troubles in
Mexico and the subsequent Civil war in the United States were the
patent causes of failure. Realization of the plan might have given a
very different direction to the railroad and economic development between
the Pacific coast and the Mississippi valley. In August, 1859, the work
of grading across the shallows and peninsula to the mainland was begun.
After most of the levee had been thrown up, the work was suspended,
until the revised plan of a railroad from this point was put into effect
twenty-five years later.
One other Texas railroad had its beginning before the war. The
Texas & Pacific, as it is now known, was the result of consolidation of
two original enterprises — the Memphis, El Paso & Pacific, and the South-
ern Pacific. October i, 1859, the former of these had thirty-five miles
of track graded and the latter had completed twenty-seven and one-half
miles in Texas. What was known as the Southern Pacific had its road in
operation between Marshall, Texas, and Shreveport, Louisiana, by the
beginning of the war. The other line was planned to extend from Tex-
arkana toward El Paso. A branch line for construction purposes was
begun at Jefiferson, and five miles completed before the war.
The total length of railways in operation in Texas at the beginning
of the Civil war was 492 miles.* The city of Houston was the original
starting point or a terminus of four-fifths of this mileage. ■
The Civil War Decade
The Civil war not only decreased traffic and operation of railroads,
but, as a war measure, some of the track laid at so great expense was
destroyed. In December, 1863, by order of General Magruder, the
S. A. & M. G. Railroad from Port Lavaca to Victoria was destroyed, the
rails having been torn up, the ties and some of the cars burned, and the
engines rendered unfit ior service. At the close of the war the federal
authorities rebuilt this line. The T. & N. O. was partially dismantled by
the Confederates in 1865, and operation of trains was suspended for a
number of years. The Eastern Texas Railroad was also destroyed, most
of the rails having been torn up and used by the Confederates in con-
*"Eailroad Transportation in Texas," Charles S. Potts.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 245
structing the fort at Sabine Pass. That demolition closed the history
of the enterprise.
The limited facilities of passenger service over the few Texas roads
in operation in 1864 are shown by the schedule of trains published in the
Texas Almanac for 1865:
H. & T. C. — Trains leave Houston every day, except Sunday, at 10
a. m., and reach Hempstead, 50 miles, at 2 p. m., connecting with the
Washington County Railroad and tri-weekly stages from Brenham to
Austin. Leave Hempstead at 2 p. m. and reach Navasota, 20 miles, at
4 p. m., where the cars connect with tri-weekly stages to Shreveport.
Leave Navasota at 4 p. m. and reach Millican at 5 p. m., where cars con-
nect with tri-weekly stages to Waco and Dallas. Returning leave Milli-
can at 7 a. m., Navasota at 8 a. m., Hempstead at 10 a. m. and reach
Houston at 2 p. m.
Washington County R. R. — Trains leave Brenham every day at 6
a. m. and reach Hempstead, 25 miles, at 9 a. m. Returning, leave Hemp-
stead at 2 p. m. and reach Brenham at 4 p. m.
B., B., B. & C. R. R. — Trains leave Harrisburg for Alleyton Mon-
days, Wednesdays and Fridays at 9 a. m. Returning, leave Alleyton
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 8 a. m., making connections at
Houston Junction with the H. T. & B. R. R. from Houston and Co-
lumbia.
H. T. & B. R. R. — Trains run three times a week between Houston
and Columbia, 50 miles.
G. H. & H. R. R. — Trains leave Galveston Mondays, Wednesdays
and Fridays at 9 a. m. ; arrive at Houston at i :30 p. m. Return alternate
days.
T. & N. O. R. R. — Trains leave Houston Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays at 7 a. m. and arrive at Beaumont at 4 p. m. ; return alternate
days.
Besides the disorganization and financial difficulties of the different
railway companies, the physical condition of the roads continued at a
low ebb until Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870. The H. &
T. C. was the first road to resume progressive construction. Beginning
at the old terminus at Millican in 1866, this road was extended to Bryan
in 1867, to Calvert in 1868, and by 1870 to Groesbeck, 170 miles from
Houston. The old Washington County Railroad was purchased by the
H. & T. C. in 1867, and its line was rapidly extended from Brenham to
Austin, being completed fifty miles, to Ledbetter, in 1870.
The T. & N. O., which was a bankrupt property, had for several
years ceased operations altogether, but by 1870 operated trains from
Houston to West Liberty, a distance of thirty-five miles. The Columbus
24" HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Tap Railway Company, which had been incorporated in February, i860,
to construct a railroad and bridge to connect Columbus with the then
terminus of the B. B. B. & C. road at Alleyton, completed this short line
in 1868. No other work was done on the Harrisburg road during this
decade. By 1870 the old Southern Pacific was extended beyond Mar-
shall to Hallville, while a hundred miles of the M. E. P. & P. had been
completed west from Texarkana. The above comprises all the note-
worthy additions to Texas railroads up to 1870. No construction had
begun under new charters, and the H. & T. C. was the only road that
thoroughly recovered from the effects of war and made important addi-
tions to its mileage.
From 1870 to 1880.
About 2,500 miles of railroad were built in Texas during this decade.
The progress of the old roads will first be noticed.
The main line of the H. & T. C. was extended to Corsicana (210
miles from Houston) in 1871, to McKinney in 1872, and to the northern
terminus at Denison by January i, 1873. The Austin branch from Hemp-
stead was completed to the capital by 1872.
The Waco Tap Railroad was incorporated November 5, 1866, but
no construction was done. August 6, 1870, the name was changed to
Waco & Northwestern. The road began at Bremond on the main line
of the H. & T. C, and reached Marlin in 1871, and was completed to
Waco September 18, 1872. Though under a separate charter, this line
was built by the H. & T. C. interests, and by act of May 24, 1873, the
latter company was authorized to acquire the property and franchises.
During this decade, by consolidation and new construction, important
links were formed in the present "Sunset Route." By the act of July
27, 1870, the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad was char-
tered to succeed the B. B. B. & C, and to acquire the corporate rights
of the Columbus Tap, and extend the road west to San Antonio and
thence to the Rio Grande. The title "Sunset Route" was soon after
applied to this road, a name that has since become the popular and official
designation of the entire Southern Pacific system. Thomas W. Pierce
became the president and principal owner of the road, and by his own
wealth and energy, with the liberal subsidies voted by the counties along
the route, constructed what has become acknowledged as one of the
best railroad properties in the country.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 247
From Columbus the G. H. & S. A. was extended to Schulenburg
in 1873, to Luling in 1874 and Kingsbury in 1875, and in September,
1876, reached the Guadalupe at Marion. February 19, 1877, the formal
opening of the road to San Antonio was celebrated by an excursion
train, carrying many notable citizens to the Alamo city.
In 1877 the general offices of this road were removed from Harris-
burg to Houston, thus depriving that pioneer seat of railroad enterprise
of its last important honors as a transportation center. Houston had
connection with the main line over the old Houston Tap, but a new
branch was now built to Stella and opened in 1880.
The S. A. & M. G. (from Port Lavaca to Victoria) and the Indianola
Railroad (partly destroyed during the war, but later rebuilt for a few
miles) were consolidated under the new charter granted to the Gulf,
Western Texas & Pacific Railway, August 4, 1870. Under this name
the road was extended and opened for traffic to Cuero, May 31, 1874.
The T. & N. O. Railroad was not reopened for traffic over the entire
distance from Houston to Orange until August i, 1876.
The Houston Tap & Brazoria Railroad was discontinued after the
war and, except over the Tap between Houston and the Harrisburg road,
no trains were operated for some years. In February, 1871, the property
was sold to the Houston & Great Northern, and after being improved was
again operated, and has since been a constituent part of the I. & G. N.
system.
The Houston & Great Northern Railroad was chartered October 22
1866. The principal offices were located at Houston, and the president
of the road during its early period of building was Galusha A. Grow.
By 1871 fifty miles were in operation, from Houston to Willis in Mont-
gomery county; it was extended to Trinity (eighty-eight miles) in
January, 1872; and to Palestine (152 miles) in November, 1872. In
1873 the Huntsville branch and the Houston Tap & Brazoria were both
absorbed by the H. & G. N.
August 5, 1870, the International Railroad was chartered to build
a line from Red river opposite Fulton, Arkansas, across Texas by Austin
and San Antonio towards Laredo on the Rio Grande. The company was
organized at New York in October, 1870, and construction began at
Hearne in Robertson county the latter part of the same year. In 1871
rifty miles were in operation, to Jewett in Leon county. The road was
rapidly extended, to Palestine in February, 1872, and to Longview (174
248 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
miles) in December of the same year. At Longview it connected with
the Texas & Pacific and at Palestine with the H. & G. N.
September 23, 1873, the I. & G. N. Railroad was incorporated, with
authority to purchase and consolidate the International and the Houston
& Great Northern, with their branches. The main line was extended
west from Hearne to Austin in 1876. Austin was the terminus for a
year or so, and construction was then continued to San Antonio and to
Laredo, the first train running to the Rio Grande in 188 1. In April;
1874, the branch from Troupe to Mineola was opened, that between
Overton and Henderson in 1877, and the connection between the main
line and Georgetown was built in 1878 and later absorbed by the I. & G. N.
Until the late '70s Galveston had but one railroad, the G. H. & H.,
which connected with the railroad system of the state at Houston. At
its inception the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe was a Galveston enterprise,
planned to penetrate the central region of the state and draw its com-
merce directly to Galveston without the necessity of paying tribute to
Houston. The Santa Fe did much to make Galveston an independent
railroad terminal, freed from the restrictions imposed by its business
rival on the bayou. The following sketch of the road's early history
was written by Ben C. Stuart in the Galveston Neivs:
"The Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe Railway was not originally con-
nected with the Atchison system, but was an exclusively Galveston enter-
prise. It was incorporated by an act of the legislature May 28, 1873.
The capital stock was fixed at a maximum limit of $7,000,000, and the
minimum at $2,000,000, which was the amount under which the com-
pany received a land grant from the state of sixteen alternate sections,
or 10,240 acres, for every mile of road constructed, and under this pro-
vision of its charter secured a total of 3,259,520 acres of the public
domain. Under an act of the legislature approved April 12, 1871, by
which cities or counties were permitted to donate or subscribe bonds for
the purpose of aiding in railroad construction, an election was held at
which Galveston county voted to issue $500,000 in bonds, taking therefoi
five thousand shares of the capital stock of the company at the par value
of one hundred dollars a share. This was one-fourth of the minimum
captalization of the company under which it began operations. Under
the original act of incorporation the road was to be constructed from
Galveston by way of Caldwell, Cameron, Belton and Eastland to the
Canadian river in the Panhandle, up that stream to the state line, and
thence to Santa Fe.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 249
"Among the early officers and directors of the company were M.
Kopperl, president; James Sorley, vice president; C. R. Hughes, secre-
tary; H. Rosenberg, R. S. Willis, J. E. Wallis, C. B. Lee, Walter
Gresham, W. L. Moody, Julius Runge, H. Kempner, C. W. Hurley, H.
Marwitz and C. E. Richards. The work of grading was begun in May,
1875. Gen. Braxton Bragg, who had been a distinguished Confed-
erate officer during the Civil war, was appointed chief engineer, and
under his direction work on the trestle bridge across the bay was begun
in 1875, the structure being much damaged in the storm of that autumn.
General Bragg remained with the road until September 27, 1876, when
he was suddenly stricken with heart disease while crossing a Galveston
street and fell dead. He was succeeded as chief engineer by the late
Maj. B. M. Temple."
The company was reorganized in 1879, at which time George Sealy
became president. "He had been largely instrumental in forming the
syndicate to take over the road, and the line was extended mainly through
the capital and credit of Galveston people and the influence of Mr. Sealy
and other members of the firm of Ball, Hutchings & Co."
The road was opened from Galveston to Areola in 1876, and two
years later to Richmond. After the reorganization, the line was pushed
on to Brenham, in 1880, and to Belton, 226 miles from Galveston, in
February, 1881.
During the decade of the '70s the greater part of the Texas &
Pacific Railway was constructed across North Texas. In the decade
before the war, the Memphis, El Paso & Pacific had been commenced
near Texarkana February i, 1857, and over fifty miles graded before
the war. Construction was renewed in 1869, and March i, 1870, fifty
miles were in operation, and by June 15, 1870, one hundred miles were
finished.
July 27, 1870, the Southern Trans-Continental Railway Company
was incorporated with authority to purchase the M. E. P. & P., which
under its charter had fallen into financial and legal straits. March 24,
1 87 1, an act granted three million dollars in state bonds to the Trans-
Continental company and also to the Southern Pacific company on condi-
tion that they extended their lines to a junction not east of Shackleford
county ; and also authorized the consolidation of the two companies
under the name of Texas & Pacific Railway Company. The consolida-
tion was eflfected in March, 1872.
Col. Thomas A. Scott was the propelling genius of this enterprise.
250 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The old Southern Pacific had been built from Shreveport to Longview,
and this, as the main line of the Texas & Pacific, was extended on to
Dallas in 1873. The Jefiferson branch, between Marshall and Texarkana,
was completed about 1875. A little later the Trans-Continental division,
from Texarkana, was completed to Sherman.
The financial panic of 1873 had begun just two weeks after the
completion of the main line of the T. & P. to Dallas. Railroad building
during the next three years made little progress. The T. & P. Railway
Company extended the main line beyond the Trinity to Eagle Ford, but
could get no further. Fort Worth was in the meanwhile waiting with
impatience the arrival of the first railroad train. Despairing of outside
aid, the citizens finally in the fall of 1875 organized the Tarrant County
Construction Company, which undertook the grading of the road into
Fort Worth. The following spring the railroad company was able to pro-
ceed with track-laying, and on July 19, 1876, the first train arrived at
Fort Worth. In 1880, also largely through the aid of local enterprise,
the main line was extended to Weatherford, and from that point construc-
tion went on rapidly to the west during 1880 and 1881. By 1880 the
Trans-Continental branch was built from Sherman to Fort Worth.
The first railroad to reach Texas from the north was the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas. The nucleus of this system was chartered September
20, 1865, and construction work soon began at Junction City, Kansas.
It was pushed on to the southern boundary of that state and was opened
to Chetopa, June i, 1870. During 1871 and 1872 the road continued
building through Indian Territory, and in the last months of 1872 crossed
the Red river and halted in a corn field four miles away, in Grayson
county. Around this terminus, to which trains began to be operated on
January i, 1873, there sprang into existence the town of Denison.
The first charter of a "narrow-gauge" railway in Texas was that
approved August 4, 1870, and was originated by Dr. Ingham S. Roberts
as the Western Narrow Gauge Railway. T. W. House, R. O. Love, Dr.
Ingham S. Roberts, Eugene Pillot and other well-knovvn Houston b;isi-
ness men were among the incorporators. Its name was changed, Feb-
ruary 6, 1875, to Texas Western Narrow Gauge Railway. The road
was built from Houston to Patterson near the Brazos river, and later,
in 1882, was built from Patterson to Sealy. This original narrow-gauge
line was dismantled, and its route from Sealy to Houston has since been
followed by the M. K. & T. The H. E. & W. T. Railroad is a line from
Houston to Shreveport, incorporated March 11, 1875, and was the work
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 251
principally of the late Paul Bremond. In 1870 the road was open to
Goodrich, sixty-two miles, and was extended to Moscow in 1880, to
Burke in 1881, to Nacogdoches in 1882, and to the Sabine river by
December, 1885. The Louisana portion of the road is the Shreveport
& Houston, and service between these terminals was inaugurated in
January, 1886. The line was changed from narrow to standard gauge
in 1894.
By 1880 the Southern Pacific Railroad had been built from the
Pacific coast to El Paso. There remained the gap of about five hundred
miles between El Paso and San Antonio, the latter being the western
end of the G. H. & S. A. Building then began at both these terminals,
and with the closing of the gap in 1883 the southern transcontinental line
was completed, so the trains could run from New Orleans to the Pacific.
In North Texas, the extension of the T. & P. westward from
Weatherford had begun in 1880, and proceeded with great rapidity. In
the summer of 1881 track-laying went on at the average of two miles a
day. By October, 1880, construction trains had reached Eastland City,
100 miles from Fort Worth, and the first train entered El Paso over this
road in January, 1882, using the tracks of the Southern Pacific from
Sierra Blanca to El Paso.
During this decade Texas obtained another north and south trunk
line. The G. C. & S. F. had been built from Galveston to Belton by
February, 1881. Through the inducements offered by citizens of Fort
Worth, Cleburne and in other counties, the building of a connecting line
between Fort Worth and the main line was undertaken during 1881 and
proceeded with so much energy that the first train from Temple to Fort
Worth entered the latter city December 2, 1881. This portion of the
road was then considered a branch. The main line was extended from
Belton to Lampasas in May, 1882; to Brownwood in January, 1886:
from Brownwood to Coleman in March, 1886; Coleman to Ballinger,
June, 1886; and Balhnger to San Angelo, in September, 1888.
In 1886 the G. C. & S. F., through an exchange of stock, was con-
solidated with the A., T. & S. F. system. By January. 1887, the line of
the Santa Fe from Fort Worth to Gainesville was in operation, and a
few months later, by construction of the line between the latter point and
Purcell, Indian Territory, the Texas divisions of the Santa Fe were
252 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
linked with the main trunks of the system. The G. C. & S. F. is one of
the few among Texas railroads that have never been in the hands of a
receiver. Even at the time the Atchison system outside of Texas was in
the hands of a receiver, the Gulf line, through the efforts of Mr. Sealy,
was kept out of the courts.
The branch from Alvin connecting Houston with the main line of
the Santa Fe was built about 1884. In 1882 the Central & Montgomery
Railroad, from Navasota to Montgomery, was purchased, and in 1883
this was joined to the main line by an extension from Navasota to
Somerville, and in 1885 this branch was built to Conroe. In 1882 the
bl-anch from Cleburne to Dallas was put in operation, and thence extended
to Paris in June, 1887.
The Corpus Christi, San Diego & Rio Grande Railroad, originally
narrow-gauge, was chartered March 13, 1875, was built from Corpus
Christi to San Diego, fifty miles, by 1879, and was extended fifty miles
farther in 1880. In 1881 it was completed to Laredo, and the present
name, Texas Mexican Railway, adopted. It is operated as part of the
Mexican National system.
The Texas Central Railroad was chartered May 28, 1879. Con-
struction was begun at Ross, the terminus of the Waco division of the
H. & T. C, and the line was completed to Albany (176 miles) in 1882.
In 1899 this road was extended to Stamford, and about 1907 was con-
tinued to Rotan in Fisher county.
The New York, Texas & Mexican Railroad (now part of the Sunset
System) was chartered in 1880. Construction began at Rosenberg, on
the main line of the G. H. & S. A., and the ninety-two miles to Victoria
were completed January 15, 1882.
The branch of the Gulf, Western Texas & Pacific from Victoria to
Beeville was built in 1890.
About 1880 the Gonzales Branch Railroad was built from Harwood
to Gonzales, connecting the latter town with the main line of the G. H.
&S. A.
An important Texas railroad that originated and was mostly built
during this decade was the San Antonio & Aransas Pass. Prominent
residents of San Antonio originated this plan of a railroad directly to the
gulf. Uriah Lott was the first president, and among the early directors
were George W. Brackenridge, B. F. Yoakum, W. H. Maverick, Henry
Elmendorf. The company was chartered August 28, 1884, and construc-
tion began in August, 1885. The charter had been so amended as to
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 253
provide for connecting San Antonio with all quarters of Texas. The
line from San Antonio to Beeville was completed in 1S86, and by the
following year had reached Corpus Christi and .\ransas Pass. June i,
1887, the Kerrville branch had reached I'.oerne. During the next two
years the line from Kenedy to Houston was completed; Kerrville was
reached ; the branch from Yoakum toward Waco was built fifty miles to
West Point, and the Brownsville division was built from Skidmore to
Kleberg. In 1891 the Waco branch was complete, and about the same
time the Austin branch was constructed from Shiner as far as Lockhart.
The only subsequent addition to the "Sap" system was the extension
from Alice to Falfurrias, built in 1904.
The Fort Worth & Denver City Railwa>- was chartered May 26,
1873. but owing to the panic of that year eight years passed before the
work of construction began. The first grading was begun at Hodge,
several miles north of Fort Worth, in November, 1881, the first rails
were laid the following February, and Wichita Falls was reached Septem-
ber 27, 1882. This was the first line to penetrate the country to the
northwest of Fort Worth, and the immediate results were seen in the
upbuildmg of towns and a general transformation in agricultural condi-
tions and settlement. All the now flourishing towns west of Henrietta,
includi'ig Wichita Falls, Vernon, Quanah and Amarillo, begin their his-
tory practically with the building of the railroad. According to the terras
of the charter, the Fort Worth & Denver City should have been completed
by Christmas day, 1882. But extension west from Wichita Falls was
not resumed until May, 1885. By April, 1887, Quanah was the western
terminus, while the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth, as the Colorado divi-
sion of the road was known, had been built 138 miles from Pueblo. The
two divisions met at Texline and were connected March 14, 1888, thus
opening the shortest rail line between the gulf and Colorado points.
During this decade some .important additions were made to the
network of rails controlled by the H. & T. C. Ry. Co. The Waxahachie
Tap Railway had been chartered in 1875, but the name was subsequently
changed to Central Texas & Northwesiem, and was opened from Garret
to Waxahachie, a distance of twelve miles, in 1881. The Fort Worth
& New Orleans was chartered in 1885 to build between the two cities
named. This enterprise originated in Fort Worth, whose citizens raised
$75,000 to construct the first division. Work was begun in September,
1885, and the line was opened to Waxahachie in May, 1886. Both these
254 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
roads soon after fell into the control of the Southern Pacific interests
and were used to provide a Fort Worth branch for the H. & T. C.
The St. Louis Southwestern Railway, commonly called the "Cotton
Belt," was originally a narrow gauge line beginning at Bird's Point, op-
posite Cairo, Illinois. In Texas the original portion of this system was
the Tyler Tap Railroad, which was chartered December i, 1871. With
a three-foot gauge, the road was opened from Tyler to Ferguson, 21
miles, in 1871, and to Mt. Pleasant in 1878. This road in 1879 became
the property of the Texas and St. Louis Railway Company, which in
1881 completed the road west from Tyler to Waco, and in 1882 it was
extended to Gatesville, the present western terminus. In 1883 the
main line from Missouri to Texarkana was opened. During 1884-86
the system was in a receivership. It was reorganized under two com-
panies, known as the St. Louis, Arkansas & Texas Railway Company.
At a cost of several million dollars the gauge was changed to standard.
In 1887-88 the road was built from Mt. Pleasant to Sherman and to
Fort Worth, and the Corsicana-Hillsboro branch was also completed.
In 1887 the Kansas & Gulf Short Line, from Tyler to Lufkin, was
purchased. This line had been chartered in 1880 and had been built in
1882. In 1890 another reorganization occurred, when all the Texas prop-
erties except the Lufkin branch last mentioned, were turned over to the
St. Louis Southwestern Railway Company of Texas. The Tyler &
Southeastern Railway Co. owned the Lufkin branch until 1899, when it
again became a part of the Cotton Belt. In 1903 it was extended from
Lufkin to Warsaw, and has recently been constructed to White City.
Many of the lines constituting the M. K. & T. railroad group in
Texas were constructed during the '80s. In the winter of 1878-79 what
was at first known as the Denison & Pacific began building from Denison
west, being completed to Whitesboro in March, 1879, and to Gaines-
ville in November of the same year. In January, 1880, this line was
purchased by the M. K. & T. company. In 1887 the Gainesville, Hen-
rietta & Western was built to Henrietta and subsequently the Wichita
Falls Railway was built to the town of that name. The Trans-Con-
tinental division of the Texas & Pacific from Sherman to Fort Worth
was built in 1880, and the M. K. & T. has since used this line from
Whitesboro to Fort Worth. The part of the M. K. & T. lines from
Denton to Dallas had been constructed as the Dallas & Wichita Railroad,
which was chartered in 1871, had been built as far as Lewisville in 1874
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 255
and was completed to Denton in 1880. This road was purchased by the
"Katy" in 1884.
From Fort Worth south the main hne of this system was built by
a subsidiary company called the Taylor, Bastrop & Houston Railroad
Company. By 1884 this was opened to Taylor, with a branch to Helton,
and in 1886 under the same name the road was built to Boggy Tank
in Fayette county a few miles east of Fayetteville. The same company
built the line from San Marcos to Lockhart, in 1887. From Boggy
Tank to Houston the M. K. & T. company extended its main line
in 1892, and in 1895 secured an outlet to Galveston over the G. H. & H.
tracks. From Smithville to Lockhart the road was opened in 1892,
and by the opening of the extension from San Marcos to San Antonio, in
May, 1901, the Katy completed connections with all the chief cities of
Texas. In 1903 the short line from Granger to Austin, built by the
Granger, Georgetown, Austin & San Antonio Ry. Co., was acquired,
and in the same year was extended to Austin.
The M. K. & T. from Hillsboro to Dallas was originally the Dallas
& Waco, which had been chartered in 1886, and was constructed to
Waxahachie in 1889, to Milford in 1890, and then being acquired by
the M. K. & T. was completed to Hillsboro in 1891.
In 1877-78 the Denison & Southeastern was completed from Deni-
son to Greenville, and soon afterward acquired by the M. K. & T. In 1884
this line had been extended from Greenville to Mineola. In 1876 the
citizens of Jefferson had constructed the East Line & Red River Railroad,
a narrow-gauge line, from Jefferson to Greenville. This became a
part of the M. K. & T. system about 1884, and was extended as a broad
gauge from Greenville to McKinney. From Jefferson to the state line
this road was built about 1902.
The isolated branch of the M. K. & T. from Trinity to Colmesneil
was built about 1882, under the name of Trinity & Sabine Railroad, this
having been constructed as a branch of the I. & G. N.
The miles of railroad in operation in Texas in 1880 were 3,244.
Over five thousand miles were constructed during the following decade,
and with one or two exceptions the trunk lines of Texas were completed.
In 1891 the railway mileage of the state was 8,654. In 1900 it was
9,867, showing an increase of only twelve hundred miles during the
decade. In 1909 the miles in operation were 13,277. In the following
paragraphs are summarized the important railroad constructions during
the last two decades.
256 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The Frisco system had its nucleus in the Southwest branch of the
Pacific Railroad, built from Pacific to Rolla, Mo., in 1861. This was pur-
chased by J. C. Fremont and associates and was known as the South-
west Pacific to 1868. It was extended to Springfield, Mo., and known
as the South Pacific, in 1870 was merged with the Atlantic & Pacific,
and in 1878 the different lines were organized under the present name of
the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway Company.
The oldest part of the Frisco System in Texas was the Fort Worth
& Rio Grande Railroad, which originated among the railroad-building
citizens of Fort Worth. The company was chartered in 1885 and con-
struction began on November 23, 1886. The first division to Granbury
was completed August 25, 1887. In 1889 work was resumed, and the road
was extended to Stephenville by October, 1890, and Brownwood was
reached July 16, 1891. The consolidation of this line with the other
Frisco lines of Texas was authorized in March, 1903, and about that
time the road had been extended to Brady and is now in process of con-
struction to Menardville.
In 1887 the Frisco had constructed a line from Fort Smith, Ark.,
to Paris, Texas, the seventeen miles between Paris and the Red river
being called Paris & Great Northern Railroad. The Frisco lines sub-
sequently penetrated Texas at three other points — Denison, Quanah and
Vernon. In 1901 the Red River, Texas & Southern Railway was chart-
ered by the Frisco interests, and constructed the line from Sherman to
Carrollton, entrance to Fort Worth being at first obtained over the Cotton
Belt, but subsequently by the Rock Island.
In 1905 the Beaumont, Sour Lake & Western was completed between
Beaumont and Sour Lake, and two years later was continued to Houston.
The Orange & Northwestern, between Orange and Newton, built in
1905, is also a Frisco property. By means of the Kansas City Southern
from Beaumont to the state line, and by Louisiana connections, the Frisco
has recently inaugurated train service between Houston and New Orleans,
thus competing with the Southern Pacific.
The St. Louis, Brownsville & Mexico Railway, an allied line with the
Frisco System, was chartered in June, 1903. Construction began at
Brownsville, and was carried to Robstown in July, 1904, to Sinton, in
April, 1905, to Bay City in 1906, and in the spring of 1907 the road
was completed to Algoa, whence the Santa Fe tracks afford entry to
Houston and to Galveston. The branch line from Harlingen up the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 257
Rio Grande valley to Sam Fordyce was completed in December, 1904.
The Chicago, Rock Island & Texas Railway Company was chart-
ered July 15, 1892. The Rock Island line from Red river through Bowie
to Fort Worth was opened in August, 1893. The branch from Bridgeport
was built to Jacksboro in 1898, and extended to Graham m 1902. The
line from Fort Worth to Dallas was opened in 1903. In 1900 the Chicago,
Rock Island & Mexico was built across the northwest corner of the Pan-
handle, as part of the Rock Island lines from Kansas City to El Paso.
In 1903 the Choctaw, Oklahoma & Texas was completed from the
Oklahoma line to Amarillo, and this line is now (1910) about completed
from Amarillo to the New Mexico line. In 1903 all these Rock Island
lines were consolidated under the corporate title of Chicago, Rock Island
& Gulf Railway Company.
The history of the Rock Island outlet to the Gulf, by way of the
Trinity & Brazos Valley, is told as follows in Potts' "Railroad Trans-
portation in Texas": "In 1902 the Rock Island System, in order to
reach Houston and Galveston, arranged for the purchase, from the
Southern Pacific company, of a one-half interest in the H. & T. C. rail-
road, which was to be turned over to the Rock Island Company and
consolidated with its lines. For some reason the state railroad com-
mission refused to allow the proposed transfer, presumably for the purpose
of forcing the Rock Island to build its own line to tidewater, a plan it had
previously had in contemplation. More recently, however, the desired
outlet has been secured by the purchase of a one-half interest, along
with the Colorado & Southern, in the Trinity & Brazos Valley Railroad.
This road was organized October 17, 1902, and the first section from
Hillsboro to Hubbard City was opened a year later. By January 26,
1904 trains were running from Cleburne to Mexia, seventy-nine miles,
and during the year 1907 the main line was completed to Houston and
a branch from Teague through Corsicana to Waxahachie. The use
of the Santa Fe tracks from Cleburne gives it an entrance into Fort
Worth, while the M. K. & T. tracks are used from Waxahachie to
Dallas. The Santa Fe tracks are also used at present from Houston
to Galveston. The company owns one-fourth interest in the Houston
Belt & Terminal Railway, a very valuable property. The main line from
Cleburne to Houston is very well constructed, with low grades and easy
curves, and, as it is the only Galveston outlet for an extensive group
of roads belonging both to the Rock Island and to the Colorado &
Southern systems, it is certain to have a large tonnage."
Vol. 1—17
258 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
A typical North Texas railroad, which recently became part of the
Colorado & Southern group, is the Wichita Valley Railroad, which
was incorporated February 4, 1890, Morgan Jones being its first president.
During the year 1890 it built its line of railroad from Wichita Falls to
Seymour, a distance of 52 miles. October 21, 1903, was organized the
Wichita Falls & Oklahoma Railway, Mr. Jones being likewise president
of this allied company. During the same year this company built the
twenty-three miles of railroad from Wichita Falls to Byers on the Red
'river. Under charter of October 4, 1905, the Wichita Valley Railroad
Company was authorized to build from Seymour southwest, while another
company, the Abilene & Northern, built from Abilene to Stamford. These
lines were connected in 1907, and about the same- time were absorbed by
the Colorado & Southern company.
Some important additions have been made to the Santa Fe and the
Southern Pacific systems in Texas during the last two decades. These
new lines, some of which were originally independent railroads and since
consolidated with the larger systems, have been of special benefit to the
development of East Texas.
The Gulf, Beaumont & Kansas City Railroad Company was or-
ganized March 21, 1893. John H. Kirby originated the plan of this line
to develop the long-leaf pine area of East Texas, and in spite of the
financial panic that followed the beginning of the enterprise he succeeded
in constructing sixty-two miles during the next two or three years. It ex-
tended from Beaumont through Jasper county to Rogan. In the late '90s
the Gulf, Beaumont & Great Northern Railway Co. was organized. In
1901 fifteen miles were constructed by this company from Rogan north
through the town of Jasper, and on June 30, 1902, the company had 38
miles in operation. By the act of March 30, 1903, the Santa Fe company
was authorized to purchase these two lines, the northern terminus of
which was then at Center. In April, 1907, the consolidation of the Texas
& Gulf Railroad with the Santa Fe was authorized. The Texas & Gulf
at that time extended from Longview to Waterman, and has recently
been completed to Grigsby. In 1910 the connection between this line and
the Santa Fe road at Center was completed by a branch of the T. & G.
from Zuber to Center. This gives the Santa Fe a line from Longview,
in northeast Texas, to Beaumont. From Beaumont the Santa Fe has
an outlet to Galveston by way of the Gulf & Interstate, which is con-
trolled and operated under a lease by the Santa Fe. The Gulf & Inter-
state was built from Beaumont down the peninsula to Bolivar Point,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 259
opposite Galveston, in 1896, the charter for the road having been granted
in 1894. In the storm of September, 1900, the Hne from High Island
to BoHvar was destroyed. The rebuilding of this section of twenty-seven
miles was completed in 1903. From Bolivar the cars are ferried across
the harbor to Galveston.
The branch of the Santa Fe from Somerville to Conroe, completed in
1885, has been previously mentioned. The Texas, Louisiana & Eastern
Railroad Company undertook the building of a road east from Conroe,
but had built only thirty-one miles, to the Trinity river, by 1897, the
company having gone into receivership in July, 1895. The purchase by
the Santa Fe was authorized in March, 1897, and by 1901 the line was
completed to Kountze and soon afterward to Silsbee, where connection
is made with the East Texas line of the Santa Fe above described.
In July, 1905, the Santa Fe acquired by lease the Cane Belt Rail-
road. This road was chartered in 1898, and by the end of that year it
was constructed from Eagle Lake to Bonus, was finished from Sealy to
Bay City in 1901 and extended to Matagorda in 1903.
In East Texas, the Southern Pacific has a line between Dallas and
Sabine Pass. This was formed by the consolidation and extension of two
detached lines. The Sabine & East Texas Railway was built in 1882
from Sabine Pass through Beaumont to Rockland, a distance of 103
miles. This line was then purchased by the T. & N. O. In 1897 the
Texas Trunk Railroad was chartered, and was opened from Dallas to
Kaufman in 1881 and to Cedar in 1883. In 1899 the ownership of the
Sabine & East Texas by the T. & N. O. was confirmed by the legislature,
which granted the latter road the right to purchase and consolidate the
Texas Trunk on conditions that the gap between Cedar and Rockland be
closed by a line connecting the two roads. This connection was opened for
traffic in May, 1903.
The Southern Pacific connection between Houston and Galveston is
the result of a consolidation of several short lines. The North Galveston,
Houston & Kansas City Railroad was built in 1892 from Virginia Point
to the peninsula north of Dickinson bayou. The Laporte. Houston &
Northern Railway was constructed in 1893 from Laporte to within four
miles of Houston, where it connected with the Houston Belt & Magnolia
Park Railway. These lines were consolidated in 1895 as the Galveston,
Laporte & Houston Railway, and the connecting link from Strang to
Edgewater built so as to make a continuous line from Houston to Vir-
26o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
ginia Point. In 1899 the road was sold to the Galveston, Houston &
Northern Company, and in 1905 was absorbed by the G. H. & S. A.
In 1901 a branch of the N. Y., Tex. & Mex. Railroad was built
from Wharton to Van Vleck, was extended to Bay City in 1902, and to
Tres Palacios on Matagorda bay in June, 1903. This, with the main
line from Rosenberg to Mctoria, was consolidated with the G. H. & S. A.
division of the Southern Pacific in 1905.
The San Antonio & Gulf Railroad was begun in 1893 and con-
structed from San Antonio as far as Sutherland Springs in the same year ;
in 1898 it was extended a few miles further to Stockdale. The Gulf,
Western Texas & Pacific, from Lavaca to Cuero, mentioned on a pre-
vious page, was acquired by the G. H. & S. A. in 1905, together with the
S. A. & G. These two links were then connected by building a road
from Stockdale to Cuero.
-Some changes and additions have also been made to the H. & T. C.
lines during the last two decades. In August, 1901, this company
absorbed the Austin & Northwestern, which was chartered in 188 1, was
constructed as a narrow-gauge to Burnet and Granite Mountain by 1882,
the stone for the state capitol being brought over this road. In 1889 it
was extended to Marble Falls and in 1892 to Llano.
In 1906 was completed the Mexia-Navasota "cut-off," a line of the
H. & T. C, between the stations named, which materially shortens the
main line.
In 1903 the Fort Worth branch of the I. & G. N. was completed.
This was chartered as the Calvert, Waco & Brazos Valley Railroad in
1899 ^"d was consolidated with the I. & G. N. in 1901, at which time
fifty-one miles had been built, from Marlin to Bryan. In 1902 it was
opened from Waco to Spring, and the following year was extended
ninety-five miles from Waco to Fort Worth. The Madisonville branch
to Navasota was completed in 1903.
The Southern Kansas Railway of Texas began construction of its
line across the Texas Panhandle in 1887. The road was completed to
Washburn on the F. W. & D. C. In 1898 the Pecos & Northern Texas
was commenced and completed from Amarillo to the New Mexico line
by December of the same year. About the same time the Pecos River
line was built from Pecos to the New Mexico boundary. All these are
now operated as integral parts of the Santa Fe system. In 1907 a
branch of the Pecos & Northern from Canyon City was completed as far
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 261
as Plainview, and in the spring of 1910 trains began operating from
Plainview south to Lubbock and east to Floydada.
The Kansas City, Mexico & Orient Railway was organized in 1900.
A. E. Stilwell, the builder of the Kansas City Southern, has been the
president and enterprising promoter of this Hne. It is planned to connect
Kansas City by a road across Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Mexico
with the Pacific coast at Topolabampo, a route which is claimed to be
several hundred miles shorter than other roads to the Pacific. In Texas
this road has been completed from the Red river to San Angelo. Con-
struction work began at Sweetwater.
Tarrant County
Tarrant county was created by act of the legislature, December 20,
1849, about a year after the estabhshment of the miHtary garrison at Fort
Worth. The act directed that the first election of county officials should
be held in A-ugust, 1850, and Vincent J. Hutton, Walling R. Rodgers,
Little, Col. M. T. Johnson and Sanders Elliott were named as
commissioners to lay off sites for a county seat. Later an election was
to be held to choose one of the sites proposed. "The place receiving the
highest number of votes shall be. the place established as the county seat
of said county of Tarrant and shall be called Birdville."
The county was organized according to law and the county offices
located at Birdville, an old settlement now marked by a few weather-
beaten buildings that hardly tell the story of the ambitious struggles to
make this place a metropolis. The rivalry between Fort Worth and
Birdville over the county seat was an important chapter in the early
history of the county. The act of the legislature, August 26, 1856,
ordered an election to be held in the following November, to decide
among the proposed sites for the county seat, and at that election Fort
Worth won by a bare plurality. The election was contested, and finally
the legislature directed that the citizens of the county should again vote
to determine the matter. That election occurred in April, i860, when
Fort Worth received 548 votes, over 301 cast in favor of the location
at the center of the county, while Birdville received only four votes out
of the total.
At the census of 1850 the white population of Tarrant county was
599, and 65 slaves. In 1858 the estimated population was 4,362, including
581 slaves. The population in 1870 was 5,788; in 1880, 24,671 (2,160
negroes) ; in 1890, 41,142; in 1900, 52,376 (5.756 negroes).
The material progress of the county is best illustrated in some com-
parative figures of property assessments. The taxable wealth of the
county in 1870 was valued at $1,392,877; in 1882 it was $7,300,686; in
1903, $24,515,220; and in 1909, $84,413,490.
The City of Fort Worth
During the last decade Fort Worth has taken its place among the
largest Texas cities. Official recognition of this fact has recently been
afforded by the publication of the last federal census. Though popula-
tion figures are popularly taken to estimate a community's greatness,
a more convincing standard consists of the aggregate of material and
262
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 263
civic resources. On the latter basis Fort Worth has for several years
presented a varied array of commercial and industrial enterprise that
justifies the showing that this is one of the largest cities of the Southwest.
When Fort Worth was .first enumerated as a corporation apart from
Tarrant county, in the census of 1880, its population was 6,663. During
the following ten years there was a gain of nearly 250 per cent, the cit\-
having 23.076 inhabitants in 1890. In 1900 the population was 26,668,
or a gain of about 16 percent. Now in 1910 the population is j^,Ti^2.
The increase, 177 percent, is greater than that shown by any other large
city of Texas, and in population Fort Worth ranks in the same class
with San Antonio, Dallas and Houston.
Fort Worth was founded as a military post, as a barracks pushed
out against barbarism, at a time when the valleys of the Trinity were
yet the western frontier of American civilization. The post was gar-
risoned in the spring of 1849, and about the same time Fort Graham
was established in Hill county. The latter has long since disappeared
except as a historical landmark, but the site of Fort Worth had a per-
manent destiny.
Four years measured the existence of Fort Worth as a garrisoned
outpost. When the soldiers left there remained only the nucleus of
citizens and the eligible location. There was only a meager country
population in the vicinity; barring a few supply trains, no currents of
trade had yet begun to flow through this part of Texas : there was no
cattle trail ; nothing to inspire enthusiasm for this straggling settlement
on Trinity bluff or assurance that it would not experience the blight
which befell similar posts to the west, such as Phantom Hill or Belknap.
Such a fate might have overtaken Fort Worth, had the little village
not possessed some citizens endowed with unusual qualities of enterprise.
Men of such stamp as E. M. Daggett, K. J\I. \'an Zandt, C. M.^ Peak.
J. Peter Smith and their associates would soon have given distinction
and prestige to any hamlet of which they happened to be residents. It
was not long after the "fort" was deserted when these enterprising men
found a common cause to work for, serving as another cornerstone in
the foundation of Fort Worth as a city.
Deprived of its military post. Fort Worth people wanted the county
seat. Captain Daggett, who had come to the town in 1854, was a leader
in the agitation for a re-location of the county seat. Finally the legis-
lature consented to allow the citizens of the county again to vote on the
subject. Birdville was then the larger place, and had the will of the
majoritv been expressed untrammeled, it is probable that Birdville would
have retained the court house, at least for some years. Old citizens of
Birdville to this day charge that the election was carried for Fort Worth
by means of fraud, and the evidence proves that this is one of the cases
where theoretical right has yielded to superior enterprise and in which
the event has been justified by the march of progress. The Fort Worth
citizens were wild with joy over the outcome of the election, and it is
related that the records were placed in a wagon, three fiddlers mounted
264 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
on top, and surrounded by a reveling crowd, the official seat was trans-
ferred in triumph to the little village on the bluffs of the Trinit}', where
a subsequent election confirmed its permanent location.
Around the court house on the bluff there arose the commonplace
village of that period, fiame store buildings and little one-story structures
with dirt floors. The town was built around the public square, and the
court house was the hub of interest and business activit}'. Even at this
day the old-time citizens refer to the "public square" with a meaning
inherited from early days when the square was really the scene of all
the business activity of the place. What now constitutes the banking and
commercial and hotel center, between Fourth and Ninth streets, was for
twenty years an unoccupied common, on which the transient immigrants
pitched their camps for night, across which the cattlemen drove their
herds from the west, while still further south, in the vicinity of the union
depot. Captain Daggett had his farm buildings.
Outside of the individual character of its citizens, Fort Worth, forty
years ago, was only a typically ordinary town, a center for the small
trading activity of the country, and rising above its neighbors mainly
as a seat of justice for the county. There were regular sessions of
county and district court, at which times attorneys from all this part of
the state convened to transact the routine and special legal business and.
aside from this, to enjoy themselves in the social manner common to
groups of old-time lawyers. When business and court affairs ceased to
interest, there was the ever-absorbing theme of politics. The Civil war
almost depopulated the village, the best citizens left to fight the battles of
their southland, and the population before the decade of the seventies
never was a thousand.
The growth of Fort Worth begins to assume some distinction about
1872. In 1873 it was incorporated as a town. At that time an effort was
made to drop the word "Fort" from the name, as no longer having sig-
nificance. But this proposition was defeated by those whose early asso-
ciations were with the fort and who clung to the name out of respect to
the pioneer phase of history.
Already Fort Worth was gaining an importance as a station on the
great cattle trail, leading from the west and southwest to the northern
markets, but it was the railroad prospects, in the first instance, and the
actual building of railroads, that were at the foundation of Fort Worth's
prosperity and growth. During 1873, when it seemed that the railroad
would be built immediately, the town passed through a regular boom,
its population reaching two thousand. Then followed three years of
depression, when only the more courageous and far-sighted remained to
work out a great future for their adopted home.
Finally, in July, 1876, the first railroad train entered the town.
Rather, it entered the town limits, for the land donated for the depot
yards was a mile from the public square, and seemed a long way out
of town. However, since the railroad, on account of topographical diffi-
culties, could not come to the town, the town at once commenced its slow
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 265
and steady march south to the railroad. "For two years. 1876-78." says
a writer in the Gazette in 1887, "everybody prospered in the place. The
town was typical of western life — rushing business, noisy, boisterous
existence, in which the cowboy and his twin companion the six-shooter
figured conspicuously. Cattlemen — those pioneers of western life — made
the town their headquarters and drew their supplies therefrom, and a
few of the wiser men, with prophetic eye, saw a great future for the place
and commenced to work to that end."
Progress and development have been so swift in obliterating the
primitive order of things and introducing all the accompaniments of
modern life that even old-time citizens have almost forgotten the "wild
and woolly" aspects of Fort Worth during the latter seventies. The rail-
road brought its evils as well as its benefits. For several years Fort
Worth was the clearing house between the regulated customs of the east
and the free and- untrammeled life of the west. Here the currents of
humanity met, and in the vortex could be found every class of mankind.
The citizens worked under a high pressure of mental and physical excite-
ment, and energ)' and action were not without that share of evil which
in human afl^airs can never be entirely dissociated from the good.
Early in 1877 Fort Worth began reaching out for the trade of the
great Panhandle district, which had formerly gone to Wichita and other
Kansas points. The merchants sent out thousands of pounds of supplies
and in return obtained the buff^alo hides, tongues and meat that formed
such an important product of that region during these years. While
such trade was temporary, it is worthy of consideration because it was
one of the influences that even at that time made Fort Worth a com-
mercial focus for Northwest Texas. By the middle of the year 1877 the
commercial interests had expanded much beyond local demands and the
foundations of a wholesale trade were already laid. By that time a new
cotton compress had been built, and by the spring of 1878 it was estimated
that fifty thousand bales of cotton had been received at Fort Worth mar-
kets. A steam grain elevator had been established, marking the beginning
of business which now equals that of any other city in the state. There
were several commission houses, and a large trade in lumber. A branch
wool and hide house received over two hundred thousand buft'alo hides
during the season, and the warehouses being unable to contain them, the
vacant ground was covered for hundreds of square yards with high piles
of hides. Summarizing the progress of the past eighteen months, the
Fort Worth Democrat of January, 1878, states that in this brief time had
been constructed street railways, gas works, steam elevators, planing mills,
cotton compress, flour mills, fine hotel (the El Paso), court house, four
banking houses, and a portion of the streets had been macadamized. All
these things attest the progressive attitude and enterprise of the citizens,
who utilized all the means at hand, built up factories, secured railroads,
extended the scope of trade, and in this way advanced step by step to the
results manifest in the modern city.
When the Texas & Pacific Railroad was extended to the west. Fort
266 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Worth suffered a temporary depression, but confidence was soon restored,
especially when other railroads began building to this point. The Mis-
souri Pacific (AI., K. & T.) entered the city from the north. The com-
pletion of the Gulf, Colorado & Santa Fe from Galveston and the
beginning of construction on the Fort Worth & Denver were the great
events of the year 1881, these two roads costing the city and citizens about
one hundred thousand dollars in donations. Line after line of railroad
was built, until at the present time there are seventeen railroad outlets.
The development of Fort Worth as a railroad center is treated at greater
length in the history of railroad construction in the state, on other pages.
Fort Worth's free public school system began in 1882. In the early
days private schools furnished the greater part of the educational advan-
tages to the young. In 1877 the city voted to assume control of the'
public schools, but certain legal and other causes prevented the city from
taking control until 1882, when a tax was voted to supplement the revenue
derived from the general school fund, and the public schools were opened
October i, 1882, with seventeen teachers and about 650 scholars.
In the history of municipal progress the year 1882 is especially
notable. In that year the late John Peter Smith was elected mayor, and
to assist him was a public-spirited council, and through their co-operation
the city inaugurated internal improvements which have proved the foun-
dation for all subsequent work along that line. In jMay, 1882, a franchise
was granted to the Fort Worth Water Works Company, and in the fol-
lowing year the Holly system was completed and put in operation.
Previous to 1876 the drinking water for the city had come from the
Clear Fork or from a spring two. miles northeast of town. In that year
the first artesian well was sunk, in the southwest part of town, and by
1887 there were a hundred wells, so that Fort Worth was sometimes
referred to as the "city of artesian wells." Before the water works were
built, water was drawn from wells and peddled about the streets at
twelve and a half cents a barrel, and the water carts have only recently
quite disappeared. In 1884 the city purchased one-half interest in the
water works plant, and came into complete possession the next year.
Besides the water works, Mayor Smith and his associates directed
their attention to the paving of Main and Houston streets ; to the con-
struction of a sewer system, of bridges and roads, the installation of a
fire department, building of schools, and many other improvements. The
year 18S3 was noted as the most prosperous in the history of the city.
May 31, 1882, was organized the Fort Worth Board of Trade, an organi-
zation that has accomplished some remarkable results in upbuilding and
promoting the best interests of the city.
The depression in the cattle industry during 1884-85 had its effects
on the growth of Fort Worth, and the revival of prosperity did not come
until 1887. In that year the first definite attempt was made to utilize
Fort Worth's advantages as a live-stock market. Next to the railroads,
the greatest factor in Fort Worth's progress are the stock yards and pack-
ing interests. It was in the latter eighties when the general development
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 267
of the Southwest had reached that point where the selection of a central
market for its livestock became important. There were three factors that
gave Fort \\'orth first place in consideration of a proper site. First, its
location as the only large town on the eastern border of the cattle country,
where it had enjoyed prestige as a stock center from the days of the trail.
Second, its numerous railroads, radiating in all directions, tapping the
sources of supply in the west and connecting easily with the eastern cities
and the gulf coast. And third, the alert enterprise of the citizens, who
put forth every effort to secure such a market. These citizens laid the
foundation for the packing industry of Fort Worth, for although the
initial enterprise was not fully successful, it served as a base from which
greater things have developed. The Fort Worth Dressed Meat & Packing
Company was organized in February. 1890. stock yards and packing
plant were built, and the business started with an encouraging degree of
success, although its scope was that of local industry rather than of the
capacity possessed by the present large plants.
This industry and all other lines of business were greatly impaired
during the succeeding decade. From 1892 to the close of the century
Fort Worth suffered its longest and most severe period of financial and
industrial depression. The city has always been closely dependent upon
the industrial conditions of its tributary West Texas, and during the
long time when immigration into the western counties had practically
ceased, Fort Worth was unable to advance faster than the region of which
it was the business metropolis. Until the first years of the present century
the development of Fort Worth and West Texas was periodic rather
than continuous. Thus we witness the period of prosperity in 1872 and
the early part of 1873, followed by almost a depopulation of the town on
account of the failure of railroad construction. From 1876 to 1883 the
city progressed almost marvelously, only to find itself in the slough of
industrial despond in the middle eighties. Then came the completion
of the long-projected railroads and the inception of the livestock market
and packing business, after which the city experienced the lean years of
the nineties. In 1898 the packing operations were suspended and were
not resumed until May, 1899, when the plant was sold to Boston capi-
talists, who operated the industry until it was taken over by Armour &
Company in March, 1902.
With the inception of the present century began an unexampled
period of material growth and development for Fort Worth. Without
question, this prosperity is on a substantial basis, and the progress that
has been made, while rapid, has been conservative and consistent with the
general upbuilding of the entire country. In this time Fort Worth ha.s
become a city of varied resources, and no longer depends upon the sta-
bility of one or two industries. Its key position in the development of
North and West Texas now seems assured beyond the disposition of
events and circumstances.
The stock yards and packing houses are regarded as a cornerstone
of Fort Worth's greatness, and the earnest effort and monev contributions
268 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
which the citizens put forth to secure them are among the most beneficial
achievements in Fort Wortli's history. With the success of the negotia-
tions wliich resulted in Armour & Company and Swift & Company locat-
ing their large branch plants here, the stock yards were enlarged to
accommodate the increased number of cattle shipped to this point. During
the year 1902 both the Armour and Swift interests spent millions in
building two of the most extensive and complete packing plants in the
west. The plants have been in operation since March, 1903, and since
then the capacity has been increased and new departments have been
added to the industry.
During the last decade, around the central institutions of railroads
and packing industries, Fort Worth has built up a city rich in the varied
resources of commerce and civic enterprise. It is now one of the impor-
tant wholesale, banking and manufacturing cities of the Southwest, and
every year has witnessed the construction of buildings and other improve-
ments which have resulted in a practical transformation of the city
during the time of one decade.
The sum of these developments, most of which have been instituted
during the time mentioned, and the important features of the city's great-
ness, are epitomized in a recent publication by the Fort Worth Board of
Trade. With this condensed statement this article may be properly closed:
Fort Worth has si.xteen banks — national, state and trust companies —
representing bank deposits slightly in excess of $20,000,000.
Fort Worth through her Clearing House Association, from Septem-
ber I, 1909, to September i, 1910, cleared the stupendous sum of $341,-
479,569.09.
The capital and resources of the associated banks in the clearing house
is given as $6,156,256.
Fort Worth building permits for the nine months of this year total
$2,351,270, representing 485 new buildings in the city.
Fort Worth postoffice receipts for the first half of 1910 total $15,-
071.14, showing a gain of 268 per cent over the same period for 1909.
Fort Worth is the greatest mail distributing terminal point in
America today, mail for Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Mexico and parts
of Oklahoma and Louisiana being distributed at this point, 104 mail trains
daily entering and leaving the city.
Fort Worth now has an assessed valuation of $54,000,000, while in
1900 the valuation was $21,306,785.
Fort Worth now has seventeen railroad outlets — more than any city
south of St. Louis, Mo. — and in the past five years $2,500,000 has been
spent in improving their terminal facilities, thereby giving the city 142
miles of siding. Two hundred and eight freight trains each day annually
handle the astounding number of 936,234 interchanged cars of freight,
and 190,000 cars which are handled without change.
There are 142 miles of railway sidings in the city.
Daily passenger trains, 104.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 269
Fort Worth is the greatest distributing point for groceries west of
the Mississippi.
Fort Worth has ninety-five miles of street raihvays, which represent
two lines, and over which 125 local cars and fifty interurban electric trains
operate daily.
Fort Worth has twenty-eight miles of paved streets at present, and
contracts have been let for twenty-three miles more. In 1900 the city
had not a single mile of pavement.
Fort Worth is the county site of the county possessing the most hard
roads in Texas. Tarrant county now has 280 miles of improved roads
and is adding to them at the rate of thirty-five miles a year.
In this connection for the Dallas Fair the Board of Trade is pre-
paring a Tarrant county road exhibit, models, photographs of roads,
bridges, road work and road working machinery, etc.
Fort Worth in the past month has installed a dual water system,
thus absolutely insuring the city against a water famine. Twenty-two
artesian wells 900 feet deep, each eight inches in diameter, and eight
shallow wells of the same diameter and of 350-foot depth, yield each a
water supply of 550,000 gallons every twenty-four hours. In the other
system available for factory purposes, coming directly from the Trinity
River, the supply is unlimited. Daily water supply, 16,500,000 gallons.
Fort Worth has 282 factories, exclusive of the packing houses, repre-
senting an investment of $4,600,000.
Fort Worth packing houses now do an annual business of $75,000,000
compared with $550,000 in 1900. One million six hundred and sixty-five
thousand head of live stock are slaughtered annually, whereas 65,000 were
slaughtered in 1900.
The number of employees has increased from 200 to 5,000 and the
size of the cattle pens has increased from fifteen to fifty acres, and 1,217
cars can be accommodated daily, while only 147 could be in 1900.
Fort Worth possesses the only rolling mill west of Birmingham, Ala.,
and south of St. Louis, Mo., where puddling and smelting of iron is done
to any degree whatsoever.
Fort Worth has sixteen grain elevators with a capacity of 2.155,000
bushels of grain daily, and her flour mills have milled 1,150,000 barrels
this year to September i.
Fort Worth has a national reputation as a convention city. Since
January i, sixteen conventions with thousands of delegates have met in
Fort Worth.
Fort Worth, in securing the national convention of the Knights of
Pythias for 1912, will be the first city in the Southwest to entertain this
national secret order convention.
Fort Worth has 16,831 bona fide students within her borders, dis-
tributed as follows: 10,836 in the public schools, 2,800 in the various
colleges and universities, 831 in private schools and 2,404 taking corre-
spondence courses.
270 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Fort Worth has eighty-six churches, representing every denomina-
tion — an increase of more than loo per cent in two years.
Fort Worth's new $1,000,000 hotel is the most modern hostelry in
the Southwest.
Ice consumption, 1,000 tons daily.
Jack Carter. — A scion of one of the old and honored pioneer fam-
ilies of the Lone Star state, this representative citizen and business man
of the city of Fort Worth is specially entitled to consideration in this
historical work. He is senior member of the real-estate firm of Carter &
Oldham, which in extent and importance of its operations takes precedence
of any similar concern in the state, throughout all sections of which its
business ramified, being conducted with the greatest discrimination,
ability and probity and thus contributing in large and generous measure
to the civic and material progress of this favored commonwealth of the
Union. It may be said without fear of legitimate denial that no man in
Texas is more familiar with its land values, resources, institutions and
people than is the honored native son whose name initiates this paragraph,
and the propriety of this emphatic statement will be revealed in later
portions of this context.
Jack Carter was born at Hillsboro, Hill county, Texas, on the 17th
of August, 1871. and is a son of Hamp W. and Emily ( Wornell ) Carter,
the former of whom was born in Missouri and the latter of whom was
born in Anderson county, Texas, so that the subject of this review is a
scion of pioneer stock in both the paternal and maternal lines. Hamp W.
Carter was but six years of age at the time of his parents' removal from
Missouri to Texas, and the family settled in Hill county at a time when
it was on the very frontier of civilization. Under such conditions Hamp
W. Carter was reared to maturity, finding enjoyment in the wild, free
life of the new country, receiving but limited educational advantages, but
waxing strong and independent in both physical and mental faculties.
In 1909 he and his wife celebrated the fifty-first anniversary of their
marriage and they are numbered among the best known and most highlv
honored pioneer citizens of Central Texas, still maintaining their home
at Hillsboro.
Jack Carter was reared to maturity in his native count}-, in whose
public schools he secured his early educational discipline. His initial
business experience was gained in connection with his father's operations
as a ranchman and merchant, and he continued to be identified with him
for years, but subsequently he concerned himself with land operations, to
which he has devoted many years in a most eflFective way. In 1898 he
received appointment to a clerical position in the general land office in
Austin, and after passing four years in connection with its work, the
major part of the time in the general office, he was appointed inspector
of school lands in western Texas, with headquarters at ]Midland. He
served the state in this capacity for four years, with marked efficiency,
and at the expiration of this period, in April of 1908, he established his
'^l£^6-^L^C^^^
"N
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 271
residence in Fort Worth, for the purpose of engaging in the land and
general real-estate business on his own responsibility. He conducted his
operations individually until the ist of January. 1909, when he entered
into partnership with Charles Oldham, who had come to this city from
Lexington, Kentucky, and who has proved a most able and valued coad-
jutor 'in the extensive business already built up, under the firm name of
Carter & Oldham.
Mr. Carter's long association with the state land office and his con-
sequent familiarity with school lands and other tracts in the western part
of the state have made his interposition in the active real-estate field an
asset of great value to the firm of which he is a member and which has
already gained front rank among the real-estate concerns operating in
Texas. Mr. Carter has personally gone over and inspected every county
in western Texas, and there is, perhaps, no other one man who has so
thorough and intimate a knowledge of all conditions and features in
connection with this region — its soil, climate, varied productive advan-
tages, water facilities, native grasses, mineral resources, location of towns
and trading points, character of the people in the different communities,
facilities for the exploiting of new industries and the propagation of new
kinds of vegetable products, grains, fruits, etc. In fact, he has broad
and exact information concerning every point that a prospective settler
or investor could wish to investigate. The firm of which he is a member
gives employment to a corps of seven energetic and capable salesmen,
who are prepared to show clients any portion of the state. The firm of
Carter & Oldham has, within an almost incredibly short interval, built
up the largest business of its kind in the state^a result all the more
notable in view of the fact that the firm initiated operations in a year in
which the rainfall was much below the average and when conditions had
not adjusted themselves after the hard times. It is the policy of the firm
to keep always busy with land operations, even when cash sales are not
to be negotiated, for by the effecting of judicious changes they bring
about transactions that are advantageous to all concerned. Operations
are based on ample resources of a financial order, and the reputation of
the firm is already its most valuable asset. No misrepresentation of any
kind is permitted, and absolute fairness, integrity and honor characterize
every dealing and operation. The well equipped offices of this firm, in the
city of Fort Worth, have become well known as a comfortable and con-
genial resort for land buyers and prospectors from all sections of the
Union, and the books of the concern show at all times the most desirable
investments in western lands and city property, while expert advice and
service are assured to all patrons or investigators.
Through his business operations and through his public spirit and
civic progressiveness ]Mr. Carter is doing much to foster the advancement
of his home city and state, and he has so ordered his course as to gain
and retain the confidence and esteem of all with whom he has come in
contact — in an official capacity when with the land office, as a business
man and in the social relations of life. In politics he is aligned as a
272 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
staunch advocate of the principles and policies of the Democratic party,
and he is affiliated with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and
the Knights of Pythias.
In the year 1895 was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Carter to Miss
Cho Coffield, who was born at San Marcos, Te.xas, and reared at Gates-
ville, this state. She is a daughter of Henry Coffield, a representative
citizen of San Marcos. Mr. and Mrs. Carter have two children — Emily
and Lillian.
William D. D.-wis. — Among the virile, progressive and public-spir-
ited citizens who have contributed materially to the industrial and civic
prestige of the city of Fort Worth is its present efficient and popular
mayor, who is one of the essentially representative business men of the
old Lone Star state and whose administration as chief executive of the
municipal government is doing much to foster the best interests and dis-
tinctive advancement of the city. There has been naught of apathy or
inertia in his attitude as a citizen or business man, and he is one of those
enthusiastic "captains of industry" who have unbounded faith in the still
greater future of his home city, to which his loyalty is of the most impreg-
nable type.
William D. Davis, mayor of Fort Worth, was born in Neshoba
county, Mississippi, on the 30th of October, 1867, and is a son of Moses
and Cynthia (Threat) Davis, representatives of old and honored southern
families. The father was born in Georgia, but he was reared and edu-
cated in Mississippi, which state was the place of his wife's nativity and
which continued to be their home until 1869, when they came to Texas,
locating first at Calvert, which was then the northern terminus of the
Houston & Texas Central Railroad, the line of which road was then in
course of construction toward Dallas. Moses Davis engaged in the
freighting business between Calvert and Dallas, and later, after the com-
pletion of the railroad to the latter point, he continued in the same line
of enterprise between Dallas and various places in the western part of
the state. He became identified with the cattle business, later conducted
a successful enterprise as a merchant, and he directed his energies in
various lines of enterprise for a number of years, especially in the northern
part of the state. He. is one of the sterling and well known pioneer citizens
of Texas, is now retired from active business and he maintains his home
in Sherman, this state. His wife died in 1904.
The present mayor of Fort Worth was about two years of age at the
time of the family removal to Texas, and under the beneficent conditions
and influences of this fine old commonwealth he has developed typical
western initiative, energy and progressiveness and has won for himself
a stable position as a successful business man of marked capacity for the
administration of affairs of wide scope and importance. His early busi-
ness experience was principally in connection with the cattle business, in
which he was trained as a boy and youth, in the old days when the entire
range was open, with no fenced pastures, and the great cattle outfits
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 273
worked over the broad acres of the open range. In the meanwhile he had
not neglected his educational work, having gained his earlier discipline
in the public schools and having effectively supplemented this by a course
of study in old Granbury College, at Granbury, this state, an institution
in which many prominent and influential citizens of the state have been
students, including such well known citizens as Governor Thomas M.
Campbell and his brother, James B. Campbell. For several years Mr.
Davis maintained his home in Sherman, whence he finally removed to
Roanoke, Denton county, where he built up a large grain-shipping and
cattle business. In the great and memorable flood that brought grievous
disaster to the city of Galveston in 1900 he met with losses that prac-
tically reduced his financial resources to the lowest possible ebb, as the
large amount of grain which he had in storage in Galveston preliminary
to exportation was swept away, entailing to. him great loss. He mani-
fested the same indomitable courage that marked the attitude of the
leading business men of the stricken and devastated city, and he girded
himself firmly for the battle through which he was again destined to
attain victory and retrieve his fortune. In the year that thus marked the
practical obliteration of the fair city of Galveston Mr. Davis removed
to Fort Worth, where, with characteristic energy and enthusiasm, he
entered again into active operations in connection with the cattle industry.
He became a cattle commission merchant at the North Fort Worth stock
yards, effecting the organization of the Davis-Hamm Commission Com-
pany, which soon gained prestige as one of the most successful concerns
in the live stock market of Fort Worth. He continued as one of the
interested principals and executive officers of this company until the 15th
of June, 1909, when he disposed of his interests in the business, which
was then merged into the National Live Stock Commission Company.
His withdrawal from this enterprise was brought about by his realization
that his executive duties as mayor of Fort Worth placed such insistent
demands upon his time and attention as to require undivided allegiance
to his official duties and responsibilities. His loyalty to his home city and
its people was significantly manifested in the action taken by him at this
time, as in disposing of his interest in the extensive and profitable com-
mission business which he had so largely aided in building up he made a
very appreciable financial sacrifice. He is the owner of a considerable
amount of realtv, both improved and unimproved, in his home city and
has some landed interests in the northern part of the state, in which con-
nection he is president of the Union Land Compan}-, and to some e.xtent
is still engaged in the cattle industry.
Ccncerning Mr. Davis' able and businesslike administration of the
office of mayor of Fort Worth the following pertinent and appreciative
statements have been made by one familiar with his earnest, upright and
successful career as a business man and as a public official, being specially
worthy of reproduction and perpetuation in this brief sketch: "Mr. Davis
had served a term as mayor of North Fort \\'orth prior to being called
274 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
to the office of chief executive of the greater city. In the spring of igog
he was nominated and elected mayor of Fort Worth and, ex officio, a
member of the board of city commissioners, as Fort Worth's admirable
municipal government is conducted under the commission plan. Mr.
Davis' typical western energy and power of accomplishing things and his
perennial objection to being "kept down' have made his administration
one of ideal type for the robust, progressive and rapidly expanding city
of Fort Worth. He has at all times his hand on the civic and industrial
pulse ; has all affairs of the city well in hand ; is watchful, alert and
efficient in every respect; is a mayor who not only stands as a model of
conscientious civic loyalty and devotion but also as one of whom the city
of Fort Worth is justly proud."
In politics Mr. Davis has been an effective advocate of the principles
and policies of the Democratic party, in whose cause he maintains a
lively and helpful interest. In the time-honored Masonic fraternity he
has attained the thirty-second degree of the Ancient Accepted Scottish
Rite, besides being affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles
of the Mystic Shrine and the Knights of Pythias. His personal popu-
larity in his home city is of the most unequivocal type and is based on his
generous attributes of character and his genial, democratic spirit.
Mr. Davis has been twice married. In 1890 was solemnized his
union to Miss Ella Reynolds, daughter of S. F. Reynolds, one of the
oldest pioneer settlers of Denton county. Mrs. Davis was summoned to
the life eternal August 7, 1908, and is survived by one son, Marvin L.,
who was born on the 17th of September, 1891. At Aubrey, Denton
county, this state, on the 7th of November, 1909, Mr. Davis was united
in marriage to Mrs. Ola (Henderson) Price, who was born in Denton
county, Texas, and who is a daughter of the late Newton Henderson, a
well known citizen of that county.
John N. Winters was born in Perry county, Indiana, and was
reared in Spencer county of that state. In 1876 he came to Texas, and
his life since that time has been almost a part of the wonderful progress
and development of the central and north central part of this state — a
pioneer of the pioneers. After spending a short time at Sulphur Springs
he in 1880 came to central Texas to locate lands for himself and for his
father-in-law, Mr. Bivins, and he established his headquarters in what is
now Runnels county, although that particular division had not then been,
organized. Upon the organization of the county the old town of Runnels,
now extinct, was made its seat of government and it was located four
miles north of the present flourishing city of Ballinger, which later
became the county seat.
Mr. Winters remained in Runnels county for fourteen years, from
1880 until 1894, and during that time he was the means of founding the
town of Winters, now a prosperous little city situated in the midst of
what is undoubtedly the richest agricultural region of central Texas. He
had purchased several thousand acres of land in that section of Runnels
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
^75
count}', and in 1892 he located a small colony of Germans on a part of
that tract, and they in 1893 started a small settlement, with stores, etc.,
and named it Winters in honor of the owner of the land and the promoter
of the settlement. It has since grown into a wealthy and progressive
town, having advanced more rapidly since the Abilene & Southern Railroad
was completed to that point in 1909. When Mr. Winters first located in
this part of the state Runnels county formed a part of the far frontier of
Texas and of the great free and open cattl? range. Farming was not
then thought of, and even the enclosing of pastures with wire fence was
not begun until about 1882 or 1883. He bought land as low as from
eighty cents to a dollar and a half an acre. Mr. Winters is remembered
by all the older settled residents of Runnels county as having been one of
its most progressive and public spirited citizens and as responsible in a
large degree for much of its early growth.
He came to Fort Worth in 1894, and this city has been his home since
that time, and he has long been one of its prominent real estate owners
and operators, making a specialty of country property, farming and ranch
lands. Mrs. Winters was before marriage Alice Bivins, and their five
children are Jet, Oliver, Ona, Ivy and Una.
LiGA Runnels. — A native son of the old Lone Star state and one
who has gained precedence and definite success as a representative busi-
ness man and progressive citizen of Fort Worth, is Liga Runnels, who is
president of the Runnels Live Stock Commission Company and also of
the Runnels Automobile Company, both of which are prominent and
important industrial concerns of this thriving city.
Liga Runnels was born in Collin county, Texas, on the nth of De-
cember, 1867, and is a son of Riley Runnels, who was born and reared in
the state of Missouri, whence he came to Texas in 1846, locating in Collin
county, and becoming one of its pioneer settlers. He was among the
earliest of the exploiters of the great cattle industry of northern Texas
and ran large herds of cattle over the open range of a region which is
now one of the most populous and opulent in the state. He still maintains
his home in Collin county, and, venerable in years, is held in high esteem
by all who know him — one of the honored pioneers of the state and one
who has witnessed and assisted in its magnificent development. His wife's
maiden name was Mary Spradley, and of their children four sons and
three daughters are now living.
Reared under the conditions and influences of the pioneer epoch, such
were the exigencies of time and place that the subject of this review was
denied more than a limited common-school education, but he has efifect-
ually made good this handicap through his active association with prac-
tical business aft'airs during a distinctively active and successful career.
He became identified with his father's operations in the raising of cattle
when he was a mere boy and has continuously been concerned with this
important line of industry, in connection with which his judgment is
authoritative, while through his effective operations he has achieved a
276 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
noteworthy success. In 1901, while still retaining his home on his finely
improved grazing ranch near Piano, Collin county, IMr. Runnels estab-
iislied himself in the live-stock commission business in Fort Worth, where
he has since been identified with large and successful operations in this
field of enterprise. He was the founder of the Runnels Live Stock Com-
mission Company, of which he is president and general manager. The
company is incorporated, arid its financial fortification is of the most sub-
stantial order, so that it has a solid status and has a secure place in the
confidence of the large cattle growers and those identified with the indus-
try and with financial aft'airs in the cities of Fort Worth, Kansas City
and St. Louis.
Mr. Runnels was also the organizer and is president of the Runnels
Automobile Company, which conducts most successfully an automobile
business and a well equipped garage at the corner of West Second and
Throckmorton streets. Since 1907 he has also owned and conducted one
of the largest and most successful general liveries in the city. He is
known as a wide-awake and aggressive business man and loyal and public-
spirited citizen, and his success has been worthily achieved along normal
lines of enterprise. He now maintains his home in Forth Worth, but
still gives a general supervision to his fine ranch property in his native
county. Of genial and democratic attitude, he wins and retains firm
friendships, and he is one of the well known and distinctively popular
business men of Fort M^orth. In politics, as may be presupposed, he is
a staunch advocate of the cause of the Democratic party.
In 1906 Mr. Runnels was united in marriage to ^liss Lucy Nored, of
Fort Worth. Mrs. Runnels is a native of Tennessee and is a daughter of
T. J. Nored, a well known citizen of Fort Worth.
William H. Ross, a brother of the late Governor L. S. Ross, was
born at Waco, Texas, in 1853, son of Shapley Prince and Catharine H.
(Fulkerson) Ross.
Shapley Prince Ross was one of the notable pioneers of Texas. He
was of Scotch descent and was born and reared in Kentucky. After
spending some years on the northwestern frontier, he moved, in 1839,
from Benton's Port, Iowa, to Texas, and first settled at old Washington,
in Washington county, one of the capitals of Texas. Subsequently he
went to Austin, where he entered the United States army, and was a
soldier in the war with [Mexico. Previously to this, however, about 1840,
he had moved his family to Milam county and established their home
where Cameron now stands. He laid out the town of Waco and built the
first house in Waco, which still stands. His daughter, Mrs. Kate Ross
Padgitt, wife of Thomas Padgitt, was the first white child born there.
Mr. Ross was identified with all the early warfare against the Indians
in Texas, both as a soldier in the L^nited States army and as a member of
the Texas Rangers. In the latter he was associated with Rip Ford in
service in northwestern Texas, and later was appointed Indian agent for
the government at Fort P>elknap. About 1859. resigning from this posi-
^17H'^
(r^^<L
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 277
tion, he returned to his home at Waco, where he spent the rest of his life.
He died here, September 21, 1889. He was of the typical Scotch clansman
build, over six feet high and well proportioned, and was strong both
physically and mentally. Among his children, one son, Lawrence Sul-
livan Ross, deceased, figured prominently for many years and won high
honor in Texas. Two sons and two daughters are still living, namely, the
subject of this sketch and Robert S., of Waco, and Mrs. Thomas Padgitt,
also of Waco, and Mrs. Margaret V. Harris, of Dallas. The latter and
her sister Mary had a double wedding at Waco in 1849, ^"d they were
the first white women to be married in Waco.
William H. Ross was reared in Waco. As a boy he accompanied
his father to Fort Belknap, which was in the heart of the bloodiest scenes
enacted during the Indian wars in Texas, and had many experiences with
the red men. In 1870 he went with a party, of which his brother, L. S.
Ross, was a member, to California, and remained there for several years,
during which time, while in Los Angeles, he learned the printer's trade.
Returning to Texas, he opened a job office at Waco, and later conducted
an evening paper, the Reporter. Subsequently he bought the Adimncc,
combined the two, and for a short time issued the Daily Reporter-Advance.
He was burned out in 1876, after which he went to Young county and
turned his attention to farming. To him belongs the distinction of having
built the first cotton gin in Young county. In 1880 he became a travel-
ing salesman, in the employ of the Padgitt firm of Waco, large wholesale
dealers in harness and saddlery, and for twenty-four years in this capacity
he covered the territory comprising Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. At
last, wishing to leave the road, he moved his family to Fort Worth and
established his permanent home in this city. That was in 1906. Here he
has since been engaged in the real estate business as a member of the
firm of Ross & Blanton. Mrs. Ross was formerly Miss Elizabeth Denison,
of Waco, Texas. They have seven children, namely ; Mrs. Gipson Will-
iams, Misses Hallie and Margaret Ross, Mrs. Frances Ferris, William,
Shapley and Josephine Ross.
Mr. Ross' brother, the late Lawrence Sullivan Ross, familiarly called
"Sul" Ross, was one of the distinguished citizens of Texas. He was born
at Benton's Port, Iowa, in 1838, and was quite small when his parents
came to this state. He was educated in Baylor University at Waco and
in Weslevan L^niversity at Florence, Alabama. In 1858 he returned from
the latter institution, being prompted by a desire to take part in the
conflict against the Indians, who were then becoming very hostile in
northwestern Texas. He assembled a company of one hundred and
twenty-five men and hastened to the support of Major Van Dorn, who
was leading the Second United States Cavalry against the Comanches ;
and, with Van Dorn, played a prominent part in the battle of Wichita,
in which both he and Van Dorn were wounded. After his recovery
young Ross went back to Florence and resumed his studies in the uni-
versity, and graduated in 1859. Returning home and still anxious to
fight, he joined the Texas Rangers. He was elected captain, and in i860.
278 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
with a company of sixty rangers, in an action at the head of Pease river,
he severely defeated the Comanches, kilUng Peta Nocona, the last of the
great Comanche chiefs, and capturing all the effects of the red men,
iucltiding a captive white woman. Cynthia Ann Parker (mother of
Quanah Parker), who had been stolen by the Comanches in 1836 and
had become the wife of an Indian chief. This woman was restored to
ci\-ilization. For his achievement in this engagement he was by Governor
Houston made aide-de-camp, with the rank of colonel.
In 1 86 1 he entered the Confederate service as a private in Company
G, Sixth Texas Cavalry, his company being commanded by his brother,
Captain (later Colonel) P. F. Ross. Soon afterward Sullivan Ross was
made a major in this regiment,. and in May, 1862, was elected its colonel.
Following iDrave and distinguished services in turning back, while at the
head'of aix)Ut a thousand men, a force of over ten thousand Union soldiers
on a raid just after the battle of Corinth, Mississippi, Colonel Ross was,
on October 3, 1863, on the recommendation of General Joseph E. Johns-
ton, made a brigadier-general, in which capacity he served till the close
of the war.
In 1875 General Ross was elected sherifif of McLennan county,
Texas, and was a member of the Texas Constitutional Convention which
was held that year. He was a member of the state senate from 1881 to
1883, and in 1886 was elected governor. To this high ofifice he was
re-elected in 1888, and early in 1891, on retiring from the governor's
chair, he was made president of the A. and M. College, he being the first
to occupy that position, which he held until the time of his death. He
married Elizabeth D. Tinsley, of Waco, and they became the parents of
seven children: Mervin (deceased), Florine, Lawrence S., Harvey R.,
Frank, Bessie and Neville.
M.'\RTiN Casey. — For more than thirty years has this well known
and honored citizen been identified with the civic and business interests
of Fort Worth, which he has seen develop from a typical frontier town,
the headquarters and rendezvous for the cattlemen operating over the
great open range, which extended throughout the wide expanse of country
now marked by well improved ranches and thriving towns and villages.
He lived up to the full tension of the pioneer days and was familiar with
the wild and picturesque phases of frontier life that are now represented
in memory only. He has contributed his quota to the development and
upbuilding of the magnificent city of Fort Worth, his course as a citizen
and business man has been marked by impregnable integrity and honor,
and he has a secure place in popular confidence and esteem as one of the
sterling and pioneer liusiness men of the city that has so long represented
his home. He is president of the corporation known as Martin Casey &
Company, engaged in the wholesale liquor and cigar business, with which
line of enterprise he has here been actively identified since the centennial
year, 1876.
. ■ Mr. Case)- reverts with a due measure of pride and patriotism to the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 279
fact that he is a native of the fair Emerald Isle, which has contributed
a most valuable element to the complex social fabric of the great American
republic. In 1871 Martin Casey set forth to seek his fortunes in America,
whither he came without financial reinforcement and with no influential
friends to aid him. He had, however, the goodly gifts of ambition,
energy, self-confidence and a determination to make for himself a place
of independence, so that he was well equipped for the initiation of his
business career in the new world. He first located in Memphis, Ten-
nessee, whence he later removed to the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, where
he was variously employed until 1876, when he set forth to identify him-
self with the interests of the Lone Star state, which was then considered
on the border of civilization in the southwestern section of our great
national domain. He forthwith established his home in the town of Fort
Worth, where he engaged in the wholesale liquor trade on a modest
scale, beginning operations in a small building near the old court house.
The enterprise increased rapidly in scope and importance and finally
more commodious quarters were secured further down on Houston street,
where the business was continued until 1909, in April of which year
removal was made to the present large and modern building erected for
the purpose, at 1610-12 Houston street, corner of Front street. This
location is in the heart of the railroad district, so that the best of shipping
facilities are afforded, while the site is one most eligible from a local
business standpoint. The building occupied is a substantial stone and
brick structure, three stories in height. Its equipment is of the best
modern type throughout, and here are afforded ample accommodations
for the large and select stock carried by the company, which controls a
large and substantial trade throughout the southwest and whose reputa-
tion, earned by long years of honorable dealings, is unassailable. The
business is exclusively wholesale, in the handling of all kinds of domestic
and imported liquors, cigars, etc., and the concern has the general agency
for the Pabst Brewing Company, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
From the time of establishing his home in Fort Worth to the JDresent
Mr. Casey has been closely identified with all local interests touching the
welfare of the city, to whose development and upbuilding he has con-
tributed with all of loyalty and civic liberality. He was specially generous
in his contribution to the various funds raised for the promotion of rail-
road building and other enterprises projected for the general welfare of
his home city and state. He was one of the promoters and the chief
financial backer of the Texas Brewing Company, which is now one of
the large and substantial business concerns of Fort Worth.
In politics, though never a seeker of public office, Mr. Casey has been
unfaltering in his allegiance to the cause of the Democratic party.
WiLLi.\M P. Fischer, the general manager of the American Home
Life Insurance Company and one of the influential business men and
citizens of Fort Worth, was born at Gonzales, in Gonzales county, Texas,
where his father, A. Fischer, was a pioneer settler of 1842. Until the
2So HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
spring of 1909 Air. Fischer, the son, had spent his hfe in his native city
of Gonzales, learning in the meantime the mercantile business under his
father, and before reaching the age of maturity he embarked in the same
line for himself in partnership with his brother, the late L. H. Fischer,
whose death occurred in 1905. They were actively engaged in the dry
goods business for twenty-five years, and beginning with a very small
country store they built up the enterprise to one of the largest and most
successful establishments of its kind in southwestern Texas.
Mr. Fischer enjoyed an unusually satisfactory and creditable career
as a merchant, for the records show that during all the time that he was
in business there was never a sight draft drawn on him, that he never
contested a piece of paper against him or that he never entered suit
against any of the firm's customers. The business was founded and car-
ried out on the strictest principles of honor and integrity. Having accu-
mulated a comfortable fortune, he sought a larger field of enterprise, and
in the spring of 1909 came to Fort Worth and purchased a home and
other property in this city, also acquiring a fine ranch in the western
country tributary to Fort Worth, but his active business life is centered
in the American Home Life Insurance Company, a Fort Worth enterprise
of which he is the general manager. Mr. Fischer brought to this position
the ripe business experience and acumen that made his mercantile business
so successful, and since the new management took control of the com-
pany in the summer of 1909 it has rapidly forged to a place of the
highest standing in insurance circles. The American Home Life has
behind it some of the strongest men in Fort Worth and in Texas. Mr.
Fischer is also a director of the State National Bank of Fort Worth.
Mrs. Fischer was before marriage Cora Fitzgerald, of Sweetwater,
Texas, a daughter of one of the prominent citizens of that place, Captain
R. H. Fitzgerald. Their two children are Lois and William Lee.
W. J.\coB Doyle. — Long and prominently identified with railroad
interests, through which he did much to further the development and
progress of the state of Texas, Mr. Doyle is now the popular proprietor
of the Worth Hotel in the city of Fort Worth, and maintains the fine
establishment upon the highest metropolitan standard. He is well known
throughout the Lone Star state and his popularity is of the most unequiv-
ocal order, based upon sterling personal integrity and genial and kindly
attributes of character.
Mr. Doyle was born at Riceville, McMinn county, Tennessee, on the
9th of January, 1878, and is a son of B. M. and M. C. (Tipton) Doyle.
When he was three years of age his parents came to Texas and settled
in Itasca, Hill county, where he was reared to maturity and where he
gained his rudimentary education in the common schools, after which
he continued his studies in Waltham New Church School, at Waltham,
Massachusetts, where he prepared himself for college, his intention. having
been to enter Harvard L'niversity. Circumstances shaped themselves in
such a way, however, that he found it expedient to abandon his further
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 281
educational work and turn his attention to practical business affairs. He
returned to Texas and secured a position as stenographer in the office of
the general auditor of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad, at Fort Worth.
Later he held a similar position with the Cotton Belt Railroad, but he
eventually re-entered the employ of the Fort Worth & Denver Railroad
Company. He subsecjuently accepted a position as buyer for the McCord-
Collins Grocery Company, of Fort Worth, but a few months later he
assumed a clerical position in the office of the L. B. Menefee Lumber
Company, in the city of Houston. About one year later he entered the
service of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and shortly afterward he
became secretary to J. H. Hill, manager of the Galveston, Houston &
Henderson Railroad, with headquarters in Galveston. He held this posi-
tion about one year and then accepted the office of assistant personal
injury, fire and stock claim agent of the Frisco Railroad. Later he
became traveling freight agent for the Cotton Belt Railroad, but he
eventually returned to the service of the company previously mentioned,
becoming chief clerk for its immigration commissioner. It was in this
department that Mr. Doyle gained prestige and high reputation as a suc-
cessful railroad man, and he became a potent factor in initiating the
great wave of immigration that has brought many thousands of desirable
settlers to the great southwest. From the position of chief clerk Mr.
Doyle was advanced to the supervision of the general immigration work
of the road, and in this capacity he organized, with marked initiative and
executive ability, one of the largest and most efficient immigration depart-
ments that have ever been an adjunct of railway operations. He reor-
ganized the department that was known as the Frisco Immigration Asso-
ciation. This was composed of men of distinctive ability and resource-
fulness, so that the work of the association was one of most productive
and eft'ective order. With discrimination and unflagging zeal Mr. Doyle
finally ncreased the corps of men in his department to the noteworthy
number of twenty-five hundred, each one being efficient in the promotion
of the business assigned to his charge. This fine force of workers
included not only immigration agents in the north and east, but also repre-
sentatives in the southwestern territory, the former corps being assigned
to the work of sending immigrants to this favored section and the latter
force assisted the settlers in selecting locations and making permanent
settlement. A system of checking was instituted and through the same
was shown with exactitude the details of each man's work and the
results of the same. Mr. Doyle made regular trips throughout the wide
area of country in the jurisdiction of his finely organized department and
gave his personal supervision to the work, besides which he established
an efficient system of advertising, the same being of wide scope and of
much importance in furthering the work of his department. With this
important branch of railroad enterprise Mr. Doyle continued to be actively
identified for nearly five years, and all familiar with his able and pro-
gressive work in the connection concede that it was due to his efforts
that the tide of immigration was so largely deflected from the northwest
282 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
to the southwest. In the great northwest the railroad companies had
been carrying forward effective promotion of immigration for a term of
years, and Mr. Doyle had the prescience to see that the same effort could
bring desired results in the southwest. His great capacity as an organizer
and administrative officer came into effective play and his name merits
a place of honor on the roster of those who have aided materially in the
civic and industrial development and progress of Texas and other parts
of the southwest, whose magnificent resources and attractions were ex-
ploited by him with admirable ability. Although he modestly claims for
himself no special credit in the connection, it is a matter of recorded fact
in railroad statistics that during the period of his incumbency of the
office mentioned the Frisco Railroad system had fifty-seven per cent of
the passenger business through the St. Louis gateway.
Mr. Doyle resigned his position with the Frisco Railroad and in May,
190S, he became proprietor of the Worth Hotel, the only first-class Amer-
ican-plan hotel in the city of Fort Worth and one whose facilities and
high-grade accommodations have given it reputation as one of the best
hotels of the southwest. Both as an able business man and as a genial
host Mr. Doyle has proved himself splendidly equipped for effective work
in his present field of endeavor, and few citizens of Texas have a wider
circle of appreciative and valued friends than this sterling and popular
boniface. In politics Mr. Doyle is aligned as a staunch supporter of the
cause of the Democratic party, though he has never been an aspirant for
public office. The brief record of his business career given in this sketch
offers full assurance of his loyalty and progressive attitude as a citizen,
and he maintains a lively nterest in all that tends to conserve the advance-
ment and civic prosperity of the "Greater Fort Worth." He has attained
the thirty-second degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of the
Masonic fraternity, is a member of its adjunct organization, the Ancient
Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, and is also identified
with the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.
The Montgomery L.xnd Securities Comp.\ny, Inc., which is
largely interested in property in western Texas, and of which R. W.
Montgomery is president and C. W. Harris, secretary and sales manager,
makes a specialty of developing and selling subdivisions with a guaran-
teed value of each lot placed in each contract, a plan that has met with the
highest degree of satisfaction. The business policy of this company is
the development and selling of subdivision property under a selling con-
tract which guarantees the repurchase of the property, if, for any reason,
the purchaser desires to sell when he has paid for it.
This is the company's mantier of advertising the fact that it onl\
handles high-class subdivision property, and property which it buys, de
velops and sells to suit its plans. The company does not engage in com-
mission business and handles no other properties except subdivisions and
large tracts of western land, the latter being really a wholesale branch of
the business.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 283
In the sixteen months that the company has been handhng Guaran-
teed Value properties it has made a very rapid growth, and the company
has practically completed arrangements for a very substantial increase
in its capital stock and enlargement of its field of operations, taking in
properties in Fort Worth, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio to be sold
under the Guaranteed \'ahie Contract.
The fact of the company's confining its operations entirely to its own
properties and development and selling of its subdivisions, with the re-
demption feature above mentioned, gives this company a standing prob-
abl}- dififerent from any real estate firm in Texas, if not in the United
States, and its policy of selling only on investigation, on a contract to
repurchase, is finding a marked approval among the class of investors in
real estate who are looking for legitimate investments in staple property-.
Tom B. Y.\rbrough. — Prominently identified with financial and in-
dustrial interests in his native state and known as one of the liberal and
progressive citizens who have contributed materially to the progress and
upbuilding of the city of Fort Worth, Mr. Yarbrough is here incumbent
of the office of vice-president and manager of the Waggoner Bank &
Trust Company and is one of the substantial capitalists and representative
stockmen of tliis part of the fine old Lone Star commonwealth. In both
the paternal and maternal lines he is a scion of honored pioneer families
of Texas, and thus there is special consistency in according to him specific
recognition in this history.
Tom B. Yarbrough was born in Fannin county, Texas, on the 4th
of June, 1873, and is a son of Thomas B. and Sallie (Waggoner) Yar-
brough. The father of the subject of this review was born in Louisiana
and became one of the successful business men of western Texas. He
died in 1896. His wife was a member of the well known and influential
Waggoner family whose name has been prominently linked with the
history of Texas since the early pioneer days, when the Indians still dis-
puted'dominion of the soil and when this section was on the very border
of civilization. The family was early founded in Wise county, where
it acquired extensive landed and cattle interests, which have been re-
tained bv its representatives to the present day, the Waggoner estate
being one of the largest and richest in Texas. Daniel Waggoner, the
noted stockman, was a brother of the mother of him whose name initiates
this article, and the mother died in 1880, being held in affectionate regard
by all who knew her and being a native of Texas, which ever represented
her home.
Tom B. Yarbrough was reared and educated in Fannin county, this
state, and his initial business training was secured in connection with
banking interests at Honey Grove, where he was identified with this line
of enterprise for a number of years. In 1907 he removed to Fort Worth,
where he acquired a substantial interest in the Hunter-Phelan Bank,
which was then reorganized under the title of the Waggoner Bank &
Trust Company, and which is incorporated with a capital stock of
284 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
$134,600. which is augmented by a fund of undivided profits aggregating
about $122,000, making this one of the substantial financial institutions
of the state. The number of its depositors has increased with distinct
regularity, affording the best evidence of popular confidence and appre-
ciation, and the progressive and yet duly conservative administration of
the affairs of the institution has made it a valuable factor in connection
with the financial prestige and solidity of Fort Worth. Perhaps one of
the greatest assets of this in.stitution is the well known capitalistic strength
and individual integrity of its interested principals, all of whom are
representative and sterling citizens of the state. The personnel of the
executive corps of the Waggoner Bank & Trust Company is as here
noted: W. T. (Tom) Waggoner, president; Tom B. Yarbrough, vice-
president and manager; Sidney Webb and Albert B. Wharton, vice-presi-
dents ; and Sam D. Triplett, cashier. The directorate includes, in addi-
tion to the president and vice-presidents, Earl E. Baldridge, Guy L. Wag-
goner, William Capps and J. W. Mitchell.
Mr. Yarbrough is known as a man of marked ability and discrimi-
nation as a financier and business man and has large capitalistic inter-
ests aside from his association with the fine institution just mentioned.
For a number of years past he has been prominently identified with the
great cattle industry of his native state, and he is the owner of a finely
improved ranch of 40,000 acres, lying mostly in Cottle county. He is
the owner of valuable realty in Fort Worth, where also he is secretary
and treasurer of the American Seed Company and treasurer of the
American Home Life Insurance Company, two of the important con-
cerns of the city and state. As a citizen he is essentially alert, progressive
and public-spirited, and he maintains a lively interest in all that tends to
foster the civic and industrial advancement of his home city.
On the 27th of June, 1901, Mr. Yarbrough was united in marriage
to Miss Glenn Halsell. who was born in the state of Texas, and who is
a daughter of Glenn Halsell, one of the representative citizens of Decatur,
Texas, where are centered the extensive interests of this well known and
influential family. ]\lr. and Mrs. Yarbrough have two children — Dan
Waggoner and Josephine.
WILLIA^r L. S-VRGENT. — Among those who have contributed mate-
rially to the civic and industrial development and progress of the fine old
Lone Star state is William L. Sargent, the efficient and popular immigra-
tion agent of the Texas & Pacific Railroad. He maintains his home and
official headquarters in the city of Fort Worth and is a citizen of promi-
nence and influence, liberal and public spirited and an enthusiastic ad-
mirer of the great commonwealth, with whose interests he has been so
long and prominently identified and concerning whose magnificent re-
sources few men are better informed or able to speak with more of
authority.
Mr. Sargent was born on the fine old homestead plantation of the
family, at the head of navigation on the Tombigbee River, in Fulton
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 285
county, Mississippi, at Cotton Gin, and the date of his nativity was Au-
gust 8, 1859. He is a son of Captain James L. and Mehsa A. (nee
Crayton) Sargent, representatives of a long line of distinguished and
honored old southern families, and his mother died when he was but
three years of age in 1862. during the Civil war, where his father dis-
tinguished himself. His father. Captain James L. Sargent, is still living,
at the age of seventy-seven, at Caddo, Oklahoma, having married after
the war in Mississippi, Mary Harris of Lee county, and they have living
four children, all of whom are married, settled and making useful citizens.
On Christmas day, 1909, twenty-one members of the Sargent ^'amily
enjoyed a pleasant dinner at the home of Captain James L. Sargent
Mr. Sargent was reared to maturity on the home plantation and was
afforded the advantages of the common schools of the locality and period.
In 1879 he came to Texas and took up his residence in Colorado county.
A few years later he removed to the western part of the state, and with
the interests of this great section of Texas he has been closely identified
since the early 8o's, having witnessed and assisted in its social and ma-
terial development, and being a firm believer in the still more magnificent
future of this opulent region. For a number of years Mr. Sargent
maintained his home in Stonewall county, where he devoted his attention
principally to the upbuilding of the country, which was sparsely inhab-
ited, and where he was elected county and district clerk. In 1893, while
a resident of Navarro county, he was elected sergeant at arms of the
lower house of the state legislature, retaining this incumbency during the
twenty-third general assembly, refusing a second term.
For about two years he was editor and publisher of the Lasso, at
Baynor, Stonewall county, and he was for some fifteen years, either as
owner or otherwise, connected with the press of Texas; as editor and
publisher of the Terrell Times-Star, which, under his control, became
one of the leading weekly papers of the state and was made an effective
exponent of local as well as political interests. Upon his retirement from
the field of journalism, Mr. Sargent engaged in the land business, with
headquarters at Terrell, and in this line of enterprise his operations
eventually touched nearly all sections of the state. For some time he
was the Texas immigration agent for the Frisco Railroad system, also
the Texas Midland, and the heads of the companies' passenger depart-
ment gave Mr. Sargent credit for having personally been the means of
securing for Texas a larger number of settlers and investors than any
other one man in the state.
In 1905 Mr. Sargent became identified with the immigration de-
partment of the Texas & Pacific Railroad, and in the following year he
established his permanent headquarters in the city of Fort Worth, from
which point he directs the extensive and important work of his depart-
ment. Besides being immigration agent for the railroad mentioned, he
also represents the general immigration bureau of the Gould system of
railroads, which bureau was organized on the ist of January, 1909, and
through its agency Mr. Sargent has materially increased the Texas im-
286 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
migration business of the Gould lines. He is an authority in the matter
of the resources of Texas, especially in regard to the great western sec-
tion of the state, which is largely tributary to the Texas & Pacific Rail-
road. He is a frequent and valued contributor to newspapers and maga-
zines, through the medium of which he has done effective service in
exploiting the attractions and manifold resources of the state. He is a
well trained and admirably equipped immigration agent, making a pro-
fession of this line of work, and has accomplished through the same re-
sults that have added in generous measure to the industrial and civic
upbuilding of the fine old Lone Star commonwealth.
Governor Campbell appointed Mr. Sargent a delegate and the com-
missioner of agriculture sent him as special representative of the seven-
teenth National Irrigation Congress, that assembled in the city of Spokane,
Washington, in August, 1909, and at this noteworthy convention he ably
represented his home state. I!y appointment of the thirty-first legislature
of Texas he is a member of the executive committee for the conservation
and reclamation service provided by legislative assembly. He is a valued
contributing editor of the Texas & Pacific Quarterly, and is Te.xas cor-
respondent of the National Irrigation Journal, published in the city of
Chicago. Mr. Sargent has done particularly efficient and commendable
work in bringing about co-operation between the railroads, the local
commercial clubs and associations and the farmers, in the promotion of
the interests of Western Texas. He has arranged numerous permanent
and temporary exhibits of Texas resources and products, and through
this means has brought to the state hundreds of desirable settlers. He
was the first to exploit the magnificent resources of the Toyah Valley,
in the extreme western part of the state, and assisted in establishing the
first irrigation system in that splendid section, which has become the
center of a large immigration movement. He has also done much to
promote the development of the Pecos Valley, and he is deserving of
special tribute for his able efforts in connection with the general progress
and upbuilding of the state.
In politics Mr. Sargent is a staunch adherent of the Democratic
party, and has been a great political factor in party council and the many
strenuous campaigns since and including the Hogg compaign and admin-
istration — the ex-governor and Mr. Sargent were great friends. Few
men in Texas are better known than the subject of this sketch.
While he holds no membership in any church, he is liberal in his
views concerning man's future and society regarding the doctrine and
teachings of the lowly Xazarene, and believes in the fatherhood of God
and the brotherhood of man, and is identified with various civic and fra-
ternal organizations of representative order.
In the year 1891 Mr. Sargent was united in marriage to Miss Ruby
V. Kennon, daughter of Dr. William Kennon, a representative physician
and surgeon of Lowndes county, Mississippi, in which state Mrs. Sargent
was born and reared. Mrs. Sargent was an invalid for six years before
she was summoned to the life eternal on the 226 of .\pril, 1908, and is
HISTORY OF CEiNTTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 287
survived by four children — Mary, Bessie, Winnifred and William. Her
death was a great shock and a loss that was almost unbearable to her
husband, as their marriage relationship was tender, devoted, and favor-
ably commented upon by all who knew them.
Mr. Sargent has been vice president of the Texas Press Association ;
president of the Texas Real Estate and Industrial Association ; served
five years as private secretary to the brilliant and lamented R. C. De-
Graffinreid, M. C. (known as the Black Eagle of the Piney Woods).
He has been temporary and permanent secretary of more state Demo-
cratic conventions than any man in Texas. His friends claim at one time
he could have been governor and at another M. C, but his desire has
always been to help his friends, and he is loved because of his loyalty to
friends from whom he cannot be shaken. He is honorary vice-president
from Texas of the Eighteenth National Irrigation Congress, member of
the executive committee of the Texas Conservation Association and chair-
man of the program and invitation committee of the congress held in
Ft. Worth April 5th and 6th. He is also member of the Texas Irrigation
Congress. He has done as much or more for irrigation than any man
in Texas, especially in the Lower Pecos Valley of Texas, where millions
are being spent and great settlement progressing.
Waller, Shaw & Field. — The firm of Waller, Shaw & Field, archi-
tects, is perhaps one of the best known corporations of its kind in
Central or Western Texas, and it is composed of Marion L. Waller, Fred
Gordon Shaw and E. Stanley Field, all well known, substantial and' influ-
ential business men. Mr. Waller is the senior member of the firm and
was its organizer in the year of 1909, but since 1901 he has been con-
nected with the profession in Fort Worth. Mr. Field has charge of the
firm's branch office in San Angelo, Texas.
Mr. Waller was born in Grimes county, Texas, and he was reared
there and it remained his home vnitil he was eighteen. He prepared for
his work as an architect in Armour Institute of Chicago, and his first
actual work along this line was begun in 1897 at Colorado Springs, and
from there he came to Fort Worth in 1901, at the time the packing houses
were established here, an event that marked the beginning of the great
expansion and development of the city. Mr. Waller at once entered
quietly but energetically into the work of his profession and soon estab-
lished a reputation that has brought him an increasing clientele and vol-
ume of business with each succeeding year. With the closing vear of
1909 he had erected one hundred and eight residence structures in Fort
Worth. He was the architect of the Mulkey Memorial Church Iniilding
and the church connected with the Polytechnic College ; at the present
time is the architect and the superintendent of the building of the new
Alagnolia Avenue Christian and' the Hemphill Presbyterian churches, and
he has also designed and built a number of commercial structures.
Mr. Waller's studies and inclinations, however, have led him into
specializing as an architect of school buildings, and since the beginning
288 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of the year of 1909 he has devoted practically his entire time and atten-
tion to this branch of architecture, having decided to make it his special
field of effort for the future. He has been gradually leading up to this
special department for some years. In Tarrant county he has designed
and built twenty school houses, and in Fort Worth he has been the archi-
tect of eleven of the modern school buildings that have been erected in
this city. With the four years ending with that of 1909 he has erected
school buildings in Texas amounting in cost to a million and a half of
dollars. In the fall of 1909 he was awarded the contract to design and
build the new West Texas Normal buildings at Canyon City, Texas, the
structure to cost one hundred thousand dollars and to be completed in
1910. This important work was given to Mr. Waller by the state officials
in competition with other well known architects, and strictly on his merits
and achievements as an architect of school buildings, this being a notable
instance where friendship or political preferment were entirely eliminated.
Mr. Waller's work is always thoroughly done, the result of study and
close application. His classical designs are particularly notable for their
simple beauty and elegance, although he docs not devote himself nar-
rowly to any particular style of architecture, nor does he sacrifice utility
for outward appearances.
In the firm of Waller, Shaw & Field, Mr. Waller, as stated above, has
charge of the school architecture ; Mr. Shaw, wdio is a graduate of the
Massachusetts School of Technology, has charge of the church archi-
tecture, and Mr. Field takes up generally the work of business structures,
hotels and kindred lines. The firm has completely equipped offices in
Fort Worth, where they employ a force of draftsmen and other assistants,
including a specialist on steam heat and another on reinforced concrete.
They are thus well fortified as architects in all the dififerent departments
of the profession, and their name stands among the first in their line in
Central and Western Texas.
J. L. Price was born, reared and educated in Springfield, Illinois,
but during the past nine or ten years his home has been in Fort Worth
and his interests prominently associated with those of this city and of
Central Texas. He studied for the law in Springfield in the office of
General John M. Palmer, but was never a practitioner before the bar,
choosing instead a commercial career. Going to Chicago, Illinois, he
entered the service of Armour and Company' as assistant credit man
there, and later filled the same position for that company in St. Louis
and in Fort Worth. He came to this city in 1901, about the time the
packing houses and enlarged stockyards were established at North Fort
Worth, and during the following three- or four years had charge of the
local office and the credit and financial affairs of Armour and Company's
Fort Worth plant. But leaving the services of that company to engage
in banking and other local enterprises, he established his permanent home
in Fort \Vorth and became a director of the Stockyards National Bank.
He is now the president of that institution, elected to the office in 1907.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 289
and this bank represents the extensive financial transactions of the con-
stantly growing live stock and packing house industries centered at
North Fort Worth, and is a large factor in giving to the city its high
rank in the matter of bank clearings as reported each week from all the
large cities of the country. The financial strength and backing of this
banking house are notable, its stockholders including such financial powers
as J. Ogden Armour, Edward F. and Louis F. Swift, Edward Tilden and
others having large interests in the stockyards and packing house indus-
tries. The capital of the bank is two hundred thousand dollars, with a
surplus of fifty thousand dollars and deposits amounting to over a million
and a half dollars.
Mr. Price is also the vice-president of the Reporter Publishing Com-
pany and the treasurer of the Feeders and Breeders' Show. He has
fraternal relations with the Masons, Elks and various other orders. Mrs.
Price was before marriage Miss Harriet Crabbe, from Springfield, Illi-
nois, a granddaughter of the late General John AI. Palmer.
E. Berkeley Spiller. — There are no cattlemen in western and north-
western Texas whose labors and characters have caused wider respect or
deeper admiration than those which are represented by the Loving and
the Spiller families. Their representatives have not only stood forth as
large figures in their private enterprises, but have donated generously of
their years and abilities to the promotion of the cattle industry as one of
the gigantic interests of the Lone Star state and the southwest. The re-
sult is that the typical cattleman of Texas, both of the old times and the
new, has taken it for granted that whenever a Spiller or a Loving appears
on the sfene he is entitled to the best possible opportunity in the continu-
ance of the ancestral record.
E. Berkeley Spiller, of Fort Worth, assistant secretary of the Texas
Cattle Raisers' Association, is energetically and ably continuing the splen-
did work inaugurated by his maternal grandfather. Captain James C.
Loving, when that organization was founded in 1877. Mr. Spiller was
born at Jacksboro, Texas, in 1885. His great-grandfather. Colonel Oliver
Loving, was one of the earliest pioneers and cattlemen in Jack county
and west Texas, and in that part of the state the family still retain large
interests. For years none connected with the great industry were better
known than the Lovings, Oliver (the father) and James C. (the son).
The latter was at the height of his prosperity, influence, popularity and
energy when the cattlemen responded so heartily to the suggestion that
they organize for mutual benefit and the business good of the state.
When, therefore, the Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas was organized
at Graham, Young county, in February, 1877, James C. Loving, of Jack
county, was elected to the office of secretary, which carried with it the
most active and heaviest burdens connected with the systematic promo-
tion of the cattle interests of the state. As long as Mr. Loving lived his
position was secure, and he held it, by successive re-elections, until his
Vol. 1—19
290 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
decease, November 24, 1902. He also filled the office of treasurer from
1879 to 1893, and that of general manager of the association from 1884
until his death. To James C. Loving, more than to any other one man
has always been freely accorded the honor of bringing the great success
which has marked every distinct step taken by the association.
At the death of Captain Loving, Mr. Spiller entered the office of the
Texas Cattle Raisers' Association and served under four different admin-
istrations — those of Murdo MacKenzie, of Trinidad, Colorado ; Hon. W.
W. Turney, of El Paso; Colonel Ike T. Pryor, of San Antonio; and
James Callan, of Menardville. In his annual message to the San Antonio
convention of 1908, Colonel Pryor took occasion to speak in the highest
terms of Mr. Spiller's work, which has embraced the able performance
of duties as assistant secretary (since 1906) and acting secretary during
several months of 1907. It is universally conceded that there is no man of
his years in Texas better informed on all the phases of the cattle business
than Mr. Spiller. and he is fast adding to the record of the Spiller family
in behalf of the advancement of the association.
Mr. Spiller is a son of George and Belle (Loving) Spiller, and both
his parents are living at his native town of Jacksboro, Jack county. It
was in that part of Texas that he was reared, but in 1901 moved to Fort
Worth and spent one year in school there. He then entered the office
of the secretary of the Texas Cattle Raisers' Association as bookkeeper,
the head of the department then being the late Captain John T. Lytle,
who succeeded Captain Loving. Mr. Spiller's rapid and substantial ad-
vancement since then is a part of the progress of the association, in whose
subsequent history he is destined to be largely concerned.
Robert M. Davis. — To Robert M. Davis belongs the distinction of
being one of the earliest pioneer business men of Tarrant county, con-
spicuously connected during a long number of years with the agricultural
implement business. He was born and reared on a farm in Clinton
county, Kentucky, and he came from there to Tarrant county, Texas, in
1874, and has ever since resided here. During the first years of his
residence here he started and improved a farm from raw land, clearing a
part of the tract and making the rails for the fences himself. He lived
there on that farm until in 1886 he came to Fort Worth and embarked in
the agricultural implement business with the firm of Lathrop and Vin-
cent, whose business house was located at the corner of First and Houston
streets, and he continued with that firm and with that of Ellis and Huff-
man for twelve years or until the year of 1898, during that time taking a
more active part than perhaps any other one man in the introduction
and operation of improved farming machinery in Tarrant county. He
set up and started in operation in Tarrant county the first self-binding
harvester that bound the sheaf with twine, this binder having been
equipped with the famous Appleby knotter, a device that has continued,
with improvements, in use to the present day. ]\Ir. Davis also started out
':W . ^^^^T^y^^'^' y^y^ ^a))
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 291
the first steam threshing outfit in the county, the machines having been
assembled and set up in the Ellis and Huffman place.
In 1898 Mr. Davis engaged as an expert with the Harvester King
Company of Chicago for the Texas territory,' and during his three years'
connection with that corporation his territory covered both Texas and
Manitoba, he having been sent to the latter country for the wheat har-
vesting season. In fact he has worked in practically every state of the
Union, save that of California, as an expert for the harvesting machinery
interests, and after the consolidation of these interests under the name
of the International Harvesting Machine Company he continued with
the latter corporation, with headquarters in Fort Worth, until in 1906.
In that year he received the Democratic nomination for and was elected
the tax collector of Tarrant county, his conduct of the important and
exacting duties of that office leading to his being again selected for its
incumbency in 1908 for another term. His administration has been effi-
cient, capable and popular in every way. His acquaintance and friend-
ship, particularly in Tarrant county, includes practically every citizen and
family therein. He is a member of the Masonic and various other orders.
Mr. Davis married in 1879, ^t Birdville, Lou V. Calloway, who was
born and reared there, a member of one of the oldest families of Tarrant
county. The four children of this marriage are John W., James Arthur,
Mary Lou and Robert M. Davis Jr.
John H. McLean, M. D. — An able and honored representative of
the medical profession in his native state, Dr. McLean is engaged in -the
active practice of medicine and surgery in the city of Fort Worth, where
he is also a valued member of the faculty of the medical department of
Fort Worth University. He controls a large and representative practide
and is recognized as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of the
city.
Dr. McLean is a scion of staunch old southern stock and was bofn
at Mount Pleasant, Titus county, Texas, on the nth of June, 1877. He
is a son of Judge William P. and Margaret (Batte) McLean, the -former
of whom was born in Mississippi and the latter in Virginia. Judge
McLean was an* infant at the time of his parents' removal from Missis-
sippi to Texas, and they became pioneers of Jefferson, Marshall and Mt.
Pleasant in the eastern part of the state, where they took up their abode
in 1840. The parents passed the residue of their lives in that section,
and there Judge McLean was reared to maturity, receiving the advantages
of the common schools of the locality and period and greatly amplifymg
this discipline through his own self-application to higher branches of
academic study in North Carolina. In Titus county he also began read-
ing law, and admirably did he fortify himself in the learning of the great
profession in which he was destined to attain much of distinction and
success. He has long been one of the foremost members of the bar of
the state in which he has maintained his home from childhood, has wielded
large and beneficent influence in public affairs and has been called to
292 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
numerous offices of high trust and responsibility, including that of judge
of the circuit court, of which office he was incumbent for a number of
years. He served in Congress in 1873-75, and also served as railroad
commissioner under Governor Hogg. He took up his residence in Fort
Worth in 1894 and has been prominently identified with the civic and
material development and progress of the city, where he has ever com-
manded unqualified popular confidence and esteem. He has represented
a distinctive force in political and general public affairs in his home city
and state and has been a leader in the ranks of the Democratic party.
He and his wife have long been active in connection with the best social
life of their home city. Of their nine children, three sons and three
daughters are now living. One of their sons, Jefferson D. McLean, be-
came one of the strong and honored members of the bar of Tarrant county
and was engaged in the work of his profession in Fort Worth until his
death — as a martyr to the worthy cause of clean government in his home
county. While serving as county attorney he was assassinated, in 1907,
by representatives of the criminal gambling element, against whom he
had waged a relentless warfare, in an attempt to purge Fort Worth of
this undesirable class of citizens.
Dr. John H. McLean gained his preliminary education in the public
schools, having been nineteen years of age at the time of the family
removal from Titus county to Fort Worth, where he was reared to years
of maturity and where he has since continued to maintain his home. At
the age of nineteen years he began reading medicine under effective pre-
ceptorship, and finally he was matriculated in the medical department
of Fort Worth University, in which he was graduated as a member of
the class of 1899 and from which he received his well earned degree of
Doctor of Medicine. Soon after his graduation, for the purpose of still
further fortifying himself for the exacting and responsible work of his
chosen profession, the Doctor entered the medical department of Cornell
University, said department of this well known institution being estab-
lished in the city of New York. He did most effective post-graduate
work and was granted the ad eundum degree of Doctor of Medicine by
Cornell University in igoi. Thereafter he passed two years as one of
the resident physicians of the celebrated Bellevue Hospital, in the national
metropolis, where he devoted one year to clinical work in medicine and
one to surgery, thus gaining most valuable experience of a practical order.
In 1903 Dr. McLean returned to Fort Worth, where he has since been
successfully engaged in the general practice of his profession, and he has
gained not only distinctive prestige in his chosen vocation, but has also
retained the inviolable confidence and esteem of his professional con-
freres, as well as the general public. He controls a large practice of
representative order and is an able and honored member of the medical
fraternity of his native state. He has been a member of the faculty of
the medical department of Fort Worth University since 1903, and in the
same is the valued incumbent of the chair of gynecology and surgical
diseases of women. He is a member of the American Medical Associa-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 293
tion, the Texas State Medical Society, the North Texas District Medical
Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society.
In politics the Doctor gives an unswerving allegiance to the cause of
the Democratic party, but he has had no desire to enter the turbulent
stream of so-called "practical politics," preferring to give his entire time
and attention to the noble profession for which he has so admirably
equipped himself. He is a member of various social and civic organiza-
tions of representative character in his home city.
In April, 1907, Dr. McLean was united in marriage to Miss Anita
Hunter, daughter of William Hunter, a representative citizen of St.
Louis, Missouri, and they have one son, William Hunter McLean. Dr.
and Mrs. McLean enjoy marked popularity in connection with the social
activities of their home city, where their circle of friends is coincident
with that of their acquaintances.
James W. Sw.wne. — A distinguished representative of the bench
and bar of Texas and a citizen who has wielded much influence in con-
nection with public affairs in this commonwealth is Judge Swayne, of
Fort Worth, who is now presiding on the bench of the Seventeenth
judicial district.
Judge Swayne is a scion of old and honored southern families, and
the lineage, direct and collateral, shows many names of distinction. He
was born at Lexington, Henderson county, Tennessee, on the 6th of
October, 1855, and is a son of James W. and Amanda J. (Henry ) Swayne,
the former a representative of one of the prominent and patrician families
of Virginia, with whose annals the name became identified in the colonial
epoch, and the latter a member of a well known family of South Caro-
lina. James W. Swayne Sr. was for many years a prominent member of
the bar of the state of Tennessee, having been engaged in the practice of
his profession at Jackson, that state. The record of the Swayne family
shows that in the various generations have been many able representatives
of the legal profession. Judge Noah H. Swayne, an uncle of the subject
of this review, although of southern birth, was an unyielding advocate
of the abolition of slavery, and he finally moved to the city of Columbus,
Ohio, where he engaged in the practice of his profession. In iSfii he
was appointed a member of the supreme court of the L^nited States, by
President Lincoln, and he served in this office until 1S83. Juili^a' John
T. Swayne, another uncle, was a prominent law}'er and jurist at Memphis,
Tennessee, and another honored representative of the family was General
Wager Swayne, a distinguished member of the bar of New York city,
and partner of Judge Dillon.
Judge James W. Swayne, the immediate subject of this sketch, was
reared to maturity in his native state, where he received excellent edu-
cational advantages of a preliminary order, and he afterward continued
his studies in the Kentucky ^Military Institute at Frankfort, Kentucky.
In preparation for the work of his chosen profession he entered the law
department of Cumberland L'niversity, at Lebanon, Tennessee, in which
294 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
institution he was graduated as a member of the class of 1877, and from
which lie received the degree of Bachelor of Laws. Early in the follow-
ing year he came to Fort Worth, Texas, which was then a mere frontier
town, and here he has since been actively identified with the work of his
profession, in which his success has been on a parity with his distinctive
ability. He is to be considered as one of the pioneer members of the
bar of the state, and through his character and services he has lent dignity
and honor to his profession and to the judicial annals of this common-
wealth, to which his loyalty is of the most insistent order. Judge Swayne
served as city attorney from 1883 to 1885, was representative of Tarrant
county in the lower house of the state legislature in 1891-2, and was a
member of the state senate from 1892 to 1894, inclusive, under the ad-
ministration of Governor Hogg. From 1896 to 1900 he served with
marked ability as county attorney of Tarrant county.
At the time of the initiation of the development of the great oil
industry in Texas, Judge Swayne was chosen by Governor Hogg as his
chief legal adviser and business representative, and in this capacity he
effected the organization of the Hogg-Swayne Syndicate, which became
a powerful factor in the crude oil operations in this state and which for
a time set at naught the calculations of the other great oil interests of
the world. The management of the affairs of the Hogg-Swayne Syndi-
cate involved Judge Swayne and his associates in a number of important
litigations that attracted wide attention, and through his effective legal
and executive services in this connection he greatly added to his profes-
sional reputation and incidentally gained valuable experience in his clash-
ing swords with some of the most distinguished lawyers of the country.
During his identification with the oil industry Judge Swayne spent about
four years of his time in the southern part of the state. In the year 1909
Governor Campbell appointed him to his present position on the bench
of the seventeenth judicial district of the state, to fill the vacancy caused
by the resignation of Judge i\Iichael Smith. As a jurist. Judge Swayne
has shown not only marked acumen in the administration of the affairs
of his court, but has brought to bear his broad and exact knowledge of
the science of jurisprudence, showing familiarity with law and precedent,
and, it is said, has brought to the bench unusual executive ability.
In politics Judge Swayne has long been a leader in the ranks of the
Democratic party in Texas, and he has rendered effective service in the
promotion of its cause. He was a delegate at large from Texas to the
Democratic national convention of 1900, when William J. Bryan was
nominated for the presidency. The judge is an appreciative member of
the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the chivalric degrees,
heing affiliated with Worth Commandery, Knights Templars. He is also
a valued member of Queen City Lodge, No. 21, Knights of Pythias, of
which he is past chancellor.
On the 6th of October, 1887, was solemnized the marriage of Judge
Swayne to Miss Josephine Latham, who was born at Alexandria, Virginia,
and who is a daughter of Phillipson Latham, a representative of one of
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 295
the distinguished RevoUitionary famihes of the Old Dominion state. Mrs.
Swayne is a woman of high scholarship and distinctive culture, having
marked literary ability and having made many contributions to leading-
periodicals. Her family has been one notable for scholarship and she
herself has been an appreciative student of the best in literature and art.
She was a student at Vassar and was afterwards a graduate of the Uni-
versity of Missouri, and also received the degree of blaster of Arts from
the University of Missouri, in which she was a successful and popular
teacher for some time. She occupies a position of prominence in con-
nection with the representative social activities of Fort Worth, where her
popularity- is of the most unequivocal order and where she has taken a
deep interest in reform movements and civic improvements of various
kinds. Her services in these lines have been of much value, though ren-
dered with naught of ostentation. She is a n-iember of the board of trus-
tees of the Carnegie library of Fort Worth, and she has been the leading
spirit in the affairs of the Civic Art League. Although her work has
been done quietly and is little known to the public, she has exerted much
influence in bringing about civic reforms and public improvements, in
which connection special reference should be made to the effective work
done by her in bringing about the improvement of the park system of
Fort Worth and in providing public playgrounds for the children of the
city. Mr. and Mrs. Swayne have one child, Ida L.
WiLLi.\jr M. Trimble, M. D. — The high professional standing of
Dr. Trimble is measurably indicated in his incumbency of the office of
city physician of Fort Worth, where he is established in the general prac-
tice of his profession, in which he retains a large and representative
clientage and is known as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of
his native county and state, where he retains an inviolable hold upon
popular confidence and esteem, both as a physician and as a loyal and
public-spirited citizen.
Dr. Trimble was born in Tarrant county, Texas, on the nth of June.
1868, and is a son of Green B. and Annie L. ( [Morrow ) Trimble, both
of whom were born and reared in Cole county, Missouri. The parents
are numbered among the honored pioneer citizens of Tarrant county,
where the father took up his abode in 1866, after having served as a
valiant soldier of the Confederacy in the Civil war. in which he was a
member of a Missouri regiment. He and his wife still reside on their
fine old homestead farm, twelve miles east of the city of Fort Worth,
where thev have maintained their home for nearly forty years, and where
thev are leld in the highest esteem by all who know them. Robert Mor-
row, maternal grandfather of the Doctor, died in Tarrant county in
1903, at a very advanced age, and was one of the honored and notable
characters of this section of the state. He was a sterling veteran of
three wars — the Seminole Indian war in Florida, the Mexican war, and
the war between the states, in which la.st he was a zealous supporter of
the cause of the Confederacy.
296 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Dr. Trimble passed his childhood and youth on the home farm, and
after availing himself of the advantages of the public schools he contin-
ued his studies under effective influences in the Sam Houston Normal
School, at Huntsville, and the North Texas Normal School, at Denton,
in which latter he was graduated as a member of the class of 1901. Long
prior to this, however, he had established a secure reputation as an able
and popular teacher in the public schools, and he became a prominent
factor in educational circles, having been the founder of Arlington Col-
lege, at Arlington. Tarrant county, of which he was president for some
time, and which has since continued effective service under the title of
the Carlisle Military Academy. Upon resigning his pedagogic work in
connection with the institution mentioned. Dr. Trimble became superin-
tendent of the public schools of North Fort Worth, of which office he
continued incumbent for three years. He then began the work of prep-
aration for the medical profession, in which he has achieved unequivocal
success, having prosecuted his technical studies for two years in the
medical department of Fort Worth University and having initiated the
active practice of his profession in North Fort Worth in 1907. He soon
entered the medical department of Baylor University, in the city of Dallas,
from which admirable institution he received the degree of Doctor of
Medicine in 1907. Thereafter he continued in the successful practice of
his profession in North Fort Worth, where he served as city physician,
being in tenure of this position in 1909, in which year North Fort Worth
abolished its individual municipal government and became an integral
part of the city of Fort Worth. At this amalgamation fitting recognition
of the eligibility and effective services of Dr. Trimble was given in his
appointment to the office of city physician of the "Greater Fort Worth,"
and his labors in this official capacity have been signally discriminating,
zealous and commendable. He has well equipped offices in the Reynolds
building and controls a large and representative practice as a physician
and surgeon. He is identified with the American ^ledical Association,
the Texas State Medical Society and the Tarrant County Medical Society,
and he is held in high regard by his professional confreres in his native
state.
As a loyal and progressive citizen Dr. Trimble manifests a lively
interest in all that concerns the civic and material prosperity of his home
city, and in politics he is a staunch supporter of the cause of the Demo-
cratic party, keeping in touch with the question and issuL-s of the hour
and being well fortified in his opinions as to matters of public polity. He
and wife are members of the first Christian Church.
On the 17th of February, 1897, Dr. Trimble was united in marriage
to Miss Susie C. Borah, who likewise was born and reared in Tarrant
comity, being a daughter of William J. Borah, a representative farmer
and stockman of Grapevine Prairie. They have four children — Green B.
Jr. (named in honor of his paternal grandfather), Terrell, Willie Lou
and ^^"alter Lee.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 297
Robert H. Foster is widely known as a young man who has made a
remarkable record as a promoter and organizer of large business enter-
prises, and in which are interested some of the wealthiest and most promi-
nent citizens of Fort Worth and other Texas cities. In this city alone
he has initiated and carried out so many enterprises of importance that
it is difficult to comprehend how he could have had the time in the space
of little over three years to accomplish such a wonderful work, but, being
a tireless and constant worker, a deep student and thinker, economizing
time and capable of bringing physical action down to the minimum, he
has brought about some of the largest deals in real estate and organized
some of the largest companies that have ever been recorded in the history
of Fort \\'orth. He has associated with him as clients some of the
strongest men financially of the state, and has succeeded in getting capital
for investments from men who had been considered practically unap-
proachable on the subject of general improvements. His scientific study
of real estate, financial and general business conditions in Fort Worth
has given him a fund of knowledge oh these subjects possessed probably
by no other one man, but perhaps he has gained his most exalted reputa-
tion as an organizer of enterprises that are substantially profitable and
pay dividends.
On the 1st of June, 1906, Mr. Foster and Mr. C. B. Epes formed a
partnership for the purpose of handling municipal and corporation bonds,
bank stocks and other high class Texas securities, Texas lands and Fort
Worth city property, forming the firm name of the Foster-Epes Company,
and in December of 1909 this company was succeeded by the Foster
Company, incorporated, the new corporation continuing in about the
same lines but on a much larger scale, and with increased facilities in
each department for handling business, Mr. Foster being its president.
The first large real estate enterprise to be undertaken by the old Foster-
Epes Company was the subdivision and improvement of Chase Court, a
beautiful residence section of the highest class in the heart of the most
aristocratic residence section, expensive improvements having been placed
on the property by the Consolidated Improvement and Construction Com-
pany, which Mr. Foster organized for that purpose and of which he is
president. He is also the president of the Continental Investment Com-
pany, another successful corporation, and in the fall of 1909 he organized
the American and Mexican Land and Cattle Company, of which he is
the vice president, and which purchased and owns two hundred and sixty-
five thousand dollars' worth of land near Vera Cruz, Mexico. John R.
Griffin is the president of that company and R. W. Montgomery its sec-
retary.
■ But one of the largest and most successful operations that Mr. Foster
has consummated was the development, the placing on the market and
the selling of Fostepco Heights, a high class residence subdivision situ-
ated directly north of the packing house district in North Fort Worth.
The preliminary work of improvement at Fostepco Heights, begun in
1907, was completed early in the year of 1909, and among the notable
298 HISTORY OF CEiNTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
conveniences that Mr. Foster brought about for this addition was the
street car line, built by the North Texas Traction Company and being an
extension of the North Fort Worth line. For the purpose of promoting
and financing this large enterprise, Mr. Foster organized the Greater
Fort Worth Realty Company, which owns the property, and of which
he is the secretary, the other officials and directors of the company in-
cluding such leading citizens as Paul Waples, W. C. . Stripling, F. M.
Rodgers, E. H. Carter, Louis J. Wortham and others of equal promi-
nence. Mr. Foster is also the president of the Syndicate Land Company,
organized during the summer of 1909, and which owns valuable holdings
adjacent to Fostepco Heights, and among the stockholders of this cor-
poration are Benjamin J. Tillar, W. B. Harrison, Tom B. Yarbrough,
L H. Burney, Burke Burnett, George Light and W. P. Fischer. Mr.
Foster was also instrumental in organizing the Hub Land Company, which
purchased, owns and is holding for future development a body of six
hundred and fifty acres of land adjoining the city of Fort Worth on the
southeast, its officers and stockholders including such well known men
as Newton M. Lassiter, Bernie P. Anderson, Tom Yarbrough, William
Bryce, T. B. Owens, W. B. Ward Jr., Robert Mather of New York, B. F.
Tensman of El Reno and R. C. Evans of St. Louis, the three last named
being officials of the Rock Island Railroad Company.
Mr. Foster is a son of R. \'. Foster, who died in 1894 and who was
one of the prominent and wealthy citizens of Milam county, Texas, where
he had located in 1849. During a long number of years' he was a suc-
cessful planter and stockman. The son Robert was born in Milam
county, August 5, 1877, ^"d received his educational training in the public
schools of Calvert and in the Southwestern L'niversity at Georgetown.
While in Calvert he was identified with a general mercantile business and
with other interests in Milam county, but on moving to Sherman, this
state, he became largely interested in real estate transactions and promi-
nently connected with the Commercial Club and other local organizations.
In 1906, desiring a larger field for his operations, he came to Fort Worth
and established his permanent home and the headquarters for his large
undertakings in this city. He is variously connected with representative
business and social organizations here, and is a Mason, a Knight of
Pythias and a member of other orders. Mr. Foster married on May 8,
1896, Miss Minnie Ladd, of Biloxi, Mississippi. They have three children,
Clair, Joseph H. and Kathryn.
William W. Stew.\rt. — There is no dearth of interesting data in the
personal and genealogical history of this venerable and distinguished law-
year and jurist, who is now living retired in North Fort Worth, after
many years of earnest endeavor in the work of his chosen profession and
as a man of affairs. He is a scion of a family whose name has loomed
large in the annals of American history, and even the brief review here
possible to enter will measurably indicate the consistency of this state-
ment.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 299
Judge Stewart was born in Alleghany county, Pennsylvania, on the
14th of December, 1827, and is a son of Captain Alanson C. and Sabrina
(Wallace) Stewart. In both the paternal and maternal lines the ances-
try is traced back to stanch Scottish clans, as the names indicate, but
both families were founded in America in the colonial epoch. Captain
Alanson Stewart was a native of Wyndham count}-, Connecticut, and he
received his military title from service in the wars of the Pottawatomie
and Sioux Indians of Indiana, Michigan, and from Governor Lewis Cass
of the latter state, as did his distinguished brother. General Hart L.
Stewart. For a protracted period the two brothers were associated in the
extensive and important public contracting work in Pennsylvania, Illinois,
Michigan and other states. They were the contractors who constructed
the tunnel under the Alleghany river near Pittsburg, and in 1829 they
removed to southern Michigan, where they took up large tracts of gov-
ernment land in the midst of the wilderness still infested by the Indians.
In the autumn of that year Captain Stewart established his family home
on the beautiful White Pigeon Prairie, in St. Joseph county, Michigan.
He was a contractor in connection with the Illinois and Michigan canal,
and later was one of the construction contractors in the building of the
line of the Michigan Centra! Railroad from Chicago to Michigan City.
In addition to other public works of importance, he and his brother at-
tempted the building of the first tunnel under the Chicago river, at La-
Salle Street, Chicago. After the work was practically completed a severe
flood in the river destroyed the tunnel, and many years elapsed before
another was constructed. It is interesting to record in this connection
that at the present time a new tunnel, of the most modern type, is nearing
completion in the same location.
In 1S52 Captain Stewart and his brother. General Stewart, became
associated with William B. Ogden, John S. Wallace, James Y. Sanger,
Henry A. Clark and other representative citizens in the purchase of one
hundred and sixty acres of land in the Bridgeport district of what is now
the southern section in the city of Chicago. This tract they platted into
town lots and the place was laid out under the name of the South Branch
addition. Along the east side of this sub-division, Stewart Avenue-
named in honor of the two brothers, — was laid out, and the same ex-
tended from the vicinity of Twenty-second Street south to about the
present Fifty-ninth Street. Subsequently, through a concession made by
the city council of Chicago, and without compensation to the original
owners of the sub-division^ the main tracks of the Pittsburg, Fort Wavne
& Chicago Railroad were laid through Stewart Avenue, which was thus
viitually confiscated. For a long term of years, this valuable right of way
har< been in litigation in Chicago, on the part of the heirs, who have
sought to recover title or gain due compensation.
'Tcneral Hart L. Stewart was postmaster of Chicago under the ad-
ministration of President James K. Polk, who conferred the appointment,
and later his brother. Captain Stewart, was assistant postmaster of Chi-
cago, in charge of the west Chicago division, under postmaster John L.
300 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Scripps, who later attained much prominence in the field of newspaper
publishing. Captain Stewart passed the closing years of his life in Evan-
ston, Illinois, where he died in 1871, and his cherished and devoted wife,
a woman of most gracious personality, was summoned to the life eternal
in 1869. She was born in Cuyahoga county, Ohio. Both were devoted
members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and the names of both merit
a place on the roll of the honored pioneers of both Michigan and Illinois.
Judge William Wallace Stewart, the immediate subject of this re-
view, was about two years of age at the time of the family removal to
Michigan, and in the village of White Pigeon, that state, he gained his
early educational discipline, which included a course in a branch prepar-
atory school established there under the auspices of the University of
Michigan, which great institution was then in its infancy. Later he con-
tinued his studies in Albion College, an institution still maintained under
the auspices of the ]\Iethodist Episcopal church, in Albion, Michigan.
After leaving this college, on the ist of January, 1847, Judge Stewart
went to the city of Chicago to assume a clerkship in the postofifice, under
the administration of his uncle. General Stewart. He was in the post-
office work for several years, under both his uncle and his father, and in
the meanwhile he had given close attention to the reading of law, in which
connection he had most able preceptors. In 1852 he was admitted to the
bar, and his commission was signed by Hon. John Dean Caton, who was
then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Illinois. At the same time
the young lawyer was appointed one of the five notaries public of Chicago,
which citv could claim only seventeen thousand population when he there
took up his abode.
After his admission to the bar Judge Stewart engaged in the practice
of his profession in the future metropolis of the west, and he soon gained
prestige as an able trial lawyer and well fortified counsellor, so that his
professional business rapidly expanded in scope and importance. In 1863
he was appointed trustee for Sanger, Camp & Company, and was given
charge of the lands and town sites owned by that firm, which had com-
pleted the contract for the construction of the Ohio & Mississippi Rail-
road from St. Louis, Missouri, to Vincennes, Indiana, and which had
acquired properties along this line, in partial compensation for the con-
struction work. In June, 1867, Judge Stewart removed temporarily to
Flora, Illinois, where he formed a law partnership with Hon. Aaron Shaw
of Olney, Illinois, and he also conducted a large business in the handling
of real estate in verious sections of Illinois and Indiana. After the great
Chicago fire of 1871 he returned to the prostrate city to settle up the estate
of his father, who had died in 1871, as previously noted in this context.
From 1873 to 1876 Judge Stewart resided at Wilmette, now one of the
beautiful north shore suburbs of Chicago, and in the latter year, he re-
moved to the village of Hyde Park, now an integral part of the city, on its
beautiful South .Side. There he became official attorney for the villages
of Hyde Park, Pullman, Kensington and South Chicago, and finally he
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 301
removed to Pullman, where he was local attorney for the great Car Com-
pany for a period of six years.
In 1890 Judge Stewart and his wife came to Texas, to join their son,
William F. and their daughter, Mrs. Grace Potter, the latter of whom
died in Chicago in 1892, she having been the wife of Gilbert Latem Pot-
ter. The son, William F. Stewart, now the only surviving child, had
established himself in business in Fort Worth, and' here the parents took
up their residence. For about three years Judge Stewart served as a
member of the city board of equalization, to which position he was ap-
pointed by Judge George W. Armstrong. He was then appointed by the
city council, under the administration of Mayor B. B. Paddock, to the
ofifice of judge of the corporation court of Fort Worth. He held this
position nearly six years, and in 1904, having virtually retired from active
business or professional life, he established his home in North Fort
Worth, where he has since resided. He is a notary public and also car-
ries on, to a small extent, an advisory real estate business, as he finds this
occupies his time, and he has been too active in the long intervenmg years
to find pleasure in the supine ease. He is a gentleman of the old school, —
courtly, affable and dignified, — and his life has been guided and governed
by the loftiest principles of integrity and honor, so that he has not been
denied the generous and well merited gifts of unequivocal popular confi-
dence and esteem. He has been one of the world's noble army of workers
and his mind, broadened by culture and association with men and affairs,
is a veritable store house of information concerning the history of his
native land. In politics the judge gives his allegiance to the Democratic
party and his religious faith is that of the Presbyterian church, of which
his loved wife was likewise a devout member.
In the year 1853 was solemnized the marriage of Judge Stewart to
Miss Angeline Stewart, who was born and reared in the city of Phila-
delphia, Pennsylvania, and a representative of one of the old and honored
families of that city. She was a daughter of Francis L. and Sarah A.
(Davis) Stewart. She was summoned to eternal rest in 1899, at Fort
W'orth, and in her death came the great loss and bereavement in the life
of Judge Stewart, to whom she had been a devoted help-meet and com-
panion for nearly half a century. Of the five children, the only one now
living is William F., who is one of the representative business men of
Fort Worth, and has been for the past thirty-five years. In the mean-
time, he has been also officially connected with the city, as editor, alder-
man and representative leader of the Citv Democracy and County Poli-
tics. At the present time he is largely interested in establishing a
"ranch" in Pecos county, Te.xas, and founding a town, railroad station
and postoffice on the line of the great Kansas City, Pacific and Orient
Railway which is being constructed through said county and his "'ranch."
This town, station and postoffice is named "Tessie," and Mr. Stewart has
been appointed the postmaster by the President. It is suggestive, signifi-
cant and not without interest that in 1847 the father should arrive in
Chicago; that in 1876 the son should locate in Fort Worth; and in 1890
3o_' HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
both should again be united ; that in 1907 the son should push out again
for western and frontier environments and enterprise, awaiting the com-
ing of the father in 191 1 !
The intervening sixty-four years involves the lives of two early pio-
neers of both Illinois and Texas.
Parker County
Parker county was created December 12, 1855. The act directed that
the county court, when chosen, should order an election for the location
of the seat of justice, the site selected to be called Weatherford. The
first settlements followed soon after the establishment of the military
post at Fort Worth in 1848. For twenty years the county was on the
frontier and exposed to the hostile raids of the Indians. For several
years after the organization of the county, the settlers had little trouble,
but the removal of a large part of the Texas Indians beyond Red river
caused a persistent warfare along the fringes of settlement. In 1S59 ^"
attack was made on the town of Weatherford, when Mrs. Sherman was
killed and scalped. During the Civil war the danger from such raids
was never abated, and as late as 1873 an Indian incursion was made into
Parker county.
During the comparative security of the early '50s settlement was
rapid. The population in 1858 was estimated at 3,507, including a small
number of slaves (160). About ten thousand acres were in cultivation,
wheat and corn being the only crops, and over ten thousand cattle grazed
on the ranges. Weatherford had a population at this time of 175, there
being only five negroes in the little town.
The author of "Information about Texas," whose observations were
made about 1856-57. says of Parker county: "It is a desirable region for
small farmers. Weatherford, a new town and the county seat, is rapidly
increasing. Not twelve months ago the site was laid out, and yet there
are already a court house in process of construction and several other
public buildings, one hotel, several stores, private dwellings and other
marks of civilization." Weatherford built up rapidly in those years.
One of the first steam flour mills in a large region of the country was
started there by Mulkin & Carter about the middle of 1858, and in No-
vember of the same year a correspondent wrote: "This flourishing little
town I find still improving rapidly, and, notwithstanding the universal
cry of hard times, new buildings are going up all over town. The new
court house is rapidly approaching completion, and also a handsome brick
edifice on the hill west of town, which is designed for a female seminary.
Weatherford seems to have increased faster than any town in North
Texas during the first three years of its existence." The establishment
of a newspaper — the Frontier Neius — at that place, which two years
before could not boast of a cabin, was striking evidence, not only of the
enterprise of its publisher, C. E. Van Dorn, but more so of the rapid
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 303
strides the northwestern frontier was making in improvement and settle-
ment.
The population of Parker county in 1870 was 4.186; in 1880. 15,870
(615 negroes); in iSgo, 21,682; in 1900, 25.823 (865 negroes). The
increase of property values is shown by the following assessment aggre-
gates : In 1870. $1,511,975; in 1882, $3,653,138; in 1903, $7,187,955; in
1909, $14,229,050.
The rapid increase of population during the '70s was due partly to
the general immigration to this portion of Texas in that decade, but more
particularly to the building of the first railroad through the county.
The citizens of Weatherford were inspired with the same hope of railroad
connection with the outer world as were the people of Fort Worth. By
1877 the town had grown so that it was credited with two thousand
population. Some of the men whose civic and business energy was behind
the progress that this town made during the "70s were Judge A. J. Hood,
Captain Ball, I. Patrick Valentine, and the district attorney of the county
was S. W. T. Lanham, later governor of Texas. Weatherford has been
the home of many well known men. And their spirit of enterprise was
of the same sort with that of the people of Fort Worth ; for when they
saw that there was no immediate prospect of the T. & P. being extended
from Fort Worth to the west, they followed the example of their more
fortunate rival and formed the Parker County Construction Company
to build the line between the two cities. In January, 1879, the grading
was begun, by the following May half the work was completed, and by
the winter of 1879-80, trains were running into Weatherford, During
the ■80s the branch of the Santa Fe from Cleburne to Weatherford was
built, and later the Weatherford, Mineral Wells & Northwestern.
In 1890 the population of Weatherford was 3,369; of Springtown,
657. Veale Station, which before the coming of the railroad ranked next
to the county seat in importance, had only 47 inhabitants in 1890, and
has since sunk into obscurity. At the census of 1900 the towns with a
population over 100 were: Weatherford, 4,786 ; Springtown, 518; Aledo,
162; Peaster, 182; Millsap, 261; Brock, 131.
Robert Percell Lowe. — One of the largest business corporations
of Weatherford, as well perhaps as of Parker county, is the Lowe-Carter
Hardware Company, both wholesale and retail dealers, and the head of
this corporation is Robert Percell Lowe, for a number of years one of
the leading business men of Weatherford. He is of Scotch-Irish par-
entage and was born in the state of Louisiana on the 20th of October,
1843. and he was ten years of age when he left the state of his birth,
living afterward in Mississippi, Tennessee and Illinois. During about
twenty-five years he was employed as a freight agent by the Mobile and
Ohio Railroad Company, stationed successively at Baldwin, Mississippi,
Humboldt, Tennessee, and in Cairo, Illinois, and resigning that position
in 1894 he came direct to Weatherford, Texas, and engaged in the hard-
ware business as a member of the firm of Thomason and Lowe, .\fter
304 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
four years he purchased his partner's interest and continued the business
as the Lowe Hardware Company until in 1904 this firm w-as consolidated
with that of W. D, Carter and Company under the name of the Lowe-
Carter Hardware Company. This corporation annually transacts a large
volume of business, and they maintain five traveling salesmen in their
wholesale department. At the time of the consolidation of the two firms
in 1904 the three-story brick structure which the business now occupies
was erected, and in addition to this the company also maintain and
occupy four large warehouses, all of which have railroad track con-
nections.
Henry ]\Iiller is numbered among the public benefactors and among
the public-spirited and influential residents of Weatherford, which has
been his home for nearly thirty years. He was born, however, in Ger-
many, on the 30th of November, 1848, and coming to this country in early
life he arrived on American shores on May 17, 1867. In 1875 ^^^ made
his way to Fort Worth, Texas, and from there, in February of 18S1,
came to Weatherford. While in Fort Worth he was variously employed,
dealing at dififerent times in books and stationery, in pianos, etc., and
after coming to Weatherford he took up real estate and fire insurance.
In April of 1889 he was elected grand keeper of records for the Knights
of Pythias fraternity, an office he has held continuously to the present
time, and he has also served Weatherford five years as a member of its
board of aldermen, seven years as a school trustee and six years as its
mayor. His efforts throughout the entire period of his residence in
Weatherford have been discerningly directed toward its upbuilding and
future development, and during his administration as the city's mayor
fourteen miles of sewerage were built, the Third Ward school building
was erected and additions to other schools built, and the Widows and
Orphans Home for the Knights of Pythias fraternity, a state institution
under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge, was secured for \\'eatherford
largely through his efforts. He is an alert, well informed man, and is
held in the highest esteem by his fellow citizens.
RdUERT James Norton, the first white child born in the city of
Weatherford, was born on the i8th of March, 1858. D. O. Norton, his
father, a native of Tennessee, had come to Parker county in the previous
year of 1S57, and he is thought to have erected the first house within the
present limits of Weatherford. He also established the first newspaper in
this city, the Frontier Neivs. and he was a charter member of and assisted
in organizing the first Christian church in Weatherford. He was both a
lawyer and surveyor, and to him belongs the honor of surveying, platting
and naming Weatherford, and throughout the remainder of his life he
continued as one of the city's most efficient builders and promoters. He
served two terms as a district judge. During the period of the Civil war
he was once arrested as a Union sympathizer, he having been charged
with furnishing information to the Union forces, and he was taken to
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 305
Beaumont, Texas, and tried by a court martial, but as nothing could be
proven against him he was given his liberty. Mr. Norton did not return
to Weatherford until the war closed, and it was after his return that he
was appointed by Governor Davis to the district judgeship, and he was
serving in that capacity at the time of his death. D. O. Norton and
Lydia Crabtree, his wife, became the parents of eight children, but only
a son and daughter are now living, the latter, Katie, being the wife of
John W. Williams and living in Clearmont, this state.
Robert J. Norton, the only surviving son, has been identified with
Weatherford and its interests throughout his entire life, and he is now
one of its representative business men. Desiring in his early life to
become a printer, he served an apprenticeship on the paper which his
father had established here, the Frontier Xcz^'s, but which had been sold
and the name changed to the IFcathcrford Times . and he afterward con-
tinued his journalistic work for four \ears in Houston, Texas. In 1901
he established the Weatherford Bottling Works and began the manu-
facture of soft drinks, and his trade along that line now covers a con-
siderable area of the country surrounding Weatherford. He has served
two terms as a member of the city's board of aldermen, and he is an
efificient local Democratic worker, but devotes the greater part of his time
and attention to his business. He is a member of both the Knights of
Pythias and the Elks fraternities.
On the 5th of April, 1885, Mr. Norton married Ida Crisenberry, a
granddaughter of Robert Potter, an officer during the republic of Texas.
The five children of this marriage union are Anice, LeRoy, Josephine,
Belle and Ida. Mrs. Norton is a member of the Christian Church.
William R. Turner, one of the well known business men of
Weatherford, was born in Christian county, Kentucky, December 8, 1834,
a son of Jerome B. and Mary W. (Young) Turner, born respectively in
Lynchburg, Virginia, September 2, 1806, and in Trigg county, Kentucky,
in 1812, and he is a grandson on the paternal side of Robert Turner, born
in Virginia February 22, 1766. William R. Turner spent the early years
of his life on a farm near Paducah, Kentucky, and came from there in
1857 to Lamar county, Texas, and in 1858 he came to Parker county,
locating eight miles east of Weatherford. During the first year of the
Civil war, that of 1861, he enlisted for service in Company E, Eighth
Regiment of Texas Infantry, and remained with his command until the
war closed, in the meantime having been promoted from a private in the
ranks to the first lieutenancy of Company E. He escaped without a
wound, and when his services were ended he returned to Parker county
and later began work on the cattle ranch of William Mosley in Young
county. After two years there he came to Weatherford, arriving in this
city on the 1st of January, 1870. and he has since been successfully en-
gaged in the livery business here. He built both his livery barn and his
home here. He is a director in the First National Bank of Weatherford,
3o6 HISTORY OF CEXTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
and, althoii,a:h never desiring the honors or emohnnents of public office, he
served Weatherford several terms as a member of its board of aldermen
during the early period of its history. He was made a Mason in Ken-
tucky in 1856. and now affiliates with Phoenix Lodge in Weatherford.
In the year of 1869 Mr. Turner was united in marriage with Eunice
C. Powers, a native daughter of Mississippi, and their five children are
Catherine, who married S. S. Tullice and is living in Dallas county, Texas,
and Robert C, William L., Edward G. and Jesse Y. Turner, all of
Weatherford.
George Morl.\nd Bowie is one of the most prominent of \\"eather-
ford's business men. the vice president of its First National Bank and
conspicuously identified with the cattle industry. He was born in Banff
county, Scotland, December 20, 1846, a son of George and Elizabeth
(Morland) Bowie. In 1866 he left his native land for America, his
first home here being in Dallas City, Illinois, moving from there to Avoca,
Iowa, and in 1868 he came to Texas. He taught school in Palo Pinto
county and engaged in various other enterprises, and going to Fort
Worth in 1879 he embarked in the lumber business, and ten years later
became a member of the firm of William Cameron and Company, who
had lumber yards in various parts of the country, and Mr. Bowie was
president of the company at White Castle, Louisiana, and also the presi-
dent of the Cypress Lumber Association of that state. He remained in
that city for eleven years, and in that time became one of its most influ-
ential and prominent men, its mayor for some time and the president of
the White Castle Bank. Selling his interests in the William Cameron
Company lumber business in 1901, Mr. Bowie in the same year came
to reside in Weatherford. having built his present home a year previously.
On November 18, 1875, Mr. Bowie was married to Margaret Arm-
strong, a native of Jack county, Texas. They have four children : W. A.,
vice president of the Rockwell Lumber Company of Houston, Texas;
G. D., a lumber merchant of Amarillo, Texas ; Edith, now Mrs. B. W.
Fauts, of Guadalajara, Mexico; and Ellen ^L, at home.
Ira B.xker Taylor. — One of the highly respected citizens of Weath-
erford, Texas, is Ira Baker Taylor, engaged in real estate and abstract
business with his son, under the firm name of Taylor & Taylor. He is
one of the older residents of the city, and is well known among the busi-
ness men of the community. He has established a business that has for
years been one of the leading enterprises of the city and county, and is
regarded as a man of keen judgment and foresight. Mr. Taylor was
born in Trenton, Kentucky, June 28, 1834, and is a son of Wright B. and
a grandson of \\'illiam Taylor.
The earliest ancestor of this family of whom anything definite is
known is John Taylor, who with his wife, Ruth Wayette Taylor, was
living in North Carolina prior to 1796, when his will was probated, in
Nash county. He and his wife had seven children, and one of these was
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 307
William, grandfather of Ira B. Taylor. William Taylor married Hannah
Dudley about 1795, and they located in Todd county, Kentucky. Their
son Wright B. married America E. Halliard, of Clark county. Kentucky.
Wright B. Taylor himself put the initial "B" in his name, for the
sake of having more than one initial or given name. He was born in
North Carolina and his wife was born in Winchester, Clark county, Ken-
tucky, daughter of Captain Halliard, who served in the war of 1S12. He
had a good common school education and became a farmer and stock
raiser. Wright B. Taylor was an Episcopalian and a Democrat. He
served as sheriff of Todd county two terms. In the fall of 1854 he
moved to Texas, becoming convinced that a Civil war was imminent
and that Kentucky would be a fighting ground. All his four sons served
in the Confederate army from the beginning to end of the war with the
exception of the youngest, who went into service in the spring of 1864,
at the age of sixteen years.
Ira B. Taylor attended high school at Elkton, Kentucky, until he
reached the age of eighteen years, and then went to John D. Tyler's
private high school, or college, near Clarksville, Tennessee, two terms.
He left school to accompany his father and family to Texas, and in the
new location engaged four years in merchandising. He then spent his
time profitably raising horses and mules until the beginning of the Civil
war, and then spent three and one-half years in the Confederate service.
At the close of the war he returned to Corsicana, where he again engaged
in mercantile business, and became prominent in the community. He
served as the first mayor of Corsicana, his term covering the period about
the time when the Texas Central Railroad entered the city, in 1870. In
March, 1879, Mr. Taylor removed with his family to Weatherford, and
there enn;aged in his present business, taking his oldest son into co-part-
nership. Ira B. Taylor and his son, Wright D. Taylor, are «till owners
of the abstract business under the style of Taylor & Taylor, established at
Weatherford, Texas, in 1879, and are actively engaged in the same.
Mr. Taylor is a stanch Democrat and served as deputy district and
county clerk of Navarro county, Texas. He also served one term as
treasurer of the county and one term as mayor of Corsicana. He has
fulfilled every office of jjublic trust to the approval of the people, and
stands well with all who know him. He is a member of the Central
Church of Christ of Weatherford, Texas. He is also a member of the
Masonic Order, and has been for forty-five years. He is also an Odd
Fellow and has taken all the degrees in this order.
On February 4, 1857, at Elkton, Kentucky. Mr. Taylor married
Mary Holmes Edwards, daughter of ^^'illiam \\'atson and Judith (Lively)
Edwards, the father engaged in the saddlery and tanning business in
Elkton. She was educated in the Elkton high school. Mr. Taylor and
his wife became the parents of nine children, namely: Anthon Baker, of
Crockett, born December 27, 1857: Ada, of Corsicana, born September
19, 1859; America Elizabeth, of Corsicana, born August 2, 1861 ; Iva
Judith, of Crockett, born February 18, 1864; Wright Dudley, of Crockett,
3o8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
born November 8, 1S65: Lula, of Crockett, bom June 8, 1867; Olive, of
Corsicana, born July 8, 1869; Lena, of Corsicana, born March 22, 1871 ;
and ^Villiam Edwards, born August 13, 1877, at Corsicana.
James C. IIutciiesox has been identified with agricultural pursuits
throughout nearly his entire active business life, and he now owns a
valuable homestead adjoining Springtown. He was born in Meigs
county, eastern Tennessee, June 9, 1839, a son of Charles and Sarah
(Worthington ) Hutcheson, both of whom were born in Bledsoe county,
Tennessee, the father in 1807 and the mother on January 5, 1809. They
were married in their native county of Bledsoe, andthe six children born
of their union are : Mrs. i\L A. Schoolfield, living in Arkansas ; William
L., of Springtown; Samuel W. and Charles N., both of whom died in
Tennessee ; James C. and Alfred L., both living in Springtown. After
the father's death in 1842 the mother married Burton Hohman, and
there were four chilrlren of that marriage: Murphy L. and Robert A.,
who died in Tennessee; jNIrs. Coulter, living in that state; and Washing-
ton N., also of Tennessee. The mother died on the 27th of September,
1895.
After some years of farming in Tennessee, James C. Hutcheson
came to Texas, arriving in Tarrant county on the 6th of November, 1872,
but after a year there he returned to Tennessee, although he came again
to Texas in December of 1877, this time locating in Parker county, a mile
and a half south of Springtown. After ten years he sold his farm
there and moved to the farm he had purchased in the meantime, a valu-
able tract of sixty acres adjoining the village, where he has ever since
made his home, and he also owns one hundred and ninety acres about
one mile from Springtown. From 1S84 until 1888 he was engaged in
the grocery business in that village, and then for two years he conducted
a hardware and implement store at Weatherford, selling that business
then to his son, M. B. Hutcheson, and returning to the farm, and with
the exception of this short period of commercial life agriculture has been
his life's occupation. In August of 1863, Mr. Hutcheson enlisted in
Company G, Third Tennessee Cavalry, Federal army, and he continued
as a Civil war soldier for nearly three years, or until mustered out of
service. He has served six years as commander of Burnside Post, No.
56, G. A. R., of Springtown.
On the 23d of October, i860, he was married to Harriet A. Runyan,
who was born in Hamilton county, Tennessee, November 25, 1841, a
daughter of William and Malinda (Murray) Runyan, both also born in
that state. Of the ten children born of that marriage, two died in in-
fancy, and those living are: Marcellus B., born August 11, 1861 ; Caswell
E., born March 14, 1863: Elizabeth, born August 11, 1865, and now the
wife of Dr. S. J. Hill; Charles W.. born April 11, 1867; Franklin L.,
born November 18, 1868: Adolphus L., September 17, 1870; James L.,
born March 13, 1872; and Lura Belle, borne December 11, 1876, and
now the wife of Dr. \\'alter Wood, of Springtown. Mrs. Hutcheson died
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 309
on the 20th of November, 1891, and on the 5th of January, 1896, Mr.
Hutcheson married Mary J. (Crysup) Peterson, who was born in Cass
county, Texas, July 26, 1854, a daughter of WilHam and Jane (Haas)
Crysup. The father was born in Kentucky, but came in an early day
to Texas, and the mother was born in Tennessee. Their three children
are: George W., of Jacksonville, Texas; Mrs, Hutcheson, and Henry J.,
who died in infancy. J\Ir. Crysup died in 1856, and his widow afterward
married W. H. Carlton, and their five children are : Mrs. Margaret Mc-
Connell, living in Wise county, Texas ; W. H. Carlton, of Hobart, Okla-
homa ; Dr. E. Carlton, of Ringgold, this state ; Mrs. Augusta Davis, of
Oklahoma ; and Mrs. Amanda Croslin, of Bonner, Fannin county, Texas.
Mr. Hutcheson was made a Master Mason in Limestone Lodge at
Georgetown, Tennessee, in 1869, and he is now a member of Eureka
Lodge No. 371, A. F. & A. M., and of Springtown Lodge No. 75, R. A.
M. Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Church at
Springtown.
James L. Hutcheson was born in James county, Tennessee, March
13, 1872, a son of James C. and Harriet A. (Runyan) Hutcheson, but
although born in Tennessee he was reared in Parker county, Texas, for
he was only six years old when the family home was established here.
In 1892 he left the farm and entered upon his successful mercantile
career, clerking in a store in Springtown until 1903, and in partnership
with J. B. Hill and J. F. Graham he opened a dry goods and gentlemen's
furnishing store, and the firm of Hill, Hutcheson and Graham has ever
since continued in business with uninterrupted success.
On the i8th of December, 1892, Mr. Hutcheson was married to
Miss Rhoda King, born in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. June 16, 1875, ^
daughter of William H. and Mary (Fox) King, the father born in
Alton, Illinois, December 18, 1840, and the mother was born in Parker
county, Texas, but both are now deceased, the father dying on the 2d
of February, 1908. Two of their children are living, Mrs. Hutcheson
and Mrs. Ina Mann, the latter living in Paradise, Texas. Mr. and Mrs.
Hutcheson have four children: Lloyd E., born November 27, 1893: Lois
1.. Dorn October 24, 1895; Ina Belle, born ]\Iarch 11, 1898; and Blanch
A., born September 30, 1900. Mr. Hutcheson is a member of Spring-
town Lodge. No. 291, A. F. & A. M., and of the Modern Woodmen of
America. In politics he votes with the Democratic party.
William Wilson is regarded as one of the real builders of Spring-
town, for he has been foremost in promoting its chief institutions, in-
cluding its schools and churches, and he is active in all movements per-
taining to its upbuilding and advancement. He was born in England on
the 14th of March, 1844, a son of Benjamin and Sarah (Goddin) Wilson,
both of whom were born in Lincolnshire of that country. In 1856 the
family embarked on the then long and perilous voyage to America, but
in the Mediterranean sea their vessel, a sailing craft, was shipwrecked
31- HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
and the wife and mother was lost. The father, with his five sons and
two daughters, finall_v arrived in St. Louis, Missouri, where his parents
had located in 1850, and subsequently Benjamin Wilson moved with his
family to Morgan county, Illinois. He bought a farm there, and he died
at Murrayville of that state.
William Wilson worked on his father's farm in Illinois until in 1876
he came to Springtown in Parker county, Te.xas, and for two years after-
ward rented the farm of Joshua Culwell. In 1878 he bought the Jona-
than Culwell farm of eighty acres, but sold it in 1882 and bought eighty
acres three miles north of Springtown, which he later sold and in 1884
bought thirty acres in the village of Springtown. He platted that tract
and sold it as Wilson's Addition to Springtown. After that had been
accomplished he bought the Selvedge farm of one hundred and sixty
acres a mile north of Springtown, but in 1908 he sold that tract and
bought his present home in Springtown.
Mr. Wilson, on the 25th of January, 1866, was married to Miss
Nancy J. Steely, who was born in Missouri in 1848, a daughter of John
and Margaret ( Miller ) Steely, who subsequently moved to Missouri and
spent the remainder of their lives there. Nine children have blessed the
marriage union of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson, namely: John, living in Okla-
homa; Sallie, who married first John Culwell, and after his death James
. S. Roach, and she is living in Oklahoma ; Norman is also living in Okla-
homa ; Essie married Thomas Boren, of Springtown ; Theodore is living
in Oklahoma ; B. Frank was killed in a railroad accident at Durant, Okla-
homa, leaving a daughter, Reva, who is living with her paternal grand-
parents in Springtown ; and three others are deceased. Mr. Wilson has
fraternal relations with Eureka Lodge, No. 371, A. F. & A. M., with
Springtown Chapter, No. 75, and with Springtown Council, No. 47.
Both he and his wife are members of the Baptist Church at Springtown.
Andrew J. Cunningh.\m. — Prominent among the business men
and citizens of Springtown is numbered Andrew J. Cunningham, a mem-
ber of the drug firm of Selvidge and Cunningham and one of the city's
former mayors. He was born in iNIarion county, Tennessee, August 20,
1844, a son of Pleasant H. and Jennie (McMurray) Cunningham, both
of whom were also born in that commonwealth. In their family were the
following five children : Fannie, who married W. P. Peters, of Alabama ;
Andrew J., of Springtown : Mary, who married J. W. Martin, of Poole-
ville, this state ; Rachel, who married Marshall Scott, and at her death
left a daughter, who is now living in Springtown ; and Melvina, who
died when young. The parents are also deceased, the father dying in
Alabama and the mother in Springtown, Texas.
Andrew J. Cunningham spent the days of his boyhood and youth
in Alabama, and later he was engaged in the mercantile business at
Waterloo. After coming to Parker county, Texas, in 1878 he bought
a farm three miles northwest of Springtown, and leaving there in 1881
he bought a building in that village and engaged in the saloon business.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 311
But after three years he sold his interest in that vocation and in 1S90
bought an interest in the dry goods business of Kidd and Company, and
then after seven years he disposed of that interest and in 1900 became a
member of the firm of Selvidge and Cunningham, which bought the drug
stock of J. B. Wadsworth and which is still in business. Mr. Cunning-
ham built the stone block in which the drug store is located in 1903, and
in 1893 he built his pleasant and attractive home.
On October 10, 1891, he was married to Miss Sallie M. Akard, a
native daughter of Texas. Her father, Donathan Akard, came with his
family to Texas many years ago, and both he and his wife are deceased.
A son, Don H., was born to Mr. and Mrs. Cunningham on the loth of
August, 1892. Mr. Cunningham is quite prominently associated with
the Masonic fraternity, affiliating with Eureka Lodge, No. 371, with
Springtown Chapter, No. 75, and with Springtown Council, No. 47. He
also has membership relations with the Knights of Honor at Weather-
ford and with the Knights and Ladies of Honor at Springtown, and he
is identified politically with the Democratic party. Both he and hir. wife
are members of the Methodist Church in their home town.
Johnson County
Johnson county was created by act of the legislature, February 13,
1854, the first election of county officers being held in the following April.
Five commissioners were appointed to select three sites for the county
seat, and the site chosen by the voters was to bear the name Wardville.
However, the site finally selected for county seat was given the name of
Buchanan, probably in honor of the then president of the nation. Bu-
chanan was seven miles northwest of Cleburne, and as a town it has
long since been extinct. Alvarado was founded about the same time,
and the two were the only towns in the county in 1857. One of the first
settlers of the county was Charles E. Barnard, who kept an Indian
trading post. Settlement was rapid during the '50s, although the county
was still on the frontier. In 1858 the population was estimated at 2.304.
There was a comparatively small number of slaves, only 257. In the
entire county only about 8,500 acres were in cultivation, over half of
that being in corn. At that time Johnson county included the territory
since taken to form Hood and Somervell counties.
The total population in 1870, after the county had been reduced to
its present form, was 4,923. During the next ten years population in-
creased several fold, being 17,911 (574 negroes) in 1880. In 1890 it
was 22,313; in 1900, 33,819 ( i,i47negroes ).
Property, according to assessed valuations, has increased in like pro-
portions. In 1870 the assessed values were $1,888,955; in 1882, $4,875,-
128; in 1903, $9,096,310; and in 1909, $25,584,440.
Following the detachment of the western half of the county to form
Hood county, the county seat was moved from Buchanan to the new town
312 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
of Cleburne. In 1870 the postoffice centers of the county were Cleburne,
Alvarado and Caddo Grove.
The county was without railroad facilities until the '80s. The Fort
Worth-Temple division of the G. C. & S. F. was completed in December,
1881 ; the j\I. K. & T. was built at the same time, and in 1882 was opened
the Cleburne-Dallas branch of the Santa Fe (originally the Chicago,
Texas & Mexican). A few years later the branch of the Santa Fe from
Cleburne to Weatherford was built. Since the first railroads were built
the county developed rapidly, the last of the big pastures disappeared
several years ago, and this is now one of the chief agricultural and stock
farming counties of Central Texas.
A number of towns have grown up in the last twenty-five years.
The larger centers, with population in 1890 and 1900 respectively, are:
Cleburne, 3,278, 7,493; Alvarado, 1,543, 1,342; Grandview, 257, 713;
Burleson, 249, 368; Joshua, 285, 482; Keene (in 1900), 500; Venus (in
1900), 475; Godley (in 1900), 289; Rio Vista (in 1900), 274.
Cleburne is a modern, progressive city, with water works, a street
railway now building, and other public improvements, and a number of
commercial and manufacturing enterprises. Its largest single resource
is in the Santa Fe railroad shops, with an annual payroll of about a
million dollars.
Hood County
Hood county, named for General J. B. Hood, was created November
2, 1866. Up to that time its territory was part of Johnson county. In
1875 the south part of the county was taken to form Somervell county.
The act creating Hood county directed that the county seat, when se-
lected, should be called Granbury.
Settlement began here in the '50s, but Indian hostilities prevented
rapid development until after 1870. Besides Granbury, one of the early
centers of settlement was at Thorp's Spring. Here, in 1873, J. A. Clark
and sons, Addison and Randolph, started the private school which was
soon afterward chartered as Add-Ran College, and in 1895 it was moved
to Waco and is now Texas Christian University. Acton was also a small
post village in 1870.
The total population of the county in 1870, before the creation of
Somervell, was 2,585. In 1880 the population was 6,125 (198 negroes) ;
in 1890, 7,614; in 1900, 9,146 (241 negroes) ; and in 1910, 10,008.
In 1887 the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad was completed from
Fort Worth to Granbury, which remained the terminus until 1889. Since
the advent of the railroad Granbury has become a prosperous town, and
the surrounding country has been developed to modern agricultural con-
ditions.
The assessed wealth of the county in 1870 was $423,194; in 1S82,
$1,367,956; in 1903. $2,277,494; and in 1909, $5,222,070.
In 1890 Granbury had a population of 1,164; in 1900, 1,410. Thorp
Spring in 1900 had 485 inhabitants. After the removal of Add-Ran Col-
I
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 313
lege, an institute was maintained at Thorp Spring known as Jarvis In-
stitute, in honor of one of the principal founders of Texas Christian Uni-
versit}-. Cresson, at the junction of the F. W. & R. G. and the Santa Fe,
had a population of 279 in 1900. Other towns, with population in 1900,
are: Tolar, 171; Acton, 112; Lipan, 286.
John J. Hiner, attorney at law, Granbury, Texas, was born in
Johnson county, this state, December 25, 1869, son of Rev. James and
Martha (Abney) Hiner, the former a native of Kentucky, the latter of
Weakley county, Tennessee. They came to Texas in early life and were
married in Johnson county, November 4, 1859.
When a young man, the Rev. Hiner studied law and was admitted to
the bar in Johnson county. When the Civil war broke out he was ap-
pointed recruiting agent at Camp Henderson, where he recruited and
drilled several companies. He was not eligible for active duty himself
on account of an accident which left him lame. After the war he moved
from old Buchanan, in Johnson county, to Cleburne, where in 1866 he
served by appointment, and later by election, as county judge, which
office he held until his removal in 1871 to Acton. He was elected county
judge of Hood county in November, 1878, and in 1880 was elected county
clerk. In 1882 he was re-elected to the clerk's office, and was just enter-
ing upon his second term, in January, 1883, when his death occurred.
Soon after the war he was ordained a minister of the ]\Iethodist Episcopal
church, South, and remained in the ministry until his health failed, when
he was placed on the superannuated list. Previous to his marriage to
Martha Abney he had married a Miss Williams, who bore him two chil-
dren: Joseph H., of Farwell, Texas, and Mrs. M. E. Wohlford, of Hood
county, Texas. The children of the second marriage are all residents
of Texas, and are as follows: Thomas H., of Granbury; Mrs. S. A.
Merrill, of Somervell county; Mrs. H. A. Randle, of Snyder; Lee Forest,
of Acton, Hood county ; John J., of Granbury ; Fannie D. Maloney, of
Granbury ; ]\Irs. Eppie Bradley, of Dublin ; Marvin Neil,, of Granbury,
and Mrs. Claudie Hensell, of Granbury. The mother also is a resident of
Granbury.
John J. Hiner received his education in Granbury College and studied
law in the office of Major Thomas T. Ewell. He was admitted to the bar
in September, 1891, before Judge C. K. Bell, and immediately thereafter
opened an office and entered upon the practice of his profession in Gran-
bury. In 1904 he was elected Democratic presidential elector from the
twelfth congressional district, this honor coming to him unsought, and
he has never held or been a candidate for any other office.
On June 17, 1894. Mr. Hiner married Miss Etta Beatty, who was born
in Missouri, January 16. 1874, a daughter of John and Elvira (Crites)
Beatty, both of German descent. Mr. and Mrs. Hiner have one daughter,
Mildred Elizabeth, born November 8, 1895.
The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. South,
of Granbury, and Mr. Hiner is a Knight of Pythias.
314 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
William L. Dean, of the firm of Hiner & Dean, attorneys at law,
Granbury, Texas, has been a resident of this place for tenyears, and dur-
ing that time has been prominently identified with its affairs.
Mr. Dean was bom at Van Zandt, Texas, October lo, 1871, a son of
John E. and Adaline M. (Wages) Dean, and grandson of Asbury M.
Dean. His grandfather Dean came to Texas when a young man and
settled in Van Zandt county, where were born his six children, namely:
John E., of Portalis, New J\Iexico ; Mrs. Samuel IMayfield, of Van Zandt
county; Calloway, deceased; Mrs. Nettie Coffman, of Kaufman county,
Texas ; James R., of Kaufman county ; and Asbury M., of Van Zandt
county, Texas. The only child of John E. and Adaline M. (Wages) Dean
is William L. The parents separated, and each has since married and
reared a family. By his second wife, Sarah, nee McClearen, John E.
Dean has seven children: John P., Robert L., George, Egbert, Edgar,
Connie and Clifford. Previous to her marriage with Mr. Dean, Adaline
Wages was the wife of John Moore, b}- whom she had one daughter,
Sarah T., who married IMartin A. Groom and now lives in Hood county,
Texas; and for her third husband she married N. Y. Groom of Van
Zandt county, the children of this union being Jerome ; Mrs. Minnie Lyle.
who died, leaving one daughter, Minnie Lyle ; Delia, Frank, Mrs. Lilia
Baccus and Harvey.
William L. Dean remained with his mother until he was eight years
of age, when he went to live with his uncle, John H. Wages, of Van
Zandt county, with whom he remained until he was fourteen. At that
early age he started out to make his own way in the world, and began
by working on a farm. After doing farm work for a number of years he
accepted a position as clerk in the drug store of L. E. Griffith, at Terrell,
Texas, where he remained one year. At the end of that time, in 1891, he
opened a drug store at Alamo, Texas, which he conducted one year.
In September, 1892, Mr. Dean married Miss La\'ada Heath, who
was born in Panola county, Texas, in 1877, daughter of Augustus and
Paulina (Robburts) Heath, both natives of Texas, and both deceased.
Mrs. Dean was their only child. To Mr. and Mrs. Dean have been given
seven children, of whom the first two, Norman and Horace, are deceased ;
the others are Truman, Clarence C, Willina, Nettie Fay and Grace.
After their marriage both Mr. Dean and his wife, feeling the need
of a better education than they had, spent a year attending school, and
Mr. Dean then taught school one year in Kaufman county. After this
he took up the study of law and was admitted to the bar in Kaufman
county. That was in 1898. In 1900 he came to Granbury, Hood county.
Here he practiced his profession until June of the following year, when
he was appointed county attorney of Somervell county, Texas, being
appointed to fill the unexpired term of J. E. Pierce. In the spring of
1903 he returned to Granbury, Hood county, and opened a law office.
In November of the following year he was elected county attorney of
Hood county, without opposition, nor did he have any opposition two
years later when he was re-elected. In 1908 he was again elected to the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. ji5
same office, over two opponents. In September, 1908, he formed a part-
nership with John J. Hiner, under the firm name of Hiner & Dean.
Harrison L. Neely, city assessor and collector, Granbury, Texas,
was born in Warrick county, Indiana, July 22, 1843, ^"^ o" the paternal
side is descended from staunch New England ancestry. His grandfather,
Joseph Neely, and his father, Greenleaf Neely, were both natives of New
England, the latter born in Montpelier, Vermont, in April, 1S12. Mr.
Neely's mother was a Tennesseean. He was the fifth born in a family of
seven children, namely: Mrs. Samuel Overall; Rev. Matthew H., a
Methodist minister; Mrs. D. Merchant; Randolph R., deceased; Harrison
L. ; Reuben M., deceased ; and Mrs. George Smith, deceased.
In 1849 the Neelys moved from Indiana to Texas and established
their home on a farm in Hopkins county, where the father was engaged
in farming and stock raising the rest of his life. He died on November
26, 1875. All of the sons allied themselves with the southern cause and
served in the Confederate army during the war, and Randolph died in the
army, in Mississippi. Harrison L. enlisted in June, 1861, in Company
D, Eleventh Texas Cavalry, and later was in Compan}- G, Eleventh Texas
Infantry, Randall's Brigade, Walker's Division, the fortunes of which he
shared until the close of hostilities, when he was discharged and returned
home.
On September 14, 1864, Harrison L. Neely married Miss Algeronina
L. Maxwell, who was born in Weakley county, Tennessee, January 24,
1844, daughter of Calvin and Amanda (Fleming) Maxwell, natives of
Tennessee. Her grandfather, Doctor Maxwell, was one of the pioneer
settlers of that state. Mr. and Mrs. Neely have had ten children, seven
of whom are living, as follows: Randolph, born June 20, 1865. died
December 15, 1887; Lucy, born March 18, 1866, became the wife of
Samuel Goodson, and died July 24, 1885, leaving one son, Wylie Good-
son : Monroe, born February 22, 1S66, married Miss Bessie Mullins ;
Olivia, born March 8, 1870, married E. L. Cooper of Hugo, Oklahoma ;
Mar^-, born April 27, 1872, is the widow of James Dyer of Lyndale,
Smith county, Texas; Greenleaf S., born December 29, 1875, married
Miss Sue Dyer, and lives at Amarillo, Texas ; Mattie Lora, born August
7, 1879, married William W. Hudson of Hyko, Texas; Freddie, born
August 29, 1881, died February 8, 1882; Lawrence L., born March 12,
1885, is a resident of Amarillo, Texas; and Rosalee, born April 16, 1887,
married James Howard of Granbury.
Mr. Neely was engaged in farming in Hopkins county until 1891,
when he moved to Granbury and opened a market, which he conducted
until 1897. That year he was elected city assessor and collector, which
office he has since filled.
Fraternally, Mr. Neely is identified with several organizations. He
is past commander of Granbury Camp, No. 67, IJ. C. \'., and has mem-
bership in both the A. F. and A. M. and the I. O. O. F. of Granbury,
being tyler of the former and treasurer of the latter. Politically he is a
3i6 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Democrat, and his religious creed is that of the Methodist Episcopal
church, South.
Erath County
Erath county was created January 25, 1856, from Bosque and Coryell
counties. The first county officials were: J- A. JNIcNeil, chief justice;
W. W. McNeil, county clerk ; C. Needham, sheriff ; Thomas Cavnack, as-
sessor and collector. Settlement had begun in the early '50s, and before
the county was organized the town of Stephenville had been laid out.
Its proprietors on July 4, 1855, offered land for the county building,
provided the county seat was located there, and the legislative act above
noted designated that town as the seat of justice provided these donations
were made.
The population of the county in 1858 was estimated at 766. Only
about 1,600 acres were in cultivation. For twenty years after the county
was organized it was on the frontier, and property was never secure from
Indian raids. After the war this entire region was in the great cattle
ranges, and the county was not settled by a permanent population until
the "70s. In 1870 the population was 1,801, but by 1880 this had in-
creased to 11,796 (257 negroes). In 1890 the population was 21,594, and
in 1900, 29,966.
The Texas Central Railroad, which began building in 1879, was com-
pleted through Erath county about 1881. Rapid development followed,
a large number of farmers came in and partly dispossessed the range
cattlemen, and the raising of wheat, corn and cotton became an important
industry. By 1882 the county had four flour mills and four cotton gins.
Along the line of the railroad were established the towns of Dublin. Alex-
ander and Mount Airy. Stephenville, though twelve miles from the rail-
road, still led in population, and had an annual trade of about $400,000.
Duffau and Morgan's Mill were other settlements at that time.
In October, 1890, the Fort Worth & Rio Grande Railroad was com-
pleted to Stephenville. Within the last few years the Stephenville North
and South Texas Railroad has been built from Stephenville south to
Hamilton. Also a branch of the T. & P. has been built to the coal region
at Thurber.
The assessed wealth of Erath county in 1870 was only $356,916; in
1882, $2,240,917; in 1903, $6,456,815; and in 1909, $12,579,140.
One of the county's valuable resources, developed in recent years, is
coal, Thurber, at the north part of the county, being at the center of the
mining region. In agriculture the county has made great progress since
the first railroad came. The county has gained distinction for its apple
crop, and it is estimated that there are three thousand acres of orchards,
besides other fruits and vegetables.
In 1890 the population of the principal towns was : Stephenville, 909 ;
Dublin, 2,025; Alexander, 381; Bluffdale, 156: Thurber, 978; Duffau,
263. In 1900 the towns and population were : Stephenville, 1,902; Dub-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 317
lin, 2,370; Thurber, 1,453; Alexander. 381 ; Duffau, 192; Bluffdale, 436;
Lingleville, 242; Morgan Mill, 143; Huckabay, 174.
Nicholas D. Smith, postmaster of Dublin. Texas, is one of the
prominent and leading- citizens of the town, and has been closel}' identified
with its modern development.
Mr, Smith was born at Springfield, Missouri, in 1866, and when a
boy of thirteen came with his parents from that state to Texas, their
settlement being at Paris. Subsequently he entered the employ of the
well-known cotton firm of Martin, Wise & Fitzhugh, and learned the
business in which ere long he became expert and in which he has ever
since been interested. After remaining with that firm eighteen years, he
came, in 1896, to Dublin, which has since been his home. Here for a
number of years he has represented the great cotton firm of George H.
McFadden & Brothers, of Philadelphia, which has branch offices through-
out the southern states and also in various parts of Europe.
On May 16, 1907, following a strong endorsement and solicitation of
the best business element of the city, Mr. Smith was appointed postmaster
of Dublin, which office he now fills. To this position he brought the same
earnest efiforts and thorough methods that had won success for him in
other lines, with the result that the office is now in excellent working
order ; it is the distributing point for nine rural routes and the financial
depository for a large number of smaller postoffices throughout Central-
Western Texas.
Mr. Smith is married and has two daughters, Frances and Olive.
Mrs. Smith, formerly Miss Jewel Parker, is a daughter of the late George
F. Parker, a well known pioneer of Texas, who died in 1902. Mr. Parker
came from Illinois, his native state, with his parents to Texas in the days
when it was a republic, and was reared on the frontier. His home and
headquarters for many years were in Limestone county and, he was en-
gaged in the cattle business. During the Civil war he was a soldier in
the Confederate army. He went through life with a keen observation and
a retentive mind, and his varied experience on the frontier and in the
army furnished him with a vast fund of interesting information. If the
stories and experiences he used to relate could now be published they
would form a volume of much interest and no small proportions.
Dublin, ideally situated, surrounded by a rich agricultural country,
and having many wealthy citizens, presents a fine field for commercial
activities. In this work, as a member of the Commercial Club, Mr. Smith
has been a prominent factor, and during the past three years has been in-
strumental in adding to Dublin many commercial and industrial enter-
prises. He has given both time and money, as far as he could consistently
go, in efiforts toward the upbuilding of the town, and many of his efiforts
have borne fruit. A single example of this is the beautiful new station
of the Frisco Railroad, with its adjoining park, enterprises which are
directly the result of Mr. Smith's influence with the officials of the road.
Also he was personally active in the campaign carried on during the sum-
3i8 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
mer of 1909 to secure the establishment in Dublin of one of the State
Normal schools. In short, it may be said that he is constantly on the alerf
on behalf of the city's interest, and is at the head of every movement of
importance in this line.
I.\MES H. Cage, one of the prominent and highly respected citizens of
Stepiienville, Texas, dates his birth in Wharton county, this state, October
29, 1845. His parents, John and Martha ( Neal) Cage, the former a native
of East Tennessee, bom in 181 1, and the latter of Alabama, bom February
21, 1825, were married in Alabama, and came to Texas in 1840, settling in
Wharton. In 1849 the father started to California, by way of Mexico
and thence by boat. The boat was wrecked and all on board lost their
lives, except two negroes that Mr. Cage was taking with him. In his
family were three children, two of whom died in infancy. The mother
died in 1894. Thus James H. Cage is the sole survivor of the family.
He came with his mother to western Texas in 1857, stopping for a while
in Bosque county, and the following year coming to Erath county and
settling at Stephenville, where he received his education in the common
schools.
In 1868 Mr. Cage began an active career on the cattle range, first
gathering cattle for others and driving them to Mexico on shares. In
1869 he settled down to ranching for himself in Eastland county, where he
remained six years. At the end of that time he sold out and moved to
Stephenville. Here he opened a general store. He erected a stone build-
ing, known as the Cage Block, and in it conducted his mercantile business
uritil 1897. During this time he also dealt in cattle. He sold the store in
1897, but retained the cattle interests, and about this time, in company
with M. S. Crow, opened a bank in Stephenville, under the firm name of
Cage & Crow, which bank is still in operation. For years, Mr. Cage has
also dealt extensively in land, and is now interested in railroading. In
1906 Cage & Crow built the S. N. & S. T. railroad from Stephenville to
Hamilton, about forty-three miles, and they still retain a half interest in
the road.
On November 12, 1872, Mr. Cage married Miss M. J. Boykin, a na-
tive of Limestone county, Texas, bom November 12, 1855. daughter of
Solomon Boykin, one of "the early settlers of Limestone and Bosque coun-
ties. Of the' children of ^Ir. and Mrs. Cage, one died in infancy and two
others are also deceased. Those living are Mrs. F. S. White, Mrs. E. O.
Mcllhaney, Bruce C, J. D., John M., Barney B., Roxey and Una.
M.XRTi.M S. Crow, iM. D. — Not only was Dr. Crow a member of one
of the honored pioneer families of the Lone Star state, but it was also his
to attain a place of distinction in' the exacting profession to which he
devoted his attention for many years, ministering with all of self-abnega-
tion and much of skill to those in affliction and distress and gaining the
alTectionate regard of the community in which he long maintained his
home. In his death, at Stephenville, on the 3d of May, 1892, Erath county
HISTORY OF CENTRAL. AND WESTERN TEXAS. 319
lost one of its most honored and influential citizens. His life was one of
signal integrity in all its relations and it counted for much in human help-
fulness and productive activity. He served as a member of the state legis-
lature and held other positions of trust, and from even the foregoing
brief statements it is patent that there is eminent consistency in according
in this history a tribute to the memory of this sterling citizen of the state
in which practically his entire life was passed.
Dr. Martin S. Crow was born in McNairy county, Tennessee, on the
6th of April, 1833, and was a boy at the time of the family removal to
Lamar county, Texas, where his father became a successful farmer and
stock-grower. His parents continued to reside in this state until their
death, and were worthy pioneers of Lamar county. Dr. Crow was
afforded the advantages of the ]\IcKinzie school for boys, at Clarksville,
Red River county, and as a youth he began the work of preparing him-
self for that profession in which he was destined ultimately to attain much
of success and precedence. He was finally matriculated in the College of
Medicine in the city of Galveston, in which he was duly graduated and
from which he received his degree of Doctor of Medicine. Later he com-
pleted an effective post-graduate course in one of the leading medical
institutions of the city of New Orleans.
■ Dr. Crow initiated the active work of his profession at Meridian,
Bosque county, Texas, where he remained for a period of five years, at
the expiration of which he removed to Stephenville, Erath county, where
he established himself in practice in the year 1871 and where he con-
tinued to follow the work of his profession, with all of zeal and devotion,
until about three years prior to his death, having finall}' retired on account
of impaired health. Dr. Crow ever kept in close touch with the advances
made in both departments of his profession and was uniformly recognized
as one of the representative physicians and surgeons of this part of the
state. His kindly and sympathetic nature gained to him the affection of
those to whom he ministered, and his name is revered in many of the
homes of Erath county. He served for a number of years as a member of
the medical examining board of this district of those applying for ad-
mission to the practice of medicine, and had the distinction of being presi-
dent of that body. He was identified with the American Medical Associa-
tion and the Texas State Medical Society, besides which he was a close
student and contributed various articles to the periodical literature of his
profession.
As a young man Dr. Crow became affiliated with the time-honored
Masonic fraternity, in which he attained the capitular degrees, having
been identified with the lodge and chapter in Stephenville for many years
prior to his demise. A man of broad mental ken and distinctive public
spirit, he naturally manifested a loyal interest in all that pertained to the
welfare of his home town and county, and he wielded much influence in
local affairs of a public order. He was a staunch adherent of the Demo-
cratic party and he was elected to represent Erath county in the state
legislature, in which he served one term and in which he made an admir-
320
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
able record as a careful and conscientious public official. The Doctor
gained much success of material order and was the owner of a large
amount of valuable realty at the time of his death.
On the 27th of Januar\', 1859, was solemnized the marriage of Dr.
Crow to Miss Mary Jane George, who was born in McNairy county,
Tennessee, on the 2'3d of June, 1843, a daughter of William and Eliza-
beth (Chambers) George, both of whom were likewise natives of Ten-
nessee, where the respective families were founded in the pioneer epoch
of the history of that state. When Mrs. Crow was about nine years of
age her parents moved to Texas and took up their abode in Cass county,
where she was reared to maturity and where was solemnized her mar-
riage. She received excellent educational advantages and is a woman not
only of marked culture and gracious personality, but also of much busi-
ness ability, as has been shown in her effective management of the large
estate left by her honored husband. While Dr. and Mrs. Crow had no
children of their own, they reared in their home two boys and two girls.
The latter were daughters of Solomon Boykin ; the elder, Jane, is now
the wife of James H. Cage of Stephenville, and the younger, Bamah, is
the wife of Lee Young, of Stephenville.
Mrs. Crow is not only the owner of several well improved farms in
Erath county, but is also a successful dealer in real estate, in which line
of enterprise her operations have been large and important, in the hand-
ling of both town property and fann lands. She is junior member of the
firm of Cage & Crow, conducting a successful banking business in
Stephenville. She is a zealous member of the Baptist church and is
prominent in the best social life of her attractive little home city. Her
residence was erected by her in 1893, and is one of the most attractive
in Stephenville.
Stephen N. Borders, D. D. S. — A native son of the Lone Star state
and a scion in both the paternal and maternal lines of honored pioneer
families of this fine commonwealth. Dr. Borders is a representative mem-
ber of his profession in his native county and is engaged in the successful
practice of his profession in the thriving little city of Stephenville, where
his circle of friends is coincident with that of his acquaintances.
Stephen N. Borders was born in Stephenville, his present place of
residence, on the 25th of November, 1872, and is a son of Augustan M.
and Sarah (Jordan) Borders. The father was born at Cedartown, Polk
county, Georgia, on the 20th of May, 1842, and the mother was a native
of the state of Arkansas, where she was born on the 12th of January,
1850; her parents came from Arkansas to Texas just after the close of
the Civil war, and her marriage to Augustan M. Borders was solemnized
at Meridian, Bosque county, this state, on the 12th of January, 1871.
Stephen A. Borders, the paternal grandfather of him whose name initi-
ates this sketch, was a native of Georgia and the great-grandfather was
born in Germany.
Augustan M. Borders was reared to maturity in Georgia, where he
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 3-^1
received a good common-school education and where also he learned the
trade of carpenter. In 1867 he came to Texas and settled in Cleburne,
where he remained until the following year, when he removed to Erath
count}- and took up his residence in Stephenville, where he was em-
plo3'ed for some time as clerk in a store conducted by the late Dr. Martin
S. Crow, of whom a memoir appears on other pages of this work. He
was a citizen who ever commanded the highest measure of popular con-
fidence and esteem, was influential in public affairs of a local order and
served about twelve years as treasurer of Erath county. He was a
staunch Democrat in his political proclivities, and both he and his wife
held membership in the Methodist Episcopal church. Their mutual de-
votion and sympathy made their married life one of signally ideal char-
acter, and "in death they were not divided," as ]\Irs. Borders was sum-
moned to the life eternal on the i6th of February, 1899, and he passed
away on the 5th of the following month. They became the parents of five
children, all of whom are living and of whom the subject of this review
is the eldest; Emma O. is the wife of Dan W. Evans, of Mineral Wells.
Palo Pinto county, Texas ; John B. resides in Mansfield, Tarrant county ;
Beulah A. is the wife of George B. Newson, and' they reside in Missouri;
and Balma A. is the wife of Lee Williams, of Stephenville, Texas.
Dr. Stephen N. Borders is indebted to the public schools of Stephen-
ville for his early educational discipline and in preparation for the work
of his chosen profession, which represents both a science and a mechanic
art, he attended two courses of lectures in the Louisville College of Den-
tistry, in the city of Louisville, Kentucky, after which he completed his
technical studies in the Chicago College of Dental Surgery, in which he
was graduated as a member of the class of 1901 and from which he re-
ceived his well earned degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. After his
graduation he returned to Stephenville and opened an office. Here he
has since been success fulh' engaged in the practice of his profession, re-
taining a large and representative clientage and being known as one spe-
cially skilled in both the operative and laboratory departments of his
important vocation. His offices are equipped with the most modern ap-
pliances and accessories and he keeps in close touch with all advances made
in the work of his profession. He is a valued member of the Texas
Dental Society and takes an active interest in its affairs.
Though never a seeker of public office of any description Dr. Bor-
ders is essentially loyal, progressive and public-spirited as a citizen, and
his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party. He and his
family hold membership in the Baptist church of their home city, and he
is prominently affiliated with the Knights of Pythias, in which he has
served as a member of the grand lodge of the state, besides having passed
all of the official chairs in John Tarlton Lodge, No. 227, in Stephenville.
The family home is a recognized center of gracious hospitality and the
members of the household are prominent in the social life of the com-
munity.
Vol. I— M
322
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
On May 17th, i8gi. was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Borders to
Miss Marv Virginia AlcXeill, who was born in Erath county, Texas, on
the i6th of December, 1873, and who is a daughter of Dr. WiUiara W.
and Elizabeth (Bell) McNeill, the former of whom was born in South
Carolina, in i8ig. and the latter of whom was born in Missouri, in 1842.
Dr. and Mrs. McNeill were numbered among the earliest settlers of Palo
Pinto county, Texas, and the Doctor was later the first county clerk of
Erath county. He was one of the first physicians and surgeons of this
section of the state, was a graduate of the medical department of the Uni-
versity of Kentucky and was one of the able representatives of his pro-
fession in Texas, where he continued to reside until his death, in 1902,
at the venerable age of eighty-three years. He was held in affectionate
regard by the families to whom he long ministered with all of zeal and
self-abnegation, and his name merits an enduring place on the roll of the
honored pioneers of the old Lone Star commonwealth. His wife preceded
him to eternal rest, having passed away in 1893. They became the parents
of three children.
Dr. and Mrs. Borders have two children : Frances Elizabeth, who
was born on the 4th of March, 1892, and Stephen A., w-ho was born on
the 2d of July, 1894.
John D. St. Clair, one of the earliest pioneers of Erath county,
Texas, has been a retired resident of Dublin since 1904. 'Squire St. Clair,
as everybody calls him. was born at Somerville, the county seat of Mor-
gan county, Alabama, in February, 1829, and came of Scotch ancestry.
He was reared in Morgan county and partly educated there, his education
being completed by a two years' course in old McKenzie college at Clarks-
ville, Texas. It was in 1852 that he came to this state. His first year
here was spent with an uncle in Lamar county, then followed the two
years in college, and afterward he took up his residence in Hunt county.
in the meantime, in the early fifties, he made a prospecting trip to the
frontier of Texas and visited Erath county, which later was to become
his home. During the Civil war he was in the cavalry service in the Con-
federate army. As a member of Company D, Stephens' Regiment, he was
assigned to duty in the Trans-Mississippi Department, and was engaged
in various cavalry and scouting operations in Louisiana and Arkansas, un-
der different commanders, among them being Pike, Cooper. Hinman,
Price and Kirby Smith. He was in what was perhaps the hardest service
of the war.
Returning to Erath county in 1867, Mr. St. Clair established his per-
manent home here, and directed his attention to farming and stock rais-
ing east of the present city of Dublin, and near where was afterward built
the town of Alexander. There quite a little settlement grew up, which
was given the name of Harpers Mill. Through his influence a postoffice
was established there and he was made postmaster. He was a notary
public, too, the only one in those days within a wide scope of frontier ter-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 323
ritory. Also, for many years, he served as a justice of the peace, and it
is for this reason that he has since been called "Squire St. Clair.
In 1880, when the Texas Central Railroad was built through Erath
county, 'Squire St. Clair moved to the nearest point on the railroad, this
removal being the beginning of the town of Alexander, which remained
his home until 1904. With the completion of the railroad the village of
Harpers Mills ceased to exist.
When the reconstruction period came, Mr. St. Clair was elected a
county commissioner, in which capacity he served eight years. Also for
some years he was tax assessor. Altogether his public service covered a
period of thirty-four years, this including the time of the Indian troubles
in Erath and surrounding counties. And during this varied service he
became widely known, not only in Erath county, but also throughout Cen
tral Western Texas. Finally, in 1904, being well advanced in years, Mt.
St. Clair sold his farming and live stock interests at Alexander, and re-
tired from active life. Since that date he has made his home in Dublin.
Mrs. St. Clair before her marriage was ]\Iiss Elizabeth Keith, the
Keiths being among the early pioneers of Erath county. Mr. and Mrs.
St. Clair have ten children living, namelv: John Robert, Mrs. Lula Jor-
dan, Charles P., J. Walter, Mrs. Viola Jordan, Mrs. Mollie E. Shelton,
Mrs. Ada Clark, Elbert, Mrs. Libbie Houston and Ernest B. Ernest B.
St. Clair is president of the First National Bank of Teague, Texas.
Brown County.
This county was created by act of the legislature, August 27, 1856,
and was not fully organized till the spring of 1858. The legislature
directed that the county court should select sites to be voted on as county
seat and should also choose the name for the town, but the supplementary
act of February 5, 1858, designated the name Brownwood for the county
seat. The county was named in honor of Capt. Henry S. Brown, a prom-
inent Texan who died in 1834. John Henry Brown, his son, writing in
the Texas Almanac for 1859, said of the county: "Held back by Indian
depredations, it has still grown rapidly since its first settlement three years
ago. . . . Brownwood is the county seat, beautifully located in the
center of the county, and on the west bank of Pecan bayou." In 1856
Major Van Dorn had established Camp Colorado on Jim Ned creek, in
what is Coleman county, and under the protection of this post the settle-
ment of Brown county began. In 1859 about 4,000 cattle were assessed
in the county. The population was sparse, and the only form of wealth
was the few herds that grazed over the range. During the decade of the
Civil war many of the settlers were forced to retire, so that the county
was practically undeveloped up to 1870. The population in that year was
only 544, consisting almost entirely of stockmen and their followers.
Several years passed before the danger from Indian raids was over, but
during the latter "70's the county received a large immigration, and other
industries than stock raising were engaged in on a commercial scale. By
■324
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND UESTERN TEXAS.
1881 the county had three cotton gins, six or seven flour mills, a sawmill,
and other minor industries. Numerous schools and churches had been
established, and there were five centers of settlement — Brownwood, Wil-
liams' Ranch, Clio, Bj-rd's Store and Zeph\r.
The population of the county in 1880 was 8,414 {114 negroes) ; in
1890, 11,421; in 1900, 16,019 (206 negroes). The value of the county's
taxajjle property in 1881 was $1,565,213: in 1903, $5,226,275; and in
1909, $11,752,045.
The first railroad in the county was the G. C. & S. P., which was
completed in 1886. In July, 1891, Brownwood became the terminus of
the Fort Worth & Rio Grande, which has since been extended through the
county.
In 1890 Brownwood had a population of 2,176 and was the only
town of any size in the county. Its population in 1900 was 3,965. This is
one of the progressive small cities of West Texas, with several large mer-
cantile and other business enterprises, and in recent years civic energy
has been concentrated in promoting the general welfare and improve-
ment of the town. Other towns, with population in 1900, are: Blanket,
304; Baugo, 136; May, 324; Zephyr, 229.
In the last ten years Brown county has received a large immigra-
tion of settlers, especially from the north central states, and its lands are
largely occupied as farms, although live stock is still a large item of pro-
ductive wealth.
B. E. HuRLBUT is a native son of the east, born in Cortland county,
New York, August 22, 1858, but the greater part of his life has been
spent in Texas, and for a number of years he has been one of the most
influential business men and citizens of Brownwood. On coming to
Texas in 1876 he located first in Dallas and spent three years there, and
the following three years were spent at Corsicana. From there in 1883
he moved to Lampasas, where he was engaged in the hardware business
for about three and a half years, and at the close of that period, in 1887,
he came to Brownwood and embarked in the hardware business here. He
built the stone building now known as the Jackson Hughs block, and has
the distinction of having been the first man in the city to place a traveling
salesman on the road. This was in the year 1885, and he continued his
jobbing department with his wholesale and retail trade for about twenty
years, or until he sold his interests to the Jackson Hughs Company in Jan-
uary of 1907.
On the 1st of January, 1907, Mr. Hurlbut organized the American
Bank and Trust Company with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars,
and he was made the president of the bank, but in March of 1909 he sold
his banking interest to the Citizens National Bank, retaining the trust and
real estate department, and they handle loans exclusively on real estate.
In October of 1908 Mr. Hurlbut was elected the vice-president of the
Brownwood Commercial Club, but owing to the president's death in the
following December, he was obliged to assume the duties of that office
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 325
and is still its incumbent through his election to the presidency in October,
1909. He has fraternal relations with Brownwood Lodge of Masons, and
is a member of the Christian church.
S.\MUEL R. C(3GGiN. — Steadfast, loyal and sincere in all the relations
of life, the late Samuel Richardson Coggin, who died at his beautiful
home in Brownwood, Brown county, Texas, on the ist of October. 1910,
left the priceless heritage of worthy thoughts and worthy deeds to the
great commonwealth in whose development and upbuilding he was a
prominent and influential factor. He stood as a distinguished type of the
world's noble army of productive and constructive workers. He gave the
best of an essentially strong and loyal nature to the promotion of the
civic and material interests of the community in which he lived ; his life
course was guided and governed by the highest principles of integrity
and honor, and now that he has passed to the "land of the leal" his mem-
ory is revered by all who knew the man and had appreciation of his ster-
ling attributes of character. In entering record concerning his career re-
course is taken to an appreciative memorial issued for private distribution
soon after his death, and in the context only such paraphrase is made
as to render the statements consistent with the province of this publication.
Samuel Richardson Coggin was born in Davidson county, North
Carolina, on the 23d of February, 1831, and was a son of Levi and Frankie
(Lambeth) Coggin, the former of whom was of Irish and the latter of
English lineage. The parents were born and reared in Leverson county,
North Carolina, where their marriage was solemnized. In 1836 the family
removed to Tennessee, where they remained about a year, at the expira-
tion of which time they went to Mississippi and located about three miles
distant from Holly Springs, Marshall county, where Samuel H. Coggin
was reared to maturity. He was one of a family of nine children, of
whom only two are now living, Simon L. and ^Irs. Elizabeth Taber. both
of whom reside in Brownwood, Texas.
The educational advantages of Mr. Coggin were limited to the com-
mon schools of Marshall county, Mississippi, and in 1851, in company
with his brother, Moses J. Coggin, he came to Texas and numbered him-
self among its pioneers. He first stopped near Rusk, in the eastern part
of the state, where he and his brother purchased a small stock of cattle
with their meager savings of a few hundred dollars, and while their herd
was increasing they engaged in freighting between Houston and Bell
county, afterward removing their herd to Bell county. From that section
they came to Brown county and settled at the old town of Brownwood,
a few miles down the ba}-ou from the present town of the same name.
This change of location was made in 1857 and the country was then on
the extreme frontier. Soon after reaching Brownwood Samuel R. Cog-
gin and his brother Moses J., with a few other pioneers, about ten
families in number, attempted to organize the county, but failure attended
the etTort, and not until the citizenship was reinforced, in that and the
succeeding year, did they succeed in effecting the organization of the
32f,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
comity. In the fall of 1858 the Coggin brothers acquired large and valu-
able real estate holdings in Coleman county, on Home creek, where, in
spite of the hardships of pioneer life in the west, and the depredations of
the Indians, their herds continued to grow, with the result* that the young
men prospered.
When the call of their country came to them to fight for the southern
cause, property interests were sacrificed to duty, and Samuel R. Coggin,
after enlisting, was assigned to duty in Arkansas, the brothers leaving
their cattle and other property in the care of others. After two years of
hard service in the army of Arkansas Mr. Coggin's health, which had
never been robust from' the time of his attaining maturity, gave way
under the strain of army life in the marshes and swamps of that state,
and, against his wishes, he was mustered out of service. He then re-
turned to Texas, where, in many hand-to-hand conflicts with marauding
Comanche and Kiowa Indians, he literally fought his way to success in
the most desperate and prolonged struggles in the frontier annals of
America, the conflict not ending until 1875, when the Indians finally
ceased their depredations.
In 1 868 the Coggin brothers became associated in the cattle and real
estate business with W. C. Parks, of Brownwood, under the firm name
of Coggin & Parks, the partnership continuing for many years and being
one of both business and historic interest, characterized by more than the
usual reverses and misfortunes attending pioneer ranching in a country
surrounded by hostile, marauding and treacherous Indians. But through
their indomitable energy, their untiring eiTorts, their brave determination
and their great courage in meeting and overcoming every obstacle, there
was more of success than failure, and a modest fortune steadily grew to
magnificent proportions, while the firm assisted their associates in making
an enviable civilization for themselves and for posterity. Before his death
Samuel R. Coggin saw the country for which he fought so hard and
which he loved so devotedly grow into one of the ideal spots of creation,
and in this realization he reaped the largest measure of satisfaction.
A comprehensive sketch of the life of Mr. Coggin from the time he
came to Brown county, in 1875, would be a history of the pioneer days of
this country and would be as thrilling a narrative as is found in the pages
of history, characterized, as it would be, by deprivations and hardships,
by disasters and dangers, by struggles and reverses, by deadly encounters
with dreaded Indian's, by constant contests with dare-devil adventurers,
who were at times even worse than the Indians, and crowned at last by
the fullest realization of early hopes and expectations, by the transforma-
tion of the country from a rough wilderness into a land of peaceful, quiet,
contented and happy homemakers. The part taken by him in this great
change is historic and is but characteristic of the great, self-sacrificing
heart of the man whose service for his country was always made primary
to his own interests.
From 1875 to 1881 the firm of which Mr. Coggin was a member was
engaged in the cattle and real estate business, their operations covering a
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND tVESTERN TEXAS. 12-;
number of counties and sections of the state, and being unusually success-
ful, the while they were attended with less difficulties than in the earlier
days.
It was in 1881 that the Coggin Brothers organized their first bank,
which was conducted under the title of Coggin Brothers & Company.
From this private institution, under various changes in the personnel of
other stockholders and also in title, was eventually developed the Coggin
National Bank of Brownwood, of which staunch and important financial
institution Samuel R. Coggin was president from the time of its organiza-
tion until his death. As a banker he was noted for the philanthropic way
in which he handled the assets of the institution, ever having in mind the
management of the bank in the way that would make it the most useful
and serviceable to the masses of the people — a business philanthropy in
time of need and a business enterprise and bulwark in time of prosperity.
While he was cautious and prudent in business he never turned a deaf ear
to the man who really needed and merited aid, and there are thousands
in this country who stand ready to testify that he gave them a helping
hand when it was most needed, and thus assisted them to success. No
more notable instance of this could be given than to refer to the drouth
of 1886-7, when the country was parched and bare, when many were with-
out even the necessities of life and would have been forced to leave the
country, abandon their possessions and lose all, but for the timely help of
Mr. Coggin and his associates, and a few others, who placed the welfare
of their neighbors above their own gain and who aided them without any
hope of reward beyond the satisfaction of having performed a duty to
mankind.
Up to the time of his death Mr. Coggin was actively engaged in look-
ing after his business affairs — his banking, his cattle, his ranch and farm-
ing interests, and his real estate holdings in Brownwood and elsewhere
in^Brown and other counties of the state. While his health had not been
good since the Civil war, and though he was many times at death's door,
his mind was ever alert and active, and whenever he was able to leave his
home he was about his many business affairs.
Mr. Coggin was for many years a devoted member of the Cumber-
land Presbyterian church and one of the largest contributors to the church
work. When he was able to go out at all he was never too weary to
devote his time, his energies and his mind to the church, and his purse
strings were ever unloosed to its calls. He was also a member of the
Independent Order of Odd Fellows and was much interested in every
enterprise of this fraternal order. While he never heralded his philan-
thropies from the housetops, no deserving person or worthy enterprise
ever appealed to him in vain. The town in which he lived, and to which
he gave so much of his thought, is uidebted to him for many things.
The colleges received large gifts of lands and money from him; Coggin
park, a large, beautiful and valuable park place, is a donation from him
and his wife to the city : he was the largest contributor to secure the Car-
neo-ie librarv for Brownwood ; his donations for railway subsidy funds
328 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
were generous and princely; he aided all church enterprises of the town
and many in the country ; he helped many boys and girls in their efforts to
secure educations, — in fact, in a thousand ways that can not here be
enumerated, he showed his love for and his interest in his fellow men and
his country.
Above all, perhaps, the life of Mr. Coggin is to the young an example
worthy of admiration and emulation. His struggles and his triumphs, his
steadfast adherence to integrity of purpose, his abiding faith in the ac-
complishment of all honorable aims, his broad human sympathy and toler-
ance, and his many other noble traits of character all furnish rich food for
thought and will ever be treasured in memory by the generations that
recall his life. He lived to a good old age, to see the maturity of most of
his cherished plans, and he died the death that he would perhaps most
have preferred. He retired to a night of sweet, undisturbed sleep, and
he awoke at early morn on that shore where there is surcease from strug-
gle, from sorrow, from pain ; where all is bliss and jov and peace and
rest.
While there can be no wish to lift the gracious and sacred veil that
protected a home life of the most ideal type, there is marked propriety in
offering brief statement concerning his marriage and the mutual love
and sympathy which held him and his devoted wife together as if with
"hoops of steel." On the 3d of January, 1884, was solemnized the mar-
riage of Air. Coggin to Mrs. Martha (Lightfoot) Smith, who was born
anfl reared in Johnson county, Te.xas, and who is a daughter of the late
B. B. Lightfoot, one of the most prominent and influential citizens of
Johnson county, Texas. From the time of their marriage, of which no
children were born, j\Ir. Goggin and his wife were not only most loving
companions but they were also comrades in the true sense of the word,
their devotion to each other being most tender. They were inseparable,
and through many night watches the good wife remained at his bedside,
ministering to his every need and nursing him back to health and strength.
They lived happily and comfortably, though unostentatiously, in one of
the most attractive homes in the state, and the same was always open
for the comfort, the pleasure and the enjoyment of their many friends.
By her wifely sympathy, her unerring judgment and her hearty co-
operation in his plans, Mrs. Coggin was a never failing inspiration to her
husband, and her resourcefulness removed from him in his later years
many of the cares with which he would otherwise have been burdened.
The board of directors of the Coggin National Bank (which has just
moved into its fine new quarters ) paid a merited tribute to the business
sagacity of I\Irs. Coggin as well as a just recognition to her husband's
long and worthy service by tending her the position of president. Mrs.
Coggin reluctantly agreed to accept and serve the unexpired term on con-
dition that she would be required to discharge the duties of president
of the bank no longer than the first meeting of the board in January.
In conclusion is entered an extract from the obituary notice that
appeared in the Brownwood Daily Bulletin on the morning of the death
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 329
of Mr. Coggin, and the words well merit perpetuation in this connection:
"He was a good man in every sense of the word, a man of discerning
judgment, practical and sensible in all matters, cjuiet, unassuming and
unostentatious in manner, and a true friend to every worthy man and
deserving enterprise. He was of the type of pioneers who have left their
impress for good upon this country and to whom this and subsequent
generations are indebted largely for the fine type of citizenship to be
found here. In the comforts of our surroundings we hardly realize how
much we owe to men like this, — meii who sacrificed much, endured much,
suffered much, but whose reward in the world to come will certainly be
proportioned to their work here." Concerning Mr. Coggin and his wife
the same article offers the following statement : "The devotion of the
couple to each other was almost sublime, and they were both lovers and
associates in all things until death's relentless separation."
CoLEM.\N County
In the summer of 1856 Major Van Dorn of the United States army
established Camp Colorado on Jim Ned creek, in what is now Coleman
county. Some remains of the stone and wooden buildings of this post still
exist. Major Van Dorn had a detachment of the Second Cavalry there
for two or three years. In i860, before the Civil war, Capt. E. K. Smith
commanded there. The presence of this garrison attracted a few settlers,
though they made no permanent improvements. J. E. McCord, later a
banker and prominent citizen of Coleman City, was lieutenant of a Ranger
company that was posted on Home creek during i860. Camp Colorado
was abandoned after the war.
February i, 1858, the legislature defined the boundaries of a num-
ber of counties, among them Coleman, named in honor of Robert M.
Coleman, a figure in the Texas revolution. But nearly twenty years
passed before the county was sufficiently settled to maintain a county gov-
erntnent. In 1875 a county government was organized, and in the fall
of 1876 Coleman, the county seat, was laid off. A quotation from an
account written in 1877 reads: On a site that in 1873 had been barren of
any vestige of human liabitation, the beautiful plateau being the haunt of
the buffalo more often than of domestic animals, was in the latter part of
1871J the growing little village of Coleman City, whose first house had
been completed scarceh' two months before and which now contained
twenty-seven first-class buiMini^s, with merchants, lawyers, building con-
tractors, good school, hotel, and half a mile from town the U. S. tele-
graph line. A year later Coleman had a population of four hundred and
was incorporated.
Beginning in 1875 this county soon became one of the favorite cen-
ters of the range stock industry. The county was one immense pasture,
and excepting the tradesmen at the county seat and one or two other
places, the population consisted almost entirely of the cattlemen and their
"outfits." About 1880 the farmer class made some advance into this re-
330
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
gion, especially when it is known that the Santa Fe Railroad would be
built. But in 1882 it was estimated that not over four thousand acre.^
had been touched by the plow, while the live stock at that time numbered
about 9,000 horses and mules, 40,000 cattle and 85.000 sheep and other
stock.
At the census of 1870 the population of the county was 347 ; in 1880,
3,603 (35 negroes); in 1890, 6,112; in 1900, 10.077 (9° negroes). In
1882 the taxable values were $1,733,603, live stock being assessed at
$723,768; in 1903, $5,611,513; and in 1909, $12,259,645.
In March, 1886, what was then known as the main line of the G. C. &
S. F. Railroad reached Coleman, and was extended on through the county
the same year. A tap line was built to reach Coleman City, it being the
policy of early railroad building to avoid towns which did not offer attract-
ive subsidies, and Coleman City is one of the number of such cases in
Texas. However, this tap line has since become the starting point of the
"Coleman cut-off" of the Santa Fe, now building northwest to Texico.
Coleman City, which had a population of 906 in 1890 and 1,362 in
1900, has been developed both commerciall\- and as a place of residence in
recent years. It has the improvements and advantages of the progressive
West Texas towns, and is the center of a large volume of trade. Other
towns are : Santa Anna, situated at the base of Santa Anna mountain ;
Talpa ; Trickham, one of the oldest settlements : Rockwood, in the coal-
mining district ; Glencove ; Burkett.
Littleton E. Collins is the president of the First National Bank
of Coleman, which is the oldest bank in Coleman county. It was estab-
lished in 1886, and has been continuously successful in business from that
time to the present. Its business methods are universally commended as
honest and straightforward, and they are based on long years of experi-
ence in the banking business in Coleman county. The capital stock of
the First National is one hundred thousand dollars, with surplus and
profits of 'one hundred and ten thousand dollars. Mr. Collins, its active
president, is one of Coleman's most energetic and enterprising citizens,
and he has been a potent influence in the city's recent rapid growth and
expansion. He has been a member of the board of school trustees for
several years, and is the board's present treasurer.
Born near LaGrange in Troup county, Georgia, February 11, 1855,
he was brought in the same year by his parents to Texas, the family locat-
ing in Upshur county. His father was a Confederate soldier. Littleton
E. Collins was reared in Upshur county, and leaving home in 1875 he
stopped for a few months in Bell county, and in July of 1876 came to
Coleman. The town had been laid out and entered upon its career as the
county seat of the newly organized county of Coleman in that month.
In 1878 Mr. Collins embarked in the drug business, and the business is
still continued by his successor, Mr. Coulson, who had worked for him
in the store. Retiring from this mercantile venture in 1892, ^Ir. Collins
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 331
entered the First National Bank, first as its assistant cashier and later, in
1903, as its president.
He is president of the Coleman Com]5ress Company and the Coleman
Cotton Oil Company. He has since coming- to Coleman heen one of its
foremost men in the upbuilding of its various enterprises.
He married Miss Cora Payton, from DeWitt county, and their seven
children are Mrs. Florence Pitman, Nanie, Milton, Nelle, Littleton E. Jr.,
Harry and Mary Sue In 1906 he built his magnificent residence, one of
the show places of the city of Coleman and one of the most beautiful
homes in western Texas. Mr. Coleman is a member of the Masonic and
Odd Fellows fraternities and of the Baptist church.
First Natioxal Bank of Colemax. — There is no one factor which
so well determines and designates the status and stability of a community
as the extent and character of its banking institutions, and in this respect
the thriving city of Coleman, the judicial center and metropolis of the
county of the same name, has in the First National Bank an institution of
established reputation, ample capital and conservative management, the
while it is reinforced by the enlistment of the capitalistic and executive
support of citizens of the highest and most representative character. Its
large resources, admirably conserved, make it a distinctive power in the
financial affairs of this section of the state, and it is but consonant that in
this publication be given a brief record concerning the same.
The First National Bank of Coleman was organized in i88fi, with a
capital of fifty thousand dollars, and the personnel of the original execu-
tive corps was as here noted : J. D. Davidson, president ; W. C. Dibrell,
vice-president; J. B. Coleman, cashier; and J. D. Cummings, assistant
cashier. Besides these administrative officers the directorate at the time
of incorporation included R. H. Overall, J. E. McCord and E. T. Petty.
In 1890, to met the increased demands placed on the institution, its
capital stock was increased to seventy-five thousand dollars, and at this
time Mr. Cummings resigned his positions of director and assistant cash-
ier, being succeeded in the latter office by Littleton E. Collins, and James
P. Ledbetter succeeding him in the position of director. Later W. C.
Dibrell succeeded Mr. Davidson as president and Richard H. Overall be-
came vice-president. In 1892, when Mr. Dibrell declined farther service
as president of the bank, he was succeeded by James B. Coleman, and at
this time also Littleton E. Collins was chosen cashier, a position of which
he continued incumbent until 1902, when upon Mr. Coleman's resignation
of the presidency Mr. Collins became his successor in this chief executive
office, of which he has since continued the efficient and popular incumbent,
and at the same time time John H. Babington was elected cashier, an
office which he held until 1910.
LTpon the expiration of the original charter of the bank, in 1900, at
the end of the twenty years designated by the government as the limit of
national bank charters, the charter was renewed under the original title
and for another period of twenty years. In 1908 the capital was again in-
332 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
creased, as the growth and development of the town and country made it
practically imperative for this enterprising institution to keep pace with
the march of progress, which it promptly did by expanding its capital
stock to one hundred thousand dollars, which is the basic reinforcement
now in evidence, with an additional surplus fund of fifty thousand dollars
and undivided profits amounting to sixty-five thousand dollars. These
figures bear their own significance and emphatically evidence the pro-
gressive policy followed in the management of the affairs of the bank, as
well as indicate the substantial advances made in the civic and industrial
upbuilding of this favored section of the Old Lone Star commonwealth.
Those who are in a position to know will uniformly concede that
from the beginning of its history the bank has been managed with scrupu-
lous conservatism. Its original stockholders, all men of high reputation,
are still, to a large extent, identified with the institution, and yet even the
foregoing brief statements show that the bank has at all times kept abreast
of the times in this fast growing country, and it has led its influence in
support of every legitimate enterprise that has been launched in Coleman.
The personnel of the present official corps is as here noted : Littleton E.
Collins, president; Joseph P. J.Iorris. vice-president; Robert H. Alex-
ander, cashier; and Charles W. Hemphill, assistant cashier. In addition
to the president, vice-president and cashier the directorate now includes
James C. Dibrell, William Anson, Charles J. Dibrell and John H. Babing-
ton. The banking offices, occupying a substantial and attractive building
erected for the purpose, are thoroughly metropolitan in appointments and
facilities, and the business of the institution shows an appreciable expan-
sion from year to year, making it one of the staunch banking houses of
central and western Texas.
Horace R. Starkweather. — There are few men in centi'al or west-
ern Texas who have acquired a wider reputation as business men than
Horace R. Starkweather, the president of the Farmers State Bank of
Coleman. He was born in Lucas county, Ohio, in 1856, and he was reared
and educated in Toledo of that county, and there he also received his
business training as a bookkeeper and accountant. He came to Texas in
1877 and to Coleman in 1881, and he engaged extensively in the cattle
business, having a pasture of forty thousand acres in the southern part of
the county. And although the disastrous results following the fence cut-
ting war in 1883 put him out of the business, he later resumed the vocation
and for some years was engaged extensively in land and live stock trans-
actions, one of his notable deals being the sale of a large portion of his
land holdings in the southern part of the county to William Gould Busk,
an English capitalist, who established there a large cattle ranch. But
more recently Air. Busk decided to sell this land, he having returned to his
home in England, and Mr. Starkweather is his agent for the sale of it in
small farming tracts for actual settlers, and in addition to the selling of
these tracts he is also developing a town there called Gouldbusk, a post-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 333
office, store, gin, etc., being already located there. It is situated in the
midst of a rich agricultural country.
In June of 1907 Mr. Starkweather promoted and established the
Farmers State Bank of Coleman, of which he is the president, Of the
eighty-five stockholders connected with this bank the greater majority are
farmers located in various sections of Coleman county, and the Ijank was
established primarily for the purpose of enabling the farmers to borrow
money at reasonable rates of interest and thus develop the agricultural re-
sources of the county, and it has not only succeeded admirably in that
purpose but has also been highly successful in every way. In 1908 the
Farmers State Bank moved into the splendid new building erected for its
purpose. The capital stock of this institution is valued at fifty thousand
dollars, its deposits are guaranteed under the Depositors Guarantee Fund
as provided by laws passed in the Thirty-first session of the Texas legis-
lature, and the officers and directors are among the best known and most
substantial citizens of Coleman county.
Mrs. Starkweather was before marriage Carrie Knox, born in Mich-
igan, and they have three children, Elizabeth, Marjorie and Helen.
Ho\. WiLLi.VM R. McClellax was born in \\'ashington county,
Texas, in 1846, and he is a son of one of the pioneers of that county, W.
B. McClellan, who came from Tennessee in 1841, but he was born in
North Carolina. The son William was reared in Washington coimty, and
while yet a boy he went into the Confederate army, joining Company F,
Twenty-first Texas Cavalry, and he served until the close of the war in
the Trans-]\Iississippi Department, Parson's Brigade, Steele's Division. He
was in hard service in Arkansas and Louisiana, including the hostilities
in connection with the Banks' expedition, and he took part in the battle of
Yellow Bayou, the last engagement fought west of the Mississippi river.
After the close of the war Mr. McClellan returned to his home in
Washington county, and later went to Ledbetter in Fayette county, where
he embarked in the mercantile business and enjoyed continued success and
financial prosperity until retiring from that business in 1893. In the same
year he came to Coleman, which has since been his home, and during his
first nine years here was engaged mainly in trading in cattle, since living
retired, although he has large and important interests in Coleman and in
Coleman county. He is a director cf the Coleman National Bank, and
has a fine stock farm three miles west of the town and a beautiful city
residence. Mr. McClellan's only political honor and which came ta him
unsought was his election to the legislature in 1899, 1901 and 1905, repre-
senting the One Hundred and Eighth legislative district, which comprises
Brown and Coleman counties. He served in the Twenty-sixth, Twenty-
seventh and Twenty-ninth legislatures, and his most important and useful
services in the legislature, commencing with the Twenty-sixth session,
were in his successful opposition to the proposed land legislation which
came up at that time and which if it had been enacted would have been
the means of depriving actual settlers of millions of acres of the state'-;
334 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
school land and thus retarded the community's development. This pro-
posed legislation was in the interest of land speculators, as it would have
disposed of all school lands in the state in bodies of not less than ten
thousand acres at from seventy-five cents to one dollar an acre, no actual
settlement being required. Mr. McClellan's efforts as a legislator were
widely recognized, and they proved of signal usefulness to his state. He
is one of the substantial and resourceful citizens of Coleman county, a
retired merchant, a bank director and a wealthy farmer and stockman.
He married in Washington county Lou Ratliff, who was born in Mis-
sissippi, and they have four children : Claud McClellan, Mrs. Mary
O'Hair, Mrs. Lela Johnson and i\Irs. Mildred Woodward, all living in
Coleman.
The Hon. William R. McClellan is a member of the Masonic order
and of the Christian church.
Robert Goodfellow is well known throughout Coleman county and
the state of Texas as a notable criminal officer and as a prominent stock-
man. Born in Dallas county, Texas, adjoining the Tarrant county line
near Grapevine, in 1870, his parents were old time residents of that local-
ity, and an older brother, J. J. Goodfellow, now of San Angelo, was for
nearly thirty years the county surveyor of Tarrant county.
Robert Goodfellow was educated in Baylor University at Waco,
studying under Dr. Rufus Burleson, and early in 1890 he came to Cole-
man county and began working with cattle on the Frank Anson ranch, re-
maining there for several months. His efficiency and trustworthiness in
the meantime made him many friends, and after locating in Coleman he
was elected the constable, that forming the beginning of his long and
notable career as a criminal officer. This public career has included his
services as city marshal, as deputy sheriff and for six years as sheriff, he
having retired from the latter office in 1906. Since that time he has de-
voted himself to his extensive farming, live stock and business interests.
As a stockman he handles cattle, sheep and horses, making somewhat of a
specialty of the latter. He is a breeder of draft horses, coach horses, sad-
dlers and racers of the highest grade and also, of mules, and he has helped
to make Coleman county famous for its fine horses. He is also a mem-
ber of the firm of Goodfellow and Bell, proprietors of the Coleman Buggy
and Harness Company, which was established in 1906, a successful busi-
ness institution. He has two farms and a stock ranch in Coleman county,
one of the farms being located about thirty miles south of the Colorado
river, and the other near the city on the northwest, while the ranch is
eight miles northwest of the city.
As city marshal and as deputy sheriff and sheriff Mr. Goodfellow be-
came noted as one of the ablest criminal officers in the southwest, this fact
being recognized most of all by his fellow officers, the truest test, and he
was honored by them through his election as vice-president of the Texas
Sheriffs' Association and subsequently as president of that organization.
He was the president of the association during his last term as sheriff of
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 335
Coleman county. As an officer he did not merely perform his duties in a
routine or perfunctory manner, but he was always alert and brought to
bear a finely trained intelligence on the conduct of his cases. His repu-
tation for actually catching criminals became such that Coleman county
won the name of being an unsafe place for fugitives from justice, for if
one came here Sheriff Goodfellow was sure to get him. One of the most
notable cases with which he was connected was that of the Montana bank
note robbery. In 1901 a Northern Pacific train in Montana was held up
and robbed of forty thousand dollars in unsigned bank notes. The robbers
scattered to various parts of the country, some drifting to Texas, and a
few were convicted. Sheriff Goodfellow got trace of this work by one
of the bank notes passed in Coleman county, and succeeded in capturing
three men that were involved in the robbery, following them into Callahan
county and having them put in jail at that point, where they were held
until taken in charge by the Federal authorities. He captured these men
in advance of the Federal Secret Service officers who were working on the
case in this vicinity. Another important case in which Mr. Goodfellow
was connected was his capture of A. P. Brady at Jackson, Mississippi, for
murder committed in Coleman county, and this was a very unusual case
owing to the fact that the murder had been committed twenty-five years
before the date of the arrest. Bob Beaver, alias ]\Ieeks, Mitchell, etc., a
desperate character and a partner of the notorious outlaw, Bill Cook,
escaped from jail at Crowell in Foard county in 1900, and was traced
southward by a number of sheriffs and deputy U. S. marshals, but in
Coleman county they lost all trace of their man and were about to give
up the chase when Mr. Goodfellow took the trail with his force, and late
at night found Beaver in bed at the ranch of F. Beck, about twenty miles
southwest of Coleman. He captured his man and turned him over to the
officers who had come for him. In 1898 a Santa Fe passenger train was
held up and robbed at Coleman Junction by five men, and Mr. Goodfellow
took the leading part in the capture of these men in Sutton county, about
thirty miles below Sonera. Some time previous to the above robbery and
while he was serving in the office of deputy sheriff, another hold up
occurred on the Santa Fe at Coleman, in which the train was robbed of
about fourteen thousand dollars. For this crime I\Ir. Goodfellow caught
and arrested Will Teague, the leading participant in the robbery, and he
was sent to the penitentiary for a long number of years. Mr. Goodfellow
also captured in Montana John Wiley Davis, a cattle thief who had
jumped his bond sixteen years previously,. and had been a fugitive during
that time. He was a constantly busy officer and dealt with numerous cases
of cattle and horse thieves, murderers and other criminals. It was his
official duty to hang one man while serving as sheriff, the execution of
John Pearl for murder taking place in 1901.
^Ir. Goodfellow's wife was before marriage ]\Iiss Fannie Foster, born
at Kirksville in Adair county, Missouri, and she came from there to Ellis
county, Texas, with her parents. The three children of this union are
Leita Eugenia, Robert Clarence and Nancy Lee
33<'^ HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Dr. Charles M. Alexander is the pioneer physician of Coleman
and he is a director of the oldest bank in Coleman, the First National.
Born in Cumberland count)-, Kentucky, he is a son of Joseph H. and Julia
(Wallace) Alexander, both of whom were also born in that common-
ivealth and both were of Scotch ancestry, the mother having been a
descendant of William ^Vallace of that country. Dr. Alexander enjoyed
liberal educational advantages in his youth, and he received the degree of
A. B. from the Cumberland University of Lebanon, Tennessee, of which
he is a graduate with the class of 1879, ^"d he is a graduate of the medical
department of the University of Louisville with the class of 1882. Prac-
ticing then in his home county of Cumberland until January of 1883, he
came to Coleman, Texas, and has practiced here continuously ever since,
his labors as a physician here covering the changing conditions of life that
have taken place in western Texas since that formative period. And in
those earlier years, particularly before the building of the railroad and
when the country was but thinly settled and occupied only by the people
connected with the great cattle outfits. Dr. Alexander's practice extended
over a wide expanse of country and involved long drives into the neigh-
boring counties of Runnels, IMcCulloch, Brown, Callahan and others. He
is a physician of the highest standing in his profession, and is the presi-
dent of the Fourth or San Angelo District Medical Association, the presi-
dent of the Coleman County ^ledical Society, and during a long number
of years the local surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad Company. He is
also a member of the State and American Aledical Associations.
Dr. Alexander's wife was before marriage Mary Brown, from j\lum-
fordsville, Kentucky, and they have four children: Howard L., Amelia
(married Lloyd A. Brewer, of Washington, D. C. ) ; Charles and Eliza-
beth. Dr. Alexander is a member of and an elder in the Presbyterian
church.
Hon. John A. B. Miller in 1897 came to Coleman, and since then
as a lawyer, public official and citizen he has been an important factor in
the development of the town and of the community. He was born at
Homer in Claiborne Parish, Louisiana, in 1865, and his father, the Rev.
John A. Miller, born in South Carolina, is living at Patterson, Louisiana,
now retired after sixty years or more of labor as a Methodist minister.
The son was reared at Homer and attended Homer College, but he studied
law in the University of Mississippi at Oxford and was admitted to the
bar at Pittsboro in Calhoun county, Mississippi, in 1891. He also began
his practice there, his first law partner being Judge A. T. Roane, a circuit
judge and a native Mississippian. Leaving Pittsboro ]\Ir. Miller came
from Ruston to Coleman, Texas, in 1897, and this city has since remained
his home. While living at Pittsboro he was elected and served a term as
the mayor of that city.
Within a year or two after coming to Coleman Mr. Miller was
elected the county attorney, and he served in that office for one term, re-
engaging at the close of that period in private practice. He served the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 337
city four years as an alderman, and in April of 1906 was elected without
opposition the mayor of Coleman, the petition which brought about his
nomination and election being signed by a large majority of the citizens
of Coleman. By re-election he has remained continuously in the office
since that time. Mr. Miller's administration of municipal affairs has been
highly efficient, economical, progressive and business like, and during his
term many public improvements of importance have been made, the most
notable of which was the purchase by the city of the water works system
and the enlarging and improvement of this system, assuring a permanent
supply of the best water in western Texas. Another great achievement
for the city in which Mr. Miller took a most prominent part was the
securing for Coleman the junction point for the new trans-continental
division of the Santa Fe Railroad, to extend from Texico, a town on the
main line of the road and on the northwestern border of Texas, to Cole-
man, where it joins the San Angelo branch of the Santa Fe and completes
a new trans-continental route for the Santa Fe extending from Galveston
to the Pacific ocean. Work was begun on the Coleman end of this new
line in the latter part of June, 1909, and in the public celebration in Cole-
man in honor of this great achievement Mr. Miller was accorded the
honor of handling the plow which started the grading operations. Prev-
ious to this time for several months and with unselfish spirit he had de-
voted much of his own time to the work of promoting the securing of this
road for Coleman, and this work was accomplished in the face of strong
opposition from rival cities seeking the honor. He spent much more of
his time in the securing of this project than was required of him officially,
and he also made three trips to Chicago to urge Coleman's advantages to
the Santa Fe officials in that city.
He married in this city Miss Mattie B. INIorris, a daughter of John
P. Morris, a prominent stockman. They have four children, John P.,
Thomas Louis, Claude and Mattie B.
WiLLi.\M L. FuTCH has inscribed his name on the pages of the his-
tory of Coleman county as its present sheriff. He was born at Magnolia,
the county seat of Columbia county, Arkansas, in 1866, and he was reared
there, but since July of 1884 he has. been a resident of Coleman county.
His father made a trip to this state in 1873, stopping for a time in Hill
county, but he afterward returned to Magnolia and he is now deceased.
His widow is living at their old home there. ]\Ir. Futch's first work here
was on a cattle ranch, continuing with some of the large cattle outfits for
several years, and this section of the state at that time was entirely a
cattle countr\-. He later went into the railroad service in western Texas,
and for six ^-ears w;is with the western division of the Texas and Pacific
Compan}' and with the Pecos \"alley Railroad Company.
Returning- to Coleman county in 1897 Mr. Futch became the deputy
sheriff" under J. T. Sanders, later serving as deputy sheriflf under Sheriff
W. T. Knox, and then for about four j'ears he was the superintendent in
338 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
charge of the convicts on the county road work in Coleman county. In
1906" he was elected the sheriff of Coleman county, and was re-elected to
the office in 1908, and his administration of the duties connected with that
important office have given eminent satisfaction to the people. Through
long years of residence in Coleman county and in western Texas he has
become thoroughly familiar and prominently identified with its growth and
interests.
Mr. Futch married in 1898 ]\Iiss Hattie Jones, born in AIcLennan
county, Texas, and their three children are Neil, Jack and Allen. ]Mr.
Futch has membership relations with the Odd Fellows and the Rebekahs
and the Knights of Pythias fraternities.
Colonel Rich.\rd H. Overall, a pioneer settler of Coleman county
and a prominent and wealthy stockman, died at his home in Coleman in
1900. He was born at St. Charles, near St. Louis, Missouri, in 1832, and
was reared and educated there. His father was one of the earliest pioneer
settlers in Missouri, moving there from Tennessee, and he was a soldier in
the Black Hawk war. The son Richard, after reaching mature years, was
engaged in the lumber business at St. Charles until the breaking out of
the war between the states, and during that conflict he was employed as a
train conductor on the old North Missouri Railroad, now the Wabash
road, running from St. Louis into central north Missouri. On account of
the fierce contention and disorder throughout that portion of Missouri and
the warfare that waged there, largely of a guerilla and bushwhacking na-
ture, Mr. Overall was often a witness of and a participant in the scenes of
violence enacted. One occasion in particular was in 1863, when his train
was attacked at Centralia by forces headed bv Frank James and Bill An-
derson. The train was stopped, the passengers robbed and roughly used,
and twenty-seven Federal soldiers on their way home on a furlough of
sick leave were taken from the train and shot. The depot and practically
the entire of Centralia were burned to the ground, and even the train
was set on fire, but bv a ruse worked by Mr. Overall in connection with
the engineer he rain the train out of town for quite a distance and the
remaining passengers, particularly the women and children, were taken
out and given protection to a place, of safety.
After the close of the war Mr. and IMrs. Overall went to live at
]\Iacon, Missouri, and there he was engaged in the milling business for
about nine years. Early in 1876, his mill having burned, he and Mrs.
Overall came to Texas to start life anew in a new country, and coming
to Coleman county in the spring of the same year they located south of
the present town of Coleman at what has ever since remained the Overall
ranch and yet the property of Mrs. Overall. Colonel Overall as a begin-
ning went into the southwestern Texas country, ,to Laredo, on the border-
land, and brought back a small bunch of cattle, it taking him three months
to make the trip, and this proved the nucleus of his cattle business which,
growing from year to year through careful and intelligent management,
finally reached what it is at present, one of the most valuable stock ranches
/f^/yc^-^.^.t,^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. .^39
in western Texas. The Overall ranch consists of nearly thirty thousand
acres, beginning about three and a half mile< south of Coleman and ex-
tending southward for many miles. Colonel ( )verall handled horses, cattle
and sheep extensively.
He als'o took a great interest and a prominent part in the growth and
development of Coleman and of Coleman county, and at the time of his
death he had been living in the town for some months, establishing his
residence therein in 1900, the year of his death. He was a public spirited
citizen and a valuable man in every phase of life, and his death was greatly
mourned. In worldly affairs he had been a successful man, accumulating
a comfortable fortune, but at the same time he was generous and liberal
in all his dealings, and a man of the strictest honor and integrity.
Mrs. Overall was before her marriage Miss Martha Tye Robinson, a
native of Callaway county, Missouri, and of Virginia ancestry. Her
grandfather, also of that state, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war.
Mrs. Overall was reared at St. Charles, Missouri, and was there married
to Mr. Overall. She was educated at Science Hall College in Shelby ville,
Kentucky. From the time of her marriage to Colonel Overall she was his
constant companion and helpmeet. Leaving the comforts and ciDnven-
iences of her home life in Missouri cities and coming to the Texas frontier
in 1876, a region at that time very thinly settled and practically open range,
far from sources of supply, she cheerfully took up her share of the burden
of establishing a ranch and getting a start in the new country, and with
a fine spirit of adaptability she not only performed her necessary household
duties but readily learned the ways of the frontier, such as shooting, rid-
ing, etc., and also learned the cattle and live stock business thoroughly.
She joined her husband at Waco after his tedious trip to Laredo above
mentioned in search of stock for the ranch. In those days all their supplies
had to be shipped from Fort Worth or Waco overland. Since her hus-
band's death she has managed her ranch with ability, good judgment and
the experience learned from long years in the live stock business. Al-
though residing in town she is the active manager of her ranch, which is
connected with her residence by telephone, and she has a competent fore-
man and trained assistants. Airs. Overall also takes an active interest in
the general affairs of the city, and as did her husband she enjoys a wide
popularity.
Ben H. Pittman was born in Bullitt county, Kentucky, and he was
reared there, finally coming to Texas in 1872 and locating at Prairie Lee
on the San Marcos river in Caldwell county. In 1875 he came to Cole-
man county, thus becoming one of the earliest of the pioneer citizens of
the county, and he is its present district clerk. Coleman county was per-
manently organized in the latter part of the year of 1875, and Mr. Pitt-
man was made a member of the first grand jurv in connection with the
county's first district court, which convened in October of 1876. It was
also during the summer of that year that the new town of Coleman was
started and the site selected as the county seat, but as there was no per-
340 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
nianciit court house at that time Mr. Pittman recalls to mind that the
grand jury conducted their deliberations in a grove of pecan trees not far
north of the present court house.
Mr. Pittman established and conducted a ranch on Home Creek in
tlie southern part of the county. In 1880 he was elected the county's
sheriff, serving in that capacity for four years, and he was the county's
third sheriff. In 1890 he was elected the district clerk, re-elected in
1892, serving for four years at that time, and following his retirement
from that office he embarked in the hardware and implement business in
Coleman, in partnership with J. F. Gordon, the firm name being Gordon
and Pittman, and they built up a large trade extending over Coleman and
adjoining counties, so large in fact that as it was conducted entirely on
a credit basis, as was the custom then, the firm finally became unable to
continue the business and finally retired. In 1908 Mr. Pittman was again
elected to the office of district clerk, and he is now filling that important
office with all his former efficiency. His life has been intimately asso-
ciated with the history of Coleman county and he is numbered among its
representative citizens.
Mrs. Pittman was before marriage Miss JNIaggie Malloch, from
Caldwell county, daughter of E. ]\Ialloch, born in Edinborough, Scotland,
and who came to Texas during an early period in its history. They have
five children: Walter, Edward, ^Minnie, I\Irs. Lucy Garland and Kate.
Mr. Pittman is a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows orders.
Judge Ferdinand M. Bowen has long been one of the most promi-
nent characters of Coleman and of Coleman county, an active and enthu-
siastic worker in their growth and development, believing that in central
and western Texas no better country is found on earth. He is well known
as a merchant and farm owner and as one of the best judges of Coleman
county. The late R. S. Bowen, one of the pioneers of Coleman county
and a brother of the judge, came to this part of the state in the early
seventies as a land surveyor, and he was living in Coleman county at the
time of its organization in 1876, assisting in laying off the town of Cole-
man and organizing it into the new county seat in the summer of the
same year. He was elected and served as the first county surveyor of
Coleman county, and he died at Waco in igoii.
Ferdinand M. Bowen was born in Yalobusha county, Mississippi, in
December, 1848, and in 1851 he was brought by his parents to Texas,
the family locating in Collin county, and there he was reared and lived
for thirty-one years, coming then to Coleman county in 1882 and since
remaining here. He located his home in the new county seat of Coleman
and for several years was in the cattle business, continuing the vocation
to some extent to the present time. But in later years he has given the
most of his attention to the Bowen drug store, in which he is associated
with two of his sons, Robert I. and Berry Bowen. In 1906 he was
elected the judge of Coleman county, and served in that office for a term
of two vears.
/l\ yj , xjt^(y^ T^yr'Ji
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 341
Judge Bowen married Alice Berry, and he is the father of ten chil-
dren : Robert, ]\Irs. Cora E. Orr, Mrs. Dove Davidson, Mrs. Georgia
Gough, ]\Iiss Cherrj- Bowen, Mrs. Blanche Beakley, Berry, Floyd, Joe
and Nellie. The Bowen family are among the most prominent residents
of Coleman.
William T. Knox is one of the most prominent farmers and stock-
men of Coleman county and one of the largest land owners and wealthiest
citizens in Central and Western Texas. He was born in Lavaca county,
Texas, and was reared there and in DeWitt county, receiving in the mean-
time good educational advantages in local schools and in Concrete Col-
lege in DeWitt county. On coming to Coleman county in the spring of
1882 he bought a ranch on Home creek in the southern part of the county,
stocking it with cattle, and it is interesting to recall the fact that the land
he bought at that time for a dollar and a quarter an acre he sold in
recent years for twenty-five dollars an acre, an illustration of the won-
derful increase in the value of the property in this part of the state within
the past few years. After living on that place for five or six years Mr.
Knox came to Coleman and bought a small place a mile east of the town,
the nucleus of his present splendid land holdings in this location. Begin-
ning at his home, located on a beautiful elevation commanding a fine
view of the city and extending eastward, Mr. Knox has gradually ac-
quired a large body of this rich valley land, until now, with his sons, he
owns here considerably over a thousand acres of the finest agricultural
land in western Texas, the Knox place being universally considered the
best farm in Coleman county. And besides these holdings near the town,
he also has other good farms in the county, and in Foard county he owns
two thousand acres of fine wheat land. He has always been interested
in live stock and until 1908 he handled each year from five hundred to
one thousand head of beef steers.
Mr. Knox has not achieved this splendid prosperity in an easy way
or by mere chance, but instead it has come to him through constant
energy, industry and through the exercise of thought, foresight, common
sense and patience in overcoming obstacles. He has had the courage
at proper times to borrow money extensively to enlarge his cattle inter-
ests. Within a year or two after coming to Coleman he was practicallv
ruined financially through the depression in price of cattle and sheep,
drouths and the hard times generally that prevailed during a period in
the '80s, but he soon came once more to the front. In those days he
taught school in the northeastern part of the county, and with such suc-
cess that he was called to the northern part of the state, at Harrold, to
take charge of a school there. He has also been honored with quite an
extensive public career in Coleman county. His first ofhce was that of
county surveyor, and he was then made the chief deputy sheriff and tax
collector, and served in those capacities for four years, while in 1908 he
was elected to the ofifice of sheriff and served in that capacity for one
342
HISTORY OF CEXTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
term. His official career was marked by strict efficiency and satisfaction
to the general public.
InDeWitt, soon after leaving the school room. ^Ir. Knox was mar-
ried to Miss Anna Edgar, a member of an old and wealthy family in
that county, and they have ten children, namely: ^^'illiam Hugh, IMaggie,
Henry. David, Jesse, Edgar, Thad, Anna Lee, Percy and ^lyrtle.
John F. Gordux. — The name of John F. Gordon is perhaps as
closely associated with the history of Coleman count)- as any other of its
residents, and the activities of his useful manhood have been of impor-
lance in the development of his city and county. He came to Te.xas with
his father and family from Georgia in 1866. locating in Upshur county,
and 'he was reared there and attended school at Daingerfield in Titus
county. For some years he lived in Jefferson. ]\Iarion county, and in
February of 1876 he arrived in Coleman county. This was the year of
the county's organization and the laying off of the town of Coleman and
its establishment as the county seat. I\Ir. Gordon, however, at first
located at Camp Colorado, in the eastern part of the county and the
oldest settlement therein. In pursuing his education he had learned sur-
veying and engineering, and on coming to this county he resumed the
profession and was principally engaged in the location of school lands.
He served as a deputy under R. S. Bowen, the first surveyor of Coleman
county, and later Mr. Gordon was elected and served one term as the
county surveyor. In later years he was further identified with political
life through his two terms' service as a district clerk.
Mr. Gordon started the first permanent drug store in Coleman, later
taking into partnership L. E. Collins and adopting the name of Gordon
and Collins. This house was established in 1878. and is still in business,
now known as the Coulson drug store. After selling his interest in that
store, Mr. Gordon turned his attention to the dry goods business and
later to the hardware and implement trade in connection with B. H.
P'lttman, their firm name being Gordon and Pittman, and he has also
been quite extensively identified with the cattle and live stock business
and since about 1892 with agricultural pursuits, his home being on his
farm two miles and a half north of town. Although he is no longer
identified with mercantile pursuits he is an active member of the firm of
Watson and Gordon, real estate, financial and insurance agents, and in
recent years he has also dealt largely in lands that he surveyed as school
lands in the early years of his residence here, it being interesting to note
the wonderful increase in value of those lands since the days when he
could have secured a half interest in a section merely for surveying and
locating it.
Mr. Gordon is one of the few remaining pioneer citizens and business
men who located here in 1876, and from those early days until the present
he has been an active and public-spirited citizen in all movements of
progress. His wife is Alice (Mason) Gordon, who was born at Weather-
ford in Parker county. They have eight children: William, Oldham.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 343
Walter, Marshall, Mrs. Ethelyn Holcomb, Mrs. Edna BardVvell, Mrs.
Annie Patton and Evelyn.
Judge Jesse O. Woodwaiid is one of the pioneer lawyers of Coleman,
a man of the highest attainments in his profession, and his influence ex-
tends not only into the professional, but in the political and social circles
as well. He was reared on a farm and studied law at Mt. Pleasant,
Texas, in the office of Judge P. A. Turner, the present district judge of
the Texarkana District. He was admitted to the bar at Mt. Pleasant in
March of 1876, and began his practice there as a partner of Judge W. P.
McLean, for many years one of the prominent lawyers of Fort Worth.
Mr. Woodward came to Coleman in the fall of 1878, and this city has
ever since been his home. In the fall of 1880 he was elected the attorney
C'f Coleman county, serving in that office for two terms, and then, after a
term as the district attorney, he was electd a district judge, and served
in that capacity for eight years. Resuming then his private practice, he
has for many years enjoyed a lucrative practice that extends not only
in the local courts but throughout other parts of the state as well. As a
lawyer and particularly as a county and district attorney in earlier years.
Judge Woodward had to pass through scenes and incidents in the dis-
charge of his duties that were often in the nature of violence and tragedy,
typical of the frontier period and the litigation characteristic of the times.
But he was always an able and fearless judge and prosecutor. He at-
tained particular success in murder and other criminal trials, and in that
branch of jurisprudence his influence is far reaching. His law business
is conducted under the firm name of Woodward and Baker, his partner
being his son-in-law. J. K. Baker.
judge Woodward was born in Cass county, Texas, in 1855. His
father, Sam Woodward Sr., was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and com-
ing to Texas in about 1850 he located in Cass county. From there he
came to Coleman county in the spring of 1878, and he lived here for
some time, but his death occurred at his old home in Cass county in
1885. Judge Woodward married at Mt. Pleasant, in 1876, Miss Fannie
Dillard, a daughter of Colonel John D. Dillard, of that place, and their
six children are : Mrs. Willie Baker, Mrs. Mabel Henson, Walter C,
Jessie, Garland and Nadine. Walter C. Woodward is the present attorney
for Coleman county. Judge W^oodward is a member of the Knights of
Pythias and Odd Fellows fraternities.
Ed B. Smith is prominently known in Central and Western Texas
through his connection with railroad, townsite and ranch building, and
as a railroad contractor and farmer. He was born at Chillicothe, Mis-
souri, to John B. and Mollie (Griffey) Smith, both also Missourians.
The father died when his son was a boy, and the mother subsequently
married her present husband, L. G. Saunders. She was born in Boone
county, but lived in Livingston county after her marriage to Mr. Smith,
344
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
and in later years she and Mr. Saunders came to Texas to make their
home with her son, who has never married and has always taken care of
his mother and his stepfather.
Ed B. Smith left northern Missouri when he was fifteen years old
and came to Texas, locating at Sherman, in Grayson county, where he
worked with cattle and horses, and from there he went into the Pan-
handle and worked on the large ranch of Colonel Charles Goodnight, at
that time the largest cattleman in Texas and perhaps the state's wealthiest
citizen. Mr. Smith had at that time gained some experience in sinking
wells, and he worked along that line for Mr. Goodnight. He put down
the first wells in the Panhandle, and, being successful in discovering
water, he was afterward busily engaged for some time in drilling wells
and making tanks in the Plains country. From the Panhandle he re-
turned to northern Texas and accepted railroad grading contracts on
roads being built at that time, including the Gulf, Colorado and Santa
Fe from Fort Worth to Gainsville and from Dallas to Paris, also graded
a line from Mt. Pleasant to Sulphur Springs and later worked on grading
contracts on the Fort Worth and Rio Grande Railroad from Fort Worth
to Brownwood. In 1886 he was busily engaged with his force on grading
work for the Fort Worth and Denver City Railroad from Ouanah
through the Panhandle to Texline. He also put down the first wells at
Washburn, Amarillo and other places, his efficiency as a contractor and
his equipment of machinery being so well known and so complete that
he obtained all the work he could do, and he took part in the first building
and in the mushroom growth of a number of the new towns that sprang
up along that line during its building, including several of the buildings
at the instance of the townsite agents for the original town of Amarillo,
and the moving of the court house, jail and a number of other buildings
in the original town of Clarendon from its old location to its present one.
After completing his work in the Panhandle country, Mr. Smith
returned to Dallas, where during the following four years he dealt in
horses and mules. In 1900 he came to Coleman, where during a similar
period he was engaged in the same business, resuming then his old occu-
pation of making tanks and drilling wells, and in the meantime also taking
up farming. He has leased land on the Robey ranch, north of Coleman,
and in 1909 had one hundred and thirty-five acres planted with cotton.
In the summer of 1909, when the Santa Fe Railroad Company decided to
"build its transcontinental cut-off through Texas from Texico to Coleman,
Mr. Smith was awarded the contract for the building of the first three
miles of grade from Coleman. The inauguration of this work was a
notable event in Coleman. He also received the contract to build another
section of grade through the northwest part of the county, and this work
was completed by the 15th of January, 1910. His large business dealings
have placed him among the leaders in industrial circles in Central and
Western Texas, and he is leaving the impress of his forceful individuality
in his special lines.
^^M2^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 345
William J. Robey. — During many years William J. Robey has been
extensively engaged in the handling of cattle, sheep and horses, his inter-
ests increasing from year to year until he has become one of the county's
most prosperous citizens. He was born and reared on a farm in Simpson
county, Kentucky, born in 1849, and in 1883 he came to Coleman and
acquired a ranch lying north of and almost adjoining the town, the
nucleus of his later vast land properties, but much of his old pasture he
has sold off in later years. He has retained some farms, however, and
these afford him a substantial resource. He has built up a fine ranch
property north of town, and also owns a large ranch in Ochiltree county
and another in Glasscock county, and he has a beautiful home in Cole-
man, a splendid residence built in 1900. By conducting his business
interests conservatively and with careful thought and planning for the
future he avoided the disastrous failures that often overcame stockmen
in the early days when panics, drouths or depressions in prices came on.
He has been a large handler of sheep, and his wool clip each year has
helped to swell Coleman county's total in large proportions. Mr. Robey 's
brother, the late J. H. Robey, also had a stock ranch north of town. He
died in 1900, and his son, B. F. Robey, now has a fine farm which is a
part of his father's old ranch.
Mr. Robey married Florence Batsell, a native daughter of Kentucky,
and their three children are Trunion, Annah and George Robey. Mr.
Robey is a member of the Methodist church.
Robert L. Dunman has achieved success in his native state of Texas
as a stockman and farmer. Both he and his wife represent families that
are truly Texans in every sense of the word, for they have lived here
and have been prominently identified with its interests since the common-
wealth formed a part of Mexico. The parents of Mr. Dunman came to
Texas in 1824, at that time a part of the Mexican republic. The father,
Scotch-Irish in descent, was born in Louisiana in 181 1, and he died in
1885, in Harris county, Texas, where he had lived since 1858. The
mother died in the year of 1905.
Robert L. Dunman was born in Liberty, now Chambers, county,
Texas, in 1S43. •'"^t Houston he enlisted in that famous fighting organi-
zation known as Terry's Texas Rangers, technically the Eighth Texas
Cavalry, and during his services throughout that war he was twice
wounded, and took part in all the battles fought by Generals Bragg and
Joseph E. Johnston, being with the latter's army when it surrendered at
"Charlotte. North Carolina. He married in 1866 and left his parents' old
home in Harris count}' to go to Chambers county, where he worked on a
cattle ranch. He later obtained a start for himself in the cattle business,
and in 1869 took a bunch of cattle to Refugio county, and he continued
as a cattleman in that country for ten years. Early in the year of 1879
he came to Coleman county, bringing his cattle with him, and he estab-
lished a home for his family in Coleman, but made his headquarters for
his cattle at the mouth of the Concho in the southern part of the county.
346 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Mr. Dunman continued to operate his cattle ranch at that point until
1882, selling- his cattle at that time to the Concho Cattle Company and
receiving a good price, and as he had in the meantime acquired some fine
land adjoining Coleman on the east he developed this land into a splendid
farming property, this work having since occupied the most of his atten-
tion. He has there several hundred acres of as rich agricultural land
as lies in the entire state of Texas, and it produces splendid crops of
com, cotton, wheat and oats. During late years Mr. Dunman has given
very little attention to stock raising, with the exception of mules, of which
he makes a specialty.
Mrs. Dunman was before marriage Miss Lucinda E. Winfree, born
in Liberty county, Texas. Her mother, who is yet living, is also a native
daughter of Texas, and she remembers well the battle of San Jacinto,
although she was but six years old at that time. Her husband, Theophile
Winfree, was a member of a French family, and he was born in Louisiana
and came to Texas during his early years. Mr. and !Mrs. Dunman have
five children : Mrs. Emma J. Rynerson, Mrs. Mary E. Perry, Robert,
Theophilus W. and Zoe E. Dunman. The Dunman home is in a beau-
tiful location a short distance from Coleman, and is one of the hospitable
and attractive homes of the community.
F. Beck has gained a wide reputation over Central and Western
Texas as a dealer in sheep. He was born in 1853 in St. Charles county,
Missouri, and he was reared there on a farm. His father was Henry
Beck, a native of France and one of the pioneer settlers of St. Charles
county, Missouri, that localit}^ having been originally settled by the
French. He had been trained in the sheep industry in his native land
and he continued as a sheep raiser after coming to America, so that the
son was practically reared in that vocation, and he has been associated
with that important industry during his entire industrial career. Early
in 1878 he came with his brother, H. Beck, to Coleman county, Texas,
and after working together for about two years on the ranch of Colonel
Overall, south of Coleman, F. Beck engaged in business for himself as
a sheep and cattleman, and has been thus engaged with ever increasing
success since that time. He has a valuable ranch of about fifteen thou-
sand acres in Coleman county, seventeen miles southwest of the city of
Coleman, and this place has become noted as one of the finest sheep
ranches in the southwest. His wool clip averages about thirty thousand
pounds a year, the wool being of the highest quality grown in America,
and thus brings the highest market price each year. The sheep are prac-
tically all of the Delaine Merino breed, which Mr. Beck selected after
years of study and experience, for their combined mutton qualities as
well as for the quality and quantity of their wool production. He has
become noted for the amount of money he has expended in grading his
sheep and improving their quality in every possible way, and thus bring-
ing them to the nearest possible point of perfection known to American
/(^ A^ ^^^^^^ ,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 347
breeders. He has gained a wide reputation as a sheep expert, and is
often selected as a judge or as an examining expert on sheep at fairs and
live stock shows. Air. Beck is also prominently identified with the raising
of cattle, and usually has about six hundred Herefords, and is as equally
successful with those animals as with his sheep. He has given hard
work, hard study and intelligent direction to his live stock interests, and
his success as a stockman has made him a citizen of large resources.
Rlr. Beck married Melinda Pauley, born at Ashland, in Boone county,
Missouri, and their seven children are : Mrs. Mary Home, Oscar, Maggie,
Louis, Edgar, George and Curtis Beck.
D.wis A. P.JiDDLEFORD. — The name of Davis A. Paddleford has been
indissolubly identified with the annals of Coleman from the very earliest
epoch of its history to the present time, and he is well and prominently
known' as an implement and vehicle dealer, as a pioneer merchant and as
an influential citizen. He was born in Dane county, Wisconsin, about
nine miles north of i\Iadison, in 1846. He was reared in Dane county,
and early in 1863 he enlisted in the Sixth Wisconsin Battery for service
in the Civil war. He went with his command to the battlegrounds of
Tennessee and participated in the battle of Missionary Ridge, in the
campaign that was waged in the advance on Atlanta, under General
Sherman, in the fighting around Atlanta, and was with the army that
returned to Nashville after Sherman started on his march to the sea.
From Nashville they went to Chattanooga, where they were mounted and
converted into a battery of flying artillery, and, subsequently returning
with his command to Wisconsin, Mr. Paddleford was mustered out at
Madison in July of 1865.
In September of the same year he accompanied his father and family
on their removal to Henry county, Missouri, their home until 1875, and
in that year they came to Texas and located in Comanche county. In
1876 they came to Coleman county, arriving at Camp Colorado in Alarch
of that year. On the 4th of July, 1876, Davis A. Paddleford arrived
in the new town of Coleman, which under the then recent organization of
the county had been selected as the county seat, but there was no town
to speak of at that time and it was not laid off until the following August
and September. He had learned the carpenter's trade in Missouri, and
with the beginning of the new town of Coleman he resumed that vocation
and erected many of the first buildings of the town. He established his
first mercantile business, a furniture store, in 1884, two years before the
arrival of the railroad, and in 1892 he embarked in his present business,
now conducted under the name of D. .\. Paddleford and Son, and this
is the pioneer implement and vehicle house of Coleman. Mr. Paddleford
has always been successful in his business enterprises, and now has ample
financial resources and is one of the substantial citizens of Coleman
county and the vice president of the Coleman National Bank, of which he
has been one of the directors since 1893. He has two splendid farms in
348 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Coleman county, aggregating about one thousand acres. Henry Paddle-
ford, his father, and who came to Coleman county at the same time as the
son, died in New Mexico.
Mr. Paddleford is prominent in the Masonic circles of the state,
having attained the Thirty-second degree, and he belongs to both the
York and Scottish Rites. He is also identified with Hella Temple of
the Mystic Shrine at Dallas, is district deputy grand master for his dis-
trict, a past master of the local lodge and the present high priest of the
local chapter. Mrs. Paddleford was before marriage Sallie Waring, born
in Liberty county, Texas, and they have nine children: Henry, Ruth,
Delia, Mary, Laura, Nannie, Kate, Fred and Charles. Henry Paddleford,
the eldest son, is associated with his father in the implement and vehicle
business.
J. E. BooG-ScoTT bears a name distinguished in industrial circles as
one of the west's most prominent breeders of high-class registered Here-
ford cattle and as the owner of the famous Anson ranch in Coleman
county. Mr. Boog-Scott was born in Roxburyshire, Scotland, in 1878,
but he was educated in Warwickshire, England, and, through acquaint-
ances and friends who had come to America and became connected with
the great cattle industry of western Texas, he became interested in the
business and in 1895 left his home and came to Coleman county, Texas.
He went to work immediately on the range, and there in time he thor-
oughly learned the cattle business. Subsequently he became connected
with the famous Anson ranch in Coleman county. The place had been
established in 1886 by Claud Anson, a wealthy Englishman, and later it
was purchased by his brother, Frank Anson, who made further improve-
ments on and extensions to the ranch. He in turn sold it to ]\Ir. Boog-
Scott, its present owner.
The ranch is a very valuable property lying in the richest section of
western Texas. It contains about thirty thousand acres, and, beginning
about fifteen miles north of Coleman in Coleman county, it extends well
up into Callahan county. It is permanently and abundantly watered by
the best possible supply of water, and it is crossed by Jim Ned creek,
Tuttle bayou and other streams, and the supply is further augmented by
a number of tanks that have been built on the ranch.
Mr. Boog-Scott is widely known throughout the country as a breeder
and shipper of the highest grade registered Hereford cattle. Beginning
with 1903, his herds have each year taken prizes at the International
Stock Show in Chicago. He makes a specialty of cattle for feeding in
the north, and at the 1907 International Stock Show his pen of twenty
feeders won the championship prize. His Hereford bulls bring the high-
est price paid for this stock, and they are eagerly sought for by stockmen.
His ranch is also well known for its splendid Percheron horses, and in
this branch of the business he has achieved splendid success. The Anson
ranch is one of Coleman county's most greatly prized resources.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 349
Lemax Browx has attained prestige in Coleman county through his
identification with its pubHc Hfe, and he is now serving the county as its
clerk. He is one of the very few native sons of Coleman county who
are grown young men, but his parents, T. R. and Frances (Cayce)
Brown, were early pioneers here, their residence dating from 1876. The
father was born in Kentucky and came to the Lone Star state in 1873,
and locating first in Hayes county he lived there some three years, and
in 1876 came to Coleman county. This was at that time a frontier region,
all open range, and the county was organized in that year and the new
town of Coleman, selected as the county seat, laid out. Mr. and Mrs.
Brown are yet residing here, living on their ranch eight miles northwest
of the city of Coleman, at Mountain \'icw, the liirthplace of their son
Leman in 1878.
The son was reared and educated here, and for some time in his
earlier life was engaged in the grocery business at Coleman. In 1908 he
was elected the clerk of Coleman county, and he is serving now most
efficiently in that important capacity. He has six brothers and two
sisters, and all, with the exception of the three eldest, are native sons
and daughters of Coleman county. Mr. Brown's wife, before marriage,
was Edna Hicks, born at Corsicana, and they have a son. Joel Ogden
Brown.
Gus P. RoQUEMORE. — One of the most prominent of Coleman's busi-
ness men is Gus P. Roquemore, a grain, hay, hide and pecan merchant
and a bank director. He was born in Panola county, Texas, October 13,
1869. His father had located in that county in 185 1. He was a Con-
federate soldier throughout the war between the states, a member of the
Seventh Texas Cavalry, and the command served east of the Mississippi
river. Mr. Roquemore, the father, died in 1S97, and the mother survived
for years and died in 1906. The father was born in Georgia, a descend-
ant of a French Huguenot family, and his great-grandmother was born
in France and on immigrating to America located in Georgia.
Gus P. Roquemore came to Coleman in the year of 1885, and this
city has since remained his home. In 1901 he established his present
business as a dealer in grain, hay, hides and pecans, a vocation in which
he has been uniformly successful and prosperous. He is a member of
the Texas Grain Dealers' Association. He is also prominently identified
with the pecan industry, and as an item showing the importance and
magnitude of this yet little known industry, Mr. Rocjuemore in 1907
shipped from Coleman si.xty-five thousand dollars' worth of that com-
modity. He has during the past several years been the Coleman repre-
sentative of the Waters-Pierce Oil Company, and he is a director of the
Farmers' State Bank of Coleman.
He married Alice Davidson, who was born in Kaufman county,
Texas, and they have four children: Bennie May, Lurline, Veoma and
Paul Crawford. Mr. Roquemore is a member of the Knights of Pythias,
350 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Woodmen of the World and Alodern Woodmen fraternities, and he is a
Royal Arch ^lason.
Allan L. Dickinson. — One of the most prominent of Coleman's
promoters is Allan L. Dickinson, the manager of the Coleman Develop-
ment Company and an influential worker in the building up of the busi-
ness and industrial institutions of the city. He was born in Milwaukee,
Wisconsin, but was reared and educated in Chicago, Illinois, and in his
early youth he became a traveling salesman and traveled for wholesale dry
goods houses out of Chicago from 1881 to 1895, during a large part of
that time covering the territory from St. Paul to the Pacific coast on the
Northern Pacific Railroad, but during the latter part of the period he
traveled in Texas. In 1892 he bought a ranch and went into the cattle
business in Kendall county, but in 1898 he sold his interests there and
came to Coleman county, where he resumed his cattle business and also
engaged in farming and other interests. r^Iore recently he has engaged
quite extensively in real estate development in Coleman, and with his
associates has successfully promoted a number of important new enter-
prises in this city, including a cotton compress and a cotton oil mill, and
plans are in progress for a new hotel, a large brick plant and other indus-
tries. He was one of the organizers and is the manager of the Coleman
Development Company, which in the summer of 1909 placed on the market
the Santa Fe addition to Coleman, an eighty-four acre tract situated in
the northwest part of the town and laid off into building lots, with streets
graded, water pipes laid and all conveniences furnished for the building
of homes. The lots in this addition are particularly convenient for per-
sons connected with the oil mill, the cotton compress and other industries
located in the northwest section of the city, and it was in fact for their
accommodation largely that the property was developed and improved.
Mr. Dickinson took an active part in the securing of the Santa Fe cut-otT
for Coleman, and in fact many of the city's most prominent institutions
owe their origin and development to him.
He married Josephine Forsyth, who was born in Florida, and they
have two daughters, Marie and Josephine.
WiLi.i.v.M A. Coffey, born in Parker county, Texas, in 1858, is a
member of one of the oldest pioneer families of western Texas and a son
of Rich and Sallie (Greathouse) Coffey. Rich Coffey was a noted
pioneer in western Texas. Born in Georgia, he came to this state as
early as 1856 and located on the extreme fi'ontier in Parker county, but
in 1862 he moved still further west and located in what is now Runnels
county, on Elm creek, a short distance from the present site of Ballinger.
In iS(58 he settled at the mouth of the Concho river, on the Colorado
river, where he established his headquarters, and from where he carried
on his cattle business. This location remained his home until death, in
February, 1897. Rich Coffey was a typical pioneer and cattleman of the
old days. He made twenty-two trips over the West Texas plains to the
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 351
salt wells in western Texas, and on each of these trips he buried men that
had been killed by the Indians. His widow is yet living at the old home-
stead. This old homestead is now in the northeastern part of Concho
county and near the line of Runnels and Coleman counties, the postoffice
being Leaday in Coleman county.
William A. Coffey, or as he is more familiarly known as "Bill," was
one of the sons of this noted pioneer and frontiersman, and he still lives
at the old Coffey place and carries on general farming there. His brother,
John W. Coffey, is in the sheep business in Kimble county. These sons
were reared on the extreme western frontier, and with their father took
part in the battles waged against the Indians and in all the struggles of
frontier life. William A. Coffey and his brother frequently made trips
over the old trails to Kansas. While getting together a herd of cattle
these two brothers and some of their neighbors were attacked on the ist
of June, 1871, by Indians, and John W. Coffey was twice shot and two
of the other boys were killed.
William A. Coffey married Mary M. Haley, but she died in the year
of 1894. He has five children : Robert W., Ed., John, Penny and Lonnie.
John B. W-\rren was born in DeWitt county, Texas, in 1862, and
he was reared in DeWitt county and came from there to Coleman at the
age of sixteen, in 1878. Since that time he has been prominently identi-
fied with the public and industrial life of this community, and has been
influential as a pioneer merchant, as a member of the city council and as
the city's treasurer. His first connection with industrial interests in
Coleman was as a merchant, beginning the business with a general mer-
cantile stock January i, 1883, and in 1897 he established the Warren dry
goods and grocery house, which he conducted successfully for eleven
years. The business was destroyed by fire in 1907. During some years
Mr. Warren also handled implements and vehicles quite extensively, his
business extending over a large territory, and during many years he was
widely known in Coleman's trade territory as one of its most active mer-
chants. In 1909 he assisted in the organization of the Coleman Compress
Company, of which he is the present secretary, and this corporation has
added to the substantial industries of Coleman by building a new cotton
compress, completed in September of 1909. In many other ways Mr.
Warren has been a public spirited citizen in helping to promote the com-
mercial and industrial growth of the city. He is a member of the city
council and is the present cit}' treasurer.
Mrs. Warren was before marriage Ollie L. Berry, and two sons have
blessed their union, John B. Warren Jr. and Pat Ray Warren.
WiLLi.\M L. Rose. — In reviewing the events which form the history
of Coleman county the name of Rose figures prominently in its public
life and in its growth and development, and the name of William L. Rose
-lias gaiiied distinction as a cotton oil mill operator and as a pioneer. He
was born in Fairfax county, Virginia, in 1856, and he came to Texas with
352 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
his parents in 1858, the family locating in Fayette county. He was reared
by his older brother and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. B. F. Rose, and came
with them to Coleman county in 1876. As pioneers of this community
they witnessed and took part in its frontier life and its rapid development
to one of the richest communities of the commonwealth and became active
factors in its interests. The brother, Judge B. F. Rose, died in 1904,
and at the time of his demise he was serving his twelfth year as the judge
of Coleman county.
Following his arrival here, William L. Rose went into the cattle
business and later into the livery business, and for a time he operated a
stage line from Coleman to Ballinger. At the completion of the railroad
to Ballinger, and before it reached San Angelo, he operated the stage
line between those two places, making his headquarters at Ballinger. and
during that time he took an active part in the buildmg up of the city.
Moving his ranch headquarters to Runnels county in 1879, he dealt in
cattle there for some time, and during many years was connected with
the cattle and horse business in both Coleman and Runnels counties. In
1906 the oil mill of the Coleman Cotton Oil Company was built, and Mr.
Rose was made the secretary and manager of the company. This is one
of the largest industries in the city. Mr. Rose is also interested in two
cotton gins, one in Coleman and one in Talpa. He is a Mason, an Odd
Fellow and a Woodman, and he is one of the representative citizens of
Coleman.
Dr. Gabriel B. Beaumont is the pioneer physician and surgeon of
Coleman, a practitioner of the highest standing in his profession and a
citizen of worth and influence. He was born in Clarksville, Tennessee,
in 1845, and his parents, William and Susan (Cook) Beaumont, are both
deceased. The father was born in Yorkshire, England, of French an-
cestry, and in his young manhood he came to America and located at
Clarksville, Tennessee, where he engaged in the tobacco business. Mrs.
Beaumont was a daughter of Valentine Cook, from Kentucky.
Although born in Tennessee, Dr. Beaumont was reared in Texas,
his parents having moved to this state in 1848, locating on the Gulf coast
in Calhoun county, and he was educated in various schools in LaGrange,
Reutersville and in Soule University at Fayetteville. While yet a boy he
was a member of that famous organization of the Confederacy known as
Terry's Texas Rangers, being a trooper in Company A. He enlisted for
the entire war, but was permanently disabled from further service at the
battle of Murfreesboro by a bullet wound in the shoulder. He was only
sixteen years of age when discharged from the service. ]\Ir. Beaumont
then took up the study of medicine, at first under private tutelage, and.
passing the required e.xaminations, he began practice in Harris county,
about twenty-four miles from Houston, while following this period of
practice he entered the medical department of the Universit\- of Louisiana
at New Orleans, now Tulane University, and graduated from that insti-
tution with the class of 1869. He then located at Navasota. in Grimes
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 353
county, and after eighteen years in practice there he came in 1886 to
Coleman, which has ever since been his home and where he has continued
as a successful physician and surgeon.
Dr. Beaumont married, at Navasota, Nannie Duke, from Grimes
county, Texas. Of their sons. Dr. Edgar Chetwynd Beaumont is also a
physician and surgeon, practicing with his father. He received his liter-
ary education in the Northwestern University at Evanston and studied
medicine in the College of Physicians and Surgeons in St. Louis, and
graduated from the medical department of Fort Worth University. Dr.
Gulielmus A. Beaumont, another son, is a successful dentist in Coleman,
a graduate of the dental department of Northwestern University, where
he also received his literary training. Dr. and Mrs. Beaumont have four
other children: Mrs. Gertrude Gay, Mrs. Salome Hortense Stevens, Mrs.
Stella Beaumont McCord and Aubrey Duke Beaumont. Dr. Beaumont
belongs to the Methodist church and to the Odd Fellows and Knights of
Pythias fraternities.
Runnels County
One of the counties laid out by the legislature by act of February i,
1858, and named in honor of Governor Runnels, this county was not per-
manently settled for twenty years afterward, and was finally organized in
1880. On Oak creek, just beyond the west boundary of the county. Fort
Chadbourne was established in the '50s, and was garrisoned by federal
troops until the Civil war. Under this protection a few settlers had
located in Runnels county, but they were traders or wandering stockmen,
and during the troublous times of the war decade the county was prac-
tically abandoned.
During the '70s the cattlemen took possession of Runnels county,
driving the buffalo before them and establishing their camps all along
the Colorado and its tributaries. By 1880 the T. & P. Railroad had been
built through Abilene, about twenty-five miles from the county, and for
many miles on both sides of that route the stockmen and settlers began
permanent occupation. In 1880 the population of Runnels county was
980 (15 negroes). Agriculture had hardly been attempted, merely
enough to test the productiveness of the soil. When the county was
organized the place selected as the county seat was given the name Run-
nels. In 1886 the G. C. & S. F. Railroad was built through the county,
and the town of Ballinger, founded on this line, soon afterward became
the county seat and has since been the metropolis of the county.
In 1890 the population of the county had increased to 3,193: by 1900
it nearly doubled, being 5,379 (33 negroes) ; and by the last census, 1910,
nearly a quadruple gain is shown, the population being 20,858.
The development of the county, as revealed in assessed values, has
likewise shown remarkable gains. In 1S81 taxable property \/as assessed
at $665,077, nearly half being represented by live stock. In 1882 the
Vol. 1—28
354 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
county had about 42,cx)o cattle, 30,000 sheep, besides other stock. In 1903
the taxable values were $4,188,000; and in 1909, $10,571,775. Since the
■80s, the county has changed from an exclusive range to a well diversified
farming country. In 1903 over 15,000 bales of cotton were raised in the
county, and Ballinger claims to have the largest wagon receipts of cotton
among all the cities of Texas, 54,000 bales having been brought into town
in 1909 over the country roads. In the meantime the number of live stock
has decreased, though the values, under conditions of modern stock
farming, are greater than thirty years ago. In 1909 about 12,000 horses
and mules, 18,000 cattle and 11,000 sheep were assessed. About three
thousand acres are now irrigated, and by this and other means the county's
area is being adapted to productive agriculture.
The population of the principal towns in 1890 was : Ballinger, 1,390;
Runnels, 416; besides a number of small places without separate enumera-
tion. The census of 1900 gave Ballinger a population of 1,128; Runnels,
416; Winters, 138. Miles, Rowena and Winters are now the largest
towns outside of Ballinger. From Miles to Paint Rock, the Concho,
Llano & San Saba Valley Railroad (seventeen miles) has recently been
completed, and the Abilene Southern is partly constructed.
C. A. DoosE, as a banker, capitalist and as a public-spirited promoter
of local enterprises, has attained a distinguished place among the men of
affairs in central Texas. Although born at Hallettsville, in Levaca county,
February 4, 1875, he came with his parents to Runnels county in 1884,
two years before the town of Ballinger was started and two years before
a railroad had entered the county. He was only nine years old at that
time, and he is practically a product of Runnels county, for he was reared
here, and since his early youth he has been a hard and incessant worker
for its interests and upbuilding.
Retracing to the days when Runnels county was a commercial non-
entity and given up to the cattle and ranch business, the building of the
Santa Fe Railroad, the organization of Runnels county with "old Runnels"
as the county seat, and the creating of Ballinger and the moving of the
county seat thereto, there gradually rose upon the scene an aggressive
real estate and land dealer, with modern ideas and straightforward
methods. Having been taught his primary lessons in the real estate and
land business from early boyhood, C. A. Doose took the initiative and was
the originator of the scheme in western Texas, to buy up cattle ranches
or large tracts of land, subdividing them into small farms and colonizing
them. With a full knowledge of the future possibilities of the great West
Texas country, he directed the greater part of his attention to people in
the older settled parts of Texas, Mr. Doose's eminently correct judgment
yet simple idea being that Texans are always Texans seasoned to the
climate, adapted to the modes of living, farming and productions. How
wise and well he reasoned is best told in the story of his future successes.
As noted above his principal field of effort has been in connection with
the opening up of the old cattle ranches and subdividing them and colo-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 355
nizing them witli intelligent farmers for agricultural purposes. Within
the last few years Runnels county has become noted far and wide for the
richness and extent of her agricultural products. This culminated in
1908 with wagon receipts of over fifty thousand bales of cotton in the city
of Ballinger alone. It should be said, as a credit to Mr. Doose that these
splendid results are due in large part to his constant energy in promoting
immigration to Runnels county to occupy the lands he had subdivided.
Merely getting people to the county, however, would not have been so
beneficent in itself had he not backed this with financing and encouraging
his customers in every possible way. A great majority of the farms he
sold on a very low initial payment, allowing the balance to be paid through
a number of years, and many of the farmers of exceedingly small resources
that he started in this manner are now financially independent. As the
original colonization missionary of western Texas, Mr. Doose has trans-
acted some of the largest as well as some of the most attractive proposi-
tions in the history of West Texas, one deal alone involving one hundred
and twenty thousand dollars and another one hundred and ten thousand,
and all these have worked to the good of the country and its people. C. A.
Doose and Company's magnificent twelve thousand dollar office building
is situated on the corner of Hutchings avenue and Seventh street, and is
quite in contrast to the "shack" in which Mr. Doose began business in
1895, and which was located on Eighth street. The abstract department
is an important feature of the business, and its facilities for furnishing
correct and accurate abstracts on short notice are unexcelled.
Mr. Doose is thoroughly familiar with all the movements of progress
in Ballinger. He was one of the promoters and aided in financing the
Ballinger end of the Abilene and Southern Railroad, which was completed
into this city from Abilene in 1909, his efforts therewith being all the
more commendable from the fact that they were expended during the hard-
months following the panic of October, 1907, and he has succeeded in a
remarkably short time in giving Ballinger what she has long needed, an-
other railroad outlet. He was one of the organizers in 1903 of the Citi-
zens' National Bank. He was made the president of the First National
Bank in January of 1905, and these two banks, on the ist of August,
1909, were consolidated, retaining the name of the First National Bank,
of which Mr. Doose was the president until January. 1910, at which time
he resigned in order that he might give his undivided attention to his
extensive real estate business which he has established in the past twenty
years. This consolidation made one of the strongest and soundest finan-
cial institutions in western Te.xas. It has a capital stock of two hundred
thousand dollars, with surplus and profits exceeding fifty thousand dollars.
Mr. Doose is also a stockholder in the Higginbotham-Currie Mercantile
Company, and he is vice president and a director of the local Business
Men's League.
His wife was, before marriage, Emma Richardson, born in McLennan
county, Texas, and their children are Collis P., Marguerite, and C. A.
Doose Jr. The family worship in the Cumberland Presbyterian chunch.
356 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Edmund D. Walker has been associated with the life of BaUinger
since the period of its formation to the present time, and his name is en-
rolled on the pages of its history as the builder of its first business house.
He was born and reared in Polk county, Texas, born January 21, 1861,
and he received the most of his education at Add-Ran College at Thorp
Springs. Moving to Brown county in 1880, he taught school there, later
teaching in Polk county for a year, and then locating in Coleman county
he taught at old Camp Colorado. In 1885 he came to Runnels county
and engaged in business at old Runnels, the little town that was originally
the county seat of Runnels county, located about four miles north of the
present city of Ballinger.
In 1886, the year following Mr. Walker's arrival here, the railroad
was completed into Runnels county, and on the 29th of June of that year
the sale of town lots, the beginning of the town of Ballinger and which
had been decided upon as the new county seat, was held. Mr. Walker
had arranged to go into the drug business in the new town in partnership
with Mr. H. N. Beakley, and previous to the date mentioned they had
shipped in lumber from Coleman and erected a small frame building, but
they were not allowed to locate it, however, until the day of the opening,
the 29th of June. On that memorable day they located it at what is now
the southwest corner of Hutchings avenue and Seventh street, and that
was the first building in the new town. After a long and interesting
career it is yet standing, though in a different location, in the eastern part
of the city. A short time after establishing the store at its original loca-
tion this firm moved to the northeast corner of Hutchings avenue and
Eight street, the corner now occupied by the First National Bank building.
Still later their location was changed to the north side of Hutchings
avenue, between Eighth and Ninth streets, the site now occupied by the
store of Van Pelt, Kirk and Mack, while subsequently it was again moved
to the south side of Hutchings avenue between Seventh and Eighth streets,
.and finally back to its old original location on the southwest corner of
Hutchings avenue and Seventh street.
Mr. Beakley retired from the business, which had been conducted
under the firm name of Walker and Beakley, and J. J. Erwin then came
into the firm, which was subsequently known as Walker and Erwin,
and after Mr. Erwin's retirement from the business it was known as the
E. D. Walket Drug Store. This well known drug business continued
in active operation until 1905, and in that year Mr. Walker sold the busi-
ness and organized the Ballinger State Bank and Trust Company, while
in the following year of 1906 the beautiful new bank building for this
company, one of the finest bank buildings in western Texas, was erected
on the old corner, Hutchings avenue and Seventh street, the corner where
Mr. Walker had originally started in business in Ballinger. This bank is
having an exceptionally prosperous career. It has a capital stock of
sixty thousand dollars and a strong clientage of patrons representing the
best elements of citizenship in Runnels county. Mr. Walker is the cashier
ahd manager of the bank and Charles S. Miller is the president. Through
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 357
long years of business dealings, based on the strictest honor and integntv,
Mr. Walker has built up a name and reputation that are a very strong
asset, and he is thoroughly identified with all the public-spirited move-
ments of the city. He is a Knight Templar Mason and a Shriner, and a
member of the Knights of Pythias fraternity. He is a member of the
Ballinger Christian church, and has served as the superintendent of its
Sunday school since about 1895.
He married, in Coleman, Miss Willie Gertrude Payton, her parents,
who are now living in Fort Worth, having been old-time settlers of Cole-
man. The six children in this family are : Alf , Edmund, Harold, Velma,
Bill and Philip. The eldest son, Alf Walker, is in the United States navy,
a member of the Pacific Squadron.
Jack McGregor took part in the founding of his home town of
Ballinger on the 29th of June, 1886, and since that time he has been one
of its most prominent business men. He was born at Stratford, Ontario,
Canada, a son of the late Alexander McGregor, from Scotland, and a
pupil of the University of Edinburg. On emigrating to Canada he located
at Stratford, and came to Texas with his family in 1876, first stopping in
San Saba county. In 1877 he came to Concho county and engaged in
the stock business on the open range. He died in the city of Ballinger in
1898, a well known and highly respected man, and particularly wdl
known throughout the old cattle country of western Texas.
Jack McGregor, with his brothers, Duncan, Peter and Robert, was
/■eared on the frontier and in the live stock business, and they put up the
first wire fence in Concho county, it being of the old smooth wire, before
barbed wire had come into use. Jack McGregor was for several years a
member of the firm which composed the Western Mercantile Company,
its secretary and treasurer, and that was the pioneer business of Ballinger,
it having started with the town. At the organization of the Hall Hard-
ware Company in 1901, Mr. McGregor became one of its members, and
this company took over the hardware business founded the year the town
was started, and it had for several vears been conducted under the firm
name of McAlpin and Company. ' ]\Ir. Hall has since retired from the
company and Mr. Tom Ward is now its president, j\Ir. McGregor being
its secretary and treasurer. The Hali Hardware Company has one of the
largest retail hardware, implement and vehicle houses in western Texas,
and it is a thoroughly successful establishment. Its stores and ware-
houses are on the same site upon which the original store was established
in 1886, the south side of Hutchings avenue, between Eighth and Ninth
streets. Mr. McGregor is intimately identified in every way as a public-
spirited citizen in the continued growth and development of Ballinger
and its trade territory. He is one of the directors of the First National
Bank.
He married, in San Saba county. Miss Cordelia Fentress, a daughter
of the late Dr. D. W. Fentress, a pioneer citizen of that county and a
member of the famous Fentress family of Tennessee. Mr. and Mrs.
358 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
McGregor have three children — Malcohn ]\IcGregor, Miss Armour Mc-
Gregor and Alexander McGregor.
Judge Johx I. Guiox is one of the distinguished jurists practicing at
the bar of Runnels county and one of the most honored of the pioneers
and builders of Ballinger. Born at Jackson, Mississippi, January 4. 1854,
he descends from Revolutionary ancestry, and he is a son of John I.
•Guion Sr., an intimate friend and law partner of S. S. Prentice, both of
whom played an important part in the history of Mississippi during the
stormy days of that state.
Judge Guion received his literary training at Cumberland University,
in Lebanon, Tennessee, with its class of 1868-70, and he studied law under
General F. J. \\'harton, then attorney general of Mississippi. He was
admitted to practice before the state supreme court in 1S73. I" 1875 he
came to Texas, locating first at San Saba, the county seat of San Saba
county, and in 1879 he located at Paint Rock, the seat of government of
Concho county, but which at that time consisted of only two or three
houses, and outside of that small collection there was not another house in
Concho county. He opened the first law office in Paint Rock and in
Concho county, and he resided there until 1886. the year of the comple-
tion of the Santa Fe Railroad to Ballinger and the beginning of this city,
established by the railroad townsite department, the lots being sold soon
after the completion of the road to this point.
While yet in San Saba county. Judge Guion was elected and served
for two years as the county judge, which gave him a distaste for office,
having held none before or since. He is, however, a true and loyal
Democrat, always working for the success of Democratic principles and
always found on the side of the people. He is also a patriot in behalf of
Ballinger and Runnels county's development and future welfare, as a
public-spirited and progressive citizen never failing to do his share. He
was attorney for the First National Bank for more than twenty years.
His office is on the second floor of the old First National Bank building.
Judge Guion married, on the 4th of June, 1877, Miss Armour Fen-
tress, from San Saba county, and five daughters and three sons have
blessed their marriage union. The family worship in the Presbyterian
church, and the judge is both an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Pythias.
The Guion home is on Eighth street, Ballinger.
Lee ]\L\ddox represents one of the earliest of Runnels county's pio-
neer families. Born in Grayson county, Texas, in 1867, he came here
with his father in 1881, and he practically grew up on the Te.xas frontier
and has witnessed the marvelous changes that have taken place in the
character and development of the country. The Rev. W. S. Maddox is
his father, and he was born in Hunt county, Texas, in 1840, and his father
was Nicholas Maddox, one of the earliest of the Texas pioneers. He
came to what is now Grayson county in 1830, while Texas was yet a
part of Mexico. Nicholas Maddox raised a family of sixteen children.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 359
The Rev. W. S. Maddox lived in Grayson count}' until 1881, coming
then to Runnels county and locating at old Runnels, the original county
seat of the county, and which remained as such until the founding of its
successor, Ballinger, on the 29th of June, 1886. Rev. Maddox has been
a Baptist minister during a long number of years, and is yet active in
the work of the ministry, and in addition and in company with his sons
he carried on stock raising and farming in Runnels county for many
years, the sons having been reared on the farm. Rev. Maddox now lives
at Ovalla in Taylor county. All of his ten children are living, and they
are Lee, Frank, Price, John F., Holmes, Dave, Charles, Mrs. Mary Stell,
Mrs. Lillie Phillips and Mrs. Grace Henderson.
During the past fifteen years Lee Maddox has been prominent in
the business circles of Ballinger, and for several years his principal voca-
tion has been in connection with general fire insurance, in which he rep-
resents locally a number of the leading companies. He is also financial
agent on the handling of bonds, municipal securities, etc. He was for-
merly for some time with the Hall Hardware Company, was later in the
hardware business for himself, during a number of years was secretary
of the Commercial Club, and he is enthusiastic on the question of public
enterprise and improvement. He is a member of the Ballinger city coun-
cil, having been selected for that duty particularly in connection with
the solving of the municipal water works problem in Ballinger.
He married, in this city. Miss Josie B. Routh, daughter of Joseph
Routh, another well known pioneer of Runnels county, and he originally
owned the land upon which the city of Ballinger was built. A son, Lee,
has been born to Mr. and Mrs. Maddox.
William L. Ellis. — Although a young man, William L. Ellis has
gained the reputation of being one of the largest individual cotton buyers
in Ballinger. In 1908, the banner year for that crop, Ballinger made the
highest record of any town in the cotton growing states in point of the
number of bales brought in by wagon and sold, the total amounting to
over fifty thousand bales for the year. Of this enormous crop, Mr. Ellis
bought a large share. His business training and mental equipment are
such as to make him an ideal factor in this vocation, involving as it does
the possession of a cool head, good judgment and an unlimited amount
of nerve. He has played an important part in the making of Ballinger
a notable cotton market.
Mr. Ellis was born in Louisville, Winston county, Mississippi, in
1879, 2nd when he was ten years old he came with his parents to Texas,
the family locating at San Marcos in Hays county, and the son's educa-
tion there including a course in the Lone Star Business College. In 1904
he came to Ballinger and embarked in the retail grocery business and
prosecuted the same with success for two years, but the close confine-
ment required by that business made it expedient for him to give it up,
and it was then that he engaged in cotton buying. He married Miss
36o HISTORY OF CEXTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Addie Thorp, of Austin, and their three children are Lucile, Jesse
and Lynn.
Judge Thom.\s T. Crosson served his judicial district as an attorney
for eight years, and as a lawyer he stands second to none in point of
force and ability, practicing before the courts of western and central
Texas, his personality and conscientiousness in all things commanding the
profound respect of a wide circle of acquaintances. He was born at New-
berry in South Carolina, the son of Judge J. M. Crosson, a lawyer, who
came to Texas when his son Thomas was but two years old. the family
spending their first two years in this state in Freestone county, from
whence they moved to Livingston, the county seat of Polk county.
Young Thomas studied law under his father and was admitted to the
bar at Livingston in 1877. Judge J. M. Crosson in later years moved to
his present home at Woodville, the county seat of Tyler county.
Judge Thomas T. Crosson came to Runnels county in 1886, and he
was here at the time of the founding of the town of Ballinger on the
29th of June of the same year. He has lived here since those pioneer
days. At the time of leaving Livingston he resigned the office of county
judge of Polk county, and he had previously also served that county as
its attorney. Since coming here he has served Runnels county as its
judge for four years, and for eight years — four terms in all — he served
this judicial district, comprising the counties of Runnels, Brown, Cole-
man, McCulloch and Concho, as district attorney, and in that position he
distinguished himself as an impartial prosecutor in the rigid enforcement
of the law. As a Democrat, Judge Crosson has always been in hearty
sympathy with the prevailing tenets of his party, and no man living has
fought for them and the people more fearlessly and stubbornly. He be-
lieves there should be no compromise with honest principles. He has in
the past served as chairman of the Runnels County Democratic Execu-
tive Committee, and no man in Central or Western Texas is more highly
respected than he. He is a member of the firm of H. Zdaril and Com-
pany, real estate and land dealers, with offices on the second floor of the
Opera House building.
The Judge's wife is i\L A. (Hill) Crosson, the daughter of Dr. John
E. Hill of San Jacinto county, where the daughter was born. They have
two children, Edwin H. and Helen J. Crosson.
DouG.^LD A. C.\MER0X is mentioned with prominence among the
early pioneer residents of Runnels county and among the old time stock-
men of Central and Western Texas. He was born in Warren county,
Mississippi, in 1S50, and is of Scotch ancestry, his paternal grandfather
having come from the Highlands of Scotland and settled in Mississippi.
Dougald A. was reared in his native county of Warren, and came from
there to Texas early in the year of 1874, stopping for a month or so in
Fort Worth, at that time a very small and unattractive town, and he then
came to Runnels county in company with Nat Guest, another of the
3) a.
'K. c/v^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 361
pioneers of the county. They arrived at the Rich Coffey place, at the
mouth of the Concho, on the 6th of April, 1874, and Mr. Cameron has
been numbered among the citizens of Runnels county practically ever since
those early days, although the county was not then organized. It is difficult
for those of the present generation living as they do in a time when Run-
nels county has developed into a thickly settled agricultural community,
rich and resourceful, to realize what the conditions were when Mr. Cam-
eron came, when all was an open country given over entirely for range
purposes, with no permanent settlements and only an occasional cow camp.
His first work on coming to this frontier was with cattle, and for
several years he was engaged with some of the big cow outfits that oper-
ated on the great plains of western Texas. He showed such ability and
trustworthiness with cattle that he was given many positions of responsi-
bility. His principal employers were the Coggin Brothers and Tally
Burnett, although he worked at times with other outfits, such as Tank-
ersley"s, Ike Mullins' and R. K. Wylie's, and in 1878, with his associates,
he had charge of a herd of three thousand cattle which they brought
from old Fort Sumner in New Mexico over the old Indian trail to the
Yellowstone Canyon in the Panhandle, and from there to the Pease river,
where they were delivered to the Matador Cattle Company. Mr. Cameron
did this work for R. K. Wylie and the Coggin Brothers, who owned the
cattle, and this was the first herd brought over the Fort Sumner trail by
white men.
For several years past Mr. Cameron has made his home in Ballinger,
retired from an active business life, but he has land and other interests in
this city and in Runnels county. He has been a witness and an active par-
ticipant in all the marvelous changes that have taken place in western
Texas in recent years. He married in Warren county, Mississippi, Flora
Hullum, a native of that county, and they have six children : Dougald,
Stanley, Katie, Dorsey, Frank and John.
J. P. Flynt is one of the most popular and efficient public ofificials
of Runnels county, its present sheriff, elected on the 3d of November,
1908. He is a thorough Texan in all that the word implies, one of its
native sons, and he is a man of many and stanch friends and honest con-
victions. He was born at Kosse in Limestone county, on the 19th of
April, 1878, but when he was a little lad of five years the family moved
to McLennan county, and from there he came to Runnels county in 1896,
first locating at Winters, but later spent two years at Wingate, and then
returning to Winters he resided there until elected the sheriff of Runnels
county. Both Mr. Flynt's parents were from Georgia, and they are living
now at Winters, aged seventy-two and si.xty-two years respectively, but
of their nine children all have passed away with the exception of the
Sheriff and his brother, W. F. Flynt, who is living at Wingate.
Although the Republican party is represented in Texas it is yet
greatly in the minority, and the real political battles are fought within the
ranks of the Democratic party. So in Texas the Democratic primaries
362 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
are the most important and hardest fought elections. In the July primary
of 1908 candidates for the office of sherifif were J. P. Flynt and R. P.
Kirk, the latter the incumbent of that office for many years and an excep-
tionally strong inan with the people, but Mr. Flynt won the nomination
by a majority of fourteen votes. He was regularly elected in the follow-
ing November and later duly inducted into office. He is proving an
efficient officer, capable and fearless in the discharge of his duties, strictly
enforcing the law but at the same time granting all necessary leniencies
in its discharge.
He married at Ballinger, May 14, 1899, Carrie Patterson, and their
five children are Carrie, Marion. Frank, Jim and Joe. Mr. Flynt is a
Mason, a Knight of Pythias and a memlaer of the Missionary Baptist
church.
Marryatt C. Smith has attained prestige and success in one of the
highest professions of the land, that of the law. and he stands in the high-
est rank of citizenship. Born at Dublin in Lawrence county, Georgia,
March 7, 1847, he accompanied the family in 1S52 on their removal to a
plantation on Red Creek, a tributary of Red River, in Bossier Parish,
northwestern Louisiana, eighteen miles east of Shreveport, and being
planters they took with them their slaves. But in 1859 they left there and
came to Texas, purchasing land and locating in the Brazos bottoms near
Marlin in Falls county, where they engaged in cotton planting. Marryatt
was the youngest of the six brothers of that family who served in the
Confederate army in the war between the states. W. O. Smith, the eldest,
was badly wounded in the battle of Opelousas, Louisiana, and although
he returned home and was elected the first sherifif of Falls county follow-
ing the reconstruction period, he died as the ultimate result of his wound
in 1883. Marryatt C. Smith enlisted in January of 1864, when less than
seventeen years of age, joining Company B, Waller's Battalion, General
Tom Green's Brigade, and his services were entirely in the Trans-Missis-
sippi department and principally in Louisiana, including the opposition
to the Banks' campaign up the Red River. The battle of Yellow Bayou
was the last serious engagement in which he participated.
Mr. Smith was educated mainly in old Baylor University at Inde-
pendence, Washington county, and for the profession of the law his train-
ing and preparation were of the highest order. He is a graduate of the
Harvard Law School, in the class of 1871, and among the famous tutors
there when he attended were Emory Washburn, the great authority on
Real Property ; Theophilous Parsons, author of the work "Parsons on
Contracts" ; and Oliver Wendell Holmes. Jr.. who has since become a
member of the Supreme Court. Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar at
Calvert, Texas, at the spring term of court, 1872, and he practiced his
profession at Marlin until 1876, moving then to Brownwood, a successful
field for his law practice until in 1886 he came to Ballinger, which had
just been selected as the new county seat of Runnels county, and he was
here on the opening day for the sale of town lots, June 29, 18S6. Mr.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 363
Smith has resided in Ballinger since those early days, devoted exclusively
to the practice of his profession, and he is regarded as one of the best
authorities on the law in western Texas.
He married Dona A. Tanner, born at San Marcos, and their three
children are Hermia, Marryatt and M. Clarence Smith.
Edwin Day, prominently known in the cotton industry and as the
tax assessor of Runnels county, was born in Marshall county, Mississippi,
in 1865, a son of T. P. Day, who came with his family to Fort Worth,
Texas, in 1872, and he is still in business in that city, one of its best
known pioneer citizens and business men. He was also one of the first
jewelers of Fort Worth. The son Edwin was reared and educated in that
city, and he lived there until coming to Ballinger in 1897. In that year
he embarked in the cotton gin business in this city, establishing the third
cotton gin to be built in Runnels county, and he took a prominent part in
the development of the great cotton industry therein that culminated in
1908 with wagon receipts at Ballinger of over fifty thousand bales, the
highest record of any town in the United States. Mr. Day sold his indi-
vidual interests in the cotton gin, but he is still connected with the industry
as manager of the local gin owned by N. A. Perry and Company at
Brownwood.
In 1906 he was chosen as the tax assessor of Runnels county, and as
it is an unwritten law of the Runnels County Democracy to give an official
when his duties have been well performed a second term, Mr. Day had
no opposition in the recent primary and was regularly elected on the 3d
of November, 1908, and he is now serving his second term. A man of
high honor and unquestioned integrity, he has made a most efficient officer,
a strong champion of the full rendition law. He is one of Ballinger's
most progressive and best citizens.
He married in Fort Worth Miss Hattie McCamant, daughter of
Captain J. D. McCamant, a well known pioneer citizen. He was born in
Grayson county, Virginia, and coming to Texas in 1855 he located in
Hunt county. He remembers visiting Fort Worth as early as 1857, when
it was a small and very insignificant outpost, the only store there at the
time being owned by Julius Field. Captain McCamant served two terms
as clerk of Hunt count^v before the war, and at the outbreak of the con-
flict he joined McCulloch's Company of Texas Rangers and was in service
on the frontier of Texas for protection against the Indians. After twelve
months of this service he returned to Hunt county and organized the com-
pany of which he was elected captain and reported for duty to General
Albert Pike in the Indian Territory, and continued in service there during
the remainder of the war. He lived in Fort Worth from about 1880 until
18S5. In 1881 he made a trip to Jones county, and in 1885 moved there
permanently, where he is now engaged in the mercantile business at Mc-
Camant, the postoffice having been named in his honor.
Mr. and Mrs. Day have one child, Delia. The Day home is one of
364 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
the beautiful residences of Ballinger, located on Broadway near the corner
of Phillips street.
Dr. W.\lter Weber Fowler is one of the pioneer physicians of both
Runnels and Concho counties, and he is well known in the professional
life of this community. He was born in Pulaski, Tennessee, and he was
reared and lived there until eighteen years of age, coming in the later
seventies to Texas and to Spring Hill in Navarro county, where he was
employed in the store of T. P. Sparks, now a prominent retired merchant
of Waco. It was while employed in that store that he decided to take up
the study of medicine, and entering the medical department of Yander-
bilt University at Nashville, he graduated with its class of 1882, and at
once began the practice of his chosen profession at Dawson in Navarro
county, his field until 1885. and he then located at Paint Rock in Concho
county, then on the western frontier. There Dr. Fowler experienced a
pioneer physician's life, making the long drives to far distant cattle camps
and ranches, and leaving there in 1892 he came to Ballinger, where he has
ever since been actively engaged in the practice of medicine, now doing an
exclusively family practice. He is a member of the County, State and
American Medical Associations, and he stands in the front rank of his
profession. As a citizen of Ballinger he has been identified with all the
movements that make for a better town and community, and he is a
former trustee of the Ballinger Independent school district.
Dr. Fowler takes pride in and derives much pleasure and profit from
his valuable farm of over twelve hundred acres six miles south of Bal-
linger, on the Paint Rock road. It is one of the best farms in all Runnels
county, and produces splendid crops of cotton and the various other
products grown in this section. His wife was before marriage Ida Hartin,
born at Magnolia, Arkansas, and who died in Ballinger in 1897, the
mother of four children, Leslie C, Tom, Mabel and Clyde.
Thom.\s J. Stocks has passed through the trying experiences of
pioneer life and stands among the few courageous ones who withstood
its many hardships, its panics, its drouth and its general hard times and
have lived to see a substantial and wealthy city and county grow from a
former wilderness. The town of Ballinger, which had been selected for
the county seat, was opened for settlemertt by a public sale of lots on June
2g, 1886. Mr. Stocks had arrived on the 2Sth, four days previously, and
he took part in the beginning as well as the subsequent history of Bal-
linger. For several years he was in the lumber business, the most of the
time being yardman for the Cameron Lumber Company, and he was also
for a time engaged in the cattle business. In 1894 he was elected the
treasurer of Runnels county, and he served two terms in that office, and
in 1908 he was returned to that office and is its present incumbent. He
has large property interests in Ballinger, conspicuous among which is the
Stocks Hotel, of which he is the proprietor.
Mr. Stocks was born and reared in LaFayette county, Mississippi,
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 365
born on the 7th of June, 1849, ^"d his home was there until in 1870 he
came to Bell county, Texas. After five years there he moved to Lampas-
sas, and in June of 1886 he came to Runnels county. While living in Bell
county he was married to Miss Sarah Elizabeth Wright, a childhood com-
panion back in his native county in Mississippi, and they have become the
parents of eight children : Mrs. Callie Lewin, Joe Stocks, Mrs. Ada
Brooks, Thomas Stocks Jr., Mrs. Lela Sparks and Boyd, Mildred and
Roscoe Stocks.
Tom Green County
Tom Green county, as originally created by act of the legislature
March 13, 1874, was an immense territory extending from the western
limits of Runnels and Concho counties to the Pecos river. A dozen coun-
ties have since been carved from this area, some of which are still un-
organized, the last being Reagan county, which was created and organized
in 1903.
The act creating Tom Green county in 1874 named commissioners
who were to meet in the town of Ben Ficklen and provide for an election
of county officials and choice of a county seat. Ben Ficklen was to be the
county seat until another site was regularly chosen. This old settlement
was a little below the confluence of the south and middle forks of the
Concho river.
About 1870 Fort Concho was established at the forks of the north
and south branches of the Concho river. In 185S the "Overland Pacific
Mail" had been inaugurated, a stage line extending from St. Louis, through
Fort Smith, Ark., Sherman, Tex., and through northern and western
Texas, to the Rio Grande, passing through what is now Tom Green
county. The stage line from San Antonio originally met this line beyond
the Pecos, and after the Civil war another route was opened, leading
northwest from San Antonio through Boerne. Fredericksburg, i\Iason,
Menardville, on to a junction with the northern trail at Fort Concho, and
thence west and southwest to the Rio Grande.
A Texas map of 1874 indicates the site of Fort Concho, and south
of it "Ben Ficklen's stage station," while a little to the east was "Bis-
marck." The only other locality in the count}- shown on this map was
"Stone's rancho," to the north of Fort Concho.
The military post and the overland stage route preceded permanent
settlement by some years. Along these roads and around the military
posts were settled a number of frontiersmen and stockmen. But the de-
cade of the '70's was nearly over before the great range was despoiled of
its buffalo and the Indians subjugated, and even then the only inhabitants
were the owners and attendants of the domestic herds that grazed on the
pastures.
In 1880, when Tom Green comprised an area of 12,500 square miles,
or the size of fourteen counties like Tarrant, its population was 3,615
(645 negroes). In 1890, when it still contained several counties since
detached, the population was 5,152. In 1900, when Reagan county was
366 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
included, the population was 6,804. At the last census, 1910, the county
with the present limits has a population of 17,882.
In 1877 the only postoffices in the limits of the present county were
at Ben Ficklen, which was still the county seat, and at Fort Concho.
Later San Angelo was founded, and became the county seat, which claimed
a' population of about 800 in 18S2, while Ben Ficklen had half that
number.
In 1903 the assessed values of property in Tom Green county were
$4,260,695, and in 1909, $8,780,625.
In September, 1888, San Angelo became the western terminus of the
G. C. & S. F. Railroad. During 1910 this road has been extended to Ster-
ling City. The "Orient" Railroad has recently been completed to San
Angelo, which is now the southern terminus of that proposed trans-con-
tinental line.
Since 1888, therefore, San Angelo has been the shipping point for an
immense territory as far west as the Pecos valley. As a result this city
has for a number of years been the metropolis of this part of Texas, and
has prospered both from its commercial advantages and as a health resort
in the highlands. In 1890 its population was 2,615 ; at the census of 1910
the enumeration was 10,321.
Howard County
Howard county was created from the Bexar district during the '70's,
but a county government was not organized until June 15, 1882. Its total
population at the census of 1880 was only 50. Cattlemen and buffalo
hunters had taken temporary possession, and Big Springs, on account of
the abundance of water, had long been an oasis in these western plains.
A map of Texas in 1874 indicates the springs as one of the conspicuous
geographical points in the country.
During 1881 the large army of railroad builders passed through the
county, laying the track of the T. & P. Railroad, and the Springs were as
useful to the railroad as they had been to the buffalo and cattle. With
the railroad came permanent settlement, stock ranches and farms were
established for miles along the right of way, and from that time civili-
zation began to develop its various institutions and activities.
By 1890 the population of the county was 1,210; it doubled during
the next decade, being 2,528 in 1900; and at the last census, in 1910, was
8,881. In 1900 the population of Big Springs was 1,255. The assessed
value of taxable property in 1903 was $2,422,420, and in 1909, $4,797,940.
Mr. James T. Brooks, secretary of the Big Springs Commercial Club,
contributes the following sketch of the city and vicinity:
Big Springs
The Texas & Pacific Railway was completed and ran its first train
into Howard county, Texas, in 1881, and the town of Big Springs was
laid out and made a division point on the road.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 367
At that time, and even at this time. Big Springs possessed an ad-
vantage over all other points along the western part of the T. & P., viz.,
plenty of good water. It is probably due to the excellent water that Big
Springs was made a division point on the Texas & Pacific Railway.
About one and one-half miles south of the city we find the famous
Big Springs. Their like are not to be found in West Texas and are seldom
found in the East. The railroad company has always used these springs
as a lease for the water supply, and for a number of years they furnished
water for the city.
When the Big Springs Water Company was organized it began to
sink deep wells near the Big Springs and found an abundance of good
water, and these wells now furnish the water supply for Big Springs, a
city of five thousand inhabitants. The wells are on an elevation above the
city, which enables the water to be brought into town by gravitation.
In 1881 Big Springs was a village of tents and adobe huts. There
was nothing to support the town at that time except the railroad interests
and the scattering ranches, but as the railway company began to enlarge
its machine shops and the ranches became more numerous, the little village
began a steady growth that has continued until this time.
When in 1906 the railway company began to build its new shops, that
cost $500,000, and the farmers began to crowd out the ranchmen and it
was demonstrated that this was a farming country. Big Springs experi-
enced the only boom that it has ever had. In two years it increased in
population from 2,000 inhabitants to 5,000 inhabitants. The village of
1881 that had witnessed the town being "shot up" by the cowboys had
grown into a business center.
Many of the old timers of Big Springs have moved to other parts of
the state and could doubtless call to mind many interesting incidents of
the early days. One of the early settlers of Big Springs was Mr. Sam H.
Cowan, who now lives in Fort Worth and has come into national promi-
nence as an attorney.
It was in Big Springs that he started as a young lawyer. He made
his reputation while district attorney prosecuting cattle thieves. Big
Springs has always watched his course with pride.
The city was not incorporated until in April, 1907, hence there was
much public improvement that had been neglected, but in the years since
it has become incorporated there has been much improvement and we have
begun to take on a city appearance.
The Commercial Club of Big Springs has a membership of 150, and
they are all alive and awake to everything that will help the city and
surrounding country.
As was stated above, the Texas & Pacific Railway shops are located
here. These shops are modern and up-to-date in every respect. They are
said to be the finest on the T. & P. west of Marshall. The railroad in-
terest gives a stability to the city that few western towns have. The
monthly pay roll amounts to $45,000. At this time there is good prospect
of our getting a road north, also one south to San Angelo.
368 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The mercantile interests of the city are strong and prosperous. It
can be truthfully said that there cannot be found in the state another town
the size of Big Springs that has stronger banks and business houses. Dur-
ing the panic of 1907 the banks never were affected. Depositors' checks
were always paid upon presentation.
The public buildings of the city will compare favorably with those of
any western town. The new court house that has just been completed is
the pride of the city. The jail that is in course of construction is to be
modern and up-to-date in every particular. The public school building is
large and conveniently arranged, and we are proud of our public school.
Nearly all of the fraternal orders are represented in Big Springs.
The Masonic lodge is very strong. It owns its building and the' building-
can safely be estimated to be worth $30,000. They have a very fine hall.
The Knights of Pythias, Odd Fellows and Woodmen of the World have
strong organizations. The Woodmen of the World have a membership
of ^S''-
In the last three years the population of Howard county, outside of
the city, has increased from 1,000 to 7,000. Ranchmen have given way to
farmers, and today wagon loads of cotton, corn and maize are familiar
street scenes.
The soil of Howard county is very fertile and is well adapted to the
growth of cotton, Milo maize, Kaffir corn, and all kinds of fruits. The
soil is underlaid with a subsoil of clay that holds the moisture and stores
it for the growing crops. It has been demonstrated that good crops can
be grown with less rain in West Texas than in any part of the United
States. It has been demonstrated that the Big Springs country is the
home of the farmers and is destined to be a farming country.
Reuben B. Zinn, of Big Springs, was born in Pontotoc county, Mis-
sissippi, in 1845. Foi" the last quarter of a century he has been a resident
of Big Springs, having come to this town soon after it was founded. His
arrival here was on March i, 1883. His advent brought a member of the
surveying profession to this vicinity, and he was best known for a number
of years as a surveyor. He was county and district surveyor at a time
when ten counties, including Howard, were in this district. Of late years
Mr. Zinn has given most of his attention to the real estate business, and
it is needless to say there is none more familiar with the Big Springs
:ountry and Western Texas generally than he.
His father was a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian church and
an educator as well as a theologian. Rev. J. A. Zinn and his wife, Sarah
Anne (Ragland), came to Texas in 1849, locating about fourteen miles
from Jefferson. About 1852 he moved to Daingerfield, where he became
president of Daingerfield College. After some years he left this position,
at the solicitation of citizens of Grayson county, and established a private
college at Kentuckytown in that county. Later he was president of Larisa
College in Cherokee county. At the same time Dr. Yoakum was principal
in that college, and became president after Rev. Zinn resigned. Dr.
rCi^c/^i^^ , ^, ^^^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 369
Yoakum was the father of B. F. Yoakum, the railroad magnate, and the
Yoakum boys and Reuben B. Zinn were schoolmates together in that
school.
Some time before the war the Zinn family located at the White settle-
ment in Tarrant county, at the moutl: of Silver creek. Reuben B. Zinn
tvas about fifteen years old then, and had attended his father's schools and
laid the foundation of a good education. With the breaking out of the
war he and his two brothers and his father all enlisted in the Confederate
service. They were in Company K, Seventh Texas Cavalry, in General
Tom Green's brigade. This regiment was in the expedition to New Mex-
ico during the first year of the war, and after the return to Texas was
engaged in the Trans-Mississippi department in Texas, Louisiana and
Arkansas. Rev. Zinn was chaplain of the regiment during the war.
The family lived in LaFayette and Cass counties, Missouri, for two
years after the war, then returned to Tarrant county, and before coming to
Big Springs in 1883, Reuben B. lived at Waco and also at Mineral Wells.
Mr. Zinn married Miss Mary E. Moon and there were six children
of this marriage, two of whom are living. The son is James Samuel, and
the daughter, Airs. Tula Ann Baggett, whose husband was formerly
sheriff of Howard county. Mr. Zinn is a member of the Methodist church.
John I. McDowell, the president of the First National Bank at Big
Springs, came to this part of Texas in 1883, two years after the Texas &
Pacific Railroad was built through. At that time and for some years later
the only shipments from the railroad stations for hundreds of miles
through \A'estern Texas were cattle and their products, and the freight put
off at these stations consisted largely of the supplies and machinery for
use on the ranches.
During the period when Howard and the adjacent counties were
under the dominion of the range cattle industry, the McDowell brothers,
John I. and L. S., were among the most successful and energetic of the
ranchmen, their interests being principally confined to the sheep business.
With the settlement of the country and the change of conditions, Mr.
McDowell became one of the active citizens of Big Springs. The bank of
which he is president is the oldest institution of the kind in the county,
having been established in 1890. Those who experienced life in Western
Texas during the last two decades know that the early nineties were times
of stress and hardship, marked by financial panic and drouth and condi-
tions that made the existence of new settlers almost beyond endurance.
Under such circumstances it is a remarkable record that the First National
Bank of Big Springs has stood all the tests and now ranks as one of the
most solid and influential banking institutions of Western Texas. Its
capital stock is $50,000, its surplus and profits are largely in excess of
$150,000, and it is also a LTnited States depository. The success of the
bank is largely due to the vigorous banking methods which have been fol-
lowed. For many years no officer, director nor even a shareholder has
ever been allowed to borrow a dollar of the bank's money, all of its loan-
able funds being available only for those who may be properly considered
customers. The extent of its deposits, averaging nearly half a million dol-
lars in 1909, indicates the confidence of the community in the stability of
the bank.
370 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
As the active managing officer of the bank, Mr. McDowell has won
a large success in the business world, though his activities have extended
beyond the immediate sphere of the bank into many matters of practical
citizenship which have promoted the welfare of his home town. With
the breaking up of the big ranches and the development of a farming com-
munity, he has been one who has shown a progressive attitude toward the
new era, and is as closely identified with the twentieth century period of
Western Texas as formerly when all this region was in the open range.
Mr. McDowell is an Ohioan, having been born, reared and educated
at Ashland, and from there moved to Dallas, Texas, in 1877. Dallas was
then practically on the frontier, but two years later he moved into the un-
settled regions of what would now be Central Texas, to San Saba county,
and was engaged in the stock business there until he moved to Howard
county in 1883. Mrs. JMcDowell before her marriage was Miss Libbie
Estill, a native of Virginia, where the family name is a familiar one.
G. L. Brown. — The president of the West Texas National Bank at
Big Springs is G. L. Brown. Like many other prominent business men
of this region he laid the foundation for his success in the live-stock busi-
ness, and is still known as a leading cattleman. He was born in that part
of Texas which is described by the title of this work, and both he and his
father before him deserve to be classed among the pioneers of Western
Texas.
His father, W. F. Brown, came to Texas in 1845, and has been a resi-
dent throughout the period of Texas statehood. At the age of eighty-nine,
he is, at this writing, still living, at his home in Brownwood, one of the
honored and aged pioneers. One of his sons. William Brown, was killed
by the Indians near the present town of Robert Lee in Coke county in
1875. He was with a party engaged in the pursuit of a band of Indians
who had made a raid in Brown county. Cabe Brown, another son, also
deceased, was also a member at different times of these frontier scouting
expeditions, and G. L. Brown also had similar experiences which entitled
him to a place among the frontier fighters of the pioneer times of West
Texas.
G. L. Brown was born in Brown county near Brownwood in 1861.
His earliest associations were with ranch life, and he was a cowboy almost
as soon as he could ride a horse. In 1879 he and his brother Cabe estab-
lished headquarters, with a bunch of cattle, near the sources of the Concho
river, in what are now Alitchell and Sterling counties (then unorganized).
This vicinity has been his home ever since. There was no settlement at
Big Springs at that time, although the springs attracted several cattle out-
fits, who often camped there. With the building of the railroad in 1881 a
station was established, and among the first permanent residents of the
town was Mr. Brown. He has very extensive interests in the cattle busi-
ness, being owner of two ranches in Howard county, and another, the
largest, being in Ector county, near Odessa. The West Texas National^
Bank, of which he is president, was established in 1903. Mr. Brown is a
Royal Arch Mason and an Odd Fellow. ^Irs. Brown before her marriage
was Miss Eddie Lee. She was born in Lampasas county. Their three
children are Burton, Ethel and Eula.
c^.d^^^^-^—
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 371
Charles L. Alderman. — When consideration is given to the pro-
gressiveness and constructive abihty of the "captains of industry" in the
great state of Texas and when cognizance is given to the manifold chan-
nels along which their splendid energies have been directed, it can not be a
matter of astonishment that the fine Lone Star commonwealth has so
rapidly forged to the front along industrial, commercial and civic lines.
An idea of the diversity of interests represented in central and western
Texas is to be gained from a perusal of the various descriptive and bio-
graphical sketches appearing within the pages of this work, and among
those who have done much to accelerate the march of development and
progress is Charles L. Alderman, one of the most public-spirited and in-
fluential business men and most honored citizens of Big Springs, the at-
tractive and thriving county seat of Howard county. The family of which
he is a member has been most prominently and potently identified with the
upbuilding of Big Springs and with the development of the admirable re-
sources of the county, and thus there is all of propriety in offering to '
those who have thus conserved advancement special recognition in this
publication.
Charles L. Alderman, secretary and general manager of the Big
Springs Water Company, and also of the Western Telephone Company,
whose headquarters likewise are maintained in Big Springs, claims the old
Buckeye state as the place of his nativity, and is a scion of one of its ster-
ling pioneer families. He was born at Joy, Morgan county, Ohio, on the
23d of August, 1862, and is a son of Arza and Lois (Wheeler) Alderman,
both of whom were born in the state of Ohio. They now reside in Mc-
Connell, Ohio, but pass a portion of each year in Big Springs, Texas, where
the family have extensive interests. The Alderman family was founded
in Ohio in 1808, when its first representatives there moved from New
York state and settled in Morgan county, where they numbered themselves
among the pioneers. With the civic and material development and up-
building of that section the name has been most prominently linked.
Arza Alderman was for many years one of the prominent and influential
citizens of Morgan county, and' was a well known banker at McConnels-
ville, that county, for a long period. He was president and a director of
the First National Bank of McConnelsville, which was one of the first one
hundred national banks established in the LTnited States.
In 1884, while on a tour of prospecting and investigation in the west
and southwest, Arza Alderman noted the favorable location of Big
Springs, Texas, and he was particularly impressed with the Cjuality of the
pure, soft water in the springs two miles south of the town. Soon after-
ward he showed his confidence and his mature judgment by purchasing a
large tract of land in Howard county, including that on which the springs
are located. A few years after this important investment had been made
by their honored father the two sons, Charles L. and Arza Dale, took up
permanent residence at Big Springs, with whose every interest they have
since been identified. Concerning the association of Charles L. Alder-
man with business and civic affairs in this section more definite mention
will be made in succeeding paragraphs of this article.
Charles L. Alderman was reared to maturity in Morgan county,
Ohio, to whose excellent public schools he is indebted for his early edu-
cational discipline, which included a course in the high school at McCon-
nelsville. At the age of twent3'-four years he was chosen cashier of the
372 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Citizens' National Bank in that place, and of this position he continued
incumbent until his removal to Big Springs, Texas, in 1895. He came to
this city to assist in the construction of the Big Springs water works, and
he and other members of the family are now the principal stockholders
in the Big Springs Water Company, of which he is secretary and general
manager. No city in the state has a purer or more abundant supply of
water. It was the presence of the springs in this vicinity that first at-
tracted settlers to this point, and it is due to the enterprise and initiative
of the Alderman family that the admirable water system was given to
Big Springs. The sources of the water supply are not the springs them-
selves, but recourse is had to wells that tap the veins from which the
water reaches the springs. By reason of this fact the water supplied to
the city is purer and clearer than that to be secured directly from the
springs at the surface, as there is no possible means of contamination.
The reservoir is one hundred and eighty-five feet above the ground level
of the city, and by this means is given a pressure varying from fifty to
eighty pounds to the square inch.
In 1903 Charles L. Alderman became one of the organizers and in-
corporators of the Western Telephone Company, which installed ex-
changes at Big Springs, Stanton, Midland and Roscoe, and which has
established toH lines from Odessa to Abilene, and from Big Springs to
Garden City, Gail and Lamesa. This company, giving one of the most
valuable public-utility services in this part of the state, strung the first
copper wire circuits and built the first standard exchanges and toll lines
in western Texas, thus affording facilities that have had much influence
in furthering progress along commercial lines, to say nothing of the con-
venience and domestic value of the service. Of this important company
Mr. Alderman is secretary and general manager, as has already been
noted. His progressive ideas, liberality and high civic ideals have been
potent influences in connection with the social and industrial development
of this section of the state, and it is largely due to the interposition of the
Alderman family that Big Springs has become one of the splendid little
cities of the Lone Star commonwealth. Charles L. Alderman donated
the first legally established road in Howard county, and every enterprise
and measure that has tended to foster the best interests of his home city
and county has enlisted his zealous support. He was one of the first to
fence the farming and grazing lands of the county, where he has a valu-
able landed estate, besides being the owner of much valuable realty, both
improved and unimproved, in Big Springs.
In politics Mr. Alderman gives his allegiance to the Democratic
party, but he has had no predilection for the honors or emoluments of
public office. He and his wife hold membership in the Methodist Epis-
copal church. In the Masonic fraternity Mr. Alderman is one of the ap-
preciative and prominent representatives in Texas, as is measurably in-
dicated by the fact that he has been granted the ultimate and honorary
thirty-third degree in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, in which his
affiliation is with Dallas Consistory. He has shown the deepest interest
in the work of all departments of the time-honored fraternity, is a past
officer in all of the local bodies of the York Rite and has represented his
lodge and chapter in the grand lodge and grand chapter of the state, in
which latter he is at the present time (1910) incumbent of the office of
grand king and in line of succession for the office of grand high priest.
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 373
He is a charter member of Dallas Consistory, of Sublime Princes of the
Royal Secret, and in the same city is identified with Hella Temple, An-
cient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine : the Royal Order
of Scotland ; and St. Mark's Conclave, Order of the Red Cross of Con-
stantine. He was a member of the committee that was primarily instru-
mental in securing the erection of the Masonic Temple in Big Spring, —
one of the finest and most complete of the kind in the entire state.
At McConnelsville, Ohio, on the 22d of November, 1882. was
solemnized the marriage of Charles L. Alderman to Miss Lizzie M.
Stanbery, who was born and reared in that state, and they are the parents
of five children, — Stanbery, Blanche, Carmen Sylva, Justus and May-
delle, all of whom were born in Ohio except Maydelle, who is a native of
Big Springs. The family is prominent in the best social life of the com-
munity, and the home is a center of refined and gracious hospitality.
George D. Lee is the mayor of Big Springs, being the first to hold
that office after the incorporation of the city in igo6, and having been
honored by re-election in the municipal election of 1908. Mr. Lee takes
much pride in the progress of Big Springs since he became the executive
head of the city, and it is very gratifying that so many improvements
have been inaugurated during his administraticn. Previous to the time
it became a city Big Springs lacked many of the public improvements
which have since been pointed to with much pride by the citizens. The
construction of a two-story, fireproof stone city hall and fire station, the
extension of the water works, the purchase of the first combination auto
fire engine sold in the state of Texas, the grading of the streets, and
other public works have brought many changes in the appearance and
convenience of the city. These changes, though the result of public
spirit and enterprise, have likewise reacted for increased prosperity in
the city. This is seen in many new and handsome business blocks along
Main street and in the number of new residences, all indicating a sub-
stantial volume of new business and population that have found a center
at this point. The mayor has been an active worker in behalf of all these
improvements, and the citizens express thorough satisfaction in their
choice for a municipal head.
Mr. Lee came to Big Springs as a railroad man. He was born in
Weedsport, Cayuga county. New York, and was reared and educated at
Clyde, Ohio. He came west while still young, and after learning teleg-
raphy found a position as night operator in the Santa Fe railway station
at Walton, Kansas. For seven years he was operator and train dispatcher
for that road in Kansas and Colorado, and in 1889 came to Big Springs as
train dispatcher for the Texas and Pacific Railway. Later he was pro-
moted to chief train dispatcher, and held that position until his resignation
in 1906 to engage in the general insurance business. He is a prominent
Odd Fellow and Mason, being a Knight Templar and Shriner and secre-
tary of Big Springs Chapter, No. 178, R. A. M. He has four children:
Bernice E., Myrle F., Naomi E. and Hazel P.
Elms Douthit has been an active member of the bar of West
Texas since i8gi, when he established himself at Big Springs. He is a
successful lawyer, and a man of high standing both profes.sionally and
personally. In 1896 he had the honor of succeeding the Hon. H. Cowan
374 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
to the office of district attorney, and he made a record during his four
years' incumbency of that office. Mr. Cowan, his predecessor, is one of
the distinguished Texans of the present time, and Mr. Douthit, previous
to his election as district attorney, had been associated in practice with
him.
Mr. Douthit was bom in Lexington, Alissouri, but has lived in West-
ern Texas almost continuously since 1883, when the family home was
established in Sweetwater. Between 1907 and 1909 he had a temporary
residence in southern California. His higher education was obtained in
the University of Texas, where he studied law and was graduated from
the law department with the class of 1891. In Masonry he is a Knight
Templar, a Shriner, and a thirty-second degree Scottish Rite. In 1910
he moved from Big Springs to Sweetwater, where he is an attorney for
the Texas Pacific and the Santa Fe Railroad Companies.
On January 12, 1898, Mr. Douthit married Miss Mary Kennedy,
from Colorado, Texas, and their three children are Mary E., Helen F.
and Ellis K.
John D. Bird well, of Big Springs, is a pioneer West Texan, includ-
ing in his many experiences life as a ranger, sheriff, cattleman, banker
and property owner. His life began in Walker county, Texas, where he
was born October i, 1848. His father's career was even more remarkable
than his own from an historical standpoint. William Birdwell (father)
was born in Tennessee, February 15, 1808. That state was also the birth-
place of Sam Houston, and perhaps for this reason or for some other-
equally natural he came to Texas in 1833 ^"d during the next three years
followed the fortunes of the struggling Texans in their battles for inde-
pendence from Mexico. He was both friend and associate of Sam Hous-
ton, and at a later date was a soldier of the United States in the war
against Mexico.
For the first twenty years of his life John D. Birdwell lived in his
native county, and then went to what was then the frontier, where for
three years he pursued the variable career of the cowboy. His work was
mainly in Southwest Texas, engaged in rounding up cattle for the trails
leading to the north. His next adventure was as hotel clerk and stage
agent at Waco, and he then lived for a while in Fort Worth when that
town was just beginning to grow in population and notoriety because of
the coming of the railroad.
Before the herds of buft'alo were swept from the great plains of
Texas, Mr. Birdwell played a part in their extermination. He left Fort
Worth, February 14, 1877, on a buffalo hunt which took him to Blanco
canyon, at the headwaters of the Brazos. This was an industry that en-
gaged hundreds about that time, though it did not last long. His expedi-
tion after buffaloes led him to old Fort Griffin, where he was engaged as
town marshal during the summer of 1880. In the fall of 1878 he enlisted
in the ranger service and helped patrol the frontier until 18S0. His record
as a ranger has given him high esteem among that body of public serv-
ants, and it with extreme pleasure that he recalls that period of his life.
Mr. Birdwell became a resident of Big Springs in the fall of 1880,
about the time the railroad was built and the town started. After being
engaged in the cattle business for a few years he was elected, in 1886,
sheriff of Howard countv. That office was a difficult one at the time.
>7 a Py^-^^iy^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 375
since Howard county was then the judicial center for a number of
unorganized counties (Glasscock, Borden, Dawson, Terry, Yoakum and
Lynn), and the sheriff's jurisdiction extended over all this territory. Also,
the duties of tax collector were at the time combined with those of sher-"
iff, and in the performance of these double duties the sheriff-collector
spent six arduous years in office. There were placed to his credit some
notable achievements. An example of which that might be mentioned was
the capture of a notorious negro, Jim Toots, who had killed Policeman
Waller in Fort Worth. For his efficiency and accuracy of accounts as
tax collector he received a letter of commendation from the state comp-
troller.
To hundreds of persons who have traveled up and down the line of
the Texas and Pacific, ]Mr. Birdwell is best known as the former pro-
prietor of the railroad station dining room at Big Springs. This was his
principal occupation for nineteen years, until he retired in 1907. He is
owner of ranch and town property, and now devotes most of his time to
the management of those interests. He is one of the directors of the
West Texas National Bank. Mr. Birdwell's home, built without regard
for expense and equipped with all modern conveniences, stands on a
sightly location at the southeast edge of town. Mrs. Birdwell, his wife,
is a native of Tennessee, and her maiden name was Annabelle Green.
They have six children: Mrs. Lillian Mills, Annabelle, Dan, Banton,
Maydelle and Johnnie. Mr. Birdwell is a thirty-second degree Scottish
Rite Mason, a Shriner, and belongs to the Dallas Consistory,
John Roberts owned at his death a ranch of about twenty-nine sec-
tions in the southeast part of Howard county. He was one of the pioneer
cattlemen of Western Texas. His success in business and his extensive
dealings and large ownership of lands gave him much prominence as a
citizen, and at Big Spring and elsewhere in the state he was held in high
esteem.
Mr. Roberts was a resident of West Texas from 1S77, in which year
he came to Mitchell county. He was a cattleman then as in his late years,
having been brought up in that pursuit, his earliest experiences having
been connected with the range and trail. Renderbrook Springs was his
headquarters for a time, and from 1885 to 1891 his cattle ranged over the
plains in the vicinity of Midland. From the latter year his home was at
Big Springs. The Roberts ranch is one of the best equipped and improved
in this part of the state. Part of it has been converted to farming land,
and the orchards anrl grain fields are both a profitable and pleasing fea-
ture to distingrish this from the once monotonous range country.
Mr. Roberts was born in Lamar county, Texas, in 1849. Through
his father, whose name was also John, he claims connection with Texas
for almost a centur}-. According to all accounts, John Roberts settled
near the Red river in the Texas country in 1818. To better appreciate
how early a date this is in Texas history from the standpoint of its Amer-
ican settlement, it will only be necessary to state that in 1818 Texas was
still a province of Spain, that the Republic of Mexico had not yet been
established, that Stephen Austin had not yet begun the colonization of
Texas, and that nearly twenty vears passed before Texas achieved its in-
dependence at San Jacinto. This pioneer Roberts was born in South
376 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Carolina, and after the settlement along the Red River some of his
brothers were killed by the Indians.
Mr. Roberts spent his youth at the family home in Lamar county, but
at quite an early age began life on the frontier. The cattle business had
already assumed importance as the principal industry, and in a few years
he accumulated enough to get an independent start, and was a cattleman
all his life.
Mr. Roberts married Mrs. Dora (Nunn) Griffin, whose two children
by her former marriage. Dochia and Mittie, are now part of the Roberts
household at Big Springs. Mrs. Roberts is a native of Alabama, but was
reared in Te.xas. Mr. Roberts was a Mason, being a Knight Templar
and Shriner, and also an Odd Fellow. His death occurred on the 28th of
September. 1909, and in his passing away Howard county lost one of its
most honored pioneers and business men.
Robert D. Matthews, the vice-president and manager of the West
Texas National Bank at Big Springs, is a native of Huntsville, Alabama,
where he was reared and educated. His family had lived for several gen-
erations in northern Alabama. His grandfather was an old-time planter
of wealth and prominence, and owned many slaves and a large planta-
tion, most of which property disappeared in the ravages of the war.
A youthful ambition of Robert D. Matthews was to live and gain
his success in the west. This led him to Texas in 1885. He was book-
keeper in a store at Belton, Bell county, for three years. The turn of for-
tune next opened for him a place as accountant in a mercantile house at
Boca del Rama, in Nicaragua. A short time in the uncongenial tropical
climate endangered his health, and on his return he spent a year on a
ranch on the southern plains.
Mr. Matthews has been a resident of Big Springs since 1892. When
he arrived he had but thirty-two dollars, and his first experience was as
clerk in a store. He was later one of the organizers of the Matthews-
Wolcott Company. Their store was one of the largest and best in Big
Springs. As a partner in the business Mr. Matthews applied himself
closely to the management and detail work for ten years, and was largely
responsible for the success of the firm. Ed. S. Hughes of Abilene was
also a member of the firm, and since the retirement of Mr. Matthews and
Mr. Wolcott the business has been conducted as the Stokes-Hughes Com-
pany, a familiar establishment of the city. Mr. Matthews retired from the
mercantile business in 1903 and became one of the organizers of the West
Texas National Bank. He was cashier of the bank until January, 1909,
and has since been vice-president and one of the active managing officers.
The record of the West Texas National has some unusual features of
success. Since the bank was established, the stockholders have been paid
dividends amounting- to fifty-two per cent, in addition to an accumulation
of one hundred per cent in surplus and profits. The credit for this show-
ing largely belongs to Mr. Matthews, who has acquitted himself as one
of the most successful bankers of the state. He gives the same care and
attention to the conduct of the bank as he does to his own private business
affairs. Although still a young man he has laid the foundation for a
comfortable fortune, which he has earned in straight, legitimate business
transactions, void of any phase of speculation. He never takes a step in
any direction until the foundation has been laid for it.
HISTORY OF CEi\TRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. m
Another interesting fact about his business connection with Big
Springs is that he bought the first cotton and built the first gin in the town,
thus giving a start to a department of agriculture which up to a few years
ago was hardly considered feasible in this portion of Western Texas.
Mrs. Matthews, his wife, was before her marriage Miss Sallie Bour-
land. Her father, Rev. Dr. H. A. Bourland, now of Dallas, is a dis-
tinguished minister and educator. There are two children, Frances and
Wilbur Matthews.
Stephen Austin Penix became identified with the Howard county-
bar in igo2. He was a successful young lawyer, and his record as county
attorney for nearly four years is still fresh in the memory of Howard
county people. His natural equipment and training are ideal for the suc-
cessful lawyer, and he has built up a gratifying practice. He studied law
for the most part in the office of Captain W. M. Veale, of Palo Pinto,
where he obtained his admission to the bar in 1901.
]\Ir. Penix is a Missourian by birth, born in Osceola, St. Clair coun-
ty, but from the age of three years was reared at Palo Pinto, his parents
establishing their home in Palo Pinto county at that time. In addition
to attendance at the local schools he was a student in Add-Ran College at
Thorp Springs, and began the study of law after his college career."
His marriage connected him with a prominent family of West Texas.
Mrs. Penix was formerly Miss Flora A. Lindsey, whose father, J. J.
Lindsey, has been actively identified with West Texas affairs for many
years and who is practically the father of the thriving town of Lamesa,
Dawson county, where he lives. Mr. and Mrs. Penix are both interested
in Masonry. The former is a Knight Templar and now (1910) general-
issimo of the local commandery, while his wife was worthy matron of the
local Eastern Star lodge in 1909, and also occupied the position of grand
Esther in the grand lodge of that order in the state during that year.
Mr. and Mrs. Penix have two children, Chauncey Edward and Lindsey
Stephen.
Pete John.son, of Big Springs, is a native of Scotland. When he
was six years old his parents came to America, and he was reared in
their home in Luzerne county, Pennsylvania. His life work for many
years was in connection with railroading, and he began this when he was
young. This finally brought him to the southwest, and he was engaged
in the track repair and construction work of the Texas and Pacific Rail-
road, west of Fort Worth, since 1886. He has made his permanent home
in Big Springs since 1897, and has charge of the track department of the
ten mile section east and west of this town, five each way from lown.
Since becoming a citizen of Howard county, Mr. Johnson has gained
a well merited position of influence in public affairs. He was elected and
served as county commissioner for two years, from 1906 to 1908, and at
the city election of April, 1909, was chosen a member of the city council.
His stock ranch three miles east of town is an enterprise in which he takes
much pride. His Durham cattle are of the highest grades to be found
in West Texas. The ranch contains four sections of fine land, and its
value is one of the evidences of his successful career in business. His
home is in town, the ranch being worked by tenants. ]Mr. Johnson is a
Knight Templar Mason and Shriner, and his wife is treasurer of the local
378 HISTORY OF CEXTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
order of the Eastern Star. Mrs. Johnson is a native of Fannin county,
Texas, her maiden name being Zora Patterson. They have five children
in their family, named as follows : Mary, James, \''ivian, Ruth and
Monroe.
LoRix S. McDowell, of Big Springs, was one of the organizers of
the First National Bank of Big Springs. His chief success in business is
based upon his activities as a stockman. He is reputed to have one of the
finest ranches in West Texas, containing from 25,000 to 26,000 acres.
This tract is about eighteen miles southwest of Big Spring, and in area
is about the same as an entire township. The land extends partly into
Glasscock county. Four hundred acres have been taken from the range
and devoted to general agriculture, for the production of such crops as
can be readily grown in XVestern Texas, those grown on the McDowell
ranch being cotton, grain, milo maize, kaffir corn and other fodder crops.
This ranch is one of the best examples of the modern agricultural enter-
prise which is transforming West Texas, and Mr. McDowell deserves
full credit for the energy and intelligent efforts which have been needed
to bring about the success of his establishment.
Mr. L. S. McDowell was born at Ashland in Ashland county, Ohio,
and came to Texas in 1875. For several years he was in the sheep busi-
ness in San Saba county, at the time when the sheep industry was the
principal live-stock enterprise of southwestern Texas. From 1879 to
1885 his headquarters as a stockman were in Tom Green county, and since
then his home has been at Big Springs. His residence on Scurry street is
one of the handsomest in this young city. His wife was before marriage
Miss Fredonia C. Cunningham, a native of Alabama. They have a son,
Lorin S. Jr.
H. Cl.-\y Re.\d, of Big Springs, is a native of Warren county, Ken-
tucky, and was reared and educated there. He is a pioneer citizen of Big
Springs, and came here almost coincident with the establishment of the
first important industry — the railroad. The railroad shops were built here
in 1 881, and on his arrival in the following year he became timekeeper
and has held that position, with faithful service to the company, for the
subsequent twenty-eight years. He is engineer and firemen's timekeeper
of the Rio Grande division, between Fort Worth and El Paso, the head-
quarters of which division are at Big Springs.
During his long residence in Big Springs Mr. Read has been very
successful through his faith in local property investments. He has con-
fined them almost entirely to city property, and his name is identified with
some of the best known extensions and developments of the city. He is
owner of two of the best subdivisions — the Earle Addition, in the west
part of town, between the railroad property and the city proper; and the
Fairview Heights Addition, comprising a level plain in the south part of
town.
The Read family was well known and highly respected in their former
home in the Bowling Green section of Kentucky. Mr. Read's father was
Theophilus Read, who spent the greater part of his life in \\'arren county.
Another son is also a pioneer citizen of Big Springs. This is Charles D.
Read, brother of H. Clay. He first came to Big Springs in 1881, the year
in which the town was started. P'our vcars later he returned and has
'^^^^-^hJjL^
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 379
since made this his permanent home. He is best known perhaps as presi-
dent of the First State Bank of Big Springs, though his chief interests are
as a land and cattle owner. He is proprietor of the latan ranch, one of
the best in this region, located twenty miles east of town, in Howard
county.
H. Clay Read married Miss Lillie A. Heckman, of Warren county,
Kentucky. Their three children are Earle A., Ethel and Glad\s. Mr. Read
is a Knight Templar Mason.
John S. Cordill, proprietor of the J. S. Cordill Storage Company at
Big Springs is one of the men of foresight, judgment and enterprise who
develop a new country and cause it to realize to the fullest degree all its
possibilities. He has believed in as a matter of theory and has advocated
practically the development of the Big Springs country as an agricultural
center. What he has accomplished in this direction would seem a con-
clusive test. In partnership with Mr. R. D. Matthews he has produced on
their farm two miles northeast of the city, in a recent season, one hundred
wagon-loads of Kaffir corn, and seven thousand bundles of cane was
raised on nine and one-half acres of land, the former with only one plow-
ing and the latter with no cultivation at all after breaking up the sod and
doing the planting. The Kaffir corn was fed to their cattle and brought
large profits through that source. There are about four hundred and
eighty acres in the farm referred to, two hundred of which are in cultiva-
tion. Mr. Cordill also owns a large body of agricultural land in the
northwest part of Howard county. In connection with his warehouse
business he has bought and shipped a great quantity of corn. This in it-
self is a remarkable proof of the productiveness of this portion of West
Texas, since it was only a few years ago that corn was considered a
product that could not be adapted to this soil and climate.
Mr. Cordill was born in Howell county, Missouri, and came to Texas
with his parents when he was four years old. He spent his boyhood in
Hunt county. For about twenty years he was one of the leading business
men of Abilene, engaged principally in the grain and lumber business.
When he came to Big Springs in 1902 he established a lumber yard but
soon disposed of that in order to give his entire attention to his present
business. His storage company maintains a large warehouse for the
storage of grain and other products, and carries on a wholesale and retail
and shipping business in flour, grain, hay, etc.
Mr. Cordill has a wife and five children. Mrs. Cordill before her
marriage was Miss Margaret F. Miller, a native of Franklin county,
Texas. Their children are Edgar, Olie, Claudie, May and Quinnie Lee.
Mr. Cordill is a member of the" Knights of Pythias and Woodmen order.
IsA.'\c David Eddins, foreman of the car department of the T. & P.
Railroad at Big Springs, is perhaps the only man connected with the con-
struction of the railroad through Western Texas who still lives in Big
Springs. He was here before there was a house on the site, the springs
alone giving distinction to the locality. It was the presence of the
springs, with their ample water supply, which caused this to be made a
division point of the railroad.
Mr. Eddins has had a varied and interesting life. Born at Pineapple,
Wilcox county, Alabama, January 28, 1846, he was a boy when the war
38o HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
broke out, and as such he joined the Seventh Alabama Cavalry, his offi-
cers being Captain Scarborough, Colonel Hodson and Brigadier General
Clanton, the regiment being attached to Forrest's cavalry. His service
was in Florida, at Fort ^Morgan (Mobile), Devil's River, in Mississippi,
Tennessee and nortliern Alabama, and finally the close of the war found
him at Columbus, Georgia.
At Montgomery, Alabama, he learned the trade of carriage and coach
carpenter, and it is in this line of mechanical workmanship that he has
attained his greatest skill and the success which is the reward of industry.
He engaged his skill in railroad service at an early age. His first home in
Te.xas was at Dallas, from which city he followed the progress of the
Texas and Pacific Railroad westward. After the road was completed to
Fort Worth in 1876, he was employed in the car shops there. The shops
were located for a time at Weatherford, then again at Fort Worth, and
he lived at both these points. When the e.xtension of the railroad west
from Weatherford began, Mr. Eddins was chosen by H. H. Sessions, then
master car builder, as foreman of the floating repair gang which followed
construction work and did all the repairing of construction cars, machin-
ery, etc.
It was in this manner that he reached Big Springs early in 1881,
before the springs which had long been a favorite camping ground of the
cattle outfits had any permanent signs of settlement or improvement. He
remained in charge of his crew until the road was completed beyond this
point, and then, this having been selected as a division point and the shops
being established here, he was given a permanent position at this point.
He brought his family to Big Springs in September, 1881, and since then
has lived here, has given faithful service to the railroad company, and
has watched Big Springs grow from an oasis in the Staked Plains to a
prosperous and flourishing city. He was the first justice of the peace to
hold court in Howard county, this being in 1883, where Big Springs now
stands. He is foreman of the car department in the shops, and besides
having charge of all repairs and rebuilding of car equipment and ma-
chinery, he and his force pick up the wrecks along the line of the Rio
Grande division.
Mr. Eddins is a member of the Masonic fraternity and the Knights
of Honor. He has three children, all by his first wife, whose maiden name
was Mary Spears. She was the mother of these children, ]\Irs. Minnie
Hadlock, Roy and Hamp, and Charlie, Laura, Estalena and Olive, de-
ceased. Hamp is a machinist on the battleship Tennessee. Roy, now
living in Big Springs, was formerly ship's carpenter on the U. S. ship
Marblehead. After the death of his first wife Mr. Eddins married Mrs.
Bettie Brown, his present wife.
Wir.Li.\M H. \'.\U(;hax, of Big Springs, is now a retired citizen of
that town, but in his past life both here and elsewhere his career and
experiences entitle him to much distinction. As one of the oldest living
practical telegraphers in the United States, as a pioneer railroad man
who was at the "springs" before the railroad came and established the
station since called Big Springs, and as an active and public-spirited citi-
zen, he commands tlie esteem and respect of all men.
He was born at Hanover, the seat of Dartmouth College, in New
Hampshire, in 1841. ^^'hen he was ten years old he began to learn teleg-
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 381
raphy, which was then a comparatively new art, and only a few in the
whole country were skilled in it. He came west before the war and be-
came a telegrapher for the Chicago and Alton Railroad at Wilmington,
Will county, Illinois. That was his home for about twenty years. One of
the events of the time which he recalls; and which is interesting as giving
him a connection with the past which is now possessed onh- bv a few men,
was the debate between Lincoln and Douglas at Aurora, which he heard.
Perhaps no one is more familiar with the successive stages of rail-
road building in North Texas than Mr. Yaughan. He became train-
master at Houston for the Houston and Texas Central Railway in 1871.
That road was then under construction towards Dallas, and he recalls
when the first train was sent into Dallas. Soon afterward he engaged
with the T. & P. Railroad, which was constructed between Dallas and
Fort Worth in 1875 and 1876, and several years later was pushed on
toward El Paso. He was with the advance guard of railroad men who
arrived at Big Springs in 1880, nearly a year before the tracks were laid
at this point. He has occupied various positions of responsibility with the
transportation department of the railroad, including chief clerk to the
superintendent, but since 1906 has been retired from active service. All
the years he has manifested a keen interest in the progress of his home
town, and in civic affairs has contributed his services whenever needed.
Mr. Vaughan was the founder of the ]\Iasonic order in its various
branches in Big Springs. In proportion to its population. Big Springs
perhaps leads all other Texas cities in the numerical strength of all the
higher Masonic degrees, hence it was no small honor to have been chiefly
responsible for the organization and institution of these various bodies.
He is himself connected with the Royal Arch and Knights Templar de-
grees and with the Mystic Shrine. He was the first worshipful master of
Stake Plains lodge. No. 598, was the first high priest of the chapter, and
the second eminent commander of the commandery, his son Frank having
been the first commander.
Mr. Vaughan was married at Wilmington, Illinois, to Miss Mary A.
Mitchell. She was born and reared there. They have four children,
Mrs. Carrie Jones, Frank O., Walter M. and Mrs. Lulu Leeper.
Dr. John H. Hurt settled at Big Springs in 1887, at a time when
the surrounding country was still the frontier, and when the doctor who
attended the ills of the country had to travel great distances and endure
all the hardships which have been recounted so often in connection with
the lives of pioneer physicians. He has gone over a hundred miles to
visit a patient. Such experiences brought him in close contact and friend-
ship with the cattlemen who were then the principal residents of this
country, and he still retains the friendship of many old-time ranchmen,
who have complete confidence in his professional skill and personal char-
acter. In later years, with the settlement and development of the coun-
try, his practice has assumed more of the character of that of the city
doctor. He has been local surgeon for the Texas and Pacific Railway
since 1895. He is a member of the State and the American Medical As-
sociations.
Dr. Hurt was born in Warren county, Kentucky, near Bowling
Green, in 1858. His ancestors had lived there for several generations,
and he was reared and educated there in accordance with the best tradi-
382 JIISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
tions of the family. He was a student in old Warren College (now Ogden
College), a notable institution of Kentucky. His professional education
was obtained at Vanderbilt University. After his graduation from the
medical department of that university with the class of 1880, he began
practice in his home county, and continued there until he came to Big
Springs in 1887.
Dr. Hurt's wife was formerly Miss Lillie Read, who was born in the
same county of Kentucky. Her brothers, Charles D. and H. Clay Read,
are successful and well known residents of Big Springs, having come here
almost at the beginning of the town and have become wealthy through
cattle and land investments. Dr. and Mrs. Hurt have four children: Mrs
Readie Thomas (wife of Dr. John B. Thomas, of Midland. Tex.) ; Miss
Lillian, John Clifford and Harry. Dr. Hurt is a Royal Arch Mason.
Dr. William C. B.krnett. — The name Barnett is associated at Big
Springs and in West Texas both with the profession of medicine and also
prominently with state politics. Two physicians, father and son, have
carried on their profession in Big Springs since the former located here
in 1886. The late Dr. J. W. Barnett, who died, much lamented, at Big
Springs January 23, 1903, was a notable character in public affairs for
many years. He was born in Mississippi, was educated in medical col-
leges in New Orleans and New York, and after practicing a few years in
Arkansas came to Texas in 1867. From Grayson county, his first place or
residence, he moved in 1869 to Weatherford, in Parker county, at a time
when that town was on the frontier line of development in Western
Texas. Raids by the Indians occurred in this county after he had estab-
lished here as a physician. Through the following years a wide practice
over a wide extent of country brought him into intimate association with
the people, and it was on this account largely that he was drawn into the
political affairs of the period. He was elected and served as a member of
the state legislature from Parker county for three terms, and was also
a member of the state constitutional convention in 1875. A man of inde-
pendent thought and action, he fearlessly took up the cause of political
reforms. He became a member of the Greenback party, and notwithstand-
ing the power of the regular Democratic party his personal worth and
popularity were sufficient to achieve his election on that party ticket to the
state legislature. However, in his subsequent campaign for congress on
the same ticket he was defeated by the late S. W. T. Lanham, who was
governor of the state, 1905-06.
The late Dr. Barnett took part actively in all the pioneer movements
leading to the development of West Texas. He rode on the first train
that went into Weatherford on the completion of the T. & P. Railroad
from Fort Worth westward to that point. In 1881 he moved from the
county seat to a ranch on Bear Creek in Parker county, and in 1886 came
to Big Springs, where he carried on a successful practice until his death.
His wife, Virginia (Allen) Barnett, a native of Kentucky, is still living,
a resident of Big Springs.
Dr. William C. Barnett, a son of the pioneer physician above men-
tioned, and the present representative of the medical profession at Big
Springs, was born at Weatherford in 1871. He was reared in Parker
county and, after the age of fifteen, in Big Springs. His equipment for
his profession was obtained mainly in the St. Louis College of Physicians
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 383
and Surgeons. After graduating with the class of 1893, he began prac-
tice at Big Springs. He has hved here during the period of greatest de-
velopment of the town, and his practice and standing have increased cor-
respondingly. In his general medical practice he has given no attention
to surgery, but he has achieved success in the treatment of tubercular
diseases, of which he began making special study and investigation in
1902.
Dr. Barnett has also had some experience in local politics, having
served four years as treasurer of Howard county. His fraternal rela-
tions are with the Masons and other orders. He has attained to the
Knight Templar degrees in Masonry. His family consists of his wife
and four children. Mrs. Barnett bore the maiden name of Johanna Anna
Deering, a native of Cherry Springs, Gillespie county, Te.xas. Their
children are : William C. Jr., Gill Alfred, Milburn L. and Elsie Jannette.
Andrew C. Walker is president and manager of the Howard
County Abstract Company. He organized this company in 1906, and its
business has been increasing rapidly every month. A few years ago there
was practically no abstract business in Western Te.xas, but the influx of
settlers and the breaking up of the large ranches into small farms have
made the abstractor an important factor in the business life of each
county.
Mr. Walker had special qualifications for the business. He may be
reckoned as one of the pioneer citizens of Big Springs, having located
here December 8. 1883. when the town was small and before the railroad
had brought in many settlers to disturb the cattlemen that then controlled
all this region. Howard county was organized in August, 1882, and in
1885 Mr. Walker was elected to the office of county clerk. He was a
capable official and popular citizen, and by successive elections held this
office until 1898. This official experience gave him a familiarity with
county records and an acquaintance with conditions and persons that have
served as valuable equipment in carrying on his present business.
After leaving the county clerk's office Mr. Walker spent several years
on his ranch, about fifty miles south of Big Springs, and organized the
abstract company after he had returned to make his permanent home in
Big Springs. In the spring of 1909, Colonel C. C. Slaughter gave his
company the contract for all the abstracting in connection with the sale of
260 sections of the great Slaughter ranch.
Andrew C. Walker was born at Greensboro, North Carolina, and
came to Texas in 1883. He was married in this state, his wife before
marriage being Miss Maud Lee. She was born in Jefferson county,
Texas, but was reared in Dallas county. They are parents of two chil-
dren, Alma and Andree. Mr. Walker is a Royal Arch Mason.
Judge L. A. D.vle is county judge of Howard county. He was
elected to this office in 1906, and was re-elected in 1908. As county judge
he is administrative head of county affairs, and for this reason deserves
much credit for the most important county undertaking in recent years.
Reference is made to the building of the large and handsome Howard
county court house, which was erected during the first term of Judge
Dale, and was dedicated in 1908. Judge Dale is also, ex-officio, county
superintendent of schools.
384 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
Judge Dale was born in Stone county, Arkansas, was reared to man-
hood at McMinnville, Warren county, Tennessee, studied law in the
office of Judge Abercrombie at Opelika, Alabama, with correspondence
law courses at the Chase Law School of Detroit, Michigan, and in 1897
was admitted to the bar at Opelika and began his professional practice
there. ■
Five years later he established himself at Big Springs and in a short
time attained a leading position as lawyer and citizen. Besides the busi-
ness of his public office, he conducts a practice in the state and federal
courts.
Judge Dale lives in a nice suburban home on a fourteen-acre tract ad-
joining Big Springs on the east. He has a wife and five children. Hei
maiden name was Georgia McDaniel, and she was a native of Mississippi.
The children are Audra May. Homer, Merle, Lillie and Cecil. Judge
Dale affiliates with the Odd Fellows and is a member of the Christian
church.
J. M. MuNDY, of Big Springs, is one of the pioneers of Western
Texas. He left home when sixteen, in 1871, came to Texas and began
working on the frontier on the old open cattle ranges. For ten years
after that date the plains of Texas were covered with buffalo and the
raiding of Indians continued. Fort McKavett, on the head waters of
the San Saba in what is now Menard county, was one of the first locali-
ties in which he began his cowboy experience. The fort was at that
time an active military post, with a garrison of soldiers for protection
against Indians. In subsequent years his work extended around the
head waters of the Nueces and in different sections of western Texas.
This early career, as well as the success of his later business life, has
given Mr. Mundy a large acquaintance and prominence in West Texas,
and his name is known in many counties. He is a North Carolinian by
birth, born at Denver, Lincoln county, in 1855. The family is an old
one in that part of North Carolina and many of the name still live there.
After moving to Texas in 1871 and after the initial experiences on
the range above noted, he became associated with M. B. Pulliam, now a
wealthy resident of San Angelo, in the cattle business, and continued
around the head waters of "the Concho until 1880. At that time the
Pulliam interests were moved west to the Pecos valley, and Mr. Mundy
was engaged in business there until 1886. Returning to the western
portion of Tom Green county, he then established for himself the well
remembered High Lonesome Ranch, where for several years he had a
large success in the raising of cattle and horses. In 1897, having ac-
quired an interest in the R Bar ranch in Howard county, about six
miles south of Big Springs, he sold his property in Tom Green county
and has since made his residence in Big Springs. Soon after coming
here he engaged in the general merchandise business, and has since dis-
posed of all his ranch interests and devoted all his business efforts to the
large store. When first established the business was a partnership,
Mundy & Harnish, then for a time under the individual style of J. M.
Mundy, and is now the well known firm of Mundy-Bryant-Jones Mer-
cantile Company.
Mr. Mundy married Miss Sallie B. Jackson, and they are the par-
ents of four children — Reta, Floyd, Louise and Minnie. Mrs. Mundy
HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS. 385
was born in McLennan county, her father, Gilbert Jackson, being a
pioneer citizen of that county.
Johnston J. Hair is one of the county commissioners of Howard
county and one of the most energetic and pubHc-spirited citizens of Big-
Springs. He gives the same painstaking care and attention to the
business of the county that he does to his own affairs, and as a member
of the Big Springs Commercial Club is quick to turn everything possible
to the advantage of his home town.
Mr. Hair was born and reared at Anderson in Grimes county, and
he still retains an important part in the commercial activities of that cit}-.
After an education in the public schools, at Bavlor L^niversitv, and a
special course in a business college, he began his career in mercantile
aflfairs. The firm of Hair & Brown has been for many years one of the
principal mercantile establishments of Anderson. It is under the direct
management of Mr. Brown, a brother-in-law of Mr. Hair, who also
returns to Anderson twice each year to look after his interests there.
Mr. Hair came to western Texas in 1899 on account of his health.
At Big Springs he is proprietor of the Hair Addition, a subdivision of
this thriving city. It is a quarter section of land adjoining the city on
the south. The land is in the nature of an almost perfectly level plateau,
lying eighty feet above the business section proper, and affords the
choicest locations for residences. The addition comprises five hundred
and sixty lots, size fifty by one hundred and forty feet, with streets
seventy-five feet wide and twenty-foot alleys. Some handsome resi-
dences have already been erected there. Mr. Hair owns valuable agri-
cultural lands in the Big Springs country. He is a director in the West
Texas National Bank. He is a member of the Baptist church at Big
Springs and affiliates with the Woodmen of the World and with the
Modern Praetorians.
Mr. Hair married Miss Mamie Brown, who was born and reared
at Anderson. Their children are: Joe Fountaine, Johnston J. Jr.,
George Dudley, Marion. Clinton. J. F. and Henrietta (Johnston) Hair
were the names of Mr. Hair's parents. His mother is still living. Her
father was the late Rev. Jonas Johnston, a pioneer minister of the Baptist
church and one of the early settlers of Grimes county. His birthplace
was in North Carolina.
J.XirES C. Smith was one of the first permanent settlers in the vicin-
ity of Big Springs after the coming of the railroad in 1881. With the
opening of this avenue of civilization and commerce he moved out from
McLennan county, where he had long been a successful farmer and
stockraiser, and established a home a mile and a half north of Big
Springs, on the estate which has long been known as the old Smith
place. He developed this into one of the best and most productive
ranches in the Big Springs country. He was among the first farmers of
this vicinity to sink deep'wells for water supply, this being now a char-
acteristic of all this country. In all his improvements he was in ad-
vance of his time. A few years ago he moved to town and now lives
in a comfortable home on Scurrv street.
]\Ir. Smith was born in Tishomingo county, Mississippi, in 1844.
386 HISTORY OF CENTRAL AND WESTERN TEXAS.
The family moved to a farm near Waco in 1852, and he spent most of
his early life in that locality. From Waco he entered the Confederate
army, about the beginning of the war, and remained in service till the
close, being in the Trans- Alississippi department in the states of Arkansas,
Indian Territory, Louisiana and Texas. He was at Hempstead, Texas,
at the close of the war, and then returned home to engage in farming
and stock raising.
Mr. Smith married Miss Angebel Farney, and they have become the
parents of three children, namely : Amasa G., James F. and !Mrs. Mary
A. Monk. Mrs. Smith is a native of Alabama. Mr. Smith affiliates
with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and is a member of the
Methodist church.
J. B. D. BoYDSTUN was the pioneer farmer of the Big Springs
country. The efforts of an individual often set in motion activities that
go on increasing through the generations. It is for this reason that
the first to make the useful effort is honored with a place in historv.
Mr. Boydstun was the first to make a thorough trial of the principles
of diversified farming in this part of western Texas, and his success
stimulated the efforts which have since made this region productive of
a varied agricultural wealth.
Mr. Boydstun's career forms an interesting chapter in the history
of western Texas. Born in Woodford coimty, Illinois, and reared on a
farm, then living for a few years, about war times, in Warren county,
Kentucky, afterwards returning to his native state and living in Knox
county until 1870; he then moved to Tarrant county, Texas, and subse-
quently spent a few years in Dallas, Ellis and Brown counties. In 1880,
when the extension of the Texas & Pacific Railroad was begun from
Weatherford, he got employment in the construction work and followed
the line in its progress across western Texas. His family accompanied
him, and thus it was that he reached Big Springs on the day that the
track was completed and the first train reached this point on June 6, 1881.
He remained at Big Springs and soon became identified in an im-
portant way with the development of this country. Being experienced
in surveying, in 1S82 he was elected county surveyor of Howard county.
Then the legislature created a district of eleven counties and his duties
were extended over all this large region of western Texas. As a result
of his work in this capacity he possesses an intimate knowledge of the
topography and character of soil of an extensive region around Howard
county.
But his most important achievement at Big Springs was as a farmer.
West Texas was at that date th 
